Girlhood in African American Literature, 1827-1949
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ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: GIRLHOOD IN AFRICAN AMERICAN LITERATURE, 1827-1949 Nazera Sadiq Wright, Doctor of Philosophy, 2010 Dissertation directed by: Professor Carla L. Peterson Professor Mary Helen Washington Department of English This dissertation examines African American literature through the social construction and the allegorical function of girlhood. By exploring the figure of the black girl between 1827—when the nation’s first black newspaper, Freedom’s Journal, was published and slavery was abolished in New York—and 1949—the publication date of Annie Allen, Gwendolyn Brooks’s Pulitzer Prize-winning collection poems, I argue that representations of the girl in African American literature are based on behavioral codes that acquired political meaning in print culture before and after Emancipation. In the canonical and rarely-read texts I examine, the varied images of the black girl as orphaned and unruly, educated and mothered, functioned as models for black citizenship. The Introduction argues that Lucy Terry and Phillis Wheatley become foundational models of intellectual achievement through their growth from slave girl to poet. Chapter One, “Antebellum Girlhood in African American Literature” argues that articles selected by black male editors of Freedom’s Journal and Colored American, and works by black women writers, such as Maria Stewart’s “The First Stage of Life” (1861), Harriet Wilson’s Our Nig (1859) and Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861) adopted the black girl from the LucyTerry/ Phillis Wheatley paradigm and appropriated her image to represent their own, specific citizenship pursuits. In Chapter Two, “Black Girlhood Post-Emancipation,” the racially-indeterminate girl figure in Christian Recorder stories, Mrs. N. F. Mossell’s advice columns published in the New York Freeman, and Frances Harper’s depiction of Annette in Trial and Triumph (1888-1889) represented the newly emancipated black girl figure and her grooming for racial uplift efforts. Chapter Three, “Race Girls in Floyd’s Flowers,” argues that in Silas X. Floyd’s conduct book, Floyd’s Flowers; or Duty and Beauty for Colored Children (1905), black girl figures return to the domestic sphere and defer to black male leadership due to an increase in violence at the turn of the century. Chapter Four, “Black Girlhood in Gwendolyn Brooks’s Annie Allen (1949),” argues that Gwendolyn Brooks’s modernist poems offer an alternative to the conduct manual by privileging the black girl’s interiority and freeing her from an instructive role. GIRLHOOD IN AFRICAN AMERICAN LITERATURE, 1827-1949 by Nazera Sadiq Wright Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2010 Advisory Committee: Carla L. Peterson, Chair/Advisor Mary Helen Washington, Chair/Advisor Robert S. Levine Zita Nunes Elsa Barkely-Brown, Dean’s Representative ©Copyright by Nazera Sadiq Wright 2010 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................... 1 Defining Childhood ....................................................................................... 6 Defining Girlhood......................................................................................... 11 The White Woman as Civilizing Agent......................................................... 14 The Black Woman as Civilizing Agent ......................................................... 17 The Black Girl as Civilizing Agent ............................................................... 19 A Tale of Two Black Girls: Lucy Terry and Phillis Wheatley...................... 22 Chapter Outline.............................................................................................. 27 CHAPTER ONE: ANTEBELLUM GIRLHOOD IN AFRICAN AMERICAN LITERATURE........................................................................................... 36 Freedom’s Journal......................................................................................... 40 The Orphaned Black Girl............................................................................... 44 The Marriageable Black Girl ......................................................................... 49 The Little Black Girl...................................................................................... 51 Orphanhood........................................................................................... 53 Surrogate Motherhood .......................................................................... 54 Education .............................................................................................. 55 Colored American.......................................................................................... 57 The Educated Black Girl....................................................................... 61 African American Women Authors and Models of Racial Progress............. 62 Maria Stewart’s “The First Stage of Life”............................................ 62 Harriet Wilson’s Our Nig...................................................................... 65 Harriet Jacobs’s Linda; or Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl ........... 74 Conclusion ..................................................................................................... 83 CHAPTER TWO: BLACK GIRLHOOD POST-EMANCIPATION ............................ 85 Fairy Tales in the Christian Recorder ........................................................... 88 The Post-Reconstruction Era ................................................................ 96 Mrs. N. F. Mossell’s “The Women’s Department” ....................................... 98 Serialization and the Black Girl.....................................................................108 Frances E.W. Harper’s Trial and Triumph ....................................................112 Beyond the Racially-Indeterminate Girl Figure ...................................115 Destabilizing the Grand/mother as Sole Nurturing Figure ...................117 Community as Nurturer ........................................................................120 Annette’s Education..............................................................................123 Conclusion .....................................................................................................127 ii CHAPTER THREE: RACE GIRLS IN FLOYD’S FLOWERS ......................................129 Conduct Book Discourse ...............................................................................132 Floyd’s “Dutiful” Girls ..................................................................................139 “True Little Ladies”: Floyd’s Beautiful Girls................................................149 Interrelationships of Text and Image in Floyd’s Flowers..............................157 Conclusion .....................................................................................................162 CHAPTER FOUR: BLACK GIRLHOOD IN GWENDOLYN BROOKS’S ANNIE ALLEN ...............................................................................................................167 Structure of “Notes”.......................................................................................170 Imagination and the Black Girl......................................................................175 Critiquing Tradition .......................................................................................180 Rejecting Parental Guidance..........................................................................188 Critiquing Conformism..................................................................................197 Advocating Active Participation....................................................................201 Conclusion .....................................................................................................208 BIBLIOGRAPHY............................................................................................................213 iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my dissertation advisors, Carla L. Peterson and Mary Helen Washington. Their advice and constructive critique have resulted in a stronger project. Robert Levine, Zita Nunes, and Theresa Coletti have provided me feedback, support and encouragement over the years, for which I am grateful. As I completed my graduate work, I have had the opportunity to gain fabulous friends whose support of me and my work has been invaluable. You all shaped my work in significant ways, and I am honored that you are a part of my life. They are Christopher Cozier, Marlene Daut, Kevin Gould, Daniel Hartley, Paul Haynes, Yvette Green Pittman, Quintus Jett, Wayne Lewis, Rocio Magana, Opher Mansour, Trimiko Melancon, Ana Merino, Lareine-Marie Mosely, Steven Thurston Oliver, Shana Redmond, and Jenny Tone-Pah-Hote. I have found mentorship in colleagues who have contributed to and encouraged my successes. They are Victoria Arana, Herman Beavers, Michael Chaney, Ann DuCille, Michelle Elam, Dayleanne English, Gretchen Gerzina, Gene Andrew Jarrett, Deborah McDowell, Joanne Melish, Alan Nadel, Donald Pease, Ashraf Rushdy, Marion Rust, Ivy Wilson, Jon Woodson, and Clyde Woods. I thank my new colleagues at the University of Kentucky for their encouragement during my last few months of writing. Your confidence in me and support helped make my first year at Kentucky truly rewarding. I am the fortunate