Although this was optional, I wanted to reflect on how much I have learned during this course. I have always loved english and valued it. This course has taught me to have an open-mind and to try to view things differently. Perspective and borders were things that I have never really thought about but they tie into literature so much. I will truly miss this class and it has taught me to have closer reading.

Malibu Hess 

English 

4/18/20 

Final MP4

Hi! Many of you know me from class, but here is just a little bit of a “get to know me”. My name is Malibu (yes, that is my real name). I have Phenylketonuria. Many of you probably do not know what that is. It is an illness that affects the way I break down protein. I have to watch my daily protein intake. It is really rare and basically I just do not eat red meat. I am 19 and it is my first year in college. I am a Special Education major. To be completely honest, I had no idea what I wanted to go to college for. I had a passion for culinary for years, but decided it was not something I wanted to do forever. For that past 4 years, I have worked with special needs and I love it so much. I have volunteered at a prom for special needs, and it is so life changing. My senior year, I decided that was what I wanted to do and I want to make a difference in these students’ lives. I love to draw even though i’m not very good at it. I like coloring in my bible. I love giraffes. Mostly, I love to nap! It is my form of self care! English has always been my favorite subject. It was something I understood and it was something I liked to challenge myself in. I enjoy reading and writing. I was actually very upset with all of this Covid-19 stuff because english was switched to online. But things happen. I hope this taught a little bit more about me. 

What is the significance of literature, you ask? Well, that is such a broad answer. Everyone can see it differently, which ties into perspective which we have learned in this course. From this course, I have learned that literature can teach us about history and what the products of time that these writers were living in. Literature in this course has made us see things in new ways and why people see or understand them that way. Such as borders, perspective, and the books in general. These books that we have read had so many different culture standpoints. This class has taught us to teach where others have come from and appreciate cultures and beliefs. Culture and beliefs are a huge part of who people are and become. These are things we can physically see or things we can pass off onto the future generation. In Boxers and Saints, we addressed humanity and the perspectives of what each character was going through during this time. 

What I understand from studying literature is understanding and breaking down the novels we read. In class, we talked about close reading or reading between the lines. This can be a difficult task sometimes, especially on more difficult reads. But the purpose of this is to understand what the author wanted us to get out of this book, rather than just reading the words on the pages. Nothing is better than reading a book and truly connecting and understanding it. It creates emotions and connects us to the characters. Close reading can sometimes be easy when you are invested in a book. But it is difficult especially when it is from a time period we never lived in, because we can never fully understand this hardship they were going through. Something about this course is that our in class discussions helped greatly break down the novels we read. It helped me see new views on what the author’s point was. Just because my thought on what the author wanted to say does not match up to someone else’s thought, does not make either of us wrong. It shows that we analyze things differently. In this class, you have taught us that we can never truly know what the author meant, but close reading and breaking down the novel is what helps us create what we were supposed to get out of the novel. 

What matters about literature? I believe that the words that are written do not matter as much as what they mean in the context they are written. Writing style is something we have seen in the novels we have read and how different they can be. Literature in this generation is truly taken for granted. It can be hard to read a novel that you have no interest in or that you are forced to read, but when you analyze said novel, it can open your perspective on why the author wrote what they wrote. Literature can tie into my major because there are books about special needs and the spectrum. “Wonder” by R.J. Palacio, is a story about a boy who has a facial deformity. We think of special needs as autism, down-syndrome, or most things we can see. But it can actually be learning disabilities, or other disabilities. I tie this together because although it doesn’t tie into special needs entirely, the treatment and hardships he got throughout this book is something we realize special needs deal with daily. Literature matters to me because I think books are such a gift to the world. Writers create art and explain things to us that most people wouldn’t even be able to put into words. Words can be very strong. The perspectives we gain from novels is such a powerful thing because everyone can see it differently. 

Major project 1 was all about borders and what seemed most interesting to me was slavery borders. I dug into the books we read that involved slavery. I talked about going to the Freedom Center and hardships that slaves dealt with. The question you gave me when I presented my project was; “why do people take risks to help slaves?”, this was a question I did not know the answer to and still ponder about it and probably will never know fully. I think that people took these risks because it was the right thing to do. It can be based on their morals and what they were taught. Slaves did not deserve the hardships they were put through, and citizens knew this. Helping them escape was a risk they were willing to take. 

