William L. Andrews
American literary scholar of African American literature and autobiography, long-time professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and author/editor of influential works including To Tell a Free Story and numerous editions of slave narratives.
Books
This list of books are ONLY the books that have been ranked on the lists that are aggregated on this site. This is not a comprehensive list of all books by this author.
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1. To Tell A Free Story
The First Century of Afro-American Autobiography, 1760-1865
A scholarly study of African American autobiography from 1760 to 1865, it traces the evolution from spiritual conversions and captivity accounts to slave narratives, showing how Black writers fashioned public selves amid constraints of racism, editorial oversight, and demands for authentication. Analyzing rhetoric, religious motifs, republican ideals, and abolitionist politics, it situates these life stories within print culture and reform movements, arguing that autobiographical self-representation functioned as both a claim to personhood and a tool for social transformation leading up to the Civil War.
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