SlaveryAfrican slavery in the United States began in 1619, when two English pirate ships, the
White Lion and the
Treasurer, traded their captured Angolan slaves for food and services. The slaves were won in a battle with a Portugese ship bound for Mexico, and were part of the African slave trade done by most Portugese and European traders, who purchased them for cheap labour. These slaves were forced to abide by various unfair rules: they were forbidden to gather in groups of more than four, could not own weapons, and were not allowed to leave their master's house without a pass. Slaves freed after 1712 could not own a house or pass belongings on to children. The notions of slavery are similar to the racism and prejudice subtly displayed in the novel; negroes were nicknamed "niggers", an offensive and racist term, were treated unfairly in the society, (Tom Robinson's unfair trial) and were denied certain rights.
The Civil WarThe southern states were South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina. Abraham Lincoln had campaigned against he expansion of slavery within America, and thus when he was elected president, the eleven southern states, which strongly objected against Lincoln's campaign, secessed from the United States, forming the Confederate States and waging the American Civil War against the Union, the remaining 20 free states and 5 slave states, where slavery was abolished and allowed respectively. The Civil War lasted from 1861 to 1865, until the Confederate resistance crumpled and they surrendered to the Union.
Jim Crow's LawsJim Crow is the subject of a song performed by a white man, Thomas Dartmouth Rice, in blackface, offensively stereotyping blacks. The Jim Crow Laws were state and local laws in the US enacted between 1876 and 1965, mandating racial segregation in all public facilities with "separated but equal" status for African Americans. After World War II, the African Americans challenged the segregation of their race as they felt that after all their services and sacrifices they had made for their country, they deserved the full and equal status of an American citizen. In the novel, a black man was charged with the rape of a white woman with the presumption of guilt, unlike the usual presumption of innocence which was a legal right obviously denied to African Americans.
Civil Rights MovementThe Civil Rights Movement was a series of nonviolent movements in the United States aimed at outlawing racial discrimination of African Americans and granting all Americans full and equal rights.
A few examples: Brown v. Board of Education case, Montgomery Bus Boycott, Desegregating Little Rock. The Brown v. Board of Education was a court case regarding the segregation of black and white children into different schools, which ended in the Negro children being allowed to share the same education facilities as white children. The Montgomery Bus Boycott started when a black woman, Rosa Parks, refused to give up her seat to a white passenger, resulting in her being arrested and tried, and a majority of African Americans boycotting the Montgomery Bus services and demanding a more humane transport system. As a result, the court ordered Montgomery buses to be desegregated, thus ending the boycott. The Desegregation of Little Rock happened when nine African American students entered the integrated Little Rock Central High School, and were harassed by the other white students as a result of the racial tension and supposed white supreriority. The incident ultimately ended with the whole education system of Little Rock being desegregated.
The Civil Rights Movement was supported by President John F. Kennedy. The ultimate outcome was racial discrimination being banned and African Americans being granted franchise. The novel was written at about the same period when the Movement was taking place, and reflects the social injustice found in the southern states, and allows readers to sympathise with the unfairly treated African Americans.
Montgomery Bus boycott and Scottsboro trialsMontgomery Bus boycott- On 1 December 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white passenger, and was arrested, tried, and convicted. In response, African American leaders organised the Montgomery Bus boycott, and appoint Martin Luther King as President of the Montgomery Improvement Association, the organisation directing the boycott. A majority of African Americans joined the boycott, with both the MIA and the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People demanding for the full desegregation of all public buses. The boycott lasted more than a year, enough to cause bus revenue to drop drastically, resulting in economic distress. The court gave in and ordered the Montgomery buses desegregated, and the boycott finally ended.
Scottsboro trials- On March 25, 1931, nine African American youths board a freight train with several white males and two white women, Victoria Price and Ruby Bates. A fight began between the two black and white groups, and the white males were kicked off the train. The black boys were arrested for assault by a posse that had orders to "capture every negro on the train". The African American youths were imprisoned in Scottsboro, Alabama, and thus were nicknamed the Scottsboro Boys. The two alleged victims of rape accused the black youths of raping them at knifepoint, along with the possession of a gun. A doctor examined Price and Bates, and reported that they showed no sign of having been raped. Samuel Leibowitz was called in as defence attorney for the youths, and worked on the case without charging them fees. In the first trial most of the youths were found guilty and sentenced to death, but an appeal provided them with a second chance. In the second trial, Bates confesed that she and Price had made up the whole story of rape, but Price maintained her original testimony. However, two of the boys, Patterson and Norris were given a guilty verdict and sentenced to death. The Supreme Court found the trials unjust and demanded a retrial. The judge halted Patterson's retrial and went on with the trials of the other boys. After a series of trials, most of the Scotssboro boys were sent to prison.
The trials have much in common with the trial of Tom Robinson in the novel. Both trials were in the 1930s and took place in Alabama. Both have a protagonist who goes against public sentiments while fighting against racial discrimination and defend African Americans, who
were unjustly accused of raping white women. The all-white juries also ignored evidence, such as Tom Robinson's useless left arm and that the women suffered no injuries.
Trials of a true Southern Belle and Southern Gentleman Southern Belles were young women of America's southern states' upper class. They wore dresses, smocks, and makeup and carried parasols outdoors, spoke politely with proper grammar and no swear words, and never raised their voices. Lastly, they also knew how to entertain and cook for visitors. In conclusion, the Southern Belles behaved in a girlish, ladylike way and always dressed and spoke appropriately. Their counterparts, the Southern Gentlemen, also had good manners and were well groomed, spoke politely and did not cuss. They also open doors for their lady, tip their hats to ladies, and offer assistance to those in need.
Southern Belles generally did not do anything at all except entertain guests and attempt to appeal to the Southern Gentlemen. They sat under magnolia trees with their parasols fanning themselves often, hoping that people would take notice of their "belle-ness". When asked to do work, they would fan themselves and claim to have the "vapours".
Miss Maudie Atkinson and Alexandra Hancock are Southern Belles, while Scout is not, as she is more of a tomboy and likes playing with her brother Jem and male friend Dill. Atticus Finch fits the role of a Southern Gentleman perfectly as he is always polite, even in court. Bob Ewell, however is not a Southern Gentleman. He is, in fact, a drunkard who lives at the dump, poaches game to feed his family, and spends the money he gains to buy more drinks.
Harper Lee
Lee was born in Monroeville, Alabama, youngest of the four children of Amasa Coleman Lee and Frances Cunningham Finch Lee, with her mother's name being Finch and her father a lawyer. As a child, she was a tomboy and a reader who was shown to be prematurely advanced and developed for her age. As an author, she has also written To Kill a Mockingbird, Love—In Other Words,Christmas to Me,When Children Discover America, Romance and High Adventure. She was presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George Bush at the White House
in 2007, and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1961.
Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird was received with ambivalence by African American readers, but had a profound impact on white readers, giving them insights into sexism and racism in the southern states such as Alabama which the author was born in, and based her book on her childhood life there. However, it has also raised many criticisms and suffered ridicule, being called"a child's book", "a sugar-coated myth of Alabamian history", "Atticus Finch is a repository of cracker-barrel epigrams (a quirk, quip)", etc.
It began with the wind. The wind from another age that unleashed a fury the likes of which had never been seen before in any other blizzard. The wind ripped apart the sky shook the earth, screaming at the very boundaries of reality. The trees bowed and trembled before its fury, and
