paradise toni morrison essay

Toni Morrison

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Paradise begins with nine unnamed men attacking a Convent , which houses a group of women the men believe to be sinful. As the men see the women escaping, they fire their guns.

The story then moves back in time to chronicle how the women came to the Convent and why the men have come to kill them. The first woman to move to the Convent is Mavis , whose husband Frank has abused her to the point of constant self-doubt and paranoia. After she accidentally kills her infant children by leaving them in the car, she flees Frank and finds her way to the Convent, which stands outside the all-Black town of Ruby, Oklahoma.

A middle-aged woman named Connie lives in the Convent with an old woman she calls Mother , and they welcome Mavis to stay. Connie herself came to the Convent as a child, when Mother (a nun named Mary Magna) took Connie from the streets of Brazil and raised her in the Convent, which formerly served as a residential school for Native American girls. Connie has since been utterly devoted to Mary Magna.

Gigi arrives next. She’s a confident and sensual woman who left home in search of a legendary rock formation. The rock formation, which her ex-lover described to her, allegedly resembles a couple having sex, but Gigi finds no evidence the rock formation exists. She comes to Ruby after hearing of a different legend, and though she does not find that either, she chooses to stay at the Convent, much to Mavis’s dismay.

Next to arrive is Seneca , who was abandoned by her teen mother as a child and has since tried to appease everyone in her life to keep them from leaving. Like Mavis, Seneca leaves an abusive partner, but she only finds the strength to leave after her boyfriend is sent to prison and his mother tells her to leave. Seneca then enters a degrading relationship with a wealthy older woman. After the woman dismisses her, Seneca hitchhikes around the country until she ends up at the Convent.

The final woman to come to the Convent is Pallas , a wealthy high schooler who runs away from home with her older boyfriend Carlos . The couple goes to stay with Pallas’s estranged mother Dee Dee , but Pallas runs away again when she discovers that Dee Dee and Carlos are having an affair. While on the run, Pallas is assaulted by a group of boys and hides in a body of water. She falls ill and is taken to a hospital, where an employee from Ruby named Billie Delia recognizes her and sends her to the Convent.

For several years, the Convent’s community is disjointed, which only worsens when Mary Magna dies and the Convent’s leader Connie falls into a deep depression; Connie’s hatred for her healing power of “stepping in,” which pious Connie believes to be unholy, only worsens her mental health. Eventually, though, Connie decides the women need to come together in order to heal their individual traumas, and her leadership brings the Convent together as a tight-knit, supportive community.

Interweaved with the women’s arrivals is the story of Ruby’s founding and the mounting conflict that arises between the town’s older and younger generations. Ruby is founded by nine Black families who come from Haven, another all-Black town founded by Zechariah Morgan. Haven was founded after a group of Black travelers were rejected by other Black towns for being too dark-skinned, and that exclusion made Haven––and eventually Ruby––determined to preserve the town’s isolation.

After Haven started to crumble, Zechariah’s twin grandsons Steward and Deek led nine families to found a new town, bringing with them the Oven that served as Haven’s town center. The patriarchs of these founding families exert their control over Ruby for years, but as Black people around the country start uniting for civil rights in the 1960s, Ruby’s young people begin to push against the isolationism of their elders. The older generation takes this as a disrespect to tradition, and conflicts break out on both town-wide and more personal scales.

These conflicts come to a head at the Oven. Zechariah Morgan engraved a phrase on the Oven that has since faded, leaving only the words “…the Furrow of His Brow.” Tradition maintains that the intended message is “Beware the Furrow of His Brow,” but the young people find this cowardly and passive. They insist that the initial engraving was really “Be the Furrow of His Brow.”

Supporting the young people is Reverend Misner , a civil rights activist who is new to town, and his girlfriend Anna Flood . On the opposing side are the conservative Reverend Pulliam and the Morgan brothers. Many of the older women of Ruby are unsure which side to support, including Dovey and Soane Morgan , the wives of Steward and Deek. Pat Best , a schoolteacher and the mother of Billie Delia, has been shunned her entire life because her mother was a light-skinned outsider, yet she still rejects the young people’s call for change and defends Ruby’s traditions to Reverend Misner.

The leaders of Ruby seek a scapegoat for the conflicts in town, and they decide to blame the Convent women. Lone DuPres , Ruby’s elderly midwife, overhears nine men planning to attack the Convent. Among these men are the Morgan twins and their nephew K.D. Deek Morgan formerly had an affair with Connie, and his internalized shame about it largely fuels his hatred for the her. Steward, on the other hand, is simply outraged at the women’s defiance of what he believes a woman should be and how a woman should act.

Lone tries to rally the townspeople against the men, but they are unwilling to take immediate action, giving the nine men enough time to break into the Convent and murder its inhabitants. Deek tries to stop Steward from shooting Connie, and when Steward shoots her anyway, the bond between the brothers severs.

After the massacre, Ruby sees the first death within the town limits since its founding: an infant named Save-Marie, one of four severely ill children of Jeff Fleetwood , who was one of the nine attackers. This death marks the future’s arrival in Ruby, as the town can no longer remain stuck in the past. The bodies of the women disappear from the Convent, and when Misner and Anna Flood go to investigate, they sense some kind of doorway on the property. In a series of short scenes, the women appear to their family members. Connie sits somewhere called Paradise, watching a boat of new arrivals come to do the endless work they were all created for.

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Summary and Study Guide

Toni Morrison’s novel Paradise was published in 1997, just a few years after she won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993. According to Morrison, it is the last book of a trilogy that includes Beloved and Jazz . Morrison is an esteemed American novelist, having also received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (1998) and the Coretta Scott King Award for Authors (2005), among other awards. She was educated at Howard University and Cornell University, and she wrote a great deal of critical scholarship on race as well as on the practice of writing. This guide cites the First Vintage International Edition, published in 2014. This guide also briefly mentions sexual assault, self-harm, abortion, and gun violence, as they appear in the narrative .

Plot Summary

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Spanning five generations and 15 families, Paradise tells the story of the development, maintenance, and unraveling of an isolated all-Black Oklahoma town named Ruby. Seventeen miles south is a closed-down Convent that houses five women who live outside the values that Ruby holds dear. The novel explores love, hatred, and the lengths to which people will go to protect their “paradise.” A book that offers a nuanced take on women’s empowerment, Paradise ’s chapters are each named after a woman in the novel. In this sprawling text, Morrison creates a complete picture of Ruby, the Convent , and the men and women who inhabit them.

Chapter 1 begins with a group of armed men from the town of Ruby walking through the Convent in deadly search of the five women who live there. They believe the women to be immoral and an evil influence on their town. Ruby is a small, all-Black town that deliberately excludes outsiders. This fear comes from Ruby’s troubled past, its relationship to a failed town called Haven, and a continued caution against racism. Conflicts and intergenerational division are brewing in Ruby, and the elders look to the Convent as a scapegoat for the unrest. The men aim their rifles at three of the fleeing Convent women.

