History

Updated December 12th 2025. WIP, it is difficult to update website.

I took History016 my first year first semester at UC Merced, which has inspired and motivated me through Professor Malloy's amazing lectures which I attended all of them due to how engaging and informative they were and relevancy today.

From a staff writer at the Atlantic Clint Smith, "The ability to connect the past and present is one of the most crucial forms of learning history. A curriculum that ignores these connections promotes a kind of lie by omission."

Equality

Idealistic Promise of Equality in Declaration of Independence 1776

Thomas Jefferson wrote that “all men are created equal and they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among those are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Inequality Within the United States (Written December 16th 2022 for History016 Final)

This was my final I wrote last minute and rushing to get it turned in my first year and first semester of college for my history final, I turned in this essay at 4 AM without any peer review. I have good memories of writing the essay despite the rush to get it turned in, it turned out alright. I noticed I didn't even finish a sentence in my turned in final and still got a 98% on it.
Final Exam Assignment
- In the Declaration of Independence (1776), Thomas Jefferson wrote that “all men are created equal and they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among those are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Had the United States lived up to that idealistic promise of equality by the 1850s? In answering, be sure to offer specific examples to support your conclusion. Areas to consider in evaluating this question include changes in government, the economy, and racial and gender relations from the Colonial period-1850s. You should aim for roughly 3-5 double-spaced pages in answering this question.
Excerpts
- "Striving for equality is engrained within the history of America, as the fundamental concept behind the foundations of the United States. Equality fueled the American Revolution and inspired the founding ideas behind America’s government. Within the Declaration of Independence in 1776, Thomas Jefferson declared that “all men are created equal and they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights”. Following up this promise for equality is easier said than done, because of the depth of unaddressed inequality within the nation."

American Revolution

Build Up

Build Up Towards the American Revolution (Written October 14th 2022 for History016 Midterm)

This was my midterm I wrote for my first year first semester of college for my History016 Forging US History class taught by Professor Malloy. All of my citations except for 1 is from Professor Malloy's lectures which were informative and engaging, I'm shocked my first year roommate who was also in the class slept during it. I highly recommend taking Professor Malloy's Forging US History class for UC Merced students as it fulfills 2 General Education requirements at once and the assignments and exams are writing assignments and only three essays. Excellent class with amazing lectures and course content learnt. Also I didn't realize the identifications were supposed to be separate from the essay, so I included the identifications into my essay. It worked out though.
Midterm:
- Please pick one (1) of the following essay questions to answer. In responding, you should draw on the lectures and the assigned documents from CatCourse where appropriate. There is no strict page limit but you should aim for approximately 2-4 double-spaced pages in responding.
  - What were the primary factors that led to the American Revolution? Be sure to include both long term trends as well the more immediate triggers that led to the Revolution.
  - What were the major characteristics of African slavery in British North America from the founding of Virginia through the end of the Revolutionary War?
- Identifications: Please choose four (4) terms from the list below (enclosure, Bacon's Rebellion, Anthony Johnson, Columbian exchange, pigmentocracy, piratical imperialism, Cahokia, republicanism) and write a brief (one paragraph or so) summary of the item and explain its larger significance to the course. In short, tell me what it/he/she was and why it was important. In identifying people and events, you do not need to give exact dates, but you must indicate some general knowledge of the time period involved (e.g. the 1770s, the early years of the 16th century, immediately after the Revolutionary War, etc.).
TA Camille Paladino Comment:
- "Great work! You could have made it easier on yourself and done the definition of the term outside of the essay, but this was good. Thank you for making sure I knew where you were addressing the terms, I would have not caught it."
Excerpts:
- "A revolution is nothing without a motive, as there is no point without having something at stake. People rally to have a revolution with intent to resolve an issue, or otherwise why risk their lives for an unworthy cause?"
Lecture Notes Cited for Viewing
- History 16 September 22 2022 Lecture Notes
- History016 October 4 2022 Lecture Notes

Rights

Industrial Workers and Slavery Comparison

Common and Different Circumstances between Slaves and Iron Mill Workers (written December 8th 2022 for History 016 Paper 2)

Dehumanization and degradation common.
Excerpts:
- "The abuse and oppression of humans by other humans for the sake of asserting power and maintaining profit has occurred throughout history."
- "The power differences between groups are apparent in different walks of life, of which the people in power look down upon and abuse ones they see lower than themselves. The law also plays a role in maintaining power differences through the legal restrictions it provides."
- "Their interception of the Bible is subsequently the central source of justification by slaveholders and elites for the working conditions and suffering they cause to maintain their power and social class."
- "The concept of predestination, of which God has already decided the fate of the people and nothing that can be done against that, fueled the sentiments of superiority among the people in power."
- "Both perceptions dehumanize slaves and iron mill workers to be nothing more than their work turning the clogs of the profit machines that the slaveholders and iron mill owners run. This viewpoint of slaves and iron mill workers as lesser than humans has fueled the abuse by slaveholders and iron mill owners."
- My Concluding Statement and Last Sentence in the Essay
  - "The capacity for human beings to be cruel to one another for power and profit is horrendous, as the consequences for the cruelty in the past remains to cause suffering and oppression presently."

Native Americans

Conflicts between European Colonists and Native Americans (written September 16th 2022 for History016 Paper 1)

Essay Prompt:
- "What were the major areas of dispute and disagreement between European colonists and the native peoples of the Americas in the period we are studying? What means did both sides employ in their attempts to resolve these disputes?"
TA Comment: "Great first paper!"
Excerpts:
- "Although the Native Americans and Europeans had negotiations on culture and landownership, the outcome was averse to Native Americans, and they were pushed out of the land by the settlers. To the present, landownership disputes for Native Americans continue today, with reparations ongoing."

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