Emily Jane Bronte
Emily Jane Bronte remains a mystery. Very little is known about her. There is little information, and much of what we have is contradictory. She is the author of only one novel and a few bits of poetry. This gives people little to build on.
The majority of what we know about her comes from her sister, Charlotte, who is another well known author. From what is known, it would appear that Emily led an ordinary life of a nineteenth century female. She attended boarding school and learned domestic skills at home. In other ways her life was unusual and even eccentric, contributing to the originality of her great novel.
Emily Jane Bront was born on July 30, 1818 in Thornton, Yorkshire. She was the fifth child and fourth daughter of Reverend Patrick Bront and Maria
Branwell Bront . When she was two years old, the family moved to Haworth. This remained her home until she passed away in December of 1848 at the age of thirty.
Both of Emily's parents influenced her literary education. Her mother published one essay, and her father published four books and a little poetry. In
1821, Maria died of cancer, leaving Emily and her four siblings motherless. Her sister, Elizabeth, came to live as a housekeeper and was responsible for training the girls in the household arts.
While at home doing housework, Emily secretly worked on poetry. In 1845,
Charlotte discovered some of Emily's poems and confessed that she, too, had written some poetry. As it turned out, so had Anne. After much persuading, the poems were published in a small book entitled Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton
Bell. Pseudonyms were used because the girls wanted their poetry to be taken seriously. Only two copies were sold. The failure led all three to begin work on novels: Emily on Wuthering Heights, Charlotte on Jane Eyre, and Anne on Agnes
Grey. All three novels were successful and published in 1847 and 1848.
During this time, their brother, Branwell, had become addicted to alcohol and drugs, and was dying. Emily, the one closest to him, was the only
One of the major questions asked about the slave trade is ‘how could so Europeans enslave so many millions of Africans?” Many documents exist and show historians what the slave trade was like. We use these stories to piece together what it must have been to be a slave or a slaver. John Barbot told the story of the slave trade from the perspective of a slaver in his “A Description of the Coasts of North and South Guinea.” Barbot describes the life of African slaves before they entered the slave trade.
The Atlantic Slave Trade affected millions of lives throughout the centuries that it existed and now many years later. It was so widely and easily spread throughout four continents and with these documents we get to read about three different people with three different point of views. A story of the life as a slave from an African American slave himself, how the slave trade was just a business from the point of view from merchants and kings, and letter from King Affonso I referring to the slave trade to King Jiao of Portugal.
Slaves were regarded as “human chattel”, to be used for whatever purpose their owners might wish (McLaurin 117). It is evident in Celia’s trial, that conflicts concerning arguments of masters to their slaves, the verdict typically favored the master. Celia later became involved with a fellow slave by the name of George. Celia’s new lover could not bear the thought of his master taking advantage of Celia. George, however, held no legal position to inform Newsome of what he may or may not do. George advised Celia to terminate her relations with Newsome; consequently, if she failed to do so, George would put an end to his own companionship with her. The result of Celia’s confrontation with her master resulted in his death. The only successful form of resistance she ever obtained. Unfortunately, Celia’s life was executed two months later. By her story, a conclusion is drawn that although blacks had rights, they remained inferior to those of white males. Anything the superior head of the house desired from their chattel was received. Infamous treatment of slaves, such that as Celia’s, remained in the favor of white males. Any crime committed upon the whites by blacks, regardless of motives, predominantly went in the whites’ favor. Concluding the fact that slaves were hardly in any form of position to resist their
Slaves during the mid-1800s were considered chattel and did not have rights to anything that opposed their masters’ wishes. “Although the slaves’ rights could never be completely denied, it had to be minimized for the institution of slavery to function” (McLaurin, 118). Female slaves, however, usually played a different role for the family they were serving than male slaves. Housework and helping with the children were often duties that slaveholders designated to their female slaves. Condoned by society, many male slaveholders used their female property as concubines, although the act was usually kept covert. These issues, aided by their lack of power, made the lives of female slaves
Examining primary sources can be a useful tool to provide partial insights of past events. Olaudah Equiano’s Interesting Narrative is an example of a primary source that provides insights on 18th century New World slavery. His autobiography takes the reader on a journey starting from his village in Africa through the slave trade to the West. He reveals many insights on slavery, but there are also limitations that do not provide the full picture, which is to be expected. Nevertheless, Equiano’s autobiography provides important insights on 18th century New World slavery through his experiences and the experiences of others.
Klein, Herbert S. The middle passage: Comparative studies in the Atlantic slave trade. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press , 1978. 282. Print.
thought they were not good enough for her. After the death of Emily's father she
Peabody, Sue. “Slavery and the Slave Trade.” Ed. Jonathan Dewald. Vol 5. New York. 2004. 429- 438. Gale
Emily’s psychotic personality disorder is made completely obvious through the details of the story. Before his death Emily’s father refused to allow her to reach sexual maturity by preventing her from loving any man below their class. This caused sexual ...
Emily didn’t have the slightest clue how to survive on her own without her father, but
At first glance, Inhuman Traffick: The International Struggle against the Transatlantic Slave Trade bares resemblance to your typical, run of the mill historical textbook. The reader [looking at the cover,] may expect to see ordinary text that would pertain to a standardized African History course. Contrary to the title, the author, Rafe Blaufarb, provides a vivid, contextual look at how slavery spanned out with the use of graphic images and primary sources in a way most authors do not today. Comparatively [to other textbooks,] Inhuman Traffick depicts the development of the raw story of enslavement. From the ships to the whips, it shows concrete details of this haunting era while adding an underlying complexity to the story whilst omitting
Around 1820, the Newsom family settled in Callaway County, Missouri. By 1850, Robert Newsom, the head of the Newsom family owned a few hundred acres of land, some cattle, and five male slaves. Soon after his wife’s passing he felt the need for female companionship so he decided to purchase a sixth slave, a 14 year old female named Celia who he considered his concubine,
comes near his daughter. After living like this for so many years, Emily is left with
When it comes to the topic of “16 and pregnant," most of us will readily agree that it is a debatable topic amongst teens and adults. Where this agreement usually ends, however, is on the question of whether, 16 and pregnant promotes or discourage teen pregnancy. Whereas some are convinced that it does not discourage, others maintain that it promotes teen pregnancy, because some girls just want to get pregnant to become famous. I agree that the show promotes teen pregnancies because, the show does not show how it really like to be a teen mom.