Summer Project Essay
African American Writers of the Late Nineteenth Century
Reconstruction - a time of rebirth and ascension. It was a new start for a race bounded by decades of slavery in this land of supposed freedom. When Abraham Lincoln read the Emancipation Proclamation, the blacks in the South were set free of those bounds. And when the last confrontation of the Civil War ended, the nation was once again reunited. With slavery abolished the United States entered a new era, but it was a difficult one - economically, politically, and socially.
Tremendous change occurred in order to stabilize a devastated nation. Wartime jobs were gone and the industries sank. Moreover, the much depended upon slave labor in the South had disappeared, leaving the Southern economy in a catastrophe. The politicians were left in constant debate, as laws were rewritten. A question of blame remained, but the bigger question was how to move forward. People were distraught, especially the Blacks, who were unsure of what to do with their free lives. As some grew poor and miserable as before freedom, others rose to higher levels of success. This can be perceived in the text of many black writers of that time.
The African American literature of the time reflected much of their lives,
which were filled with struggle and anger. This struggle and anger became
topic to many poems, novels, essays, and speeches. Writing was a way to get
the word out, for it expressed the hardships of their lives and of their race.
From powerfully written essays to delightfully written poetry, a race made
its call for equality and acceptance. A distinct type of literature emerged
as a mixture of thought, creativity, and sincerity.
Many biographies of the time were autobiographies written by ex-slaves who
excelled from a life of melancholy to triumph. Booker T. Washington was one
of many ex-slaves who became a foremost public speaker who spoke out against
injustices toward his race. " …How I would begin at the bottom keep
and rising until I reach the highest rounds of success," (Washington,
p. 27) were his words. Although the biography retains a passive overall tone,
cheerful moments of his life were documented with a sudden burst of joy in
the tone, whereas disheartening moments, such as his boyhood days as a slave,
resulted in a somber kind of tone. As the lives of no two individuals are
the same, the tone would vary from one biography to another. The writing style
of this particular narrative is simple and informal; as a result, it is easily
understood. The use of slang and dialect is very uncommon. The story is not
opinionated, as it only recounts the details of the life of Washington. If
not for the historical background, it would differ only slightly in word usage
and spelling from a biography written in the late 20th century.
Novels and short stories often provided a realistic but more dramatic vision
of the people's lives. Some were written about the slavery period and others
- the life after. Thus, certain stories were based on actual events. There
were romantic accounts as well .The style of the writing varied and the tone
depended on the scenario. How one word carries to another would determine
if the sentence would drift off unfavorably. This is analogous to a sentence
to a paragraph. This rhythm of the story was important. In dialogue, usage
dialect was common. This written dialect would change the spelling of words
or sometimes even the order. The following quote: "'Go way f'm yere,'
says I; 'my husban's free!'" (Chesnutt, e-text), from the short story
The Wife of His Youth is just an example of the dialect.
Essays and speeches of the time compared to artwork. Rhetoric, literally the
art of public speaking was imperative for both essays and speeches. The usage
of rhetorical devices is a part of this art. It linked words into nonstandard
order, repeated certain clauses or words, or put words in nonstandard order.
In other ways, these devices were figures of speech or metaphorical. They
gave a rhythm to essays and speeches, even though the two are written more
formally and technically. These formats gave words potentially different meanings
in specific cases, and in others used to emphasize a point, or show degree.
In the following anastrophe: "Merely a concrete test of the underlying
principles of the great republic is the Negro Problem…" (DuBois,
p. 8) the fragment "is the Negro Problem" in that sentence is inverted
from a usual order of "The Negro Problem is…" in order to emphasize.
In a speech, reading the "is" part of clause would produce a tone
of more gravity, to signify importance. Some essays, as with some stories,
may have required deeper and higher levels of thinking for their point to
be understood.
These concepts were important for the authors to keep in mind. In a time of
freedom that still produced upheavals of inequality and injustice, black public
speakers, such as the persuasive Booker T. Washington wanted the nation to
hear them out. Speeches and essays relayed their call. The subjects of these
essays were generally about racism, equality, justice, and wrongdoing, for
these were the issues debated heavily during Reconstruction. Therefore essays
were opinionated and were not intended for everyone to agree with. Aside from
disagreement with white leaders, blacks often challenged each other's ideas.
In addition blacks had to accept racist views of white leaders in order to
reach a compromise. Essayists like W.E.B. Du Bois admitted the wrongs of his
own race as well as whites. Nevertheless, it would take the hard work of both
sides to right the wrongs.
