Authors
Readings
Historical Context
Themes
100

This woman was the first known African American poet, author of Poem on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral.

Who is Phillis Wheatley Peters?

100

Hammon's 1760 poem "An Evening Thought" centers on this religious theme.

What is salvation/Christianity?

100

This 1850 law required that escaped enslaved people be returned to their enslavers, even if found in free states.

What is the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850?

100

Spirituals, secular songs, and folktales are part of this oral tradition.

What is the vernacular tradition?

200

He wrote Narrative of the Life in 1845 and became one of the most famous abolitionist orators. 

Who is Frederick Douglass?

200

In Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Jacobs describes hiding in this space for seven years.

What is an attic/garret?

200

This post-Civil War period (1865-1877) sought to rebuild the South and extend rights to freedpeople. 

What is Reconstruction?

200

This central theme unites Jupiter Hammon and Phillis Wheatley.

What is religion/Christianity?

300

This Jamaican-born poet became a central figure in the Harlem Renaissance.

Who is Claude McKay?

300

In The Souls of Black Folk, Du Bois introduces this famous concept describing African American identity.

What is double consciousness?

300

This transatlantic system brought those like Olaudah Equiano across the ocean as a child. 

What is the Transatlantic Slave Trade?

300

Women like Harriet Jacobs, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, and Zora Neale Hurston emphasize the diversity of this theme. 

What is gender and Black womanhood?

400

This journalist exposed lynching in her 1895 book, A Red Record

Who is Ida B. Wells-Barnett?

400

In How it feels to be colored me, Hurston writes, "I am not tragically_____."

What is colored?

400

These restrictive laws, passed in Southern States during Reconstruction, aimed to limit the freedom of formerly enslaved people. 

What are Black codes?

400

This generic form connects Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, and Harriet Jacobs?

What is autobiography/(slave narrative can also count)?

500

Up from Slavery was published by this famous African American.

Who is Booker T. Washington?

500

In "The Petition of Belinda," Belinda Sutton asks the Massachusetts legislature for this.

What is a pension (compensation for her enslavement)?

500

This Harlem Renaissance concept, articulated by Du Bois, argued that a small elite of educated African Americans would uplift the race.

What is the Talented Tenth?

500

This common theme connects the events seen during Reconstruction, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, and Frederick Douglass.

What is racial violence?

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