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The next chapter, “Mavis,” introduces a 27-year-old woman being interviewed by a local journalist about the accidental deaths of her twin infants, Merle and Pearl. Mavis left the children in a car on a hot day while she went shopping. Mavis is also in a destructive relationship with a man named Frank. She suffers from what seem to be paranoid delusions that Frank and her other children are plotting to kill her. When Mavis flees this situation, she stumbles upon the Convent.

The next chapter, “Grace,” takes its name from the character of Gigi, though it opens on K.D. arguing with Arnette in Ruby. Annette is pregnant with K. D.’s baby, causing much family discord as they worry about the family’s prominence in Ruby. Gigi arrives in Ruby looking every bit the outsider, and once the book shifts back to her, we learn that she’s recently separated from her boyfriend Mikey, who has been sentenced to three months in jail. Eventually, Gigi makes it to the Convent.

In “Seneca,” we meet Dovey Morgan and her husband, Steward. Chapter 4 introduces twin brothers Steward and Deacon “Deek” Morgan. The growing generational divide in Ruby is upsetting to the brothers, who recall the story of how the Old Fathers founded Haven, the town that preceded Ruby. Meanwhile, we meet Seneca , who is wandering after leaving her incarcerated abusive boyfriend. While hitchhiking, she sees Sweetie Fleetwood and randomly decides to follow her to the Convent.

“Divine” opens with a sermon about love at K. D. and Arnette’s wedding that only highlights the townspeople’s lack of empathy for the Convent and one another. The Convent women—with the new addition, Pallas—are kicked out of the wedding reception for behaving wildly. Pallas ran away from home after learning that her mother, Divine “Dee Dee” Truelove, was having an affair with her boyfriend. This chapter also illuminates the alternative histories lived by the men and the women of Ruby, who, though together, have very different experiences.

“Consolata” features Connie, who lives at the Convent and suffers from depression and alcoholism. The chapter focuses on the idea that we seek out and create new families when our biological ones fail us. The next chapter, “Lone,” focuses on a former midwife in Ruby and reveals that one of the city’s main projects is to control the town’s women.

The final chapter, “Save-Marie,” is named after a now-deceased girl. Her death inspires Ruby’s minister to chastise the town’s people and question the attack at the Convent. That attack seemingly broke a deal with God. The novel ends as the spirits of the Convent’s women appear to people from their pasts. Paradise explores the themes of gender and the tensions that come with it, organized religion and loose spirituality, and the pursuit of a personal paradise .

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by Toni Morrison

Paradise themes.

As its title suggests, the novel finds its heart in the attempts by various groups to find a kind of paradise. The families who started Haven, as well as the families who later on continued the project of Haven in Ruby, sought a kind of isolated and self-sufficient idyll away from the racism of the outside world. Likewise, women usually arrive at the Convent by accident in search of paradise. Mavis gets lost on her way to California. Gigi seeks a pair of entwined trees that she believes can provide an unimaginable ecstasy. Though the Convent is a kind of last resort, and though the women are usually in the midst of suffering, the Convent under Connie's direction becomes a kind of paradise for its residents as well (however, it was notably not a paradise for the Indian girls who were sent there during the Convent's time as a school, nor was it able to be a paradise for the embezzler who built it).

Mary Magna teaches Connie that the spirit endures beyond the end of the body, and that paradise is to be found in the heaven of Catholicism after the death of the body. However, the more durable vision of paradise for Connie proves to be Piedade, a goddess-like figure whom Connie describes to the Convent women as existing in her past. In the last passage of the novel, when all the Convent women return to people from their earlier lives, Connie is on the shore of a beach with Piedade in a place referred to as 'paradise'.

Inclusion and exclusion

The question of inclusion and exclusion is central to why Ruby was founded, but also why it may self-destruct. Ruby was founded in response to the legendary exclusion of the founding families of Haven by the town of Fairly. The founding fathers responded to the exclusion of the outside world by creating a self-sufficient community that did not need the outside world for anything. However, the citizens of Haven and Ruby turned from creating a community where they could be included to creating a community where no one else could be included. The intolerance of Ruby for outsiders and those who live differently causes significant frictions, notably with the Convent.

Both the town of Ruby and the Convent are isolated from the world in self-selected ways. Ruby purposefully lacks connections to major roads, and those who stop there usually do so by accident. The Convent, likewise, does not have a TV, radio, or receive newspapers. Connie tells Mavis that any news that arrives there must arrive in person; when Mary Magna dies and Mavis is away, Connie must start a fire to signal that something has happened. Despite this shared characteristic of isolation, only Ruby is exclusive: the Convent welcomes all those who enter its doors, regardless of where they have come from and why.

More specific than inclusion and exclusion is the theme throughout Paradise of racial discrimination based on skin tone. For much of the novel we have the impression that Ruby, an all-black town, was founded to avoid the racism of the outside world in general. We learn, however, that the citizens of Ruby are almost entirely from a set of racially "pure," "eight-rock" families, and that the project of Ruby is motivated by an experience of racial discrimination much more specific than black against white: prejudice against dark-skinned blacks by light-skinned blacks. After being expelled from public office, the old founding fathers of Haven could not find decent employment, though others expelled from office could. The difference was that these others were light-skinned, whereas the founding fathers had dark skin of which they had been proud, because it signified a kind of racial "purity." The defining rejection, however, was the Disallowing. The founding fathers did not anticipate that their fellow blacks would adhere as much to a hierarchy of colorism as whites. The fact that decades later the inhabitants of Ruby would create their own racially discriminatory society - even if with the inverse bias - speaks to the pervasiveness of prejudice.

The meaning of Christianity and God's will

Questions of how to correctly interpret the teachings of Christianity and accurately divine God's will recur throughout the novel. These questions go to the heart of several of the conflicts in the novel, such as the conflict between Reverends Misner and Pulliam, the conflict between Lone DuPres and the men who attack the Convent, and the internal conflict experienced by Connie.

Senior Pulliam, a Methodist minister and member of the conservative elder generation of Ruby, believes that the youth of Ruby are blaspheming God as well as disrespecting their predecessors by attempting to change the slogan on the Oven from 'Beware the Furrow of His Brow' to 'Be the Furrow of His Brow'. He delivers a fiery sermon at the wedding of K.D. and Arnette where he argues that God's love is not owed to anyone, and that it must be continually worked for, without ever knowing whether it has been earned. This angers Reverend Richard Misner , who possesses an antithetical interpretation of Scripture whereby God's love is everywhere and inherent in humans and their actions.

