Race In America, New definitions and Powers

4-25-10

Race In America, New definitions and Powers

Dear Ms. Roxy,

I have written on situations similar to your experience, and I have to give my sympathy. To born a son, who is more white than you, and become your superior, but the laws of the country is a situation I have calculated and recorded, but never realized fully.

It is interesting to know now, his fate. And, in the end, under murder, between the color lines, be sent to his death. I am sorry for your loss, but it is well remembered.

It is interesting to see, that though he tried to escape his color, it always came back to him. It is true, you cannot run away from your ancestry, and a black man cannot give up his soul and what makes him who he is. As W.E.B. Du Bois almost puts it: a black man, and his race, have set a kingdom and have created a power, which both maintains and retains them—or something like that.

It is interesting to see how your son played out his role, his path, and his life as a Mulatto. But, this is a destined fate for us all. I am deeply sorry for your loss. But please note, in the future, such cases will not exist. Slavery will not exist, and the events that have created your life will not be feasible in the new laws of America. Identity will mean, and be proven by different standards—and the science of identification, race, gender, and ethnicity will be stronger. In the future things will be different--you have my promise.

Sincerely
Henry Luis Gates Jr.

Questions:

1) What is the problem with Tom’s Temperament? How does his character contribute to his racial placement in society?
2) What is the history of the “negro”? Why is it told with such strife? And why is it a main focus of the class? Can other peoples be categorized as peoples of strife? (Pg 11 of Du Bois)

Week 5: Du Bois to Chesnutt

Dear Mr. Chesnutt,

Upon reading your composition “What Is a White Man?” I am obliged to express my thoughts. Is it not a surprise the grave obsession the twentieth century ruling class has had with race? The color line, though it may not guide policy and government positions today in 2010, still prove a salient marker to follow the raging path of oppression, like a liquid marker following a prejudiced protein in the bloodstream of America.

This year, I will be turning 142 years old and I have seen a lot on my time on this earth and in this country. Though I moved to Ghana, I do not hate America. It has blossomed into a land that is not about, as you put it, the “exercise of the privileges of the white man.” But I do not appreciate its attempt to cover racialized projects and politics. We are indeed past the time where we are primarily oppressed institutionally and the interpersonal degradation is alive and swimming, but speaking in terms of class. I believe the problem of the twenty-first century is the class line – the challenge of allowing our citizens a fair chance to accumulate wealth and security.

When our government and our President intensifies the social responsibility of our market places, the very foundations of those citadels shake and cause the chaffed elite, ruling class to spew forth the old memes, the vitriolic language of hate. Taxes cause Tea Party Express members, drunken on the wine of their privilege and oblivious to the condition of their country, to shoot racial slurs to minority and progressive leaders who are pruning their vines of wealth. They may not see that this money goes to help provide healthcare to citizens harmed by diseases injected by the reckless industrial contamination the companies they profit from caused these recipients of federal aid. No, they just see a “gangster government.”

These are the challenges of the century – to reconcile these angered members of society to each other lest they continue to despise their darker brothers and sisters for their color because of minority’s effects on hegemony. I appreciate your work on defining the white man because it helps see how limitless the potential of a colored man or woman truly is.

Hopefully,
W.E.B. DuBois

1. How do both Chesnutt and DuBois see being a minority as a "problem"?
2. Is the color-line still the problem of our 21st century?

From Du Bois to Chesnutt

Dear Mr. Chestnutt,
I believe myself to be your colleague on the examination and analysis of the state of race relations in postbellum America. I read your essay "What is a White Man?" and was thoroughly intrigued by the ideas you put forth. I concur with your statement that whether or not laws regarding the status, or more appropriately, the "blackness," of mixed-race people should without question be examined and contemplated, as they are limiting and more so, are objectively unfair.
However, in my analysis and proclamation of the problems facing postbellum America I have come to the conclusion that the Negro problem has been usurped by the color line problem. It is quite interesting that your analyses of laws in several Southern states have the consensus that the color-line is drawn at 1/4 Negro blood. I researched your background as a preface to reading your work, and was astonished to find that you are 7/8 white, but are considered Negro by many other states who champion the "one-drop" rule.
I would like to thank you for your insightful analyses of what it means to be both white and black in America today, and would like to potentially collaborate with you on research projects.
Sincerely,
W.E.B. Du Bois

Questions:
(1) Du Bois asserts that the problem facing the America in the 20th century was the problem of the color-line, and in this describes the travails of the Freedmen's Bureau. He attributes the failure of the Bureau to "bad local agents, the inherent difficulties of the work, and national neglect." Upon examination, do you believe this to be true?
(2) In hindsight, how could the Freedmen's Bureau have achieved its aims despite deeply engrained racism inherent in Southern society? What would have needed to change in order for this to have happened?
(3) After reading Chesnutt's analysis on what it means to be white or black, what do you believe he thought personally on the future of race relations and identification in postbellum America?

Tom Driscoll to Charles Chesnutt

From "Tom Driscoll", actually Chambers, the evening after he discovers from his mother Roxy that he is actually a "Negro", to Charles Chesnutt - focusing on confusing ideas of race and legitimacy, intermarriage, etc. Meant to be a theoretical frozen-in-time idea of what he might have been thinking.

Dear Charles Chesnutt,

You ask in your essay, "What is a white man?" I am asking myself very similar questions this evening. If I appear white, and if I have always thought of myself as white, and if everyone treats me as if I am white, why am I not white? My father was white, but I am not his heir - but I am the heir of another white man. Can't this make me white?

If I am to be forever trapped between the race of slaves and the white race, with whom am I to associate, and marry, and create children with? My fear now is that Roxy - my mother - whoever she is, that she will expose me as her child. Will this make my children not-white as well? I am determined to continue living my life out as a white man. How, then, will I treat my children? They will not be white. I will not be able to treat them as if they are white, because they will not be.

To become not white would be absolutely absurd. Even if I am to believe this woman's story, she cannot change the fact that I speak, dress, read, write, and live like a white man. But if I do all of those things - what is the difference between a white and a Negro? How can I speak and live like I do if I am not white? Charles Chesnutt, you discuss the mulatto, this mix of races that I apparently am. I ask you, how do the laws look on this and disregard the white part of the man? The white man, as the government itself states, is superior to the black man and woman - so how is the part of a child that is a black woman superior to the part of a child that is a white man?

Your assessment of the laws and of this mixing of races has not quite made it clear why this classification exists and thus I ask you for a more detailed and explicative account.

Best,
Tom Driscoll


What do you think made Twain want to name the story "Pudd'nhead Wilson"? What significance could this name, and the title, have (if any, beyond just what Twain may have found the most interesting part of his story to be)?

Charles Chesnutt spends a lot of time figuring out what makes a man "white" versus "colored" but never explicitly states his opinion on the whole mess. Thinking of Chesnutt himself in his time, what do you think his solution would have been, keeping in mind that perhaps the entire dismissal of the idea of color and the color line would have been, while obviously the most desirable solution, an almost unthinkable possibility?

Letter to Charles Chestnutt

Dear Mr. Chestnutt,

Mr. Chestnutt, this is W.E.B. Du Bois, and I am writing to tell you that I believe we have much in common and in our beliefs on race, although there are some distinctions when it comes to the place of race and identity. We both can agree that an inequality amongst the races, proliferated by the states exists in this country. You raise the question of what it means to be white, and ultimately I believe your point is to prove that there isn't all that much different between white and black, and that ideally there would be no color line. What you point out about the states is true, that not only are blacks still discriminated against, but so are mulattos and whites that sympathize with the black cause.

All of that said, I think you need to understand that blacks have a different past and a different history, which means a melding of the races is not so easy. Blacks, I believe, need to be enjoined into American society through education. As I write in The Souls of Black Folk "Work, culture, liberty, -- all these we need, not singly but together, not successively but together, each growing and aiding each, and all striving toward that vaster ideal that swims before the Negor people, the ideal of human brotherhood, gained through the unifying ideal of Race; the ideal of fostering and developing the traits and talents of the Negro, not in opposition to or contempt for other races, but rather in large conformity to the greater ideals of the American Republic..." That about sums it up. I think you see a world as possible today that I still believe needs time.

I would love to continue discussing these complex issues with you.

Sincerely,

W.E.B Du Bois

Questions:

1. Sort of a question, but can we talk a little bit more about the history during reconstruction and soon there after because frankly mine is fuzzy?

2. How did blacks identify themselves after being freed after centuries of slavery? How did that correlate to what went on during reconstruction?

Dear Charles Chesnutt,

Sir, we are but two travelers in your country, on our return to Europe, and our homeland, Italy. We have decided to leave this country after a truly horrible encounter in Missouri and encountered your article "What is a White Man?" as we were waiting for our ship.

