"The (Re)presentation of History in Film and Video: Narrative and Media,"

    "Running is the Same as Reading": Freedom and Literacy in African American Narrative - Sharon W. Saxton

The story is told about a shipload of Ibos brought to South Carolina for sale into slavery. Brought ashore still in chains, they took one look at their oppressors and their environment, turned around, and ran into the sea in the direction of Nigeria from which they had come. The story has it that they kept running until they reached Africa once more. Although this is a dramatic example of black resistance to slavery, the tradition of "daily resistance" to imposed barbarity penetrates every level of slave culture. Never submitting entirely to the control of the white enslaver, the Africans found ways to assert their humanity, support one another, and communicate ways to escape. Initially, they communicated using the structures with which they were familiar in Africa, a world alive with significance. Shapes, sounds, beads, and shells carried messages and directions to the Africans who had no written languages to convey meaning. These traditions of sight and sound, symbol and sign, they used in their new condition. Through the use of drumming, and later dancing, rhythmic patterns carried here from Africa allowed slaves to "communicate" across distances while obscuring their intent from their masters. Song lyrics that took their texts from Biblical stories became coded messages understood among the slaves as warnings and suggestions to those seeking to escape to freedom in the North. Slaves used even the worn scraps of cloth they quilted into bed coverings to resist the tyranny of their captivity when they quilted messages about the Underground Railroad into these household objects. The message, however, was always the same: this way freedom.

But they did not quit with a system of communication through structures they remembered from Africa. They learned the method of communication used by the white oppressor as well÷the ability to read written messages in books. Once they acquired access to reading, they were no longer those Ibo who could not remain on the American continent. Able to access the codes of communication used by whites, they were transformed into Americans who "read" their own humanity and required the same respect and freedoms as other Americans. We are told through the fugitive slave narratives, once able to read, a slave ran.

Learning to read both the white manâs writing and using other encoded means of communication brought from African tradition, the slaves resisted the dehumanization of their condition. From earliest examples of fugitive slave narratives, the ability to read has preceded the slaveâs need to run. In Gary Paulsenâs Sarny, one of the texts that will be used in this curriculum unit, the main character asserts, "Running is the same as reading" (10). Perhaps it is readingâs ability to develop thinking that enables the slave to imagine herself in improved circumstances. Perhaps reading makes one free enough internally to strike out on the dangerous journey for physical freedom by running North. Perhaps they ability to read the Constitution in which Americans assert that "all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator" imbued them with power. Whatever the magic of reading, virtually all slave narratives connect the ability to read to the need to run.

American adolescents perceive their condition in much the same way. Too old to remain docile to orders from others, but too young to take full responsibility for their actions, the adolescent years are characterized by the need to resist the dominant culture. Like the slaves, they too communicate through coded messages embedded within their shared cultural forms÷music, fashion, dance, and film÷as a means of resisting their oppressors, the elders in their families, their schools and communities. The purpose of this unit will be to dignify how students view their cultural norms in recognizing the role of culture in resisting oppression, and most importantly, to connect their personal success to reading, just as it was for fugitive slaves. "Reading" will take two forms, just as it did for the slaves÷the reading of written texts and the metaphorical reading of encoded messages in other cultural forms, namely spirituals and quilts.

Associations of freedom and reading begin early in the history of slavery in this country. Olaudah Equiano in his early slave narrative links his learning to read to his ability to cipher as well as to his conversion to Christianity. Because of his literacy and numeric ability, he is trusted at sea with the role of captain of the ship, making a tidy profit for his master while squirreling away a sum for himself. Finally, because he is a good man for business, a capable sailor and a Christian with a savings in excess of his master, he is able to buy his own freedom. In fact, these very abilities convince his master that his blackness does not mitigate his humanity. The master, seeing the intellectual acumen of his "property," must have been convinced of the moral unacceptability of holding this man in bondage when he demonstrated the same intellectual gifts as himself. The ability to read seems to have that capacity to convince.

Solid evidence of the ability to read is demonstrated by the expressive mode of writing. When the poetry of Phyllis Wheatley began appearing in print, her books required an apology by white benefactors proclaiming that she was indeed black and indeed had written the poetry. Her work was generally discredited at the time as a ruse because it seemed incredible that a slave girl could master not only reading but the conventions of writing in the poetic form, the highest and most subtle form of writing, after only 4 years exposure to the language. Eventually, her fame as a poet roused her master to emancipate the 21 year old Phyllis.

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Nellie Y. McKay write in the introduction to the Nortonâs Anthology of African American Literature, "The criterion for a black heroism that uses words as a weapon in the struggle for self and communal liberation remains the example set by Frederick Douglass. " In his Narrative of the Life, he returns to the theme of reading and freedom in several manifestations. As a child, he goes to live with a family on the Eastern Shore plantation of Maryland. His mistress, Sophie Auld, knowing no better, treated the child "as she supposed one human being ought to treat another" and began teaching him to read. But her husband quickly sees the danger. If the child can read, he becomes a person, no longer chattel. Her husband is quoted by Douglass as saying, "A nigger should know nothing but to obey his master---to do as he is told to do. Learning would spoil the best nigger in the world. If you teach that nigger how to read, there would be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave. He would at once become unmanageable, and of no value to his master. It would make him discontented and unhappy." In other words, to remind the slave that he is human and not a "thing" is to remind him that it is within his nature to resist slavery (325). Douglass writes, "From that moment, I understood the pathway from slavery to freedom." Although Sophie Auld desists her reading lessons with the young Frederick, he continues to learn on his own. While on errands he would make friends with poor little white boys whom he would feed in exchange for what they knew about reading. The more he read, the more he came to hate his enslavers. As Hugh Auld had predicted, he became unfit for slavery, writhing under the "wretched condition" and envying fellow-slaves who knew nothing of reading and did not suffer the lack of remedy for their condition. For example, among the readings that tormented Douglass was a hypothetical conversation between a clever slave and his less clever master. Recognizing his slaveâs humanity in his ability to read, the master is so impressed he voluntarily emancipates the slave (perhaps a reference to Phyllis Wheatleyâs story). Torment, indeed, for Douglass who proclaims he wishes himself unable to read, to become a "beast" or a "reptile" rather than a human being who could read but remains enslaved.

