Overview
During the first half of the course, we will focus on slavery from a variety of different perspectives. We will examine the ways in which slavery contributed to the Southern and national economies, affected political development, shaped the discourse on national expansion, and factored into both Confederate and Union narratives about the Civil War. This assignment is intended for you to move beyond these facets of America’s “peculiar institution,” and consider the lives of enslaved people themselves. You will use the famous WPA slave narratives as your sources.
In the 1930s, the Federal Writers’ Project – which was part of the New Deal’s Works Progress Administration (WPA) – embarked on the Slave Narratives project. Interviewers collected approximately 2,300 narratives from formerly enslaved people. In 1941, the transcripts became publicly available in a 17-volume set. They are now available digitally through the Library of Congress as Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938.
THE ASSIGNMENT: You will choose the sources for your paper from these transcripts. Choose 30 consecutive pages from one volume of Born in Slavery and make them your source base. (You may select any set of 30 pages from any of the available volumes. I recommend choosing at random.) Write a 4-6 page paper that analyzes the source base you selected. What can historians learn from reading this selection of slave narratives? Your paper should have an argument, use specific examples from the narratives as evidence, and offer analysis of your evidence that supports your argument. Your argument should be derived from the sources themselves. What stands out to you in your source base? What does it tell us about slavery? How does it help us understand the antebellum period? What doesn’t it tell us?
In your analysis, you should consider the dynamics of the interview itself – when it took place, who conducted it, and how these things might have shaped what you are reading. For more on this issue, consult the following supplemental sources: “A Note on the Language of the Narratives” (https://www.loc.gov/collections/slave-narratives-from-the-federal-writers-project-1936-to-1938/articles-and-essays/note-on-the-language-of-the-narratives/Links to an external site.) and “An Introduction to the WPA Slave Narratives” (https://www.loc.gov/collections/slave-narratives-from-the-federal-writers-project-1936-to-1938/articles-and-essays/introduction-to-the-wpa-slave-narratives/Links to an external site.).
This is the rubric:
- Strength of Argument
- Quality of Analysis
- Articulation of Larger Stakes / Situating in Context (Why is your argument important?)
- Quality of Prose (Did you proofread and revise?)
Essays should be:
- The proper length
- Written in 12-point font
- Double spaced
- Have 1-inch margins
- Written in Times New Roman or similar font
- Use Chicago style footnote citations