Before Harlem : an anthology of African American literature from the long nineteenth century / edited by Ajuan Maria Mance.

Includes bibliographies and index.

"Despite important recovery and authentication efforts during the last twenty-five years, the vast majority of nineteenth-century African American writers and their work remain unknown to today's readers. Moreover, the most widely used anthologies of black writing have established a canon based largely on current interests and priorities. Seeking to establish a broader perspective, this collection brings together a wealth of autobiographical writings, fiction, poetry, speeches, sermons, essays, and journalism that better portrays the intellectual and cultural debates, social and political struggles, and community publications and institutions that nurtured black writers from the early 1800s to the eve of the Harlem Renaissance. As editor Ajuan Mance notes, previous collections have focused mainly on writing that found a significant audience among white readers. Consequently, authors whose work appeared in African American-owned publications for a primarily black audience--such as Solomon G. Brown, Henrietta Cordelia Ray, and T. Thomas Fortune--have faded from memory. Even figures as celebrated as Frederick Douglass and Paul Laurence Dunbar are today much better known for their "cross-racial" writings than for the larger bodies of work they produced for a mostly African American readership. There has also been a tendency in modern canon making, especially in the genre of autobiography, to stress antebellum writing rather than writings produced after the Civil War and Reconstruction. Similarly, religious writings--despite the centrality of the church in the everyday lives of black readers and the interconnectedness of black spiritual and intellectual life--have not received the emphasis they deserve. Filling those critical gaps with a selection of 143 works by 65 writers, Before Harlem presents as never before an in-depth picture of the literary, aesthetic, and intellectual landscape of nineteenth-century African America and will be a valuable resource for a new generation of readers. "--

"This anthology presents underappreciated works by African Americans active throughout the nineteenth century. Readers will find familiar names in this anthology, such as Douglass, Wells Brown, Jacobs, and Du Bois, but readers will also be introduced to lesser known and even unknown African Americans worthy of discussion, such as Solomon G. Brown, H. Cordelia Ray, and T. Thomas Fortune. Mance's intention for this volume is to offer an alternative to the Norton and Houghton Mifflin anthologies that emphasize only the canonical works of African American literature in the 19th century and to introduce students--and even professors--to a variety of writings, from poetry to journalism, by African Americans who have yet to receive their due"--