Not all slaves had the benefit of situations or natural intelligence that turned them into readers. Those slaves who were not literate turned to other cultural forms, music and quilts specifically, to communicate means of escape from the plantation. Embedded within the Biblical stories of the spirituals they sang were clues for how to use the Underground Railroad to escape to freedom. The rhythm and music of the songs made their messages easy to remember. Reinterpreting an old African form of mnemonic device, the lukasa, slave women sewed messages into quilted coverlets. Because the quilts were used regularly, the masters thought nothing of a quilt hung out of the second story window or over a split-rail fence to air. Both the songs and the quilts wordlessly guided escaping slaves who might be hidden in the woods around the plantation awaiting assistance on the road to freedom.

Spirituals

Music, particularly in the form of the spiritual, or religious song, formed another means of daily resistance to the dehumanization of slavery. Encouraged by nominally religious slave masters to attend Christian worship service, the slaves were quick to find solace in a God who would listen to their sorrows and promised succor for their grief. Their religious yearning enabled them to extend their world spatially upward, so that communication with the other world becomes ritually possible, and temporally backward. Therefore, acts of gods and ancestors are reenacted, enabling them to live in the presence of their gods in the midst of their physical suffering (Levine 31-32). Through the use of songs, which were "not reserved solely for the church or praise houses, but were used as rowing songs, field songs, work songs, and social songs," slaves were able to remain in continual dialogue with their community (Levine 33). During a visit to South Carolina, northern white poet William Cullen Bryant attended several social events held by slaves on plantations. On these occasions, he observed: "What is remarkable, their tunes are all psalm-tunes, and the words are from hymn books; their taste is exclusively for sacred music; they will sing nothing else" (Levine 17).

By the mid-nineteenth century most slaves embraced a religion that Sterling Stuckey argues as "an African version of Christianity marked by an awareness of the limits of the religion of whites" (33). According to John Blassingame, the slaveâs culture, embodied in the songs he/she sung, "bolstered self-esteem, courage, and confidence, and served as his defense against personal degradation" (76). Henry Louis Gates, Jr. adds that it "acted as a powerful shield against the values of slave holders and their killing definitions of black humanity" (5). But even a cursory glance over the lyrics of the spirituals indicates distinct differences in themes and subject matter with the songs sung in white religious settings. Although many of the spirituals display the depth of suffering of the slaves, as in such songs as "I Been Rebuked and I Been Scorned," the slaveâs despair is relieved by songs characterized by "transcendence, ultimate justice, and personal worth" (Levine 39), as in "Didnât My Lord Deliver Daniel?" Frequently, spirituals referenced "freedom and deliverance" (Blassingame 71). Unlike the songs from white hymnals, the subject matter of the spiritual often connected to episodes from the Old Testament and the Hebrew children whom God guided out of slavery (Levine 51).

Slaves did not readily accept all the Christian dogma, particularly not as it was taught to them by the white ministers. When blacks and whites worshipped together, it was common practice for the white minister to focus the sermon on those parts of the Bible which exhort the slave to submit to the master as they should submit to Jesus. Lawrence Levine recounts the story of Howard Thurman, a black minister who, as a child, was asked to read the Bible to his grandmother who had been a slave. Perplexed at her refusal to hear him read from St. Paul, he asked her reason. The Pauline letters say specifically, "Slaves, be obedient to your masters." She vowed never to read that part of the Bible once freedom was declared (Levine 43).

It seems blushingly obvious to us now that the spirituals would contain codes used by the slaves to communicate among themselves to the exclusion of their white oppressors. How invisible and inaudible, not to mention ostensibly powerless, to the slave holder they must have seemed to be allowed to sing the spirituals we now know to have contained coded messages about escape to freedom in the North. Frederick Douglass, like many of the ex-slaves who wrote narratives about their experiences, contends that although he despised the secrecy and deceptions of the coded messages, "the oppressive atmosphere of intolerance and suspicion made secrecy and coded communication a necessity" (Tobin and Dobard 135). He asserts that for him and many of his fellow slaves the song, "O Canaan, sweet Canaan,/ I am bound for the land of Canaan," symbolized "something more than a hope of reaching heaven. We meant to reach the North, and the North was our Canaan" (Levine 51).

Harriet Tubman, renowned conductor on the Underground Railroad, nurse, spy and scout, found the spiritual so useful she even wrote several which she would teach to slaves, expecting them to pass the songs on to slaves on plantations even further to the south. In this manner, she prepared them for her arrival to lead them to the North and freedom. She used the songs also on the journeys north. She would hide her "passengers" in the woods during the day while she went to a safe house on the Underground Railroad to obtain provisions. In order to sound the "all clearâ that she was not being followed by slave catchers, upon her return to the woods she would sing a song of her own composition, "Hail, oh hail, ye happy spirits." She sang the song the first time to inform the hiding runaways that she was returning. When she sang the song the second time, they knew it was safe to come out. If, on the other hand, she sang another verse about the fall of Adam, they knew slave-catchers were near and they would remain hidden (Tobin and Dobard 145-7).

Occasionally, white slave holders could see through the subterfuge of the spiritual and understood that other messages were being transmitted. Soon after the Nat Turner Revolt when slaves began singing "Better Days Are Coming," masters put a quick stop to that tune, understanding that the end of slavery and the death of white masters were signified.

