DOCSLIB.ORG

The Politics and Culture of Literacy in Georgia, 1800-1920

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Politics and Culture of Literacy in Georgia, 1800-1920 THE POLITICS AND CULTURE OF LITERACY IN GEORGIA, 1800-1920 Bruce Fort Atlanta, Georgia B. A., Georgetown University, 1985 M.A., University of Virginia, 1989 A Dissertation Presented to the Graduate Faculty of the University of Virginia in Candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Corcoran Department of History University of Virginia August 1999 © Copyright by Bruce Fort All Rights Reserved August 1999 ABSTRACT This dissertation examines the uses and meanings of reading in the nineteenth­ century American South. In a region where social relations were largely defined by slavery and its aftermath, contests over education were tense, unpredictable, and frequently bloody. Literacy figured centrally in many of the region's major struggles: the relationship between slaveowners and slaves, the competing efforts to create and constrain black freedom following emancipation, and the disfranchisement of black voters at the turn of the century. Education signified piety and propriety, self-culture and self-control, all virtues carefully cultivated and highly prized in nineteenth-century America. Early advocates of public schooling argued that education and citizenship were indissociable, a sentiment that was refined and reshaped over the course of the nineteenth century. The effort to define this relationship, throughout the century a leitmotif of American public life, bubbled to the surface in the South at critical moments: during the early national period, as Americans sought to put the nation's founding principles into motion; during the 1830s, as insurrectionists and abolitionists sought to undermine slavery; during Reconstruction, with the institution of black male citizenship; and at last, during the disfranchisement movement of the 1890s and 1900s, with the imposition of literacy tests. This study examines each of these episodes in turn, focusing especially on how iii the ideology of literacy was contested and redefined, how the ability to read and write came to stand for moral, social, and civic worthiness, and how that perception of worthiness was, by the end of the nineteenth century, cynically and perversely twisted into a justification for disfranchisement under the guise of what was blandly and misleadingly termed "qualified suffrage." The capricious manner in which literacy tests were administered made a mockery of the ideals of an informed citizenry. White Democrats sometimes drew on the language of principle as they wrote the disfranchisement laws, but they had their eyes fixed firmly on the bottom line: their goal was to solidify their political and racial domination by eliminating black voters from the rolls. Disfranchisement left the political process atrophied and hollow in the Southern states for the next sixty-five years. IV CONTENTS LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. v1 LIST OF TABLES .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. vu LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. .. .. .. .. .. .. vm ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 1x Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION: THE PROBLEM OF LITERACY IN THE AMERICAN SOUTH........................... 1 2. THE PARSON'S FLYING LIBRARY: MASON LOCKE WEEMS AND THE SOUTHERN BOOKTRADE, 1800-1825 . .. 28 3. LETTERS AND THE LAW OF BONDAGE: THE STRUGGLE OVER SLAVE LITERACY. .. .. .. .. .. 77 4. "IN THEIR OWN TONGUE AND TONE": WHITE READING AND WRITING, 1820-1865 . .. .. 141 5. "KNOWLEDGE IS POWER": EDUCATION AND CITIZENSHIP DURING WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION. .. .. .. 191 6. THE FIRST GENERATION OF FREEDOM: ATLANTA UNIVERSITY AND THE CAMPAIGN FOR BLACK LITERACY IN THE NEW SOUTH, 1865-1900 . .. .. 231 7. LITERACY TESTS AND THE IDEOLOGY OF "QUALIFIED SUFFRAGE": UNDERSTANDING DISFRANCHISEMENT IN GEORGIA . .. .. .. 265 WORKS CITED . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 283 V ILLUSTRATIONS Figure Page 1. The Rev. Mason Locke Weems ........................... 30 2. Slave woman posing with a book, 1853 . 78 3. Man reading book with shotgun outside Atlanta slave market . 126 4. Jennie Akehurst Lines ................................. 170 5. Frontispiece of Jennie Akehurst Lines's journal 176 6. Julia and Loula Kendall ................................ 181 7. Young girl and older woman reading, 1890. 234 VI TABLES Table Page 1. Literacy Tests Used to Restrict the Suffrage in the South . 271 2. Table 2. Literacy Tests Used to Restrict the Suffrage Outside the South . 