Pamphlets of Protest: An Anthology of Early African-American Protest Literature, 1790-1860

by Newman,Richard; Newman,Richard

• ISBN13: 9780415924436
• ISBN10: 041592443X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-11-03
• Publisher: ROUTLEDGE

Summary

Between the Revolution and the Civil War, African-American writing became a prominent feature of both black protest culture and American public life. Although denied a political voice in national affairs, black authors produced a wide range of literature to project their views into the public sphere. Autobiographies and personal narratives told of slavery's horrors, newspapers railed against racism in its various forms, and poetry, novellas, reprinted sermons and speeches told tales of racial uplift and redemption. The editors examine the important and previously overlooked pamphleteering tradition and offer new insights into how and why the printed word became so important to black activists during this critical period. An introduction by the editors situates the pamphlets in their various social, economic and political contexts. This is the first book to capture the depth of black print culture before the Civil War by examining perhaps its most important form, the pamphlet.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	vii
Introduction	1	(31)
``A Narrative of the Proceedings of the Black People During the Late Awful Calamity in Philadelphia'' (1794)	32	(12)
Absalom Jones
Richard Allen
``A Charge'' (1797)	44	(8)
Prince Hall
``A Dialogue Between a Virginian and an African Minister'' (1810)	52	(14)
Daniel Coker
``Series of Letters by a Man of Colour'' (1813)	66	(8)
James Forten
``An Oration on the Abolition of the Slave Trade'' (1814)	74	(6)
Russell Parrott
``An Address before the Pennsylvania Augustine Society'' (1818)	80	(4)
Prince Saunders
``Ethiopian Manifesto'' (1829)	84	(6)
Robert Alexander Young
``Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World'' (1829, 1830)	90	(20)
David Walker
``Address to the National Convention of 1834'' (1834)	110	(4)
William Hamilton
``Address Delivered Before the African Female Benevolent Society of Troy'' (1834)	114	(8)
Elizabeth Wicks
``Productions'' (1835)	122	(10)
Maria W. Stewart
``Appeal of Forty Thousand Citizens, Threatened with Disfranchisement, to the People of Pennsylvania'' (1837)	132	(12)
Robert Purvis
``New York Committee of Vigilance for the Year 1837, together with Important Facts Relative to Their Proceedings'' (1837)	144	(12)
David Ruggles
``Address to the Slaves of the United States of America'' (1848)	156	(10)
Henry Highland Garnet
``Proceedings of the National Convention of Colored People'' (1847)	166	(12)
``Report of the Proceedings of the Colored National Convention ... held in Cleveland'' (1848)	178	(12)
``Essay on the Character and Condition of the African Race'' (1852)	190	(8)
John W. Lewis
``A Plea for Emigration, or Notes of Canada West'' (1852)	198	(16)
Mary Ann Shadd
``Address to the People of the United States'' (1853)	214	(12)
Frederick Douglass
``Political Destiny of the Colored Race on the American Continent'' (1854)	226	(14)
Martin Delany
``The History of the Haitian Revolution'' (1855)	240	(14)
William Wells Brown
``An Appeal to the Females of the African Methodist Episcopal Church'' (1857)	254	(8)
Mary Still
``A Vindication of the Capacity of the Negro for Self-Governement and Civilized Progress'' (1857)	262	(20)
J. Theodore Holly
``The English Language in Liberia'' (1861)	282	(22)
Alexander Crummell
``Negro Self-Respect and Pride of Race'' (1862)	304	(7)
T. Morris Chester
Index	311