Must have access to the book: Exploring American Histories Volume One to 1877 Third Edition by Nancy A Hewitt and Steven F. Lawson
primary sources 11.6 through 11.10 in the Primary Source Project found at the end of chapter 11 of our textbook, Exploring American Histories.
* pages 355-364 in chapter 11 of our textbook, including document 11.1.
* the assigned video clip “What were the Daily Hardships Faced by Enslaved People in the Mississippi Valley?” A link to this video clip is found in the week 11 module.
* the assigned video clip “The Slaves’ World.” A link to this video clip is found in the week 11 module.
These sources examine some of the realities of slavery in the United States by the middle 1800s.
Below are the ground rules for this Research/Writing Assignment. Please READ them all carefully and make sure that your essay abides by ALL of these ground rules:
1. DO NOT use any additional sources for this assignment unless you clear those sources with me first.
2. DO NOT collaborate with others on this assignment. Essays are individual work.
3. DO NOT put any kind of heading on your essay.
4. DO NOT put any kind of title on your essay.
5. your essay MUST be written using PAST TENSE verbs only — unless the quoted material you are using in your essay happens to use present tense verbs. In cases like that, of course, you must use the verb tense that the writer of the quoted material used.
6. your essay MUST begin with a good, thoughtful introductory paragraph that a) provides some background information and context so that the reader understands the time period that you are dealing with and some of the realities of that time period and b) ends with a strong and clear thesis statement that makes it very clear to the reader what major ideas you’ll explore in the body paragraphs of the essay. (The writing prompts below will help you do what’s called for in Part B. Your thesis statement should simply be the last 1-2 sentences of your introductory paragraph. In that 1-2 sentences, give me a heads up about the things that you’ll explore in the body paragraphs of your essay.)
7. each body paragraph of your essay MUST begin with a clear topic sentence that lets me know what the paragraph will focus on. (Again. use the writing prompts to help you develop your topic sentences.)
8. your essay MUST demonstrate very careful reading, consideration, and understanding of the assigned documents and relevant pages in our textbook. Your writing needs to make it very clear that you have read ALL of the documents and ALL of the pages carefully AND understood what you’ve read AND thought about what you’ve read. DO NOT assume that your reader has read what you have read or knows anything at all about the assignment. Assume that your reader is COMPLETELY IGNORANT of these things. Explain everything VERY fully, clearly, and carefully, so that even the completely ignorant reader of your essay understands what you have written and, therefore, understands the material you have read.
You are expected to use ALL of the assigned sources in your essay.
9. your essay MUST respond very carefully and very fully to the writing prompts/questions for the assignment (see below).
Those prompts/questions tell you what the body paragraphs of your essay should focus on.
The body of your essay should include AT LEAST one paragraph for each of the writing prompts/questions.
10. your essay MUST support your general statements and opinions with plenty of specific examples, details, and information from the assigned sources. Support what you write VERY FULLY, please.
Your essay MUST include frequent quotations from the assigned sources.
11. your essay MUST provide frequent parenthetical citations that indicate the sources of the material that you use in your essay. Here are some examples for this assignment:
(Exploring American Histories, page 498)
(Primary Source 15.7, page 521 )
(PBS “The West,” segment 8, 2:33)
Your parenthetical citations should be placed in the body paragraphs of your essay, NOT at the end of your essay. They should be placed IMMEDIATELY AFTER the material they refer to, NOT at the end of the paragraph.
Your essay MUST also provide parenthetical citations — as explained above — for EACH quotation that you include.
You need to include frequent citations like these because all of the information in your essay is taken from assigned sources, and you MUST cite those sources frequently.
12. DO NOT include any kind of works cited page or bibliography with your essay.
13. your essay MUST be NO SHORTER than 80 complete sentences in length, but it may certainly be longer than that;
14. your essay MUST consist of multiple paragraphs: one paragraph for the introduction, at least one paragraph for your response to each writing prompt/question, and one paragraph for the conclusion;
15. your essay MUST abide by all of the normal rules of formal writing, including spelling, grammar, punctuation, word usage, and explanation;
16. your essay MUST end with a good, thoughtful conclusion. The conclusion MUST be MORE than a simple restatement of of the introduction and MORE than a simple review of the general things covered in the body of the essay.
Write a formal essay in which you respond fully, carefully, and accurately — following ALL of the guidelines explained above — to the writing prompts/questions below. Make sure that your essay is organized so that, in addition to an introductory paragraph and a concluding paragraph, there are separate paragraphs for your responses to each of the prompts below.
* Carefully describe the working lives of enslaved persons in the United States in the Middle 1800s? What kinds of things did enslaved persons actually DO? Carefully describe some of the differences within slavery depending on age, gender, and region? (Assigned pages in chapter 11 + assigned video clips + primary sources 11.6, 11.8, 11.10)
* Carefully describe the family life of enslaved persons and some of the challenges faced by enslaved parents? (Assigned pages in chapter 11 + assigned video clip + primary source 11.6)
* Carefully describe the greatest threats or fears confronted by enslaved men and enslaved women? What do these fears tell us about the enslaved people’s view of whites? (Assigned pages in chapter 11 + assigned video clips + primary sources 11.7, 11.8, 11.9)
* Carefully describe the ways that enslaved men and women
Resisted slavery (Assigned pages in chapter 11 + assigned video clips)
Sought to create a sense of community and shared culture even thought they were other people’s “property”? (Assigned pages in chapter 11 + assigned video clips + primary source 11.10)
