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Essay Instructions: Amistad in 2 pages essay with the 3 sources:

Identify and explain the significance of the Amistad. Check out http://www.amistadamerica.org/ and possibly watch Stevn Speilberg’s film Amistad.


Identifications in 1 page:

Five of the following put in about one paragraph to a page, thoroughly identify each. Use your own words. Write in complete sentences. Explain each item as though you are trying to teach it to someone who never heard of it before. Include why the item is significant to American history.
1.The Louisiana Purchase
2.Marbury v. Madison
3.Embargo Act of 1807
4.William Henry Harrison
5.War Hawks

There are faxes for this order.

Essay Instructions: I would like my essay to be about the Amistad revolt. My professor suggested the following link to get information from regarding a primary source.

Check out this link: www.archives.gov/education/lessons/amistad/

Instructions for Primary Source Analysis Essay
For this assignment, you will locate a primary source that you are considering using for your final research paper. Keep in mind that primary sources can come in many forms. They can be maps, diaries, letters, memoirs, newspaper articles, government documents, posters, pamphlets, photographs, advertisements, paintings, films, novels, songs?just to name a few.
The purpose of this assignment is to work on how to analyze a primary source. Your goal is to analyze your source excerpt as deeply and as thoroughly as possible. Do not simply provide a general summary or overview of your source. Think concretely and critically about its content, its historical context, the historical cultural values that shape it, and its relevance to your research. What are the author?s tone, style, and argument? What are its strengths and weaknesses? Read between the lines to discover its biases and assumptions. Depending on the nature of the primary source you select, the source may be as short as a paragraph or two or as long as dozens of pages.
In structuring your Primary Source Analysis Essay, you must address the following questions. Do not simply list answers to the questions below. Rather, you must write your paper in essay form. It should have an introduction, several body paragraphs, and a conclusion. You do not need to address the questions in order, but be sure that you address all questions that are relevant to your source in your essay. Your essay must be a polished piece of writing. I will grade it for both content and style.
The essay should be a one to two page analysis of that source. All writing must be in 12-point, Times New Roman, double-spaced and follow the Chicago Style Manual.

Basic Identification
1. What type of source is it? (newspaper article, map, letter, film, etc.)
2. When was it created?
3. Where was it created?
4. Who created it?
Author?s Intent
1. What is the author?s place in society? (profession, status, class, gender, ethnicity, etc.)
2. How might the factors listed in the question above shape the author?s perspective in this source?
3. Why do you think the author created this source?
4. Does the author have an argument? If so, what is it?
5. Who is the intended audience for this source?
6. How might the intended audience shape the perspective of this source?
Historical Context
1. Under what specific historical circumstances was this source created?
2. What larger historical events, processes, or structures might have influenced this text?
3. Is this source consistent with what you know about the historical record from that time?
Content of the Source
1. What historical facts do you learn from this source?
2. What biases or other cultural factors might have shaped the message of this source?
3. How do the ideas and values in the source differ from the ideas and values of our time?
4. What historical perspectives are left out of this source?
5. What questions are left unanswered by this source?
Relevance of the Source
1. What research question are you using this source to answer?
2. How might this source confirm or contradict issues raised in secondary sources?
3. What does this source tell you about the history of everyday life during this particular time period?

Essay Instructions: The following questions should be answered in the form of an essay 1) Who are the major characters in the movie? 2) What would you identify as the major argument or lesson of the movie? 3)How did the Amistad case help lead to the American Civil War? 4) How might the U.S. developed differently without its involvement in the slave trade?

Essay Instructions: Film Analysis on "Amistad"
Part I
Write a paragraph explaining whether you think people in our society are prepared to recognize Cinque as a true hero of our history today and why.

Part II
As portrayed in "Amistad", Cinque and his companions preserve important differences even among themselves. As members of different ethnic groups, speaking different languages, they mark out separate territories in the prison yard, observe separate customs and maintain separate hierarchies within each group. To the Americans who pay for a glimpse at them, such differences are insignificant; they see only indistinguishable Africans. But to Cinque and the others, it is differences like these that make them who they are.

As a student, you have probably had some experience with preserving differences in an indifferent world. Among themselves, students easily recognize one another as members of different groups (or cliques), each with its special territory , customs, and internal hierarchy. Yet to those not in college, students often seem nearly identical.

Reflect on your experience with identity groups of this sort, positive or negative, and describe one such group here in Texas, listing some distinguishing characteristics. Then explain briefly the reasons why members of this group maintain a separate identity within the society of school and with the broader society. What do they get out of it? What disadvantages do they accept?

Part III
Somewhere in the new meaning of "Amistad" there is a belief that differences must be accepted and respected. This a lesson the character Theodore Joadson learns in the course of the story. By the end, he comes to realize that social equality and moral freedom depend on mutual respect for the differences that help define who we are. State two episodes in which Joadson gains new insight into himself and the true meaning of this cause and how it contributes to his character''s growth.

Part IV
Try to answer Roger Baldwin''s own question. Does he betray the cause of human rights by helping to enforce the law, or does he strengthen that cause by acting to uphold the American system of justice. Explain.

Part V
Reshaping history into drama is in some ways like writing history, which requires a scholar to select the most significant facts and emphasize the most important developments. Both historical drama and historical scholarship aim to portray the truth about our past, the one bringing the past to life, the other by tracing the many factors involved in its unfolding. After you have seen "Amistad", state whether or not you believe that this film has enhanced our knowledge of history? Did it aid the historian in making the legacy of our past accessible to us today? And is that important in our society and the state of relationships between groups?