"We Specialize in the Wholly Impossible"

Book excerpt: "Here, in a single volume, is a sweeping panorama of black women's experience throughout history and across classes and continents. The book is divided into six sections: theory; Africa; the Caribbean and Canada; 18th-century United States; 19th-century United States; and 20th-century United States. A remarkably diverse range of topics is covered, with chapters on subjects such as working-class consciousness among Afro-American women; the impact of slavery on family structure; black women missionaries in South Africa; slavery, sharecropping, and sexual inequality; black women during the American Revolution; imprisoned black women in the American West; women's welfare activism; SNCC and black women's activism; and property-owning free African-American women in the 19th-century South. Containing over 30 crucial essays by the most influential and prominent scholars in the field, including Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Linda Gordon, and Nell Irvin Painter, "We Specialize in the Wholly Impossible" is a comprehensive assessment of black women's lives."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved