U.S. Lit Midterm – Flashcards
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Crumb of dust
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Edward Taylor's "Prologue." He is referring to humans being so small amd insignificant in the world. He repeats it throughout the poem to emphasize his point. Taylor's wants the reader to make God the most important thing in his or her life.
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The Lord hath answered my poor desire
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Rowlandson, The Sovereignty and Goodness of God. God had answered her request to return home quietly and without fear.
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Obnoxious to each carping tongue
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Bradstreet's "The Prologue." She is annoyed of people being so critical all the time, but she proceeds to admit that she does not care and will continue to do what she want regardless of what others think and say.
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Weak or wounded brain
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Bradstreet's "The Prologue." Bradstreet is referring to her own brain being weak and wounded in comparison's to a man, which is reflective of the type of mindset instilled by society during her time period.
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If ever man were loved by wife
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"To My Dear and Loving Husband" by Bradstreet. She is saying if ever a man has been loved by his wife, he certainly has been, which shows the reader how strong her love was for her husband.
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Weetamoo
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Rowlandson, The Sovereignty and Goodness of God. Weetamoo is one of Rowlandson's royal indigenous mistresses who has high political and social statuses. She would powder her hair and face and adorn herself in jewelry, which shows the reader what she and other Wompanoag chiefs were like.
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The mere pleasure of God
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Jonathan Edwards, "Sinner's in the Hands of an Angry God." This is a belief Edwards stresses throughout his doctrine. He believes the only thing keeping sinners from hell is nothing more than God's pleasure, his arbitrary will.
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"Men can do it best, and women know it well."
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Anne Bradstreet "The Prologue." I know I can explain this tomorrow, so I won't bother doing it now.
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"Another was Wattimore, with whom I had lived and served all this while: A severe and proud Dame she was, bestowing everyday in dressing her self neat as much time as any of the Gentry of the land: powdering her hair, and painting her face, going with Neck-laces, with Jewels in her ears, and Bracelets upon her hands:When she had dressed her self, her work was to make Girdles of Wampum and Beads."
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Rowlandson's The Sovereignty and Goodness of God. She is criticizing Weetamoo's way of living and acting. She is critical of Weetamoo in general because she does not believe a woman should be able to hold so much power.
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"Now hath God fulfilled that precious Scripture which was a comfort to me in my distressed condition. When my heart was ready to sink into the earth (my children being gone I could not tell wither) and my knees trembled under me, And I was walking through the valley of the shadow of death: Then the Lord brought, and now has fufilled that reviving word unto me: Thus saith the Lord, Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears, for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the Lord, and they shall come again from the Land of the Enemy."
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Mary Rowlandson, The Sovereignty and Goodness of God. This quote really describes who Rowlandson was as a person. She once again quotes the Bible and uses it to describe her situation. She is immensely thankful to God for bringing her out of this terrible situation and saving her life.
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"A Bartas can do what a Bartas will / But simple I according to my skill."
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Bradstreet's "The Prologue." She is basically saying that she could never write as well as the great poets, but she is happy to write her simple poetry about colonial life instead of trying to tread into a territory with which she is unfamiliar and unqualified.
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"The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect, over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked; his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire; he is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in his sight; you are ten thousand times so abominable in his eyes as the most hateful venomous serpent in ours".
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Jonathan Edwards, "Sinner's in the Hands of an Angry God." Edwards uses this vivid and frightening description to scare sinners and make known the wrath of God.
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"The soule and Body now, as two true Lovers / Ery night how do they hug and kiss each other."
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Edward Taylor, "A Fig for Thee Oh! Death." God reunites the body and soul on judgment day, and this reunion will be beautiful. It also suggests the idea that the soul and body need each other, and neither can survive without the other.
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The ruine of New England
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William Bradford's "Of Plimoth Plantation." These few words embody the fear Bradford and his generation had about the next generation's tendency to pull away from the religion/society that had fought and traveled so far to maintain.
