Cross listed with BL_ST 3400W-01 This writing intensive course introduces students to the major developments, themes, and works of African American literature from its eighteenth-century beginnings to the post-Civil War and Reconstruction Era.  The course has three objectives: 1) to explore African American literature's continuing response to the call of African, American, and Afro-British American oral and written traditions in the form of folktales, songs, sermons, prose, and poetry; 2) to examine the social, political, and cultural influences of early African American literature; and, 3) to learn how to analyze and write about this body of work. Students will complete the following assignments: a) meaningful reading discussion board and peer responses, b) response essay that substantially revises previously submitted reading and discussion board responses, c) video viewing discussion board responses and peer responses, and d) one final essay.