Tools
Love & marriage in early African America
Where to find it
Authors, etc.
- Names:
Summary
Love and Marriage in Early African America brings together a remarkable range of folk sayings, rhymes, songs, poems, letters, lectures, sermons, short stories, memoirs, and autobiographies. Spanning over 100 years, from the slave era to the New Negro Movement, this extraordinary collection contradicts or nuances established notions that slavery fractured families, devalued sexual morality, distorted gender roles, and set in motion forces that now produce dismal and dangerous domestic situations. A culmination of twenty years of diligent research by noted scholar Frances Smith Foster, this anthology features selections on love and courtship, marriage, marriage rituals, and family. A compelling introduction places the primary texts in their social and literary context. A bibliography offers suggestions for further reading.This volume includes materials by well known writers such as Frances E. W. Harper, Charles Chesnutt, and Alice Dunbar Nelson, but the majority of works are previously unknown or difficult-to-access materials. Many provide startling contrasts to representations in canonical literature. For example, "Patrick Brown's First Love" is a radical alternative to Frederick Douglass's "The Heroic Slave," and Thomas Detter's "The Octoroon" replaces the traditionally tragic mulatto trope with a female protagonist who shocks and awes. Love and Marriage in Early African America also changes our ideas about the relationship between religion and politics in early African America by featuring texts from the Afro-Protestant press; that is, the publishing organizations, writers, and reading groups under the direct auspices of, or publicly associated with, Afro-Protestant churches.
Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Introduction: By Way of an Open Letter to My Sister
- Lyrics
- What's You Lookin' at Me Fer?
- Love Is Jes a Thing o' Fancy
- You Loves Yo' Gal?
- Creole Candio
- One Sweet Kiss
- On Friendship Phillis Wheatley (1769)
- Philis' Reply Phillis Wheatley (1774)
- Behave Yourself, from Freedom's Journal (1827)
- Lines to My George Moses Horton (1843)
- Courting in Connecticut, from Provincial Freeman (1855)
- To Annie, from the Pacific Appeal (1862)
- To Miss W A. I[slay] Walden (1873?)
- Dedicated to a Young Lady A. I[slay] Walden (1873)
- A Negro Love Song Paul Laurence Dunbar (1895)
- Dinah Kneading Dough Paul Laurence Dunbar (1899)
- Show Your Love James E. McGirt (1901)
- The Parting Kiss Jos. D. H. Heard (1901)
- Jessie and I Timothy Thomas Fortune (1905)
- Kiss Me Again Samuel Alfred Beadle (1912)
- Love's Lament Olive Ward Bush-Banks (1914)
- Filled with You Olive Ward Bush-Banks (1920)
- Lyrics
- Does You Lak Strawberries? - Anonymous
- W'en I Wus a "Roustabout," - Anonymous
- She Hug Me - Anonymous
- A Letter - Anonymous
- You Nasty Dog! - Anonymous
- Pretty Liddle Pink - Anonymous
- Is It So? from Freedom's Journal (1827)
- Stanzas, from Freedom's Journal (1828)
- To Eliza George Moses Horton (1829)
- Forget Me Not Ann Plato (1841)
- Farewell to Frances George Moses Horton (1865)
- A Love Song John Willis Menard (1879)
- A Double Standard Frances E[llen] W[atkins] Harper (1893)
- Sence You Went Away James Weldon Johnson (1900)
- Regret Olive Ward Bush-Banks (1914)
- Violets Alice Dunbar Nelson (1917)
- The Heart of a Woman Georgia Douglas Johnson (1918)
- Fiction
- A Christmas Sketch Mrs. M. B. Lambert (1882)
- Violets Alice Dunbar Nelson (1895)
- "There Was One Time!" Jessie Fauset (1917)
- Letters
- From Phillis Wheatley to Obour Tanner (1773)
- From Harriet to Freedom's Journal (1827)
- From Amelia to Freedom's Journal (1827)
- From Criticus to Freedom's Journal (1827)
- From Tom Little to Freedom's Journal (1827)
