- 01The veil and double-consciousness
- 02The Negro's striving for self-realization
- 03From repression to self-questioning
- 04Work, culture, liberty, and human brotherhood
- 05The Negro Problem as a test of the republic
The Souls of Black Folk
by W. E. B. Du Bois · 1903 · 14 chapters · 24/7 tutor
Race, double consciousness, and American democracy.
14Chapters
68Lessons
175Topics
Certificate of completion included
This course was produced by Cavua from a public-domain text.
Skills this course leaves you with.
- Analyze Du Bois’s arguments about double consciousness and racial identity
- Explain how Reconstruction and the Freedmen’s Bureau shaped Black life in the postwar South
- Evaluate Booker T. Washington’s position in relation to Du Bois’s critique of accommodation
- Interpret the book’s treatment of the color line, education, labor, and democracy
- Discuss the social and economic conditions of Black communities described in the Black Belt chapters
- Connect the text’s literary form and essays to its historical and political context
Curriculum
The full table of contents.
Every chapter, every lesson, every topic — laid out before you enroll. Click any chapter to expand it.
- Chapters
- 14
- Lessons
- 68
- Topics
- 175
- 01The color-line as the twentieth-century problem
- 02The dawn of freedom and the Freedmen’s Bureau
- 01Contrabands and military policy
- 02Freedmen's Bureau and relief societies
- 03Labor control and Sherman’s Field Order No. 15
- 01Early proposals for a freedmen's bureau
- 02Act of 1865 establishing the Freedmen's Bureau
- 03Howard's administration and the first year of Bureau work
- 04Congressional debate over extending the Bureau
- 05Freedmen’s Bureau as a full-fledged government
- 06Reconstruction conditions and limits of social regeneration
- 01Freed slave between North and South
- 02Freedmen’s Bureau work and relief
- 01Labor contracts and the freedmen as wage workers
- 02Land ownership and the failure of forty acres
- 03Free schools and Negro education
- 04Soldiers’ pay and the beginnings of free capital
- 01Freedmen’s Bureau courts and judicial tensions
- 02Summary of the Bureau’s achievements and failures
- 01Freedmen’s Bureau under attack and investigation
- 02Freedmen’s Bank collapse and its effects
- 03Arguments for Negro suffrage
- 01Negro suffrage as a wartime necessity
- 02A permanent Freedmen’s Bureau and national support systems
- 03The Bureau’s failures and the Fifteenth Amendment
- 04The unfinished legacy of emancipation
- 01The problem of the color-line
- 01Booker T. Washington’s ascendancy and Atlanta Compromise
- 02Criticism from North and South
- 03Historical leadership of the American Negro
- 01Mr. Washington’s economic program and the surrender of rights
- 02Critics of the triple paradox
- 01The duty to state Negro demands plainly
- 02Discriminating criticism of the South
- 03Assessing Booker T. Washington's doctrine
- 04The duty of black men to oppose injustice
- 01Searching for a country school
- 02Josie and her family
- 03The schoolhouse and its furnishings
- 01Opening of the school and the pupils
- 02Home visits and family life
- 03Alexandria, the hill community, and the Veil
- 01Return to Fisk and the valley homes
- 02The Burkes, Dowells, and changing farms
- 01Life and death among the neighbors
- 01Atlanta’s awakening after war
- 01Atlanta's race toward industrial future
- 02Atalanta and the temptation of gold
- 03The Sanctuary of our fathers and Southern ideals
- 01Material prosperity as the South's touchstone
- 02The Black World beyond the Veil
- 01Atlanta University as a green oasis of learning
- 01The university as the organ of civilization
- 02Southern universities and the need for broad culture
- 01Teach workers to work and thinkers to think
- 02Atalanta and Hippomenes closing image
- 01Three streams of thought about Black life
- 02Education as the solution to training men for life
- 01Four decades of Southern educational development
- 02Critique and defense of Negro higher education
- 01New England colleges and the freed Negro
- 02Outcomes of Negro college graduates
- 03The Negro college-bred man in Southern development
- 01Higher education and the Talented Tenth
- 02The Negro's position and Southern social order
- 01Industrial training and deeper college foundations
- 02Functions of the Negro college
- 03Developing men and sovereign human souls
- 01Dwelling above the Veil through literature and philosophy
- 01Georgia, slavery, and the Negro population
- 02Journey into the Black Belt and Albany
- 03Cotton Kingdom plantations and tenant life
- 04Schoolhouse and lodgehouse on the county line
- 05Fences, cabins, and the Negro problem
- 06The ruined mill village and the Wizard of the North
- 01The Black Belt of Georgia