Major project 2 was about the theme of borders. I chose to write about how society and the way we are raised can affect our perspective which ties into the borders we talked about in class. You asked me what my significance is in this project. I talked about society perspectives and the way we were raised because the way we were raised affects the way we see things (for the most part). It is important because if we are raised with negative views, it will teach us that we should be negative whether that is with race, religion or gender. To me, everyone is equal. But that was the way I was raised. The big picture from what I wrote in this project is that the way we are raised and the way society is, can affect our views on everything around us, when we should be open-minded. 

Major project 3 is pretty straight-forward. I plan to write about everything that is going on right now, and what us as citizens should be doing. We should be taking precautions. I think that we should have gone on a full lockdown from the get-go and it would have prevented many deaths, but this has been something we have never dealt with. Teenagers are not taking this seriously. Then it says to talk a little about what we have learned throughout this course and what we have gotten out of it. Then we need to write a reflection of what we have done to build this project.

Malibu Hess

English 

4/20/20

Mp3

I have thought about literature a lot during this time of crisis. Literature is something that can connect to people in many different ways. A good book can completely captivate you, to the point where you can not put the book down. I re-read the whole “Twilight” series because it was a fun read for me. I have been taking time out of my days to read those or my bible. Literature is something that can connect to emotions in any form. When we read books about those in crisis, such as Anne Frank’s diary, we feel empathetic for her. When we think about everything right now with Covid-19, we honestly do not know what is going to happen next. I feel that even our nation’s leaders do not know what will happen next. There has not been a “cooling off” period with the virus, and people are dying everyday. From the articles that we read, how do we truly know what is real and what is not? Literature can be something to inform readers, captivate them, and entertain them. During this time, people are expressing how they feel about this pandemic through social media or other posts. For humanities, we should be taking every precaution possible to prevent this pandemic from worsening. I truly feel that we could be doing more to promote staying home. We can be expressing the importance of staying home through art or writing.  Students in highschools have been creating projects or assignments about the Coronavirus and even on social media, there has been tons of celebrities reaching out to the world to #StayHome. I think that literature and art is such a strong thing and that during this time we could be using these pieces to think and spread positivity. Literature and forms of art can impact our world in so many ways. It is a way that people can express their feelings and release emotions. Art is something that whether you are good or not at it, you can feel relaxed while doing it. That art can be singing, painting, or writing. 

Reflection 

Throughout writing my little essay, I truly just had to think about the way that art and literature have helped me throughout this pandemic. I have been reading a lot and writing in my bible. This is something that brings a positive mindset to me with all this negative going on. Literature has brought me closer to my friends, we have written each other letters and it made us realize not only that we miss hanging out, but that actually writing it is much more valuable than a text.  This project connects to what we have been doing in class because it makes us reflect on how literature is affecting us today, but relates to the way it did in history. The way we see literature and value it can be based on perspective which is a huge thing that we covered in class. I was raised reading books and writing and have always loved doing it, that makes me value those who do it today. I can connect to books and become so caught up reading one to the point of not being able to set it down till i’m finished reading. The way that words can do this is so empowering. Literature can bring positivity into a dark time and help promote it. I think it was important to reference influencers reaching out to #StayHome or posts/articles about why staying home is so important, because seeing different views shows how important this situation is. This pandemic is affecting people in ways we don’t even realize. Leaving the house could be an escape for some, and some people can not eat now. Who knows, maybe someone will write about this pandemic.

Malibu Hess

English 

3/26/20

      MP2

Throughout this semester, we learned all about borders, culture, and perspectives. We have dug into the depths of these and incorporated many ideas of how we have certain cultures or views. I personally believe society, and the views our family/parents or friends give us play a HUGE factor in what we believe. I believe that we can fall into a lot of categories like race, religion, politics, etc. I have decided to choose the book “Wide Sargasso Sea”, and the book “Boxers and Saints” to compare, due to how society impacts perspective. (And compare and differ them!) 

