Unit 2 Concepts

The romantic era began as a movement in Europe in the late 1700s and soon spread to the United States. With its emphasis on nature and the individual, romanticism was a reaction to the strict rationalism of the age of reason.

Writers and philosophers of the age of reason embraced rational and well-reasoned ideas that could help them define the world in an orderly manner. These writers focused on traditional forms of writing, often using formal language in their work. The romantics rebelled against what they saw as constrained thinking. They often wrote about nature and the everyday experiences of individual men and women. 

Philosophers, artists, and writers, such as George Holmes Howison, John Singleton Copley, and Nathaniel Hawthorne, all contributed to this era of intellectual and emotional expression 

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born in 1807 in Portland, Maine. He attended Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, where he met the writer Nathaniel Hawthorne. Longfellow’s famous works include the poems Paul Revere's Ride, The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline. He also produced a well-respected translation of Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts. He attended Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, where he graduated in 1825. His first work was the novel Fanshawe. He also wrote several short stories for periodicals, which were later collected and published as Twice-Told Tales. His most famous works are The Scarlet Letter (1850), The House of the Seven Gables (1851), The Blithedale Romance (1852), and The Marble Faun (1860).

Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston in 1809. He attended the University of Virginia but dropped out because of a lack of funds. In 1827, Poe anonymously published his first collection of poems, Tamerlane and Other Poems. His other notable poems include "Lenore" (1843), "The Raven" (1845), "Ulalume" (1847), Eureka: A Prose Poem (1848), and "Annabel Lee" (1849). 

Edgar Allen Poe also wrote short stories and novels in the horror and mystery genres. Some of his well-known short stories include "The Fall of the House of Usher" (1839), "Murders in the Rue Morgue” (1841), "The Masque of the Red Death" (1842), "The Black Cat" (1843), "The Tell-Tale Heart" (1843), "The Purloined Letter" (1845), and his only complete novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket (1838). In addition to being a writer, Poe was also a respected literary critic.

Henry David Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau was born in 1817 in Concord, Massachusetts. He attended Harvard College in 1833. He was fascinated by natural history and philosophy, which influenced his writing. He was one of the first Americans to champion a simple and self-sufficient way of life. He was also an abolitionist, strongly opposed to slavery. His famous works include the essays “Resistance to Civil Government (Civil Disobedience)” (1849), “Slavery in Massachusetts” (1854), “A Plea for Captain John Brown” (1859), and autobiographical works such as A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1849), Walden (1854), and The Maine Woods (1864).

Herman Melville

Herman Melville was born in 1819 in New York City. His first work, a travelogue about Polynesian life called Typee, was a success. This success, however, was never repeated in his lifetime. His later works Moby-Dick (1851), Bartleby, the Scrivener (1853), and Billy Budd, Sailor (1924) received critical acclaim only after his death. In fact, Moby-Dick’s opening line, "Call me Ishmael," is now considered one of the most famous lines in American literature.

• Click here to watch the video on points of view from the Tutorial "The Beginnings of Romanticism" in Unit 2.

• If you need more information about point of view, click here to take a look at the cheat sheet!

The story is an example of how romantics explored the value of admiration for nature. In the story, Rip does not enjoy the stresses of his civilized life in the village and decides to “stroll away into the woods.” When he leaves his village for the mountains, he experiences a life-changing event. The theme of admiration for nature is common in romantic literature. 

The mountains are described as both beautiful and mysterious. They set the scene for Rip’s experience of waking up 20 years in the future.

The setting of the story “Rip Van Winkle” shows the effect of change in America after the Revolution. When the story begins, Rip lives in a village under the rule of Britain. Rip is described as a well-known and loved man. However, when he returns to the village, 20 years later, he is treated as a stranger and is initially distrusted. The inn where Rip spent so much time philosophizing with his friends has also changed. It is now a bustling crowd of people discussing politics. 

Irving uses this comparison to showcase the divide between the old and new America. This highlights how Rip’s world has changed in his absence and reveals Irving’s perception on politics in America after the Revolutionary War.