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Timorous
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Letter of Columbus. Columbus repeatedly makes reference to the natives he comes across lacking bravery, referring to them as "timid." A lot of this is Columbus mistaking kindness for fear, and I think it illustrates the type of person Columbus was and how he felt superior to the Native Americans immediately after meeting them.
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Okee
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John Smith's "The Generall Historie of Virginia." The Kecoughtan village esteemed Okee as some sort of idol god so much that they retreated from battle when Smith and his men destroyed it. The influence of the spiritual realm was just as important to them as Christianity was to Smith. The irony behind a group of warriors falling apart at the scene of the shredded stuffing of the Okee and begging for mercy shows that Smith knew what he was doing the whole time.
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Low man on the totem pole
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Wamsutta James's "Supressed Speech on Anniversary of Pilgrim's Landing at Plymouth Rock." This summarizes the arrival of White European settlers into Native American inhabited areas that were then taken over. There was no regard for using these people for their skills and resources then displacing them after taking everything.
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Physician
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From "Narrative of Cabeza de Vaca" by de Vaca. Despite de Vaca finding humor in how odd the Native's medical practices were, he became a medicine man to gain food.
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Our spirit refuses to die
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Wamsutta James's "Supressed Speech on Anniversary of Pilgrim's Landing at Plymouth Rock." Despite the past and current pressures to behave like the conquering culture, the Wampanoag as a people did not let go entirely of their culture and their beliefs. Despite being conquered, they are still stand as their own people.
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Blancas
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Letter of Columbus. Small coins worth less than a cent which Columbus's crew traded to the Native Americans for "everything they had."
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Banquaug River
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Rowlandson's "The Sovereignty and Goodness of God." Although the English army is unable to ford the river, the native "savages" are able to do so with ease, and their success over the "superior" British effectively shifts her paradigm of the natives from barbaric simpletons to rather innovative heathens. Mary claims that the English were not able to cross the river because it was God's will that they fail. This assertion serves to both rationalize their failure to rescue her while also condemning the ineptitude of the English.
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Dusky daughter of heathen sires
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Paula Allen's "Pocahontas to her English Husband, John Rolfe." This phrase is used when Pocahontas is discussing how her husband sees her. It provides strong imagery and has a negative connotation attached to it, which communicates Rolfe's feelings about his wife very clearly.
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Rogered her
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William Byrd's "The Secret Diary of William Byrd." This term pops up a lot through his diary entries and it seems to be the only time that William Byrd and his wife are ever on good terms (when having sex). I also find it interesting that he only ever says it in passing, it almost seems like a chore like reading his different languages, something he has to do in his daily routine, which illustrates the type of relationship they have.
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"And yet the Lord so upheld these persons, as in this generall calamity they were not at all infected either with sickness, or lameness."
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William Bradford's "Of Plimoth Plantation." This particular quote refers to a hard time that their people endured. Bradford is trying to record the idea that those individuals who sacrifice and strive to help others selflessly will be blessed by God.
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"They go naked, as I have already said, and they are the most timorous people in the world, so that the men whom I have left there alone would suffice to destroy all that land, and the island is without danger for their persons, if they know how to govern themselves."
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Letter of Columbus.
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"Such actions have ever since the worlds beginning beene subject to such accidents, and everything of worth is found full of difficulties but nothing so difficult to establish a Common-wealth so farre remote from men and meanes, and where mens minds are so untoward as neither doe well themselves, nor suffer others."
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John Smith's "The Generall Historie of Virginia." Smith obviously endured struggle throughout his journey, and this quote is evident of that. He explains his troubles by saying they were inevitable.
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"We stand tall and proud, and before too many moons pass we'll right the wrongs we have allowed to happen to us."
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Wamsutta James's "Supressed Speech on Anniversary of Pilgrim's Landing at Plymouth Rock." This quote is significant to support the idea that the Native Americans were not savages, as described initially by Columbus but were impartial people who were walked all over after being willing to share their land, food and water. One of the main reasons that James' speech was likely suppressed is because the aforementioned statement could have been potentially taken as a threat. Everything in general that James brought to light is practically a truth that Americans did not want to hear.
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"I was not obliged to work, and was not a slave."
