Though memoirs and autobiographies are perhaps more popular in this era than any other, there is still a long tradition of self-reflexive writing from which Angelou draws. More specifically, Angelou's book fits into a long line of African-American writings that relate personal experience as a means of calling attention to the privations faced by Americans of African descent.

Two of the earliest examples of AfricanAmerican autobiographical writing are The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845) and Harriet Jacobs' Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861). The former narrative, written, like Angelou's, by a highly public figure, tells the highly personal story of Douglass's escape from slavery. Before orchestrating this escape, however, Douglass is heir to all the indignities and degradations of slavery. He reveals the rottenness of the system in a clear, honest voice that sounds a great deal like Angelou's consideration of the...