African-American Digital Content Collections

My Bondage and My Freedom is an autobiographical slave narrative written by Frederick Douglass and published in 1855. It is the second of three autobiographies written by Douglass, and is mainly an expansion of his first (Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass), discussing in greater detail his transition from bondage to liberty. Douglass, a former slave, following his liberation went on to become a prominent abolitionist, speaker, author, and publisher. Available from the Lit2Go website. Reading level: 10.1. Word count: 135,256.

Up from Slavery is the autobiography of Booker T. Washington available from the Lit2Go website. Reading level: 9.9. Word count: 78,196.

Sojourner Truth addresses the subject of equality at the 1851 Women’s Convention in Akron, Ohio. from the Lit2Go audiobook collection. Reading level: 3.6. Word count: 390. Duration: 2 minutes 30 seconds. Also available as a PDF.

James Weldon Johnson’s The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man is a fictional, tragic tale about a young mulatto’s coming-of-age in the early 20th century. The unnamed narrator, who has a black mother and white father, is light-skinned enough to pass for a white man but his emotional connections to his mother’s heritage make him unable to fully embrace that world. Available from the Lit2Go audiobook collection. Reading level: 9.0. Word count: 53,408.

The Heart of Happy Hollow is a collection of sixteen short stories by Paul Laurence Dunbar that focuses on the experiences of African-Americans after the conclusion of the Civil War. From the Lit2Go audiobook collection. Reading level: 6.5. Word count: 50,355.

This content was contributed by the State Library and Archives, a division of the Florida Department of State. This collection highlights Florida’s African American religious music traditions. The collection features both nationally recognized acts and previously unknown local artists, including the Dixie Hummingbirds, the Georgia Sea Island, the Versiteers, and the Amigo Male Singers. Christian sacred music is performed by African-Americans in a variety of social contexts, which range from informal unaccompanied solo singing, to spirited church meetings, to gospel concerts by professional artists.

This series is a compilation of Zora Neale Hurston sound recordings created while she worked for the WPA in the 1930s. Today, the original recordings are housed at the Library of Congress. Hurston made recordings for the WPA in 1935 and again in 1939. Today, Hurston is better known as a major literary figure, but she was also a trained anthropologist who studied under Franz Boas. A native of Eatonville, Florida, Hurston fell upon hard times during the Great Depression and eventually sought out relief work with the Federal Writer’s Project (FWP). Having already conducted fieldwork for her own studies, Hurston worked with Herbert Halpert and Stetson Kennedy in the FWP.

The Amigo Male Singers were an African American gospel group from north central Florida. They were directed by Alfonso Levy of Lake City. The clear diction and formal sound of the group reflects influence by the Fisk Jubilee Singers, a popular touring group formed shortly after emancipation to raise funds for Fisk University, and often credited with introducing the Negro spiritual to the general public.

Jazz pianist Ida Goodson was born into a musically gifted family near Pensacola, Florida, in 1909. She was the youngest of seven girls raised by strict Southern Baptist parents who prohibited the playing of secular music in the home. Despite that, both she and her sister, Wilhelmina Goodson, learned to play the piano and developed a love for barrelhouse blues and jazz. Ida Goodson performed throughout the South but maintained a home base in Pensacola, where she often accompanied tours with national stars such as Bessie Smith.

Reading passage about the community of free African-Americans established in 1738. The passage is available as a web page and a PDF. It also includes teacher notes, a reading strategy, and student questions.

A reading passage about Zora Neale Hurston. She is noted as the first Black American to collect and publish African-American and Afro-Caribbean folklore. Passage is available as a web page and a PDF. Teacher notes, student questions, a student activity sheet, and three reading strategies (PAVE, three-column notes, historical map) are also available.