Considered one of the original texts foretelling the black feministmovement, this collection of essays, first published in 1892, offers anunparalleled view into the thought of black women writers in nineteenth-centuryAmerica. A leading black spokeswoman of her time, Anna Julia Cooper came of ageduring a conservative wave in the black community, a time when men completelydominated African-American intellectual and political ideas. In these essays,Cooper criticizes black men for securing higher education for themselves throughthe ministry, while erecting roadblocks to deny women access to those sameopportunities, and denounces the elitism and provinciality of the white women'smovement. Passionately committed to women's independence, Cooper espousedhigher education as the essential key to ending women's physical, emotional, andeconomic dependence on men.