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Process Paper When students were first introduced to the National History Day Contest, we were handed out papers which consisted of background information on the contest and various topics that we could choose to research. The original topic I chose was scandals of Brooklyn, New York, simply because I thought to myself well who doesnt enjoy learning of notoriety. When I began my research on the infamy within Brooklyn, I came across the scandal of a preacher and was quickly drawn to the topic due to the fact that its quite the contradiction, a clergyman involved in a scandal. Further into my research I learned the preacher was known as Henry Ward Beecher who was also listed as a topic for research on the contest paper. I was commended for linking the topics to each other and finally decided to conduct my assignment on Henry Ward Beecher. I began my study on the topic at the Brooklyn Public Library where I toured the Brooklyn Collection. From there, I received most of my information on Beecher within books such as Debby Applegates Biography of Henry Ward Beecher; and I took notes on what I thought would be valuable towards my paper. Also I visited numerous websites to gain further knowledge of the other parties involved in the scandal. Into my research, I noticed that I lacked primary sources which led me to visiting the Plymouth Church and Greenwood Cemetery to take pictures and create my own primary sources. To display the Beecher-Tilton scandal I selected the website category. I was interested in this category because I am currently in a Computer System Support class; although the class deals with the maintenance of the computer system, the introduction of the course dealt with certain

software which I believed would come into play when creating a website. I thought the creation of a website would be a great way to test my skills. The theme for the National History Day contest is Rights and Responsibilities; my project relates to this theme because it discusses the scandal of a Brooklyn preacher who took his responsibilities as a clergyman and used them to abuse his power and twist the rights of a man within a puritan community.

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