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Race and America

Race and America. HUM 2212: British and American Literature I Fall 2012 Dr. Perdigao October 22-24, 2012. Frederick Douglass (1818-1895).

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Race and America

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  1. Race and America HUM 2212: British and American Literature I Fall 2012 Dr. Perdigao October 22-24, 2012

  2. Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) • Frederick Douglass’ account of his life, in his own writing, first narrative written by the slave himself, contrast to ghostwriter’s or editor’s control over narrative • Born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey in February 1818 in Talbot County, on eastern shore of Maryland • Mother Harriet Bailey, unknown identity of father, though suspected to be mother’s owner Aaron Anthony • Made property of Thomas Auld, sent to live with Thomas’s brother Hugh Auld and wife Sophia in Baltimore (1171) • After seven years, sent back to Thomas Auld’s plantation, sent to work on farm of Edward Covey, championed for “slave breaking” (1171)

  3. Self-Identification • Battle in 1834 • Douglass’ leadership, starting a Sabbath school at William Freeland’s plantation in 1835, organizing escape in 1836 • Jailed in Easton, Maryland, returned to Baltimore, caulking trade in shipyards • Helped by free black Anna Murray, became engaged, boarded train for New York • Left for New Bedford, Massachusetts, assumed alias • 1839 became licensed preacher in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church • Began work on narrative in 1844, published in 1845

  4. An African American Literary Tradition • America in prose, poetry, fiction • Slave narrative • Role of the preface • Abolitionist movement • Return to the Declaration of Independence • Women’s rights • Uses of literature • Fictional slave narratives: Octavia Butler’s Kindred (1979), Toni Morrison’s Beloved (1987)

  5. Writing as Activism • Frederick Douglass—influential African American leader, orator • Rise to promise of “nation’s egalitarian ideology” • Call in action to live up to the ideals of the Declaration of Independence • Idea of multiracial United States, with equal rights and justice for all • “Douglass” name taken from Sir Walter Scott's poem Lady of the Lake (1810) • Speaker in Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society • Publication of the narrative in 1845 • Went to Great Britain on speaking tour after the publication to escape fugitive slave hunters (1172)

  6. Setting the Stage • Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852): best-selling novel of the pre-Civil War period; abolitionist cause; helped move the nation to Civil War; popularity in England • Harriet Jacobs’ Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861), under pseudonym Linda Brent, with preface written by Lydia Maria Child, abolitionist, writer, editor of text • Renewed interest in the 1980s, with focus on African American women writers • Fugitive Slave Act—passed in 1850 • 1857—Dred Scott case, determining African Americans were not, and would not be, citizens of the US • 1859—John Brown’s raid on arsenal at Harpers Ferry; Emerson and Thoreau’s responses • Abolition of slavery in England in West Indies in 1834, 1838 throughout British Empire

  7. Call to Action • Douglass worked to free black men eligible to serve Union cause in Civil War • Called for 15th amendment, suffrage to newly emancipated male slaves • Roles in Republican party: president of Freedman’s bank, federal marshal, recorder of deeds for the District of Columbia (1173) • Interest in women’s rights; attended first Women’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848; final speech before he died was at a women’s rights rally (1174) • William Lloyd Garrison’s preface • Garrison’s comparison of Douglass to Patrick Henry • Emphasis on Douglass writing own narrative • Asks of readers’ stance • Wendell Philips’ preface: “lions” writing history (1180)

  8. Internal and External Revolution • Children of slave women follow condition of mothers—slaveholder often as master and father • Account of the songs • Going to the Auld house—only time of happiness, save for writing narrative as free man (1195) • Mr. Auld forbids Mrs. Auld from teaching Douglass to read; he teaches self, enlists help of local boys • Account of how a slave was “made a man” by physical force (1211-1214) • Compares self to Patrick Henry • Quote from Hamlet • Significance of the Fourth of July, response, as ironic (1254)

  9. Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906) • Parents—escaped slavery • Father as member of 55th Massachusetts Regiment of the Union Army during the Civil War (1028) • Love of English Romantic poetry • Met Frederick Douglass at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago • Hired as clerk by Douglass • Shakespeare, Shelley, Keats, and Tennyson—influences on his poetry • Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois as supporters • Criticism by Harlem Renaissance writers in 1920s • Influence on Zora Neale Hurston

