History of the U.S.

Read the Directions—All of them! This assignment is due no later than May 23rd at the time of your last exam. Papers MUST be four to five pages DOUBLE SPACED and written in 10 or 12 point font. Write in paragraphs and use standard margins. Papers that begin half way down the first page to accommodate titles and names are still expected to have four to five full pages of content, regardless. Papers MUST be edited for errors in sentence structure and grammar. PROOF READ your work before you submit it to me. Carelessness or disregard for paper “mechanics” will cost you points! Your paper must be stapled. I will not accept an essay that is not word-processed and stapled. There are staplers in the library.You need to watch a segment from the PBS video series Africans in America entitled “Judgement Day”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TwCtR0IEZ4. Take careful notes through the film, as the material from the video will help you with your understanding of the ante bellum crisis over slavery. You want the sections entitled Brotherly Love and Judgment Day Brotherly Love, Part Three, 1791-1831At the top of the page you will find links for the following: Narrative, Resource Bank Under the Resource Bank choose the following (they are at the very bottom of the page).• Charles Ball’s narrative:Fifty Years in Chains• Norrece Jones on kidnapping and class• Emma Lapsansky on kidnapping in Philadelphia• Margaret Washington on the impact of the cotton gin • Julie Winch on the economic impetus for kidnapping • Julie Winch on the kidnapping of children.Then return to Judgment Day, Part Four, 1831-1865 Under the Narrative Links choose Antebellum Slavery Read this history first, then at the very end of this article, 2 links follow:• George Fitzhugh advocates slavery• Judge Henry Hammond advocates slavery • Read Hammond and Fitzhugh:they are apologists for the institution of slavery.To read their articles, you must click on the link: “Click here for the text of this historical document.” Next, return to the Judgment Day home page and click on Resource Bank.This will open you up to a list of readings, a ContentsPage. Read the following titles at least to support your paper. In some cases,you will need to click on the link, “Click here for the text of thishistorical document” in order to read the article or narrative. These readings include modern voices as well as primary source
accounts by slaves. •Conditions of antebellum slavery •Nell Irvin Painter on soul murder and slavery •A slave experience of being sold south •Cornelia Bailey on Butler Island and slave life •Catherine Clinton on the Weeping Time •Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl •PLEASE NOTE: As you open some of these articles, you may see the notice, “click here for the text of this historical document.” Be sure to click there for the text of the document!!! • Below, you will find an excerpt from Solomon Northup’s narrative Twelve Years a Slave. Essay instructions followimmediately. •ESSAYASSIGNMENT:Afterviewing thevideo, and reading the articles, answer the following question: Apologists for slavery such as George Fitzhugh and James Henry Hammond made claims for slavery as a positive institution and a better system oflabor than the North’s free labor system. However, judging from the narratives of the enslaved, the condition of slavery was degrading, inhumane and brutal. Drawing from the testimonies of slaves and the historical record, challenge Fitzhugh’s and Hammond’s pro-slavery arguments. Do Hammond or Fitzhugh offer any good arguments for the institution of slavery? What are their respective criticisms of the northern system of free labor? Are their remarks valid? Explain. Use specific details from the readings tosupport your essay. You are welcome to cite the sources you wish to paraphrase or quote, but do not depend on citations to construct your paper.***IMPORTANT INFORMATION • The other valuable resource for your essay, of course, is your textbook, including chaptersnine and twelve. I would suggest reading these first, then start digging in to the other materials. • If you depend on the PBS video as your only resource, without any evidence of your having seriously explored the assigned readings, you will not get much credit for your paper. I do not want to read essays that show no evidence of research other than your having watched the PBS video. • The sooner you begin researching this project, the more time the information will have to incubate in your mind. Your thoughtfulness will reflect in the coherent arguments you present in your paper. • To receive FULL credit for this assignment, you MUST answer all the parts
