To Kill A Mocking Bird - Context

To Kill A Mocking Bird - Context

1. Like Jem & Scout, Lee's father was a lawyer. She wrote the book in the 1950's and published it in 1960.

2. American Slavery

   • Originally brought from Africa during the 17th-19th Century, sold as slaves to work on sugar and cotton plantations, had no rights and were seen as little more than animals/machines
   • Even after abolition of slaver in 1865, blacks were still powerless
   • Blacks had the worst of everything and whites had the best
   • Great depression: money was tight for everyone and blacks were hanged by mobs without trial

3. Segregation and injustice

   • 1930's: Blacks had no vote and could not marry whites
   • Blacks had their own schools, churches, football teams and cemeteries
   • Harper Lee may have based her novel in part on a case in Scottsboro, Alabama.
     • The Scottsboro case: nine young black men accused of raping two white women on trial, 4 men sentenced long time in prison, later found the women were lying.