United States History Student Edition

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Moby Dick Moby Dick is one of the most famous novels by an American author. Written in 1851 by Herman Melville, who had worked as a sailor, it tells the story of Ahab, the captain of a whaling ship. Ahab is on a quest to kill a whale named Moby Dick after the creature bites off his leg. PRIMARY SOURCE: NOVEL “ Suddenly the waters around them slowly swelled in broad circles; then quickly upheaved , as if sideways sliding from a submerged berg of ice, swiftly rising to the surface. A low rumbling sound was heard; a subterraneous hum; and then all held their breaths; as bedraggled with trailing ropes, and harpoons , and lances, a vast form shot lengthwise, but obliquely from the sea. Shrouded in a thin drooping veil of mist, it hovered for a moment in the rainbowed air; and then fell swamping back into the deep. Crushed thirty feet upwards, the waters flashed for an instant like heaps of fountains. ” — from “Chapter 135 – The Chase. – Third Day,” Moby Dick , Herman Melville, 1851 upheave to lift up subterraneous below the surface bedraggled dirty and untidy harpoon a weapon like a spear used to catch large sea animals EXAMINE THE SOURCE 1. Drawing Conclusions The excerpt describes the crew of a ship attempting to capture a whale with ropes, harpoons, and lances. What does the text suggest about working in the whaling industry? 2. Analyzing What emotion or mood does obliquely indirectly shrouded covered

Uncle Tom’s Cabin Author Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin , was published in 1852. The novel vividly depicted the cruelty of slavery in the South. In this scene, a young enslaved mother named Eliza attempts her escape.

PRIMARY SOURCE: NOVEL “ She caught her child, and sprang down the steps towards [the river]. The trader caught a full glimpse of her, just as she was disappearing down the bank; and throwing himself from his horse, and calling loudly . . . , he was after her like a hound after a deer. . . . [S]he vaulted sheer over the turbid current by the shore, on to the raft of ice beyond. It was a desperate leap. . . . With wild cries and desperate energy she leaped to another and still another cake ; . . . Her shoes are gone—her stockings cut from her feet—while blood marked every step; but she saw nothing, felt nothing, till dimly, as in a dream, she saw the Ohio side, and a man helping her up the bank. ” — from “Chapter VII, The Mother’s Struggle” Uncle Tom’s Cabin , Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1852 trader a person who buys and sells enslaved people vault to leap or jump turbid cloudy or thick; roiled with sediment cake an object with a flat, compact shape EXAMINE THE SOURCE 1. Explaining What happens to the character Eliza in this passage? 2. Evaluating In Uncle Tom’s Cabin , Stowe tells about the horrors of slavery. How does the language and style of writing in this excerpt serve the author’s purpose? Give examples.

Melville create in this excerpt? Cite an example from the text to support your response.

PHOTO: National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; TEXT: (l)Melville, Herman. Moby-Dick; or, The Whale. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1851; (r)Stowe, Harriet Beecher. Uncle Tom’s Cabin. 6th ed. London: G. Routledge & Co., 1852.

Life in the North and the South 403