Published in 2010
235 pages
Laurie F. Maffly-Kipp is Professor and Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is the author and editor of several books, most recently Setting Down the Sacred Past: African-American Race Histories.
Kathryn Lofton is Assistant Professor of American Studies and Religious Studies at Yale University. She is the author of Oprah: The Gospel of an Icon.
What is this book about?
Whether in schoolrooms or kitchens, state houses or church pulpits, women have always been historians. Although few participated in the academic study of history until the mid-twentieth century, women labored as teachers of history and historical interpreters. Within African-American communities, women began to write histories in the years after the American Revolution. Distributed through churches, seminaries, public schools, and auxiliary societies, their stories of the past translated ancient Africa, religion, slavery, and ongoing American social reform as historical subjects to popular audiences North and South.
