Questioning

In the next two weeks I am going to begin focusing more intensely on the texts I have selected for my casebook.

This post will focus exclusively on selections from The Confessions of Nat Turner and Related Documents [1]

What follows are three articles from Southern newspapers that reported the event of the Southampton Rebellion. I have isolated some phrases and words that bring to bear the perspective of the white Southern reporter during this time. The final article included is from William Lloyd Garrison and the article that appeared in his publication, The Liberator.

What exactly is my focus in this endeavor? I am looking at David Walker’s Appeal, as well as William Lloyd Garrison’s work in The Liberator and focusing specifically on the language of anti-slavery protest literature, how it is used, and how it compares and contrasts with the language used to describe the Southampton Rebellion. Why does this matter? Walker’s Appeal is written before the Southampton Rebellion, but there are very clear intersections between Walker and Garrison in terms of how they write the script for rebellion, present the language of early American dissent, and fill in some of what we can never know about the black American experience of slavery. Since accounts of the rebellion are largely those of white newspaper reporters, who are shocked by the events and begin to frame it as an aberration, the perspective of Garrison and Walker is essential in filling in some of the holes that have been created by white Southern accounts or recreations of the events of the Southampton Rebellion. What are the problems with this approach? Each of these contributions to the experience of slavery is fraught with its own prejudices and lend an element of personal bias to sift through. At root, the language and content should certainly be sifted through personal bias and perspective.

The Richmond Compiler, August 24, 1831

excitement
insurrection of negroes
insurrection had broken out among the blacks
several white families had been destroyed
the disturbers
names of the families, that are said to have been destroyed…destroying…destroyers
slightest intimation or dream of such movement. We have no doubt that the transaction has been much exaggerated…exaggerations
mischief
range of the evil
wretches, mad, infatuated, deceived by some artful knaves, or stimulated by their own miscalculating passions
ruin
folly and infatuation
subjected to this visitation
infected district

The most insightful line appears on page 62, where the reporter, seemingly in a moment of incredulous rage, states, “The wretches who have conceived this thing are mad – infatuated – deceived by some artful knaves, or stimulated by their own miscalculating passions.” Looking at some of the other words the author of this newspaper account uses the author seems to be genuinely befuddled by the entire rebellion and marks it up to the work of extreme imagination. The use of words akin to imagination and exaggeration seems to undermine the impact of the rebellion. An overwhelming implication of fantasy-ridden slaves surfaces through this account and the language downplays the seriousness of the rebellion, relegating the rebellion to the acts of wretches engaging in idle mischief. Particularly the use of “infected district,” raises images of slaves being infected by delusions of justice, independence, freedom. Nowhere in this account is there an identification of the goal the slaves most ardently sought: freedom.

The Constitutional Whig, August 29, 1831

appalling dangers
insurrection
mischief perpetrated, perpetrators
insurgents
butchered
slaughter
ruthless villains
murdered
helpless
disorderly
atrocities
wound up to a high pitch of rage
suppressed
enraged inhabitants
ulterior object/purpose
fanatical revenge
blind fury
murder and destroy all before them
horrors of the late scenes
feel safe in their homes

Again, the word mischief comes up in the language of this account of the rebellion. The slaves involved in the rebellion are referred to as insurgents, ruthless villains, and perpetrators, which only further figures them as objects or mischievous agents of the rebellion, and not as humans seeking freedom. Something else I was thinking about in these newspaper accounts is the element of intimacy affronted by these seditious acts. Throughout the reports there is a distinct theme of shock and surprise. The rebellion came as a complete surprise to the Southern white Americans in this region, as they treated their own slaves well (or so they thought). The use of words associated with delusional misgivings, “fanatical revenge,” is used here as well. I am also fascinated by this use of the word destroy and disturb (in the previous newspaper account). There seems to have been a serene tranquility in Southampton that was disturbed or destroyed. This is an event unlike anything these people have ever seen and has come as a complete shock to their community system.