Click here to read/review this story!

An allusion is a reference to someone or something outside of the text. Allusions often make a connection to cultural traditions, myths, and religious works. Think of when a movie references a meme, a famous story or character, or a well-known event or idea. When we do this in writing, it's called allusion.

Here's an example from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar:

CAESAR: I could be well moved if I were as you. If I could pray to move, prayers would move me. But I am constant as the northern star.

The Northern Star is known to appear in the same place in the sky all the time. This allusion implies that Caesar will stay true to his initial decision.

When reading for allusions, begin by marking any unfamiliar proper nouns (names of things, people, places, or ideas). Next, highlight any passages that seem familiar. Finally, mark any passages that appear to be incomplete in meaning or purpose. Once all potential allusive references have been flagged, the next step is research.

American romantic writers produced literature with layers of subtle meaning. Allusion is one of the literary devices these writers used to create those layers. An allusion is an indirect or passing reference to a historical person or event, literary work, character, or passage. 

Allusions are powerful literary tools because they add depth and layers of meaning by associating a specific idea, character, or event that exists outside the text with a specific reference within the text. 

• symbolism: A literary symbol is something that has a deeper meaning than what its surface meaning suggests. A symbol can take various forms. It could be a person, object, situation, or action, as long as it’s something that conveys multiple meanings beyond its obvious literal meaning.​

While a symbol has a concrete, literal meaning, the idea it communicates is often abstract. It’s something we can’t touch because it exists solely in thought.​

Let’s look at some examples of well-known symbols:​

• A white dove has long been considered a symbol of peace by people around the world. ​

• Similarly, red roses are popular symbols of love. ​

• The color red itself is also considered a symbol of love, as is reflected in Valentine’s Day celebrations.​

To connect symbols to meaning, readers pay attention to patterns. One of the most prominent ways in which authors bring out symbolic meaning is through repetition. When an author repeats a symbol, that symbol becomes a motif, which is simply an idea that recurs in a given piece of work.​

For example, in Moby-Dick, the whale’s whiteness, which Ishmael considers unnatural, becomes a motif, repeated in the text. It symbolizes chaos and incomprehension, and it indicates Ishmael’s failure to fully understand the gigantic creature.

To understand allegories in literature, you should be familiar with the following literary concepts:

• metaphor

• symbolism: see section above! 

Herman Melville was born in New York City in 1819. A few years after his birth, Melville's father's business began to decline, which forced the family to move to Albany, New York. His father, deep in debt after his business collapsed, experienced a mental breakdown and died shortly before Melville’s twelfth birthday.

Melville’s adventurous life inspired several of his novels and short stories, including Typee, and White Jacket, inspired by some of his voyages. These exciting travel novels made Melville a well-known author, but his popularity declined after the publication of Moby-Dick, a complex book that was misunderstood by both readers and critics. It wasn’t until a biography of Melville was published in 1921 that he posthumously began to gain the literary standing that he holds today.

Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote a number of novels and short stories, once churning out more than 20 works over the span of just three years. Two of his best-known works are the novels The Scarlet Letter and The House of Seven Gables. Many of Hawthorne's texts contained romantic themes: that the world is a reflection of people’s experiences; that the individual is more moral, passionate, and has more integrity than society; and that the actual and the imaginary "each imbue itself with the nature of the other."

Hawthorne and Herman Melville were good friends for a time. It was Hawthorne who inspired Melville to revise his whaling adventure into the complex literary work that it became. In return, Melville dedicated Moby-Dick to Hawthorne.

A theme, which is the central idea of any artistic work, can seem like a simple concept on the surface; however, themes are often profound philosophical ideas, such as truth or beauty. The differentiation between theme and subject is a more complex concept. Subjects, unlike themes, are simple and concrete.

Subjects are easier to identify than themes because they are usually overt. For example, the subject of Homer's Odyssey is the hero’s odyssey, or voyage. Themes, on the other hand, reveal the author’s view or opinion of the particular subject. They are revealed through the author's treatment of a subject. Themes are also consistent throughout a literary work and can be identified only by reading the entire work. Perseverance in the face of overwhelming obstacles, one of the major themes of the Odyssey, can only be determined by reading and analyzing the work in its entirety.

