Redefining African American Literature after Slavery
Central literary themes of this era explore redefining African American identity outside of slavery and discussing the best path forward for Black communities, within and outside of the United States. Location becomes a major theme in the literature of this era. It shows regional divisions during an effort to re-establish a national culture in the United States after the Civil War and explores how the formation of and migration to Black communities in major cities affects African-American identity during the Great Migration. This takes the form of the local color movement, which uses vernacular language, exhibits folklife, and relies on stereotypes as a storytelling device. Some writers of this genre are accused of romanticizing the antebellum period and receive criticism for their portrayals of agrarian landscapes and lifestyles. However, the powerful pastoral literature produced by African-American writers lays the groundwork for a distinctly Black form of the Southern Gothic genre, which challenges New South Literature with its hauntings and horrors of slavery. Also contesting these stereotypes is an emergent interest in ethnology as a way to connect with ancestry, define oneself outside of a history of slavery, and evidence African-American progress.
Key Concepts
Migration is a prominent theme in African-American literature, as it speaks to the trauma of forced movements of the slave trade and the necessity of fleeing racial violence as well as the hope inspired by free Black communities, and family reunification. The historical period known as the Great Migration can be divided into two phases: the first after Emancipation through WW1, and the second after the end of WW2 to the mid-1970s. In addition to relocation within the United States, there is also a movement for emigration to Africa, which manifests in the founding of the country of Liberia. Internal migration by African Americans is paralleled by an influx of immigration, often to those same major cities. A significant source of literary production during this time period is the Black Press, as it serves to connect communities through news and social communications, especially coverage of lynching and race riots. Some essential topics of this transitional period are racial progress since slavery and sacrifices for economic and societal progress.
The destinations for many African-Americans leaving the post-Reconstruction South are urban and economic centers in the North and Midwest. Their demographic makeup shifts due to the influx of migrants seeking jobs in the industrial sector, forming ethnic enclaves within these cities. However, government corruption and a lack of regulation allow for poor housing conditions and widespread poverty. City life becomes an important setting and metaphor in African-American literature as it allows writers to explore community dynamics, question the American dream, and demonstrate the potentials of integrated society. The archetype of African-American success during this era is "The New Negro", as coined by Alain Locke in The New Negro: An Interpretation (1925), a politically conscious and socially involved urban intellectual who is well-educated and well-cultured by immersing himself in city life and civil society. This makes him capable of producing sophisticated, creative art and being a productive member of broader American and elite society. As a product of American literary modernism, he represents turn-of-the-century ideologies which symbolize 'Modern Man'.
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Compromise of 1877
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journalism
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local color fiction and plantation tradition
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retrospective slave narrative
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sundown towns and travel literature
Representative Texts
Cane by The Harlem Renaissance writer's innovative and groundbreaking novel depicting African American life in the South and North, with a foreword by National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 honoree Zinzi Clemmons Jean Toomer's Cane is one of the most significant works to come out of the Harlem Renaissance, and is considered to be a masterpiece in American modernist literature because of its distinct structure and style. First published in 1923 and told through a series of vignettes, Cane uses poetry, prose, and play-like dialogue to create a window into the varied lives of African Americans living in the rural South and urban North during a time when Jim Crow laws pervaded and racism reigned. While critically acclaimed and known today as a pioneering text of the Harlem Renaissance, the book did not gain as much popularity as other works written during the period. Fellow Harlem Renaissance writer Langston Hughes believed Cane's lack of a wider readership was because it didn't reinforce the stereotypes often associated with African Americans during the time, but portrayed them in an accurate and entirely human way, breaking the mold and laying the groundwork for how African Americans are depicted in literature.
The Lyrics of Lowly Life by Call Number: 811.4 D899LISBN: 0806509228Publication Date: Reprint of the 1899 ed.Afro-American culture series from Arno Press
- On lynchings : Southern horrors ; A red record ; Mob rule in New Orleans
![[Ida B. Wells, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing slightly right]](https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/pnp/cph/3c00000/3c07000/3c07700/3c07756v.jpg)
Southern horrors : lynch law in all its phases (1892) -- A red record : tabulated statistics and alleged causes of lynchings in the United States 1892-1893-1894 (1895) -- Mob rule in New Orleans : Robert Charles and his fight to the death : the story of his life, burning human beings alive, other lynching statistics (1900).
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ascent/ uplift narrative
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Double Consciousness and doppelgänger
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ethnography
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modernity
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primitivism
The Davenports by Call Number: J F M357dThe Davenports are one of the few Black families of immense wealth and status in 1910 Chicago, and the two daughters, Olivia and Helen, are finding their way and finding love--even where they are not supposed to."The Davenports are one of the few Black families of immense wealth and status in a changing United States, their fortune made through the entrepreneurship of William Davenport, a formerly enslaved man who founded the Davenport Carriage Company years ago. Now it's 1910, and the Davenports live surrounded by servants, crystal chandeliers, and endless parties, finding their way and finding love--even where they're not supposed to. There is Olivia, the beautiful elder Davenport daughter, ready to do her duty by getting married... until she meets the charismatic civil rights leader Washington DeWight and sparks fly. The younger daughter, Helen, is more interested in fixing cars than falling in love--unless it's with her sister's suitor. Amy-Rose, the childhood friend turned maid to the Davenport sisters, dreams of opening her own business--and marrying the one man she could never be with, Olivia and Helen's brother, John. But Olivia's best friend, Ruby, also has her sights set on John Davenport, though she can't seem to keep his interest... until family pressure has her scheming to win his heart, just as someone else wins hers.
Illustrated Souls of Black Folk by Richly illustrated, this special edition of Du Bois's seminal work vividly conveys the story of African American life, politics, music, and culture from slavery through reconstruction, and up to the dawn of the twentieth century. Most of the photos, engravings, and documents are from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and depict slavery and its legacy, African-American daily life, and the prominent figures and events associated with the book's content.
Up from Slavery by Booker T. Washington's classic memoir of enslavement, emancipation, and community advancement in the Reconstruction Era. Born into slavery on a tobacco farm in nineteenth-century Virginia, Booker T. Washington became one of the most powerful intellectuals of the Reconstruction Era. As president of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, he advocated for the advancement of African Americans through education and entrepreneurship. In Up from Slavery, Washington speaks frankly and honestly about his enslavement and emancipation, struggle to receive an education, and life's work as an educator. In great detail, Washington describes establishing the Tuskegee Institute, from teaching its first classes in a hen house to building a prominent institution through community organization and a national fundraising campaign. He also addresses major issues of the era, such as the Jim Crow laws, Ku Klux Klan, and "false foundation" of Reconstruction policy. Up From Slavery is based on biographical articles written for the Christian newspaper Outlook and includes the full text of Washington's revolutionary Atlanta Exposition address.
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