Major Voices 19th Century African American Women Writers

From their arrival in the country, African American women writers have developed a literary tradition based on their own experiences and have consistently resisted attempts by patriarchal men and, especially, matriarchal women to romanticize and redefine that heritage. The black American woman's literary self-portrait began to come into focus during nearly three centuries of legalized rape by white men and their designates and sharpened its features during the ensuing eras of Jim Crow segregation and civil rights. This anthology is, perhaps, the only collection that encompasses one of the most realistic approaches to this writing legacy, including a generous selection of texts in a variety of genres: poetry, drama, nonfiction and fiction, written by black women. The writers in this volume are Lucy Terry, Angelina Grimke, Harriet Jacobs, Pauline Hopkins and Frances Watkins Harper, with critical introductions, and primary and secondary bibliographies of the individual writers.Ferguson, SallyAnn H. is the author of 'Major Voices 19th Century African American Women Writers', published 2005 under ISBN 9781592640775 and ISBN 159264077X.