The African Woman (Philadelphia: The American Sunday School Union, n.d.) and Mrs. Jane D. Chaplin, Black and White; or, The Heart, not the Face (Boston: American Tract Society, 1863).

As part of its digital archive, Shaping the Values of Youth: Sunday School Books in 19th Century America, the Michigan State University Libraries features books from the Russel B. Nye Popular Culture Collection, Michigan State University Libraries, and the Clarke Historical Library, Central Michigan University. The African Woman (author unknown) and Mrs. Jane D. Chaplin's Black and White; or, The Heart not the Face, along with a number of other tracts in the collection, present portraits of African-American and Native American men and women and religious arguments against slavery and racism. Likely not written by African Americans, nor indicative of the actual religious beliefs and experiences of African Americans, such texts are, nevertheless, useful for understanding how ideas about race and religion were transmitted to white, Northern children in the 19th century.

A general introduction to the collection and an essay on slavery, African Americans and Native Americans, both by Stephen Rachman, Department of English, Michigan State University, and a bibiography of additional readings, set these two texts in a broader context of religiously-oriented juvenile literature.

 

 

 

 

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vol. 6, no. 1 (Spring 2002)
ISSN 1094-902X