Alan McLawhorn

Aaron Kashtan

UWRT 1102

6 May 2017

History Paper Reflection

This history paper was written for my European history class, and the prompt was to

compare two groups of people. I chose the Luddites, and the Sadler Committee. When writing

this essay, I used logos to state facts about history. The reason I chose logos was because of

while presenting facts ethos and pathos are not applicable. I was not trying to convince anyone,

and instead just was stating facts. The reason I chose this essay for artifact number five was that,

even though the events dont appear to have much to do with the American identity, I would

argue that it does, particularly with the Sadler Committee. While writing this essay though, I

honestly was not thinking about American identity, but instead was just trying to get this

assignment done. Since it was for a different class, it is understandable to not think about how it

applied to American identity until later.

As I said before, at first glance, the events in the paper dont appear to have anything to

do with American identity, but I would argue that it does. In 1832, the Sadler Commission

attempted to pass child labor laws limiting the number of hours children worked in factories.

England was in the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, and children often worked in factories

for long hours. Similarly, America was also having its own Industrial Revolution at the time.

America also had similar issues with a lack of child labor laws. In both cases, laws werent

passed until many decades later.

 When writing this history essay, I wasnt thinking about how it related to American

identity. When I thought about it though, I saw similarities, mainly the need to pass child labor

laws during the Industrial Revolution. After writing the text, my opinion of the American

Identity was unchanged, and actually reinforced my opinions. However, the other assignments,

especially the four major assignments, are probably better examples of the American identity,

since those essays directly relate to it.