Black Women in America
Mid-Term Assignment:
(10 Points for the Essay)
As I noted in the background information for HW #3, Saidiya Hartman teaches at Columbia University and received a $1 million MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Fellowship, especially for her brilliant book, Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Riotous Black Girls, Troublesome Women, and Queer Radicals. For HW #3, you read two short sections: “A Note on Method” and “An Unloved Woman” on Ida B. Wells.
Over the break, read the longer section “The Beauty of the Chorus” and write a two-page double-spaced midterm essay on Mabel Hampton (500 words minimum).
As you can tell from the book’s title, Hartman is trying to tell the life histories of Black women who did not conform to society’s expectations of them. In the traditional U.S. history version of women’s history, we study the 1920s as The Jazz Age, the era of the Flapper, a time when women experienced sexual and other kinds of liberation. You will see some of that for working-class Black women in this text but you will also see many other dynamics that shape Black women’s experiences in this period.
Warning: this is a pretty intense read, which makes references to sexual violence, interracial sexuality, and gay relationships.
You can choose to write on one of the following options:
1) When reading literature, we are always told to look for the “narrative arc.” That means how the character’s life starts from a certain point, goes through conflict or drama, and then ends up at a certain point. The ending usually “ties up” the story’s threads or answers questions that the story raises along the way. Using Mabel Hampton’s life as Saidiya Hartman tells it, what is her story’s narrative arc? Where does she start, what does she go through, and where does she end up? What does this arc or journey tell us about the possibilities and limits for working class Black women during 1920s and 1930s?
2) By centering a working class, lesbian entertainer in the 1920s, how is Hartman trying to challenge the way traditional history is written? On p. 299, the author says, “Like other runaway chorines and domestics, Mabel wanted to be free.” How and why did Mabel want to be free? Give at least three examples from the text of how she tried to create a free life. What happened?
3) Hartman uses the cultural life of Brooklyn (Coney Island!) and Harlem in the 1920s to show how young working-class women tried to be free. Think about a rebellious woman you know today—a friend, relative, co-worker. Write a short portrait of this woman and how she demonstrates in her life that “I am unavailable for servitude. I refuse it.” (p. 299). What do you admire about her? What concerns you on her behalf?
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Black Women in America
The story of Mabel Hampton begins with her in Jersey. However, Mabel does not want to continue living in Jersey. She dislikes the city's backwardness and repressiveness. She wants to escape to Harlem, where based on stories she has heard, is a city filled with free and independent women. But she is not alone; through her friend Mildred's support and encouragement, Mabel auditions for a chorus. Mabel knows that she has a beautiful singing voice, but dancing seems like the most logical thing to do now. She gets the part and can soon rent a three-room apartment in a building's basement. Here, she has all the freedom she has longed for, but most importantly, she is independent of any man.
It does not take long for Mabel to get acquitted with several friends. With more friends, she gets to meet her first lover. The experience excites Mabel, but in the end, it leaves her hurt and empty. But soon enough, Mabel learns to get over her lovers. By the time she meets the eccentric Ruth, the only thing she is after is her happiness. Ruth provides Mabel with the experience of her lifetime. Mabel witnesses all the debauchery that is in Harlem. But eventually, this ends, and Mabel begins pursuing her dream of being a singer. She no longer wants to be valued based on her appearance alone. She wants to achieve self-actualization. When she is accosted by a group of men who try to use her as a prostitute, Mabel barely escapes.
Mabel's journey highlights the increased limitations and decreased possibilities of a black woman in 1920s and 1930s America. As Mabel often found, her options were either domestic, dancer or whore. Even though she was a successful dancer, it was going to be difficult for her to realize her dream of being a singer. This meant either returning to a previous state of being a domestic or ending up a whore, which she almost did. Most working-class black women during this time were either domestic or whores. Only a small percentage were dancers—still, none of these options afforded black women any respect or chance of advancement.
By writing a working-class, lesbian entertain...