DOCSLIB.ORG

Women but Not Sisters: Harriet A. Jacobs's Angered Literary Reply to Harriet B. Stowe

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Women but Not Sisters: Harriet A. Jacobs's Angered Literary Reply to Harriet B. Stowe Rel'ista de Eswdíos Nortea111erica110.,, n." 61 /99R). pp. 35 - 50 WOMEN BUT NOT SISTERS: HARRIET A. JACOBS'S ANGERED LITERARY REPLY TO HARRIET B. STOWE CARME MANUEL Univcrsitat de Valencia Aftcr thc publication of Une/e 1rm1 's Cabin. Ralph Waldo Emerson said that the novel «encircled the globe, and was the only book that found readers in the parlor. thc nurscry, and the kitchcn in cvery household» (Gossett 165 ). Thc reaction of its readers was extraordinarily controverted. Whilc some cried their cyes out and wrote enthusiastic lcttcrs to the book publishers, others waved the war hatchet against Stowc's antislavcry work. Among other things. Uncle Tom ·.~ Cahin helped to build nationally and internationally an image of slavcry and Afro-American identity within the peculi ar institution. In fact. in her rcview on Dred-Stowe's second antislavcry novel- , Gcorgc Eliot dcclarcd that with both works «Mrs. Stowe has invented the black novel.» 1 Will iam Stanley Braithwaitc thought likewise in 1925. For this critic, Uncle Tom 's Cabin was «thc first conspicuous cxample of the Negro as a subjcct for litcrary trcatment. » (30) Literary replics by Afro-American writers did not take long to appear. According to Bernard W. Bell, thc nineteenth-century black authors who responded to the images of blacks created by white literature were mainly influcnced by the Bible, popular fiction. and especially abolitionist rhetoric, which became «by far the most useful tradition for thc didactic purposcs of black novelists.» The clcments ingrained in works such as U11cle Tom 's Cabin -«the formal diction, rhythmic cadenccs. balanced syntax, stark mctaphors, and clcvated tone ... - providcd the stylistic blcnd of matter-of-factness and sentimentali ty necessary for the ir initial moral and political appeals primarily to white readers.» (27-28) Richard Yarborough also analyses the impact of Une/e Tom 's Cahin 1. The Westmi11srer Review. October 1856. Quoted in Ammnns. Critica/ 43-44. 36 Carme Manuel on Afro-American ninetecnth-ccntury fiction since, whatcver attitude these writers felt towards Stowc or towards her novel, they «inevitably wrote in her wake.» This <loes not mean that they consciously created their works fol lowing this best-seller, but that thc novel «cmbodied a whole conste ll ation of preexisting, often conflicting ideas regarding racc, powcrfull y dramatized them in a sentimental fashion, presented them with an unabashedly didactic reformist message, and, linally proceeded to sell likc the dickens .» Al the same time, in providing a litcrary form and a whitc audiencc rcady to assimilate antislavcry protest, Stowc «also hclpcd to establish a range of character types that scrved to bind and restrict black authors for decades.» (72)~ Among the Afro-American works that directly responded to Stowe, it is importan! to mention Solomon Northup's Twelve Years a SI are ( 1853 ), Frederick Douglass's «The Heroic Slave» ( 1853) :md his re vi sed autobiography. My Bv11dage ami My Freedom ( 1855), as well as Martin Delany's Blake; 01; the Huts ofAm erica (1859), a novel which explicitly calls for a black revolutionary power.' Nineteenth-century Afro-American women writers also responded to Stowe. Elizabeth Ammons studies this influence in the work of Harriet E. Wilson, Sarah Lee Brown Fleming, Frances Ellen Watkins Hm·pcr and Angelina W. Grimké.4 This is just a samplc of Afro-American works writlen in the light of Stowe's novel, as thc list continued well into the twentieth-century.5 They come to demonstratc what Shelley. F. Fishkin calls «the interplay between Afro-American and white culture in the United States» and