But the most transparent of the spiritual must be "Steal Away." Although it seems naive in the extreme that the white slave holder could misinterpret the true intent of the song, ostensibly the spiritual invites the listener to turn thoughts to meeting Jesus humbly before the throne of Judgment as life is short. We know now the intent was to exhort the slave to run away to freedom in this life. The lyrics are as follows:

The spiritual could have been sung anywhere on the plantation without arousing the suspicion of the master. Hearing this song, he might have thought himself fortunate to have such devout slaves about the place. But among the slaves themselves, the spiritual could assist and encourage the run for freedom. Because of the constant repetition of the song, even the dullest slave would have easily memorized the lyrics. With very little help, all could have understood the true meaning of the song. But if the spiritual got the slave up on his feet with the intent to run, it would be the advice of the quilts hung along the way that would keep him safe and point him North.

Quilts

But the slaves used other means of "reading" their environment as well. When the Africans were brought to this country as slaves, they brought with them a culture that was already rich in coded messages. Without written language, the Africans passed information, history, stories of the tribe and its kings, and personal stories through the medium of the lukasa. The lukasa, an upright wooden board with colored beads nailed through it (a fine picture of a lukasa can be seen among the pictures after p. 50 in the Tobin book) is familiar throughout Western Africa, the area from which most of the slaves were kidnapped, as a mnemonic device. The lukasa could function as simply as a "fashion magazine" among the women, passing on wisdom about tasks such as "child care, homemaking, beauty, the arts, and healing" (Tobin and Dobard 40). But within the larger use of the tribes, the lukasa carried the wisdom and history of the entire culture. Griots, the African tribal historians and storytellers, used the lukasa to remember details of stories, how to perform certain tasks, and "mythical, historical, genealogical, and medicinal knowledge" (78). All information was transmitted through the use of colored beads held in place by metal pins upon an upright board.

Although the readers of the lukasa were traditionally male, the creators of these boards were historically female. In fact, the board itself is frequently shaped as the female torso, sprouting a distinctly female head. Although women were ineligible to serve their communities as king, when the king died, it was believed that his spirit would return in the form of a woman. Within a specified period of time, one of the women in the tribe would be "haunted" or "possessed" by the spirit of the dead king. Once her haunting was verified to the satisfaction of the tribe, she was permitted to live in the king's hut and assume his material wealth. We can assume, therefore, that African women would have taken seriously their roles as message-bearers among their people. It requires only the smallest stretch to imagine they found ways to make a fabric lukasa to bear their coded messages. Through oral traditions, we now know that slave women would sew messages on the surface of the quilts they made for the masters and those they made for their own families, messages to aid runaways in escaping to freedom. (The film African Art, Women, and History makes an interesting point about how scarification of the body also conveys messages of identity and geography. The film should generate a lively discussion about the current interest in tattooing among teenagers.)

The lukasa conveyed meaning through the use of beads in varying sizes, shapes, and colors placed in a certain way upon the board. The quilts sown by these women appropriated particular patterns repeated over and over in the patchwork. Each quilt meant something different to the run-away reading it. Since the quilts were in constant use on beds of both master and slave, it was not uncommon to see quilts hung out windows and over fence railings to air. The slave women could hang the appropriate quilt in plain view where a run-away could "read" easily its message without arousing the suspicion of the slave owner.

The patterns on quilts have always conveyed certain messages, even among the European Americans. The intertwined wedding ring pattern became a gift to the bride and groom. Other patterns were appropriate for the birth of a child, one pattern for a boy, another for a girl. Although the traditions of the white slave holders would inform them that certain forms and shapes take on other meanings, they were not aware of the depth of meaning, the total "aliveness" of the images the African slaves saw everywhere in their world. Using this tradition of the lukasa, black women crafted signs that said, "Run like crazy," and "A wagon will take you towards Canada," and "Dress in your finest clothes."

According to Ozella McDaniel Williams of Charleston, South Carolina, whose knowledge of Underground Railroad Quilts was gleaned from her grandmother who had been a slave and was passed on to Jacqueline Tobin and Raymond Dobard and recorded in their book Hidden in Plain View, ten quilt patterns were specifically used to signal those about to escape on the Underground Railroad. (See Appendix for pictures of the specific quilt patterns.) Ozella explained that when the Monkey Wrench pattern was exhibited, the travelers were to gather together all of the 'tools' they would need on the journey. In some cases, those 'tools' were as simple as courage, determination, and desire for freedom.

When the Wagon Wheel quilt was displayed, the slave was to prepare all of the materials that would go in the wagon that would begin their escape. This also took on a metaphorical significance of thinking about what one must do in order to survive on this journey.

But the Tumbling Boxes said plainly it was time to go. Like its ancestor, the lukasa, the quilt frequently signaled the viewer by the knots and distance between the knots that imitated the beads on the memory boards.

The Bear Claw Trail reminded the fugitive that the best path to follow was literally the path of the bear. It would most likely be the easiest and most direct route to food and water.

Another example of quilt language is the quilt called Trip Around the World. The fugitive slave was reminded it was better to go around a mountain than over it. Also if the slave master heard such gibberish as a "trip around the world" being discussed by the slave, the discussion would be summarily dismissed (Tobin and Dobard 84).

Some quilts are stitched in haphazard fashion using only the most threadbare remnants of rags. Others demonstrate intricate stitching that, upon closer inspection, appears familiar. On one quilt a central shooting star is surrounded by heavy quilting, suggesting the furrows of the plantation itself. In fact, occasionally the slaves would study field by field the plantation from which they had to escape, stitching the map and an actual escape route out of slavery. Quilts of this detail, though usually frayed from poor materials frequently washed in heavy soap, are the veritable "maps of freedom" for the slaves (67).

But the pattern of the quilts escapes simple metaphor, frequently taking on significance of other kinds as well. The Monkey Wrench Pattern might also suggest a person or group among the slaves on a large plantation who would know how to help a slave when he/she was ready to escape. From that sense, the quilt has come to mean the most powerful and knowledgeable person on the plantation. In fact, a visit to Frederick Douglass' house in Washington, D. C. (or a glance at p. 95 of Tobin and Dobard's book) will reveal a Monkey Wrench quilt on his bed. As a free black, "Monkey Wrench" Douglass would have had "access to a network of people extending from the cabin steps of slaves in the South to the ports of freedom in the North" (88).