272 Vil ABBREVIATIONS AHC Atlanta History Center, Atlanta, Ga. American Historical Review AU Atlanta University Department of Archives and Special Collections, Atlanta, Ga. Bulletin of Atlanta University Emory Special Collections Department, Robert W. Woodruff Library, Emory University, Atlanta, Ga. Georgia Historical Quarterly GDAH Georgia Department of Archives and History, Atlanta, Ga. Journal of American History Journal of Southern History U.Ga. Hargrett Rare Book Room and Manuscript Library, University of Georgia, Athens, Ga. VIJI ACKNOWLEDGMENTS If this study demonstrates nothing else, it stands as proof positive that the notion of scholarly solitude is a myth. While I have enjoyed my days working alone, roaming through the stacks of libraries, digging through boxes at the archives, and hunched over the keyboard of my computer, I have been surrounded by colleagues, family, and friends who have inspired and sustained me with their ideas, imagination, energy, and patience. While nothing I know how to write can do justice to the fullness of the support I have felt, I have long looked forward to the opportunity to thank the many people who have contributed to my efforts. My advisor, Edward L. Ayers, has an extraordinary combination of qualities that have made him this project's greatest ally from its inception. Always attuned to the subtlest shades of human experience, he is driven by passion for the people whose lives we study. He somehow manages to be rigorous but not rigid, empirically minded but also a great believer in instinct. He has read draft after draft of this dissertation, cheering me along and challenging me to new levels of achievement, as proposals molted painstakingly first into conference papers and then into chapters. The other members of my committee--Reginald D. Butler, Alan B. Howard, and Joseph F. Kett--brought a high level of energy and engagement to their readings of this dissertation. I have had many helpful discussions about this project with Alan IX Howard, and Joe Kett read and wrote extremely thoughtful comments about an early draft of the first chapter. The librarians and archivists at the University of Virginia, Atlanta University, the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library, Emory University, Georgia State University, the University of Georgia, the Georgia Department of Archives and History, and the Atlanta History Center helped me find solid ground, easing my way through their labyrinthine collections. The interlibrary loan staffat the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library was consistently professional and persistent. Many people have read and commented on various drafts of this dissertation as it has taken shape: members of the Southern Seminar at the University of Virginia, especially Rebecca Edwards, Scot French, Peter Kastor, and James Lewis; those who have read and commented on papers I have presented at conferences along the way, especially Eric Anderson, James D. Anderson, James L. Leloudis, William A. Link, and Marjorie Spruill Wheeler; and those with whom I have corresponded and conversed about various aspects of this project, including Fitzhugh Brundage, Bill Carrigan, Glen Gendzel, Glenda Gilmore, David Godshalk, Michael Perman, and John Willis. I have been struck again and again by the generosity of my colleagues. Janet Cornelius mailed me a huge sheaf of her notes on slavery, Ron Zboray offered an extremely close and helpful reading of the first chapter and wrote pages of careful and contructive comments, and Chris Scribner saved me a trip to Nashville by taking notes for me at the Vanderbilt Television News Archive. X Several friends have encouraged me through their moral support and by their example, especially Nick Cullather, John Flower, Megan Holden, and Keith Revell. Dane Johnson, whom I have known since we were teenagers, took precious time away from his own research and teaching to read the entire manuscript, an act of friendship that I knew I could count on and that I am eager to repay. Friends outside of university life have given me perspective on the process of scholarship, and have actively participated in this project in various ways: Drew Galloway, Brigid Galloway, Kathryn Kolb, Lee Cuthbert, Val Deale, Martha Deale, and David Fay. Brigid Galloway, an admirably disciplined and talented writer, put me on a merciless schedule and read an early draft of the entire manuscript. It goes without saying, but must be said, that while this manuscript has benefited incalculably from the ideas of others, the omissions and errors that remain are of my own making. Members of my immediate family sustained their enthusiasm for this project e¥en when mine faltered. My first exposure to the history of the American South was on my grandparents' front porch in Verbena, Alabama, where my grandparents, Frances and Jimmy Fort, told me the stories of their lives. Through their recollections, I began to see even as a child that there is no such thing as an ordinary life, that our memory of the past remains immediate, personal, and powerful, and that our lives are forcefully but subtly intertwined. My grandfather, Bill Hamilton, listened carefully to my ideas about a history that he had seen much of firsthand, and
