This book examines the public persuasive discourse of nineteenth-century
black women intellectuals. With the exception of the texts by Maria W. Miller
Stewart and some of Frances Ellen Watkins Harper's early speeches and essays,
it was all produced during the last decade of the century, in the midst of a pe-
riod described by Rayford Logan as the "nadir" of black American history. This
period is usually dated from the Hayes-Tilden Compromise of 1877--when
representatives of then presidential candidate Rutherford B. Hayes and repre-
sentatives of the South confirmed an agreement leading to his election and the
withdrawal of federal troops from the South--to 1915, around the time of the
migration of large numbers of blacks to the North when America was prepar-
ing to enter World War I. During this period, white supremacy in the South
and general black oppression were consolidated. Emigration and subsequent
colonization initiatives escalated. Blacks in some southern states moved west
and later north to the major industrial centers. Booker T. Washington delivered
his "Atlanta Compromise Address," implying acceptance of an inferior status
for blacks. With the Plessy v. Ferguson decision, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld
the doctrine of separate but equal. Jim Crow laws and "grandfather clauses"
were enacted to deny blacks voting rights and to limit access to public facilities.
The number of reported lynchings and the number of race riots increased
sharply. At the same time and partially in response to these events, two major
periodicals--the AME Church Review and the Woman's Era--were established.
Black women's clubs merged to form the National Association of Colored
Women. The American National Baptist Convention was formed. The Na-
tional Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was
founded. Black regiments fought in the Spanish-American War. Chicago's
Provident Hospital opened the first school for black nurses, and a number of
black colleges were established in the South.

It was within this context that most of the speeches under consideration
here were produced. Yet they were produced by the more prominent "race

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