Serafina and the Black Cloak

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. A magnate is someone who achieves great success, wealth, influence, and/or power, typically through business ownership. Thinking about advancements in technology, goods and services, travel, media, and other types of progress in the last century, name three or four magnates and the area of business for which they are known.

Teaching Suggestion: Students might readily name magnates like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Oprah Winfrey, Jeff Bezos, and Rihanna; earlier American magnates (often mentioned in social studies/history classes) may also come to mind: Henry Ford, Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller. Connect students’ ideas to the historical George Washington Vanderbilt (responsible for the construction of the Biltmore Estate, setting of Serafina and the Black Cloak) and his grandfather Cornelius Vanderbilt (family patriarch whose shipping and railroad enterprises earned the family millions).

• This entry on Cornelius Vanderbilt on History.com briefly summarizes his rise to wealth and influence.
• This brief bio of George Vanderbilt on the Biltmore’s website provides info and an interesting portrait for potential help in visualizing the character. 

2. What do think are the top three most influential technological advancements of the last fifty years? How about the most important inventions since the start of the industrial “boom” that followed the Civil War?

Teaching Suggestion:  STEM/STEAM connection: Students might brainstorm modern technological wonders like the smart phone and tablet, and older inventions like the telephone, automobile, and airplane. Point out the value and necessity of electricity to most inventions and connect Serafina and the Black Cloak’s setting (1899) to the rarity of in-home electric lighting and power in that time period. Mention Edison’s Dynamo as an early example of an electricity generator; point out that Biltmore had its own dynamo that powered lighting and other features; and discuss how daily routine changes when power outages occur.

• IEEE Power and Energy Magazine’s article “Asheville’s Biltmore Estate: An Elaborate Early Electric Power System” offers an in-depth description of the powered features of the estate.
• This infographic on “The History of Light” can be used to spark discussion of daily life before and after the modernization of the light bulb, as well as potential disruptions in routine in a setting the size of Biltmore when the lights go off.