The Wiley Blackwell Anthology of African American Literature is a comprehensive collection of poems, short stories, novellas, novels, plays, autobiographies, and essays authored by African Americans from the eighteenth century until the present.  Evenly divided into two volumes, it is also the first such anthology to be conceived and published for both classroom and online education in the new millennium. 

• Reflects the current scholarly and pedagogic structure of African American literary studies
• Selects literary texts according to extensive research on classroom adoptions, scholarship, and the expert opinions of leading professors
• Organizes literary texts according to more appropriate periods of literary history, dividing them into seven sections that accurately depict intellectual, cultural, and political movements
• Includes more reprints of entire works and longer selections of major works than any other anthology of its kind
• This first volume contains a comprehensive collection of texts authored by African Americans from the eighteenth century until the 1920s

Gene Andrew Jarrett is Professor and Chair of the Department of English at Boston University.  He earned his A.B. in English from Princeton University and his A.M. and Ph.D. in English from Brown University.  Jarrett is the author of Representing the Race: A New Political History of African American Literature (2011) and Deans and Truants: Race and Realism in African American Literature (2007), and the editor or co-editor of several volumes and collections of African American literature and literary criticism.  He is the recipient of fellowships from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University.



Editorial Advisory Board

Daphne A. Brooks, Princeton University
Joanna Brooks, San Diego State University
Margo Natalie Crawford, Cornell University
Madhu Dubey, University of Illinois, Chicago
Michele Elam, Stanford University
Philip Gould, Brown University
George B. Hutchinson, Cornell University
Marlon B. Ross, University of Virginia
Cherene M. Sherrard-Johnson, University of Wisconsin, Madison
James Edward Smethurst, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Werner Sollors, Harvard University
John Stauffer, Harvard University
Jeffrey Allen Tucker, University of Rochester
Ivy G. Wilson, Northwestern University

Editorial Advisory Board x

Preface xi

Introduction xvi

Principles of Selection and Editorial Procedures xix

Acknowledgments xxi

Part 1 The Literatures of Africa, Middle Passage, and Slavery: c.1746–1830 1

Introduction 3

Lucy Terry (c.1730–1821) 7
Bars Fight (1746) 8

Briton Hammon (dates unknown) 9
Narrative of the Uncommon Sufferings and Surprizing Deliverance of Briton Hammon, a Negro Man (1760) 10

Phillis Wheatley (c.1753–1784) 15
From Poems on Various Subjects (1773) 17

To Maecenas 17

To the University of Cambridge, in New England 18

On Being Brought from Africa to America 19

On the Death of the Rev. Dr. Sewell. 1769 20

On the Death of the Rev. Mr. George Whitefield. 1770 21

On the Death of a Young Lady of Five Years of Age 22

On Recollection 23

On Imagination 25

To the Right Honourable William, Earl of Dartmouth, His Majesty’s Principal Secretary of State for
North-America, &c. 26

To S.M., a Young African Painter, on Seeing His Works 27

A Farewell to America to Mrs. S.W. 28

Jupiter Hammon (1711–c.1806) 31

An Address to Miss Phillis Wheatly, Ethiopian Poetess, in Boston, Who Came from Africa at Eight Years of Age, and Soon Became Acquainted with the Gospel of Jesus Christ (1778) 32

John Marrant (1755–1791) 35
A Narrative of the Lord’s Wonderful Dealings with John Marrant, a Black (1785) 36

Olaudah Equiano (1745–1797) 49
Extracts from Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, Written by Himself (1789, 1791) 51

Chapter 1. The Author’s Account of His Country, Their Manners and Customs, &c. 51

Chapter 2. The Author’s Birth and Parentage – His Being Kidnapped with His Sister – Horrors of a Slave Ship 60

Chapter 3. The Author Is Carried to Virginia – Arrives in England – His Wonder at a Fall of Snow 69

Chapter 4. A Particular Account of the Celebrated Engagement between Admiral Boscawen and Monsieur Le Clue 78

Chapter 5. Various Interesting Instances of Oppression, Cruelty, and Extortion 89