You state in your article that in Missouri, "the color-line is drawn at one-fourth of Negro blood, and persons with only one-eighth are white." This was not the case in our experience. One of us was accused of a truly gruesome murder. Of course, we were innocent, but the true murderer was about 1/32nd Black. For the large part of his life, he lived as a rich White man, and the threat of reveling the smallest fraction of himself, in part, led him to murder. Once found out, he was sold into slavery. He was not considered White, once the truth was revealed, despite having far less than 1/4th Blood and having every reputation (excepting murder) and practice of a White man.

While this issue of slavery is indeed tangled, we must agree with you that these "black laws" are flawed and should be put to bed. They leave much for doubt, confusion, and trickery. Never would we have encountered such problems in Italy.

Sincerly,
Counts Luigi and Angelo Capello


Questions
1)What was the actual implementation of "black laws"? I assume from Pudd'nhead Wilson (not the best source in this matter) that the matter was simply how you were raised. How did these legal discrepancies with reality(how you were treated, whether or not you were a slave) change how people identified?

2)Du Bois begins The Souls of Black Folks discussing the question "How does it feel to be a problem?" What is the result of seeing Blackness as a "problem"?

Letter from Roxy to "Tom"

My dearest son Chambers (now known as Tom)-

When you were a baby, I wanted the best for you. I looked into your little eyes and saw the vision of a life much brighter than that which could exist down the river. So I outwitted the white men and women and switched you with Tom so that you could have a life of privilege and joy. I sought vengeance on the supposed immovability of race and succeeded by fooling the world with these racially ambiguous baby boys.

Yet now that I look into your grown-up eyes, I see a lost life. I see a boy who grew into a man tainted in his heart not by Negro blood, but by the entitlement that comes with the status of a white, male aristocrat. I wanted so badly to give you a life of privilege but now I ask myself, what is privilege? You took your whiteness and your wealth and you ruined the lives of those around you because you thought that with access to unbounded privilege came a relinquishing of your responsibility to the world. The real Tom was sweet, gentle, meek, kind. He had no material, physical privilege and yet he understood empathy, responsibility, and respect. This had nothing to do with the color of his blood - this was because of ridiculous, artificial notions of race that can make a black white man like you think he owes no respect to the people in his life.

I wholeheartedly regret what I did.

Sincerely,

Your Mammy

Questions:

1) The DuBois reading left me wondering, what about the souls of black female folk? His writing seemed specifically targeted at men - his frequent use of the word 'men' to ostensibly encompass both females and males seemed to lend the piece a tone of androcentricity that made me want to know where the women fit in to this discussion of black self-realization and empowerment.

2) How was the role of a mother complicated during the era of slavery in the U.S. when black women were serving as both mommies and mammies? How did a slave mother define her relationship with her own child when she was simultaneously caring for someone else's child as well? Also, what about when the father of her child was a white master? How, then, was her child different from the master's other children for whom she was caring?

Dear Mr. Chesnutt,

I recently read your article titled What is a White Man and was intrigued by the subjects and arguments you bring forth. I too am a man who is constantly questioning the status of the black race in America. I believe that the issues we raise are going to be the biggest struggles for America in the 20th century.

Although we are now freemen in the eyes of the law, black people have yet to be freed from the mental shackles placed on us by society. We have been dehumanized as a people for so long and now they say we shall be reborn. But can we truly be Americans? Even though they say we are free, you and I know that we are not. Our brothers and sisters in the south are living in an economic slavery that they cannot escape. In the eyes of the law and the gaze of the public, we are still the “other”. We are the problem. We are the Negro problem.

You question, “what is a white man” and “what is a black man” and sadly we have no say in what we think we are. Our bodies are still not our own. They call this freedom? A man who is merely 1/16th black is thrown out of the first class stagecoach because he does not belong. They call this freedom? A mulatto child will always be considered illegitimate because a black and white union is still impermissible under the law. How can they call this freedom? We are still the second-class citizens bound by our enslaved past. Are chains may have taken new form, but we are still shackled by white society.

I hope that you continue writing on these subjects of race in America. We have a long road ahead of us, but I believe that the veil can be lifted from our faces and that America will someday be ours too.

Your Friend,
W.E.B. DuBois

Questions:
1. Chesnutt talks a lot about mulatto children being inherently illegitimate because of the inability of black and white union under the law. Was this issue a legal matter or simply a matter of social stigma?
2. Why didn’t the government do more to incorporate former slaves after emancipation? Is it true that some slaves stayed with their masters even after being emancipated?

Dear Mr. DuBois,

I wonder if the thought of someone like me ever crossed your mind when you wrote of the inescapable "two-ness" a black man feels. Has it ever crossed your mind that someone might have felt it by accident, by a mistake?

You see, Mr. DuBois, I'm a white man who grew up thinking I was a black man my entire life. It's a long and complicated story that I don't have the time or, to be honest, the will to tell. I will tell you, though, that I don't look black at all, and if I was telling you all this face to face, you would surely question whether or not I was in my right mind. But I swear to you it's true. I grew up believing I had a few drops of negro blood running through my veins, and my entire life was shaped around this falsehood which I took to be as true as the word of God. I talked like a black man, acted like a black man, thought like a black man. I was black, by every definition but one. And that one just happened to be the most important.

I also believed myself to be a slave. The woman who pretended to be my mother was a slave, and by the laws of my time, that made me a slave too. So not only was I living the life of a black man, I was living the life of an enslaved black man. And I know you know, Mr. DuBois, what exactly that means. While I'll admit my life in the small town of Dawson's Landing, Missouri was not as bad as those poor souls further down the river, my belief that I was a slave affected every bit of my existence. All parts of my life were the way they were because I had no reason to believe that I was a free man.

When I found out my real identity, my entire world came crashing down. You might be surprised to hear that upon being informed of my whiteness and, therefore, my freedom, I sunk into a long and never-ending state of unhappiness. And this is where your ideas come in, sir. You wrote that the black man is "always looking at [himself] through the eyes of others," and that was no less true for me. Despite my pale skin, I saw myself as everyone else saw me -- a slave. What's more, you say that the black man, in one part of his double identity, "would not bleach his Negro soul in a flood of white Americanism"; this is the source of all my sorrows.

I cannot bleach my negro soul, despite what I know to be true of myself. So I am left in limbo, with no identity that I can call my own, because neither the black world nor the white world is my own. I am always gray.

Sincerely,
Tom Driscoll

Questions:
1. At what point did the "one-drop" rule implied by Roxy and Chambers' racial status as black fade out into the "one-quarter or more" rule described by Chesnutt? Was it purely a result of postbellum conditions, or were there other contributing factors?
2. In response to the Chesnutt piece: What consequences and complications, if any, arose from a child being legally (1/8) white while one of his or her parents was legally (1/4) black? How did the child's identity as a bastard child (due to the unlawfulness of his parents' union) affect his or her identity as a legally white child? And how did the child relate to his parents with regard to racial identity?

My Esteemed Peer Chestnutt

I find your critical analysis of the legal construction of race quite insightful. I, however, have several contentions with your argument on the difference between Northern and Southern legal constructions of race in America.

You assert that legally South Carolina had looser regulations on miscegenation, and discuss state legislation that shapes and influences race. The federal government, however, played a significant role in this legal construction of race. During Reconstruction ex-slaves and other blacks became wards of the federal government. Initially the military addressed the status and issues of emancipated blacks, then the Freedmen's Bureau was established to do so. Eventually, individual states were given the autonomy to redress the issues of Negros in America. While individual states ultimately influenced the status of blacks in this era, the federal government's inability to rectify the social and economic issues of blacks eventually led to the state's addressing them.

W.E.B. Dubois

Questions:

Dubois discusses the idea of double-consciousness and the veil, asserting that black consciousness is derived from white people's perception of African Americans? Does this oversimplify the process of race? As well as take agency from AA's in constructing their identities?

Despite the disconnect between theory and praxis, can the Freedman's Bureau credited for redressing issues of slavery?

How were post emancipation African-american identities reshaped and reimagined during Reconstruction? Post emancipation white identities?

Dear Mr. Charles W. Chesnutt,

Allow me to introduce myself. My name is William Edward Burghardt Du Bois, I am a graduate of the Ph.D program at Harvard College. I recently read your article, Mr. Chesnutt, titled, "What is a White Man?" I was wholeheartedly intrigued by your discussions on who qualifies as white, and how the idea of blackness is constructed in varying states. You know, a great concern of mine has always been that I am consistently viewed as a problem because of my race—because I am a Negro. Yet, being a Negro, I view myself as American as well. Unfortunately, in your analysis of these states’ laws regarding authenticity and interracial marriages, I am not an American, considering my rights are not the same as the white American, and it certainly varies according to state.

