History 104 /Cappello Primary Source Analysis

History 104/Cappello Primary Source AnalysisIncluded in this packet are three primary source documents drawn from the historical periods covered in theGive Me Liberty readings and the course lectures. Your job is to provide an independent analysis of one of thesedocuments, in essay format, using only the textbook and class lectures as points of reference. These assignments(there will be three over the course of the semester) are designed to develop analytical skills and help studentsbetter understand how historians engage with those things left from the past. Again, this is not a research paper.No outside sources are to be used. That includes the internet.Your final essay should be approximately 800 words and address much the below criteria. Because everysource is different and the act of writing is always somewhat organic, some of the topics below will be moreapplicable to your particular source than others, and some may not even be relevant at all. Think analytically todetermine which among them speak to the heart of your source, then incorporate them into your essay:Context — What historical situation produced this source? What kind of source is it? Who produced it? When?Why? Do these factors indicate that the source may be biased? If so, what is that bias?This section should be very concise (no more than 3-4 sentences at the start and then dive right in to the contentanalysis). With such a short essay, you should avoid a long introduction at all costs.Content I (The Elements of Argument) — What is the major point or meaning of the source in its context (thiscan differ significantly from what the primary source may appear to mean to the modern observer)? Is the sourcemaking an argument? What is the nature of that argument? Who or what is it trying to persuade? Describe theauthor’s tone. Does the tone shift at any point in the document? Is it more an observation than an argument? Ifso, what is it observing? How is the argument structured? How does it develop? Content I and Content II shouldtake up the majority of your essay.Content II (Language, Rhetoric, and Structure) — How is the argument or observation being constructed bythe author? Does the author seem to be a good writer/speaker – how so? Does the language display bias of anysort or ignore certain facts? What does the kind of language being employed tell you – does the author use slangor speak “properly” or both? Is the author relatable? Does the author use imagery? Is the imagery effective?Content I and Content II should take up the majority of your essay.Historical Significance — Perhaps the most important factor, why is this source historically significant? To putit another way, what does this source show us about the past? In most cases, this section belongs at the end ofyour essay.CRUCIAL: In no-way-shape-or-form am I looking for a document summary. I have already read these sources,so write like you know I have read them. Summary should only appear in standalone form when addressing thecontext aspect, and even then just sparingly. Any other incidents of summary must be weaved with largeranalytical points concerning content. Also, all arguments need to be supported with direct textual evidence (thatmeans you must incorporate quotes into your arguments).The assignment is due March 14th at the beginning of class, and must be submitted as a hard copy AND viaemail. One without the other counts as a non-submission. No late submissions will be accepted, as per thesyllabus.Those students who would like feedback on drafts should contact me for an appointment by March 2nd. I amavailable during office hours to address any issues. When in doubt, either make an appointment, consult yournotes from the analyses we’ve done in class, or examine the sample analysis posted on the course website.SOURCE IBlack and white sugar workers in Louisiana began organizing with the Knights of Labor in 1886. Several strikeswere broken by violence and the use of imported strike breakers. In 1887, ten thousand workers, most of them black,walked off the sugar plantations when the planters refused to meet their demands for wages of $1.25 a day. Thegovernor called out the militia, angry at the sight of black and white workers on strike together. He said: “GodAlmighty has himself drawn the color line.” Militia men killed four blacks. The black settlement at Thibodaux wasthen attacked by militia, and at least twenty people were killed. Two strike leaders were arrested, then lynched. Whatfollows is a report on the strike from an African-American newspaper in Louisiana.“Red-Handed Murder: Negroes Wantonly Killed at Thibodaux, La.” Anonymous (November 26,1887)Murder, foul murder has been committed and the victims were inoffensive and law-abiding Negroes.Assassins more cruel, more desperate, more wanton than any who had hitherto practiced theirnefarious business in Louisiana have been shooting down, like so many cattle, the Negroes in andaround Thibodaux, Lafourthe parish, La.For three weeks past the public has been regaled, daily, with garbled reports of the troubles existingbetween the laborers and planters in the sugar district. Strange to say not one of these reports,excepting two, exculpated the Negroes from any desire, or any intention so far as their actions couldbe judged, of resorting to violence and bloodshed in order to secure the just and equable demandmade by them for an increase of wages. Militia from different portions of the State have been onduty in the threatened section, and during all of this time the only acts and crimes of an outrageouscharacter committed were so committed by either the troops, sugar planters or those in their hire.The Negroes during all of the time behaving peaceably, quietly and within the limits of the law,desiring only to secure what they asked and demanding what they had and have a perfect right todo— an increase of wages.The planters refused to accede to their requests and at the same time ordered them from theplantations. At this juncture, and especially was it the case at both Thibodaux and Houma, theKnights of Labor, to which organization most of the laborers belong, hired all the empty houses inthe above towns they could, and there quartered the homeless blacks. Such unexpected actionmaddened the planters and their followers, (some excepted) and as a [con]sequence they resorted toarms and every other devilish device which the ingenuity of a few chosen spirits could devise inorder to force the Negroes to work for the wages offered.With an obstinacy worthy of the righteousness of their cause the Negroes quartered in Thibodauxrefused to accede to the planters.Such being the case, the planters determined to kill a number of them, thus endeavoring to force thebalance into submission. The militia was withdrawn to better accomplish this purpose, and nosooner had they departed for home than the preparation for the killing of the Negroes began. LastSunday night, about 11 o’clock, plantation wagons containing strange men fully armed were driveninto Thibodaux and to Frost’s restaurant and hotel and there the strangers were quartered. Who theywere and where they came from, no one, with me exception of the planters and Judge TaylorBeattie, seemed to know; but it is a fact that next day, Monday, [martial] law was declared and thesecavalcades of armed men put on patrol duty and no Negro allowed to either leave or enter the townwithout shooters, insolent and overbearing toward the Negroes, doing all in their power to provokea disturbance…. Finding that the Negroes could not be provoked from their usual quiet, it wasresolved that some pretext or other should be given so that a massacre might ensue.It came: Tuesday night the patrol shot two of their number, Gorman and Molaison, and the crywent forth “to arms, to arms! the Negroes are killing the whites!” This wa