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From "Narrative of Cabeza de Vaca" by de Vaca. I think de Vaca believed this quote made him look better and less obliged to do everything the Natives made him do.
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"The earth is a great island floating in a sea of water."
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Cherokee "How the Earth was Made." This phrase stuck out to me because of the way it poetically illustrates the vision of earth. It is also interesting that the Cherokee seem to have an understanding of how much water surrounds the land they inhabited, even though they had obviously not yet understood the world as a globe consisting mostly of water.
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"We are Indians first - but we are termed 'good citizens.' Sometimes we are arrogant but only because society has pressured us to be so."
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Wamsutta James's "Supressed Speech on Anniversary of Pilgrim's Landing at Plymouth Rock." This quote best summarizes the article as it states not just that the Wampanoag are a different people with a different culture and beliefs, but that they expected both in the past and in the present to be "good citizens" in that they are to act and believe as the conquering whites want them to.
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"The first week of my being among them I hardly ate anything; the second week I found my stomach grow very faint for want of something; and yet it was very hard to get down their filthy trash; but the third week, though I could think how formerly my stomach would turn against this or that, and I could starve and die before I could eat such things, yet they were sweet and savory to my taste."
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Rowlandson's "The Sovereignty and Goodness of God." This quotation illustrates the dramatic change in Rowlandson's entire value system that occurs as she spends more and more time with the natives. Initially, she views the food- and, by extension, the people themselves- as "filthy trash", but is soon able to stomach them. The ability of the natives to adeptly cross rivers, survive in the wilderness, and best the English on multiple occasions leads Rowlandson to realize that different does not always mean worse.
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"I understood your ploys and still/protected you, going so far as to die/in your keeping - a wasting,/putrefying Christian death - and you,/deceiver, whiteman, father of my son,/survived, reaping wealth greater/than any you had ever dreamed/from what I taught you/and from the wasting of my bones."
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Paula Allen's "Pocahontas to her English Husband, John Rolfe." This quote at the end of the poem perfectly summarizes Pocahontas's resentment toward John Rolfe. She hates that she helped him even though she knew exactly what he was up to, and she hates that he got what he wanted out of her help. She values her death at nothing.
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"My wife caused Prue to be whipped violently notwithstanding I desired not, which provoked me to have Anaka whipped likewise who had deserved it much more, on which my wife flew into such a passion that she hoped she would be revenged of me."
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William Byrd's "The Secret Diary of William Byrd." This quote really shows how little they care for the people that they are hurting and how they hurt people just to get back at one another. It's like a game to them.
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"Down I sat, with my heart as full as it could hold, and yet so hungry that I could not sit neither: but going out to see what I could find, and walking among the Trees, I found six Acorns, and two Chest-nuts, which were some refreshment to me."
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Rowlandson's "The Sovereignty and Goodness of God." This quotation made me realize just how much of a change it must have been for Rowlandson to become like the Natives. Not only in terms of the cultural differences which are obvious, but as well as the small things like food. When one is famished to a certain extent, anything will taste god to them, in this case it was refreshment to Rowlandson.
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Deceiver, whiteman, father of my son
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Paula Allen's "Pocahontas to her English Husband, John Rolfe." This ID aptly describes how Pocahontas most likely felt about Rolfe and everyone else involved in her capture.
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"I rose about 6 o'clock and read two chapters in Hebrew and some Greek in Lucian. I said my prayers and ate boiled milk for breakfast. I danced my dance."
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William Byrd's "The Secret Diary of William Byrd." This quotation is literally William Byrd in a nut shell.
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"If you present the world before her, with the richest of its treasures, she disregards it and cares for it not."
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Jonathan Edwards's "Sinner's in the Hands of an Angry God." I believe that this passage really shows how the presence of objects and things have really blocked our view of the modern day world, however when times were much simpler, it was easier to only be pleased by God and nothing else. I think that this passage really shows how easy it is to get distracted from religion, but at the same time how easy it is to return to simply deactivating and giving yourself to God.
