UNIT VII STUDY GUIDE
Humanitarian Sensibilities and
Inevitable Conflict (1800-1870)
Course Learning Outcomes for Unit VII
Upon completion of this unit, students should be able to:
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Identify and describe the writings, life experiences, and accomplishments of assigned authors.
Analyze and discuss the historical and rhetorical accomplishments of assigned authors.
Recall and interpret events, themes, and literary elements of assigned readings.
Compare and contrast authors and their works.
Identify and explain the growing emphasis on human rights and humanitarian themes illustrated by
the works of assigned authors.
6. Identify, describe, and distinguish between Romantic and Transcendental ideas about individualism,
equality, and social reform as reflected in works by assigned authors.
Reading Assignment
Chapter 4:
The Humanitarian Sensibility and the Inevitable Conflict: 1800-1870
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Democracy and Social Reform, p. 1605
Inevitable Conflict, p. 1607
Timeline: The Humanitarian Sensibility and the Inevitable Conflict, p. 1610
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth (1807-1882), p. 1618
The Witness, p. 1618-1619
The Quadroon Girl, p. 1619-1620
Lincoln, Abraham (1809-1865), p. 1700
Farewell Address at Springfield, p. 1703
Reply to Horace Greeley, p. 1703
Address at the Dedication of the Gettysburg National Cemetery, p. 1704
Second Inaugural Address, p. 1705
Stowe, Harriet Beecher (1811-1896), p. 1706
Uncle Tom’s Cabin, pp. 1708-1727
Jacobs, Harriet (1813-1897), p. 1734
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, p. 1735-1747
Douglass, Frederick (1819-1891), p. 1798
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, p. 1748-1798
Von Drehle, David (November 5, 2012). Lincoln to the Rescue. Time. 30-34. This article will be the focus of
this unit’s assignment. It can be located via the Academic One-File database of the CSU Online Library,
where you can access the full article by clicking on the “View Article” button above the abstract, or you can
access it directly at the following URL: http://nation.time.com/2012/10/25/lincoln-to-the-rescue.
Access your textbook’s companion Website, The American Tradition in Literature Online Learning Center
(OLC), available at http://www.mhhe.com/perkins.
After accessing the above OLC website, click on Volume 1, which will access information and resources
related to our textbook. This will bring up a screen listing “Instructor Edition” and “Student Edition” as links on
the upper left side of the screen.
Click on “Student Edition,” which will bring up a listing of resources on the left side of the screen, entitled
“Course-wide Content.” From the dropdown menu that says “Choose one….” click on Frederick Douglass.
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You are required to read the “Orientation,” and “Key Concepts” related to Douglass
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that you have a
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firm grasp of how Douglass’ work is a slave narrative and an antislavery protest
work.
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Unit Lesson
NOTE: In addition to being responsible for information in the assigned readings, students will also be
responsible for the information in the unit lectures, so be sure to read them. Unit assessment questions and
unit assignments may be based on information from either source.
To access an audio recording of the unit lecture, click here.
Barack Obama
(Str4nd, 2008)
January 21, 2013 marked the second inauguration of U.S. President Barak Obama, the
first African-American president elected to that office to serve the American people. For
many Americans, the inauguration’s coinciding with the U.S. holiday celebrating the
achievements of Civil Rights slain leader, Martin Luther King, Jr., added significance to
the historic moment. President Obama’s second inauguration also included historic first
moments such as Myrlie Evers-Williams, widow of Civil Rights activist Medgar Evers,
serving as the first woman to deliver the inaugural invocation, and Richard Blanco, a
Cuban-American poet becoming the youngest poet to recite a poem at a presidential
inauguration. Finally, the first Native American Women Warrior color guard participated in
the inaugural parade, all veterans, all proud of their heritage, of the nation they serve, and
of the opportunity to be a part of the inaugural festivities commemorating President
Obama’s second, and final, swearing in.
