Sarah Clayburn - African American Timeline #1 lyrics

White and black are binary oppositions. During the 1800-1900's, blacks were conscious that whites were the dominant binary. Therefore, in order to expose the abomination of slavery, black authors had to use several tactics to appease the whites while insidiously encouraging slaves and abolitionist. Each author portrayed a fondness for a kind, white, master or specified a connection between themselves and the white society. The blacks, through their distraction, were able to unmask the true villain. 1835- Second Seminole War Victor Sejour The Mulatto (1837) • “ ‘Good day Master,' he said, tipping his hat when he saw me. ‘Ah! There you are…' and I offered my hand, which he took in return. ‘Master,' he said ‘ that's quite noble-hearted of you… But you do know, do you not, that a negro's as vile as a dog; society rejects him; men detest him; the laws curse him.'” 1842- Dorr's Rebellion Henry Highland Garnet- An Address to the Slaves of the United States of America (1843). • “ Brethren and Fellow Citizens” • “Many of you are bound to us, not only by ties of common humanity, but we are connected by parents, wives, husbands, and sisters, and friends.” • “The Propagators of the system… very soon discovered its growing evil” • “The Voice of Freedom cried ‘ Emancipate your slaves'” 1849- Separate but Equal ruling Solomon Northup- Twelve Year a Slave (1853) • We usually spent our Sabbath at the opening on which days our master would gather up all his slaves about him, and read and expound the Scriptures… a man like Ford who would allow his slaves to have Bibles, was ‘ not fit to own a n******g'” 1856- Bleeding Kansas Hannah Craft (Hannah Bond)- The Bondwoman's Narrative (1856) • “Hannah do this and Hannah do that, but I never complained as I found a sort of pleasure and something to divert my thoughts in employment.” 1863- Slavery abolished in Dutch Colonies Harriet Jacobs- Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861) • “Friend! It is a common word, often lightly used. Like other good and beautiful things, it may be tarnished by careless handling; but when I speak of Mrs. Bruce as my friend, the word is sacred.” 1870- Congress pa**ed 15th Amendment Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley- Behind the Scenes (1868) • “ It was worn, I have not the shadow of a doubt, by Mr. Davis during the stormy years that he was the President of the Confederate States.” 1877- End of Reconstruction Sojourner Truth- The Narrative of Sojourner Truth (1878) • “I chanced upon that occasion to wear my first laurels in public life as president of the meeting.” • “She spoke in deep tones, which, though not loud, reached every ear in the house” 1884- Moses Fleetwood Walker Charles Chestnut- Dave's Neckliss (1889) • "He would speak of a cruel deed, not with the indignation of one accustomed to quick feeling and spontaneous expression, but with furtive disapproval which suggested in his own mind whether he had a right to think or feel, and presented to us in curious psychological spectacle of a mind enslaved long after the shackles had been struck off the limbs of its possessor. “ (1835-1884)