Setting of a story (Your guess)...

Finally! After all these years of hard of hard work, the power to time travel is in my grasp! I stared, awed with the concoction in my right hand, a sense of achievement within me. I tilted my head back and gulped the horrid potion whole. As my mind was in a whirl, I felt the comfort of my research facility leaving me. The next thing I knew, I was standing on hard, coarse sand, once again smelling the cold, crisp Egyptian outdoor air. I basked in the warmth from the sun. In the distance, against the hue of blue and some strange buildings in the distance, were three grand pyramids, partially crumbled, yet majestic. Hey! Wasn’t my buddy Pharaoh Sneferu working on one of them? There was only one thing I knew. I was in the future! 

A 100 Years Ago... (2nd Version)

Before you read this, I would like to say that this story is similar to the 1st draft.

            It was the year 1909 and I was a skinny, undernourished ten year old boy with the typical single long plaid behind my back. There was civil war going on in the country of my birth, China. As the only grandson of my family, it was my responsibility to carry on my family’s surname, Lim. My family had borrowed money for the boat passage for me to Nanyang. They thought I would have a better chance at earning a better life. My father had signed up to work as a coolie in Singapore’s port and I was to go with him.  I puked several times in the crammed boat as the sea was choppy.

            When we arrived in Singapore, we stayed in the Hokkien Huay Kuan clan’s quarters. Since my father only could afford to pay for a bed space, he slept on the floor, leaving the dilapidated rattan bed to me.  The room was filled with many men. It was stuffy, dark and my senses were assualted with the stench of sweat and smoke. There were so many mosquitoes and flies around. It was also scary to go out in the dark to relieve myself.

            At dawn very morning, my father and the men would go to work, leaving me to my devices. That was when I missed my mother the most. I kept playing her last words to me in my mind. She told me to listen to my father, not to get into trouble, to make good use of my life and never to cut my plaid. I would hug my one set of well mended spare clothes tightly. I made friends with the ‘tok tok mee’ man and I would help out at his stall to earn myself a few cents. I got to eat half a bowl of plain noodles too.

            When my father returned at night, I helped him cook porridge with firewood. I always had a bowl of watery porridge with black bean sauce. Sometimes my father would fry me an egg and I was over the moon.  After dinner, I would go to listen to the story teller tell stories. Once in a while, my father visited the letter writer to help him write a letter home and he would send whatever money we could spare.

            My father was introduced to opium and he became addicted. He often borrowed money from the triads and when he could not pay back, he got beaten.  I constantly went to the temple to pray for my family in China and for my father and I desperately hope my ancestors’ gods would answer my prayers.

            One day I saw my father talking to a neatly dressed braidless Chinese man with weird looking clothings and pointing at me. Later that night my father told me he had agreed to let me be that man’s son and I had to change my surname to Tan. I would be able to attend a mission school and I would never be hungry again. I burst into tears and begged my father to let me stay with him but father said it was the best way for me to better my life and when I grew up, I could look for my mother and sister and look after them.

            That night while my father was sleeping together with the cacophony of snores, I gathered my one set of tattered clothings and quietly slipped away into the frightening darkness. I had decided that I would not let my ancestors down by changing my surname into a Tan. As hot tears ran down my cheeks, I told myself I was not going to be disobedient to my mother by cutting my plaid, it was the mark of a proud Chinese man; and what happened if my mother could not recognise me anymore?  I walked and walked along the five foot ways until I was dog tired, passing by many vagrants who made themselves comfortable sleeping on newspapers lined along the five foot way. Soon I melted amongst them covering myself with a large sheet of Nanyang ‘Siang Pau’ I had picked up from the ground.