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Professor Russell Duncan CV [email protected] Personal
    INSTITUT FOR ENGELSK , GERMANSK OG ROMANS K KØBENHAVNS UNIVERSIT ET Professor Russell Duncan CV [email protected] Personal: 01.JULY 2011 Citizenship: USA Resident Status: Denmark (since 1998) Home Address: Skaboeshusevænget 1, 5800 Nyborg, Denmark NJALSGADE 130 Born: 30 May 1951, Statesboro, Georgia, USA 2300 COPENHAGEN S DIR 35328577 Education: 1988 Ph.D. History, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA [email protected] 1984 M.A. History, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA 1975 M.S. Sociology, Valdosta State University, Valdosta, Georgia, USA 1973 B.S. Political Science (emphasis on Criminal Justice), Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, Georgia, USA Employment: 2004- Professor of History and Social Studies in the English-Speaking World, University of Copenhagen, Denmark 1998-03 Associate Professor, University of Copenhagen, Denmark 1997-98 Professor, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway 1996-97 Associate Professor, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway 1993-96 Associate Professor, John Carroll University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA 1989-93 Assistant Professor, John Carroll University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA 1988-89 Assistant Professor, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA 1982-88 M.A. and PhD. Student, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA 1975-82 Flight Instructor/Captain, RF4-C reconnaissance aircraft, United States Air Force, Zweibrücken, Germany 1973-75 Special Agent, Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Atlanta, Georgia, USA Publications: SIDE 2 AF 16 Books: Contemporary America (with Joseph Goddard). 3rd Edition. Contemporary States and Societies Series. London: Palgrave/Macmillan, 2009. Beijing: Renmin University Press, 2009. Bucharest: University of Bucharest Press, 2010. Transnational America: Contours of Modern US Culture (ed. with Clara Juncker), Copenhagen: University of Copenhagen/Museum Tusculanum Press, 2004.
    [Show full text]
  • UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT NORTHERN DISTRICT of INDIANA SOUTH BEND DIVISION in Re FEDEX GROUND PACKAGE SYSTEM, INC., EMPLOYMEN
    USDC IN/ND case 3:05-md-00527-RLM-MGG document 3279 filed 03/22/19 page 1 of 354 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT NORTHERN DISTRICT OF INDIANA SOUTH BEND DIVISION ) Case No. 3:05-MD-527 RLM In re FEDEX GROUND PACKAGE ) (MDL 1700) SYSTEM, INC., EMPLOYMENT ) PRACTICES LITIGATION ) ) ) THIS DOCUMENT RELATES TO: ) ) Carlene Craig, et. al. v. FedEx Case No. 3:05-cv-530 RLM ) Ground Package Systems, Inc., ) ) PROPOSED FINAL APPROVAL ORDER This matter came before the Court for hearing on March 11, 2019, to consider final approval of the proposed ERISA Class Action Settlement reached by and between Plaintiffs Leo Rittenhouse, Jeff Bramlage, Lawrence Liable, Kent Whistler, Mike Moore, Keith Berry, Matthew Cook, Heidi Law, Sylvia O’Brien, Neal Bergkamp, and Dominic Lupo1 (collectively, “the Named Plaintiffs”), on behalf of themselves and the Certified Class, and Defendant FedEx Ground Package System, Inc. (“FXG”) (collectively, “the Parties”), the terms of which Settlement are set forth in the Class Action Settlement Agreement (the “Settlement Agreement”) attached as Exhibit A to the Joint Declaration of Co-Lead Counsel in support of Preliminary Approval of the Kansas Class Action 1 Carlene Craig withdrew as a Named Plaintiff on November 29, 2006. See MDL Doc. No. 409. Named Plaintiffs Ronald Perry and Alan Pacheco are not movants for final approval and filed an objection [MDL Doc. Nos. 3251/3261]. USDC IN/ND case 3:05-md-00527-RLM-MGG document 3279 filed 03/22/19 page 2 of 354 Settlement [MDL Doc. No. 3154-1]. Also before the Court is ERISA Plaintiffs’ Unopposed Motion for Attorney’s Fees and for Payment of Service Awards to the Named Plaintiffs, filed with the Court on October 19, 2018 [MDL Doc.
