![Frontispiece and title page of Clotelle](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwinLiLbElYP05ChuvBfpEOl9btXhcR1VTcm8rFIwfSG8Rtsyt2q9hfV7WfRvIVrVKZnvYzyb2FskdoBwrkRG_Ah21Mvvb9aBkJJyVAbHjy7-7VTrNobrDDkQSKLZfvnWH5vOP194BNKpKT4rTtJVhFxCimZLGdWI3cfQ6LDNUXEFcQ83XKE3aT84/w320-h266/IMG_4948.jpg)
At the same time, the African American Novel was developing. This nascent genre dealt with many of the same topics as the autobiographical narrative - such as enslavement, escape, and identity - but in a different literary medium and through a different lens. We've put together a selection of five early works by African American novelists, dating from the mid-1800s to the turn of the century, each important to the growth of that literary tradition.
Come by the Rauner this September to see the following works on display: William Wells Brown's Clotelle; or, The Colored Heroine: A Tale of the Southern States, Frank J. Webb's The Garies and Their Friends, Harriet E. Wilson's Our Nig: Sketches from the Life of a Free Black, Pauline Hopkins's Contending Forces: A Romance Illustrative of Negro Life North and South, and Charles W. Chestnutt's The House Behind the Cedars.