African-American literature—especially written poetry, but also prose—has a strong tradition of incorporating all of these forms of oral poetry. Some scholars resist using Western literary theory to analyze African-American literature.
African-American history predates the emergence of the United States as an independent country, and African-American literature has similarly deep roots. Terry wrote the ballad in after an Indian attack on Deerfield, Massachusetts.
She was enslaved in Deerfield at the time of the attack, when many residents were killed and more than , mostly women and children, were taken on a forced march overland to Montreal. Some were later ransomed and redeemed by their families or community; others were adopted by Mohawk families, and some girls joined a French religious order.
Wheatley was not only the first African American to publish a book, but the first to achieve an international reputation as a writer. Born in Senegal , Wheatley was captured and sold into slavery at the age of seven. Brought to Massachusetts, she was owned by a Boston merchant. By the time she was 16, she had mastered her new language of English. Her poetry was praised by many of the leading figures of the American Revolution , including George Washington , who thanked her for a poem written in his honor.
Some whites found it hard to believe that a Black woman could write such refined poetry. Wheatley had to defend herself in court to prove that she had written her own work. Some critics cite Wheatley's successful defense as the first recognition of African-American literature. Another early African-American author was Jupiter Hammon —? Hammon, considered the first published Black writer in America, published his poem "An Evening Thought: Salvation by Christ with Penitential Cries" as a broadside in early In he wrote an ode to Phillis Wheatley, in which he discussed their shared humanity and common bonds.
Writing at the age of 76 after a lifetime of slavery, Hammon said: In the 19th century, his speech was later reprinted by several abolitionist groups. It is the first known fiction by an African American, but as it was written in French and published in a French journal, it had apparently no influence on later American literature. Brown, on the other hand, was a prominent abolitionist , lecturer, novelist, playwright, and historian in the United States. Born into slavery in Kentucky, Brown was working on riverboats based in St. Louis, Missouri , when he escaped to Ohio. He began to work for abolitionist causes, making his way to Buffalo, New York and later Boston, Massachusetts.
He was a prolific writer, beginning with an account of his escape to freedom and experience under slavery. Brown wrote Clotel; or, The President's Daughter , considered to be the first novel written by an African American. It was based on the persistent rumor that president Thomas Jefferson had fathered a mixed-race daughter with his slave Sally Hemings.
In the late 20th century, DNA testing affirmed for most historians that Jefferson was the father of six children with Hemings; four survived to adulthood and he gave all their freedom. The novel was first published in England, where Brown was living for several years. It was the first African-American fiction to portray passing , that is, a mixed-race person deciding to identify as white rather than black.
It also explored northern racism, in the context of a brutally realistic race riot closely resembling the Philadelphia race riots of and It expressed the difficulties of lives of northern free Blacks. He labeled the work fiction and argued that it may be the first novel published by an African American. Our Nig is a counter-narrative to the forms of the sentimental novel and mother-centered novel of the 19th century.
Crafts was a fugitive slave from Murfreesboro, North Carolina. If her work was written in , it would be the first African-American novel written in the United States. The novel was published in with an introduction by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. The work was never published during Crafts' lifetime. Some suggest that she did not have entry into the publishing world.
There is some evidence that she read in the library of her master and was influenced by those works: A genre of African-American literature that developed in the middle of the 19th century is the slave narrative, accounts written by fugitive slaves about their lives in the South and, often, after escaping to freedom.
They wanted to describe the cruelties of life under slavery, as well as the persistent humanity of the slaves as persons. At the time, the controversy over slavery led to impassioned literature on both sides of the issue, with novels such as Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe's representing the abolitionist view of the evils of slavery.
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Southern white writers produced the " Anti-Tom " novels in response, purporting to truly describe life under slavery, as well as the more severe cruelties suffered by free labor in the North. The slave narratives were integral to African-American literature. Some 6, former slaves from North America and the Caribbean wrote accounts of their lives, with about of these published as separate books or pamphlets.
