Fredrick Douglas and Our Nig Book

For this paper assignment (minimum 5 full pages/maximum 7½ pages; double-spaced, 12-point font, margins no wider than 1.25 inches; please make sure to paginate and include your name), you are to compose an analytical essay in which you explore how The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and Our Nig reveal important dynamics of antebellum life for African Americans—enslaved and free. It is critical to recognize that Wilson was not enslaved and that Douglass’ narrative is not a novel. Indeed, since one text is a slave narrative and the other a fictionalized autobiography written in the form of a novel, you should acknowledge that the texts are from different genres as well. Whether or not you choose to comment on the different genres at length, please make sure that your analysis is actually comparative and that you have not given short shrift to one text because you focus more on the other (e.g. discussing Douglass for 3 ½ pages and Wilson for 1 ½ pages). You want to be able to indicate that you have read the entirety of both texts, too. In your paper, you might want to explore how Frederick Douglass and Harriet Wilson discuss the humiliations that people of African descent faced during the antebellum period. Or, you might prefer to assess how black people were able to maintain a sense of self in the face of enslavement or otherwise brutal treatment. Or, you might wish to focus upon how both texts suggest various ways—small and large—in which African Americans resisted discrimination and oppression. You might also consider how both works utilize some of the common narrative devices used in antebellum slave narratives that I have outlined during lecture. These are but suggestions. However you approach this assignment, make sure that you choose a theme or themes that you find compelling and that will allow you to construct a productive analysis. You should avoid merely summarizing the texts. Instead, you want to produce a strong argument of your own.