Hopkins -- Part III

Does Hopkins simply incorporate the fallen woman plot into her narrative? Or does she signify on it -- that is, revise, critique, extend it in some way? ( I think I gave you notes on the fallen woman plot when we did Harriet Jacobs.)

Pauline Hopkins -- Part II

How does the debate between W.E.B. DuBois and Booker T. Washington inform Hopkins's characterizations? What characters does the author identify with most? What position does she take on that debate?

Pauline E. Hopkins -- Part I

In The Souls of Black Folks, W.E.B. Du Bois made the very important philosophical move of conceiving of race as a "veil" (social construction)as opposed to something that exists in one's blood (hereditary essence). Do you think that Hopkins views race as a veil that society forces a person to wear or an essence that people carry in their blood?

W.E.B. Du Bois and the N.A.A.C.P.

In the essay "How NAACP Began" by Mary White Ovington, what did you learn about the formation of the NAACP that impressed or even surprised you? And how does Du Bois, in the excerpt we read from The Souls of Black Folk, echo the spirit and mission of the NAACP?

Booker T. Washington

Critics have pointed out that Booker T. Washington in Up From Slavery adopts Frederick Douglass's slave narrative. Where does Washington copy the central elements/themes of the slave narrative? More importantly, how does he rework those elements/themes, endowing them with a different meaning or significance?

William Wells Brown II -- The Georgiana Issue

Clearly, Georgiana is an antislavery advocate. In the last part of the book, what do you think about the choices she made when it came to her slaves? Do you think Brown viewed her -- a northerner by education and sentiment -- as he viewed the North -- "prejudice[d] . . . on account of color"? In the last part of the story, how does Brown represent Georgiana?

William Wells Brown

How do Reverend Peck and Carlton differ on the importance of the Bible/Christianity to the slaves? How does Georgiana mediate their disagreement?