Chapter 10. Some Account of the Manner of the Author’s Conversion to the Faith of Jesus Christ 99

Chapter 12. Different Transactions of the Author’s Life – Petition to the Queen – Conclusion 109

David Walker (c.1785–1830) 119

Extracts from Appeal in Four Articles; Together with a Preamble, to the Coloured Citizens of the World, but in Particular and Very Expressly, to Those of the United States of America (1829) 120

Article 1. Our Wretchedness in Consequence of Slavery 120

Article 2. Our Wretchedness in Consequence of Ignorance 127

Part 2 The Literatures of Slavery and Freedom: c.1830–1865 137

Introduction 139

Omar ibn Said (1770–1864) 143
Autobiography of Omar ibn Said, Slave in North Carolina (1831) 144

Frederick Douglass (1818–1895) 147
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. Written by Himself. (1845) 149

What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? (1852) 210

William Wells Brown (1814–1884) 221

Narrative of William Wells Brown, an American Slave. Written by Himself. (1847, 1850) 223

The Escape; or, a Leap for Freedom: A Drama in Five Acts (1858) 263

Martin Robison Delany (1812–1885) 299

Extracts from The Condition, Elevation, Emigration, and Destiny of the Colored People of the
United States (1852) 300

Chapter 1. Condition of Many Classes in Europe Considered 300

Chapter 2. Comparative Condition of the Colored People of the United States 301

Chapter 3. American Colonization 308

Chapter 4. Our Elevation in the United States 311

Chapter 5. Means of Elevation 313

Chapter 6. The United States Our Country 316

Chapter 17. Emigration of the Colored People of the United States 317

Chapter 23. A Glance at Ourselves – Conclusion 317

Harriet E. Adams Wilson (1825–1900) 323
Our Nig; or, Sketches from the Life of a Free Black (1859) 324

Harriet Ann Jacobs (1813–1897) 365
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Written by Herself. (1861) 367

Part 3 The Literatures of Reconstruction, Racial Uplift, and the New Negro: c.1865–1920 491

Introduction 493

Frank J. Webb (1828–1894) 497

Two Wolves and a Lamb (1870) 498

Marvin Hayle (1870) 524

Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins (1859–1930) 548
Peculiar Sam, or the Underground Railroad: A Musical Drama in Four Acts (1879) 550

Charles Waddell Chesnutt (1858–1932) 565
What Is a White Man? (1889) 567

The Marrow of Tradition (1901) 573

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825–1911) 718
From Sketches of Southern Life (1891) 720

Aunt Chloe 720

The Deliverance 722

Aunt Chloe’s Politics 729

Learning to Read 729

Church Building 731

The Reunion 731

Iola Leroy, or Shadows Uplifted (1892) 733

Anna Julia Cooper (1858–1964) 852

Extract from A Voice from the South (1892) 853

Womanhood: A Vital Element in the Regeneration and Progress of a Race 853

Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872–1906) 867

From Lyrics of Lowly Life (1896) 869

The Poet and His Song 869

Accountability 870

Frederick Douglass 871

A Prayer 872

Passion and Love 873

An Ante-Bellum Sermon 873

Ode to Ethiopia 876

Whittier 877

A Banjo Song 877

To Louise 879

Alice 880

After the Quarrel 880

Beyond the Years 881

The Spellin’-Bee 882

A Negro Love Song 884

The Colored Soldiers 885

Nature and Art 887

When De Co’n Pone’s Hot 888

The Deserted Plantation 889

We Wear the Mask 890

Phyllis 891

When Malindy Sings 891

Extract from The Heart of Happy Hollow (1904) 893

The Lynching of Jube Benson 893

Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) 899

Extract from Up from Slavery (1901) 901

Chapter 14. The Atlanta Exposition Address 901

William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (1868–1963) 909

The Souls of Black Folk (1903) 912

James Weldon Johnson (1871–1938) 1026

The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (1912, 1927) 1028

Glossary 1102

Timeline 1110

Name Index 1121

Subject Index 1126