Booker T. Washington "Up from Slavery" pg 665

One of the things that I noticed as I was reading Booker T. Washington’s “Up from Slavery” was the humor he inserted into this story. It began early on when he was talking about not knowing where or when he was born and adding, ‘but at any rate I suspect I must have been born somewhere and at some time’. This put me at ease right away because the last thing I wanted to do was read a stale autobiography that was written in a monotone manner. Thank goodness, as it turns out, this was not that kind of autobiography. The humor was spread throughout each section and was nice to read considering how heavy the content of the story was. The humor sometimes took the bite out of the awful truth of the life he had to endure. This is true for everyone’s life, however. If you can’t find something to smile about when you are going through afflictions, then the afflictions win.

A person can speculate and try to understand what it is like to be in someone else’s shoes, but it is not until they walk in their shoes and can ‘see’ what that person is going through, that they can fully understand that person’s place. Booker T. Washington writes this story in a manner that makes the reader wear his shoes; the reader becomes part of the story. I think that this, along with the humor, was intentional. As I read, I could picture the images that he was writing about. I could imagine the ‘grape-vine telegraph’ that the slaves used to know what was going on around them; I could see all the holes in the walls of the cabins that let in the cold air of winter and the hot air of summer. I could imagine what ‘a dozen or more chestnut burrs, or a hundred small pin-points, in contact with his flesh’, would feel like when putting on a new flax shirt for the first time.

Washington wanted understanding from the one’s that had not walked in the shoes of a slave. He also wanted to remind those that did walk this walk, that though progress was slow, it was still progress. It would take time to acclimate to the freedom that they were given. This is true for everyone in every race. You can’t tell someone to go cook dinner, if they have never cooked before. If you do, then you must suffer the consequences. One of three things will happen; they will either get lucky and dinner will be edible, or dinner will be unrecognizable and no longer in the food category, or your house could get burned down, in which case would suck. So wouldn’t it be better if a person is taught first before they are let loose in the kitchen? I think that this is what Booker T. Washington was getting at, when he wrote this story.

I do not agree with DeBois’ assessment about Washington. I do not believe Washington was trying to keep the black man oppressed, but was trying to get them to understand that they need to have patience and to gain knowledge of what their freedom really meant. He was trying to get them to see that there was no need to envy or hate the white race because that puts them on the same level with whom they are condemning. This way of thinking was what was going to keep the black race where they were; an oppressed race.

Be proud of whom you are and if you don’t like where you come from, then change where you are going. But before you can change, you must gain the knowledge to make the change correctly. If you do not, then you set yourself up for failure. Booker T. Washington’s advise spans through every race and in every time period. Do not envy those that have more than you, for sometimes they are more oppressed than you are. Most importantly, do not cast stones if you live in a glass house. This advice should be held to all men and women of every race. I believe Washington knew this and this is why he said and did the things that he did. For out of adversity, triumphs success.

