Frances Ellen Watkins Harper

In one of the most significant literary finds since the publication of Harriet Wilson's Our Nig, Frances Smith Foster has rediscovered three novels by Frances E. W. Harper, the best known African-American woman writer of the nineteenth century. Originally serialized in issues of the Christian Recorder, the official journal of the A.M.E. Church, these novels are the first substantial body of fiction known to have been written for a specifically African-American audience. They also correct the assumption that the classic, Iola Leroy, was Harper's only novel. Using the popular nineteenth-century form of the sentimental novel, Harper draws us into the social problems faced by "middle-class" African-Americans after the Civil War. The heroine of Minnie's Sacrifice must weigh the social benefits of passing for white against her desire to join the African-American struggle for equality and justice. Sowing and Reaping focuses on the issue of temperance, and domestic issues of courtship and marriage form the basis for Trial and Triumph, a lively drama about finding a suitable mate. With timeless themes of social justice, social responsibility, and sexuality, as well as further illuminating the importance of black church teachings in African-American literature, these novels shed light on the lives of nineteenth-century African-Americans. Their discovery promises to change dramatically our understanding of American literature.

"Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825-1911) was the most important and the most popular black feminist abolitionist writer and activist of the nineteenth century. A Brighter Day Coming, the most comprehensive collection of her works, includes all the poems from Harper's extant original volumes, plus many that have never been collected and one that was discovered in manuscript; speeches; and a selection of prose, including excerpts from the novel Iola Leroy and the serialized novel Fancy Etchings, and a generous group of letters ..."--Back cover.

Harper was a freed African American woman from Baltimore. These poems range over a wide variety of subjects, but her basic concern is the female and womanhood. Appended are several essays on Christianity, the Bible, and African Americans (she encourages them to strive until the day of freedom comes).

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As the Civil War bears down on a small North Carolina town, a tight-knit community of enslaved men and women is preparing for the coming battle and the possibility of freedom. Into this ensemble cast of characters comes Iola Leroy, a young woman who grew up unaware of her African ancestry until she is lured back home under false pretenses and immediately enslaved. Amidst a backdrop of battlefield hospitals and clandestine prayer meetings, this quietly stouthearted novel is a story of community, integrity, and solidarity. Frances Ellen Watkins Harper was already one of the most prominent African-American poets of the nineteenth century when—at age 67—she turned her focus to novels. Her most enduring work, Iola Leroy, was one of the first novels published by an African-American writer. Although the book was initially popular with readers, it soon fell out of print and was critically forgotten. In the 1970s, the book was rediscovered and reclaimed as a seminal contribution to African-American literature.

The Scarlett Letter -- Connections: Who killed Arthur Dimmesdale? / by Perry Turner -- [Lottery]( / by Shirley Jackson -- Puritan sonnet / by Elinor Wylie -- The woman caught in adultery -- Nor fitting for your sex / by Doreen Rappaport -- Declaration of rights and sentiment / by Elizabeth Cady Stanton -- A double standard / by Frances E.W. Harper -- Notes and an article / by Nathaniel Hawthorne -- "A" is for appalling / by Richard Alleva -- [Tell-tale Heart]( / by Edgar Allan Poe -- The custom house / by Nathaniel Hawthorne -- Nathaniel Hawthorne biographical sketch.

Sketches of Southern Life (1872) is a poetry anthology by American abolitionist and writer Frances Ellen Watkins Harper. Using topics like family, education, religion, slavery, and Reconstruction, the anthology is a commentary on the concerns of African-Americans living in the South. Though it is not her most well-known work, Sketches of Southern Life is considered by historians of African-American literature to be one of Harper’s best works. Sketches of Southern Life (1872) is a poetry anthology by American abolitionist and writer Frances Ellen Watkins Harper. Using topics like family, education, religion, slavery, and Reconstruction, the anthology is a commentary on the concerns of African-Americans living in the South. Though it is not her most well-known work, Sketches of Southern Life is considered by historians of African-American literature to be one of Harper's best works.