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college · HANDS-ON COURSE

Introduction to African American studies

Connect African foundations, diaspora, freedom struggles, institution-building and cultural innovation through interdisciplinary inquiry.

Introductory survey and inquiry sequence. Independent primary-source reading, scholarly bibliography and human-reviewed research are required for the proposed project. This site does not award college credit.

Preparation and direct entry
  • No prior course is required; source-analysis refreshers are available directly.

Open any lesson. Recaps explain assumed concepts without locking access.

0/8 lessons completed · 0 marked skipped. Skips do not reduce this course's completion denominator or award understanding. Shared lesson work is reused across paths; project evidence belongs to this course.

Lesson sequence

Each linked investigation opens on its own page. Your selected course stays with you as you move between lessons.

  1. Investigation 1 of 8· 1 · African foundations

    African societies and the origins of diaspora

    About this lesson

    Explain African diversity and diaspora without beginning the story with enslavement.

    Open investigation

  2. Investigation 2 of 8· 2 · Atlantic slavery–1800s

    Enslavement, family and cultural survival

    About this lesson

    Analyze slavery as a coercive system while attending to agency and community.

    Open investigation

  3. Investigation 3 of 8· 3 · Revolution–1865

    Resistance, abolition and free Black institutions

    About this lesson

    Compare strategies for freedom and explain how institutions sustained collective action.

    Open investigation

  4. Investigation 4 of 8· Political participation, 1821–1827

    Voting expansion and exclusion in New York

    About this lesson

    Compare a constitution and amendment, inspect fictional evidence records, and explain how voting expansion could preserve racial exclusion.

    Open investigation

  5. Investigation 5 of 8· 4 · 1865–early 1900s

    Reconstruction, citizenship and institution-building

    About this lesson

    Explain Reconstruction through legal change, community action and opposition.

    Open investigation

  6. Investigation 6 of 8· African American cultural and intellectual life

    Mask and veil: read cultural expression as evidence

    About this lesson

    Compare a complete Dunbar poem with Du Bois’s argument about seeing oneself through others’ judgments.

    Open investigation

  7. Investigation 7 of 8· 5 · Early 1900s–1940s

    Migration, war and cultural innovation

    About this lesson

    Connect migration and cultural production without reducing art to a population statistic.

    Open investigation

  8. Investigation 8 of 8· 6 · 1940s–present

    Freedom movements and contemporary debates

    About this lesson

    Evaluate movement strategies and contemporary claims through multiple disciplines.

    Open investigation

Cumulative projectSaved workspace · human review remains separate
CUMULATIVE PROJECT

An interdisciplinary community-history exhibit

Frame a question about African American experience and connect historical, cultural and quantitative evidence without treating one experience as universal. Select sources independently and defend an annotated bibliography spanning at least two disciplines.

Evidence and review criteria

  • The question names a place, period and population, and the chronology is accurate.
  • Claims use identified evidence; source creator, purpose, context and limits are explained.
  • The explanation tests an alternative and distinguishes association, causation and value judgment.
  • Different experiences are represented without fabricating missing testimony or treating a group as uniform.
  • The artifact includes citations, accessible text descriptions and a visible revision after new evidence.
  • Each disciplinary source is used according to its form and limits; cultural expression is not treated as a literal census or autobiography.

Use your lesson captures and citations. This saved workspace supports a reviewer; it does not automatically grade your writing or certify proficiency.

Review examples and quality criteria

These are authored teaching examples for practicing review, not calibrated scoring standards. Apply your course’s specific rubric above. Different conclusions can be defensible when evidence supports them; factual and numerical errors still require correction.

Claim needing revision

The author lived then, so the account proves what everyone thought.

More defensible reasoning

The account supports a claim about this author’s stated position in this setting. Its audience and purpose may shape what is emphasized. Compare a contemporaneous source from a different position before extending the claim to a wider population.

