The Earliest African American Literatures

“Professors Zachary McLeod Hutchins and Cassander L. Smith have offered students, teachers, and researchers a new model for meaning-making and archival studies with their book The Earliest African American Literatures: A Critical Reader. . . . It is impossible to overemphasize the thoughtful preparation and organization of The Earliest African American Literatures: A Critical Reader. . . . It presents a new, accessible method of thinking about reading and compositional practices during the colonial period without compromising the complexities of documentary research, the colonial period, or the black African literary lives to which The Earliest African American Literatures: A Critical Reader gives voice.”—Early American Literature

“This compelling volume brings together a rich archive of typically inaccessible texts that offer representations of voices that traditional archives have often overlooked. In challenging prior assumptions about early African American literary traditions, this collection not only highlights the value of further study and analysis but also facilitates new perspectives on the intriguing formal and aesthetic engagements of these foundational texts.” — Nicole N. Aljoe, Northeastern University

“This volume is an important addition to our record of African American print culture. The editors have a good sense of the need to assemble a fragmented record and to read from different angles to get a sense of people and perspectives otherwise obscured or misrepresented. The scholarship in the introduction is sound, the argument engaging, the historical and cultural background thoughtful and purposeful. The headnotes for the texts are expertly prepared and useful for the reader, and the texts themselves provide not just a productive challenge but also a series of object lessons in the recovery of African American history and literature. We get glimpses here of rhetorical moves developed to speak beyond what one is allowed to say, modes of representation that extend beyond the conditions defining one’s public image, and textual gestures that extend beyond the conventions of the text.” — John Ernest, University of Delaware