HIST2F90: Money & Power in the Atlantic World

Final Assignments

For your major assignment, you have a choice from four options.

All options are due in Brightspace: April 5 (end of the day)


 Note "major project" - this assignment is worth 20 per cent of your final grade, a big chunk in a full-year course. These assignments are very different, but they are all designed both to draw together elements from across the course and to elevate your your skills in particular areas. 
  1. The first option builds on the skills practiced in our fall-term mapping assignment while also asking you to integrate additional primary and secondary sources. It focuses on two regions in during and just before the Seven Years War.(Format: Essay - 2500 words)
  2. The second option builds on your visual reading and textual analysis skills. Its focus is the debate surrounding the abolition of slavery using children’s literature as your primary source material. (Format: Essay - 2500 words)
  3. The third and fourth options have no specific topic, but a specific form of presentation: video or podcast. Make a video (or podcast) presenting a topic from of our second-term course lessons. (Format: Video - 15 minutes // audio - 3 x 10 min)
These are very different assignments, but they all require the use of basic historical thinking practices. In all cases, these are exercises in using evidence, reading sources critically, organising that evidence, and presenting an argument. Think about your sources, both primary and secondary, and their perspectives. The assignments also emphasise critical thinking about images. In the mapping option, you need to think about how to read and evaluate the maps (though also how to present them in your essay), in the literature option, you will need to analyze both the stories and in some cases, the illustrations(and like the maps, how to present them), and finally in the video you need to think about how to present images effectively (though also how to evaluate them).

Whichever option you choose, this assignment asks you to incorporate readings from the course in your response. One third of your grade on this assignment will come from your ability to knit broader course themes into the particulars of the immediate topic of your essay. You should cite course materials (or analyses from your Discussions work) as you would any other source. All assignments should use Chicago-style references (footnotes, no bibliography required). Your submission should effectively analyse the specific topic you're working with AND situate that specific topic in the broader themes of the course. 

How to choose which one? That's hard for us to say. Obviously the third option allows more creativity, but also demands that you have (or can develop) some technical skills. The first two lay more out for you, but require you to synthesize a fair bit of information.  All will require a fair bit of time - no assignment should be tackled at the last minute. 

 

Option #1: The Seven Years War in Maps and Text

The Seven Years War changed the world in a way that few other wars or revolutions did. In many ways it marks the emergence of a globalised, colonial economy dominated by the European powers in general, and Britain in particular.

The major battles of the war were fought on the Atlantic Ocean, in the capture of major centres like Quebec and Havana, and on the battlefield of Europe. But it was very much a struggle over control of the trade, production, communication lines and military and commercial centres from England to Angola and from Newfoundland to Jamaica. Control of these locations and routes procured great wealth and military strength - money and power in the Atlantic world. This assignment takes you to some of the smaller but still very important locales of the British and French empires just before and during the war.

You're presented with two Atlantic-world locations: the Carolinas and the Caribbean. Each location has a map, a primary document text, and a secondary source. Using these nine sources, write an essay comparing the contexts and experiences of these two locations in the Seven Years War.

Virginia and the Carolinas:

Source: Library of Congress (hi-res version here)

Primary documents:Secondary sources:

The Caribbean

Primary Documents:

An 18th-century will may need  some assistance. You might wonder, can we convert 18th-century money? 

Quick bios of Lord Egremont, George Keppel (Albemarle), and Horatio Gates.

Secondary sources:

Jason Sharples, The World That Fear Made: Slave Revolts and Conspiracy Scares in Early America (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2020). [Sharple's work is helpful on both the Carolinas and the Caribbean.]

Vincent Brown, "Tacky’s Revolt”, Ben Franklin's World podcast, episode 282 (2020).

General instructions:

Write an essay examining and comparing the impacts of the Seven Years War on each of the three colonies. To the extent these documents allow, describe the major issues in each colony, the major actors, and outcomes. 2500 words, due July 7th, noon.

Your essay must make use of all documents (primary and secondary) provided.

Your essay must make use of the maps. You should demonstrate how the maps help you to understand the story, and why the maps may also distort how we ought to understand the story. But as you're working with the maps, don't forget that these are maps made by different people, from different backgrounds, at different times, and thus for different purposes. They show not only different places, but also meet different expectations. Also, make use of the hi-res versions (links above) - the versions here don't have the resolution for you to read carefully.  

Most of the documents take you, in some way or another, to ethnic divides. Some are stark; some are subtle; but these clearly should form a significant part of your analysis.

For general background, you may wish to read these Wikipedia pages: the Carolinas -- Jamaica, and Martinique.

2500 words (approx. 10 pages) due April 5th, by the end of the day.

