This week in lectures and readings we are learning about politics and labor in the late nineteenth century. For your reading response I want you to discuss some of our readings in conversation with each other. These readings teach us about political action and organizing.
Specifically focus on the following readings in your response:
Tera W. Hunter, To ‘Joy My Freedom: Southern Black Women’s Lives and Labors After the Civil War, read chapter 4, “Washing Amazons” and Organized Protests (pages 74–97). Available to download through the Library on the “Reading List” tab.
Queen Lili‘uokalani to Benjamin Harrison (U.S. President), 1893, http://libweb.hawaii.edu/digicoll/annexation/protest/liliu3.php (Links to an external site.)
Queen Lili‘uokalani to William McKinley (U.S. President), June 17, 1897, http://libweb.hawaii.edu/digicoll/annexation/protest/liliu5.php (Links to an external site.)
Joseph Heleluhe to William McKinley (U.S. President), July 1897, http://libweb.hawaii.edu/digicoll/annexation/protest/liliu8.php (Links to an external site.)
All of these readings this week teach us about political action, and show how politics includes much more than voting. Hunter argues in her chapter that labor and community organizing by working-class Black women (who could not vote) was political action. Petitions and letters by Queen Lili‘uokalani and other Native Hawaiians against U.S. annexation also show political action. What strategies did Black women and Native Hawaiians use to create political leverage? What were particular sites of activism and organization that they used (for example: location of protests and organizing, use of certain types of documents, etc.). What kind of language and arguments did these people use when they argued for their rights? How did they challenge white supremacy through their actions? To organize your response, consider answering one question in each paragraph, and having a main point or argument for that paragraph that you then support with evidence from these readings.
In your response, include in-text citations to your evidence at the end of your sentences, following this system: (Hunter, To ‘Joy My Freedom, 97). For the online content: (Queen Lili‘uokalani to Benjamin Harrison, 1893). You can also incorporate evidence to support your points from class lectures. Cite class lectures like this: (Terry, U.S. Empire)
