American Literature

Journal #7 What do you know about American Slavery?

Learning Targets CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.11-12.6 Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text in which the rhetoric is particularly effective, analyzing how style and content contribute to the power, persuasiveness or beauty of the text. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.11-12.9 Analyze seventeenth-, eighteenth-, and nineteenth-century foundational U.S. documents of historical and literary significance (including The Declaration of Independence, the Preamble to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address) for their themes, purposes, and rhetorical features.

Learning Targets CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.11-12.1 Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.11-12.2 Determine two or more central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to provide a complex analysis; provide an objective summary of the text. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12.2 Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to produce a complex account; provide an objective summary of the text. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.11-12.3 Analyze a complex set of ideas or sequence of events and explain how specific individuals, ideas, or events interact and develop over the course of the text.

Unit 1 How are writers influenced by the social, political, and philosophical ideas of their time? What are the effects of persuasive techniques used in writing?

Harriet Jacobs & Frederick Douglass(519)

Slave Narrative Wrap Session Questions Analysis: How do the experiences outlined by Jacobs and Douglass contrast with the unalienable rights Jefferson outlines in the Declaration of Independence? Recall: What horrors do the African slaves face in the Antebellum South? Analysis: What are some examples of the human spirit triumphing in the face of adversity? Evaluate: What are some ideas in the texts that contributed to American racial tensions that persisted for decades?

Phyllis Wheatley On Being Brought from Africa to America by Phillis Wheatley 'Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land, Taught my benighted soul to understand That there's a God, that there's a Saviour too: Once I redemption neither sought nor knew. Some view our sable race with scornful eye, "Their colour is a diabolic die." Remember, Christians, Negros, black as Cain, May be refin'd and join th'angelic train. Performance Tasks: Analysis: What is Wheatley’s message in this poem? Evaluate: How does Wheatley’s message contrast with the horrors of slavery? Because of her message, should she be celebrated as a prominent figure in Black History?