    [Show full text]
  • AMERICAN MANHOOD in the CIVIL WAR ERA a Dissertation Submitted
    UNMADE: AMERICAN MANHOOD IN THE CIVIL WAR ERA A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Notre Dame in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor in Philosophy by Michael E. DeGruccio _________________________________ Gail Bederman, Director Graduate Program in History Notre Dame, Indiana July 2007 UNMADE: AMERICAN MANHOOD IN THE CIVIL WAR ERA Abstract by Michael E. DeGruccio This dissertation is ultimately a story about men trying to tell stories about themselves. The central character driving the narrative is a relatively obscure officer, George W. Cole, who gained modest fame in central New York for leading a regiment of black soldiers under the controversial General Benjamin Butler, and, later, for killing his attorney after returning home from the war. By weaving Cole into overlapping micro-narratives about violence between white officers and black troops, hidden war injuries, the personal struggles of fellow officers, the unbounded ambition of his highest commander, Benjamin Butler, and the melancholy life of his wife Mary Barto Cole, this dissertation fleshes out the essence of the emergent myth of self-made manhood and its relationship to the war era. It also provides connective tissue between the top-down war histories of generals and epic battles and the many social histories about the “common soldier” that have been written consciously to push the historiography away from military brass and Lincoln’s administration. Throughout this dissertation, mediating figures like Cole and those who surrounded him—all of lesser ranks like major, colonel, sergeant, or captain—hem together what has previously seemed like the disconnected experiences of the Union military leaders, and lowly privates in the field, especially African American troops.
    [Show full text]
  • 'They Made Gullah': Modernist Primitivists and The
    “ ‘They Made Gullah’: Modernist Primitivists and the Discovery and Creation of Sapelo Island, Georgia’s Gullah Community, 1915-1991” By Melissa L. Cooper A Dissertation submitted to the Graduate School-New Brunswick Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Program in History written under the direction of Dr. Mia Bay and approved by New Brunswick, New Jersey January 2012 2012 Melissa L. Cooper ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION “ ‘They Made Gullah’: Modernist Primitivists and the Discovery and Creation of Sapelo Island, Georgia’s Gullah Community, 1915-1991” by Melissa L. Cooper Dissertation Director: Dr. Mia Bay ABSTRACT: The history of Sapelo Islanders in published works reveals a complex cast of characters, each one working through ideas about racial distinction and inheritance; African culture and spirituality; and the legacy of slavery during the most turbulent years in America’s race-making history. Feuding social scientists, adventure seeking journalists, amateur folklorists, and other writers, initiated and shaped the perception of Sapelo Islanders’ distinct connection to Africa during the 1920s and 1930s, and labeled them “Gullah.” These researchers characterized the “Gullah,” as being uniquely connected to their African past, and as a population among whom African “survivals” were readily observable. This dissertation argues that the popular view of Sapelo Islanders’ “uniqueness” was the product of changing formulations about race and racial distinction in America. Consequently, the “discovery” of Sapelo Island’s Gullah folk was more a sign of times than an anthropological discovery. This dissertation interrogates the intellectual motives of the researchers and writers who have explored Sapelo Islanders in their works, and argues that the advent of American Modernism, the development of new social scientific theories and popular cultural works during the 1920s and 1930s, and other trends shaped their depictions.
