Description
Book SynopsisBefore Black Lives Matter and
Hamilton, there were abolitionist poets. In Lyrical Liberators, Monica Pelaez draws on unprecedented archival research to recover, collect, and annotate works by critically acclaimed writers, commercially successful scribes, and minority voices including those of African Americans and women.
Trade Review“A stirring anthology…This collection’s merit—the stunning and still-raw power of voices once lost or neglected speaking on the topics of fugitives, death, motherhood, equality, freedom, and war—and its usefulness in a broad range of disciplines make it indispensable. Summing up: Essential.” * CHOICE *
“The abolitionist movement made powerful appeals to the hearts and minds of auditors and readers in their efforts to convert them to the cause of emancipation. But as the poems in this splendid anthology prove, the medium of poetry was most effective in creating an emotional empathy with the slaves and their yearnings for freedom.”
“This book teaches us that the ‘soft’ antislavery verse was as powerful and as ‘hard’ as any essay or editorial and maybe more effective. Pelaez has pulled off a real hat trick. Her book is a significant contribution to the scholarship on antislavery, slavery, the civil war, and race relations. It is a great set of primary sources that are virtually impossible to obtain. And finally, it is ideal for classroom adoption.”