Many of them are now recognized as the most literary of all 19th-century writings by African Americans, with two of the best-known being Frederick Douglass 's autobiography and Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs Jacobs — was born a slave in Edenton, North Carolina and was the first woman to author a slave narrative in the United States. Although her narrative Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl was written under the pseudonym "Linda Brent", the autobiography can be traced through a series of letters from Jacobs to various friends and advisors, most importantly to Lydia Maria Child , the eventual editor of incidents.
The narrative details Jacobs' struggle for freedom, not only for herself but for her two children. Jacobs' narrative occupies an important place in the history of African-American literature as it discloses through her firsthand example the special injustices that black women suffered under slavery. Harriet Beecher Stowe was asked to write a foreword for Jacob's book, but refused.
He eventually became the most prominent African American of his time and one of the most influential lecturers and authors in American history. Born into slavery in Maryland, Douglass eventually escaped and worked for numerous abolitionist causes. He also edited a number of newspapers. Douglass' best-known work is his autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave , which was published in At the time some critics attacked the book, not believing that a black man could have written such an eloquent work.
Despite this, the book was an immediate bestseller. In addition to serving in a number of political posts during his life, he also wrote numerous influential articles and essays. Early African-American spiritual autobiographies were published in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Andrews argues that these early narratives "gave the twin themes of the Afro-American 'pregeneric myth'—knowledge and freedom—their earliest narrative form". These spiritual narratives have often been left out of the study of African-American literature because some scholars have deemed them historical or sociological documents, despite their importance to understanding African-American literature as a whole.
African-American women who wrote spiritual narratives had to negotiate the precarious positions of being black and women in early America. Women claimed their authority to preach and write spiritual narratives by citing the Epistle of James , often calling themselves "doers of the word". Women who wrote these narratives had a clear knowledge of literary genres and biblical narratives. Zilpha Elaw was born in in America to free parents.
She was a preacher for five years in England without the support of a denomination. Her narrative was meant to be an account of her spiritual experience. Yet some critics argue that her work was also meant to be a literary contribution. Stewart published a collection of her religious writings with an autobiographical experience attached in The publication was called Meditations from the Pen of Mrs. She also had two works published in and titled Religion and the Pure Principles of Morality and Meditations.
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Maria Stewart was known for her public speeches in which she talked about the role of black women and race relations. Stewart's works have been argued to be a refashioning of the jeremiad tradition and focus on the specific plight of African Americans in America during the period.
Jarena Lee published two religious autobiographical narratives: These two narratives were published in and respectively. Both works spoke about Lee's life as a preacher for the African Methodist Church. But her narratives were not endorsed by the Methodists because a woman preaching was contrary to their church doctrine.
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She turned to religion at the age of 16 in an attempt to find comfort from the trials of her life. She became a missionary and in she tried to raise funds for missionary work in the West Indies, publishing a pamphlet entitled The West Indies: These publications were both spiritual narratives and travel narratives.
Sojourner Truth — was a leading advocate in both the abolitionist and feminist movements in the 19th century. Born Isabella to a wealthy Dutch master in Ulster County, New York , she adopted the name Sojourner Truth after 40 years of struggle, first to attain her freedom and then to work on the mission she felt God intended for her. This new name was to "signify the new person she had become in the spirit, a traveler dedicated to speaking the Truth as God revealed it". She worked tirelessly on several civil rights fronts; she recruited black troops in Michigan, helped with relief efforts for freedmen and women escaping from the South, led a successful effort to desegregate the streetcars in Washington, D.
Truth never learned to read or write but in , she worked with Olive Gilbert, a sympathetic white woman, to write the Narrative of Sojourner Truth. This narrative was a contribution to both the slave narrative and female spiritual narratives. After the end of slavery and the American Civil War, a number of African-American authors wrote nonfiction works about the condition of African Americans in the United States. Many African-American women wrote about the principles of behavior of life during the period. Among the most prominent of post-slavery writers is W.
