Joshua Mateo
Prof. Rumore
3/23/20
Archival Project
The first archival object is found in the Lehman College Library Database. The piece is a book titled, The Negro and the nation : a history of American slavery and enfranchisement by George Merriam. The book was published in 1906 and was created to speak about the existing franchises made either towards or against the African American people and slaves as a whole. One portion of the article that is important is a point in which the author George Merriam states, “Its intense and irresistible plea is not against a class or a section, but against a system.”(pg.97) This is how George wishes to example how Americans viewed the slavery system during “1852”, after the release of the book Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe. The author Georgre also states, “The motive of Uncle Tom’s Cabin was an appeal to the heart of the American people. There was no reference to political action, far less any suggestion of servile insurrection, and there was no discussion of methods of emancipation.”(pg.98) This is important because while at first the idea that slaves go through many deprecating punishments, it does not give any way for americans to think of how they wish to help the situation or how the slaves that had currently been a problem should help themselves. Which was the problem with the writing of a slave tale by a white person. There is a sense of overt oppression going on because of what the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin cannot see due to their privilege. Compared to Behns Oronoko tale, where Behn states, “O, my friends! were she in walled cities, or confined from me in fortifications of the greatest strength; did enchantments or monsters detain her from me; I would venture through any hazard to free her.” This is relevant because while Aphra Behn also gives us an outlook how terrible things have been it definitely relates to how the slavery shown within The Negro and the nation : a history of American slavery and enfranchisement which shows how some of these thought processes want to only show how slaves could be free but not explain what slave owners or politicians should do to help and free the newest population of their country which shows just how much priviledge these writers also had in their own status.
The Second archival object is also found in the Lehman College Library Database. The piece is called History of the Underground railroad as it was conducted by the Anti-slavery league including many thrilling encounters between those aiding the slaves to escape and those trying to recapture them by William Monroe Cockrum which was published in 1915. This book is about a collection of stories about slaves and their encounters at the time of the underground railroad. Within one of the encounters the author states, “The gambler went down to the lower deck and selected the girl against whom he was to stake his money. Travell lost the girl and was going to put up another one against the one he had lost, when the captain of the boat, who was a friend of the Travell family interfered and took young Travell to his room to sober up.”(pg. 50) The reason that this is important is because it clearly depicts through the recollection of this story that slaveholders would see their slaves so much as property that they would use them as prizes to regular wagers held between each other. This is important because based off of The experiences show in the story of Ooronoko it is as if the situations are vastly different. The story states, “”he had intelligence brought him that Imoinda was most certainly mistress to the Prince Oroonoko. This gave him some chagrin: however, it gave him also an opportunity…”(pg.40) The importance of this is that while Behn is giving oronoko a sense of agency, the slaves depicted in these tales do not have that sense of agency and are evidently going through two very differently described diasporas.
Work Cited:
Merriam, George Spring. The Negro and the nation : a history of American slavery and enfranchisement. New York, 1906. Slavery and Anti-Slavery. Gale. Main Account – CUNY. 23 Mar. 2020
Cockrum, William Monroe. History of the Underground railroad as it was conducted by the Anti-slavery league : including many thrilling encounters between those aiding the slaves to escape and those trying to recapture them. Oakland City, Ind., [c1915]. Slavery and Anti-Slavery. Gale. Main Account – CUNY. 23 Mar. 2020