For more information about theme, click here to see notes from ENG 9A!

To understand blank verse and enjambment, you should be familiar with the following concepts:

• iambic pentameter: The most popular rhythm used in English poetry. Click here for a powerpoint presentation about meter in poetry, and how to find it!

• line: a single line of words in a poem.

• meter: gives poetry its musical quality. Remember that the most basic unit of meter is the foot. A foot is a recurring (repeating) pattern of stressed (long) and unstressed (short) syllables. The number of feet in a line of poetry is its meter.​ 

Click the word "meter" above for a powerpoint presentation about meter in poetry, and how to find it!

• rhyme: a repetition of similar sounds in two or more words. There are different types of rhyme, but most people think of perfect rhyme.

The words "compare" and "despair" are perfect rhymes because both have final stressed syllables with identical sounds. The words "plunder" and "thunder" are also perfect rhymes because both their first stressed syllable and the syllable after it share common sounds.

• sonnet: a 14-line poem that is usually written in iambic pentameter and is often associated with desire. Each line has 10 syllables, with every other syllable stressed. This is called iambic pentameter, and the emphasis is on the second syllable in each pair, similar to a heartbeat.

• stanza: poems have lines of words, and groups of lines form stanzas.

• syntax: the arrangement of language and order of words used to convey the poem's content.

Although American literature continued to develop through its use of original themes and styles in the nineteenth century, the form and meter of American poetry still drew largely on traditional English conventions. Two commonly used conventions were blank verse and enjambment.

Enjambment is the uninterrupted continuation of a thought from one line, couplet, or stanza to the next, without a pause or break. 

Often, a line of poetry from a sonnet or other ordered poetic form is given a neat ending or natural pause due to punctuation, grammatical structure, or rhyme, known as an end-stopped line. However, when a thought or syntactical structure continues across two or more lines, it is called enjambment. The reader is encouraged to read through the line break to the next line without stopping.

Example: excerpt from "There Was a Boy" by William Wordsworth. Please take note that many lines in this poem are single sentences that are broken up into sections. Most of these thoughts are not complete in a single line.

At evening, when the earliest stars began
To move along the edges of the hills,
Rising or setting, would he stand alone,
Beneath the trees, or by the glimmering lake;

If these lines were written as prose (normal story writing), not poetry, this thought and syntactical structure would be written as a complete unit:

At evening, when the earliest stars began to move along the edges of the hills, rising or setting, he would stand alone beneath the trees, or by the glimmering lake.

So how do we read poems written using enjambment?

Let's reread the lines marked to indicate pacing while considering the purpose of enjambment! The enjambment across lines is indicated by a green "go" and the end-stopped lines are indicated by a red "stop". Note how the continuation of idea and syntax draws the reader to the next line.

At evening, when the earliest stars began {go}
To move along the edges of the hills, {stop}
Rising or setting, would he stand alone, {go}
Beneath the trees, or by the glimmering lake; {stop}

The poet William Cullen Bryant, born in the small town of Cummington, Massachusetts, wrote mainly on the theme of nature. Learning both Latin and Greek from private tutors, Bryant was well educated from a young age and started attending Williams College when he was just 16 years old.

After a year in college, Bryant left in hopes of attending Yale University. However, his father's salary as a small-town physician could not support Bryant's aspiration. Inspired by his disappointment over Yale, Bryant penned his most famous work and this lesson's reading selection, "Thanatopsis."

To understand the elements of gothic style, you should be familiar with the following concepts:

• foreshadowing—the presence of early clues about events that will occur later in a narrative or play

• genre—a classification of literature characterized by particular content and form

• imagery—descriptive language that relies on sensory details to help readers imagine the setting, characters, and details of a story or a poem 

• mood—the prevailing feeling or emotion of a literary work; also called “atmosphere”

• protagonist—the primary character in a literary work, often considered the hero or the moral character

• sensory details—details in a literary work that relate to the five senses

• setting—the time, the place, and the social and historical conditions in which a literary work occurs

• unreliable narrator—a character whose perspective of reality is biased and/or distorted

Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1809. His father abandoned the family soon after his birth, and his mother died when Poe was only three years old. He was separated from his siblings and sent to live with John and Frances Allan, a couple from Richmond, Virginia. The Allans raised him.

