Throughout history, the powers of single blacks flash like falling stars, and die sometimes before the world has rightly gauged their brightness." - W.E.B. Du Bois
George Lipsitz writes:
"In his indispensable work, Black Reconstruction in America, W.E.B. Du Bois demonstrated how slaves ?ghting for their freedom soon realized that it would not be enough to be merely 'free' in a society premised on their exclusion. In the course of staging a general strike in the ?elds, running away from slavery to swell the ranks of the Union army, and joining together to work land liberated by military force, they formulated a political perspective that Du Bois named 'abolition democracy' (Du Bois, 1995)...At the Charleston Black Convention in 1865 they called for more than nominal freedom, for the development of their full being as humans. Between 1865 and 1877 they fashioned alliances with poor whites to elect progressive majorities to of?ce, and their successes led to the ?rst universal public education systems in the South, to governments that subsidized the general economic infrastructure rather than just the privileges and property of the elite. Although betrayed by the Compromise of 1877, by the removal of federal troops from the South, by the legal consolidation of the combination of sharecropping and Jim Crow Segregation, and by Supreme Court decisions that took protections away from black people and extended them to corporations, abolition democracy and the 14th Amendment successfully challenged the hegemony of white male Protestant propertied power. It opened the door for subsequent claims for social justice..."
Final Paper Assignment:
This assignment is a primary source analysis combined with a critical history essay.
Please choose a primary source document from 1859-1900 and use it to do the following:
Suggested outline:
introductory paragraph, including your thesis, which should be highlighted.
paragraph summarizing primary source set and its relevance to abolition democracy.
discussion of author's approach and strategies
For this section, you should consider the form of the document (newspaper article, letter, speech, etc.), along with the message or argument and the way the author approaches the topic.
Who is the intended audience?
It is not appropriate to dismiss a writer because s/he is "biased" about a subject. We all have biases! Your task is to evaluate the writer's point of view, then analyze the document accordingly.
discussion of the significance of the source in its social, historical and cultural context
What does the source tell us about the experiences of Black Americans during this era?
How does this author and source fit in the broader context of the readings and films?
How does this reflect or contradict the histories, lectures and films of this era?
How might regional, class, race/ethnicity considerations be reflected in the source set?
This is your opportunity to show you have done the readings, paid attention in class and understand what we are trying to do here. In other words, show us how much you know.
concluding paragraph
Remember to draw on the readings, lectures, films and discussion for background on the era. It is not necessary to use outside sources. You have plenty of required course materials to draw from. Use as many of them as possible. Remember, this course is about Black History from 1800-1900. Your paper should reflect that. Use the writing guide I sent out, as well. Not using CMS will reflect in the final grade.