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Option #2: Children’s literature and the question of slavery and abolition

Throughout the eighteenth century, the ideals of liberty and  freedom fueled revolutions throughout the Atlantic World, bringing freedom to many, but definitely not to all. One of the biggest issues that remained involved reconciling notions of freedom with a society that still held humans in bondage. How do you challenge the long held habits of a society? Where do you begin? 
 

How can children's literature help us to understand the place of slavery in the 18th and 189th centuries?

Background

Our lesson on Abolition focused primarily on the public debates surrounding the continuation of slavery.  These public debates also entered the realm of imagination through the popularity of the Romantic poets like William Blake.  We have seem his artistic work several times throughout the course in the illustrations from John Stedman’s Narrative, to the image of Europe Supported by African and America on our Syllabus. His poem, The Little Black Boy is where we would like you to begin.

This assignment provides you with the opportunity to consider how the debates surrounding slavery entered the realms of literacy, domesticity, and imagination. We have heard women’s whispers throughout the course. Our lessons on Consumer Societies and the Commercial Revolution, the Practices of Slavery, and both the American as well as the French Revolutions have provided you with some idea of women’s roles in 18th and 19thcentury society.  In many ways, their literary contributions to the debates surrounding the abolition of slavery afford us the opportunity to examine the methods through which these ideas permeated household walls and entered the domestic realm and imaginations of children. Throughout the Early Modern Era women were responsible for the education of young children, and this assignment option asks you to analyze several short examples of popular children’s literature that in many cases were created by women.  To be sure, women were not the only authors of children’s literature at this historical moment, but for we are asking you to think about these larger debates and course themes as they impacted the lives of the comfortably literate. You will have options to read selections from a wider range of authors, not just women, but we are inviting you into the nurseries and early classrooms to read along with children as they are introduced to this debate.

Our lesson on the French Revolution introduced us to some of the debates surrounding women’s education in the late eighteenth century, and many of you have understood this as a call to action for access to education for women, but you have seen many examples of educated women throughout the course, so education alone was not quite the issue.  It might be helpful to think about how and where education could be accessed. Indeed, there was growing interest delivering education to a broader spectrum of society throughout the eighteenth-century. Groups like the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade, strove to educate the public on the realities of slavery, and one of the most effective means of education was to ensure some level of basic literacy, which in England took shape in the Sunday School movement, a philanthropic form of education.  

One of the more influential members of this society in England, was Hannah More (1745-1833). While she did not embrace the call for universal literacy or for women's rights, she did recognize the value of ‘popular functional literacy’. She also recognized a place for women that stressed their agency as contributing members of society, rather than passive objects.  She and her sister were responsible for establishing one of the earliest Sunday Schools dedicated to providing a basic education to the working poor of England. Her legacy is not without controversy, however. She was by no means a radical like Mary Wollstonecraft, rather she advocated for women working within the moral and domestic roles that society had ascribed to them. These ideas of functional literacy permeated both sides of the Atlantic, and to a large degree, the literature you are about to read falls under this umbrella. The well known Grimke sisters, for example, were very active in Philadelphia's Quaker society, and promoted both abolition and women's rights. While Hannah More did not actually write any children’s literature, and we have not included any of the Grimke sisters work, these women are  not the focus of your assignment, rather part of the background to give you some historical context. But many who wrote these stories were involved in similar activities, and they continued to expand on More's limited idea of functional literacy, so think about the historical context as you read them.

This is also a reminder to you to think more broadly about course themes, and place this interest in, and commitment to, philanthropic activities within the context of an atmosphere of panic that pervaded English sentiment in aftermath of the Revolutions that dominated the close of the eighteenth-century. While these revolutions brought freedom to many, our lesson on Work and Freedom, highlights the limits to which this extended to others. Those who were free, most notably men and women of property, felt a responsibility keep their own houses in order, thus extending their own ideals of household order on the rest of society with mixed results. How did children’s literature depict an ordered household?

The gist of it...

Write a 2500 word essay (approx. 10 pages) - using proper Chicago-style references, and a bibliography that examines and compares these texts designed for children/youth in the light of your Abolition week readings. The focus of your paper will address at least four stories in addition to Blake’s poem “The Little Black Boy”, and examine how they discuss and depict (remember to look at the images, too!) slavery and abolition. You should be drawing upon your course readings, especially the secondary readings related to slavery and abolition, but think too about broader questions related to freedom and economic development. Remember, textual analysis focuses as much on the intended audience as the information in the text itself. Who is the intended audience (children obviously, but not all children for every text!), and what is the intended message?  Also use the secondary sources provided with these instructions to provide you with context. There is no set rubric for the number of secondary sources you will need to employ.  Use your own judgement here, but remember, the secondary sources are there to help you develop your arguments. Some will be helpful, and others will not, and using too many will distract you from actually reading the literature.  It all depends on the angle you take. Finally, pay attention to the images in these stories as they are equally, if in many cases even more important than the text itself, so in many ways this option incorporates both your textual and visual analytical skills! 

