What do you think accounted for these differences, and what connections do you see with debates about liberty from the Revolutionary Era and the Constitutional Convention?

In his Address at Sanitary Fair, President Abraham Lincoln said, “The world has never had a good definition of the word liberty, and the American people, just now, are much in want of one. We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing.” Use this observation to examine contested meanings of liberty in the era of the Civil War. How did groups like the abolitionists, Confederates, northern women, and slaves define liberty in different ways? What do you think accounted for these differences, and what connections do you see with debates about liberty from the Revolutionary Era and the Constitutional Convention? Your goal will be to develop an analytical, argument-driven essay in response to the prompt using course materials, including any of the sources from the list. As you explore the sources, bring them into analytical conversation with one another. Ask yourself, how do the documents seem to define liberty and its limits? How do they frame ideas about freedom within the continuing discussion of federalism? What role does race, gender, property, and class play in how the documents think about freedom and who is entitled to it?

Essays should be 5 pages in length, double-spaced, 11- or 12-point font, left-justified, with standard margins, and they MUST cite their sources and follow the rules of grammar. Note that this is not a research assignment: in constructing your responses you will only be drawing from class materials

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