Why the revision helps

The revision preserves the primary source’s value while restricting the population claim. A stronger completed response would name the actual author, date, audience and contrasting passage.

Assess the artifact, with assistance recorded separately
CriterionDeveloping evidenceSupported evidenceWell-substantiated evidence
Question and contextA broad topic or undefined population.A focused question, time/place and relevant definitions.A justified scope with context that changes the interpretation.
Sources and claimsNames a source but does not connect its contents to a claim.Cites specific records and explains provenance and relevance.Weighs limitations, corroboration and meaningful disagreement.
Mechanism and analysisGives a conclusion with missing steps or unclear units.Shows a valid causal chain, calculation or interpretation.Tests a credible alternative and explains sensitivity or uncertainty.
Transfer and revisionRepeats the worked answer despite changed facts.Adapts the reasoning to the unfamiliar case.Explains why the change matters and what evidence would reverse the conclusion.

Use “missing” when no relevant evidence is supplied. Do not average these descriptions into an automatic pass score. Record whether the learner followed an example, used guidance or worked independently, and review quality separately.

  1. Locate one specific claim and its supporting source or calculation.
  2. Check the context, units and intermediate reasoning.
  3. Identify one plausible alternative and the evidence that distinguishes it.
  4. Ask for a revision or an unfamiliar application; explain the reason for the request.

The saved project remains a draft or a local submission. This page does not record instructor certification or infer understanding from response length.

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Export this project with your evidence
Separate application casesVersioned evidence · earlier work remains intact

Apply your reasoning to a separate case

These versioned cases add distinct evidence to the portfolio. Earlier drafts and local submissions remain intact. Write your explanation before revealing review notes when you want to retain a pre-feedback attempt.

NEW APPLICATION · VERSION 1

Curate community agency without flattening experience

Use this packet for a fresh written application. All records below are original fictional teaching materials. They test reasoning under stated conditions and do not establish actual historical or population facts. Your original course-project draft remains separate.

Record association

Citation ID: social:independent:african-american:v1-association

Fictional community archive: an association's1935 minutes record a scholarship fund and 40 donors. The minutes state that members aimed to expand educational opportunity.

Record newspaper

Citation ID: social:independent:african-american:v1-newspaper

An invented 1936 newspaper feature celebrates three scholarship recipients but says nothing about unsuccessful applicants or the size of the eligible population.

Record oral-history

Citation ID: social:independent:african-american:v1-oral-history

An invented 1980 oral-history account recalls the fund's importance and describes disagreement over eligibility. It was recorded 45 years after the minutes. No authentic person's words are quoted.

This case is shared across paths that use it. Revisiting it in another course retains drafts and known review-note exposure; it is not a new unseen assessment.

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NEW APPLICATION · VERSION 1

What does a caged bird's song mean?

Use this packet for a fresh written application. These records reproduce the identified public-domain primary text. Editorial line numbers and source notes are labeled. Read the complete work across its records; passages from the same work are not independent witnesses. Prior familiarity should be stated in your response. Your original course-project draft remains separate.

Record stanza-1

Citation ID: social:independent:dunbar-sympathy:v1-stanza-1

Paul Laurence Dunbar, “Sympathy,” complete stanza 1 of 3. Public-domain poem; line numbers are editorial. 1. I know what the caged bird feels, alas! 2. When the sun is bright on the upland slopes; 3. When the wind stirs soft through the springing grass, 4. And the river flows like a stream of glass; 5. When the first bird sings and the first bud opes, 6. And the faint perfume from its chalice steals— 7. I know what the caged bird feels!

Dunbar, Complete Poems — Sympathy (complete poem across these three records)

Record stanza-2

Citation ID: social:independent:dunbar-sympathy:v1-stanza-2

Paul Laurence Dunbar, “Sympathy,” complete stanza 2 of 3. Public-domain poem; line numbers are editorial. 8. I know why the caged bird beats his wing 9. Till its blood is red on the cruel bars; 10. For he must fly back to his perch and cling 11. When he fain would be on the bough a-swing; 12. And a pain still throbs in the old, old scars 13. And they pulse again with a keener sting— 14. I know why he beats his wing!

