Ebook: Voices beyond bondage: an anthology of verse by African Americans of the 19th century
Author: DeSimone Erika
- Tags: American poetry, American poetry--19th century, American poetry--African American authors, Amerikanisches Englisch, Lyrik, Schwarze, American poetry -- African American authors, American poetry -- 19th century, USA
- Year: 2014
- Publisher: NewSouth Inc.
- City: Montgomery;USA
- Language: English
- epub
Slaves in chains, toiling on master's plantation. Beatings, bloodied whips. This is what many of us envision when we think of 19th century African Americans; source materials penned by those who suffered in bondage validate this picture. Yet slavery was not the only identity of 19th century African Americans. Whether they were freeborn, self-liberated, or born in the years after the Emancipation, African Americans had a rich cultural heritage all their own, a heritage largely subsumed in popular history and collective memory by the atrocity of slavery.
The early 19th century birthed the nation's first black-owned periodicals, the first media spaces to provide primary outlets for the empowerment of African American voices. For many, poetry became this empowerment. Almost every black-owned periodical featured an open call for poetry, and African Americans, both free and enslaved, responded by submitting droves of poems for publication. Yet until now, these poems — and an...