The Richmond Enquirer, August 30, 1831

strange events in the county of Southampton
horrible ferocity of these monsters
parcel of blood-thirsty wolves rushing down from the Alps
former incursion of the Indians upon the white settlements
helplessness
distressing time
massacred
infernal brigandage
[Nat] artful, impudent and vindictive
scheme
nefarious expedition
murderous career
wretches
murderous deeds
[Nat] ring-leader

The words of this account spit from the mouth of the reporter. Wretches, monsters, blood-thirsty wolves. The frequency of the word wretches in these accounts is rather telling of the white American perspective of slaves in the South. The line “parcel of blood-thirsty wolves rushing down from the Alps” is illustrative of the white American description of the slave revolt, further relegating them to animals, brutes. The slaves involved in this revolt are animal-like, out for blood, the basest animal, hopeless, depraved, sick. This event is perceived as an act in response to an illness of the mind, of the body.

The Liberator, September 3, 1831

first step of the earthquake
shake down the fabric of oppression
first drops of blood (coming from gathering clouds)
first flash of lightning
first wailings of bereavement
sackcloth
hour of vengeance
prophecy
fulfillment of prophecy
poetry/imagination realized
record of slaughter
dreadful retaliation
the oppressor and the oppressed equal at last in death
spectacle
combat (instead of insurrection)
prison is crowded with victims destined for the gallows
oppressors
crime of oppression is national
sufferings
brutes
patriotic hypocrites
panegyrists
condemnation
heroes
excesses

Contrary to the other accounts, Garrison’s account marries with some of the perceptions of these reporters, with the use of words such as “brutes,” “slaughter,” and extends some of the more brutalizing words of the insurrection, which further bridges the gap between the Southern white American perspective of the event with the way in which the event is received elsewhere, particularly by anti-slavery constituents. Repeating “first” three times in the beginning of this article, Garrison underlines the idea that this will happen again, this is truly the first in a series of revolts on American soil. Garrison also links this up with elements of nature, comparing the possibility of an insurrection to an earthquake, lightning, gathering clouds. Aligning the insurrection with the fulfillment of a prophecy also places the events of the Southampton Rebellion with Biblical prophets who were victims of struggle in their own times. It is important to notice this use of language, reserved for the white victims of the Southampton Rebellion, to describe those slaves who participated in the rebellion: “prison is crowded with victims destined for the gallows,” “heroes,”  “combat.” These are the seeds of dissent concerning the American institution of slavery. Also, it is interesting to notice the fulfillment of the fanatical events in the line where Garrison talks of poetry and imagination being realized. White American accounts in the South place so much emphasis on the delusional nature of the slave rebellion, where Garrison places it closer to the realization of a dream.

I wonder if this dream — dreaming being something we fantasize about, something we wish and hope for, but something that may not be uttered into words — is at the root of the civil rights movement.

[1] Greenberg, Kenneth S., ed. The Confessions of Nat Turner and Related Documents. The Bedford series in history and culture. Boston: Bedford Books of St. Martin’s Press, 1996.

Refining a thesis statement

There was an exam today for the Nat Turner class, which I think I did better on than the last. My hand started cramping up at the end. I wish there were typewritten exams. I can type so much better and faster than I can write.

We also handed in our Step 4 Casebook Assignment and got them back by the end of class with comments! Apparently they were being graded as we were completing the exam. The primary area in need of improvement was the last part of the Draft Thesis Statement component. It reads as follows:

Through the language used in the anti-slavery protest literature of Walker’s Appeal, and selections from Garrison’s The Liberator, we find a different pictures of the American system of slavery that contrasts the white American perspective of 1831.

I was hurriedly completing Step 4, so I can see that the last part doesn’t flow very well with the first part. After much diagramming, adding in, and revising I have come up with the following draft thesis statement, which I think works much better.

Through the language used in the anti-slavery protest literature of Walker’s Appeal, and selections from Garrison’s The Liberator, we are presented with a view of the American system of slavery that conflicts with the language used to describe the 1831 Southampton Rebellion.

