Reconstructing the Nation: Frances Harper, Charlotte Forten, and the Racial Politics of Periodical Publication.

The contrasts between the literary careers and production of two African-American women writers, Frances Harper and Charlotte Forten, during Reconstruction may be observed on three levels: at the most basic, to tell the story of Harper's and Forten's efforts to achieve the status of 'authoress'; more broadly, to illuminate how 'mere' recovery work can help us reconstruct a still obscure but crucial moment in African-American literary history, dominated by the writing of nationhood; and finally, to demonstrate how the inclusion of African-American writers invites the construction of an American literary history different from the one commonly told.