- From Henry H. Garnet to "Dear Friend" (1837)
- From William H. Wormley to Catto (1860)
- From Addie Brown to Rebecca Primus (1859-1867)
- Autobiographical Accounts
- William Grimes, from Life of William Grimes (1855)
- James Williams, from Life and Adventures of James Williams (1893)
- Fannie Berry, from Federal Writers Project (ca. 1937)
- Lyrics
- Aurore Pradere - Anonymous
- W'en I Goes to Marry - Anonymous
- Lines, Written on hearing a beautiful Young Lady express a determination to live an Old Maid, from Freedom's Journal (1828)
- A Young Lady's Soliloquy, from the Christian Recorder (1864)
- The Cheerless Condition of Bachelorship, George Moses Horton (1865)
- Report, Frances E[llen] W[atkins] Harper (1867)
- Advice to Girls, Frances E[llen] W[atkins] Harper (1868)
- The Young Man's Comforter, A. I[slay] Walden (1873)
- One to Love, A. I[slay] Walden (1873)
- Fiction
- A Woman and an Angel, from Provincial Freeman (1855)
- The Two Offers, Frances Ellen Watkins [Harper] (1859)
- Nonfiction
- On Marriage, from The Doctrines and Discipline of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (1817)
- A Bachelor's Thermometer, from Freedom's Journal (1827)
- The Old Maid's Diary, from Freedom's Journal (1827)
- "Sic a Wife," from Freedom's Journal (1828)
- An Unmarried Woman, from Freedom's Journal (1828)
- A Gold Repeater, from Freedom's Journal (1828)
- Lewis White Advertises, from Freedom's Journal (1829)
- Two School Girls Ann Plato (1841)
- A Bachelor Advertises, from Provincial Freeman (1855)
- Matrimony, from Repository of Religion and Literature (1859)
- To Avoid a Bad Husband, from the Christian Recorder (1861)
- The Pleasures of Single Life, from the Pacific Appeal (1864)
- Young Ladies of To-Day, from the Christian Recorder (1864)
- How to Make Bean Soup, from the Christian Recorder (1865)
- Yoked Unequally, from the Christian Recorder (1876)
- Bigamy, from Life and Adventures of James Williams (1893)
- Lyrics
- Wedding Colors - Anonymous
- Slave Marriage - Anonymous
- Written in a Bride's Album A[fred] G[ibbs] Campbell (1883)
- Marriage Mary Weston Fordham (1897)
- Fiction
- Conversation, from Southern Workman (1895)
- Nonfiction
- Miseries of an Engaged Man, from Freedom's Journal (1828)
- Miseries of an Engaged Woman, from Freedom's Journal (1828)
- Getting Married without Knowing How It Was to Be Done, from the Christian Recorder (1861)
- Marriage of Rev. John Beckett to Miss Kate Campbell, from the Christian Recorder (1876)
- Autobiographical Accounts
- Thomas Tompkins, from Freedom's Journal
- William Grimes, from Life of William Grimes
- Harriet Jacobs, from Incidents in the Life
- When Two of the Slaves, Harriett McFarlin Payne, from Rawick
- American Slave: A Composite Autobiography (ca. 1937)
- The War Went On, from Ophelia Settle Egypt, Unwritten History of Slavery
- Iffen Any of the Slaves, Aunt Virginia Bell from Rawick, American Slave: A Composite Autobiography (ca. 1937)
- I Had a Nice Weddin', Sarah Allen, from Rawick, American Slave: A Composite Autobiography (ca. 1937)
- De Way Dey Done, Jeff Calhoun, from Rawick, American Slave: A Composite Autobiography (ca. 1937)
- Lyrics
- Three Months Married - Anonymous
- To a Lady on the Death of Her Husband Phillis Wheatley (1772)
- To the Bride, from Freedom's Journal (1828)
- Connubial Felicity George Moses Horton (1845)
- The Fugitive's Wife Frances Ellen Watkins [Harper] (1857)
- The Old Couple, from the Christian Recorder
- The Wife's Invocation John Menard Willis (1879)
- To Elder T. Wellington Henderson, from the Christian Recorder (1879)
- Dearest Robert C. O. Benjamin (1883)
- To My Absent Wife A[fred] G[ibbs] Campbell (1883)
- To Mr. and Mrs. W. F. Johnson Frances E[llen] W[atkins] Harper (1886)
- Tired Fenton Johnson (1919)
- Fiction
