Alexander Crummell

Alexander Crummell was one of the most prolific black intellectuals in Nineteenth Century America. A minister, activist, theologian, and professor, Crummell wrote extensively on philosophy, education, religion, ethics, race, abolitionism, and politics. He also played a central role as an institution builder in the construction of black intellectual clubs in America, the university system in Liberia (where he also sought to build an independent black nation), the black church in Reconstruction-era America, and intellectual organizations for African-Americans well into the Jim Crow period. His influence on later black thought shaped subsequent black nationalist, radical, and conservative traditions. This volume includes an informative introduction that places Crummell in the historical and intellectual coext of him time. It brings together selections from twenty-one of Crummell's most important writings, including some never before re-published and focuses on the philosophical and theoretical dimensions of his thought. Many of the selections examine Crummell's philosophy of black political engagement. Influenced by Platonic thought, American Transcendentalism, and particularly British Romanticism, he developed ideas about ethics and selfhood that he thought were appropriate for the political life of the emancipated. Crummell's writings on race and nation-building, then, were crucial to debates about black identity and community. His diverse interests make Crummel a touchstone for a number of fields today-including African American history, political theory, religion, pedagogy, and philosophy.

Peter Wirzbicki is an associate professor of American history at Princeton University. He is the author of Fighting for the Higher Law: Black and White Transcendentalists against Slavery, which examined the role of Transcendentalism in the anti-slavery movement. His current research interests include the abolitionist movement and its impact on American democratic theory and practice.