Includes bibliographical references (pages 615-630).

Slavery : purchase and sale. Tell it like it was. Struggle for survival -- day to day resistance. A Woman's fate. On the road to freedom. Struggle for education : learning to teach. Teaching the freedmen. School founders Woman's lot : black women are sex objects for white men. Myth of the "bad" black woman. Rape of black women as a weapon of terror. Black women attack the lynching system. Making a living : doing domestic work. From service jobs to the factory. Survival is a form of resistance In government service and political life. Monster prejudice : in the grip of the monster. Freedom -- now! Lifting as we climb : from benevolent societies to national club movement. Interracial work. Inside a white organization, the YWCA. Grassroots work. Race pride. Black women speak of womanhood. In this "stunning collection of documents" (Washington Post Book World), African-American women speak of themselves, their lives, ambitions, and struggles from the colonial period to the present day. Theirs are stories of oppression and survival, of family and community self-help, of inspiring heroism and grass-roots organizational continuity in the face of racism, economic hardship, and, far too often, violence. Their vivid accounts, their strong and insistent voices, make for inspiring reading, enriching our understanding of the American past.