“Wide Sargasso Sea” is a 1966 feminist novel, by Jane Rhys.  It is a response to “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Brontë’s, describing the background to Mr Rochester’s marriage from the point-of-view of his mad wife, Antoinette Cosway, a Creole heiress. Although this book can go along with “Jane Eyre”, you do not have to read one to understand the other. But having read both can give new ideas and perspectives to the novels. This novel has racism, slavery, and a lot more aspects that can relate to borders. There is a lot of rage and injustice in this novel with how the treatment Antionette gets from her family or Mr. Mason gets from citizens. Slavery has always been something that has been a tragedy. Rhys has greatly portrayed through this novel that slavery included some unbelieve things, so characters in this novel often “forget” these things have happened. Rhys also has different age perspectives throughout “Wide Sargasso Sea ” and related the memories that Antionette has as a child, and they relate to the tragedies yet to come later in this novel. For example, in a part of this novel, Antionette felt very eerie and went to her brother’s room. She thinks on how Mr. Mason plans to cure the boy. It goes from Pierres happiness and the need to sleep and then hears crackling. This eerie part in the book prepares us for the events to come. Very few things in this culture and lifestyle that Antionette was living in, seemed normal. If you relate our childhoods, to times like this (slavery), they are very different. As a 2000’s baby, as most of us are, we did not grow up in times of slavery or war. But this does not mean that some of us did not deal with racism or poverty. Perspectives that we have dealt with can tie into stereotypes, such as being blonde, skin color, being poor, etc. Perspective is always something people deal with. Perspective plays a role in almost everything in this book, in a way. 

“Boxers and Saints” is a novel that was written in 2013 by Gene Luen Yang. These are two companion graphic novels that are about two different people and their experiences and lives going on during the Boxer Rebellion. We later find out in “Saint” that her book was after her dying, which is why her novel is not in color. “Saint” is about a girl (Four-Girl) who is a peasant, who is later shunned by her family due to becoming stronger in her Christian faith. The novel “Boxer” is in color and is all about him joining the rebellion. Peasants were tired of being hungry and failing throughout life, such as farms. Citizens were tired of them hurting their society. Bao is the leader and wants to rid China of the peasants. The things that happen during these novels to these people are very different and they struggle with very different things, but are both dealing with the hardships of the rebellion and life in general.  Boxer is dealing with joining the rebellion and what that entails. While in Saints, she is dealing with her new religion, her family disowning her, and what it means to be Chinese and Christian.

Although there is so much more than I can tell you about each novel, I want to hit on a few main points that have stuck out most to me due to perspective/culture with society. Culture is defined as the “symbols, language, beliefs, values, and artifacts (material objects) that are part of a society” (Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World, page 67). Religion falls into culture to me because I think culture is oftentimes, religious based and it is a part of the values and belief that a person tends to have.  During my childhood, I was raised in church and bible school. My views on my beliefs due to religion are related to what I learned in those environments and what my mom has taught me. As I have grown up, my beliefs have become neutral in a lot of aspects. I feel as though there are always two parts to a story/view. “There are always two deaths, the real one and the one people know about.” (Wide Sargasso Sea). I relate this quote to the topics we have talked about for weeks in class because there really is, two parts to views or stories. Whether that is race, politics, stereotypes, or whatever else. Society has such a huge impact on the way people look or what they believe or even what they want to do. Bao joined this rebellion because it was what he knew and what he was impacted to do in a sense. Four-Girl was shunned for her religion by her own family in her novel which is something I could have never imagined. Her culture and lifestyle was very different than the one she wanted to be led to (Christianity).  Something that the novel makes sure to point out is can you be christian and strong in faith while following your chinese culture. Which is something her family seemed to not think was possible. I think perspective in religion is such a big thing because everyone has a view on what is “right” or “wrong”.

Relating Boxers and Saints and Wide Sargasso Sea is hard but there definitely are things that they have in common, but things that make them differ. These novels are both a “two set read”, but you don’t need to have read one, to read the other. Perspective in the writing of these novels is such a big thing whether it has to deal with age like “Wide Sargasso Sea”, or whether it is two completely different characters like in “Boxers” and “Saints”. These novels both have a great amount of tragedy in them and were both difficult reads. They have racism, “ I hated the mountains and the hills, the rivers and the rain. I hates the sunsets of whatever colour, I hates its beauty and it’s magic and the secret I would never know. I hate it’s indifference and the cruelty which was part of its loveliness. Above all I hated her. For she belonged to the magic and the loveliness. She had left me thirsty and all my life would be thirst and longing for what I had lost before I found it.” (Wide Sargasso Sea) This quote comes from Antionettes husband, and Antionette has always struggled with racism because she is not welcomed by whites or blacks due to the color of her skin. This caused her to always search for her identity and where she belonged with herself and with the rest of the world.  Her perspective towards herself came from how others treated her. Color of skin was a very big deal back then and continues even into society today. African Americans were not very common during this time period which caused them to be stereotyped and hated.