of the question. This assignment is worth 50 points. See the attached grading rubric and assess your work accordingly. • I am available in office hours and by appointment to help you with this assignment. •One last consideration.You need to be familiar with Hammond’sand Fitzhugh’srationales for the defense of slavery.Do not devote more than a page and a half –at the outside—of your essay to explaining their arguments.EVALUATION• Your essay will be evaluated according to a rubric (see below) that assesses your attention to the mechanics of the paper: logistical requirements, grammar, sentence structure, punctuation; as well as its content. I will be looking to see how you use written sources as well as the video in your essay to support your paper.• Please Note: Papers must be submittedby May 23rdat the final exam. Papers that are submitted by May 16th will be reviewed with comments. Bring the essay to class or deliver it to me during office hours. Under no circumstances will I accept an emailed essay. Do not leave your work anywhere on campus for me to pick up. • Plagiarism: Do not be tempted to dismiss this project by copying from the Internet or another source. Writing papers is part of the college experience and is invaluable in your intellectual development. Plagiarism in any form will result in a zero for the assignment and I will report you to my Dean and other administrative officials. This could result in a permanent judgment on your transcript. Extreme cases of plagiarism may result in a failing grade for the course. I am ruthless when I find that a student has plagiarized written work. You waste everyone’s time when you plagiarize.  FINAL EXAM: Material assigned for this essay project will be included on the final exam.AN EXCERPT: This is an excerpt from the narrative by Solomon Northup–“Twelve Years a Slave.” “THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS REST”Solomon Northup was a free black who was kidnapped in New York and sold into slavery for twelve years. He was finally returned to freedom through the efforts of New York’s governor. In the following selection,he describes how cotton was raised on his Louisiana plantation. (FYI, the life of Northup was the subject of an Academy Award winning film in 2013.) The hands are required to be in the cotton field as soon as it is light in the morning, and, with the exception of ten or fifteen minutes, which is given them at noon to swallow their allowance of cold bacon, they are not permitted to be a moment idle until it is too dark to see, and when the moon is
full, they often times labor till the middle of the night. They do not dare to stop even at dinner time, nor return to the quarters, however late it be, until the order to halt is given by the driver. The day’s work over in the field, the baskets are “toted,” or in other words, carried to the gin-house, where the cotton is weighed. No matter how fatigued and weary he may be–no matter how much he longs for sleep and rest–a slave never approaches the gin-house with his basket of cotton but with fear. If it falls short in weight–if he has not performed the full task appointed him, he knows that he must suffer. And if he has exceeded it by ten or twenty pounds, in all probability his master will measure the next day’s task accordingly. So, whether he has two little or too much, his approach to the gin-house is always with fear and trembling. Most frequently they have too little, and therefore it is they are not anxious to leave the field. After weighing, follow the whippings; and then the baskets are carried to the cotton house, and their contents stored away like hay, all hands being sent in to tramp it down. If the cotton is not dry, instead of taking it to the gin-house at once, it is laid uponplatforms, two feet high, and some three times as wide, covered with boards or plank, with narrow walks running between them. This done, the labor of the day is not yet ended, by any means. Each one must then attend to his respective chores. One feeds the mules, another the swine–another cuts the wood, and so forth; besides, the packing is all done by candle light. Finally, at a late hour, they reach the quarters, sleepy and overcome with the long day’s toil. Then a fire must be kindled in the cabin, the corn ground in the small hand-mill, and supper, and dinner for the next day in the field, prepared. All that is allowed them is corn and bacon, which is given out at the corncrib and smoke-house every Sunday morning. Each one receives, as his weekly allowance, three and a half pounds of bacon, and corn enough to make a peck of meal. That is all–no tea, coffee, sugar, and with the exception of a very scanty sprinkling now and then, no salt…. An hour before day light the horn is blown. Then the slaves arouse, prepare their breakfast, fill a gourd with water, in another deposit their dinner of cold bacon and corn cake, and hurry to the field again. It is an offense invariably followed by a flogging, to be found at the quarters after daybreak. Then the fears and labors of another day begin; and until its close there is no such thing as rest…. In the month of January, generally, the fourth and last picking is completed. Then commences the harvesting of corn….Ploughing, planting, picking cotton, gathering the corn, and pulling and burning stalks, occupies the whole of the four seasons of the year. Drawing and cutting wood, pressing cotton fattening and killing hogs are but incidental labors. Source: Twelve Years a Slave: Narrative of Solomon Northup (Auburn, N.Y., 1853)