African American Lit Midterm 1

Theme

main idea or central question

Example: in Jacobs narrative, a key theme is the experience of being a black woman under the system of enslavement, and the dealings of separation of families/sexual violence

context:?

Voice (narrative voice)

how the authors sound, how they craft their tone and mood

example: in Jacobs ' narrative, she maintains a conversational, almost dialogue voice with her readers, to point out that she is addressing them.

context: ?

Fugitive Slave Act of 1850

allowed government officials to arrest any person accused of being a runaway slave in a free territory, and to bring them back to the South.

context: Passed to avoid upsetting the balance of slave and free states after California joined the Union.

ex: Dr. Flint took. many trips to the north to try and capture Harriet, in order to bring her back. Harret also had to go into hiding, and travel to more northern states to avoid the flints.

Slave narrative

An autobiographical account of a person's life as a slave. Often follows a slave that is in solitary (does not have any family), a male, and has been contained.

context:?

ex: in harret is recounting her experience as a slave while also going against the typical slave narrative. she is not in solitary, had a family, and is a female

Narrative

a story that takes on a literary form -- has specific conventions of plot and adress, usually a first hand account

context: ?

example: Harriet's story is not just a recount, but had a plot that revels things about a female slave's life and her struggle with sexual violence, and Harriet does more to stop and speak to the reader (Address)

Sentimentality

Narratives that use emotionally activating content to gain the sympathy of readers. used by enslaved and free AA to convince northern whites and abolitionists of the humanity of the enslaved in the south/

context: in the 1800s, there was a big. push for individuals to become a better person by learning about things outside themselves, and authors used that. also, was a strategy used by enslaved Americans, particularly slave women, to appeal to an audience that was increasingly white womn

ex: harret appealing to white women's girlhood, and how being a slave resulted her losing that experience, even if that what she wanted

Form

The arrangement of all the elements (tone, diction, mood, ec) that make up a text

context:?

ex: the slave narrative isn't just a story, but had a specific tone, usually male, represnet elements of solitude, and talks about varying experiences of confinement

meatphor

compares one thing to another.

context:?

example: Frederick Douglass and his comparison of the life of slaves?

Situational Irony

when the outcomes are the opposite of what is expected

context: Dred Scott asked to speak at a 4th of July celebration

example: talked about how ironic it was for a runaway slave to be celebrating a country for its anniversary of freedom, when people like him, and even himself, didn't get to enjoy that freedom.

Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857)

Ruled slaves were not citizens but property, and had not standing to sue under the Constitution; struck down Missouri Compromise.

context: Brought by a slave who was brought to the north by owner, but then tried to be takne back to south and claimed he was free. outlined slaves as not people in the us by law

example?:

Reconstruction

the formally abolished slavery, defined citizenship, and guaranteed equal protection and voting rights regardless of race, fundamentally reordering the federal relationship with state Example: 13th: abolished and continues to prohibit slavery and involuntary servitude, 14th: granted citzenship to all ppl born or naturalized in the U.S., guaranteeing 'due process of law,' and 'equal protection of the laws'., 15th: prohibits each government in the United States from preventing a citizen from voting based on

their race.

context: passed after the civil war to reinvite slaves back into the union, protect their rights and from the south to take them away.

Black Codes

Laws denying most legal rights to newly freed slaves; passed by southern states following the Civil War