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Two Contrasting Views of Slavery in Literature: "Beloved" and "American Negro Slavery"
Summary: A comparison of the works of two authors who wrote about slavery in America: Ulrich B. Phillips wrote "American Negro Slavery," and Toni Morrison wrote "Beloved." Phillips wrote in 1918 that slavery was a system that benefitted African-Americans. Morrison wrote in 1987 to tell the story of the lives of individual slaves, looking to write women into the history of slavery.
In this essay, I will be examining the works of two authors on the topic of slavery in America: Ulrich B. Phillips American Negro Slavery (1918) and Toni Morrison Beloved (1987). One writes as a Southerner and a historian who is defending southern slaveholders and draws upon contemporary racial theory to justify the system as beneficial to African Americans. The other writes as an African-American woman who is looking to write women into history and in doing so, add a female voice to the past. The purpose of comparing these two texts is to bring awareness that historical knowledge is constructed and not a given and that the profile of the author influences the content of their work.
When examining the history of slavery in America, we have a number of different sources to draw on. These include the accounts of fugitive slaves, of slave owners and of abolitionists. There...
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This section contains 2,706 words (approx. 10 pages at 300 words per page) |
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