ENGL 319, Literature and Social Change: Abolition Literature
Essay 3: Reflection Essay
The goal of this course is to introduce you to the story of abolition. Weve read all kinds of things narratives, appeals, novels, poetry, petitions, and even childrens literature. Even though each genre uses its own strategies and appeals, everything we read was directed toward the clear goal of moving the reader to fight slavery in all its evil and corrupt forms. This final essay is a chance to reflect on what youve encountered this semester. This essay does not require you to present evidence as you did in your previous two essays. You should, however, offer some specific insight into your experience as a student. Here are the details:
Write a two-to-three-page double spaced essay in which you respond to one or more of the following questions:
- How has your understanding of abolition and slavery changed during this class? What particular moments of reading, writing, or discussion shifted your thinking?
- What texts or authors did you find most memorable, and why?
- Which rhetorical strategies, arguments, and appeals most resonated with you across genres, and why?
- Beyond a purely academic exercise, why do you think its useful to read abolition literature
- Major Course Readings:
- Excerpts from Lydia Maria Child’s An Appeal in Favor of that Class of Americans Called Africans, 1833
- Excerpts from The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, 1789
- The History of Mary Prince, a West Indian Slave, 1831
- Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, 1845
- Harriet Jacobs’ Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, 1861
- Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Toms Cabin, 1851
- William Wells Brown’s Clotel, Or the Presidents Daughter, 1853
- Lydia Maria Child, William Lloyd Garrison, Angelina Grimke, and the Pro-Slavery Press
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