            And so my days were passed by my wandering around the alleys, rivers and climbing trees. Sometimes I would join in the mindless games of skipping ropes, throwing marbles and hide-and-seek with other children along the five foot ways. Often, their mothers would chase me away after seeing how grubby I was. When my stomach growled, I would take food at the roadside left by worshippers who left food offerings to the earth god. When I felt brave, I would even go to the temples and steal the buns and fruits left at the alters by worshippers, hoping the gods would understand and forgive me. Sometimes I would earn my keep by running errands for the shop keepers. However, often they bullied me and did not pay me for my efforts. The nights were the worst, before I went to my spot to sleep, often I would surreptitiously go and check on my father.  He was also reduced to sleeping outside the clan association. He was unkempt with wispy hair straying out of his plaid. His face was sallow and he was always coughing and spitting out to the ground. I caught him being kicked and beaten by the triad’s men until he lay writhing on the ground. One night he was beaten so hard that blood flowed freely from his nose and mouth, he was beaten with thick logs until he was bruised blue black all over. He lay on the floor limply as if all his bones were completely broken. I was very frightened and wished I could chase the bullies away but I could only watch silently from behind a pillar across the street.  When the bullies had gone, I ran swiftly to my father and held him in my arms. That was when I made a decision – I would go and live with the neatly dressed plaidless man and call him father. I told my father my decision and saw him give me a forlorn smile.

            Hence, that was how I became George Tan Wei Lin. I attended a mission school and learned English. I was always smartly dressed with my hair combed with grease. I spoke to my adopted father in English and my adopted mother and grandmother in Malay. I learned to eat spicy food. My new family treated me well but whenever I could, I would go and look up my birth father who continued to work at the dock. He had managed to kick his addiction, probably his guilt at being a disappointment to his ancestors helped him to do so. As for my birth mother, I may not see her for a long time, and I have started to forget the dialect we used to speak…

A 100 Years Ago... (Essay)

It was the year 1909 and I was a skinny, undernourished ten year old boy with the typical single long plaid behind my back. There was civil war in the country of my birth, China. As the only grandson of my family, it was my responsibility to carry on my family’s surname, Lim. My family borrowed money for the boat passage for me to Nanyang. They thought I would have a better chance of a better life. My father had signed up to work as a coolie in Singapore’s port and I was to go with him. I puked several times in the crammed boat as the sea was choppy.



When we arrived in Singapore, we stayed in the Hokkien Huay Kuan clan’s quarters. Since my father only could afford to pay for a bed space, he slept on the floor, leaving the dilapidated rattan bed to me. The room was filled with many men. It was stuffy, dark and my senses were assualted with the stench of sweat and smoke. There were so many mosquitoes and flies around. It was also scary to go out in the dark to relieve myself.


At dawn very morning, my father and the men would go to work, leaving me to my devices. That was when I missed my mother the most. I kept playing her last words to me in my mind. She told me to listen to my father, not to get into trouble, to make good use of my life and never to cut my plaid. I would hug my one set of well mended spare clothes tightly. I made friends with the ‘tok tok mee’ man and I would help out at his stall to earn myself a few cents. I got to eat half a bowl of plain noodles too.


When my father returned at night, I helped him cook porridge with firewood. I always had a bowl of watery porridge with black bean sauce. Sometimes my father would fry me an egg and I was over the moon. After dinner, I would go to listen to the story teller tell stories. Once in a while, my father visited the letter writer to help him write a letter home and he would send whatever money he could afford.


My father was introduced to opium and he became addicted. He often borrowed money from the triads and when he could not pay back, he got beaten. I often went to the temple to pray for my family in China and for my father and I desperately hope my ancestors’ gods would answer my prayers.


One day I saw my father talking to a neatly dressed braidless Chinese man with weird looking clothings and pointing at me. Later that night my father told me he had agreed to let me be that man’s son and I had to change my surname to Tan. I would be able to attend a mission school and I would never be hungry again. I burst into tears and begged my father to let me stay with him but father said it was the best way for me to better my life and when I grew up, I could look for my mother and sister and look after them.


That night while my father was sleeping together with the cacophony of snores, I gathered my one set of tattered clothings and quietly slipped away into the frightening darkness. I had decided that I would not let my ancestors down by changing my surname into a Tan. As hot tears ran down my cheeks, I told myself I was not going to be disobedient to my mother by cutting my plaid, it was the mark of a proud Chinese man; and what happened if my mother could not recognise me anymore? I walked and walked along the five foot ways until I was dog tired, passing by many vagrants who made themselves comfortable sleeping on newspapers lined along the five foot way. Soon I melted amongst them covering myself with a large sheet of Nanyang ‘Siang Pau’ I had picked up from the ground.