Some questions to get you started:

•    What would these texts teach children in this era? 
•    What does this tell us about popular understandings of slavery and abolition? 
•    Pay attention to the publications dates as these reflect changing public attitudes regarding slavery. Do you see evidence for progressive or regressive attitudes towards abolition? 

These are short texts, but where possible use Voyant in your analysis (and if you don't find it useful in this case, explain why). Voyant is not required for this assignment, but it can be helpful, especially for those of you who have used it and explored it well so far.

The Literature 

(choose at least four stories from at least three different authors)

Anon, Clarissa Dormer, or The Advantages of Good Instruction, London: Printed for J. Harris, successor to E. Newberry, 1808.

Caroline Gilman, “The Planter’s Son” and/or  “The Plantation”, in her The Rose-Bud Wreath(Charleston SC, Babcock, 1841), 63-9 and 133-147.  

J. Elizabeth Jones, The Young Abolitionists, or Conversations on Slavery (Boston, Anti-Slavery Society, 1848), 1-19. 

Opie, Amelia Alderson. The Black Man’s Lament; or, How to Make Sugar. London: Harvey and Darton, 1826.

Richardson, Anna, Little Laura, The Kentucky Abolitionist: An Address to the Young Friends of the Slave, Newcastle: Thomas Pigg and Co., 1859.

Thompson, Matilda G. Aunt Judy's story: a tale from real life. written for the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Fair. Philadelphia: Merrihew & Thompson, Printers, 1859.

Townsend, Hannah, The Anti-Slavery Alphabet, written for the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Fair. Philadelphia: Merrihew & Thompson, Printers, 1846.
 

Secondary Sources

(choose at least 1 from this list, and at least 1 reading from the course readings on Abolition or the Practices of Slavery, choose more if you like, but you will be assessed on effectively you connect the sources rather than the number of sources you use!)

Connolly, Paula T. Slavery in American Children’s Literature, 1790-2010.  Iowa City, University of Iowa Press, 2013. (Chapters 1 and 2 will be most useful for studying the texts here.)

 De Rosa, Deborah C. Domestic Abolitionism and Juvenile Literature, 1830-1865. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2003. (Chapters 3 and 4 are particulary useful depending on the angle you take in your analysis.)

Wright, Nazera Sadiq. “Black Girlhood in Early American Children’s Print Culture" - Commonplace - The Journal of Early American Life.

Hint: A good essay will develop one or more themes, use some effective and illustrative quotations, and draw from the knowledge you've already built in the course in our examination of slavery and abolition, as well as broader economic and political questions in the Atlantic world. 

2500 words (max. 10 pages) - use proper Chicago-style references (no bibliography is necessary) - due April 5th, by the end of the day. 

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Option #3: Make a short documentary video

Make a short documentary-style video based on a topic from modules 3 to 5.

By "topic" we do not mean one of your lessons. We mean something broader. Your video must draw together sources from at least three different lessons, and should use of multiple primary and secondary sources. For example, a topic could be "revolutions in the Atlantic world" which could obviously draw on your three lessons of the American, French, and Haitian revolutions. But, and this is where you can be creative and thoughtful, the Haitian revolution might be connected to a topic based on the slavery and the slave trade. And there are many other possible examples, but that's for you to think about.  

Using the materials made available to you in one of your second-term lessons, make a 15 minute mini-documentary that explores that topic. It should be (i) academically rigorous (you're historians - use good sources, well), (ii) intellectually engaging (aim at an intelligent but non-specialist audience), and (iii) visually interesting (make effective use of images/visuals, and you probably need to find some additional visual materials). And (iv) as in the other assignments you must also make use of additional materials from the course [as noted above].

Make your images contribute to your work - not just pretty backgrounds but part of the story/analysis.

This assignment, for obvious reasons, doesn't have any additional assigned documents. You already have them, and you can do some research to obtain more if you wish. I'm happy to offer advice and support there if it would be helpful.

Tip #1: ask a question. Don't simply present material, present the material as asking a question and solving a problem. Aim for an interesting question. Think, for example, of our discussion of the agricultural revolution. An obvious question would be, what was the agricultural revolution? But as we know, a more interesting question would be, when was the agricultural revolution? But of course we need to know what it was before we can know when it happened!

Tip #2: answer your question with an argument. Your documentary should make a point, not simply recount a tale. It should answer the question, and just like an essay it should use evidence.

