Lyrical Liberators: The American Antislavery Movement in Verse, 1831–1865
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.14 (632 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0821422804 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 300 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2013-01-27 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
There is no other book like this. Before Black Lives Matter and Hamilton, there were abolitionist poets, who put pen to paper during an era when speaking out against slavery could mean risking your life. In Lyrical Liberators, Monica Pelaez draws on unprecedented archival research to recover these poems from the periodicals—Garrison’s Liberator, Frederick Douglass’s North Star, and six others—in which they originally appeared. The poems are arranged by theme over thirteen chapters, a number that represents the amendment that finally abolished slavery in 1865. Yet anti-slavery poems have been less studied than the activist editorials and novels of the time. Sweeping in scope and passionate in its execution, Lyrical Liberators is indispensable for scholars and teachers of American literature and history, and stands as a testimony to the power of a free press in the face of injustice.. Indeed, William Lloyd Garrison was dragged through the streets by a Boston mob before a planned lecture, and publisher Elijah P. The book collects and annotates works by critically acclaimed writers, commercially successful scribes, and minority voices including those of African Americans and women. Since poetry formed a part of the cultural, political, and emotional lives of readers, it held remarkable persu
It is a great set of primary sources that are virtually impossible to obtain. Pelaez has pulled off a real hat trick. “This book teaches us that the ‘soft’ antislavery verse was as powerful and as ‘hard’ as any essay or editorial and maybe more effective. Her book is a significant contribution to the scholarship on antislavery, slavery, the civil war, and race relations. And finally, it is ideal for classroom adoption.” — Paul Finkelman, University of Pittsburgh School of Law