A Mental and Moral Feast: Reading, Writing, and Sentimentality in Black Philadelphia

Abstract

This article examines the ways in which African American women constructed their freedom and their respectability through the maintenance of "friendship albums." Many African American women in Philadelphia, New York, Baltimore, and Boston worked hard to educate themselves and their families; they also worked within various churches and political associations to bring about an end to the institution of slavery. Friendship albums, rare and important historical documents, provide tremendous insight into the attitudes and community-building partnerships among nineteenth-century African American women. Through poetry, sonnets, and journal entries, friendship albums also offer a rare glimpse into African American women's private thoughts and emotions about such hotly debated topics as womanhood, motherhood, freedom, and equality.