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Characteristics of the Critique of Slavery Period in American Literature

Biblical Allusion and Imagery
Rhetoric of Abolitionism
Traditions of the Captivity Narratives
Spiritual Autobiography

Campbell, Donna M. "The Slave Narrative." Literary Movements. Dept. of English, Washington State University. Last Modified 05/18/2010. Web. 05 June 2010.

Link to Google Map About the Critique of Slavery Period in American Literature

Resources about the Critique of Slavery Movement

1. Jordan, Winthrop D., ed. Slavery and the American South. Google Books. Jackson, MS, USA: University Press of Mississippi, 2003. Web. 06 June 2010.This article shares many views on slavery. It defines the time period of the Critique of Slavery as 1830-Emancipation and discuss all of the characteristics of the Critique of Slavery literary period including biblical allusion and imagery, rhetoric of abolitionism, traditions of the captivity narratives, and spiritual autobiography. This book was published by the University of Mississippi press and includes essays from many respected historians and educators.

2. Campbell, Donna M. "The Slave Narrative." Literary Movements. Dept. of English, Washington State University. Last Modified 05/18/2010. Web. 05 June 2010. This website defines the slave narrative and its characteristics, purpose, influences, reasons for popularity, and patterns. This website states that "From 1760-1947, more than 200 book-length slave narratives were published in the United States and England, and according to Marion Starling (The Slave Narrative: Its Place in American History, 1982) more than 6,000 are known to exist." This websites cites the work of numerous slave narratives and authors and includes links to other resources about literature from this period and information about slavery. This website is maintained by Washington State University's English Department.

3. Eltis, David, Frank D. Lewis, and Kenneth L. Sokoloff, eds. Slavery in the Development of the Americas. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2004. . <http://assets.cambridge.org/97805218/32779/sample/9780521832779ws.pdf>
The main purpose of this website is to discuss slavery in America. It defines the literary period by stating that it took place around the 1850s. With this knowledge one can check whether a specific author fits into the literary period. This resource is helpful in reading, and interpreting authors, texts, and themes as it also gives a brief history on all of these elements. The primary characteristics discussed in the article is traditions of slave captivity. The authors of the article are all professors at well-respected universities and the website is hosted by Cambridge University Press.

4. Freehling, William W. Willie Lee Rose: Slavery and Freedom. Google Books. New York: Oxford UP Inc., 1982. Web. 06 June 2010. This book discusses slavery and freedom in early America. The website defines the literary period as the time before and leading up to the American Civil War. The characteristics discussed in this book include the rhetoric of abolitionism and traditions of the captivity narratives The author is an American historian and a professor of the humanities at the University of Kentucky.

5. MacKethan, Lucinda. An Overview of Southern Literature by Genre. Southern Spaces. Emory University, S. Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Last Modified 16 February 2004. Web. 06 June 2010.
Southern Spaces is a peer-reviewed internet journal and scholarly forum that provides open access to essays, interviews and performances, events and conferences, gateways, timescapes, and annotated links about real and imagined spaces and places of the South. The website is directed to the audience of researchers and teachers, students in and out of classrooms, library patrons, and the general public. The Critique of Slavery period is well defined and discussed under the websites list of essays on "Literature of Slavery." This website offers highlights of the different types of literature and writing during the slavery period in the north and south. Writings and literature during this period were of personal accounts of freed or escaped slaves. These writings were autobiographies, such as Frederick Douglass' narrative, or fictional accounts based on true experiences, such as William Wells Brown's "Clotel or the President's Daughter." The slavery period influenced literature by its cruelty, inhumanity, and the sweet salvation and freedom from it. The website included some of the period's significant writers and their writings and also discusses why their writings were important during this period. The page is a credible website, where the journal has been revised and the journals and essays are reviewed by an editorial board, peer reviews, and meet set standards to ensure quality. The website is part of Emory University's digital library research initiative.

6. Davis, Ronald L.F. “Slavery in America: Historical Overview.” Slavery in America, S. New York Life. Web. 05 June 2010.
This essay provides an extensive look at the history of slavery in America through its origins, the Civil War, the Reconstruction period, and the end of slavery. This essay primarily outlines traditions of captivity characteristics and also the importance of religion. This page is a scholarly overview written by a professor at Cal State University, Northridge.

7. Smith, John David. "The Evil that Americans Did." Chronicle of Higher Education. 9 March 2007. Vol53. 19 June 2007. Print.
This article discusses the need for more scholarly work on the evil of slavery. The author lists prominent figures, such as President Clinton, who have endorsed the idea of an official “apology” for American slavery. Much of the article deals with the problem of reconciling America’s “core values,” i.e. democracy, liberty, equality, with such a cruel and murderous practice. He calls for an end to the “objective” discussion of slavery, and requests that scholars study it as it was; evil. He mentions Harriet Jacobs and Frederick Douglas, along with their respective works that had to do with the evils of slavery. In addition to listing scholars and other prominent figures who are engaged in “formally” apologizing for slavery, he mentions many historically significant figures who have propagandized the slave period, granting a sort of moral equivocation to slaves and slave owners, becoming apologists for slavery.The characteristics outlined in this article are traditions of slave captivity and spiritual autobiography. The author is a professor of history at the University of North Carolina Charlotte.

