CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Black literature is taught as sociology, as tolerance, not as Serious, rigorous art form _Toni Morrison African -American history predated the emergence of the United States as an independent country, and African – American literature was similarly in deep roots. Jupiter Hammon who was considered as the first published Black writer in America, he published his first poem named, “An Evening Thought: Salvation by Christ with Penitential Cries”in 1761. Through his poem, he implemented the idea of a gradual emancipation as a way to end slavery. His idea was later reprinted in some works such as Le Mulatre a short story published in 1837 by Victor Sejour …show more content…
E. B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington debated whether to confront or appease racist attitudes in the United States. As segregation regimes took hold in the South in the 1890s with the tacit approval of the rest of the country, many African Americans found a champion in Booker T. Washington and adopted his self-help autobiography, Up from Slavery (1901), as their guide book to improve fortunes. Washington portrayed his own life in such a way as to suggest that even the most disadvantaged of black people could attain dignity and prosperity in the South by providing themselves valuable, productive members of society deserving of fair and equal treatment before the law. A classic American success story, Up from Slavery solidified Washington’s reputation as the most eminent African American of the new century. Yet Washington’s primacy was soon challenged. In his landmark collection of essays, The Souls of Black Folk (1903), William Edward Burghardt Du Bois, a professor of sociology at Atlanta University, disputed the main principle of Washington’s political program, the idea that voting and civil rights were less important to black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic self-sufficiency and then Du Bois’s striving to dramatize in his narrator a synthesis of racial and national consciousness dedicated to “the ideal of human brotherhood” made The Souls of Black Folk one of the most …show more content…
More than that, African – American literature presented the African - American experience from an African - American point of view. In the early republic, African – American literature represented a way for free blacks to negotiate their new identity in an individualized republic. They often tried to exercise their political and social autonomy in the face of resistance from the White public .Thus, an early theme of African - American literature was, like other American writings, what it meant to be a citizen in post –Revolutionary
Washington offered a solution to the challenges that followed the legalized segregation and disfranchisement that isolated and oppressed southern blacks. In addition, he provides evidence of racial progress in the South. Washington expresses that others fail to realize that no race can prosper until they learn that there is just as “much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem.” He also states that the colored must start at the bottom of life and not the top. He asks that the white race “cast down your buckets where you are,” to the people who have “without strikes and labour wars, tilled your fields, cleared your forest, builded your railroads and citites, and brought forth treasures from the bowels of the earth, and helped make possible this magnificent representation of the progress of the south.”
All three of the writers made a connection with the reader by talking about racism/slavery, bravery, and spirituality. Being able to read the work written by former slaves helps the reader understand what was actually going on during that time period and how racism continues to occur in the world today. One of the first black writings I read was, What to the Slave is the Fourth of July (1852), by Frederick Douglass. In this speech, he expresses his feelings towards the famous holiday, the Fourth of July.
However, a black leader who didn’t agree with Washington’s view was William Du Bois. In 1903, William Du Bois published the essay, "Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others," in his book ‘The Souls of Black Folk’. He criticised Washington for failing to realise that without political power, economic gains were short-lived and vulnerable. In a time of increasing discrimination and racial violence, Du Bois argued, blacks must press for civil rights rather than accommodate
Booker Washington wrote the book Up from Slavery to show his hardships of living as a slave, and after being liberated from the plantation. He wanted to show people how hard his life was as a child while he was a slave, and how trying to get an education wasn’t easy. Up from Slavery depicts his life of a slave to a schoolmaster. He wrote about how as a child, he had to endure hard manual labor on a Virginia plantation, and eventually how he strived for a decent education and for relationships with great people. He stresses that it is important for the freedman to get an education in hopes it’ll ease race relations in the South.
Booker T. Washington felt that the southern African American and southern White Americans should “cast down” their buckets and work together in order for both races to prosper in the South (Washington, 1895). I understand Washington feeling that in order for the South to prosper African Americans needed to work with White Americans, but some of the ways he wanted African American to achieve this was personally limiting. Washington wanted African American to start from bottom not the top as far as aspirations and jobs (Washington, 1895). However, Washington felt that southern African Americans should educate themselves in the areas of agriculture, mechanics, commerce, and domestic service (Washington, 1895).
“The Souls of Black Folks” by WEB Du Bois William Edwards Burkhardt also known as WEB Du Bois is one of the most incredible African American advocates in African American history. He was also a journalist, educator, writer and civil rights activist. Du Bios was born in February 28, 1868 and is from Great Barrington, Massachusetts. In 1895 WEB Du Bios become the first African American man to earn a Ph. D from Harvard University. He is also the co-founder of the NAACP, National Association for the Advancements for Color People.