As well as in “Boxers and Saints”, Four-Girl is looking for her identity with Christianty and being Chinese. The way her family and other Chinese acted towards this impacted her greatly with her perspective on herself and her beliefs. Identity, borders, and perspective all fall into the same category because there is a way you can relate to them or compare them to one another. Both novels I have chosen to compare have these concepts throughout them which we can easily notice, or show up in close reading. 

Overall, I feel as though society affects perspective on ourself in how we should act or look, and in these books they come from family, skin color, slaves, or ourselves. Society can make us think something we support is wrong (Four-Girl and her religion) or that we will never fit in (Antoinette due to her skin color). Talking about these topics in class was a difficult thing because everyone can see it with a different view. We could all have a different culture, religion, race, etc. Which can impact our perspective on anything. 

Works Cited 

“Boxers and Saints” by Gene Luen Yang

BookBrowse. “Summary and Reviews of Boxers & Saints Boxed Set by Gene Luen Yang.” BookBrowse.com,www.bookbrowse.com/bb_briefs/detail/index.cfm/ezine_ 

preview_number/8897/boxers-saints-boxed-set. 

“Narration and Structure.” It.info,crossref-it.info/textguide/wide-sargasso-sea/29/1977.

Rhys, Jane. “An Introduction to Wide Sargasso Sea.” The British Library, The British

 Library, 11 Mar. 2016,www.bl.uk/20th-century-literature/articles/an-introduction 

-to-wide-sargasso-sea#.

“Sociology:Understanding and Changing the Social World”. University of Minnesota

 Libraries, 2016, Pg 67. Retrieved April 14, 2020.

“Wide Sargasso Sea; Racism Analysis.” Chloetatum, 11 Jan. 2016, 

chloetatum.wordpress.com/wide-sargasso-sea-racism-analysis/. “Wide Sargasso Sea” by Jane Rhys

Malibu Hess

English 

4/8/20

Throughout reading Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows, I have notices borders in womens lives and how they are viewed and/or treated. It is all about the community, friendships and women’s lives. I have noticed a lot throughout reading that there are so many stereotypes with the women in these novels because of the characters being immigrants. The boundaries that are crossed in this novel is the main character Nikki being exposed to the things that her parents tried to keep her from, (Scandalous things).

The character I am most sympathetic for is definitely Nikki, the main character. She constantly disappoints her parents by dropping out, smoking, or the way she dressed. I feel so poorly for her because it has to suck not being able to live the life you want, in fear of disappointing your own family. I wouldn’t say I relate to her so much as I get it. One of the main reasons I went to college was because I knew it is what my mom wanted, but I am not doing it for her. I am doing it for myself because it does make me happy and it will benefit my future, which is what Nikki was trying to do.

Write an 800+ word draft of MP2 using at least five sources. As discussed during class on Wednesday, the idea here is that you’ll be engaging with sources meaningfully for your own purposes as you analyze the two texts you are working with for this essay.

