Black Women Leaders of the 1800s
19th-century Activists, Feminists, Authors
Collected essays explore the influential role of notable black women in 19th-century American society and their legacies.
"This collection of essays joins a growing body of work that serves as a corrective to the prevailing view that no long-standing black women's intellectual traditions exist." The editors point out the plural "traditions."
Although the black women's work ranging from writing to public speaking to political activism has common themes such as women's rights, racial equality, and black identity, it did not grow out of a "single unified body of thought." As with any group of active, talented, accomplished individuals, there were different perspectives, approaches, and goals within the same fields of endeavor. The interrelated, though not unified, traditions are seen as "threads [in a] continuum...that moves alongside, or in opposition to the white discourses of feminism, liberalism, socialism, conservativism, and so on."
The nineteenth century was the time the intellectual traditions were noticeably strengthened by the presence of the particularly gifted, visible, and active black women whose ideas, activities, leadership, and lasting influence is described and assessed. In this first century of independence, the traditions of equality, feminism, and political activism which had been faint in the Colonial era and which would grow to major social concerns in the 20th century became more defined and potent. In their various ways, the black women thinkers/activists were participating in the broader developments of this period. Their work variously helped to shape positions on slavery, equality, emigration, minority rights, feminism, and other major social issues.
As early as the 1830s, the Bostonian Maria W. Stewart was writing pamphlets specifically for black audiences with religion and social justice so closely tied that she saw "resistance to oppression [as] the highest form of obedience to God." At the end of the 1800s and into the early 1900s, Anna Julia Cooper was denouncing the double discrimination against black woman both by white society and by black men. In "A Voice from the South by a Black Woman of the South" and other writings, she criticized black men for concentrating on advancements for themselves in the ministry and education to the neglect of similar advancement for black women. An essay by editor Conaway goes over the achievements of Mary Ann Shadd Cary as the first black women publisher to found and edit a newspaper in North America. Her paper published in Windsor, Ontario, reflected her interests as a teacher, orator, and social reformer. Editor Waters has an essay on "Some Core Themes of Nineteenth-Century Black Feminism."
Waters is a professor of philosophy, and Conaway is an assistat professor of Communications specializing in the press and race relations. Much of the content is from recently discovered papers not only bringing attention to the influence of particular little-known black women, but also increasing knowledge of the sources of varied African American traditions.
Black Women's Intellectual Traditions - Speaking Their Minds edited by Kristin Waters and Carlol B. Conaway. Lebanon, NH:University Press of New England/University of Vermont Press, 2007. 462+xii pages. $65.00 hardcover, ISBN 1-58465-633-6. $35.00 trade paper, ISBN 1-58465-634-4. chapter notes, bibliography, index.
