DOCSLIB.ORG

“Flight to Freedom”

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
“Flight to Freedom” Mission 2: “Flight to Freedom” EDUCATOR GUIDE TEACHER’S GUIDE Table of Contents Overview Content Briefing – PLEASE READ THIS FIRST ....................................................................................... 5 About Mission 2: “Flight to Freedom” .............................................................................................. .......... 7 Mission 2 At A Glance ............................................................................................................................... 10 Essential Questions ..................................................................................................................................... 15 Models of Instruction .................................................................................................................................. 16 Learning Goals ............................................................................................................................................ 21 National Standards Alignment ................................................................................................................... 24 Background Timeline of Events Before, During, and After the Mission ........................................................................ 30 Educator’s Primer on the Historical Period ................................................................................................ 37 Glossary of Key Terms ................................................................................................................................ 45 Character Overview and Historical Figure Profiles ................................................................................... 54 Myths and Misinformation ......................................................................................................................... 60 Top 5 Things To Know Before You Play..................................................................................................... 64 Activities Pre-Game Activity #1 ................................................................................................................................. 65 Pre-Game Activity #2: Cause and Effect .................................................................................................... 79 Pre-Mission Document Based Activities: Slavery By the Numbers ......................................................... 113 Part 1: Behind the Big House Part 1 Document Based Activity: Slave Quarter Photographs ................................................................ 129 Part 1 Vocabulary Activity ....................................................................................................................... 136 Part 1 Writing Prompts ............................................................................................................................ 146 Part 1 Review Questions .......................................................................................................................... 149 Part 2: Runaway! Part 2 Document Based Activity: Life & Adventures of Henry Bibb ....................................................... 153 Part 2 Document Based Activity: Runaway Posters & Advertisements ................................................. 166 Part 2 Vocabulary Activity ....................................................................................................................... 172 Part 2 Writing Prompts ............................................................................................................................ 181 Part 2 Review Questions .......................................................................................................................... 184 Part 3: Free and Not Free Part 3 Vocabulary Activity ....................................................................................................................... 188 Part 3 Writing Prompts ............................................................................................................................ 197 Part 3 Review Questions .......................................................................................................................... 200 2 TEACHER’S GUIDE Part 4: Gathering Forces Part 4 Document Based Activity: The Power of Rhetoric ........................................................................ 204 Part 4 Vocabulary Activity ....................................................................................................................... 213 Part 4 Writing Prompts ............................................................................................................................ 222 Part 4 Review Questions .......................................................................................................................... 225 Part 5: New Times, New Troubles Part 5 Vocabulary Activity ....................................................................................................................... 229 Part 5 Writing Prompts ............................................................................................................................ 238 Part 5 Review Questions .......................................................................................................................... 241 Epilogue Epilogue Document Based Activity: John Brown’s Raid .......................................................................... 245 Activities for Use Throughout the Mission Engaging Students in Multimedia Projects ............................................................................................. 253 Daily Log Sheet ......................................................................................................................................... 258 Resources Additional Media Resources ..................................................................................................................... 260 Character and Scene Printables ................................................................................................................ 275 Primary Source Documents Kentucky Slave Codes (1794-1850) .......................................................................................................... 292 The United States School Primer (1844) .................................................................................................. 293 “A History of the Amistad Captives” Advertising Broadside (1840) ...................................................... 