African American Library
This page highlights literary works in the American Literature library by prominent African American authors, such as Langston Hughes and civil rights leaders who advanced abolition, such as Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. Stephen Crane's short story A Dark Brown Dog is included due to its symbolism during Reconstruction (the dog represents emancipated slaves, the child is the new generation of white Southerners, the father is Jim Crow).
Twelve Years a Slave - Solomon Northup
A Narrative on the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave - Frederick Douglass
Abolition Fanaticism in New York - Frederick Douglass
Oration in Memory of Abraham Lincoln - Frederick Douglass
I Have a Dream - Martin Luther King, Jr.
I, Too, Sing America - Langston Hughes
First published African American woman poet - Phillis Wheatley
Frederick Douglass' Letter to Ida B. Wells
Up From Slavery: An Autobiography - Booker T. Washinton
The Fruits of Industrial Training - Booker T. Washinton
The Souls of Black Folk - W.E.B. Du Bois
Infographics of African-American Life, 1900 - W.E.B. Du Bois
The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavas Vassa, The African
Sojourner Truth, The Libyan Sybil - Harriet Beecher Stowe
Uncle Tom's Cabin, or Life Among the Lowly - Harriet Beecher Stowe
The House Behind The Cedars - Charles W. Chesnutt
Short Stories - Charles W. Chesnutt
Our Countrymen in Chains - John Greenleaf Whittier
Thirty Years a Slave - Louis Hughes
Abolitionist verses for America - My Country, 'Tis of Thee - A.G. Duncan
Short Stories - Alice Dunbar-Nelson
Short Stories - Paul Laurence Dunbar
Reference Documents
Reconstruction Amendments to the U.S. Constitution
United States Declaration of Independence
Amendments to the U.S. Constitution
On Civil Disobedience - Henry David Thoreau
Short Stories of Interest
The Passing of Grandison - Charles W. Chesnutt
A Dark Brown Dog - Stephen Crane
Little Miss Sophie - Alice Dunbar-Nelson
Weapons of war we have cast from the battle:
Truth is our armor—our watchword is Love;
Hushed be the sword, and the musketry's rattle,
All our equipments are drawn from above.
Praise then the God of Truth,
Hoary age and ruddy youth.
Long may our rally be
Love, Light and Liberty;
Ever our banner the banner of Peace.
- Frederick Douglass, 1847
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