American Studies Question

This assignment is intended to give you practice assessing historians’ arguments and use of evidence, which you will do yourself in the historical argument essay.

Article review essay: Spangler, Jewel L. “Slavery’s Archive, Slavery’s Memory: Telling the Story of Gilbert Hunt, Hero of the Richmond Theatre Fire of 1811.” Journal of the Early Republic Winter 2019, Vol. 39 Issue 4, p. 677-708.

In a 3-4 page essay with an introduction, body, and conclusion, you should:

-Introduce the article with a brief description of the contents

-Make a thesis statement (in the intro) that answers this question:

What is Spangler’s argument and what does this article tell us about race, slavery, and historical memory in the early republic?

–Support your thesis statement with answers to the following questions:

What primary sources does Spangler use?

According to Spangler, how are archives problematic?

What are/were the different depictions of Hunt’s story?

Why was/is Hunt remembered differently by different groups?

Look at the footnotes. How does Spangler engage with other historians?

How does this article depict the process of writing history?

Why do you think “facts” is in quotations on page 707?

–Include a short paragraph that sums up the main points of your essay

Essays will be graded according to the following:

A papers will:

-follow all instructions (including answers to all the questions)

-contain a sophisticated and accurate thesis statement that makes an argument that answers this question:

What is Spangler’s argument and what does this article tell us about race, slavery, and historical memory in the early republic?

– be written in a compelling and convincing style

– include an introduction and conclusion that engages the audience

-maintain sentence and paragraph coherence: every sentence in a paragraph advances the paragraph’s thesis, and the paragraphs themselves are arranged in a logical sequence

-avoid passive structures, weak verbs and common errors

–include relevant quotations/examples that help illustrate your analysis (these should not be excessive or long. Please avoid block quotes)

B papers will:

-follow all or almost all instructions (including answers to all questions)

-contain a thesis statement that answers this question:

What is Spangler’s argument and what does this article tell us about race, slavery, and historical memory in the early republic?

– include an introduction and conclusion

-maintain sentence and paragraph coherence: most sentences in a paragraph advance the paragraph’s thesis, and the paragraphs themselves are arranged in a logical sequence

-avoid passive structures, weak verbs and common errors

– include relevant quotations/examples

C Papers will:

-follows some to most of the instructions

– contain a thesis statement that attempts to answer this question:

What is Spangler’s argument and what does this article tell us about race, slavery, and historical memory in the early republic?

– include an introduction and conclusion

– include relevant quotations/examples

-contains some errors

D papers will:

-Follow some of the instructions

F papers will:

-Fail to comply with assignment instructions

-Make a thesis statement (in the intro) that answers this question:

What is Spangler’s argument and what does this article tell us about race, slavery, and historical memory in the early republic?

–Support your thesis statement with answers to the following questions:

What primary sources does Spangler use?

According to Spangler, how are archives problematic?

What are/were the different depictions of Hunt’s story?

Why was/is Hunt remembered differently by different groups?

Look at the footnotes. How does Spangler engage with other historians?

How does this article depict the process of writing history?

Why do you think “facts” is in quotations on page 707?

–Include a short paragraph that sums up the main points of your essay