Lone DuPres also offers a distinct interpretation of Christianity and its teachings. She decides that the wholesale disappearance of the dead bodies from the Convent following the attack is an act both attesting to God's affection for his servants (the Convent women), as well as his mercy for Ruby, who has been spared the consequences of punishment by white law. She also tells Connie that her gift for prolonging life or raising the near-dead is a gift of God that she only has because He wants her to use it, despite Connie's fears that it is a sinful gift.

Memory and storytelling

The role of memory and the stories that people tell about themselves occupy a central place in the novel. The Morgans are described on multiple occasions as having infallible memory, reaching back through history beyond the span of individual lives. Steward and Deek recall the slights against the founding families of Haven as though they had happened to them, and retain both their pride and the offense experienced by their ancestors. Richard Misner, on the other hand, wonders why the citizens of Ruby only ever tell stories about the glorious past instead of considering the present or the future.

At the same time, over the course of the novel we learn that there are parallel accounts of Ruby history that sometimes differ from the "official" version and that sometimes have kept the record where the official history has neglected to at all. Notably, the keepers of these alternate histories - often concerning marginalized members of the community - are mostly women. Pat's historical and genealogical research is a formalized version of this alternate history, and she draws on the oral histories of as many women as will speak to her. These alternate histories show, for example, that the wives of the founders of Ruby resented the transportation of the Oven to Ruby at the expense of other necessities like food.

The place of women

Though official Ruby history speaks of the men who founded the town, it is clear that the place of women in society is a key motivation behind the establishment of the town. Part of what was so offensive to the founders of Haven about the Disallowing was the slight rendered to the pregnant women in the group, a vulnerable group that the men felt obliged to protect. Likewise, the town of Ruby is named after Deek and Steward's sister, for whom they were unable to get medical assistance in an emergency because of segregation. Steward in particular treasures a memory of nineteen elegant Negro ladies whom he and Deek saw in a wealthy all-black town in their youth, and reflects that Ruby was founded so that a vision like this could prosper. That is to say, Ruby was established in large part so that the black men residing in it would be able to protect the women in their community from the specific kind of racism present in the external world. However, this "freedom" for the women is also a kind of restriction, because the men have stringent ideas about how women should behave.

The strong feelings that various members of the Ruby community have as to the proper place and comportment of women are also why the town comes into violent conflict with the Convent. Lone, on the other hand, believes that the men despise anything they cannot control, and that they are especially afraid of a group of women who do not appear to need or desire men for anything.

Intergenerational conflict

A key element of the conflict within Ruby is the clash of older and younger generations. The older generations would like everything to stay the same. Steward reflects regretfully that this youngest generation is not as malleable as he would hope: they are not willing to be molded obediently into the kinds of heirs he would desire. Reverend Pulliam accuses the youth of blasphemy for wishing to change the slogan on the Oven from 'Beware the Furrow' to 'Be the Furrow', which he feels suggests the citizens of Ruby are a part of God, rather than His subjects.

On the other hand, the young people of Ruby wish to align themselves with what is happening in the world outside. An important element of the novel that is consistently in the background but not explicitly elaborated is the ongoing struggle for civil rights. Reverend Misner, the young and newly arrived preacher, is influenced by Martin Luther King Jr., has participated in civil rights actions, and teaches the lessons and methods of the civil rights movement to the youth in Ruby, something that the elder generation regards with suspicion and hostility. The suppression of the youth and the limited options available to them in Ruby threaten to tear the community apart.

Paradise Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Paradise is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

How Old was Lone when she started to drive a car in Toni Morrison's Paradise?

Lone was seventy-nine-years old.

Chapter 3, Class 6

The only reference to "sweetness" in Chapter Three, Grace, is Misner's reference to the "sweetest of sleeps", which he attributes to having eaten Anna's food. Milk and sugar are not mentioned.

what would be a good thesis statement for a seminar paper that looks at the concept of black exceptionalism in "Paradise" by Toni Morrison

Wow, a thesis statement for a seminar paper is an important thing. Check out colorism below:

https://www.gradesaver.com/paradise/study-guide/themes

Study Guide for Paradise

Paradise is a novel by Toni Morrison. The Paradise study guide contains a biography of author Toni Morrison, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About Paradise
• Paradise Summary
• Character List

Essays for Paradise

Paradise essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of literary work Paradise by Toni Morrison.

• The of Role of Myth in Morrison's Paradise
• A Song of the People
• Abort the Matriarchy?: Failed Mothers of the Patriarchal Systems within Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying and Morrison’s Paradise

Lesson Plan for Paradise

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to Paradise
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• Paradise Bibliography

Wikipedia Entries for Paradise

• Introduction
• Films and television

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• African American Review

Rethinking Paradise : Toni Morrison and Utopia at the Millennium

• Mark A. Tabone
• Johns Hopkins University Press
• Volume 49, Number 2, Summer 2016
• pp. 129-144
• 10.1353/afa.2016.0026
• View Citation

Additional Information

This essay discusses Paradise ’s exploration of utopia, and it attempts to argue that just as the novel ambitiously remembers the history of more than a century of American race and gender relations, its rethinking of “paradise” as a concept is interwoven with a political interrogation of the entire history of a traditional utopian social, spatial, and literary form. Moreover, this critique occurs at a historical juncture when that form has reached its absolute limits. Specifically, Paradise ’s most urgent utopian undertaking is to push—and to expose—the limits of the notion of utopia as a world apart, an island unto itself.

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Wealth of Geeks

A Beginners Guide to Toni Morrison

Posted: March 21, 2024 | Last updated: March 21, 2024

One of the world’s most famous and influential authors, Toni Morrison’s canon spans decades and topics. Morrison’s work dedicates itself to examining the Black American experience, from short stories to essays and speeches to her beloved novels. The author mines the systems of racism and how they can be fixed and explores the depths of complex human emotions like grief, trauma, love, and joy.

Morrison is the first Black woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, the first Black woman to serve as senior fiction editor for Random House, and an incredible force known as the “ Conscience of America. ” 

1. The Bluest Eye (1970)

Morrison’s debut novel,  The Bluest Eye , occasionally appears on the banned books list because of the controversial topics it explores, such as incest, racism, and child molestation. Set in Lorain, Ohio, the novel follows the life of Pecola, a young Black girl growing up in the United States after the Great Depression.

Unafraid of difficult conversations, Morrison doesn’t shy away from uncomfortable subjects and allows those uncomfortable subjects to guide her into an important conversation about perception beyond beauty and how perception can negatively impact us all. Pecola, the main character, desires nothing more than blue eyes, but the blue eyes she wants represent her desire to see the world differently just as much as she would like to be seen differently.

2. Sula (1973)

Sula tackles the ideas of gender, race, community, and that strange place between “good” and “evil” as Morrison tells the story of Nel and Sula in the small Black community of Bottom, Ohio. 

