African American Women Poets from 1746 to the Harlem Renaissance

By Frances E W Harper, Alice Dunbar Nelson and Gwendolyn B Bennett

Race and gender have denied many their rightful place in the canon of humanity’s arts.

In today’s world, in the blink of an electronic pulse, words can be transported across continents and peoples and all too easily lost in the ever-growing mass of disposable culture of ‘me-me-me’ and ‘more- more-more’. We can all be ‘woke’ be ‘politically correct’ be outraged at a transgression or even a slight. Everything means something to someone.

But, once again, more modern times miss the reality of what others in previous generations suffered in the battle for equality and recognition. In America, to be black and a woman over the years this volume covers, was to be chattel, to be bartered, sold, trafficked and used for no more than the whims of others.

It was a harsh reality, and yet…., and yet, these women produced verse that sears our souls with the ambition to tell others, to share with us all, what life was like, what was endured and the heartbreak of what their reality was. They could not be overcome; their voice sought to endure and not be smothered.

Words are powerful weapons, they form ideas, they create movements and manifestos that can change the world. Many of the women in this volume added to those words, to that desire that the words of their Constitution would someday include themselves. The fight is not yet wholly won, prejudice and inequality still single them out but the flame of hope, of destiny continues to burn fiercely with their names.

Their poetry is not solely of protest but rich in a range of subjects embracing tenderness, love, family and includes works by Alice Dunbar Nelson, Frances W Harper, Phyllis Wheatley, Zora Neale Hurston, Esther Popel, Clarissa Scott Delany and many others whose voice voices call to us through the years.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Portable Poetry
• Release date: Nov 1, 2023
• ISBN: 9781835470657

Book preview

African American Women Poets from 1746 to the Harlem Renaissance

Race and gender have denied many their rightful place in the canon of humanity’s arts.

In today’s world, in the blink of an electronic pulse, words can be transported across continents and peoples and all too easily lost in the ever-growing mass of disposable culture of ‘me-me-me’ and ‘more-more-more’.  We can all be ‘woke’ be ‘politically correct’ be outraged at a transgression or even a slight.  Everything means something to someone.

But, once again, more modern times miss the reality of what others in previous generations suffered in the battle for equality and recognition.  In America, to be black and a woman over the years this volume covers, was to be chattel, to be bartered, sold, trafficked and used for no more than the whims of others.

It was a harsh reality, and yet…., and yet, these women produced verse that sears our souls with the ambition to tell others, to share with us all, what life was like, what was endured and the heartbreak of what their reality was.  They could not be overcome; their voice sought to endure and not be smothered. 

Words are powerful weapons, they form ideas, they create movements and manifestos that can change the world.  Many of the women in this volume added to those words, to that desire that the words of their Constitution would someday include themselves.   The fight is not yet wholly won, prejudice and inequality still single them out but the flame of hope, of destiny continues to burn fiercely with their names. 

Their poetry is not solely of protest but rich in a range of subjects embracing tenderness, love, family and includes works by Alice Dunbar Nelson, Frances W Harper, Phyllis Wheatley, Zora Neale Hurston, Esther Popel, Clarissa Scott Delany and many others whose voice voices call to us through the years.

Index of Contents

Bars Fight by Lucy Terry

On Virtue by Phyllis Wheatley

To a Lady and Her Children on the Death of Her Son and Their Brother by Phyllis Wheatley

An Hymn to the Morning by Phyllis Wheatley

An Hymn to the Evening by Phyllis Wheatley

Bury Me in a Free Land by Frances E W Harper

My Mother's Kiss by Frances E W Harper

Burial of Sarah by Frances E W Harper

The Slave Trade Girl's Address to Her Mother by Sarah Louisa Forten

Reflections, Written On Visiting the Grave of a Venerated Friend by Ann Plato

The Natives of America by Ann Plato

The Angel's Visit by Charlotte L Forten Grimke

Disappointment by May E Tucker

Light In Darkness by Mary E Tucker

Hope by Mary E Tucker

Drifts That Bar My Door by Adah Isaacs Menken

Infelix by Adah Isaacs Menken

Aspiration by Adah Isaacs Menken

The Coming Woman by Mary Weston Fordham

In Memorium. Alphonse Campbell Fordham by Mary Weston Fordham

Aspiration by Henrietta Cordelia Ray

Life by Henrietta Cordelia Ray

Scraps of Time by Charlotte E Linden

Brave Man and Brave Woman by Charlotte E Linden

What Constitutes A Negro by Eva Carter Buckner

Thine Own by Josephine Delphine Henderson Heard

The Black Sampson by Josephine Delphine Henderson Heard

The Singer and the Song (To Paul Laurence Dunbar) by Carrie Williams Clifford

The Widening Light by Carrie Williams Clifford

The Door of Hope by Lizelia Augusta Jenkins Moorer

Negro Heroines by Lizelia Augusta Jenkins Moorer

The Voice of the Negro by Lizelia Augusta Jenkins Moorer

The Angel's Message by Clara Ann Thompson

Not Dead, But Sleeping by Clara Ann Thompson

Treasured Mome'nts by Olivia Ward Bush Banks

When Mandy Combs Her Head by Katherine Chapman Tillman

Emancipation by Priscilla Jane Thompson

To A Deceased Friend by Priscilla Jane Thompson

Ain't That Hard. Transcribed by Christine Rutledge of the Carolina Singers 1873

The Gospel Train. Transcribed by Christine Rutledge of the Carolina Singers 1873

The Prettiest Thing That I Ever Did. Transcribed by Christine Rutledge of the Carolina Singers 1873

I Sit and Sew by Alice Dunbar Nelson

Sonnet by Alice Dunbar-Nelson

In Memoriam by Alice Dunbar Nelson

Impressions by Alice Dunbar Nelson

At the Grave of the Forgotten by Effie Waller Smith

Preparation by Effie Waller Smith

Tenebris by Angelina Weld Grimké

The Black Finger by Angelina Weld Grimké

The Eyes of My Regret by Angelina Weld Grimké

The Heart of A Woman by Georgia Douglas Johnson

Transpositions by Georgia Douglas Johnson

When I Rise Up by Georgia Douglas Johnson

Translation by Anne Spencer

White Things by Anne Spencer

La Vie C'est la Vie by Jessie Fauset

Dead Fires by Jessie Fauset

Sometimes by Maggie Pogue Johnson

The Negro Has A Chance by Maggie Pogue Johnson

Journey's End by Zora Neale