Albery Allson Whitman (1851--1901), epic poet of African American and Native American self-determination

This study explores the life and two major works of former slave and A. M. E. minister Arbery Allson Whitman (1851--1901). These two epic poems are best understood when read with familiarity of the issues of central concern to Whitman at the time they were written: (1) the future of minority races in America, with a focus on Native American and African American self-determination in the wake of Post-reconstruction black disenfranchisement; (2) A. M. E. Bishop Daniel Alexander Payne's program for black advancement through the creation, by a black author, of works widely recognized as reaching the level of "high culture" verse, "true poetry." Born into slavery near Mumfordville, Kentucky in 1851, Whitman was both orphaned and emancipated by the Civil War. Alternating teaching and brief periods of schooling, he eventually enrolled at Wilberforce University where he studied under A. M. E. Bishop Daniel Alexander Payne. During this time he began writing poetry and continued to write during his career as an A. M. E. minister. Though considered among the most prominent black poets of his time, perhaps because of his use of formal verse and traditional poetic diction, he has received virtually no critical attention. Placing the poems in the context of his life and times, this study reveals Whitman's context of his life and times, this study reveals Whitman's highly crafted vision of multi-racial and multi-cultural equality, all the more remarkable for their being written during, a time when black hopes for full equality were rapidly diminishing. Not a Man, and Yet a Man (1877) is the narrative of a heroic, mistreated slave who escapes to freedom, returning with his two sons to fight in the Union army's triumphant campaign in the South. The Rape of Florida (1884) is a historical romance based on the First and Second Seminole Wars, where the U.S. Army attempted to remove an alliance of Seminole Indians and African Americans, many of whom were runaway slaves and their maroon descendants. This full-length study attempts to restore an important African American-writer to his rightful place in American literature, and reveal the vision of a multiracial, multi-cultural America embodied in these works.