African American Literature is a composite of many different life stories and experiences African Americans have had to endure throughout a lifetime. From African American Heritage, which goes all the way back to literature written by African’s who were brought to America as slaves up to now (which is considered the Affirmative Action Era), there has been somewhat of an African American diary that continues to evolve throughout our times. As of now there is Pre-20th African American Literature, which would include authors like Phillis Wheatley, Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Dubois, William Wells Brown, Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Charles Waddell Chesnutt and Frances Harper. The second of the two time periods assigned to African American literature is 20th century, and that would include authors such as Sterling A. Brown, Jean Toomer, Zora Neal Hurston, Weldon Johnson, Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, Maya Angelou and the list goes on to include newer African American authors and scholars such as Cornell West, Toni Morrison and Nikki Giovanni. All of these novelists, playwrights and poets have created a historical journey in their literature with all the trials, tribulations, discriminations, murders, accomplishments and pride of African Am

The first major African American writer of fiction is considered to be Charles Wadell Chesnutt. His first book, The Conjure Woman published in 1899 was written in the style of a folk tale and discusses slavery in the South. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, most of Chesnutt’s writings include the struggles of African American’s and also touched on the topic of being bi-racial in a prejudice society. Chesnutt published 8 books before his death in 1932; he also received a Springarn medal for his works in 1928. By the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, African American poetry hit the scene again by way of Paul Lawrence Dunbar. Dunbar was the first African American to become popular for his writings in both fiction and poetry, and published 14 books from 1983 to 1905, the most by an African American before 1950. Dunbar’s poems were mostly about the traditional topics in poetry as well as African American heroes during that time. Dunbar was a very versatile writer and included comedic, sentimental, dialect and Standard English in his poems. Although Dunbar is often criticized for rarely discussing racial stereotypes and discrimination in his writings, Dunbar’s work will forever be remembered, and he will continue to be one of the writers that carved a way for all African Americans. The last (but definitely not the least) author put into the Pre-20th century category in this paper is Frances Harper. Harper is one of the very seldom talked about African American women who contributed to the rise of African American Literature. An author and lecturer, Frances Harper was born of free parents in 1825 and began to write poetry about race and antislavery in 1854. Harper’s books include Poems on Miscellaneous Subjects (1854); Moses: A Story of the Nile (1869); and Iola Leroy, or Shadows Uplifted (1892), a novel. Harper’s work as an African American woman gives a different perspective and view that I believe is needed because women were slaves just like the men and had two “inferiorities” that need to be dealt with, and Harper did just that with her contributions to the Women’s rights movement and her involvement as superintendent of Woman's Christian Temperance Union (W.C.T.U.) before her death in 1911.

an Americans throughout their life whether it was the ways of our heritage or dealing with inferiority, this literature has enlightened all and brought back much of the history that African Americans wouldn’t have any access to otherwise.

Most of the earliest works done by African American’s in literature dealt with African Heritage, Enslavement, Abolitionism, Reconstruction and the Civil War and it all began during the 1700’s by way of poetry. Lucy Terry, a slave, created the poem “Bar Fight” about an Indian raid on a Massachusetts town and handed it down orally in 1746. After Terry’s poem, a woman by the name of Phillis Wheatley whom was a slave from Boston that had first started writing poetry when she was 14 created the first published book by an African American. In Wheatley’s book called Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral that was published in 1773, she attacks many issues including her slavery, independence, and religion. In 1789, Olaudah Equiano a freed slave wrote abo