GE Assessment–Primary Source Essay

Read carefully the primary source documents (provided above): “Alexander Falconbridge’s Account of the Slave Trade” and “William Snelgrave, ‘The Slaves Mutiny’” and write a well-organized essay that analyses the significant historical or contemporary issue, idea, movement, event, institution, or societies it discusses. You should completely address each of the following areas in your paper:

1. Construct a thesis (central or main argument), using specific details from the primary source (s) document to support that thesis. (Instructor Note: General Education, Clarity of Expression).
2. Who wrote this document, when was it written, why was it written, and who was the intended audience? What core historical concepts relating to African studies are discussed in this document? Be specific and identify terms and concepts we have learned in the course (Instructor Note: General Education, Comprehension).
3. Critically analyze the perspectives (unspoken “cultural assumptions”) the author brought to his/her subject. What in the author’s background or experience produced that mindset? (Instructor Note: General Education, Integration).
4. What does this document reveal about the social, political, economic problems, progress, or promise of African or African American peoples or societies during the period in which it was produced? (Instructor Note: General Education, Perspectives E6).
5. To what extent does this document debunk or extend the historical or contemporary stereotypes, misconceptions, and misrepresentations about Africans or African-Americans as discussed in class? What is the significance of this document in understanding issues surrounding African or African American peoples and societies?

Instructions:

• The paper should be 4-5 pages in length, typewritten, double-spaced and paginated.
• The paper should have a title.
• The paper should contain a clear statement of thesis which should be included in the introduction, followed by a narrative that explicates the thesis, concluding with summation or restatement of the thesis.
• The paper should be free of grammatical, spelling and syntactical errors.
• The paper should contain at least 4 different quotes from the primary source (s) provided.
• The paper should avoid plagiarism, whether intentional or unintentional. In general, both ideas and language (wording) taken from another writer must be properly acknowledged and cited (footnoted). Language borrowed from a source must be placed in quotation marks.
• Use the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition. Your Endnotes should be numbered sequentially throughout your paper in Arabic numerals. Numbers must be embedded automatically in the text (i.e. if endnotes are added or deleted the numbers change automatically). To insert endnotes in word: (a) Click where you want to reference in the endnote; (b) On the References tab, select insert Endnote; (c) Enter what you want in the endnote.

Chicago Style Footnotes:

Alexander Falconbridge, “An Account of the Slave Trade,” in Thomas Howard, ed., Black Voyage: Eyewitness Accounts of the Atlantic Slave Trade (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1971)

William Snelgrave, “The Slaves Mutiny,” in Robert O. Collins, ed., Western African History, Vol. I (Princeton, NJ: Marcus Wiener Publications, 2012)

*Alexander Falconbridge article can also be found here: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1h281t.html