Being an intellectual, I did some research on your own identity—and I was surprised to read that you can be considered seven-eighths white, and one-eighth black. So, in many states, including South Carolina, you would be considered a white man. What strikes me however is that you look relatively white, yet you identify as a Negro like myself. Yet, I find it difficult to fathom that you would face the same challenges that Negroes have faced. And indubitably, you would find it a challenge to abstaining from bleaching your Negro soul when much of your appearance is already white. Thus, while you have Negro blood in you, your message for the world may be less poignant when your experiences in life have been made less burdensome by the privilege of your appearance and may face less of the challenges I faced in being considered a problem and not American.

Nevertheless, I am pleased to have read your comprehensive coverage of different states' qualifications for whiteness. It was interesting to read that juxtaposed with my own analysis of the Freedmen's Bureau. If you did not know already, the Freedmen's Bureau ultimately failed to continue because of a nation’s hesitance to address the needs of free Negroes and a people’s inability to reconcile that slavery had been abolished in the books, though not necessarily in the mind. As you know already, the Freedmen’s Bureau was met with hostility primarily by white Southerners because of the aid it provided to former slaves and because of the fact that former slaveholders had to reluctantly (or not at all!) confront their ex-slaves as free men. Race was clearly an issue with the Bureau because those who qualify as white looked down upon and still scorned those who were not even after Emancipation had been officially established.

Thus, for me, I am most concerned about the power of these laws in the lived experiences of the Negro. You say that state laws determined whiteness based on blood, but the lived experiences of folks do not necessarily align with what the law demands. Just as with the lived experiences of black folks do not align with what Emancipation had anticipated and the Freedmen's Bureau had intended. With that, I bid you farewell, Mr. Chesnutt. I hope to hear your thoughts on my musings very soon.

Signed,
W.E.B. DuBois

Questions
1) How do the various laws for whiteness and blackness as described in Chesnutt's "What is a White Man?" complicate the issue of authenticity?
2) If the problem of the twentieth century is the color line, how do you think the Freedmen's Bureau addressed that problem? Though the "Freedmen's Bureau died," how do you think it altered the relations between white and black? How did it clarify the role of the law regarding treatment of African Americans? What does this say about blacks being American, an issue W.E.B. DuBois also raises in Chapter One?

Letter From Charles Chestnut to Mark Twain

Dear Mr. Twain,

I just finished reading a copy of your story Pudd’nhead Wilson and I was impressed with your portrayal of the arbitrariness of racial classification in America. As a Negro and someone who has written about race in today’s society, I am very familiar with how uncritical notions of race have hindered the progress of American Negros. Interestingly, your book made it very clear to me that members of the white race are also aware of the contradictory aspects of assigning racial categories based on physical appearance.

Whether intentional or unintentional, inherent in your story is an important critique of racial classification. As you show in your description of the switching of Tom and Chambers at infancy, race is not simply a biological fact but is actually shaped by one’s environment. For example, although Chambers was of mixed African and white American ancestry, he and Tom looked a great deal a like. As a result, when Chambers’s mother Roxy successfully swapped him with the master’s son Tom in an effort to prevent her children from being sold, Chambers developed all of the characteristics of a white wealthy slave owning heir.

Mr. Twain, I am writing to you because I am interested in learning more about how you gained inspiration for the characters and plot of your story. I must say that I am intrigued that a member of the white race wrote this story. I am interested in learning more about your specific thoughts on race in today’s society. The fact that members of the white race have also noticed the contradictions inherent in racial categorization makes me hopeful that Negros and whites can join forces to challenge false assumptions about members of the Negro race.

Once again, I greatly appreciate your story and I look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

Charles Chestnut

Questions:

1) Charles Chestnut’s and Mark Twain’s pieces are from the 1890s. In many ways, both authors are calling racial classification into question by exploring the arbitrariness of racial identity during the 19^th century. Furthermore, both authors demonstrate that questions about race as a social construction (even if they did not use these specific terms) existed during the late 19^th century. How have these works encouraged you to reconsider how popular and academic opinions about race have been historicized?

2) In addition, in Pudd’nhead Wilson, Roxy is a fairly dynamic character. How does she compare to the Sally Hemings that Annette Gordon describes in The Hemings of Monticello. Is the fact that a black woman was a prominent character in a book written by a white man during the late 19^th century significant?

Chambers,

I think it's finally time that I'd have my say in dis here situation. It seems like evr'body else has been makin' decisions for me 'bout my life, not takin the time to ask me 'bout what I think or what I want. So since you ain't gots the time to ask me, i'm just gonna tell you how I'd really feel and what I'se really be thinkin of you.



Chambers, you'se the meanest, spoilest, most namsy-pamsy thing i'se ever seen walkin' this earth. Now that i'se white, I gots the right to make yo life as miserable as yo behind made mine. I can make you fight my battles, clean my house, call me "marse" just like you made me. Fo' years you'se been treatin' me like I is less than de dirt 'neath yo feet. But now you is gonna find out what it feels like to be animal, not a breathin', thinkin' man.

But i ain't cuz i ain't got it in me to do you so rotten as you'se done me. I cain't stay mad at you no mo' for life as a slave ain't easy. I should know nows dat I'se a white man, but I still cain't figures what dat means. I don't 'long nowheres anymo'. I ain't black, but i don't feels white either. What am I then? My whole life i'se been thinkin' that i'se gots negro blood runnin through my veins, thinkin that's the on'y reason why my life has been so hard. But now, i comes to learn that you'se the slave i shoulda been the marster. I don't hardly knows what to think no mo'. Roxy not my mammy, you'se not white, my blood ain't black, me is Marse Tom. I just feels plain confused now. Somedays, i wisht that i was a slave agin 'cuz at 'least then i knew where i'se 'spose to be. I don't feel right no places i go, is like people can still see the slave in me. But i cain't be a slave, i gots to be a freed man now. Gots to find my place out there in the world.

Chambers, de good Lord hisself couldn't've come up with a better way to give ya what you'se deserve. You bein sold down river, so you gots a tough life 'head of ya. I ain't gonna hold no ill will towards ya anymo'. I wish ya luck, but i hopes you learn a lesson, cuz you need to.

Tom

Questions:

1) At the end of the novel, it seems as if everybody has returned to their rightful place, yet no one is happy, What is Twain trying to say about mistaken identity and the importance of race by having his ending be so depressing?

2) Throughout the story, Roxy and her son are described as looking completely white, suggesting they could easily pass as white (since they are mostly white) yet they were slaves because of their small amount of negro blood. their most distinguish feature is their speech and their appearance. What then matters most in race and passing, appearance, speech or blood?

Letter from Roxy to Friends of Grand Mogul

To my Beloved Friends of Grand Mogul:

I am heartbroken! Absolutely devastated. The sun does not seem to shine on this poor old woman’s life anymore. Things have not gotten better since I last told you of the horrible fate of my son Chambers, though I appreciate all of your sentiments.

I find solace in God and my religion, and the more I go to church, the more I am convinced that Chambers was fated to be sold down the river. What I did in switching out the two boys’ lives was to prevent my own babe from that very fate. And yet – that is exactly what happened! God seems to say that I was foolish to believe I could change what has been decided. Oh, the horror! Is it terrible for a mother to do all she can to provide the best for her son?

I am writing to you because a curious – and not at all surprising – written piece has recently come into my hands. Although I cannot read or write (I am having a trusted friend from the church write this letter to you at this moment), my friends here have told me about Charles Chestnutt’s “What is a White Man?” recent writing. In it, Mr. Chestnutt tries to understand the white man’s definition of a white man because it is “important for them to know what race they belong to.” Well, it sure is! That is why my poor boy is down south working and suffering after twenty-three years of freedom, though he is only one-thirtysecondth black! Yet that is the most interesting and most frustrating thing about Mr. Chestnutt’s writing. He states that in most Southern states, such as Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Georgia, a man is considered white if he has less than one-eight black blood in him, and in some states, only less than one-fourth! Yet, how is it that my son, only one tiny part black, is treated as if he’s much more? If Virginia had laws such as these, I probably wouldn’t have had to make the switch from the beginning and then my boy would be as free as Tom Driscoll.