Wcrncr Sollors labels as «the pcrvasiveness of cultural syncretism in America.» ( 135, 141) Following their pathbreaking studies and retaking 2. Richard Yarborough states that «black writers could not help hut be convinced that if enough ofthe right ingrediems were combined in thc right proportions under the right conditions. thcy too could concoct deeply political novels that rnight tap the same rnass audience that Stowe did and thereby shape the altitudes of whites toward the black minority in the United States» (72). This critic studies this intluencc in sorne Afro-American authors: J. W. Howard"s Bond and Free: A True Tale ofS/m•e Times ( 1886). Frances Ellcn Watkins Harper's /ola Lemy. or Shaduws Uplífted ( 1892). Victoria Earle's IMatthews] A11111 Lind_\~ A Story Fowuled 011 Real Life ( 1892), Waltcr H . Stowers and William H. Anderson·s Appoí11ted ( 1894). and Charles W. Chesnutt's The Marrow of Tradilíon ( 1901 ). For William L. Andrews. Harriet Beechcr Stowe «provided a powerful impetus to the revolution of literary priorities that would impel black autobiographers further and further away from white precedents» ( 179). 3. About the ways Douglass revises Stowe in My Bonda¡¡e mzd Mv Freedom, see Sundquist, New Essays 17-18. and also the chapter «Signs of Power: Nat Tumer ami Frcderick Douglass» in his To Wake the Nations (27- 134). Likcwise Robert B. Stcpm's «Sharing thc Thunden> makes a comparison between Une/e Tom"s Cabi11 and Douglass's «The Heroic Slave», asan example of textual conversation on antislavery rhetoric. On the other hand. Sundquist considers Blake as a literary reply to Stowc, Douglass, ami Melville ( «Conspiracy» 54). See al so the second chaptcr of 7ii Wake the Nlllio11s. «Mclville, Delany, and New World Slavery» ( 135-224 ). 4 . Anunons analyses the work of these writers as a rcflection and reconstruction of the maternal theme in Unde Tom"s Cabi11. Scc «Stowc's Dream». 5 . Anmng the hest known are, for cxample. Richard Wright"s U11cle Trmr 's Children ( 1938). lshmael Reed's A Flight 10 Canada ( 1976) and Toni M orrison ·s Beloved ( 1987). Women Rut No! Sisters: Harriet A. Jacohs's A11xered Literary Rep/y to Harriet 8. Stoll'e 37 Toni Morrison 's call to literary researchers «to acknowledge the very mixcd Ji terary bloodlines on both sides». I will discuss that Harrict A. J acobs 's bzcidents in the Lije of a Slave Girl: Writte11 by Herselfwas also wrilten in thc wakc of Stowc's extraordinarily popular best-scller. Thc aim of this essay is to analysc how Jacobs manages to fashion a rnultiple representation in her text that is directly related to the literary modes employed by Harriet Beecher Stowe in Uncle Tom 's Cabi11. and that they shape not only the presentation of her experience but. also and most importantly, the ways in which she cxpects to impact readers. In 1861 Harrict A. Jacobs, after endless cfforts to find a publishcr, brought out /ncidems in the Lije v.f a SI ave Girl: Written hy Herseif on her own, hut soon after, thc book and its author fell into oblivion. The fcw critics who knew aboul it thought it a dictated narrative by a fugitive slavc; others bclicved il to be a fictional account written in thc form of a slave narrative by a white abolition i st.~ In both cases it was dismissed altogether as a poorly writtcn work marred by its sentimentality and moralizing. Not until Jean Fagan Yell in 's research authenticated Jacobs's authorship did the hook start to receive its due scholarly attention. Jean F. Yellin explains that «it is no accident that man y critics mistook Jacobs 's narrativc for fiction. » ( «Introduction» xxix) Linda Brcnt, Jacobs's alter-ego and her book's heroine and narrator, tells an ambiguous story of triumph. Her confessional account of her fall and guilt is presentecl to thc rcader to be judged in thc same way as thc helpless virtuous Richardsonian or Rowsonian heroine. But this is only apparently becausc, even if it is undoubtedly true thal the strategies Jacobs uti lizes in her narrative clraw inspirntion from well-known popular fiction devices, Une/e Tom '.