It is hard to craft a clear thesis statement. Most things are simple and straightforward, such as “I will prove this by doing this, this, and this.” I think I am getting wrapped up in the complexities of everything.

Essentially, I am interested in anti-slavery protest literature the difference in language used to describe resistance to slavery and how that contrasts with white American accounts of both the institution of slavery and the Southampton Rebellion of 1831. I think it is in these early examples of protest literature that we see the seeds of American protest, outright resistance to a dominant American institution, and textual evidence that is created and exists on the fringe, on the margins. These marginalized accounts or perspectives are what, I think, serve to refocus the dominant system of historical narrative. History is told by the victors is something you can always hear in any history-based course, but it is the story told by the non-victors, written into the margins, emanating from the undercast, that I find most interesting.

Keen preparation

I have a glass of Riesling from Columbia Winery on a small side table next to me, along with a voluminous amount of paperwork, notes, handouts, and photocopies of the readings for the Nat Turner class. There is an exam tomorrow, and while I feel confident in my readings thus far, for some reason I still need to go over all the material again.

Since the last exam we have been focusing on cultural materials that fictionalize Nat Turner and craft their own creative spin on the life of this historical figure. We were all broken up into small groups and had to prepare a group facilitation based on the material covered and present this to the class.

All of the creators of these works have contributed their own perspectives and takes on who exactly Nat Turner was and what he means to the time in which the work was completed. Many of the authors are largely unknown in the canon of American literature, which is very disheartening. Right now, I am thinking of Daniel Panger, Robert O’Hara, Ophelia Robinson, and others. Much discussion has taken place, but I still have additional questions, such as: How does one write the story of Nat Turner from a literary standpoint? Is the story of Nat Turner in the realm of historical fiction? What is the difference between the historical writing of Stephen B. Oates and the “meditation on history” of William Styron? What do either of these approaches (historical narrative, historical fiction) bring to the story of Nat Turner?

This week there was a question brought up about American Studies and what this means and involves? Much discussion took place about a segmented society, divided along racial lines, and broken up into African-American, women, Chinese-American, Japanese-American, etc. There was a question raised in connection with this discussion about if there could be an overarching sense of the “American experience.” Pointing to the idea of the “melting pot,” emphasizing heterogeneity of people, this ideal conflicts with a history of racial and class difference in America. This discussion seemed to turn over ideas I had already been thinking about since the beginning of the quarter. Throughout all of our readings there has been a multi-faceted dilemma of American studies. The interviews with William Styron, a Southern white writer, contrasted with Alvin F. Poussaint, M.D., was one of the biggest contrasts I have seen. Styron relates his experience of growing up in a racially segregated community in Southampton, Virginia and the largely invisible community of African Americans in that area of the country. Poussaint talks of his summer camp education, which included educating camp members (both white and black) of moments in American history of protest and revolution.

Thus far I can see layers of difference, set along racial and class lines. I don’t think there is any answer to the question of commonalities of American experience in the overarching American Studies umbrella. I do believe there is a history of the established, ruling class, or the empowered, and the disenfranchised, non-ruling class, or the disempowered. This would of course need much more research, but it seems like there is a long and distinguished history of creating rule and order and railing against this rule and order. I am speaking of a nation founded on the principles of freedom and democracy, paired with a capitalist enterprise, and complemented by a vast body of ruling and subordinate members. Racism and racial tension definitely still exist and my intention is not to lump race into stock categories. American Studies seems to be the study of difference, tension, conflict, competition for independence or freedom.

American Studies is also the study of protest. Protest is what brought about the American Revolution. Although where that figures today I am not sure.

Name change. Once more with feeling.

I decided to change the title of my blog once more. It is important to acknowledge my librarian roots, yet nod to my divergent interests.

