West Virginia University Press has published Sketches of Slave Life and From Slave Cabin to the Pulpit, written by Peter Randolph and edited by�Katherine Clay Bassard.

This book is the sixth book in Regenerations: African American Literature and Culture, a series devoted to reprinting editions of important African-American texts that either have fallen out of print or have failed to receive the attention they deserve. This series is edited by�John Ernest of the University of Delaware and�Joycelyn K. Moody of the University of Texas at San Antonio.

“Sketches of Slave Life and From Slave Cabin to the Pulpit” is the first anthology of the autobiographical writings of Peter Randolph, a prominent 19th-century former slave who became a black abolitionist, pastor and community leader. �

Randolph’s story is unique because he was freed and relocated from Virginia to Boston, along with his entire plantation cohort.�A lawsuit launched by Randolph against his former master’s estate left legal documents that corroborate his autobiographies.�

Randolph’s writings give us a window into a different experience of slavery and freedom than other narratives currently available and will be of interest to students and scholars of African-American literature, history and religious studies, as well as those with an interest in Virginia history and mid-Atlantic slavery. �

P. Gabrielle Foreman of the University of Delaware notes, “Readers will benefit not only from having Randolph’s texts available to them in this new form, but also from the critical interventions and extensive knowledge that Bassard’s introduction offers to various literary and historical fields.”

Peter Randolph (1825e–1897) was born enslaved in Prince George County, Virginia. Randolph was freed upon his master’s death along with the entire plantation work force. In 1847, sixty-six newly freed men, women and children made the journey to begin life anew in Boston. �

Katherine Clay Bassard is professor of English and interim associate dean for Faculty Affairs in the College of Humanities and Sciences at Virginia Commonwealth University. She is the author of�”Spiritual Interrogations: Culture, Gender, and Community in Early African American Women’s Writing”�and�”Transforming Scriptures:� African American Women Writers and the Bible,” along with numerous articles on gender, race and religion in literature.�

Publication: February 2016
288pp/PB�978-1-943665-05-1: $24.99/CL�978-1-943665-04-4: $68.99/epub�978-1-943665-07-5: $16.99/ PDF�978-1-943665-06-8: $16.99

-WVU-

af/2/22/16

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