Using Kantz

I think that in my essay I am goign to have to be very specific about the argument that I make because many people to not really take visual images into consideration now being that they are so popular in our culture. Everything now is shown with a picture and I am going to try and get at the feelings behind the pictures and whether or not they are strong enough to persuade people to bring about change. One thing that I think is important is going to be the idea that I have to explain and interpret my sources mainly because many of them will be visual and not necessarily be written facts, my arguement draws more on the rhetorical aspect rather than factual. I agree with Kantz that the typical student can do all of the things she mentions on the first page, and I think that I have to really be ready to make connections between the information I have, the purpose and thesis I have, and my audience. I think that I will be able to do this effectivly because I plan on drawing on people's pathos and personal experience as a member of this modern day world. With my topic I will be able to find many disagreements because it is not very typical to think about how much weight a picture has in a social movement and I will have to analyze them carefully.

3 annotations

Kantz, Margaret. Helping Students Use Textual Sources Persuasively

I think that the most important thing about this article is that she emphasizes that "students need to read source texts as arguments and to think about the rhetorical contexts in which they were written rather than to read them merely as a set of facts to be learned"(40), and this allows them to think creatively about how they can interpret what the author and facts mean. I will be able to use this as i look at many different pictures and interpret them in many different ways. 

Another thing that I find important is her definition of "rhetorical reading", and this is good to do when looking at all of the sources because it makes them more easy to understand and use effectively. It is the who, what and why. 

The last idea that I find interesting is understanding that "both facts and opinions are essentially the same kind of statement: they are claims", but understanding this you are able to place some sort of value of importance of your materials. 

5 points from Curious Researcher

1. Page 182 = " By now, you know I don't agree with the view that all research writing should be objective ( as if such a thing were possible). And in the research essay that you are about to draft this week, I certainly invite you to consider using the first person, presenting your own observations and experiences as evidence (if they're relevant) and yes, even talking about yourself."

2. Page 183 = Sometimes writing in first person is not appropriate for the subject you are tlaking about, especially if you are not there. 

3. Page 190 = "Most important, though, remember that, fundamentally, your writing voice is a reflection of who you are." It is important to put some personality into your essay. 

4. Page 191 = Depending on what type of essay you are writing, and for whom you are writing there are different levels of professionality. Especially if you are writing an academic paper, you hardly include your opinions on the matter, it is more about facts. 

5. Page 167 = You have to be able to evaluate the conflicting claims put forward by the different sources. 

Questions from Class on Topic

Two questions people wrote were that I might want to explore the affects of celebrity endorsements on visual propaganda, and are there any particular images parallel to the Brooke’s ship diagram today?. I think that I can use this because it might be aparallel to Brook’s diagram, him being the “celebrity” endorser, or the abolitionists being the celebrities at that time. I think that I would try and find an image, maybe the vote or die slogan related to Sean Combs, or the Fight Against Global AIDS campaign and see if there are any diagrams or pictures that capture the eye and emotions to a similar extent that the slave ship diagram does.

 Did the images that Hochschild mentions really affect the antislavery movement as much as he proposed, implying a picture really can do as much as change someone’s entire view on the subjects?

2 Sources

Wood, Marcus. Blind Memory : Visual Representations of Slavery in England and America 1780-1865. New York: Routledge Inc, 2000. 

This book is about the visual images that are related to the times during slavery. It give many, many pictures and examples of how they affected the publics views on slavery and on abolition. It looks at pictures, diaries, woodcuttings, diagrams, and even sculptures. I will try and use this to find certain images that made the most impact, and see why and how they were so special. 

Sandage, Scott A. A Marble House Divided: The Lincoln Memorial, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Politics of Memory, 1939-1963. The Journal of American History, Vol. 80, No. 1 June 1993. (135-167). 

The article discusses how memory is affected mostly by images. This is important in gaining support from the public, and making them remember what is important. Visual images can relate to everyone, and I want to try and find out to what extent and how much people rely on these images to support their views on civil rights movements. 

NOTES

Wood, Marcus. Blind Memory: Visual Representations of Slavery in England and America 1780-1865. New York: Routledge Inc, 2000. 21-24.

21-22 Has the slave ship diagram, and  Who is Gates? I can use this to show 

kneeling slave coin. "was reproduced as the  that propaganda was just as import-

heading to a great number of anti-slavery ant if not more, if it is visual. 

publications appearing as stationary...what this image

shares with abolition propaganda... is its central focus

is a rhetoric which conforms, to a frightening extent, 

to Gates's description of erasure."

24 "Meynell's drawing has an ungainly power perhaps EYEWITNESS account as a picture. 

all the more empathetic in view of the fact that no  There is no white liberating presence

visual eyewitness account of an English slave cargo shown in the picture. It is shown 

has survived from the period before 1807." that sometimes the slaves must take  care all by themselves. 

Using Material

I think that I could use a lot of the material from the text. My essay focuses on the impact of images on arguments and movements. I think that I will use the coin image of the kneeling slave, and also the slave ship diagram. I can use all of the facts/story from the book and also the references that Hochschild used for the information. I can also compare it with how much effect the newspapers had on the public opinion at that time. 

Pages 324-354/365/366

In these parts of Bury the Chains, the impatience of the public was brought up. They wanted an end to slavery "NOW", and did not want there to be a gradual ending. This was the only logical way of emancipating slaves though, so they were given freedom in shifts. Many people did not agree with this, one such figure was Heyrick, a woman writing about immediate emancipation, and with this giving women the courage now to speak up and voice their opinions on the issue. Women's groups, societies, boycotts, and writings now started growing in popularity and intensity, they reached out across Britain.

Later on Hochschild discusses how the British people were getting aggitated and concerned about the undemocratic way Parliament is selected, and the long process they were taking to abolish slavery. Many people were starting to believe that if there was no reform soon there would be civil unrest, maybe even a revolution. There were more revolts in the Caribbean, and more uncertainty. These helped to strengthen the movement, making people scared that there was no immediate action. In 1833 the emancipation bill finally passed in both houses of Parliament. Although the bill was passed, there was inherently still slavery.