  10. Charles Waddell Chesnutt (1858-1932) • Born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1858 • Parents—free-born blacks from North Carolina • After Civil War, family moved back to North Carolina • Chesnutt attended school founded by Freeman’s Bureau during Reconstruction, worked as teacher, school principal, newspaper reporter, and accountant • Passed Ohio bar exam in 1887 • Published “The Goophered Grapevine,” first of group of stories in regional-dialect folktale tradition • More than folktale, as representative of contemporary politics and plantation tradition • He never tried to hide his race but in 1899 finally revealed himself to readers by his race (698) • The Conjure Woman, collection of stories

  11. Charles Waddell Chesnutt (1858-1932) • “The Wife of His Youth” • Conjure—Caribbean and West African healing rituals with Christian beliefs • Powers of nature • Wrote biography of Frederick Douglass • 1890s stories focused on psychological and social tensions of passing • His statement about the elevation not of his race but of white Americans, from moral depravity evident in the racial divides, in a racist society • Chesnutt as first great African American short story writer • 1928 NAACP medal for groundbreaking contribution • “The Wife of His Youth” • Significance of past, passing in new society

  12. Charles Waddell Chesnutt (1858-1932) • Mr. Ryder • Blue Veins (706) • Established after the war • Purpose to “establish and maintain correct social standards among a people whose social condition presented almost unlimited room for improvement” (706) • Questions about usefulness of the society • As another vehicle for prejudice • Mr. Ryder as conservative, as “preserver of its traditions” (707) • Poetry as his passion; memorized works of English poets • Mrs. Molly Dixon, from Washington to Groveland (modeled on Cleveland, Ohio) • Widow, husband was government clerk

  13. Charles Waddell Chesnutt (1858-1932) • Ideas about being mixed race (708): assimilation or denial • Reading from Tennyson • Reads description of Guinevere, tries to figure out fair comparison for Mrs. Dixon • Another woman appears: “She looked like a bit of the old plantation life, summoned up from the past by the wave of a magician’s wand, as the poet’s fancy had called into being the gracious shapes of which Mr. Ryder had just been reading” (710) • “The Fall of the House of Usher”?: fiction vs. reality • Juxtaposition of dialects • Sam Taylor, Liza Jane • Daguerreotype as proof • “it was easy to see what manner of man it had represented” (712)

  14. Charles Waddell Chesnutt (1858-1932) • Idea of women—fidelity and devotion • Victorian era values? • Tells his story (713) • Whether or not to reveal himself • Crisis—torn between two worlds

  15. Booker T. Washington (1856-1915) • Period referred to as the “Era of Booker T. Washington” • Educational program of vocational training (673) • Douglass: Washington: Du Bois • Mother born a slave—adopted surname Washington at school, first name of mother’s husband • Physical labor in early life • Attended Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, established by the American Missionary Association to train African Americans as teachers (673); Washington worked as janitor to attend school • Graduated with honors, worked at school • First principal of Tuskegee Institute, school established to train African American men and women in agricultural and mechanical trades and teaching (673) • Started with 30 students, built own brick buildings

  16. Booker T. Washington (1856-1915) • Speech at Atlanta Exposition of 1855 brought fame • “Atlanta Compromise” • Defer equal rights for low-level economic opportunities • Initial support by Du Bois later criticism in quest for equality • Up from Slavery as autobiography (1901) • Assimilation • Honorary degree by Harvard University • Dined with President Theodore Roosevelt • 8,000 people attended funeral at Tuskegee Institute Chapel

  17. W. E. B. Du Bois (1868-1963) • Born in Great Barrington, MA • Predominantly white community • Fisk University in Nashville, TE, in 1888; Harvard University second bachelor's in 1890 and master’s in 1891; the University of Berline (1892-1894); Harvard University , Ph.D. in history in 1865 • Doctoral dissertation, The Suppression of the African Slave Trade to the United States of America, 1638-1870, published as first volume in Harvard Historical Studies seris in 1896 • Difficulty finding employment at research university • The Philadelphia Negro (1899): first sociological monograph on an African American community • Work at Atlanta University in 1897 • Public activism alongside research

  18. W. E. B. Du Bois (1868-1963) • The Souls of Black Folk (1903): Eric J. Sundquist’s characterization as “the preeminent text of African American cultural cosnciousness” (883) • “the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line” (885) • Two worlds, within and without the Veil • Sorrow Songs as markers, spirituals • Idea of difference discovered in childhood • “shout out from the world by a vast veil” (886), yet no desire to creep through, tear down the veil • Felt separate • Veil “only lets him see himself through the revelation of the other world” (887) • Representation of Booker T. Washington in Chapter III • Account of time of Douglass and the period after 1876; Washington as compromiser (896)

