Afam lit midterm

Signifying

Considered part of the African American literary tradition, this practice deploys irony or double-meaning with language in order to express a particular idea or message. Oftentimes, signifying enables writers to have two messages: one for a general audience and one for an audience “in-the-know” of the double-meaning behind their words

Fugitive slave law

An act that required that slaves be returned to their owners, even if they were in a free state

American colonization society

Sought to remove free Blacks to Africa (Liberia) for fear that they might influence enslaved Blacks to desire/fight for emancipation under the guise of providing the opportunity for free Blacks to Christianize Africans

Colored conventions movement

Gatherings of free blacks and fugitive enslaved blacks where they discussed political, social, and educational issues within the community

Natal alienation

The imposed separation of enslaved Blacks from their family members as well as the denial of their right to protect their children or decide what happens to them

3/5ths compromise

An agreement made in 1787 by the Constitutional Convention between delegates from northern and southern states that when determining a state’s total population for taxation, legislative representation, and electoral vote allotment purposes, 3/5ths of the enslaved population would be counted

Partus sequitur ventrem

Offspring follows belly

African american jeremiad tradition

When a speaker/writer deplores a long list of perceived social ills, denouncing people for their sins and misconduct, and warns them of worse tribulations and divine retribution/punishment if they do not quickly repent and change

Christian hypocrisy

Professed christians’ use of Christianity/the bible to justify slavery and oppression rather than follow true biblical ideals regarding the rights of man, including the right to be treated with dignity and humility

Reconstruction

The period between the end of the civil war until around 1877 when the union sought to rebuild the nation after the war, reintegrate the Southern states, and give new political and civil rights to African Americans to address the inequalities of slavery

Social equality

The idea, often espoused by white racists, particularly in the North, that they did not wish to associate socially with African Americans that they saw as beneath them, thus enabling segregation/Jim Crows laws

Politics of publishing

The limitations Black people, and specifically Black women, faced in getting their work published due to race, class, and gender

African American vernacular english

A dialect of English that is believed to have originated with Southern rural dialect and that is considered an informal version of English of predominantly spoken by African Americans

African American folklore

Stories handed down, often orally, by african americans to teach a lesson, hand down traditions, and/or communicate cultural history

Conjure

The practice of using magical, psychic, or spiritual practices to cast spells or make enchantments

Trickster figure

A character in African american folklore who uses cunning and wit to outsmart others, defy social norms, and sometimes bend morality to achieve their goals, representing a theme of resilience and survival against oppression, particularly during the era of slavery; also experts at signifying

Carpetbaggers

White northeners who went to the south after the civil war to profit from reconstruction, often buying former plantation land and hiring newly freed African Americans and their descendants to work the land

Colorism

Prejudice or discrimination against individuals with a dark skin tone

Who purchased The Colored American magazine by proxy and fired its Black female editor?

Booker T. Washington

Sharecropping

A system of agricultural labor in the south that allowed poor farmers to work the land in exchange for a share of the crop