Reference no: EM133320828

Assignment:

American Progress, 1872

1. What does this illustration portray about U.S. attitudes regarding progress? What activities, technologies, religious faith, and people are identified with progress? What/who is represented as needing progress? Explain in detail. (Hint: Notice the use of light and dark, who and what is advancing, and who and what are retreating.)

2. How does this illustration express the concept of Manifest Destiny? Explain.

Excerpts from Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852)

3. While Uncle Tom's Cabin created sympathy for the enslaved, it has been broadly criticized for the racist views it promoted. What racist views did the book promote? Explain.

4. In the excerpt from Chapter 5, who was the teacher? What was her racial and religious background and how did this relate to her motivations and role? Who was presented as the hero of this excerpt? Explain.

5. How were Tom and Eliza portrayed? What feelings was Harriet Beecher Stowe trying to elicit from her readers? Explain.

6. After reading the Chapter 5 excerpt, how would the audience view Mr. Shelby? Would a White/ Euro-American reader of this text feel that Tom and Eliza were equals entitled to full civil and political rights? Why or why not? Explain.

7. In Chapter 19, what did Mr. St. Clare reveal about the rationale for enslavement? Why, in his opinion, was slavery used? Explain.

8. How did St. Clare characterize Quashy and, through Quashy, other enslaved people? What sort of agency (that is, ability to control one's own life and the energy to do so) did St. Clare ascribe to Quashy? Explain.

9. Mr. St. Clare also addressed the role of class in the Euro-American rationale for enslavement. What role did class play? How did St. Clare explain inconsistencies of character in enslavers? Explain.

10. Enslavement is a long, painful component of United States History. Many struggle to understand how people could have participated in such a brutal, exploitive system. Many struggle with how those who participate in contemporary injustices can do so. How/why do you think enslavement was allowed to exist and continue? How/why do you think racial injustice continues today? Explain.

11. In Chapter 40, how did Stowe characterize the Sambo and Quimbo? What broader conclusions was she making or what broader conclusions could be drawn from these two characters? Explain.

12. Describe Tom's character. What gave him strength and peace? What motivated Tom? What sort of agency did Stowe ascribe to him? Explain.

13. Why do you think Stowe characterized Tom as she did? How would an assertive, defiant, angry Tom have been received? Explain. How are angry African American men characterized today? One way inequality can be observed in societies is through who is allowed to express anger and who is not. Whose anger is accepted in our society and whose anger is seen as unacceptable? Explain.

14. According to Stowe, in Chapter 45, what role did the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 play in encouraging her to write Uncle Tom's Cabin? Explain.

15. In Chapter 45, how did Stowe argue against enslavement? What was her reasoning? Explain.

16. What does Stowe's writing reveal about her view of enslaved people? Explain.

17. How did Stowe attempt to incite Euro-American women to join the cause of abolition? Explain.

18. According to Stowe, how did Northern culpability (moral responsibility) for enslavement differ from Southern culpability? Explain.

19. Stowe mentions "reparation" owed by "every American Christian" to "the African race." How did she characterize "the African race"? What do you think she meant by reparation? What sort of reparations would she recommend? Explain.

20. Why do you think Uncle Tom's Cabin was such a popular and persuasive book? Explain.

Uncle Tom's Cabin Theater Poster

21. How does this poster illustrate the power dynamics between Simon Legree and Uncle Tom? How did the artist want viewers of this poster to feel about Tom and Legree? Explain.

22. From this poster, whose responsibility was it to end enslavement? Explain.

George Frederick Holmes, Critique of "Uncle Tom's Cabin"

23. How did Holmes defend the institution of slavery? Be sure to fully explain this.

Passages from Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1883)

24. Using Douglass' work as a guide, explain in detail how the life of a house enslaved person was different from a field enslaved person. Why did Douglass spend time explaining the differences? Explain.

25. How did enslaved people respond when asked by White folks about their lives? Why? Why did Douglass take time to explain this?

26. This document was hugely important to the abolitionist movement. Explain why it was so important. Specifically, how did it respond to critics of abolition and make a case to end enslavement?

Chief Justice Roger B. Taney's opinion, Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)

27. What did the Supreme Court decide about whether an enslaved person had standing to sue in federal court? What was the rationale behind this decision? Explain.

28. What did Taney claim were the intentions of the framers of the Constitution regarding African Americans? Imagine yourself an attorney for a moment, what evidence would you cite to support Taney's claims regarding the intentions of the framers? What evidence would you cite to refute Taney's claims?

29. According to Taney, was the Missouri Compromise constitutional? Why or why not? Explain.

30. According to Taney's opinion, did Congress have the power to declare any state a free state (i.e. a state in which one could not own another person)? Explain.

Abraham Lincoln, "A House Divided" (1858)

31. In your own words, summarize Lincoln's argument.

32. What groups was Lincoln attempting to appeal to with this speech? Who would have supported him? Who would have opposed him? Why? Explain.