296 Fancy Dresses from Godey’s Lady Book (1848) .................................................................................... 298 Slave Pass (1852) ...................................................................................................................................... 299 “Sale of Slaves and Stock” Poster (1852) ................................................................................................. 300 “$1200 to $1250 Dollars! For Negroes!!” Poster (1853) ......................................................................... 301 Brer Rabbit’s “The Tar Baby” ................................................................................................................... 303 “INFAMOUS!” Kentucky Newspaper Editorial (1847) .......................................................................... 306 “Negro Stealing” Kentucky Newspaper Editorial (1847) ........................................................................ 307 Slave Narrative by Henry Bibb (1849) ..................................................................................................... 308 John Parker on the Challenges of Running Away .................................................................................... 310 “Plantation Police” in Mississippi, 1863 ................................................................................................. 311 Interview with a Former Kentucky Slave About Escape and Capture ..................................................... 312 William Lloyd Garrison, The Liberator: “I WILL BE HEARD” (1831) .................................................. 313 William Lloyd Garrison, The Liberator: “On The Constitution and Union” (1832) ............................... 314 Editorial From Anti-Abolitionist Newspaper in Ohio (1842) .................................................................. 315 Proslavery Letter From Anti-Abolitionist Newspaper in Ohio (1848) .................................................... 316 3 TEACHER’S GUIDE Free Soil Party Platform (1848) ................................................................................................................ 317 “The Transportation of Free Blacks to Africa” (1850) .............................................................................. 319 Excerpt from Frederick Douglass Autobiography ................................................................................... 320 Summary of the Fugitive Slave Law ......................................................................................................... 322 “Caution!! Colored People of Boston” Anti-Slavery Poster (1855) ......................................................... 323 “Great Sale of Slaves” Auction Poster (1855) .......................................................................................... 324 “A Bold Stroke For Freedom” Print (1855) .............................................................................................. 325 Harriet Jacobs on Impact of Fugitive
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Racial Discrimination, Gender Stereotypes, and Historical Contexts in Kathryn Stockett’S the Help
    Racial Discrimination, Gender Stereotypes, and Historical Contexts in Kathryn Stockett’s The Help Diplomarbeit Zur Erlangung des Magistergrades Mag.phil. an der Kultur- und Gesellschaftswissenschaftlichen Fakultät der Paris-Lodron-Universität Salzburg Eingereicht von CAROLIN ELISABETH STALLINGER Gutachterin: Ao.Univ.-Prof. Dr. Hanna Wallinger Fachbereich: Anglistik und Amerikanistik Salzburg, März 2018 Eidesstaatliche Erklärung Ich erkläre hiermit eidesstattlich [durch meine eigenhändige Unterschrift], dass ich die vorliegende Arbeit selbständig verfasst und keine anderen als die angegebenen Quellen und Hilfsmittel verwendet habe. Alle Stellen, die wörtlich oder inhaltlich den angegebenen Quellen entnommen wurden, sind als solche kenntlich gemacht. Die vorliegende Arbeit wurde bisher in gleicher oder ähnlicher Form noch nicht als Bachelor-/ Master-/ Diplomarbeit/ Dissertation eingereicht. _________________________________ Datum, Unterschrift Acknowledgements I would like to use this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to my advisor Ao. Univ.-Prof. Dr. Hanna Wallinger for her invaluable advice and insightful contributions as well as her continuous support of my diploma thesis and the related research. Furthermore, I would like to extend my thanks to my friends and fellow students at the University of Salzburg, especially to Anna Griesacker and Maria Schreiner. Their loyalty and encouragement have kept me in good spirits throughout my whole studies and the writing process of this thesis in particular. Finally, I would like to give
    [Show full text]
  • The Developing Conjuncture and Some Insights from Hubert Harrison and Theodore W. Allen on the Centrality of the Fight Against White Supremacy
    The Developing Conjuncture and Some Insights from Hubert Harrison and Theodore W. Allen on the Centrality of the Fight against White Supremacy Jeffrey B. Perry Epigraph (In 22 parts) “The King James version of the Bible . does not contain the word ‘race’ in our modern sense . as late as 1611 our modern idea of race had not yet arisen.” – Hubert Harrison “World Problems of Race,” 1926 “When the first Africans arrived in Virginia in 1619, there were no ‘white’ people there; nor, according to the colonial records, would there be for another sixty years.” – Theodore W. Allen The Invention of the White Race, Vol. 1, 1994 (Written after searching through 885 county-years of Virginia’s colonial records) “In the latter half of the seventeenth century, [in] Virginia and Maryland, the tobacco colonies . Afro-American and European-American proletarians made common cause in this struggle to an extent never duplicated in the three hundred years since.” – Theodore W. Allen Class Struggle and the Origin of Racial Slavery: The Invention of the White Race, 1975 “ . the plantation bourgeoisie established a system of social control by the institutionalization of the ‘white’ race whereby the mass of poor whites was alienated from the black proletariat and enlisted as enforcers of bourgeois power.” – Theodore W. Allen Class Struggle and the Origin of Racial Slavery: The Invention of the White Race, 1975 Jeffrey B. Perry 2 “ . the record indicates that laboring-class European-Americans in the continental plantation colonies showed little interest in ‘white identity’ before the institution of the system of ‘race’ privileges at the end of the seventeenth century.” – Theodore W.
