Writing about Race in Nineteenth-Century America:
Literature and Law

English 391

Course Outline

Jan 14  Class visit to U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C.
      16  Introduction to course and materials; background.  Study in-class: the U.S. Constitution
	(including Amendments 1-15) and race: Is the Constitution Color-Blind?

      21  Conclude in-class study of Constitution: Is the Constitution Color-Blind?
23	Student reports: The Missouri Compromise (1820), Nat Turner’s Rebellion (1831), The Mexican War (1846-48)

      28  Conclude student reports: The Compromise of 1850, the Kansas–Nebraska Act (1854),  
	“Jim Crow”
30	Thoreau, “Resistance to Civil Government” (1846); Chesnutt, “The Passing of Grandison” 
	(1899); Stowe’s Dred and the law

Feb  4  Stowe, Dred (1856)
        6  Continue Dred  (in the context of Uncle Tom’s Cabin [1852])

11	Conclude Dred
       13  Begin Scott v. Sandford (1857)

       18  Continue Scott v. Sandford; Student report: John Brown and Harper’s Ferry (1859)
       20  Conclude Scott v Sandford

       25  Student report: Lincoln, The Emancipation Proclamation (1863)
       27  Begin The Octroon (1859) 

Mar  4  Conclude The Octoroon
         6  Review 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments; Student report: Reconstruction (1865-77), Freed-
 man’s Bureau; Chesnutt, “Ciceley’s Dream” (1899) discuss student projects (begin 
 in class; complete appointments by end of week)

       11 & 13  Spring Break—No Class

       18  Begin A Fool’s Errand
       20  A Fool’s Errand

       25  Twain, Pudd’nhead Wilson and Those Extraordinary Twins (1894) (in the context of 
	 Huckleberry Finn [1885])
       27  Conclude Pudd’nhead Wilson and Those Extraordinary Twins

Apr   1  Plessy v. Ferguson (1896); briefs filed for plaintiff and defendant in Plessy
         3  Plessy v. Ferguson

         8  Student report: Booker T. Washington and The Atlanta Exposition (1895); begin Chesnutt, 
	The Marrow of Tradition (1901)
10	Conclude Marrow

       15  Catch up
       17  Catch up

22  Student reports on research
       24  Student reports on research      
       
       29  Student reports on research

Papers due on Tuesday during Finals Week, May 6

Arrangements for a midterm exam will be made once the semester is under way.  The final exam will be given at the time designated on the published final exam schedule.

391CourseOutline