The two texts that I have chosen to analyze are Wide Sargasso Sea and Boxers And Saints. I have chosen these texts because I can relate and differ them in many ways. I mainly want to focus on culture in both of these texts. There is a lot of culture and personal destiny in these books. So an overview, Wide Sargasso Sea is about explores relationships between men and women and talks about racism, slavery, and discrimination. There are parts in the book when the husband and wife trade places and she is his “owner”, while he is a slave. They had to base this off of looks and what would be most believeable, which ties into discrimination and racism. Boxers and Saints is a two-set novel. It has two different perspectives during the same events. Both Boxer and Saint have very different things happening in their lives during the Boxer Rebellion and Boxer was with the rebellion, while Saint was not. Saint was struggling with her religion and her family did not support her decision in wanting to join a Christian group. Saint and Antionette (from Wide Sargasso Sea), both struggle with religion. “faith and identity: What does it mean to be Chinese? To be Christian? Can you be both?” (https://www.npr.org/2013/10/22/234824741/boxers-saints-compassion-quesions-for-gene-luen-yang) This quote that I have chosen really connects with both novels. Boxer and Saint, as well as Antionette all struggle with their identity. Whether this is family, identity, religion, or culture, they all connect in some aspect. “None of you understand about us”(http://thebestnotes.com/booknotes/wide_sargasso_sea_rhys/Wide_Sargasso_Sea_Study_Guide15.html), this quote comes from Wide Sargasso Sea and it is Antionette basically saying that no one (Mr.Mason) understands them and what her and her family had came from. I believe that the way we were raised is a HUGE factor of culture and what we believe when we grow up. Mr. Mason in this novel was a lot more entitled because he had money. In a lot of cases, this should not matter. But in this time period, the more money you had meant that you were very high up on the social class. 

Another connection I made in these novels is that the relationship that Antionette has with her mother is not very strong. Saint and her family do not seem to be close either, for obvious reasons. In my opinion, your family should support you no matter what, but that is not always the case. “Four-Girl is also a young Chinese peasant who escapes the oppressive sexism in her culture by converting to Christianity.” (https://catholicreads.com/2018/02/04/boxers-and-saints-by-gene-luen-yang/) For this quote, in the novel Saint, she is being bashed basically for her choices to be Christian, which even though religion is a big deal now, it is nowhere near as bad. Religion is a freedom right and we should be able to practice it, but Saint was not given this right. “Every war has two faces” (http://smithsonianapa.org/bookdragon/boxers-saints-by-gene-luen-yang-color-by-lark-pien/) Thinking about this quote, it connects really well with these books because that is the whole point of them being separate novels. What I understand from this quote is that there are two sides to everything, so that means different views. 

One of the main differences in this book that I noticed in Wide Sargasso Sea, there were parts throughout the book that seemed somewhat normal. Antionette played with her friend and that was one of the most normal things throughout the book. In Boxers and Saints, I sensed no amount of “normal”. During this time, this was their “normal”, which is so sad to think about. The things going on during this time period were definitely not normal. “When I looked into the lives of the Chinese saints, I discovered that many of them had died during the Boxer Rebellion, a war that occurred on Chinese soil in the year 1900.” DUring this period, children and many others were dying, but it was such an average thing.(https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/gene-luen-yang-quotes)

Focus on how a text option for MP2 reflects and / or shapes the culture/s depicted. Consider how your own cultural background shapes your reading of that text and your approach to and understanding of the culture/s in the text.
For my text, I am going to speak about the novel Boxers and Saints. I am mostly going to hit on the rebellion and the religion in these books. I think my own culture affected this reading in a few different ways. I was raised in a religious household. We went to church every sunday. I went to summer bible school. I did bible groups. My religion is a part of me. Now, I am not saying going to church is what makes me Christian, but it has impacted my faith. My mom has been a huge impact in what made my faith grow strong. So, my family has supported my beliefs. In Saints, her family did not do the same. This affected my reading because family should support you in faith and understanding of religion. So, it was sad for me that something she felt strong about, made her feel unwanted or “wrong”. (Her family wasn’t really a huge fan of her anyways but). I did connect with Saint in the sense that we both try to grow stronger in faith as it is almost our destiny or path. Saint was given a ton of negative feedback throughout the book because of her choices and understandings, which is very sad. In this time period, it was not very common from her culture. Although, in our culture discrimination is seen often, I have never really been judged on by my faith or beliefs. This showed me how Saints culture was completely different. Back in the day, we heard and learned about burning of churches and people dying due to their religion or even going against a churches wishes. But in our century; Atheists, Catholics, Christians, etc are all very normalized. We all sort of keep our opinions to ourselves to avoid confrontation (not always). The rebellion in these books was very odd to me and sort of extreme, but again, it seems to also be based on time period and the “normal” for them. I want to keep my post mostly on religion, because honestly, I don’t have a huge view politically. The Boxer rebellion was seen differently but the same in these books. Boxer was with the rebellion because it was his culture that made him feel like he had to do, but Saint seemed the opposite. Which I believe had a lot to do with her religious views.

