1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910815778503321

Autore

Brooks Joanna <1971->

Titolo

American Lazarus : religion and the rise of African-American and native American literatures / / Joanna Brooks

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Oxford ; ; New York, : Oxford University Press, 2003

ISBN

0195347722

9780195347722

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

vi, 255 p

Disciplina

810.9/96073

Soggetti

American literature - African American authors - History and criticism

Christianity and literature - United States - History - 18th century

American literature - Revolutionary period, 1775-1783 - History and criticism

American literature - Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775 - History and criticism

American literature - Indian authors - History and criticism

American literature - 1783-1850 - History and criticism

Hymns, English - United States - History and criticism

Christian literature, American - History and criticism

Indians of North America - Intellectual life

African Americans - Intellectual life

African Americans in literature

Indians in literature

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 229-247) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Intro -- Contents -- Introduction -- 1: Race, Religion, and Regeneration -- 2: Samson Occom and the Poetics of Native Revival -- 3: John Marrant and the Lazarus Theology of the Early Black Atlantic -- 4: Prince Hall Freemasonry: Secrecy, Authority, and Culture -- 5: Black Identity and Yellow Fever in Philadelphia -- Conclusion: Lazarus Lives -- Appendix 1: Samson Occom's Collection of Divine Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1774) -- Appendix 2: Author-Unknown Hymns Original to Occom's Collection -- Appendix 3: Original Hymns by Samson



Occom -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- W -- V -- Y -- Z.

Sommario/riassunto

The 1780s and 1790s were a critical era for communities of color in the new United States of America. Even Thomas Jefferson observed that in the aftermath of the American Revolution, the spirit of the master is abating, that of the slave rising from the dust. This book explores the means bywhich the very first Black and Indian authors rose up to transform their communities and the course of American literary history. It argues that the origins of modern African-American and American Indian literatures emerged at the revolutionary crossroads of religion and racial formation as earlyBlack and Indian authors reinvented American evangelicalism and created new postslavery communities, new categories of racial identification, and new literary traditions.While shedding fresh light on the pioneering figures of African-American and Native American cultural history--including Samson Occom, Prince Hall, Richard Allen, Absalom Jones, and John Marrant--this work also explores a powerful set of little-known Black and Indian sermons, narratives, journals,and hymns. Chronicling the early American communities of color from the separatist Christian Indian settlement in upstate New York to the first African Lodge of Freemasons in Boston, it shows how eighteenth-century Black and Indian writers forever shaped the American experience of race and religion.American Lazarus offers a bold new vision of a foundational moment in American literature. It reveals the depth of early Black and Indian intellectual history and reassesses the political, literary, and cultural powers of religion in America.