Poe knew from a young age that he wanted to pursue a literary career. But his adoptive father, a wealthy merchant, didn’t support Poe's literary aspirations. Against Allan's wishes, Poe moved to Baltimore in his early twenties to write and publish short stories.

Soon a success in his chosen career, Poe returned to Richmond to begin a position as an editor for a literary journal, the Southern Literary Messenger, where he wrote and published esteemed literary criticism.

Over the years, Edgar Allan Poe published a novel, several poems, and more short stories, while struggling intermittently with alcohol abuse. Considered one of the most influential writers of American gothic literature, Poe's narratives represented tales of gothic terror. He explored violent plotlines and psychologically tormented protagonists. Poe’s fiction is also regarded as a precursor to the modern mystery and horror genres. 

A pun is a joke exploiting the different possible meanings of a word or the fact that there are words which sound alike but have different meanings.

The use of puns in English writing gained popularity in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century (1500s through the 1600s) Europe. A pun is a verbal play on words that are identical or similar in sound but different in meaning. Puns often rely on homophones and homonyms to create verbal irony. 

Puns continue to appear in contemporary comedies and parodies, and as witty jokes in other dialogue. Take this example:

• "I have always thought of archery as an aimless sport," she said with a quiver.

In this statement, puns are found in two different homonyms: aimless and quiver. In a literal sense, the speaker considers archery a pointless activity. However, the statement is also a play on the idea that archery is a sport where aiming is a crucial skill. Likewise, quiver, when used literally, indicates that the speaker makes a statement with a tremor in her voice. On the other hand, quiver also refers to the case that holds arrows used in archery.

Click here to view the full Knowledge Article on puns.

• colon—a punctuation mark that is used to introduce a series, an example, or a quotation. (Example: He went to the store to buy these items: apples, cinnamon, sugar, and raisins.)

• dependent clause—a group of words that begins with a dependent clause marker and contains a subject and a verb; also known as a subordinate clause. (Example: until I finish eating)

• independent clause—a clause that expresses a complete thought and can stand alone as a sentence. (Example: the bird chirped)

• phrase— a group of words used as a single part of speech that lacks either a subject or a verb. (Example: Jamie, a studious girl, wanted to do well on her next test.) 

If you want to review other notes on independent and dependent clauses, please click here to see notes from ENG 10B!

For more about phrases, you can click here to see notes, also from ENG 10B!

One of the most important aspects of transcendentalism is the belief in the connection between humans, nature, and divine power. Similar to the ideals of romanticism, transcendentalists also emphasized the power of the individual and valued the practice of self-reliance. Transcendentalist thinkers and writers rejected established religions and instead looked for divinity in nature and humanity. They also pushed for social changes, such as race and gender equality, the importance of education for women, and the abolition of slavery. 

Click here to watch the video "History of Transcendentalism" from the Tutorial "Transcendentalism" in Unit 2.

1836 - The Transcendental Club: The Transcendental Club formed in 1836. The idea behind the club was to have a common, regular place for like-minded liberal intellectuals to come together and discuss various subjects. Club members discussed the ideals of American transcendentalism at their first meeting. This group included Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Margaret Fuller, Amos Bronson Alcott, and Henry David Thoreau. The same year, Emerson published the notable essay "Nature," which discusses important transcendentalist views. 

1837 - Emerson’s Harvard Speech: In 1837 Ralph Waldo Emerson delivered the speech "The American Scholar" at Harvard University. Emerson used transcendentalist viewpoints to explain the relationship between nature and an American scholar. In this speech, Emerson discussed the concept of "man thinking," urging his audience to reject the predominant traditional or historical views and way of thinking, and instead to think for themselves. He also spoke about how the physical human world is a mirror of the natural world. 

