Instructions for the Introductory Comparison

Please ask if you have any questions.
Reminder: there are videos to answer different kinds of questions in the Good Habits for Evidence folder in Getting Started, including how to use endnotes.

Before You Start to Read and Write, Be Sure You Are Going in the Right Direction. 1

2 Possible Topics to Compare, What Textbook Pages to Use, and What Other Sources Do You Use. 2

These are the links available from these Instructions. 4

What Is a Comparison in This History Class?. 4

A Simple Method of Citing You May Use in This Course. 4

Data to Help Observe Change in the Numbers of Africans – Don’t Deceive Yourself. 5

The 5 Ws Brain Trick and a Link to 9 Steps to Successful Reading FOR Evidence and Writing WITH Evidence. 5

If You Want to Try the 5 Ws Brain Trick with Either of the Two Possible Comparison Topics. 5

 

Before You Start to Read and Write, Be Sure You Are Going in the Right Direction

1

Examine how your instructor will grade this writing assignment.

Click here for the rubric used to grade this writing. (This opens in a New Window.) Notice that whether you follow all of the 5 Good Habits for Evidence determines your grade on the content and that if you don’t follow all of them, you do not earn any of the points for the Good Habits for Evidence part of this assignment.

2

This is a comparison for a history class. Don’t assume a prior comparison for an English class is what is needed since the goal is reading and writing that help you learn history.

Click here for what does your history teacher means by the word comparison. (This link stays on this webpage.)

3

Is there a required, preformatted file that I must write in for this written assignment?
Yes. It is in this folder.

Tips:

·         Do not add anything to the file that is not in the file.

·         Each comparison has its own file that you must use. It has pre-set margins (with the left one being wider because I write there in my feedback to you) and pre-set font and font size.

4

Shouldn’t I type my name on my paper?
No.

·         From Turnitin, your instructor can tell who wrote the paper without your name.

·         With your name, other students who know you wrote the assignment when they do the Peer Review assignment.

5

Do I have to cite a page number for each fact and quotation?
Yes.

 

Disciplines vary, but history requires citations for both:

·         A quotation

·         A fact - You may not make statements of fact without a citation to a specific page from the required pages. (Don’t assume your version of common knowledge matches the textbook.)

 

Click here for the simple system you can use to cite any of the listed types of sources that you want to use with these written assignments in Turnitin. (This link stays on this webpage.)

6

Do I have to use endnotes for citation?
Yes, endnotes only. Your endnotes will then be after the last word in your paper.

Tips:  There is a video at Good Habits for Evidence that covers these basics. Endnotes are done with software automatically:

1.       By placing your cursor immediately after the fact you want to cite

2.       By clicking—if you are using Microsoft Word—References and then on Insert Endnote

3.       By typing whatever your instructor requires.

7

If I’m not a great thinking about history, are there any thinking tips?
Yes. For some people (for your instructor for example), it was a turning point when my 4th grade teacher told us about the 5 Ws, the basic things every good investigative reporter observes.

Click here for tips about the 5 Ws including a link to 9 Steps to Successful Reading FOR Evidence and Writing WITH Evidence (This link stays on this webpage.)

If you want to try the 5 Ws—highly recommended—and include it in your file, click here for one you can fill in for each of the two possible topics. (This link stays on this webpage.)

8

What’s the maximum length? 330 words for your writing, but the endnotes may continue to the next page.

If you include the 5 Ws chart, follow the directions in the file and place the chart on the first page and your writing itself on the second page. If endnotes continue to the next page that is fine.

 

2 Possible Topics to Compare, What Textbook Pages to Use, and What Other Sources Do You Use

1

You may compare either of these two groups in the South:

·         Topic: Compare African people in servitude from 1620s to about 1660 with their condition after 1660 and into the 1700s.

·         Topic: Compare English people in servitude from 1620s to about 1660s with their condition from the 1660s through Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676 and into the 1700s.

 

Cautions:

·         The South includes Maryland and Virginia (the first settled and therefore the area setting precedents). For example, the reference on page 91 to what happens in the 1660s with the colonial legislatures is in Virginia and Maryland. (See the primary source on these “slave codes.”) You can also use facts about other Southern colonies. You may not however use facts about New York for example. (To be sure you have the colonies and the sections straight, use the map quiz and its resources.)

