William L. Andrews

About the Author

William L. Andrews was born in 1946. He earned his B.A. from Davidson College in 1968. He received his M.A. in 1970 and Ph.D. in 1973, respectively, from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, where he is currently the E. Maynard Adams Professor of English. His first book, The Literary show more Career of Charles W. Chesnutt, published in 1980, deals with a seminal figure in the development of African American and Southern American prose fiction. While researching To Tell a Free Story, a history of African American autobiography up to 1865, Andrews became greatly interested in autobiography studies. Since 1988 he has been the general editor of a book series, titled Wisconsin Studies in Autobiography, which is published by the University of Wisconsin Press. Since the mid-1980's he has done a considerable amount of editing of African American and southern literature and criticism. The fruition of this work has been The Norton Anthology of African American Literature, published in 1997, The Oxford Companion to African American Literature, also published in 1997, and The Literature of the American South: A Norton Anthology, three big collaborative projects that Andrews has co-edited. He went on to be the series editor of North American Slave Narratives, Beginnings to 1920, a complete digitized library of autobiographies and biographies of North American slaves and ex-slaves, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, Ameritech, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. (Bowker Author Biography) show less

Includes the names: William L. Andrews, Andrews William L., William L. Andrews, ed.

Also includes: William Andrews (6)

Works by William L. Andrews

Popular Recent

Slave Narratives (2000) — Editor — 335 copies, 2 reviews

The Oxford Companion to African American Literature (1997) — Editor — 144 copies

Sisters of the Spirit: Three Black Women's Autobiographies of the Nineteenth Century (1986) — Editor — 118 copies

Six Women's Slave Narratives (1988) — Introduction — 100 copies

The Literature of the American South: A Norton Anthology (1997) — Editor — 100 copies

Classic American Autobiographies (1992) — Editor — 91 copies

Three Classic African-American Novels: The Heroic Slave; Clotel; Our Nig (1990) — Editor; Introduction — 87 copies

The Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature (2001) — Editor — 73 copies

Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass : authoritative text, contexts, criticism (1997) — Editor — 51 copies, 1 review

Journeys in New Worlds: Early American Women's Narratives (Wisconsin Studies in Autobiography) (1990) 41 copies, 1 review

Classic Fiction of the Harlem Renaissance (1994) — Editor — 41 copies, 1 review

Pioneers Of The Black Atlantic: Five Slave Narratives, 1772-1815 (1998) — Editor — 40 copies

The Oxford Frederick Douglass Reader (1996) — Editor — 39 copies

Toni Morrison's Beloved : A Casebook (1999) — Editor — 39 copies, 1 review

The African-American Novel in the Age of Reaction: 3 Classics Iola Leroy or Shadows Uplifted The Marrow Tradition The… (1992) — Editor — 36 copies

Life of William Grimes, the Runaway Slave (2008) 31 copies

North Carolina Slave Narratives: The Lives of Moses Roper, Lunsford Lane, Moses Grandy & Thomas H. Jones (2003) 30 copies

To Tell a Free Story: The First Century of Afro-American Autobiography, 1760-1865 (1986) 26 copies

The Civitas Anthology Of African American Slave Narratives (1999) 25 copies, 1 review

From Fugitive Slave to Free Man: The Autobiographies of William Wells Brown (1993) — Editor — 22 copies

The North Carolina Roots of African American Literature: An Anthology (2006) 18 copies

African-American Autobiography: A Collection of Critical Essays (1992) 17 copies

Classic African American women's narratives (2003) 14 copies

African American Literature: Voices in a Tradition (1992) 13 copies

Slave Narratives after Slavery (2011) 11 copies

Richard Wright's Black Boy (American Hunger): A Casebook (2003) — Editor — 10 copies

Slavery and Class in the American South: A Generation of Slave Narrative Testimony, 1840-1865 (2019) 8 copies, 1 review

Two Biographies by African-American Women (1991) — Introduction — 4 copies

Literary Romanticism in America (1981) 2 copies

The Literary Career of Charles W. Chesnutt (Southern Literary Studies) (1980) 2 copies

The Literary Career of Charles W. Chesnutt (Southern Literary Studies) (1999) 1 copy