Malibu Hess

In 500-600 words, compare Boxers and Saints with another text (something we have read in class or something else of your choice). You obviously won’t be able to do a complete and thorough comparative analysis. Simply choose a specific idea or element of the texts for comparison. For example, as discussed in class, you could compare the way Boxers and Saints presents two perspectives in two books with the way Wide Sargasso Sea presents two perspectives. This post will let you dig more deeply into comparison and the significance of choosing texts / themes to set up your comparison in Major Project 2 (which involves comparative analysis).
I have decided to compare Boxers and Saints to the book “The Diary of a Young Girl” by Anne Frank. I chose this book based off of perspectives that we have talked about in class. In Anne Frank’s diary, she speaks about her violent experiences and times and events during the holocaust. It also has a different perspective of a time period that she is going through. Race and sexuality and gender were all very big discriminations during this time. So, therefore Anne had to struggle with all of these things. During class, I spoke about the destinies of boxers and saints whether that was for the Boxer Rebellion that Boxers had, or a religious destiny that Saints had. I compare destiny because something in Anne made her feel as though to write this diary. It was especially hard when she was going through this time period, as the choices Boxers and Saints had made. They followed what they felt was right. I have had to read both of these books, and they were honestly pretty difficult reads. The things that happen in these books are hard to swallow and make the readers sympathize with what they are going through. These events are awful things; holocaust, saints family disowning her, the rebellion. Anne’s diaries were something that just showed off her identity, which also relates to Boxers and Saints. The choices we make affect our identity, or at least in my opinion. Finding these characters’ sense of selves and identity was a big part in these books. Boxers felt like his identity while Saints felt like hers was religion. Anne felt as though hers was the holocaust and evrything she was going through during this time. These time periods during both books were very violent and hard time periods and the things that had happened during these times were not things children should have to deal with. Another comparison is that neither of these books are for children. The violence such as decapitation and holocaust events are very serious and scary events for children. Back to destinies, these things were all events that these characters had chosen to write about the decisions they had to make. Things that make these books different from each other are that they are very different situations. Although they are both violent and serious, they are different events. Anne was dealing with a whole Holocaust event nd the gender roles were complety different. The perspective she wrote about was in a sense, too mature for young adults as long as with Boxers and Saints.

Write a 500-600 word personal reflection on how your own perspective (opinions, identities, experiences, ideas, interests, etc.) shaped your reading of Wide Sargasso Sea. 

Wide Sargasso Sea is a novel by Jean Ryhs. it is a feminist and anti-colonial response to Charlotte Brontes “Jane Arye”. At the end, Antoinette, is left as a mad woman in an attic. I feel that most people can agree if any of these things happened to us, we would go mad as well. This story had a lot of turns and kept me wondering what was going to happen next. It truly was nothing like what I have read before, which is a good thing. It was a difficult read due to the writing style (which could just be the time period). Early on in the book, Antoinette plays with a girl named Tia and that was probably one of the few things that readers and I, can connect to and that was the normality in this book. She actually seemed to be a kid rather than the life she was living and family things she had going on. In the society that Antoinette lived, she was very discriminated against for her race, gender, social class and family history. This was very upsetting for me that people had to deal with this so intensely, and this discrimination is still going on in 2020 (maybe not as intensly.) 

A quote that really made me think in this novel “there are always two deaths, the real one and the one people know about.” This made me think about how many slaves or unliked people probably faked their deaths just so they were off the grid and away from all the tragedy. Faking their death could be the only thing keeping them from getting killed. The fact that they thought the only way to solve the problems going on was: death is such a serious thing and proves how awful the things going on really were. 

My identity and the morals I have accumulated from my family and myself, is that we should all be equal. No matter our gender, race, or social class, we really are able to do the same things and the fact that people still continue to think they are superior due to one of these truly disgusts me. Back then, African Americans were not very common so they were the lowest in the social class and became slaves whether it was cruelty or to pay off debt (they often could not get very good jobs). In this book, the mother married Mr.Mason who was pretty wealthy but still gained enemies as you can see when the fire occurs. Antoinette is constantly moving in this story and the relationship with her family does not seem to be too strong, but her and Aunt Cora seem to be closer than with her mother. Her first husband dies due to drinking and then the second marriage (Mr. Mason) was not very healthy as we see throughout the book.

