Product details
- ISBN 9780226847948
- Weight: 454g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 24 Nov 2026
- Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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A landmark survey of African American literature about Black experiences of the maritime environment.
The ocean is foundational to the story of Africans in America, beginning with the searing Middle Passage. Initially evoking terror, pain, and death, the ocean also became associated with escape, empowerment, freedom, and home, as over time, African Americans in seaport towns found work, built communities, and gained knowledge from travelers. David R. Anderson shows in this groundbreaking collection of memoir, fiction, poetry, and more that African American maritime literature summons many of the traditional themes—survival in the face of overwhelming natural force, sublimity, demonstration of skill and merit, and self-discovery—but often with an eye on legacies of imperialism, slavery, discrimination, and cultural erasure.
Divided thematically across ten sections that address peril, labor, recreation, and more, the book gathers work by influential writers and intellectuals from the eighteenth century to the present, including: Lucille Clifton, Edwidge Danticat, Frederick Douglass, Alice Dunbar-Nelson, W. E. B. DuBois, Camille T. Dungy, Marcus Garvey, Robert Hayden, Zora Neale Hurston, Major Jackson, Harriet Jacobs, John S. Jacobs, Nella Larsen, Claude McKay, Toni Morrison, Walter Mosley, Natasha Trethewey, Phillis Wheatley, Colson Whitehead, and Kevin Young.
David R. Anderson is associate professor of English at the University of Louisville.