~ Cabin is the book she responds to and, in her attcmpt to give a true and jusl account of the evils of slavery for women. shc suhverts Harrict Bcecher Stowe's tcxt and gives form lo her black voice. The relationship betwcen Jacobs and Stowc can be considered from a twofold pcrspectivc: from a pcrsonal-professional point of view and from a Iitcrary stance. Jacobs was fully awarc of the importance of Stowe and of the lcgitimizing powcr that her voice could con fer to her own story if the whitc wri tcr accepted to actas a mediator in producing a dictatcd narrativc. Bul she did not come up to Jacobs's cxpectations. According to Joan D. Hedrick, «publicly succcssful, Stowe was not as skillful and scnsitive in a private antislavery rnattcr.» (248) First. Stowe dcclined Jacobs's proposal of her daughters' accornpanying her to England. Moreover, she did not believe Jacobs's 6. John Blassingame is regardcd to he onc of the most importalll male scholars who eslablished this train of thought in his Tf1e Slnn! Comm1111ity: P/amatio11 Lije i11 the A11tebel/11111 Sowh ( 1979). For 131assingame. «thc story is too melodramatic: misccgcnation and cruelty, outragcd vi1iue, unrequited love. and planter licentiousness appear on practically every page» (373). Carby rcplies to his opinion in 45-6. Yellin prescnts a summary of the different positions defended by schnlars in «Tcxts and Contexts». For a discussion of the factors influencing thc acceptance of a slave narrator's voicc as authentic, secAndrcws 1-7. 22-:l l. 97-105. 38 Carme Ma11uel autobiographical narrativc at her first readi ng and sent it to Mrs. Willis, Jacobs·s white northern employcr, for verification. If it turncd out to be true, then she would use it as material for her Key to Uncle Tom 's Cabin. Jacob s's strategy of hiding in the attic was strikingly similar to thc trick Cassy devised to chcat Legree, and Stowe hoped to use it to corroborate her fiction.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Intertextual Abolitionists: Frederick Douglass, Lord Byron, and the Print, Politics, and Language of Slavery
    DePaul University Via Sapientiae College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences 6-2019 Intertextual abolitionists: Frederick Douglass, Lord Byron, and the print, politics, and language of slavery Jake Spangler DePaul University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://via.library.depaul.edu/etd Recommended Citation Spangler, Jake, "Intertextual abolitionists: Frederick Douglass, Lord Byron, and the print, politics, and language of slavery" (2019). College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations. 273. https://via.library.depaul.edu/etd/273 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences at Via Sapientiae. It has been accepted for inclusion in College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Via Sapientiae. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Intertextual Abolitionists: Frederick Douglass, Lord Byron, and the Print, Politics, and Language of Slavery A Thesis Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts June 2019 BY Jake C. Spangler Department of English College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences DePaul University Chicago, Illinois This project is lovingly dedicated to the memory of Jim Cowan Father, Friend, Teacher Table of Contents Dedication / i Table of Contents / ii Acknowledgements / iii Introduction / 1 I. “I Could Not Deem Myself a Slave” / 9 II. The Heroic Slave / 26 III. The “Files” of Frederick Douglass / 53 Bibliography / 76 Acknowledgements This project would not have been possible without the support of several scholars and readers.
