Assignment
This essay will ask you to analyze Indo-Caribbean history as “Indians” became “Indo-Caribbean.”
Prompt
How did Indians in the Caribbean become Indo-Caribbean? Did Indian identity become more Caribbean, or did Caribbean identity – perhaps Creole identity – become more inclusive of Indians (or both)? How has Indo-Caribbean identity changed over time? When answering these questions, keep the following in mind as you reflect on your essay:
Indian/Indo-Caribbean identity can include political, national, cultural, religious, gendered, sexual, and/or immigrant identities. You can choose to focus on one or more of these frameworks in your essay.
How did Indo-Caribbean peoples negotiate their place in 20th/21st century Caribbean societies?
Instructions
Answer the previous main questions in a narrative form in 1100-1400 words (approximately 4-5 double-spaced pages, 12 point font, 1 inch margins).
Use Chicago Style citations, which emphasizes footnotes (rather than in-text citations).
Write a clear thesis that ties your essay together.
Use specific evidence from at least four sources from class so far.
Choose at least one primary source to use as evidence to support your thesis.
Choose at least one secondary source (case study) to use as evidence to support your thesis.
Any subsequent source is your choice (i.e. they can be either primary or secondary sources).
Use lectures and/or secondary sources to offer necessary historical context.
Analyzing Change or Continuity Over Time
Each of these prompts asks you to analyze change over time or continuity over time. As such, it is important to highlight how things are changing and why, or why things are not changing. If possible, DO NOT use a source that you have used on previous essays (Please check in with me to make an argument as to why a source you have already used would be beneficial to reuse in your final essay).
Ask the following questions to help frame your conversation about change over time or continuity over time:
Are there any turning points that help explain why racial hierarchies or cultural mixture changed (e.g. political independence, Black Power, authoritarianism, migration, etc.)?
What broader historical context allows us to understand changes in ideology and/or practice?
A Few Tips on Historical/Social Science Writing
The key to historical analysis (and analysis in any discipline, really) is to offer specific evidence from the sources that support your thesis.
Incorporate the 5Ws in your analysis: Who, What, Where, When, Why.
Time, place, and context matter. Use the lectures and secondary sources/case studies to contextualize your source. Outside sources (including Wikipedia) are NOT necessary to complete this assignment.
Assume that the reader is unfamiliar with the source, the context of the source, and your knowledge of the source/context of the source. So don’t take the details for granted.
You do not have to write a “history” about everything that occurred around the time of your chosen primary source. Rather, choose the specific historical details that are most relevant to your analysis that allows you to make your argument.
Use Chicago Style to cite your sources and write your analysis.
Please do not separate the essay into sections (no labels like Introductions, conclusion, etc.). It should just be one whole essay, with paragraphs. I also attached the readings, please use these for the essay. Please refer to the instructions above for how many is needed.
