Fugitive Slave Act

• The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was given by the President to the South to help them keep a tight grasp around their hold of their slaves.
• Slaves were still nothing but property so if any of a slave owner's "property" was stolen or missing, they still had to find some way to get that property back.
• Slaves were never allowed to leave the property of their master's without some sort of pass. If this pass was not given to a slave and they got a few feet away from their master's property, they would be considered fugitives. If they were caught during escape, they would be sent directly back to their master and suffer a severe consequence.
• The Fugitive Slave Act allowed anyone to capture any run away slave and bring them back to their master. Even of a slave became free or was a simple runaway, if they were caught by some hunter or even from a northerner, they would be sent right back. It was true irony for a free slave.
• Those who refused to cooperate by not going back would be kept in jail until something was decided.

Abolitionist Movement

• The abolitionist movement started in 1831, when a man by the name of William Lloyd Garrison published his first abolitionist journal called The Journal.
• After The Journal was published it was used as a foothold to spread the news of slavery.
• The goal of the Abolitionists Movement was to spread the news about the evils of slavery. They wanted all members to find a way to help any slaves get to freedom in any way possible. It did not matter if they spoke to a group of people or even directly helped slaves themselves.
• The Abolitionists Movements was able to greatly impact our country. A whole bunch of antislavery books found their way to the South, the North started to create many secret societies that would be used to help the slaves, and a whole bunch of petitions were sent to congress demanding some way to free the slaves.
• Many of the abolitionists knew the great risks they would face in order to achieve their goals. Many abolitionist groups were attacked by mobs from the South. Not only were they attacked but abolition books that were written were burned to ashes. It was full of abuse however, they still accomplished their goal.

cited source:

http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/history/A0856464.html

Slavery and its Setting in the North

• The south was a the agricultural part of the United States while the north was mostly focused on industry.
• Unlike the south, the north had no need for any physical or hard labor which also meant they had no need for slaves. The north was all about bringing the economy up. They had many new inventions that changed the way people worked. Up north, machines were the ones doing most of the work.
• Many people in the north became abolitionists. They did not like slavery one bit. These were the people who risked everything, including their lives, to help African Americans find their freedom.
• It is also in the north where President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This document is the one that freed all the slaves. It is what the north wanted and eventually they got their wish.

Slave Trade

• The most historic slave trade that many know about now is called the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. This was the trade of the African American's overseas from Europe to Africa and to the United States.
• Another famous name for this was the Triangle Trade.
• This specific trade started when the Portuguese were no longer interested in getting the valuable resources in Africa. They had a new valuable resource. These were slaves. They needed any form of cheap labor they could get. This was the cheap labor force they so greatly desired.
• Many Europeans were not really good with labor. Their people could not stand the long working hours in the sun. Disease would also kill many of the Europeans. When they saw the African Americans, they saw that they were accustomed to working in the extreme weather and that they knew how to handle the work.
• Slaves were shipped along with various other products to be sold to their new owners once they were captured. On this ship, they were treated like nothing but animals.

source:

http://africanhistory.about.com/od/slavery/tp/TransAtlantic001.htm

Plantation Life

• Plantation life was very difficult and cruel for many if not all slaves.
• The first thing that we can take notice of is that a slaves quarters did not have beds at all. They were all forced to sleep on the cold, hard floor. They did not even have blankets. The only thing that could be considered a "blanket" was a tiny sheet that was used to cover themselves.
• Not only was not having a bed a problem, many slaves did not even have time to sleep. Many of the slaves were so busy with other tasks. They had to prepare the plantation for the next day and feed themselves.
• Work was practically never ending for the slaves. The strong men were usually out in the fields. They were the ones who picked crops and did a lot of heavy labor. The women and children were used mainly to do all the housework. They would cook, clean and even make clothes.
• Although slaves were treated very cruelly, that did not stop them from showing their culture. Many slaves sang their old traditional songs and even danced to their traditional music. They refused to be broken down.

sources:

http://americanabolitionist.liberalarts.iupui.edu/plantation_life.htm

Lesson Plan

March 24, 2011
Instructors/Teachers: Mr. Ralph, Ms. Natalie,
Ms. Vanessa, Mr. Yahya, Ms. Angelina
E6H
Period. 6

Lesson Plan

Objectives (Students will be able to):
1) Understand the Fugitive Slave Act and relate it to Harriet Jacob’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.
2)
Analyze a complex set of ideas or sequence of events and explain how
specific individual, ideas, or events interact and develop over the
course of the text.

Aim: What effects did the Fugitive Slave Act have on slavery?