    [Show full text]
  • Julia Faisst, Phin Beiheft
    PhiN Beiheft | Supplement 5/2012: 71 Julia Faisst (Siegen) Degrees of Exposure: Frederick Douglass, Daguerreotypes, and Representations of Freedom1 This essay investigates the picture-making processes in the writings of Frederick Douglass, one of the most articulate critics of photography in the second half of the nineteenth century. Through his fiction, speeches on photography, three autobiographies, and frontispieces, he fashioned himself as the most "representative" African American of his time, and effectively updated and expanded the image of the increasingly emancipated African American self. Tracing Douglass's project of self-fashioning – both of himself and his race – with the aid of images as well as words is the major aim of this essay. Through a close reading of the historical novella "The Heroic Slave," I examine how the face of a slave imprints itself on the photographic memory of a white man as it would on a silvered daguerreotype plate – transforming the latter into a committed abolitionist. The essay furthermore uncovers how the transformation of the novella's slave into a free man is described in terms of various photographic genres: first a "type," Augustus Washington (whose life story mirrors that of Douglass) changes into a subject worthy of portraiture. As he explored photographic genres in his writings, Douglass launched the genre of African American fiction. Moreover, through his pronounced interest in mixed media, he functioned as an immediate precursor to modernist authors who produced literature on the basis of photographic imagery. Overall, this essay reveals how Douglass performed his own progress within his photographically inflected writings, and turned both himself and his characters into free people.
    [Show full text]
  • RIVERFRONT CIRCULATING MATERIALS (Can Be Checked Out)
    SLAVERY BIBLIOGRAPHY TOPICS ABOLITION AMERICAN REVOLUTION & SLAVERY AUDIO-VISUAL BIOGRAPHIES CANADIAN SLAVERY CIVIL WAR & LINCOLN FREE AFRICAN AMERICANS GENERAL HISTORY HOME LIFE LATIN AMERICAN & CARIBBEAN SLAVERY LAW & SLAVERY LITERATURE/POETRY NORTHERN SLAVERY PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF SLAVERY/POST-SLAVERY RELIGION RESISTANCE SLAVE NARRATIVES SLAVE SHIPS SLAVE TRADE SOUTHERN SLAVERY UNDERGROUND RAILROAD WOMEN ABOLITION Abolition and Antislavery: A historical encyclopedia of the American mosaic Hinks, Peter. Greenwood Pub Group, c2015. 447 p. R 326.8 A (YRI) Abolition! : the struggle to abolish slavery in the British Colonies Reddie, Richard S. Oxford : Lion, c2007. 254 p. 326.09 R (YRI) The abolitionist movement : ending slavery McNeese, Tim. New York : Chelsea House, c2008. 142 p. 973.71 M (YRI) 1 The abolitionist legacy: from Reconstruction to the NAACP McPherson, James M. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, c1975. 438 p. 322.44 M (YRI) All on fire : William Lloyd Garrison and the abolition of slavery Mayer, Henry, 1941- New York : St. Martin's Press, c1998. 707 p. B GARRISON (YWI) Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the heroic campaign to end slavery Metaxas, Eric New York, NY : Harper, c2007. 281p. B WILBERFORCE (YRI, YWI) American to the backbone : the life of James W.C. Pennington, the fugitive slave who became one of the first black abolitionists Webber, Christopher. New York : Pegasus Books, c2011. 493 p. B PENNINGTON (YRI) The Amistad slave revolt and American abolition. Zeinert, Karen. North Haven, CT : Linnet Books, c1997. 101p. 326.09 Z (YRI, YWI) Angelina Grimke : voice of abolition. Todras, Ellen H., 1947- North Haven, Conn. : Linnet Books, c1999. 178p. YA B GRIMKE (YWI) The antislavery movement Rogers, James T.
