Introduction. The age of David Walker Benjamin Fagan; Part I. Local Transitions: 1. Antebellum literary societies, polite learning, and traditions of modernity Carla L. Peterson; 2. 'By a Young Lady of Color': Black women and the antislavery press Jasmine Nichole Cobb; 3. The poetics of education in antebellum New Orleans Juliane Braun; 4. Gentility, resistance, and the Nat turner's rebellion in early African American poetry Faith Barrett; Part II. National Transitions: 5. Copyright, fugitivity, and the fight for self-ownership in early African American literature Emahunn Raheem Ali Campbell; 6. The communications revolution and the networked path to freedom Nihad M. Farooq; 7. The fugitive slave act and the United States of slavery Susanna Ashton; Part III. Transnational Transitions: 8. Cosmopolitanism, character, and the theories of early African American literature Hannah Spahn; 9. Race, slavery, and emigration in black women's life writing Pia Wiegmink; 10. The impact of West Indian emancipation on African American poetry Nicole N. Aljoe; 11. La Escalera, sentiment, and revolution in the antebellum novel David Luis-Brown; 12. Europe, Mexico, and the African American 1848 John Levi Barnard; 13. The Irish famine and the lessons of environmental history Ian Finseth.