LAP: research assignment

Slavery
• Began in 8000 BC
• People began to immigrate to the southern
states, and settlers cleared land, and built
plantations which used black slaves
• Whites traditionally bought slaves
 slavery
• Slaves had no right in the society
• Slaves were bought from Africa
• Slaves lived around Maycomb, and worked for
the whites in the middle of the town.
 The civil war
• The southern states were Florida, Georgia,
Maryland, north Carolina, south Carolina,
Virginia, west Virginia, and Delaware
• Abraham Lincoln proclaimed war against the
southern states
• Lincoln felt that slavery was unfair and
declared war against the southern states
because they allowed slavery
 The civil war
• Civil war was fought between 1861 and 1865
• The southern states were defeated
• The story takes place during the times when
the civil rights movement was just starting to
pick up steam
 Jim Crow laws
• A Jim Crow is an African American
• These laws caused segregation of public
schools, public places, and facilities
 Jim Crow Laws
• The blacks felt that the laws were unfair, and
even tried to break them
• Jim Crow laws do not surface in “to kill a
mockingbird”
 The civil rights movement
• Occurred during 1950 and 1980
• Aimed for equal rights for Blacks and Whites
• Events like the march for freedom and jobs in
Washington, formation of NAACP
 Civil rights movement
• Supported by Abraham Lincoln
• The civil war erupted, and the southern states
surrendered, resulting in equality of both the
entire united states
• The civil rights movement relates in the sense
that although the southern states were
defeated, slavery still remains de facto.
 Scottsboro trials
• Accusations against some black boys came up.
Two white girls accused the boys of raping
them
• Trial was similar to Tom Robinson’s case
 Scottsboro trials
• Both trials are similar in the fact that the case
was unfair, and there was an all white jury
 Traits of a southern Belle and gentleman

• A southern belle is an archetype for a young

woman in the south’s upper class
 Traits of a southern Belle and gentleman

• A southern gentleman is an archetype for a

young man in the south’s upper class
 Harper Lee
• Won the Pulitzer prize for “to kill a
mockingbird”, and it still remains her only
published piece of work
• Born 1926
• Other works include ‘when children discover
America’ and ‘Christmas to me’