Yet in the eyes of Percy Driscoll and other “pure” white men, my Chambers is not seen as worthy as Tom, and my act has ruined both their lives. My boy is now paying off his debt to his creditors as a slave, after so many years under the liberating, doting, Driscolls. He does not know hardship and physical labor as a slave who has grown up in such an environment. I am frightened for him. Tom, who has rightfully regained his freedom, is an outcast from both communities. The blacks and slaves shun him because of his birth and pure blood (not to mention wealth), and the whites avoid him, since for all his looks and blood, his mannerisms and language signify those of slave background. Thus, I believe that it is the environment that shaped the attitudes and behaviors of these two boys, not their blood. If my Chambers did not live such an unregulated, unrestrained life characteristic of a free, white man, I am certain he would not have acted the way he did.

It is difficult to live these days. I am saving up money given to me by Tom Driscoll to eventually free my son so he could start over. Hopefully, he can learn to live a life distinctive of a free white man, but with the knowledge and understanding of the importance of his black ancestry, all one-thirtysecondth of it.

Yours,
Roxy

Question 1) The real Chambers’ attitude and behavior changed dramatically once he found out that he had black blood in him and was still technically a slave. How much does one’s ancestry affect one’s identity, which in turns affects one’s attitude and behavior? Is one’s ancestry more influential in the period of slavery and rigid racial distinctions, especially when post-war laws regarding treatment of ex-slaves were not enforced by Southern states? Has the importance of ancestry diminished since then? What are the main factors that influence identity today and would it differ from person to person?
Question 2) The individuals in Pudd’nhead Wilson are much affected by social norms and mores of their town. All of the characters face strict scrutiny by their peers and often their peers determine their lives, such as with David Wilson. Does such a society exist in the Northern states or does it only flourish in smaller towns of the South? How might David Wilson be regarded had he made such comments in the North? How is one’s identity also shaped by those around him, and not just by race? Is race and social customs related in its effect on the lives of those these factors are imposed?

Letter from Wilson to Chesnutt

Dear Mr. Charles Chesnutt,

On the basis of your work, “What is a White Man?” I am writing to request your participation in the Freethinkers' Society. After a recent legal case I was involved in, I have realized the value of your questions on what it means to be white and black. I finally see that the arbitrarily divide black and white society we live in does not fit some of the most complex questions of what it means to belong to one race.

You must have heard news of this case with Tom, Chambers, and the murder of the judge. With my fingerprinting data I was able to determine that "Tom" was the murderer—and after a dream I realized that Tom and Chambers had been switched at birth. “Tom” was born to the one-sixteenth black slave woman, Roxana, and “Chambers” was the son of old Driscoll! To think that the slave boy had been living like a white master all along! To think that his 1/32 black blood had made him a Negro—a man thought acceptable to enslave. Where do we draw the line? And why do we need to draw a line? Are there no alternatives for our society other than this harsh separation?

“Tom” was sent down the river as his punishment, rather than imprisoned or executed once they found out he was “black”. It makes me wonder whether that is any better than facing capital punishment. I wonder, was it how he was raised that made him so bad, or his blood? And why is it that the Italian twins were so fascinating, but Tom and Chambers (nearly identical) were seen as completely separate identities. All these questions that I have—you are the only one I can ask. There is no one here who will listen to me. I am, after all, seen as nothing more than Pudd’nhead Wilson—my thoughts and wanderings cast aside as simple eccentricities.

I truly hope you will join me in my quest for these answers.

Yours truly,

DW

Questions:

1. How is Mark Twain toying with this idea of nature vs. nurture in this piece? Why does he make “Tom” the bad guy? What if “Tom” had been virtuous—how would that have changed the story?
2. What do you make of both “Tom” and “Roxy being sent down the river by the end of the book, and the twins being free of any explicit guilt/crime? What might Twain be trying to show/say?

Joint Plea of the Hemingses Ladies

Dearest Daddy,

This composition is on the behalf of all the Hemingses of female persuasion. We find a lot of contradictions around our social position that we feel compelled to make plain before you exit this Earth. Being able to be intimate with your whims and personality, we know that you are ambivalent about this system of enslavement and therefore feel that you would donate at least one of your open ears to this plea.

Being a light bright woman does not make our lives right. Bejewel me all you would like with things that form me for the “attentions” of men, but we sorrowfully admit that a man cannot make everything in our world right. We still see our fellow sisters in skin working the fields and yet she can never be treated with this level of dignity you bestow upon us. You dismay at the Native race’s treatment of their women, yet you narrow your scope of fair treatment to only women of your seed. How does my blood, my ancestry, justify the illogical subjection to labor rather than gender alone?

Beyond our gender, we despise the racial term “mulatto.” As one who delights in word choice, I know you have command over the meaning of this word arising from an animal. The mule is a sterile hybrid species that can neither be a horse nor a donkey, but is forever plagued with the loneliness of its own unbefitting path in life. Although I do not feel I am being called an animal, there is something pseudo-biological being fallaciously inferred with that term, now having established the origin.

Therefore, we decree: We blacks and mixed-blacks (or mixed-whites as some prefer to be called) are not a separate species! Can I have my humanity at least, if not my equitable humanity?

As you lie on your bed nearing the end of your full life, Father, we would hope that you could make a bold and progressive move: declare that we women, not just your daughters, deserve respect and fair treatment, no matter what our lineage and ancestry.

Sincerely,
The Hemings Ladies

Questions:
1. How did the law of partus sequitir ventrem (slavehood based on maternal lineage) perhaps complicate Jefferson’s treatment of his daughters?
2. How did society view the mixed-race Americans of the 17th and 18th century? What does white world’s treatment of this group tell us about the role of physical appearance?

To France, from Poncet de la Grave

To All Citizens of France,
Though we have become the paragon of an Enlightened city due to our liberal policies, our forward-thinking comes with unfortunate negative ramifications. Our "Freedom Principle" has allowed for the unchecked growth of a black population - a growth that is leaving a stain on the city. Blacks have flooded the city of Paris, and is making life here quite unpleasant. However, it is not their presence that is most troubling, it is what their presence represents and similarly, what their presence here, in a wonderfully open society, will mean for the future of their masters in their respective countries.
What I mean by this is simple: these men, unequal by nature and birth, will experience a freedom so vastly foreign to them that when they return to their stations in their various colonies, will revolt and prove to be nuisances and even menaces to their respective societies.
So therefore, my fellow citizens, we should not bear this unfortunate burden. We must pass laws restricting the mobility and presence of blacks in France.
Sincerely,
Poncet de la Grave

1) Do you believe that Poncet de la Grave's measures for legislation were passed solely because of racist intentions?

From Sally to Mary

Dear Mary,

I have heard that you are to move to Thomas Bell's house with your children that he fathered and that you have requested this move. If it is to make you happy, then I am glad of it. But I am also curious as to what encouraged you to make this decision. Have you decided that you would prefer to make a home with this white man and your children, whom he now owns, rather than find a man as enslaved as you are? With a slave, you are more of an equal, a partner. In this relationship, should he choose, your master could sell you or any of your children at any moment. Should you anger him, he could not only hit you – and a slave husband could do that too, it's true – but he could take your children away.

Is it perhaps that you trust that this situation will, in fact, provide you were more of a possibility to stay with your children and family? If he has promised never to sell any of you, I do hope it's true. I know that some say that you should keep your body for a black man, but if this white man is a good master to you and your children, then I can see it working out for all of you. Particularly if you are actually willing in this situation – you and your daughters are now safe from situations in which you might not be so willing. Too many are in situations in which they are not so willing, and I sincerely hope that this situation is, for you, not like that. The line isn't ever clear with a master, I suppose.

Though I would never compare your lot to that of a white woman and say you are the same, in some ways, I think, your master owning you is not entirely different from the way he might own a white wife and white children. He'll make you, and the children, work in the house and the field, but some white wives do that too. This ownership is more complete, but seeing as how you've asked to be sold to him, the differences between this and a white woman bringing with her a dowry to a white husband are less sharp. There is money involved when white women move in with white men, just as there was with you; and if he should treat you well or poorly, he could treat a white woman well or poorly just the same.

It is impossible to separate the facts that you are a slave and a woman. I hope that in this situation, for once, the fact that you are a woman is working to your benefit.

-----


To which Jefferson should we give more credibility – the one whom we read about so extensively in The Hemingses of Monticello, or the one whose words we read in the primary source? Is it possible for these two Jeffersons to be the same person, and what does that say about the complexity of slave-master relationships in general and his relationship with Sally and the Hemingses in particular?

Dearest mother,

It is your son, James, writing to you from Paris. As you know, I have been with Master Jefferson since leaving Virginia, and just last week, Sally has joined us here in France. I have been contemplating my own station in life as of late, and how my time away from Virginia has shaped that; I now wish to share some of my thoughts with you.