8. Fort, Bruce. American Slave Narratives: An Online Anthology. American Hypertext Workshop, University of Virginia. Last Modified 06 March 1998. Web. 06 June 2010.
"From 1936 to 1938, over 2,300 former slaves from across the American South were interviewed by writers and journalists under the aegis of the Works Progress Administration. These former slaves, most born in the last years of the slave regime or during the Civil War, provided first-hand accounts of their experiences on plantations, in cities, and on small farms. Their narratives remain a peerless resource for understanding the lives of America's four million slaves. What makes the WPA narratives so rich is that they capture the very voices of American slavery, revealing the texture of life as it was experienced and remembered. Each narrative taken alone offers a fragmentary, microcosmic representation of slave life. Read together, they offer a sweeping composite view of slavery in North America, allowing us to explore some of the most compelling themes of nineteenth-century slavery, including labor, resistance and flight, family life, relations with masters, and religious belief. This web site provides an opportunity to read a sample of these narratives, and to see some of the photographs taken at the time of the interviews." It includes all characteristics of the Critique of Slavery Literary Period. This website is hosted by the University of Virgina's Corcoran Department of History.

9. "The Founding Fathers of Slavery." Encyclopedia Britannica. 2010. Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Web. 07 Jun. 2010
This website offers an synopsis of slavery at the start. It looks at the beginning of slavery, the founding fathers’ views on it, and the reasons why those views made emancipation difficult. It has links to other essays, definitions, and topics relating to slavery.It primarily discusses the traditions of captivity characteristic. Encyclopedia Britannica first came to the United States in the form of a pirated edition printed in Philadelphia in 1790 by Thomas Dobson.

10. McElrath, Jessica. Slavery in Colonial Times. About.com. Last Modified 24 June 2008. Web. 06 June 2010.
This article gives an overview of slavery in the Colonial time starting in Jamestown, Virginia in 1619, where 20 Africans came to town and were treated like servants. It was in 1661 that Virginia passed a law allowing slavery as an answer to labor shortage. Slaves in the south were treated much worse than the slaves in the middle and New England Colonies. This article breaks down the different areas of the country and defined slavery in those parts making it easier to understand that slavery wasn’t the same in all parts of the country. At the top of the page, there is also links to other sites about slavery. The article primarily discusses the traditions of captivity characteristic. Jessica McElrath writes about African American history for About.com and also for Metropolis magazine. The credibility of the sources is sketchy since About.com primarily hires freelancers, which are not required to be experts in their areas that they write about.

11. Reuben, Paul. Perspectives in American Literature - A Research and Reference Guide An Ongoing Project. Department of English, California State University, Stanislaus. Last Modified on 17 May 2010. Web. 06 June 2010.
This website gives a list of the most common literary and historical time periods, as well as the main points of each period. This site is an excellent reference for finding out time lines of events and authors. It is hosted by California State University and maintained by Paul Reuben, a Professor Emeritus.

12. Newman, Richard S. Transformation of American Abolitionism. Google Books. University of North Carolina Press, 2002. Web. 07 June 2010.
This book discusses slavery in the United States during the 17th and 18th centuries and the abolitionist movement. The book discusses the time period when people began to oppose slavery and those trying to abolish slavery. At the end of the book, there are examples of letters that slave owners sent to a judge attempting to get fugitive slaves back. The letters really portray how slaveholders thought of their slaves as property, not people. This books includes the traditions of captivity and rhetoric of abolitionism characteristics.

13. Accomando, Christina. The laws were laid down to me anew: Harriet Jacobs and the reframing of legal fictions. African American Review 32.n2 (Summer 1998): 229(17). FindArticles.com. Web 07 June 2010.
This article compares two versions of critiquing slavery. The first address is narratives of slaves such as Harriet Jacobs and Harriet Beecher Stowe. The other is a neutral view that purely uses legalities and omits/discredits the voices of slaves. A critique of slavery may be negative, neutral, or positive. To decide if a text fits under a critique of slavery, the reader should look for writings that talk about slave laws, and/or personal experiences with slavery. The author was a professor of ethnic studies at Humboldt University when the article was published.

14. Finkelman, Paul. Slavery and the Founders: Race and Liberty in the Age of Jefferson. 2nd ed. Google Books. Armonk: M.E. Sharpe, 2001. Web. 06 June 2010.
This books talks about how slavery could have easily been abolished due to the large number of slaves turning the white population into the minority. With a few rebellions, slaves could have ended the establishment. Instead because of the Constitution and northerners being required to cooperate, slavery lived much longer than it should have. The criteria this book seems to outline is anything that speaks of the constitution and its attributions that kept slavery alive, along with texts that speak of the north’s actions during this time should be considered a critique of slavery. The author is a a specialist in American legal law and the author of many other works.

