slavery and american literature essay

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In This Article Expand or collapse the "in this article" section Slavery in British and American Literature

Introduction, general overviews.

Bibliographies
Anthologies
Print Culture
Slavery and English Literature
Slave Narratives
Popular Works
The American Novel
Neo-Slave Narratives
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Frederick Douglass
Harriet Jacobs

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Forthcoming articles expand or collapse the "forthcoming articles" section.

Ecology and Nineteenth-Century Anglophone Atlantic Literature
Maritime Literature
The History of Mary Prince (1831)
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Slavery in British and American Literature by Judie Newman LAST REVIEWED: 19 March 2013 LAST MODIFIED: 19 March 2013 DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199730414-0159

For some literary scholars, all literature that follows the establishment of Atlantic slavery is inflected by the existence of the “peculiar institution.” Toni Morrison has argued that the prevalence of gothic in 19th-century writing, particularly in America (not naturally a land of haunted castles and ruined abbeys), results from the repressed awareness of a dark abiding Africanist presence in American culture. Slavery thus underwrites the broad generic qualities of the national literature. In the view of Pierre Macherey, the silences and omissions in literature are as important as the presences. Slavery is a shrieking absence in many canonical works of American literature; “writing back “against such silences has become a major critical activity. White writers are now regularly examined in the light of the history of slavery: Emily Brontë’s Heathcliff as a black orphan from the slave port of Liverpool (in Wuthering Heights ) or the Caribbean estate in Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park , for example. Almost all writers from the American South (and especially William Faulkner) can be viewed in this light. If little space is given in the current bibliography to canonical English writers who engage at some level with slavery, it is because the critical literature on their work is already extensive. More narrowly, in the English-speaking world “slavery in literature” includes the writings of slaves and former slaves, as well as works written about slavery by non-slaves. Though the field is dominated by American works, British, Caribbean, and postcolonial writers are also significant. Temporally the field includes the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, with a significant engagement by later writers with the legacy of slavery. Only one later genre, however, the neo-slave narrative, is formally connected to the literary tradition of the 19th-century slave narratives. “Literature” is a capacious category in this field and is not confined to conventional belles lettres (novels, plays, poetry) but includes significant examples of oratory, addresses, letters, folk material, minstrelsy and life-writings. There is also a dynamic relationship between literary criticism and creative writing, and between popular blockbusters and the academy. Controversies over popular works have been a spur to the writing of both novels and scholarly works. Scholarship on slavery may appear in works concerning African American, Caribbean or English literature, and despite the exponential expansion of the field since the 1980s there is no single bibliography to be recommended. Nor is there a single journal devoted to slavery in literature.

The topic of slavery in literature is rarely the subject of a discrete work. More commonly it receives coverage in general overviews of African American literature or in discussions of race in literature. In one argument slavery inflects all American literature in a repressed subtext in canonical white writers ( Morrison 1992 ). Criticism also varies in the degree to which it takes into account Latin American and Caribbean elements ( Rosenthal 2004 ), African traditions ( M’Baye 2009 ) or white writers ( McDowell and Rampersad 1989 ). Recent scholarship such as Bruce 2001 has redressed the neglect of the early period and of the American North and there are now histories and companions that can be unequivocally recommended for their comprehensive coverage, including Andrews, et al. 1997 ; Graham 2004 ; and Graham and Ward 2011 . For the scholar of “slavery in literature” the best friend is often the excellent index to such overviews.

Andrews, William L., Frances Smith Foster, and Trudier Harris, eds. The Oxford Companion to African American Literature . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997.

A thoroughly comprehensive volume with entries on more than four hundred writers, along with literary movements and forms, literary criticism, the novel, and a host of others. A broadly conceived image of African American literary culture allows for the inclusion of entries on iconic figures in African American literature.

Bruce, Dickson D., Jr. The Origins of African American Literature, 1680–1865 . Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2001.

Significant for its challenge to the idea that African American voices were silenced in the colonial and early national period. And includes an important reevaluation of the fiction of James McCune Smith.

Graham, Maryemma, ed. The Cambridge Companion to the African American Novel . Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2004.

DOI: 10.1017/CCOL0521815746

Fifteen essays by leading scholars arranged chronologically, covering the novel of slavery and its legacy, with particular attention to literary movements and periods, and an excellent bibliography.

Graham, Maryemma, and Jerry R. Ward, eds. The Cambridge History of African American Literature . Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2011.

DOI: 10.1017/CHOL9780521872171

At 860 pages, this volume offers a huge amount of material on the literature of slavery, with works discussed on their individual merits and in relation to events in American history. Features excellent essays on early print literature of Africans in America and the neo-slave narrative.

M’Baye, Babacar. The Trickster Comes West: Pan African Influence in Early Black Diasporan Narratives . Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2009.

Explores relationships between African American, African Caribbean, and African British narratives of slavery and African literary influences—particularly the use of the Trickster motif in such figures as Anancy (Spider), Leuk (Rabbit), and Mbe (Tortoise)—in slave writers, including Olaudah Equiano, Mary Prince and Phillis Wheatley.

McDowell, Deborah, and Arnold Rampersad, eds. Slavery and the Literary Imagination . Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989.

The best starting point for any consideration of the impact of slavery on American literature, with all the essays by acknowledged authorities. Although the emphasis falls on African Americans, substantial attention is also paid to white writers. Hazel V. Carby provides a valuable essay on the historical novel of slavery.

Morrison, Toni. Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992.

In this groundbreaking study, the Nobel Prize–winning novelist argues for a deep abiding Africanist presence in American culture, delineating the effect of a racialized history on Willa Cather, Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ernest Hemingway, and Mark Twain. The discussion of American gothic as a repressed awareness of dark others was highly influential.

Rosenthal, Debra J. Race Mixture in Nineteenth-Century U.S. and Spanish American Fictions: Gender, Culture and Nation Building . Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004.

In a thoroughly transnational comparative study, Rosenthal broadens critical discussion of American literature to include Latin America, examining interracial sexual and cultural mixing, and fictional treatments of skin difference, incest, and inheritance laws, in major writers from the United States, Cuba, Peru, and Ecuador.

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Collection Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936 to 1938

Slave narratives from slavery to the great depression, slave narratives during slavery and after.

The Slave Narrative Collection represents the culmination of a literary tradition that extends back to the eighteenth century, when the earliest American slave narratives began to appear. The greatest vogue of this genre occurred during the three decades of sectional controversy that preceded the Civil War. The avowed intention of the antebellum narrative was to challenge the roseate portrait of slavery painted by its apologists. The proslavery justification of the "peculiar institution" alleged that it was a benevolent system and that the position of the slave was more secure than that of the Northern wage earner. The slave, according to George Fitzhugh, one of the most vigorous of the proslavery propagandists, "was happy as a human can be." 3

But the stereotype of the "contented slave" was contradicted by the many fugitive slaves who sought refuge from bondage in the North and in Canada. Their often sensational revelations of the realities of slave life provided a persuasive challenge to Southern justifications of slavery. During the antebellum period thousands of autobiographical and biographical accounts of slave experiences were published and generally promoted and distributed by abolitionist propagandists. These narratives enjoyed immense popularity, were eagerly sought for publication by abolitionist journals, and proved financially successful. While it is difficult to weigh their precise influence on the antislavery crusade, there is little doubt that they effectively countered the propaganda of proslavery apologists.

The vogue for the slave narrative waned after the Civil War. The typical antebellum narrative had served as an exposé of the horrors of the "peculiar institution," but the Civil War settled the issue of slavery and destroyed the narrative's raison d'être . The sensational narrative of prewar vintage lingered on, but its publication after the war failed to elicit the same sympathy and enthusiasm. A nation weary of war and intent upon reconciliation expressed little desire to be reminded of the realities of life before the war. Most of the narratives that did appear in the half-century following Reconstruction--their number meager when compared to the plethora of antebellum narratives--reflected a radically different conception of slave life. Now the narratives were employed almost exclusively as a nostalgic and sentimental reaffirmation of the "plantation legend" popularized by Southern local colorists. While local-color treatment of the oral tradition of the ex-slave helped to sustain an interest in African-American folklore during the early years of the twentieth century, this alone proved insufficient to arouse a more general interest in recording ex-slaves' accounts of life under slavery. As the ranks of former slaves dwindled, so did the possibility of preserving the "inside view" of slavery that their testimonies provided.

The Twentieth Century Revival

The late 1920s and 1930s witnessed a revival of interest in slave narratives. During this period several independent projects to secure ex-slave testimonies were undertaken. What most clearly distinguished these from earlier efforts was their sociological character. The single-minded moralism that had pervaded earlier narratives diminished substantially. The typical supplanted the dramatic as the primary focus of inquiry; detailed questionnaires were designed to obtain a catalogue of information on the daily round of slave life. The primary goal in each instance was simply to get aged African Americans to discuss the range of their experiences and impressions of life under the slave regime. The Federal Writers' Project study that produced the Slave Narrative Collection was the most ambitious and comprehensive of several such efforts.

The reasons for the resurgence of interest in slave narratives are both numerous and complex. With the number of surviving ex-slaves rapidly diminishing by the 1930s, the time was imminent when their testimonies could no longer be obtained. This fact was often cited as a motivation by those compiling the narratives. However, while it goes far toward explaining the sense of urgency that inspired the several narrative-gathering efforts, it is insufficient to account for the heightened awareness of the narratives' value at this particular time. The underlying sources of this interest must be sought elsewhere.

Slave Narratives and the New Debate about Slavery

Just as the antebellum slave narratives had gained prominence in reaction to the Southern defense of slavery, so interest in the latter-day slave narrative was stimulated by the dominant attitudes toward the slave regime that prevailed in the first quarter of the twentieth century. Seldom before or since has racism been so pervasive and so academically respectable in the United States. The assumption of the innate and inherited inferiority of non-Anglo-Saxon racial and ethnic groups permeated and dominated white intellectual and popular thought. Social, scientific, and historical thought both mirrored and reinforced this racism.

By far the most profound influence upon the historical study of slavery during this period was the writings of Ulrich B. Phillips, whose monumental American Negro Slavery established him as the leading authority on the subject. 4 American Negro Slavery was so comprehensive, its scholarship so exacting, and its racial assumptions so closely attuned to those then prevailing, that it "succeeded in neutralizing almost every assumption of the anti-slavery tradition." 5 The portrait of slavery that emerged from this work bore a striking resemblance to that espoused by proslavery apologists before the Civil War. It minimized the severity of American slavery, extolled its civilizing and Christianizing functions, and reasserted the notion that the slave was submissive rather than defiant. The overall effect was a verification of the "plantation myth" and a confirmation of what Stanley M. Elkins has termed the "Sambo" image of the slave.

Against this background, the revival of interest in the slave narrative reflected a post-World War I revitalization of African-American culture that was instituted and promoted in large measure by blacks themselves. Most dramatically manifested in the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, this revitalization was marked by a concerted quest for a "usable" past, one that would impart a sense of self-respect, dignity, and identity to African Americans. One result was the serious study of black history, spearheaded by the unremitting efforts and inspiration of W. E. B. DuBois and of Carter G. Woodson, the energetic founder, editor, and moving spirit behind the Journal of Negro History . The emergence of an increasing number of black scholars signaled the demise of black acquiescence to the prevailing white interpretations of the African-American past.

