_____In
this assignment for my AP US History Class, I wrote an essay on
President Andrew Jackson's
"foreign" Indian policies. The purpose of a Document
Based Question is for the student to critically develop their unique opinion
on a history topic after reviewing documents related to the topic. After
reading and analyzing several documents on the subject, I wrote my thesis
after evaluating the information I studied and my previous knowledge.
With the thesis, I wrote a six paragraph essay with references to the
documents. The standard of this assignment is #7 for students
to understand the meaning, implication, and impact of historical events
and recognize that events could have taken other directions. I met
this standard by doing this DBQ essay because by studying the Indian policy
of President Andrew Jackson and his precedents, I understand that President
Jackson could have taken another direction i.e. following the policy of
previous U.S. Presidents.
_____At the beginning, I had difficulties comprehending the documents because a lot of the documents were primary sources and the language, in terms of grammar and syntax, is different with modern English. Also, this was the first DBQ assignment I had for the class, and at that time I was still busy picking up things that I missed. I remembered I was almost 10 chapters behind the class at that time, and so as I was learning new things everyday I must also be able to go back to earlier chapters and read them mostly on my own. So knowing that I need to work harder than probably anyone else, I spent a lot of time into it. Not only did I study the documents provided, such as illustrations of Indians at that time, letters and correspondence between President Jackson and generals etc. I also did additional reading so that I had a more solid background and facts to support my thesis. During the process, I read a lot of information, processed them by summarizing the documents and discussing with my classmates. At the end, I was able to produce a strong and convincing thesis, which is under the ambitious administration of Andrew Jackson, who was in favor of Western speculation, the Indians were forced to move from their homeland. The essay turned out really well because I put a lot of effort into this assignment and I received positive comments. I think this piece of work showed that I am an independent and critical thinker because I was able to produce a thesis after a lot of self-motivated study and thinking.