Now, you may be wondering what all this has to do with your studies in American literature. Keep in mind that
back in the early 19th century, the new republic of the United States of America was experiencing some of the
social upheaval that later led to the events necessary to making possible in 2013 the participation of an
African American and a woman in presidential oaths of office in the U.S.
January 2013 marked the 150th anniversary of President Lincoln’s signing of the Emancipation Proclamation.
In 2013, it was only 50 years earlier that Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his now famous “I Have a Dream”
speech. At the same time as Mr. King’s speech, however, George Wallace in January of 1963 also coined the
now infamous phrase “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever” during his inauguration
speech as elected Governor of Alabama.
It took the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to outlaw the discriminatory voting practices that
contributed to the continued disenfranchisement of African Americans in the U.S. less
than 50 years prior to President Obama’s 2013 second inauguration. Interestingly,
nearly 150 years before Obama’s second inauguration, President Abraham Lincoln at
his 1865 second inauguration addressed a country torn apart by Civil War. In his
second inaugural address, Lincoln recalled that his first inauguration was
overshadowed by the impending Civil War brought on by Southern states “seeking to
dissolve the Union” over the issue of slavery. Lincoln noted further in his second
inaugural address that “one-eighth of the whole population” was then comprised of
“colored slaves” who had suffered from “two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil”
(Perkins & Perkins, 2009, p. 1706). It is important to note here that President
Abraham Lincoln
Lincoln’s central theme in his letters and speeches is the preservation of the Union.
(INeverCry, 2011)
Lincoln was personally opposed to slavery, but he did not believe that as president he
could impose that belief on the slave states. He was, however, confident in his
assertion that the Union was formed in perpetuity, and no state had the right to secede, as Lincoln indicates in
his “Reply to Horace Greeley” and in his second inaugural address.”
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Despite the impending Civil War, or perhaps in tandem with it, American writers
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reflected the Romantic ideals of rugged individualism, heroism, and adventure.
You
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will see in the slave narratives of this unit that the stories are intense, personal, and
symbolic. Who cannot shiver when reading in Uncle Tom’s Cabin the travails of Eliza
as she grabs up her child, who had been sold, and runs barefoot over ice floes
across a river to escape slavery? How brave was Harriett Jacobs to spend seven
years in an attic on her grandmother’s property to avoid her lecherous master? And
how can we not be moved when Frederick Douglass teaches himself to read, and
we witness his broadened mind become more and more horrified over his limited
circumstances as a slave as he grows more aware of his circumstances?
Naturally, people who are enslaved desire an escape.
Frederick Douglass
This is another Romantic ideal, as well as a very real
(Scewing, 2010)
desire among those whose lives are crippled, tortured,
and torn apart under the horrors of slavery. And let us
not forget how the Transcendentalists, with the help of Ralph Waldo Emerson
and Henry David Thoreau, push even further than the Romantics the idea of
individuals standing up against tyranny, to the point of carrying out acts of civil
disobedience to resist government gone wrong.
Besides the moving testimonials to the horrors of slavery embodied in the lives
of the slaves we get to know in this unit’s slave narratives, you will note that
slavery can have an adverse effect on the slave owners as well. George Orwell
Harriet Beecher Stowe
wrote in “Shooting an Elephant” that when “the white man turns tyrant it is his
(Szczebrzeszynski, 2010)
own freedom that he destroys.” Harriet Beecher Stowe, Harriet Jacobs, and
Frederick Douglass argue the same point in their own statements and through
their own characters. As you read these slave narratives, think about how white characters are also victims of
the system of slavery, particularly how slavery corrupts the slave owner.
While much of the emphasis in this unit is on the need for social reform that becomes so much a part of
American politics and rhetoric in the face of slavery, let us not forget that women, even white women, had few
rights in the 19th century. As we learned in the previous unit, the women’s rights movement, through such
leaders as Margaret Fuller, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, achieved national attention in 1848
with the meeting of the first women’s congress at Seneca Falls, New York. Just as slave narratives brought to
national attention the plight of slaves, women’s domestic literature brought to national attention the plight of
women in the patriarchal system that continued to dominate the 19th century United States.
