Monday, 16 April: handout: “The Virgin of Guadalupe”; begin Rudolfo Anaya, Bless Me, Ultima

Web highlight (research reports): DeConnia (Dee) Lott

I went to the course website and found research reports written by students from the 2005 class. I chose to use research reports that dealt with slavery. These two research reports illustrate how the slaves were fighters.

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Topic 1: Research Report of Information on Secret Slave Schools

The subject matter to which there was a great interest was in the secret schooling of African slaves.  While reading the African American novels in class the biggest part of the stories which was left out was how they received their education.  Many of the slaves found people outside the plantations, going to church, and even the master’s and their wives would help teach the basics.

In today’s society while reading about the past there is still the burning question; how did the slaves learn to read and write so well?  The question was never really answered and needed to be further investigated.  There is lots of information dealing with this subject matter.  It was a surprise to see just how much information was available.  Even though the schools were secret, it was wonderful to find as much information as needed on the internet and in books.

We live in a very modern world with everything we need at our fingertips.  It would be very hard to try and imagine life without this luxury, but believe it or not it really did happen.  There was life before technology.  There were schools fighting for the right to allow their students to learn.  They were fighting so hard they had to keep it a secret.  There were many people and places which assisted in this secret and kept it very well and fought for the students to allow them to keep attending school one way or another.

Women and Slavery

            Of these four writers, Harriet Jacobs was the only woman born into slavery and forced to live the American Nightmare.  Throughout her slavery, she endured repeated sexual advances from her master and received few privileges of a human being.  Being the strong woman that she is, Harriet Jacobs never obstructed her moral code for her master or anyone else.  After several years of tedious slavery, she decided to fight back and escape from the perils of slavery.  Though frequent moves proved to be tough, Harriet Jacobs would have done anything to have herself and children to be free.  She also endured many years in a tiny unventilated crawlspace of an attic.  After the seven miserable years in the attic, Harriet Jacobs made the frightening escape to freedom.  This is when she decided to write on the accounts she experienced as a slave, which opened the eyes of many abolitionists and spread the word of sexual misconduct between owners and their slaves.  Sharing her experiences in her book Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, was a brave and honorable action taken by Jacobs to help lighten the load for other women slaves.  Before the launch of the Civil War, she became very active in the abolition movement and spent much time speaking out against slavery.  During the war, she actively raised money for African American refuges and worked to improve the poor conditions of recently freed slaves.  Because she was free, Jacobs could have chosen to live the rest of her life out peacefully and at ease, but instead she showed the world she was a fighter, for herself and for others like her.

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By reviewing these research reports exploring slavery, I was able to gain a better perspective on what is expected from us in our research reports  I also find it very useful to be able to review the work of previous student. Additionally, they are very useful in helping generate ideas for the research report.