Booker T. Washington was born in 1856, nine years before the Thirteenth Amendment was passed. Washington had spent his early childhood years as a slave. Once he was free, he learned to read and write, went to school, and became a teacher. Washington believed that the best way for African Americans to get ahead was to become financially independent. Washington also counseled black not to fight discrimination outright and accept their second-class status, at least temporarily.
During the course of Booker T. Washington's rigorous lifetime, the ultimate goal of being the change in the education system of all slaves and pursuing aid for the time of hardships that blacks faced in that time of society was what he longed for. This process wasn't easy as along the journey starting from a slave and the change to becoming a freeman was finding ways to not only honor his people but to prove the impact and hard work they can put in to become successful individuals on their own. Booker T. Washington paved the way for African American people, as an instructor and a childhood through slavery that through resilience, they will achieve. From his tragic childhood, born into slavery on a plantation in Franklin County, Virginia, was
Du Bois described them as hopeless, voiceless, humiliated, disrespected, and ridicule and how society was too focused on politics and wealth. “Would America go poor if white people acknowledge black folk are human beings like any other?”
Dr. W.E.B Du Bois uses this essay to sway the audience of the insufficiency of the statements that Mr. Booker T. Washington has made about African Americans being submissive of rights and the creation of wealth. Mr. Washington believes that the black race should give up and give into what the society norms were at that time sequentially just to have a certain right. Dr. Du Bois refused to believe that the black race should give up one right to get another right. Especially, when the white South had all rights without expecting to give up anything to have those rights.
As mentioned earlier, Du Bois most prominently stressed education as a means to earn political power. Du Bois argued that political power could be accumulated through social change facilitated by the Talented Tenth (Painter, 155). In other words, Du Bois thought it was important for the most educated African Americans to lead the masses of the African American race out of oppression. Thus, W.E.B Du Bois stressed the importance of education and political action above all
Imagine being an African American during the Progressive Era and not having the same rights that other people have. Booker T. Washington was born to a slave in 1856 and his mother was a cook on a plantation, while his father was a unknown white man most likely from a nearby plantation. At a young age, Washington worked hard and was sometimes beaten if he did not do what he was supposed to. There was a schoolhouse near the plantation he worked at, and he saw children his age learning, but at the time it was illegal to teach slaves. At nine years old, Booker T. Washington went to work with his step father instead of going to school.
Booker T. Washington’s goal for African Americans after the Civil War was to educate them to cut loose from discrimination and have them rely on themselves for independent standing. As a leader of blacks in the late 19th and early 20th century, he taught his fellow colleagues how to be proper, clean, and seek employment for steadying themselves and being at the same level as whites. He believed that if his people were financially dependent on themselves, it would reflect great importance onto their ego. Although as a child he didn’t have an education and he and his family worked as slaves on the Burroughs plantation. Even after being freed and working in the coal mines in poverty, Washington was hungry for knowledge, He faced many endeavors
In the analysis of the abundance of wonderful leaders who made a difference in the African American community since emancipation, W.E.B Du Bois made a special impact to advance the world. From founding the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, to his influential book The Souls of Black Folk, he always found an accurate yet abstract way of verbalizing the strives of African Americans as well as making platforms for them to be known. Although he had less power than most of the bigger named African American leaders of his time, W.E.B Dubois’ overweighing strengths verses weaknesses, accurate and creative analogies, leadership style, and the successful foundations he stood for demonstrates his ability to be both realistic and accurate in his assessment since emancipation. Though Du Bois did have a beneficial impact
In essence, she tells the tales that many have not, and in the process, presents alternate ways of thinking about knowledge and the presence and influence of blackness in America (Baker 10). Morrison uses the grotesque to accomplish some of her goals for writing, which include, but are not limited to: educating readers about African and African American cultures (primarily folklore and religion); telling stories that have never been told or have been neglected (primarily those related to the female slave experience); emphasizing the importance of the oral tradition; stressing the importance of one’s roots in the formation of self; and exposing interlocking systems of race, class, and gender that negatively affect black persons. Concurrently, Morrison’s fiction is prominent for its understated rebellion of totalizing African American mythologies, especially those of African American communities from the urban North to the rural Midwest or South. Identity in Morrison’s novels is formed and revised by a nondeterministic process in which one cause does not necessarily lead to a specific effect, much like the legends of slaves escaping.