Some of the quilt designs had very concrete metaphorical relationships. Cleveland, Ohio was renowned as a "hub" on the Underground Railroad. This quilt exhorts the slave to make his way to Cleveland. From there, his chances of making a clean escape to Canada or other free states was virtually assured. But the Wagon Wheel also hearkens back to African symbolism of the crossroads of one's life, the place in time or space from which one makes a final decision affecting the rest of life. At this point, doors either open or close, the die of one's life is cast irreparably. This sense of poised hesitation at the thought of what lay ahead after Cleveland should have been chilling to the bones of any fugitive (98).

Another common pattern is the Dresden Plate pattern, reminiscent of the Wagon Wheel pattern but actually named for the distinctive dinnerware made in Dresden, Germany. But since Dresden, Ohio and Dresden, Ontario, Canada were both towns famous for their assistance to run-away slaves, yet another meaning suggests itself (50).

The Flying Geese pattern suggests things for the slave to think about before making the journey North. Since the geese migrate North in the spring and summertime, the quilt suggests that the best time for the slaves to make their escape is in "geese time." Since the geese would have to stop along the way to eat, drink, and sleep in waterways, this quilt was a reminder to think like a goose on the trip North. "According to Ozella, slaves were to take their cues on direction, timing, and behavior from the migrating geese" (111).

The journey to freedom was fraught with dangers. The punishment for running was egregious enough to keep others from attempting to escape. Slaves didn't dare carry written messages on them in case they were caught and thereby implicated others. Plans needed to be assiduously attended to if the slave was to succeed. Weather conditions, provisions needed for the journey, friends along the trail, dangers to be avoided, all needed to figure into the slave's plans before the journey was attempted. Sometimes, another slave, too frightened of the pain inflicted by the master's whip, would reveal the plans of someone intent on running. Since not all of the slaves were trustworthy, the signs and symbols needed to be hidden even from other slaves at times. The knowledge of signs and symbols must have been known to only a few of the slaves on any particular plantation, making them an aristocracy of sorts.

Objectives

Although using materials focused on that period of time immediately preceding and up to the Civil War, ultimately this lesson is directed at the youth who are currently involved in a "culture of resistance" of their own. The audience will be largely urban immigrant Latino students in a new reading class for those who score poorly on the state skills-test, the SAT 9. In many ways, they view their environment in a white - privileged society as restrictive as that of the slave. As teenagers, they also participate in a culture of resistance against the common scourge of the Academy, the Establishment, and the world order as dictated by adults. If this unit is about history and the stories of "Other People," black slaves, those who are not like themselves, this unit will simply become "another brick in the wall" of a meaningless education. Although the audience for this unit will be largely comprised of Latino high school students, and only very few black, white and Asian students, the success of the unit will depend on the ability to link students to larger social and personal issues. The unit will focus on the following themes:

* the tenacity of the human spirit

* the resiliency of networks of people to support and encourage change within the larger society

* the ability of students to attach their own goals to their abilities to read the codes and messages within their society

* understanding and respect between the voluntary and involuntary immigrants in their struggle to achieve a place of dignity within the American social context.

But ultimately, it is all just meaningless unless students gain a new respect for the power of reading in their own lives.

During this unit, students will do the following:

                    * Analyze the codes in film and how they differ from the codes in writing.

                    * Synthesize this research into oral and written presentations before the class.

Audience

Because our student population is 70% second language learners of English, twice the percentage of any district in Los Angeles County, our students do not test well on the state standardized-tests in English, currently the SAT 9. Although our students are as bright as other students, many do not value literacy. A large number of our immigrant population comes from Mexico or Latin America, primarily from the rural areas where their formal education ended early to allow them to join their families in the fields or some other endeavor surrounding economic survival. Our students frequently are able to kill poisonous snakes with their bare hands but have not had the advantages of early literacy training.

Test scores below the fortieth percentile reflect badly on the teaching and learning going on in our schools. New state standards and the focus of attention on education have raised the bar for students÷and the school districts that serve them. In an effort to raise the focus on student performance this fall, our high schools will offer reading classes for one semester to those students who have been in this country for 3-5 years, but who still score significantly below grade level in reading in their freshman year of high school. In addition, this material is appropriate for any freshman English class. Hopefully, this unit will initiate the year with easy reading material and student-focused research to motivate students to more demanding and varied reading as the year progresses.

General Lessons

Lesson: Vocabulary Development

Throughout this unit, students will keep their own personal dictionaries to chronicle the vocabulary they wish to learn. Rather than have the teacher choose what vocabulary is to be learned, students will be asked to collect a certain number of new words they would like to learn each week. They will record the word on the front of half a sheet of paper and the definition on the back. The teacher will provide a large metal ring to hold their words together. The rings will be displayed on hooks within the classroom. At the beginning of every class while the teacher is taking roll, students will be given a chance to study their words with a partner for 3 minutes. At the end of the week, students will give one another spelling and vocabulary quizzes, thereby taking responsibility for their own learning.

Lessons: Reading Nightjohn.

For too long our curriculum surrounding the Civil War has been dominated by episodes in the life of Abe Lincoln, Scarlet O'Hara, heroic white men in battle to free their darker brothers, a mere by-product of their real motives for going to war. This lesson places at the heroic center an escaped slave and a little girl, two otherwise powerless people who are able to exert agency in their own lives by learning to read and sharing it with others.

Although Nightjohn is written at a third- or fourth-grade level, the nature of the subject matter is decidedly more adult and appropriate for students in the intermediate and senior high school levels. Many of the various tortures used by the white masters on their black slaves are present in the stories of Sarny. However, they are handled so matter-of-factly that any teacher who is uncomfortable focusing on these issues does not need to do so.