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The Great Buzzard
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Cherokee "How the Earth was Made." Illustrates how intact with nature the Indians were and how they believed everything came from great spirits in animal form.
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"At first there were only a brother and sister until he struck her with a fish and told her to multiply, and so it was"
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Cherokee "How the Earth was Made." Summarizes how entire story was comprised of explanations for the unexplainable.
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"Those people love their offspring the most of any in the world, and treat them with the greatest mildness. When it occurs that a son dies, the parents and kindred weep as does everybody; the wailing continuing for him a whole year."
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From "Narrative of Cabeza de Vaca" by de Vaca. This quotation displays that the indigenous people that Cabeza de Vaca encounters have very different ideals about death than Europeans typically do. The indigenous people believe that young lives are more lamentable than older lives because young people have lost the potential of their whole lives. In contrast, older people are not as grieved for as young people because they have lived out 'their season', or the better parts of their lives. This is in opposition to how Europeans value adult lives more than children's lives.
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Wampanoag man
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Wamsutta James's "Supressed Speech on Anniversary of Pilgrim's Landing at Plymouth Rock." He describes himself as this, completely proud of his heritage. He then goes on to explain his reasoning for his pride in his heritage, the struggles that have been encountered by the Wampanoag, their differences over the years from the kind that has taken over the homelands. So much time later than Bradford's Of Plimouth Plantation, it is remarkable to see such an exclamation after all that has happened.
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"By all which it may appeare how far these people were from peace, and with what danger this plantation was begune, save as the powerfull hand of the Lord did protect them."
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William Bradford's "Of Plimoth Plantation." This comes after a gruesome depiction of the horrors that existed in the New England region and the strife that existed between natives and newcomers. Bradford then goes on to thank the Lord for all the safety that has existed.
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Wanton savage
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Paula Allen's "Pocahontas to her English Husband, John Rolfe." It reflects the view that Europeans seemed to uniformly hold Native Americans, even those that are considered "iconic" in our history.
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"While in captivity, Pocahontas converted to Christianity and married a colonist, John Rolfe, in 1614"
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Jamestown through modern lens. Illustrates how Pocahontas was willing to change her entire life and beliefs to be with John Rolfe, who ended up betraying her, rt if you cried.
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Wakan Tanka
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Lakota "Wohpe and the Gift of the Pipe." This is their higher power and what the Buffalo Woman's pipe will enable connection with. This sets the foundation for why the pipe is important to them.
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"But she would serve them in this way. When the smoke came from the pipe she would be present and hear their prayers and take them to the Wakan Tanka and plead for them that their prayers should be answered"
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Lakota "Wohpe and the Gift of the Pipe." This quote illustrates the power a female force has in these tribes and at the same time shows her desire and commitment to help the people connect with this spiritual being. This connection (and therefore, pipe) is of great weight concerning a heavily spiritual tribe and explains there use of it in connection with the Buffalo Woman.
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Two distinctly different cultures met
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Wamsutta James's "Supressed Speech on Anniversary of Pilgrim's Landing at Plymouth Rock."
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"A history that was written by an organized, disciplined people, to expose us as an unorganized, undisciplined entity. Two distinctly different cultures met. One thought they must control life; the other believed life was to be enjoyed, because nature decreed it. Let us remember, the Indian is and was just as human as the white man."
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Wamsutta James's "Supressed Speech on Anniversary of Pilgrim's Landing at Plymouth Rock." James explains how the English dehumanized them and treated them completely unfairly just because they were different.
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"She is of a wonderful sweetness, calmness, and universal benevolence of mind; especially after those times in which this great God has manifested himself to her mind."
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Jonathan Edwards's "On Sarah Pierpont." This quote exemplifies the intense religious feeling held in that time and the relationship between romantic love and religious love. Here, Edwards is commenting on the beauty of Sarah, but to a greater extent, he is crediting her attraction to her religious devotion—saying that she is most beautiful when God is on her mind.
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"Reader, if thou gettest no good by such a Declaration as this, the fault must needs be thine own. Read therefore, Peruse, Ponder, and from hence lay by something from the experience of another against thine own turn comes, that so thou also through patience and consolation of the Scripture mayest have hope."