    [Show full text]
  • Abraham Lincoln, Kentucky African Americans and the Constitution
    Abraham Lincoln, Kentucky African Americans and the Constitution Kentucky African American Heritage Commission Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Collection of Essays Abraham Lincoln, Kentucky African Americans and the Constitution Kentucky African American Heritage Commission Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Collection of Essays Kentucky Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission Kentucky Heritage Council © Essays compiled by Alicestyne Turley, Director Underground Railroad Research Institute University of Louisville, Department of Pan African Studies for the Kentucky African American Heritage Commission, Frankfort, KY February 2010 Series Sponsors: Kentucky African American Heritage Commission Kentucky Historical Society Kentucky Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission Kentucky Heritage Council Underground Railroad Research Institute Kentucky State Parks Centre College Georgetown College Lincoln Memorial University University of Louisville Department of Pan African Studies Kentucky Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission The Kentucky Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission (KALBC) was established by executive order in 2004 to organize and coordinate the state's commemorative activities in celebration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of President Abraham Lincoln. Its mission is to ensure that Lincoln's Kentucky story is an essential part of the national celebration, emphasizing Kentucky's contribution to his thoughts and ideals. The Commission also serves as coordinator of statewide efforts to convey Lincoln's Kentucky story and his legacy of freedom, democracy, and equal opportunity for all. Kentucky African American Heritage Commission [Enabling legislation KRS. 171.800] It is the mission of the Kentucky African American Heritage Commission to identify and promote awareness of significant African American history and influence upon the history and culture of Kentucky and to support and encourage the preservation of Kentucky African American heritage and historic sites.
    [Show full text]
  • Domestic Violence Paradigms and Combating On-The-Job Violence Against Household Workers in the United States
    Michigan Journal of Gender & Law Volume 9 Issue 1 2002 "Just Like One of the Family": Domestic Violence Paradigms and Combating On-The-Job Violence Against Household Workers in the United States Kristi L. Graunke U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mjgl Part of the Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons, Labor and Employment Law Commons, Law and Gender Commons, Law and Race Commons, and the Legal History Commons Recommended Citation Kristi L. Graunke, "Just Like One of the Family": Domestic Violence Paradigms and Combating On-The-Job Violence Against Household Workers in the United States, 9 MICH. J. GENDER & L. 131 (2002). Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mjgl/vol9/iss1/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Michigan Journal of Gender & Law by an authorized editor of University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. "JUST LIKE ONE OF THE FAMILY": DOMESTIC VIOLENCE PARADIGMS AND COMBATING ON-THE- JOB VIOLENCE AGAINST HOUSEHOLD WORKERS IN THE UNITED STATES Iristi.C.raunke* INTRODUCTION 132 I. "SYNONYMOUS WITH THE WORST DEGRADATION THAT COMES TO WOMEN:" HOUSEHOLD WORK AND ABUSE FROM COLONIZATION TO THE PRESENT • 135 A. Pre-Civil War Accounts of Servitude and Abuse • 136 B. Domestic Workers'Experiences Post-Civil War to 1920 • 138 1. Domestic Workers in the North 138 2. Domestic Workers in the South 140 C.
    [Show full text]
  • Bamcinématek Presents Joe Dante at the Movies, 18 Days of 40 Genre-Busting Films, Aug 5—24
    BAMcinématek presents Joe Dante at the Movies, 18 days of 40 genre-busting films, Aug 5—24 “One of the undisputed masters of modern genre cinema.” —Tom Huddleston, Time Out London Dante to appear in person at select screenings Aug 5—Aug 7 The Wall Street Journal is the title sponsor for BAMcinématek and BAM Rose Cinemas. Jul 18, 2016/Brooklyn, NY—From Friday, August 5, through Wednesday, August 24, BAMcinématek presents Joe Dante at the Movies, a sprawling collection of Dante’s essential film and television work along with offbeat favorites hand-picked by the director. Additionally, Dante will appear in person at the August 5 screening of Gremlins (1984), August 6 screening of Matinee (1990), and the August 7 free screening of rarely seen The Movie Orgy (1968). Original and unapologetically entertaining, the films of Joe Dante both celebrate and skewer American culture. Dante got his start working for Roger Corman, and an appreciation for unpretentious, low-budget ingenuity runs throughout his films. The series kicks off with the essential box-office sensation Gremlins (1984—Aug 5, 8 & 20), with Zach Galligan and Phoebe Cates. Billy (Galligan) finds out the hard way what happens when you feed a Mogwai after midnight and mini terrors take over his all-American town. Continuing the necessary viewing is the “uninhibited and uproarious monster bash,” (Michael Sragow, New Yorker) Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990—Aug 6 & 20). Dante’s sequel to his commercial hit plays like a spoof of the original, with occasional bursts of horror and celebrity cameos. In The Howling (1981), a news anchor finds herself the target of a shape-shifting serial killer in Dante’s take on the werewolf genre.
