Authors & Poets Collection
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A True Story Of Slavery -The United States Governed by Six Hundred Thousand Despots
Written by John Swanson Jacobs
"Scholars say that the narrative, published outside the network of white abolitionist gatekeepers, is unique for its global perspective and its unflinching indictment of the United States."
John Jacobs was born in Edenton, North Carolina, in 1815. His mother was Delilah Horniblow, a slave of the Horniblow family who owned a local tavern. The father of John and his sister Harriet Jacobs (born 1813) was Elijah Knox. Elijah Knox, although enslaved, was in some ways privileged because he was an expert carpenter. He died in 1826.
Adam Francis Plummer’s Diary Of An Enslaved Man
Adam Francis Plummer’s chronicle is believed to be the country’s sole known example of a multigenerational journal begun by an enslaved person. He was enslaved in Maryland.
Image: Left: Adam Francis Plummer began this diary in 1841 while enslaved in Prince George's County, Maryland. After his death, his daughter Nellie Arnold Plummer continued the diary.
Middle: "This is the history of Adam Francis Plummer” begins this diary entry by Adam Francis Plummer. Below his last entry, his daughter, Nellie Arnold Plummer, writes of taking her parents’ letters to historian Carter G. Woodson, who published them in the Journal of Negro History in 1926. Plummer Family Diary, 1841.
Right: Portrait of Emily Saunders Arnold Plummer - Collection Anacostia Community Museum
Source: Collection Anacostia Community Museum, Smithsonian Institution
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Blue-Backed Speller / A Grammatical Institute of The English Language - Published 1783 - Author Noah Webster
Webster later titled this book, The Elementary Spelling Book), the book systematically guided learners from the alphabet and vowel sounds to syllables, simple words, and reading sentences, making it an ideal self-teaching tool despite not being originally designed for an enslaved audience. Many enslaved and formerly enslaved Black Americans used Noah Webster's Elementary Spelling Book to teach themselves how to read and write.
It became widely known as the Blue-Back Speller because of it's blue binding. Because teaching or learning to read was heavily restricted or illegal under anti-literacy laws in much of the slave-holding South, enslaved individuals often hid the book and studied in secret late at night by the light of a pine torch.
Sources: mimisawhney dotcom; Carliss Maddox, Oakland Literacy Coalition; National Museum of American History
Boston Napoleon Bonaparte Boyd Sr. 1860 – 1932
Boston Boyd was born enslaved on Cotanche Street, Greenville, Pitt Co. NC in 1860. He was the son of Essex and Jennie Boyd, this family was enslaved by white American slaver Abner Boyd. Boston was an author, landowner, businessman, and the first Black town council member in Greenville, North Carolina.
Source: Find A Grave
Children - Kelly Starling Lyons
Kelly Starling Lyons is a children's book author whose mission is to transform moments, memories and history into stories of discovery. Her books include NEATE: Eddie's Ordeal; picture books, One Million Men and Me, Ellen's Broom, Tea Cakes for Tosh, Hope's Gift and One More Dino on the Floor and the new Jada Jones chapter book series.
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Children - Nina: Jazz Legend and Civil-Rights Activist Nina Simone - Children/Picture Book
Refusing to accept she “was worth less than other people,” Nina finds solace and sanctuary in music: “The notes had to mingle and dance together in the air so these lies would disappear,” she insists. “Music has no color. In music there is only one rhythm. Only one heart.”
Children - Victory Stand!: Raising My Fist for Justice
by Tommie Smith (Author), Derrick Barnes (Author), Dawud Anyabwile (Author) – September 27, 2022
"This powerful memoir documents the life of USA Olympic champion Tommie Smith through the awesome words of Author Derrick D. Barnes and unforgettable illustrations of Brother Man Comix.
The graphic novel is a perfect genre for capturing this incredible story of perseverance, resilience and commitment to justice."
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Daniel Alexander Payne Murray
In 1900, the Black writer and librarian Daniel Murray set out to create a bibliography listing all known works by Black Americans. Murray's goal was “to secure every book and pamphlet in existence, by a Negro Author”, exhibit them at the 1900 Paris Exposition, and then archive them at the Library of Congress.
Photograph: Daniel A. P. Murray (1852-1925) , Photographer unknown, undated. Library of Congress.
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Dr. Anna Julia Cooper - A Voice From The South By A Black Woman Of The South
In 1892 she published "A Voice From The South By A Black Woman Of The South", a collection of essays on race, gender, and education that scholars now consider the first major work of Black feminist theory.
Her gift of putting into words what she experienced and witnessed as an enslaved Black child and her perspective as a free Black woman was decades ahead of most of the ideas about race, gender and Black women's liberation.
Dr. Helen Chavis Othow
(April 21, 1932 – January 1, 2022), was an author, college professor, freedom fighter and was a descendent of John Chavis (1763-1838). Dr. Helen Othow Chavis was the great-great-great granddaughter of John Chavis. He was one of the earliest Black educators in the United States.
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Excavating the Histories of Slave-Trade and Pirate Ships
Property, Plunder and Loss - This edited volume brings new perspectives on the topic maritime archaeology of the slave trade in the Caribbean. The book focuses on shipwrecks of the slave trade in the 18th century and suggests that there is a more complex and challenging social narrative than has previously been discussed.
Editors: Dr. Lynn Brenda Harris and Dr. Valerie Ann Johnson
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Henry Edwin Baker Jr. - Black Inventors
Image description: Left image: The Colored Inventor: A Record of Fifty Years By Henry E. Baker - Published: 1913 - Pages: 22.
