Book Response – The Half that’s never been told

History 310 Book Response/Analysis Assignment

Paper #2

• Your papers are to be typewritten and double spaced.

• Each question should be answered separately, not together. You may divide your paper accordingly and separate by question number.

• Please give attention to format and mechanical rules previously discussed in the syllabus. Feel free to cite your text when referencing a point, quote, etc. (pg.)

Answer the following questions in regards to your reading of The Half That Has Never Been Told: Please be specific as possible in your critique of this work.

1. The major argument of Baptist’s work is that slavery was in fact, a form of economic capitalism for the South. He further goes on in the introduction to discuss the ways in which peoples throughout history have often misinterpreted enslavement. (These can be found in the introduction on pages xx-xxi) Using these modes as a guide, which instance do you think is Baptist’s strongest argument that he makes throughout his book? Be specific in your response which should be no less than 2 full pages.

1. Baptist uses slave narratives as much as possible throughout his work. Each vignette that he has researched coincides with a period of historical study. He uses the narratives in the hopes that the readers will have a deeper connection with slavery, and the ways in which it impacted the body, mind, and spirit of those that were enslaved. Throughout the course of your reading of this work, select the personal narrative that impacted you the most and describe in detail how Baptist used this story to further his thesis about choosing to tell the narrative of the “Half that has Never Been Told.” This should be no less than 2 full pages.

Grading: Remember that the content part of the grade is to deal in all parts of the assignment with what are the major historical and economic policies/arguments as you see them. Support and substantiation are important. Use factual text reference to prove your assertions. Mechanics, style, structure, organization and content equally comprise your grade determination. Careless and sloppy work will cost you points.

Mechanical considerations/reminders:

a. Be conscious of paragraph structure.

b. Do not use contractions.

c. Do not use personal pronoun reference or first person.

d. Examine and be careful of introductions, topic sentences, transitional

sentences and conclusions.

e. Be conscious of endnote, parenthetical, and bibliographic

format/annotations.

f. Proofread for all mechanical, structural, and organizational errors.

(run-on sentences, comma splices, spelling, grammatical usage, and

punctuation)H