Southern Am. Lit. Midterm Story Summary

There is Injun Charlie who owns a small complex of houses, but he is very poor. Colonel De Charleu owns the really large Plantation and wants to buy the complex. After the house is flooded and about to sink into oblivion, he offers to trade the plantation for the small complex. Eventually he tells Charlie not to make the trade because it would be cheating, then the Colonel dies out of sadness because his plantation and family died.

Chesstnutt Happens upon a black slave, who knows about the vineyard they are standing by. He tells him that slaves used to come and steal the grapes, so he had the vines are bewitched by Aun' Peggy. Then a slave named Henry ate the grapes and had seasonal afflictions with his body. Then When Chestnutt bought the plantation it was all good again.

Desiree has a baby and it looks black. Her husband questions her blood line, and then tells her to leave.

After she leaves to go back home, and kills herself. The husband finds out that it is his bloodline that is actually black, his mother.

A black man sleeps with a white woman while both of their spouses are gone. It is just a good release of stress. Both move on with their lives.

Extremely controversial.Calixta, a married woman, seeks shelter from a large storm. Alcee is a man who wanted to love her once but didn't marry her, they share shelter from the storm and some very sexually tense moments, and some touching, before the storm passes and they reunite with their spouses.

An ex-slave now maid woman tells her white child master/boss the story of how she was separated from her family during slavery and lost her children and husband and was only ever able to find one son. The story is prompted by her smiling all the time. Aunt Rachel, tells of how she had all of her children ripped from her by the slave traders, "I o' de ole Blue Hen's Chickens, I is!" is the phrase the somehow reunites her with her son Henry, that's why she is always happy.

A man tells us why he wants to work on a steamboat in the Mississippi because they make good money and they have all of the respect. The man desperately attempts to become one until he eventually does and realizes that it is much harder than it seems

The story of a slave who learns that he is kept down by whites through lack of education. He vows to educate himself. He eventually fights back against his slave breaker and escapes to New York and lives as a free man

A woman falsely accuses a black man of raping her in an attempt to regain her social status.

The black man is taken and lynched by the community. In the end, only one person, the barber, fights against this taking place and most people just ignore it all together or join in.

A boy is called upon to avenge the murder of his father. He eventually goes to confront the man who killed him, faces him unarmed, stands while he is shot at, survived, and shames his father's murderer into leaving town forever.

Br'er Rabbit story in which br'er fox tries to trick rabbit into getting stuck in a baby made of tar.

It is told by Uncle Remus. Rabbit gets stuck and the story does not say whether or not he escapes.

A man is freed from slavery but realizes that once you are free "every man becomes your master." He sits around with his dog waiting every night for his wife to come.

Eventually, his wife is sold and moved away and his dog dies and he sits alone every night waiting for them. He eventually freezes to death under a tree with a smile on his face. Joe is a free black man, who wants to see his wife Lucinda. After his document of freedom is ripped up and he is told he can't see his wife, he feels cut off from the white world and the black world as well.

A slave narrative in which the main character is pressured into sexual relations with her master, which she refuses.

She eventually resorts to living for 7 years in an attic so small that she cannot move or stand. She eventually escapes to the North.

A boy realizes that he is black when he is a young boy. His mother will not tell him who his father is. He comes to understand the pain of being black but eventually forsakes it and moves on with his life.

This a poem celebrating the arts and music of black people in slavery.

It particularly celebrates their incredible artistic talent in the face of such horrible conditions.

Known as the "Negro National Anthem," this poem speaks with pride on the way that black people have overcome the tremendous hurdles of life.

A newspaper article that condemns the south as devoid of culture and having no intellectual contributions to society.

He talks about how whites are superior to blacks and they should interbreed with blacks to up their intelligence.

An old slave tells a white man a story with the intention of showing him that black people were better off under slavery. He tells the story of his master taking care of him when they went to war and it tells the tragic story

A narrator goes to visit an old friend and realizes that his friend's sister is dead. Eventually, the sister emerges and the fright of it kills the friend. As the narrator leaves the mansion it collapses into the swamp and is gone.

A literary criticism piece that says that literature should be short, methodical, and evoke one specific response

A poem describing the beauty of the songs of the angel Israfel, the angel of music from the Koran

A poem written, presumably to helen of troy. The speaker describes her like the god of wine, like the grandeur of greece and rome, and describes her beauty in a window like a greek goddess.

A poem about an incessant raven that refuses to leave a solitary man alone. It is about the ever present nature of death in the world.

Description of a poor farming family, the "Whipples," trying not to descend into being white trash.

Has a mentally challenged son that they have to give up "He" is how the story refers to him.

Romantic description of lovers meeting during a battle. describes the girl as pure and noble. lovers are like ghosts in the mist.

A poem describing harvest time in the place of the old south.

Although the south is partially gone by working at the harvest and hunting it can be preserved. Describes heroes blood nurturing the harvest and an old form of chivalry towards the Lady (old south)

This is the story of the death of the young daughter of one of Ransom's fellow professors. He remembers the girl being wild and full of youth and now she lies still in the coffin.

This is a poem about the dilapidation of an old Southern home.

It is a representation of how the South has fallen since the Civil War

This a poem about an ancient Greek myth in which a nightingale will not go to America because her tales are at odds with the Puritanical America and she sees Americans as barbaric

This is a poem in which a man is courting a woman but cannot get close to her because even though her body wants him, convention and intellect stand in her way.

This is the story of a girl waking up and going to see her pet chicken only to find out that a magical bee has stung it on the head and it has died. The overall message is that racism killed the Old south and it will never come back

Erie description of a graveyard full of dead confederate soldiers. Implores you to look at the graves and the slaughter to feel for the dead soldiers

A description of ages of supreme cultural superiority clash with descriptions of cultural stagnation. The lost rich culture gives way to faceless masses, wandering strangers, stiff laborers and memories.

Using historical allusions to the ancient Greek heroes and epic Poems Tate describes how he witnesses the destruction of his civilization while he tries to save what he can (his father).

He combines allusions to troy with allusions to the U.S. (potomac, Washington D.C.)

Description of boys who go for a swim and witness a lynching.

Asks the question of how society can accept such an action

A story told by a white man about a cursed slave who has a crow follow him but he cannot kill it. The slave falls ill and says that he needs another slave to cure him. The other slave gets paid to do so. Probably a story of slaves tricking their masters

Essay about how/why southern literary tradition is lacking.

Criticizes the south for not developing their own literary tradition. Southern authors have a limited audience and that audience wants too specific a type of writing.

A sonnet about a persons melancholy which seems to have no source. the speaker goes for a walk through a marsh and the weather and land seem to reflect his mood. Compares his sadness to a desolate ship (vessel)

An erie description of the unmarked battlefield graves of dead soldiers. Discusses how there is a sad "hearth" (family) missing them but no one gives them admiration

Collection of sketches of the South.

Karintha- very sexual description of a girl who grows up "men always wanted her" Becky- white trash woman with black sons. is shunned. Carma- very masculine woman who kills her lover

Description of Monticello and Jeffersons relationship with slaves. Believed that he was a sort of father figure. Thought that freeing them would be bad for them. treated them relatively well

Description of Pocahontas as she actually lived.

Dispelled disney fiction.