04648nam 2200829 a 450 991082155590332120240417131431.00-674-07082-80-674-06748-710.4159/harvard.9780674067486(CKB)2670000000330115(StDuBDS)AH24970289(SSID)ssj0000819090(PQKBManifestationID)11410942(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000819090(PQKBWorkID)10845046(PQKB)10611997(MiAaPQ)EBC3301209(DE-B1597)177951(OCoLC)827235538(OCoLC)840444021(DE-B1597)9780674067486(Au-PeEL)EBL3301209(CaPaEBR)ebr10652999(dli)HEB34009.0001.001(MiU)MIU01200000000000000000268(EXLCZ)99267000000033011520120502d2013 uy 0engur|||||||||||txtccrWord by word emancipation and the act of writing /Christopher Hager1st ed.Cambridge, Mass. Harvard University Press20131 online resource (296 p. )illBibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph0-674-05986-7 Includes bibliographical references and index.Black Literacy in the White Mind -- The Private Life of the Literate Slave -- Writing a Life in Slavery and Freedom -- The Written We -- Petition and Protest in the Occupied South -- Black Ink, White Pages.One of the cruelest abuses of slavery in America was that slaves were forbidden to read and write. Consigned to illiteracy, they left no records of their thoughts and feelings apart from the few exceptional narratives of Frederick Douglass and others who escaped to the North-or so we have long believed. But as Christopher Hager reveals, a few enslaved African Americans managed to become literate in spite of all prohibitions, and during the halting years of emancipation, thousands more seized the chance to learn. The letters and diaries of these novice writers, unpolished and hesitant yet rich with voice, show ordinary black men and women across the South using pen and paper to make sense of their experiences. Through an unprecedented gathering of these forgotten writings-from letters by individuals sold away from their families, to petitions from freedmen in the army to their new leaders, to a New Orleans man's transcription of the Constitution-Word by Word rewrites the history of emancipation. The idiosyncrasies of these untutored authors, Hager argues, reveal the enormous difficulty of straddling the border between slave and free. These unusual texts, composed by people with a unique perspective on the written word, force us to rethink the relationship between literacy and freedom. For African Americans at the end of slavery, learning to write could be liberating and empowering, but putting their hard-won skill to use often proved arduous and daunting-a portent of the tenuousness of the freedom to come.American literatureAfrican American authorsHistory and criticismAuthors, American19th centuryPolitical and social viewsAmerican literature19th centuryHistory and criticismAfrican AmericansIntellectual life20th centuryAfrican American authorsPolitical and social viewsAfrican AmericansSocial conditionsTo 1964Literature and societyUnited StatesAfrican AmericansCivil rightsAfrican Americans in literatureEnslaved personsEmancipationUnited StatesAfricanAmerican literatureAfrican American authorsHistory and criticism.Authors, AmericanPolitical and social views.American literatureHistory and criticism.African AmericansIntellectual lifeAfrican American authorsPolitical and social views.African AmericansSocial conditionsLiterature and societyAfrican AmericansCivil rights.African Americans in literature.Enslaved personsEmancipation810.9/896073075Hager Christopher1974-1708540MiAaPQMiAaPQMiAaPQBOOK9910821555903321Word by word4097627UNINA