Culture and Power in America

Expand on the work you did with the databases. Choose two of the texts/images/searches you did and use the following questions as guidelines: First identify the relevant person, place, dates, thinking both about who produced the text/image/fact, and who was the subject of it. Then, analyze it without drawing on any secondary sources, to the extent that you can: what is it about? what point does it make? what does it represent? Then, think of all of the unanswered questions, and speculate as to how you might go about answering them: some examples: what was the audience for this? what were the implications? how representative is it? how did it end up in the archive, anyway? Please note that this is a very open ended assignment–it′s designed that way, to encourage you to pursue something you are interested in, and try out what it′s like to think/work like a historian, so that you can add your own story to the standard ones we usually get about colonialism and slavery. You′ll want to think about the story you want to tell, the one that interests you; and work on how to use that source to tell that story. You don′t need to have all the answers! But think carefully about your questions–it′s also ok to recognize the limits of what these sources can tell you–and to acknowledge that there are some things we may never know. Don′t worry to much about getting it ″right″–but do worry about working on the most interesting story. This paper is designed for you to use your historical imagination and think very concretely about a particular image or text. Please pay careful attention to the writing as well, that matters a lot. Make sure your sentences are clear and grammatical, and that the paper flows well. You might not necessarily have a standard ″argument″ but your paper does need a point. Use these as evidence: http://islandluminous.fiu.edu/learn.html https://www.slavevoyages.org/ http://www.slaveryimages.org/s/slaveryimages/page/welcome Each essay section should be at least two typed pages, double-spaced, Times New Roman, 12-point font, 1-inch margins on all sides, with properly sourced, academic citations if using author ideas and/or direct quotes. Not following these directions will result in a loss of points.