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American Slave Narrative Analysis

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At first glance, American Slave Narratives: An Online Anthology appears to simply be a database; bland background, nothing special marking the webpage, just a simple list of narratives listed in alphabetical order. The webpage has thirteen listings, each one a link to a page which contains someone’s story. The online anthology was last updated in November of 1998, and it’s clear to see that it hasn’t undergone any changes in the last seventeen years. However, looks can be very deceiving. Though this website doesn’t offer vast collections of stories, filled to the brim with adventure, deceit, or triumph over the “corruption of white society”, it contributes the stories of everyday people. The men and women whose stories are depicted didn’t …show more content…

Crockett believed that the most important thing she should share was a hymn that inspired her. The hymn Crockett sung for the interviewer was from the New Prophet Church and is similar to some of the other spirituals we have read about in class. Out of all the spirituals we read, God’s a-Gonna Trouble the Water was the most similar to Crockett’s song, showing much repetition of one or two lines with very little rhyming involved, but centering around a biblical theme. The differences are made very clear though by the words of the song. While God’s a-Gonna Trouble the Water has very mournful tone and almost appears to be trying to give the slaves hope that, someday, God will help them, Crockett’s New Prophet Church hymn has a far happier feel and seems as though the weight has been lifted off of the African American’s shoulders. Crockett’s hymn may not be the kind of spiritual that we normally read in class, full of repression and underlying hatred, but it shows that even though times may be changing, there is still hope found in the vernacular tradition. Music can be used to inspire emotions in others that mere words could never accomplish, and a person 's favorite song can say more about them than any narrative. Crockett’s song showed that her “Soul so happy till I kain

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The theme of the three interviews is “slavery from the perspective of former slaves” but they do not deal with the same subject. What the interviewees told to the interviewers is different depending on the quality of their memory. However, these interviews portray the Yankees in the same way: they were harmless people, they did nothing except eating food. According to Maugan Shepherd, William Colbert and “Aunt” Rhody Holsell, food was the only thing Union soldiers cared about. Paul D. Escott says in “The Art and Science of Reading WPA Slave Narratives” that too avoid the problems of WPA narratives, such as children slave narratives we just have to compare them with slave narratives from old former slaves.

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An example of this is her second stanza, “My thankful mouth shall speak Thy praise, / My tongue shall talk of Thee; / On high my heart O do Thou raise / For what Thou'st done for me.” Her work is very centered in serving the Lord and living a simplistic

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As once said by the great W.E.B Du Bois, “All art is propaganda and ever must be, despite the wailing of the purist… I do not care a damn for any art that is not used for propaganda.” During the time of the Gilded Age, there was a massive amount of unfairness, mistreatment, and inhumane acts being committed. However, there was people known as Muckrakers that sought to expose the companies committing these acts through photography, and more popular, socialist novels. Unlike any other socialist novel, The Jungle used journey of an immigrant family to reach the public about the problems that Immigrants faced the theme of “Waged Slavery” and the basis of Social Darwinism to raise awareness of the Socialist Movement in America

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acts of terrorism to make their point. In March, Mary Richardson slashed the Velasquez painting “The Rokeby Venus” at the National Gallery in London. In April, a suffragette armed with a hatchet broke ten large panes of glass in a cabinet at the British Museum. Across the country, suffragettes were setting fire to empty houses and railway stations, piers and sports pavilions and vandalising golf courses. In June, a bomb planted by suffragettes exploded in Westminster Abbey, damaging the Coronation Chair.

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Violence is a common motif to all slave-narratives, and ‘incidents’ is no exception. Slaves are burned, frozen, and whipped to death. Their wounds are washed with brine for further intensifying torture. The politics of apocalypse in Afro-American slave-narratives goes beyond the rewriting of the silenced, forgotten, erased history. It is to shame and shock the mainstream reader, into acceptance of the white guilt as a mark of the end of the extremely damaging slavery system as it is to give voice to their stuffed souls to unburden their hearts.

