Afro lit midterm

Lambic Pentameter

The most common meter in English poetry, used in many of major english poetic forms, including blank verse, the heroic couplet

Foot

the basic repeating rhythmic unit that forms part of a line of verse in most Western traditions of poetry. The unit is composed of syllables and is usually two, three, or four syllables in length

Iamb

a metrical foot consisting of one short or unstressed syllable followed by one long or stressed syllable

Pentameter

a line of verse consisting of five metrical feet

Heroic couplet

a couplet of rhyming iambic pentameters often forming a distinct rhetorical as well as metrical unit

Blank verse

poetry written with regular meter but unrhymed lines, almost always in iambic pentameter.

Phillis wheatley

Born May 8, 1753, West Africa

Phillis wheatley style

iambic pentameter and heroic, various topics of religion and moral

David Walker

Born 1785 Wilmington, NC

David Walker style

Denounced slavery and encouraged enslaved people to fight for their freedom

Goal of David Walker appeal

to instill pride in its black readers and give hope that change would some day come

Slave narrative

an account of the life, or a major portion of the life, of a fugitive or former slave, either written or orally related by the slave personally

Aims of Antebellum slaves narrative

To tell an accurate and if possible verifiable account,

To promote the cause of abolition/work in concert with other abolitionist

To tell a compelling and engaging story

Frederick Douglass

Born Cordova, MD

Frederick Douglass style

No complicated sentences, and aims for clarity above all else, very descriptive and simple

Challenges to slave Narratives Legitimacy

Contemporary charges of falsehood by pro slavery voices

Harriet Jacobs

Born 1813 Edenton, NC

Harriet Jacobs style

Confessional literature, sentimental novel.

Post-Emancipation Slave narrative

Promote interracial cooperation

Promote black progress

Promote the black worker

Ida B wells Barnett

born 1862 Holly springs MS

Ida B wells Barnett style

factual, up to date stories

Civil rights act

Declared unconstitutional in 1883 by supreme court

Supreme court rules

plessy vs ferguson in 1896 that racial segration is not illegal

Grandfather clause

Enacted in seven southern states between 1895 and 1910

Vagancy laws and convict leasing

along with sharecropping create systems of racial peonage

Paul Laurence Dunbar

Born 1872 Dayton Ohio

Paul Laurence Dunbar style

Shakespeare and other major English poet’s style and vocabulary, uses dialect to convey character

13th Amendment(1865)

outlawed slavery

14th Amendment(1868)

provided equal protection to African Americans under the law

15th Amendment(1870)

suffrage to Black men

Plantation tradition

works that look back nostalgically to the times before the civil war, before the “lost cause”

Vernacular

expressions that spring from the creative interaction between the received or learned traditions and that which is locally invented

Spirituals

The religious songs sung by African Americans since the earliest days of slavery and first gathered in a book in 1801 by black church leader Richard Allen

Signifying/Signifying Monkey

By Henry Louis Gates Jr. A work that is the practice of representing an idea indirectly, through a commentary that is often humorous, boastful, insulting or provocative

Sentimental novel

genre focused mainly on emotions and feelings rather than logic and reason, Narratives tend to show readers in distressing scenes.

Double consciousness

the dual self-perception experienced by subordinated or colonized groups in an oppressive society

The cult of true womanhood

Harriet Jacobs piety, purity, submissiveness, and domesticity

Reconstruction

The aim to bring southern states back into full political participation in the union guaranteeing rights to former slaves and defining new relationships between African Americans and whites

Compromise of 1877/ Hayes-Til den Deal

This would permit the imposition of racial segregation and the disfranchisement of black voters

“On Imagination”

written by Phillis Wheatly in 1773 talks about a liberated world outside of slavery.

“To the Right Honourable William, Earl Of Dartmouth”

written by Phillis Wheatly in 1773 it is a message to the Earl of Dartmouth where wheatly explains her desire and appreciation for freedom from tryanny as rooted in her enslavement.

“On Being Brought from African to America”

written by Phillis Wheatly in 1773 it is a message thats shows all people regradless of race are capable of finding salvation through Christianity

Elizabeth Keckley

Born 1818, Dinwiddie VA

Elizabeth Keckley style

Story teller, uplifting

Booker T. Washington

Born 1856 Corner,Va

Booker T. Washington style

Literal and simple

“Behind The Scenes”

Written by Elizabeth Keckly in 1868 written to help Mrs. Lincoln financially and partly counter criticism of Mrs Lincoln, was also where she tells her life as a slave and her time in the white house

“The Atlanta Exposition Address”

Booker T Washington 1895 address to the Atlanta cotton states and international Exposition, the goal was to showcase economic progress of the south, to encourage international trade, and to bring more people and investors to the region.

“Incident in the Life of a Slave Girl”

Written 1861 by Harriet Jacobs highlighted the cruelties of slavery experienced by woman, including sexual abuse, exploitation, and violence.

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper

Born 1825, Baltimore MD

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper style

Used popular white poetic forms, wrote Protest poetry, about African American story telling, The sermon, and more.

Poems of Miscellaneous Subjects

Written by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper in 1854, focused on the struggles slaves faced such as separation and death.

“Bury me in a free land”

Poem written by Frances Ellen watkins in 1864 that protest slavery and its wrong doing and connecting it all together with why she doesn’t want to be buried in a land with slavery because of all its wrong doing.

“Learning to Read”

Poem Written by Frances Ellen Watkins in 1872 that talks about the education of African Americans and the importance of it

David Walker’s Appeal in Four Articles;
Together with a Preamble, to the Coloured
Citizens of the World

Written by David Walker in 1830 with purpose to denounce slavery and instill pride in African American people, his appeal wanted African american to fight for their freedom.

“A Negro Love song”

Written in 1895 by Dunbar It is about a man and his love for a woman

“Philosophy”

Written by Dunbar in 1903 one of Dunbar most Dialect poems, it talks about how its easy to smile when times are easy but hard to do so when times are hard

“The colored soliders”

Written by Dunbar in 1895 talks about black soldiers during the civil war and portrays the color soldier has the savior of the union

“We wear a mask”

Written by Dunbar in 1895 it reflects on the experience of African Americans in post-Civil War America and the universal human behavior of hiding an aspect of ourselves

W. E. B. Du Bios

Born in 1868 MA

W. E. B. Du Bios style

pairing the verses of Negro spirituals with those of European poets

The souls of Black Folk

Written in 1903 by W.E.B Du Bios talked about a path towards progress for African Americans through political power and education, he criticize Booker T Washington for his a approach on the subject

The narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass

Written by Fredrick Douglass in 1845 gives us a in depth story of his life and hardship he went through to gain education and freedom from slavery.

Charles W Chesnutt

Born 1858 Cleveland OH

Charles W Chesnutt style

had a realist style about his writing that demanded attention from white readers

“The passing of Grandison”

Written by Charles W Chesnutt in 1899 he uses irony and other “play on word” phrases to criticize the institution of slavery and the ignorance of southern slaveholders

Protest Literature

stakes out a moral
position from which to criticize its object.
The protest writer says, in effect, "Based on
these moral values, this behavior or these
circumstances are unjust and deserve to be
condemned.“”