At the turn of the century, Du Bois published a highly influential collection of essays entitled The Souls of Black Folk. The essays on race were groundbreaking and drew from Du Bois's personal experiences to describe how African Americans lived in rural Georgia and in the larger American society.
Du Bois believed that African Americans should, because of their common interests, work together to battle prejudice and inequity. He was a professor at Atlanta University and later at Howard University. Another prominent author of this period is Booker T. Washington — , who in many ways represented opposite views from Du Bois.
Washington was an educator and the founder of the Tuskegee Institute , a historically black college in Alabama. In contrast to Du Bois, who adopted a more confrontational attitude toward ending racial strife in America, Washington believed that Blacks should first lift themselves up and prove themselves the equal of whites before asking for an end to racism. While this viewpoint was popular among some Blacks and many whites at the time, Washington's political views would later fall out of fashion.
Elizabeth Keckley — was a former slave who managed to establish a successful career as a dressmaker who catered to the Washington political elite after obtaining her freedom. However, soon after publishing Behind the Scenes; or, Thirty Years as a Slave and Four Years in the White House , she lost her job and found herself reduced to doing odd jobs.
Although she acknowledged the cruelties of her enslavement and her resentment towards it, Keckley chose to focus her narrative on the incidents that "moulded her character", and on how she proved herself "worth her salt". Keckley was also deeply committed to programs of racial improvement and protection and helped found the Home for Destitute Women and Children in Washington, D.
In addition to this, Keckley taught at Wilberforce University in Ohio. Brown wrote the first ten chapters of the narrative while studying in France, as a means of satisfying her classmates' curiosity about her father. Brown was a qualified teacher but she was also extremely active as an advocate against slavery. Although not a US citizen, the Jamaican Marcus Garvey — , was a newspaper publisher, journalist, and activist for Pan Africanism who became well known in the United States. He encouraged black nationalism and for people of African ancestry to look favorably upon their ancestral homeland.
Some of his lecture material and other writings were compiled and published as nonfiction books by his second wife Amy Jacques Garvey as the Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey Or, Africa for the Africans and More Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey Paul Laurence Dunbar , who often wrote in the rural, black dialect of the day, was the first African-American poet to gain national prominence.
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Much of Dunbar's work, such as When Malindy Sings , which includes photographs taken by the Hampton Institute Camera Club, and Joggin' Erlong provide revealing glimpses into the lives of rural African Americans of the day. Though Dunbar died young, he was a prolific poet, essayist, novelist among them The Uncalled , and The Fanatics , and short story writer. Other African-American writers also rose to prominence in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Among these is Charles W. Chesnutt , a well-known short story writer and essayist. Mary Weston Fordham published Magnolia Leaves in , a book of poetry on religious, spiritual, and occasionally feminist themes with an introduction by Booker T. Harper — wrote four novels, several volumes of poetry, and numerous stories, poems, essays and letters.
Born to free parents in Baltimore, Maryland, Harper received an uncommonly thorough education at her uncle, William Watkins' school. Harper was hired by the Maine Anti-Slavery Society and in the first six weeks, she managed to travel to twenty cities, giving at least thirty-one lectures.
Harper was often characterized as "a noble Christian woman" and "one of the most scholarly and well-read women of her day", but she was also known as a strong advocate against slavery and the post-Civil War repressive measures against blacks. The Harlem Renaissance from to was a flowering of African-American literature and art.
Based in the African-American community of Harlem in New York City , it was part of a larger flowering of social thought and culture. Numerous Black artists, musicians and others produced classic works in fields from jazz to theater; the renaissance is perhaps best known for the literature that came out of it. Among the most renowned writers of the renaissance is poet Langston Hughes , whose first work was published in The Brownies' Book in Edited by James Weldon Johnson , this anthology featured the work of the period's most talented poets, including Claude McKay , who also published three novels, Home to Harlem , Banjo and Banana Bottom, a nonfiction book, "Harlem: Negro Metropolis" and a collection of short stories.
