Introduction. The age of David Walker Benjamin Fagan; Part I. Local Transitions: 1. Antebellum literary societies, polite learning, and traditions of modernity Carla L. Peterson; 2. 'By a Young Lady of Color': Black women and the antislavery press Jasmine Nichole Cobb; 3. The poetics of education in antebellum New Orleans Juliane Braun; 4. Gentility, resistance, and the Nat turner's rebellion in early African American poetry Faith Barrett; Part II. National Transitions: 5. Copyright, fugitivity, and the fight for self-ownership in early African American literature Emahunn Raheem Ali Campbell; 6. The communications revolution and the networked path to freedom Nihad M. Farooq; 7. The fugitive slave act and the United States of slavery Susanna Ashton; Part III. Transnational Transitions: 8. Cosmopolitanism, character, and the theories of early African American literature Hannah Spahn; 9. Race, slavery, and emigration in black women's life writing Pia Wiegmink; 10. The impact of West Indian emancipation on African American poetry Nicole N. Aljoe; 11. La Escalera, sentiment, and revolution in the antebellum novel David Luis-Brown; 12. Europe, Mexico, and the African American 1848 John Levi Barnard; 13. The Irish famine and the lessons of environmental history Ian Finseth.

Shows how African Americans used the written word to respond to and drive the events and institutions of this period.