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Rowlandson Preface. The final paragraph of the preface primes the reader's experience and attitudes towards the text. Without the preface, Mary Rowlandson's narrative is an adventure story with some Biblical allusions. The quote above qualifies the work as divinely inspired regardless of reader interpretation.
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Heart-affecting mercies
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Rowlandson Preface. Expressing how she was saved by God's mercy.
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"We tell stories in order to affirm our being and our place in the scheme of things."
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Momaday's "Becoming of the Native: Man in America before Columbus." With this quote, Momaday tells the reader the significance of the oral tradition within the Native American community and captures the intent behind the creation/dissemination behind such stories.
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I danced my dance
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William Byrd's "The Secret Diary of William Byrd." A phrase probably referring to a daily calisthenic exercise routine. I don't think anyone will have any difficulty recalling which text this phrase comes from. It appears, in some form or another, throughout "The Secret Diary" and describes one of the activities that Byrd regularly engaged in.
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"At night I read some Latin. I said my prayers and had good health, good thoughts, and good humor, thank God Almighty. I rogered my wife again"
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William Byrd's "The Secret Diary of William Byrd." This quotation, I think, includes a little bit of everything "The Secret Diary" is about. As a member of the landed gentry, lead a leisurely life and could afford to spend his free time reading books in dead languages. Variations of this phrase appear throughout "The Secret Diary," usually at the end of each entry. And "I rogered my wife," a phrase of British slang meaning "I had sex with my wife," not only describes one of the activities Byrd regularly engaged in, but also serves as a small glimpse at the passionate, amorous man that he was.
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Robust masculine ladies and effeminate men
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This identification can be found in Judith Sargent Murray's "On the Equality of the Sexes. These few words provide a brief summary of Murray's idea that women and men do not possess certain qualities based on gender, as supported through the fact that not all women are very feminine and not all men are very masculine.
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"I know that to both sexes elevated understanding, and the reverse, are common. But suffer me to ask, in what the minds of females are so notoriously deficient, or unequal."
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This quote comes from Judith Sargent Murray in her essay "On the Equality of the Sexes." I feel that this quote sums up Murray as a person and the rest of her essay. Though she and Bradstreet are both considered early feminists, contrary to Bradstreet's reluctant acceptance that men are intellectually superior to women, Murray challenges this belief on account of the fact that there is no concrete evidence to support it. She illustrates how feminism and women have grown stronger.
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"I came at length to a country, the inhabitants of which differed from us in all those particulars. I was very much struck with this difference, especially when I came among a people who did not circumcise, and ate without washing their hands. They cooked also in iron pots, and had European cutlasses and cross bows, which were unknown to us, and fought with their fists among themselves. Their women were not so modest as ours, for they ate, and drank, and slept with their men. But above all, I was amazed to see no sacrifices or offerings among them."
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"The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equaino" by Equaino. This passage illuminates Equaino's lack of exposure to customs that were out of the norm. Today, if the average American citizen were to encounter another culture and experience customs that were unusual and opposite of our own, we would never think to criticize. (we have been introduced to these differences for quite some time) Even though he was shocked to witness some of these, acceptance always came before judgement. We are not ignorant to other cultures in our nation, which is why we are welcoming. Equaino was not educated to these attributes but was always positive.
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"I now totally lost the small remains of comfort I had enjoyed in conversing with my countrymen."
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"The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equaino" by Equaino. This is the beginning of a phase of near-total social isolation for Equiano, possibly the most trying of times for him. That is not to say that his other situations were just fine (they weren't), but I can't begin to imagine what it would be like to undergo tribulation and be unable to communicate about it.
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"By these presents do manumit, emancipate, enfranchise, and set free, the aforesaid Negro man-slave, named Gustavus Vassa, forever."
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"The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equaino" by Equaino. This was said by Robert King, and serves as evidence of Gustavus Vassa's legitimately-obtained freedom. In the modern day, this doesn't seem like much, but most slaves didn't earn their freedom in such a way. Some were set free by the wills of their masters, many escaped slavery in a more literal sense, but most lived their lives as a slave.
