Term Paper on "African-American Literature"
Term Paper 3 pages (1131 words) Sources: 1+
[EXCERPT] . . . .
African-American literature. Specifically it will discuss several key points in slave history, including the effect of slavery on the writers and their families. As these slave narratives clearly show, the period of American slavery was a bleak time in American history. While some Americans felt slaves were "happy," these works indicate just the opposite. They longed for freedom and the ability to work for themselves. They hoped to keep their families together and avoid violent punishment from masters and overseers. They wanted the rights the rest of America took for granted, and their fight for those rights lasted far too long.African-Americans fought during the Revolutionary War alongside their masters, and some fought because they were promised freedom. They also fought as freemen to gain independence from Great Britain. Some fought on the front lines, and others fought behind the scenes, serving their masters who fought.
Slaves ran away from their owners for any number of reasons, as all of these narratives indicate. Cruel masters that beat them and treated them harshly were the main reason, as Frederick Douglass' life shows. He writes, "I got no supper that night, or breakfast that morning. I reached Covey's about nine o'clock; and just as I was getting over the fence that divided Mrs. Kemp's fields from ours, out ran Covey with his cowskin, to give me another whipping" (Douglass 41). However, even relatively content slaves, such as Venture Smith, attempted to run away at one time or another. Harriet Jacobs ran away because she knew she was going to be separated from her children, and that she would never be able to buy their freedom.
Slave owners
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Each of these texts supported the abolitionist movement by illustrating the horrors of slavery. They each give personal accounts of conditions that even animals should not have to endure. Equiano wrote of his slave ship experience, "I was soon put down under the decks, and there I received such a salutation in my nostrils as I had never experienced in my life: so that, with the loathsomeness of the stench, and crying together, I became so sick and low that I was not able to eat, nor had I the least desire to taste anything" (Equiano 58). Each of the writers has experienced beatings, horrible conditions, and other horrors of slavery, and writing about them brought attention to the plight of the slaves, adding fuel to the abolitionist cause. The slave experience was generally harsh and cruel, which is why so many slaves ran away or tried to run away. They literally had no… READ MORE
Quoted Instructions for "African-American Literature" Assignment:
Resource Materials you will need:
1) A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture, A Native of Africa: But Resident above Sixty Years in The United States of America by Venture Smith
2) The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, Written by himself
3) Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass, An American Slave, Written by Himself
4) Incidents in The Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs
All of the above material can be found in the book "The Norton Anthology of African American Literature" Second Edition by Gates and Mckay
I need a three page paper answering the following questions:
- Refer to the four texts above to explain why and how African americans fought during the revolution, what drove some slaves to run away from their owners, and what steps enslavers took to prevent slaves from running away. What did each text contribute to the abolitionist movement? Also, compare and contrast the distinguishing qualities of the four texts focusing on how each gives an account of slave experiences and the effect of those experiences on the self? What happens to family relationships - for the enslaves as well as the enslavers - in a slave culture. Compare and contrast family interactions?
- Lastly, Discuss in detail how the four texts would affirm or refute the following quotation:
The Negro slaves of the south are the happiest, and, in some sense, the freest people in the world. The children and the aged and infirm work not at all, and yet have all the comforts and necessaries of life provided for them. They enjoy liberty, because they are oppressed neither by care nor labor. the women do little hard work, and are protected from the depotism of their husbands by their masters. The negro men and stout boys work, on the average, in good weather, not more than nine hours a day.... Besides they have their Sabbaths and holidays
The free laborer must work or starve. He is more of a slave than the Negro, because he works longer and harder for less allowance than the slave, and has no holiday, because the cares of life with him begin when its labor end. He has no liberty, and not a single right.
George Fitzhugh, Cannibals All or Slaves Without Masters, 1857
The paper doesnt have to be in particular order as long as it answers all the questions completely.
I wouldn't need a bibliography page for this paper
How to Reference "African-American Literature" Term Paper in a Bibliography
“African-American Literature.” A1-TermPaper.com, 2006, https://www.a1-termpaper.com/topics/essay/african-american-literature-specifically/9840952. Accessed 4 Oct 2024.
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