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Between the Revolution and the Civil War, African-American writing became a prominent feature of both black protest culture and American public life. Although denied a political voice in national affairs, black authors produced a wide range of literature to project their views into the public sphere. Autobiographies and personal narratives told of slavery's horrors, newspapers railed against racism in its various forms, and poetry, novellas, reprinted sermons and speeches told tales of racial uplift and redemption.
The editors examine the important and previously overlooked pamphleteering tradition and offer new insights into how and why the printed word became so important to black activists during this critical period. An introduction by the editors situates the pamphlets in their various social, economic and political contexts. This is the first book to capture the depth of black print culture before the Civil War by examining perhaps its most important form, the pamphlet.
List of contents
Introduction1. Absalom Jones and Richard AllenA Narrative of the Proceedings of the Black People During the Late Awful Calamity in Philadelphia (1794)2. Prince HallA Charge (1797)3. Daniel CokerA Dialogue Between a Virginian and an African Minister (1810)4. James FortenSeries of Letters by a Man of Color (1813)5. Russell ParrottAn Oration on the Abolition of the Slave Trade (1814)6. Prince SaundersAn Address to the Pennsylvania Augustine Society (1818)7. Robert ALexander YoungEthiopian Manifesto (1829)8. David WalkerAppeal to the Colored Citizens of the World (1829, 1830)9. William HamiltonAddress to the National Convention of 1834 (1834)10. Elizabeth WicksAddress Delivered Before the African Female Benevolent Society of Troy (1834)11. Maria W. StewartProductions (1835)12. Robert PurvisAppeal of Forty Thousand Citizens, Threatened with Disenfranchisement, to the People of Pennsylvania (1837)13. David RugglesNew York Committee of Vigilance for the Year 1837, together with Important Facts Relative to Their Proceedings (1837)14. Henry Highland GarnetAddress to the Slaves of America (1848)15. Proceedings of the National Convention of Colored People (1847)16. Report of the Proceedings of the Colored National Convention (1848)17. John W. LewisEssay on the Character and Condition of the African Race(1852)18. Mary Ann ShaddA Plea for Emigration, or Notes of Canada West (1852)19. Frederick Douglass, Et Al. Address to the People of the United States (1853)20. Martin DelanyPolitical Destiny of the Colored Race, on the American Continent (1854)21. William Wells BrownThe History of the Haitian Revolution (1855)22. Mary StillAn Appeal to the Females of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (1857)23. Theodore HollyA Vindication of the Capacity of the Negro for SElf-Government and Civilized Progress (1857)24. Alexander Crummel The English Language in Liberia (1861)25. T. Morris ChesterNegro Self-Respect and Pride of Race (1862)
About the author
Richard Newman is Assistant Professor of History at the Rochester Institute of Technology; Patrick Rael is Assistant Professor of History at Bowdoin College; and Phillip Lapsansky is an archivist at the Library Company of Philadelphia.
Summary
The editors examine the important and previously overlooked pamphleteering tradition and offer new insights into how the printed word became so important to black activists in this critical period.
