In this informative volume, author Stephen Currie presents readers with an extensive survey of African American literature that covers the history of African American writing and authorship from the oral traditions of the seventeenth century to the publications of the present. Readers will learn about the importance, power, and prevalence of African American literature before, during, and after the Civil War and gain an insight into the way African American literature both shaped, and was shaped by, periods such as the Harlem Renaissance and the Civil Rights Movement.