Slavery

Slavery

1. a) When and how did slavery begin in the southern state?

Ans: Slavery began in Virginia in 1619. Slavery began when the first English colony in North America, Virginia, first imported Africans in 1619, a practice established in the Spanish colonies as early as the 1560s.

1. b) Which country were the slaves brought from?

Ans: West and central Africa.

1. c) Who traditionally bought and owned the slaves?

Ans: The Dutch bought and owned them in 1619.

1. d) Were there laws/rules that the slaves had to abide by? If yes what were they?

Ans: They could not gather in-groups of 4 or more because their owners thought they would plan an escape. If the slaves got caught trying to get away, their owners would beat them or cut body parts off so they could not escape again. If they got away without anyone seeing them, they usually run away to Canada where they would be free. They cannot leave their owners property without a written pass because the slave owners wanted control over the slaves. They could not own weapons because the slaves might shoot their owner. Slaves were not allowed to learn how to read or write because the slaves may start to think about freedom and try to escape.

1. e) How does the notion of slavery relate to the novel? Does the study of slavery help you understand the novel better?

Ans: The setting of To Kill a Mockingbird is constructed from the contradictions of Christianity and prejudice, thus the Southern society builds a strong sense of integrity that masks their immoral prejudice. The morals of slavery greatly clashed with the morals of Christianity.

The Civil War

1. a) Identify the southern states

Ans: Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina

1. b) Who was the US president who proclaimed war against the south?

Ans: Abraham Lincoln

1. c) Why was the Civil War fought?

Ans: Confederate forces in Charleston, South Carolina, fired on Union forces holding Fort Sumter, which was located in Charleston Harbor. The bombardment lasted 34 hours and resulted in Union evacuation of the Fort.

1. d) When was this war fought?

Ans: The US Civil War began on 12 April 1861 at 4:30 am.

1. e) What was the outcome of this war?

Ans: It abolished slavery as a legal institution in the United States. The seceded states were eventually reabsorbed into the Union. Before the Civil War, sentences began with, "The United States ARE" After the war, it became, "The United States IS". The war resulted in accelerating invention and technology.

1. f) How does the Civil Rights movement relate to the novel?

Ans: Lee wrote the novel during the beginning of the Civil Rights era. Lee's book was published in 1960 - a time of tumultuous events and racial strife as the struggle in the Civil Rights movement grew violent and spread into cities across the nation, and into the American consciousness on TV screens and the nightly news.

Jim Crow’s Laws

1. a) What/who is Jim Crow?

Ans: The name Jim Crow sticks with most Americans because of the Jim Crow laws enacted after the American Civil War. Many of these laws were designed to keep Blacks and Caucasians separate. Some expressly forbid marriage between races, sexual contact between races. Others, like the famous one Rosa Parks violated, sectioned out public services as on buses where Blacks had to ride in the back.

1. b) What were Jim Crow Laws?

Ans: State and local laws in the United States enacted between 1876 and 1965

1. c) What was the response of the slaves and Blacks to these laws?

Ans: They started the civil rights movement.

1. d) Do we see the Jim Crow surface in the novel? If so then in which part of the novel?

Ans: Yes. In To Kill a Mockingbird, a black man charged with raping a white woman was not accorded the usual presumption of innocence.