These abstracts summarize the major points of the Jubilee-based papers ENGL 1102D students had to complete at the end of the year. These abstracts were also displayed on the programs that were distributed before these students presented a preview of their final essays to the classroom.
Awareness of White Women
I am planning on conducting my research and writing my research paper on the role of white women in the Antebellum south. Doing this research will give awareness of the white women in this time period. It talks about how wet-nursing fostered both physical closeness and racial distance between enslaved and white women. Conversely, slave holding women's relative power granted them choices about whether to use a wet nurse, and occasionally white women wet-nursed enslaved infants. They would do a lot of embroidery work. They would have opportunities to hold gatherings to promote the charities they would work with. The white women were also in charge of the staff that works in her house.
Jessica Ellis
Panel 1
Dissertation of Home for a Disenfranchised Race
My objective in writing this argumentative essay is to conduct an intellectual conversation discerning the dehumanizing effects of belonging to another human being as it relates to the strong sense of “longing for home” in which African Americans had so hoped for. Margaret Walker exemplifies such reliance in her novel, Jubilee, as readers follow the main character Vyry through her struggles to attain, even after emancipation, her own possessions of family and a safe haven. Readers are subject to the immense violence and at times emphasize with Vyry so much so that they become immersed within the novel as well. Vyry’'s quest was far from estranged during that period in time; Her story reveals not only her struggle but that of thousands of other slaves. With the help of other authors such as Amanda Davis, Jacqueline Jones, and bell hook I will expose the nature and subjectivity of slavery as it leads African Americans to considerate a viable home for family, safety, and security.
Christen Smith
Panel 2
America: No Rose Colored Glasses, but a Black Dagger Aimed at Black Lives
Abstract
Many American’s were in the hopes that racial injustice would end after the Civil Rights Movement happened. The big problem is that we are far from racial injustices today. Books have been written about the heartache and struggles of slavery, emancipation, tenant farming, dealing with the KKK and living with racism, one being Margaret Walker’s Jubilee which paints a surreal image of life during the period of Antebellum and Post Antebellum. It was not until reading her novel that the similarities of what is happening with race today is mirroring life explained by her novel. The similarities between enforcement of the system, the system being racism, people still being stripped o their liberties, the existence of coming out of a system and moving toward equality are all comparable to the struggles that Black lives go through now and what they went through the Antebellum and Post antebellum period. Going from slavery to the mass incarceration of present day black lives, tenant farming to reintegration from being incarcerated, the Civil Rights movement to the Black Lives Matter Movement, and the KKK to police brutality, these events and their parallels demonstrate that the oppressive treatment of this group of Americans is far from over.
Emily Bishop
Panel 3
Jubilee: Is It a True “Coming of Age” Story?
Through thorough research, one can find that Jubilee can be noted as a bildungsroman, or a novel that focuses on the growth and change in a main character. Jubilee follows the main character, Vyry Brown, from early childhood to her adult life. She goes through a number of experiences. For example, she loses her biological mother at age two, other mother figures throughout the novel, and is noted as being mixed race; due to her biological father being the Master on the plantation where she was raised. Vyry also has to be a strong wife and mother to her children as well. She remains strong through her hardships and overcomes some things that most would have trouble with. This research is important to readers and researchers alike due to a number of reasons. It shows how one, although a fictional character, can make dynamic changes. Jubilee also shows that when being faced with adversity and not forwarded the correct opportunities, one can still prevail. In addition, this can also show young and beginning writers the proper tools to construct a novel that could be a bildungsroman based on a fictional character, or possibly foreshadow to some of the details from their own experiences or past.
NeAjha Reeves
Panel 4
African American Abolitionists Fought for Freedom
African Americans have fought for freedom and equal rights for all people throughout the country. These men and women have put their lives on the line even though they knew that they could be killed. They helped to educate, free, and influence others to get a better life that their masters were not giving them. Some of the most famous abolitionists include: Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Nat Turner, and even David Walker. These people stood up for something that they felt was right and would be big for many years to come. Frederick Douglass for example gave the famous “Fourth of July” speech in which he explained the need for freedom for all people. David Walker did the same in “Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World.” Nat Turner also led a deadly rebellion which killed many white people which showed the need for change. Another important thing to understand is the idea of agency. There have also been many important abolitionists like William Lloyd Garrison and even President Abraham Lincoln. These people had a big influence as well, but didn’t do the best job. Abraham Lincoln for example created the Emancipation Proclamation which people feel helped to free the slaves throughout the country. This proclamation didn’t stop the movement of slavery; it was stopped by the thirteenth amendment. This amendment made slavery of all kinds illegal.
Tommie Wynn
Panel 5
A Dying South
A “Dying South” is a common trope in many Southern novels and Jubilee is no exception, Walker in her novel uses characters to represent this in Jubilee. The two main characters that are representative of this are Master John the plantation owner and his wife Missy Saline. These characters both represent certain characteristics of dying South throughout the novel whether it be through their character traits or misguided perspectives. Master John embodies everything that old south believed in absolute control over those under him and an agrarian upper class and misguided ideals, further Master John dies with hate in his heart and a slow painful death just like the old south. His wife Missy Saline also embodies elements of the old south such as southern pride, and agrarian upper class, additionally her death his undignified and violent which is also symbolic of how the old south died.
Cameron Hough
Panel 6