HIST 115 GC Africans in The Americas Through Independence Discussion

I expect at least 90 points.

Discussion Essay # 1 Prompt –Africans in the Americas through Independence

A two-part discussion essay to be posted in the Discussion Board, in this forum.

After having seen and taken notes on all of our films (see these early, links in Canvas), viewed our lectures and read our chapters and articles on “Colonial Legacies II: African Slavery to the Americas through Independence” (lectures, Chasteen’s Born in Blood and Fire, our second book, Wood’s Problems in Modern Latin American History[1], and our “Black in Latin America” & “Black Atlantic” films), write a two-part essay in which you address the following:

Part I: Film analysis. Write a well-developed short essay in which you analyze one important theme, or one central idea from our “Black in Latin America” and “The Black Atlantic” films. Describe that issue in detail, and provide us with historical background from our lectures and readings from Chasteen and from our Wood and Alexander reader so that we can fully understand the theme you’re developing.

What do our readings say about that film theme you’re analyzing? Then discuss all of the ways that issue is important for our understanding of the Americas during the middle and late colonial period.

Examples of themes that these films deal with: 1) how does the slave trade affect each of those countries- the United States, Brazil, Haiti, the Dominican Republic? 2) How does “race-based slavery” emerge in the modern world and what are the consequences of that? 3) In what ways do African cultures (music, dance, language…) reshape those countries and how does this relate to “transculturation”; 4) How does each nation come define “blackness” and what are some consequences of that (legal, social)? These are just a few examples of the themes that these films deal with- there are lots more)

Length of Part I: about two well developed paragraphs with specific examples.

Part II: Document/Primary Source Analysis. Write a well-developed short essay in which you analyze the importance of one of the following primary sources or scholarly accounts (most are from Wood and Alexander, Problems in Modern Latin American History, some are in Canvas)

*“A Cuban Slave’s Testimony” by Esteban Montejo (Primary Source in Wood & Alexander pp. 55-60)

*“Day on a Coffee Plantation” by Stanley Stein (scholarly account in Wood & Alexander pp. 60-63)

*“Black Wet Nurses” edited by Robert Conrad (primary source in Wood & Alexander pp. 66-68; I also have a photograph of one of these Black Wet Nurses in the PPT)

*“Becoming ‘Legally White’ in Colonial Venezuela” (primary source in Canvas).

* “On Men’s Hypocrisy” by Sister Juana Inés de la Cruz (primary source in Canvas)

*The “Casta” Paintings (by Miguel Cabrera in the early 1760s, primary sources in Canvas in the PPT “Colonial Legacies III”)

* “War to the Death” by Simón Bolívar (primary source in Wood & Alexander pp. 32-33)

* “The Vision of Father Morelos” by Enrique Krauze (this is correct spelling; scholarly account in Wood & Alexander pp. 34-37 with primary sources-speeches and principles for future constitution- inside)

* “What Independence Meant for Women” by Sarah Chambers (scholarly account in Wood & Alexander pp. 37-41)

After having read them all, discuss all of the following about the document or primary source you’ve chosen to analyze (you’ve read them all and are analyzing one document for your essay and commenting on two different ones for your short response essays):

a) Tell us all about the document that you’ve chosen. Is it a primary source (an eyewitness account), or a secondary source (a scholarly interpretation)? This is important to know. If yours is a primary source, tell us: who wrote it? to whom? when? why? what was its purpose? If it is a scholarly account, discuss the scholarly contributions of this article to our understanding of the Americas.

b) Provide historical context from our lectures, films, and the rest of our readings (Chasteen and the articles in Wood and Alexander)- i.e. tell us the history behind the primary source or document. What has happened in the region and what is going on at the time this primary source is produced? If it is a scholarly account, discuss the historical context for your document.

c) Analysis. Primary sources are valuable for us, but we also need to ask questions about them. What kind of language does it use? Who is the audience? What are some assumptions the author or artist makes or can you identify biases? In examining the “casta paintings,” for example, what assumptions does the painter Miguel Cabrera make about peoples of mixed ethnicities? Another example: Esteban Montejo, our former enslaved person who escaped slavery in Cuba, was interviewed by the anthropologist Miguel Barnett when Montejo was an old man (over 100). He was also one person on a plantation of dozens of people of different ethnicities and who spoke different languages. How might this affect the story that he tells?

d) Conclusions: What contributions does your primary source or document make to our understanding of the history of the modern Americas?

Length of Part II: two well-developed paragraphs with specific examples

Length of the whole essay (both parts): four to five well developed paragraphs

Submit both parts together to the Discussion Board in Canvas (just label each part: Part I, Part II).

Write your essay in a word processing program so you can always have a copy. After you’ve proofread it and spell-checked it (this is formal writing- please no “text-ese” and capitalize when appropriate), select all of your text, “copy” it, and post it in the appropriate Discussion Board. (Use a 12 pt font). Discussion Forums do not accept attachments so that everyone can read each other’s essays seamlessly without downloading files.

Response to two of your classmates’ posts/insights. You are also required to respond to at least two other student’s posts (see the due date for that one). One can be from a film or primary source you also wrote about and the second should be on a different film or primary source you didn’t write about in your original post. You can amplify on a point made, raise a related point, discuss the issue in relation to other documents, agree or disagree with supporting evidence (in a constructive way), and/or raise new informed questions that we should all think about. One well-developed, and well-supported paragraph per response should suffice.

Format/Works cited: Because you’re using our films, our books and our documents, just cite which ones you’re using: which film; which book (with page number); and which document (from which book and what page). No need for a separate ‘works cited’ page here.

Please feel free to Zoom in to our office hours- I can answer any questions and/or clarify anything.

Please see your grading rubric for Discussion Essays in our syllabus. Go deep. Show that you’re doing all of your readings and films and that you’re thinking deeply about these issues.

[1] I have electronic copies of all of these chapters in Canvas, bottom module “Textbook chapters here temporarily”