I have been feeling conflicted lately, both blessed to have been able to see a different side of the world, something most of our enslaved brethren will probably never get to experience, yet pained by the knowledge that I, despite possessing far more mobility here in Paris than I ever did in Virginia, am still a man in bondage. Apparently, there are “no slaves in France,” as the Parisians like to say, but if that is true, what do they make of your son and daughter?

While here in Paris, I have also had the opportunity to meet with other blacks from places I never even knew existed. They are called gens de couleur here in Paris, and most of them work as servants for the Parisians—freed servants! A lot of them had come from islands in what are called the Caribbean Sea and the Indian Ocean, though a few had come from Africa as well. Their experiences are only further proof that a different kind of life is out there!

I am, however, a bit concerned about how Sally is doing here in Paris. I cannot imagine why Master Jefferson would have had her cross the ocean without an older man to accompany her. Had he no knowledge whatsoever of the dangers of the seas, especially for someone as vulnerable as Sally? And now, instead of allowing her to live at the convent with his daughters, he has her staying here at the Hotel de Langeac, once again amidst mostly grown men.

Nonetheless, I cannot tell you how happy I am to have Sally here with me. Although I have my own duties to attend to, I will no doubt make sure to watch over her to the best of my ability.

Your son,
James

Questions:
1. The experiences of James and Sally in Paris, though rare for their time, no doubt point to a need for adopting more transnational perspectives with regard to the scholarship on American slavery. How does James’s life echo the lives of the black sailors during the early nineteenth century? How do the interactions of black Americans with the black communities that formed in Paris (and possibly other cities in Europe) differ from the kinds of interactions that occurred in the Caribbean? With this in mind, in what ways has the concept of “diaspora” been mobilized by blacks for resistance/anti-slavery/anti-colonial/anti-racist efforts?
2. However, James’s mobility must be read in conversation with Sally’s experience in Paris. If it was rare for slaves to have achieved the kind of physical mobility that James did during their time, it was undoubtedly even rarer for a female slave like Sally to have done so. How does Sally’s experience as a woman challenge the “liberatory” aspects of diaspora (consider: the male-dominated space of the boat). Therefore, in what ways can diasporic configurations be oppressive, especially with regard to gender/sexuality and class?

A letter from Elizabeth Hemings

My Dearest daughters,

I realize now that you are reaching the age when men will begin calling on you. You have blossomed into such beauties, reminding me of the youthful innocence I once possessed. However, in choosing a suitor or perhaps a future husband, you must understand the privileges of having white blood and, more importantly, the restrictions of being a slave.

We fall into a different class, neither pure slave nor pure white. My father was my mother’s master, giving me the lighter skin and features that have both aided and burdened me in my lifetime. It causes me immense sadness that I cannot be certain who your father really is. As a slave I have not been gifted the ownership of my own body. But I do believe that our previous master, Mister Wayles, fathered you. Your skin is fair, and both slaves and freemen take notice of your beauty. While the white men may keep their lust for you hidden from the public eye, they may be eager to reveal it to you, even without your consent.

You need to know though that we are constrained by our enslaved status and no matter how much white blood we have, we are still African by today’s standards. You have the choice to reject your blackness or embrace it, I do not wish to control your feelings. But remember that while our light skin has kept us from the field, it has not made us free. Despite your virtuous beauty and intelligence, being a slave will be your most salient identity in society’s view.

Your mother,

Elizabeth Hemings

Questions:

1. Was it a common practice for lighter skinned slaves (usually mulattos) to have more privilege than darker skinned slaves, or was the privilege granted because of a certain level of literacy and skill?

2. How did race become a more salient barrier than social class in creating divisions between people? Why didn't indentured servants identify more with enslaved people?

Dear Mr Callender,

I have been silent on this too long. Throughout my life I was denied a voice and denied full rights as a human being. True, my situation was better than many slaves, but it was not fair. You, Mr Callender exposed me to pain of a sort that I'm sure no other slave experienced.

You impugned my name in your papers, revealing me as Thomas's lover and the mother of his children. You were right. But you were must unduly cruel, thrusting my incredibly private life, and the lives of my children in the spotlight. I did not bargain for this when I made my treaty with Thomas. I was forced to suffer through your insults, even your false information, your mention to my "gallants of all colors". Thomas was not married, like all of your previous targets. You were bitter, bad-natured, and bigoted. You took your anger out on me. I, who had done nothing wrong and nothing to you. Of course your revenge on Thomas took its full force out on me, who had never desired the spotlight.

In a final piece of irony, Mr Callender, I believe it is you who has made me as famous as I am in these modern days. Your pieces were not fully believed or thought important in our times. Now, however, your stories point the way to the scant other information about my life. I am important. I am to be studied. You are the bug between the pages of history books, only remembered for your cruelty toward me.

Sincerely,
Sally Hemings

Questions:
1. The story of Celia, as told in The Hemings of Monticello, has one major difference from the version we read in "The Metalanguage of Race" week 1. How does the presence of Celia's boyfriend, George, complicate the story? Why do you think Higginbotham chose to leave him out?

2. In what ways are the lives of the Hemings extraordinary for their times, and in which ways were they typical? How are the two helpful for learning about their times and situation?

Letter from Sally Hemings to Elizabeth Hemings

Dearest Mother,

How is everything at the Monticello? I hope that everything is well.

I am writing to tell you that I am coming home. These past two years in France has been wonderful and I have learned a lot from living and working in French culture. Mr. Jefferson is going home to Monticello and I have decided to go back with him, along with Jimmy*.

I don’t know if Jimmy has told you about the differences between France and Virginia, but life for slaves is different here. It is the reasons behind my choosing to go back to Virginia despite these differences part of why I am writing to you as well. In France, there are no slaves, only servants and there is an opportunity for slaves brought to France to claim their freedom in the Courts if their masters will not free them. Although Mr. Jefferson hides us from the French government and still keeps us as slaves in French society, Jimmy and I have a lot more freedom to explore and work here, and the atmosphere here is also different. I am learning French, as is Jimmy, who may have told you that he is studying to be a chef. Life is much pleasanter here.

You must be wondering, given the high possibility of freedom that I could have here if I refuse to go back to Monticello with Mr. Jefferson, why I am not choosing to do so. It is true that I probably could persuade Jimmy to stay with me and have us build ourselves a new life here, on free soil. Jimmy and I earn enough money, especially with the wages Mr. Jefferson pays us, to start a new life in France. I have thought long and hard about my decision, talking to Jimmy and many of the servants and people that live here, to ultimately decide to come home.

One of the reasons is that we are treated very well by Mr. Jefferson, being paid higher wages than most of the servants I know, provided with food, house, and clothes. Jimmy’s studying to become a chef is also supported by Mr. Jefferson. I also believe it is Jimmy’s wish to someday serve as Mr. Jefferson’s personal chef, as he does here. I’m sure that Jimmy would like to go back to Virginia with him and it will be difficult for me to ask him to stay here with me. In addition, I miss you and everyone at the Monticello and wish to be with you. I have always thought of our situation as more or less of a family while living at the Monticello, or here in France. Even though we are slaves, we are given more opportunities than many of the others we know.

I may also be with child. In exchange for coming back with Mr. Jefferson, who most wishes me to accompany him to Monticello, I have secured that my future children will one day be free, when they reach the age of 21. I hope to be able to raise my children in the home I grew up in, surrounded by my family.

I know that you may not fully understand my reasons for coming home, to continue to be a slave in a place that is much stricter than here in France. It has been difficult to make such a decision without your advice and guidance, but I believe that this is the best choice for me, to guarantee that my children will have support growing up, and that I can see them grow up and live as free individuals.

I will see you soon.

Lovingly,
Sally

*James as he is referred to by his family.

Questions: It is interesting to see the similarities in which white women and black women slaves are regarded by the white men when in a sexual relationship. As a wife to Jefferson, Martha’s “body was not her own” and as a slave mistress to Jefferson, neither was Sally’s (147). How does the view of women’s bodies as property of their white male counterparts influence the treatment of both black and white women during this period? How did Jefferson reconcile the increasing health risk to Martha as their sexual relations led to her continuing struggles with childbearing and ultimately, her death, especially when he knew her strength was weakening as she continued to give birth? Was Jefferson reminded of these experiences when he took Sally to be his mistress and produced seven more children, or did he decide this case was different, because Sally’s race allowed her to bear children with little risk to her health? If so, does that mean that Sally’s African side decreased her chances of facing the difficulties her half sister Martha faced with childbearing?

Dear Ms. Elizabeth Hemmings

Im my attempts to reconstruct and understand your history I have encountered several obstacles. As the matriarch of perhaps one of the most well-known black families in the 18th century, I am curious to how you responded and acted in certain situations under specific circumstances. Was your relationship with Mr. Wayles merely sexual-and him forcing himself upon you, or did you two develop a more emotional relationship of some sort.