Do Now:
Write a five sentence journal entry about if you were a runaway slave.
What hardships would you face? Where would you plan to escape to? What
would you do if you were captured?

Procedures:

• Have students do Do Now and share out
• Go over the Fugitive Slave Act and describe what it was.
• Ask class questions to answer.
• Talk about runaway slaves and compare to Harriet Jacob’s life.
• Give out Venn Diagram handout on comparing and contrasting Harriet Jacob’s life to Fugitive Slave Act.
• Give examples of what should be on Venn Diagram
• Have the students share out their answers
• End class with homework assignment

Mini Lesson: Fugitive Slave Act and Harriet Jacobs
I. Fugitive Slave Act:
a. Encouraged all people to hunt down and aid in the capture of runaway slaves.
b. Created a much greater animosity between the blacks and whites of the time period.
c. Gave an excuse for racist violence to carry on in the excuse of maintaining the act’s parameters.


II. Harriet Jacobs:

1. Young African American woman whom was born into slavery.
2. Went from a serene environment with her female master, to a hostile environment with the doctor.
3. Eluded the slave acts and hid with her grandmother to escape the reach of the racism and eventually raised children.

Small Group Learning: Compare the life of Harriet Jacob to the life of a runaway slave before the Fugitive Slave Act

Homework: Pretend you were living in the 1850’s, would you have helped runaway slaves or not? Explain in a well developed paragraph.

Sources Cited:
http://www.fortat4.com/education/printact/comparisons/Making%20Comparisons4.jpg
http://www.sonofthesouth.net/slavery/fugitive-slave-law.htm
http://www.harrietjacobs.org/bio.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2923.html

Who is Harriet Jacob?

*was a child born into slavery

*born under the ownership of a kind mistress

*was 12 when mistress died and was transferred to the ownership of Dr. Norcom

*this man was cruel

*he wanted to destroy the strong will she had

*had enough of her master and tried to escape

*hid in a tiny crawlspace where she could watch her children

*sailed to Philadelphia and then went to New York

*reunited with her daughter

*became involved with abolitionists to stop slavery

Symbol

What do the "dead walls" and Bartleby's "dead wall reveries" represent?
What's the significance of the setting? Why is it a story of "Wall Street"?
Why do Turkey and Nipper have nicknames, but the Boss is never named, and we never learn Bartleby's first name? What's in a name?

The dead walls represent the dead emotions that Bartleby feels and the dead emotions that run in life. The setting gives us a better understanding of what Bartleby went through. It takes place in "Wall Street" because life around their is also emotionless. People don't care for others. All they care about is the money. People are nothing. Turkey and Nippers have nicknames because they are not that major in the story. Boss' name is probably kept secret so we are kept in suspense. Bartleby's last name is never said probably for the same reason. A name is your identification. It is you and it defines you. Without a name you are just another person on the planet with no significance. With a name you have identity.

Paradox

Bartleby is stubborn, self-absorbed, rebellious, and insubordinate, yet many readers, and even the narrator, the Boss himself, have a deep sympathy for him. Why?
Others?

Bartleby may be stubborn, rebellious, etc but he has his reason. In his life as a dead mail worker he was always shrouded in sadness. He saw all the mail that was sent back to him. He even saw a love letter sent back. Those things must have broken his heart. He was exposed to so much of that sadness that it consumed him. His heart became so empty because that was all he saw in those letter. It is that fact that made Boss, the readers, and the other characters sympathize him.

Ambiguity

Exactly why does Bartleby always "prefer not to"? Why can't he make friends, or communicate? What's at the heart of his rebellion? Why doesn't he quit and get a different job?
Why does the Boss have sympathy for Bartleby?
What else in the story seems open to individual readers' interpretation?

Bartleby refuses not to because he has lost all motivation and emotion to do anything. It is the only thing he says in the entire story. When people try to talk to him or get him to do something, it's always the same line. The thing that ticks off the people the most is that he cannot give a reason as to why he keeps saying he prefers not to. His heart is at rebellion because since he used to work at a dead mail place his heart became broken. He was so heartbroken with all the dead mail he received that he gave up on life. He probably does not want a different job because he might feel that loss of emotion again. The Boss holds a lot of sympathy for him because he understands. I believe he understood how Bartleby felt and it allowed him to feel sympathy towards him.

Irony

The Boss doesn't recognize that his own passiveness is as persistent and frustrating as Bartleby's. Or that his genteel, self-interested interest in Bartleby is leading to no good.
Can you think of other ironies?

