SLAVERY ESSAY

FORMAT: TYPED, DOUBLE-SPACED, 3 PAGES, TURNED IN TO TURNITIN(more on this later)
5/26 “Cycles of Distrust”—Sectionalism/Slavery Essay Due

The basic idea for the essay is that it is about slavery in the antebellum (pre-Civil War)period. To be more specific, you will be writing about some specific theme, taken from Celia or Frederick Douglass, or the WPA Narratives. You should think about this as an opinion and argument piece more than an essay that traces a bunch of facts.

YOU MAY CHOOSE ONE OF THE FOLLOWING OR THINK ABOUT MAKING YOUR OWN TOPIC BASED ON SOMETHING THAT INTERESTS YOU:

1. What was the significance of gender on the slave plantation?

2. Considering Celia, A Slave, and at least two of the Slave Narratives from the American Memory Project what role did violence play in maintaining order on the plantation?
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/snhtml/snhome.html

3. Compare and contrast Sally Hemmings and Celia.
Here are some good sources on Hemmings:
http://www.monticello.org/plantation/lives/sallyhemings.html#
http://www.monticello.org/plantation/hemingscontro/hemings-jefferson_contro.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/jefferson/

4. Compare and contrast the experience of Celia or Frederick Douglass with Primo Levi during the Holocaust.

5. What was the meaning of music on in the antebellum slave community?
http://www.pbs.org/jazz/time/time_slavery.htm
http://americanabolitionist.liberalarts.iupui.edu/plantation_life.htm

6. According to Frederick Douglass and other sources, what was more important in maintaining the discipline of the plantation, physical or psychological control?