You may not be aware, but your daughter, Sally Hemings, is one of the most famous black women in the contemporary imagination of slavery. I hope that my new book not only depicts an accurate account of the lives of you and your family, but also give credit to the agency you exercised given your circumstances. Your life and the lives of your children offer insight into a the dynamics of slavery amongst mixed race slaves, as well as the internal conflicts Thomas Jefferson had as evident in his wavering stance on slavery.

Best,

Annette Gordon-Reed

Questions:

1) How did Jefferson reconcile of wavering and contradictory beliefs about slavery and freedom?

2) Jefferson acknowledges that white people hold an irrational prejudice toward African-Americans. What implications does this have on the relationship between theory and praxis?

Letter From Sally Hemings to the Late Martha Jefferson

Dear Mrs. Jefferson,

How would you react, my half-sister, in knowing that I have, as an enslaved person, mothered children with your husband? Could you believe that? With the way you white women condemn those aristocrats that sleep with their slaves, would you believe your Thomas (and your father) would do such a thing? Maybe he just has similar taste, seeing that we share a parent -- or does that thought disgust you?

Can you tell me why it is okay for him to be with you and not me. What makes us different? My skin's heritage you might say; but even your scholarly husband questions racial differences on his Notes On The State Of Virginia. "Whether the black of the negro resides in the reticular membrane between the skin and scarf-skin, or in the scarf-skin itself; whether it proceeds from the colour of the blood, the colour of the bile, or from that of some other secretion, the difference is fixed in nature, and is as real as if its seat and cause were better known to us. And is this difference of no importance? Is it not the foundation of a greater or less share of beauty in the two races?" Your dear husband questions our differences, do you?

Do you not see me as more than a slave and also as a woman? Am I not a woman? Do I not have feelings and emotions? Is part of your husband's power his ability to use me sexually? I'll bet you cannot imagine that taking place, but it has.

Sincerely,

Sally Hemings

Questions:

1. At the time was the fact that male slave owners fathered slave children commonly known and ignored or really a well kept secret?

2. How did Jefferson feel about racial identity? More specifically how do we parse Sally Hemings and Notes on the State of Virginia?

3. I know we have discussed this some already but the intersectionality of being a woman and black is prevalent again in the Hemings story and worth discussing again. (Not phrased in the form of a question).

Dear William,

Let me start by saying how deeply I value our friendship and your loyalty to me. I think you will agree that I have reciprocated this loyalty most obligingly, and that I have never betrayed your trust. When I refer to you as my protege, I mean it in earnest; I care about you as much as I would about my own son, if I had been blessed with one. And I trust that you feel an equal fondness for me.

I say all these things, William, because I have a matter of the strictest confidence about which I must inform you. I've tried for weeks, perhaps months to ignore it, but I cannot be silent any longer. I think I am falling in love with the slave girl. Since the moment she arrived at the Hotel de Langeac, I have not been able to remove her from my thoughts. Her demeanor is so pleasant, and her voice is equally sweet. I must also confess to you that she bares a striking resemblance to my beloved Martha, so much so that my heart sometimes beats for the slave girl in the same manner it used to for my wife.

As you can imagine, this puts me in a most difficult position. I wish to take the girl to bed, but doing so would require me to breach the natural laws that govern mankind. While she is undeniably beautiful, she is also undeniably a negress. I worry that my name would be ruined forever if anyone found out that I am infatuated with this slave girl. That is why I write to you, William. I must meet with you in order to discuss the matter further. I have kept my knowledge of your interactions with a certain French belle completely secret, and thus it is my hope that you can likewise return the favor in regard to the slave girl. I am in desperate need of your advice, but I first must have the unwavering promise of your faithfulness.

Respond to this letter with nothing more than a time and place at which you are available to meet, and do so promptly, if you are able. In the meantime, burn this letter as soon as you have finished reading it. It would ruin me if anyone but you came to know of my fondness for the slave girl.

Yours,
Thomas Jefferson

Questions:
1. What are we to make of Sally Hemings' acquiescence to Jefferson's desires in light of modern views of interracial relations? Can Hemings be viewed as a sort of pioneer in the realm of pursuing a relationship outside of racial boundaries? Or does the likelihood of her merely being submissive to -- or even raped by -- Jefferson make that an impossibility?
2. While Gordon-Reed informs readers that it was not uncommon for a middle-aged man to have a sexual relationship with a 14 or 15-year-old girl, one cannot help but be disturbed by the thought. Did young teenagers in the 18th century possess more maturity than their modern counterparts? Or was Hemings equally immature, and thus more susceptible to Jefferson's advances?

Letter from James Hemings to Sally Hemings

My dearest Sister,

I am writing to you in strictest confidence regarding our present circumstances in France with Master Jefferson. It is evident that here, unlike in the Americas, slavery is illegal. The African men and women here are treated as servants, not slaves. They are technically free to do what they wish, though it clearly does not keep them exempt from the indignity we face because of our skin, our hair, our features. We, on the other hand, are bound to our Master. What I am conflicted about is that he has been, on the whole, kind to us—giving us more money than most servants here earn. He has made me the head chef of his kitchen. And I am unsure that I can achieve such a position of power by gaining freedom.

These are the bounds of our captivity. At one end, I cannot stand to think that I am enslaved to a white man—a man who came to France as an American minister looking like a simple plantation worker. How, morally, can we subject ourselves to this position of lower class just because of our origins? On the other hand, we need to eat and feed ourselves—at least here, as slaves in France, we are earning ample to wield some power. But the way he tells everyone that we are his servants....how can we stand to hear the lies? You heard what her told Bentalou, no? That French man living in the Americas who wanted to bring his 8 year-old Negro with him to France? Our Master is spreading his art of deception. He uses the respect people here give him to hoard his secret about our circumstance.

So you understand the dilemma. If we want freedom, this may be our only chance. We can hire a lawyer for no cost—and they will fight for us. Word is that the courts nearly always support the slave, they always gain their freedom as the law allows. And these lawyers gain money by supporting us from the losing side. So it is not as if they care about us—but it is, to them, an economically beneficial enterprise. Of course, because our Master’s hold a large amount of power, we may lose the case. We may remain his slaves, but without pay. And then we will be worse off than we currently are! Without freedom, and without our relative luxuries. But when else will we have this chance again?

I know our Master is especially fond of you, and the thought of leaving him may seem difficult for you. But consider what it will feel like to be free. Consider what it will taste like—we have enough money saved. We can do this.

I will await your thoughts,

James

Questions:

1) In what ways did the promise of financial gain influence the decisions of Europeans and/or Anglo-Americans in occasionally supporting African slaves/servants?

2) How does Jefferson’s relationship with Sally and James Hemmings compare to his declarations about the capabilities and capacities of slaves in Query XIV? What do his actions and words say about the status of mixed-race versus black slaves?

letter from a black female slave to an upper-class white woman

Dear Miss,

Please forgive the frankness of this question, but I want to know - what makes you a woman? Why is it that white men look at you and see beauty, femininity, and sophistication while they look at me and see a body to be worked? These tattered clothes, this natural African hair, this dark brown skin - are these the external features that exclude me from the world of women? I feel that there is so commonality between us, though I've yet to figure out what it is. I wonder what it will take for me to be granted that same access to femininity that you have. I want to feel like the lady that I know I am.

Yours,

The lady in the fields

Questions:

1) In chapter 5, Gordon-Reed discusses the difference in the way womanhood is defined for black and white women. Can femininity be essentialized in any way? What kind of commonality can exist between a black female slave and an upper-class white woman?

2) I found the discussion in the first chapter about the different perspectives on whiteness and blackness to be very interesting. Why did the negative white notion of black people dominate once black slaves were brought to the colonies? Why do these negative ideas of both races still persist?

Dear Ms. Annette Gordon-Reed,

I wanted to commend you on your thorough investigation of my family’s history. Actually, I am quite embarrassed that you know my family and my history better than myself. Yet, while I am flattered by your comprehensive account of my background and my life, I do have some thoughts to add and I would appreciate it if you would so kindly take the time to consider my opinions.

I actually did take some time to read Mr. Jefferson’s notes from a while ago, and I was quite surprised to see the deliberately harsh ways in which he described my peers, the slaves with which I grew up. It is true I thought something special of Mr. Jefferson. He was full of promises about Monticello and a life that sounded far superior to the freedom that Paris had promised. Because I had thought him to be a good man, the ways in which he described Virginia and its slaves deeply saddened me. I know he thinks highly of me, but it is still only in comparison to the slaves, which is not much at all.

