Unit 1 Study Flashcards: Representations of Slavery & Black Intellectual History

Vocabulary flashcards reviewing core literary works, historical terminology, key figures, and concepts from Unit 1 lecture notes.

The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (1912)

A novel written by James Weldon Johnson portraying Black male quests for knowledge.

Invisible Man (1952)

A landmark novel written by Ralph Ellison focusing on intellectual Black male experience.

Middle Passage (1990)

A novel written by Charles Johnson representing Black male intellectual journeys.

The Intuitionist (1999)

A novel by Colson Whitehead featuring a young boy who teaches himself to read and discovers context-dependent meanings of words.

The Triangular Trade

The expansive historical process where European sailors navigated ships to Africa, captured humans, transported them to the Americas, secured raw goods, and shipped those goods back to Europe.

The Slave Ship

The most enduring symbol of transport and brutal oppression regarding the forced movement of Africans to the Americas.

The Middle Passage

The most defining stage of the forced movement of Africans to the Americas across the Atlantic Ocean.

Brazil and the Caribbean

The geographic regions where the vast majority of enslaved Africans were sent.

Northward Journey

The directional migration that became central in 19th-century Black cultural imagination, representing freedom, escape from slavery, and liberation.

Spirituals

Songs created and sung by enslaved people that contained coded messages of escape and survival.

Sorrow Songs

The alternative term for spirituals coined by W.E.B. Du Bois.

Slave Narrative

The literary genre that offered the most in-depth representations of slavery.

Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey

The birth name of Frederick Douglass, who was born enslaved in Maryland.

February 14

The date chosen by Frederick Douglass as his birthday because his mother referred to him as her Valentine.

The North Star

The first newspaper published and edited by Frederick Douglass.

Freedom's Journal

The first Black newspaper published in the United States.

Negro History Week

The initial name for Black History Month, established in February to align with the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln.

Whipping of Aunt Hester

A widely cited scene from Chapter 1 of Douglass's Narrative that some critics argue exposes Black women's bodies to a voyeuristic white audience.

My Bondage and My Freedom

The title of Frederick Douglass's second autobiography.

Life and Times of Frederick Douglass

The title of Frederick Douglass's third autobiography.

Message to the Grass Roots (1963)

The 1963 speech in which Malcolm X delivered his famous critique comparing house and field slaves.

House Slave (Malcolm X's Analogy)

An enslaved person who strongly identified with the master, shared the master's concerns, and rejected opportunities to escape.

Field Slave (Malcolm X's Analogy)

An enslaved person who hated the master, prayed for the master's demise, and immediately embraced liberation and separation.

Chitterlings

Leftover scraps of food given to enslaved people, viewed unfavorably by Malcolm X as a symbol of degradation and oppression.

Novocain Analogy

Malcolm X's comparison of white power structure tactics to an anesthetic that deadens pain without curing the disease, keeping Black people pacified.

Neo-slave Narratives

Modern works of fiction that reimagine and center on the institution of slavery.

Beloved

A acclaimed neo-slave narrative written by Toni Morrison.

The Underground Railroad

A 21st-century critically-acclaimed neo-slave narrative written by Colson Whitehead.

Erasure

A well-known novel by Percival Everett, adapted into the feature film American Fiction.

James

A novel by Percival Everett written as a direct response to Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Talking in Code

An indirect communication method used by enslaved people to protect themselves and avoid complete control by white captors.

Runagate Runagate

A poem by Robert Hayden depicting the harrowing escape of freedom seekers on the Underground Railroad.