Genius in bondage
Subtitle: literature of the early Black Atlantic
By: edited by Vincent Carretta and Philip Gould.
Contributors: Carretta, Vincent.; Gould, Philip, 1960-
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
Published: 2001
Place of publication: Lexington
Language: eng
Number of pages: 272
Subjects: Equiano, Olaudah, b. 1745; Hammon, Briton; Wheatley, Phillis, 1753-1784 -- Criticism and interpretation; Sancho, Ignatius, 1729-1780 -- Criticism and interpretation; African literature (English) -- Foreign countries -- History and criticism; English literature -- Black authors -- History and criticism; English literature -- 18th century -- History and criticism; Slaves' writings, English -- History and criticism; Africans -- Foreign countries -- Historiography; Slavery in literature; Blacks in literature; English-speaking countries -- Intellectual life -- 18th century
Description: Until fairly recently, critical studies and anthologies of African American literature generally began with the 1830s and 1840s. Yet there was an active and lively transatlantic black literary tradition as early as the 1760s.

Genius in Bondage situates this literature in its own historical terms, rather than treating it as a sort of prologue to later African American writings. The contributors address the shifting meanings of race and gender during this period, explore how black identity was cultivated within a capitalist economy, discuss the impact of Christian religion and the Enlightenment on definitions of freedom and liberty, and identify ways in which black literature both engaged with and rebelled against Anglo-American culture.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Betrayed by some of my own complexion : Cugoano, abolition, and the contemporary language of racialism / Roxanne Wheeler; title: Race, redemption, and captivity in the narratives of Briton Hammon and John Marrant / Karen A. Weyler; title: Being a man : Olaudah Equiano and Ignatius Sancho / Felcity A. Nussbaum; title: Volatile subjects : the history of Mary Prince / Gillian Whitlock; title: Letters of the old Calibar slave trade, 1760-1789 / Paul E. Lovejoy and David Richardson; title: Remarkable liberty : language and identity in eighteenth-century Black autobiography / Philip Gould; title: Property of author : Olaudah Equiano's place in the history of the book / Vincent Carretta; title: Surprizing deliverance? : slavery and freedom, language, and identity in the narrative of Briton Hammon, a Negro man / Robert Desrochers, Jr.; title: On her own footing : Phillis Wheatley in freedom / Frank Shuffelton; title: Thou hast the holy word : Jupiter Hammon's "regards" to Phillis Wheatley / Rosemary Fithian Guruswamy; title: Ignatius Sancho's letters : sentimental libertinism and the politics of form / Markman Ellis; title: Benjamin Banneker's revision of Thomas Jefferson : conscience versus science in the early American antislavery debate / William L. Andrews; title: Fifth of July : Nathaniel Paul and the construction of Black nationalism / Robert S. Levine.