And so my days were passed by my wandering around the alleys, rivers and climbing trees. Sometimes I would join in the mindless games of skipping ropes, throwing marbles and hide-and-seek with other children along the five foot ways. Often, their mothers would chase me away after seeing how grubby I was. When my stomach growled, I would take food at the roadside left by worshippers who left food offerings to the earth god. When I felt brave, I would even go to the temples and steal the buns and fruits left at the alters by worshippers, hoping the gods would understand and forgive me. Sometimes I would earn my keep by running errands for the shop keepers. However, often they bullied me by not paying me for my efforts. The nights were the worst, before I went to my spot to sleep, often I would surreptitiously go and check on my father. He was also reduced to sleeping outside the clan association. He was unkempt with wispy hair straying out of his plaid. His face was sallow and he was always coughing and spitting out to the ground. I caught him being kicked and beaten by the triad’s men until he lay writhing on the ground. One night he was beaten so hard that blood flowed freely from his nose and mouth, he was beaten with thick logs until he was bruised blue black all over. He lay on the floor limply as if all his bones were completely broken. I was very frightened and wished I could chase the bullies away but I could only watch silently from behind a pillar across the street. When the bullies had gone, I ran swiftly to my father and held him in my arms. That was when I made a decision – I would go and live with the neatly dressed plaidless man and call him father. I told my father my decision and saw him give me a forlorn smile.


Hence, that was how I became George Tan Wei Lin. I attended a mission school and learned English. I was always smartIy dressed with my hair combed with grease. I spoke to my adopted father in English and my adopted mother and grandmother in Malay. I learned to eat spicy food. My new family treated me well but whenever I could, I would go and look up my birth father who continued to work at the dock. He had managed to kick his addiction, probably his guilt at being a disappointment to his ancestors helped him to do so. As for my birth mother, I may not see her for a long time, and I had started to forget the dialect we used to speak…

More Background Research on "To Kill a Mockingbird"

Before reading this post, I would like to say I have adapted information from several different websites as I do not know how else to phrase the answers

The Civil Rights Movement

a. When did the Civil Rights Movement begin?

The movement began on 1^st December 1955, when Rosa Parks, a black refused to give way to a white passenger on the bus.

b. What was the Civil Rights Movement about?

The Blacks fighting for their freedom in America and to rid of the Jim Crow Law.

c. State some of the significant incidents that took place in the civil rights movements (choose 2-3 incidents and state them briefly not in great detail.)

-          The Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955- 1956)

o       On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks (the "mother of the Civil Rights Movement") refused to give up her seat on a public bus to make room for a white passenger. She was secretary of the Montgomery NAACP chapter and had recently returned from a meeting at the Highlander Center in Tennessee where nonviolent civil disobedience as a strategy had been discussed. Parks was arrested, tried, and convicted for disorderly conduct and violating a local ordinance. After word of this incident reached the black community, 50 African-American leaders gathered and organized the Montgomery Bus Boycott to demand a more humane bus transportation system. However, after any reforms were rejected the NAACP, led by E.D. Nixon, pushed for full desegregation of public buses. With the support of most of Montgomery's 50,000 African Americans, the boycott lasted for 381 days until the local ordinance segregating African-Americans and whites on public buses was lifted. Ninety percent of African Americans in Montgomery partook in the boycotts, which reduced bus revenue by 80% until a federal court ordered Montgomery's buses desegregated in November 1956, and the boycott ended.

-          Sit-ins, 1960

o       The Civil Rights Movement received an infusion of energy with a student sit-in at a Woolworth's store in Greensboro, North Carolina. On February 1, 1960, four students Ezell A. Blair Jr. (now known as Jibreel Khazan), David Richmond, Joseph McNeil, and Franklin McCain from North Carolina Agricultural & Technical College, an all-black college, sat down at the segregated lunch counter to protest Woolworth's policy of excluding African Americans. These protesters were encouraged to dress professionally, to sit quietly, and to occupy every other stool so that potential white sympathizers could join in. The sit-in soon inspired other sit-ins in Richmond, Virginia; Nashville, Tennessee; and Atlanta, Georgia.

