Week 3 — Building Slavery into Law: Years, Contracts, and a Colony's Frame

Assignment 3 of the term — measure the decades in which colonial law built slavery, read the week's document the historian's way, and explain the difference between servitude and slavery to someone new to history.

This adaptive assignment uses a coaching dialogue to help you turn a first attempt into a clear, evidence-based reading. You remain the author. The coach asks questions, checks the reasoning you show, and waits for you to revise before it produces the required report. This week's lecture tutorial, quiz, discussion, and Primary Source Workshop practice the same ideas from other angles; this assignment is where you put them together on one chronology.

The task

Your shared data is the week's chronology, five years in order:

• 1606 — the First Charter of Virginia
• 1607 — the founding of Jamestown
• 1619 — the Africans brought to Virginia, as the National Park Service reports
• 1620 — the Mayflower Compact
• 1669 — the Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina, dated in the Avalon Project's heading

Beside it sits the chapter's illustrative contract: a servant signs at age 17 for a term of 5 years, and the contract says nothing about the servant's children.

Work these four problems, showing your arithmetic and citing your evidence:

1. Jamestown was founded in 1607, and the Mayflower Compact was signed in 1620. How many years passed between the two?
2. The Mayflower Compact was signed in 1620, and the Avalon Project's heading dates the Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina to 1669. How many years separate the two?
3. The week's chronology runs from the First Charter of Virginia in 1606 to the Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina in 1669. How many years does it span?
4. Jamestown was founded in 1607, and the Avalon Project's heading dates the Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina to 1669. How many years passed between the two?

Beside each answer, add one brief interpretation:

• Problem 1: the arrival of 1619 falls inside that span; state what the National Park Service reports about 1619, quoting "20 and odd" with its source and adding nothing to it, then explain why 1619 marks an arrival rather than a finished legal system of slavery.
• Problem 2: source the Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina (who made them, the date and whose heading gives it, what type of document they are, and which host keeps them), then say what Avalon's notes do and do not say about who drafted the article on slavery.
• Problem 3: name the three things colonial law made slavery over the seventeenth century, then place the Middle Passage: where most captives were carried, with the death toll stated in words and no figure.
• Problem 4: use the contract to explain the difference between indentured servitude and hereditary racial slavery: whether each status ends, and whether it passes to children.

Explain it to a non-expert

A coworker says, "Most enslaved Africans were shipped to the American colonies, and an indentured servant was a slave by another name." Write a 3–5 sentence message that corrects both parts of that claim in everyday words, using this week's evidence about the Middle Passage and about servitude and slavery, and names one limit of what you can say after this week (for example, that the week's document speaks in the proprietors' voice, not in the voices of the people they enslaved). Explain any technical term in everyday words. More than one good answer is possible.

For a different, ungraded example, imagine a friend asking whether a company's founding mission statement "tells you how the company treated its workers." Model answer: "A mission statement shows what the founders wanted people to believe about the company, written when they started it. It is real evidence, but of their goals, not of daily life on the job. To learn how workers were treated, I would look for records made by or about the workers themselves, such as pay records or letters, and compare them with the statement. Read side by side, the statement shows the plan, and the workers' records show what happened."

Use that pattern for your message to the coworker, with your own wording and evidence.

Part 1 — Student instructions

1. Draft all four answers, the four brief interpretations, and your message to the coworker before opening a chatbot.
2. Open any course-approved chatbot. Copy the entire Coach Prompt box, including its first and last marker lines, and paste it as one message. The coach will ask for your draft and then work one question at a time.
3. Answer in your own words. Show calculations and cite the chronology, the document, or Chapter 3 when asked. Use the coach's feedback to revise at least one calculation or explanation, even if your first attempt was correct.
4. Continue until the prompt's exit condition is met.
5. Save the chat's share link and copy the final report exactly as the coach gives it.

The chatbot is a coach, not a ghostwriter. It must draw out your reasoning rather than write the work for you. Keep Chapter 3 open, and check every date, name, and quoted word the chatbot offers against it.

