Harriet E. Wilson - Wikipedia Harriet E. Wilson From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to navigation Jump to search For the Regency courtesan, see Harriette Wilson. Harriet E. Wilson (March 15, 1825 – June 28, 1900) was an African-American novelist. She was the first African American to publish a novel on the North American continent. Her novel Our Nig, or Sketches from the Life of a Free Black was published anonymously in 1859 in Boston, Massachusetts, and was not widely known. The novel was discovered in 1982 by the scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr., who documented it as the first African-American novel published in the United States. Born a free person of color (free Negro) in New Hampshire, Wilson was orphaned when young and bound until the age of 18 as an indentured servant. She struggled to make a living after that, marrying twice; her only son George died at the age of seven in the poor house, where she had placed him while trying to survive as a widow. She wrote one novel. Wilson later was associated with the Spiritualist church, was paid on the public lecture circuit for her lectures about her life, and worked as a housekeeper in a boarding house. Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Marriage and family 1.2 Writing a novel 2 Competition for "first novel" 3 Legacy and honors 4 See also 5 References 5.1 Notes 5.2 Bibliography 6 Further reading 7 External links Biography[edit] Born Harriet E. "Hattie" Adams in Milford, New Hampshire, she was the mixed-race daughter of Margaret Ann (or Adams) Smith, a washerwoman of Irish ancestry, and Joshua Green, an African-American "hooper of barrels" of mixed African and Indian ancestry. After her father died when Hattie was young, her mother abandoned Hattie at the farm of Nehemiah Hayward Jr., a well-to-do Milford farmer "connected to the Hutchinson Family Singers".[1] As an orphan, Adams was bound by the courts as an indentured servant to the Hayward family, a customary way for society at the time to arrange support and education for orphans. The intention was that, in exchange for labor, the orphan child would be given room, board and training in life skills, so that she could later make her way in society. From their documentary research, the scholars P. Gabrielle Foreman and Reginald H. Pitts believe that the Hayward family were the basis of the "Bellmont" family depicted in Our Nig. (This was the family who held the young "Frado" in indentured servitude, abusing her physically and mentally from the age of six to 18. Foreman and Pitts' material was incorporated in supporting sections of the 2004 edition of Our Nig.) After the end of her indenture at the age of 18, Hattie Adams (as she was then known), worked as a house servant and a seamstress in households in southern New Hampshire. Marriage and family[edit] Adams married Thomas Wilson in Milford on October 6, 1851. An escaped slave, Wilson had been traveling around New England giving lectures based on his life. Although he continued to lecture periodically in churches and town squares, he told Hattie that he had never been a slave and that he had created the story to gain support from abolitionists. Wilson abandoned Harriet soon after they married. Pregnant and ill, Harriet Wilson was sent to the Hillsborough County, New Hampshire Poor Farm in Goffstown, where her only son, George Mason Wilson, was born. His probable birth date was June 15, 1852. Soon after George's birth, Wilson reappeared and took the two away from the Poor Farm. He returned to sea, where he served as a sailor, and died soon after. As a widow, Harriet Wilson returned her son George to the care of the Poor Farm, where he died at the age of seven on February 16, 1860. She could not make enough money to support them both and provide for his care while she worked. After that, Wilson moved to Boston, hoping for more work opportunities. On September 29, 1870, Wilson married again, to John Gallatin Robinson in Boston. An apothecary, he was a native of Canada born in Sherbrooke, Quebec. Robinson was of English and German ancestry; he was nearly 18 years younger than Wilson. From 1870-1877, they resided at 46 Carver Street, after which they appear to have separated. After that date, city directories list Wilson and Robinson in separate lodgings in Boston's South End. No record has been found of a divorce, but divorces were infrequent at the time. Writing a novel[edit] While living in Boston, Wilson wrote Our Nig. On August 14, 1859, she copyrighted it, and deposited a copy of the novel in the Office of the Clerk of the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts. On September 5, 1859, the novel was published anonymously by George C. Rand and Avery, a publishing firm in New York. Wilson says in the book's preface she wrote the novel to raise money to help care for her sick child, George.