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

Graduate Seminar: English 661

Course Outline—Spring 2004

Jan 20  Introduction to course and materials; background

      27  In-class, study the U.S. Constitution (including Amendments 1-10) and race: Is the Consti-
tion color-blind? Student reports: The Missouri Compromise (1820), Nat Turner’s Rebel-lion (1831), The Compromise of 1850, The Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)

Feb  3  Thoreau, “Resistance to Civil Government” (1846); Student Report: The Mexican War 
	(1846-48) Chesnutt, “The Passing of Grandison” (1899); begin Stowe’s Dred (1856)

Feb 10 Conclude Dred (in the context of Uncle Tom’s Cabin [1852]); begin Dred Scott v. Sand-
	 ford (1857)

17	Complete Dred Scott; Student report: John Brown and Harper’s Ferry (1859); Boucicault,
      The Octroon (1859)

24  Catch up; Student reports: “Jim Crow”; Lincoln, The Emancipation Proclamation (1863); 
      Chesnutt, “The Wife of His Youth” (1898), “Her Virginia Mammy” (1899), “The Sheriff’s
      Children” (1889), and The Web of Circumstance” (1899)

Mar  2  Review 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments; Student report: Reconstruction & Freedman’s 
	Bureau (1865-77); Chesnutt, “Ciceley’s Dream” (1899); begin The Civil Rights Act (1875)

        9  Tourgée, A Fool’s Errand; discussion on student projects (begin in class; complete 
	appointments by end of week)

16   Spring Break—No Class

23   The Civil Rights Act (1875) and “The Civil Rights Cases” (1883)

30   Twain, Pudd’nhead Wilson and Those Extraordinary Twins (1894), in the context of 
	Huckleberry Finn (1885)

Apr  6  Plessy v. Ferguson (1896 ); briefs filed for plaintiff and defendant in Plessy

       13 Student report: Booker T. Washington and The Atlanta Exposition (1895); Chesnutt; The 
	Marrow of Tradition (1901)

       20  Catch up

27	Catch up

May  4  Student reports on research

Papers due by noon on Monday of Finals Week, May 10

661CourseOutline