Race and American Literature:
Session 1
ARIN KEEBLE
Race is one of the most important
themes in American literature and
betrays a central paradox at the heart
of American consciousness – why is
this? (think of what you might know
about America’s national origins and
slavery / the slave trade).
Declaration of Independence
July, 4 1776
E X C E R P T : W E H O L D T H E S E T R U T H S T O B E S E L F - E V I D E N T, T H AT A L L
M E N A R E C R E AT E D E Q U A L , T H AT T H E Y A R E E N D O W E D B Y T H E I R
C R E AT O R W I T H C E R TA I N U N A L I E N A B L E R I G H T S , T H AT A M O N G T H E S E
A R E L I F E , L I B E R T Y A N D T H E P U R S U I T O F H A P P I N E S S . — T H AT T O
SECURE THESE RIGHTS, GOVERNMENTS ARE INSTITUTED AMONG
MEN, DERIVING THEIR JUST POWERS FROM THE CONSENT OF THE
G O V E R N E D , — T H AT W H E N E V E R A N Y F O R M O F G O V E R N M E N T
BECOMES DESTRUCTIVE OF THESE ENDS, IT IS THE RIGHT OF THE
P E O P L E T O A LT E R O R T O A B O L I S H I T, A N D T O I N S T I T U T E N E W
G O V E R N M E N T, L AY I N G I T S F O U N D AT I O N O N S U C H P R I N C I P L E S A N D
ORGANIZING ITS POWERS IN SUCH FORM, AS TO THEM SHALL SEEM
M O S T L I K E LY T O E F F E C T T H E I R S A F E T Y A N D H A P P I N E S S .
He was talking to his pupils and I heard him say
“which one are you doing?” And one of the boys
said, “Sethe.” That’s when I stopped because I
heard my name, and then I took a few steps to
where I could see what they were doing....I
heard him say, “No, no. That’s not the way. I told
you to put her human characteristics on the left;
her animal ones on the right. And don’t forget to
line them up. (Beloved, 193)
Slavery
By 1787 the year of the Constitution of the
new United States of America
(independence from Britain was won in
1783) there were 2,500,000 people in
North America, one fifth of whom were
African slaves. - Vivienne Sanders, Race
relations in the USA 1863-1980 (London:
Hodder Murray, 2006), p.6.
Slavery Chronology

1662

1663

1700

1780’s

1788





1793
1797-1831
1808
1820s/30s
1831
The Virginia Assembly dictate that the child follows the condition of the
Mother- partus sequitur ventrem. Maryland clung to the opposite to 1712.
Over time the so-called ‘drop of ink’ formulation was established.
Maryland declared all black people to be slaves, no matter their current
condition
Text by Samuel Sewall, ‘The selling of Joseph’ account of slave’s life
In America: John Saffin’s ‘Reply’ sets out first pseudo-scriptural apology for
slavery ‘The Great Awakening’, effect of democratising salvation
Underground Railroad, begun by Quakers- at its height in 1830’s
Key sites: Cincinnati and Wilmington
First use of term ‘Middle Passage’, by Thomas Clarkson in essay entitled
‘An Essay on the Impolicy of the African Slave Trade’
Discovery of cotton gin
Second ‘Great Awakening’, stressed a social gospel, temperance etc.
African slave trade abolished
Gradual removal of Indians from Deep South
November: William Lloyd Garrison formed the New England AntiSlavery Society.
The Middle Passage
Historians suggest that:
 13 million slaves were transported to the Americas
 3 million died en route
Slavery Chronology

1850

1857

1861-1865
Fugitive Slave Act- The ‘Missouri Compromise’ strengthened the 1793
Fugitive Slave Act, making it a crime for Northerners to aid and abet
escaped slaves
Dred Scott decision (6th March) Negroes do not have human rights- Justice
Roger Tanney resided
American Civil War between the 11 ‘Slave States’ of the South and the
Northern and border states – slavery is the key area of dispute.
Jim Crow Laws- attempt to nullify/minimise black enfranchisement

1860

1863


1866
1870


1870
1896
4 million slaves in USA compared to 3 million in 1850. An estimated 20% of
all slave families broken by sales. Historians estimate that by C.W. 10% of
southern black population were mulattos. (McMillen)
Emancipation Proclamation (effectively demanded loyalty to USA rather
than granting freedom to slaves)
Founding of Ku Klux Klan in Tennessee by Nathan Bedford Forrest
Powers enacted to suppress Klan terrorism, but lynching continued.
Between 1885 and 1917 there were 2734 blacks were lynched.
passing of 15th amendment grants suffrage to black males
Plessey v. Fergusson ruled ‘separate but equal.’ Homer Plessey was an
Octoroon who agreed to test case by sitting in a ‘whites only’ first class
carriage.
SelectedLiterary Heritage
 Controversial canonical Literary Representation of
Slavery:


Uncle Tom’s Cabin Harriet Beecher Stowe (1952)
Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain (1888)
 Slave Narratives
 The Life of William Grimes, the Runaway Slave (1825)
 Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861)
 Frederick Douglass (1845)
SelectedLiterary Heritage
African American Literature:
 Arna Bontemps, Black Thunder (1936)
 Ralph Ellison The Invisible Man (1952)
 Maya Angelou, I know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1970)
 Margaret Walker, Jubilee (1966)
 Alex Hayley Roots (1976)
 Toni Morrison Beloved (1987)
 Morrison has on more than one occasion
aserted that she writes from a double
perspective of accusation and hope, of criticising
the past and caring for the future.
 - Ashraf H. A. Rushdy
‘To think clearly about race, then, requires us to see the
world on a split screen- to maintain in our sights the kind
of America that we want while looking squarely at
America as it is.’
- Barack Obama, The Audacity of Hope (Edinburgh:
Canongate, 2008), p.233.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOxOR3x8FBQ