- 02Dougherty County swamp and slave kingdom
- 01Plantation grandeur and hidden ruin
- 02Egypt of the Confederacy and postwar contrasts
- 03Debt, tenancy, and black landownership in Dougherty
- 01Convict farm tenants and labor conditions
- 02Contrasting black farm characters
- 01Decline of the Whistle place after the war
- 02Northwest Dougherty County and Negro farmers
- 01Changing farm ownership and labor conditions
- 02Gillonsville crossroads store and cheated land purchase
- 01The Cotton Field as the Golden Fleece
- 02Cotton Mills and the New South
- 01The Negro in the Cotton Kingdom
- 02Debt and postwar decline in Dougherty County
- 03Slave cabins and Negro housing
- 01Negro cabin housing conditions
- 02Crowding and causes of poor homes
- 03Family structure, marriage, and separation
- 04Character and ignorance of the county black population
- 01Black farm labor and rural life
- 02Sharecropping, merchant credit, and crop liens
- 03Cotton debt and its causes
- 01Forced labor in the Black Belt
- 02Migration-agent laws and labor recruitment
- 03White patronage and control of black mobility
- 01Black Belt as mutual defence
- 02Migration to Town as counter-movement
- 03Dougherty County and labor incentives
- 01Economic classes among Dougherty County Negroes
- 01Money wages and semi-metayers
- 02Fixed money rentals and land ownership
- 03Growth and instability of Negro landholding
- 04Migration to town as escape
- 01Race contact and civilization
- 01Physical dwelling and residential color-line
- 01Training and leadership for freed laborers
- 02Industrial exploitation and racial prejudice
- 03Crop-lien abuses and land fraud
- 04Limits of black economic advancement
- 01Ballot power and Negro suffrage
- 02Disfranchisement and civic exclusion
- 01Negro crime and the legacy of emancipation
- 02Courts, chain-gangs, and public-school reform
- 01The color line and the Negro problem
- 01Social separation and public contact
- 02Almsgiving and relief
- 03The color-line in higher and lower life
- 01Mutual misunderstanding across the color-line
- 02Reciprocal causes of prejudice and social condition
- 03Union of intelligence and sympathy
- 01A Negro revival in the backwoods
- 02The preacher, music, and frenzy
- 01The church as Negro social center
- 02Church government, membership, and property
- 01African social roots and plantation transformation
- 02Baptist and Methodist formation of the Negro church
- 03Inner ethical life and religious fatalism
- 01Abolition, emancipation, and the Coming of the Lord
- 02Double life and ethical paradox
- 03Deception, compromise, and the price of culture
- 04Northern radicalism and church differentiation
- 01Birth and first sight of the child
- 02The child’s life under the Veil
- 03Illness, death, and burial
- 04Grief, hope, and the lifting of the Veil
- 01Crummell’s early life and the temptation of Hate
- 02Beriah Green and the Oneida school
- 03The call to the priesthood and the temptation of Despair
- 04Providence ministry and the temptation of Doubt
- 05Crummell’s refusal and years of wandering
- 06Return home, public service, and death
- 01Johnstown and Wells Institute
- 02John's departure from Altamaha
- 03Two Johns and divided expectations
- 01John Jones's transformation at the Institute
- 02The concert in New York and decision to return home
- 01John's cold homecoming and failed church welcome
- 02John's conversation with his sister and the Judge's warning
- 03The return of the other John and the schoolhouse tensions
- 01John's dismissal from school
- 02Assault on Jennie and John's departure North
- 01Sea vision and final confrontation
- 01The spiritual power of the Sorrow Songs
- 02From forgotten slave melodies to the Fisk Jubilee Singers
- 03Meaning of the songs as the slave's message
- 01The songs as centuries-old survivals
- 01Slave songs as veiled testimony
- 02Nature, toil, fear, and family in the lyrics
- 01Borrowed phrases transformed in slave songs
- 02Improvised hymn verses and short series
- 01Hope and justice in the Sorrow Songs
- 02The Negro people's gifts to America
- 03Eternal Good and the prisoned going free
- 01The Afterthought
01How many chapters are in the Souls of Black Folk course?
The Souls of Black Folk course has 14 chapters, each with its own lessons and topics.
02How many lessons are in the Souls of Black Folk course?
There are 68 lessons across the course, and you can ask your 24/7 tutor about any of them.
03Can I see what the Souls of Black Folk course covers before I start?
Yes. The full curriculum is listed on this page, beginning with "Of Our Spiritual Strivings".
04Do I get a certificate for the Souls of Black Folk course?
Yes. Finishing the course earns a personal Cavua certificate of completion.
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