| Contents Notes |
"In this fine collection of rare documentary sources, many of them previously unpublished, African-American women in their rich diversity speak of themselves, their lives, their ambitions, their struggles. Theirs are stores 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. In the spirit of the slave mother who counseled her daughter, "Fight, and if you can't fight, kick; if you can't kick, then bite, " black women resisted sexual abuse and economic oppression, cared for black children and neighbors, and organized for survival and political power. Their vivid accounts, their strong and insistent voices, make for inspiring reading, enriching our understanding of the American past"--Book cover. Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Notes on Sources -- An Introduction / by Mary McLeod Bethune -- 1. Slavery. Purchase and Sale. Bill of Sale of Abraham Van Vleeck -- Mrs. Blankenship Wishes to Buy a Slave Girl -- Moses Grandy’s Wife Is Sold -- A Slave Dealer’s Sale Receipts -- A Mother Is Sold Away from Her Children -- A Slave Mother Succeeds in Returning to Her Family -- A Slave Shams Illness to Stay with Her Husband -- Tell It Like It Was. Daily Life of Plantation Slaves -- The Slaves’ Garden Plot -- A House Slave’s Family Life -- A Seamstress Is Punished -- The Daily Life of House Slaves -- I Wasn’t Crying ‘Bout Mistress, I Was Crying ‘Cause the White Bread Was Gone / Martha Harrison -- The Struggle for Survival: Day-to-Day Resistance. Sneaking an Education: Memories of a Contraband / Susie King Taylor -- Foolin’ Massa: Memories of a Contraband -- She Finally Went to School That One Night / Josephine Thomas White -- A Slave Woman Runs a Midnight School / Milla Granson -- A Slave Mother in Business -- Fight, and If You Can’t Fight, Kick -- A Mother Purchases Her Daughter -- Ransoming a Woman from Slavery -- Stephen and Juba -- A Woman’s Fate. The Way Women Are Treated -- The ‘Breeder Woman’ -- The Nursing Mothers -- A Slaveholder’s Wife Listens to Her Slaves -- The Slaveholder’s Mistress -- A Slaveholder Confides to Her Diary -- The Story of Nancy Weston as Told by Her Son -- On the Road to Freedom. The Rescue of Jane Johnson -- Dramatic Slave Rescues -- The Case of Margaret Garner -- They Called Her ‘Moses’ / Harriet Tubman -- An Ingenious Escape / Ellen Craft -- 2. The Struggle for Education. Learning to Teach. Teaching School to Keep Alive / Maria W. Stewart -- Establishing a Girls’ Department in the Institute for Colored Youth / Sarah Mapps Douglass -- Training to Become an Educator / Fannie Jackson Coppin -- Methods of Instruction / Fannie Jackson Coppin -- Teaching the Freedmen. A Teacher from the North / Charlotte Forten Grimké -- A Former Slave Teaching Black Soldiers / Susie King Taylor -- Teachers Wanted -- Reports from the Field -- Administration of Freedmen’s Schools -- An Example of Teaching Materials Used in Freedmen’s Schools in Virginia in 1870 -- Catechizing Freedmen Children -- They Would Not Let Us Have Schools -- Schooling in the Jim Crow South / Septima Poinsetta Clark -- School Founders. A Progress Report from the Founder of the Haines School / Lucy Laney -- Fund Raising for Palmer Memorial Institute / Charlotte Hawkins Brown -- The National Training School for Girls Appeals for Funds / Nannie Burroughs -- A College on a Garbage Dump / Mary McLeod Bethune -- Another ‘Begging’ Letter / Mary McLeod Bethune -- 3. A Woman’s Lot. Black Women Are Sex Objects for White Men. The Married Life of Georgia Peons -- We Are Little More Than Slaves -- No Protection for Black Girls -- Their Rage Was Chiefly Directed Against Men -- The Final Solution -- The Myth of the (3z(BBad(3y (BBlack Woman. The Accusations Are False / Fannie Barrier Williams -- A Colored Woman, However Respectable, Is Lower Than the White Prostitute / Anonymous -- In Defense of Black Women / Elsie Johnson McDougald -- The Rape of Black Women as a Weapon of Terror. The Memphis Riot -- KKK Terror during Reconstruction -- Defend Black Women—and Die!: The Lynching of Berry Washington -- Defend Black Women—and Die!: The Case of Mrs. Rosa Lee Ingram and Her Sons -- Black Women Attack the Lynching System. Let There Be Justice / Frances Ellen Watkins Harper -- How to Stop Lynching -- A Red Record / Ida B. Wells Barnett -- Lynching from a Negro’s Point of View / Mary Church Terrell -- The Anti-Lynching Crusaders -- 4. Making a Living. Doing Domestic Work. I Live a Treadmill Life / Anonymous -- Slave Markets in New York City -- The Domestic Workers’ Union -- Organizing Domestic Workers in Atlanta, Georgia / Dorothy Bolden -- From Service Jobs to the Factory. An Army Laundress at War / Susie King Taylor -- Black Women in the Reconstruction South / Frances Ellen Watkins Harper -- The Negro Woman Worker: 1860-1890 / Jean Collier Brown -- The Tobacco Workers / Emma L. Shields -- Two Million