Sentimental Confessions: Spiritual Narratives of Nineteenth-Century African American Women. (faith).

Sentimental Confessions: Spiritual Narratives of Nineteenth-Century African American Women by Joycelyn Moody University of Georgia Press, 2001, $40.00 ISBN 0-820-32236-9

Literary historian and womanist ethnicist Joycelyn Moody analyzes and interprets the autobiographies of six free black women of the nineteenth century: Maria Stewart (1803), Jarena Lee (1783), Zilphia Elaw (1790), Nancy Prince (1799), Mattie L. Jackson (1820) and Julia Foote (1823). They were evangelists, missionaries and itinerant ministers living in an unholy era of subjugation, poverty and the dark brutal forces of the slaveocracy.

While Sentimental Confessions is not an easy read, it is indeed a rewarding and captivating body of work. Moody forced me to grieve for my colonial Victorian ancestors and applaud them as they transcended racism and patriarchal restrictions. Her writing brought alive the overwhelming hardships and passions of these women.

As free blacks and articulate visionaries, these women often posed a perceived threat to the male dominated church; in the case of Julia Foote, her unwillingness to "stay in a woman's place," brought her excommunication.

Moody's scholarship and research is impressive, and I recommend this work to anyone interested in black history, theology and women's literature. This book is also rich with references to other antebellum women writers. --Reviewed by Joyce Glenn Joyce Glenn is a writer and history teacher.