    [Show full text]
  • Paul Shottner Eta' 45/50 Provenienza
    PAUL SHOTTNER ETA’ 45/50 PROVENIENZA Roma FILM (selection) Reves A Vendre Man In Gallery Lola Peploe/ Wildside Pictures Goldfish Starter Kit Joe Phil Miller/ Y Films The Palm Reader Robin Jonathan Bentovim/ Indivision Films The Image Thief Weston/ Supporting Corin Sworn/ Film & Video Umbrella Why did you buy me plastic Leonard/Lead Phil Miller/ Y Films flowers? Girlfriend Experience Pimp/ Supporting Ileana Pietrobruno/ Cineworks The Men’s Room Seth/ Lead David Crossman/ Quest Productions Part Time Mugger Mark Smith/ Lead Paul Shottner/ Oil Film Karma Cowboy Narrator Sonja Heiss & Vanessa Van Houten/ Komplizen Film/ REM Doku Holdin’ On Killer/ Lead Frank Feiler/ Atomic Film Production Mimic NYPD Officer/ Supporting Guillermo Del Toro/ Dimension Films Turkey Day Luzio/ Supporting Steven Sorentos/ Mustang Films Volcano National Guard/ Supporting Mick Jackson/ 20th Century Fox The Black Widow The Man/ Lead Andrew Blackwell/ Long And Winding Road Productions Sullivan Street Alan Barrow/ Lead Jesse E. Evans/ Big Dawg Productions The Prodigal Son Carl/ Lead Lamia Joreige/ Djinn House Productions TELEVISION (Selection) Zwei Brueder - Tod Im See Pater Steinhauer/ Principal Lars Becker/ ZDF The Second Civil War Journalist/ Supporting Joe Dante/ HBO Films Melrose Place Counter Clerk/ Supporting Charlie Corell/ Spelling TV/ Fox THEATER (Selection) A Hatful Of Rain Polo Pope/ Lead Simon Longmore/ VADA D. Centre The Usual Suspects Fred Fenster/ Principal 2 Way Mirror Prod./ UK & Ireland Tour In Transit Gregorio Kapelov/ Principal Sahar Thompson/ Open Space Theatre Nothing Zed/ Lead Paul Shottner/ Man In The Moon Theatre Les Liaisons Dangereuses Comte De Valmont/ Lead Irma Saundrey/ Strasberg Theatre Fool For Love Eddie/ Lead Irma Saundrey/ Strasberg Theatre Danny & The Deep Blue Sea Danny/ Lead Michael Margotta/ Strasberg Theatre COMMERCIALS & VOICE OVER List available upon request.
