ASSIGNMENT FOUR: Please finish the course by reading two chapters in your textbook. The first is on pages 32-44 (“Black People in a White People’s Country”) and the second on pages 100-112 (“Thomas Jefferson and the Meaning of Liberty”). Please write a 4-6-page paper describing the Middle Passage and the forced migration of African to the New World. What physical and psychological pressures did they experience? What was “one of the great paradoxes in American history”? Next, discuss Thomas Jefferson, a slave owner, who helped lead a revolution based on the concept that “all men are created equal.” Include in your paper the meaning of “presentism” that argues that we should judge historical figures based on the values of their times, not ours. Was Jefferson, like many of the other founding fathers, hypocritical in holding slaves while fighting a revolution for equality? Or, rather, should we judge him on his own times, not ours? Please include specific information from the readings. To help our nation free itself from racial injustice, we must understand our past. Our goal is to achieve true equality regardless of race, gender, or ethnicity.
The first part of the paper should focus on the enslavement process. Talk about how and where they were captured and then transported to and from. talk a little bit about the routes that slaves took from their life in a tribe in West Africa to the transport to the New World. Talk a bit about the different African tribes, how some were passive and how some were more aggressive. Talk a little bit about how inter-tribal slavery had been present before the arrival of foreigners in Africa. Talk about what enslaved peoples’ trips from their tribes to the European slave ships was like.
Once you’ve done that Talk about the experiences slaves went through while traveling to the new world. The second part should talk about the psychological and physical traumas that the slaves faced once they reached North america.Talk about loose packing and tight packing. Talk about the mortality rates of newly enslaved peoples’ from the trips to the New World. Talk about how with all the difficulties they faced on their voyage to the new world, how hard it would have been to try and revolt against their captors. Mention what the slaves must have looked and felt like as they got off these ships into Jamestown. How they were physically, mentally, and emotionally defeated. Mention some of the reasoning behind why the English did not like to capture Native American slaves because of their Nativity to the New World. Try to compare at some point the mind frame of the indentured servants and slaves.
The third part should talk about Jefferson. Talk a bit about him as a slave owner. Was he a “good” or “bad” owner compared to the average slave owner? Talk about his personal beliefs about slavery. Did he like it or not.
The last part of the essay should focus on both “the greatest paradox in American history” (found on pages 100-101) as well as the meaning of “Presentism” (found on page 105) Once you have talked about what presentism is, reflect on Jefferson and talk about whether he truly was a progressive man for his time. Without holding him up to the same standards that we live by today. Talk about whether this great american paradox is okay to look past in regards to the time in which it took it place.
- 01:21:13The paradox is that Jefferson wrote that all men are created equal yet he was a slave owner so was he a hypocrite or rather um should we.
- 01:21:26measure Jefferson not on the values of our day, but on the values of his day and so maybe to find presenteeism and whether you can be you can give Jefferson a pass give him a battery that valuation because during his day he at least tried to speak out against like.
