Activist Sentiments

P. Gabrielle Foreman is a professor of English and American studies at Occidental College. She is the author of multiple articles and the coeditor of Harriet E. Wilson's Our Nig; or, Sketches from the Life of a Free Black.

"Recommended."--Choice"A bold work of literary activism."--Legacy "A wonderful piece of scholarship."--Southern Historian "A breathtaking and brilliant book."--Signs "Activist Sentiments reevaluates with a savvy, critical eye the nexus of sex, sentiment, and reform that distinguishes classic nineteenth-century African American women's narratives. Always informative, consistently revealing, and invitingly written, Foreman's book belongs in the company of the major studies in this field by Frances Smith Foster, Hazel Carby, Claudia Tate, and Carla L. Peterson."--William L. Andrews, E. Maynard Adams Professor of English, University of North Carolina, and coeditor of The Curse of Caste; or The Slave Bride: A Rediscovered African American Novel by Julia C. Collins "Foreman rereads nineteenth-century women writers with fresh eyes, vividly demonstrating how they were interpreted both then and now. She asks that we heed Frances Harper's admonition to 'read aright.' Activist Sentiments does just that."--Carla L. Peterson, author of "Doers of the Word": African-American Women Speakers and Writers in the North (1830-1880) "With key readings and startling acuity, Foreman's work will be very useful not only to literary scholars but also to historians of the black woman's era."--Rafia Zafar, author of We Wear the Mask: African Americans Write American Literature, 1760-1870 "In this stimulating and impressive work, Foreman provides astute readings of previously ignored work. This text makes a significant contribution to several areas of scholarship including American literature, history, women's studies, and black studies."--Jennifer DeVere Brody, author of Impossible Purities: Blackness, Femininity and Victorian Culture

• Acknowledgments   ixA Note on Language   xvIntroduction   11. The Politics of Sex and Representation in Harriet Jacobs's Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl   19 Eenie, Meenie, Minie, Moe, Abuser, Victim, Ally, Foe?   21Confession and Commodities, Silence and Sale   24Sexual Truth, Testimony, and Tyranny   29Flint, Sands, and Willis: South to North, Daddies to Dandies   33Aunt Martha's Mask   36 2. Naming Our Nig's Multivalent Mothers   43 Extended Family: Aunties' Place and Property   51Ma' Nig and Maternal Abandonment   57Multivalent Mulattas and Legal Racing   60(Un)Trustworthy Narrators and Multiple Starts   65 3. Reading White Slavery, Sexuality, and Embedded History in Frances E. W. Harper's Iola Leroy   73 Cultural Literacy, Legible Transcripts, and Reading "Aright" in the 1890s   76Forced Prostitution, Rape, and White Slavery's Double Meanings   80Ida B. Wells, Frances Harper, and the Two Iolas   90Martin Delany, Lucy A. Delaney, and Iola's Lucille Delany   96Petitioning Science, or Martin Delany and Dr. Frank, George and Lewis Latimer   102 4. Reading/Photographs: Emma Dunham Kelley-Hawkins's Four Girls at Cottage City, Victoria Earle Matthews, and the Woman's Era   113 Reading/Photographs   116Women's Clubs and Literary Critique   126The Woman's Era Photographic Bylines   129Victoria Earle and Vera Earle   132Optic History   137 5. Home Protection, Literary Aggression, and Religious Defense in the Life and Writings of Amelia E. Johnson   138 Public Standing and Civic Action of Amelia E. Johnson   141Women, the Law, and Baltimore's Brotherhood of Liberty   148Racial Inequalities, or Snatching the Whip and Switching the Script   157Temperance and Bad Parental Temperaments   164 Coda: On Burials and Exhumations   173Notes   179Bibliography   221Index   241