African American literature is the body of literature produced in the United States by writers of African descent. It begins with the works of such late 18th-century writers as Phillis Wheatley. Befor
African American literature is the body of literature produced in the United States by writers of African descent. It begins with the works of such late 18th-century writers as Phillis Wheatley. Before the high point of enslaved people narratives, African-American literature was dominated by autobiographical spiritual narratives. The genre known as slave narratives in the 19th century were accounts by people who had generally escaped from slavery, about their journeys to freedom and ways they claimed their lives. The Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s was a great period of flowering in literature and the arts, influenced both by writers who came North in the Great Migration and those who were immigrants from Jamaica and other Caribbean islands.The collection includes works by such prominent masters of American literature as Frederick Douglass, Nella Larsen, Charles W. Chesnutt , Paul Laurence Dunbar, Phillis Wheatley, Langston Hughes, Booker T. Washington , W. E. B. Du Bois and many others.Novels and short storiesFrederick DouglassTHE HEROIC SLAVENella LarsenQUICKSANDPASSINGTHE WRONG MANFREEDOMSANCTUARYAlice Dunbar-NelsonA CARNIVAL JANGLEVIOLETSTHE WOMANTEN MINUTES' MUSINGTITEECharles W. ChesnuttTHE GOOPHERED GRAPEVINEPO' SANDYSIS' BECKY'S PICKANINNYTHE DOLLTHE WIFE OF HIS YOUTHPaul Laurence DunbarTHE SCAPEGOATJean ToomerBECKYPoetryPhillis WheatleyTO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE WILLIAM, EARL OF DARTMOUTHON VIRTUEAN HYMN TO THE MORNINGAN HYMN TO THE EVENINGFrances E. W. HarperBURY ME IN A FREE LANDSONGS FOR THE PEOPLEMY MOTHER'S KISSA GRAIN OF SANDOUR HEROTHE SPARROW'S FALLJames Weldon JohnsonSENCE YOU WENT AWAYPaul Laurence DunbarTHE LESSONSYMPATHYWE WEAR THE MASKClaude McKayAFTER THE WINTERIF WE MUST DIETHE TROPICS IN NEW YORKCountee CullenFOR PAUL LAURENCE DUNBARINCIDENTLANGSTON HUGHESTHE WEARY BLUESJAZZONIANEGRO DANCERSTHE CAT AND THE SAXOPHONE (2 A. M.)YOUNG SINGERCABARETTO MIDNIGHT NAN AT LEROY'STO A LITTLE LOVER-LASS, DEADHARLEM NIGHT CLUBNUDE YOUNG DANCERYOUNG PROSTITUTETO A BLACK DANCER IN "THE LITTLE SAVOY"SONG FOR A BANJO DANCEBLUES FANTASYLENOX AVENUE: MIDNIGHTNon-fictionFrederick DouglassNARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASSHarriet JacobsINCIDENTS IN THE LIFE OF A SLAVE GIRLBooker T. WashingtonUP FROM SLAVERYWilliam StillUNDERGROUND RAILROADHenry Box BrownJames Hambleton ChristianTheophilus CollinsSeth ConcklinWilliam and Ellen CraftAbram Galloway and Richard EdenCharles GilbertSamuel GreenJamie GriffinHarry GrimesJames Hamlet and OthersJohn Henry HillAnn Maria Jackson and Her Seven ChildrenJane JohnsonMatilda MahoneyMary Frances MelvinAunt Hannah MooreAlfred S. Thornton EssaysW. E. B. Du BoisTHE SOULS OF BLACK FOLKCharles W. ChesnuttTHE DISFRANCHISEMENT OF THE NEGROPaul Laurence DunbarREPRESENTATIVE AMERICAN NEGROES
