Appointed: An American Novel

Regenerations: African American Literature and Culture

by William H. Anderson, Walter H. Stowers, Eric Gardner (Editor)

Appointed is a recently recovered novel written by William Anderson and Walter Stowers, two of the editors of the Detroit Plaindealer , a long-running and well-regarded African American newspaper of the late nineteenth century. Drawing heavily on nineteenth-century print culture, the authors tell the story of John Saunders, a college-educated black man living and working in Detroit. Through a bizarre set of circumstances, Saunders befriends his white employer’s son, Seth Stanley, and the two men form a lasting, cross-racial bond that leads them to travel together to the American South. On their journey, John shows Seth the harsh realities of American racism and instructs him in how he might take responsibility for alleviating the effects of racism in his own home and in the white world broadly.  As a coauthored novel of frustrated ambition, cross-racial friendship, and the tragedy of lynching, Appointed represents a unique contribution to African American literary history. This is the first scholarly edition of Appointed , and it includes a collection of writings from the Plaindealer , the authors’ short story “A Strange Freak of Fate,” and an introduction that locates Appointed and its authors within the journalistic and literary currents of the United States in the late nineteenth century.

348 pages, Paperback

Published July 23, 2019

Reviews

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unsettling overall. Fascinating to read a novel that takes on race in late 19th century Detroit from two African American authors of that era. The young characters, both White and Black are consumed with taking advantage of whatever their standing in society allows...both in vocation and romance. The narrative began to fill a void of history in my head about dynamics of class and racism in Michigan between the civil war and Ford. Then for the characters to go South and broaden the discussion to the national stage really made it interesting and horrifying. Definitely worth reading if these topics interest you although you might skim the middle part until Seth and Saunders head to NOLA. Don’t read the intro til the end. There are some beautiful descriptions of Michigan’s landscape pre-full industrialization.