Shades of Green: Visions of Nature in the Literature of American Slavery, 1770-1860 (original) (raw)

Ian Frederick Finseth's "Shades of Green" explores the intersection of nature and literature in the context of American slavery from 1770 to 1860, focusing on both white and black authors. The book critiques the hierarchical natural history that portrayed African Americans as inferior and closer to nature, examining how antislavery writers employed diverse literary strategies to subvert these notions. Finseth's interdisciplinary approach, which includes analysis of abolitionist periodicals and historical paintings, offers a complex understanding of environmental themes and personal contradictions faced by writers like Frederick Douglass, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and others, ultimately seeking a vision of unity amidst racial and national divides.