Using Nel and Sula as opposing characters, Morrison makes room for a conversation about “good” and “right” versus “evil” and “bad.” She sets up a dynamic that specifically allows readers into the moment that divides the two women, which will provide the framework for the judgment of their adulthood to allow readers room to formulate their thoughts on Nel and Sula outside of the community’s judgments.

While Morrison still examines race in  Sula , the deeper purpose of the novel rests in exploring one’s self, the enduring love of friendship, and how our histories affect us all.

3. Song of Solomon (1977)

Song of Solomon follows the life of Macon “Milkman” Dead III, a Black man living in Michigan who seeks to understand his ancestry. At its core,  Song of Solomon , the title pulled from a book of the Bible, confronts racism and the intergenerational scars it leaves. 

While Morrison’s work mostly consists of female protagonists,  Song of Solomon tells the story from Milkman’s perspective. In Conversations with Toni Morrison , she wrote, “I chose the man… because I thought he had more to learn than a woman would have. I started with a man and was amazed at how little men taught one another in the book… So that the presence of Pilate, and the impact that all the other women had on Milkman’s life, came as a bit of a surprise to me.” Though it might not be told through a woman’s perspective, Song of Solomon is a powerful story to explain the oft-overlooked significance of Black women in the Black man’s experience.

4. Tar Baby (1981)

In her fourth novel, Morrison explores the intersections of race and privilege, wealth and class, and love and reality. 

In  Tar Baby , Morrison puts Black and White relationships front and center and, in doing so, allows room to play with and peel back the layers of the Black female experience in a racialized world. Tar Baby is a more metaphorical examination of the racism of gender and race, with the more literal examination focused on identity.

To read  Tar Baby is to understand Morrison’s transition from the literal and bold statements she made in her first three novels. 

5. Recitatif (1983)

“Recitatif” focuses on Twyla and Roberta, two girls who meet in a children’s shelter. One girl is Black, and the other is white, though Morrison intentionally forgoes explaining which is which. Twyla and Roberta stay friends throughout their time at the shelter but eventually go their separate ways.

They reunite multiple times in their lives, many times at high tension points in racial relations in the United States, and they continue to explore their relationship with one another because of and despite their race and the climate of the country. 

6. Beloved (1987)

One of Morrison’s most famous novels,  Beloved, tells the story of Sethe, a formerly enslaved woman living in a haunted Cincinnati home. The novel grapples with the trauma of slavery and what that does to individuals and families.

The non-linear narrative follows Sethe and her daughter, Denver. Eight years before the start of the book, Sethe and Denver lost Baby Suggs, Sethe’s mother, and Howard and Buglar, Sethe’s sons, ran off. At the start of the book, Paul D., a formerly enslaved man who was enslaved on the same plantation as Sethe, arrives. He quickly moves in with Denver and Sethe, and a few days later, a strange woman named Beloved arrives. Paul D. and Beloved butt heads throughout the novel, and as tensions rise in the house, the entire household risks falling apart at the seams.

Beyond the fact that  Beloved stands as Morrison’s most famous work, it earns a spot on any Morrison beginner’s reading list because of the challenge reading it offers.  Beloved is not easy. It defies the “warm and fuzzy” feelings fiction so often provides. In  Beloved , Morrison leans into the teaching and less into the gratification, hoping that readers understand humans as flawed, complex, and not always “good.”

7 . Jazz (1992)

Jazz plays out against the backdrop of the Harlem Jazz Age of the 1920s. Morrison explores another non-linear narrative as she tells the story of a love triangle between Violet, Joe, and Dorcas.

As the second in Morrison’s  Beloved trilogy,  Jazz continues the theme of violence as romance and the challenging ways that love works in life. Critics have called Jazz one of Morrison’s most challenging works as it seeks to cover a lot in a short period. Still, Morrison also said it was her favorite novel to write, earning it an essential spot on any Morrison lover’s reading list.

8. Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination (1992)

Morrison’s first work of nonfiction, Playing in the Dark, explores “the effect that living in a historically racialized society has had on American writing in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries .” She writes about the place of Black Americans in the overall American literary landscape, exploring the way white authors represent them and the way Black people represent themselves.

As a Black woman author writing in a post-Civil Rights Movement era, Morrison’s perspective on whiteness and the literary imagination couldn’t be more important. In addition to her experience as a writer, Morrison served as the senior fiction editor for Random House and deeply understood how whiteness affected literature, making her particularly well-poised to dive deep into the conversation.

9. The Nobel Lecture in Literature (1993)

In 1993, Toni Morrison became the first Black woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Upon accepting her award, Morrison gave an incredible speech to the gathered audience in Stockholm, Sweden. The speech she gives tells a folk story that serves as a representation of the work Morrison sought to accomplish with her writing.

While her Nobel Prize speech might not feel as grand as some of her other writings, it still deserves a read by anyone seeking to get to know Morrison’s writing and her canon overall. Even in her death, her incredible, history-making success as a writer deserves to be celebrated at every opportunity.

10. Arguing Immigration: The Debate Over the Changing Face of America (1994)

This essay collection spans political parties and covers a host of issues. While Morrison didn’t write all of  Arguing Immigration , she contributed an essay titled “On the Backs of Blacks,” which confronted the United States’ systemic historical racism.

Morrison’s essay alone puts  Arguing Immigration squarely into the “must-read” category for Morrison’s canon, but what makes it stand out especially is how the book serves as a representation of how Morrison continued to work in conversation with the world around her even as she moved back in time to plumb the depths of history for understanding.

11. The Dancing Mind (1996)

In 1996, Morrison accepted The National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.  The Dancing Mind collects Morrison’s speech on the importance of writing, the challenges, and the beauty of writing.

Reading  The Dancing Mind allows audiences to understand Morrison’s perspective on the art of writing. Reading this book allows for a look behind the curtain of her craft and stands out as especially essential for her fans, who are also aspiring authors.

12. Paradise (1997)

Morrison’s first novel, after winning the Nobel Prize, centers on the town of Ruby, Oklahoma , an all-Black town founded by the descendants of formerly enslaved individuals.  Paradise completes Morrison’s  Beloved trilogy and, like the two other titles in the series, examines the idea of violence as love. 

In this final installation, Morrison explores religion and holiness in a way none of her other novels quite manage. Paradise centers on a building that historically served as a Native American boarding school. These institutions were notorious for the trauma they inflicted, and then they became a haven for women on the fringes of society. 

13. The Big Box (1999)

Morrison’s first illustrated children’s book tells the tale of three children confined to a cardboard box by adults. The children want freedom and to express themselves, but they have to figure out how to do so within the confines of the cardboard box.

Not all titles by famous authors have to be serious, and while  The Big Box certainly possesses underlying adult themes, overall, it feels fun and lighthearted. When diving into an author’s canon, reading their off-the-wall, out-of-the-norm titles serves just as important of a purpose as reading their prize winners.

