The Center for Campus History compiled these resources as an introductory guide to help contextualize the 2025-2026 Go Big Read, James by Percival Everett. The sources below, both primary and secondary, reflect broader historical themes and topics of the Antebellum era that appear in the novel. Rather than include specific discussion questions for each source, we recommend the following two questions to provide more flexibility for instructors:
- How does the specific source or reading help contextualize James and the different characters?
- How does the source or reading compliment or challenge themes, historical context, and the characters from James?
We strongly encourage educators to also utilize the discussion questions and resources the Go Big Read created, which focus on the contents of the book. These can be found on the resource page on the Go Big Read website.
Antebellum Era and Slavery (Broad Overviews)
Ian Beamish et al., “The Cotton Revolution,” Andrew Wegmann, ed., in The American Yawp, eds. Joseph Locke and Ben Wright (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2018). Read book here
The above chapter includes 9 primary sources related to the Antebellum Era, but we recommend two sources:
- “Harriet Jacobs on rape and slavery, 1860.” Trigger Warning: Discussion of Sexual Violence. View source here
- “Solomon Northup describes a slave market, 1841” View source here
- View all primary sources here
Chapter 13 “Abolitionism in America” and Chapter 14 “The Politics of Slavery in the United States.” In Davis, David Brion. Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World. Oxford University Press, 2023. Read book here
Blackface Minstrelsy
UW Madison Public History Blog: “Successful Beyond Expectation:” Blackface, Minstrelsy, and Racist Entertainment at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. By Kacie Lucchini Butcher. Read the Blog Post here
Center for Campus History Teaching Guide Minstrelsy and Blackface at UW–Madison. View Teaching Guide here
“Chapter 6: White Skins, Black Masks: Minstrelsy and White Working Class Formation before the Civil War.” In David Roediger, The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class New Edition (New York: Verso, 2007). Read book here
“Blackface: The Birth of An American Stereotype” The National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visit website here
The Enlightenment and Slavery
“The Enlightenment’s Dark Side: How the Enlightenment created modern race thinking, and why we should confront it” from Slate offers a general and accessible overview about the contradictions of the Enlightenment and racism, with a particular focus on slavery. There are also links to secondary readings that the author discusses within the article. Read article here
Bernasconi, Robert & Mann, Anika Maaza. “The contradictions of racism: Locke, slavery, and the two treatises.” In Andrew Valls, Race and Racism in Modern Philosophy. Cornell University Press. Read Chapter here
Outram, Dorinda. “When People Are Property: The Problem of Slavery in the Enlightenment.” Chapter. In The Enlightenment, 75–91. New Approaches to European History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019. Find book here
Enslaved Families
This resource page provides an overview, primary sources, and discussion questions about the lives of enslaved families. View page here
Schwartz, Marie Jenkins. “Family life in the slave quarters: Survival strategies.” OAH Magazine of History 15, no. 4 (2001): 36-41. Read article here
Chapter 1 “’’Until Distance Do You Part’” in Hunter, Tera W. Bound in wedlock: Slave and free black marriage in the nineteenth century. Harvard University Press, 2017. This book considers marriage. but pages 17-21 of the introduction highlights some of the key works in the history of enslaved families. Read book here
Literacy and Language
Chapter 1 “In Secret Places Acquiring Literacy in Slave Communities” In Heather Andrea Williams. Self-Taught: African American Education in Slavery and Freedom. University of North Carolina Press, 2005. Read book here
These are two examples of Anti-Literacy Laws from Georgia and Virginia. View Georgia Anti-Literacy Law here. View Georgia anti-literacy law here and view Virginia anti-literacy here
Myth of Northern Benevolence
Christy Clark-Pujara, & Anna-Lisa Cox. “Many Tulsa Massacres: How the Myth of a Liberal North Erases a Long History of White Violence.” National Museum of American History, August 25, 2020. Read article here
Video: Tony Brown Productions. Southern Slavery, Northern Lies. Tony Brown Productions, 2006. Watch video here
Selected chapters from. Farrow, Anne, Joel Lang, and Jenifer Frank. Complicity: How the North promoted, prolonged, and profited from slavery. Ballantine Books, 2006. We recommend chapter 1 Cotton Comes North. One of the authors of this book was interviewed in the video above. Read book here
Slavery and the Natural World
There are several good readings and sources on the Natural History Museum website. While this museum focuses on British history, the content about slavery considers the Atlantic world more broadly and features material about the US. Visit website here
In terms of reading specific, we recommend Chapter 4 “Everyday Life” and Chapter 6 “Resistance” from the measures research, which also feature many primary sources. Read Chapter 4 here and read Chapter 6 here