Perhaps his most famous poem is " The Negro Speaks of Rivers ", which he wrote as a young teen. His single, most recognized character is Jesse B. Simple, a plainspoken, pragmatic Harlemite whose comedic observations appeared in Hughes's columns for the Chicago Defender and the New York Post. Simple Speaks His Mind is perhaps the best-known collection of Simple stories published in book form. Until his death in , Hughes published nine volumes of poetry, eight books of short stories, two novels and a number of plays , children's books and translations.
Although Hurston wrote 14 books that ranged from anthropology to short stories to novel-length fiction, her writings fell into obscurity for decades. Walker found in Hurston a role model for all female African-American writers. While Hurston and Hughes are the two most influential writers to come out of the Harlem Renaissance, a number of other writers also became well known during this period. They include Jean Toomer , author of Cane , a famous collection of stories, poems, and sketches about rural and urban Black life, and Dorothy West , whose novel The Living is Easy examined the life of an upper-class Black family.
Another popular renaissance writer is Countee Cullen , who in his poems described everyday black life such as a trip he made to Baltimore that was ruined by a racial insult. A Novel of Negro Life , which focused on intraracial prejudice between lighter-skinned and darker-skinned African Americans. The Harlem Renaissance marked a turning point for African-American literature.
Prior to this time, books by African Americans were primarily read by other Black people. With the renaissance, though, African-American literature—as well as black fine art and performance art—began to be absorbed into mainstream American culture. During this Great Migration , Black people left the racism and lack of opportunities in the American South and settled in northern cities such as Chicago , where they found work in factories and other sectors of the economy.
This migration produced a new sense of independence in the Black community and contributed to the vibrant Black urban culture seen during the Harlem Renaissance.
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The migration also empowered the growing Civil Rights Movement , which made a powerful impression on Black writers during the s, '50s and '60s. Just as Black activists were pushing to end segregation and racism and create a new sense of Black nationalism, so too were Black authors attempting to address these issues with their writings. One of the first writers to do so was James Baldwin , whose work addressed issues of race and sexuality. Baldwin, who is best known for his novel Go Tell It on the Mountain , wrote deeply personal stories and essays while examining what it was like to be both Black and homosexual at a time when neither of these identities was accepted by American culture.
Baldwin's idol and friend was author Richard Wright , whom Baldwin called "the greatest Black writer in the world for me". Wright is best known for his novel Native Son , which tells the story of Bigger Thomas, a Black man struggling for acceptance in Chicago. Baldwin was so impressed by the novel that he titled a collection of his own essays Notes of a Native Son , in reference to Wright's novel. However, their friendship fell apart due to one of the book's essays, "Everybody's Protest Novel," which criticized Native Son for lacking credible characters and psychological complexity.
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Issues of race and racism permeate American society and are of central concern to students and teachers. The chapters in this reference explore how these issues have been addressed in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn , Native Son , The House on Mango Street , Ceremony , and other major novels widely read by high school students. The works discussed reflect racial issues from a range of cultural perspectives.
Each chapter is devoted to a particular novel and provides a plot summary, an overview of the work's historical background, a literary analysis, and suggestions for further reading. Issues of race and racism have long permeated American society and continue to be among the most important social concerns today. This volume explores how racial issues have been treated in a dozen major novels widely read by high school students and undergraduates. The works discussed are from different historical periods and reflect a range of cultural perspectives, including African American, Latino, Native American, Asian American, Italian American, Jewish American, and Jewish-Arab experiences.
The volume begins with an introductory essay on race and racism in literature. Each of the chapters that follow examines a particular novel, including:. Each chapter includes a plot summary, an overview of the work's historical background, a discussion of overt and subtle racism in the novel, and suggestions for further reading. We will send you an SMS containing a verification code. Please double check your mobile number and click on "Send Verification Code". Enter the code below and hit Verify.