14. Love (2002)

Set in a small town in Ohio,  Love tells the story of Christine and Heed, two women brought together by their love for the same man, Bill Cosey. Christine, Cosey’s granddaughter, and Heed, his widow, once loved one another, but after a fight divides them, they have to learn how to live with each other in Cosey’s mansion after his death. Confronted with the pressures of society as well as the other women of Cosey’s life, the two women face their demons and struggles.

Love presents exactly what the title would suggest – many forms of love. Throughout the novel, the emphasis on platonic and self-love takes center stage. While this novel didn’t receive the critical acclaim others did, it still can’t be missed in a quality read of Morrison’s work.

15. Remember: The Journey to School Integration (2004)

Over decades, Morrison collected countless archival photos that depicted major historical moments in the work to desegregate school systems. Remember tells the fictional story of the children who experienced schooling in the era of “separate but equal.” The fictional representation of the children allows audiences to enter an otherwise underexplored perspective.

Reading Morrison’s take on a child’s perspective during an incredibly traumatic time in American history allows audiences to understand both the time and Morrison’s feelings on desegregation. 

16. What Moves at the Margin (2008)

This collection of Morrison’s non-fiction writing gathers her essays, reviews, and speeches from 1971 to 2002. The first section, “Family and History,” includes writings about Black women, Black history, and her own family. The second section, “Writers and Writing,” explores writers she admired and books she reviewed or edited at Random House. Finally, “Politics and Society” allows Morrison to share her feelings on the role of literature in the greater American society. 

Getting the best understanding of a writer and their ability requires reading all of their work, even their speeches or the reviews they wrote for other authors. Truly knowing them as a writer and author begins with digging into the work that doesn’t get as much exposure as their popular works. Morrison’s  What Moves at the Margin allows readers to see into her mind more and her character’s less. 

17. A Mercy (2008)

In  A Mercy , Morrison traces the evils of slavery back to the budding nation’s earliest days, furthering the work she did in  Beloved by examining a fraught mother-daughter relationship and the effects of trauma through generations. Set in a small town in Oklahoma,  A Mercy follows the story of Florens, a young enslaved woman sold to Jacob Vaark, an enslaver who seems to collect women, including his wife, whom he purchased. 

A Mercy reaches further in history than any of Morrison’s other novels and feels almost like a tie that brings together all of her other novels. 

18. Burn This Book: Notes on Literature (2009)

Edited and contributed to by Toni Morrison,  Burn This Book: Notes on Literature explores censorship and the value of the American right to free speech. The essays cover a range of topics, all relating to literature and how authors exercise their right to free speech, even as they challenge censorship and how their speech is hindered.

Sure, Morrison’s essay contribution to  Burn This Book can’t be missed, but the most important reason to read it lies in the fact that she edited the collection. She selected all the essays, choosing exactly what she knew would connect everything and tell the story of literature that she sought to express.

19. Home (2012)

Morrison tackles the United States’ treatment of Black veterans in  Home , a novel centered on Frank Money and his relationship with his family. Frank comes home from the Korean War only to realize that nothing about the status of Black men in the United States changes, even as veterans. Returning to his small hometown in Georgia to rescue his sister, Cee, from an abusive situation, Frank must confront the physical and mental scars of his time at war and his subsequent return home. 

Home addresses PTSD in Black soldiers in a way so few novels do. Morrison beautifully weaves together the systemic oppression and racism Black people endured in the South with the painful and challenging situation that Black veterans endured when they returned from the war.

20. God Help the Child (2015)

The last novel Morrison wrote, God Help the Child, explores childhood trauma and the way it shapes lives. The story focuses on Bride, a woman with skin so dark it almost appears blue. A successful, bold, and beautiful woman, Bride struggles internally with the effects of her mother’s abuse. Light-skinned and angry at her child, Bride’s mother failed to offer her the sort of love and kindness she needed until Bride told a lie that changed the life of a woman and forever affected her own.

At the core of God Help the Child rests an understanding of colorism that Morrison navigates incredibly. She examines the way colorism exists as systemic in the wider community of the United States while also examining how it impacts Black people within Black communities specifically.

21. The Origin of Others (2017)

In this non-fiction work, Morrison tackles the idea of the “Other,” exploring how and why Othering occurs and addressing why it plays such a big role in her writing. She digs into the subjects and situations that impact her work, including race, fear, love, borders, and the human condition.

In any upper-level English course, the word “Other” (capital “O”) often gets bandied about. That “Other” comes under incredible scrutiny in  The Origin of Others . Morrison does some of her finest academic, exploratory work in this book. She leaves nothing on the table, digging into every situation and setting to get to the heart of “Other.” 

22. Mouth Full of Blood (2019)

Mouth Full of Blood collects four decades’ worth of Morrison’s non-fiction work into one edition. The book covers everything from her speech to graduates and visitors at America’s Black Holocaust Museum, a prayer for those lost in 9/11, her Nobel lecture, a eulogy for James Baldwin, and so much more.

Released the same year Morrison died,  Mouth Full of Blood is a crucial read for many reasons, but most importantly because it collects never-before-published non-fiction that reflects huge moments in literary history, world history, and Morrison’s personal life. To read Mouth Full of Blood is to understand Morrison.

23. Goodness and the Literary Imagination (2019)

In a deep and powerful exploration, Morrison digs into what goodness is, where it comes from, and how it exists in literature and the literary imagination. Morrison mines handfuls of texts for the essence of and creation of literary goodness, seeking it in texts from across time.

So many of Morrison’s novels confront the idea of “goodness,” and so it feels like a natural next step that she would explore “goodness” in a non-fiction setting.  Goodness and the Literary Imagination focuses all of Morrison’s fiction work into a beautifully crafted, academic exploration that continues and completes the hard work her fiction began.

24. The Source of Self-Regard (2019)

The Source of Self-Regard pulls a smaller and more concise selection of Morrison’s best non-fiction works, hitting the highlights and collecting them all in a slim, accessible edition. The curated selection brings together what many consider the essential Morrison works.

While nothing new comes from  The Source of Self-Regard , the book’s power lies in the precise selections to create the title. Published in the year of Morrison’s death, the book is a tribute to the incredible work completed throughout her career .

25. Morrison’s Eternal Influence

Taught in classrooms worldwide, Toni Morrison’s titles bring together her singular experience as a Black woman and a literary giant and the Black experience throughout the United States. Morrison’s steadfast, unwavering desire to truly understand and examine the Black experience will keep her forever as a pillar of American literary influence and one of the world’s most incredible women.

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40 Facts About Elektrostal

Written by Lanette Mayes

Modified & Updated: 31 May 2024

Reviewed by Jessica Corbett

Elektrostal is a vibrant city located in the Moscow Oblast region of Russia. With a rich history, stunning architecture, and a thriving community, Elektrostal is a city that has much to offer. Whether you are a history buff, nature enthusiast, or simply curious about different cultures, Elektrostal is sure to captivate you.

