Book contents
- A History of African American Autobiography
- A History of African American Autobiography
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Illustrations
- A Chronology of African American Life Writing
- Contributors
- Chapter 1 Crafting a Credible Black Self in African American Life Writing
- Part I Origins and Histories
- Part II Individuals and Communities
- Chapter 12 Spiritual Autobiography, Past and Present
- Chapter 13 Life Writings of Contemporary African American Women
- Chapter 14 The Autobiography of Malcolm X as a Transitional Black Arts Text
- Chapter 15 Black Queer Life Writing
- Chapter 16 African American Celebrity Auto/Biographies
- Chapter 17 Mixed-Race Autobiographical Narratives
- Chapter 18 Black Biography, Past and Present
- Chapter 19 Black Lives in Contemporary Persona Poems
- Chapter 20 Depicting African American Life in Graphics and Visual Cultures
- Chapter 21 Life Writing for Black Children and Youth
- Chapter 22 Black Life Writing for Young Readers
- Chapter 23 Can Cups Be Books? Or, Other Ways to Recognize African American Autobiography
- Index
Chapter 12 - Spiritual Autobiography, Past and Present
from Part II - Individuals and Communities
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 September 2021
- A History of African American Autobiography
- A History of African American Autobiography
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Illustrations
- A Chronology of African American Life Writing
- Contributors
- Chapter 1 Crafting a Credible Black Self in African American Life Writing
- Part I Origins and Histories
- Part II Individuals and Communities
- Chapter 12 Spiritual Autobiography, Past and Present
- Chapter 13 Life Writings of Contemporary African American Women
- Chapter 14 The Autobiography of Malcolm X as a Transitional Black Arts Text
- Chapter 15 Black Queer Life Writing
- Chapter 16 African American Celebrity Auto/Biographies
- Chapter 17 Mixed-Race Autobiographical Narratives
- Chapter 18 Black Biography, Past and Present
- Chapter 19 Black Lives in Contemporary Persona Poems
- Chapter 20 Depicting African American Life in Graphics and Visual Cultures
- Chapter 21 Life Writing for Black Children and Youth
- Chapter 22 Black Life Writing for Young Readers
- Chapter 23 Can Cups Be Books? Or, Other Ways to Recognize African American Autobiography
- Index
Summary
May argues African American autobiography became integral to the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Atlantic cultural world with the publication of Briton Hammon’s 1760 account of his sea travels and captivity. With Hammon's text, the genre expanded to become a literary, political, and economic phenomenon by the time of the 1789 British publication of Olaudah Equiano’s more comprehensive and popular life story. In fact, 1760 is a year, May contends, that marks the beginning of known literature written and published by Black people living in England and British North America, a wide range of genres engaging life writing including slave narratives, captivity narratives, confessionals, pamphlets, poetry, sermons, and jeremiads. African American autobiography captivated the attention of a general readership until the end of the Civil War, a readership constituted mainly of a growing white middle class and elite reading audience.
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- A History of African American Autobiography , pp. 193 - 207Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021