Born into an affluent and politically active black family, Grimke (1837-1914) was a scholar, reformer, teacher, and writer. Her keen observation makes her journals an important insight into the Civil War and Reconstruction eras.

In an extended interview in 1883 Silvia Dubois, then nearly 100 years old, told her life story to Dr. Larison. This edition preserves Larison's idiosyncratic phonetic spelling, with annotations.

This was probably the best-selling novel by an Afro-American writer prior to the 20th century. Published in 1892, it went through five impressions in one year. Frances Harper had already gained an international reputuation as a writer, lecturer, and political activist when this, her only novel, was published. It enjoyed a wide readership among men and women, black and white, in the US, Canada, and Britain.

This novel, published in 1898, tells the story of four carefree young women, all physically indistinguishable from white women, off for a vacation at a Massachusetts resort - a vacation that ultimately leads to their struggle for salvation and their commitment to Christian service. Combining conventions from spritual autobiography with those of the sentimental novel, the book sets off on an evangelical mission aimed at showing readers how they should live.

Frances Harper was renowned in her lifetime not only as an activist who rallied on behalf of blacks, women, and the poor, but as a pioneer of the tradition of 'protest' literature, whose immense popularity did much to develop an audience for poetry in America. This collection of her poems is drawn from ten volumes published between 1854 and 1901. Their main issues are oppression, Christianity, and social and moral reform. Consolidating the oral tradition and the ballad form, and merging dramatic details and imagery with a strong political and racial awareness, Harper's poetry represented a...

This novel, which was very popular when published in 1891, tells the story of the conversion experiences of a group of young, middle-class Baptist women and their subsequent - or consequent - marriages. In it, racial issues are only indirectly addressed, gentility is a concern ranking second only to salvation, and humility and obedience are prerequisites to a woman's acceptance by the Christian community. In essence, this is a novel of socialization rather than of social protest.

This collection of essays (1891) is a statement of black feminist thought in the nineteenth century, and is considered to be one of the original texts of the black feminist movement. Cooper came of age in a period of conservatism in the black community, a time when Afro-American intellectual and political ideas were dominated by men. At the heart of her work is a belief that the status of black women, the most oppressed group of all, is the only true measure of collective racial progress.

These writings, which first appeared in 1841, tell us much about the writer herself and the city in which she lived: Hartford, Connecticut. A cultural centre of the new nation, the city's Congregationalism, its free black society, and local literary tradition, are all reflected in Ann Plato's work. The topics that dominate are her ardent Christianity, her belief in education as a means of advancement, and her romantic preoccupation with death and, occasionally, racial issues.

Spanning the gamut of literary genres, from autobiographical short stories to poetry, journalism, and novelettes, this is a comprehensive collection of one of America's most seminal women writers. A testament to the nineteenth century as birthplace for black woman writers, The Works of Alice Dunbar-Nelson offers insight into the themes of oppression and intolarance, often considered dangerous or ignored in the nineteenth century, but now pervade much writing today. Themes such as crossing racial boundaries, infused with Dunbar-Nelson's autobiographical fervor

Spanning the gamut of literary genres, from autobiographical short stories to poetry, journalism, and novelettes, this is a comprehensive collection of one of America's most seminal women writers.