This article will provide you with 40 fascinating facts about Elektrostal, giving you a better understanding of why this city is worth exploring. From its origins as an industrial hub to its modern-day charm, we will delve into the various aspects that make Elektrostal a unique and must-visit destination.

So, join us as we uncover the hidden treasures of Elektrostal and discover what makes this city a true gem in the heart of Russia.

Key Takeaways:

• Elektrostal, known as the “Motor City of Russia,” is a vibrant and growing city with a rich industrial history, offering diverse cultural experiences and a strong commitment to environmental sustainability.
• With its convenient location near Moscow, Elektrostal provides a picturesque landscape, vibrant nightlife, and a range of recreational activities, making it an ideal destination for residents and visitors alike.

Known as the “Motor City of Russia.”

Elektrostal, a city located in the Moscow Oblast region of Russia, earned the nickname “Motor City” due to its significant involvement in the automotive industry.

Home to the Elektrostal Metallurgical Plant.

Elektrostal is renowned for its metallurgical plant, which has been producing high-quality steel and alloys since its establishment in 1916.

Boasts a rich industrial heritage.

Elektrostal has a long history of industrial development, contributing to the growth and progress of the region.

Founded in 1916.

The city of Elektrostal was founded in 1916 as a result of the construction of the Elektrostal Metallurgical Plant.

Located approximately 50 kilometers east of Moscow.

Elektrostal is situated in close proximity to the Russian capital, making it easily accessible for both residents and visitors.

Known for its vibrant cultural scene.

Elektrostal is home to several cultural institutions, including museums, theaters, and art galleries that showcase the city’s rich artistic heritage.

A popular destination for nature lovers.

Surrounded by picturesque landscapes and forests, Elektrostal offers ample opportunities for outdoor activities such as hiking, camping, and birdwatching.

Hosts the annual Elektrostal City Day celebrations.

Every year, Elektrostal organizes festive events and activities to celebrate its founding, bringing together residents and visitors in a spirit of unity and joy.

Has a population of approximately 160,000 people.

Elektrostal is home to a diverse and vibrant community of around 160,000 residents, contributing to its dynamic atmosphere.

Boasts excellent education facilities.

The city is known for its well-established educational institutions, providing quality education to students of all ages.

A center for scientific research and innovation.

Elektrostal serves as an important hub for scientific research, particularly in the fields of metallurgy , materials science, and engineering.

Surrounded by picturesque lakes.

The city is blessed with numerous beautiful lakes , offering scenic views and recreational opportunities for locals and visitors alike.

Well-connected transportation system.

Elektrostal benefits from an efficient transportation network, including highways, railways, and public transportation options, ensuring convenient travel within and beyond the city.

Famous for its traditional Russian cuisine.

Food enthusiasts can indulge in authentic Russian dishes at numerous restaurants and cafes scattered throughout Elektrostal.

Home to notable architectural landmarks.

Elektrostal boasts impressive architecture, including the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord and the Elektrostal Palace of Culture.

Offers a wide range of recreational facilities.

Residents and visitors can enjoy various recreational activities, such as sports complexes, swimming pools, and fitness centers, enhancing the overall quality of life.

Provides a high standard of healthcare.

Elektrostal is equipped with modern medical facilities, ensuring residents have access to quality healthcare services.

Home to the Elektrostal History Museum.

The Elektrostal History Museum showcases the city’s fascinating past through exhibitions and displays.

A hub for sports enthusiasts.

Elektrostal is passionate about sports, with numerous stadiums, arenas, and sports clubs offering opportunities for athletes and spectators.

Celebrates diverse cultural festivals.

Throughout the year, Elektrostal hosts a variety of cultural festivals, celebrating different ethnicities, traditions, and art forms.

Electric power played a significant role in its early development.

Elektrostal owes its name and initial growth to the establishment of electric power stations and the utilization of electricity in the industrial sector.

Boasts a thriving economy.

The city’s strong industrial base, coupled with its strategic location near Moscow, has contributed to Elektrostal’s prosperous economic status.

Houses the Elektrostal Drama Theater.

The Elektrostal Drama Theater is a cultural centerpiece, attracting theater enthusiasts from far and wide.

Popular destination for winter sports.

Elektrostal’s proximity to ski resorts and winter sport facilities makes it a favorite destination for skiing, snowboarding, and other winter activities.

Promotes environmental sustainability.

Elektrostal prioritizes environmental protection and sustainability, implementing initiatives to reduce pollution and preserve natural resources.

Home to renowned educational institutions.

Elektrostal is known for its prestigious schools and universities, offering a wide range of academic programs to students.

Committed to cultural preservation.

The city values its cultural heritage and takes active steps to preserve and promote traditional customs, crafts, and arts.

Hosts an annual International Film Festival.

The Elektrostal International Film Festival attracts filmmakers and cinema enthusiasts from around the world, showcasing a diverse range of films.

Encourages entrepreneurship and innovation.

Elektrostal supports aspiring entrepreneurs and fosters a culture of innovation, providing opportunities for startups and business development.

Offers a range of housing options.

Elektrostal provides diverse housing options, including apartments, houses, and residential complexes, catering to different lifestyles and budgets.

Home to notable sports teams.

Elektrostal is proud of its sports legacy, with several successful sports teams competing at regional and national levels.

Boasts a vibrant nightlife scene.

Residents and visitors can enjoy a lively nightlife in Elektrostal, with numerous bars, clubs, and entertainment venues.

Promotes cultural exchange and international relations.

Elektrostal actively engages in international partnerships, cultural exchanges, and diplomatic collaborations to foster global connections.

Surrounded by beautiful nature reserves.

Nearby nature reserves, such as the Barybino Forest and Luchinskoye Lake, offer opportunities for nature enthusiasts to explore and appreciate the region’s biodiversity.

Commemorates historical events.

The city pays tribute to significant historical events through memorials, monuments, and exhibitions, ensuring the preservation of collective memory.

Promotes sports and youth development.

Elektrostal invests in sports infrastructure and programs to encourage youth participation, health, and physical fitness.

Hosts annual cultural and artistic festivals.

Throughout the year, Elektrostal celebrates its cultural diversity through festivals dedicated to music, dance, art, and theater.

Provides a picturesque landscape for photography enthusiasts.

The city’s scenic beauty, architectural landmarks, and natural surroundings make it a paradise for photographers.

Connects to Moscow via a direct train line.

The convenient train connection between Elektrostal and Moscow makes commuting between the two cities effortless.

A city with a bright future.

Elektrostal continues to grow and develop, aiming to become a model city in terms of infrastructure, sustainability, and quality of life for its residents.

