Black Literature
This page features a small selection of UConn library and external resources to support learning and research pertaining to Black Literature. This list is meant to be exploratory and is not a comprehensive representation or list of the library's holdings.
For additional assistance, please contact Stephanie Birch, Research Services Librarian for Africana Studies at stephanie.birch@uconn.edu.
Narratives of Enslavement
- Barracoon : the story of the last "Black Cargo" by Zora Neale Hurston (2018). Print.
- From fugitive slave to free man: the autobiographies of William Wells Brown by William Wells Brown (2003). Print.
- History of Mary Prince, a West Indian Slave: Related by Herself by Mary Prince (2017). eBook.
- Incidents in the life of a slave girl by Harriet A. Jacobs (2003). eBook.
- Interesting narrative of the life of Olaudah Equiano: or Gustavus Vassa, the African. Written by himself. by Olaudah Equiano (1790). eBook.
- Kidnapped and the ransomed by Kate E. R. Pickard (1941). eBook.
- Life of William Grimes: the runaway slave by William Grimes (2001). eBook.
- Memoir and poems of Phillis Wheatley: a native African and a slave: dedicated to the Friends of the Africans by Phillis Wheatley (1999). eBook.
- Narrative of Sojourner Truth: a bondswoman of olden time: emancipated by the New York Legislature in the early part of the present century: with a history of her labors and correspondence, drawn from her "Book of Life." by Sojourner Truth (2000). eBook.
- Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb, An American Slave, Written by Himself. by Henry Bibb (2018). eBook.
- Narrative of the life and adventures of Venture, a native of Africa: but resident above sixty years in the United States of America by Venture Smith (1798). eBook.
- Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American slave by Frederick Douglass (2009). eBook.
- Twelve years a slave: narrative of Solomon Northup, a citizen of New-York, kidnapped in Washington City in 1841, and rescued in 1853 by Solomon Northup (1997). eBook.
Early Black American Literature
- Collected novels of Paul Laurence Dunbar by Paul Laurence Dunbar; multiple editors (2009). Print.
- Colored woman in a white world by Mary Church Terrell (1940). eBook.
- Complete poems by James Weldon Johnson (2000). eBook.
- Complete writings by Phillis Wheatley (2001). Print.
- Iola Leroy: or, Shadows uplifted by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (no date). eBook.
- Martin R. Delany: a documentary reader by Martin R. Delany (2003). Print.
- Our nig: or , Sketches from the life of a free black, in a two-story white house, North, showing that slavery's shadows fall even there by Harriet E. Wilson (199-?). eBook.
- Sisters of the spirit: three Black women's autobiographies of the nineteenth century by Jarena Lee, Zilpha Elaw, and Julia A. Foote; ed. William L. Andrews (1986). Print.
- Souls of black folk by W. E. B. DuBois (1996?) eBook.
- Southern horrors: lynch law in all its phases by Ida B. Wells (1892). eBook.
- Stories, novels & essays: the conjure woman; The wife of his youth and other stories of the color line; The house behind the cedars; The marrow of tradition; Uncollected stories; Selected essays by Charles W. Chestnutt (2002). Print.
- Story of the Negro the rise of the race from slavery by Booker T. Washington (2005). Print and eBook.
Literature of the Harlem Renaissance
- Collected writings of Wallace Thurman: a Harlem Renaissance reader by Wallace Thurman; multiple eds. (2003). Print.
- Complete fiction of Nella Larsen by Nella Larson (2001). Print.
- Complete stories by Zora Neale Hurston; multiple eds. (2008). Print.
- Frye Street & environs: the collected works of Marita Bonner by Marita Bonner (1987). Print.
- God sends Sunday: a novel by Arna Bontemps (2005). Print.
- Gone white by Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson (2004). eBook.
- Home to Harlem by Claude McKay (1928). eBook.
- My soul's high song: the collected writings of Countee Cullen, voice of the Harlem Renaissance by Countee Cullen (1991). Print.
- New Negro by Alain Locke (1997). Print.
- Plum bun: a novel without a moral by Jessie Redmon Fauset (1985). Print.
- Political plays of Langston Hughes by Langston Hughes (2000). Print.
- Tragedy of white injustice by Marcus Garvey (1927). eBook.
Civil Rights & Black Power Literature
- A raisin in the sun by Lorraine Hansberry (1995). Print.
- Angela Y. Davis reader by Angela Y. Davis (1998). Print.
- Black feeling, Black talk, Black judgement by Nikki Giovanni (1970). Print.
- Essential Gwendolyn Brooks by Gwendolyn Brooks (2005). Print.
- Fire Next Time by James Baldwin (1995). Print.
- Flight to Canada by Ishmael Reed (1976). Print.
- From a land where other people live by Audre Lorde (1973). Print.
- How I got ovah: new and selected poems by Carolyn M. Rodgers (1975). Print.
- I know why the caged bird sings by Maya Angelou (1970). Print.
- Invisible man by Ralph Ellison (1995). eBook.
- LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka reader by Amiri Baraka (1991). Print.
- Love poems by Sonia Sanchez (1973). Print.
- Native son by Richard Wright (2005). Print.
- Revolutionary Suicide by Huey P. Newton (1970). Print.
- Who look at me by June Jordan (1969). Print.
Post-Civil Rights Literature
- Color purple; The temple of my familiar; Possessing the secret of joy by Alice Walker (2012). eBook.
- For colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf: a choreopoem by Ntozake Shange (1977). Print.
- How Stella Got Her Groove Back by Terry McMillan (1996). Print.
- Ma Rainey's Black Bottom by August Wilson (1985). Print.
- Toni Morrison essential novels: the bluest eye, Song of Solomon, Beloved by Toni Morrison (2019). eBook.
- Wild Seed by Octavia E. Butler (2001). Print.
Contemporary Black Literature
- Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2013). Print.
- Between the world and me by Ta-Nehisi Coates (2015). Print and eBook.
- Hill we climb: an inaugural poem for the country by Amanda Gorman (2021). Print.
- Hundred thousand kingdoms by N. K. Jemisin (2010). Print.
- Moon Witch, Spider King by Marlon James (2022). Print.
- Nickel boys : a novel by Colson Whitehead (2019). Print.
- Prophets : a novel by Robert Jones, Jr. (2021). Print.
- Transcendent kingdom by Yaa Gyasi (2020). Print.
- White teeth: a novel by Zadie Smith (2000). Print.
