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
- Chapter 2 Black Life Writing and Print Culture before 1800
- Chapter 3 Reading the Edited “I” in the Early Black Atlantic
- Chapter 4 Caste and Class in the Antebellum Slave Narrative
- Chapter 5 Nineteenth-Century Autobiographical Writings by Freeborn African Americans
- Chapter 6 African American Life Writing, 1865–1900
- Chapter 7 Black Life Writing in Print Cultures at the Turn into the Twentieth Century
- Chapter 8 New Negro Autobiographies
- Chapter 9 Transnational and Postcolonial Afro-Caribbean Life Writing
- Chapter 10 Writing Race and Remembrance in the Civil Rights Movement Years
- Chapter 11 The Biomedicalization of Black Life Narratives
- Part II Individuals and Communities
- Index
Chapter 6 - African American Life Writing, 1865–1900
from Part I - Origins and Histories
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
- Chapter 2 Black Life Writing and Print Culture before 1800
- Chapter 3 Reading the Edited “I” in the Early Black Atlantic
- Chapter 4 Caste and Class in the Antebellum Slave Narrative
- Chapter 5 Nineteenth-Century Autobiographical Writings by Freeborn African Americans
- Chapter 6 African American Life Writing, 1865–1900
- Chapter 7 Black Life Writing in Print Cultures at the Turn into the Twentieth Century
- Chapter 8 New Negro Autobiographies
- Chapter 9 Transnational and Postcolonial Afro-Caribbean Life Writing
- Chapter 10 Writing Race and Remembrance in the Civil Rights Movement Years
- Chapter 11 The Biomedicalization of Black Life Narratives
- Part II Individuals and Communities
- Index
Summary
Williams’s chapter argues that there is more to learn about the compositional process for late nineteenth-century black autobiographies. Williams asks, how, where, and under what terms did African American autobiographers — most of whom did not consider themselves professional writers — draft, arrange, and revise their texts? She turns to periodicals, which played an important role in the market for producing autobiographical texts, and locates the Indianapolis Freeman as one paper that exemplifies the three functions of publishing, marketing, and evaluating African American life writing. For nearly a year in 1894 and 1895, Freeman owner George Knox serially published his autobiography “My Life as I Remember It — As a Slave and Freeman” in the newspaper’s pages.
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- A History of African American Autobiography , pp. 85 - 100Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021
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