Writing about Race in Nineteenth-Century America:
Literature and Law
Terry Oggel
English 499: Senior Seminar—Fall 2017
Course Outline
(subject to revisions as necessary)
Aug 24 Introduction to course and materials; background
29 In-class, study the U.S. Constitution including Amendments 1-10 (1787) and race: Is the Constitution color-
blind?
31 Student reports: The Declaration of Independence; The Fugitive Slave Act, 1793; begin Thoreau,
“Resistance to Civil Government” (1849)
Sep 05 Complete “Resistance…”; Student report: Nullification Act (1832)
07 Student report: The Mexican War, 1846-48; begin Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852)
12 Continue Uncle Tom’s Cabin; student report: Missouri Compromise (1820)
14 Student report: The Compromise of 1850; conclude Uncle Tom’s Cabin
19 begin Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857); begin Boucicault, The Octroon (1859)
21 Conclude Dred Scott; conclude Octoroon
26 Student report: John Brown and Harper’s Ferry (1859); Page, “Marse Chan,” 1884 (In Ole Virginia)
28 Student report: The Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854); Page, “Meh Lady” (1886)
Oct 03 Conclude “Meh Lady”; student report: The Emancipation Proclamation (1862, 1863); review 13th, 14th and
15th Amendments
05 Conclude review of Civil Rights Amendments; Page, “Unc’ Edinburg’s Drowndin’” (1886); student report:
Reconstruction & Freedman’s Bureau (1865-77)
10 Page, “Ole ’Stracted” (1886); student report: The Civil Rights Acts (1866, 1875)
12 Begin Tourgée, A Fool’s Errand (1879); student report: Black Codes, 1865-66
17 Continue A Fool’s Errand ; student conferences*
19-20 Reading Days—no classes
24 Conclude A Fool’s Errand; “The Civil Rights Cases” (1883); student conferences*
26 Conclude “The Civil Rights Cases”; student conferences*
31 Catch up; student conferences*
Nov 02 Begin Twain, Pudd’nhead Wilson and Those Extraordinary Twins (1894), in the context of
Huckleberry Finn (1885); student conferences*
Friday, November 03—Last Day to Withdraw from Fall Semester Classes
Nov 07 Conclude Twain
09 Plessy v. Ferguson (1896); briefs filed for plaintiff and defendant in Plessy; review 24th Amendment
14 Begin Guinn v. U. S. (1915)
16 Student report: The Atlanta Exposition and Booker T. Washington (1895); continue Guinn
21 Conclude Guinn; student report: Jim Crow laws (1876ff); begin Chesnutt, The Marrow of Tradition (1901)
22-26 Thanksgiving Break
28 continue Chesnutt, The Marrow of Tradition (1901)
30 Conclude Marrow
Dec 05 Catch up
07 Student reports on research papers
11 TBD--MLA Handbook meeting for papers—optional
11-19 M-T Finals Week
Papers due by noon on Wednesday, December 13
*student conferences: meet with groups of 3-4 students to discuss paper topics
499.WtgAbtRace17.CouseOutline