LITR 4232: American Renaissance

UHCL, spring 2002

Student Research Proposal

Candy Berry 

I would like to try option 2 for my research project.  I am very interested in my journal containing research on slave narratives and abolitionist authors.  I am also considering how that sometimes coincides with women's rights as well.  
      I would like to use some of the authors we have studied in class as well as other authors dealing with these topics.  I feel that this is such an important issue in American society.  This was important for our ancestors as well as for us in today's society.  
      Do you think that I will be able to tie in women's rights with this topic or is that just limited to Sojourner Truth?
                                                                      Candy Berry

Dear Candy,

A journal on abolition and women's rights is a good possibility. I don't know much on the subject myself, but I keep bumping into it often enough to suspect that there's plenty of material out there. For instance, look at the introduction to Stanton in our anthology, and you'll see some of her experiences in the antislavery movement. And today I mentioned Elizabeth Peabody, who was active in everything. Back to our anthologies, look in the table of contents under the two sections on slavery and on women--I'm sure you'll see the names connecting back and forth. Also don't forget Douglass, a man for sure but an ally of the women's movement at least partly because women were his allies in the Abolition movement.

In the Reference Section of the library, go find Angela Howard's Handbook to American Women's History and look up slavery or abolition.

The only thing to beware of is that your journal remain a literature journal rather than becoming a History journal. You can strike a balance by keeping up with the writings that these historical figures produced, the newspapers etc. they worked for, how history is recorded by their writings, how their writings shaped history in both movements, how the histories of the movements were marked by declarations, publications, etc.