Frances Harper
Today I've been reading about a very interesting African-American woman I'd never come across before - Frances Harper.
Frances E.W. Harper is considered the “Mother of African American Journalism” as well as the most famous nineteenth century African American poet and novelist. In her role as a political activist, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper was a brave, principled, and talented advocate for freedom and equality for everyone, speaking for the Anti-Slavery societies before the Civil War and for Women’s Suffrage and Temperance movements after. The study of her life not only gives us a picture of the lived experiences of an intelligent, educated, African American woman in the nineteenth century, but also provides us with a snapshot of Philadelphia and the nation from a perspective that is not usually presented.
The timeline of her life (found at the source) says she was raised by her uncle, the abolitionist William Watkins, and published her first book of poetry at the age of 21. In 1858, she refused to give up her seat or ride in the “colored” section of a segregated trolley car in Philadelphia (100 years before Rosa Parks), and she lectured widely on education for the formerly enslaved, on the Equal Rights Movement and on the Temperance Movement. She also published her most well known novel at the age of 67, 'Iola Leroy', which became a bestseller and was only the second known novel to be published by an African American woman (the first was Harriet Wilson's 'Our Nig' in 1859). Four years later she became Vice President of the newly formed National Association of Colored Women. She died in 1911.
I think I might have to dig out some more about her! She sounds fascinating.
Source
Frances E.W. Harper is considered the “Mother of African American Journalism” as well as the most famous nineteenth century African American poet and novelist. In her role as a political activist, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper was a brave, principled, and talented advocate for freedom and equality for everyone, speaking for the Anti-Slavery societies before the Civil War and for Women’s Suffrage and Temperance movements after. The study of her life not only gives us a picture of the lived experiences of an intelligent, educated, African American woman in the nineteenth century, but also provides us with a snapshot of Philadelphia and the nation from a perspective that is not usually presented.
The timeline of her life (found at the source) says she was raised by her uncle, the abolitionist William Watkins, and published her first book of poetry at the age of 21. In 1858, she refused to give up her seat or ride in the “colored” section of a segregated trolley car in Philadelphia (100 years before Rosa Parks), and she lectured widely on education for the formerly enslaved, on the Equal Rights Movement and on the Temperance Movement. She also published her most well known novel at the age of 67, 'Iola Leroy', which became a bestseller and was only the second known novel to be published by an African American woman (the first was Harriet Wilson's 'Our Nig' in 1859). Four years later she became Vice President of the newly formed National Association of Colored Women. She died in 1911.
I think I might have to dig out some more about her! She sounds fascinating.
Source