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• 1 media/Screenshot 2024-01-24 at 8.14.38 AM.png 2024-01-23T20:17:16+00:00 Term 2 - Final Assignments 73 Winter 2025 image_header 2025-03-29T21:55:59+00:00

  Major Project Overview:

  • Options: You choose 1 option from a choice of 4.
    • Option 1:  Combined analysis of maps and texts
    • Option 2: Close reading of a selection of texts on a significant course theme
    • Option 3: Make a documentary
    • Option 4: Make a podcast
  • Length: 2500 words of analysis plus selected screenshots from Voyant Tools or selected details from the maps
  • Due: Monday, April 7 by the end of the day
  • Point value: 25
  • Details: See below

  The Details:

  All options are due in Brightspace: April 7 (end of the day)

  
   Note "major project" - this assignment is worth 25 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, and to what degree Canada was involved in it. (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).
  
  
  IMPORTANT NOTE: 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. How Many? I will not give you a hard number, but be sure to include relevant primary and secondary sources from each module to demonstrate their connection to these broader themes. 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, and 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:
  • Four letters by Virginia Lieutenant-governor Robert Dinwiddie, 1755-57. Source: The official records of Robert Dinwiddie, Lieutenant-governor of the Colony of Virginia, 1751-1758, edited and published by the Virginia Historical Society (Richmond, 1884).
  • Carolina treaties (here Peace and Friendship - 1762)
  Secondary sources:
  • Daniel J. Tortora, "The Anglo-Cherokee War, 1759-1761", Ben Franklin’s World podcast, episode 56 (2016).

  The Caribbean

  Martinique:
  
  
  
  • Jacques-Nicolas, Carte de L'Isle de la Martinique (Nuremberg, Homann, 1762) [Hi-res version here]
   

  Jamaica:

  • This map of the Island of Jamaica (London, 1763). [hi-res version here] Source: Library of Congress
  
  Primary Documents:
  • Two letters to Major General Robert Monckton:  Lord Albemarle, at Martinique, to Robert Monckton, 30 April 1762; and Letter from Horatio Gates, London, to Robert Monckton, 3 April 1762, Source: Nottingham University Library.
  • Letter General Robert Monckton, Antigua, to Lord Egremont, 6 May 1762, CO 166/2/28. Source: National Archives of the United Kingdom.
  • Will of John Crow, Esquire, died at Kingston Jamaica, 8 August 1763, National Archives, UK, PROB 11/890/392.

  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 April 7 - end of day.
  
  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 7th, by the end of the day.

                                                               - - - - - - - - 

   

  Option #2: Liberty in the Canadian Context

  As Britain moved to ban the slave trade (1807) and slavery in general (1833), many Britons (and therefore Canadians!) saw slavery as a key indicator of why slave-holding America was a decadent society (which, by the way, ignored the fact that most northern states had outlawed slavery even before Britain). This was amplified in the 1850s and 60s when the Underground Railway brought thousands of fugitive slaves to Canada. For many Canadians then, and well into the 20th century, these stories became part of separating "us" from "them" - that we (Canadians) were moral and they (Americans) were decadent. 

  All nations have myths. Some are innocuous; some harmful. One of Canada’s that unfortunately that falls into the harmful category, is that the US had slavery, and we didn’t. We have seen throughout the course that this was clearly not true. It’s true that slavery was different here: not so wide-scale, more domestic than industrial. But the simple fact remains that human beings were reduced to the status of property, bought and sold, advertised in newspapers in the same columns as livestock, and passed on in wills like the family china. To further that myth, Canada celebrates its role in helping runaway slaves escape to freedom via the Underground Railroad. But, what sort of liberty were they escaping to? How welcome was Canada tot them? This option asks you to explore the concept of liberty in the Canadian context.

  The bulk of your paper will focus on the sources, provided here, as well as our last two lessons on Abolition and Work and Freedom, but also think more broadly about liberty and enslavement in Canada across the course and incorporate relevant sources from all modules.

  
  

  Primary Sources

  • An Address to John Waddell: To take into consideration the scheme proposed by the Elgin Association, for settling the Township of Raleigh with Negroes...(Chatham, 1849)
  • "A Black Article", Nova Scotia Archives  Novascotian 27 June 1832
  • "An act to prevent the clandestine landing of liberated slaves..."Statutes of Nova Scotia 1834
  • Shadd, Mary Ann, A Plea for Emigration, Detroit: George W. Pattison, 1862.

  Secondary Sources

  • Cameron, Christopher. Black Freethinkers: A History of African American Secularism.1 ed. Northwestern University Press, 2019. (Chapter One)
  • McLaren, Kristin, "We had no desire to be set apart: Forced Segregation of Black Students in Canada West Public Schools and Myths of British Egalitarianism", Histoire Sociale/Social History, Vol 37, No73 (2004), 27-50.
  • Harris, Alicia K, and Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Haven, But No Heaven (Episode 1). Toronto: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 2023.

  Note: This final source is a 45 minute documentary from CBC available via the Library to stream. This assignment is NOT a film review, rather consider the documentary as another secondary source to help you think through the assignment, and remember to treat it as one in your analysis. The first 18 minutes focus on the history slavery within Canada, and the last section focuses on entertainment. For this assignment, the middle section is the most relevant (minutes 18-34).

  General instructions:

  Write an essay examining and exploring the concept of liberty and race in the colonies that would become Canada. Your essay must make use of all documents (primary and secondary) provided, as well as relevant course readings.
  
  For general background, you may wish to read these pages from the DOCB and Library of Congress: Mary Ann Shadd, Lawyer, Educator, Suffragist
  
  2500 words (approx. 10 pages) due April 7th, by the end of the day.

                                                               - - - - - - - - 

   

  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 7th, 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 7th, 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.