Fly's West Play Synopsis
FLYIN’ WEST by Pearl Cleage
A Guide for Study
Montclair State University
Theatre Department
Feb 24– 27, 2005
Flyin’ West Study Guide
Prepared by Catherine Rust, Dramaturg
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction …………………………………………………………………1
Play Synopsis ………………………………………………………………..1
Historical Context
A Country Divided ………………………………………………….2
Slave Life ……………………………………………….…...3
Seminole Culture ……………………………………………4
Emancipation Proclamation …………………………………………4
Reconstruction ………………………………………………………5
Memphis, New Orleans and The Black Middle Class ………5
The Black Codes …………………………………………….6
The Civil Rights Acts ………………………………………..7
Reconstruction Ends; Redemption Begins…………………...………7
Jim Crow ………………………………………………….....8
The Memphis Lynchings …show more content…
Each petition provoked the by-nowfamiliar debate over slavery. At the time of their acceptance, state constitutions would include their designation as either free or slave states. The destiny of Kansas, however, had been tied up in still another potent political issue – the completion of the trans-continental railroad.
Political leaders knew that in order for the railroad to proceed, Kansas and Nebraska would have to be admitted to the Union as organized states, and the location of the eastern terminal in
Chicago would require the support of the Southern vote. With this in mind, representative
Stephen A. Douglas (who would later lose his seat in Congress to Abraham Lincoln) proposed the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) which allowed the residents of those states to decide their own status on the slavery issue, an act which would substantially override the resolutions of the
Missouri Compromise of 1820.
Kansas found itself in the midst of an accelerating and bloody battle over the issue.
Missourians, on Kansas’s eastern border, were loath to have Kansas admitted as free, and
A Guide for Study
Montclair State University
Theatre Department
Feb 24– 27, 2005
Flyin’ West Study Guide
Prepared by Catherine Rust, Dramaturg
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction …………………………………………………………………1
Play Synopsis ………………………………………………………………..1
Historical Context
A Country Divided ………………………………………………….2
Slave Life ……………………………………………….…...3
Seminole Culture ……………………………………………4
Emancipation Proclamation …………………………………………4
Reconstruction ………………………………………………………5
Memphis, New Orleans and The Black Middle Class ………5
The Black Codes …………………………………………….6
The Civil Rights Acts ………………………………………..7
Reconstruction Ends; Redemption Begins…………………...………7
Jim Crow ………………………………………………….....8
The Memphis Lynchings …show more content…
Each petition provoked the by-nowfamiliar debate over slavery. At the time of their acceptance, state constitutions would include their designation as either free or slave states. The destiny of Kansas, however, had been tied up in still another potent political issue – the completion of the trans-continental railroad.
Political leaders knew that in order for the railroad to proceed, Kansas and Nebraska would have to be admitted to the Union as organized states, and the location of the eastern terminal in
Chicago would require the support of the Southern vote. With this in mind, representative
Stephen A. Douglas (who would later lose his seat in Congress to Abraham Lincoln) proposed the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) which allowed the residents of those states to decide their own status on the slavery issue, an act which would substantially override the resolutions of the
Missouri Compromise of 1820.
Kansas found itself in the midst of an accelerating and bloody battle over the issue.
Missourians, on Kansas’s eastern border, were loath to have Kansas admitted as free, and