arin keeble race and american literature: session 1
TRANSCRIPT
A R I N K E E B L E
Race and American Literature: Session 1
Race is one of the most important themes in American literature and betrays a central paradox at the heart of American consciousness – why is this? (think of what you might know about America’s national origins and slavery / the slave trade).
E X C E R P T: W E H O L D T H E S E T R U T H S TO B E S E L F - E V I D E N T, T H AT A L L M E N A R E C R E AT E D E Q UA L , T H AT T H E Y A R E E N D O W E D BY T H E I R
C R E ATO R W I T H C E R TA I N U N A L I E N A B L E R I G H T S , T H AT A M O N G T H E S E A R E L I F E , L I B E R T Y A N D T H E P U R S U I T O F H A P P I N E S S . — T H AT TO S E C U R E T H E S E R I G H T S , G O V E R N M E N T S A R E I N S T I T U T E D A M O N G
M E N , D E R I V I N G T H E I R J U S T P O W E R S F R O M T H E C O N S E N T O F T H E G O V E R N E D , — T H AT W H E N E V E R A N Y F O R M O F G O V E R N M E N T
B E C O M E S D E S T R U C T I V E O F T H E S E E N D S , I T I S T H E R I G H T O F T H E P E O P L E TO A LT E R O R TO A B O L I S H I T, A N D TO I N S T I T U T E N E W
G O V E R N M E N T, L AY I N G I T S F O U N D AT I O N O N S U C H P R I N C I P L E S A N D O R G A N I Z I N G I T S P O W E R S I N S U C H F O R M , A S TO T H E M S H A L L S E E M
M O S T L I K E LY TO E F F E C T T H E I R S A F E T Y A N D H A P P I N E S S .
Declaration of IndependenceJuly, 4 1776
He was talking to his pupils and I heard him say “which one are you doing?” And one of the boys said, “Sethe.” That’s when I stopped because I heard my name, and then I took a few steps to where I could see what they were doing....I heard him say, “No, no. That’s not the way. I told you to put her human characteristics on the left; her animal ones on the right. And don’t forget to line them up. (Beloved, 193)
Slavery
By 1787 the year of the Constitution of the new United States of America (independence from Britain was won in 1783) there were 2,500,000 people in North America, one fifth of whom were African slaves. - Vivienne Sanders, Race relations in the USA 1863-1980 (London: Hodder Murray, 2006), p.6.
Slavery Chronology
1662 The Virginia Assembly dictate that the child follows the condition of theMother- partus sequitur ventrem. Maryland clung to the opposite to 1712.Over time the so-called ‘drop of ink’ formulation was established.
1663 Maryland declared all black people to be slaves, no matter their current condition
1700 Text by Samuel Sewall, ‘The selling of Joseph’ account of slave’s lifeIn America: John Saffin’s ‘Reply’ sets out first pseudo-scriptural apology for slavery ‘The Great Awakening’, effect of democratising salvation
1780’s Underground Railroad, begun by Quakers- at its height in 1830’sKey sites: Cincinnati and Wilmington
1788 First use of term ‘Middle Passage’, by Thomas Clarkson in essay entitled‘An Essay on the Impolicy of the African Slave Trade’
1793 Discovery of cotton gin 1797-1831Second ‘Great Awakening’, stressed a social gospel, temperance etc. 1808 African slave trade abolished 1820s/30s Gradual removal of Indians from Deep South 1831 November: William Lloyd Garrison formed the New England Anti-
Slavery Society.
The Middle Passage
Historians suggest that:
13 million slaves were transported to the Americas
3 million died en route
Slavery Chronology
1850 Fugitive Slave Act- The ‘Missouri Compromise’ strengthened the 1793Fugitive Slave Act, making it a crime for Northerners to aid and abetescaped slaves
1857 Dred Scott decision (6th March) Negroes do not have human rights- JusticeRoger Tanney resided
1861-1865 American Civil War between the 11 ‘Slave States’ of the South and the Northern and border states – slavery is the key area of dispute.
Jim Crow Laws- attempt to nullify/minimise black enfranchisement 1860 4 million slaves in USA compared to 3 million in 1850. An estimated 20% of all slave
families broken by sales. Historians estimate that by C.W. 10% of southern black population were mulattos. (McMillen)
1863 Emancipation Proclamation (effectively demanded loyalty to USA ratherthan granting freedom to slaves)
1866 Founding of Ku Klux Klan in Tennessee by Nathan Bedford Forrest 1870 Powers enacted to suppress Klan terrorism, but lynching continued.
Between 1885 and 1917 there were 2734 blacks were lynched. 1870 passing of 15th amendment grants suffrage to black males 1896 Plessey v. Fergusson ruled ‘separate but equal.’ Homer Plessey was an
Octoroon who agreed to test case by sitting in a ‘whites only’ first class carriage.
SelectedLiterary Heritage
Controversial canonical Literary Representation of Slavery: Uncle Tom’s Cabin Harriet Beecher Stowe (1952) Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain (1888)
Slave Narratives The Life of William Grimes, the Runaway Slave (1825) Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861) Frederick Douglass (1845)
SelectedLiterary Heritage
African American Literature:Arna Bontemps, Black Thunder (1936)Ralph Ellison The Invisible Man (1952)Maya Angelou, I know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1970)Margaret Walker, Jubilee (1966) Alex Hayley Roots (1976)Toni Morrison Beloved (1987)
Morrison has on more than one occasion aserted that she writes from a double perspective of accusation and hope, of criticising the past and caring for the future.
- Ashraf H. A. Rushdy
‘To think clearly about race, then, requires us to see the world on a split screen- to maintain in our sights the kind of America that we want while looking squarely at America as it is.’
- Barack Obama, The Audacity of Hope (Edinburgh: Canongate, 2008), p.233.