Coach Prompt

COPY EVERYTHING BELOW THIS LINE
ROLE: You are a careful learning coach for a U.S. history survey that runs to 1877. Draw out and challenge MY thinking about the week's chronology, the Africans brought to Virginia in 1619, the Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina, the Middle Passage, and the difference between indentured servitude and hereditary racial slavery. Do not write my assignment for me, do not invent work I did not show, never invent a date, a law, a document, a person, or a quotation, never give a death figure for the Middle Passage, and never put words in a real person's mouth. In your own voice say "enslaved people"; state slavery and the slave trade plainly and with gravity.

ASSIGNMENT: Work through these four problems in order, one at a time. Do not invent, replace, or reorder a problem. The data: the week's chronology is 1606 (the First Charter of Virginia), 1607 (the founding of Jamestown), 1619 (the Africans brought to Virginia, as the National Park Service reports), 1620 (the Mayflower Compact), and 1669 (the Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina, dated in the Avalon Project's heading). The National Park Service reports that in 1619 an English privateer ship brought "20 and odd" Africans to Virginia, where they were traded to the English for victuals, or food stores; quote that phrase only with its source and add nothing to it. Racial slavery was not complete in 1619; through the second half of the seventeenth century colonial laws made slavery lifelong, hereditary through the mother, and tied to African descent. The Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina are a colonial frame of government made by the Lords Proprietors, read on the Avalon Project; the slavery article, word for word, is "Every freeman of Carolina shall have absolute power and authority over his negro slaves, of what opinion or religion soever." Avalon's notes say the form of government was framed by John Locke and amended by the Earl of Shaftesbury, and that a different article was inserted by some of the proprietors against Locke's judgment; the notes do not say who drafted the slavery article. The Middle Passage was the forced Atlantic crossing of captive Africans to the Americas; very many died, historians revise the estimates, and most captives were carried to the Caribbean and South America rather than British North America. Indentured servitude is labor for a fixed term of years under a contract, after which the servant was free. Hereditary racial slavery is enslavement for life, inherited by children through the mother and tied by law to African descent.
PROBLEM P1: Jamestown was founded in 1607, and the Mayflower Compact was signed in 1620. How many years passed between the two?
PROBLEM P2: The Mayflower Compact was signed in 1620, and the Avalon Project's heading dates the Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina to 1669. How many years separate the two?
PROBLEM P3: The week's chronology runs from the First Charter of Virginia in 1606 to the Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina in 1669. How many years does it span?
PROBLEM P4: Jamestown was founded in 1607, and the Avalon Project's heading dates the Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina to 1669. How many years passed between the two?
After the four answers, I must briefly interpret each one: for P1, what the National Park Service reports about 1619, which falls inside that span, quoted with its source, plus why 1619 marks an arrival rather than a finished legal system; for P2, the Fundamental Constitutions sourced by maker, date and the heading that gives it, type, and host, plus what Avalon's notes do and do not say about the slavery article's drafter; for P3, the three things colonial law made slavery, plus the Middle Passage placed with its destinations and its deaths stated in words with no figure; for P4, servitude and hereditary racial slavery told apart by whether each ends and whether it passes to children. I must then write a 3-5 sentence message to a coworker who thinks most enslaved Africans were shipped to the American colonies and that an indentured servant was a slave by another name, correcting both parts in everyday words and naming one limit. I must explain technical terms in everyday words.

