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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...
This section contains 2,706 words (approx. 10 pages at 300 words per page) |
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