I need help writing this paper for Texas History. All of the guidelines are in the attached file.

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PAPER ONE ASSIGNMENT Due in class on October 20

OVERVIEW: For this assignment, you will read Texas newspapers from the 1850s to find out how Anglo- Texans described and defended slavery during the years that led to the Civil War. You will then decide whether those descriptions match how Randolph Campbell describes slavery in his book, An Empire for Slavery. Your overall task is to write a five-page paper that takes a clear position on the following question: How did Anglo-Texans describe slavery in the newspapers during the 1850s, and does that match how Campbell describes slavery in his book? LET’S GET SPECIFIC: First, read the book: To get started, you’ll need to read Campbell’s book so you can understand how slavery operated on Texas farms and plantations during the era. Campbell describes the expansion of the institution within the state, its economic and legal foundations, and – in chapters 6-9 – the experience of slavery on the ground. Read the book carefully so you can understand slavery’s numerous dimensions within Texas. Second, read the Texas newspapers: Next, you’ll need to dive into Texas newspapers from the 1850s in order to find out what they said about slavery, and whether that matches what Campbell says in his book. Texas slaveholders during this era felt increasingly defensive about the institution, and so they began articulating loudly why they believed slavery was important to preserve. All of your research here will be done online in UNT’s Portal to Texas History (http://texashistory.unt.edu/), which offers access to more than seven million pages of historical Texas newspapers. GRADING: You will need to make your argument clear in a thesis statement made in your introduction paragraph and then articulate that argument using evidence from the Texas newspapers and Campbell’s book. You will not be graded on the “correctness” of your answer. Rather, you will be graded on the clarity of your argument, the effectiveness of your use of evidence, the logical progression of your argument, and the quality of your writing. You will turn in TWO copies of your paper:

1. A paper copy in class. 2. An electronic copy to the anti-plagiarism site, TurnItIn, through our class

Blackboard (learn.unt.edu). We will be able to grade your hard copy once it has been matched to the electronic copy on TurnItIn.

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PLEASE NOTE:

• Your argument has to be built primarily on evidence from the newspapers, which you will then contextualize using Campbell’s book.

• You will need to find at least five newspaper articles in order to make your case, although we highly recommend finding more (the more evidence you have, the stronger your case can be).

• Your paper must have a clear thesis statement made at the end of your introduction paragraph. Here is an example of what your thesis statement for this paper might look like:

o “Texas newspapers during the 1850s described slavery as [tell us the main ways they described it], which [does/does not] match Randolph Campbell’s descriptions in An Empire for Slavery because [here you would briefly explain how they did or did not match].”

• If you have ANY questions about what a thesis statement is, please see Kylie or myself as soon as possible.

CITATIONS:

• Newspapers: In making your argument, you will need to cite evidence from the Texas newspapers. Use footnotes, in this general format:

o Newspaper Title, “Article title,” Date, Page #. o So, for example, you might have a footnote that looks like this.1

• Campbell’s book: You’ll also need to cite material from Campbell’s book. In this case also use footnotes in this general format:

o Campbell, An Empire for Slavery, p. #. o So it should look like this.2

SOME GENERAL NOTES AND SUGGESTIONS FOR YOU:

• WRITE ROUGH DRAFTS! You are strongly encouraged to write your paper well ahead of the deadline in order to allow time for revisions and rewriting. Good writing is always a product of rewriting. Kylie and I will be happy to read rough drafts and talk about ideas if you bring them to us well ahead of the deadline.

• RESEARCH TAKES TIME – SO GIVE YOURSELF TIME! As hard as it is, give yourself the time necessary to do the research and to write and rewrite your ideas. Doing historical research takes waaaay more time than you might imagine! So do yourself a huge favor, and give yourself the space needed to do that work without the undue stress of scrambling at the last minute.

1 Telegraph and Texas Register, “For the Good of Texas,” November 22, 1857, p. 2. 2 Campbell, An Empire for Slavery, p. 123.

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FREE POINTS!

• As a reward for those who do rough drafts, we will award FIVE extra points (half a letter grade!) to the final paper grade of any student who submits one or more rough drafts of their introduction and thesis statement before the end of class on October 6.

• That will allow us enough time to provide you with useful feedback on your introduction and thesis as you revise toward the completed paper.

HOW TO ACCESS THE 1850s TEXAS NEWSPAPERS:

• Go to the Portal to Texas History (http://texashistory.unt.edu/).

• Make your way to the “Advanced Search” page one of two ways: 1. Scroll down the main page to the green “Search” box. Click the arrow next to

the green “Search” box and then select “Advanced Search.” 2. Simply go to this URL: https://texashistory.unt.edu/search/advanced_search/

• Within the “Advance Search” page, scroll down to the section “Use Smart Filters” and under “Resource Type” select “Newspaper,” which allows you to limit your searches to the Texas newspapers.

• Then go up to the section that says “Date Range” and put in a start year (such as “1852”) and an end year (such as “1856”) to limit your search to a particular set of years.

o You could designate the entire decade (“1850” to “1859”) but for ease of research, I recommend starting with smaller ranges. You might, for example, simply begin with 1850 to 1852, and then proceed in two-year intervals.

o You might also consider looking during periods that are more likely to have discussions of slavery – so, for example, in the aftermath of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, during the presidential election of 1856, following John Brown’s raid in October 1859, and so on.

• Once you have your date range, then go to the section of the search page that says “Search the Content of Items,” which has a box next to “Inside Pages:”

o This is where can put in the keyword or term you would like to search for across the newspapers. Enter a term and then click the “Search” box on the right!

• IMPORTANT TIP: You will need to experiment with using different words and terms in your searches. People during the nineteenth century often did not use the same language that you or I would use today. So, for example, you will not find “African- American” used in these newspapers, as that was not a term in use back then.

o We recommend, instead, using variations of words that Campbell points toward in his book as common in discussions of slavery during that era. So, for example, “slave,” “slaves,” “negro,” “negroes,” and various misspellings of those will get you started. Other terms will be less familiar to modern ears, but were far more common back then, such as “bondsmen,” “runaway,” “peculiar institution,” and others identified in Campbell’s book.