the new Negro church formed in Philadelphia.
Paul Cuffe, disgusted with America, wrote an early
account of Sierra Leone, while the celebrated
Lemuel Haynes, ignoring the race question,
dipped deeply into the New England theological
controversy about 1815. In 1829 came the first
full-voiced, almost hysterical, protest against
slavery and the color line in David Walker’s
Appeal which aroused Southern legislatures to
action. This was followed by the earliest Negro
conventions which issued interesting minutes; two
appeals against disfranchisement in Pennsylvania
appeared in this decade, one written by Robert
Purvis, who also wrote a biography of his father-in-law, Mr. James Forten, and the other appeal
written by John Bowers and others. The life of
Gustavus Vassa, also known by his African name
of Olaudah Equiana, was published in America in
1837 continuing the interesting personal narratives.
In 1840 some strong writers began to appear. Henry Highland Garnet and J. W. C. Pennington preached powerful sermons and gave some attention to Negro history in their pamphlets: R. B. Lewis made a more elaborate attempt at Negro history. Whitfield’s poems appeared in 1846, and William Wells Brown began a career of writing which lasted from 1847 until after the Civil War.
