<Tr> <Th> Publication date </Th> <Td> September 18, 1937 </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> OCLC </Th> <Td> 46429736 </Td> </Tr> <P> Their Eyes Were Watching God is a 1937 novel and the best known work by African - American writer Zora Neale Hurston . The novel narrates main character Janie Crawford's "ripening from a vibrant, but voiceless, teenage girl into a woman with her finger on the trigger of her own destiny ." As a young woman, who is fair - skinned with long hair, she expects more out of life, but comes to realize that people must learn about life' fuh theyselves' (for themselves), just as people can only go to God for themselves . Set in central and southern Florida in the early 20th century, the novel was initially poorly received, but today, it has come to be regarded as a seminal work in both African - American literature and women's literature . TIME included the novel in its 2005 list of the 100 best English - language novels published since 1923 . </P> <P> With legislation like the Jim Crow laws, enacted from 1890 to 1910, many African - Americans were disfranchised . Groups like the Ku Klux Klan terrorized black citizens, leading to the steady decline of African - American political representation . Tenant farming and sharecropping systems constituted the de facto re-enslavement of African Americans in the South, where Hurston's novel is based . </P>

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