Paul Laurence Dunbar

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Paul Laurence Dunbar

• 1872-1906

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Writers Profile

• Born to a poor family in Dayton, Ohio.
• Mother was a former slave.
• Father escaped slavery and joined the Union Army
  during the Civil War.

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Writers Profile

• Dunbars mother and father separated when he was
  two years old.
• His mother supported the family as a washerwoman.

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Writers Profile

• Dunbars mother worked for the Wright family.
• Dunbar attended Daytons Central High with the
  Wright Brothers.
• Dunbar was an excellent student.

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Writers Profile

• Dunbar worked as an elevator operator earning
  four dollars a week until he established himself
  as a writer locally and nationally.
• He received an invitation to join the Western
  Association of Writers.

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Writers Profile

• Published
• Oak and Ivy,
• 1892
• Majors and Minors,
• 1895

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Writers Profile

• Dunbar married Alice Ruth Moore, a writer and
  teacher.
• They separated in 1902.
• Depression led him alcoholism.
• He died in 1904 in his birthplace.

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Historical Context

• Dunbars parents were American slaves.

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Historical Context

• Civil War 1861-1865
• Emancipation Proclamation, 1863
• Reconstruction 1866-1877

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Historical Context
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Historical Context

• Dayton, Ohio 1800s

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Cultural Milieu

• Industrial Revolution
• The Western peoples have concerned themselves,
  to a greater degree than any other peoples before
  them, with the c onquest of the material world.
  John U. Nef

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Cultural Milieu
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Cultural Milieu
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Paul Laurence Dunbar

• Writer of Poetry, Fiction, and Essays