- Dialogue between a Newly Married Couple, from Provincial Freeman (1855)
- Mr. Pepper's Wife, from Provincial Freeman (1855)
- Patrick Brown's First Love, from the Anglo-African Magazine (1859)
- Anecdotal: An Old and True Friend, from the Christian Recorder (1869)
- Octoroon Slave of Cuba Thomas Detter (1871)
- The Wife of His Youth Charles W. Chesnutt (1899)
- Bro'r Abr'm Jimson's Wedding Pauline E. Hopkins (1901)
- Nonfiction
- Whisper to a Wife, from Colored American (1837)
- The Intemperate Husband, from Colored American (1837)
- Tell Your Wife, from Pacific Appeal (1862)
- A Chapter for Young Husbands, from the Christian Recorder (1864)
- A Tin Wedding, from the Christian Recorder (1876)
- A Bereaved Wife, from the Christian Recorder (1880)
- Letters
- From Jane Stephens to Freedom's Journal (1827)
- From James Stephens to Freedom's Journal (1827)
- From George Pleasant to Agnes Hobbs (1833)
- From Marie Perkins to Husband (1852)
- From Abream Scriven to Wife (1858)
- From Harriet Newby to Dangerfield Newby (1859)
- From Harriet Newby to Dangerfield Newby (1859)
- From Ann to Husband (1864)
- Autobiographical Accounts
- Jarena Lee, from Life and Religious Experience of Jarena Lee (1836)
- Lunsford Lane, from Narrative of Lunsford Lane (1848)
- Henry Bibb, from The Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb (1849)
- Josiah Henson, from Father Henson's Story of His Own Life (1858)
- Noah Davis, from A Narrative of the Life of Rev. Noah Davis (1859)
- J. D. Green, from The Narrative of the Life of J. D. Green (1864)
- Elizabeth Keckley, from Behind the Scenes (1868)
- Lyrics
- Daughter's Inquiry Ann Plato (1841)
- Our Family Tree Joseph Cephas Holly (1853)
- My Child, from Provincial Freeman (1855)
- Old Grimes' Son, from Life of William Grimes (1855)
- The Home for Me, from the Christian Recorder (1872)
- The Lonely Mother Fenton Johnson (1916)
- Fiction
- Charles and Clara Hayes Mrs. Lucie S. Day (1853)
- Dialogue Between a Mother and Her Children on the
- Precious Stones Mrs. Sarah Douglas (1859)
- The Voice of the Rich Pudding Gertrude D[orsey] Browne (1907)
- Letters
- From John H. Rapier to His Son John (1857)
- From Parker Smith to "My dear Sir" (1861)
- From Rebecca Primus to Parents and Sister (1976)
- From Dave Waldro to Cousin (1867)
- Information Wanted, from the Christian Recorder (1864-1893)
- Information Wanted from the Christian Recorder, January 6, 1893 (1893)
- Nonfiction
- The Dying Bed of a Mother, from Colored American (1837)
- The Use of Grandmothers, from the Christian Recorder (1864)
- Aunt Jennie the Old Maid, from the Christian Recorder (1873)
- Autobiographical Accounts
- Samuel Ringgold Ward, from Autobiography of a Fugitive Negro (1855)
- Williams Grimes, from Life of William Grimes (1855)
- Thomas Jones, from Narrative of a Refugee Slave (1857)
- James Williams, from Life and Adventures of James Williams (1893)
- My Mother as I Recall Her, Rosetta Douglass Sprague (1900)
- Of the Passing of the First-Born, W. E. B. DuBois (1901)
- Suggestions for Further Reading
Subjects
Other details
- Description:
- xxvi, 329 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.
- Variant Title:
- Cover title: Love and marriage in early African America
- Series:
- The Northeastern library of Black literature
- Links:
- Table of contents only
- Published:
- Hanover : University Press of New England, c2008.
- Language:
- English
- Notes:
- An anthology of nineteenth and early twentieth century African American writings (stories, songs, poems, sayings, sermons, etc) on love, courtship, and family.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 327-329). - Genre or Form:
- Literary collections
- ISBN:
- 9781555536763
155553676X
9781555536770
1555536778 - OCLC Number:
- 122974303
- Other Identifiers:
- LCCN: 2007014751