Historical Context: American Revolution
Speeches were the main form of public communication in the colonies because many people were...
What is illiterate?
For calling the Stamp Act illegal, unconstitutional, and unjust, Patrick Henry received this label from the British Crown.
What is a traitor?
Phillis Wheatley wrote a letter and poem to this leader of the American Revolution because she strongly supported the idea of American independence.
Who is George Washington?
Equiano uses this adjective to describe his life in the title of his autobiography.
What is interesting?
According to Equiano, prisoners of war or criminals would be traded as slaves for these items brought by Europeans.
What are guns?
King George III refused to lift this tax, which led to one of the key events in the beginning of the American Revolution.
What is the Tea tax?
In addition to the fiery preachers of his day, Patrick Henry's speaking skills were inspired by these ancient people.
Who are the Greeks and Romans?
In "On Being Brought from Africa to America," Phillis Wheatley specifically addresses this group of people.
Who are Christians?
Equiano was only this age when he was kidnapped and enslaved.
What is eleven?
The first European slave trade began after this war.
What is the 4th Crusade?
This time period was an intellectual movement that celebrated human reason and science, and its ideals inspired many during the American Revolution.
What is the Enlightenment?
Patrick Henry used the struggle of this group of people as a metaphor for the colonists' suffering at the hands of the British.
What are slaves?
This word in the first line of "On Being Brought from Africa to America" feels shocking and ironic because of how unexpected the emotion is for the situation Wheatley was writing about.
These two traits made Equiano believe that his captors were evil spirits. (name at least one)
What is their skin and their language?
Slavery as it looked during the Transatlantic Slave Trade, where people were viewed as property, was known as this type of slavery.
What is chattel slavery?
This group was formed in the colonies to make a decision on how to deal with Britain's tyranny.
What is the Continental Congress?
Patrick Henry spent roughly this many hours rehearsing his "Liberty or Death" speech.
What is zero?
Phillis Wheatley's imagery and symbolism draws inspiration from this inspired source.
What is the Bible?
Equiano became a powerful voice for the early stages of this political/moral movement.
What is abolitionist?
These two other places are where the vast majority of enslaved Africans were taken.
What is the Caribbean and Brazil?
The struggle for American independence began in this decade.
What is the 1760s?
In "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death," Patrick Henry states, "I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience" which is an example of this rhetorical device.
What is Logos?
Phillis Wheatley gained fame and attention for this type of poem, which is often written to honor the dead.
What is an elegy?
Much of what we know about this part of the Transatlantic slave trade comes from Equiano's descriptions of his own experience.
What is the Middle Passage?
This percentage of enslaved people died on the journey across the ocean.
What is 15%?