Malibu Hess

English 

1/04/2020

Learning Narrative

Throughout this process, I tried to think of the whole concept of borders and what seemed most interesting to me. Looking at borders as a whole is such a huge and broad topic. We have talked about reality vs. fantasy and we have read stories that involve this. I decided to go with slavery and borders because there are so many angles that you can look at it from. Slavery is seperated by race, gender,  culture, social class and much more. In some of the stories we have read, it spoke about a husband and wife and how they tried to escape, so the woman became the keeper and her husband was a slave. As well, going to the Freedom Center was a lot more interesting than I thought it was going to be. I already knew that oftentimes slaves were seperated by race, but in the Brotherhood video there were groups of the opposite race helping slaves escape. In the video, it opened my eyes to how serious this was and opened my mind to a ton of questions involving slavery. 

First, starting off lets speak of the racial aspects of slavery. In some of my articles, it speaks of legal status and that often tied into race. They based slavery solely on these factors. Because they were in a lower social class due to their legal status. Which we can often see in some of society today with ICE and green cards with immigrants. This is something that can pass on from generation to generation. We see/hear about families being torn apart all the time due to not being a legal citizen. This can tie into the social classes of owners and slaves.

Slavery as a whole, slaves were the lowest of the todem pole. Their owners were very powerful,wealthy, and successful. The owners often used slaves to pay off debt, use for work, cleaning, child-care, etc. Women slaves were good for this type of work, while men were used for field work. Women could be sexually abused to create more slaves. Children were in high demand because the owners could mold them into the best slave they could be and then sell them for high profit. 

In my powerpoint, I just wanted to hit on the basics of how slavery connects to borders with; age, race, gender, and social class. I dug into each of these categories and the information was crazy. There is things about slavery most people do not have any idea about. Slavery has been a thing since 1619 and is still continuing today. Which made me think on how exactly has slavery changed? If anything, although slavery isnt as common nowadays, could it be worse? I say this because of the techniques we have now. Slavery can be considered many things. Kidnapping can be slavery because they make them work and abuse them. In the Brotherhood video, whites were helping African Americans escape in hopes of leaving the slave society behind. The consequences they all could have faced were terrible and could result in death. Although slavery was so common, there was still people who knew how wrong it was; which is why they hid slaves and helped them. 

Slavery was often just seen with African Americans and this was because race was not very common back then. The color of your skin was seen as less superior and often made african Americans very low in the social class. They were seen as poor, unsuccessful and worked for very little. In my presentation I made sure to hit on the points that made slaves seem so low to everyone else. Owners felt so superior to their slaves. Not very often, but slaves could sometimes be treated well by their owners. Fed, hygiene, paid and somewhere to sleep. 

After my presentation, I was asked to think about why do people take risks? Such as when people took the risk to help slaves. This was a very hard question which after thinking about it, all I could resort back to was our morals. While reading children’s books, we thought about values and morals. The morals we learn now are really what society wants/expects or what our parents teach us throughout life. The people who helped slaves knew that helping slaves could result in very bad consequences but did it anyways. I think this comes from their morals and they knew slavery was wrong and that helping them escape would be one step closer to 

Annotated Bibliography : Malibu Hess 

Azerrad, David. “What the Constitution Really Says About Race and Slavery.” The Heritage Foundation, www.heritage.org/the-constitution/commentary/what-the-constitution-really-says-about-race-and-slavery.

This article speaks about the constitution and how slavery was abolished. 

“On the Borders of Slavery and Race: Charles T. Torrey and the Underground Railroad,” House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, 

http://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/10736

In this artcile, it speaks about the political,cultural,racial, and legal views on slavery. 

I think this article is important to what I am focusing on because it speaks of how slavery is a big deal. There is so many views and standpoints on slavery. Slavery borders seperate from all of the things this article hits on. 

“The Border Slave States and Their Slaves: AHA.” The Border Slave States and Their Slaves | AHA, New Orleans Daily Delta , www.historians.org/teaching-and-learning/teaching-resources-for-historians/sixteen-months-to-sumter/newspaper-index/new-orleans-daily-delta/the-border-slave-states-and-their-slaves.

