FRANCES SMITH FOSTER is Charles Howard Candler Professor of English and Women's Studies and Chair of the English Department at Emory University. Her previous publications include Witnessing Slavery: The Development of the Ante-Bellum Slave Narrative, and Written By Herself: Literary Production by African American Women Writers, 1746-1892. Professor Foster has edited or co-edited numerous volumes, including, most notably, The Norton Anthology of African American Literature and The Oxford Companion to African American Literature.