Writing about a journal

Objectives:

  • Gain understanding of life on the Missouri frontier in 1830.
  • Begin to assess the validity of the belief that the American frontier was conquered by the “rugged individual” or the “self-made man.”
  • Begin to understand how American society has changed by learning how very different life was in the early 19th
  • century.
  • Read the journal carefully and try to get to know Scanland and the people that shared his life, a life that was very typical of Missouri frontier communities.th You are to read the excerpt from the journal of Charles Scanland for the year 1830. It is a day-by-day account of the events in Scanland’s life and tells us a great deal about him, his family, the community in which they lived, and the nature of frontier communities in general in the early 19th
  • The assignment has two parts. The first part is to write an essay structured as follows:· First, paint a picture for me of the community in which Scanland lived. The following are some points/issues/topics to discuss, but it is NOT a definitive list: Tell me about Scanland and his family. What kind of man was he? What were his skills? In what ways did he make a living? Describe the interdependence that existed within the larger community beyond the Scanland family. Describe Scanland’s social and economic relationships with others in the community. How did the economy run in the community? What kind of activities does the journal describe? What important events happened during the year? What did you find unusual about it? How were slaves a part of the community? Discuss their technology. How did they communicate? How did they handle illness? What about leisure? What kind of institutions existed in the community (for example, courts, religion, slavery)?· Then, compare and contrast the community you just described with 1) the general notion we have of this period of United States history being a time of the rugged individual, the self-made man who was dependent on no one but himself, and 2) with what you understand community to be today and speculate on possible reasons for both the change and the continuity between the two.The second part is to craft three specific questions about the journal. These can be about the details of Scanland’s life, the activities he describes, the broader historical issues it addresses, or anything else, as long as they are related to the assignment.
  • The specific requirements are followed by the files below.

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