The narrator of the story is a 12 year-old slave girl separated from her mother and raised by another woman on the plantation. Sarny is inquisitive for information and listens at the windows of her white mistress where she picks up the information that Master Waller is buying a new slave. Although the new slave bears all of the scars of frequent whippings, he reveals in the slave quarters that he is willing to teach anyone to read who can give him a " lip full of tobacco."

During the reading, students will keep a journal in which they will chronicle the restrictions of the slave child, their own restrictions at home and at school, and their responses or resistance to being told what to do. They will address issues of how the adults protect and help the young in Nightjohn as well as in their own lives. Ultimately, they will look at the power given to the slave by reading.

Lesson: Viewing film of Nightjohn

One of the "codes" that young people must learn to read in their own culture is the film. Through the discussion and writing exercises, students will see the manner in which the film version of Nightjohn enhances our understanding of some of the major themes left unexplored by the book.

Although the names of the book and film are the same, they each present a very different vision of the story, each worth class time in this unit. The film develops the assertion that "running is the same as reading," that reading brings its own power. In the film, the white family is shown to be corrupt in many ways that had escaped the child narrator of the book. We see Sarny's cunning develop and her self-assurance as she continues to read more. Delie, Nightjohn, and Sarny begin to emerge as a "family" who helps and consoles one another, in contrast to the decadent white family in the big house. In the denouement, Sarny emerges as a creature who has used the simple "learning letters" to improve her ability to think when she outsmarts the drunken Master Waller.

While viewing the film, students will keep track in their journals of the metaphors Nightjohn uses as mnemonic devices for the letters of the alphabet. At the end of the film, in their groups, students will create a metaphor for the first letter of their names. The metaphor may work in Spanish or English (or their first and second languages, whatever they may be), but it is more effective if it works in both.

The students will also work on a group quilt-making project aimed at getting them to create their own visual codes. Using a piece of their own old clothing, students will create a patch for a class quilt from the letter metaphor of their name. (See Jan Endich's article in Annotated Bibliography for help on structuring this work.) This use of code, metaphor and symbol then becomes a shared "culture" among the students within that learning community or class. The in-class quilt does not take as much time or effort as it appears. Even some of the assembly work can be done by students and need not require the teacher to spend evenings stitching the pieces together. Another twist on the "real" quilt would be to make the quilts out of construction paper although the result is somewhat less satisfying. (See also Kay Wagner in the Annotated Bibliography.)

After the film screening, the class should consider the spiritual and how the singing of the slave carried coded messages as well. Students will have seen slaves singing in the fields as they worked and with only a little help from the teacher will be able to imagine how the spiritual could have guided Nightjohn in his initial run for freedom and later as he returned to captivity. As students begin to connect the singing that led Nightjohn away from slavery and brought him back to teach Sarny and the other children, students will connect to the significance of the music they listen to and their own "daily resistance" to the adult culture that must seem oppressive to them and their culture. Students will write in their journals about what their music is trying to say about their own culture and their means of trying to break out. They will then be given a week during which to choose a song from the music to which they listen, to type up the lyrics, and to prepare a 5-7 minute speech about what meaning the song has in code for their generation. While students are working on their patches for the quilt in class, their homework may be working on their speech of their own generation's "spiritual."

Lesson: Viewing the film African Art, Women, History: The Luba People of Central Africa

The film, while only 28 minutes long, explains the creation and use of the lukasa board among African peoples. Quite simply, the film will demonstrate to students how deeply embedded is the tradition of coded messages among African people. Along with the tradition of scarification of the body, messages of identity, history, and factual information could be passed with the ease of a written language among the African slaves. After viewing, students will write for 10 minutes in their journals answering the question, "Do we use something similar to the lukasa board today? Is there another form of scarification used in the United States today that you believe relates to this form of communication? What messages do these modern American forms send? Who uses them? What are some of the symbols you know about?"

Lesson: Listening to "Sarny: A Life Remembered"

Besides giving students practice in listening for a purpose, this unit will continue to develop the need to practice and share reading skills as a means of achieving freedom, both physical and economic. Sarny begins with her grown up and still on Waller's plantation, a premise that does not follow from the ending of the filmic version. As the Civil War begins to catch up with Waller, he sells Sarny's two children to pay for his gambling debts. She is chained to keep her from following them when soldiers with the Northern Army invade the plantation, killing Waller before her eyes. In the chaos of freedom for the slaves, Sarny and a friend from the plantation begin their search for her children by going in just the opposite direction from the rest of humanity÷they head south to New Orleans. On the road, she encounters an octoroon woman who employs the two women to travel with her to New Orleans. Miss Laura, who knows all of the important men in New Orleans "professionally," helps Sarny find her children. She continues her patronage for many years while Sarny marries, the children grow up, and she begins a school for former slaves. Several references to codes and knowing what they mean occur in this brief text.

Lesson: Student Presentation

In the just classroom in which all are both teachers and learners, the students will now use this information to form their own presentations. Having seen how slaves hid signs of their culture in "plain sight," students should begin to reflect upon the significance of their own cultural signs. They too carry on a cultural in "plain sight" without adults knowing exactly the significance of what they are observing. Adolescents use music, fashion, hair styles, comics, films, TV, tagging, dance, computer games, T-shirts, tattoos, cars and car detailing, malls, and throwing gang signs to baffle their "masters," or elders. Using the models of what they have learned from the slave culture of daily resistance, they will now reflect upon their own culture.

Given a list of all of these different pieces of culture, students will do research on one with the intent of presenting before the class a speech about their own culture and how it is hidden in plain sight.

Students will identify one of the areas to research. They must have a primary source, a person of their own age whom they feel able to speak to youth culture, and secondary sources, a written and published document, following the model for research below:

1. Students will provide an interview on tape and transcribed from a person of their own age they feel is an authority on this topic. They must also write up a page in their journal about why they feel this person is an "expert," or primary source. What has this person done to gain the respect of your community? What are his/her special credentials? How does this person function within the adolescent community? Why would people want to hear this person's opinion?