In conclusion, Elektrostal is a fascinating city with a rich history and a vibrant present. From its origins as a center of steel production to its modern-day status as a hub for education and industry, Elektrostal has plenty to offer both residents and visitors. With its beautiful parks, cultural attractions, and proximity to Moscow, there is no shortage of things to see and do in this dynamic city. Whether you’re interested in exploring its historical landmarks, enjoying outdoor activities, or immersing yourself in the local culture, Elektrostal has something for everyone. So, next time you find yourself in the Moscow region, don’t miss the opportunity to discover the hidden gems of Elektrostal.

Q: What is the population of Elektrostal?

A: As of the latest data, the population of Elektrostal is approximately XXXX.

Q: How far is Elektrostal from Moscow?

A: Elektrostal is located approximately XX kilometers away from Moscow.

Q: Are there any famous landmarks in Elektrostal?

A: Yes, Elektrostal is home to several notable landmarks, including XXXX and XXXX.

Q: What industries are prominent in Elektrostal?

A: Elektrostal is known for its steel production industry and is also a center for engineering and manufacturing.

Q: Are there any universities or educational institutions in Elektrostal?

A: Yes, Elektrostal is home to XXXX University and several other educational institutions.

Q: What are some popular outdoor activities in Elektrostal?

A: Elektrostal offers several outdoor activities, such as hiking, cycling, and picnicking in its beautiful parks.

Q: Is Elektrostal well-connected in terms of transportation?

A: Yes, Elektrostal has good transportation links, including trains and buses, making it easily accessible from nearby cities.

Q: Are there any annual events or festivals in Elektrostal?

A: Yes, Elektrostal hosts various events and festivals throughout the year, including XXXX and XXXX.

Elektrostal's fascinating history, vibrant culture, and promising future make it a city worth exploring. For more captivating facts about cities around the world, discover the unique characteristics that define each city . Uncover the hidden gems of Moscow Oblast through our in-depth look at Kolomna. Lastly, dive into the rich industrial heritage of Teesside, a thriving industrial center with its own story to tell.

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Ta-Nehisi Coates returns to nonfiction and explores the power of stories in upcoming ‘The Message’

This cover image released by One World shows “The Message” by Ta-Nehisi Coates. (One World via AP)

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NEW YORK (AP) — For his first all-new book of nonfiction in nearly a decade, Ta-Nehisi Coates traveled the world.

One World announced Thursday that Coates’ “The Message” will be published Oct. 1. “The Message” is set everywhere from the American South to the Middle East and Palestine and focuses on a single question: In a time of growing strife and injustice, why do stories matter?

“In ‘The Message,’ Coates explores this question by reporting from three powerfully resonant sites — Senegal, South Carolina, and Palestine — that have been profoundly shaped and riven by contested accounts of meaning and reality,” the One World announcement reads in part. “Weaving together on-the-ground reportage, personal narrative, and insightful dives into literature and history, he tries to clarify what’s real beneath layers of propaganda, wishful thinking, and enforced silence — and why we are so often misled, with sometimes catastrophic consequences.”

Additional details about “The Message” were not immediately available. In a statement released through One World, a Penguin Random House imprint, Coates said he was thrilled “to be back publishing nonfiction in this particular political moment.”

Coates’ last new work of nonfiction, “Between the World and Me,” was a meditation on racism and police violence that won the National Book Award in 2015 and was likened by Nobel laureate Toni Morrison to the works of James Baldwin. His books also include the 2017 essay collection “We Were Eight Years in Power,” drawn in part from his Atlantic magazine reporting during the Obama administration, and the 2019 novel “The Water Dancer,” an Oprah Winfrey book selection.

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Elektrostal Localisation : Country Russia , Oblast Moscow Oblast . Available Information : Geographical coordinates , Population, Area, Altitude, Weather and Hotel . Nearby cities and villages : Noginsk , Pavlovsky Posad and Staraya Kupavna .

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A Furious, Forgotten Slave Narrative Resurfaces After Nearly 170 Years

John S. Jacobs was a fugitive, an abolitionist — and the brother of the canonical author Harriet Jacobs. Now, his own fierce autobiography has re-emerged.

By Jennifer Schuessler

One day in 1855, a man walked into a newspaper office in Sydney, Australia, with an odd request.

The man, later described as a “man of color” with “bright, intelligent eyes” and an American accent, was looking for a copy of the United States Constitution.

The text was procured, along with a recent book on the history of the United States. Two weeks later, the man returned with a nearly 20,000-word text of his own, bearing a blunt title: “The United States Governed by Six Hundred Thousand Despots.”

The first half offered an account of the author’s birth into slavery in North Carolina around 1815, his escape from his master, his years on a whaling ship and then his departure from “the land of the free” for the shores of Australia, where he went to work in the gold fields.

The second half was a long, blistering condemnation of the country he had left behind, in particular its revered founding document.

“That devil in sheepskin called the Constitution of the United States,” the man wrote, is “the great chain that binds the north and south together, a union to rob and plunder the sons of Africa, a union cemented with human blood, and blackened with the guilt of 68 years.”

The newspaper published the narrative anonymously, in two installments, attributing it only to “A Fugitive Slave.” How it was received is unknown.

The man’s words then sat, unread and forgotten, until a few years ago, when an American literary scholar came across them while digging around one night in an online newspaper database.

Now, it is being published for the first time in 169 years by the University of Chicago Press, under its unflinching original title, with the author’s name — John Swanson Jacobs — emblazoned on the cover.

The rediscovery of a long-forgotten slave narrative would be notable enough. But this one, scholars who have seen it say, is unique for its global perspective and its uncensored fury, from a man living far outside the trans-Atlantic network of white abolitionists who often limited what the formerly enslaved could write about their experiences.

And it comes with an uncanny twist: Jacobs was the brother of Harriet Jacobs, whose 1861 autobiography, “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl,” the first published slave narrative written by a formerly enslaved African American woman, is now seen as a cornerstone of the 19th-century literary canon.

Today, John Jacobs is remembered mostly as a footnote to his sister’s story. But Jonathan D.S. Schroeder, the scholar who rediscovered the narrative, said he hopes the book will restore Jacobs to history, placing him in the tradition of Black radicalism from David Walker’s incendiary “Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World” from 1829 to the Black Lives Matter movement today.

The narrative is a “spectacular performance of autobiographical freedom,” Schroeder argues. And it raises a deeper question: How would other formerly enslaved people — including Jacobs’s more famous sister — have told their stories if they had been truly able to write freely?

A Homegrown American Genre

Slave narratives have been called the United States’ only homegrown literary genre, if also a complicated one. Well into the 20th century, they were dogged by questions about their authenticity, and the degree to which they had been shaped, or even fabricated, by white editors.

But today, the roughly 200 known to survive are prized both as direct testimony of enslavement and as the seedbed of a literary tradition that stretches from Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth to Toni Morrison and Colson Whitehead (whose novel “The Underground Railroad’ was partly inspired by Harriet Jacobs’s book ).