An oration on the abolition of the slave trade, delivered in the African Church, in the City of New York, January 1, 1808 / Peter Williams -- A thanksgiving sermon / Absalom Jones -- Letters from a man of colour, on a late bill before the Senate of Pennsylvania. Letter I / James Forten -- To our patrons / Samuel Cornish and John Russwurm -- The tears of a slave / Amos Beman -- Theresa, a Haytien tale / S. -- Gratitude -- Lines: on the evening and the morning -- Slavery -- Forbidden to ride on the street cars / George Moses Horton -- Appeal to the coloured citizens of the world. Article I: our wretchedness in consequence of slavery / David Walker -- An address, delivered at the African Masonic Hall, Boston, February 27, 1833 / Maria W. Stewart -- Ella: a sketch -- Family worship / Sarah Mapps Douglass -- Advice to young ladies -- Lines upon being examined in school studies for the preparation of a teacher -- The infant class, written in school / Ann Plato -- What are the colored people doing for themselves? -- To my old master -- The heroic slave / Frederick Douglass -- Letter from William W. Brown, Adelphi Hotel, York, March 26, 1851 -- Letter from William Wells Brown, Oxford, Sept. 10th, 1851 -- Clotel, or, The president's daughter. Chapter I: the negro sale -- Visit of a fugitive slave to the grave of Wilberforce -- My Southern home, or, The South and its people. Chapter IX / William Wells Brown -- "Heads of the colored people," done with a whitewash brush -- The black news-vendor -- The washerwoman -- The sexton -- The schoolmaster / James McCune Smtih -- From our Brooklyn correspondent, May 13, 1852 -- Afric-American picture gallery, number I / William J. Wilson -- America -- Prayer of the oppressed -- A poem / James Monroe Whitfield -- To Mrs. Harriet B. Stowe -- On the death of my sister Cecilia, the last of five members of the family, who died successively -- An epitaph / Joseph C. Holly -- Eliza Harris -- The slave auction -- Bury me in a free land -- Enlightened motherhood: an address ... before the Brooklyn Literary Society, November 15, 1892 / Frances Ellen Watkins Harper -- Sketches of slave life, or, Illustrations of the "peculiar institution." The blood of the slave -- Slaves on the auction block / Peter Randolph -- From The repeal of the Missouri Compromise considered -- Loguen's position / Elymas Payson Rogers -- The Rev. J.W. Loguen, as a slave and as a freeman. Chapter I-II -- Letter to Rev. J.W. Loguen, from his old mistress, and Mr. Loguen's reply / J.W. Loguen -- Blake, or, The huts of America. Chapter VI: Henry's return -- Chapter VII: Master and slave -- Chapter VIII: The sale -- Chapter IX: The runaway / Martin R. Delany -- Our nig: sketches from the life of a free black. Chapter I: Mag Smith, my mother -- Chapter II: My father's death -- Chapter III: A new home for me / Harriet E. Wilson -- Incidents in the life of a slave girl. Chapter I: Childhood -- Chapter II: The new master and mistress -- Chapter V: The trials of girlhood -- Chapter VI: The jealous mistress / Harriet Jacobs -- Liberia -- To Madame Selika / John Willis Menard -- The New York riot / Solomon G. Brown -- Poetry and poets. Part I, II, IV -- The critic / J. Anderson Raymond -- Neglected opportunities -- On horse back: saddle dash, numbers I / Edmonia Goodelle Highgate -- Thanksgiving Day sermon: the social principle among a people and its bearing on their progress and development / Alexander Crumwell -- Lincoln: written for the occasion of the unveiling of the freedmen's monument in memory of Abraham Lincoln, April 14, 1876 -- To my father -- Toussaint L'Ouverture -- In memoriam: Paul Laurence Dunbar / Henrietta Cordelia Ray -- Black and white: land, labor, and politics in the South. Chapter XII: civilization degrades the masses -- The conclave: to the ladies of Tuskegee School -- Love's divinest power -- Come away, love / Timothy Thomas Fortune -- The goophered grapevine -- Tobe's tribulations -- The free colored people of North Carolina / Charles Waddell Chesnutt -- A mother's love -- Wilberforce -- The black Samson -- An epitaph / Josephine D. Henderson Heard -- A voice from the South. Womanhood: a vital element in the regeneration and progress of a race / Anna Julia Cooper -- A hero in ebony: a Pullman porter's story -- Hanover, or, The persecution of the lowly: a story of the Wilmington massacre. Chapter V: Molly Pierrepont -- Henry Berry Lowery, the North Carolina outlaw: a tale of the Reconstruction period / David Bryant Fulton -- Southern horrors: lynch law in all its phases. Preface -- The offense -- The black and white of it / Ida B. Wells-Barnett -- The intellectual progress of colored women since the Emancipation Proclamation / Fannie Barrier Williams -- An autobiography: the story of the Lord's dealings with Mrs. Amanda Smith, the colored evangelist. Chapter XXXI / Amanda Smith -- The newsboy -- Afro-American boy -- The warrior's lay -- Soul visions -- The superannuate / Katherine Davis Tillman -- The white problem / Richard Theodore Greener -- The value of race literature: an address delivered at the First Congress of Colored Women of the United States / Victoria Earle Matthews -- De linin' ub de hymns -- Stickin' to de hoe / Daniel Webster Davis -- Unexpressed -- Frederick Douglass -- When Malindy sings -- A Negro love song -- Little brown baby -- Dawn -- Compensation / Paul Laurence Dunbar -- Voices -- Heart-throbs -- The nation's evil / Olivia Ward Bush-Banks -- Imperium in imperio. Chapter I: a small beginning -- Chapter II: the school -- Chapter III: the parson's advice -- Chapter IV: the turning of a worm / Sutton E. Griggs -- The American Negro: what he was, what he is, and what he may become. Chapter VII: moral lapses / William Hannibal Thomas -- A Georgia episode / A Gude Deekun -- Hagar's daughter: a story of Southern caste prejudice. Chapter IV-V / Pauline Hopkins -- The snapping of the bow -- Me 'n' Dunbar -- Juny at the gate -- The black cat club: Negro humor and folk-lore. Chapter I: the club introduced / James D. Corrothers -- The path of life -- The battleground -- The problem / Benjamin Griffith Brawley -- The octoroon's revenge / Ruth D. Todd -- Love's wayfaring -- Golden moonrise -- In the athenaeum looking out on the granary burying ground on a rainy day in November / William Stanley Braithwaite -- What happened to Scott: an episode of election day / Augustus Hodges -- Bernice, the octoroon / Marie Louise Burgess-Ware -- Credo -- A litany of Atlanta -- The burden of black women -- My country, 'tis of thee / W.E.B. Du Bois -- The preacher's wife, dedicated to the wives of the itinerant preachers of the M.E. Church -- Apple sauce and chicken fried -- To a spring in the Cumberlands -- The bachelor girl / Effie Waller Smith -- What it means to be colored in the capital of the United States / Mary Church Terrell -- From As to the leopard's spots: an open letter to Thomas Dixon, Jr. / Kelly Miller -- An unheeded signal / Thomas Horatius Malone -- Freedom at McNealy's -- The husband's return -- A home greeting / Priscilla Jane Thompson -- Johnny's pet superstition -- Mrs. Johnson objects -- The Easter bonnet -- A lullaby / Clara Ann Thompson -- The new Negro / S. Laing Williams -- Grant and Lee -- Uncle Remus to Massa Joel -- The Confederate veteran and the old-time darky -- Negro love song / Joseph Seamon Cotter -- Old maid's soliloquy -- What's mo' temptin' to de palate / Maggie Pogue Johnson.

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