Freedom Narratives of African American Women: A Study of 19th Century Writings

by Janaka Bowman Lewis

Overview

Stories of liberation from enslavement or oppression have become central to African American women's literature. Beginning with a discussion of black women freedom narratives as a literary genre, the author argues that these texts represent a discourse on civil rights that emerged earlier than the ideas of racial uplift that culminated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. An examination of the collective free identity of black women and their relationships to the community focuses on education, individual progress, marriage and family, labor, intellectual commitments and community rebuilding projects.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781476667782
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers
Publication date:	12/21/2017
Pages:	182
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.80(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Janaka Bowman Lewis is an associate professor of English at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She has published on Elizabeth Keckley and other African American women writers of the nineteenth century. Currently, she researches Black girlhood and material culture.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction: Black Women and the Materiality of Freedom
One. Women Writing Black: Literary Glimpses into African American History
Two. Moving Free: Black Women’s Bodies and Freedom
Three. Elizabeth Keckley and Freedom’s Labor
Four. “Fiction”ing Freedom: Frances Ellen Watkins Harper’s Novelistic Tradition
Five. Reflections on Freedom, or Freedom Retold
Epilogue: Freedom’s Promise: Coming of Age Narratives in African America
Chapter Notes
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

In this compelling book, Lewis explores freedom narratives written by African American women from 1861 to the 1890s.... Crucially contributing to feminist recovery work and scholarship in African American studies, Freedom Narratives of African American Women is required reading for those interested in 19th-century America.... essential”—Choice

From the Publisher