History 104 /Cappello Primary Source Analysis

History 104/Cappello Primary Source Analysis

Included in this packet are three primary source documents drawn from the historical periods covered in the
Give Me Liberty readings and the course lectures. Your job is to provide an independent analysis of one of these
documents, in essay format, using only the textbook and class lectures as points of reference. These assignments
(there will be three over the course of the semester) are designed to develop analytical skills and help students
better understand how historians engage with those things left from the past. Again, this is not a research paper.
No outside sources are to be used. That includes the internet.
Your final essay should be approximately 800 words and address much the below criteria. Because every
source is different and the act of writing is always somewhat organic, some of the topics below will be more
applicable to your particular source than others, and some may not even be relevant at all. Think analytically to
determine which among them speak to the heart of your source, then incorporate them into your essay:
Context — What historical situation produced this source? What kind of source is it? Who produced it? When?
Why? Do these factors indicate that the source may be biased? If so, what is that bias?
This section should be very concise (no more than 3-4 sentences at the start and then dive right in to the content
analysis). With such a short essay, you should avoid a long introduction at all costs.
Content I (The Elements of Argument) — What is the major point or meaning of the source in its context (this
can differ significantly from what the primary source may appear to mean to the modern observer)? Is the source
making an argument? What is the nature of that argument? Who or what is it trying to persuade? Describe the
author’s tone. Does the tone shift at any point in the document? Is it more an observation than an argument? If
so, what is it observing? How is the argument structured? How does it develop? Content I and Content II should
take up the majority of your essay.
Content II (Language, Rhetoric, and Structure) — How is the argument or observation being constructed by
the author? Does the author seem to be a good writer/speaker – how so? Does the language display bias of any
sort or ignore certain facts? What does the kind of language being employed tell you – does the author use slang
or speak “properly” or both? Is the author relatable? Does the author use imagery? Is the imagery effective?
Content I and Content II should take up the majority of your essay.
Historical Significance — Perhaps the most important factor, why is this source historically significant? To put
it another way, what does this source show us about the past? In most cases, this section belongs at the end of
your essay.
CRUCIAL: In no-way-shape-or-form am I looking for a document summary. I have already read these sources,
so write like you know I have read them. Summary should only appear in standalone form when addressing the
context aspect, and even then just sparingly. Any other incidents of summary must be weaved with larger
analytical points concerning content. Also, all arguments need to be supported with direct textual evidence (that
means you must incorporate quotes into your arguments).
The assignment is due March 14th at the beginning of class, and must be submitted as a hard copy AND via
email. One without the other counts as a non-submission. No late submissions will be accepted, as per the
syllabus.
Those students who would like feedback on drafts should contact me for an appointment by March 2nd. I am
available during office hours to address any issues. When in doubt, either make an appointment, consult your
notes from the analyses we’ve done in class, or examine the sample analysis posted on the course website.
SOURCE I
Black and white sugar workers in Louisiana began organizing with the Knights of Labor in 1886. Several strikes
were broken by violence and the use of imported strike breakers. In 1887, ten thousand workers, most of them black,
walked off the sugar plantations when the planters refused to meet their demands for wages of $1.25 a day. The
governor called out the militia, angry at the sight of black and white workers on strike together. He said: “God
Almighty has himself drawn the color line.” Militia men killed four blacks. The black settlement at Thibodaux was
then attacked by militia, and at least twenty people were killed. Two strike leaders were arrested, then lynched. What
follows is a report on the strike from an African-American newspaper in Louisiana.
“Red-Handed Murder: Negroes Wantonly Killed at Thibodaux, La.” Anonymous (November 26,
1887)
Murder, foul murder has been committed and the victims were inoffensive and law-abiding Negroes.
Assassins more cruel, more desperate, more wanton than any who had hitherto practiced their
nefarious business in Louisiana have been shooting down, like so many cattle, the Negroes in and
around Thibodaux, Lafourthe parish, La.
For three weeks past the public has been regaled, daily, with garbled reports of the troubles existing
between the laborers and planters in the sugar district. Strange to say not one of these reports,
excepting two, exculpated the Negroes from any desire, or any intention so far as their actions could
be judged, of resorting to violence and bloodshed in order to secure the just and equable demand
made by them for an increase of wages. Militia from different portions of the State have been on
duty in the threatened section, and during all of this time the only acts and crimes of an outrageous
character committed were so committed by either the troops, sugar planters or those in their hire.
The Negroes during all of the time behaving peaceably, quietly and within the limits of the law,
desiring only to secure what they asked and demanding what they had and have a perfect right to
do— an increase of wages.
The planters refused to accede to their requests and at the same time ordered them from the
plantations. At this juncture, and especially was it the case at both Thibodaux and Houma, the
Knights of Labor, to which organization most of the laborers belong, hired all the empty houses in
the above towns they could, and there quartered the homeless blacks. Such unexpected action
maddened the planters and their followers, (some excepted) and as a [con]sequence they resorted to
arms and every other devilish device which the ingenuity of a few chosen spirits could devise in
order to force the Negroes to work for the wages offered.
With an obstinacy worthy of the righteousness of their cause the Negroes quartered in Thibodaux
refused to accede to the planters.
Such being the case, the planters determined to kill a number of them, thus endeavoring to force the
balance into submission. The militia was withdrawn to better accomplish this purpose, and no
sooner had they departed for home than the preparation for the killing of the Negroes began. Last
Sunday night, about 11 o’clock, plantation wagons containing strange men fully armed were driven
into Thibodaux and to Frost’s restaurant and hotel and there the strangers were quartered. Who they
were and where they came from, no one, with me exception of the planters and Judge Taylor
Beattie, seemed to know; but it is a fact that next day, Monday, [martial] law was declared and these
cavalcades of armed men put on patrol duty and no Negro allowed to either leave or enter the town
without shooters, insolent and overbearing toward the Negroes, doing all in their power to provoke
a disturbance…. Finding that the Negroes could not be provoked from their usual quiet, it was
resolved that some pretext or other should be given so that a massacre might ensue.
It came: Tuesday night the patrol shot two of their number, Gorman and Molaison, and the cry
went forth “to arms, to arms! the Negroes are killing the whites!” This wa

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