[2] In 1863, Harriet Wilson appeared on the "Report of the Overseers of the Poor" for the town of Milford, New Hampshire. After 1863, she disappeared from records until 1867, when she was listed in the Boston Spiritualist newspaper, Banner of Light, as living in East Cambridge, Massachusetts. She subsequently moved across the Charles River to the city of Boston, where she became known in Spiritualist circles as "the colored medium."[3] From 1867 to 1897, "Mrs. Hattie E. Wilson" was listed in the Banner of Light as a trance reader and lecturer. She was active in the local Spiritualist community, and she would give "lectures," either while entranced, or speaking normally, wherever she was wanted. She spoke at camp meetings, in theaters, and in private homes throughout New England; she shared the podium with speakers such as Victoria Woodhull and Andrew Jackson Davis. In 1870 Wilson traveled as far as Chicago as a delegate to the American Association of Spiritualists convention. Wilson delivered lectures on labor reform, and children's education. Although the texts of her talks have not survived, newspaper reports imply that she often spoke about her life experiences, providing sometimes trenchant and often humorous commentary. Closer to home, Wilson was active in the organization and maintenance of Children's Progressive Lyceums, the Spiritualist church equivalent to Sunday Schools; she organized Christmas celebrations; she participated in skits and playlets; and at meetings she sometime sang as part of a quartet. She was also known for her floral centerpieces, and the candies she would make for the children were long remembered. Wilson worked as a Spiritualist nurse and healer ("clairvoyant physician"). In addition, for nearly 20 years from 1879 to 1897, she was the housekeeper of a boardinghouse in a two-story dwelling at 15 Village Street (near the present corner of Dover [now East Berkeley Street] and Tremont Streets in the South End.) She rented out rooms, collected rents and provided basic maintenance. In Wilson's active and fruitful life after Our Nig, there is no evidence that she wrote anything else for publication. On June 28, 1900, Hattie E. Wilson died in the Quincy Hospital in Quincy, Massachusetts. She was buried in the Cobb family plot in that town's Mount Wollaston Cemetery. Her plot number is listed as 1337, "old section." At Wilson's death, her estranged husband Robinson, describing himself as a "capitalist", was living in the town of Pembroke, Massachusetts, with a 24-year-old woman named Izah Nellie Moore, whom he married two years later. Competition for "first novel"[edit] The scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. rediscovered Our Nig in 1982 and documented it as the first novel by an African American to be published in the United States. His discovery and the novel gained national attention,[4] and it was reissued with an Introduction by Gates (London: Allison & Busby, 1984).[5] and subsequently republished in several other editions.[6] In 2006, William L. Andrews, an English literature professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Mitch Kachun, a history professor at Western Michigan University, brought to light Julia C. Collins' The Curse of Caste; or The Slave Bride (1865), first published in serial form in The Christian Recorder, newspaper of the AME Church. Publishing it in book form in 2006, they maintained that The Curse of Caste should be considered the first "truly imagined" novel by an African American to be published in the U.S. They argued that Our Nig was more autobiography than fiction.[7][8] Gates responded that numerous other novels and other works of fiction of the period were in some part based on real-life events and were in that sense autobiographical, but they were still considered novels.[7] Examples include Fanny Fern's Ruth Hall (1854), Louisa May Alcott's Little Women (1868–69), and Hannah Webster Foster's The Coquette (1797).[7] The first known novel by an African American is William Wells Brown's Clotel; or, The President's Daughter (1853), published in the United Kingdom, where he was living at the time.[7] The critic Sven Birkerts argued that the unfinished state of The Curse of Caste (Collins died before completing it) and its poor literary quality should disqualify it as the first building block of African-American literature. He contended the works by Wilson and Brown were more fully realized.