    [Show full text]
  • University of Cincinnati
    UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI Date:_December 13, 2006_ I, James Michael Rhyne______________________________________, hereby submit this work as part of the requirements for the degree of: Doctor of Philosophy in: History It is entitled: Rehearsal for Redemption: The Politics of Post-Emancipation Violence in Kentucky’s Bluegrass Region This work and its defense approved by: Chair: _Wayne K. Durrill_____________ _Christopher Phillips_________ _Wendy Kline__________________ _Linda Przybyszewski__________ Rehearsal for Redemption: The Politics of Post-Emancipation Violence in Kentucky’s Bluegrass Region A Dissertation submitted to the Division of Research and Advanced Studies of the University of Cincinnati in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in the Department of History of the College of Arts and Sciences 2006 By James Michael Rhyne M.A., Western Carolina University, 1997 M-Div., Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1989 B.A., Wake Forest University, 1982 Committee Chair: Professor Wayne K. Durrill Abstract Rehearsal for Redemption: The Politics of Post-Emancipation Violence in Kentucky’s Bluegrass Region By James Michael Rhyne In the late antebellum period, changing economic and social realities fostered conflicts among Kentuckians as tension built over a number of issues, especially the future of slavery. Local clashes matured into widespread, violent confrontations during the Civil War, as an ugly guerrilla war raged through much of the state. Additionally, African Americans engaged in a wartime contest over the meaning of freedom. Nowhere were these interconnected conflicts more clearly evidenced than in the Bluegrass Region. Though Kentucky had never seceded, the Freedmen’s Bureau established a branch in the Commonwealth after the war.
    [Show full text]
  • The Concept of Statesmanship in John Marshall's Life of George
    The Concept of Statesmanship in John Marshall’s Life of George Washington Clyde Ray Brevard College By any conventional measure, Chief Justice John Marshall’s Life of George Washington (1804) was a flop. Intended to be the authoritative bi- ography of the nation’s most celebrated general and president, the work was widely derided at the time of its overdue publication, and since then has been largely forgotten.1 Surely the sense of personal embarrassment Marshall experienced must have been keen, for he admired no public figure more than Washington. Amid his Supreme Court duties, he la- bored for years on the Life, digging deep into American military and po- litical history in hopes of etching in the minds of his fellow citizens the memory of the republic’s foremost founder. Yet in spite of his efforts, on no other occasion were Marshall’s failures more total and public. At one point, Marshall expressed the desire to publish the work anonymously, and one wonders if his wish was motivated less by self-effacement than a faint premonition of the biography’s failure.2 CLYDE RAY is Visiting Instructor of Political Science at Brevard College. 1 C.V. Ridgely’s verdict rings as true today as it did when he reviewed the Life in 1931: “Marshall’s fame as a judge is still growing, but, as a biographer, he has long since been forgotten.” See his “The Life of George Washington, by John Marshall,” Indiana Law Journal 6.4 (1931), 277-288: 287. 2 Marshall wished to remain anonymous from more or less the moment he began writing the Life.
    [Show full text]
  • Virginian Writers Fugitive Verse
    VIRGIN IAN WRITERS OF FUGITIVE VERSE VIRGINIAN WRITERS FUGITIVE VERSE we with ARMISTEAD C. GORDON, JR., M. A., PH. D, Assistant Proiesso-r of English Literature. University of Virginia I“ .‘ '. , - IV ' . \ ,- w \ . e. < ~\ ,' ’/I , . xx \ ‘1 ‘ 5:" /« .t {my | ; NC“ ‘.- ‘ '\ ’ 1 I Nor, \‘ /" . -. \\ ' ~. I -. Gil-T 'J 1’: II. D' VI. Doctor: .. _ ‘i 8 » $9793 Copyrighted 1923 by JAMES '1‘. WHITE & C0. :To MY FATHER ARMISTEAD CHURCHILL GORDON, A VIRGINIAN WRITER OF FUGITIVE VERSE. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. The thanks of the author are due to the following publishers, editors, and individuals for their kind permission to reprint the following selections for which they hold copyright: To Dodd, Mead and Company for “Hold Me Not False” by Katherine Pearson Woods. To The Neale Publishing Company for “1861-1865” by W. Cabell Bruce. To The Times-Dispatch Publishing Company for “The Land of Heart‘s Desire” by Thomas Lomax Hunter. To The Curtis Publishing Company for “The Lane” by Thomas Lomax Hunter (published in The Saturday Eve- ning Post, and copyrighted, 1923, by the Curtis Publishing 00.). To the Johnson Publishing Company for “Desolate” by Fanny Murdaugh Downing (cited from F. V. N. Painter’s Poets of Virginia). To Harper & Brothers for “A Mood” and “A Reed Call” by Charles Washington Coleman. To The Independent for “Life’s Silent Third”: by Charles Washington Coleman. To the Boston Evening Transcript for “Sister Mary Veronica” by Nancy Byrd Turner. To The Century for “Leaves from the Anthology” by Lewis Parke Chamberlayne and “Over the Sea Lies Spain” by Charles Washington Coleman. To Henry Holt and Company for “Mary‘s Dream” by John Lowe and “To Pocahontas” by John Rolfe.
