The Evolution of American Identity Through Literature The diversity within the American experience, and as well within the canon of American literature, precludes the possibility of singling out two or even ten of the novels, poems, or short stories Continue Reading...
Gender and Violence Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass and Their Eyes Were Watching God share much in common, though the works were written at different points in time. Douglass's autobiography first appeared in 1845, written to prove that Continue Reading...
Work Ethic: Douglass and FranklinIntroductionAlthough they lived in different centuries and had very different backgrounds, Frederick Douglass and Benjamin Franklin share many similarities. Both men were born into humble beginnings but rose to become Continue Reading...
The oppressed then became their own oppressors, judging themselves on the high class standards of life. Through their own regulation, high class norms were used to judge each other on the basis of financial stability, female morality, Christian ideo Continue Reading...
It is impossible to conceive of a greater mistake. Slaves sing most when they are most unhappy. The songs of the slave represent the sorrows of his heart; and he is relieved by them, only as an aching heart is relieved by its tears" (Douglass 15). Continue Reading...
Slavery The ethically repugnant institution of slavery in pre-Civil War America manifested itself in the cruel conditions of daily life for thousands of African-Americans. Nothing can quite capture the actual suffering endured by the thousands of sl Continue Reading...
Important to note as well is that the slave narratives had many things in common with the captivity narrative. In general, those that create slave narratives suffer from being in a society that they consider alien, try to balance the desire for free Continue Reading...
Overseers used cowhide whips and wooden clubs to enforce their rules, some more cruelly and arbitrarily than others. Whereas most did whip their slaves, some did so only for perceived necessity and without deriving pleasure or satisfaction from it; Continue Reading...
American Social Thought on Women's Rights This paper compares and contrasts the arguments in favor of women's rights made by three pioneering American feminists: Judith Sargent Murray, Sarah Grimke, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. This analysis reveals Continue Reading...
Rousseau, Douglass, both prose writers; Whitman, Tennyson and Wordsworth, all three, poets. What bind them together, what is their common denominator? Nationalism, democracy, love for the common man, singing praises for the ordinary man on the street Continue Reading...
..the roles these abilities play in social life;...and the manner in which they are interpreted..., not by experts, but by ordinary people in ordinary activities" (Baynham 285). A combination of the forbidden nature of Douglass's society, in addition Continue Reading...
I have frequently felt her head, and found it nearly covered over with festering sores, caused by the lash of her cruel mistress. I do not know that her master ever whipped her, but I have often been an eye witness of the revolting and brutal inflic Continue Reading...
African-Americans and Western Expansion Prior to the 1960s and 1970s, very little was written about black participation in Western expansion from the colonial period to the 19th Century, much less about black and Native American cooperation against Continue Reading...
Classic Slave Narrative of Olaudah Equiano The narrative of the former slave Olaudah Equiano may seem unfamiliar in its construction and ideology to many readers familiar with only popular slave narratives, such as the narrative of Frederick Dougla Continue Reading...
African-American Literature The Implications of African-American Literature Social Economic Environmental Cultural How African-American Literature Has Changed -- Across the Genres Slave Narratives and Biographies Novels African-American Lit Continue Reading...
Voice of the Fugitive- an Alternate Nation for Afro-Americans The African-American community in USA has faced many obstacles but through all its challenges, has withstood the test of time. It has faced severe discrimination in terms of treatment. T Continue Reading...
Soul by Soul: Life Inside the Antebellum Slave Market by Walter Johnson (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 2001) attempts to offer an alternative perspective to the history of slavery in the South. Rather than focusing on plantation life or Continue Reading...
Inclusion Exclusion Blassingame, John W. 1979. The slave community: plantation life in the antebellum South. New York: Oxford University Press. The most overt explanation of the author's research problem is when he states: "To argue, as some schola Continue Reading...
Redefining Literacy The traditional definition of literacy is the ability to read and write. Reading, according to the Webster’s Dictionary (the first definition), is a term that means using touch or sight to receive the sense of letters. On th Continue Reading...
African-American Literature -- Compare and Contrast The two stories selected for this first comparison, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs and the short letter from Jourdon Anderson, "To My Old Master," are both extremely touch Continue Reading...