Yet, at the same time, because there is some white in me and because I am a woman, I have some leverage over the slaves he speaks about. You say that I was only sought after because I was beautiful, because I was partly white. Yet, that pains me to think that although I am a slave, the same rules that oppress others benefit me. But like all others, I view myself with dignity. Though an enslaved woman, I view myself as a mother—I view myself as someone deserving of grander things than circumstances would allow. Yes, I believed I deserved better than the life that came with freedom in Paris, I deserved Monticello, Mr. Jefferson, his promises.

Am I mistaken for thinking this way?

All the best,
S. Hemings

Questions:

1) In Chapter 16, Annette Gordon-Reed writes, “As scholars have noted, the ‘slave’ in America has been constructed as male.” How does Sally Hemings’ account of her identity as a mixed-race enslaved female complicate the social construction of slave? Why did Hemings’ identity occupy such a liminal space? How is Hemings’ account different from that of other female slaves?

2) In Notes on the State of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson describes African Americans in very racialized terms, claiming white or any mixture of white is more beautiful and preferable to being fully black. In what ways did Jefferson racialize Sally Hemings and his relationship with her?

Thomas' Response # 3: A letter from Abby to John Jay

To Mr. John Jay:

The freedom I attained in Paris was such a grave threat to your poorly contrived identity that you essentially had me murdered to retain a grasp on your fragile manhood. 

Your indignation at my brief escape at once had me baffled. It is only now, postmortem, that I understand. The relationship between master and slave is not unlike the relationship between a rapist and his rape victim. Sexual gratification is not the rapist's real desire. If that were so, the rapist would instead find a common hooker or retreat to his wife or mistress to fulfill his needs. Instead, the rapist is motivated by power and control--the ability to overtake someone and compel her against their will into submission. In the same way, the economic fulfillment is not the chief goal of the slave master. Rather, just like the rapist, the primary objective is mastery and power. You use power to define yourself. Who are you without your slaves? No one, absolutely no one. Without me, you are fragile, weak, and without identity.

You agreed to release me upon our return to America. Thus, I initially did not see my escape in Paris as much of a threat to you. What I now understand, though, is that you had to release me on your own terms in order to feel like a master, to keep your identity. When I escaped on my own terms, without your consent, I emasculated you and stripped you of your power as a master to choose whether I would be free or not.

To "teach me a lesson"--or I think to repair your fragile ego--you had me sent to prison, essentially sentencing me to death. My death, I suppose, was on your terms. Do you feel better now? Like a proper man? Like a high class gentleman in control?

I hope not. I hope you realize that you are a nobody--that without your slaves, you are a blank slate, undefined, without meaning.

All the best,

Abby

1. How did Paris politics and life complicate the identity of both slaves and slave masters? How did this further alter how identity is shaped and maintained in America?
2. How were masters forced to re-examine their own identities and the identities of their slaves based on life in Paris? 

Letter addressed to Thomas Jefferson from Annette Gordon-Reed

Dear Thomas Jefferson,

Although you have been deceased for well over a century now, in recent years, many questions have surfaced about your position on race and slavery in eighteenth and nineteenth century America. Americans have debated, researched, and contested allegations that you maintained a long-time romantic relationship with your slave Sally Hemings. Evidence has shown that you even bore children with her. However, even though others have maintained that sexual abuse was a central component of the institution of slavery in America for African American women, your written records tell a more complicated story about your relationship to Sally and your half-black family. While this letter will remain with me since you are deceased, I thought that it was important that I layout my thoughts and conclusions concerning your understandings of race and slavery.

After reading through your Notes on the State of Virginia many times over the past several years, I am struck and perplexed by your discussion of slaves in your query on laws. I am convinced that you provide several indirect references to Sally and the larger Hemings family. For example, in terms of inheritance, you proposed that slaves should be “distributed among next of kin.” If I am correct that you were drawing from personal experiences when you were writing “Laws,” I am convinced that perhaps your connection to the Hemings and your children with Sally encouraged you to think critically and sympathetically about the status of the enslaved after a master’s death.

In addition, although individuals of mixed-race ancestry were viewed as degenerates, you appear to make a different argument. According to your query on laws, mixed-race black Americans are actually superior in comparison their non-mixed counter-parts. I assume that you were reflecting on the futures of your own mixed-race children with Sally and how their lives would be radically different than their white siblings.

Thomas, I have gotten to know you very well through your written records over the last several years. You were definitely a very complex man who attempted to make sense of very complicated ideas about race during the eighteenth and nineteenth century. My goal is to further uncover the pieces of your life that will help twenty-first century Americans better understand how race governed your world.

Sincerely,

Annette Gordon-Reed

Questions:

1) Are the passages about slavery in Notes on the State of Virginia influenced by Thomas Jefferson’s personal experiences? Can we locate a possible relationship with the Hemingses within this document?

2) How does Annette Gordon-Reed’s book encourage readers to think more critically about mixed-race identity in America?

Dearest Sally,

Here we are in a land where freedom is not just a distant dream but a real possibility. However, despite my many opportunities to run and never turn back, I cannot help but question what would become of my life. Where would I be without the man who has allowed me to learn the skills that have brought me so much praise and success here in Paris? For the first time in my life, I am treated as a man, not an object or a brute. Who am I not take my chance at freedom when it is so clearly presented? Would you ever believe that a Negro could be the chef de cuisine at the Champs-Elysees? I cannot, yet that is what I am. As much as I miss our beautiful home in Virginia and our beloved family, if I were to return I would be enslaved once again. But why is that we remain here with him? Why have neither of us done what many of us have dreamed of and run?

Oh Sally, I am not writing you from a place of judgement or condemnation, but out of brotherly love. You are the only other soul on earth who could possibly understand this predicament. Our lives have been inextricably tied to this man since the moment we arrived at Monticello. I cannot say with a clear conscience that I hate or am disgusted by him, in spite of for his ownership of us and our people. It is this kind of thinking that seems to bind me to him and what keeps me leaving. These thoughts, these fears of what I would do if I were to be free make me feel as though I am less of a man for a true man would take his freedom without hesitation.

Dear sister, I am telling you all of this in hopes of that you understand my choices in life and that you make the right decisions in yours. Whenever I look at you now, I cannot help but sympathize and worry about you and your future considering the position our master has placed you in. As your eldest brother, I know that I cannot truly disprove of the man whom we owe much of our good fortune to. Yet, I am still concerned about your fate as you become more than just property to him. Against my better judgement, our master does mean a great deal to me and know that you mean much to him as well. Whenever I see you two, I cannot feel the slightest bit of guilt for the part I played in your burgeoning relationship. Here we have countless choices and the chance to take our fate in our own hands, yet it is not as simple as I thought it would be. No matter what you choose to do, I will understand and continue to love you. All that I ask is that you keep your well-being in mind, and not to be taken in by his promises or charm.

Your Loving Brother,

James

Questions:

1) From the reading, it is apparent that white male slave owners often had black "mistresses," but how often did they live with them in open? What was the varying kinds of relationships between slave masters and black women they owned? Also, was the inverse ever true for white women and their black male slaves?

2) How did the time slave masters and their slaves spent in places like Paris change their view on slavery? Or did change at all? Were Parisians really concerned with the abolishment of slavery for the good of the enslaved people or as means to stop any mixing between the races at all?

Blog: Week Two - Letter from Ellen to William Craft

Dear William,

Bless the Almighty God for our freedom! I am not one to complain but I do feel the need to record my inner most thoughts about what it felt like. I know that you have a book about our journey. But men have written history for SO long and I think it’s my time to produce behind the pen.

Firstly, I was terrified…the entire time. Yet, I had to be a firm, reasonable, and resolute man and my emotions mean so much to me. Emotions are not for the weak, unless you have the right ones: level-headedness, stoutness, firmness of opinion. Therefore, I believe that women, being valued for their emotional nature (which society likely rewards over less fragile ones), are just as strong for these emotions.

Another thing: Sometimes I wonder why you have never asked me how I knew to maintain that male branded countenance. I realize these are the particulars of the situation, but I reckon that since you wrote a book about our plight, you would care to fancy these nuances. Not to get too becoming of my efforts, but my disguise was only one part of the act of passing for a male: I had to play The Part. It did my soul much good to throw off the pseudo-male apparel because I felt that it was so indicative of oppression! The slave-owning male is the archetype for oppression of the woman, the coloured, and the poor.

When I cried trembling tears upon our first step of the thousand-mile journey, it was in part because of my insecurity about being a convincing white male. Then, I realized that all I had to do was be weak enough to mask those feelings and to speak when I got the courage. I learned something profound about my vocal emotional expression: it takes much more strength to offer one’s thoughts in an oppressed capacity than to shirk inside them in a liberated context. I realized that my act of rebellion and choosing my liberty was much more profound than any slouching tyrant’s cracking of the whip.

