Up from slavery, an autobiography of Booker T. Washington, goes in detail of his life contributing to the fame he has brought up for himself, admired by black and white America. His life, "had its beginning in the midst of the most miserable, desolate, and discouraging surrounding," but managed the difficulty and obstacles that faced him even as a child. One of those obstacles was to satisfy his desire in learning how to read. Later on, his obstacle is averted by his newly found freedom in 1865 at the age of nine. "From that time that I can remember having any thoughts about anything, I recalled that I had an intense longing to learn to read." Born a mulatto, Washing to would pay most of his success on not experiencing the full onslaught effects of slavery, reluctant encouragement from his mother and brother John, advantages he came across going to Hampton, influencing and convincing Americans of the greater benefits of a Negro education. As well as the advancement of the black population in high learning, and the influence of teaching from educators of which he befriended.
Nella Larsen, author of the novel Passing, I believe, contributes her writing of the novel to the racial identification she became questioned with as a teenager. Larsen, earlier known as Nellie Walker, had been designated as "colored" when born. She, being born in April 13, 1891, adopted the new birth year of 1893 and "Passed" as white by inheriting her Danish heritage. Though, making those changes still left her as the out- sider of her family because of the faint brown color of her skin in turn having Danish parents. Another pivoting factor of her writing was the decade of her birth. It was marked as one of the lowest points for race relations in the U.S. The gains of rights and protections for citizens made by African Americans became inferior to the Jim Crow codes and other discriminating practices. Her family "crossed the color line" when work was available only to colored people. By this, Larsen's family changed their name and erased their racial past. This left Larsen to come to the conclusion that her very existence associated her with the ongoing problem of race in America. She used these issues to fuel her writing, expressing the trouble of being mixed in America during that era.
Arna Bontemps inspiration of writing the novel, Black Thunder Gabriel's revolt: Virginia: 1800 seemed to have come from his current position in his career, the unrecognized criticism from his father, and the Great Depression. He states, "Time is not a river. Time is a pendulum," to emphasis on the crucial element of time and how repetivness stays consistent through out history. At the time of writing his first novel, he acknowledged to his father that he wanted to focus on writing as a main career. Though his father criticized him of having a "dead-end occupation unworthy of a young family man," he only felt numb to the insults, not giving him the time of day to even reply. The failure of his first book posed as a fault to the effects of the Great Depression and its effect on the Harlem Renaissance. It also brought on the lack of trade jobs, so in fact Bontemps had to be almost restricted to writing because there was nothing else for him. On a trip to Nashville, Tennessee, he visits the Fisk University library. There, having many a larger collection of slave narratives, he reads about different slave insurrections and wonders about the slaves' motives to freedom. Interesting him immensely he knew it had to be the subject of his new novel.
Between the time of Black Thunder, written in 1936 and Passing, written
in 1929, there is a slow, but definite development through the slavery and
beginning black civil rights movement era. Although Arna Bontemps's book Black
Thunder was written in 1936, it accounts the time of 1801, when Gabriel's
revolt in Virginia happened. So starting with that book, it would be the beginnings
of when slavery was in practice. Many revolts happened at that time, due to
the fact of teachings of the Bible to slaves to make them fit into their society.
In the teachings of Christianity, an issue of ownership of man is raised in
the novel. Mingo, a literate free slave in the book, read verses from the
Bible saying, "Thou shalt neither vex a stranger nor oppress him; for
ye were strangers in the land of Egypt…Thou shalt not oppress a stranger,
for ye know the heart of a stranger…." Gabriel took these words
into the depth of heart and set it up as a main motive to fight against the
people of Virginia. As many insurrections occurred in America, they where
of false hope. Later on, in Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin,
slave-holders of the North start to own up to their responsibility wrongs
in keeping slaves. In the beginnings of the book, Mrs. Shelby, wife of a plantation
owner, professes the evil of slavery to her husband. As the plot progresses
towards the end, their son, George Shelby decrees, "…I resolved,
before God, that I would never own another slave, while it was possible to
free him…." Of his parents wrongdoing he corrects them by letting
the slaves he inherited with the land free. A little time after Uncle Tom's
Cabin, Booker T. Washington is feeling the freedom he was bestowed upon as
a boy. When the Emancipation Proclamation was declared, Washington, like so
many others used his allowance to the fullest degree. As he is educated, government
officials take into account the new addition of blacks in America and how
they could become apart of American democracy, this would be the basis of
social reform during the Reconstruction period after the Civil War. With the
influence of Booker T. Washington and many other men and women who helped
in the Advancement of Blacks, officials of higher class began to distinguish
educated blacks up to the level of where they were.
In the era of the Harlem Renaissance, Nella Larsen writes her novel, Passing.
This is where in the time frame turns in to a somewhat new direction. The
book seems more into the relationship of blacks among each other rather than
the relationship of black and white Americans. Though, it is in a small since
the relationship of whites and blacks because of the family history of blacks
of the past bearing "mulatto" children. Then on from there they
are mixed into the white culture and heritage so much so that at the time
of the 1920s some people have only one-eighth black or one-sixteenths black
in them. The ancestries of African American in those people are just lost
in their looks, so most pass off as white to feel the sense of belonging in
such societal confusion.