In the Learning Commons at Lake Washington Technical College we are piloting an embed project using Delicious to create, effectively, homemade LibGuides. Using existing collection resources we can create a link roll using specific tags associated with programs and class numbers. This permits us to obtain an javascript embed code, which can be given to the instructor who can then paste this same code into their Angel course shell. Any number of items can be gathered into this, including YouTube videos, PDF documents, PowerPoint presentations, and many more.
This method of bookmarking our existing resources (e.g., articles in journals that can be found in our electronic collection) permits compliance with copyright and helps faculty create a remotely accessible course reserve system. Primarily, I think it will be addressed in the following ways:

1. Create collection inventories by bookmarking periodical and ebook publications at the item level. If these materials are consistently tagged at the item-level, then collection inventories could be created on the fly. The only foreseeable issue would be items added after a first sweep through might not be included, but routine updates could address this issue.
2. Create course-specific reserves, incorporating material from our existing On-line subscription databases, as well as freely available web content (e.g., videos, audio content, documents).

In effect, this system would create embedded LibGuides, since the listings would be held within the course shell and students would access this information concurrent with their work in Angel.

The Delicious link roll project would look like this: https://lwtclearningcommons.pbworks.com/Delicious-Rolls-%28Library-Database-Mashup%29

I think the idea is to create back ups on the Learning Commons Wiki site, which will serve as a safety net in case Angel goes down.

In the initial phase of this project, I had lots of questions (see comments section, “New Tags for Embed Project”), many which will be answered over the life of the project. This is an interesting project, because it is an attempt at creating resource lists and an electronic reserve system for faculty and students from an existing On-line and freely available technology, Delicious.

I still do have lots of questions that need answers. Using this system of creating electronic reserves for courses are we in compliance with copyright? Are there any privacy and copyright issues involved in making course-level content discoverable? Where does this system intersect with the library catalog system? Is there a way to bookmark library records for items currently in our collection?

I think these are important questions to consider and resolve as this project moves forward and I am excited to participate in such a project.

Name change

I have not been updating this blog for quite some time now and, even when I do, it is sporadic and mostly for thrills. I think “Confessions of an Inter-disciplinarian” is much more apt and representative of my interest. I promise to never change it again, for this title seems like home to me, if a blog title could feel like home.

Aside from outlining a blog title change, I also wanted to process a bit about a class I am taking right now on Nat Turner. This week I will be turning in my proposal for my final paper, and as with any research process my research question has gone through may permutations. As of my last casebook my question was submitted as follows:

“How does the language of anti-slavery protest literature contrast with white American accounts of the events of the Southampton Rebellion? How is the language used to describe the person (Nat Turner) and the event (the Nat Turner Rebellion) influenced by the divided historical realities of Black and White Americans?”

My question took form after watching a video clip of James Baldwin speaking during a debate, “Has the American Dream Been Achieved at the Expense of the American Negro?” [1] In this debate he states that a response to this question is predicated on one’s system of reality. He also talks of the American Negro’s fractured sense of reality, for the America in which they find themselves does not make space for them. In the educational system, he goes on to say, they are taught of white American expansion and the displacement of Native Americans and it is not until much later when this lack of space and consideration is fully realized that the American Negro looks back on this education and realizes that they should have been rooting for Native Americans.

This video clip was pivotal in getting at the beginnings of my topic, as it complemented the largely silent perspective of both Nat Turner and the Southampton Rebellion. Since that time I have been focusing on (circling and highlighting in-text) the way in which the event was described. I have seen accounts that refer to the event as “Insurrection,” “Rebellion,” “Massacre,” “Affair,” etc. This last one seems most telling to me in that it seems to disregard the severity of the event: “Affair,” as though it was a momentary indulgence with no serious claims to commitment.

Beyond this, I have been able to investigate the perspective of an African-American historian, Vincent Harding, and his re-envisioning of the Nat Turner Rebellion. Harding makes no explicit links between David Walker’s Appeal, but links Nat Turner and David Walker through a “river of struggle.” He also employs this fascinating inter-textual technique of parenthetically referencing the black American perspective.

