This post starts off in the right direction, but quickly veers off into issues of using digital technologies to present historical materials. Stay with the question of historical analysis, and engage the work that we’ve read. What kinds of lessons does Mining the Dispatch offer?

I would like to see more here about the argument of the site. What is its primary underlying rationale? What did you learn from it? What historical literature on slavery is it in conversation with? How does the organization help or hinder the effort? What is the audience? How well are they served? What would you do differently if you’d built the site?

This assignment asked you to actually form a research question based on the introduction and first chapter of the Schermerhorn book, and then to try to find primary sources to answer that question. What is your inquiry? What repositories did you consult? What did you find? How did you revise your inquiry?