Due 11-16-09 via WebCT

Question  1

• Brazil imported roughly 4 million captive Africans from the early 1500s to the 1850s.
• For many working on the sugar plantations of the NE coast, life expectancy was less than 10 years.
• Yet Chica da Silva, born a slave in the 1730s, died a wealthy and free woman in 1796. What factors made this possible?  [be specific!]
• What does her admittedly exceptional story reveal about colonial Brazil?

OR

Question 2

• Since 1868 and especially since 1973 (p11-12) the name Chica [Xica] da Silva represented at least two appealing myths in Brazilian history. What were those myths?
• What aspects were false, according to Furtado?
• Are there any aspects of those myths that might be considered true, based on what we know of Chica from the Furtado biography? [be specific]

It’s also a good idea to get out of the habit of putting blanks in a file name. On the web those blanks turn into “%20″ as in “Garrigus%20Mann”. Confusing!

So let’s use this easy file-naming protocol for papers from here on out: “YourLastName_LastNameOfAuthor”. Example: “Brown_Mann.doc” That’ll help me keep track of your work. WebCT puts each of your papers in a separate directory named with your initials, and then zips the whole thing for me to download. You’ll save me a few minutes if you can name your files this way!

The essay should be about 5pages [1,500 words] long, though if you have more to say, take more space! It should have all the elements I’ve been stressing throughout the semester — thesis in the first paragraph, good title that reflects the thesis, evidence that supports the thesis, etc. It should also  answer the question “how does this change our conception of colonial Latin America.”

The main assigned question, however, is the same one we have been asking ourselves about primary documents all semester long: “What does this tell us about colonial Latin America?” You may want to write about “patriarchy,” hegemony and the role of women (see the Chasteen book if you’re not sure what I mean here) , you may want to write about violence, about the Church, about honor, or about the role of indigenous people in the story.

Get out the syllabus and look at the grid marked “major assignments” The final paper on Erauso is worth 13% of the total semester grade. So to calculate what you would have if you removed that from your grade, figure that all your grades will add up to 87% instead of 100%.

Put the grades you received in each of the boxes next to the percentage weight for that assignment. You should have numbers for everything but the Erauso and presentation projects. For class participation, average the two numbers that I’ve already reported (I will assign one more CP grade but it will average in with the other two).

Now multiply across for each assignment. If you got “87″ on the Mann paper, multiply 87 by 12% and you get 10.44. Do this for all of the grades and total the result. You might want to “guesstimate” your grade for the presentation and make this part of the calculation.

If you did the Erauso paper, we would divide this sum by 100% which, of course, gives you the same number. Since you want to see what your grade would look like without the Erauso paper, divide the sum by 87% [say, for example, 77 divided by .87; that would give you 88.5 which is a high "B"]

You’ll notice that with 77 on the 100% scale, you’re only 13 points away from a 90, which would be an “A”. What would you have to score on the Erauso paper to get those 13 points? bring your total up to a 90? Well 13 points divided by 13% [the weight of the Erauso assignment] equals 100 points. So you would need to do very well on the Erauso paper to get an A.

Keep in mind, however, that your grade on the Erauso paper might well be the highest you get all semester.

1. You have more time than on nearly any other paper. It isn’t due until May 5.
2. You have more feedback from me about your strengths and weaknesses and my expectations than at any other time in the semester. A lot of you have really improved your work and with focus this improvement could continue.
3. The Erauso book is brief and very interesting! And it fits into many of the themes of the course that we’ve been talking and writing about since January.

So i would encourage you to do the paper! But the choice is yours.

In A Perfect Red Amy Butler Greenfield tells the story of the trade in cochineal, which she describes as one of “Empire, Espionage, and the Quest for the Color of Desire.” One way of thinking about this book is that Greenfield has written a global history around this product of Latin American biology and culture.

For our third take home exam, I’d like you to answer the question “What role did colonial Latin America play in world history” using A Perfect Red and class lectures as your sources. Your essay should be about 1,500 words long, and it should address the following issues: How did Latin America affect the global economy? How did Latin America affect European science? How did Latin America affect world cultures?  How did Spain shape Latin America’s impact on the rest of the world? What aspects of Latin America (its indigenous culture, natural resources, imperial domination, location) affected the outside world?

Don’t forget to put in the grading grid from exam 2 so I can see your amazing improvements!

Sorry your tests are taking so long. I just have two more to do, and I’ll have them back to you about lunch time on Monday.

Three other reminders:

1. Cut and past the ‘grading grid” from your first test into this one, please. While you’re doing that, review my comments and think about how you can address them on this test. I’m grading you on improvement!

2. Don’t forget that in your test essay on question #2 you also need to address the question “How does Restall’s ‘myth-busting’ ideas reshape our vision of the history of colonial Latin America?”

3. The test is due by 5pm Wednesday May 12. Upload your file to your mavspace account and send me the link. Then, be sure to come to class on Wednesday!

Announcements:

1. Our next class (Wed. 3/5) will be all on WebCT. i’ll post a couple of webcasts instead of having class. We’ll continue with our regular schedule next Monday.

2. Speaking of Monday, that’s when we’ll pick which of the four test questions you need to write about. The test is due on the following Wednesday! You should be reviewing your class notes and thinking about all four questions.

3. We had our first discussion of the Boyer and Spurling book, Colonial Lives. Be sure to bring it to class with you from now on! We’re working on interpreting these primary sources for your paper on this book.

4. The Boyer and Spurling paper is due on Wed. March 30. It’s a five page paper in which you analyze one of the documents  in the collection and explain what it tells us about colonial Latin America. This is why we’re discussing the book in class — so you can get better and better at interpreting these documents.