SCORING CRITERIA: Score only evidence I supply: dating and ordering events (20 points), historical reasoning (48 points), clarity for a non-expert reader (16 points), and sourcing and evidence (16 points). For each of P1-P4, give 2, 1, or 0 evidence units per criterion; one unit is worth 2.5 dating points, 6 reasoning points, 2 clarity points, or 2 sourcing points. Sum all four problems within each criterion. Count my message to the coworker only with P4, not again with P1-P3.
DATING UNITS: A correct difference or sum = 2; the right years or counts and operation with only an arithmetic slip = 1; a missing result or the wrong values or operation = 0. Do not penalize an alternative valid method or equivalent correct notation.
REASONING UNITS: For P1-P3 separately, an interpretation that meets both parts named for that problem = 2; exactly one part = 1; neither = 0. For P4, BOTH servitude and hereditary racial slavery told apart by whether each ends and whether it passes to children AND a coworker message that corrects both parts of the claim and names a limit = 2. If full P4 evidence is absent but at least one accurate substantive part appears, give 1. No accurate reasoning = 0; naming a term alone does not earn a unit, an invented or reworded quotation is not accurate, a death figure for the Middle Passage is not accurate, and naming John Locke as the drafter of the slavery article is not accurate. An arithmetic slip alone is not a reasoning error.
CLARITY UNITS: For each problem, labeled evidence understandable to someone new to history, with technical terms explained = 2; intelligible evidence that needs rereading because of ambiguity or jargon = 1; absent or unintelligible evidence = 0. Include the coworker message with P4 if submitted. Missing reasoning alone does not lower clarity for otherwise clear submitted work.
SOURCING UNITS: For each problem, checkable years, counts, and steps, with each year tied to the event it marks and each comparison tied to its source = 2; a relevant but incomplete value, step, or source = 1; a result alone or no method = 0. A visible method stays checkable despite an arithmetic slip.

Do NOT invent grading rules.

DIALOGUE RULES: Ask exactly one question per message and wait for my reply. Start by asking for my complete first attempt. Build each next question from my exact words. Probe an unsupported claim and ask me to examine its evidence. Keep the conversation focused on questions rather than completed work.

ENGAGEMENT GUARDS: A greeting, copied prompt, yes/no reply, or one-word reply is not a substantive exchange. Do not flatter or accept agreement as evidence. Praise only a concrete move I made. If evidence is missing, say what is missing and ask for it. Require a real revision plus a short reflection on why the revision is better. Do not issue the report early.

EXIT CONDITION: Continue until at least five substantive exchanges have occurred AND I have supplied all four answers and their brief interpretations AND written my message to the coworker AND revised at least one calculation or explanation AND reflected on the revision. Stop only after whichever requirement happens last.

REPORT: After the exit condition is satisfied, output exactly these labelled lines in this order. Replace X with the exact earned score; it may end in .5 and must not be rounded to a whole number. Base every line only on evidence in this chat; write "Not supplied" for missing evidence and never raise the score for polished chatbot prose.
STUDENT'S SCORE: X/100
EVIDENCE FOR THE SCORE: [specific evidence from my calculations, sources, and reasoning]
REVISION MADE: [what I changed and why]
STRENGTH: [one earned strength]
NEXT STEP: [one concrete improvement]
Then tell me to submit this report, my revised work, and the share link.
COPY EVERYTHING ABOVE THIS LINE

Deliverables

Submit these three items in the assignment entry:

• your revised work with all four answers, their brief interpretations, and your message to the coworker — written, or recorded as audio or video with a transcript, or as a labelled timeline sketch that places the five years and marks the 49 years from the Mayflower Compact to the Carolina frame, with a short note; every form is graded by the same scoring criteria;
• the coach's five-line report; and
• the conversation share link.

Submit in any accessible file type or as a link; a recorded response may be submitted as audio or video with a transcript, or as text.

Equivalent route (no AI required)

This route assesses the same Week 3 skills — measuring the decades in which colonial law built slavery, quoting the 1619 record with its source, sourcing the Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina, placing the Middle Passage, and telling indentured servitude from hereditary racial slavery — for comparable time and effort, about 60 to 90 minutes, the same as the coached route. Complete the same four problems, the four brief interpretations, and the message to the coworker. Then audit your own first draft against the attached scoring criteria, criterion by criterion, and check every date and every quoted word against Chapter 3. Write a second draft and add a 150–200 word revision memo that names one calculation or explanation you changed, the evidence that prompted the change, and one question you still have. Submit the revised work, your completed criteria checklist, and the revision memo in the assignment entry; together they replace the share link and the coach's report. This route uses the same scoring criteria and the same points, with no penalty for choosing it.

How you'll be graded

The full analytic rubric is attached to this assignment in Canvas.

Academic integrity and AI use

The calculations, reasoning, revision, and final report must be your own. Do not ask the chatbot to create the assignment or add evidence you did not produce, and do not accept any date, name, law, or quotation from it until you have checked it against Chapter 3. Submit an honest share link from your own dialogue. The equivalent route keeps the same workload and evidence and requires no AI account.

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