Black Coffee discussion

Hello everyone, it's time to decide what we will be reading for May! This month's theme is "African-American Literature Before 1850". Any book nominated must have been written by an African-American and published in or before 1850. I thought this would be a good way to introduce us to some older classics .

Nominations are open until the 13th.

I nominate Poems On Various Subjects, Religious And Moral by Phillis Wheatley.

Ok - I am confused.

I thought the book nominated was suppose to be written before 1850.

or did I read it incorrectly and the book's setting needs to be before 1850 not necessarily when it was written

The book's supposed to be published before 1850.

I guess if we don't receive a lot of nominations we could always change it to setting before 1850 but I think there were enough works published before 1850 to make it work....

Oh my apologies I didn't see that me and my half reading smh. Well this one will definitely be a hard one because there are very few African-american writers who were published authors in the 19th century. But they are out there so I'll go searching. My fault I'll delete it and find a new one :)

kisha wrote: "Oh my apologies I didn't see that me and my half reading smh. Well this one will definitely be a hard one because there are very few African-american writers who were published authors in the 19th ..."

Np, like I said if the theme's too difficult we can switch it up a little. :) Or I could move the cutoff date forward a little.

In the event the theme is opened up just a decade, we could consider either Our Nig (pub. in 1859) or Clotel: or, The President's Daughter (pub in 1853).

The History of Mary Prince: A West Indian Slave Narrative by Mary Prince

synopsis

The first black woman to escape from slavery in the British colonies and publish a record of her experiences, Prince vividly recalls her life in the West Indies, her rebellion against physical and psychological degradation, and her 1828 escape in England. A straightforward, often poetic account of a struggle for freedom.

Phillis Wheatly meets the criteria perfectly, since she was published in the eighteenth century. I've read about her before and would be interested to read that book. If we take seconds to nominations, I second Poems On Various Subjects, Religious And Moral by Phillis Wheatley

Narrative of Sojourner Truth

the ebook is currently free on amazon

For anyone else who'd be interested in nominating, here are some suggestions:
The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano: Written by Himself
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

Maya wrote: "Narrative of Sojourner Truth

the ebook is currently free on amazon"

Thanks for letting us know. I just got the free edition.

Maya wrote: "Narrative of Sojourner Truth

the ebook is currently free on amazon"

This is another good choice; I read this once, but it's been long enough it might be good to reread it if we choose this one.

The poll is now up! https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1...

And the winner is Narrative of Sojourner Truth!