The authority of Phillips's interpretation therefore did more than rekindle interest in the subject of slavery. Although accepted as authoritative in most academic circles, his sympathetic view was indignantly contested by the new generation of black scholars who, as the slaves' blood and spiritual descendants, could not approach slavery in the spirit of erudition alone. Just as Phillips's Southern background and heritage had exerted a profound and pervasive influence upon his view of slavery, so the portrait espoused by African Americans was derived from a tradition perpetuated and enriched by the accounts of those who had experienced life under the slave regime. When Phillips spurned the use of ex-slave reminiscences as historical data, he rejected the validity of the very source upon which many of the basic assumptions of African-American scholars were ultimately founded.

Phillips's aversion to using slave narratives as appropriate sources of historical data also precluded the study of slavery written from the standpoint of the slave, since the sources he employed were inadequate to answer the question "What was it like to be a slave?" The recognition that only individuals who had lived under the slave regime could adequately answer this question contributed substantially to the surge of interest in obtaining the testimonies of former slaves.

Slave Narratives and the Waning Authority of Racism

The discovery of African-American culture during the 1920s and 1930s engaged the attention of a growing number of whites as well as blacks. White writers found in African-American life and culture a fresh source of artistic materials, and serious treatment of black culture was a distinguishing feature of the Southern literary renaissance that flourished in the 1920s. Interest in black art and entertainment was reflected in the acceptance of jazz by white musicians and its popularity among white audiences. Fascination with black folklore, which extended back to the nineteenth century, increased significantly during the twenties and was enlivened by innovations such as the unique brand of folk sociology pioneered by Howard W. Odum at the University of North Carolina.

This burgeoning interest in African-American culture was enhanced immeasurably by the rapidly expanding disciplines of anthropology and sociology. While social-scientific thought was not immune to the popular racial preconceptions of the day, the authority of such doctrines was weakened by the impact of intellectual currents from within the social sciences themselves. The concept of culture, more than any other single idea, contributed to the erosion of respectable racism. Although explicitly accepted only in avant-garde circles during the twenties, the culture concept had been an implicit and sometimes contradictory component of the working assumptions of many social scientists even at the zenith of the vogue of racist thought. Facilitated by the decline of racialist explanations and by an increased sophistication in methodological techniques, social-scientific attention to race and African-American culture steadily increased throughout the twenties and thirties. The convergence of these several currents fostered a climate receptive to efforts to obtain personal testimonies concerning antebellum slave life, and it was from within this cultural milieu that interest in the collection of ex-slave narratives arose.

Collections That Led the Way

The earliest of the endeavors to secure interviews with ex-slaves was initiated in 1929 under private auspices when separate and independent projects began simultaneously at Fisk University, Southern University, and Prairie View State College. The projects at Southern and at Prairie View were directed by John B. Cade, a historian whose interest in using the accounts of ex-slaves was initially aroused by the controversy over the nature of the slave regime and, in particular, by Ulrich B. Phillips's contention that slaves had been contented with their lot. Cade later summarized the materials collected under his direction at Southern in the article "Out of the Mouths of Ex-Slaves," and its success stimulated him to undertake a similar effort at Prairie View during the mid-1930s. 6

The Fisk collection of slave narratives evolved as an unanticipated consequence of research directed by Charles S. Johnson, who had established the Social Science Institute at Fisk in 1928. One of Johnson's earliest projects, an extensive community study of the African-American neighborhoods adjacent to Fisk in Nashville, foreshadowed the influence his research training at the University of Chicago's renowned Department of Sociology was to exert on the Fisk collection of slave narratives. In that study, Johnson's research design relied heavily on personal interviews, and Ophelia Settle of the Institute's research staff interviewed a large number of former slaves. Johnson quickly recognized the value of preserving such firsthand accounts of slave life and urged that a concerted effort be made to obtain them. In addition to those in Nashville, interviews were conducted in rural Tennessee and Kentucky and later as an integral component of Johnson's study of Macon County, Alabama, which formed the substance of his analysis of the plantation as a social institution. 7 These interviews proved so satisfactory that Johnson planned to publish a volume based on an analysis of the one hundred documents Settle had obtained. Although the plan was never realized, the Institute's Unwritten History of Slavery reproduced approximately one-third of the narratives. 8

George Fitzhugh, Sociology for the South, or the Failure of Free Society (Richmond, Va., 1854), 246. [ Return to text ]
Ulrich B. Phillips, American Negro Slavery, A Survey of the Supply, Employment, and Control of Negro Labor as Determined by the Plantation Regime (New York, 1918; reprint Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 1996). [ Return to text ]
Stanley M. Elkins, Slavery: A Problem in American Institutional and Intellectual Life (Chicago, 1959), 11. [ Return to text ]
John B. Cade, "Out of the Mouths of Ex-Slaves," Journal of Negro History , XX (July 1935). [ Return to text ]
Charles S. Johnson, Shadow of the Plantation (Chicago, 1934); see also E. Franklin Frazier, The Negro Family in the United States (Chicago, 1939). [ Return to text ]
The Fisk University interviews were originally published in mimeographed form: Ophelia Settle Egypt, J. Masuoka, and Charles S. Johnson, Unwritten History of Slavery: Autobiographical Accounts of Negro Ex-Slaves (Nashville, 1945). A second volume, Fisk University Social Science Institute, God Struck Me Dead: Religion Conversion Experiences and Autobiographies of Ex-Slaves (Nashville, 1945), was also part of this project and was published at the same time. Both documents have been reprinted as volumes 18 and 19, respectively, of George P. Rawick, ed., The American Slave: A Composite Autobiography (Westport, Conn., 1972-79). God Struck Me Dead has also been reprinted by Clifton H. Johnson, ed. (Philadelphia, 1969). [ Return to text ]

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The Oxford Handbook of the African American Slave Narrative

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10 Reading Communities: Slave Narratives and the Discursive Reader

Dwight McBride, University of Illinois at Chicago

Justin A. Joyce, Northwestern University

Published: 16 December 2013
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This essay argues that black literary production during the nineteenth century was articulated under complex discursive conditions. This discursive terrain provides a meaningful way to engage the complexity of the condition of the slave, a condition that continues to inform African American testimony to this very day. This essay maps the rhetorical markers constituting the terrain of abolitionist discourse—focusing on religion and corporeality—and charts the discursive milieu within which African American slave narratives have been read. Recasting the abolition debate as a discourse broadens our considerations of texts as “public” documents; that is, texts that were distributed to a wide population of discursive readers through a mixture of oral and written literacy. Placing these narratives within their larger context provides a fuller picture of the irksome overdeterminacies of abolitionism, Romanticism, and the emergence of a distinctive American literature and nationalism within which they were produced and first received.

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Slavery & Freedom: Literature

Finding Books & Articles & Primary Sources at GW
Primary Sources at GW and DC
Transatlantic Slavery & Diaspora
Free Black Americans in the Antebellum US
Civil War & Reconstruction
Resistance & Rebellion
Race & U.S. Law
Musical Traditions
Images & Material Culture
Reconstruction into Jim Crow

Guide Author

Literature Digital Archives

Documenting the American South Full text versions of most 19th century African American works of literature about slavery, the black church, and Reconstruction. Includes North American slave narratives.
African American Women Writers of the 19th Century Hosted by the Schomburg Center for Research and in Black Culture, the site includes many full-text versions of texts by black women writers such as Frances E. W. Harper and Phillis Wheatley.
Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project These oral histories of former slave were collected and transcribed in the 1930s as part of the Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration.
Remembering Slavery: African Americans Talk about the Personal Experiences of Slavery and Emancipation Taped interviews from the 1930’s WPA interviews of former slaves.
American Visionaries: Frederick Douglass “An introduction to Douglass’s life and work, illustrated with photographs of Douglass, his home, and various possessions.” From the National Park Service.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin and American Culture: A Multimedia Archive A wealth of documents exploring cultural and literary responses to Harriet Beecher Stowe’s anti-slavery novel.
Afro-British Writers Scholar Brycchan Carey’s website has good information pertaining to the Afro-British freedmen and antislavery writers Olaudah Equiano and and Ottobah Cugoano, and the composer, actor and businessman Ignatius Sancho. Includes British anti-slavery poetry.
Black Europeans Covers literary figures that include Alexander Pushkin and Alexandre Dumas.
Paul Lafargue The Marxist Internet Archive has works by the 19th century Afro-Cuban philosopher who became Marx’s son-in-law.

Newspaper & Magazine Archives

African American Newspapers, 1827-1998 (Readex) Provides access to approximately 270 U.S. newspapers chronicling a century and a half of the African American experience. The collection features papers from more than 35 states and was in part created from the most extensive African American newspaper archives in the U.S.
American Periodicals Series (1741-1940) Page-images from more than 1,100 historic American magazines, journals, and newspapers illuminating the development of American culture, politics, and society across 150 years. Articles can be searched by author, source, or words in the complete text.
African American Newspapers: The 19th Century (Accessible Archives) This database provides full-text access to articles from a number of historic African American newspapers, beginning in 1827 with Freedom's Journal. The collection contains a wealth of information about cultural life and history during the 1800s and offers first-hand reports of the major events and issues of the day.
Baltimore Afro-American (1893-1988) The Baltimore Afro-American (Historical), a prominent, historic African American newspaper, offers full page and article images with searchable full text back to the first issue.
19th Century U.S. Newspapers Provides access to approximately 1.7 million pages of primary source newspaper content from the 19th century, featuring full-text content and images from numerous newspapers from a range of urban and rural regions throughout the U.S. The collection encompasses the entire 19th century, with an emphasis on such topics as the American Civil War, African-American culture and history, Western migration and Antebellum-era life among other subjects.
African American Periodicals, 1825-1995 This link opens in a new window This collection features more than 170 wide-ranging periodicals by and about African Americans. Published in 26 states, the publications include academic and political journals, commercial magazines, institutional newsletters, organizations bulletins, annual reports and other genres.
National Anti-Slavery Standard This link opens in a new window This publication was the official weekly newspaper of the American Anti-Slavery Society, an abolitionist society founded by William Lloyd Garrison and Arthur Tappan. The newspaper contained essays, debates, speeches, events, reports and anything else deemed newsworthy in relation to the question of slavery in the United States and other parts of the world. Covers years 1840-1870.
Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window Search all historical newspapers from ProQuest: The Atlanta Constitution (1869-1875; 1881-1984), Baltimore Afro-American (1893-1988), Baltimore Sun (1837-1991), Chicago Defender (1909-1975), Chicago Tribune (1849-1998), Korea Times (1950-2016), Los Angeles Times (1881-1999), The New York Times (1857-2019), The New York Tribune / Herald Tribune (1841-1962), Norfolk Journal and Guide (1916-2003), Pittsburgh Courier (1911-1950; 1955-1966), The Wall Street Journal (1889-2012), and The Washington Post (1877-2007).
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> The Cambridge Companion to Slavery in American Literature
> Slavery in the Eighteenth-Century Literary Imagination

