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Answer Questions Notes: 1) This assignment, like ALL assignments in this class, must be typed. See handout on class expectations 2)
You MUST use blackboard's digital dropbox (details here)
to submit this homework; if you do not use microsoft word,
be sure to follow these directions
THIS IS ASSIGNMENT 13 This homework
is due at the start of class and can
NOT be turned in late
Some of
these questions can be answered with a few words (question 6 for
example); others will require as many as four to five sentences.
REMEMBER TO USE YOUR OWN WORDS Questions on pp. 14 – 23 of David Brion Davis, "Sugar and Slavery from the Old to the New World" available on Electronic Reserves 1) Identify, on the attached map, the area that Davis on p.15.defines as one of the greatest, continuous sources of slaves in human history. You may need an atlas or an encyclopedia to answer the question if you do not immediately know the location of the places the author mentions. Keep your indications fairly precise. I don't need you to identify the individual countries, but I do want you to outline the general area he refers to -- however, don't go beyond that general area. USE ONLY THE ATTACHED MAP & DRAW YOUR LINES WITH CARE. YOU WILL TURN THIS MAP IN BY HAND IN CLASS ON THE DAY THE ASSIGNMENT IS DUE, RATHER THAN THROUGH BLACKBOARD. (10 points) 2) The Europeans and Africans who bought enslaved Slavic peoples (the repetition in sounds is not a coincidence, as Davis notes) from what is now Eastern Europe assumed that this population had certain characteristics. These stereotyped characteristics were almost identical to those applied by Europeans to which group in a later period? (If you are not familiar with the term "Sambo" it means prototypical fool and has a long tradition in the racist practice of minstrelsy in the United States. See here. (5 pts) USE YOUR OWN WORDS. 3) By the year 850 (that is, by the Ninth Century), how did Muslim Arabs and Iranians view Africans and what encouraged them in their view? (5 pts) USE YOUR OWN WORDS. 4) What event encouraged Christian slave holders to switch from purchasing Greek and Caucasians slaves from what is now eastern Europe to purchasing enslaved Africans from the interior of the continent? (5 pts) USE YOUR OWN WORDS. 5) In your own words, describe the role of sugar plantations on the island of Madeira in the history of slavery in the New World. Don't repeat the history of the island; rather, explain why the history of sugar production on this island helps us understand the larger history of slavery. In other words, why can't one understand the history slavery without knowing Madeira's history?USE YOUR OWN WORDS. (10 points) 6) For more than a half century after Virginia's founding as a colony -- indeed, up until the 1680s -- what form of labor did plantation owners prefer: indentured Europeans or enslaved Africans? (no more than a phrase is necessary here) (5 pts) Questions
on 36 - 39 of John Thornton's Africa
and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World available
on Electronic Reserves 8) As the
author recounts, in 1645 Boston city officials both returned a group
of enslaved Africans taken during raids (rather than traded for)
on the African coast and apologized for their seizure.
How well do these actions by the Boston city officials fit in with
the general pattern of trading relations between African elites
and Europeans and why? (5 pts)
10) The high number of males among the enslaved Africans in the trans-Atlantic trade is partially explained by the demand of European planters for male labor, and partly by what other factor that was internal to Africa? (5 pts)( KEEP A COPY OF YOUR ANSWER TO THIS QUESTION, IT WILL BE USEFUL TO YOU FOR YOUR UPCOMING SLAVE TRADE PAPER)
11) Explain
-- using examples -- how the slave trade wrecked some African polities
and helped build others. Provide an example for each outcome
(wreck & build) and explain how your example supports your point.
This Long Answer question may require a full and detailed paragraph
to answer completely 12) Plantation
slavery in the American South in the 1850s-- wherein slaves produced
commodities like cotton for sale on
the market -- was often referred to at the time as the South's "peculiar
institution." Using the textbook's discussion of West Africa,
assess how "peculiar" (unusual) was America's "peculiar
institution" in the world at the time and why? If it was peculiar,
in what ways was it peculiar? Note that the question asks
about slavery -- not the slave trade. EXTRA-CREDIT (up to ten extra points) In two to three paragraphs, describe why Davis thinks that the decision by Europeans to use enslaved Africans -- rather than enslaved Europeans or indentured servants -- is best explained by timing rather than prejudice (although there absolutely would be plenty of that later on). Be sure to have at least three points of evidence for your argument and to identify your claim/evidence/warrant structures.
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