I say all of this to make it clear that my part in this liberation should cue you in that I am a leader in my own right and our relationship should never be the same.

Lovingly,
Ellen Craft

Self-Fashioning, Self-Defining

Self-Fashioning, Self-Defining

Dear Mr. David Waldstreicher,

My name is Diamond, and I am a Negro drummer aboard a ship: Albany. I have to say, I very much liked your realization and work about us people of color, us slaves, and runways. Yes. I think I most enjoyed your idea of self-fashioning…not only about wearing clothes, doing jobs, speaking right, or what-not. But, creating and manipulating the power and control of the white, free man for ourselves. I am a drummer. And I fashion myself as one. Though it often times feels like I am a servant to the free men, and though I am a slave—I am not. As an entertainer in endure a few privileges to my brother laborers. And it is nice.

Though sometimes, I wish I could fashion myself a pirate. I think I would have a lot more respect with them. Them boys love the music, they love to dance, and they have a great time.

But back to your work.; I have to say, I love that you bring to light that the abolishment of slavery came about not only by the tides changing in ideas of slavery by the free people, but that the mixed people, the colored people, were actively infiltrating the system. The slave system was flawed, we are not a lesser race. And we can do anything a free man can, sometimes better!

I like that.

Well salutations and good life to yeah

Sincerely, Diamond.

Questions:

1) Is identity really ambiguous? Is there really potential for change in our current vernacular? How would the idea of identity and difference/sameness have to change?
2) How is self-transformation and self fashioning a phenomenon now? In San Francisco? At Stanford?

Epistle from a Man of Confidence

Sir John Holt:

I recently stumbled upon your advertisement for the capture and return of the ‘villainous’ servant and imposter, Charles Roberts. Imagine, if you will, the despair (and surprise) of seeing one’s name disparaged so very publicly – replete with such a bitter abundance of hostile untruths and scorn. At first glance, I was not certain that you were even speaking of me – but alas – although your account of my departure dramatically differs in scope and magnitude from my own, the incident and person in question are indeed one and the same.

I see that despite the persistent passage of time and age, your petty parsimony continues to abound – as offering a mere pittance of five pounds as reward for my safe return will certainly garner nary a glance.

Further, please know that your vain attempts to thrust the blame for our fair city’s recent crime spree upon me (and my poor brethren) are dubiously flawed. Unlike yours, my professional reputation remains unblemished and continues to prosper. In fact, I enjoy more labor and fair recompense than a typical twenty-four hour day will properly allow. I am certain you will not be surprised that I now command the eighty pounds per year that your good judgment denied year after year. Perhaps in hindsight your refusal to accept my attempt to purchase my freedom and continue to work as your amicable partner and peer seems short sighted at best. Nonetheless, who am I to second guess your respectable opinion and free choice – the deed is indeed done – and as many would attest ‘everything generally works out just as it should’.

Given your capable business acumen, I trust our printing venture continues to thrive in my absence and despite your articulated protests – I am hardly missed.

Finally, please do not attempt to trace or determine my whereabouts. Further exertions in this sphere will only prove exhausting and worthless. By the time you receive this brief missive – I will have already fluttered to a new locale and place of gainful employ and peaceful pursuit.

Please be assured that I harbor no hard feelings towards your published and private sentiments and accusations. Those judgments are best left to the capable hands of a more omnipotent Supreme Being.

Your faithful comrade formerly known as –

Charles Roberts


Question 1: How do characteristic 'claims of culture' currently color the landscape of opportunity, equality and inclusion in US just as they did nearly 300 years ago?


Question 2: One's subjective experience with racial identity is generally socially constructed and informed by interactions with an 'other'. How do 18th century runaway advertisements demonstrate this important mechanism?

Dear Dan McCall,

I am a researcher interested in the study of slave runaways during the mid-eighteenth century I recently came across your Norton Critical Edition of Melville’s Short Novels. I am particularly moved by the provocative and insightful story of Benito Cereno because it discusses some issues that I focus my research on, including how many slaveowners of the time initially underestimated their slaves and the lengths to “pass” for someone else in order to escape slavery, even though the short story is set in the late eighteenth century.

The Norton Critical Edition anthologies have been proven very useful to many academics since they include many sources with which to study a subject or issue. I am hoping to better understand some of these issues raised in Melville’s short story with your knowledgeable background through an analytical study of how authors during the slavery period, especially the antebellum years, dealt with the growing issue of slavery and how they portrayed their opinions.

The character Babo is a very intriguing individual in the story, displaying a knowledge and understanding of slavemasters during the time in order to take advantage of their ignorance, as shown by Don Aranda’s decision to leave his slaves unfettered while on the ship. He “passes” for Benito Cereno’s personal slave such an extent that Delano praised Babo for his attentiveness to his “master.”

The idea of voice and hidden role reversal is also remarkable in the story. Babo is able to effectively silence Cereno and what’s left of Cereno’s men on board, and after Babo’s plan is foiled by Delano, he is forever silenced until his hanging. Likewise, Cereno is also plagued by the shadow of slavery, as he was unable to testify to ascertain Babo’s identity since he was the primary witness.

One issue that is crucial to my research is the representation of clothes and belongings in the story. Although Delano didn’t see the connection until after the incident is over, the way in which Cereno was dressed was a little bit off compared to the common dress of the Spaniard, as well as with Cereno’s belongings, when Babo used the Spanish flag to aid him in his shaving of Cereno. What is your professional opinion of Melville’s intent with this story? Do you believe that Melville is trying to show that the slaves are not as ignorant and stupid (as Delano initially believed) as many believed, similar to my own argument? What is his purpose for remaining decidedly ambiguous in his restraint to illustrate whether or not he was pro- or anti-slavery?

I trust that you would be able to answer my inquiries in due time.

Sincerely,
David Waldstreicher

Questions:
1) Benito Cereno and Craft’s Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom are similar in the sense that they present stories that contrast the ideas brought forth by Waldstreicher’s essay. Waldstreicher claims that the majority of slaves who successfully escape are literate, well read, clever, and usually change clothes and stories multiple times in their journeys to freedom. Yet, the characters in these two novels do not follow any of these qualities. Are the characters and their stories in these novels notable exceptions, or is there a message saying that one does not need to be literate or undertake a score of costume changes to achieve freedom, as Waldstreicher claims?
2) The intelligence displayed by Babo and his intricate design of his plan in Benito Cereno has many people wondering what exactly Melville was trying to say with his novel during a crucial time in history. Yet, the more interesting thing is how different Babo and William Craft is illustrated in their respective stories. The reader feels sympathy for William Craft for his plight and situation and somehow does not show the same feelings for Babo’s conduct and situation. Babo is presented as a cold-blooded, sly character despite his being in slavery. How can one reconcile these differences in presentation, and is it possible to? What do these representations of character show about the visibility of slaves during the antebellum years and how might they affect the audience of that time?

To my wife,

I am writing to you now on the eve of my departure from Philadelphia aboard a vessel headed to the West Indies. I have heard a great many tales about the promises of the sea—unshackled from the constraints of landed life in America. Tales not just about freedom, but also resistance, as it is borne through these connections to our African brothers and sisters in the West Indies, with whom we share the burden of oppression.

It is such a shame that you cannot come with me and see these things for yourself. Though I leave you now, please know that I will think of you always.

Lovingly signed,
Your husband

Questions:
Bolster claims that “until the Civil War black sailors were central to African Americans’ collective sense of self, economic survival, and freedom struggle—indeed central to the very creation of black America” (2).

1. The elevation of the sailor image suggests that “American” identity (especially African American identity) transgresses national and geographic boundaries by drawing influences from multiple cultural nodes on the world map. What, then, are the tensions between an African-American identity and a “diasporic” African identity? On the other hand, how do they also overlap and constitute one another? What are the relationships between contemporary constructions of diasporic identity within the African American community and similar identity formations in the Latino American and Asian American communities? (the “black Atlantic” v. the “Border” v. the “yellow Pacific”)
2. The world of the black Atlantic was, no doubt, a gendered world, inhabited primarily by men. It then follows that the “creation of black America” was a gendered process, at least with respect to the particular historical period Bolster describes. Aside from a single passing remark, his article downplays the role that black maritime culture played in shaping the experiences of black women on the mainland, and also blatantly ignores the particular sexual cultures (often homoerotic) that existed within the world of the black Atlantic. Thus, how does a conception of African American identity, premised in part upon the iconography of the black, heterosexual, male sailor, affect the contemporary experiences of black women and queers?