Trans-Atlantic Slave trade- chapter 5 of inhuman bondage
Your finished paper should be 600-800 words in length. You may go over the word limit, but please do not exceed 1,000 words. Please double-space it and use a twelve-point font. Please submit your Essay Assignment in a .doc format file, and submit it as via the Essay Assignment Dropbox. If your word processor cannot save files in a .doc format
Please cite all quotations and paraphrased passages from the book using MLA, parenthetical citations according to the following form: In the author’s words, Hitler “was able to inspire other ordinary individuals to share his visionary dream.” (99).
Please cite the results of your searches in the Transatlantic Slave Trade Database by copying the URL for your query using the Create A Link button. You will find it in the lower left-hand corner of the search window, and the citation will look like this:
You will incorporate these citations according to the following form: According to the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database, the number of slaves shipped to Antigua rose dramatically after 1641 (http://slavevoyages.org/voyages/c3ZpBp8z).
The Assignment
Are David Brion Davis’s arguments in Chapter Five of Inhuman Bondage about the geographic evolution of the Atlantic slave system between 1500 and 1750 sustained by the evidence available in the Transatlantic Slave Trade Database? In answering this question, please be certain to 1) summarize David Brion Davis’s arguments regarding the causes and extent of the geographic transformation of the Atlantic slave system, 2) critically analyze his argument using data from the Transatlantic Slave Trade Database.
Grading
Please see the Grading Rubric for details regarding the evaluation of submitted work.
Instructions and Further Thoughts
David Brion Davis has long been one of the leading historians of slavery and, as such, he is able to write without providing citations to support all of his claims. This assignment asks you to assess whether the argument he develops in Chapter Five of Inhuman Bondage about the geographical spread of slavery can be sustained by the evidence available in the Transatlantic Slave Trade Database. The assignment thus asks students to do three things:
First, it calls on students to develop a clear thesis statement in which they argue whether and to what extent the data accessible in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database supports or refutes Davis’s arguments about the geographic spread of slavery between 1500 and 1750. This is the primary question that you must address, and you must have a thesis statement addressing this point in your introduction.
Second, students must summarize Davis’s arguments regarding the factors that shaped slavery’s spread and, more importantly, its geographic evolution. In other words, according to Davis, why did slavery spread during this time period, and what were the main regions to which it spread? You may have heard the phrase “you must summarize before you can analyze;” this part of your essay is the summarize part. You cannot effectively critique an argument until your first summarize it.
