302 Chapter 12 | war anD eManCipation | period Five 184 4 –1877 putting it all together^303Consider the following prompt to illustrate the effective use of qualifying
evidence in historical argument:Using your knowledge of the time period and the documents above,
characterize the ways in which white Americans identified African
Americans throughout this period. What advantages did white Ameri-
cans gain by defining African Americans in these various ways?Step 1 Understand the prompt, and identify the key words
For a review of this step, see the Building AP® Writing Skills exercise in Chap-
ter 1 (p. 22).Step 2 Generate a working thesis
For a review of this step, see the Building AP® Writing Skills exercises in Chap-
ters 1 through 5 (pp. 22, 51, 79, 111, 142).Step 3 Identify and organize evidence
Review the Applying AP® Historical Thinking Skills exercises in this chapter as a
way to determine differing points of view toward African Americans.Step 4 Outline your response
As an exercise, return to Chapter 2, and create a subject-by-subject comparison
of different points of views toward African Americans. A sample outline follows:I. Introduction
II. Liberal Northern perspective toward African Americans
A. Reasons for this perspective
B. Advantages of this perspective
III. Conservative Northern perspective toward African Americans
A. Reasons for this perspective
B. Advantages of this perspective
IV. Southern white perspective toward African Americans
A. Reasons for this perspective
B. Advantages of this perspective
V. Conclusion
To continue with this exercise, select one of the body paragraphs and begin the
paragraph not with a main point but with a description of one of the primary
documents. For example, consider the following as the beginning of a discussion
on the Southern white perspective toward African Americans:13_STA_2012_ch12_275-306.indd 302 24/04/15 10:19 AM