1840 - The Dial: The transcendentalist journal The Dial was founded in 1840. It was largely ridiculed after publishing "Orphic Sayings," a collection of more than 100 philosophical sayings by transcendentalist thinker Amos Bronson Alcott. The sayings were criticized as being silly and incoherent. This excerpt, for example, is titled "Nature":

Nature bares never her bones; clothed in her own chaste rhetoric of flesh and blood—of color and feature, she is elegant and fair to the sense. And thus, O Philosopher, Poet, Prophet, be thy words—thy Scriptures;—thy thought, like Pallas, shaped bold and comely from thy brain—like Venus, formed quick from thy side—mystic as Memnon—melodious as the lyre of Orpheus.

Alcott's sayings are still not widely praised, but in more recent years, some critics have described them more positively as wise and mystical teachings that connect life and experience.

1841 - Brook Farm and "Self-Reliance": In 1841, transcendentalist George Ripley founded Brook Farm, which was an experiment to create an ideal model of a utopian community. Ripley started this community to focus on transcendentalist goals, such as individual freedom, spiritual awakening, and communal relationships. This community sought to find harmony through the amalgamation of transcendentalist ideas and values.

That same year, Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay collection Essays: First Series, which included the essay “Self-Reliance,” was published. This essay portrays self-reliance as a quintessential virtue and discusses various modes of dependence and conformity. 

1845 - Transcendental Feminism and Walden: In 1845, Margaret Fuller’s book Woman in the Nineteenth Century was published. Fuller was highly educated and a talented communicator. She was greatly respected for her intellect. Her book is the epitome of transcendental feminism It speaks eloquently on gender equality, education for women, abolition of slavery, and many other topics.

Also in 1845, Henry David Thoreau built a small cabin at Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts, and began an experiment in simple living. He pursued a life of self-reliance, enlightenment, and spiritual growth. He documented this experience in his book Walden, which was published in 1854. 

1846 - The Mexican-American War and Mosses from an Old Manse: The Mexican-American War erupted soon after the United States annexed Texas, which was once controlled by Mexico. Disputes soon arose with Mexico over debt and territorial boundaries. At the same time, there was a growing belief among Americans in Manifest Destiny, the idea that because the United States was economically and politically superior, it should rule all of North America. These conditions helped push the United States and Mexico into war.

Around the same time, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short-story collection Mosses from an Old Manse was published. Hawthorne named  his collection after the house where he and his wife spent the first few years of their marriage. Many of the short stories, including "The Birth-Mark" and "Young Goodman Brown," focused on the negative aspects of human nature. 

1849 - Thoreau’s "Civil Disobedience" Published: In 1849, Henry David Thoreau’s essay “Resistance to Civil Government,” also known as “Civil Disobedience,” was published. This essay was inspired by Thoreau’s arrest for refusing to pay a $1 poll tax. He refused to pay as a way to protest US involvement in the Mexican-American War. In his essay, Thoreau expressed his belief that people should refuse to obey laws that they believe to be unjust. 

1850 - The Compromise of 1850: The Compromise of 1850 was a series of five bills executed by Congress to help reconcile tempestuous differences over slavery between the Northern free states and the Southern pro-slavery states. The sweeping legislation that Congress passed formed the territories of New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah. It allowed the inhabitants of those regions to decide the issue of slavery in their territories. California was admitted as a free state, and slavery was abolished in Washington, DC. Congress also passed the Fugitive-Slave Act, which helped slaveholders reacquire runaway slaves. This law was highly controversial. 

Authors often make statements of opinion that they claim are absolute truths. It is important for readers to determine the veracity, or truthfulness, of these proclaimed statements. Readers may draw on their own past experiences and personal knowledge, as well as outside research, to decide whether the author's statements are true.

For example, in the essay "Self-Reliance," Emerson states, "Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist." He presents this statement as a fact, claiming that in order to be considered truly independent and free, a person must refuse to abide by society's rules. Do you agree? Why or why not? What experiences from your past will you draw on to influence the way you think about this statement? 

