Not a man, and yet a man. By

Albery Allson Whitman (1851-1901) was an African American poet, minister and orator. Born into slavery, Whitman created a successful career for himself as a writer, and during his lifetime was acclaimed as the "Poet Laureate of the Negro Race". Throughout his lifetime he worked as a manual laborer, school teacher, financial agent, fundraiser and pastor. He died in Atlanta in 1901 of pneumonia. Whitman was born into slavery at a farm near Munfordville, Kentucky. After years as a manual laborer, working at a plowshop, on railroad construction and as a teacher, Whitman attended Wilberforce University in 1870. There he studied with Bishop Daniel Payne. Whitman stated that he wrote his 1877 poem Not a Man and Yet a Man so that "he might speak more effectively for Wilberforce