Writing from the Black Soul

Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century African American Short Stories

African American short fiction can only be appreciated if read by first taking into account their multifarious responses to their contemporary political, economic, social and cultural circumstances. The stories presented in Writing from the Black Soul illustrate how in provocative ways African American writers from the second half of the nineteenth century onwards explored a number of themes that were relevant not only to the development of new and original literary traditions but also to the advancement of racial relationships in the post-slavery, segregated United States of their time.