Book contents

The Cambridge Companion to Slavery in American Literature
Cambridge Companions to Literature
Copyright page
Contributors
Introduction
1 Slavery in the Eighteenth-Century Literary Imagination
2 U.S. Antislavery Tracts and the Literary Imagination
3 White Slaves in the Late-Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century American Literary Imagination
4 Slave Narratives as Literature
5 Slavery and the Emergence of the African American Novel
6 Proslavery Fiction
7 The Poetry of Slavery
8 Reading Slavery and “Classic” American Literature
9 Slavery’s Performance-Texts
10 The Music and the Musical Inheritance of Slavery
11 U.S. Slave Revolutions in Atlantic World Literature
12 Slavery and American Literature 1900–1945
13 Moving Pictures: Spectacles of Enslavement in American Cinema
14 Slavery and Historical Memory in Late-Twentieth-Century Fiction
15 Beyond the Borders of the Neo-Slave Narrative
Guide to Further Reading

1 - Slavery in the Eighteenth-Century Literary Imagination

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 March 2016

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Slavery in the Eighteenth-Century Literary Imagination
By Philip Gould
Edited by Ezra Tawil , University of Rochester, New York
Book: The Cambridge Companion to Slavery in American Literature
Online publication: 05 March 2016
Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CCO9781107270046.002

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American Antislavery Literature

2017, Études Anglaises

This essay examines the evolution of American antislavery literature. It shows that arguments against slavery had been circulating in the colonies since the end of the 17th century. Between 1688 and 1865, there were thousands of separately published titles, including works in every genre, from poems and novels, to slave narratives and children's books. The essay argues as well that for all their historical importance, many antislavery writings also have interest in their own as works of literature. Looking at the history and the evolution of these writings the essay shows how a first, primarily religious type of writing was replaced, after 1775, by a more secular, more literary and more nationalistic mode of writing, followed by a great surge in antislavery writing after 1820, with poetry or slave narratives assuming increasing importance during the years 1820 to 1850. And it is antislavery writing in all its forms and media which conditioned many Americans to view slavery as the essential issue at stake in the war that ensued. The essay concludes on the fact that the continued need for antislavery writing speaks to a painful truth: it was not slavery that was extraordinary, but rather the idea of freedom as the natural condition and universal right of mankind that marked a revolutionary turn.

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What the Abolitionists Were Up Against, Revisited

Daniel Kilbride

Antislavery activists in the 19th century United States faced a set of formidable obstacles in moving the needle of northern popular opinion from apathy (at best) to engagement. This essay explores the hostile landscape of American social, political, and cultural life within which antislavery writers operated. They could not ignore these conditions if they were going to appeal to their largely northern, middle class audience: they had to assuage their concerns, prompt them to question assumptions, and force them to question conventional wisdom. But northern middle-class culture also provided antislavery activists with opportunities. Pushing the right buttons had the potential to transform hostility and apathy into interest and, maybe, enthusiasm in the fight against slavery. This essay does not show how antislavery women and wen pushed those buttons, but it does identify them and explores their potential to turn a culture of indifference into a culture of antislavery.

Russ Castronovo

Early American Abolitionists, a Collection of Anti-Slavery Writings 1760-1820, eds. James G. Basker, et. al. (Gilder Lehrman Institute,)

James Basker

This volume reprints some fifteen anti-slavery texts that, with one or two exceptions, have been out of print for almost two centuries. They have been edited by an unusual editorial team, con sisting of scholars at every rank from undergraduate to full professor. Our overarching purpose has been to restore to view some of the extensive anti-slavery literature—pamphlets, poems, sermons, printed speeches, and more—that flourished in early America. As the twenty-first century begins, it is easy to forget that slavery was not universally accepted during the Founding Era. Despite the failure of the founders to eradicate slavery at the national level, there were—as this literature attests—energetic and articulate opponents of slavery who attacked it relentlessly and achieved significant gains in many parts of the country over the period 1760 to I820.

BRILL eBooks

Seymour Drescher

OAH Magazine of History

One of the challenges faced by history teachers seeking to use literary texts in their classes is the apparent dearth of literature about slavery before the nine teenth century. The focus on such works as Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) and Frederick Douglass's Narrative (1845), even on the less familiar writings of William Lloyd Garri son in the 1830s and the antislavery poet John Greenleaf Whittier (1807 1892), has left many people (including textbook publishers) with the impression that there was little attention to slavery in literature before about 1820 or so. This was one of the motives behind my effort to compile a collection of literature about slavery from earlier centuries which, after ten years of research, has resulted in a new book, AMAZING GRACE: AN ANTHOLOGY OF POEMS ABOUT SLAVERY 1660-1810.

American Literature

Adam Gordon

This essay takes the critical reception of Uncle Tom's Cabin in Frederick Douglass' Paper as an occasion to rethink modern constructions of critical authority while arguing for a print culture approach to literary criticism. Although scholars of antebellum culture typically focus on critical responses that are most readable by twenty-first-century standards (lengthy, signed reviews by readily identifiable critics in prestigious journals), paradoxically the less authoritative liminal critical forms (unsigned, unoriginal criticism circulated as reprinted reviews) displayed the centrality of criticism to nineteenth-century social and political life in the United States. Drawing on an expanded archive of eclectic critical forms, this essay denatural-izes and expands our sense of antebellum critical culture, examining the ways Frederick Dou-glass exploited the material diversity of contemporary print culture as part of his antislavery strategy, reprinting responses to Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel in an array of nontraditional critical forms to achieve pragmatic political goals. In so doing, Douglass transformed literary criticism from evaluation and entertainment into a powerful weapon in the war against slavery and the promotion of the interests of African Americans, applications that reaffirm the essay's claim for the importance of a material approach to critical culture. InJul y 1852 editor, orator, abolitionist, and former slave Frederick Douglass included within the pages of Frederick Dou-glass' Paper an account of a recent three-day trip to Ithaca, New York. In recounting the details of his tour, Douglass paused to express his astonishment at the "pleasing change in the public opinion of the place" in its stance toward slaver y since his last visit ten years earlier. He observed that while the Fugitive Slave Act and the cumulative effect of antislavery lecturers and papers must be held partly

Lenka Králiková

Abstract KRÁLIKOVÁ, Lenka: Slavery in American Literature: Twelve Years a Slave [Master´s Thesis] University of SS. Cyril and Methodius in Trnava. Faculty of Arts. Department of British and American Studies – Supervisor: Mgr. Diana Židová, PhD. Degree of Professional Qualification: Master. - Trnava: FF UCM, 2016. 79 p. The main aim of my thesis is the answer to the following questions: How was slavery represented in literature, what was the purpose of the slave narrative in “Twelve years a slave” by Solomon Northup. The thesis has four parts. First part describes slavery in America from its beginning through the gradual development of the system until the abolition. The second part of the paper is description of the slave narrative and other slave narrators with their works. Biography of the author is the main topic of the third part. Last part of the thesis is the analysis of the novel from the point of view of the representation of slavery in the literature and its translations in the Middle European literature. Key words: Religion. Slavery. Slave Narrative. Rescue. Interpretation. American history.

The American Journal of Jurisprudence

Journal of American History

Christopher L. Webber

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Huckleberry Finn Slavery Quotes

How it works

Mark Twain’s “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” is a big deal in American lit because it takes a hard look at slavery in the U.S. The story, which happens before the Civil War, gives us a pretty sharp view of the messy moral and social stuff around slavery. We see everything through Huck Finn, a young kid, and Twain uses this to hit us with strong quotes and images about how awful slavery is. One of the most interesting parts is how Huck’s changing thoughts make us question what was considered normal back then.

For example, when Huck is trying to decide if he should help Jim, a runaway slave, he thinks, “All right, then, I’ll go to hell.” This line shows just how serious Huck thinks his choice is because he’s been taught that helping a slave is a huge sin. This moment really points out the twisted morals of a society that thinks slavery is okay.

Another really touching quote comes from Jim. He talks about wanting to be free and missing his family. Jim says, “I’s a free man, en I couldn’t ever ben free ef it hadn’t ben for Huck; Huck done it. Jim won’t ever forgit you, Huck; you’s de bes’ fren’ Jim’s ever had; en you’s de only fren’ ole Jim’s got now.” This line not only shows how close Huck and Jim have gotten but also reminds us of the real human cost of slavery. Jim’s words show his deep gratitude and the tough stuff he’s been through to get free. Twain uses Jim’s voice to make us see slaves as real people with real feelings, not just property.

The book also shines a light on the racism and hypocrisy in society through different characters who keep slavery going. Take Miss Watson, for instance. She’s supposed to be all religious and moral, but she owns slaves. This contradiction shows the moral failings of people who say they’re good Christians but still support such a terrible system. Huck’s thoughts on Miss Watson highlight this hypocrisy. He says, “Miss Watson she kept pecking at me, and it got tiresome and lonesome. By and by, they fetched the niggers in and had prayers, and then everybody was off to bed.” This comment shows how people could ignore the contradiction between their religious beliefs and owning slaves. Through these characters, Twain makes us think about the societal norms that kept slavery going.

Twain also uses the bigger social setting to criticize slavery. The way Southern society is shown, with its strict social ranks and deep-seated racism, sets the stage for Huck’s moral growth. The book’s portrayal of townspeople, slave catchers, and others who support the system shows that slavery was part of a bigger picture and everyone was in on it. Huck’s journey and his run-ins with these folks reveal the moral and ethical shortcomings of a society that thinks slavery is okay. The story’s lasting impact comes from its ability to make us think hard about the morals and ethics tied to slavery and its effects. By focusing on Huck’s tough choices and Jim’s humanity, Twain pushes us to face the harsh truths of slavery and think about broader issues of justice and human rights. The powerful quotes and themes in “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” still hit home, making us question societal norms and work towards a fairer world.

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Relationship between mental health and students’ academic performance through a literature review

Open access
Published: 17 September 2024
Volume 4 , article number 119 , ( 2024 )

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Cynthia Lizeth Ramos-Monsivais 1 ,
Sonia Rodríguez-Cano 2 ,
Estefanía Lema-Moreira ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-2286-4902 3 &
Vanesa Delgado-Benito 2

Mindfulness has become increasingly popular to improve physical and mental health. Its implementation transcends boundaries of disciplines that study its impact. The aim of this study is to identify and analyze the benefits of mindfulness on mental health, academic performance, well-being, mindfulness and prosocial behavior of university students, as well as to identify the most effective way to achieve habituation to the practice. An analysis and systematic review of papers published in the Scopus database was conducted. It was found that publications on the implementation of mindfulness in higher education began in 2004. Their study has been developed in 22 countries, 15 are European, 3 Asians, 2 North American, one Latin American and one from Oceania. Spain is the only Spanish-speaking country. Academically, mindfulness stimulates creativity, exploratory thinking, critical thinking, attention regulation, increases concentration and improves the learning experience. In addition, immersive virtual reality experiences were found to positively influence habituation towards mindfulness practice among university students.

