Vengeance Feminism

“The book's focus is sharp, and the subject merits attention. Explosive and compelling.”

“Sometimes feminists have to take off their earrings and throw down. Kali Nicole Gross, one of our nation's most formidable historians, certainly throws down here, while offering us a riveting new history of Black women who threw their own left hooks at the patriarchy. This deeply researched and engaging book reminds us that fighting is not always a metaphor, and feminism is no stranger to fisticuffs.”

“With captivating prose that centers nail-biting struggle, Vengeance Feminism offers both a practical and theoretical new pillar of Black feminism. Kali Nicole Gross uses the nation’s birthplace of Philadelphia as an apt symbolic stage for the violent, clever, and dramatic ways that Black women protected and defended themselves when justice was unavailable. This book is a powerful and important contribution to 19th century Black women’s history.”

“Kali Gross poignantly rescues Black women’s fury as a powerful response to the personal and political violence they have been subjected to historically, while also, in ways long overdue, redefining their rage as resistance. This extraordinary reckoning with the true complexity of violence, rage, and resistance in a country that celebrates these acts for some, while condemning and criminalizing them for others, is at times harrowing, often painful, and yet always a most stunning testament to Black women’s resilience no matter the regularity of repression.”