-          Freedom Rides

o       Freedom Rides were journeys by Civil Rights activists on interstate buses into the segregated southern United States to test the United States Supreme Court decision Boynton v. Virginia, (1960) 364 U.S. that ended segregation for passengers engaged in inter-state travel. Organized by CORE, the first Freedom Ride of the 1960s left Washington D.C. on May 4, 1961, and was scheduled to arrive in New Orleans on May 17.

d. Which American President supported the movement?

John F. Kennedy

e. What was the outcome of this movement?

A gradual acceptance of Afro-Americans as equals and that they are of the same social status.

Gradual integration of Blacks and Whites

Laws keeping the Blacks as 2^nd class citizens are slowly eradicated

f. In what way is the Civil Rights movement related to the novel?

Atticus Finch, Mrs Crawford, Mrs Maudie, Judge Taylor amongst other people in Maycomb support and accept the fact that Blacks are equals.

Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Scottsboro Trials

a.      State the specifics of each trial and why they were insignificant.

The 1^st rounds of trial were hopelessly insignificant as the defense attorneys used were absolutely incompetent.

The 2^nd trial had evidence that pointed to the fact that the rape conducted by the Scottsboro boys on a train did not even happen. Even the witnesses called up by the prosecutors had many inconsistencies. Yet, Haywood Patterson was announced guilty

On the 3^rd and 4^th trial (3^rd trial for Haywood Patterson and the 2^nd for Clarence Norris), a white man called Orville Gilley, who claimed to be at the scene, was called to the witness stand, when the prosecution most needed him. He corroborated with Mrs. Price on essential facts, though his story still differed. General Knight, the prosecution attorney later admitted that he had been checking on Gilley’s mother and even gave Gilley some money to spend, therefore making Gilley to testify reluctantly. So these too trials showed that bribe took place within the prosecution, making the statements made by Gilley invalid. Yet the jury still ruled that both Patterson and Norris were guilty.

On the 5^th trial (4^th trial for Haywood Patterson), though Patterson was convicted of rape, he was given 75 years of jail instead of a life sentence, due to a compromise made by a Methodist who was determined to persuade the other 11 people in the jury into giving a 75 year jail sentence instead of a death sentence. Again, there was injustice in the court, though it was less severe in a way.

In the last round of trials, Clarence Norris got a death sentence, Andy Wright’s sentence was 99 years in prison and Charlie Weem was given 75 years in prison. Ozie Powell was only pleading guilty to assaulting a deputy, who was transporting him to from the court back to prison, with a penknife. After which, the 4 remaining Scottsboro boys had charges against them all dropped, all of them either too young or too weak to be even accused that they committed the crime at the time of the incident. This was due to the fact that this case could be financially and politically draining for Alabama and that General Knight wanted to end the case quickly by reaching a compromise.

b.      How is the Scottsboro trial related to the trial in the novel?

The Scottsboro trial is very similar to the trial in “To Kill a Mockingbird”. Both cases took place in the 1930s, a time of turmoil and change, in Alabama. In both instances, poor white women falsely accused black men of rape

c.       In what way are the trials similar?

Firstly, there was the threat of lynching is common to both cases. Secondly, there is a similarity between the novel's Atticus Finch and the real-life judge James E. Horton, both of whom acted in behalf of black men on trial in defiance of their communities' wishes at a time of high feeling. In several instances, the words of the Alabama judge remind the reader of Atticus Finch's address to the jury and his advice to his children. Thirdly, the accusers in both instances were very poor, working-class women who had secrets that the charges of rape were intended to cover up. Therefore, the veracity or believability of the accusers in both cases became an issue.

Trials of a true Southern Belle and Southern Gentleman

a. What were the rules of etiquette for Southern gentlemen and ladies?

Ladies


- Never wear white shoes before Easter or after Labor Day except is if it is a bride. 


- Thank you notes are a necessary component of being gracious and appreciative.


- Never chew gum or smoke on the street.


- Never show anger in public. Smile and act like a lady.


