Labor was the critical shared experience of slavery

For the first take-home essay option, students can choose to evaluate aspects of Anne Bailey’s
The Weeping Time: Memory and the Largest Slave Auction in American History. This
assignment will require students to critically assess the history of slavery in Georgia. The
instructor has provided a series of prompts to serve as a starting point but it is expected that
students will expand their own critical analysis of this historical study. Additional guidelines on
writing this essay will follow below the questions. You may seek out further support by talking
with your instructor.
Questions
1. Labor was the critical shared experience of slavery. Please discuss the specific experiences of
those who were enslaved on the Butler plantation. What does the story of labor and slavery tell
us about the Georgia economy in the 19th c.?
Issues to address include: how did rice and cotton production shape the lives of African diaspora
peoples? How did enslaved individuals define their labor? To what degree could slaves find
forms of resistance through labor? How did these experiences represent their vulnerability?
OR
2. If enslaved peoples found their lives largely defined by expectations of labor, they also sought
to create support systems through family, community relations, and faith. What does The
Weeping Time tell us about these familial and social relationships?
Evaluate how slave communities developed in response to the pressures of slavery and the slave
trade. What is significant to you about these stories of family life?
OR
3. The Weeping Time provides specific commentary on the experience of the domestic slave
trade in Georgia. What does this domestic slave trade tell us about the challenges of the
plantation economy in Georgia and the South more broadly?
Specifically, consider the meaning of the trade from the experiences of white Georgians
(planters, auctioneers, etc.) and from the perspective of those who were enslaved. What do these
experiences tell us about race and status in Georgia?
Essay Guidelines and Advice
Each essay will be approximately 4-5 pages long with standard margins (typically 1 or 1 ¼ inch)
and 12-point font. Text should be double-spaced with the exception of block quotes, which
should be single-spaced and indented on the left side.
All essays should be free from spelling or grammatical errors. A clean paper allows the reader to
focus more effectively on your ideas.
Short papers do not need a cover sheet. They should have a single-space header on the left side
of the 1st page. See this assignment sheet for a model. Similarly, you do not need a ‘Works
Cited’ page or bibliography but you will need foot/endnotes (see below) or MLA citations.
The major challenge in an assignment like this is choosing your focus and keeping a tight
perspective. There is a lot of material to discuss so you will have to be selective to maintain an
analysis. Remember that the instructor has read the text so this is not a book report where you
are describing the content. Instead, you are taking ideas and examples from this text to think
about broader historical patterns and their consequences.
Starting Your Paper
Essays should have an introduction (where you state your thesis), a logical organization that
flows from the thesis through the body of the essay, and a conclusion where you wrap up your
argument.
A thesis is not simply restating the question that is asked—it usually makes a specific claim
along the lines of “why,” “how,” or “so what?”
Not a thesis: “This essay will explore the trauma of the slave trade through the stories of
individuals in Anne Bailey’s The Weeping Time.” [topic description but no argument about
why, how, or so what?]
Thesis: “The history of the domestic slave trade in Anne Bailey’s The Weeping Time
demonstrates the vulnerability of Georgia’s African American population under slavery.
Bailey emphasizes the creative familial and economic strategies black families developed to
provide alternate forms of support and meanings under pressure.” [Hints at ‘so what?’]
A strong thesis not only provides an analysis up front in the essay but it also serves as a road map
for the essay. Following the thesis above, students would discuss the history of the slave trade
and resistance politics at the individual, familial, and community level. An argument would
develop about the significance of this resistance as part of black community life. More
specifically, students would emphasize the significance of such experiences to Georgia history
broadly.
Big tip: you learn from writing. Start with a preliminary thesis or even topic, write the paper,
and then come back and refine your analysis, starting with the thesis!
Quotes and Source Citations
This essay is to be based entirely on The Weeping Time. Quotes and specific data are useful ways
to back up an argument and demonstrate your engagement. All quotes must also be fully
identified with proper citations. You may use any model of citation as long as you are
consistent. Historians typically use the Chicago style of citation (either footnotes or endnotes) so
here are some examples of this model:
First citation:
1. Anne C. Bailey, The Weeping Time: Memory and the Largest Slave Auction in American
History (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2017), 125. [page number of quote]
All following citations:
2. Bailey, The Weeping Time, 258.
You may cite class powerpoints but are not required to do so. If you do, here is a model:
3. Dr. Susan Bragg, “The American Revolution in Georgia: Complicated Assessments,” HIST
3810, Summer 2021.
More information is at: http://myrin.ursinus.edu/help/resrch_guides/cit_style_chicago.htm
The instructor will evaluate all essays holistically. Do your best to be professional and your
analysis will shine.
Please also keep in mind that this essay is based on your responsible analysis of the questions
and the documents from our class. Outside resources (particularly internet sources) may seem to
provide information but they don’t answer the instructor’s specific questions. Thus not only is it
considered cheating to rely directly on outside sources without citations, they do you no good.
Anyone suspected of presenting others’ work as his/her own will be given an F on this
assignment and may be reported to appropriate authorities on the GSW campus.
Turning in Your Essay
Please submit your completed essay to the GaView dropbox provided by Saturday, July 3rd
. Late
penalties of 2 points per hour that a paper is tardy may be assessed. Please communicate with
the instructor as soon as possible if you have any questions regarding this essay, whether it is
about writing or submission. The instructor is happy to help you brainstorm or read drafts.