Melissa Garza

February 23, 2010

Web Review

1.)   Sonya Prince – “Does Literacy Really Guarantee Freedom?”

The title is what initially caught my eye as I surveyed the list of available papers.  I am currently taking Composition Theory and Practice, and the power of literacy is something we have discussed at length.  The power not only to withhold it as slave owners used to do, but also the power to change someone’s life for the better.  I cannot imagine a better gift to sustain someone long term than that of literacy.  I digress… In reading this paper, it became apparent that a fuller excerpt of the Incident in the Life of a Slave Girl may have been covered in the author’s class.  I do not recall discussing Linda’s literacy as a part of our reading.  I appreciated the insight given regarding the flipside of education as it manifests itself in Corinthians from the Song of Solomon.  I believe Prince’s essay to be easy to read, however, some of the tenses used interrupted the flow for me.  An example found in the opening paragraph highlights this:

We see examples of how hard it was for slaves to become literate. On the other hand, in “Song of Solomon” we saw how hard life was for Corinthians after becoming literate to live a life free of servitude. This leaves only one conclusion. Literacy did not guarantee freedom from oppression.   

2.)  Gary Pegoda – “The Moments: Reactions to Freedom”

I read a lot of introductory paragraphs before settling on Pegoda’s essay as my second web review.  Pegoda’s statement, “…uplifting facet of these reflections includes their widely varying reactions to freedom,” caught my attention.  As a free, white American I do not personally have a reaction to freedom.  Freedom is a gift given me by my ancestors and their fellow countrymen who fought for it.  I appreciate it and cannot imagine living in a world without it, but I do not have a “reaction to freedom.”  There is much to be criticized in this essay; however, I only have one paragraph to sum up everything, so I will use the space to criticize the following statement:  “Milkman makes the grade in that moment, earns the MLK in his name...”  Although Pegoda is clever in drawing a “MLK” reference from Milkman’s name, it should be explained that Milkman is just a nickname given to him because of his la leche experiences as an older child.  Knowing this makes it seem kind of icky to drum up a tie to Martin Luther King, Jr. using this horrible nickname.

3.)  Jennifer Rieck – “Ruth:  She’s ‘Alone in this World, and a Fucked up World it is too’”

Surprise! The title caught my attention.  It is interesting to me that Rieck draws parallels between Ruth and a slave.  She is quite right that both are without voice, but if Ruth were truly an object, her husband, Macon Dead, Jr. might not have hesitated in killing her for what he misconstrued as an inappropriate relationship between her and her father.  Rieck further notes that Milkman, Ruth’s son, found her to be of no consequence.  Too be fair, he is not close to anyone in his immediate family.  We perceive he is close to his father, however physically true it might be there is certainly not an emotional connection to speak of. I enjoyed reading this essay; however, as we read literature and should respond to it in writing in the present tense (something I continually work on) I could not help but notice Reick referring to things in the Song of Solomon in the past tense as shown in the following:

Clearly Ruth was not a complete person, but not of her own doing.  She was a victim of her circumstances, a ghost that makes itself known from   time to time, slipping into and out of existence, a vaporous, almost invisible object.

Melissa Garza

February 28, 2010

Slavery: From Fact to Fiction

Jupiter Hammon; Olaudah Equiano; Frederick Douglass; Harriet Jacobs; what do these people have in common?  All were slaves; all found their voice and through the power of literacy, all are able to communicate some aspect of their plight for the edification of future generations.  These people tell us of the “facts” of slavery as it is known to them.  These people suffered at the hands of masters and overseers who thought of them only as chattel.  These are the real voices of slavery.  Modern day authors such as Toni Morrison and Alex Haley write about slavery from the comfort of the twentieth century (the books written about in this paper were written in the 1970s).  It is my goal to show the differences between the authentic slave narrative and the fiction produced by modern day authors.

A slave who was empowered with literacy was a rare thing in the days of American slavery.  “If you teach that nigger how to read, there would be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him as a slave…It would make him discontented and unhappy (Douglas 16.)”  However, Jupiter Hammon, a lifelong slave, was encouraged to get an education.  He wrote and published a poem entitled, “An Evening Thought: Salvation by Christ, With Penitential Cries.”  This is the first known publishing of a slave’s written word.  This poem speaks to the hearts of all who hear or read it.  His underlying message is a simple one. We are all equals in the eyes of the Lord.  Everyone, slaves included, is entitled to redemption and admittance to His Kingdom.

In The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa, the African, written by Equiano himself, Equiano tells of his “adventures” as he is kidnapped from his family and sold into bondage.  Although he is there against his will, Equiano tries to make the best of his situation.  He tells of the extreme fear he felt at the prospect of being eaten by the white people on board a ship bound for England (12).  Equiano’s description, of the white barbarians, is compelling.  Several times in his travels as a slave, Equiano’s situation makes him feel like he is a part of a family.  He is very descriptive in these encounters as if he has memorized every detail.

 Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, written by Douglass himself, is a most enlightening read.  As son of his master, Douglass is treated marginally better than the other slaves on the plantation.  He still suffers hardships and witnesses extreme cruelty.  He is taught to read and write by area children when he moves to the city, and knowing how much the whites are against slaves being educated, he begins teaching others.  He earns money for his master and himself and eventually escapes to the free state of New York.  Douglass will go on to be a voice for the voiceless.  He will give great oratories to rooms filled with sympathizers of the anti-slavery cause.  He will spend his days educating these people about the atrocities of slavery and in the end, he will see slavery abolished.  

Douglass is not the only author we’ve read who escapes to freedom. Harriet Jacobs may have been born into slavery, but she did not know it until she was six years old.  In her autobiography, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, her troubles did not begin until she went to live with her new mistress, a young lady of five years of age.  The girl’s father, Dr. Flint, takes an immediate liking to Jacobs and so begins years of emotional torment for her.  Surprisingly, he never rapes her, but the emotional damage he causes is severe.  The abuse escalates to physical pain as he repeatedly beats her and knocks her down.  Jacobs eventually has the courage to run away and winds up hiding in a garret beside her grandmother’s home.  The evils inflicted upon Jacobs is so severe that she willingly chooses to sequester herself in a room so small she cannot stand up or move about. She is not sheltered from the heat, the cold or the rain, and yet she would still choose this existence to that of the abuse she suffered while “belonging” to Dr. Flint.

Of the people mentioned above, Hammons is the only one who comes close to having a voice.  I say this because he is “allowed” an education and he is “allowed” to publish his written word for others to read and to respond to.  He is, of course, still a slave -- born into it like Douglass and Jacobs.  However, they escape and write about their situations to educate people as to the evils of slavery.  Through literacy, they find their voice and use it to facilitate change in hopes of giving a voice to other slaves.  Equiano is unique because he did not spend much time in America before being shipped to England.  Objective 1 certainly still applies to him, but for me his story is more about being torn away from his family and desperately looking for a surrogate every chance he gets.  His ability to connect with others who are different may have helped him in securing his freedom. These narratives tell the “truth” of slavery without using flowery language.  Now, let us look at the “fiction.”

First, let me just say that it is not my aim to criticize the talent of Toni Morrison.  Although difficult to read at times, her writing is of the highest caliber.  Her novels are mostly historical fiction and while she does write quite a bit about experiences of slaves, it is not the sum total of her literary work. Second, as I am comparing actual slave narratives to that of fiction I thought to include Alex Haley, best known for his novel, Roots: the Saga of an American Family, in this paper.  Haley contends that Roots is a work of fiction with some family history mixed in.

Toni Morrison touches on slavery in Song of Solomon when she describes Jake, born into slavery as the twenty-first son of Solomon and Ryna. Jake is renamed Macon Dead by a drunk Union Soldier when he registers with the Freedmen’s Bureau.  Although this work of fiction does not go into great detail on the American slave experience, Morrison does shed light on a different kind of slave experience – that of no education.  Jake had a dream of making a better life for himself and his children.  He worked hard and eventually got his own farm. However, without the ability to read or write, Jake is left voiceless when he places his “mark” on a document that he cannot read.  He apparently gives his farm away, and is killed when he refuses to leave the property after learning of the deceit.  His dream of a better life passes on to his son who also embraces the “American dream” and owns several rental properties in a big city.  Morrison’s use of language weaves the characters and storylines together in an act of fluidity.  Haley takes a more direct route in his work.

Kunta Kinte is an African slave sold in America. The story of his beginnings in Africa, and subsequent life in bondage, is passed down through oral tradition to each generation.  This book carries the reader through several generations where the author inserts himself as the seventh generation in Kunta Kinte’s descendency.  Although Kunta Kinte is voiceless in his lifetime, he finds voice through his ancestors.

For her literary prowess, Toni Morrison was awarded a Nobel Prize, and Alex Haley won a Pulitzer Special Award for his fiction. It is important to note that the ex-slaves wrote to shed light on the horrible injustices of slavery rather than for prizes or money.  They may not have been the best writers, but theirs was a hope to abolish slavery not just a hope to sell books.

This class on American minority literature has opened my eyes to the wonders of literature I would not have thought to read otherwise.  In writing the midterm essay and brainstorming about my research topic I began to wonder if white people have ever been considered a minority in Americas past.

Preliminary research looks promising.  In Deerfield Massachusetts, a white settlement was attacked by French soldiers and Native American Indians.  I will use this encounter as a springboard for my research.  Using the Research Post option, I will try to successfully answer the question. 

Works Cited

Haley, Alex. Roots: The Saga of an American Family. NY: Vanguard, 2007.