F20 Black Atlantic: Resources, Pedagogy, and Scholarship on the 18th Century Black AtlanticMain MenuAuthor IndexFAQWeek 01: August 28: PedagogiesWeek 02: Friday, September 4: Thinking about Projects and Digital MethodsWeek 03: Friday, September 11: Black Atlantic Classics Week 04: Reccomended: Thursday September 17: 4pm: Indigenous Studies and British LiteraturesThe Center for Literary + Comparative Studies @UMDWeek 04: Required: Friday, September 18: Reading: Indigenous Studies in the Eighteenth CenturyWeek 04: Required: Friday, September 18: Book LaunchRemaking the Republic: Black Politics and the Creation of American CitizenshipWeek 05: Friday, September 25: Digital Humanities, Caribbean Stuides, and FashionGuest: Siobhan MeiWeek 06: Friday, October 2: OBIWeek 07: October 9: Black LondonSancho's Social NetworksWeek 08: Friday, October 16:Muslim Slave Narratives, Hans Sloane, the British Museum, Colonialism as CurationWeek 09: Friday, October 23: Reflection and Tools DayWeek 10: Friday, October 30: Myths of a White Atlantic (and Project Proposal)Week 11: Friday, November 6: Black New EnglandWeek 12: Friday, November 13: Woman of Colour and Mary PrinceWeek 13: Friday, November 20: Peer Review Workshop and Draft with Action PlanKierra M. Porter6b7d2e75a0006cdf2df0ac2471be73ef9c88c9e3Brandice Walker579eedcc76564f61b1ba7f36082d05bdf4fc3435Alexis Harper52f175308474d58b269191120b6cda0582dcde71Catherine C. Saunders80964fcb3df3a95f164eca6637e796a22deb5f63Joseph Heidenescher83b7b4309ef73ce872fc35c61eb8ed716cce705fJoshua Lawson8aecdcf9d2db74d75fb55413d44f3c2dfc3828bdKymberli M Corprue7f6419242e66e656367985fbc1cfa10a933ce71dJimisha Relerford1903b0530d962a83c3a72bad80c867df4f5c027fEmily MN Kugler98290aa17be4166538e04751b7eb57a9fe5c26a2Reed Caswell Aikendbd321f67398d85b0079cc751762466dfe764f88Brenton Brock619582e4449ba6f0c631f2ebb7d7313c0890fa00
I Need A Hero?
12020-10-02T07:53:23-07:00Joshua Lawson8aecdcf9d2db74d75fb55413d44f3c2dfc3828bd377911plain2020-10-02T07:53:23-07:00Emily MN Kugler98290aa17be4166538e04751b7eb57a9fe5c26a2As I was reading through the novel a question that kept recurring in my mind was what make Three Fingered Jack a hero? What is it about this character that makes him heroic and how is this an essential part of the story? From my own perspective this story suffers from trying to both paint Jack as a noble savage and try to maintain the notion of not all white people. This attempt to present this one African character as noble and having qualities that, despite not being a Christian, is still someone the audience should emulate. Yet despite all the positive attributes of bravery and manhood the writer goes out of their way to demonstrate that the white racial hierarchy of the Jamaican plantocracy should remain in place by having Jack killed at the end. This leads me to my second question which is; what type of novel is this? One my first analysis I thought this might be an anti-slavery novel, but because there are so many moving parts and the main character gets killed at the end I do not think this novel is much about being against slavery or anything for that matter. There are so many moving parts and side plots and backtracks happening in this text that the death of Jack feels more like a cheap way to end the novel without really delving into what makes Jack a hero. But seeing the novel as a means of writing back to the ongoing Haitian Revolution, makes Jack in a weird way a hero, a hero who ultimately fails to create a real revolt ( partly because of his connection to Obeah and attitude that all Europeans are evil) that challenges the plantocracy. For Earle, Jack is the hero he wants to imagine the Haitians to be, one who is undone by their need to chase Europeans out of the Caribbean. Seen in this light, the exchange between Jack and the widow is a moral lesson of the cost of “innocent” white lives. Even when Earle deals with white characters like Captain Harrop, it is seen less as an indictment of slavery and its ability to corrupt those who engage in the system and more about how bad white creoles are. Jack is the hero that white people would like the Haitians to be, undone by their own righteous indignation against the peculiar institution.