The book, Black Empire, by George Schuyler; follows the progression of success that occurs as the Black Internationale, a group of black men and women, who begin to implement their well thought out plans to become a powerful nation. A large part of the story is the movement from America to Africa, where the group plans to take the land for themselves and make a new start of ruling the world there. While talking about the move, Dr. Belsidus, the organizations head, talks about the many ships that they organization has purchased, and I found the names of the ships especially appealing. Schuyler writes, "'The others will take positions as follows: Capt. Cambell's S. S. Nat Turner...S.S. Fred Douglass...Sojourner Truth...Bessie Coleman...Phyllis Wheatley...Samory. You are to be ready at your stations on the afternooon'" (92). When I first read this, I didn't think much about the historical context of the names, but after thinking about it later on, I realized that all of the people were historically famous black people. I think it is very interesting that Schuyler used these people as the names of the ships, he deliberately chooses to name the ships after famous black people. There are many connections between the historical black people and the characters and events occurring in the novel and I wanted to look more closely at those historical pieces that Schuyler draws on.
Nat Turner: He led a rebellion, many black and white people were killed, Nat was then sentenced to death and was hanged. In terms of Nat's rebellion and his legacy, we notice, that Dr. Belsidus is running a sort of rebellion through trying to gain African stability and control. Also, the doctor would have been extremely upset at the treatment of Nat Turner.
Frederick Douglass: He was a slave and escaped to the North, he was educated and fought for black freedom, though he believed in non-violence and wished to use his education to show people that slavery was wrong. Douglass reminds me of Carl Slater because he is much more mellow, he uses his writing to prove his points and seemed frightened of violence. Douglass, for example, refused to join John Brown's rebellion against Virginia because he did not wish to be involved in such a situation. Similar to this is Slater, who is not nearly as desensitized as others characters and views killing as a brutal and ruthless act. At the beginning of the novel we see Slater's awe and confusion at the act of killing, "'But that's murder, ' I objected. 'Cold-blooded murder.' 'Of course it's muder,' he [Belsidus] said, smirking sardonically" (11). This shows that Salter is uncomfortable and unhappy with the idea of murder, while Belsidus is uncaring and cold. Another reason why Slater is like Douglass, is how they convey their feelings and stories through writing. This book is written from Slater's point of view, and Douglass wrote, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave from his view as well. Both describe situations and feelings about events very descriptively.
Sojourner Truth: In an English class I had last fall, I learned that she was very outspoken and made speeches for women's rights and was an abolitionist. She was famous for her speeches, but couldn't read or write, so all of her 'works' are written down by other people. Her not being able to express herself in the written word reminds me of the butler, Jim, who doesn't have a tongue and much rely on others to communicate effectively.
Bessie Coleman: Her similarities to a character is quite simple; she was a black woman who was also a pilot, which obviously resembles Pat! They both share flying as minority women, which is quite an amazing profession for women and African American's at the time.
Phillis Wheatley: She was one of the first African American women to publish her writing. The goal of the Black Internationale is to try to be the best, be the first and be in control and this connects to Wheatley because she sort of "paved the way" for other black writers and artists of the time, in the same way that Belsidus is "paving the way" for other black people to succeed and change their futures/lives.
Samory Ture: He was the founder of an Empire that resisted French rule in the late 1800's. I found this interesting because this is a similar situation to that of the Black Internationale's! Belsidus is the founder of the Empire and is trying to resist France and other European nations in order to maintain peace and progress in his plans.
Questions:
1. What other historical events can we find that Schuyler drew off of in the book? What is he trying to tell the readers by using historical characters and events?
2. Is Slater representative of his race and time period? Is Belsidus more representative of it than Slater? Explain.
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