I, Charlotte Forten, Black and Free | I, Charlotte Forten, Black and Free

At a glance:

Author: Polly Longsworth
First Published: 1970
Time of Work: 1854–1864
Setting: Philadelphia; Salem, Massachusetts; Boston; and Port Royal, South Carolina
Principal Characters: Charlotte Forten, James Forten, Charles Redmond, William Wells Brown, Mary Shepard, William Still, Edward L. Pierce, General Saxton, Colonel Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Robert Gould Shaw
Genres: Nonfiction, Biography
Subjects: African Americans, Teaching or teachers, Freedom, Abolitionists, Nineteenth century, Slavery or slaves, Education or educators, Civil War, Biography
Locales: Boston, MA, Philadelphia, PA, South Carolina, Salem, MA

Based on Charlotte L. Forten’s Journal, edited by Ray Allen Billington and published in 1953, Polly Longsworth’s biography I, Charlotte Forten, Black and Free is more than a retelling of Forten’s life, or of a portion of that life. It is also a history of free African Americans’ involvement—with help and support from white sympathizers—in the abolitionist movement. The book includes a description of how affluent free African Americans lived in Philadelphia and Salem. From narratives of fugitive slaves and from letters, diaries, and...

I, Charlotte Forten, Black and Free | I, Charlotte Forten, Black and Free

At a glance:

Form and Content

Join eNotes