    [Show full text]
  • When Sons Remember Their Fathers
    Swarthmore College Works History Faculty Works History Winter 1997 When Sons Remember Their Fathers Bruce Dorsey Swarthmore College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://works.swarthmore.edu/fac-history Part of the History Commons Let us know how access to these works benefits ouy Recommended Citation Bruce Dorsey. (1997). "When Sons Remember Their Fathers". Kenyon Review. Volume 19, Issue 1. 162-166. https://works.swarthmore.edu/fac-history/120 This work is brought to you for free by Swarthmore College Libraries' Works. It has been accepted for inclusion in History Faculty Works by an authorized administrator of Works. For more information, please contact [email protected]. BRUCE DORSEY WHEN SONS REMEMBER THEIR FATHERS Fathering the Nation: American Genealogies of Slavery and Freedom. By Russ Castronovo. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995. 295 pp. $32.00. Over the past half decade, historians of American culture have been attracted to two quite disparate avenues of inquiry, one involving a heightened understanding of memory and the second expanding the parameters of gender to include the meanings of masculinity. Certainly the mythic and cultural significance of the "Founding Fathers" for a generation of Americans on the eve of the Civil War offers a rich field for exploring both of these. An understanding of the "Founding Fathers" demands an analysis of the relationships between fathers and sons (both real and metaphorical) as well as the manner in which different antebellum Americans constructed
    [Show full text]
  • 1. Slavery, Resistance and the Slave Narrative
    “I have often tried to write myself a pass” A Systemic-Functional Analysis of Discourse in Selected African American Slave Narratives Tobias Pischel de Ascensão Dissertation zur Erlangung des Grades eines Doktors der Philosophie am Fachbereich Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaft der Universität Osnabrück Hauptberichterstatter: Prof. Dr. Oliver Grannis Nebenberichterstatter: Prof. Dr. Ulrich Busse Osnabrück, 01.12.2003 Contents i Contents List of Tables iii List of Figures iv Conventions and abbreviations v Preface vi 0. Introduction: the slave narrative as an object of linguistic study 1 1. Slavery, resistance and the slave narrative 6 1.1 Slavery and resistance 6 1.2 The development of the slave narrative 12 1.2.1 The first phase 12 1.2.2 The second phase 15 1.2.3 The slave narrative after 1865 21 2. Discourse, power, and ideology in the slave narrative 23 2.1 The production of disciplinary knowledge 23 2.2 Truth, reality, and ideology 31 2.3 “The writer” and “the reader” of slave narratives 35 2.3.1 Slave narrative production: “the writer” 35 2.3.2 Slave narrative reception: “the reader” 39 3. The language of slave narratives as an object of study 42 3.1 Investigations in the language of the slave narrative 42 3.2 The “plain-style”-fallacy 45 3.3 Linguistic expression as functional choice 48 3.4 The construal of experience and identity 51 3.4.1 The ideational metafunction 52 3.4.2 The interpersonal metafunction 55 3.4.3 The textual metafunction 55 3.5 Applying systemic grammar 56 4.
    [Show full text]
  • Community and Status of the African American Slave Population at Charles Pinckney National Historic Site, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina Amy C
    Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2007 The Affinities and Disparities within: Community and Status of the African American Slave Population at Charles Pinckney National Historic Site, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina Amy C. Kowal Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES THE AFFINITIES AND DISPARITIES WITHIN: COMMUNITY AND STATUS OF THE AFRICAN AMERICAN SLAVE POPULATION AT CHARLES PINCKNEY NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE, MOUNT PLEASANT, SOUTH CAROLINA By AMY C. KOWAL A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Anthropology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2007 Copyright © 2007 Amy C. Kowal All Rights Reserved The members of the Committee approve the dissertation of Amy C. Kowal defended on December 14, 2006. ____________________________ Glen H. Doran Professor Directing Dissertation ____________________________ Dennis Moore Outside Committee Member ____________________________ Joseph Hellweg Committee Member ____________________________ Bennie C. Keel Committee Member Approved: _____________________________________________ Dean Falk, Chair, Department of Anthropology _____________________________________________ Joseph Travis, Dean, College of Arts and Sciences The Office of Graduate Studies has verified and approved the above named committee members. ii This dissertation is dedicated to Bill Kowal for all his love and support. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to acknowledge the significant influence and exemplar of several people. My advisor through both my masters and doctorate education is Glen H. Doran. His advice and encouragement throughout my graduate education has been invaluable. I am thankful for his offers of assistance and collaboration on his projects.
