Living with the dual burdens of racism and sexism, slave women in the plantation South assumed roles within the family and community that contrasted sharply with conventional female roles in the larger American society. And enslaved womens gender, their female bodies, determined the contours of their captivity and their experience of enslavement. Using Nikki Taylors Driven Toward Madness: The Fugitive Slave Margaret Garner and Tragedy on the Ohio as a window into the lived experiences of some enslaved Black women, compose an essay that examines the following: (1) The importance of exploring / studying the lives and experiences of enslaved Black women (your opinion); (2) The various slave laws that impacted bonded womens lives; (3) Enslaved womens day-to-day plantation experiences; (4)The various ways in which African American women resisted the peculiar institution (slavery); and (5) Your thoughts on enslaved womens use of lethal violence as a way to resist individual bondage and American slavery.
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Guidelines: Your essay should be 1,250-1,750 (of text), doubled-space, Times New Roman font, and 12 font. When citing sources, please refer to Chicago Manual Style of writing.
Sources You Can Use for the Exam: Required Class Text (s); Electronic Database Sources such as JSTOR, Project Muse, which can be found on the MSU library page; and Scholarly Books and Journal Articles. DO NOT USE INTERNET SOURCES / Non-academic sources. I highly suggest consulting the following sources: