Harper's Academy U.S. History and American Literature

Here is the link to your reading for Frederick Douglas this week.

This week's class will explore transcendentalism, Emerson, and Thoreau. But like most of the topics we've studied so far, we can find modern connections. Transcendentalism was a religious movement that grew out of Romanticism between 1836-1860. We can define it as a spiritual, philosophical, literary movement with ties to the Unitarian Church around Boston. Like Romanticism, this movement emphasized individual rights and inspiration, the latter, especially within nature. Transcendentalists believed that individuals can discover truth for themselves, rather than learning it through tradition. It differs from Romanticism in that it focused on God. Transcendentalists believed that God was everywhere and could be discovered through intuition and that all people have a divine inner light. By accessing this light or intuition, they can transcend the ordinary and experience the spiritual. The five tenets of Transcendentalism: 1. Nonconformity 2. Self-Reliance 3. Importanc...

Please bring your OBAP book to class tomorrow. We will be discussing "Blight" in class. Make sure you read through this poem a couple of times! Also, I hope you have finished your movie posters and poems. Bring those, also. I'd like to hang them up in the room. :) See you tomorrow, Heather

·        October 31—The birth of the American reform and the Second Great Awakening: religious and secular roots, religious revival; public schools and Horace Mann, Walt Whitman, Abolition and resistance (Nat Turner’s Rebellion, Sojourner Truth, William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Beecher Stowe) Underground Railroad; emergence of women’s rights movement and connections to abolitionist movement (Susan B. Anthony, Grimke sisters, Elizabeth Cady Stanton) Assignment: Please choose one of the above topics for further research and prepare 2 academic paragraphs on one of the following questions. You must include textual evidence from your research and a citation.  Consider: 1.      What was it about the message of the Second Great Awakening that inspired so many social reform movements? 2.      How does religion continue to shape American society in the 21st century? 3.   ...

Our exploration of America is about to shift and expose two very different ideologies and cultures within the borders. Often, even today, many folks will recognize this difference occurs right about the location of the Mason-Dixon line. This will be important for you to remember, but I'm visual. I like to see where this is located, so I'm putting up a small map as a reference.

Class, I hope you enjoyed our visit with Forressa Harrison today, as well as your exposure to Spoken Word poetry. Here's a little history of Spoken Word poetry: Amercian Poet Marc Smith is credited with starting the poetry slam in Novemeber of 1984. In 1990, the first National Poetry Slam took place in Fort Mason, San Francisco. So, this is an American literary movement, much in line with some of our other movements around the same time, like hiphop and rap. Notice the similarities with the way Spoken Word is constructed. Spoken word relies on a heavy use of rhythm, improvisation, word play, and slang. Spoken Word is writing that is meant to be read aloud and performed.  Next, we spent some time reviewing the War of 1812, some of Jefferson's idiosyncracies, and a very important court case: Marbury vs. Madison. I have a separate post on this with your assignment that is due in two weeks, on Halloween. But this topic of the effects of a powerful judicial review continues to dom...

Check out this link and read through this list of some of the most famous Supreme Court rulings in history. We will be discussing some of these cases in our debates. Some you may agree with. Some you will not. What I'd like for you to keep in mind here is how the Marbury vs. Madison ruling established a much more powerful Supreme Court than the Founding Fathers likely would have desired. Which of these decisions do you consider the most important? Do you think the enormous power and influence the Supreme Court wields is what the Founding Fathers envisioned? Go back and review the Constitution. What does it say about the Judicial branch? Write a response of at least 3 paragraphs, using at least two of the listed court cases to support your position. You must also include at least one quote from the Constitution to support your claim. I'd suggest you look at the article discussing the Judicial branch for more credibility. This assignment is due October 31st.