- Act helpless and confused when it's to your advantage; never let them know how clever and capable you really are...


- Charm, Charm, Charm.


- Be elegant and graceful


More in http://vizions-of-lace.com/gpage5.html


Gentlemen

- Must take time to dress up and look presentable before going out, especially when going out with ladies


- Gentlemen were advised against asking ladies a question period when having a conversation with them


- If they wanted to give a gift to a particular lady, a bouquet of flowers or a book were the only suitable gifts


- When eating, it was not appropriate to blow your nose with your napkin, nor was it acceptable to pick up your soup bowl and drink from it

More in http://mgagnon.myweb.uga.edu/students/Williams.htm

b. What did Southern ladies do to pass their time (hobbies etc.)?

During their free time, they read to educate themselves (they knew the importance of education), they embroider and they write letters to neighbouring belles.

c. Picture of Southern ladies and gentlemen

Southern Belle (http://13thmass.org/1862/front_royal.html)

Southern Gentleman (http://13thmass.org/1862/front_royal.html)


d. Identify characters in the novel that fit the mould of true southern belles and gentlemen and those who don’t? Explain why they fit the mould and why they don’t?

They are: Calpurnia, Mrs. Maudie, Aunt Alexandra, Atticus Finch, Mr. Underwood, The Cunninghams (In a way), Little Chuck Little etc.

All the characters mentioned above carry a kind of upbringing in their actions. They are truthful and follow the general rules of a Southern Belle and Gentleman.

This is unlike the Ewells, where they spray vulgarities like no one’s business; don’t address people by ‘sir’ or ‘madam’, and dress rather inappropriately. 

Harper Lee

a. About the author and biodata

Nelle Harper Lee was born in Monroeville, Alabama on the 28 of April, 1926. She currently is 84+ years of age. She was the youngest of the four children of Amasa Coleman Lee and Frances Cunningham Finch Lee. Her mother’s surname is Finch. Her father, a former newspaper editor and proprietor, was a lawyer who served in the Alabama State Legislature from 1926 to 1938. As a child, Lee was a tomboy and a precocious reader, and was best friends with her schoolmate and neighbour, the young Truman Capote.

In 1944, Lee graduated from Monroe County High School in Monroeville, and enrolled at the all-female Huntingdon College in Montgomery for one year, and pursued a law degree at the University of Alabama from 1945 to 1949, pledging the Chi Omega sorority. Lee wrote for several student publications and spent a year as editor of the campus humor magazine, Rammer Jammer. Though she did not complete the law degree, she studied for a summer in Oxford, England, before moving to New York City in 1950, where she worked as a reservation clerk with Eastern Air Lines and BOAC.

Lee continued as a reservation clerk until 1958, when she devoted herself to writing. She lived a frugal life, traveling between her cold-water-only apartment in New York City and her family home in south-central Alabama to care for her father.

After the publication of “To Kill a Mockingbird”, she declined many interviews and public appearances. She did want to write another 2 books: Another novel “The Long Goodbye” and a factual book about an Alabama serial killer, but both of them were eventually shelved unfinished because she was not satisfied with their predicted end-products.

Source: Wikipedia

b. Novels written by her

“To Kill a Mockingbird” is her only book that she published.

c.  Awards received

On November 5, 2007, Lee was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush at a White House Ceremony. The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian award in the United States and recognizes individuals who have made "an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavours."

Source: Wikipedia

d. Why is “To Kill a Mockingbird a significant novel to her?

The book is mainly autobiographical. Like Harper Lee, Scout in the book was a Tomboy. She was a daughter of a respected small-town Alabama attorney, Atticus Finch. Atticus Finch was based on Harper Lee’s father, who was a former newspaper editor and proprietor, before becoming a lawyer who served in the Alabama State Legislature from 1926 to 1938. Scout's friend Dill was inspired by Lee's childhood friend and neighbour, Truman Capote, whom Harper Lee met when she moved to New York City. Truman was later to become famous as an American author and comedian.

Source: Wikipedia

Historical Background of 'To Kill a Mockingbird"

Before reading this post, I would like to say I have adapted information from several different websites as I do not know how else to phrase the answers

Slavery 

a. When and how did slavery begin in the southern state?

