Harriet Jacob’s memoir, Incidents in the life of a Slave Girl
In a two page essay (approx 500 words), please (1) summarize and (2) evaluate this portion of Harriet Jacob’s memoir, Incidents in the life of a Slave Girl (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site., describing the fear that swept the white south following Nat Turner’s uprising in 1831. These links will give you some background (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. information (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. about Harriet Jacobs and her autobiography (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site., Nat (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. Turner (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. and his uprising (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site., and it’s aftermath. Your summary should make sure to provide the following information: (1) Summarize: What type of document is this? Who wrote it (created it? produced it?)? When was created? What is it about? Or, what is the subject of this reading? What does the author want their readers/listeners to learn from this piece? Why do you think so? Do you think the author was successful with this? Why or why not? (2) Evaluate: What do readers today learn about how white southerners responded to slaves in the aftermath of Nat Turner’s uprising? What do readers learn from white southerner’s fears and actions in response to their fears? How does reading this passage shape what you understand about that era and the issues of most concern among of Americans in the 1830s and 1840s now that you have read it? How does this reading this change how you understand the link between the past and the present with regard to the impact and meaning assigned to slavery and to freedom on the development and present of the United States? Your response should be presented as a conventional essay. It will require a topic sentence that offers your overview of the value of reading this particular document, a section in which you summarize the document, and a section that includes your evaluation of the document. It is not possible to do this in one or two brief sentences, you will need space to expand on your answer and provide evidence for it in the form of direct quotations from the document itself. You may also make use of the relevant material in your textbook to supply context and a larger understanding of the conditions that might have lead the author to write what they did in this document. You may submit your essay online as either an attached and uploaded file (.doc, .docx, .rtf, or .pdf), or type it directly into the text box. It is due at the beginning of the class period on the date specified. Please give yourself enough time to proof-read and then edit your work to ensure that it is written in complete sentences, with appropriate paragraph breaks. Please make sure to use double-spaced lines. Please make sure that there are no gratuitous spelling errors, or errors of fact that should be easily checked in the reading itself, or in your text book. If these things are not done, your homework will be returned to you without a grade and you will receive no credit for the assignment.
