ENGL 229 - African American Literature - Exam 1

Question 1

First Black person to publish a book (poetry); Published in London in 1773

Answer 1

Phillis Wheatley (1754-1784)

Question 2

The man who bought Wheatley and defended that she wrote her poetry.

Answer 2

John Wheatley

Question 3

What did Phillis Wheatley write?

Answer 3

Poems on Various Subjects, Religious, and Moral

Question 4

Phillis Wheatley Poems

Answer 4

(1) “To Maecenas”
(2) “To the University of Cambridge, New England”
(3) “On Being Brought from Africa to America”
(4) “On the Death of the Rev. Mr. George Whitefield”
(5) “To the…Earl of Dartmouth”
(6) “To Samson Occom”
(7)”To His Excellency General Washington”

Question 5

How did Phillis Wheatley write?

Answer 5

Heroic couplets and religious arguments

Question 6

Phillis Wheatley Themes

Answer 6

Religion (Sin, Israelites and Exodus), Greek References.

Question 7

Common Themes in Douglass

Answer 7

Separation of family, Dehumanization, Power of Learning to Read and Write, Abolition, Evils of Slavery

Question 8

A self-educated slave who escaped in 1838, Douglas became the best-known abolitionist speaker. He edited an antislavery weekly, the North Star

Answer 8

Frederick Douglass (1817-1895)

Question 9

Title of Douglass’ Narrative

Answer 9

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave

Question 10

How did Douglass learn to read?

Answer 10

He would takes a book and some bread with him when he went to run errands and would give the poor children of his neighborhood bread in exchanging for helping him read the book.

Question 11

Examples of dehumanization in Douglass’ narrative.

Answer 11

(1) Few clothes, (2) Harsh punishment, (3) Separation of children from their mothers, (4) Low quality of food

Question 12

Who taught Frederick Douglass the basics of reading?

Answer 12

Sophia Auld (Hugh Auld’s wife)

Question 13

A notorious slave “breaker” and Douglass’s keeper for one year. Known as “The Snake”

Answer 13

Mr. Covey

Question 14

Why did Douglass hate religious slave owners?

Answer 14

Religious slave owners excused and rationalized slavery through Christianity. These men were oftentimes the cruelest men.

Question 15

Who was Douglass’ audience?

Answer 15

Religious, Female, White women

Question 16

“What to the Slave is the Fourth of July”?

Answer 16

Frederick Douglass, 1852; Calls action to abolition and the potential of America as well as arguing the hypocrisy in the 4th of July because Black people were still enslaved.

Question 17

United States abolitionist and feminist who was freed from slavery and became a leading advocate of the abolition of slavery and for the rights of women

Answer 17

Sojourner Truth (1797-1883)

Question 18

Ar’nt I A Woman

Answer 18

• ‘Whar did your Christ Come from”
• ‘Ar’nt I a woman”
• Allusion to Eve in the garden

Question 19

Established literary tradition of the tragic mixed woman (the Slave Mother)

Answer 19

Frances E. W. Harper (1825-1911)

Question 20

Poems of Frances E. W. Harper

Answer 20

(1) “Eliza Harris”
(2) “Bury Me in a Free Land”
(3) “Ethiopia”
(4) “The Slave Mother”

Question 21

Common Themes of Frances E. W. Harper

Answer 21

Motherhood, Separation of child and mother, Pain of losing a child

Question 22

An African-American writer who escaped from slavery and was later freed. She became an abolitionist speaker and reformer

Answer 22

Harriet Jacobs (1813-1897)

Question 23

Title of Harriet Jacobs’ Narrative

Answer 23

“Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl”

Question 24

Who was the woman that cared for and freed Harriet Jacobs?

Answer 24

Mrs. Bruce

Question 25

How did Jacobs escape being raped by Dr. Flint?

Answer 25

She had two children out of wedlock with Mr. Sands

Question 26

Tragic Mixed Slaves

Answer 26

(1) Near white heroines

(2) Privileged slave conditions

(3) Increase in age increases worsening of treatment

(4) Death before dishonor

(5) Appeals to common sense of humanity

Question 27

What was the Cult of Domesticity?

Answer 27

Women were expected to take care of all matters of the home and be obedient wives and good mothers

Question 28

Well known for his poetry that was written in the dialect of southern Black people. 1st African-American to gain national prominence as a poet.

Answer 28

Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906)

Question 29

What poems did Paul Laurence Dunbar write?

Answer 29

“Ode to Ethiopia”

“A Negro Love Song”

“We Wear the Mask”

“The Haunted Oak”

“An Ante-Bellum Sermon”

“When Malindy Sings”

Question 30

Dialect Verse (Dunbar Poems)

Answer 30

presents aspects of African American rural life

Question 31

Standard English (Dunbar Poems)

Answer 31

poems that have an overt racial consciousness to them and emanate an overt pride or protest

Question 32

Why was Dunbar controversial?

