Gettin' Grown Comments

Comments were made on Yolonda, Britainy, and Robert's blogs about the movie. After reading some the responses to the film I was interested in seeing it. If possible can you get a copy so we can watch it in class.

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

The question I had about Frederick Douglass was if he had any children because he doesn't discuss it in his autobiography and if any of the kids were to his second wife who was a white woman. Also, as to why Douglass decided to marry his second wife.

What I found out was that Frederick Douglass had a total of five children, but one child, his daughter Annie, died at the age of 10. The rest of his children all lived into their adulthood. Rosetta Douglass(1839-1906) the eldest married Nathan Sprague and had six children. Lewis Henry Douglass(1840-1908) married Amelia Loguen, but had no kids and he was a fugitive from slavery, he then became a Bishop of the AME Zion Church. Frederick Douglass, Jr.(1842-1892) married Virginia M. Hewlett and he had seven children. And the youngest Charles Remond Douglass(1844-1920) married Mary Elizabeth Murphy, they had six children, and then he married Antoinette Haley and they had one child.

All of his children were all through his first marriage to Anna Murray, a free African American, who later died in 1882. When this happened in 1884 he met Helen Pitts, his former secretary who was a white woman, and they married. There was some controversy behind their marriage, but Douglass only replied with saying that in his first marriage he honored his mother's race, and in his second he honored his father's race. Now if he only married Helen because she was white and his father was said to be white I don't know.

Steps Taken in Research:

I went to ask.com and searched for "Who was Frederick Douglass married to?", "Did Frederick Douglass have any children?", and "Who was the mother of Frederick Douglass' children?". Below are some of the links that had exact information on what I was trying to find.

http://www.nps.gov/frdo/fdlife.htm

http://www.nps.gov/frdo/children.htm

http://www.math.buffalo.edu/~sww/0history/hwny-douglass-family.html

http://winningthevote.org/FDouglass.html

Responses to Student Blogs

From the moment we first recieved this assignment I figured that this was going to be something I really wasn't going to enjoy, but I was proved wrong. To my suprise this assignment was actually quite interesting to do, it gave me a chance to read what other students think about when they read the stories and also gave a chance to be open minded to other peoples views as far as writing from another character's perspective or writing a whole new story. In conclusion, I enjoyed this blogging assignment and suggest we do it again......Wait!!!.....Only if the class agrees first.

Sonny's Blues Part 2: The Sequel

After Sonny finished playing his set everybody clapped and praised him for doing a good job. His brother watched as the rest of Sonny's band mates congratulated him for finding his inspiration again and remembering how to use the piano to speak to the audience and tell a story. Sonny nervously approached his brother when he finished talking to the band memebers to ask him how did he like the show. He said, "It was great I really enjoyed it!" Sonny didn't know how to respond to his brother's response. "Wow!" Sonny said. "You really enjoyed it?" he said. His brother then reassured Sonny that he actually understood where Sonny was coming from all these years. The two brothers left and had a deep discussion about Sonny's addiction. The older brother told Sonny that he never meant to discourage him, but only look out for his best interest as their mother had requested. Sonny's brother told him that he wanted Sonny to pursue his goals, but he needed to leave heroin alone. Sonny paused and had no response the rest of the way home. When they finally arrived at the house Isabelle greeted them as they walked through the door. Isabelle and the brother were on their way up the stairs when Sonny stopped both of them and said "I'll give up heroin." They both suddenly stopped at the top of the stairs and slowly turned around and looked at each other in utter disbelief. His brother said, "Sonny are you ok?" Sonny then told his brother and Isabelle that he was going to quit drugs and acheive a healthy prosperous life. Months pasted and Sonny seemed to be doing well. He continued playing his music and he got a job at a nearby grocery store. Things seemed perfect now and it seemed as if nothing could destroy the new found Sonny. Until one day while walking down the street from work, Sonny was in his own world thinking about a new song he wanted to play at the club. When he looked down and saw what looked to be a bag of heroin at the entrance way of an alley. Sonny looked around to see if anybody had noticed it was there, but no one was close enough to even pay it any attention. Then all at once hundreds of thoughts about what he had told his brother and Isabelle rushed through his head and the memories of the feeling he got while he was high. Sonny quickly picked up the bag as if it were never there and rushed to the house. Hours passed by until Sonny's brother and his family got back from a day at the carnival. His brother ran up the stairs to tell Sonny about their day when he opened the door of the room to find his brother laying motionless on the bed. Thinking maybe that his brother was sleep because he had a long day he went over to wake him. He called, "Sonny wake up!" Slapping him and pushing him about again he said, "Wake up!". Yet, Sonny gave no reply. At this moment a black cloud came over Sonny's brother and he began to cry tears just as the rain began to fall because his worst fear had came true.

"Sonny's Blues"

I just finished reading "Sonny's Blues" and it was an interesting short story. As we began to read the story in class everyone had questions about the story regarding: who is Sonny?, who is the teacher?, what has happened to Sonny?, and etc. Well, it takes place in New York actually in Harlem with two brothers. The youngest brother Sonny apparently is strung out on heroin, and his older brother finds out. Basically, Sonny has grown up with the struggles of growing up within the inner city and doesn't really wanna end up like everyone else around him, but still has similar struggles to everyone else. After the death of the boys parents the older brother is left trying to understand what problems his brother is dealing with and how can he reach him and try to help him without any backlash from his younger brother. Sonny wants to become a musician so he goes of to the navy and doesnt finish school. When Sonny and his brother catch up with one another they are still having a dispute. Sonny's brother tries to be understanding of his brother's life without pushing his beliefs of on his brother. In the end, while at a jazz club it is then while Sonny plays the piano with his band that his older brother realizes that Sonny's desire to be a musician is his way of escaping Harlem and speaking about his troubles through music and that everyone in Sonny's music world admires and respects him.

Introduction of Myself

Wassup? Dis is Chris, Imma sophomore from Mobile, AL majoring in Electrical Engineering attending Alabama A&M University an HBCU.....and as far as this class is concerned we will just have to see how it goes.