John Hope Franklin & Loren Schweninger, In Search of the Promised Land: A Slave Family in the Old South
Assignment Criteria:
Your analysis must specifically address each of the following questions: How do the experiences and actions of the Thomas-Rapier family complicate definitions of black and white, along with slavery and freedom? How are the boundaries between slavery and freedom enforced, both harsh at times and flexible in others? In what ways do political tensions and sectional antagonisms between North and South impact members of the Thomas-Rapier family? What are the experiences of the Thomas-Rapier family in the non-slave states of the North compared to the slave states of the South? What are the experiences of the Thomas-Rapier family in the Americas as a whole and what do their experiences demonstrate about the connections between the U.S. and the rest of the Americas during the antebellum and Civil War era?
Your paper should have an introduction, which ends with a thesis statement that coherently and succinctly covers your answers to the above questions that you will later elaborate on in your body paragraphs.
