The Founding of the Jail (where, when, and why was it built? Who was originally supposed to be jailed there?)
Slavery and the Blue Jug (often, escaped slaves were incarcerated here and thrown back into slavery — what is that history, and what are some of those stories?)
Other Stories of Life in the Blue Jug (here, you could put together early newspaper accounts of the jail to paint the picture of what life was like for incarcerated people, their families who tried to visit, the jailers, etc.)
The Demise of the Blue Jug (when and why did it close? what other jails replaced it?)
Paper or video must be organized as follows:
o Introduction: in which you introduce the problem/issue.
o Historical background: in which you document with evidence how the problem/issue
came to be, and how it has changed over time.
o Your proposed solution: in which you describe your idea for a solution to the problem,
and provide evidence for why you think this solution will work.
o Challenges ahead: in which you consider some of the challenges to getting this solution
implemented, based on the evidence, and consider how to address those challenges.
o Conclusion: in which you reflect on the importance of addressing this challenge/issue,
and the importance of knowing this history in order to make change in the future.
Paper should be illustrated with at least three historic archival images (which will count as three
of your sources). You must refer to these images in your writing. You are also free to include
additional, contemporary images. Videos should also include at least three historic archival
images.
Papers must be about 2000 words. If you make a video, you must also submit a script for the
video, which also should be about 2000 words.
You must use at least 15 sources (at least 4 of which are peer-reviewed papers, 5 of which are
archival documents [including your 3 historic images], 2 of which are books or book chapters,
and 2 of which are historic newspaper articles). You must cite your sources using the MLA
citation style.
Paper/script must be well-written, free of grammatical and typographical errors.
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