    [Show full text]
  • Our Housing Mess... and What Can Be Done About It
    DOCUMENT RESUME ED 102 229 UD 014 553 AUTHOR Blake, Peter TITLE Our Housing Mess... And What Can Be Done About It. INSTITUTION American Jewish Committee, New York, N.Y. Inst. of Human Relations. PUB DATE 74 NOTE 76p. AVAILABLE FROM Inst. of Human Relations Press, 165 E. 56 St., New York, New York 10022 ($1.25) EDIn PRICE 1,110-$0.76 HC Not Available from EDRS. PLUS POSTAGE DESCRIPTORS *City Problems; Depressed Areas (Geographic); Economically Disadvantaged; Federal Government; Federal Programs; Government Role; Housing Industry; *Housing Needs; Housing Patterns; Inner City; *Low Rent Housing; Policy Formation; Political Issues; *Public Policy; Real Estate ABSTRACT The housing crisis in the United States isprimarily urban. Unlike areas of urban blight, rural alums are notslums of despair by any means. "Slums of despair" is a term used in a receit study of urban life to describe those areas in someof our inner cities whose inhabitants feel they are utterly trapped--thatthey stand little chance of improving their lot. In thestudy, these desperate regions were contrasted with so-called "slumsof hope," where there was some visible evidence that government orthe community was committed to building new housing orrehabilitating what existed, as well as to creating jobs. This bookis concerned with the ways in which America's hopeless slumsmight be turned into healthy communities. In city after city, the reductionof housing stock has far outstripped the total constructionof new housing. The reasons for this erosion ofbadly needed low-rent housing are complex. Housing subsidies--which means,primarily, subsidies for land acquisition, mortgage interest and rent--areabsolutely essential if new housing is to be created to meet theneeds of low-income families.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction
    Introduction The Walter Havighurst Special Collections houses a wide array of American Civil War materials, including diaries, letters, official documents, photographs, printed books and ephemera. The items included in this exhibition are generally organized in the following sections: fighting for the Union, Miami University and the war, the rise and fall of the Confederacy, the state of medicine during the war, and the African American experience. Two “spotlight” cases are included in the exhibit: one showcases four diaries kept during the war and the other includes materials related to both Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis. As a complement to our year-long display of pages from Harper’s Weekly from the year 1861, we have also included a small exhibit on the practice of journalism during the war. As you browse this exhibit you will “hear” the voices of political leaders, Union soldiers, Miami students, Confederate generals and spies, former slaves, African American soldiers, hospital workers, sanitary agents and newspaper correspondents as they tell their own stories and experiences during the war. One of our voices from the past, David Basset Snow (1838-1925), was a student at Miami University from 1856 to 1862. From 1862 to 1865, Snow served as a sergeant in Co. K, 83rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Snow‟s letters to his brother Joseph, who was also a Miami graduate, are fascinating for their intelligent insights into the nation‟s conflict as well as for his beautiful prose. Quotations from his letters in each section of the exhibit provide an eyewitness “narration” of the war. The exhibit title comes from a letter he wrote at the start of the war when he was still a The Boys of the University: student at Miami.
    [Show full text]
  • Memories of Slavery Days in Kentucky
    MEMORIES OF SLAVERY DAYS IN KENTUCKY BY LOWELL H. I-IARmSON # Western Kentucky University A complicating factor in the study of slavery in Kentucky or else. where is the scarcity of materials which reveal the thought of the slave himself. Most records of the "peculiar institution" depict it as the owners saw it, or as viewed by a traveler passing through the South, or as denounced by an abolitionist. Of course some slaves or former slaves wrote accounts of their servitude, but they were exceptions; most of the millions of slaves who lived in the United States left no record of their bondage. By the 1920's the number of former slaves was dwindling rapidly, and several scholars became convinced that a systematic effort should be made to preserve their memories of a vanished era and a discarded institution. Increased interest in black culture, inspired by such scholars as Carter G. Woodson and W. E. B. DuBois, contributed to the grow- ing interest in preserving such information. Fisk and Southern uni- versifies both attempted interview projects in 1929, but they were handicapped by insut•cient funds, and little was accomplished.1 In 1934 Lawrence D. Reddick, then a faculty member at Kentucky State College, proposed the establishment of a comprehensive federal project to collect the information. The project could be staffed, he sug- gested, by unemployed graduates of Negro colleges as a part of the federal work relief program. His project was not successful, but the idea was soon adopted for a program conducted under the auspices of the Federal Writers' Project, a part of the Works Progress Administra- tion.2 The preliminary interviewing of ex-slaves under this program began in Georgia in 1936; formal instructions were issued on April 1, 1937.
