Students will be expected to keep an extensive, progressive journal throughout the semester. Student journals will be based on primary source readings and specific assignments based on class discussion. Topics and specific assignments for these analytical papers will vary each time the course is taught. Despite the efforts of slave owners to regulate all their activities, the slaves lived in a world that was influenced but by no means totally controlled by the slaveholders regime. Therefore, to enable learning to occur, students must start withwhat they know, admit ignorance about what they do not know, identify interests growing out of that ignorance, then ask questions and seek to establish connections, building on current knowledge to achieve a new level of understanding.
Good writing is critical both for survival in today s society and for historical study.
The written assignments for the course are aimed at improving writing skills as well as developing an understanding of the specific topic. This course will serve in conjunction with another proposed course, History 331, African American history from 1865 to the present to provide students with a well rounded, in-depth look into the African American experience. Each course, in of itself, will broaden the breadth of the offerings of the History Department.