Pamphlets of Protest

An Anthology of Early African-American Protest Literature, 1790-1860

Richard Newman, Patrick Rael, Phillip Lapsansky, Richard Newman, Patrick Rael, Phillip Lapsansky

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN:
  9780415924443
  9780415924436
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781136687327
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: African American History
• Index: Literature

Between the Revolution and the Civil War, African-American writing became a prominent feature of both black protest culture and American public life. Although denied a political voice in national affairs, black authors produced a wide range of literature to project their views into the public sphere. Autobiographies and personal narratives told of slavery's horrors, newspapers railed against racism in its various forms, and poetry, novellas, reprinted sermons and speeches told tales of racial uplift and redemption. The editors examine the important and previously overlooked pamphleteering tradition and offer new insights into how and why the printed word became so important to black activists during this critical period. An introduction by the editors situates the pamphlets in their various social, economic and political contexts. This is the first book to capture the depth of black print culture before the Civil War by examining perhaps its most important form, the pamphlet.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1. “A Narrative of the Proceedings of the Black People During the Late Awful Calamity in Philadelphia” (1794)
• 2. “A Charge” (1797)
• 3. “A Dialogue Between a Virginian and an African Minister” (1810)
• 4. “Series of Letters by a Man of Colour” (1813)
• 5. “An Oration on the Abolition of the Slave Trade” (1814)
• 6. “An Address before the Pennsylvania Augustine Society” (1818)
• 7. “Ethiopian Manifesto” (1829)
• 8. “Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World” (1829, 1830)
• 9. “Address to the National Convention of 1834” (1834)
• 10. “Address Delivered Before the African Female Benevolent Society of Troy“(l834)
• 11. “Productions” (1835)
• 12. “Appeal of Forty Thousand Citizens, Threatened with Disfranchisement, to the People of Pennsylvania” (1837)
• 13. “New York Committee of Vigilance for the Year 1837, together with Important Facts Relative to Their Proceedings” (1837)
• 14. “Address to the Slaves of the United States of America” (1848)
• 15. “Proceedings of the National Convention of Colored People” (1847)
• 16. “Report of the Proceedings of the Colored National Convention … held in Cleveland” (1848)
• 17. “Essay on the Character and Condition of the African Race” (1852)
• 18. “A Plea for Emigration, or Notes of Canada West” (1852)
• 19. “Address to the People of the United States” (1853)
• 20. “Political Destiny of the Colored Race on the American Continent” (1854)
• 21. “The History of the Haitian Revolution” (1855)
• 22. “An Appeal to the Females of the African Methodist Episcopal Church” (1857)
• 23. “A Vindication of the Capacity of the Negro for Self-Governement and Civilized Progress” (1857)
• 24. “The English Language in Liberia” (1861)
• 25. “Negro Self-Respect and Pride of Race”
• Index