African American literature

African American literature

The history of African-American literature is as old and deviated as the United States itself, but there are quite a few recurrent themes: combating racism, looking for a black identity, and keeping a exclusive quality of life. The first published Afro-American was Phillis Wheatley, whose collection of poetry precedes the U.S. Eighteenth-century “Slave Narratives,” journals of personal experiences by slaves, were a best reference of insight and inspiration to readers.

Essential Facts

Frederick Douglass' autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave (1845) advocated education as a way out of the physical and ...