2. Students will copy brief bits of information about their coded message from the radio, television, films, walls, or some other area where teens would gather information about one another. In their journals they will write what the information is and what media they got it from. How is this important? What other people would look for information here? How do you know this? How do teens communicate with one another that this is a significant site? What does the information mean? Why is that important for others to know?

3. From the newspaper, books, magazines, or articles from the Internet (students must prove this is a valid site and not some unsubstantiated infomercial) that deals with this sign, write down the information that print media has about youth culture. What does the printed text think this sign means? Are they right or wrong? What are they missing in order to understand fully what is going on in this sign? What do they not know about teenagers that would help them to figure this out?

4. Organizing all aspects of their research, students will present a 5-10 minute presentation about their cultural message hidden in "plain sight." They may use some visualization, but they may not use notes or cards to read from or refer to. They must know their material well in order to present it. If they think they will need notes, they may write 3 words on the board that they may refer to as they speak.

Final Metacognitive Essay

In a final essay, students will consider the importance of reading to their own future plans. They will consider such topics as what occupations they are considering in their future, how much money they expect to make at this occupation, how much reading they will have to do, and what they are doing about improving their reading skills now.

Appendix on Questions to go with Nightjohn

For student journals:

* Quickwrite: Think of all of the unjust restrictions placed on you by a] the school, b] your parents, c] the church, d] society. Discuss this in your group. Make a list of all of the ones you can think of. But only write in your journal the ones you feel restrict you. Now, write about how your respond to this restriction. Do you do what you are told? Do you fight back? If so, how? Do you resist in ways others don't know about?

* Keep a list in your journal of all of the cruel things Master Waller and his white workers do to the slaves. Make one column that says "Cruelty of Master Waller." Make another column that says, "How the slaves resist." You may add to them at any time throughout the reading.

* In another place, make a list of the ways that Sarny learns things.
* After reading chapter 3, students will write in their journals about learning to read. How old were you when you learned to read? What do you remember about it? Who taught you to read? Where did you sit? What did you read? When did this happen (time of day, year)? What did you like/dislike about this experience?

* After chapter 4, for discussion: Why are white people afraid of slaves learning to read? Describe what Nightjohn says an "A" looks like. Describe what happens to the people who run. (Per teacher discretion: What happens to Alice to make her run? What happens to Alice when she runs?) When Nightjohn had gotten free of slavery, why did he return? Would you be that brave?

* After chapter 5, for discussion: How does Waller punish Sarny for reading? Why is that so effective?

* After chapter 7, for discussion: What book does John have the children read? Why is that a good choice? Why does Nightjohn come back to teach the young ones how to read? Why does he suffer so much for the children? Why is reading so important? How do other adults help the children on the plantation?

* For quickwrite: What power does reading giving the slave?

Appendix for the Film of Nightjohn

During the viewing of the film, students can keep track of these questions in their journals:

* Describe how Sarny is standing when she watches her mother being sold off. (She looks like the letter A she will learn first from Nightjohn.)

* List some of the jobs Sarny has working for the white people.

* What must Sarny do every time she makes a letter? Why?

* What does she want to know about the letter A?

* What makes Sarny rich? Where is she getting all of her practice in reading? (She gets a penny for carrying letters between the lovers, the doctor and Mrs. Waller, and she gets an opportunity to read their letters.)

* What does the "B" remind Nightjohn of?

* What does he say the letter "C" looks like?

* Now that Nightjohn can't teach her anymore, how does Sarny continue to learn letters?

* Quickwrite: Nightjohn says, "Slavery is about words." What does that mean?

* What does Sarny also learn to do because of reading?

* Describe the scene in church when Sarny learns to put together the letters to make words and true reading. What assists her?

* Make a list of all of the signs that show the white family is falling apart.

* The slaves are in danger when the white son comes to the slave quarters to "be their friend." List 3 things he could find that would get them in trouble.

* Quickwrite: The son asks Delie if she is "reading" him. People also form another code. Write about some times that you have had to/been able to read another person.

* In the book, Nightjohn loses his toes so he can't run. In the film, what does he lose? How does that change the way we think about his loss?

* What information does Sarny have about Waller and his family that keeps the slaves and herself safe?

Appendix for Sarny: A Life Remembered

Listening Guide:

* How is "running like reading?"

* What keeps Sarny from running? What does that mean?

* What causes Waller to sell his slaves?

* Some slaves don't know what to do under freedom. Sarny does. Why?

* What do all the pieces of paper in the slave-seller's office mean? How do they mean that? (people's lives)

* When does Lucy make the hex sign? Why? What does it look like?

* How does Nightjohn give her back her children when he has been gone for so long?

* There is a "code" used by the ambulance drivers that they use on the wounded men. What is it?

* Sarny sees a "code" in the color of the white men's clothes. What code does she see, and what does she believe the colors mean?

* What does it say about Sarny that she would be willing to raise a little white boy?

* What is Miss Laura's secret?

* Sarny says she wishes that Delie could see her sitting in bubbles and hot water reading. What does she think that will mean to Delie? Explain.

* Little Delie recognizes that her mother needs to spend her time teaching. What do you think she will get out of teaching?

* How does reading improve the lives of Sarny and Nightjohn?

* How will the ability read make your life better? (You may include the reading of codes.)

Appendix

Rubric for Oral Presentation

"Hidden in Plain Sight"

1 No effort/inappropriate response

Student does not make an effort or is absent on the date of his/her presentation. Student is not ready with any or sufficient information on time. A grade of D or F is earned.

2 Emerging Proficient

Incomplete information gathered. Little or no interpretation of information. Lack of sufficient practice for presentation. Poorly conceived or executed visual. Poor use of voice, body, and line of vision. Inappropriate academic language is used, giving the presentation a feel of inauthenticity. A grade of C or D is earned.

3 Proficient

Sufficient information is gathered to make for an interesting presentation. The speaker is fluent, well-rehearsed. The material is well-written and organized in an academic register. Useful, attractive visual. Voice is loud enough to gather attention from all over the room. Eye contact is made with all corners of the room. Dignified posture. Use of hands does not distract from content of speech. A grade of B or C is earned.

