Description
Book SynopsisAfrican American Literature Anthology: Slavery, Liberation, & Resistance includes texts from various rhetoricians who worked as abolitionists, speakers, writers, activists, and/or publishers of dissident literature. They all employ their rhetorical influence to argue against the second-class citizenship status experienced by African Americans in the United States. By engaging in dissident discourse, they cause Americans of all walks of life to interrogate the promises owed by the language of the Declaration of Independence, the United States Constitution, and America's institutions. Central to the issues presented in this African American literature anthology are themes of resistance to slavery, lynching, and state violence. Therefore, the authors in this text are antithetical to notions of white superiority and black inferiority. Instead, they argue for racial equality. And an equal opportunity for African Americans to pursue the American Dream of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Resistance both verbal and nonverbal is an essential response to social injustices experienced by marginalised peoples. Therefore, African American writers approach rhetorical expression with a measure of courage that dismisses controversy to advance progress. Instead, they express themselves at risk to their health, safety, and well-being to advance the cause of equality and fairness for all Americans. Various genres of literature are depicted in this anthology such as excerpts of poetry, speeches, non-fiction, fiction, and folklore. Many of the writers included in this anthology are well-versed in a multitude of genres of literary expression. Therefore, this anthology will compel many readers to seek out other works by the following authors included herein. These include Phillis Wheatley, Maria W. Stewart, Henry Highland Garnet, Frederick Douglass, T. Thomas Fortune, Ida B. Wells, Charles W. Chesnutt, W. E. B. Du Bois, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Claude McKay, and James Weldon Johnson.
Table of Contents
- About the Author
- Introduction
- Chapter 1: Phillis Wheatley
- 1.1 On Being Brought from Africa to America (1753)
- Themes
- 1.2 On Virtue (1753)
- Themes
- Chapter 2: Maria W. Stewart
- Lecture Delivered at the Franklin Hall (1832)
- Themes
- Chapter 3: Henry Highland Garnet
- From An Address to the Slaves of the United States of America (1843)
- Preface
- An Address
- Themes
- Chapter 4: Frederick Douglass
- 4.1 From Narrative of the Life of Frederic Douglass, An American Slave (1845)
- Chapter 1
- Chapter 7
- Chapter 11
- Themes
- 4.2 What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? (1852)
- 4.3 What the Black Man Wants (1865)
- Themes
- 4.4 From John Brown: An Address at the 14th Anniversary of Storer College (1881)
- Introduction
- Address
- Themes
- Chapter 5: T. Thomas Fortune
- From Black and White: Land, Labor, and Politics in the South (1884)
- Author's Preface
- Chapter 1: Black
- Chapter 2: White
- Chapter 3: The Negro and the Nation
- Chapter 4: The Triumph of the Vanquished
- Themes
- Chapter 6: Ida B. Wells
- From The Red Record: Tabulated Statistics and Alleged Causes of Lynching in the United States (1895)
- Preface: Hon. Frederick Douglass's Letter
- The Case Stated
- Lynching Imbeciles: An Arkansas Butchery
- Lynching of Innocent Men: Lynched on Account of Relationship
- Lynched for Anything or Nothing: Lynched for Wife Beating
- History of Some Cases of Rape
- The Crusade Justified: Appeal from America to the World
- Themes
- Chapter 7: Charles W. Chesnutt
- From Frederick Douglass: A Biography (1899)
- IV
- V
- VI
- VII
- VIII
- IX
- X
- XI
- XII
- Themes
- Chapter 8: W. E. B. Du Bois
- 8.1 The Song of Smoke (1907)
- Themes
- 8.2. From The Souls of Black Folk (1903)
- The Forethought
- I. Of Our Spiritual Strivings
- II. Of the Dawn of Freedom
- III. Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others
- Themes
- Chapter 9: Paul Laurence Dunbar
- 9.1 From The Heart of Happy Hollow (1904)
- The Lynching of Jube Benson (1904)
- Themes
- 9.2 Black Samson of Brandywine (1903)
- Themes
- 9.3 The Colored Soldiers (1895)
- Themes
- 9.4 Frederick Douglass (1913)
- Themes
- 9.5 We Wear the Mask (1895)
- Themes
- Chapter 10: Claude Mckay
- 10.1 America (1921)
- 10.2 The Lynching (1922)
- 10.3 If We Must Die (1919)
- 10.4 To the White Fiends (1919)
- 10.5 The Harlem Dancer (1922)
- 10.6 Harlem Shadows (1918)
- Themes
- Chapter 11: James Weldon Johnson
- 11.1 From The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (1912)
- Preface
- I
- II
- III
- Themes
- 11.2 The Creation (1922)
- 11.3 The White Witch (1922)
- 11.4 Brothers (1922)
- 11.5 Fifty Years (1863-1913) (1917)
- Themes
