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The history of New World slavery was characterized

by daily resistance on the part of the enslaved, terrific brutality on  the  part  of  the  enslaving,  and frequent military conflict between the two. Daily forms of resistance took the form of everything from mouthing off and  shamming sickness to  flight, arson, and assault" (a document used in class - through canvas). According to Johnson, slavery should not be represented. Johnson, along with Douglass and even Poe - though he uses more abstract language to showcase his concerns on slavery - all agree that slavery should not be represented.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqmbM5emWzQ

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Before the civil war and after the War of 1812, "although some historians expand it to all the years from the adoption of the US constitution in 1789 to the beginning of the Civil War" (https://www.historynet.com/antebellum-period) is considered to be the antebellum period. Slavery starts when cotton plantations become profitable and those in power at the time knew that someone had to do the work. The demand for slave labor increased which made it profitable for farmers to sell their slaves further south and west. To further expand slavery, individuals illustrated how slaves were savages - nothing but working animals next to the common man, should anyone feel sympathy for the African American, as they do with the Black Cat in Poe's works.

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What to the Slave is the Fourth of July is one of the readings used in class. To capture his audience, he uses metaphors, as discussed in the panel below Transcendentalism. He uses vocabulary that indicates he is a well-educated man, far from the painted illustrations of savagery that those in power portrayed African Americans as. In his speech, he states "They were peace men; but they preferred revolution to peaceful submission to bondage. They were quiet men; but did not shrink from agitating against oppression" (Douglass 1852).

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During the antebellum period, there were many abolitionists that rose up to fight the war against slavery. He was one of the greatest abolitionists of slavery during the antebellum period, and was able to move his audiences with his usages of metaphor, as discussed in class.

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Black cats are often depicted as evil in the eyes of many cultures because of their associations with Witches. In many cases, Black Cats are the least adopted and given to kill shelters because they are not as popular as colored cats.
Just as the Black Cat is prejudiced against, the African American is also depicted in the manner of being unwanted, unloved, and unworthy of equality that Whites have so, in hindsight, the Black Cat is an allegory to the slave.

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Poe compares the cat to the widespread lynching images of the African American slave. Upon further research (queasy feelings aside) this image was discovered.

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Transcendentalism: founded in Unitarianism places emphasis on rationality, reason, and intellectualism. The philosophy itself does not reject reason, but seeks to balance out reason with spirituality.
One of the key terms of Transcendentalism is the desire to seek independence - which, unless you are a white man in power during the antebellum era, is hard to come by. The only slaves that were free lived in the North, which made it difficult for them to achieve the level of independence that Transcendentalism emphasizes.