Women at Work / Elizabeth Ross Haynes -- Women of the Steel Towns / Mollie V. Lewis -- A Black Union Organizer / Sabina Martinez -- Organizing at Winston-Salem, North Carolina: Estelle Folwers, Luanna Cooper, Moranda Smith -- It Takes a While to Realize That It Is Discrimination / Florence Rice -- 5. Survival Is a Form of Resistance. Something Told Me Not to Be Afraid / Charlottle Ann Jackson -- Three Times Three Cheers for the Gunboat Boys -- A Black Woman Remembers Her Father / Anonymous -- A Family Struggles to Keep Going / Frances A. Joseph Gaudet -- A Night Watch / Maria L. Baldwin -- I Was a Negro Come of Age / Ellen Tarry -- We Want to Live, Not Merely Exist / Mrs. Henry Weddington -- Blue Fork Is the Worst Place I Know / Sarah Tuck -- I Did Not Really Understand What It Meant to Be a Negro / Daisy Lee Bates -- Helping Out Daddy / Louise Meriwether -- Am I My Brother’s Keeper? / Helen Howard -- Having a Baby inside Me Is the Only Time I’m Really Alive / Anonymous -- 6. In Government Service and Political Life. A Pioneer Newspaper Woman / Mary Ann Shadd Cary -- Nurse, Spy and Scout / Harriet Tubman -- Opportunities for the Educated Colored Woman / Eva D. Bowles -- Government Work in World War I / Mary Church Terrell -- ‘Election Day’ / Elizabeth Piper Ensley -- The Negro Woman in Politics / Mrs. Robert A. Patterson -- I Accept This Call / Charlotta Bass -- Developing Community Leadership / Ella Baker -- The 51% Minority / Shirley Chisholm -- 7. The Monster Prejudice. In the Grip of the Monster. Martyr for Freedom / Amy Spain -- I Believe They Despise Us for Our Color / Sarah M. Douglass -- When, Oh! When Shall This Cease? / Charlotte Forten Grimké -- Fighting Jim Crow / Sojourner Truth -- Suing for Her Rights / Charlotte Hawkins Brown -- The Small Horrors of Childhood / Anonymous -- What It Means to Be Colored in the Capital of the United States / Mary Church Terrell -- Traveling Jim Crow / Mahalia Jackson -- The Life and Death of Juliette Derricotte / There Is No Prejudice in Arkansas -- Discrimination on WPA: Black Women Appeal to FDR -- Freedom—Now!. The Causes of the Harlem Riot / Nannie Burroughs -- Breaking Restrictive Covenants -- The Ordeal of the Children / Daisy Bates -- All I Could Think of Was How Sick Mississippi Whites Were / Anne Moody -- 8. (3z(BLifting as We Climb(3y. (BFrom Benevolent Societies to National Club Movement. The Afric-American Female Intelligence Society of Boston -- The Beginnings of the National Club Movement / Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin and Margaret Murray Washington -- The Ruffin Incident / Fannie Barrier Williams -- Club Activities, NACW Convention -- Interracial Work. Cooperation on a Community Level -- The Colored Women’s Statement -- Speaking Up for the Race at Memphis -- How to Stop Lynchings: A Discussion -- Inside a White Organization—The Young Women’s Christian Association. Eva Bowles Calls for Action -- What the Colored Women Are Asking of the YWCA -- Too Much Paternalism in ‘Y’s’ -- Reports by the Secretary for Colored Work / Eva Bowles -- Reminiscences of a YWCA Worker / Anna Arnold Hedgeman -- Grass-Roots Work. Plan of Work: Atlanta Colored Women’s War Council, World War I -- The Neighborhood Union, Atlanta, Georgia -- The Story of the Gate City Free Kindergarten Association -- The Poor Help Themselves: The Vine City Foundation -- Operation Daily Bread: The National Council of Negro Women -- 9. Race Pride. Throw Off Your Fearfulness and Come Forth / Maria W. Stewart -- Emigration to Mexico / Anonymous -- I Belong to This Race / Frances Ellen Watkins Harper -- Let the Afro-American Depend but on Himself / Ida B. Wells Barnett -- The South Is Our Home / Amanda Smith Jemand -- Black History Builds Race Pride -- Please Stop Using the Word ‘Negro’ / Mary Church Terrell -- Glorify Blackness / Nannie Burroughs -- Unload Your Uncle toms / Nannie Burroughs -- The Only Thing You Can Aspire to Is Nationhood / Dara Abubakari (Virginia E. Y. Collins) -- 10. Black Women Speak of Womanhood. What If I Am a Woman? / Maria W. Stewart -- I Suppose I Am About the Only Colored Woman That Goes About to Speak for the Rights of Colored Women / Sojourner Truth -- The Colored Woman Should Not Be Ignored / Anna J. Cooper -- The New Black Woman / Fannie Barrier Williams -- Women as Leaders / Amy-Jacques Garvey -- A Century of Progress of Negro Women / Mary McLeod Bethune -- The Strength of the Negro Mother / Mahalia Jackson -- The Black Woman Is Liberated in Her Own Mind / Dara Abubakari (Virginia E. Y. Collins) -- Women’s Liberation Has a Different Meaning for Blacks / Renee Ferguson -- Jim Crow and Jane Crow / Pauli Murray -- Poor Black Women / Patricia Robinson -- Facing the Abortion Question / Shirley Chisholm -- I Want the Right to Be Black and Me / Margaret Wright -- It’s in Your Hands / Fannie Lou Hamer -- Biographical Notes |
