MIDTERM EXAM ESSAY QUESTIONS

Your Mid-term Exam will take place on Friday, February 26, 2021, during our normal class time.  It will consist of two parts: quote identifications and essay questions. See the quotation guide for more on the quotation section.

PART I: Essay Question

You will need to prepare an essay exam prep card using the following specifications:

• Prepare an outline of your topic, thesis, main points, and quotes to support your claim.
• Quotes with page numbers in your essay are expected. You do not need a works cited page.
• You may record quotes in your essay, but each quote on the card needs to appear in the essay.
• You may not write out the essay on the card, but you may outline the key points.
• You will need to copy and paste your outline into the exam, so prepare it in a word processor.

Essay Options for Md-term Exam

Material in the introduction to the anthology or the introductory material before individual stories and essays should not be used as quotes in your essays.

1.  While slavery as an institution sought to eradicate a sense of shared culture in the Black community, spirituals and folktales played a vital role in creating a shared sense of culture and values. Using at least three different texts, identify and discuss social values embedded in these tales and how they helped to preserve and expand the concept of shared community among African Americans.

2.  Christian values figure prominently in early African American literature.  Using at least three texts, explore how Christianity can be seen as either a means of pacifying an oppressed people, a way of challenging the behavior of whites, or both.

3.  African American writers during this period clearly challenge the legitimacy of slavery. Using at least three texts, discuss the various arguments against slavery they advance and how the intended audience impacted the nature of these arguments.