    [Show full text]
  • Race & Ethnicity in America
    RACE & ETHNICITY IN AMERICA TURNING A BLIND EYE TO INJUSTICE Cover Photos Top: Farm workers labor in difficult conditions. -Photo courtesy of the Farmworker Association of Florida (www.floridafarmworkers.org) Middle: A march to the state capitol by Mississippi students calling for juvenile justice reform. -Photo courtesy of ACLU of Mississippi Bottom: Officers guard prisoners on a freeway overpass in the days after Hurricane Katrina. -Photo courtesy of Reuters/Jason Reed Race & Ethnicity in America: Turning a Blind Eye to Injustice Published December 2007 OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS Nadine Strossen, President Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director Richard Zacks, Treasurer ACLU NATIONAL OFFICE 125 Broad Street, 18th Fl. New York, NY 10004-2400 (212) 549-2500 www.aclu.org TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 13 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 15 RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE UNITED STATES 25 THE FAILURE OF THE UNITED STATES TO COMPLY WITH THE INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION ON THE ELIMINATION OF ALL FORMS OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION 31 ARTICLE 1 DEFINITION OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION 31 U.S. REDEFINES CERD’S “DISPARATE IMPACT” STANDARD 31 U.S. LAW PROVIDES LIMITED USE OF DOMESTIC DISPARATE IMPACT STANDARD 31 RESERVATIONS, DECLARATIONS & UNDERSTANDINGS 32 ARTICLE 2 ELIMINATE DISCRIMINATION & PROMOTE RACIAL UNDERSTANDING 33 ELIMINATE ALL FORMS OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION & PROMOTE UNDERSTANDING (ARTICLE 2(1)) 33 U.S. MUST ENSURE PUBLIC AUTHORITIES AND INSTITUTIONS DO NOT DISCRIMINATE 33 U.S. MUST TAKE MEASURES NOT TO SPONSOR, DEFEND, OR SUPPORT RACIAL DISCRIMINATION 34 Enforcement of Employment Rights 34 Enforcement of Housing and Lending Rights 36 Hurricane Katrina 38 Enforcement of Education Rights 39 Enforcement of Anti-Discrimination Laws in U.S. Territories 40 Enforcement of Anti-Discrimination Laws by the States 41 U.S.
    [Show full text]
  • Sexual Violence in the Slaveholding Regimes of Louisiana and Texas: Patterns of Abuse in Black Testimony
    Sexual Violence in the Slaveholding Regimes of Louisiana and Texas: Patterns of Abuse in Black Testimony Thesis submitted in accordance with the requirements of the University of Liverpool for the degree of Doctor in Philosophy by Andrea Helen Livesey June 2015 UAbstract This study is concerned with the sexual abuse of enslaved women and girls by white men in the antebellum South. Interviews conducted by the Federal Writers’ Project in the 1930s are studied alongside nineteenth-century narratives of the formerly enslaved in order to make calculations of the scale of abuse in the South, but also to discover which conditions, social spaces and situations were, and possibly still are, most conducive to the sexual abuse of women and girls. This thesis is separated into two parts. Part One establishes a methodology for working with testimony of the formerly enslaved and determines the scale of sexual abuse using all available 1930s interviews with people who had lived in Louisiana and Texas under slavery. This systematic quantitative analysis is a key foundation from which to interpret the testimony of abuse that is explored according to different forms of sexual violence in Part Two. It is argued that abuse was endemic in the South, and occurred on a scale that was much higher than has been argued in previous studies. Enslaved people could experience a range of white male sexually abusive behaviours: rape, sexual slavery and forced breeding receive particular attention in this study due to the frequency with which they were mentioned by the formerly enslaved. These abuses are conceptualised as existing on a continuum of sexual violence that, alongside other less frequently mentioned practices, pervaded the lives of all enslaved people.
    [Show full text]
  • Contending Discourses of Black Autobiography: Respectability, Authenticity, and Masculinity
    DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5007/2175-8026.2021.e78580 CONTENDING DISCOURSES OF BLACK AUTOBIOGRAPHY: RESPECTABILITY, AUTHENTICITY, AND MASCULINITY Anthony S. Foy1* 1Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA, Unites States Summary After historicizing the politics of racial representation in the slave narrative, this article considers how race, gender, and class intersect historically in the autobiographical production of Black men in the United States. At the dawn of the Jim Crow era, Black autobiography conformed to a cultural politics of racial synecdoche, which avowed that racial progress depended on the respectability of esteemed individuals. Dominated by aspirational figures who presented themselves as racial emblems, Black autobiography became closely aligned with the imperatives of Black middle-class formation, actuating a discrete form of racial publicity that erected disciplinary boundaries around Black self-presentation and silenced disreputable figures. With the emergence of criminal and sexual self-reference, whether subtle or striking, in the narratives of Black men, autobiographers like boxer Jack Johnson, scholar J. Saunders Redding, and writer Claude Brown, disrupted the class-bound constraints that had determined Black autobiographical production, staging an internecine class struggle over the terms of racial representation—that is, between contending discourses of racial respectability and racial authenticity. Keywords: Black autobiography; racial uplift; crime; sexuality; phallocentric masculinity * Associate Professor, Dept.
    [Show full text]