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1 Introduction

In recent decades, mindfulness has gained popularity as a technique for reducing stress, anxiety, and depression. As well as increasing the well-being and quality of life of people who practice it [ 1 ]. Its origin is found in the Buddhist tradition, as a way to achieve clarity of thought [ 2 ]. Although this technique has been practiced in the East for more than 25 centuries, in the West its popularity is recent [ 3 ]. However, its application is expanding more and more in different disciplines [ 4 ].

Social-emotional learning has been introduced in education. It refers to the training of attention, through meditation techniques, such as mindfulness, the most recent update of the programs that seek emotional intelligence [ 5 ]. This type of education is also known as contemplative education, which seeks to enhance the learning experience through reflection and personal perception [ 6 ].

Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn defines mindfulness as “awareness that develops by paying concrete, sustained, deliberate, and non-judgmental attention to the present moment” [ 7 , p. 13]. It facilitates maintaining mental calm and training attention [ 8 ]; in addition to increasing mental clarity and awareness [ 9 ].

In terms of operability, three qualities that people develop while practicing mindfulness and three qualities related to how the practice is carried out are recognized. The first are observation, description, and participation. While in the mode of practice, acceptance is required, in the present moment and in an effective manner [ 10 ].

Mindfulness can be practiced formally and informally. In formal practice, a specific time is set aside daily for guided meditations. Informal practice brings awareness to daily activities. That is, paying attention to sensations and perceptions while walking, driving, eating, cleaning, among other activities [ 7 ].

Mindfulness has been shown to improve physical and mental health. In terms of physical health, it favors the increase of Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BNDF) [ 11 ]. While in mental health it reduces symptoms of anxiety [ 12 ], stress [ 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 ] and depression [ 12 ]. It also facilitates coping with change and uncertainty [ 14 ] and increases well-being [ 17 ].

1.1 How might the efficacy of mindfulness be evaluated?

Blood tests can be used to measure the effectiveness of mindfulness. A reduction in the levels of cortisol, the stress hormone [ 13 ]; and of increased BNDF can be observed after two weeks of practice [ 11 ]. Increased blood BNDF levels are a potential mediator between meditation practice and brain health [ 13 ]. BNDF measured in the blood by plasma or saliva is called peripheral BNDF [ 18 ].

BNDF is a modulator that regulates neuron growth. It allows the creation of new dendrites which improves communication between neurons; in other words, it promotes greater neuronal plasticity in the central and peripheral nervous system [ 11 , 13 , 18 , 19 , 20 ]. Its main function is at the level of the hippocampus and cerebral cortex, structures linked to learning and memory functions [ 13 ].

BNDF is produced in the central nervous system and peripheral tissues. Over time, its production tends to decrease. Its absence is related to psychiatric and neurological disorders such as emotional burnout, anxiety, depression and Alzheimer’s disease [ 13 ] However, some activities stimulate its production. Exercising, practicing yoga, undergoing controlled stress, traveling, acquiring new experiences, learning and mindfulness stimulate its production [ 13 , 20 ].

1.2 What are the reasons for integrating mindfulness into higher education?

The increase in mental health illnesses in college students has become a recognized concern [ 16 , 21 ]; which requires innovative interventions to address this reality [ 22 , 23 ]. In this sense, mindfulness emerges as a proposed solution [ 12 ], to prevent and reduce professional burnout [ 24 ]. Thus, there is growing interest in its applications in higher education [ 25 , 26 ].

In addition to the physical and mental health benefits, mindfulness practice promotes better academic performance [ 8 , 27 , 28 ]. Such as increased attention, learning and thinking [ 29 ]; and reduced pre-test anxiety [ 29 , 30 ].

Mindfulness practice also stimulates exploratory thinking [ 4 ], creative thinking [ 4 , 31 ], and critical thinking [ 2 ]. It increases spatial and sensory awareness [ 4 ], academic self-efficacy [ 32 , 33 ], productivity and task quality [ 8 ]; in addition to increasing the feeling of personal accomplishment [ 34 ].

On the other hand, it facilitates information retention [ 35 ], improves concentration [ 22 , 26 , 36 , 37 ], attention self-regulation skills [ 32 , 37 , 38 ] and allows for a perceived improvement in the overall learning experience [ 31 , 37 , 39 , 40 , 41 ]. This is because it is essentially training the brain that facilitates focusing attention. A faculty that, for William James, father of American psychology, constituted the root of judgment, character and will [ 42 ].

1.3 Technological immersion in mindfulness

Studies show that technology is increasingly present in the field of mindfulness practice. Evidence of that is the introduction of video games such as the one developed at the University of Wisconsin called tenacity. This is to improve mindfulness through breathing exercises [ 5 ]. Mobile applications such as Headspace and Calm have also been developed to promote meditation techniques [ 43 , 44 ].

In addition to the above, immersive environments incorporating Virtual Reality (VR) have been developed to stimulate mindfulness practice. Home meditation studio, tripp and maloka are some of the applications that virtual reality allows mindfulness practice in totally immersive environments.

1.4 Virtual reality and mindfulness in education

VR makes it possible to experience alternative realities perceived atmospherically [ 45 ]. It is applied in disciplines and sciences such as medicine, engineering, mathematics, dentistry and education [ 46 ]. In education it is used to improve academic performance [ 29 ], and increase attention, creativity, flow state, and habituation to practice [ 47 ].

Pascual et al. [ 48 ] state that, despite there being few studies related to the evaluation of mindfulness interventions using VR, it is considered a more effective platform than standalone mobile meditation apps for encouraging daily practice. Along those lines, results from Miller et al. [ 49 ] study indicates that VR-guided meditation practice is associated with increased positive affect compared to non-VR meditation.

In the case study by Malighetti et al. [ 50 ] it was found that techniques for the development of emotional intelligence such as increased awareness, identification of emotional states, increased resilience and self-control implemented through VR allowed greater mental regulation in terms of eating habits in patients with binge eating disorders. In that order, students with greater emotional regulation have greater self-efficacy [ 51 ].

VR mindfulness promotes mental health [ 52 ]. Studies show that it can reduce insomnia and stress [ 53 ] and improve learning [ 46 ]. Coupled with the above, Kwon et al. [ 30 ] found that incorporating virtual environments through VR is feasible for managing anxiety stemming from academic exams.

Kaplan-Rakowski et al. [ 29 ] study showed that students who meditated with VR performed better academically than those who meditated using videos. While Yang et al.’s [ 47 ] research, immersive virtual reality experiences were found to affect traits associated with students' creativity such as flow state and attention. When students were assigned creative challenges or challenges, those who participated in immersive VR produced better quality products. They also maintained a more stable attention level than the control group.

VR can impact long-term learning. According to Mohring and Brendel [ 45 ] it use in the educational context needs to be reflected upon, because it triggers human perception with far-reaching consequences and people using it hardly question the alternative reality experience it offers. Nevertheless, it can contribute significantly to students’ training through the development of enhanced digital skills and increased mindfulness.

According to Mohring and Brendel [ 45 ] VR can trace the path towards mindfulness in different educational contexts: in teaching and in transforming the relationship between society and the environment. A view that coincides with Whewell et al. [ 54 ] who argue that these immersive experiences contribute to the development of enhanced digital skills, increased student engagement, cultural competence and global mindfulness in university students. VR can foster the conditions for students to become global change agents “within the spheres of entrepreneurship and education” [ 54 , p.1].

However, mindfulness benefits require continuous practice. According to the study by Pascual et al. [ 48 ], meditation sessions are associated with a decrease in anxiety. Therefore, identifying how to introduce and implement an effective program is of the utmost relevance for updating the current educational system.

In that sense, this research aims to identify programs that have been implemented to incorporate mindfulness into higher education. From its beginnings to the present, it analyzes the scientific literature to understand the evolution of its implementation. It identifies the countries where these programs are carried out, the universities that participate, the years they have been carried out and the types of documents published.

Mindfulness's documented benefits for mental health, academic performance, well-being, and students' awareness and prosocial behavior are discussed. Finally, technology, specifically virtual reality, is addressed as a medium that facilitates mindfulness practice stimulation and habituation.

Therefore, the following research questions were defined: 1. How many publications are published per year? 2. In what language are they published? 3. What kind of documents are published? 4. Which universities are involved in the research? 5. In which countries are mindfulness and higher education being studied? 6. What is the impact of mindfulness on higher education students' mental health? 7. What is the impact of mindfulness on higher education students' academic performance? 8. What is the impact of mindfulness on higher education students’ well-being? 9. What is the impact of mindfulness on higher education students’ conscientiousness and prosocial behaviour? 10. Is virtual reality the most effective medium for fostering mindfulness among higher education students?

An analysis of scientific publications in the scopus database, which could be accessed through an institutional account of the University of Burgos in Spain as part of a research stay, was carried out. The information search was conducted using English keywords. The keywords used to elaborate the search string were mindfulness, meditation, university students and higher education students. This search string yielded 70 publications as of July 19, 2024.

All Scopus database publication types were considered inclusion criteria: articles, book chapters, papers, reviews, books and short surveys. In English and Spanish. All articles whose information was not available, were not aimed at higher education students, or did not address any meditation technique were excluded.

An Excel document with the articles' information was extracted for analysis. One article was not available so 69 documents were considered. It was found that 11 publications did not actually mention meditation techniques and were excluded. Also, 5 publications not directed at higher education students were not considered. This resulted in 53 selected research papers. Figure 1 illustrates the situation.

Flow diagram

To answer questions 6, 7 and 8, a subsequent analysis was carried out to identify the measurement variables used by the authors. Measurement variables were identified in the selected documents. The variables were divided into four categories. Mental health, academic achievement, well-being, and prosocial awareness and attitude.

The mental health category includes 9 variables: reduction of stress, anxiety, depression, emotional exhaustion, depersonalization burnout and negative mood. Also increased mental health, calmness and positive mood. Of the 53 items, 4 address some mental health elements and 23 also include elements from other categories.

Academic achievement is made up of 16 variables: academic performance, clinical performance, exploratory thinking, critical thinking, creative thinking, productivity, task quality, academic speed, persistence, observation skills, attention regulation skills, information retention, academic self-efficacy and concentration. Additionally, the learning experience and divergent and convergent creative writing will be improved. Of the 53 items, 5 address elements relating to academic achievement and 19 also include elements from other categories.

The well-being category consists of 13 variables: increased life satisfaction, well-being, sense of belonging, emotional self-regulation, quality of life, self-compassion, physical activity, resilience, non-judgmental acceptance, perceived social support, and sense of accomplishment. Also included are better dietary decision making and improved sleep quality. Of the 53 items, 1 addresses well-being items and 20 include items from other categories.

