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.
Third, critique Davis’s arguments about the spread of slavery using the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database. Test information that Davis presents in chapter five using queries in the database. For example, he argues that 1640 marked a fundamental turning point in the growth of slavery in Barbados. You might construct a search string that finds the number of slaves brought to Barbados between 1630 and 1640, and a second search string that finds the number of slaves brought to the island between 1640 and 1650. If the results of the latter search are higher, then Davis’s argument here is sustained by the database; if it is lower, then his argument is contradicted by this information. Please be certain to critique Davis using sufficient evidence here; a single point of data such as the preceding example is insufficient for drawing broader conclusions about the effectiveness and strength of Davis’s argument.
Please note, moreover, that the searches you had to conduct in order to answer the questions in Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database Assignment were written to provide you with most of the material needed to critique Davis’s argument (though you are welcome–and encouraged!–to develop your own search strings for this assignment). As you had to provide the citations for your queries, you can quickly and easily access them through the document you submitted. In other words, you already have found most of the information needed to complete the critique.
You would do well to review the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database Assignment to refresh your understanding of how to query the database.
Sample Outline
Students who submit well-organized, well-written essays will, all other things being equal, perform better on this–or any–assignment than those who turn in poorly organized papers. This assignment lends itself well to the five-paragraph essay standard, so I expect that all of the papers I read will be well organized. As I am especially keen to encourage students to write well-organized essays, I have nonetheless developed the following simplified outline. There are many ways to draft this essay, of course, so feel free to modify this outcome to suit your needs or to ignore it altogether. Each numbered item represents a paragraph:
Introduction (your introduction must include a thesis statement; for a paper of this length it should generally be the last sentence of your introductory paragraph)
Factors that Davis Argues Drove the Expansion of Slavery
Geographic Expansion of Slavery
Critique of Davis’s Arguments Using the Database
Conclusion