This article talks about the social and political problems involving slavery borders.

This article relates by talking about the border slave states and what goes into these sectionals.

“The Border Slave States and Their Slaves: AHA.” The Border Slave States and Their Slaves | AHA, New Orleans Daily Delta , www.historians.org/teaching-and-learning/teaching-resources-for-historians/sixteen-months-to-sumter/newspaper-index/new-orleans-daily-delta/the-border-slave-states-and-their-slaves.

This article talks about the slaveholding enterprise.

This article relates to the purpose of my project because it speaks of what actually starts slavery and how their holders handle it. 

Wood, Peter H. “The Reason America Adopted Race-Based Slavery.” Slate Magazine, 19 May 2015, www.slate.com/articles/life/the_history_of_american_slavery/2015/05/why_america_adopted_race_based_slavery.html.

This article speaks of slavery being based solely on race and this ties into my topic because it speaks of just one of the many things that go into slavery and what caused it. 

“Race, Slavery, and Free Blacks Petitions.” National Archives and Records Administration, National Archives and Records Administration, www.archives.gov/nhprc/projects/catalog/race-slavery-and-free-blacks-petitions.

This article talks about the thousands of petitions there were for african americans to be free from slavery and this ties to my project because it shows how many african americans there were tied into slavery. 

Faust, Patricia L. “Slavery in the United States.” American Battlefield Trust, 23 Apr. 2019, http://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/slavery-united-states.

This article talks about the history of slavery in the United States. I think this article is important because it talks about the the moral issues raised by slavery. It also brings up how the United States was profiting more off the sale of human life than agricultural products.

Richardson, Franklyn W. “About Us.” National Council of Churches – National Council of Churches, 6 Nov. 2019, nationalcouncilofchurches.us/systemic-racism-and-the-legacy-of-slavery/.

This article talks about the legacy and reality of slavery. It talks about how stories of slavery aren’t fairy tales, they show the sad truth of human brutality. It goes into detail about the reality and the abuse the slaves encountered throughout their lives.

Berry, Daina Ramey. “American Slavery: Separating Fact from Myth.” The Conversation, 11 Oct. 2019, theconversation.com/american-slavery-separating-fact-from-myth-79620.

This article breaks down the truths and myths about slavery. It goes into detail about a lot of our knowledge about slavery is incorect and explains the truth behind it. It also talks about how everyone wants to say slavery was so long ago but in reality it wasnt.

Kemble, Frances A. “Antebellum Slavery.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 1983, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2956.html.

This article talks about how the slaves lived and how they were treated. It goes into depth how slaves were forced to work while everyone else thought they looked willing to work. It explains how if everyone thought the slaves looked “happy” and “healthy” they were able to work. 

Hodal, Kate. “One in 200 People Is a Slave. Why?” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 25 Feb. 2019, http://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/feb/25/modern-slavery-trafficking-persons-one-in-200.

This article talks about slavery all over the world. Majority of people don’t realize that even though slavery is still illegal people are inslaved every day. A lot of people turn a blind eye when slavery isn’t happening in America. This article goes into detail about all the different forms slavery.

Brook, Tom. “Culture – Slavery on Film: What Is Hollywood’s Problem?” BBC, BBC, 21 Oct. 2014, http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20131015-hollywood-scared-of-slavery.

This article talks about how Americans and Hollywood down plays slavery. The article goes into detail about how the movie industry is too scared to show the reality of slavery instead of using its platform to inform viewers. Many believe that the movie indusrty glamorizes slavery instead of showing the true affects it had.

I plan to do this project on what I think is apart of slavery borders. Slavery is seperated by race, politics, social class, etc. Slavery has been such an important part of the history and past of our lives. Slavery can be more than the average thing you think of when you think of slavery itself. Such as sex-trafficing and kidnapping. Slavery falls into the topic of borders because there is literally so many differnt things that can seperate eachother from another in slavery. Such as male vs. female slaves. Or white vs. african american slaves. Even age can play a factor when you really dig into the topic of slavery. All of my topics and sources relate to someone (my audience) depending on race, age, gender, political class.  

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