In the category awareness and prosocial behavior, 14 variables were integrated: increased mindfulness skills, spatial awareness, sensory awareness, self-awareness, dispositional mindfulness, empathy, benevolence, prosocial behavior, collectivism, a sense of transcendence, universalalism, mental clarity, responsibility and improved interpersonal relationships. Of the 53 items, one addresses element unique to prosocial awareness and behavior and 21 also include elements from other categories.

To answer question 8, an additional search integrating technology and virtual reality was included. Although the object of this study is directed primarily at higher education students, research that analyses mindfulness incorporation at other educational levels was considered in this question.

The results of the research are presented in this section. We start with the general findings and then answer the research questions.

3.1 General findings

Although all the investigations analysed are directed at higher education students, 27 do not specify the discipline or the educational program in which the students are enrolled. However, it was found that the educational programs where mindfulness effectiveness is most frequently studied is in medicine and nursing with six investigations, engineering with four, and then anaesthesiology, arts and design, sciences, modern dance, law midwifery, writing, pharmacy, literature, music, social work and design pedagogy with one respectively.

Regarding the duration of the programs, of the 53 studies analysed, 31 do not specify the duration of the practice in weeks, days or sessions. However, in six investigations the programs lasted 8 weeks and in five investigations, 6 weeks. The longest program consisted of 12 weeks and the shortest 1 day. About the analysis of keywords, Fig. 2 shows the identified word networks.

Visualization of keyword networks based on a VOSviewer version 1.6.20 elaboration

In this analysis, it was found that of the 418 keywords used, 30 have at least a frequency of occurrence of 5. It is highlighted that the words with a higher frequency of occurrence and greater connectivity are mindfulness and meditation. Next, the research questions are answered.

How many papers are published each year about mindfulness and higher education students?

According to Table 1 , publications on mindfulness in higher education began in 2004. In 2014, these rates began to remain constant. In the United States, the first publication was produced by the doctor Daniel Holland, associated with universities in Pennsylvania, Arkansas, Illinois, and Washington. At the University of Pennsylvania, the first program for developing resilience in children was developed. Furthermore, in the late 1990s, doctors Martin Seligman and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, both affiliated with the same university, pioneered positive psychology [ 55 ].

As part of positive education, positive psychology was introduced to institutions. The concept of positive education succeeds the concept of emotional education. In addition to emotions, this approach incorporates other elements such as meditation in order to increase well-being [ 56 ].

What is the language in which mindfulness research is published? There are 53 documents in the collection, 50 of which are in English and three of which are in Spanish

Are there any published documents that discuss mindfulness and students in higher education? Publications were classified into five categories: articles, reviews, book chapters, presentations and books. As shown in Table 2 , each type of document has a different quantity.

There are several different types of documents published. Articles are the most frequently published. Review articles, presentations, book chapters, and books follow.

What are the publications of universities on mindfulness and higher education students?

A summary of the publications produced, the universities that participate in collaborations, and the most important findings are presented in this section according to the type of document, the language, and the year.

3.2 Spanish-language articles

There have been only three articles published in Spanish. These include one by the University of Almería in Spain in 2009, another by the University of Lisbon in Portugal in 2022 and another by the University of Granada in Spain in 2024. A study by Justo and Luque [ 57 ] demonstrated that mindfulness leads to a deepening of reflection and self-awareness, which in turn stimulates prosocial values like benevolence, collectivism, and the sense of universalism and transcendence. Sobral and Caetano [ 58 ] conducted a study in which individual and collective activities were incorporated into two courses, including mindfulness, using students' portfolios and teachers’ notes. On the other hand, in the study by García-Pérez et al. [ 23 ] mindfulness is considered as a starting point to guarantee mental health and improve the well-being of university students.

3.3 Articles in English

In 2014, two English-language publications were published. One by Nottingham Trent University in the United Kingdom and one by Duke University Medical Center in the United States. Greeson et al. [ 59 ] found that the Koru mindfulness training program improved sleep, improved mindfulness skills, increased self-compassion, and decreased stress among college students.

According to Van Gordon et al. [ 3 ], the Meditation, Awareness Training (MAT) program has been evaluated by college students. During the eighth weeks of training, the students demonstrated improved well-being and self-regulation skills in terms of thoughts, feelings, and behavior. A significant increase was also observed in dispositional mindfulness.

In 2015 only one paper was published by Newcastle University in Australia. In this study, after 7 weeks of practicing mindfulness, students showed an improvement in their well-being, sleep quality, increased concentration, mental clarity and a reduction in negative mood was observed [ 22 ].

In 2016, two articles were published, one by Chatham University in the United States, and another where two universities from two different countries participated, the National University of Ireland and Coleraine University in the United Kingdom. In the study by Noone et al. [ 2 ] it was found that dispositional mindfulness facilitates critical thinking. While in the research of Spadaro and Hunker [ 38 ] it was found that after 8 weeks of practicing mindfulness online, nursing students in the United States reduced anxiety and stress. They also increased mindfulness self-regulation skills.

There were three articles published in 2017. The first study was conducted by Ohio State University in the United States, the second by Ryerson University in Canada, and the third by the Department of Psychiatry at MoleMann Hospital for Mental Health in the Netherlands.

Using reflective writing and guided mindfulness meditations, Klatt [ 60 ] conducted research at Ohio University to increase awareness of students' life goals. According to Schwind et al. [ 37 ], mindfulness and loving-kindness meditation practice after eight weeks reduced anxiety, improved learning experience, increased sense of calm, concentration, and attention self-regulation skills among Canadian university students.

While in the research of Van D’Ijk et al. [ 61 ] it was found that after 8 weekly sessions of two hours daily using the mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) program, students from the Netherlands reduced anxiety and negative emotional states. Improved mental health, life satisfaction and increased mindfulness skills were also observed. However, empathy was not increased.

In 2018, three articles were published. One by the University of Seville in Spain, one by the National University of Ireland and one where an international collaboration between 5 universities took place. The University of Southampton in the UK, the Helvetiapraxis Medical Centre in Switzerland, Kings College London in the UK, the Coburg University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Germany and the Poznan University of Medical Sciences in Poland.

Research conducted by Bernárdez et al. [ 9 ] revealed that software engineering students at the University of Seville in Spain improved their academic self-efficacy after 6 weeks of practicing mindfulness.

Lynch et al. [ 25 ] evaluated mindfulness-based coping with university life (MBCUL), an adaptation of the MBSR program. College students increased their mindfulness skills, decreased stress, anxiety, and depression after eight weeks. The study by Noone and Hogan [ 62 ] found that practicing mindfulness using the headspace mobile app for 6 weeks or 30 sessions increased dispositional mindfulness, but not critical thinking. Students at the National University of Ireland participated in this study.

There were three articles published in 2019. In the United Kingdom, Birmingham City University submitted the first study, in the United States, Lousville University submitted the second, and in Iceland, the University of Rhode Island submitted the third.

A study conducted by Dutt et al. [ 84 ] from the University of Birmingham has demonstrated that mindfulness reduces stress and helps to make better dietary decisions. The University of Rhode Island conducted a study in which Lemay et al. [ 63 ] found that after 6 weeks of practicing viyansa yoga, pharmacy students were able to increase their mindfulness skills and reduce their levels of stress and anxiety. Weingartner et al. [ 39 ] found that mindfulness and compassion training increased mindfulness skills, dispositional mindfulness, and empathy in medical students at Lousville University. As a result, interpersonal relationships, resilience, nonjudgmental acceptance, observational skills, and learning experiences were also improved.

In 2020, four papers were published. In the United States, there are four, one from the University of North Carolina, one from the University of Florida, one from Juiz de Fora in Brazil, and one from the Department of Psychological and Behavioral Sciences at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

At the University of North Carolina, a slow sensory experience linked to meditation techniques is introduced in the modern dance program to improve concentration [ 64 ]. According to the study by Bóo et al. [ 27 ], mindfulness increases academic performance, emotional self-regulation, and self-awareness in the UK. However, Damião et al. [ 65 ] found no significant increase in mindfulness skills of medical students at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Brazil, following a 6-week mindfulness training program. Stress, anxiety, or depression did not decrease. Quality of life and mental health also showed no change.

A study by Williams et al. [ 40 ] concluded that medical students at the University of Florida improved their mindfulness skills, perceived social support, empathy, and prosocial behavior after 11 weeks participating in the Promoting Resilience in Medicine (PRIMe) program, although they did not reduce stress. Behaviors characterized by empathy and prosociality. As a result, the general well-being and learning experience have also improved.

There were three articles published in 2021. First, the University of Manitoba in Canada, second, Bilkent University in Turkey, and third, Johns Hopkins University in the United States. Altay and Porter [ 4 ] found that mindfulness practice among design psychology students in Turkey increased non-judgmental acceptance, exploratory thinking, creative thinking, spatial awareness, sensory awareness, and empathy.

An evaluation of the effectiveness of the Headspace mobile application was conducted by Carullo et al. [ 33 ]. Over the course of four months, anesthesiology and medical students from the United States practiced mindfulness. Depression levels were reduced and personal accomplishments were increased. The level of emotional exhaustion nor the level of depersonalization burnout, however, did not improve. Based on research conducted by Litwiller et al. [ 21 ] among college students in Canada, mindfulness, meditation, Tai Chi, yoga, exercise, and animal therapy have been found to be effective in reducing stress, anxiety, depression, and negative mood.

The year 2022 saw the publication of nine papers. The first was completed by the Aix-Marseille University in France, the second by the Department of Anthropology at the University of Missouri in the United States, and the third by the University of Central Arkansas in the United States in collaboration with the University of Missouri. It was also submitted by the University of Illinois in the United States, Kirikkale University in Turkey, Arizona State University in the United States, the University of Seville in Spain, Brock University in Canada, and the University of Lisbon in Portugal.

Researchers in Turkey found that mindfulness practice increases life satisfaction among nursing students. According to Bernárdez et al. [ 8 ], mindfulness enhanced academic performance, productivity, task quality, and academic speed in Spanish students. Devillers-Réolon et al. [ 66 ] found that stress, anxiety, and depression were reduced in their research. The ability of French university students to regulate their attention did not improve, despite improvements in their well-being.

Researchers at Arizona State University found that mindfulness practice increased concentration, non-judgmental acceptance, and resilience among arts and design students. An opinion survey conducted by Klonoff-Cohen [ 67 ] revealed that college students in Illinois believe meditation and mindfulness exercises are effective coping mechanisms. The study by Sensiper [ 26 ] from the Anthropology Department concluded that after 10 weeks of structured in-class meditations, mindfulness exercises, contemporary text readings, and reflective writing, college students exhibited reduced anxiety, improved well-being, increased emotional self-regulation, concentration, and dispositional mindfulness.

As part of the research conducted by Sobral and Caetano [ 58 ], the University of Lisbon conducted a self-study on emotional education. Teachers evaluated the students’ portfolios in order to identify recurrent problems, and students evaluated mindfulness practices, collective and individual projects.

Strickland et al. [ 68 ] reported that mindfulness combined with a modified version of Dr. Robert Boice’s blocked writers program increased positive mood and resilience to stress and anxiety in students and teachers in higher education.

