Bibliograph

Word by word, emancipation and the act of writing, Christopher Hager

Type

Label

Word by word, emancipation and the act of writing, Christopher Hager

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references and index

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

Word by word

Nature of contents

bibliography

Oclc number

792886753

Responsibility statement

Christopher Hager

Sub title

emancipation and the act of writing

Summary

"One of the cruelest abuses of slavery in America was that slaves were forbidden to read and write. Consigned to illiteracy, they left no records of their thoughts and feelings apart from the few exceptional narratives of Frederick Douglass and others who escaped to the North--or so we have long believed. But as Christopher Hager reveals, a few enslaved African Americans managed to become literate in spite of all prohibitions, and during the halting years of emancipation thousands more seized the chance to learn. The letters and diaries of these novice writers, unpolished and hesitant yet rich with voice, show ordinary black men and women across the South using pen and paper to make sense of their experiences"--Page [2] of jacket

Table Of Contents

Black Literacy in the White Mind -- The Private Life of the Literate Slave -- Writing a Life in Slavery and Freedom -- The Written We -- Petition and Protest in the Occupied South -- Black Ink, White Pages

Classification