H17B_Team_Project

History 17B De Anza College

Team Project: American Slavery

The team project for this course will involve research and writing on the history of slavery in the United States of America. Your final project will be a collectively written paper (approximately 1500-2000 words) on the nature of slavery in America and the changes the institution experienced. In addition, your team will give a brief presentation to class on the results of your investigation in the slave narrative records at the Library of Congress.

The class will be divided into several teams (the number of teams will depend on enrollment) named Antietam, Bull Run, Chickamauga, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Hampton Roads, Shiloh, Vicksburg, and Wilson’s Creek). Each learning team will be assembled by the instructor. Each learning team will be autonomous in assigning individual tasks for the debate. These tasks include manager, writers, editors, researchers, and presenters. The presentations should include brief PowerPoint slides or other audio/visual materials intended to help make the team’s point or add pertinent details regarding the individuals in question. The papers will be collectively written, and a common grade will be assigned to it. Each team will fill out a “charter” (posted on the class website) that assigns particular tasks to each member of the team (the team manager will send in the charter to the instructor on February 1).

Read the “Introduction” to the Born in Slavery site, and pay particular attention to the “The Limitations of the Slave Narrative Collection” sections of the site. Each team will pick at least 15 slave narratives to research, and a designated member of the team will log them on the class project spreadsheet by last name, first name, year of birth, state, and the person on the team who entered it. (This is intended to prevent duplication of effort by different teams; if another team has already picked an individual, pick another individual’s narrative.) When you have read the narrative, include a sentence or two under “Notes” regarding interesting details of the individual. This will help you to keep track of the individuals you are researching.

How you pick the slave narratives can be tricky, and should be the subject of team discussion, particularly after you have dipped into the narratives and poked around a bit. You will find the keywords search function of great value. It would help your presentation if at least one of the persons you pick had photographs associated with them.

Consider some of the following questions when reading the slave narratives: where did they come from? Who were their parents? Did they grow up with their parents? What work did they do, if any? (Many were still children when they were freed.) What do they remember about life as a slave? What do they remember about gaining freedom? What did it mean to them? What was their master like? Do they remember any songs? What experience did they have with pensions? Do they remember any encounters with the Ku Klux Klan?

Can you make any generalizations about the experiences of these individuals? Can you see any patterns? Remember to consider the context of the narratives, and the context of their being recorded. (Beware, they often use terms that might be considered offensive to 21^st century people.)

The teams’ presentation to the class will concern primarily the slave narrative portion of the research, but the team will also produce an extensive written paper that places the slaves narratives into a larger historical context. Consider the following as a pattern for organizing your team paper:

· Begin with a brief history of slavery in America

· Consider the campaign to ban the slave trade

· Investigate the material conditions of slaves. Your slave narrative research will mostly be here

· Investigate the rise of abolitionism and the effect it had on the institution of slavery and the nation as a whole

· Consider the rise of sectionalism and pro-slavery arguments

· Briefly look at the Civil War and answer whether it was “about” slavery

· Investigate the experience and aftermath of emancipation. Much of your slave narrative research will be here

· Conclude with a consideration of the lasting legacies of slavery

The team paper will be collectively written, and it is important to note that it needs to be written with one “voice.” Arguments and factual evidence must be consistent, and the writing style should also be uniform. This means that you cannot assign different portions of the paper to people and simply stitch them together: you will need a common editorial session to clean up writing, citation, and logical problems. (Please note that since it is a collective effort, there will be collective responsibility for plagiarism.)

The following is an example of recommended citation method for the Born in Slavery site:

MLA citation style example:

Adams, Will. Federal Writers' Project: Slave Narrative Project, Vol. 16, Texas, Part 1, Adams-Duhon. 1936. Manuscript/Mixed Material. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <https://www.loc.gov/item/mesn161/>.

Project presentation to class, emphasizing oral history results on February 6 and, 8—worth 5 points.

Project written paper, due February 15—worth 10 points. (Approx. 1500-2000-words)

Individual contribution to project, based partly on learning team evaluation form, due March 1—worth 5 points. (Evaluation form can be downloaded at the bottom of this page.)

The entire assignment is worth 20 points.

If a team member does not participate in the learning team discussions, meetings, preparation and work, that member will not be allowed to participate in the presentation, and will receive zero points for that assignment. Failure to complete the team evaluation form in a thoughtful and scholarly manner will result in zero points for the individual portion of the assignment.

Useful Websites

British Library site on the campaign to abolish the slave trade

Gilder Lehrman Institute: Primary sources on 1800-1860:

University of Virginia site on slavery

Grand Valley State University “Slavery and Civil War digital collection.”