    [Show full text]
  • Additional Reading: Black Reconstruction
    Name:____________________________________________________________ Class Period:_____ Additional Reading: Black Reconstruction Source: Black Reconstruction - THE INITIAL STAGES, BLACK POLITICAL POWER, THE END OF RECONSTRUCTION, LAYING THE FOUNDATION FOR FUTURE RESISTANCE - JRank Articles http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/articles/pages/6010/Black-Reconstruction.html#ixzz2Br7mauZI Directions: Read the article. Highlight your cues (main ideas & significant proper nouns… people and events), then write your thesis in response to the prompt. The term Black Reconstruction refers to the actions and activities of both black and white Americans in the period immediately after the Civil War. It involved the transformation of Southern political, economic, and social institutions in a manner consistent with the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments, which collectively established black freedom and equality. Many historians define Black Reconstruction as spanning the years from 1863 (the year of the Emancipation Proclamation, which made possible widespread black military participation in the Civil War) through 1877 (the year of the national political agreement to remove federal troops from the South). However, significant political and other Reconstruction activity by African Americans continued at the local and state levels beyond 1877. The rebuilding of Southern society and the political reintegration of the South into the nation after the Civil War is referred to more generally simply as Reconstruction. Unfortunately, for the first half of the twentieth century, scholarly and historical attention focused almost exclusively on the actions of whites, both in the South and in the North, and ignored the immense contributions of African Americans. Moreover, to the extent that white historians considered the activities of African Americans at all, for much of the twentieth century they adopted the white supremacist views that Columbia University professor William Dunning and his followers held at the turn of the nineteenth century.
    [Show full text]
  • Wisconsin Folklore and Folklife Society Which Has Excellent Promise
    FOLKLORE Walker D. Wyman Acknowledgement Unive rsity of Wisconsin-Extension· is especially indebted to Dr. Loren Robin­ son of the Department of J ournali sm, University of Wisconsin, River Fall s, and lo Leon Zaborowski, Universit y Extension, River Falls, for the initial concept of a series of articles on Wisconsin fo lklore, published through daily and weekly newspa­ pe rs in Wisconsin. It was from those articles by Walker Wyman that this book was developed. The contribution of the va rious newspapers which ca rried the articles is also gratefully acknowledged. A Grass Roots Book Copyright © 1979 by Unive r sity of Wisconsin Boar d of Regents All r ight s r eserved Libra ry of Congress Catalog Ca rd Number 79-65323 Published by University of Wisconsin-Extension Department of Arts Development. Price: $4.95 ii Foreword The preparation of a book on folklore to be published by the University Exten­ sion is a major event. There has been, for many years, strong sentiment that the University of Wisconsi n ought to take a more dynamic interest in folklore, and that eventually, academic work in that subject should be established on many of the cam­ puses. So far only the Universities at Eau C laire, River Falls, and at Stevens Point have formal courses. The University at M adison has never had an y such course though informal interest has been strongly present. The University at R iver Falls has developed, through the activities and interests of Dr. Walker W yman, a publish­ ing program which has produced several books of regional fol klore.
