| The purpose of my dissertation is to bring to voice the lives and experiences of African American women writers of the 19th century who grew to adulthood enslaved and to make their voices audible to African American women today. My research question is, "What is the spiritual legacy of African American women writers of the 19th century?";There were at least forty black women who lived, who wrote, and whose works were published in the 19th century. Using life history methodology, from a womanist perspective, I elicited the stories of three of these writers: Hannah Crafts, Harriet Jacobs, and Elizabeth Hobbs Keckly.;This is a journey with my cultural ancestors, African American women writers of the nineteenth century. In this project, I explore the threads that connect us, listening to what these women have to tell us: about courage, about perseverance, about the willingness to be different, about the journey of leaving the known. Holding a constructivist paradigm in my awareness as I read, I immersed myself into the lived experiences of Keckly, Jacobs, and Crafts. I used the characters and themes in their writing to extrapolate interpretations about the writers and their inner lives. This exploration into their lives and writing includes who they were, why they wrote, and the circumstances under which they wrote.;Topics explored include slavery, enslaved females, black women's ways of knowing, the quest for literacy, and the Black Literary Tradition. Themes that I extrapolated into findings about the spiritual legacy are inner authority, colorism, visibility and courage, and home. Within the context of the journey home, the person on the journey realizes that in the process of the journey, she has also discovered her true self. Finding home is related to power, empowerment, self-empowerment, inner authority and most of all, self-actualization. Home is a place where we each can be.;For the person who is truly home, who has survived and is now thriving, home is a place, space, and mindset that we carry within. Home is wherever we are. Seeking home is part of our spiritual legacy. |