Critical Essays on Frederick Douglass (1991) 1 copy

Work Explorer

Associated Works

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845) — Editor, some editions — 9,749 copies, 121 reviews

My Bondage and My Freedom (1855) — Editor, some editions; Introduction, some editions — 1,108 copies, 5 reviews

Behind the Scenes: or, Thirty Years a Slave and Four Years in the White House (1868) — Introduction, some editions — 597 copies, 19 reviews

Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands (1857) — Introduction, some editions — 335 copies, 3 reviews

Conjure Tales and Stories of the Color Line (Penguin Classics) (2000) — Editor, some editions — 120 copies, 2 reviews

In Search of Hannah Crafts: Critical Essays on the Bondwoman's Narrative (2003) — Contributor — 58 copies

William Johnson's Natchez: The Ante-Bellum Diary of a Free Negro (1993) — Introduction — 29 copies

The Conjure Stories [Norton Critical Edition] (2011) — Contributor — 21 copies

The Palgrave Handbook of Philosophy and Public Policy (2018) — Contributor — 5 copies

The Margins of the Text (Editorial Theory and Literary Criticism) (1997) — Contributor — 3 copies

Tagged

19th century (17) 19th century American literature (6) African American (71) African American History (20) African American literature (22) African American studies (11) African American women (7) African Americans (11) African-American Literature (6) American (15) American history (34) American literature (45) anthology (49) autobiography (53) biography (33) black history (7) essays (15) fiction (35) Frederick Douglass (9) Harlem Renaissance (6) history (72) Library of America (43) literary criticism (14) literature (47) LOA (18) memoir (31) non-fiction (59) poetry (7) race (13) reference (25) religion (8) short stories (11) slave narrative (27) slavery (72) slaves (7) southern literature (8) to-read (23) USA (11) women (8) women's studies (8)

Common Knowledge

Birthdate: 1946
Gender: male
Nationality: USA
Education: BDavidson College (BA)
University of North Carolina Chapel Hill (MA)
University of North Carolina Chapel Hill (PhD)
Occupations: E. Maynard Adams Professor of English, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill

Members

Reviews

Slavery and Class in the American South: A… by William L. Andrews

Very good book if you want the true story of what slavery was like.

Flagged

BillPhillips1944 | Dec 13, 2024 |

Slave Narratives (Library of America) by William L. Andrews

I've already read three of the ten slave narratives from this volume. Harriet Jacobs's story stands out: to escape from the advances of her slave master, who wanted to have a sexual relationship with her, she went into hiding in the space between her grandmother's roof and ceiling, the highest part of which is only three feet. She ends up hiding there for over seven years. An awesome first-hand account. I want to read Nat Turner's and Sojourner Truth's narratives next.

Flagged

frebau | 1 other review | Dec 2, 2019 |

The Civitas anthology of African American slave… by William L. Andrews

A difficult and harrowing but important sample of American literature, not only in terms of its significance to our nation's history, but also in inspiring compassion and humanity as this very long, shameful chapter in our nation's past continues to have reverberations today. When compared with the political climate over 150 years later, one can't help but note that the hypocrisy of professing piety and being a "good Christian," while simultaneously ignoring -- and worse, contributing to -- the suffering of fellow humans is apparently eternal. This sentence, when Mary Prince is first introduced to Christianity, broke my heart: "When I found out that I was a great sinner, I was very sorely grieved, and very much frightened." Any number of these narratives would make a riveting feature film or documentary. I was especially awed by Harriet Jacobs' incredible story.… (more)

Flagged

ryner | May 10, 2018 |

Slave Narratives (Library of America) by William L. Andrews

Ten separate narratives spanning 1770-1860 in which the enslaved argue for their humanity to an eventually sympathetic nation. Wm and Ellen Craft's 'Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom' with them disguised as a sickly master (Ellen) and his slave across steam boats and trains from Georgia to Philadelphia stands out. Harriet Jacob's 'Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl' is remarkably well written. The set ends with Jacob Green telling his disturbing story, letting us know these were complicated humans making the best of their situations as they could.… (more)

Flagged

kcshankd | 1 other review | Dec 31, 2017 |

See More Reviews