A rough guideline for the assignment is that it should be 1-3 pages, single-spaced. While it can be a little shorter or longer, you will be penalized for going much over this, as the TAs have a limited amount of time to grade. Try to be concise: and organized. A good trick is to make, for yourself, outline of what you need to say before you write the text.  Another is to think what the authors’ main point is, or the important information from the text, and what is only details. To get full credit and a good grade, the assignment must be clear, well-written and show knowledge of all the readings. You are not required to use strict citation format, but you should always mention the name of the author where you are taking ideas or information from, and if you copy word for word what others have said, you should put it in quotes to avoid plagiarism (better yet, write things in your own words!)

Based on Douglass’ narrative and on Terraciano’s chapter for week 4, compare and contrast slavery in the United States with the systems of forced labor that Indigenous people in the colonial Spanish America were subjected to (you can also use information from the lecture, in addition to the readings, and talk about slavery in the Americas beyond the United States). How were these systems organized to extract labor from Indigenous peoples in Spanish America, and from African American slaves? What were the differences and similarities in how they experienced different aspects of their life (work, family, community, religion, etc)?

Terraciano, Kevin. 2008. “Indigenous peoples in Colonial Spanish American Society.”Links to an external site. Chapter 8, Pp. 124-146 in: A Companion to Latin American History

=> Type 134 in page navigation to view Ch.8 immediately. Links to an external site.

Douglass, Fredrick. Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass, and American Slave Written by Himself.Links to an external site.

=> Please note: here, I want you to read the actual narrative written by Douglass, starting on page 23. The rest is commentary by other people, and is not required reading for this class. You can skip straight to Douglass’s narrative if you click on the three bars link on the top left corner of the page, which will open a table of contents, and you can just click on “The Narrative.” Note that it is somewhat long but easy to read (emotionally difficult though, given the subject matter)