From the secondary source of Vincent Harding, I decided to look at David Walker’s Appeal for my investigation of a primary source document. After reading through the Appeal twice I was drawn to recurrences of certain words and phrases. I would suppose that using phrases and words over and over again would instill a call to action. I am not 100% certain, but it seems like a trademark of rousing rhetoric could be found in repeatable phrases that stick out in the mind of those who listen, read, and are audience to these statements. I took the text of the Appeal, which I found on the Documenting the American South website, extracted page numbers (e.g., Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, etc.) and put the entire text of the Appeal into Wordle, an online tool that provides a word cloud visualization based on words appearing most frequently and those appearing less frequently [2].

Right now I am conducting a lot of research into anti-slavery protest literature around the time of the 1831 rebellion, such as Liberator and Freedom’s Journal, but often I am finding reprints of articles that appeared in newspaper publications of pro-slavery news sources, such as Constitutional Whig or The Richmond Enquirer. William Lloyd Garrison is of great interest to me, since he started The Liberator in 1829 and it is thought that this publication and its ultimate distribution to black slaves and free blacks throughout the region contributed to the Southampton Rebellion. Aside from the essay of Garrison that appeared in Liberator a few days after the events had transpired I can find no dissenting views of the Southampton Rebellion.

Since this is my space to process, I would like to freely expound on the question outlined above. I am primarily interested in the language of resistance or dissent in the textual rendering of the events of the Southampton Rebellion. I may have to come at this from a reverse in time, as there is very little (that I can find as of this writing) protest literature around the Southampton Rebellion, other than what I have been able to find in Garrison’s writing in Liberator. Although I have indicated that I want to look at the way in which descriptions of the person (Nat Turner) and the event (the Nat Turner Rebellion) have been influenced by divided by historical realities, I am primarily interested in how the event itself has been described, how those divided perspectives mediate the event in historical memory. Walker’s Appeal was written before the Southampton Rebellion, but contains the language of resistance and conveys an alternate viewpoint. I could also look at the essay of Thomas R. Dew to the Virginia legislature, “Abolition of Negro Slavery,” responding to the call for an emancipation of slavery based on the events of 1831.

Still processing….

[1] James Baldwin v. William F. Buckley Jr. Debate, 2009. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbkObXxSUus&feature=youtube_gdata.

[2] Walker, David. “David Walker, 1785-1830 Walker’s Appeal, in Four Articles; Together with a Preamble, to the Coloured Citizens of the World, but in Particular, and Very Expressly, to Those of the United States of America, Written in Boston, State of Massachusetts, September 28, 1829..” Documenting the American South, September 28, 1829. http://docsouth.unc.edu.offcampus.lib.washington.edu/nc/walker/walker.html.

Wonderful! Brigitte Bardot in Contact (1968)

This is possibly the best video of this time I have seen. The constantly rotating shapes, illumination of textures and planes, and stoic Brigitte Bardot looking like a figure out of Egyptian civilization.

The use of texture is mesmerizing, as is the modern geometric shapes and colors vibrating and rotating around Bardot.

Texture, shape, and color all conspire to form a very modernist video.

The music is good too. Contact!

Why should I create a blog?

Student 1: “It’s something new. I want to explore and experience it. I want to know what’s going on on other people’s blogs.”

Student 2: “I see the need for creating a blog and that is entering into a conversation with other people and to get news on the subject I am thinking of. I’m searching on the internet and not finding what I want. I didn’t think of it like that, but it can be more of a back and forth between others on a particular subject.”

Student 3: “First, I can communicate/post my thoughts. Also I want the people who view my posting. It’s just fun. You like people to come and see what you are posting. It’s also for pleasure. It gives you sense of rewarding and encouraging. You can also just post videos, pictures, or words.”

Student 4: “To get your feelings and emotions out. Share beliefs and theories. I also do it because I express myself better in writing than you do in face to face communication.”

Student 5: “Sharing of ideas. More democratic access to and sharing of networked information. Fostering a community of dialogue around a variety of topics.”