The video will be graded on the following criteria: effectiveness as a piece of public history (clarity, accessibility, engagement), quality of the content/research, and presentation (i.e. that it looks good!). Like all these final assignments, you should also be linking into broader course themes (the exam part of this assignment)..

How you do it is up to you, but the most obvious format would be some sort of screencast (i.e.a video of images and some text with a voiceover). 

Should you conduct additional research? You don't have to, but you can. But, to be clear, as indicated above, that's not the object of the assignment. The heart of your work should be the material you've been given in the course; supplement where/if you feel it necessary, but focus on presenting strong and interesting content more than a comprehensive view. At least for text: visuals will probably require some digging.

Use good quality, Open Access images, that illustrate what you're talking about. Open Access is really important is it means you're avoiding copyright issues. For most materials in our course, you're fine because our material is old. Where do you find them? Our e-text has lots of images we used and we've tried to source all ours. So, depending on your topic, good sources include museums, libraries, and archives that have digital collections. Note that we have some favourite go-to sources: the Library of Congress (US), the Leventhal Map Center (Brown University), the Nova Scotia Archives, the Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam), the British Library (UK) and the Bibliothèque nationale de France (go to Gallica BnF). All of these provide high-quality open-access images. One way we often cheat is to simply google what we're looking for, and then once we identify something good we find a reputable source that provides a copy. Often we'll find an image on some weird obscure website and in poor quality with no attribution. But now armed with a name, or some kind of better terms to google, we find what we're looking for. Often, too, that site has more to choose from.

Other images and sounds can be found in Open Access forms at sites such as the Creative Commons.  Like any source that you didn't make yourself, you must cite open access sources. For images, here, and for sound, here.

Images, like texts, are produced by people and you should be acknowledging them. Sources for your information (a bibliography), including your images, should be included (at the end of the video, or as a separate file).


Your video should be approximately 15 minutes long and it's due April 5th, by the end of the day.

How to submit: because it's a video, you won't have footnotes so you'll you need to have a bibliography - submit that to the Brightspace assignment tool and include the link (to Youtube, Sharepoint, or wherever you post your video). For Youtube of course you'll need an account; Sharepoint is available to anyone in the university and is probably the easiest option.

Additional tips can be found here.

Option #4: Make a podcast

Using the materials made available to you in one of your second-term (modules 3, 4 and 5), make a 3-episode podcast that explores a topic from those modules. It should be (i) academically rigorous (you're historians - use good sources, well), (ii) intellectually engaging (aim at an intelligent but non-specialist audience), and (iii) interesting to listen to (make effective use of sounds/voice). And (iv) as in the other assignments you must also make use of additional materials from the course [as noted above].

By "topic" we do not mean one of your lessons. We mean something broader. Your podcast must draw together sources from at least three different lessons, and should use of multiple primary and secondary sources. For example, a topic could be "revolutions in the Atlantic world" which could obviously draw on your three lessons of the American, French, and Haitian revolutions. But, and this is where you can be creative and thoughtful, the Haitian revolution might be connected to a topic based on the slavery and the slave trade. And there are many other possible examples, but that's for you to think about.  

The video will be graded on the following criteria: effectiveness as a piece of public history (clarity, accessibility, engagement), quality of the content/research (use of sources), and presentation (i.e. that it sounds good!). Like all these final assignments, you must also be linking into broader course themes (the exam part of this assignment).

And to be clear, reading an essay for 30 minutes and dividing into three parts is not a three-part podcast - the episodes should add structure (like chapters in a book) and ideally that structure encourages the listener to come back for the next episode. 

Should you conduct additional research? You don't have to, but you can. But, to be clear, as indicated above, that's not the object of the assignment. The heart of your work should be the material you've been given in the course; supplement where/if you feel it necessary, but focus on presenting strong and interesting content more than a comprehensive view. 

Other sounds can be found in Open Access forms at sites such as the Creative Commons.  Like any source that you didn't make yourself, you must cite open access sources, as here. The image above is open access and can be cited as "My Podcast Set I" by brainblogger is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

While you can easily overdo it, think of ways to make your podcast sound engaging. Your script will be by far the most important feature, but other sounds can help add colour and prompt the listeners' imaginations. Imagine, for example, discussing the French Revolution with a crowd sound in the background.  

Get creative!

3 episodes, 8-12 minutes each, due April 5th, end of the day. Additional tips can be found here. 

How to submit: because it's a podcast (and thus no footnotes) you need to have a bibliography - submit that to the Brightspace Assignment page and include the link to your podcast on that sheet (link to Sharepoint, Google Drive, or wherever you choose to post). Sharepoint is available to anyone in the university and is probably the easiest option.
 

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