Schroeder came upon John Jacobs’s 1855 narrative by an odd back door. Back in 2017, he was fresh out of graduate school in English, and trying to turn his Ph.D. dissertation about the history of nostalgia into a book.

Today, we may think of nostalgia, a term coined in the 1680s by a Swiss physician, as a pleasantly wistful state. But it originated as a medical diagnosis , which was often applied to despondent prisoners, soldiers and others seen as “irrationally” homesick, including enslaved people .

One night, after a day of working on a job application, Schroeder was digging around on the internet, trying to blow off “stress anxiety.” He had been reading the 2004 biography of Harriet Jacobs by Jean Fagan Yellin and was fascinated by the fact that both her brother and her son, Joseph, had gone to Australia — “physically pretty much the farthest away from America you could get,” as Schroeder put it.

Joseph died in Melbourne, apparently by suicide, around 1860. Had the cause of death been listed as “nostalgia,” Schroeder wondered? Looking for more information, he started plugging various spellings (and misspellings) of both men’s names into Trove , a database of digitized Australian newspapers.

Almost immediately, two articles popped up, published on subsequent days in April 1855, with the same striking title: “The United States Governed by Six Hundred Thousand Despots: A True Story of Slavery.”

“It felt like getting hit by a bolt of lightning,” Schroeder said. But he also didn’t want to get too excited. “I know how often these things turn out to not be what they appear to be.”

The narrative begins with the anonymous author’s birth in Edenton, N.C., where Harriet Jacobs was born. As he read the first installment, Schroeder noticed many other details that lined up with those in Harriet Jacobs’s as-yet unpublished book.

Then, two-thirds of the way through, there was a description of a letter the author had left for his enslaver in 1839, shortly before escaping from their hotel in New York City and fleeing by ship.

“Sir, I have left you not to return,” he wrote. The letter was signed, “No longer yours, John S. Jacob.”

The editors had left a letter off the surname. But this was clearly Jacobs.

“Then, I allowed myself to be hit with the full force of it,” Schroeder said.

The next day, Schroeder contacted Caleb Smith, an English professor at Yale, to ask for advice. Smith, who in 2013 drew headlines for authenticating the earliest known memoir by an imprisoned Black American , from the 1850s, called Jacobs’s narrative an “exciting” find.

“We are accustomed to thinking about slavery in terms of silenced voices, lost stories, lives that left only cryptic traces in the archives,” Smith said in an email. “But the voice here is loud and clear in its rage.”

Manisha Sinha, a leading historian of abolition at the University of Connecticut, called it “a major discovery” and “a wow,” which adds to our understanding of the evolution of Black antislavery activism.

Historians have known John Jacobs as a barely documented player in radical abolitionist circles of the 1840s, who sometimes lectured alongside Frederick Douglass, his neighbor in Rochester, N.Y.

In 1851, Douglass broke with the white abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, rejecting his view of the Constitution as an irredeemable “covenant with death.” But unlike Douglass, Sinha said, “Jacobs doesn’t give up on his radical indictment of the United States.”

Scattered in the Archives

Schroeder, now 43 and teaching at the Rhode Island School of Design, was initially uncertain what to do with the discovery. A literary agent recommended he research a full biography to publish alongside the text. So Schroeder transformed himself from an interpretive literary scholar into an old-fashioned archive hound.

Today, many scholars of slavery emphasize the silences and biases of the archive. “It’s important to know that the records you are looking at weren’t set up to preserve the life of the person you are writing about, and often quite the opposite,” Schroeder said.

Most scholars had assumed that Yellin, who spent three decades researching Harriet Jacobs, had tracked down most of what could be found about the Jacobs family. (Yellin died in 2023 .) But Schroeder found many previously unnoticed records, including a forgotten oil portrait from 1848 that he believes depicts John.

In Boston, he uncovered court documents describing Jacobs’s great-grandparents’ attempt to escape slavery in the 1790s. In London, he found ship logs that allowed him to trace Jacobs’s wanderings after he left Australia for London in 1856.

From his base in London, Jacobs spent the next 15 years working on ships carrying sugar from the Caribbean, oranges from the Black Sea, cotton from Egypt. He also helped finish the trans-Atlantic telegraph line and, in 1869, sailed to Bangkok on a gunboat delivered as a present for the new king of Siam.

Jacobs, Schroeder writes, “lived a life that was even more incredible than his narrative.” But his traces, he said, were “scattered to the wind.”

In 1860, as Harriet’s book was about to appear, John decided to republish his own narrative. Before a voyage to Brazil, he entrusted the text to a London magazine called Leisure Hour.

The editors chopped it nearly in half , excising most of its political arguments and turning it into a more conventional tale of suffering and escape. And gone was the original title, with its blast at the 600,000 American “despots” who owned fellow human beings.

“They cut out the radical contract that Jacobs asks the reader to submit to,” Schroeder said, “which is to pay attention not to enslaved people in pain, but to the people and laws that create the pain.”

Brother and Sister

John Jacobs died in 1873, a few months after returning to the United States. Today, few of the literary pilgrims who go to Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Mass., to visit Harriet’s grave are likely to pause over the small marker set into the grass nearby, labeled simply “Brother.”

But Schroeder hopes his research will prompt a rethinking of the siblings’ interconnected stories.

Harriet’s book, which includes harrowing descriptions of sexual abuse, borrowed conventions from the sentimental novel, to better appeal to the target audience of antislavery Northern white women. John’s narrative, Schroeder writes, is “unsentimental to its core.” But were their stories originally intended to be so different?

Both siblings, Schroeder writes, began thinking about their books in the period when they lived together in Rochester, in the late 1840s, and possibly “intended for their stories to be read together.” And in the late 1850s, Schroeder writes, John seemed to encourage Harriet, who visited London, to publish her book there.

In her biography, Yellin describes how Harriet spent three years trying to get her book published, which meant getting the imprimatur of white benefactors. Twice, she asked Harriet Beecher Stowe for an endorsement, and was rebuffed. When “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” was finally published in 1861, in Boston, the white editor revised it heavily, and cut a closing tribute to the radical abolitionist John Brown.

At the end of her book, Harriet describes John’s departure for California. What would her finished book have been like, Schroeder wonders, if she had joined him — and then, like him, continued even farther?

“There were invisible constraints on formerly enslaved authors who remained in the United States,” Schroeder said. Without the two versions of John Jacobs’s narrative, “we wouldn’t see that as clearly.”

An earlier version of this article referred incorrectly to the publishing history of Harriet Jacobs’s “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.” It is the first published slave narrative written by a formerly enslaved African American woman, not the earliest account of American slavery known to have been written by a woman.

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Jennifer Schuessler is a culture reporter covering intellectual life and the world of ideas. She is based in New York. More about Jennifer Schuessler