Dunbar, Complete Poems — Sympathy (complete poem across these three records)

Record stanza-3

Citation ID: social:independent:dunbar-sympathy:v1-stanza-3

Paul Laurence Dunbar, “Sympathy,” complete stanza 3 of 3. Public-domain poem; line numbers are editorial. 15. I know why the caged bird sings, ah me, 16. When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore,— 17. When he beats his bars and he would be free; 18. It is not a carol of joy or glee, 19. But a prayer that he sends from his heart's deep core, 20. But a plea, that upward to Heaven he flings— 21. I know why the caged bird sings!

Dunbar, Complete Poems — Sympathy (complete poem across these three records)

This case is shared across paths that use it. Revisiting it in another course retains drafts and known review-note exposure; it is not a new unseen assessment.

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NEW APPLICATION · VERSION 1

Audit a franchise reform and participation claim

Use this packet for a fresh written application. All records below are original fictional teaching materials. They test reasoning under stated conditions and do not establish actual historical or population facts. Your original course-project draft remains separate.

Record charter

Citation ID: social:independent:franchise-records:v1-charter

Original fictional Riverton charter, 1842: voters must be citizens aged at least 21, resident in their district for two continuous years, and have paid the town levy for the current year. Outlying-district residents must additionally have held a freehold continuously during the preceding twelve months with a value of at least 100 credits after debts and charges on it. These rules describe this invented jurisdiction only; they are not an actual U.S. constitution or a reconstruction of New York law.

Record amendment

Citation ID: social:independent:franchise-records:v1-amendment

Fictional amendment adopted in 1848: the town-levy payment requirement is removed for central-ward residents only. All qualifications for outlying-district residents and the remaining central-ward qualifications are retained. The packet provides no earlier or later amendment.

Record applications

Citation ID: social:independent:franchise-records:v1-applications

Four fictional 1849 application files: A is an outlying resident with an estate valued at 140 credits, charges of 35, and ten months of continuous possession. B is an outlying resident with value 140, charges 45, and eighteen months of possession. C is a central-ward resident who has not paid the town levy. D is an outlying resident with value 140, charges not recorded, and eighteen months of possession. All four satisfy the stated citizenship, age and residence requirements; A, B and D have paid the levy. Values and charges are unchanged throughout the stated possession periods. No administrative decisions or ballots for these four applicants are supplied. These application files are separate from the registered cohort in the next records.

Record register

Citation ID: social:independent:franchise-records:v1-register

A separate complete official register for one 1849 election lists 120 eligible central-ward residents and 40 eligible outlying-district residents. For the arithmetic tasks, take these registered eligible cohorts as fixed. This is an administrative classification, not a count of all adults or proof that every eligibility decision was correct. It is not the four-person application sample.

Record poll

Citation ID: social:independent:franchise-records:v1-poll

The complete central-ward return records 84 distinct registered people whose ballots were accepted. The surviving outlying scan contains 20 entries: 18 distinct registered people plus two exact duplicate copies of entries already counted. Seventeen of those eighteen people have accepted ballots; the remaining person has a final rejection recorded, not an unresolved provisional ballot. A missing final page concerns six other named eligible outlying residents, distinct from the eighteen. Each of those six could have either one accepted ballot or none; their outcomes are unknown. A complete clerk’s certificate says the other sixteen eligible outlying residents did not vote. No person can cast more than one accepted ballot in this exercise.

Record newsletter

Citation ID: social:independent:franchise-records:v1-newsletter

A fictional editor reports printing 400 copies of an appeal to participate and expects two readers per copy. No delivery list, reader survey or names are supplied. The report states an expectation, not a measured count of distinct readers. No record links newsletter exposure with an accepted ballot.