·         These topics do not deal with enslavement of Native Americans, but they were enslaved by the Spanish and the English and each other. The topics also do not deal with African slavery in Africa which was different than the slavery that developed in the South. Among differences, African owned by Africans lived with the people who captured them. Native Americans, Africans, and Europeans turned captives (what today we might call Prisoners of War) into slaves.

2

This table shows you where to find information throughout the textbook on these topics and to see the additional resources. (This opens in a New Window.) The table provides space for you to write so you can quickly record what you find. Tip: Click here for details that may help you observe how few Africans were here in the early periods and when the quantities of Africans increased.

3

In Chapter 2 in Figuring It Out (Learning is More Than Memorizing), 2 pages from the textbook authors:

·         About the earlier period for Africans, Essential Edition Page 91 (Chapter 3) with Highlighted Content on African indentured servants in the period before 1660 (Essentials-Page 91-Highlighted)

·         About the later period for both Africans and the English, Tindall and Shi 9th Edition on How Bacon’s Rebellion Caused a Shift from Planters’ Paying for Indentured Servants to  Enslaving Africans (9th Edition-Page 40)

4

In Chapter 2 in Primary Documents from this Era

The Definitions for servitude—including the meaning of indentured servants (initially both African and English) and the word slaves

The required primary source about both African and English people is:

·         About the later period, 1660 to 1732 Laws about Slaves and Indentured Servants  (Laws-Servitude)

The additional required primary sources for English people are:

·         About the earlier period, 1627 -The contract for an indentured servant who was to receive 50 acres at the end of service (50 Acre-Indenture)

·         About the later period, 1676 Bacon’s Rebellion: The Declaration (Bacon-Declaration)

5

In Chapter 2 in Figuring It Out (Learning is More Than Memorizing) and the folder History is real - These people could be you, this video:

·         About both Africans and the English, The Changing Chesapeake: What happened to Anthony Johnson and to Bacon’s Rebellion

6

After you have thought about these things, create a 5 Ws chart to compare what you observe.

7

Work in a consistent way. For some of you this link will help: click here for 9 Steps to Successful Reading FOR Evidence and Writing WITH Evidence

8

When Beginning to Submit becomes available on the date in the Course Schedule, go submit your file. Use Turnitin’s feedback to correct errors and strengthen your analysis.

 

 

These are the links available from these Instructions

What Is a Comparison in This History Class?

Sometimes it is clearest start with what a comparison is not. A comparison in this class is:

 

This is a history class and the goal to help you learn history. One of the hardest things for students to understand about history is that it what was true at the beginning of a time period can be amazingly different at the end of it—sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. History changes! If it didn’t, humans could never have a consequence on the present and future. What makes history change is something worth noticing if you want to survive your present and, perhaps what is more important, if you want to try to maintain what is good in your present.

 

What do you do when you write a comparison for this history class? You:

1.     Choose one of the listed topics asking you to compare 2 things.

2.     Read exactly the required pages in the textbook for that topic.

3.     Read or watch everything required.

4.     Work until you figure it out stand it well enough that you can identify 3 to 5 facts that you can compare about the things so that you could teach another person what changed and why.

 

A Simple Method of Citing You May Use in This Course

In this course, when using a quotation or a fact, your endnote states a specific page from the required textbook (or primaries or other documents listed as resources to use for the topic you chose. If a primary source has no page numbers, click on File and the Print Preview to get an estimate of the page you want to cite.

What You Want to Cite

Example of What You Want to Cite

Example of What You Place in the Endnote

A page from one of the required primary sources that has a phrase at the end in parenthesis

To cite the primary 1660 to 1732 Laws about Slaves and Indentured Servants  (Laws-Servitude)

Laws-Servitude, p. 1

A page from our textbook

To cite page 42 from our textbook for a fact

Essentials, p. 42

A specific definition from one of the resources provided

Definition servitude slavery indentured servant vassal subject and Related Terms

Definition-indentured servant

A video listed as a source for the topic

To cite a video, cite its full name

Caution: Observe carefully. If you say something I cannot recognize, I will ask for the specific location of what you say.

