First Writing Assignment for AMH 2041

Students must write a research paper--using both primary and secondary sources--that deals with the
following debate on slavery and the Atlantic slave trade:

One of the major debates among historians about the Atlantic slave trade focuses on the issue of why
Europeans enslaved Africans during an extensive period spanning the mid- 15 th to the early 19th century.
In other words, was the motive for Europeans purely economical as historian Eric Williams argued in his
work, Capitalism and Slavery (1944) or was the motive based more on a cultural or ideological
explanation ( racism)? In the 1950s and 1960s, historians Carl Degler and Winthrop Jordan both
supported the contention that racism, and not economics, was at the root cause of the slave-trade.
More recently, In The Rise of African Slavery in America (2000), David Eltis posited that Europeans did
not enslave other Europeans (that would have been cheaper and easier) because of an underlying
commitment to individual rights. He further argues that Africans were seen as sufficiently different;
they were the “Other” –both physically and culturally and thus their enslavement could be rationalized.
Simply put, was European motivation for the slave trade more about Profits or Racism? Or is there
some other explanation?

Make sure you have a thesis (a general argument) and provide examples and details from credible
sources to support your answer.

• The First Draft (for Peer Review in class) is due on Friday, September 24. You must have a
completed hard copy of the writing assignment (not just an outline or a page or two) with citations and
a bibliography. The Final Draft is due on Wednesday, September 29. Before 11:59 pm September, 29th,
you will upload your final draft to turnitin.com (where it will be checked for plagiarism and graded). Late
papers will be penalized by one grade per class session.

• This paper is worth 20% of the course grade.

• The length of the paper should be 5-6 pages (approximately 1500-1700 words not including
citations).

• The paper must be typed in Times New Roman 12-point font and double-spaced.

• For background information refer to Chapter 3 and 12 in Henretta. You must provide at least 4
outside sources (besides the Equiano narrative and Henretta), one of which must be a primary source.

• All sources must be correctly cited using the Chicago Manual of Style. You must also provide a
separate Bibliography at the end of your paper. You should refer to
www.dianahacker.com/student.html . The Chicago style is clearly explained and a model paper (with
correct citations and bibliography) is provided as well.