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Wampom
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Rowlandson's "The Sovereignty and Goodness of God." Small cylindrical beads made by Native Americans which Rowlandson often describes as adornments for clothing.
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"If I went to their Wigwam at any time, they would always give me something, and yet they were strangers that I never saw before. Another Squaw gave me a piece of fresh Pork, and a little Salt with it, and lent me her Pan to Fry it in; and I cannot but remember what a sweet pleasure and delightfull relish that bit had to me, to this day. So little do we prize common mercies when we have them to the full."
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Rowlandson's "The Sovereignty and Goodness of God." The significance here is this quote represents a brief reprieve she has from her suffering. Not only does she welcome the mercy of these strangers despite knowing they killed Englishmen, the strangers themselves show compassion for her as a non-combatant.
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Particular favorite of heaven
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"The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equaino" by Equaino. It encompasses the tone of Equiano's narrative. Reflecting on the grueling nature of his past, he humbly gives glory to God and acknowledges the way God divinely worked through all grooves of his journey. By calling himself a "favorite of heaven," Equiano is suggesting the way God led him out of wretched circumstances and into a life of freedom.
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"Accordingly he signed the manumission that day; so that, before night, I who had been a slave in the morning, trembling at the will of another, was become my own master, and completely free. I thought this was the happiest day I had ever experienced."
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"The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equaino" by Equaino. This quote is significant because it paints a sharp contrast between his former life in slavery and his life in freedom. It is the quintessential (borderline cheesy) ending to a classic tale of struggle until victory. What gives Equiano's words so much weight is that since he was a learned and respected slave, it seems strange to remember him in the context of slavery. The narrative was bizarre to read at times because while he was a huge asset to free white men in many ways, at the end of the day... he was still only a slave that was owned by them. It is easy in this narrative to forget the reality of his former circumstances.
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Take pity on the red people
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Tecumseh's "Speech of Tecumseh to Governor Harrison." Tecumseh does not want actual pity for Natives, he wants the U.S. to stop expanding over land that has always belonged to the Native tribes and their people, and he will do whatever must be done to achieve that goal.
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"Brother, you ought to know what you are doing with the Indians. Perhaps it is by direction of the President to make those distinctions. It is a very bad thing, and we do not like it. Since my residence at Tippacanoe we have endeavored to level all distinctions- to destroy village chiefs, by whom all mischief is done. It is they who sell our lands to the Americans. Our object is to let our affairs be transacted by warriors."
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Tecumseh's "Speech of Tecumseh to Governor Harrison." The quote expresses not just displeasure at what is being done to Natives as a collective by white, but also by tribes who give away or sell their land. The quote shows a claim made that Native tribes are uniting under his influence, becoming a united people. He wanted to express this unity to show equality to the target of this speech, Governor Harrison.
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Speckled ax
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Franklin's autobiography. Speckled Ax is a small metaphor that Franklin uses to illustrate the point that people want to obtain the best thing that they so desire but do not necessarily want to put in the work in order to do so. The man wanting brightly shining ax was like a vice for Franklin and the man that no longer wanted the shiny ax after having to turn the wheel to achieve it.
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"In reality there is perhaps no one of our natural Passions so hard to subdue as Pride. Disguise it, struggle with it, beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive, and well every now and then people out and show itself. You will see it perhaps often in this History. For even if I could conceive that I had completely overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility."
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Franklin's autobiography. This is actually the last few lines in the work and I find it so fitting that Franklin Boasts about his humility. For all that he has accomplished, and he is aware that he has, he doesn't take credit for it publicly. This is a very humble thing to do, yet his humility runs out when he is writing his autobiography.
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Manumission papers
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"The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equaino" by Equaino. These papers are the official legal documents that free a slave, severing all control a master has over them. To get these papers, a slave has to buy back his freedom to his master, in addition to paying for the legal document itself. The wording of the manumission is intriguing as well, in effect destroying the man-made identity of 'property' he once inhabited.
