Historical Background (LA E-Learning - 'To Kill A Mockingbird')

Hey I'm back for LA E-Learning, while Mrs Anu is not teaching for this week, so we had to research and produce the research on the following topics. These topics are closely related to the book, "To Kill A Mockingbird", so we will better understand the HISTORICAL BACKGROUND which was the inspiration behind the novel. There is also another exercise, which will be posted later on, so please enjoy! :D

Slavery

The African slaves were first imported into the Virginia, America (then colonized by the British) by the Spanish Colonies in 1619. They were mostly blacks and were held by whites, although there were a few exceptions. The slaves mostly came from the region West Africa, now usually Benin, Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria, Senegal and Cote I’voire. The main slave trading countries in Europe were England, Portugal, Spain and the Netherlands.  There was a system to abide by. It was known as indentured servitude. This typically lasted for several years for white and black alike. People paid with their labour for the costs of transport to the colonies. They contracted for such arrangements because of poor economies in their home countries.

The Civil War

The Southern States during the 1860s were: Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Missouri, Kentucky, Michigan and Delaware. Abraham Lincoln was the then-president who proclaimed war against the Southern states, after the Southern States got the news about a Republican victory, in which Abraham will take office. The Civil War was fought because Abraham Lincoln wanted to abolish the slavery system. Of course, the slavery states did not want that to happen and opposed that decision. In the end, a war between the North and the South was fought from April 12, 1861 to April 9, 1865. In the end, the Northern States, led by Abraham Lincoln, won the war, the territorial integrity of the United States of America was preserved, the was a reconstruction of The United States, and most importantly, slavery was abolished. Civil Rights Movement was about abolishing public and private acts of Racial Discrimination, and that matched exactly to the case of Tom Robinson in ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’.

Jim Crow’s Laws

Jim Crow is a song written by Thomas Dartmouth ‘Daddy’ Rice, it depicts a black man singing the song. Jim Crow Laws were state laws enacted between 1876 and 1965, mandating de jure racial segregation in all public facilities, with a supposedly “separate but equal” status for black Americans. Most of them were definitely glad that the law was put to use, and they definitely supported it. However, they were being overturned by the Supreme Court in the 20^th Century on constitutional grounds. Yes, we did see Jim Crow laws surface in the book ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ by Harper Lee. For example, when Tom Robinson was put on trial, black people and white people were supposed to be separated into different areas of the courtroom. 


That's all. See you next time! XDD