Ms. Lee's AP English Class Website

Background Topics to be Researched

• Plantation, Concentration Camp, Infantilization; Oppression, Resistance, Identity—2 people
• What happens to the “me” during slavery?
• What is defined as paternalism?
• What was the slave’s definition of paternalism?
• How did paternalism work to the masters’ advantages?

(http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/resources/lessonplans/amlit_lp_beloved_scriptwriting.htm)

• The Middle Passage—3 people
• What was the Middle Passage? 
• What was the purpose of the Middle Passage?
• What was the interior of a slave ship like?
• What was the treatement of Africans on the slave ship?
• What forms of resistance did Africans employ?

(http://beatl.barnard.columbia.edu/students/his3487/lembrich/seminar5.html),  (http://www.juneteenth.com/middlep.htm), (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1p277.html), (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1h310.html), (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1h280.html), (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1i3068.html), (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1p277.html), (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1i3069.html)

• Margaret Garner—1 person
• Who was Margaret Garner?
• What did she do?  Why did she do it?
• Why was this case significant, do you think?

(http://aalbc.com/authors/margaret.htm),

(http://www.aaregistry.com/african_american_history/1369/The_moving_sacrifice_of_Margaret_Garner)

• African Ideas about the Afterlife—1 person
• What prevalent views of death are there?
• What is the “living dead”?
• What is important about reincarnation?
• Why are burial rites so important?

(http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/resources/lessonplans/amlit_lp_beloved_beliefs_afterlife.htm)

• Slave Narratives—3 people
• Read through all 13 narratives.  What theme can unify their experiences?
• What difference is there between female slaves and males slaves?
• What specifics are important to note about the slave experience?

(http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/wpa/index.htm)

• Mourning and Melancholia—6 people
• What is mourning? Purpose of mourning?
• What is melancholia?
• What is hyperremembering?
• How does narcissism relate to mourning and melancholia?
• What is internalization?  Introjection? Incorporation?
• Why are women predisposed to be failed mourners?
• What does unresolved grief signify?
• What can’t melancholics do that is unhealthy?
• What is the newer theory of mourning that includes melancholia?
• What is the process of mourning that is unhealthy vs healthy?

http://www.apsa.org/portals/1/docs/japa/521/clewell.pdf

• Gynecological Resistance in the Plantation Community—6 people
• Chapter 1
• Under what status was a female slave? Why is this important?
• How did the Jezebel stereotype help or hurt black women?
• What were forms of conquering black women by white masters?  What did this signify?
• Why was breeding controlled?
• What types of resistance to sexual attacks did the slave women employ?
• Chapter 2
• What cause infant mortality to be high?
• What were the ramifications of the law in 1622 in regards to the status of the slave woman and her children?
• Why did the economic wealth of the plantation depend on the slave woman?
• What fears and forms of resistance did slave women employ?  Why did/ not it work?
• What was the worth of a slave woman? Her body?
• Chapter 3
• What was significant about Margaret Garner?
• What is considered gynecological resistance?  Name methods and tell consequences.
• What are the implications of infanticide?

(http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-05262000-09340014/unrestricted/Carolinethesis.pdf)