Rockmaple - Congrats! You are correct. As always, thanks for the link. It provided more background about Ann Plato than the blurb that I had. According to your link, she was one of the first black women to publish a book in America. My blurb states that she was the second African-American woman to have a book published in America. Also that of the 20 poems, eleven had death as their subject.
I sorta take issue with 'the critics' mentioned in your blurb re: "Some critics find Plato's essays and poetry to be overly moralizing, unoriginal, and she’s been put down for not mentioning the issue of American slavery. Her one reference to slavery concerns the abolition of slavery in the West Indies in 1838." First it seems to me that a lot of writing back then was of the moralizing nature. Given that she was a school teacher at the Black Zion Methodist Church School of Hartford, it doesn't surprise me that her essays would be of that type. Even textbooks at that time could be considered "overly moralizing" imo.
Also, I have to wonder if these 'critics' were of the time period or are looking backward regarding their put down of her not mentioning the issue of American slavery in 1841. I would suspect that her reference to slavery concerning the abolition of slavery in the West Indies in 1838 covered how she felt about slavery. While Ann did live in the North and was free, for an African American woman to tackle the subject would have created even more of a fire storm in the South than what 10 years later Uncle Tom's Cabin did. Plus one can't assume that just because Ann lived in the North that she would not have met with hostile forces in her own area. Not only did Harriet Beecher Stowe receive threatening letters, she also received a package containing a slave's severed ear. In Mobile, Alabama a bookseller was forced to leave town for selling the novel.
And now a literary question about our friendly neighbor . . .
785. Which famous novelist was Governor General of Canada?