  19. W. E. B. Du Bois (1868-1963) • Attitude of “adjustment and submission” (897) • Washington ask for them to give up political power, insistence on civil rights, higher education of African American youth to focus on industrial education, accumulation of wealth, and conciliation of the South (897) • Moves led to disenfranchisement of African Americans, legal creation of distinct status of civil inferiority for African Americans, steady withdrawal of aid from institutions of higher learning for African Americans • Ends essay with return to the Declaration of Independence and unalienable rights: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness (901)

  20. W. E. B. Du Bois (1868-1963) • The Souls of Black Folk (1903) • “Twoness,” double consciousness: “We Wear the Mask”? • National identity, as American, and race • African American, African-American, black, Black • Talented Tenth, chapter within The Negro Problem (1903) • Leadership for African Americans by college-educated elite (884) • Challenge to Washington and Tuskegee Institute, types of training • Criticism of “separate but unequal” policy (884) • Leader of Niagara Movement (1905), quest for civil rights • Editor of Crisis, publication of National Association for Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1910

  21. How the West was Won • Idea of “turning” immigrants into Americans, through classes, programs, and ceremonies “focused on American speech, ideals, traditions, and customs” • Also context in debates about national identity and citizenship (1132) • 1880s wave of immigration until World War I • Nativism contested—native-born Anglo-Saxons as only “true” Americans • Rejection of Native Americans’ claims and claims of African Americans post Reconstruction • Darwinian ideas about race • Expansionist ideology in politics • Puerto Rico, Panama Canal, and Virgin Islands • Spanish-American War of 1898 and new possessions, protectorate over Cuba • Hawaii, Samoa partitioned between US, England, and Germany; Philippines claimed by US

  22. Becoming Americanized • By 1900, US second only to England and France in colonial power • Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919): 26th president of the United States (1901-1909) • Romance of American westward expansion • Story of conquest • Manliness, self-reliance, and hard work—qualities of American West • American Ideals (1897) • Those that fail to assimilate, clinging to old ways, customs, harm “both themselves and us” (1138) • “It is an immense benefit to the European immigrant to change him into an American citizen” (1138) • Immigrant’s language becomes “barbarous jargon,” he an “uncouth boor” (1138) • Learn to celebrate Washington’s birthday, the Fourth of July (Douglass piece?)

  23. Becoming Americanized • Now, a people of “mixed blood” (1139) • Americanism as a “question of spirit, conviction, and purpose, not of creed or birthplace” (1140) • The Strenuous Life (1902) • Masculinist character • American history of the West as the “record of men who greatly dared and greatly did” (1141) • “iron qualities that must go with true manhood” (1142) • “We need the positive virtues of resolution, of courage, of indomitable will, of power to do without shrinking from the rough work that must always be done, and to persevere through the long days of slow progress or of seeming failure which always come before any final triumph, no matter how brilliant” (1142) • Cannot have its sons “less than men” but also “good men” • Morality: good citizenship

  24. José Martí (1853-1895) • Cuban poet, essayist, journalist, political leader • Symbol of Cuba’s fight for independence from Spain in Spanish-American War • Life spent in exile • Move to New York City in 1881 • Idea of “America” counter to imperialistic United States (1147) • New conception of America—as embracing difference, mixed cultures, native people, rejecting racism • American history represented in his writing—Ulysses S. Grant, Walt Whitman, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow • Founder of Cuban Revolutionary Party, died in conflict with Spanish troops • Emphasis on courage (different courage than Roosevelt’s version?) • Pride in American republics, as coalition of disparate elements

  25. José Martí (1853-1895) • Knowledge at center • History of America—taught in American university, European university to follow

  26. Emma Lazarus (1849-1887) • Born in New York City, grew up in Manhattan • Educated by tutors in modern languages and literatures • Sent her first publication of Poems and Translations . . . Written between the Ages of Fourteen and Sixteen to poets including Ralph Waldo Emerson • Visited Emersons in Concord, went to site of Thoreau’s cabin • Focused on continuities and distinctions between American and English literature • Jewish identity—international themes, immigration • 1883—founded Society for the Improvement and Colonization of Eastern European Jews • Wrote “The New Colossus” in 1883 • Statue of Liberty—gift from France to the United States—memorial to France’s aid during American Revolution • Idea of the immigrant—past, present, and future

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