The Sorrows of Yamba
A 1795 abolitionist poem in the voice of an enslaved African woman, published anonymously in the Cheap Repository Tracts. Hannah More's authorship is documented.
- Original byline
- Anonymous
- Published
- Date not recorded
- Form
- Other works
- Authorship
- Revealed: Hannah More
- Attribution source
- Wikipedia: List of anonymously published works
- How it came out
- authorship documented in the record of the Cheap Repository Tracts
- Reason for anonymity
- Unrecorded
- Copyright
- Public domain
The authorship story
The Sorrows of Yamba, or the Negro Woman's Lamentation appeared in 1795 among the Cheap Repository Tracts, the penny moral literature distributed in huge numbers to England's poor. The poem gives an enslaved woman's grief a ballad voice designed to make abolition a popular cause. The tracts were published anonymously as a matter of format, and the authorship of this one is documented in the record of the series: Hannah More, its organizing force, though scholars note the published text layers More's hand over an earlier draft. It is protest anonymity of a particular kind, the campaign speaking rather than the campaigner.
Questions readers ask
Who wrote The Sorrows of Yamba?
The Sorrows of Yamba was published anonymously and is documented as the work of Hannah More. (authorship documented in the record of the Cheap Repository Tracts). Source: Wikipedia: List of anonymously published works.
Can I read The Sorrows of Yamba for free?
Yes. The Sorrows of Yamba is in the public domain and the full text is free to read at the Internet Archive.
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