Click here to see points about how to evaluate (look over something to see if it's good or not) an argument.

Emerson’s “Self-Reliance” is an expository text that conveys the importance of creativity, individualism, and nonconformity. Many texts that readers encounter over the course of their lives are expository. Since expository writing aims to provide factual information, readers may assume that this type of text has nothing more to offer than simply the words on the page. In reality, readers can make inferences and draw conclusions about the ideas they read by pulling relevant details from the texts themselves.

Note that the inferences and conclusions that are drawn from expository texts should not vary across readers. Readers may have personal responses to texts based on their own opinions and backgrounds, but these responses are not inferences. Inferences and conclusions are drawn simply from the text itself, not from personal opinions or biases.  

Click here to read a little more about making inferences, from notes in ENG 10B!

Henry David Thoreau, one of the principal authors in the transcendentalist movement, was born in 1817 and raised in Concord, Massachusetts, just outside of Boston. After attending Harvard University, Thoreau met Ralph Waldo Emerson and became interested in his transcendentalist views.

Emerson encouraged and advised Thoreau in his writing. Soon Thoreau had dedicated himself to writing and even lived with the Emerson family periodically. The Dial, a publication that Emerson championed, published many of Thoreau's poems and essays.

One reason Thoreau went to live at Walden Pond was so that he could "live deliberately," or steadily and with purpose, and he touts the importance of simplicity above all else. Industrialization, therefore, does not fit in with that outlook. Thoreau observes, "We do not ride on the railroad; it rides upon us"—that is, society has gotten to a point where it is being driven by industrialization rather than it driving industrialization. Thoreau believes that industrialization and the fast pace to which society has grown accustomed ultimately is detrimental.  

Thoreau states that he does not like standard institutions, including the postal service and the press, as he believes that they do not contribute anything new to society. He expresses his belief that few thoughts and letters are worth the price paid for postage. He also believes that there is never new "news," just the same events happening to different people at different times. 

Thoreau uses imagery throughout Walden, despite it being an expository piece. He carries several patterns of imagery throughout the chapter you read, and one of note is about the importance of living simply, in which he describes how one's life can easily become busy and chaotic. 

Thoreau uses the imagery of a chopping sea to emphasize the roughness of life and the unexpected turns that it can take. He then uses this choppiness as an argument for living simply and the importance of a more tranquil, serene existence. 

Authors use imagery to make their writing more descriptive and to help readers imagine what is being said by appealing to the senses. A pattern of imagery is a particular image or description that is repeated throughout a section of a work or the entire work in order to elaborate on a theme from the work. 

When employing patterns of imagery, authors repeat specific concepts and words related to the principle image to emphasize its meaning. 

Slavery and the slave trade were central to the development and growth of the colonial economies and what is now the United States. Protections for slavery were even embedded in the founding documents of the United States. Additionally, enslavers dominated the federal government, Supreme Court, and Senate from 1787 – 1860. The experience of slavery varied depending on time, location, crop, labor performed, size of slaveholding, and gender. In the face of these efforts to reduce them to commodities, enslaved people resisted in both revolutionary and everyday ways, with one of those ways being the writing of slave narratives. Slave narratives are autobiographical accounts written by formerly enslaved people.

1619 - The First Enslaved People Arrive from Africa: The first enslaved people from Africa arrived at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619. At first the Africans were treated as indentured servants who must work off a debt to gain their freedom. But in time, Africans were deemed enslaved for life. The incident of a runaway Black servant, John Punch, was a pivotal point in the history of slavery. Around 1640, Punch ran away with two white European servants. After being captured, Punch was the only one among the runaways to be condemned by a court to lifelong servitude. This incident marks the first documented case of a sentence to lifelong slavery. 

1662 - The Virginia Slave Code: A law related to enslaved people known as partus sequitur ventrem was passed in Virginia in 1662. This law stated that the social status of a child solely depended on the social status of the mother. If a child was born to a mixed-race couple, where the father was white and the mother was enslaved, then the child would inherit the enslaved status of the mother. This law repealed the English common law, which stated that a child inherited the social status of the father regardless of the mother’s race and citizenship. Around this same time, several American colonies began to legalize slavery. 