According to Woloshyn et al. [ 31 ], mindful writing stimulates creative thinking, increases empathy and prosocial behavior in higher education students and teachers in Canada. A positive emotional state can also be achieved through non-judgmental acceptance, increased self-awareness, self-compassion, and non-judgmental acceptance. In addition, it enhances well-being and the learning experience.

Six papers have been published in 2023. One by the University of Rome in Italy, one by Griffith University in Australia, another is the result of a collaboration between the University of South Carolina and Winthrop University both in the United States; and another due to collaboration between the Institute of Psychology of Lorand University in Hungary, the University of Vienna and the University of Artois in France.

One paper is the result of a collaboration between the University of the West of England in United Kingdom, and Dongguk University in South Korea. And another article was the result of a collaboration between University of Limoges, University of Montpellier and University of Paris Cité in France and University of Brussels in Belgium.

In the research by Fagioli et al. [ 32 ] University students in Italy practice mindfulness online for 28 days. An improved sense of belonging increased academic self-efficacy and self-regulation of attention skills were observed. In the study by García et al. [ 69 ], mindfulness was practiced for 1 week, 5 min daily. This exercise reduced anxiety, increased physical activity and improved sleep in United States students. Nagy et al. [ 70 ] found that mindfulness practice can increase persistence in those with a strong disposition toward a growth mindset or mindfulness.

In the research of Hagège et al. [ 71 ] it was found that the Meditation-Based Ethics of Responsibility (MBER) program had a positive impact on sense of responsibility and convergent and divergent creative writing tasks in undergraduate science students. In undergraduate music therapy students, it was found that eight weeks of practicing mindfulness can reduce stress and improve mindfulness and well-being [ 72 ]. While Pearson’s [ 73 ] looks for strategies on how mindfulness can be introduced into law education programs in Australia.

So far in 2024, three papers have been published. One by the Virginia Tech College of engineering. Another by the collaboration of Idaho State University and the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, in the United States. Another by Kaohsiung Medical University and Meiho University, both from Taiwan.

In the research of Giesler et al. [ 74 ] the Caring Action Leadership Mindfulness model is proposed to increase mental health and sense of belonging in undergraduate social work students. In the study by Liu et al. [ 75 ] it was found that practicing mindfulness for 50 min a week for 8 weeks reduced stress and increased mindfulness skills in nursing students. On the other hand, Martini et al. [ 76 ] found that although most engineering students after practicing mindfulness experienced a reduction in perceived stress, a sense of calm, increased energy, and greater concentration, other students who expressed feeling more tired and distressed after meditation practice.

3.4 Book chapters

Book chapters are rare. One by Queen Margaret University in 2015 and one by the University of Surrey in 2020, both UK universities. In the Oberski et al. [ 35 ] study, it was documented that mindfulness in college students allows for increased information retention and a positive emotional state. In Kilner-Johnson and Udofia’s [ 77 ] research, techniques for incorporating mindfulness in the humanities in higher education are proposed.

On the other hand, only one book was published by the University of Groningen in the Netherlands in 2021. This work addresses the benefits of incorporating mindfulness into higher education courses. It documents the results of the Munich model named mindfulness and meditation in the university context. It also includes practical exercises with instructions for implementation in educational institutions.

3.6 Conferences

Three conferences have been published from the United States. One in 2006 by the University of Arkansas, another by the University of Denver Colorado in 2021, and another by Northeastern University in 2023. Holland [ 6 ] presents a course developed and implemented in some universities in the United States through his personal experience, while Wu [ 41 ] states that sonic meditation for higher education students improves the learning experience. In the study by Grahame et al. [ 78 ] it was found that daily mindfulness practice enables engineering undergraduates to reduce stress.

3.7 Reviews

Six reviews have been published. One was in 2004 by Southeastern Illinois University in the United States. In 2017 there were 2 publications. One by the University of Portland in the United States and one by LaTrobe University in Australia. In 2019 the Medical Department of the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands also published a review. In 2021, a collaboration between three UK universities—Queens University, the University of Suffolk and the University of York was published. In 2024 another was published by Padjadjaran University in Indonesia.

Holland [ 79 ] outlines how mindfulness can be incorporated into higher education and the benefits this can bring for students with disabilities and promote health. McConville et al. [ 33 ] found that mindfulness reduces stress, anxiety, and depression. It also increases mindfulness skills, empathy, a positive emotional state, and academic self-efficacy. Stillwell et al. [ 80 ] found that both the MBSR program, yoga, breath work, meditation, and mindfulness in nursing students reduced stress.

Breedvelt et al. [ 81 ] evaluated the effectiveness of meditation, yoga, and mindfulness on symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress in college students. They concluded that most publications regarding mindfulness have a high risk of bias, are of poor quality, and do not specify which technique provides the benefits. For it is unclear whether it is mindfulness, yoga or another meditation technique that is effective. McVeigh et al. [ 28 ] found that mindfulness practice in nursing students reduces stress, increases clinical academic performance and self-awareness. In the research of Yosep et al. [ 82 ] it was found that digital mindfulness through audios and videos is effective in improving the mental health of university students.

What are the countries where mindfulness and higher education students are most widely published?

Based on the description of the universities in question three, Fig. 3 illustrates the countries and locations where publications on mindfulness and higher education students have been published.

Geographical location of countries where mindfulness research has been conducted. Font: Own elaboration in the Mapchart application [ 83 ]

As can be seen, the United States leads in mindfulness research and higher education students. It is followed by the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Spain. Spain is the only Spanish-speaking country on the list.

On the other hand, although the research is carried out in 22 countries, the collaboration networks include 14 countries. Figure 4 shows the collaboration networks detected.

Cross-country collaboration networks based on a VOSviewer version 1.6.20 elaboration

Figure 4 shows a collaborative network of 14 countries composed of four nodes. One is formed by Austria, Belgium, Canada, France and Hungary in red. In green by the United Kingdom, Turkey, South Korea and Ireland. In blue, Germany, Switzerland and Poland and in yellow, Australia and the Netherlands.

What are the benefits of mindfulness practice for higher education students’ mental health?

Mindfulness practice reduces stress [ 21 , 25 , 28 , 33 , 38 , 59 , 63 , 66 , 80 , 84 ] anxiety [ 21 , 25 , 26 , 33 , 37 , 38 , 61 , 63 , 66 , 69 ] and depression [ 21 , 25 , 33 , 34 , 66 ].

Mindfulness reduces negative mood [ 21 , 22 , 61 ]. As well as increasing positive mood [ 31 , 33 , 35 , 68 ]. In research by Bernárdez et al. [ 9 ], mindfulness was found to reduce emotional exhaustion and depersonalization burnout. While Van D’Ijk et al. [ 61 ], that it improves mental health. Schwind et al. [ 37 ] found that it increases the feeling of calm.

3.8 Stress reduction

In the case of Devillers-Réolon et al. [ 66 ] and Spadaro & Hunker [ 38 ] the mindfulness practice was conducted online and lasted for 17 days and 8 weeks respectively. Greeson et al. [ 59 ] study was also practiced online using the Koru program. Although the duration of this is not specified.

In Lynch et al. [ 25 ] research, the MBSR program was used for 8 weeks. While Stiwell et al. [ 80 ] the same program was used, although the duration of time is not specified. Of the five studies in which mindfulness is practiced traditionally through guided meditations, only one, that of Lemay et al. [ 63 ] indicates that the program lasted 6 weeks in 60-min sessions. The other investigations do not indicate weeks or practice sessions.

According to Yogeswaran and Morr [ 16 ] online mindfulness practice can be effective in addressing stress. However, at least for medical students, the evidence was not sufficient to prove its efficacy in decreasing symptoms of depression and anxiety. In contrast, the study by Ahmad et al. [ 12 ] found that, among university students in Toronto, Canada, internet-based Cognitive Behavioral Mindfulness Therapy interventions could reduce symptoms of anxiety, depression and stress after 8 weeks.

What are the benefits of mindfulness practice on higher education students’ academic performance?

Mindfulness increases clinical performance [ 28 ] and academic performance [ 8 , 27 , 28 ]. Stimulates exploratory thinking [ 4 ], creative thinking [ 4 , 31 ] and critical thinking [ 2 ].

It increases productivity, task quality and academic speed [ 8 ]. As well, it also increases academic self-efficacy [ 9 , 32 , 33 ], improves the learning experience [ 31 , 37 , 39 , 40 , 41 ], and improves observation skills [ 39 ].

Coupled with the above, it improves information retention [ 35 ], increases concentration [ 22 , 26 , 36 , 37 ], and attention self-regulation skills [ 32 , 37 , 38 ]. Another finding in relation to academic performance is that mindfulness can increase persistence in people with a strong disposition toward mindfulness or a growth mindset [ 70 ].

3.9 What benefits does mindfulness practice have on higher education students?

Mindfulness practice increased perceived social support [ 31 , 40 ], improves well-being [ 3 , 22 , 26 , 31 , 40 , 66 ] and improve dietary decision-making [ 84 ]. It also increases sense of belonging [ 32 ], life satisfaction [ 61 , 85 ], physical activity [ 69 ]; and improves sleep quality [ 22 , 59 , 69 ]. Damião´s et al. [ 65 ] research showed no improvements in quality of life after the intervention.

Mindfulness allows increasing self-compassion [ 31 , 59 ], sense of personal achievement [ 34 ], self-regulation of thoughts, feelings and behaviors [ 3 , 26 , 27 ]. It stimulates the development of resilience for stress and anxiety management [ 36 , 39 , 68 ]; and it helps to manage the judgmental voice. That is, it facilitates non-judgmental acceptance [ 4 , 31 , 36 , 39 ].

What are the benefits of mindfulness practice on mindfulness and prosocial behavior in higher education students?

Mindfulness allows for increases in self-awareness [ 27 , 28 , 31 ], sensory and spatial awareness [ 4 ], mindfulness skills [ 25 , 33 , 39 , 40 , 59 , 61 , 63 ] and disposition toward mindfulness [ 3 , 26 , 39 , 68 ].

It also stimulates prosocial behavior [ 40 ], collectivism [ 31 , 57 ]. It increases empathy [ 4 , 31 , 33 , 39 , 40 ] and benevolence [ 57 ]. It improves interpersonal relationships [ 31 , 39 , 40 ], clarity of thought [ 22 ]; and increases the sense of universalism and transcendence [ 57 ].

Is virtual reality the most effective way to promote mindfulness among higher education students?

Virtual reality could facilitate mindfulness habituation. In the study by Navarrete et al. [ 86 ] conducted with university medical students in Valencia, Spain, it was found that those who participated in the virtual reality program meditated twice as long as those who only practiced through regular guided meditation. Along these lines, Pascual et al. [ 48 ] found that health professionals who practiced meditation completed more sessions than those who did not use VR.

Likewise, in the study by Modrego-Alarcón et al. [ 15 ] and Miller et al. [ 49 ] it was found that VR students acquired greater immersion and mindfulness practice. Therefore, immersive virtual reality environments favor habituation toward mindfulness practice.