Just as women had little representation in national politics in the U.S. during the 19th century, women writers
had to struggle to have their voices heard in a largely male literary world. Although the Transcendental idea of
humanity as largely good was questioned by the women and slave writers of the time, Transcendentalism
nevertheless remained a powerful influence on the continued struggle for the rights of minorities and women.
This was made evident by the stories that proliferated in the popular press. Although the impending Civil War
would push aside, to some extent the struggle for women’s rights, the brutal war and the stories that came out
of it pushed human rights, particularly the rights of slaves, to the forefront of the national consciousness in the
19th century.
It is fitting that 150 years later, in 2013, President Barak Obama’s second inaugural speech included mention
of Seneca Falls, as well as Selma. It recalled the historic struggles for human rights that have spanned
centuries and continue to fascinate us, whether through stories written centuries ago or through movies and
stories written in the twenty-first century.
In 2012, two movies were released that reflected the difficult history of race and slavery in the U.S. Perhaps
you saw Steven Speilberg’s movie, Lincoln, or Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained. In very different ways,
both movies tackled the legacy of slavery and prejudice in the U.S.
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As noted earlier, 2013 marked the 50th anniversary UNIT
of the xJanuary
inaugural
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speech made by Alabama Governor George Wallace,
now famous for the phrase,
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“segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.” President Obama’s
2013 second inaugural speech refers to Selma, Alabama, where Martin Luther
King, Jr. marched for integration in 1965. Issues of race or slavery and related
human rights still concern Americans, impact American politics, and color the
popular imagination. All one has to do is use a search engine such as Google to
find numerous articles, books, YouTube videos, and other forms of media that
illustrate our continued struggle to promote democracy and individual freedom in a
world that remains at once fractured and yet ever hopeful about the potential of
humankind.
Martin Luther King Jr.
(Rex, 2005)
References
INeverCry. (2011). Abraham Lincoln head on shoulders photo portrait [Photograph]. Retrieved from
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Abraham_Lincoln_head_on_ shoulders_photo_portrait.jpg
Perkins, G., & Perkins, B. (Eds.). (2009). The American tradition in literature (12th ed., Vol.1). New York, NY:
McGraw-Hill.
Rex. (2005). King portrait {Portrait]. Retrieved from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:King_portrait.gif
Scewing. (2010). Motto frederick douglass 2 [Photograph]. Retrieved from
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Motto_frederick_douglass_2.jpg
Str4nd. 2008. Barack Obama [Photograph]. Retrieved from
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Barack_Obama.jpg
Szczebrzeszynski. (2010). Beecher-Stowe 3 [Photograph]. Retrieved from
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Beecher-Stowe_3.jpg
Suggested Reading
“Slavery, the Slave Trade, and the Civil War”
For key facts, dates, and other information about slavery in the United States, view the McGraw-Hill Higher
Education PowerPoint presentation, “Slavery, the Slave Trade, and the Civil War.”
Click here to access, Slavery, the Slave Trade, and the Civil War.
This PowerPoint places literature that you will read in this unit, such as Uncle Tom’s Cabin, in the context of
what was happening historically. It provides excerpts describing slavery experiences, as well as quotations
and directions toward publications that were intended to justify slavery.
Go to the Library
Check out the sources in your CSU Online Library that are available to help you learn more about the early
19th century and the events leading up to President Lincoln, the Civil War, and the showdown between the
states on the issue of slavery. For example, if you go to Academic OneFile in CSU’s Online Library
databases, and enter “slavery” and “United States” as search terms, you will find an interesting book review
that might tempt you to read a book about how the Republican party at the time helped push forward the
amendment to end slavery in the U.S. Below is information you may find helpful if you want to read the book
review:
Mead, Russell W. (January-February 2013). Freedom National: The Destruction of Slavery in the
United States, 1861-1865 (Book Review). Foreign Affairs. 92.1. Retrieved from Academic OneFile.
