My approach to my final reflection on American History, pre- 1492 thru Reconstruction was to first do

a focused freewrite to generate thoughts and ideas about what I learned and how I learned it. After
generating and sifting through my thoughts, I consolidated the important concepts into an outline. From
there, I hope to describe what and how I learned about these ideas and why these ideas are important
to me.
My first step was to define a goal or set of goals I had for this course. My initial goal was to learn about
the important events that occurred from pre- colonization thru Reconstruction. I soon found out from
the Student Learning Outcomes and the Student Performance Objectives presented in the course
syllabus, that my goal was too broad and simplistic. I realized that the purpose of this course was to
make me think more like a Historian, to analyze and interpret events, not just chronicle them. In this
course, I would have to apply some of the tools I learned about in an earlier course. The 5 Cs, Change
over time, Context, Causality, Contingency and Complexity, as described in Thomas Andrews and
Flannery Burkes article, What Does It Mean To Think Historically?, would assist me in this course. This is
the first course, to my knowledge that I would use primary sources.
In this course I learned what primary sources were as well as the differences between primary and
secondary source. Most importantly, I learned that primary sources helps enable you to witness events
through that persons eyes. You get a sense of the emotion that a person feels witnessing an event for
the first time. In essence, you get the opportunity to experience an event through that persons voice. I
cant stress enough how valuable primary sources are in evaluating events. I could feel Frederick
Douglasss lulling the women of the Rochester Anti-Slavery Sewing Society into a secure place before
excising them into a place of the harsh realities of a slaves life. Another first for me was synthesizing
primary and secondary sources to get a better feel and context about the event. Learning and
understanding the value of primary and secondary sources was key to interpreting sources.
I also learned that history doesnt occur in a vacuum, that events are combination of social, economic
and political influences at that time as well as the past. Religion could and did influence political
thought. A persons lot in life can and did effect his social, political and economic standing. It was
interesting to learn how the happenstance of environment and family structure effected the success,
order and stability of northern and southern colonies, and how that cultural divide led to Civil War. It is a
divide so strong that it is still felt today in the economic, social and political policies of the north and
south. All one has to do is look at a map of red and blue states for evidence of the cultural divide.
The sources presented in this course gave me a view of the human condition from all perspectives of
society; male, female, rich, poor, black, white, Native American, free, slave, indentured, Protestant,
Catholic and foreign. The course allowed me to gage peoples reaction to their state from many
viewpoints. Not one story but multiple stories make history. I also learned about the role technology
played on migration, immigration, upward mobility and education. I learned that industrialization and
education was not homogeneous between northern and southern states. I learned how this lack of
homogeneity aided in deciding the fate of the Civil war. Finally, I learned about where Lincoln truly
stood on the issues of slavery and equality and that Reconstruction was a Radical Republican pipe
dream.
The course also taught me about the utility of reflection. Reflection gave me insight on what I learned
and how I learned it. From this insight I learned how to improve my strategies for the next assignment. I
learned to carefully read through assignments and announcements to avoid misinterpretations and

omissions. I learned that my responses to other students may not truly refect what I am trying to say.
Something said in person can have quite a different meaning when said online. You cant gage a
persons expressions online. One thing, l would like to do over, is to investigate the foundations of a
sources statement more intently. I found that many sources conclusions, George Fitzhugh for example
are based only totally groundless assumptions. I want to more fully analyze a sources foundation and
assumptions. This I hope will lead me to becoming a better student and a student of history. Another
thing I must improve on is timeliness and sticking to my schedule as much as possible. I learned a lot,
and now I know what is expected of me when I return to UCLA.