Right image: Portrait of Henry Edwin Baker circa 1902.
Source of portrait: Baker, Henry E. (1902) "The Negro as an inventor" in Twentieth century Negro literature; or, A cyclopedia of thought on the vital topics relating to the American Negro,, Naperville, Ill., Toronto: J.L. Nichols & Company, pp. 398–413 - By Daniel Wallace Culp
Jaki Shelton Green - Poetry Collections & Books
Jaki Shelton Green Is The First Black Woman NC Poet Laureate
On June 21, 2018 Governor Roy Cooper announced that he has appointed poet, teacher, and community arts advocate Jaki Shelton Green to serve as North Carolina's ninth poet laureate and the first African American to be appointed as the state's Poet Laureate.
Jaki Shelton Green Is The First Black Woman NC Poet Laureate
On June 21, 2018 Governor Roy Cooper announced that he has appointed poet, teacher, and community arts advocate Jaki Shelton Green to serve as North Carolina's ninth poet laureate and the first African American to be appointed as the state's Poet Laureate.
Josephine Delphine Henderson Heard (October 11, 1861 – October 21, 1924)
Josephine Delphine Henderson Heard (October 11, 1861 – October 21, 1924) was a Black American poet and teacher.
Josephine was born enslaved in Salisbury, North Carolina to enslaved parents Lafayette and Anne H. Henderson.
Her parents ensured she received a good education, sending her to Scotia Seminary in Concord, North Carolina, and later to Bethany Institute in New York.
Langston Hughes's 1943 poem "Beaumont to Detroit: 1943"
Sourced from: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. “Introduction to the Holocaust.” Holocaust Encyclopedia. Accessed on Monday, October 5, 2026.
Archival Information For This Item
Source (Credit) : Common Ground, Autumn 1943
Date Created: 1943
Page(s): 1, 100-105
Author / Creator: Langston Hughes
Language(s): English
Location: New York, USA; Beaumont, Texas, USA; Detroit, Michigan, USA; Los Angeles, California, USA
Document Type: Poem
Myles Andrew Julius Rhynes
was born October 22, 1885, in Dallas, Gaston County, North Carolina.
He was a poet, minister, and librarian. His book, "The echoes of a traveler's dream" (Published December 31, 1914-Library Of Congress) gives readers a view into the numerous poems he wrote throughout his life, reflecting on a path he once described as "lonely and discouraging".
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Randall Kenan
A TRIBUTE TO RANDALL KENAN: THE VOICE OF SOUTHERN LITERATURE By The NC ARTS COUNCIL
Photo description: Randall Kenan, facing camera, smiling, he has a mustache and beard. There are book shelves behind him out of focus. Photo credit, UNC Chapel Hill
Raleigh, N.C. (August 31, 2020) — Randall Kenan, an inductee into the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame and a 2005 recipient of the North Carolina Award for Literature, passed away August 28. He was 57.
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Rosetta Douglass Sprague - "Anna Murry-Douglass - My Mother As I Recall Her"
Educator, abolitionist and social reformer Rosetta Douglass was born in New Bedford, MA on June 24, 1839. and died November 25, 1906 in Wash. DC) continued a family legacy of activism that began in New Bedford with her parents, Frederick and Anna Murray Douglass. Rosetta delivered her most notable speech, a paper entitled “Anna Murray Douglass – My Mother as I Recall Her,” as an acknowledgement of the essential part that Anna played in Frederick’s rise to becoming a renowned author and orator.
The Confessions of Nat Turner
Nat Turner, 1800?-1831, who was himself enslaved, was the leader of an anti-slavery rebellion starting on August 21, 1831 in Southampton, Virginia. "The Confessions of Nat Turner," Was published in 1831, in New York printed and published by C. Brown. This writing was fully and voluntarily made to Attorney Thomas R. Gray, in the prison where Turner was confined, and acknowledged by him to be such when read before the court of Southampton. This is the first detailed account of the rebellion, documented by Thomas R. Gray who also represented several enslaved people in their trials after the rebellion.
Source: Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library - Call number: JWJ Zan T856 831Cb
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The Nine O'Clock Whistle: Stories of the Freedom Struggle for Civil Rights in Enfield, North Carolina
by Willa Cofield (Author), Cynthia Samuelson (Author), Mildred Sexton (Author). Part of the Margaret Walker Alexander Series in African American Studies.
When the whistle blew, all Black people had to be off the Enfield, North Carolina streets on Saturday night at 9pm.
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Uncovering Uncle William, A Search for Meaning in Art
by Dr. Shirley Davis Jones.
Dr. Shirley Jones, a niece of Harlem Renaissance sculptor William Ellsworth Artis, has recorded her findings about his life in a self-published book. Artis taught sculpture at Chadron State College, known then as Nebraska State Teachers College, from 1954 to 1964.
(Photo by Daniel Binkard/Chadron State College)
Viola Fletcher (née Ford; May 10, 1914 – November 24, 2025), also known as Mother Fletcher
"Don't Let Them Bury My Story"
Ms. Fletcher’s memoir was published in 2023. On the night of the massacre in 1921, she recalled seeing ash falling on the streets like snow. Houses burned. She passed piles of corpses, she said.
Credit: Mocha Media Inc.
Willie Ann Burnett Smith
Mrs. Willie Ann Smith, nee Burnett, was born in Goldsboro, N. C. , of pious parents. She exhibited an early love for books and was a remarkably apt pupil. Her intellectual aspirations and moral endowments soon reached a degree of prominence in the school and community to call forth frequent commendations, and gained for her the deepest interest of her teachers and the highest respect of her acquaintances.