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What Would Lincoln Do?
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In 2012, President Obama won re-election against contender Mitt Romney. When Obama was originally
elected in 2008, it was a signature moment in American history because Obama was the first Black president.
The week of the 2012 election, Time magazine’s November 5, 2012, edition featured President Lincoln on the
cover and articles on the 2012 Lincoln movie by Steven Spielberg, as well as a political article by David von
Drehle entitled “What Would Lincoln Do?” In the article, which can be found online at:
http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1877093_1877109_1877111,00.html
Drehle discusses Lincoln’s political career and incorporates advice for modern-day politicians. (If any
problems arise with the indicated URL, you can locate the article by using a search engine such as Google
and searching for the article by author’s name and title.)
There are numerous award-winning novels and biographies on President Lincoln, a figure who continues to
fascinate Americans and resonate with American politicians and movie-makers. You can use an online search
engine such as Google to check out many works that are available about Lincoln. One excellent work, which
was nominated as “One of the Best Books of the Year” when published in 2008, is entitled Lincoln: The
Biography of a Writer, by Fred Kaplan. As noted in a New York Times Book Review by Michiko Kakutani,
Kaplan’s book is “fascinating.”
Learning Activities (Non-Graded)
Key Terms Flashcards
To study and/or review the Unit VII Key Terms, click below to access interactive Unit VII Flashcards.
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Unit VII Flashcards—SWF version
Understanding Slave Narratives
With the emphasis in this unit on reading slave narratives, it would help you better understand your
assignments if you learned more details about the characteristics of a traditional slave narrative, more broadly
called a captivity narrative. Using a search engine such as Google, type in the search term “slave narrative”
and/or include “slave narrative structure,” and you will find a wealth of information on the topic, including a
discussion entitled “Slave Narratives and Uncle Tom’s Cabin” by PBS (available at
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2958.html).
Once you have reviewed the information on the website, write a minimum 300-word summary of the article to
capture the elements of the slave narrative as they relate to Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Be sure to include a
discussion on how influential Stowe’s narrative was.
Literature, History, and Audiovisual Media
This unit includes pivotal historical moments as well as great literature capturing the human drama that
occurred in the United States up to the Civil War. By using a search engine such as Google or visiting your
local library, you can gain further insight into the historical and political matters addressed by this unit’s
authors as captured by more modern audio or visual media.
The following videos will assist you on your journey to understanding:
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America: A Personal History of the United States. Alistair Cooke. Produced by the BBC. Distributed
by Ambrose Video Publishing. Vol. 6-7. 1972.
o Firebell in the Night. Vol. 6. The Civil War – The causes of which summarize great splits in the
United States, past and present. 52 min.
o Domesticating a Wilderness. Vol. 7. The nation turns West. Cooke discusses the Mormons,
cowboys, European immigrants, and the desperate struggle of the Indians. 52 min.
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Civil War. This is a nine-part film by Ken Burns and distributed by PBSUNIT
Video.
The nine
parts present
the entire sweep of the war, from horrific battlefields to the sacrifices at
home, from politicians and
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generals to enlisted men, from the causes and the opening guns at Sumter to the surrender at
Appomattox and Lincoln’s assassination. The series comes with an instructor’s manual that provides
location and timing of segments.
Movies
The following movies may be available for viewing online or through a public library:
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Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Starring Bruce Dern, Phylicia Rashad, Edward Woodward. Distributed by
Teacher’s Video. 1987. 108 min.
Frederick Douglass: When the Lion Wrote History. Distributed by PBS Home Video. 1994. 90 min.
Douglass is depicted as independent, determined, and charismatic.
Presenting Mr. Frederick Douglass: “The Lesson of the Hour.” Distributed by Films for the Humanities
& Sciences. 60 min. Reenactment of Douglass’s last speech.
Non-graded Learning Activities are provided to aid students in their course of study. You do not have to
submit them. If you have questions contact your instructor for further guidance and information.
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