Letters to Our Daughters

This essay maps the geographic and thematic locations of Black women’s life stories. It expands the cartography of Black women’s memoirs and autobiographies by tracing writing throughout the diaspora and situating Black American women’s writing within a larger tradition of disparate scribes and griots. The chapter outlines parameters of initial life-story genres, including enslavement survival narratives; moves through cornerstone storytellers, such as Maya Angelou; and situates publications during the civil rights and Black Power eras within contexts of Black writers from Africa, the Caribbean, Europe, and Latin America. Even though the specific focus remains on autobiographers in the United States, the chapter also highlights emergent themes and patterns to more clearly trace intellectual traditions and connections of Black women writers.