From Bondage to Liberation: Writings by and about Afro-Americans from 1700 to 1918

Many of the authors in this collection have never been assembled together before. They represent both black and white voices, of different cultural backgrounds, from the beginnings of American history through the Dawn of the Harlem Renaissance.

Until the late 1960s, the traditional American literary canon was segregated. Moreover, writings of widely anthologized authors rarely touched on race. Not until the 1980s did studies begin to reflect the multicultural diversity of the United States. Ironically, while mainstream anthologies became more inclusive and integrated, Afro-American literature collections concentrated on black authors excluded from the traditional Anglo-American canon.

From Bondage to Liberation attempts a literary and cultural bridge across the racial divide. This book represents new and important views, through the lens of Faith Berry's narratives, of such well-known figures as Abraham Lincoln, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Mark Twain, Frederick Douglass, and many others. It presents an unflinching, multifaceted examination of the literary history of race relations in the United States, and thereby gives us a better understanding of where we have come from spiritually, socially, and economically -- and where we may be going.