Alfred H. Stone Collection
Volume: 16

13. Victoria Earle Matthews, The Value of Race Literature: An Address Delivered at the First Congress of Colored Women of the United States, at Boston, Mass., July 30th, 1895 (N.p., [1895?]). (23 p.)

Proposition that works by African American authors constitute a distinct body of literature apart from American writing per se. The author bases her argument on the observation that “The conditions which govern the people of African descent in the United States have been and still are, such as create a very marked difference in the limitations, characteristics, aspirations and ambitions of this class of people, in decidedly strong contrast with the more or less powerful races which dominate it.”