Description
Book SynopsisExamining how nineteenth-century Black women writers engaged radical reform, sentiment and their various readerships
Trade Review"Recommended."--Choice
"A bold work of literary activism."--
Legacy"A wonderful piece of scholarship."--
Southern Historian"A breathtaking and brilliant book."--
Signs"
Activist Sentiments reevaluates with a savvy, critical eye the nexus of sex, sentiment, and reform that distinguishes classic nineteenth-century African American women's narratives. Always informative, consistently revealing, and invitingly written, Foreman's book belongs in the company of the major studies in this field by Frances Smith Foster, Hazel Carby, Claudia Tate, and Carla L. Peterson."--William L. Andrews, E. Maynard Adams Professor of English, University of North Carolina, and coeditor of
The Curse of Caste; or The Slave Bride: A Rediscovered African American Novel by Julia C. Collins"Foreman rereads nineteenth-century women writers with fresh eyes, vividly demonstrating how they were interpreted both then and now. She asks that we heed Frances Harper's admonition to 'read aright.'
Activist Sentiments does just that."--Carla L. Peterson, author of
"Doers of the Word": African-American Women Speakers and Writers in the North (1830-1880)"With key readings and startling acuity, Foreman's work will be very useful not only to literary scholars but also to historians of the black woman's era."--Rafia Zafar, author of
We Wear the Mask: African Americans Write American Literature, 1760-1870"In this stimulating and impressive work, Foreman provides astute readings of previously ignored work. This text makes a significant contribution to several areas of scholarship including American literature, history, women's studies, and black studies."--Jennifer DeVere Brody, author of
Impossible Purities: Blackness, Femininity and Victorian CultureTable of ContentsAcknowledgments ix
A Note on Language xv
Introduction 1
1. The Politics of Sex and Representation in Harriet Jacobs's
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl 19 Eenie, Meenie, Minie, Moe, Abuser, Victim, Ally, Foe? 21
Confession and Commodities, Silence and Sale 24
Sexual Truth, Testimony, and Tyranny 29
Flint, Sands, and Willis: South to North, Daddies to Dandies 33
Aunt Martha's Mask 36 2. Naming
Our Nig's Multivalent Mothers 43 Extended Family: Aunties' Place and Property 51
Ma' Nig and Maternal Abandonment 57
Multivalent Mulattas and Legal Racing 60
(Un)Trustworthy Narrators and Multiple Starts 65 3. Reading White Slavery, Sexuality, and Embedded History in Frances E. W. Harper's
Iola Leroy 73 Cultural Literacy, Legible Transcripts, and Reading "Aright" in the 1890s 76
Forced Prostitution, Rape, and White Slavery's Double Meanings 80
Ida B. Wells, Frances Harper, and the Two Iolas 90
Martin Delany, Lucy A. Delaney, and
Iola's Lucille Delany 96
Petitioning Science, or Martin Delany and Dr. Frank, George and Lewis Latimer 102 4. Reading/Photographs: Emma Dunham Kelley-Hawkins's
Four Girls at Cottage City, Victoria Earle Matthews, and the
Woman's Era 113 Reading/Photographs 116
Women's Clubs and Literary Critique 126
The
Woman's Era Photographic Bylines 129
Victoria Earle and Vera Earle 132
Optic History 137 5. Home Protection, Literary Aggression, and Religious Defense in the Life and Writings of Amelia E. Johnson 138 Public Standing and Civic Action of Amelia E. Johnson 141
Women, the Law, and Baltimore's Brotherhood of Liberty 148
Racial Inequalities, or Snatching the Whip and Switching the Script 157
Temperance and Bad Parental Temperaments 164 Coda: On Burials and Exhumations 173
Notes 179
Bibliography 221
Index 241
