Interpretations of Slavery

New York: Oxford University Press,1988. Gates. The Trope of the Talking Book. David Van Leer. Reading Slavery: The Anxiety of Ethnicity in Douglass' Narrative.

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. The Classic Slave Narratives. Ed. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. New York: Penguin Group, 1987. Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. Introduction.

Neal was just one of the important writers of the Black Arts Movement era. Other writers, poets, and essayists illustrated a new beginning for the black community to overcome their hardships and to rise up artistically. The concept of Black Power stemmed from the Black Arts Movement. Black Power was a political movement that arose to express a new racial consciousness among Blacks in the United States. Black Power represented a racial dignity leading to freedom from white authority in economic and political grounds.

The Harlem Renaissance poets had to overcome many obstacles to establish themselves in the world of American poetry. They faced overt racism, harsh criticism, and racial isolation. Out of these impediments came a multitude of great literary contributions. However, some of the best poems came from the critical self-analysis of four highly influential Harlem Renaissance poets. Hughes, McKay, Cullen, and Bennett each wrestled with the issue of uncertain racial identity.

Turner, Darwin T. “Langston Hughes.” The World Book Encyclopedia. Chicago: World Book, Inc., 1992. Wintz, Cary D. Black Culture and the Harlem Renaissance. Houston, Rice University Press, 1988. Wintz, Cary DeCordova.

I personally believe the slaves’ accounts that described every detail in constructing the reality of slavery. The slaveholders, however, talked in general without a single example from their experiences as slave owners. Also, very often, it is hard to believe what they say in their essays. But why these people could be so evil? I think the best answer for the question can be found in Inside View Of Slavery by C. G. Parsons who was a visitor from the North at the time of slavery.

Another counter to Douglass was that even though slaves were people, they were still considered property. A hard working farmer could have used his last penny in order to purchase that slave because he was unable to tend his farm and provide for his family. One common misconception was that all slaves were beaten and treated lower than swine, while to the contrary some were treated well being given a bed and meals every day in exchange for their hard work. While Douglass may have had a bad time under the ownership of Auld, most northern states did not treat their slaves in this manner. This is one of the main reasons Douglass learned how to read, yet no credit is given to his former owner.

David Levering Lewis, ed. New York: Viking Penguin, 1994, 100-105. Hughes, Langston. "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain." The Portable Harlem Renaissance Reader.

Ed. Maria Diedrich, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and Carl Pedersen. New York: Oxford UP, 1999: 47-56. Davis, Jane. The White Image in the Black Mind: A Study of African American Literature.

Due to the South's dependence on slaves and the popular belief that slavery is an issue that should be dealt with by each state individually, the slaves were not freed in 1787. Many other issues became entangled in this argument, but those were the major causes of the Convention's decision.