Answer 32

(1) His verses pander to White audiences

(2) His dialect poetry pandered to Plantation Tradition

Question 33

Plantation Tradition/Dialect Literature

Answer 33

the celebration of slavery and the plantation; enslaved individuals are written as racist caricatures

Question 34

Plantation Tradition

Answer 34

Literature that encouraged a sentimental, romantic view of the Old South and slavery and often perpetuated stereotypes about African Americans.

Question 35

What did Dunbar pioneer?

Answer 35

The usage of African American spirituals and folk culture in literature

Question 36

African American author, essayist, political activist, and lawyer. Best known for novels and short stories exploring issues of racial and social identity in the Post-Civil War South.

Answer 36

Charles W. Chesnutt (1858-1932)

Question 37

What works has Charles W. Chesnutt written?

Answer 37

The Conjure Woman (1899); The Goopheard (Goophered) Vine & The Passing of Grandison

Question 38

Who were the central characters of “The Goopheard Vine”?

Answer 38

John (husband) & Annie (wife), Julius McAdoo (freeman), & Mars McAdoo (slave owner)

Question 39

Who was the Conjure Woman?

Answer 39

Aunt Peggy

Question 40

What happened when Henry ate from the vineyard?

Answer 40

Henry’s life force was tied to the seasons of the vineyard.

Question 41

Who were the central characters of “The Passing of Grandison”?

Answer 41

Dick Owens, Charity Lomax, The Colonel, and Grandison

Question 42

What was the ending of “The Passing of Grandison”?

Answer 42

Grandison returned to the plantation and escaped to Canada with his family.

Question 43

How does Chesnutt use the Plantation Tradition?

Answer 43

(1) Enslaved people are threatened with violence

(2) Hunger/Starvation

(3) Henry is sold 5 times

(4) Julius laughs about the death of his old master

Question 44

Frame narrative

Answer 44

A secondary story or stories embedded in the main story

Question 45

Goophered

Answer 45

A word for conjure, voodoo, hoodoo, juju, or grisgris

Question 46

Trickster Characters (Chesnutt)

Answer 46

(1)McAdoo tricking slaves with conjuring; (2) Northern man tricking McAdoo, (3) Julius tricking John + Annie; (4) McAdoo tricking slave owners by buying and selling Henry

Question 47

African American progressive who supported segregation and demanded that African Americans better themselves individually to achieve equality.

Answer 47

Booker T. Washington (1856-1915)

Question 48

Booker T. Washington and Slavery

Answer 48

While writing for a white audience to fund Tuskegee Institution, he claimed that while Black individuals were satisfied with emancipation; however, it was an institution that harmed both Black people AND White people. Black people were left without property or education, and White people were unfit to care for themselves.

Question 49

Common Themes of Booker T. Washington

Answer 49

(1) “Separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress”; (2) Economic progress BEFORE civil rights; (3) Physical labor over higher education; (4) Pull yourself up by your bootstraps

Question 50

What was the title of Booker T. Washington’s narrative?

Answer 50

“Up From Slavery” (1901)

Question 51

What was Booker T. Washington’s message in his “Atlanta Compromise” speech?

Answer 51

He argued Black people should prove themselves through hard work and monetary success prior to asking for civil rights and liberties

Question 52

Opposed Booker T. Washington. Wanted social and political integration as well as higher education for 10% of African Americans-what he called a “Talented Tenth”. Founder of the Niagara Movement which led to the creation of the NAACP.

Answer 52

W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963)

Question 53

Double Consciousness (Du Bois)

Answer 53

a concept conceived by W.E.B. DuBois to describe the two behavioral scripts, one for moving through the world and the other incorporating the external opinions of prejudiced onlookers, which are constantly maintained by African Americans

Question 54

Why did DuBois argue that Washington’s belief system was ineffective?

Answer 54

He believed Black Americans could not achieve economic progress without having (1) political power through voting; (2) civil rights; and (3) aid from institutions for higher education

Question 55

What did W.E.B. DuBois believe?

Answer 55

In full political, civil, and social rights for African Americans

Question 56

Talented Tenth (Du Bois)

Answer 56

an intellectual and political vanguard which would lead all Black people to a freedom and a higher level of human life; elitist viewpoint, DuBois revised ideas and other people

Question 57

What did Du Bois believe to be true of Booker T. Washington?

Answer 57

He believed Washington was the leader of the North, South, and Black people

Question 58

Who was Linda Brent?

Answer 58

Harriet Jacobs assumed name when she published “Incidents in the Life of a Slave”