4 Exceptional Achievement

This speech is usually a complete surprise in most areas and seems to excel the "sufficient achievement" category in all things. Its sparkle and "something extra" is evident through depth of research, clarity, and subtlety of analysis, wit and sophistication of presentation. As such, it cannot be anticipated by the audience and comes as a shock. It is entirely original in content, form, or delivery. A grade of A is earned.

The Xerox copies of the quilt patterns come from several places in Hidden in Plain View by Jacqueline L. Tobin and Raymond G. Dobard. Since the patterns are easy to duplicate, they will give some assistance to teachers making overhead projections of quilt patterns for purposes of instruction and in making the class quilt.

Annotated Bibliography

African Art, Women, and History: The Luba People of Central Africa. Created and Produced by Linda Freeman. Narrated by Dr. Mary Nooter Roberts. L & S Video Inc. In this film, available through the Metropolitan Museum of Art catalogue, the lukasa board as mnemonic device is connected to its roots in Central Africa. Only 28 minutes long, it will give students a chance to see visually how the board works through the griot as a work of art and as a textured 'quilt.'

Benberry, Cuesta. "Woven into History." American Visions December-January 1993: 14.

Blassingame, John W. Slave Communities: Plantation Life in the Antebellum South.

New York: Oxford University Press, 1972. Slavery did not decimate the rich culture of the African. Although many accommodations had to be made to the original cultural traditions, the social, ethical, and cultural life of the slave quarters proved to be the primary environment of the slave.

Bolz, Diane M. "Antebellum Quilts." Smithsonian November 1996 : 95.

Brown, Elsa B. "African American Women Quilters." Signs Summer 1989: 921.

 Cash, Floris Barnett. "Kinship and Quilting: An Examination of An African-

American Tradition." Journal of Negro History Winter 1995: 30. Quilting together formed a link across generations and among working class black and white women that enabled them to talk while they worked but also to "speak" within their communities as they sold the quilts to raise money for civic projects.
 

Chaveas, Lucille. "'Who'd a Thought It?" Journal of American Folk Fall 1992: 477.

 Davis, Olga Idress. "Rhetoric of Quilts: Creating Identity in African American

Children's Literature." African American Revolution Spring 1998: 67.

 Dobard, Raymond. "Quilts as Communal Emblems and Personal Icons." International Review of African American Art Spring 1994: 39.

 Dunn, Margaret. "Narrative Quilts and Quilted Narratives." Explorations of Ethnic Studies. Jan 1992: 27.

 Endich, Jan. " Quick Little Quilts: Complete guide to Making Miniature and Lap Quilts." Library Journal 15 Nov. 1998. Should you choose to work on a class quilt of patches from the alphabet students make, this could act as your guide.

 Equiano, Olaudah. Equiano's Travels. ed. by Paul Edwards. Oxford: Heineman, African Writers Series. 1996.

 Faith Ringgold: The Last Story Quilt. Created and produced by Linda Freeman. Written and directed by David Irving. L & S Video Inc. Distributed by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Now a professor of art at University of California San Diego, Faith Ringgold is among the most famous contemporary African American quilters, using this old tradition of story -telling through quilts as the lukasa board was used in Central African before Africans were brought to the New World as slaves.

Gates, Henry Louis Jr., and Nellie Y. McKay, eds. Norton Anthology of African American Literature. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1997. Not only are the references to Frederick Douglass and Olaudah Equiano to be found here, many of the references both to spirituals and rap can be found here.

Huntington, Patricia. "Broad Street Quilt÷Using Community as a Classroom." School Arts May - June 1997: 31.

 Jeffries, Rosalind. "American Retentions of African American Quilts and Artifacts." International Review of African American Art. Spring 1994: 28.

 Kueton, Marian. "Reading and Writing with Quilts." Reading Teacher April 1991: How to use quilts in the classroom as part of the language arts curriculum.

Levine, Lawrence W. Black Culture and Black Consciousness: Afro-American Folk Thought From Slavery to Freedom. Oxford, London: Oxford University Press, 1977. Focuses primarily on the culture of the slaves to provide courage and a sense of ultimate justice.

Lovell, John Jr. Black Song: the Forge and the Flame. New York, New York: MacMillan Company, 1972. Considers the various influences blended together in the spiritual.

 Meyer, Jon. "Faith Ringgold." Artnew Feb. 1989: 139. A brief review of a showing of this phenomenal 20th century quilter and her narrative quilts.

 Mulholland, Joan. "Patchwork: Evolution of Woman's Genre." Journal of American Culture Winter 1996: 57. How the bed quilt was able to 'talk' through the women who worked on it, the messages stitched into it, and the names of the designs used.

Nightjohn. Dir. Charles Burnett. Perf. Carl Lumbly, Lorraine Toussaint, Bill Cobbs, Allison Jones, and Beau Bridges. Hallmark Entertainment and the Disney Channel, 1997. Striking differences between the book and the film make them stand alone as works of art, both valuable for what the comparison reveals.

Paulsen, Gary. Nightjohn. New York: Delacorte Press, 1993. This novel written at a third grade reading level is sophisticated enough for high school readers. When an escaped slave returns to slavery to free others by teaching them to read, 11 year old Sarny is the only one courageous enough to learn.

Paulsen, Gary. Sarny. New York: Delacorte Press, 1997. Having learned to read herself, Sarny shares what she has learned with others when she builds schools using Miss Laura's money.

Paulsen, Gary. Sarny. 1997. Read by Lynne Thigpen. Recorded Books, Inc, 1998. The little girl Nightjohn taught to read grows up. On the eve of emancipation, her children are sold South.

Smith, Valerie. Self-Discovery and Authority in Afro-American Narrative. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1987. Beginning with her consideration of Frederick Douglass' assertion that literacy leads to freedom, Smith discusses how the autobiography and the process of placing one's self at the center of a narrative have shaped black literature from Equiano's travels to Toni Morrison's novels.

