The first African American to publish a book in the South, the
author of the first female slave narrative in the United States,
the father of black nationalism in America--these and other
founders of African American literature have a surprising
connection to one another: they all hailed from the state of North
Carolina.
This collection of poetry, fiction, autobiography, and essays
showcases some of the best work of eight influential African
American writers from North Carolina during the nineteenth and
early twentieth centuries. In his introduction, William L. Andrews
explores the reasons why black North Carolinians made such a
disproportionate contribution (in quantity and lasting quality) to
African American literature as compared to that of other southern
states with larger African American populations. The authors in
this anthology parlayed both the advantages and disadvantages of
their North Carolina beginnings into sophisticated perspectives on
the best and the worst of which humanity, in both the South and the
North, was capable. They created an African American literary
tradition unrivaled by that of any other state in the South.
Writers included here are Charles W. Chesnutt, Anna Julia Cooper,
David Bryant Fulton, George Moses Horton, Harriet Jacobs, Lunsford
Lane, Moses Roper, and David Walker.