One other irony i can remember is that Boss is tired of Bartleby's repeated phrase. He ends up leaving his original office in search for a new one. The irony is that he cant get rid of Bartleby. Even after he leaves the office, the people complain to him that Bartlebby has not left. The are holding Boss responsible since he is the last one who employed Bartleby.

Plot Exposition

what background information does the narrator relate that gives us a greater understanding of the events unfolding? Why does the information about Bartleby's previous employment come at the end of the story rather than at the beginning?
Complication-how does the Boss react when Bartleby repeatedly refuses to perform his duties? How does his reaction intensify? What is the Boss's dilemma?
Climax-Where do you feel the events reach their pinnacle? Where is the conflict most intense, the clash most "explosive"?
Resolution-What's the outcome of the explosion? 
Epiphany-who has gained insight in this story, Bartleby or the Boss, or anybody?

The narrator gives us the information that Bartleby used to work in the dead mail part of a post office. This is revealed at the end of the story because the narrator wants to give us some suspense about Bartleby's life. We don't know much about him but eventually we learn and we are forced to guess until the end. When Bartleby keeps refusing Boss' commands, he starts losing his patience. He tries to be nice to Bartleby but it starts to wear thin. He cannot get rid of Bartleby no matter what he does. The most explosive part is when Boss finds out that Bartleby is in jail after not leaving the office which he abandoned. Boss is the one who has gained insight. He understood Bartleby and pitied him.

Meaning (Theme)


Does the story leave you thinking anything? Feeling anything? What do you make out of it all?
Passive aggressive people are difficult to accommodate, difficult to ignore.
Passive resistance is a radical form of rebellion. 
Offices, where Americans spend the greater part of their lives, are not democracies.
Have a life outside work! Don't expect your occupation to bear the burden of your existence.
What other ideas does the story suggest to you?

After reading this story, it made me think about a few things. The first thing that came to my mind was what if i met someone who did the same thing? Another thing that i thought about was how i would handle the situation. I felt a few emotions reading this to. The first emotion i felt was annoyance. I got annoyed at Bartleby's line. Then i felt sympathy when i found out why Bartleby was acting the way he did. He felt hurt, it was understandable. When i found out he died i pitied him because no one really understood him. A bit of sadness followed. All i can say is that Bartleby is not a bad person. He just wanted someone who could understand him. He needed someone who could cheer him up and see the positive things in life. The only problem is that Bartleby just didn't want to cooperate. If anything, he should have talked to the Boss about how he felt. The boss looked like he was a person that could understand him. Maybe they could have even been friends. Either way it was worth a shot.

Point of View

Who tells the story? - the first person narrator, who is flawed but human…He's reliable, we trust him. His actions definitely support what he tells us about himself; especially the part about being a man who likes to take the "easy" way. What else is gained by telling this story from the Boss's perspective? Why not Bartleby's perspective? Why not one of the other clerks?

This story is told through the Boss' eyes. He is telling this in first person. It is more beneficial to hear the story from the Boss' perspective because he explains the story with such elaborate detail. Not only is the story explained in detail but it has a positive air around it. There are parts of the story that indeed are not positive but during other times its told in a more upbeat tone. If it was told from Bartleby's perspective, the whole story would have been a pain to read. It would be filled with so many negative views and the story would be so dull. There would be no life to it at all. If it was told from the other clerks point of view, The story would not be complete. They were not present during the entire story so a lot of important details would be missing. There is also the fact that the clerks don't know a single thing about Bartleby.

Characters

what is the Boss up against in the person of Bartleby? Does Bartleby represent a force beyond
himself as an individual?
Major / Minor (Who are the major players in the story? What do we know about them? Are they likable? Sympathetic? Realistic? What's the function of the story's minor characters?)
Dynamic / Static-Who changes? Who stays the same? Is the story about growth or change? 
Round / Flat-Who is the round character? Who are the flat characters?

The boss is up against someone who is disobedient of his commands in the person of Bartleby. Bartleby represents a force beyond himself as an individual. He represents an obstacle in someone's way. He is an obstacle that the boss is forced to overcome. The major characters in this story are Bartleby and the Boss. We know the boss is well... the boss of a printing company and he is very likeable because he has manners. He is also sympathetic of Bartleby to a point. Bartleby i found to be unlikeable. He does nothing at all and his phrase is so annoying. He doesn't even give a reason why. All he says is "I prefer not to". He is the only character who doesn't change in the story. He stays the same. Boss changes from a very tolerant man to one who now needs to claim more authority. This story is all about these changes.