Reading Receptively and Resistently with Historical Autobiographies and Documents

William Bradford, John Smith, Ben Franklin, and Frederick
Douglass: all famous for personal narratives; all written for a
specific purpose and auidence; consider how the past impacts the
present; what can we learn from these writers? Can we believe
everything they write? Why not? What type of persona are they
crafting? What is the danger of believing what may be
fictionalized as being passed off as truth. Think about writing a
"conversational essay" where you address a topic from one or more
of these narratives in an informal manner: divergent, digressive,
pulling in current events and personal story, to create an essay
that's interesting, engaging, and insightful.