Record claim

Citation ID: social:independent:franchise-records:v1-claim

An exhibit draft says: “The 1848 amendment abolished every qualification for all residents. Every applicant with a 140-credit estate qualified. Outlying turnout was exactly 20/40 = 50%, and all missing entries were nonvoters. The newsletter reached 800 distinct voters and caused participation to increase.” No earlier election returns, total adult population count, causal comparison or additional records support these statements.

This case is shared across paths that use it. Revisiting it in another course retains drafts and known review-note exposure; it is not a new unseen assessment.

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NEW APPLICATION · VERSION 1

Emancipation, compensation and documentary proof in Washington

Use this packet for a fresh written application. This packet combines explicitly labeled primary-document paraphrases and a secondary historical account. These are not verbatim transcriptions or fictional observations. Use each record’s source label, distinguish the historical document from the later reconstruction, and consult the linked originals for fuller context. Your original course-project draft remains separate.

Record restriction

Citation ID: social:independent:dc-emancipation:v1-restriction

Primary-document paraphrase: Congress’s D.C. slave-trade act, approved 20 September 1850, section 1, restricted bringing enslaved people into the District for sale or depot storage for later sale elsewhere, from 1 January 1851. Its freedom consequence applied to importation contrary to the act by the owner or with the owner’s authority or consent. This is not a general emancipation provision for everyone already enslaved in the District.

National Archives — 1850 act, section 1

Record freedom

Citation ID: social:independent:dc-emancipation:v1-freedom

Primary-document paraphrase: section 1 of the D.C. Emancipation Act, approved 16 April 1862, freed people held to service or labor in the District by reason of African descent. It prohibited slavery and involuntary servitude there from passage, retaining an exception for crime after due conviction. This paraphrase preserves the territorial scope and exception; it is not a national abolition enactment.

National Archives — April 1862 act transcript

Record claims

Citation ID: social:independent:dc-emancipation:v1-claims

Primary-document paraphrase of the April 1862 act, sections 2–4: loyal former claimants could submit compensation petitions within ninety days. Commissioners investigated the claims and reported awards; Treasury payment followed the prescribed process, with an additional delay/procedure for conflicting claims. This record supplies rules, not a particular payment receipt.

National Archives — April 1862 act transcript

Record certificates

Citation ID: social:independent:dc-emancipation:v1-certificates

Primary-document paraphrase of the April 1862 act, sections 9–10: owners or claimants were to file identifying schedules, with failure affecting their compensation claim. The court clerk was to issue a certificate on demand and payment of the specified fee, stating that the named person had been set free by the act. A certificate documented statutory freedom; its issue date is not automatically the date freedom began.

National Archives — April 1862 act transcript

Record emigration

Citation ID: social:independent:dc-emancipation:v1-emigration

Primary-document paraphrase of the April 1862 act, section 11: funds were appropriated to assist free people of African descent residing in the District, including people liberated by the act, who desired to emigrate to Haiti, Liberia or another foreign destination chosen by the president. This selected provision is voluntary in wording; its practical operation needs further evidence.

National Archives — April 1862 act transcript

Record addison

Citation ID: social:independent:dc-emancipation:v1-addison

Secondary account: Damani Davis, National Archives Prologue, Spring 2010, describes Alice Addison and family appearing with the Soffells on 6 October 1862. The families sought different things: the Addisons wanted an official freedom record, while their former enslavers sought compensation after missing the deadline. The account reports the Addisons had left on 13 April, fearing forced removal to Africa, and returned on 28 September. This is a historian’s reconstruction from records, not a verbatim Addison testimony or a payment receipt. The packet does not reproduce a final ruling on this family’s eligibility or an issued certificate.

Damani Davis — family case and record context

This case is shared across paths that use it. Revisiting it in another course retains drafts and known review-note exposure; it is not a new unseen assessment.

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Course references