Poetic style was a world of its own. Several concepts contribute to the style,
including rhythm, rhyming schemes, metaphors, and word usage. Poems were written
in stanzas. The rhythm carried words to another, giving it like the beat of
a song. Rhyming added to the rhythm. Commonly the last words of certain lines
would rhyme. There were many difference rhyming schemes that poets used. Written
by Paul Lawrence Dunbar "Sympathy", which uses a caged bird to symbolized
a bounded slave, uses a rhyming scheme of A, B, A, A, B, C, C, while "We
Wear the Mask" has individual rhyming schemes for each stanza. Symbolism
was extremely significant to poetry. Animals and items could have been used
to represent people, while weather or things of nature could have been used
represent feelings. Metaphors were a way to symbolize objects or ideas. In
"Sympathy" the line, "And the river flows like a stream of
glass" (Dunbar, no page given), the glass is a metaphor to represent
the clear waters of a river. Some poems incorporated Old English words (such
as thee, thy), archaic words, and even slang. Words had varying meanings,
which aren't used daily. In addition, grammar and usual word order were not
stressed. As a result the meaning of poems were usually hidden within the
lines.
Themes of poems usually dealt with daily life or different ideas. Slavery
and hardships were topics to many poems, but these ideas aren't straightforward.
It takes a moment or two to see beyond the literal meaning of the words.
Sermons were religious speeches given at churches. Very powerful, sermons
were persuasive and offered insight to God. In church, ministers preach sermons
that dealt with morals, obligation, and service to God. And these ideas were
conveyed through biblical events. Almost always, sermons were written in dialect
and slang. These gave the sermons the rhythm and tone when spoken out loud.
. In "An Ante-bellum Sermon" which opposes slavery and longs for
God to set the blacks free, the phrase "We is gathahed hyeah, my brothahs,"(Dunbar,
_) the spoken dialect suggests a increasing tone with "hyeah", and
a decreasing tone with "brothahs". However, not all sermons were
written as a long speech; some were written in verse, making it poetry.
Another form of writing that voiced a people's concern was through the mail.
Letters were a way of communicating to family, friends, and the rest of the
world. Support was what blacks needed desperately, especially the support
of well-known individuals or authority. Blacks looked for support from white
businessmen, professors, and government officials. Persuasion for them to
join blacks in their fight or to assist was difficult at times. However, letters
noted down anything on a person's mind, whether it was a favor, suggestion,
or greeting. Personal letters were written informally, therefore slang and
dialect was common, while letters of business were formal, written in Standard
English. Journal entries could also be considered letters, ones written to
a personal diary or journal. In the case of Charlotte L. Forten, her diary
is a personal record of her life, from a child during slavery until she has
come of age as a freedman.
The writing of African American writers of the late 19th century remains a
style of its own. In an era of social injustice and discrimination, it is
this writing that speaks for an entire race. Offering a glance into the lives
of a proud people, with vigor and passion, it will forever be a part of American
Literature.
Bibliography
· Bair, Barbara. Through Justice Sleeps: African Americans, 1880-1900.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1954.
· Chesnutt, Charles Wadell. The Wife of His Youth (E-Text), 1898
<http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccernew2?id=CheWife.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=2&division=div1>
· Condict, Cordelia A. "Letter from Cordelia A. Condict and Pauline
Hopkins's Reply," The Norton Anthology: African American Literature.
Edited by Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Nellie Y. McKay. New York: W.W. Norton
& Company, 1997.
· Du Bois, W.E.B. The Souls of Black Folk. New York: Bantam Books,
1989.
· Dunbar, Paul Lawrence. "An Ante-Bellum Sermon," The Norton
Anthology: African American Literature. Edited by Henry Louis Gates Jr. and
Nellie Y. McKay. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1997.
· Dunbar, Paul Lawrence. "Sympathy," Crossing The Danger
Water: Three Hundred Years of African-American Writing. Edited by Deirdre
Mullane. New York: Doubleday, 1993.
· Dunbar, Paul Lawrence. "We Wear the Mask," Crossing The
Danger Water: Three Hundred Years of African-American Writing. Edited by Deirdre
Mullane. New York: Doubleday, 1993.
· Grimke, Charlotte Forten. The Journal of Charlotte L. Forten. London:
Collier, 1961.
· Forten, Charlotte L. "Letter to Mr. Garrison," Call &
Response. Edited by Patricia Liggins Hill. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998.
· Johnson, James Weldon. "Preface to Revised Edition," The
Book of American Negro Poetry. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1931.
· Washington, Booker T. Up From Slavery. New York: Signet Classic,
2000.
· Washington, Booker T. "The Friendship of Two Races," Historic
Speeches of African Americans. Edited by Warren J. Halliburton. New Work:
Franklin Watts, 1993.
· Wells-Barnett, Ida B. "A Red Record," Crossing The Danger
Water: Three Hundred Years of African-American Writing. Edited by Deirdre
Mullane. New York: Doubleday, 1993.
· Wells-Barnett, Ida B. "This Awful Slaughter," Historic
Speeches of African Americans. Edited by Warren J. Halliburton. New Work:
Franklin Watts, 1993.
