Showing results for "Coloured" in Americas

Witness powerful stories about the effects and realities of living in a prejudiced society in this audio bundle of classic Black narratives. These selections are both fictional and nonfictional stories of living in a society that devalues and dehumanizes the lives of Black people. Though all four of these books were written more than a hundred years ago, the realities within are still important for modern audiences to understand.

Published in 1855, this history book by William Cooper Nell has an introduction by Harriet Beecher Stowe. It focuses on African American soldiers during the American Revolution and the War of 1812. It is considered by some to be the first history book by and about African Americans which is based on written documentation.

The essay "The Destiny of Colored Americans" was first published in The North Star, the abolitionist newspaper of Frederick Douglass. It sets out the enduring relationship between Afro-Americans and the United States. Douglass is concerned not only with physical freedom but the right to education, work, and building a life.

Paul Jennings, a slave of James Madison's, recounts his experiences with the man. He provides insights into his relationship with President Madison, including the kindness he showed him. Jennings lived in the White House and was with President Madison until the day of his death.

After graduating from Atlanta University, Lucy Craft Laney (1854-1933) began a lifelong career as an educator and the founder of numerous institutions for the upliftment of freedmen and their children. In 1883 she founded the first school for black children in Augusta, Georgia. She was principal of the Haines Institute for Industrial and Normal Education for 50 years.

Abolitionist Reverand Thomas S. Wright addresses the president in this letter circa 1837. He declares that colored men are still discriminated against not only in the churches but also in jobs. Truly, people of color were not slaves in the North, but they were not free either.

David Walker, the son of an enslaved man and a free black woman, was an entrepreneur, abolitionist, author and anti-slavery activist. In 1829, he published An Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World, a radical call for black solidarity and resistance to slavery. It raised awareness of the abuses of slavery, encouraged pride in its black readers and offered hope that change would eventually come. Being a radical anti-slavery document, it caused a stir upon publication, as it called upon readers to take an active role in fighting their oppression, regardless of the risk.

In this speech of 1848, the great abolitionist Frederick Douglass makes an eloquent call for self-reliance. He points out that prejudice becomes powerless in the presence of industry, sobriety, and honesty combined with intelligence and self-respect. "There is gold in the earth, but we must dig it", says Douglass in reference to character which is attainable, and each must attain it for himself.

Susie King Taylor (1848-1912) was the first black army nurse. She tended to an all black army troop the 33rd United States Colored Infantry Regiment, where her husband served during the Civil War. This account covers her early life and her memoirs of the war.

How It Feels To Be Colored Me was first published in The World Tomorrow in May 1928. In this autobiographical piece that focuses on race and 1920s America, Hurston reflects on her early childhood in an all-black Florida town and her first experiences in life where she felt "different." Hurston focuses on the similarities we all share and on her own self-identity in the face of difference. "Through it all," she says, "I remain myself."

Martin Robison Delany (1812-1885) was an African-American abolitionist, journalist, physician, and author. He was one of the first three black people admitted to Harvard Medical School. Delany dreamed of establishing a settlement in West Africa and visited Liberia, a United States colony founded by the American Colonization Society. He was a prolific writer, and his book The Origin and Objects of Ancient Freemasonry, Its Introduction Into the United States, and Legitimacy Among Colored Men was published 1853.