 The Changing Chesapeake: What happened to Anthony Johnson and to Bacon’s Rebellion

Copy of a page from Tindall and Shi listed as a source for the topic

To cite Tindall and Shi 9th Edition on How Bacon’s Rebellion Caused a Shift from Planters’ Paying for Indentured Servants to  Enslaving Africans (9th Edition-Page 40)

9th Edition-Page 40

Data to help observer changes in number of Africans

To cite the 99.98% being white laborers in 1625 that I provide from Ayers (the prior textbook used by the History Department)

Ayers, American Passages, page 35 cited in the Instructions for the Introductory Comparison

 

Data to Help Observe Change in the Numbers of Africans – Don’t Deceive Yourself

I have not yet found this issue covered in the Essentials edition, so—if you see these types of facts—please email me.

In our prior textbook American Passages:

·         In 1625, 99.98% of the population in the Chesapeake (Virginia, where this starts, and Maryland) is white and only .019% African. In other words, the laborers are primarily white.[i]

·         In 1660, 96% of the population in the Chesapeake is white and only 4% African. In other words, the laborers are primarily white.[ii]

·         In the 1720s, 80% of the population in the Chesapeake is white and only 20% African. In other words, the laborers are primarily white.[iii]

·         Between 1720 and the American Revolution, the shift in population occurs not just from natural increase (Africans having children), but because slave traders bring in over 200,000 Africans.[iv] In other words, there is larger market for slave labor.

The 5 Ws Brain Trick and a Link to 9 Steps to Successful Reading FOR Evidence and Writing WITH Evidence

To help yourself observe something that is real, use the reporter’s brain trick of the 5 Ws. Make sure you observe fairly and consistently each of these:

·         Who?

·         What?

·         When?

·         Where?

·         Why?

·         And sometimes How?

To help yourself observe two things that are real especially in two different time periods, put the information side by side. You can do this with a piece of notebook paper and 2 vertical lines to divide the sheet in 3 parts to create a quick version of the typed ones below. You read the information you have and you write a brief reminder (1-3 words at most) that helps you think about each of the answers. Make sure you also write the page number so you can find the fact again if you memory fails on what that reminder meant.

Now that you have laid out what you know, stare at it a while. You will be surprised at what you can discover. If you want more on this method, click here for 9 Steps to Successful Reading FOR Evidence and Writing WITH Evidence

If You Want to Try the 5 Ws Brain Trick with Either of the Two Possible Comparison Topics

If you want to try it, follow the 9 Steps to Successful Reading FOR Evidence and Writing WITH Evidence. Copy your completed table into your file where it says to place it.

Topic: Compare African people in servitude in the South from 1620s to about 1660 with their condition after 1660 and into the 1700s

Trait

African people in servitude in the South from 1620s to about 1660

African people in servitude in the South after 1660 and into the 1700s

Who?

Write your reminder and page #

Write your reminder and page #

What?

Write your reminder and page #

Write your reminder and page #

When?

Write your reminder and page #

Write your reminder and page #

Where?

Write your reminder and page #

Write your reminder and page #

Why?

Write your reminder and page #

Write your reminder and page #

and sometimes How?

Write your reminder and page #

Write your reminder and page #



Topic: Compare English people in servitude in the South from 1620s to about 1660s with their condition from the 1660s through Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676 and into the 1700s.

Trait

English people in servitude in the South from 1620s to about 1660

English people in servitude in the South from the 1660s through Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676 and into the 1700s.

Who?

Write your reminder and page #

Write your reminder and page #

What?

Write your reminder and page #

Write your reminder and page #

When?

Write your reminder and page #

Write your reminder and page #

Where?

Write your reminder and page #

Write your reminder and page #

Why?

Write your reminder and page #

Write your reminder and page #

and sometimes How?

Write your reminder and page #

Write your reminder and page #

 

 

 



[i] Ayers, American Passages, Page 35.

[ii] Ayers, American Passages, Page 73. (For the percentage, the data on page 73 is used with data on 35.)

[iii] Ayers, American Passages, Page 73.

[iv] Ayers, American Passages, Page 96.