    [Show full text]
  • Civil War Reconstruction Notes: Minutes 1-5 Minutes 6-10 Minutes 11-15 Minutes 16-20 Southerners Heard Rumors of Rebel Victories, Anything to Keep Hope Up
    Name_______________________Hr._____ Civil War Reconstruction Notes: Minutes 1-5 Minutes 6-10 Minutes 11-15 Minutes 16-20 Southerners heard rumors of rebel victories, anything to keep hope up. With surrender, honor, glory, manhood, independence all gone. Slaves are the only ones they know that are conquered. Lincoln suggested in speech that some blacks may get right to vote. Booth heard this and was infuriated. Minutes 21-25 What rights will former slaves have? Who will rule in the South? What happens to people from the South? Execution? What will new president bring? Johnson was enemy of big planters. Said traitors needed to be punished, but wanted to keep blacks subordinate. Johnson scorned Frederick Douglass. What was to become of lands under Sherman’s field Order 15? Opportunity to create an independent black community existed. Minutes 26-30 An immediate calling for seed, plows. Crops were in the ground right off the bat. Blueprint for a government with Campbell as President at St Catherines Island. Twitchell gets job with Freedman’s Bureau. Minutes 31-35 Twitchell and a few black soldiers head up from New Orleans on a riverboat. In Sparta, LA he sets up an office for the Freedman’s bureau. This is an extremely unfriendly to blacks area. Planters resented this intrusion. Johnson took 48 days (May) after taking office to announce his plan for Presidential Reconstruction. – Rampant – lenient – blanket pardons hurry up the process. Northerners were surprised. South just had to admit they lost. Planters had to write Johnson personally to beg for clemency. Minutes 36-40 Johnson wanted to look out for poor whites in the South.
    [Show full text]
  • American Enlightenment/ American Gothic
    University of Nottingham School of American and Canadian Studies Q43007 American Enlightenment/ American Gothic (20 Credits; Level 3) Spring 2010 Module Convenor: Matthew Pethers 1 American Enlightenment/American Gothic Module Code: Q43007 Credits: 20 Level: 3 Semester: Spring 2010 Pre-requisites: None Convenor: Matthew Pethers Seminar Tutor: Matthew Pethers Email: Matthew Pethers: [email protected] Office Hours: To be announced Description: The aim of this module is to introduce students to a range of key texts and debates from the early national period. American thought and culture between 1776 and 1820 has often been viewed through the lens of the Enlightenment, with its emphasis on rational inquiry, political liberation and social equality, but during the same decades there were also apparently contradictory themes and ideas at play which emphasized the irrational and the oppressive. These impulses found their most striking articulation in the ghostly figures, murderous villains and pervasive paranoia of the form we now call the Gothic. Through primary sources from a number of different disciplines we will explore the relationship between these two traditions, considering how the idealistic aims of the Enlightenment were formulated and expressed, the limitations and contradictions of these aims, and the ways in which America‟s continuing divisions of class, race and gender were dealt with through the lurid imagery of the Gothic. Subjects covered on this module are likely to include: Benjamin Franklin‟s Autobiography;
    [Show full text]
  • American Studies Through Folktales. PUB DATE 92 NOTE 24P.; Journal Article Offprint
    DOCUMENT RESUME ED 393 765 SO 026 134 AUTHOR Pedersen, E. Martin TITLE American Studies through Folktales. PUB DATE 92 NOTE 24p.; Journal article offprint. PUB TYPE Journal Articles (080) JOURNAL CIT Messana: Rassegna Di Studi Filologici Linguistici E Storici; nll p165-185 1992 EDRS PRICE MF01/PC01 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *American Studies; *Folk Culture; Higher Education; United States History IDENTIFIERS *Folktales; Steinbeck (John); Twain (Mark) ABSTRACT American studies is a combination of fields such as literature, history, phinsophy, politics, and economics. This publication examines how tie different fields of study relate to American studies through folklore or folktales. The use of folktales can provide better illust-ations and understandings of U.S. individuals' heritage and evolution. Famous artists noted for using folktales to describe U.S. culture are Mark Twain and John Steinbeck. (JAG) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office ol Educational Research and improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES originating it. INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)." Qs Minor changes have been made to -----------improve reproduction quality. 0 Points of view or opinions staled in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy. VJ BEST COPY AVAILABLE % AMERICAN STUDIES THROUGH FOLK TALES' Folklore and American studies The basic social sciences, the language arts, and the fine and prac- tical arts all have aspects of similarity, and there is some overlapping among them.
    [Show full text]