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Musical hymns have a long past of being something dear to African Americans as during slavery's most prominent years vocal iteration was the only way they could communicate as they were illiterate and could not simply write them down this also served as a form of hope to them. Stevenson uses this at the beginning of the novel when he is first introduced to a death row inmate as stated in the following quote “He began to sing. He had a tremendous baritone voice that was strong and clear. It startled me and the guard, who stopped his pushing. I’m pressing on, the upward way New Heights I’m gaining, everyday Still praying as I’m onward bound Lord, plant my feet on Higher Ground.

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The increase in the tempo could also be inferred to represent members of the congregation becoming filled with the Holy Spirit, with the accompanying movements of turns and kicks showing their uncontrollable joyfulness and their inability to control their own movements (Spahouston.org, 1999). Ailey would have been exposed to many of these displays of pure jubilation, growing up within a Baptist church during his childhood (Spahouston.org, 1999). Therefore, Ailey’s experience with the African American Baptist churches is reflected through the music and props in

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However, it is also possible that much of the song’s controversy can be attributed to its lack of double meaning in its lyrics, which speak clearly and angrily about the racist ideologies of the post-war South. The use of double meaning in African American music, particularly spirituals, was very common. For example, many spirituals speak of finding freedom and being liberated from sin. To white listeners, these lyrics represent salvation in heaven and freedom from sin .

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This part of the song manages the answer for the already expressed problems. In response to the problems of the past, James Weldon Johnson observes the answer for be a solid association with God and an inspirational point of view toward the future. The religious theme present all through this song corresponds with the religious demeanor present in numerous songs of the time. At the point when times got unpleasant, black individuals had figure out how to depend on religion as an approach to keep soul up and confidence that there would be better days to come. The principal stanza of this song perceives religion as a noteworthy part of the past by saying that the unforgiving background blacks have had, created confidence in their God.

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Today has been marvelous today and I am so glad that this Emancipation finally happened. All of my son’s hard work has been payed off and his honor will now be remembered. Since, I can recall my boy, John, would do anything for what he believed in and this was one of them. Which was this country and the abolishment of slavery. His main focus before the war, was helping escaped slaves get their citizenship.

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By Gayle F. Wald, “Gospel songs focus almost entirely on the other world and its promises of everlasting life, unburdened by sorrow or suffering… They also give people strength to engage with the world, to stand with the storms of everyday life.” (Wald 15). Furthermore, “When you sing them you are delivered of your burden. You have a feeling that here is a cure for what’s wrong.” (Wald 15).

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Escaping Slavery and Becoming an Abolitionists I woke up to the sound of a whip and men shouting “keep moving”. As I glared through the frosty window onto the snow covered field, I saw icicles glistening from the eaves of the house. I also saw overwhelmed men walking in chains on a snowy road with no shoes and ragged clothes. In North Carolina weather was not great and working on a cold plantation with no great clothes was hard.

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Slaves believed seeking the North Star led to freedom. “No one knows how many slaves accomplished in reaching Canada or the North-the most common rough estimate is around one thousand per year” (Foner 418). Much of those who achieved to escape lived. Slaves who fled were usually from Virginia, Kentucky, and Maryland, which bordered on the free states. Most of fugitive slaves were young males.

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The song questioned about whether we should reassess society’s look on religion, and also expressed on how everyone deserves to have equal rights and be accepted, and how society

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Music by folk singers “helped to spread the ideals and social commitments of the civil rights movement to a growing number of young white Americans” (Ashby 355). African Americans during this time period would write about their hardships and the pressing times of the civil war movement, hopefully to get others on their side as well. At the same time, there were groups of white folk singers that would sing about the benefits of racism and why they should continue to oppress African Americans. Folk music was one of the first genres that actually expressed social ideas, which not only helped African Americans in their civil rights movement, but it hurt them as

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