{"product_id":"belabored-professions-xiomara-santamarina-9780807856482","title":"Belabored Professions: Narratives of African American Working Womanhood","description":"According to nineteenth-century racial uplift ideology, African American women served their race best as reformers and activists, or as \"doers of the word.\" In \u003ci\u003eBelabored Professions\u003c\/i\u003e, Xiomara Santamarina examines the autobiographies of four women who diverged from that ideal and defended the legitimacy of their self-supporting wage labor.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSantamarina focuses on \u003ci\u003eThe Narrative of Sojourner Truth\u003c\/i\u003e, Eliza Potter's \u003ci\u003eA Hairdresser's Experience in High Life\u003c\/i\u003e, Harriet Wilson's \u003ci\u003eOur Nig\u003c\/i\u003e, and Elizabeth Keckley's \u003ci\u003eBehind the Scenes\u003c\/i\u003e. She argues that beyond black reformers' calls for abolitionist work, these former slaves and freeborn black women wrote about their own overlooked or disparaged work as socially and culturally valuable to the nation. They promoted the status of wage labor as a mark of self-reliance and civic virtue when many viewed African American working women as \"drudges.\" As Santamarina demonstrates, these texts offer modern readers new perspectives on the emergence of the vital African American autobiographical tradition, dramatizing the degree to which black working women participated in and shaped American rhetorics of labor, race, and femininity. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Xiomara Santamarina\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0807856487\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780807856482\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of North Carolina Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 10\/31\/2005\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 240\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.62lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.51h x 5.27w x 0.59d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eBlack Issues Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e 09\/01\/2006 pg. 39","brand":"Xiomara Santamarina","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":44540343222527,"sku":"9780807856482","price":32.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_42109bdf-12d3-420e-ae11-c76529904d0d.jpg?v=1700587369","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/belabored-professions-xiomara-santamarina-9780807856482","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}