Started in 1619, Virginia. 20 captive Africans were sold into slavery to work in the tobacco crops in the state.

b. Which country were the slaves bought from?


Africa or those native to America


c. Who traditionally bought and owned the slaves?


The Europeans who settled in America traditionally bought and owned the slaves. They are predominantly the English.

d. Were there laws/rules that the slaves had to abide by? If yes, what were they?


Yes. Below show some of the rules the slaves had to abide by:

(Taken from a website which I could not remember)

1) Slavery in the United States of America is hereditary


2) A slave was not permitted to keep a gun. If caught carrying a gun, the slave received 39 lashes and forfeited the gun. Blacks were held incompetent as witnesses in legal cases involving whites. The education of slaves was prohibited. Anyone operating a school or teaching reading and writing to any African-American in Missouri could be punished by a fine of not less than $500 and up to six months in jail. Slaves could not assemble without a white person present. Marriages between slaves were not considered legally binding. Therefore, owners were free to split up families through sale.

3) Any slave found guilty of arson, rape of a white woman, or conspiracy to rebel was put to death. However, since the slave woman was chattel, a white man who raped her was guilty only of a trespass on the master's property.

4) All persons except Negroes are to be provided with arms and ammunitions or be fined at the pleasure of the governor and council.

5) All children born in Colonial America shall be held bond or free only according to the condition of the mother

6) If a free-born [English] woman intermarries with any slave shall serve the master of the slave during the life of her husband; and that all the issue of such free-born women, so married shall be slaves as their fathers were.

7) Baptism does not alter the condition to the person as to his bondage or freedom; masters freed from this doubt may more carefully propagate Christianity by permitting slaves to be admitted to that sacrament.

8) All servants imported into America either by sea or by land, whether Negroes, Moors [Muslim North Africans], mulattoes or Indians who and whose parentage and native countries are not Christian at the time of their first purchase by some Christian and all Indians, which shall be sold by our neighboring Indians, or any other trafficking with us for slaves, are hereby adjudged, deemed and taken to be slaves to all intents and purposes any law, usage, or custom to the contrary notwithstanding.

9) All servants imported and brought into America who were not Christians in their native Country shall be accounted and be slaves. All Negro, mulatto and Indian slaves within this dominion...shall be held to be real estate. 

10) All negroes, mulatoes, mestizoes or Indians, which at any time heretofore have been sold, or now are held or taken to be, or hereafter shall be bought and sold for slaves, are hereby declared slaves; and they, and their children, are hereby made and declared slaves.

The Civil War


a. Identify the Southern States


Initial states in the Confederate States of America:
      1.     South Carolina (December 20, 1860)
      2.     Mississippi (January 9, 1861)
      3.     Florida (January 10, 1861)
      4.     Alabama (January 11, 1861)
      5.     Georgia (January 19, 1861)
      6.     Louisiana (January 26, 1861)
      7.     Texas (February 1, 1861)


States that declared their secession after the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter April 12, 1861, and Lincoln's subsequent call for troops on April 15

1.     Virginia (April 17, 1861; ratified by voters May 23, 1861)

2.     Arkansas (May 6, 1861)

3.     Tennessee (May 7, 1861; ratified by voters June 8, 1861)

4.     North Carolina (May 20, 1861)

b. Who was the US president who proclaimed war against the South?

Abraham Lincoln

c. Why was the Civil War fought?

In the presidential election of 1860, the Republican Party, led by Abraham Lincoln, had campaigned against the expansion of slavery beyond the states in which it already existed. In response to the Republican victory in that election, seven states declared their secession from the Union before Lincoln took office on March 4, 1861. Both the outgoing administration of President James Buchanan and Lincoln's incoming administration rejected the legality of secession, considering it rebellion. Several other slave states rejected calls for secession at this point.

Hostilities began on April 12, 1861, when Confederate forces attacked a U.S. military installation at Fort Sumter in South Carolina. Lincoln responded by calling for a volunteer army from each state to recapture federal property. This led to declarations of secession by four more slave states. Both sides raised armies as the Union assumed control of the Border States early in the war and established a naval blockade.

d. When was this war fought?