Olaudah Equiano / Prince Slave Stories The story of Olaudah Equiano began in Nigeria in 1745, when he was born; by the age of 11 Equiano was a victim of kidnapping and was sold to slave traders. His fate was not to be nearly as harsh as millions of Continue Reading...
Everyone should be treated as per his/her capabilities not as per hi/her religion. This is what knowledge about the psychology teaches us clearly in all the fields and stages of life. Education is a wide subject in which so many fields are included Continue Reading...
" By simultaneously freeing most of the southern slaves and permitting their admittance into the armed forces, Lincoln provided some indication of his underlying motives. One main reason for the Emancipation Proclamation was that it formally welcomed Continue Reading...
Slavery in America The Beginning of Slavery The first year that African slaves were brought to Colonial America was reported to be 1619 (Vox, 2012). The ship that docked at Point Comfort, in Jamestown Virginia, was owned by the Dutch. The Dutch cre Continue Reading...
Underground Railroad was the single most important nonviolent political protest movement in nineteenth century America. Slave rebellions did help to rally the cause for self-empowerment and abolition, but the Underground Railroad led to meaningful, t Continue Reading...
Racism and the American Ideals Racial divisions in 19th century American culture excluded African-Americans and Native Americans from the American ideals of liberty and inclusion on a fundamental level. The pushing off the land (and slaughtering) of Continue Reading...
Instead, he writes to poem to discuss the essence of Douglass's work. Until true justice is achieved, and until there is true social equity, Douglass's narrative will remain just a work of history. Hayden dreams of a world in which freedom is second Continue Reading...
As a character, Celie's own experiences have not engaged her on the same levels that Shug's sexual experiences have. This is to say that Celie's life and collection of experiences have not been personally gratifying or freeing in the way that Shug s Continue Reading...
WEB Du Bois The contrast between the thought of WEB Du Bois and that of his predecessor Booker T. Washington is readily apparent in the titles of the best-known works by the two men. Washington's thinking is laid out in his book Up From Slavery, and Continue Reading...
Olaudah Equiano's Interesting Narrative and Harriet Jacob's Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl During the 18th century, laws ensured that slaves could not legally learn how to read and write, but many did so anyway and, with the help of antislav Continue Reading...
Booker T. Washington marks an epoch in the history of America. He was the greatest Negro leader since Frederick Douglass, and the most distinguished man, white or black, who came out of the South since the Civil War'" (Dagbovie). DuBois was also cri Continue Reading...
..There is reason for concern, therefore, when aggressive acts are presented in a humorous context in the media" (622). Although it is intended to refer to society and its misdemeanor, satire cannot be considered to be offensive, since there is a sm Continue Reading...
During the 1850s, Truth moved to Battle Creek, Michigan. At the outset of the American Civil War, Truth collected supplies for black volunteer regiments; in 1864, she traveled to Washington, D.C., where she worked to integrate streetcars (she was r Continue Reading...
Uncle Tom's Cabin - Fiction as a Catalyst for Fact The Origins of a Living Document Stage Night North and South Polarized: Critics Respond The Abolitionist Debates The Tom Caricature The Greatest Impact The Origins of a Living Document In her Continue Reading...
Race and Reunion Briefly describe each of the three visions Vision one: The reconciliationist vision -- this vision had its roots in the "process of dealing with the dead from so many battlefields, prisons, and hospitals," the author writes on page Continue Reading...
black women contribute to the early abolitionist movement? What types of restrictions did women (both white and black) face in American society at this point? Why did more people at this point accept the idea of freeing blacks than giving women equa Continue Reading...
On the threshold of the Civil Rights movement, Baldwin would publish Notes of a Native Son. Though 1953's Go Tell It On The Mountain would be perhaps Baldwin's best known work, it is this explicitly referential dialogic follow-up to Wright's Native Continue Reading...
In two instances-one at the time of Chicago celebration of the Spanish-American Was he alluded to the color-prejudice that is swallowing the creams of the South, and at another while he dined with President Roosevelt- he has the consequential Southe Continue Reading...
Women's Rights During the nineteenth century, many accomplishments in women's rights occurred. As a result of these early efforts, women today enjoy many privileges. They are able to vote and become candidates for political elections, as well as own Continue Reading...
(pp.45-58) Hooks also recognized that when integration occurred these change agents were alienated from black children and alienation and discrimination ensued, associated with being taught white history and democratic ideals, rather than reformatio Continue Reading...
