The Use Of Historical Fiction In Bound By Sally Gunning

Parents in the early colonies faced high infant mortality rates, such that every family was apt to lose at least one child. By using Elizabeth Drinker’s diary, Marten allows readers to gain a first-hand account of a mother’s worries and sorrows as her children become sick and some pass away. The agony over the loss of a loved one as well as the loss of the opportunities the child could have had growing up and the ones he would have given his family, are thoroughly expressed through this diary. It strengthens the overall argument that children were highly regarded in early American colonies for their ability to pass on family values and become the future of the society. These children are so important to the history of the United States because their survival in these early colonies led to the populating of the country. They continued to pass on the values of the early settlers so that a combined culture of all the colonies could be born into the country we know today, therefore making a positive impact in history.

The women of southern plantations are something that not many write about. There is a critical lack of information and books about them, which makes writing about her a difficult task. Many southern women are mentioned in many books only as part of the males. “It was not until the early 1970’s, with the advent of the women’s movement, that a book written by a Southern woman about Southern women was recognized as being of scholarly significance…”

The Shoemaker and the Tea Party by Alfred Young revolves around two bibliographies written about one of the last living participants of the Boston Tea Party, and the authors own interpretations of the events surrounding the Tea Party and the American Revolution as a whole. In this particular novel, Young explores what it means to rediscover history, and how history is continually redefined. Particular attention in the novel is given to public history, and how highlighting people otherwise lost to time can completely change how an event is perceived. Readers are given the opportunity to see the history behind the American Revolution through the lenses of an average man of that time. In this essay I will review the novel and the message

Harriet Jacob and Phillis Wheatley, Incident in the Life of a Slave Girl and On Being Brought from Africa to America both presents the existential conditions of being a black woman in a male dominated society. Despite their years span differences, both author present different, yet similar views of enslavement in America where black women struggle to reclaim their humanity and seek freedom within their society. For both Harriet and Phillis, both women used literacy as their voice to raise concern for the plight of enslaved African-Americans, more specifically the women.

Sharon Draper’s Copper Sun, a historical fiction novel, depicts the suffering and journeys of both a fifteen-year-old slave girl named Amari, and Polly, an indentured servant. Set in the eighteenth century, Draper documents the fictional stories of the two. Both are thrust into situations unknown to them. The two have completely different viewpoints that slowly but surely become more similar— not merging entirely, but shaing crucial points, like a Venn diagram— and share an unlikely path in life. Their perspectives alter the way they percieve their environment, people they meet, and each other.

Octavia E. Butler is the most prominent African-American female author in the genre of science fiction and topics related to the African-American experience in the US recur in several of her novels. (McEntee 139-141) According to Mickle, “Butler's emphasis on slavery and its cultural implications (the mixing of cultures and races) predominates” her work. “Her characters try to free themselves from some system of bondage” which “situates her firmly in the African American literary tradition, (…) infused with the racial memories of slavery.” (60) In Parable of the Sower, the theme of slavery is employed in two different ways. Firstly, the journey Lauren Olamina and her fellow travelers take to the North mirrors

In the non-fiction book “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl,” by Harriet A. Jacobs and published in Boston in 1861. The author Jacobs was born into slavery in 1813, in a town called Edenton, North Carolina. Jacob uses the pseudonym Linda Brent to narrate her first person account. The book opens with Jacobs stating her reasons for writing a biography of her life story. Her story is agonizing and she had rather have kept it confidential, although she felt that by making it public that perhaps it might help the antislavery movement. A preface by Linda Child, states in the beginning of the book, “READER, be assured this narrative is no fiction. I am aware that some of my adventures may seem incredible; but they are, nevertheless, strictly true” (Jacobs 5). I would like to explain the main themes in this story, they include family and community, dangers of slavery for women, motherhood, and altogether the corrupting power of slavery, religion, and last but not least perseverance.

