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The Origins of African American Literature, 1680-1865 PDF

393 Pages·2001·1.63 MB·English
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The Origins of African American Literature, 1680–1865 (cid:1) The Origins of African American Literature, 1680–1865 (cid:1) Dickson D. Bruce Jr. University Press of Virginia Charlottesville and London The University Press of Virginia ©2001 by the Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America First published 2001 ∞The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bruce, Dickson D., 1946– The origins of African American literature, 1680–1865 / Dickson D. Bruce Jr. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8139-2066-3 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 0-8139-2067-1 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. American literature—African American authors—History and criticism. 2. American literature—Colonial period, ca. 1600–1775—History and criticism. 3. American literature—Revolutionary period, 1775–1783—History and criti- cism. 4. American literature—19th century—History and criticism. 5. Ameri- can literature—1783–1850—History and criticism. 6. Slaves’ writings, American —History and criticism. 7. African Americans—Intellectual life. 8. African Americans in literature. 9. Slavery in literature. 10. Slaves in literature. I. Title. PS153.N5 B78 2001 810.9'896073—dc21 2001001877 to emily and justin Contents Preface ix Acknowledgments xv 1 Background to an African American Literature, 1680–1760 1 2 The Age of Revolution, 1760–1800 39 3 Literary Identity in the New Nation, 1800–1816 92 4 The Era of Colonization, 1816–1828 135 Contents 5 The Liberatorand the Shaping of African American Tradition, 1829–1832 175 6 Literary Expression in the Age of Abolitionism, 1833–1849 211 7 African American Voices in the American Crisis, 1850–1861 257 8 The War for Emancipation and Beyond 301 Notes 315 Works Cited 335 Index 361 Preface I n trying to understand the origins of African American literature, I have taken what many may find to be an unusual approach. For one thing, this study is something other than a survey of major African Ameri- can authors and their works, although, of course, they occupy center stage. Rather, it is an effort to investigate the historical conditions for an African American literary enterprise. It is an effort to understand why and how black women and men came to do the literary work they did, as well as why, during its more than a century of early development, such work took the various shapes it did. This study is also unusual in that its focus reaches well beyond the ca- reers of African American writers and their works. It locates the origins of African American literature in a historical context that includes, among other things, African and American oral traditions, European conven- tions, American race relations, and political activism. Examining a broad array of works by white as well as black authors, I found the origins of African American literature to be in a process in which black and white writers collaborated in the creation of what I call an “African American literary presence.” This involved developing a voice and a persona im- bued with authority and standing, taking a place in larger realms of dis- course in American society. Such a presence began to evolve even before there were African American writers, and it played a major role in Ameri- can cultural history from colonial times to emancipation and beyond. At the center of this process was the question of authority. We are accustomed to thinking of the African American voice as historically an excluded voice, a silenced voice. In the period surveyed here this was not the case. By no later than 1680, as a wealth of evidence indicates, some ix

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From the earliest texts of the colonial period to works contemporary with Emancipation, African American literature has been a dialogue across color lines, and a medium through which black writers have been able to exert considerable authority on both sides of that racial demarcation. Dickson D. Bru
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