Frances E. W. Harper: A Call to Conscience

by Utz McKnight

Overview

Free Black woman, poet, novelist, essayist, speaker, and activist, Frances Watkins Harper was one of the nineteenth century’s most important advocates of Abolitionism and female suffrage, and her pioneering work still has profound lessons for us today.

In this new book, Utz McKnight shows how Harper’s life and work inspired her contemporaries to imagine a better America. He seeks to recover her importance by examining not only her vision of the possibilities of Emancipation, but also her subsequent role in challenging Jim Crow. He argues that engaging with her ideas and writings is vital in understanding not only our historical inheritance, but also contemporary issues ranging from racial violence to the role of Christianity.

This lucid book is essential reading not only for students of African American history, but also for all progressives interested in issues of race, politics, and society.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781509535545
Publisher:	Polity Press
Publication date:	12/02/2020
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Utz McKnight is Chair of the Department of Gender and Race Studies, and Professor of Political Science, at the University of Alabama.

Table of Contents

Preface vi

1 Frances Harper's Poetic Journey 1

2 Iola Leroy: Social Equality 54

3 Trial and Triumph: The Public Demand for Equality 117

4 Sowing and Reaping: Personal Solutions and Conviction 159

5 Minnie's Sacrifice and the Poetic License 213

6 Conclusion: Of Poems and Politics 268

Bibliography 284

Index 292