Overview
The Library of Congress has begun a massive project entitled Chronicling AmericaLinks to an external site. to make available to the public the text of thousands of local newspapers from across the United States. Many of these newspapers no longer exist except online, as the originals have crumbled or been destroyed.
The newspaper business was booming prior to the Civil War.
For this project, I want you to choose a topic ( My topic is democracy in America) and locate, through the Chronicling America site, three or more newspaper pieces that illuminate some aspect of that topic. Then, in a 400-600 word reflection, I want you to summarize and analyze what you have found. You do not need to write a finished, polished essay, but instead you merely need to write a report.
For instance, if you were to choose the broad topic of the experience of Native Americans, you could find articles, from one or various newspapers in the Chronicling America site, which either report on or discuss events that relate to that experience. You could (and probably should) narrow your topic as well, to look at, for instance, a specific event such as the publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin or the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, and only examine articles that cover that particular event. How you approach the assignment is really up to you, and you could make your focus as broad or narrow as you wish.
Remember that you need to narrow your search to events in U.S. history that occurred prior to 1865. Because few newspapers survive the further back you go, choosing a topic closer to the end of the course than the beginning is probably a good idea.
Don't just plug your topic into the search box. Try to narrow your focus to a particular region, a particular newspaper, a particular date.
My topic is: Democracy in America