Title
Wayward lives, beautiful experiments : intimate histories of riotous black girls, troublesome women, and queer radicals / Saidiya Hartman.
Summary
"At the dawn of the twentieth century, the first generation of black women born after emancipation wanted real freedom. Refusing to labour like slaves, they leapt into the unknown, becoming pioneers of free love, common-law marriage, queer identities and single motherhood. They were an unrecognised avant-garde, and their pursuit of liberty forged the modern world. Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments pushes the boundaries of scholarship to reveal at last their defiant brilliance." -- back cover.