Table Of ContentWho Writes
for Black Children?
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Who Writes
for Black Children?
African American Children’s Literature
before 1900
Katharine Capshaw and Anna Mae Duane Editors
university of Minnesota press
Minneapolis • london
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Illustrations from The Life and Adventures of Olaudah Equiano
courtesy of the American Antiquarian Society.
Copyright 2017 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or
otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Published by the University of Minnesota Press
111 Third Avenue South, Suite 290
Minneapolis, MN 55401- 2520
http://www.upress.umn.edu
A Cataloging-in-Publication record for this book is available from
the Library of Congress.
isBn 978-1-5179-0026-7 (hc)
isBn 978-1-5179-0027-4 (pb)
Printed in the United States of America on acid- free paper
The University of Minnesota is an equal- opportunity educator
and employer.
23 22 21 20 19 18 17 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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C O N T E N T S
I ntroduction: The Radical Work of Reading Black Children
in the Era of Slavery and Reconstruction
anna Mae duane and Katharine Capshaw ix
Part I Locating Readers
1 Conjuring Readers: Antebellum African American
Children’s Poetry angela sorBy 3
2 F ree the Children: Jupiter Hammon and the Origin of African
American Children’s Literature Courtney weiKle- Mills 22
3 “ Ye Are Builders”: Child Readers in Frances Harper’s Vision
of an Inclusive Black Poetry Karen Chandler 41
Part II Schooling, Textuality, and Literacies
4 Madame Couvent’s Legacy: Free Children of Color as Historians
in Antebellum New Orleans Mary niall MitChell 61
5 Innocence in Ann Plato’s and Susan Paul’s Black Children’s
Biographies ivy linton staBell 75
6 A Role Model for African American Children: Abigail Field Mott’s
Life and Adventures of Olaudah Equiano and White Northern
Abolitionism valentina K. tiKoff 94
7 The Child’s Illustrated Antislavery Talking Book: Abigail Field
Mott’s Abridgment of Olaudah Equiano’s Interesting Narrative
for African American Children Martha J. Cutter 117
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Part III Defining African American Children’s Literature:
Critical Crossovers
8 “ Our Hope Is in the Rising Generation”: Locating African
American Children’s Literature in the Children’s Department
of the Colored American nazera sadiq wright 147
9 “ No Rights That Any Body Is Bound to Respect”: Pets, Race,
and African American Child Readers Brigitte fielder 164
10 Finding God’s Way: Amelia E. Johnson’s Clarence and Corrine
as a Path to Religious Resistance for African American Children
luella d’aMiCo 182
Part IV Bibliographic Essays
11 Nuggets from the Field: The Roots of African American
Children’s Literature, 1780– 1866 laura wasowiCz 203
12 Children’s Literature in the Christian Recorder: An Initial
Comparative Biobibliography for May 1862 and April 1873
eriC gardner 225
Part V A Collection of African American Children’s Literature
before 1900
The Life and Adventures of Olaudah Equiano
olaudah equiano
Abridged by aBigail field Mott 249
Selected Poems
Jupiter haMMon 288
Only Once 294
Selected Essays and Poems
ann plato 296
William Saunders; or, Blessings in Disguise 302
The Ten Commandments
luCy sKipwith 306
Dogs and Cats
harriet BeeCher stowe 308
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Selected Poems
franCes ellen watKins harper 313
Excerpts from “Fancy Etchings”
f[ranCes]. e[llen]. w[atKins]. harper 318
Lines Dedicated to the Memory of Hattie M. Mowbray
d. M. hilgrove 323
A Story for the Little Folks: The Tiger 325
The Mournful Lute; or, The Preceptor’s Farewell
daniel alexander payne 328
Excerpt from Clarence and Corinne; or, God’s Way
a[Melia]. e. Johnson 334
My Childhood’s Happy Days
daniel weBster davis 338
L ines Addressed to a Wreath of Flowers, Designed as a
Present for Mary Ann e. weBB 340
Acknowledgments 341
Contributors 343
Index 345
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Introduction
The Radical Work of Reading Black Children
in the Era of Slavery and Reconstruction
Anna Mae Duane and Katharine Capshaw
In one of the most iconic and controversial moments in African American history,
the teenage Phillis Wheatley found her talent and authenticity in doubt. As she
tried to secure publication for her remarkable Poems on Various Subjects Religious
and Moral (1773), publishers were skeptical that people would “not credi[t] ye
performance to be by a Negro.”1 Her youth raised questions that compounded the
problems posed by her race, her enslavement, and her gender. She was just eigh-
teen years old when she sought to publish the volume, and many of the poems
contained within it had been written when she was still younger. How could a
black child, and an enslaved black child at that, have read widely enough to have
mastered the range of classical allusions and forms that shaped her art? In the end,
Wheatley secured eighteen signatures attesting that “she has been examined by
some of the best Judges, and is thought qualified to write them.”2 Although the
circumstances surrounding those signatures are a matter of considerable debate,
the image of a black girl having to prove her familiarity with literature resonates
strongly to this day.3
In 1822, a much less famous black child found himself having to pass a similar
test. George Allen’s schoolwork at the New York African Free School was, accord-
ing to his schoolmaster, so “superior to any thing of the kind, which could be
expected from a boy so young, that his teachers felt considerable hesitation in
allowing it to go from the school, as the boy’s own work.” In other words, his writ-
ing was so good that his teachers worried that no one would believe a black child
produced it. As white schoolmaster Charles W. Andrews recounted, it was neces-
sary to have Allen “locked up in a room alone, by the Master” to determine that
the child possessed the education and talent to produce such high- quality work.
Allen, “a pure black boy” of twelve, took the slate “with a great deal of trembling”
and wrote a poem on slavery, which was then circulated as proof of the boy’s
“unaided” talent.4
ix
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