Portrayal of African Americans in American Literature and History

Portrayal of African Americans in American Literature and History

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1. Ibrahim Adham bin A.Khalil (1429493)
2. Md Maruf Hasan (1312905)
3. Muhamad Nuri Bin Muhamad Azani (1511971)
4. Megat Faris Danial Bin Megat Niza Izham (1517037)

Maruf: Hey brother, you seem so stressed, what are you doing?

Megat: No nothing, I just stumbled upon an article about slavery during the American slavery period. So I think it's kind of interesting okay.

Nuri: Eh, Megat, Marof…Hi!

Megat: Ouh Nuri….Hi! Shalom!

Nuri: Hey man! you good?

Megat: Fine

Nuri: All right

Ibrahim : Megat where are you? You with Marof? Ok ok ok…I'm coming I’m coming

Hi guys! Sorry for being late.

Marof: Its okay no problem

Megat: Hey Ibrahim

Ibrahim: How are you? Bigger day to day. Hey Nuri! beautiful hair as usual. So let's start

Nuri: Hey, you guys look so tense. What topics are you guys discussing? Do you mind to share?

Megat: I'm stressed about reading the African-American slavery, how they were treated it was very terrible. Do you want to know when this slavery was started?

Nuri: Yesss

Megat: It was when..

(Videoclip)

Slavery was hugely important to America. I mean it led to a civil war and it also lasted what, at least in US history counts as a long-ass time from 1619 to 1865. But slavery is most important because we still struggle with its legacy so yes today's episode will probably not be funny but it will be import without southern cotton the north wouldn't have been able to industrialize at least not as quickly because cotton textiles were one of the first industrially produced products and the most important commodity in world trade by the 19th century and three-quarters of the world's cotton came from the American South and speaking of cotton why has no one mentioned to me that my collar has been half pop this entire episode like I'm trying to recreate the flying nun's hat and although there were increasingly fewer slaves in the north as northern states outlawed slavery cotton shipments overseas made northern merchants rich northern bankers financed the purchase of land for plantations northern insurance companies ensured slaves who were after all considered property and very valuable property and in addition to turning cotton into cloth for sale overseas northern manufacturers sold cloth back to the south where it was used to clothe the very slaves who had cultivated it but certainly the most prominent effects of the slave based economy were seen in the south the profitability of slave based agriculture especially king cotton meant that the south would remain largely agricultural and rural slave states were home to a few cities like St. Louis and Baltimore but with the exception of New Orleans almost all southern urbanization took place in the upper south further away from the large cotton plantation and slave based agriculture was so profitable that it siphoned money away from other economic endeavors like there was very little industry in the south it produced only 10% of the nation's manufactured goods and as most of the capital was being plowed into the purchase of slaves there was very little room for technological innovation like for instance railroad this lack of industry and railroads would eventually make the south suck at the Civil War thankfully in short slavery dominated the south shaping it both economically and culturally and slavery wasn't a minor aspect of American Society by 1860 there were for MU slaves in the US and in the South they made up 1/3 of the total population although in the popular imagination most plantations were these sprawling affairs with hundreds of slaves in reality the majority of slaveholders owned five or fewer slaves and of course most white people in the South owned no slaves at all although if they could afford tothey would sometimes rent slaves to help with their work

Ibrahim: My god it is so inhuman man...I couldn't, I could not brain how would they treat another human like that back then. But after all, I think we should be grateful that we are not practicing slavery anymore today

Maruf: you know guys there are many elements of slavery, one of them is xenophobia.

Nuri: Oh, what is in xenophobia ?

Maruf: Well, according to my research, what I have found, xenophobia means dislike of or prejudice against people from others countries for example of white people are so scared about black people.

Megat: Have you read any book contains of xenophobia Maruf?

Maruf: oh yes, we found some elements of xenophobia in novel as well as in the movie. The movie name is “The Color Purple”.

Ibrahim: Did you say “The Color Purple”? can you tell us a bit about “The Color Purple”.

Maruf: So basically the color purple is based on the novel and this is the history of one black family during early 1990s. So in this movie, there are some elements which we can see like xenophobia

Nuri: So bro, did you found any xenophobia element in the novel?

Maruf: Yes, I find one element of xenophobia in the novel as well as in the movie where there's a one black girl called Sophia. This black girl actually got imprisoned by, like, she abused one white wife’s husband. So, Sophia was imprisoned and she had to do a very kind of slavery. So what happened actually one day the black girl was taken by one white girl to Sophia’s village and what actually happened there were so many like boys were black and this girl suddenly got so scared about these black people because she was thinking like ,maybe, these black boys will do harm towards this white lady. So that's all I know.

(Videoclips) : I can do it, I can do it. I can put this thing in reverse not gonna make me go the right way… come on

Ibrahim: Talking about the color purple it reminds me of the novel The Underground Railroad. Have you heard The Underground Railroad? It's very fascinating novel you know, because it explores slavery and also American history in a very unique and interesting way as we discuss about the element of xenophobic just now it reminds me to the other elements which is the process of dehumanization which also included in the novel The Underground Railroad occurring this to this website, the Underground Railroad which introduces Cora a young African woman who journeys to freed them from the antebellum South on a fantastically amazing physical railroad. So throughout this story the main character Cora she stops at multiple towns and cities with each of the cities she received a brutal treatment of slaves and black people. So there are…there are many examples that actually hi like a process of dehumanization implies towards these black people.

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