4 Discussion

The benefits of mindfulness in higher education students at the psychoemotional level have been widely documented [ 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 87 ]. One of the most frequently highlighted benefits of mindfulness in higher education students is the positive effect on self-esteem, as evidenced by the findings of several studies [ 88 , 89 ]. Additionally, mindfulness has been shown to reduce stress levels [ 25 , 33 , 39 , 40 , 59 , 61 , 63 , 90 ]. These types of benefits have also been observed in other demographic groups. For example, a study conducted by Chandna et al. [ 91 ] with an adult population demonstrated that mindfulness practice was associated with significant improvements in self-esteem and self-efficacy.

As previously stated, mindfulness practice has been identified as a potential solution to the emotional difficulties experienced by higher education students in the current context [ 12 ]. The positive effects of mindfulness on students’ psychoemotional well-being have been demonstrated in numerous studies [ 66 , 67 , 85 ]. It can thus be inferred that these benefits will also affect other areas of students’ lives, reducing their difficulties both psychoemotionally and academically, for example.

In terms of academic performance, the findings of Bóo et al. [ 27 ], Bernárdez et al. [ 8 ] and McVeigh et al. [ 28 ] are worthy of note. This is not exclusive to students in higher education. A study by Artika et al. [ 92 ] with a sample of 469 secondary school students indicates that mindfulness is a significant predictor of student participation in the school context, with an associated increase in participation through improved self-esteem. In contrast, Cordeiro et al. [ 93 ] conducted an experimental study with a control group of third-grade students and found that mindfulness significantly enhanced cognitive flexibility and handwriting fluency.

Prosocial behaviour has been identified as another key area of interest by a number of studies [ 4 , 22 , 31 , 33 , 39 , 40 , 57 ]. A study by Akhavan et al. [ 90 ] demonstrates the efficacy of mindfulness practice in a sample of teachers, including enhanced relationships with students and reduced stress.

With regard to the manner in which these mindfulness programmes can be supported, the utilisation of VR has been found to confer considerable benefits [ 15 , 48 , 49 , 86 ]. This is primarily attributable to the degree of adherence to the programme. In their seminal work, Friedlander et al. [ 94 ] introduced the concept of the ‘therapeutic alliance’ to describe this phenomenon of patient adherence in a therapeutic context. They posited that it represents a crucial factor in the efficacy of any therapeutic intervention. In this case, although it is an educational context, the effects of such adherence are similar; therefore, it is worthwhile to explore the potential of the VR format as a key factor for the success of mindfulness.

5 Conclusions

In response to the research questions initially posed, it can be stated that they have been addressed, resulting in comprehensive data pertaining to the volume, language and year of publication of the various research projects. It is notable that there has been a significant increase in publications over the past four years, as well as the prevalence of the article format. As is to be expected, the majority of publications have been in English. It is also evident that universities in countries with an Anglo-Saxon tradition have published the most research on this topic, with the USA being the country with the highest volume of studies.

In answer to questions 6, 7, 8 and 9, it might be stated that mindfulness practice has been shown to promote mental health, academic performance, awareness, prosocial behaviour and well-being in student populations. Mindfulness practice might promote mental health, and well-being in the student population. The positive impact of this practice is not limited to how it is performed. That is, whether it is through traditional guided meditations, mobile applications, videos, online exercises or virtual reality.

However, according to the available literature, habituation is easier to acquire. Therefore, additional benefits can be obtained by increasing the number of sessions completed or minutes of practice. In answer to question 10, in studies where VR was effective for mindfulness practice, students practiced longer than those in the control group. Therefore, VR could be a more effective way to introduce contemplative science by introducing meditation techniques in higher education.

The objective has been fulfilled by analysing the benefits of mindfulness on mental health, academic performance, well-being, mindfulness and prosocial behaviour of university students, as well as identifying the most effective way to achieve habituation to the practice. It is also noteworthy that these benefits are highly relevant, and it would be beneficial to introduce mindfulness practice in the context of higher education.

6 Limitation and implication

One of the issues highlighted is the lack of comprehensive data that would allow for a more thorough comparison. For example, aspects such as the geographical location of the study subjects or the duration of the mindfulness programme applied mean that there are a large number of studies whose effectiveness is not entirely clear. At the same time, this is a topic that is becoming increasingly relevant, but there is still no consensus among researchers.

With regard to prospective implications, it is evident that the implementation of mindfulness in educational settings offers substantial advantages. Consequently, higher education institutions should facilitate the availability of structured mindfulness programmes for students. Undoubtedly, this would prove to be a valuable addition to their psycho-emotional and academic development.

Data availability

The author confirms that all data generated or analysed during this study are included in this published article.

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Ramos-Monsivais, C.L., Rodríguez-Cano, S., Lema-Moreira, E. et al. Relationship between mental health and students’ academic performance through a literature review. Discov Psychol 4 , 119 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s44202-024-00240-4

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Slavery and the Civil War Essay

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During the period of 1820-1860, the life of white and black people in the South depended on developing the Institute of slavery which shaped not only social but also economic life of the region. The Institute of slavery was primarily for the Southern states, and this feature helped to distinguish the South from the other regions of the USA.

Slavery played the key role in shaping the economic and social life of the South because it influenced the trade and economic relations in the region as well as the social and class structure representing slave owners, white farmers without slaves, and slaves as the main labor force in the region.

The development of the South during the period of 1820-1860 was based on growing cotton intensively. To guarantee the enormous exports of cotton, it was necessary to rely on slaves as the main cheap or almost free workforce. The farmers of the South grew different crops, but the economic success was associated with the farms of those planters who lived in the regions with fertile soil and focused on growing cotton basing on slavery.

Thus, the prosperity of this or that white farmer and planter depended on using slaves in his farm or plantation. Slaves working for planters took the lowest social positions as well as free slaves living in cities whose economic situation was also problematic. The white population of the South was divided into slave owners and yeoman farmers who had no slaves.

Thus, having no opportunities to use the advantages of slavery, yeoman farmers relied on their families’ powers, and they were poorer in comparison with planters (Picture 1). However, not all the planters were equally successful in their economic situation. Many planters owned only a few slaves, and they also had to work at their plantations or perform definite duties.

Slaves were also different in their status because of the functions performed. From this point, the social stratification was necessary not only for dividing the Southern population into black slaves and white owners but also to demonstrate the differences within these two main classes (Davidson et al.).

As a result, different social classes had various cultures. It is important to note that slaves were more common features in spite of their status in families, and they were united regarding the culture which was reflected in their religion, vision, and songs. The difference in the social status of the white population was more obvious, and the single common feature was the prejudice and discrimination against slaves.

Picture 1. Yeoman Farmer’s House

The Civil War became the real challenge for the USA because it changed all the structures and institutions of the country reforming the aspects of the political, economic, and social life. Furthermore, the Civil War brought significant losses and sufferings for both the representatives of the Northern and Southern armies.

It is important to note that the situation of the Union in the war was more advantageous in comparison with the position of the Confederacy during the prolonged period of the war actions.

As a result, the South suffered from more significant economic and social changes as well as from extreme losses in the war in comparison with the North’s costs. Thus, the main impact of the Civil War was the abolition of slavery which changed the economic and social structures of the South and contributed to shifting the focus on the role of federal government.

The Civil War resulted in abolishing slavery and preserving the political unity of the country. Nevertheless, these positive outcomes were achieved at the expense of significant losses in the number of population and in promoting more sufferings for ordinary people. A lot of the Confederacy’s soldiers died at the battlefields, suffering from extreme wounds and the lack of food because of the problems with weapon and food provision.

During the war, the Union focused on abolishing slaves who were proclaimed free. Thus, former slaves from the Southern states were inclined to find jobs in the North or join the Union army.

As a result, the army of the Confederacy also began to suffer from the lack of forces (Davidson et al.). Moreover, the situation was problematic off the battlefield because all the issues of food provision and work at plantations and farms challenged women living in the Southern states.

The forces of the Union army were more balanced, and their losses were less significant than in the Southern states. Furthermore, the end of the war did not change the structure of the social life in the North significantly. The impact of the war was more important for the Southerners who had to build their economic and social life without references to slavery.

The next important change was the alternations in the social role of women. Many women had to work at farms in the South and to perform as nurses in the North (Picture 2). The vision of the women’s role in the society was changed in a way.

However, in spite of the fact that the population of the South had to rebuild the social structure and adapt to the new social and economic realities, the whole economic situation was changed for better with references to intensifying the international trade. Furthermore, the abolishment of slavery was oriented to the social and democratic progress in the country.

Picture 2. “Our Women and the War”. Harper’s Weekly, 1862

Diversity is one of the main characteristic features of the American nation from the early periods of its formation. The American nation cannot be discussed as a stable one because the formation of the nation depends on the active migration processes intensifying the general diversity. As a result, the American nation is characterized by the richness of cultures, values, and lifestyles.

This richness is also typical for the early period of the American history when the country’s population was diverse in relation to ethnicity, cultures, religion, and social status. From this point, diversity directly shaped the American nation because the country’s population never was identical.

The Americans respected diversity if the question was associated with the problem of first migrations and the Americans’ difference from the English population. To win independence, it was necessary to admit the difference from the English people, but diversity was also the trigger for conflicts between the Americans, Englishmen, and Frenchmen as well as Indian tribes.

The ethic diversity was not respected by the first Americans. The further importations of slaves to America worsened the situation, and ethnic diversity increased, involving cultural and social diversity.

Diversity was respected only with references to the negative consequences of slave importation. Thus, the Southerners focused on using black slaves for development of their plantations (Davidson et al.). From this point, white planers concentrated on the difference of blacks and used it for discrimination.

Furthermore, slavery also provoked the cultural and lifestyle diversity between the South and the North of the country which resulted in the Civil War because of impossibility to share different values typical for the Southerners and Northerners. Moreover, the diversity in lifestyles of the Southerners was deeper because it depended on the fact of having or not slaves.

Great religious diversity was also typical for the nation. White population followed different branches of Christianity relating to their roots, and black people developed their own religious movements contributing to diversifying the religious life of the Americans (Davidson et al.).

Thus, the aspects of diversity are reflected in each sphere of the first Americans’ life with references to differences in ethnicities, followed religions, cultures, values, lifestyles, and social patterns. This diversity also provoked a lot of conflicts in the history of the nation.

The role of women in the American society changed depending on the most important political and social changes. The periods of reforms and transformations also promoted the changes in the social positions of women. The most notable changes are typical for the period of the Jacksonian era and for the Civil War period.

The changes in the role of women are closely connected with the development of women’s movements during the 1850s and with the focus on women’s powers off the battlefield during the Civil War period.

During the Jacksonian era, women began to play significant roles in the religious and social life of the country. Having rather limited rights, women could realize their potentials only in relation to families and church work. That is why, many women paid much attention to their church duties and responsibilities.

Later, the church work was expanded, and women began to organize special religious groups in order to contribute to reforming definite aspects of the Church’s progress. Women also were the main members of the prayer meetings, and much attention was drawn to the charity activities and assistance to hospitals (Davidson et al.).

Women also played the significant role in the development of revivalism as the characteristic feature of the period. Moreover, the active church work and the focus on forming organizations was the first step to the progress of the women’s rights movements.

It is important to note that the participation of women in the social life was rather limited during a long period of time that is why membership and belonging to different church organizations as well as development of women’s rights movements contributed to increasing the role of women within the society. Proclaiming the necessity of abolishment, socially active women also concentrated on the idea of suffrage which was achieved later.

The period of the 1850s is closely connected with the growth of the women’s rights movements because it was the period of stating to the democratic rights and freedoms within the society (Davidson et al.). The next important event is the Civil War. The war influenced the position of the Southern white and black women significantly, revealing their powers and ability to overcome a lot of challenges.

The end of the Civil War provided women with the opportunity to achieve all the proclaimed ideals of the women’s rights movements along with changing the position of male and female slaves in the American society.

The development of the American nation is based on pursuing certain ideals and following definite values. The main values which are greatly important for the Americans are associated with the notions which had the significant meaning during the periods of migration and creating the independent state. The two main values are opportunity and equality.

These values are also fixed in the Constitution of the country in order to emphasize their extreme meaning for the whole nation.

Opportunity and equality are the values which are shaped with references to the economic and social ideals because all the Americans are equal, and each American should have the opportunity to achieve the individual goal. Nevertheless, in spite of the proclaimed ideals, the above-mentioned values were discussed during a long period of time only with references to the white population of the country.

The other values typical for the Americans are also based not on the religious, moral or cultural ideals but on the social aspects. During the Jacksonian era, the Americans focused on such values as the democratic society. Following the ideals of rights and freedoms, the American population intended to realize them completely within the developed democratic society (Davidson et al.).

Moreover, these ideals were correlated with such values as equality and opportunity. It is necessary to pay attention to the fact that for many Americans the notions of democratic society, opportunity, and equality were directly connected with the economic growth. That is why, during long periods of time Americans concentrated on achieving freedoms along with pursuing the economic prosperity.

Thus, it is possible to determine such key values which regulate the social attitudes and inclinations of the Americans as equality and opportunity, freedoms and rights. In spite of the fact the USA was the country with the determined role of religion in the society, moral and religious aspects were not proclaimed as the basic values of the nation because of the prolonged focus of the Americans on their independence and prosperity.

From this point, opportunity, equality, freedoms, and rights are discussed as more significant values for the developed nation than the religious principles. The creation of the state independent from the influence of the British Empire resulted in determining the associated values and ideals which were pursued by the Americans during prolonged periods of the nation’s development.

The period of Reconstruction was oriented to adapting African Americans to the realities of the free social life and to rebuilding the economic structure of the South. The end of the Civil War guaranteed the abolishment of slavery, but the question of black people’s equality to the whites was rather controversial.

That is why, the period of Reconstruction was rather complex and had two opposite outcomes for the African Americans’ further life in the society and for the general economic progress of the states. Reconstruction was successful in providing such opportunities for African Americans as education and a choice to live in any region or to select the employer.

However, Reconstruction can also be discussed as a failure because the issues of racism were not overcome during the period, and the era of slavery was changed with the era of strict social segregation leading to significant discrimination of black people.

The positive changes in the life of African Americans after the Civil War were connected with receiving more opportunities for the social progress. Thus, many public schools were opened for the black population in order to increase the level of literacy (Picture 3). Furthermore, the impossibility to support the Southerners’ plantations without the free work of slaves led to changing the economic focus.

Thus, industrialization of the region could contribute to creating more workplaces for African Americans (Davidson et al.). Moreover, the racial and social equality should also be supported with references to providing more political rights for African Americans.

Reconstruction was the period of observing many black politicians at the American political arena. The question of blacks’ suffrage became one of the most discussed issues. From this point, during the period of Reconstruction African Americans did first steps on the path of equality.

Nevertheless, Reconstruction was also a great failure. The South remained unchanged in relation to the social relations between the whites and blacks. After the Civil War, segregation was intensified. The economic and social pressure as well as discrimination against the blacks was based on the developed concept of racism (Davidson et al.).

The Southerners preserved the prejudiced attitude toward the blacks, and prejudice and discrimination became the main challenge for African Americans in all the spheres of the life.

In spite of definite successes of Reconstruction, African Americans suffered from the results of segregation and discrimination, and they were prevented from changing their economic and social status.

Picture 3. Public Schools

Davidson, James, Brian DeLay, Christine Leigh Heyrman, Mark Lytle, and Michael Stoff. US: A Narrative History . USA: McGraw-Hill, 2008. Print.

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COMMENTS

Slavery in British and American Literature
DOI: 10.1017/CHOL9780521872171. At 860 pages, this volume offers a huge amount of material on the literature of slavery, with works discussed on their individual merits and in relation to events in American history. Features excellent essays on early print literature of Africans in America and the neo-slave narrative.
Slave narrative
Learn about the history and impact of slave narratives, accounts of the life of fugitive or former slaves, written or orally related by the slaves themselves. Explore the works of Equiano, Douglass, Jacobs, and others, and their influence on American literature and abolitionism.
Slave Narratives from Slavery to the Great Depression
Explore the testimonies of former slaves collected by the Federal Writers' Project in the 1930s. Learn about the history, significance, and challenges of this literary genre that challenges the myth of slavery.
Slavery and Freedom
Unit 7, "Slavery and Freedom," explores representations of race and identity in a wide variety of American texts, including the Sorrow Songs, which were developed communally within slave culture, and works composed by Briton Hammon, Lydia Maria Child, Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Harriet Jacobs, William Craft ...
The Slave Trade in British and American Literature
Cite this page as follows: "The Slave Trade in British and American Literature - Criticism: Overviews And General Studies." Literary Criticism (1400-1800), edited by Lawrence J. Trudeau, Vol. 59.
PDF the cambridge companion to the african american slave narrative
CONTRIBUTORS dickson d. bruce, jr.,is Professor of History at the University of California, Irvine. His books include Black American Writing from the Nadir: The Evolution of a Literary Tradition, 1877-1915 (1989) and The Origins of African American Literature, 1680-1865 (2001). His most recent book, The Kentucky Tragedy: A Story of Conﬂict and Change in Antebellum America, was published ...
1.2: The Slavery Controversy and Abolitionist Literature
Learn how Africans resisted slavery, who was involved in anti-slavery movements, and what arguments they used to advance their cause. Explore the key features and themes of slave narratives, such as Douglass' and Jacobs', and their impact on the abolitionist debate.
The Slave Trade in British and American Literature
Cite this page as follows: "The Slave Trade in British and American Literature - Bernard W. Bell (essay date 1977)." Literary Criticism (1400-1800), edited by Lawrence J. Trudeau, Vol. 59.
Reading Communities: Slave Narratives and the Discursive Reader
The most cursory review of black literary production during the nineteenth century demonstrates that the primary concerns of these texts are the issues of slavery, racial subjugation, abolitionist politics, and liberation. These concerns, we argue, were articulated under very complex discursive conditions. Asking questions about how the authors and speakers of these texts "bear witness" to ...
Literature
Slavery & Freedom: Literature. This guide is designed to highlight useful resources for research on the transatlantic slave trade, abolition, resistance by enslaved people, emancipation, free Black communities, the American Civil war, antebellum and postbellum America; 1470-mid 20th C.
The Slave Trade in British and American Literature
Criticism: Depictions By White Writers. The Slave Trade and Abolition in Travel Literature. The Intellectual Milieu: Contexts for Black Writing. Conspicuous Consumption: White Abolitionism and ...
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8 Reading Slavery and "Classic" American Literature; 9 Slavery's Performance-Texts; 10 The Music and the Musical Inheritance of Slavery; 11 U.S. Slave Revolutions in Atlantic World Literature; 12 Slavery and American Literature 1900-1945; 13 Moving Pictures: Spectacles of Enslavement in American Cinema; 14 Slavery and Historical Memory ...
Slavery Role in the American Literature Essay
Lincoln has remained a key figure in the United States politics because of the role he played in ensuring that slaves were set free. According to Abraham Lincoln, God created all human beings to be equal and therefore no one should have the right to oppress the other because of their racial or political affiliations.
(PDF) American Antislavery Literature
Download PDF. James G. BASKER American Antislavery Literature, 1688 to 1865: An Introduction This essay examines the evolution of American antislavery literature. It shows that arguments against slavery had been circulating in the colonies since the end of the 17th century. Between 1688 and 1865, there were thousands of separately published ...
The African American Literature
The earliest surviving works of African American literature date from the mid-1700 and were written by Africans brought to America as slaves. These include the poem "Bars Fight " by Lucy terry about the raid in Massachusetts and a number of poems recorded by Phillis Wheatley in 1773. The most important factor is that all these literal works ...
The Literature From Slavery to Freedom Essay
The literature of the slavery period was written by black Americans of African bloodline. Its main theme is slavery but it also exhibits other themes like the fight by Afro-Americans for freedom, the search for the identity of black Americans and the appreciation of the uniqueness of African American culture.
Frederick Douglass: Questions and Answers on Slavery
Essay Example: Introduction Frederick Douglass, who used to be a slave but later became a famous abolitionist, speaker, and writer, is still a strong symbol of fighting against slavery. His book, "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave," gives a harsh look at how terrible
Slavery in Literature Summary
After the Civil War, slavery became the subject of much fiction, written at first largely by whites but later also by African Americans. Of the nineteenth century novels, the most significant is ...
Huckleberry Finn Slavery Quotes
Essay Example: Mark Twain's "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" is a big deal in American lit because it takes a hard look at slavery in the U.S. The story, which happens before the Civil War, gives us a pretty sharp view of the messy moral and social stuff around slavery. We see everything through
Struggles for Freedom: Essays on Slavery, Colonialism, and Culture in
Divided into four sections— "Colonial and Creole Societies," "Colonization and Slavery," "From Slavery to Freedom," and "Class, Culture and Politics"—Struggles for Freedom is diverse in its approach and subject matter. In the introductory essay, "Creolization and Creole Societies: A Cultural Nationalist View of Caribbean ...
Analysis of Themes of Slavery in Literature Essay
Get a custom essay on Analysis of Themes of Slavery in Literature. The horror of slavery was demonstrated by Equiano's narrative, depicting the period of slave trade through human moral mistakes. The story 'The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano' appeared to be the background for the stories of abolitionists, who ...
Relationship between mental health and students' academic ...
Mindfulness has become increasingly popular to improve physical and mental health. Its implementation transcends boundaries of disciplines that study its impact. The aim of this study is to identify and analyze the benefits of mindfulness on mental health, academic performance, well-being, mindfulness and prosocial behavior of university students, as well as to identify the most effective way ...
Slavery and the Civil War
Furthermore, the abolishment of slavery was oriented to the social and democratic progress in the country. Picture 2. "Our Women and the War". Harper's Weekly, 1862. Theme Essays. Diversity. Diversity is one of the main characteristic features of the American nation from the early periods of its formation.