1776 - The Declaration of Independence: The Continental Congress approved the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. This document announced that the American colonies’ were independent states, free of British rule. Despite including language such as “all men are created equal,” the document does not mention slavery. Although the issue was widely debated by the congress, the final document did not address it. After the United States won its independence, the issue of slavery remained unresolved. 

1788 - The Three-Fifths Compromise: At the Constitutional Convention in 1787, delegates approved the US Constitution. Although the Constitution did not put forth any decisions about slavery, the document included important language about it. For instance, the Constitution gave Congress the legal power to stop importing enslaved people into the United States in 20 years. Congress took that step 20 years later, in 1808.

The Continental Congress settled the question of taxation and representation with the “three-fifths” clause of Article I. The Northern states argued that slaveholders viewed enslaved people only as property, and therefore, enslaved people should not count toward increasing a state’s representation in Congress; Southern states disagreed. To avoid dividing the young nation, the "three-fifths" compromise counted each enslaved person as three-fifths of a person for purposes of congressional representation. This idea of counting people as fractions represented a rift that had begun to form between the North and South. 

1793 - The Fugitive Slave Act: Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act, which allowed slaveholders to cross state lines in search of people who had escaped slavery and bring them back into slavery. This law angered Americans in the North, who countered by passing certain “personal liberty laws.” These laws required that people who had escaped slavery who were apprehended in Northern states be given a jury trial before they could be taken back to the South against their will. 

1820 - The Missouri Compromise: In 1820, an equal number of free states and slave states made up the United States. Missouri, formerly a part of the Louisiana Territory, was allowed by Congress to enter the Union as a slave state, while Maine, formerly a part of Massachusetts, entered as a free state to retain the delicate balance of free and slave states. Congress also drew an imaginary line along the 36°30’ line of latitude. The Missouri Compromise prohibits slavery in the territories north of the line, with the exception of Missouri. 

1829 - David Walker Publishes An Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World: In 1829, David Walker, an African American abolitionist, published An Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World, which encouraged enslaved people to rebel against slaveholders and take freedom through any means. Walker told enslaved people, “. . .if there is an attempt made by us, kill or be killed. . .” He aimed to unite Americans against slavery by exposing its harsh truth and inhumanity. 

1845 - Frederick Douglass Publishes My Bondage and My Freedom: Frederick Douglass, a noted African American abolitionist, published his slave narrative, My Bondage and My Freedom, in 1845. This book was an account of his journey from slavery to freedom. Through this autobiographical work, Douglass succeeded in bringing attention to the degrading conditions and inhuman treatment of enslaved people. 

1847 - William Wells Brown Writes Narrative of William W. Brown, A Fugitive Slave, Written by Himself: In 1847, amid the growing popularity of slave narratives, William Wells Brown published his memoir Narrative of William W. Brown, A Fugitive Slave, Written by Himself. A well-known abolitionist lecturer, Brown was also a novelist, playwright, and historian. This book describes his journey from captivity to freedom.  

1850 - The Compromise of 1850: The Compromise of 1850 was a series of bills. Congress passed this legislation to ease the mounting tensions between the North and the South. The Compromise of 1850 banned the slave trade in Washington, DC, accepted California in the Union as a free state, strengthened the Fugitive Slave Act, and permitted certain western territories to determine whether slavery was allowed within their borders by popular sovereignty. The Compromise also gave Texas $10 million to drop its claim to territory in New Mexico.

In the same year, Sojourner Truth published The Narrative of Sojourner Truth.

1852 - Harriet Beecher Stowe Publishes Uncle Tom’s Cabin: In 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe published Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which portrays the horrors of slavery in a conversational style that spoke to and inspired people. The book became a bestseller in Northern states, while Southern states banned the book as “abolitionist propaganda.” The sentimental narrative became one of the bestselling novels of the time and is also considered instrumental in laying the foundation for the US Civil War.