Dunbar, 'An Ante-Bellum Sermon' pg 1041

Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poem ‘An Ante-Bellum Sermon’ was very eye opening for me. It made me stop and ponder on the truthfulness of what he was saying in this poem. The fact that he wrote it with hindsight makes it even more powerful. Moses, in the form of the Civil War, did come and free them from their slavery. He knew this when he wrote this poem. It was like he was putting himself in this situation, knowing the outcome, and trying to get others to see that there will always be a light at the end of the tunnel. You just have to endure the walk until you get there, and when you do, it will all be worth it.
Though he was addressing the slaves in this poem, I believe he was talking to every ‘man’, telling them that the Lord WILL come and save those that are in bondage. Whatever bondage they were in, the Lord would send a Savior. For the scriptures themselves talks against slavery, and inequality. He warns that the Lord will not tolerate such abominations; that all men are equal in His eyes. To call yourself a Christian, you need to head the warning. Christians are suppose be God fearing and obedient.
This was done in a very clever and careful way. Dunbar made sure to say, “Dat I ‘m still a-preachin’ ancient, I aint talkin’ ‘bout to-day…Dat I ‘m talkin’ ‘bout ouah freedom In a Bilbleistic way”. He knew that if he came out and directly said these things at this time, there would be consequences in the form of punishment. However, through his subliminal warning to the white people, (I also think he was talking to the Harlem Renaissance leaders who criticized him for selling out to the ‘white audience’) he was uplifting his own race. He was telling them to have patience, to look to the future, for it will not always be as bad as it was. Things could and would get better.
I thought that it was interesting that Dunbar wrote this as an ante-bellum poem. He, himself, was not a slave, but he was, however, one generation away from slavery. He did see firsthand, the cost of what slavery had done to ‘his’ people. He knew that they would have a long road ahead of them. He knew that even he would have to endure this long road to equality; not knowing when this road would fully come to an end, but believing that there would be an end to inequality.
I think Dunbar’s purpose to this ante-bellum was to make people see that things could and will get better if you endure and trust in the fact that the Lord will send a ‘Moses’ to your rescue. It will not happen overnight, but it will happen. You must stand up and believe in who you are. You must never allow anyone to bring you down because of your skin color, or your beliefs. In the same sense, you, yourself, should never bring someone else down because of their skin color or beliefs.

Joel Chandler Harris, "The Wonderful Tar-Baby Story"

Out of the three stories we read this week, Joel Chandler Harris' story 'The Wonderful Tar-Baby Story', though it was the shortest, was by far the hardest to read! I had to read and re-read, then re-read again just to wrap my brain around one sentence! Let me tell you, it was a long and tedious process! This story became the bane of my existence for three days.
Words like "ter wuk", "wid", "gwineter", "segashuate", to name a few, would creep into my thought process at odd times and shut everything down! (I’m still unsure about what ‘sezee’ means. Is it supposed to be ‘says he’? ) What in the world did these words mean? How do they translate into the English language that I know? It was like my brain would come to a screeching halt and refused to compute what I was reading. I would then have to drop everything and re-read this story AGAIN. It was the classic 'love-hate' relationship! It was like the story was written in a foreign language but I couldn’t put it down. I don't know what frustrated me more; not understanding the dialect, or the dialect itself. Harris definitely had the 'old south' genre down pat! You could tell that the time he spent on the Turnwold Plantation with "Uncle" George Terrell and the others, had given him insight into this unique language and lifestyle.
So I decided, that when all else fails, read the story out loud in a southern accent, (well, a southern accent to myself, but to others, not so much) and see where that takes me! What I discovered by using this method, albeit a method of madness, was, ‘WOW! It worked!’ Then, throw in the power of deduction and reasoning, and there you go. I began to see the story that Harris wanted us to see.
I say ‘see’ because once I got past my own self imposed barriers, the story started taking shape. I was able to see the imagery and the humor that Harris was writing in this story. Here’s a tale being told by a ‘black’ man to a ‘white’ boy about an undercover fox trying to be ‘sly as a fox’ and a rabbit with an attitude, playing in the middle of the street. That seems easy enough (ha!). Then, the story shifts to give us none other than a cliffhanger at the end! So I say to myself, “Are you kidding me?!” All the while staring at the words before me, feeling perplexed and stupefied, with a mixture of disgust and unbelievability, all wrapped up in nice, neat, little package. I went through all of that for a cliffhanger. Wow.
So, I ask myself, what was the reason and moral of this story? I’m sure there is one. Maybe it is that we should not let the way other people talk, or the way they look, get in our way of hearing their story; for everyone has a story. Maybe it’s saying that if someone comes up to you and says “Hi’ you need to say “Hello” back to them or you’ll get socked in the face. I’m sure if I really thought about it, I could come up with a moral to this story. However, I’m just happy that I was able to survive Harris’ writing.
If you ever asked me what I thought about Joel Chandler Harris, I would probably roll my eyes and groan. I would then tell you that he either had a diabolical sense of humor toward his readers or he was a complete genius and knew exactly what he was doing. Come to think about, it is probably both of these things. A classic ‘love, hate’ relationship!