12 April 1861 – 9 April 1865

e. What was the outcome of this war?

The war produced about 1,030,000 casualties (3% of the population), including about 620,000 soldier deaths—two-thirds by disease. The war accounted for roughly as many American deaths as all American deaths in other U.S. wars combined.

Based on 1860 census figures, 8% of all white males aged 13 to 43 died in the war, including 6% in the North and 18% in the South. About 56,000 soldiers died in prisons during the Civil War.

f. How does the Civil Rights movement relate to the novel?

"To Kill a Mockingbird" was released on July 11, 1960. The Civil Rights Movement for African Americans in the US peaked during the early to mid-1960s. This coincided with the time the novel was at the height of its popularity.

The novel, in a sense, was a voice for the injustice that was (and still is in many places) occurring. This is one large reason the novel has the staying power that it does and still serves as a reminder of what racial ignorance can create.

Jim Crow’s Laws

a. What/who is Jim Crow?

Jim Crow is a not a person. The name came from a song composed by Thomas Dartmouth "Daddy" Rice, a white American who sang the song, accompanied with a dance routine on stage wearing makeup which made his skin black. This performance became a hit success. Later, the stereotype for the Afro-Americans was that they were singing, dancing and grinning fools. The term later became as offensive as calling an Afro-American a black, but not as offensive as the term “nigger”.

Jim Crow was later used to describe the racial caste system which operated primarily, but not exclusively in southern and border states, between 1877 and the mid-1960s. Jim Crow was more than a series of rigid anti-Black laws. It was a way of life. Under Jim Crow, African Americans were relegated to the status of second class citizens. 

b. What were Jim Crow’s laws?

1.      A Black male could not offer his hand (to shake hands) with a White male because it implied being socially equal. Obviously, a Black male could not offer his hand or any other part of his body to a White woman, because he risked being accused of rape.

2.      Blacks and Whites were not supposed to eat together. If they did eat together, Whites were to be served first, and some sort of partition was to be placed between them.

3.      Under no circumstance was a Black male to offer to light the cigarette of a White female -- that gesture implied intimacy.

4.      Blacks were not allowed to show public affection toward one another in public, especially kissing, because it offended Whites.

5.      Jim Crow etiquette prescribed that Blacks were introduced to Whites, never Whites to Blacks. For example: "Mr. Peters (the White person), this is Charlie (the Black person), that I spoke to you about."

6.      Whites did not use courtesy titles of respect when referring to Blacks, for example, Mr., Mrs., Miss., Sir, or Ma'am. Instead, Blacks were called by their first names. Blacks had to use courtesy titles when referring to Whites, and were not allowed to call them by their first names.

7.   If a Black person rode in a car driven by a White person, the Black person sat in the back seat, or the back of a truck.

8.      White motorists had the right-of-way at all intersections.

9.      When a Afro-American speaks to a White, he never

                                                     I.            Asserts or even intimate that a White person is lying.

                                                   II.            Imputes dishonorable intentions to a White person.

                                                 III.           Suggests that a White person is from an inferior class.

                                                 IV.            Lays claim to, or overly demonstrate, superior knowledge or intelligence.

                                                   V.            Curses a White person.

                                                 VI.            Laughs derisively at a White person.

                                               VII.            Comments upon the appearance of a White female

http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/what.htm

c. What was the response of the slaves and the Blacks to these laws?

The Afro-Americans strongly opposed to the oppressing laws and started fighting against discrimination against freedom. They constantly rebelled and organized riots, with the year 1919 called the “Red Summer”, with 26 race riots between the months of April and October.

d. Do we see Jim Crow’s laws surface in the novel? If so, then in which part of the novel?

Yes. 


It was when Jean Louise and her brother Jeremy Atticus Finch followed their Afro-American caretaker Calpurnia to the church for the African-Americans.

We also could see the Jim Crow Laws surface during the court trial against the African-American Tom Robinson. Tom was not addressed as sir but ‘boy’ and though Tom was not in the wrong, he was still convicted of rape on a white woman called Mayella Ewell.