Throughout history, men and women experienced life changing situations that impacted their lives in many different ways. The roles of both genders in society show the narrow thread of their gender specific roles and social standards. The customs of masculinity and femininity in the eastern part of the U.S, contributed tremendously to the roles men and women played in the Overland Trial. However, the development of the west showed the orthodox practices of American cultural and the way in which many American identified themselves. The novel by Kenneth Holmes called “The covered wagon”, illustrates the lives of the women who traveled the west in covered wagons during the 19th century through their letters and diaries. Women like Tamsen Donner as well as Virginia Reed, members of the donner party. In addition, there are letters and diaries from a Mormon midwife who delivered five babies on the trail and Rachel Fisher, who had to bury her husband and daughter before getting to Oregon. Through the text of Holmes, current historians are able to visualize the different places and details revolving around the trail, crafting scenarios that are both devastating and heart-warming to its audience. Holmes focused primarily in the roles of women in the expansion to the west and how the absence of women history shows the physical barrier crafted by gender roles.

The historical fiction novel, Chains, by Laurie Halse Anderson, takes place in the American Colonies during the Revolutionary War. The characters the play the most important roles in this story are Isabel, Ruth, Mr. and Mrs. Lockton, and Curzon. Isabel is the character who is telling the story. She was separated from her father when she was young, and her mother passed from small pox. Ruth, Isabel’s sister, is very shy but hardworking. Mr. and Mrs. Lockton are Isabel and Ruth’s masters. Madam Lockton expects the most from her slaves and will gladly punish them if she doesn’t receive what she expects. Finally, Curzon is a slave who is a close friend of Isabel.

In Susie King Taylor’s Memoir, we are submerged into a vivid retelling of an African American woman’s experience during her time serving as a nurse and laundress for African American infantries during the Civil War. Taylor describes in great detail what life was like for the African American soldiers whom she would care for during their battles against the rebels of the confederacy. Taylor also shares what her own life was like prior to, during, and after her time as an infantry worker. Taylor’s personal story parallels the lives of many African Americans during the civil war era, and the array of social challenges African Americans were forced to endure day in and day out. As we look into this great recollection of history, it is important to understand the significant influence education had over Taylor. During Taylor’s lifetime, education granted her the ability to survive during her time working for the military, educate those around that were around her, and formulate her own life experiences into literature.

A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson by Mary Rowlandson is a primary example of the sectionalism of Puritans, and more specifically, Puritan women. Rowlandson recounts the attack on her home by the Wampanoag tribe as well as the aftermath of her eventual capture. Being certain to record the removes, or days spent traveling with her captors, Rowlandson created a record of her travels with her captors as well as preserved her own “womanhood” from the accusations of her own people. The time of Puritan colonies was one in which male preachers held the most power. Preachers received more education than most of the population and their status as males provided them an unquestionable position of power in Puritan society.

Cotton Mather’s historical recount, “The Captivity of Hannah Dustan,” brings to light the pure American fantasy of the white woman’s captivity. Taken captive in 1675 by a group of Indians during King William’s War, Hannah eventually fought her way to freedom by killing her oppressors while they slept. She then fled with their scalps and received great congratulations from her friends and even a “a very generous token of favor” from the Governor of Maryland himself. In the American genre of captivity, the captive is almost always a conventional, innocent, white woman who, according to Mather, “stand[s] passively under the strokes of evil,

In american history when you think of the colonial period what’s the first thing that comes to mind? I’m going to assume it is not stereotype defying women.When we think of american colonial history we think of men with wigs on writing important papers, religious freedom and slavery.We don’t imagine women of this time to be anything but quiet shadows of the men in their lives.Well that’s what we're usually taught in school, we arent given the privilege of learning about the women who helped create the history we know alongside these men.

Alice Walker’s use of first person point of view allows us to form closer connections to the story by enabling the reader to better understand Mama’s views. The role of Mama as narrator helps us transgress through a story that when first read, seems like a fairly simple story about a Black woman, her two distinct daughters, and a quilt with an undetermined destination. Upon closer reading and analysis of the role of Mama as narrator, it is apparent that this is not just a simple tale of a Black woman, her two daughters and a quilt, but the story of Black women, their heritage, and the quilt as a symbol for that heritage and the generations of history associated with that heritage. Through Mama’s narration we will see Mama’s internal

Karine Rickert closed the leather-bound book and rubbed her weary eyes. She had never liked to read, but there was nothing else to do, so she holed herself up in her adoptive parents' library, reading some of the eldest history books. The hope that they would pique her interest had been diminished the moment she turned to the first page. She let go of her face and stood up, her crimson satin dress flowing down to her sandal-covered feet. She placed the leather-bound history book back onto the shelf beside her and carefully strode to the nearest window, not wanting to trod over her crimson dress.