15. Literature: The Slave Defined. BBC World Service. Last Modified 01 September 2000. Web. 06 June 2010.
The main point of this website is to explain the influence of slavery on literature, and vice versa. Basically, slave literature began as the “push-pull” from the abolitionists and the counter-movement in the south. Abolitionists, against slavery, still kept an impersonal distance when retelling the tales of escaped African slaves. People at this time judged “humanity” on the ability to read, so illiteracy worked against escaped slaves. So, while the typical “northern” slave narrative covered the emotion of escape, suffering, and freedom, blacks still faced prejudice from their ally, white abolitionists. The site emphasizes the importance of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. It was such a northern, abolitionist work, but it was different because it gave the slave a personal voice and, hence, an identity. The character’s simplistic lifestyle was even portrayed as honorable, which drew criticism from the south for generations. This website discusses all characteristics of the Critique of Slavery Literary period. The website was helpful for providing an introduction into the events and mind-set of this volatile era. Links are also provided. It is a credible website because it is hosted by the BBC and won an award for its material.

16. McPherson, James M. The Abolitionist Legacy: From Reconstruction to the NAACP. Google Books. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1975 Web. 06 June 2010.
The book shows the time line of slavery from its origins to its end. It gives great details and descriptions of what it was like to be a slave during that time, as well as what it meant to be free. The book states interesting facts, including that most abolitionists abandoned the fight for negro rights in the year of 1870, and follows the information with defining when the actual abolitionist movement took place and what it meant for slaves. This book includes hits on the rhetoric of abolitionism, traditions of the captivity narratives, and spiritual autobiography characteristics of the Critique of Slavery. The author is is an American Civil War historian, and is the George Henry Davis '86 Professor Emeritus of United States History at Princeton University. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Battle Cry of Freedom, his most famous book. He was the president of the American Historical Association in 2003, and is a member of the editorial board of Encyclopedia Britannica. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_M._McPherson).

17. Slavery in the United States. Wikipedia. Last Modified 28 June 2009. Web. 06 June 2010.
The main purpose of this website was to give a background on slavery in the United States. It provides information such as the treatment of slaves, woman's rights during the time, the Abolitionist movement, and also gives brief biographies of important figures during the era. The main criteria that it gives to define slavery in the United States was that it had its origins with the first English colonization of North America in Virginia in 1607 and lasted as a legal institution until the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1865. This website discuss the rhetoric of abolitionism, traditions of the captivity narratives, and spiritual autobiography characteristics of the Critique of Slavery. It also discuss literature and provides links to additional information about many of the abolitionists authors. This website is well researched and includes reference and works cited information.

18. Wiecek, William M. “Abolitionist Constitutional Theory.” Society Nov/Dec86, Vol. 24 Issue 1: 60-62. Print.
The main purpose of this article is to examine the relationship between abolitionism and the American government. Basically, they encouraged each other. Abolitionists groups had different demands. One such group demanded the separation of northern states from the Union. An uncivil Constitution (supporting slavery) was named the reason. Like the earlier rallies of the colonies against Britain, abolitionists did not see the Constitution as living up to its agreement; it did not create life, dreams, and the pursuit of happiness for all people. This outcry occurred before the south’s own demands for separation from the union, which led to the Civil War. Still, some northern abolitionists demanded egalitarianism for all races. These groups were viewed as extremist, and their rallies were subdued by government. Their beliefs would later influence the amendments, or the “additions” to the existing Constitution. Since their protests were subdued by the law, the abolitionists were often “distracted” into rallies that helped create our modern freedom of speech. This is a helpful source because its information gives a sense of the extent, and dynamics, of northern abolitionism.The author is well respected legal and constitution historian and is a professor of both law and history a Syracuse University.

19. Bales, Kevin. Understanding Global Slavery: A Reader. Google Books. Berkeley and Los Angeles, California: University of California Press, 2005. Web. 07 June 2010. This book discuss slavery not only in the United States but globally as well. It provides a history of slave practices and an overview of slavery today around the word. Specifically, related to the Critique of Slavery time period, this books discusses the treatment of slaves in the U.S. before and after the Civil War and the lack of restitution, as well as how Lincoln's death effected the treatment of exslaves. The author is an expert on modern slavery and President of Free the Slaves, the US sister organization of Anti-Slavery International (the world’s oldest human rights organization). He is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at Roehampton University in London, Visiting Professor at the Wilberforce Institute for the Study of Slavery and Emancipation, University of Hull, as well as serving on the Board of Directors of the International Cocoa Initiative (Wikipedia).

Mayer, Ken."US Slave Free 1789-1861." Wikipedia. Web. 5 June 2010. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War>. GIF file.

Early American Authors who Critiqued Slavery

Smith, Alex. Slavery in America:
An American Literature Perspective. YouTube. 09 March 2010. Web. 05 June 2010.

Unknown Period Reflections

Unknown Period Paper by Kelly McGrath
Unknown Period Paper by Hannah Meyer
Uknown Period Paper by goemanji