    [Show full text]
  • Transatlantica, 1 | 2018 Confronting Race Head-On in 12 Years a Slave (Steve Mcqueen, 2013): Redefinin
    Transatlantica Revue d’études américaines. American Studies Journal 1 | 2018 Slavery on Screen / American Women Writers Abroad: 1849-1976 Confronting Race Head-on in 12 Years a Slave (Steve McQueen, 2013): Redefining the Contours of the Classic Biopic? Anne-Marie Paquet-Deyris Electronic version URL: http://journals.openedition.org/transatlantica/11593 DOI: 10.4000/transatlantica.11593 ISSN: 1765-2766 Publisher AFEA Electronic reference Anne-Marie Paquet-Deyris, “Confronting Race Head-on in 12 Years a Slave (Steve McQueen, 2013): Redefining the Contours of the Classic Biopic?”, Transatlantica [Online], 1 | 2018, Online since 05 September 2019, connection on 29 April 2021. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/transatlantica/ 11593 ; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/transatlantica.11593 This text was automatically generated on 29 April 2021. Transatlantica – Revue d'études américaines est mis à disposition selon les termes de la licence Creative Commons Attribution - Pas d'Utilisation Commerciale - Pas de Modification 4.0 International. Confronting Race Head-on in 12 Years a Slave (Steve McQueen, 2013): Redefinin... 1 Confronting Race Head-on in 12 Years a Slave (Steve McQueen, 2013): Redefining the Contours of the Classic Biopic? Anne-Marie Paquet-Deyris 1 During the Obama years, the issue of race seemed to dissolve into the so-called “post- racial” era in the media. For critics such as H. Roy Kaplan in The Myth of Post-Racial America: Searching for Equality in the Age of Materialism (2011) and David J. Leonard and Lisa A. Guerrero in African Americans on Television: Race-ing for Ratings (2013), however, such colorblindness led to the bypassing of any direct confrontation with the persistent problems linked to race in contemporary American society.
    [Show full text]
  • The African Americanization of <Italic>Bleak House</Italic>
    Close Reading at a Distance: The African Americanization of Bleak House Author(s): Daniel Hack Source: Critical Inquiry, Vol. 34, No. 4 (Summer 2008), pp. 729-753 Published by: The University of Chicago Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/592542 . Accessed: 01/02/2011 16:55 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at . http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ucpress. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. The University of Chicago Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Critical Inquiry. http://www.jstor.org Close Reading at a Distance: The African Americanization of Bleak House Daniel Hack On 1 October 1851, in Syracuse, New York, a man named Jerry was arrested by federal marshals acting under the authority of the Fugitive Slave Act.
    [Show full text]
  • Frederick Douglass and 'The Heroic Slave^
    Models of Agency: Frederick Douglass and 'The Heroic Slave^ CYNTHIA S. HAMILTON 'THE HEROIC SLAVE,' a novella by Frederick Douglass that was publisbed twice in 1853—in Autographs for Freedo?», a collection of writings by prominent antislavery leaders, and in Frederick Doîtglass' PíZper'—has attracted recent interest and commentary about its complex allusions, literary and historical. Some of the at- tention has focused on Douglass's use of the American Revolution and its ideas and heroes, on Listwell as an abolitionist role model for readers, and on 'The Heroic Slave' within the context of the This article has been in preparation for longer than I like to recall, and my indebtedness bas g;rown witb the years. This essay began to take shape during researcb undertaken witb the belpof a British Academy-funded study leave in 1995. ^^'^ Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society are a fitting place for it to appear; without my exposure to the re- sources availahle at AAS during researcb visits in 1998 and 1999, tbis essay would not enjoy the richness of primary reference it contains, I am also indebted to tbe help of indi- vidual archivists, particularly to Ann Wakeficid, archivist at the New Orleans Notarial Ar- chives Research Center and to Adrienne Cannon, manuscript specialist at tbe Library of Congress for their belp in locating materials. I. The African American Newspapers: The 19th Century, item #3 3089, from Frederick Douglass' Paper, jamvàry 21. 1853, indicates that Autographs for Freedom is availahle for pur- chase at that date. Item #35676 dates tbe appearance of tbe first part of 'The Heroic Slave,' in Frederick Douglass' Paper as March 4, 1853.