1857 - The Dred Scott Decision: Representing one of the key Supreme Court rulings on the institution of slavery in the United States, the Dred Scott decision is now regarded as one of the most infamous rulings in Supreme Court history. Scott, a formerly enslaved person who had lived in a free state and a free territory, appealed his case for freedom to the US Supreme Court. In a radical ruling, the court decided that Scott was still enslaved, and it banned US citizenship for all enslaved and formerly enslaved people. The ruling also stated that the federal government could not decide issues of slavery in US territories, directly striking down language in the Missouri Compromise of 1820. 

It is difficult to ignore the bias in the decision, as seven of the judges were appointed by pro-slavery presidents from the South and five judges came from slaveholding families. Although Chief Justice Roger B. Taney had hoped the decision would solve the issue of slavery in the United States, many historians feel the decision only inflamed animosity in the North and the South, leading to the election of Republican President Abraham Lincoln.

1860 - Abraham Lincoln Elected President: The issue of slavery came to a head in the presidential election of 1860. Running for the newly founded Republican Party, Abraham Lincoln opposed the expansion of slavery into the western territories. The tempestuous cultural and political atmosphere in the United States, caused particularly by the debate over slavery, greatly impacted the election and splintered the Democratic Party. Four candidates ran for president: Lincoln as the Republican nominee, John Breckenridge as a Southern Democrat, John Bell representing the Constitutional Union Party, and Stephen Douglass as the Democratic candidate. Breckenridge ran on a pro-slavery platform and won the Southern vote; moderate Southerners voted for Bell, who favored preserving the Union; and Northern Democrats voted for Douglass. This fissure in the Democratic Party divided the vote and allowed Lincoln to win the presidency with just less than 40 percent of the national vote.  

1861 - The Civil War Begins: As a direct result of the election of 1860, seven pro-slavery states in the South seceded from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America. Four more states in the South eventually joined the Confederacy. The Confederate attacked Fort Sumter in South Carolina in April 1861, just one month after Lincoln took office, launching the North and South into civil war. 

In the same year, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Ann Jacobs is published.

1863 - The Emancipation Proclamation: President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed enslaved people in the Confederate territory and led to the end of slavery in the United States. It provided for African Americans to join the Union Army and Navy, which helped the Union's cause. The 54th Massachusetts Colored Infantry became the first Black unit in the free states. The Emancipation Proclamation also helped solidify Union support from Great Britain and France, who had already abolished slavery.

1865 - The Civil War Ends: The Civil War ended on April 9, 1865, with a complete Union victory. Only a few days later, President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated and Vice President Andrew Johnson succeeded him as president. Later that year, slavery was abolished across the country with the Thirteenth Amendment to the US Constitution.

The excerpt from My Bondage and My Freedom included in the lesson serves multiple purposes in Douglass’s narrative. First, it illustrates the fact that a belief in slavery and the values that go with it are learned, not inherent. Douglass writes,

I do not remember ever to have met with a boy, while I was in slavery, who defended the slave system; but I have often had boys to console me, with the hope that something would yet occur, by which I might be made free.

When Douglass meets these young white boys in the street, they are still young and able to recognize the fundamentally unfair nature of slavery. Douglass shows his playmates the wrongs of slavery clearly, and they understand it immediately. In laying out the facts as simple truths, he invites readers to also recognize slavery for what it is: an unfair denial of basic human rights and freedoms. The children appreciate this situation as unfair, but readers are left asking how long they will continue to see it this way.

Click here to read/review the excerpt!

To understand how and when to use conjunctive adverbs with semicolons, you should be familiar with the following concepts: 

• adverb - an adverb is a word that modifies (describes) a verb (“he sings loudly”), an adjective (“very tall”), another adverb (“ended too quickly”), or even a whole sentence (“Fortunately, I had brought an umbrella.”). Adverbs often end in -ly, but some (such as fast) look exactly the same as their adjective counterparts.

• clause - click here for refresher from ENG 10B!

• independent clause - click here for refresher from ENG 10B!

• semicolon - click here for a refresher on semicolons from ENG 9A!