Stuckey, Sterling. Slave Culture: Nationalist Theory and the Foundations of Black America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987. Proximity to whites did not diminish black cultural forms brought from Africa. Beginning with the "ring shout" and continuing through the embrace of Christianity, the slaves reinvented every cultural artifact while remaining insulated and apart from their white owners.

Tobin, Jacqueline L. and Dobard, Raymond G. Hidden in Plain View. New York: Doubleday, 1999. Determined to resist the cruelties of slavery, black women, using African and Masonic symbols, sewed signs into their quilts to alert run-aways on how to use the Underground Railroad.

Wagner, Kay. "Love and Comfort: Volunteering to make quilts for AIDS babies." School Arts October 1993: 33. This article may give dimension to your classroom quilt project. Another idea would be to give the quilt to the Teen Mother program in your district.

Note: To attempt a complete bibliography on popular culture in the United States would be an arrogant undertaking. I have suggested several readings that might be helpful÷and readily available÷for those among us who fear they will have nothing to contribute to the discussion on popular culture and must depend on the wisdom of our students.

 Fashion:

 Kondo, Dorinne. About Face: Performing Race in Fashion and Theater. New York: Routledge, 1997.

Film:

Considine, David M. Cinema of Adolescence. Jefferson, N. C.: McFarland, 1985.

Lewis, Jon. Road to Romance and Ruin: Teen Films and Youth Culture. New York: Routledge, 1992.

Graffiti/Street Art:

Chalfant, Henry and James Prigoff. Spraycan Art. London: Thames and Hudson, 1987.

Redstone, Louis G, and Ruth R. Redstone. Public Art: New Directions. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1980.

Popular Culture:

Adjaye, Joseph K., and Adrianne R. Andrews, eds. Language, Rhythm and Sound: Black Popular Cultures in the Twenty-first Century. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1997.

Berger, Arthur Asa. Pop Culture. Dayton, Ohio: Pflaum/Standard, 1973.
---. Manufacturing Desire: Media, Popular Culture and Everyday Life. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, 1996.

Browne, Ray B. Against Academia: History of the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association and the Popular Culture Movement: 1967-1988. Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1989.

Browne, Ray B., Marshal W. Fishwick, and Kevin O. Browne. Dominant Symbols in Popular Culture. Bowling Gree, Ohio: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1990.

Donnelly, William J. Confetti Generation: How New Communications Technology is Fragmenting America. New York: Holt, 1986.

Dunne, Michael. Metapop: Self-Referentiality in Contemporary American Popular Culture. London: University Press of Mississippi, 1992.

Hebdige, Dick. Hiding in the Light: On Images and Things. London and New York: Routledge, 1988.
---. Subculture: The Meaning of Style. London: Methuen, 1979.

Kroes, Rob. If You've Seen One, You've Seen the Mall: Europeans and American Mass Culture. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1996.

Lopiano-Misdom, Janine, and Joanne De Luca. Street Trends: How Today'sAlternative Youth Cultures Are Tomorrow's Mainstream Markets. New York: Harper Business, 1997.

Nye, Russell B., ed. New Dimensions in Popular Culture. Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green University Popular Press, 1972.

Root, Robert L., Jr. Rhetoric of Popular Culture: Advertising, Advocacy and Entertainment. New York: Greenwood Press, 1987.

Twitchell, James. Carnival Culture: Trashing of Taste in America. New York: Columbia University Press, 1992.

Baker, Houston A. Black Studies, Rap Music and the Academy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993.

Costello, Mark and David Foster Wallace. Signifying Rappers: Rap and Race in Urban Present. New York: Ecco Press, 1990.

Cross, Brian. It's Not About a Salary--: Rap, Race, and Resistance. New York: Delacort Press, 1994.

D, Chuck and Yusuf Jah. Sight the Power: Rap, Race, and Reality. New York: Delacort Press, 1997.

Fernando, S. H., Jr. New Beats: Exploring the Music, Culture, and Attitudes of Hip Hop. New York: Anchor Books, Doubleday, 1994.

George, Nelson, ed. for the National Urban League. Stop the Violence: Overcoming Self-Destruction.. New York: Pantheon Books, 1990.
---. Hip Hop America. New York, New York: Viking, 1998.

Hagar, Steven. Hip Hop: Illustrated History of Break Dancing, Rap Music, and Graffiti. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1984.

Kitwana, Bakari. Rap on Gansta Rap Who run It? Gansta Rap and Visions of Black Violence. Chicago: Third World Press, 1994.

McCoy, Judy. Rap Music in 1980's: Reference Guide. Metuchen, New Jersey: Scarcrow Press, 1992.

Nelson, Havelock and Gonzales, Michael A. Bring the Noise: Guide to Rap Music and Hip Hop Culture. New York: Harmony Books, 1991.

Perkins, Willliam Eric, ed. Droppin' Science: Critical Essays on Rap Music and Hip Hop Culture. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1996.

Potter, Russell A. Spectacular Vernacular: Hip Hop and Politics of Postmodernism. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995.

Ro, Ronin. Gangsta: Merchandizing the Rhythms of Violence. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1996.

Rose, Tricia. Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America. Middletown, Conn: Wesleyan University Press, 1994.

Sexton, Adam, ed. Rap on Rap: Straight Talk on Hip-Hop Culture. New York: Delta Press, 1995.

Small, Michael. Break It Down: Inside Story from New Leaders of Rap. Secaucus, New Jersey: Carol Publishers, 1992.

Toop, D. Rap Attack: African Jive to New York Hip Hop. London: Pluto Press, 1984.
---. Rap Attack 2: African Rap to Global Hip Hop. London; New York, New York: Serpent's Tail, 1991.

Television:

 Bianculli, David. Teleliteracy: Taking Television Seriously. New York: Continuum, 1992.

 Marc, David. Bonfire of the Humanities: Television, Subliteracy and Long-Term Memory Loss. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press, 1995.