'Til Death Or Distance Do Us Part

Love and Marriage in African America

Häftad, Engelska, 2014

Av Frances Smith Foster, Emory University) Foster, Frances Smith (Charles Howard Chandler Professor in English and Women's Studies and Chair of the English Department, Charles Howard Chandler Professor in English and Women's Studies and Chair of the English Department

479 kr

Beställningsvara. Skickas inom 5-8 vardagar

Fri frakt för medlemmar vid köp för minst 249 kr.

Finns i fler format (1)

Inbunden

619 kr

Skickas inom 5-8 vardagar

Conventional wisdom tells us that marriage was illegal for African Americans during the antebellum era, and that if people married at all, their vows were tenuous ones: "until death or distance do us part." It is an impression that imbues beliefs about black families to this day. But it's a perception primarily based on documents produced by abolitionists, the state, or other partisans. It doesn't tell the whole story.Drawing on a trove of less well-known sources including family histories, folk stories, memoirs, sermons, and especially the fascinating writings from the Afro-Protestant Press,'Til Death or Distance Do Us Part offers a radically different perspective on antebellum love and family life.Frances Smith Foster applies the knowledge she's developed over a lifetime of reading and thinking. Advocating both the potency of skepticism and the importance of story-telling, her book shows the way toward a more genuine, more affirmative understanding of African American romance, both then and now.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2014-10-02
Mått213 x 137 x 15 mm
Vikt267 g
FormatHäftad
SpråkEngelska
Antal sidor220
FörlagOUP USA
ISBN9780199389704
UtmärkelserWinner of the College Language Association Creative Scholarship Award

Tillhör följande kategorier

Litteraturvetenskap inom Skonlitteratur
Tidigmodern militärhistoria inom Historia och arkeologi
Inbördeskrig inom Historia och arkeologi
Slaveri inom Historia och arkeologi
Etnicitet inom Samhalle och politik
Kristendom inom Filosofi och religion
Religion: allmänt inom Filosofi och religion

Frances Smith Foster is Charles Howard Candler Professor of English and Women's Studies (Emeritus) at Emory University. Her previous books include Written By Herself: Literary Production by African American Women, 1746-1892 (Indiana UP, 1993), Witnessing Slavery: The Development of the Ante-Bellum Slave Narrative (Greenwood, 1979), and several edited collections. Her VSI to African American Literature is forthcoming.

This is a challenging and important text. After deconstructing our national myths about marriage and our specific assumptions about African American marriage, Foster masterfully reconstructs the reality of marriage for enslaved black people. Rather than finding a fragile institution of transient attachments, she uncovers a legacy of love, struggle, and commitment. By choosing whom to love, how to love, and what to sacrifice, black Americans carved out space for their human selves. Their marriages contributed to decades of resistance against the dehumanizing effects of slavery. Although there is not a hint of sentimentalism, this book is truly an inspiring love story.