To All the Typography Nerds Out There

This link came across my Coudal Partners RSS feed. It is an entertaining way to flex your knowledge and visual recognition of typography styles out there. I was able to get pretty far through chance, but eventually the cards add up to four and you have to decide through a process of elimination the correct answer.

When I worked as an archives intern with Pentagram Design there was a period of time where I was working in the basement and overhead other interns scoff at typography choices. One intern spat, “Why would anyone choose Papyrus? I cringe everytime I see that font!”

I’m sure she would love this game.

Noodles of Information

I participated in the first brown bag Tech Fridays in the Teaching and Learning Center (TLC) of the Learning Commons at Lake Washington Technical College. I mostly participated as a listener and the administrator of the videorecorder trained on Cheyenne Roduin for the duration of the presentation. I am interested in collecting these bits of outreach to students and faculty for the purpose of tracking our progress and momentum and publicizing these efforts to the myriad social networking pipelines we have laid down in the past few weeks.

This first brown bag series seemed to be effective for the faculty and staff who attended. Everyone was genuinely engaged in the presentation and raised many pertinent questions. The workshop covered the NoodleBib online resource itself, but began with an introduction to plagiarism, what it is and why it is discouraged.

Everytime I use NoodleBib I am increasingly drawn to how easy it is to use and how many hidden features there are to manipulate and explore. During the presentation I asked about the Parenthetical Reference link that appears in the rightmost column in the Bibliography display. This link provides a wealth of scenarios (marked as “rules”) for the research paper writer including an already formatted in-text citation to be copied and pasted into a research paper.

The Analysis feature of NoodleBib also provides a useful service and this feature should be a guide for faculty to leverage the diversity and breadth of their academic assignments. Most of the assignments I have seen have been along the lines of “assignment must include three scholarly/peer-reviewed journals.” Why not require students to obtain information from a variety of sources? Journals, newspapers, trade publications, blogs, websites, legal and government documents. There is a vast body of information available from podcasted speeches to newspapers and raising the diversity of resources that support the academic assignments of students only enriches the character of their work and their understanding of all that is available. NoodleBib Analysis makes it easy to track what kinds of information resources are being added and gives an overview of the mediums, types, and currency of the information being provided in a particular bibliography.

As I work with NoodleBib with students and on my own (I have gotten into the habit of creating citations for issues I am investigating, like copyright for example) I realize what a powerful online tool this is and how some of its best features are severely underutilized. This brown bag is a critical first step in showing faculty this terrific resource and getting them to connect their students with the range of information available in whatever form it comes. It would be interesting to see faculty assignments for their students be modified to populate those other areas of the NoodleBib Analysis feature and begin to push the limits of student’s information literacy competencies.

Role Playing

Of late I have been approached by various students in need of writing assistance with their academic assignments. As a Librarian I want to help students wherever and however I can, but when I know there are key resources available (e.g., Writing Center, tutors) to these students I might be doing them a disservice through my attempts to help them correct their paper. It seems like students see me (and possibly anyone in a staff role in the Library) as a hybrid of information professionals, tutors, technical and software support, instructors, guides, interpreters, and many other roles.

My role in working with students should be the following:

• Support them in developing and implementing an information research strategy
• Expose them to information resources and tools
• Assist in the proper format and arrangement of a research citation
• Instruct them in how to identify and evaluate quality online information
• Educate them on the responsible use of information

It doesn’t make me feel any better when a student becomes frustrated by my inability to help them outside of my specific Librarian role; however, it doesn’t help the student or my colleagues to try to take on other roles simultaneously. I struggle with this tension between wanting to help the student, while at the same time maintaining the integrity of my role in the student learning/education experience. When a student seeks writing help while I am sitting at the Reference Desk and I am not helping anyone it might appear that I have the time and I am the resource available. I hate to turn a student away who is seeking help and I don’t want to be an automaton with the pat bureaucratic response of “I can’t help you because there are tutors here to help you. Please go through the proper channels.”

The best help one can offer is to solicit the help of someone better suited to the role. My hope is that most students will respect the limitations of my role and not be too terribly upset when I can’t help them beyond that.