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"I no longer looked upon them as spirits, but as men superior to us; and therefore I had the strong desire to resemble them, to imbibe their spirit, and imitate their manners."
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"The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equaino" by Equaino. This quote near the middle of Equiano's narrative proves difficult to read because of its overt love and gratitude toward his white captors. It becomes challenging to integrate such a sentence in a narrative focused around the theme of slavery. When reading through the story, it becomes apparent that Equiano is not charging the white race with cruelty, but the institution of slavery. He could have done this for a plethora of reasons, one being that he was attempting to appeal to a predominantly white audience, and must therefore make them seem, in general, not too bad
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Foppery of morals
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Franklin's autobiography. Defined in our textbook as "an affected or vain display of morality," Franklin ultimately concludes that the "extream Nicety" he had been aspiring toward would have made him seem ridiculous and would have caused his friends to envy and hate him. The ID represents one of the chief themes of this selection: Franklin's struggle to achieve perfection through moderation.
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Nominal Christians
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"The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equaino" by Equaino. As the word nominal means name only, these so called Christians were not upholding in following Jesus. This whole narrative leads up to this point, as Equiano gives a detailed discription about his life. Because of slavery, it is easy to see that a lack of faith has been taking place during this time and the title of being a Christian was used as a way to rank themselves/ look a certain way. As Equiano calls out the "Christians" in this way, he is not only mocking them, but pointing out their sin.
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"If possibly I could escape all other animals, I could not those of the human kind; and that, not knowing the way, I must perish in the woods. Thus I was hunted like a deer."
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"The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equaino" by Equaino. I think this quote is significant because it shows the divide among humans, which God never intended. It not only shows the dehumanization as well but how slaves were treated as animals rather than people. As we can see religion, has not taken place in this act as slaveholders called themselves Christians.
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Gaieti de Coar
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Abigail and John Adams letters. This French phrase (according to our footnotes) translates to "cheerfulness or lightness of heart" and is actually spelled gaité de Coeur. The phrase is initially used by Abigail and reappears when John references her letter and offers his own unique misspelling of the word ("Gaiety de Coeur). To me, John's need to inconspicuously correct Abigail's mistake only to be mistaken in his assertion of mental superiority reflects his attitudes towards Abigail's concerns for American women in the quest for Independence.
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"I long to hear that you have declared an independency -- and by the way in the new Code of Laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make I desire you would remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. "
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Abigail and John Adams letters. Perhaps Abigail Adams' most famous line, Abby exemplifies perhaps the earliest form of women's rights in the new nation. She is the new standard for women of the new world, American women. Abigail Addams is educated, opinionated, strong-willed, kind and generous, her wisdom in lines like the above is countered with witty banter with her husband throughout their letters. Though John argues against the timeliness of Abigail's request, he cannot argue its validity.
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The New World is ancient
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Momaday's "Becoming of the Native." Occurs in beginning of writing. Means that Columbus wrongfully took over land that was not new at all, nor his to conquer. Rather, it was an ancient land that had been filled with its own people, societies, and lifestyles for centuries.
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Mend thy pace
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"A Fig for Thee Oh! Death" by Edward Taylor. Said at end of poem.Taylor has complete faith in God and knows he will be with Him once he dies. Therefore, he does not fear death, in fact he asks death to "mend thy pace," or come quicker so Taylor can be with God.
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"I was charm'd with it, adopted it, dropt my abrupt Contradiction, and positive Argumentation, and put on the humble Enquirer and Doubter."
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Franklin in his autobiography is referencing a writing on Socrates. Franklin took great proud in knowledge and studying hard to better himself, all while staying "humble."
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Pass through a hollow log
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Iriquois Confederacy. Part of process by which Gaqka's bride transforms him into a handsome and powerful man. I think this metaphor, in Seneca story, also invites thought about possible sexual symbolism.
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Pay, money, Pay as money, and trusting
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"The Journal of Madam Knight." Four ways to pay. Pay = grain/pork/beef, money = pieces of eight, pay as money = provisions, trust = merchant and buyer agree for time
