Black girlhood in the nineteenth century / Nazera Sadiq Wright.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wright, Nazera Sadiq, 1974- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

African American girls--History--19th century.

African American girls.

African Americans--Social conditions--19th century.

African Americans.

African Americans--Politics and government--19th century.

Political culture--United States--History--19th century.

Political culture.

African Americans--Intellectual life--19th century.

American literature--African American authors--History and criticism.

American literature.

African Americans in literature.

Girls in literature.

Politics and literature--United States--History--19th century.

Politics and literature.

United States--Race relations--History--19th century.

United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource : illustrations (black and white)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Urabana, Chicago, Springfield, [Illinois] : University of Illinois Press, 2016.

Summary:

"Long portrayed as a masculine endeavor, the African American struggle for progress often found expression through an unlikely literary figure: the black girl. Nazera Sadiq Wright uses heavy archival research on a wide range of texts about African American girls to explore this understudied phenomenon. As Wright shows, the figure of the black girl in African American literature provided a powerful avenue for exploring issues like domesticity, femininity, and proper conduct. The characters' actions, however fictional, became a rubric for African American citizenship and racial progress. At the same time, their seeming dependence and insignificance allegorized the unjust treatment of African Americans. Wright reveals fascinating girls who, possessed of a premature knowing and wisdom beyond their years, projected a courage and resiliency that made them exemplary representations of the project of racial advance and citizenship"--Publisher description.

Contents:

Introduction: Toward a Genealogy of Black Girlhood

Black Girlhood in the Early Black Press

Youthful Girls and Prematurely Knowing Girls : Antebellum Black Girlhood

"Teach your Daughters" : Black Girlhood and Mrs. N. F. Mossell's Advice Column in the New York Freeman

Moving the Boundaries : Black Girlhood and Public Careers in Frances E.W. Harper's Trial and Triumph

Black Girlhood in Early-Twentieth-Century Black Conduct Books

Epilogue: The Changing Same? : Next-Generation Black Girlhood.

Notes:

Previously issued in print: 2016.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780252099014

025209901X

OCLC:

958498007