    [Show full text]
  • The Heroic Slave and the Introduction to Benito Cereno
    The Heroic Slave and the Introduction to Benito Cereno 1 Outline The Heroic Slave Intro to the text, true events Role of the white abolitionist in the text: A call to action Double standards in the text and in society Introduction to Benito Cereno Background on Herman Melville Contextualizing events and observations in varying conditions 2 Intro to the Text The Heroic Slave is a short fictional piece written by abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass. It was originally published in 1852 and inspired by an enslaved cook named Madison Washington. © CreateSpace. All rights reserved. This content is excluded from our Creative Commons license. For more information, see http://ocw.mit.edu/help/faq-fair-use/ 3 The Heroic Slave: Based on a True Story The Man: Madison Washington was a slave who successfully fled to Canada, then returned to Virginia for his wife and was recaptured. The Action: In November 1841, he led a rebellion on the Creole, a slave ship on the way to New Orleans, then directed it to Nassau, where slaves had been set free. The Results: Washington and his conspirators were jailed and tried for mutiny, but eventually found not guilty. The other slaves on the ship were free under British colonial law. 4 The Heroic Slave Mr. Listwell: A call to action Douglas credits the first steps of the rebellion to Mr. Listwell, a white abolitionist. 5 This image is in the public domain. The Heroic Slave “You call me a black murderer. I am not a murderer. God is my witness that LIBERTY not malice, is the motive for this night's work...We have done that which you applaud your fathers for doing, and if we are murderers, so were they.” (pg.
    [Show full text]
  • A Canada in the South: Marronage in Antebellum American Literature
    City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 2-2017 A Canada in the South: Marronage in Antebellum American Literature Sean Gerrity The Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/1896 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] A CANADA IN THE SOUTH: MARRONAGE IN ANTEBELLUM AMERICAN LITERATURE by SEAN GERRITY A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in English in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 2017 © 2017 SEAN GERRITY All Rights Reserved ii A Canada in the South: Marronage in Antebellum American Literature by Sean Gerrity This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in English in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. __________________ ___________________________________________ Date Eric Lott Chair of Examining Committee __________________ ___________________________________________ Date Mario DiGangi Executive Officer Supervisory Committee: Eric Lott Duncan Faherty Robert Reid-Pharr THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iii ABSTRACT A Canada in the South: Marronage in Antebellum American Literature by Sean Gerrity Advisor: Eric Lott This dissertation considers maroons—enslaved people who fled from slavery and self- exiled to places like swamps and forests—in the textual and historical worlds of the pre-Civil War United States.
    [Show full text]
  • DHAR-DISSERTATION-2013.Pdf
    DISCLAIMER: This document does not meet current format guidelines Graduate School at the The University of Texas at Austin. of the It has been published for informational use only. ! " # $ %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% ! ! & " ' # $ ( )*'*+ *'* " # $ %& %' " # ( !) ( *+ , %& %' ,-./ ! " # $ " % & # ' % # ( " )* * ! ( + & (, - ./ , % - " # . % $ 0 ( " 12 ' 34 2 ( % 5 6 4 # 5 6 4 # $ 0 ( " 4 # 1 ' % " " # 4 "0 4 - " ! ( 4 % $ # ,- 7 % & # ' 2 4 +25 "( % " +8 3 . - # " " % + % % ' " , + % " 9 / $ 0 ( " :;<= ( ( (4 - " > % 3% - " 4 2 ( 3 .
    [Show full text]