Women's Work: An Anthology of African-American Women's Historical Writings from Antebellum America to the Harlem Renaissance

by Laurie F. Maffly-Kipp, Kathryn Lofton

Overview

Whether in schoolrooms or kitchens, state houses or church pulpits, women have always been historians. Although few participated in the academic study of history until the mid-twentieth century, women labored as teachers of history and historical interpreters. Within African-American communities, women began to write histories in the years after the American Revolution. Distributed through churches, seminaries, public schools, and auxiliary societies, their stories of the past translated ancient Africa, religion, slavery, and ongoing American social reform as historical subjects to popular audiences North and South.

This book surveys the creative ways in which African-American women harnessed the power of print to share their historical revisions with a broader public. Their speeches, textbooks, poems, and polemics did more than just recount the past. They also protested their present status in the United States through their reclamation of that past. Bringing together work by more familiar writers in black America-such as Maria Stewart, Francis E. W. Harper, and Anna Julia Cooper-as well as lesser-known mothers and teachers who educated their families and their communities, this documentary collection gathers a variety of primary texts from the antebellum era to the Harlem Renaissance, some of which have never been anthologized. Together with a substantial introduction to black women's historical writings, this volume presents a unique perspective on the past and imagined future of the race in the United States.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195331998
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	12/07/2010
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Laurie F. Maffly-Kipp is Professor and Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is the author and editor of several books, most recently Setting Down the Sacred Past: African-American Race Histories. Kathryn Lofton is Assistant Professor of American Studies and Religious Studies at Yale University. She is the author of Oprah: The Gospel of an Icon.

Table of Contents

Introduction 3

1 Maria W. Stewart 14

?An Address Delivered Before the Afric-American Female Intelligence Society of America? (1832) 15

2 Ann Plato 20

?Education? (1841) 22

?Death of the Christian? (1841) 24

?Louisa Sebury? (1841) 25

?The Natives of America? (1841) 27

3 Frances Ellen Watkins Harper 29

?Liberty for Slaves? (1857) 31

?Moses: A Story of the Nile? (1869) 33

?Then and Now? (1895) 49

4 Frank A. Rollin 53

?The Life and Public Services of Martin R. Delany? (1883) 55

5 Mary V. Cook 67

?Woman's Place in the Work of the Denomination? (1887) 68

6 Josephine Heard 82

?Welcome to Hon. Frederick Douglass? (1890) 83

?Wilberforce? (1890) 85

?They Are Coming?? (1890) 86

?Resting: In Memoriam of Mrs. Bishop Turner? (1890) 88

7 Anna Julia Cooper 89

?The Status of Woman in America? (1892) 91

8 S. Elizabeth Frazier 100

?Some Afro-American Women of Mark? (1892) 101

9 Virginia W. Broughton 112

?Woman's Work? (1894) 113

10 Gertrude Bustill Mossell 119

?The Work of the Afro-American Woman? (1894) 121

11 Hardie Martin 132

?How the Church Can Best Help the Condition of the Masses? (1896) 133

12 Victoria Earle Matthews 136

?The Awakening of the Afro-American Woman? (1897) 137

13 Amelia Etta Hall Johnson 144

?Some Parallels of History? (1899) 145

14 Katherine Davis Tillman 150

?Heirs of Slavery. A Little Drama of Today? (1901) 151

15 Pauline Hopkins 156

?Of One Blood: Or, the Hidden Self? (1902-1903) 158

?Famous Women of the Negro Race: Educators? (1902) 164

16 Leila Amos Pendleton 186

?A Narrative of the Negro? (1912) 187

17 Olivia Ward Bush-Banks 198

?Unchained, 1863? (1914) 199

?A Hero of San Juan Hill? (1914) 201

18 Drusilla Dunjee Houston 203

?Wonderful Ethiopians of the Ancient Cushite Empire? (1926) 205

19 Hallie Quinn Brown 218

?Harriet-The Moses? (1926) 219