solved Assignment Expectations: As part of your Research Project, the third
Assignment Expectations: As part of your Research Project, the third assignment requirement expects students to complete a Primary Source Analysis Assignment of TWO primary sources on your chosen topic. For this assignment, you will do a search for two (2) primary sources from an appropriate database that houses primary sources related to your topic (further details below). Once students select two primary sources, they should complete the appropriate Primary Source Analysis Worksheet. Finally, after reading and analyzing these two sources, students will write a 250-word Primary Source Analysis Narrative for each primary source. Once again, for each primary source, students will submit a Primary Source Analysis Worksheet and a 250-word Primary Source Analysis Narrative. Keep reading to find out more about where to find sources for this assignment and what your analysis should include. As always, if you have questions, please feel free to reach out to your instructor.
But First, What Exactly is a Primary Source? Primary Sources are original records of the political, economic, artistic, scientific, social and intellectual thoughts and achievements of specific historical periods. They are produced by the people who participated in and witnessed the past. Primary sources offer a variety of points of view and perspectives of events, issues, people and places. These original sources were used or created by someone with firsthand experience of an event and these records can be found anywhere – i.e. at home or in government archives. Moving forward, if you still have questions about primary sources, please email me with questions. If you prefer further verification, please feel free to email me the sources that you plan to use.
National Archives: Primary Source Analysis Worksheets – The National Archives has created analysis worksheets to help you work with primary sources. Copies of these worksheets are provided as attachments in the Primary Source Analysis assignment. The worksheets consist of a combination of checklists and short-answer questions that will help you focus on the most important elements of many different types of historical documents. You will need the worksheets to complete the Primary Source Analysis assignment
Where can you find Primary Sources? Where should students look for primary sources?? Well, the UMGC LIBRARY, of course!! Why, you ask? Well, the UMGC library subscribes to many databases that contain such resources and are available to you in full-text and electronic format. Additionally, students can find sources through the Library of Congress, National Archives or University Libraries and Archives.
Topic Selection and Thesis Statement
Indentured servitude (a form of contractual labor in which a person works without salary for a set period) was an important and under-explored aspect of US history. It was very popular in the 1600s and 1700s as a labor source for wealthy British settlers in Northern America who used it as the major source of labor for the growth of rice, tobacco, and indigo (Donoghue, 2013). There were many incentives for both the indentured servant and the master for the practice, albeit before the Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676 that resulted in a shift from indentured servitude to slave labor. As such, the purpose of selecting this topic is to explore the rise in popularity of indentured servitude before 1676, the rights and incentives of the same to the indentured servant benefits to the master, why indentured servitude experienced a decline from 1676, and the overall contribution of the practice to colonial America (Donoghue, 2013).
Working Thesis: Indentured servitude was used by wealthy British autocrats before 1676 to attract much-needed labor to the Americas and as a means of gaining larger swaths of land through legal provisions like the Headright system. However, very few indentured servants received their freedom dues as per contracts, dissent from dissatisfied servants, and the costs of maintaining indentured servants inspired a shift in labor practices in favor of slavery that formed the focal point America’s history.