ENG Midterm Reduced

Author

the writer of a book, article, essay, etc.

Lucubrations

nocturnal study, product of nocturnal study, literary work showing signs of careful elaboration

Epistolary Literature

written in the form of letters or correspondence

Persona

a character assumed by an author in a body of work

Narrator

a person who tells a story, or a voice fashed by an author to recount a narrative

transculturation

describes the phenomenon of merging and converging cultures

allegory

character and events symbolize a deeper moral, political, or spiritual meaning

memoir

a non-fictional account of the writer’s life that focuses on a set of experience or themes, rather than the writer’s entire life

consanguinity

the relation between two people who share a common ancestor

“in the brush paintings it looks like the ideograph for ‘human,’ two black wings... “

Maxine Hong Kingston, Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Childhood Among Ghosts

". . .[they] think nothing of murdering us . . believe this, that it is no more harm for you to kill a man who is trying to kill you, than it is for you to take a drink of water when thirsty."

David Walker, “Appeal… to the Colored Citizen’s of the World, but in Particular and very expressly, to those of the United States of America”

“Now, Americans! I ask you candidly, was your sufferings under Great Britain, one hundredth part as cruel and tyrannical as you have rendered ours under you? “

David Walker, “Appeal… to the Colored Citizen’s of the World, but in Particular and very expressly, to those of the United States of America”

“Compare your own language above, extracted from your Declaration of Independence, with your cruelties and murders inflicted by your cruel and unmerciful fathers and yourselves on our fathers and on us--men who have never given your fathers or you the least provocation!!!!!! Hear your language further! "But when a long train of abuses and usurpation, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security."

David Walker, “Appeal… to the Colored Citizen’s of the World, but in Particular and very expressly, to those of the United States of America”

“See your Declaration Americans!!! Do you understand your own language? Hear your language, proclaimed to the world, July 4th, 1776--"We hold these truths to be self evident-- that ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL!! that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness!!"

David Walker, “Appeal… to the Colored Citizen’s of the World, but in Particular and very expressly, to those of the United States of America”

“Long lost to realms beneath the northern skies
She shines supreme, while hated faction dies:
Soon as appear'd the Goddess long desir'd,
Sick at the view, she languish'd and expir'd;
Thus from the splendors of the morning light
The owl in sadness seeks the caves of night.
No more, America, in mournful strain
Of wrongs, and grievance unredress'd complain,
No longer shalt thou dread the iron chain,
Which wanton Tyranny with lawless hand
Had made, and with it meant t' enslave the land.”

Phyllis Wheatley, “To the Right Honorable William, Earl of Dartmouth, His Majesty’s Principal Secretary of State for North America”

“Should you, my lord, while you peruse my song,
Wonder from whence my love of Freedom sprung,
Whence flow these wishes for the common good,
By feeling hearts alone best understood,
I, young in life, by seeming cruel fate
Was snatch'd from Afric's fancy'd happy seat:
What pangs excruciating must molest,
What sorrows labour in my parent's breast?
Steel'd was that soul and by no misery mov'd
That from a father seiz'd his babe belov'd:
Such, such my case. And can I then but pray
Others may never feel tyrannic sway?”

Phyllis Wheatley, “To the Right Honorable William, Earl of Dartmouth, His Majesty’s Principal Secretary of State for North America”

“I, young in life, by seeming cruel fate
Was snatch'd from Afric's fancy'd happy seat:
What pangs excruciating must molest,
What sorrows labour in my parent's breast?
Steel'd was that soul and by no misery mov'd
That from a father seiz'd his babe belov'd:
Such, such my case. And can I then but pray
Others may never feel tyrannic sway?”

Phyllis Wheatley, “To the Right Honorable William, Earl of Dartmouth, His Majesty’s Principal Secretary of State for North America”

“Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land,
Taught my benighted soul to understand
That there's a God, that there's a Saviour too:
Once I redemption neither sought nor knew.
Some view our sable race with scornful eye,
"Their colour is a diabolic die."
Remember, Christians, Negros, black as Cain,
May be refin'd, and join th' angelic train.”

Phyllis Wheatley, “On being Brought from Africa to America”

“When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for a people to advance from that subordination in which they have hitherto remained, & to assume among the powers of the earth the equal & independent station to which the laws of nature & of nature's god entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the change.”

Thomas Jefferson, “A Declaration by the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress Assembled”

“We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal & independent, that from that equal creation they derive rights inherent & inalienable, among which are the preservation of life, & liberty, & the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these ends, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government shall become destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, & to institute new government, laying it's foundation on such principles & organising it's powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety & happiness.”

Thomas Jefferson, “A Declaration by the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress Assembled”

“Prudence indeed will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light & transient causes: and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. but when a long train of abuses & usurpations, begun at a
distinguished period, & pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to subject them to arbitrary power, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government & to provide new guards for their future security. such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; & such is now the necessity which constrains them to expunge their former systems of government.”

Thomas Jefferson, “A Declaration by the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress Assembled”

“Nor have we been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. we have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend a jurisdiction over these our states. we have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration & settlement here, no one of which could warrant so strange a pretension: that these were effected at the expence of
our own blood & treasure, unassisted by the wealth or the strength of Great Britain: that in constituting indeed our several forms of government, we had adopted one common king, thereby laying a foundation for perpetual league & amity with them: but that submission to their parliament was no part of our constitution, nor ever in idea, if history may be credited: and we appealed to their native justice & magnanimity, as well as to the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations which were likely to interrupt our correspondence & connection. they too have been deaf to the voice of justice & of consanguinity, & when occasions have been given them, by the regular course of their laws, of removing from their councils the disturbers of our harmony, they have by their free election re-established them in power. at this very time too they are permitting their chief magistrate to send over not only soldiers of our common blood, but Scotch & foreign mercenaries to invade & deluge us in blood. these facts have given the last stab to agonizing affection, and manly spirit bids us to renounce forever these unfeeling brethren. we must endeavor to forget our former love for them, and to hold them as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends. we might have been a free & great people together; but a communication of grandeur & of freedom it seems is below their dignity. be it so, since they will have it.”

Thomas Jefferson, “A Declaration by the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress Assembled

“We therefore the representatives of the United States of America in General Congress assembled do, in the name & by authority of the good people of these states, reject and renounce all allegiance & subjection to the kings of Great Britain & all others who may hereafter claim by, through, or under them; we utterly dissolve & break off all political connection which may have heretofore subsisted between us & the people or parliament of Great Britain; and finally we do assert and declare these a colonies to be free and independent states.”

Thomas Jefferson, “A Declaration by the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress Assembled”

“Religion indeed has produced a Phyllis Whately [sic], but it could not produce a poet. The compositions published under her name are below the dignity of criticism”

Thomas Jefferson, Query XIV from “Notes on the State of Virginia”