One of the most illuminating exercises for understanding history is putting ourselves in the place of historical actors to consider how they got to time and place we’re studying, and what they considered to be the perfect outcome to their presences at that time and place. In other words, why were they here and what did they want?
In this essay, you will consider the motivations of one of the people or the groups we’ve discussed so far in this class and explain why they were in California and what they hoped to achieve here. This can be the explorers, the Franciscans friars, a tribe of native peoples, soldiers, the Californio dons, certain groups of Gold Rush Argonauts, early California politicians or the businessmen. You can choose another person or group, but you should probably ask me if they aren’t listed above. If you like, you can write about two groups and compare and contrast their motivations.
Don’t chose a group that is too broad. For instance, all Gold Rush Argonauts is too broad because it can include every person who came to California during the Gold Rush. A three-page paper can’t analyze the motivations of hundreds of thousands of people who all had different motivations and took different actions. If you want to write about people who came during the Gold Rush, that’s good, but narrow that group down some as you research.
Do not write this in the first person, from the perspective of your subject. This isn’t a creative writing exercise. You are constructing a historical argument for why you believe certain actions were taken and supporting that. argument with evidence. You must have a thesis in the introduction that states your argument and provides. the type of evidence you’ll be using. 3 citations are needed, 1 from Kevin Starr book
The person I want to do the research on is, SAMUEL BRANNAN and his time during the gold rush etc.
The quote from the book I want to use is:
“Brannan shouted at the top of his lungs that gold, gold, gold, had been discovered on the South Fork of the American River! Soon … mormons and non-morman alike, were abandoning their jobs, purchasing sotres and equipment from Sam Brannan” (pg. 79) Kevin Starr
Talking about his entrepreneurship and business tactics during this time of the gold rush and his accomplishments
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