Bury my heart in a free land : Black women intellectuals in modern U.S. history / Hettie V. Williams, editor.

"This book rejects the notion that black women were at the margin of American intellectual life. Black women as preachers, abolitionists, creative writers, and civil rights activists are examined here to illustrate the fundamental position that black women intellectuals occupied in modern U.S. history, while at the same time demonstrating how these women used the public sphere and writing as an attempt at self-articulation. For these women, writing and speaking served simultaneously as acts of self-articulation and as calls to action. The art of testimony and confession was utilized by black women in their campaigns of social reform and beyond. Michel Foucault argues that "power is exercised from innumerable points, in the interplay of non-egalitarian and mobile relations." African American women despite living in an unequal society operationalized their voices in the quest for universal human rights throughout U.S. history as traditional, public, and organic intellectuals. This volume is divided into five major sections to illustrate this history."--Provided by publisher.