Part I:
Choose THREE (3) of the following pairs and define their meaning, explain their significance, and what connects them together. Be sure to provide dates where necessary. You can receive partial credit on these. (3 x 10 points = 30 points)
Law of Maternal Descent and Elizabeth Key
Gullah Culture and task system
Three-Fifths Compromise and Fugitive Slave Clause
Frederick Douglass and American Colonization Society
fictive kin and “Second Middle Passage”
Part II:
Choose one of the following essays. Please make sure you take the time to read the following questions carefully. In other words think before you write. A good answer will reference specific people, places, events, and ideas as well as explain change over time and why it happened. Your response should be 750 words. (40 points)
1. The institution of racial slavery developed in the North American colonies at different times and in different contexts in the 17 th and very early 18 th centuries. Write an essay in which you compare and contrast the evolution of racial slavery in TWO of the following locations. 1) Virginia/Chesapeake 2) South Carolina 3) the urban North. You should at the very least consider the following themes: important legislative and legal changes, the labor system and the type of crop grown if applicable, social relations between black and white, and the flexibility or lack of flexibility within the system given to enslaved people.
2. Write an essay in which you explain the tradition of African American opposition to the system of slavery and white supremacy from the American Revolution through the 1850s. You should explore both the extraordinary forms of resistance (as embodied in a celebrity figures like Frederick Douglass) and the everyday kinds of resistance as seen in the lives of lesser known people. What did this resistance look like, both practically (concrete actions) and ideologically (specific philosophies and beliefs)? How did it vary depending on region or status (enslaved people or free black people). Be as specific as possible.
Part III:
This section of the exam involves analyzing a primary document and thinking like a historian. You will find attached to this exam a chapter from a fictional book written in the 1850s by an African American woman who escaped from slavery in North Carolina. Although the book is fictional, it is thought to reflect some of her own experiences as an enslaved person, her eventual self-liberation, and re-settlement in the North. Given what you have learned in this class about the Abolitionist Movement and the kinds of arguments that celebrity abolitionist figures such as Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth made, explain how the author tries to convince her readers of the evils of slavery. Some questions to consider include: what themes or topics does she address? What kind of rhetorical techniques (use of language) does she use to appeal to her readers? Who do you suppose her audience is? What does this document tell us about the anti-slavery movement in general? Your response should be 500 words. (30 points)