[8] Eric Gardner thought that Our Nig did not receive critical acclaim from abolitionists when first published because it did not conform to the contemporary genre of slave narratives. He thinks the abolitionists may have refrained from promoting Our Nig because the novel recounts "slavery's shadow" in the North, where free blacks suffered as indentured servants and from racism. It fails to offer the promise of freedom, and it features a protagonist who is assertive toward a white woman.[9] In her article "Dwelling in the House of Oppression: The Spatial, Racial, and Textual Dynamics of Harriet Wilson's Our Nig," Lois Leveen argues that, although the novel is about a free black in the north, the "free black" is still oppressed. The "white house" of the novel represents, as Leveen puts it: "The model home for American society is built according to the spatial imperatives of slavery." Frado is a "free black", but she is treated as a lower-class person and is often abused as a slave would be. Leveen argues that Wilson was expressing her view that even the "free blacks" were not really free in a racist society. Legacy and honors[edit] Since Henry Louis Gates, Jr's work in 1982, Harriet Wilson has been recognized as the first African American to publish a novel in the United States. The Harriet Wilson Project commissioned a statue of Wilson in 2006. Sculpted by Fern Cunningham, the statue is located in Milford, New Hampshire's Bicentennial Park.[10] See also[edit] African-American literature References[edit] Notes[edit] ^ Carr, Glynis, "Our Nig", in Benét's Reader's Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition (1996), New York: HarperCollins. ^ Dance, Daryl Cumber (1998). Honey, Hush: An Anthology of African American Women's Humor. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. p. 651. ^ Foreman, P. Gabrielle, and Katherine E. Flynn, "Mrs. H. E. Wilson, Mogul? The Curious New History of an American Literary Mogul", Boston Globe, February 15, 2009. ^ Bennetts, Leslie (November 8, 1982). "An 1859 black literary landmark is uncovered". The New York Times. ^ Ferguson, Moira, ed. (1997). "Introduction to the Revised Edition". The History of Mary Prince: A West Indian Slave. University of Michigan Press. p. 50. ISBN 0472084100. ^ Harriet E. Wilson, Our Nig at Amazon. ^ a b c d Dinitia Smith (October 28, 2006). "A Slave Story Is Rediscovered, and a Dispute Begins". The New York Times. p. B7. Retrieved February 15, 2008. ^ a b Birkerts, Sven (October 29, 2006). "Emancipation Days". The New York Times. Retrieved February 15, 2008. ^ Gardner, Eric, "'This Attempt of Their Sister': Harriet Wilson's Our Nig from Printer to Readers", The New England Quarterly, 66.2 (1993): 226–246. ^ "Harriet E. Wilson Memorial". freedomsway.org. Retrieved 28 May 2020. Bibliography[edit] Shockley, Ann Allen, Afro-American Women Writers 1746-1933: An Anthology and Critical Guide, New Haven, Connecticut: Meridian Books, 1989. ISBN 0-452-00981-2 Harriet Wilson’s New England: Race, Writing, and Region, ed. by JerriAnne Boggis, Eve Allegra Raimon, University Press of New England, 2007. Further reading[edit] Loretta Woodard, "Wilson, Harriett", in Benét's Reader's Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition (1996), New York: HarperCollins. External links[edit] Works by Harriet E. Wilson at Project Gutenberg Works by or about Harriet E. Wilson at Internet Archive Works by Harriet E. Wilson at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks) Our Nig, electronic edition, University of Virginia Library The Harriet Wilson Project, Official website "Harriet E. Wilson", Paul Lauter, The Heath Anthology of American Literature, Fifth Edition, Cengage, Houghton Mifflin Publishers "1859 - Harriet Wilson publishes Our Nig", "Timeline: Early Days and Slavery, 1400s–1865," African American World, PBS Don Swaim: Interview with Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., 27 May 1983, discussing his discovery of Our Nig (mp3), Wired for Books, Ohio University Poinier, Lauren, "Harriet Wilson's Our Nig: The First African-American Novel and Counter Discursive Work to Break the Silence of 'The Other' in America", Senior Thesis, December 21, 2009. v t e Slave narratives Slave Narrative Collection Individuals by continent of enslavement Africa Robert Adams (c. 1790–?) Francis Bok (b. 1979) James Leander Cathcart (1767–1843) Ólafur Egilsson (1564–1639) Hark Olufs (1708–1754) Mende Nazer (b. 1982) Thomas Pellow (1705–?) Joseph Pitts (1663 – c. 1735) Guðríður Símonardóttir (1598–1682) Petro Kilekwa (late 19th c.) Europe Lovisa von Burghausen (1698–1733) Olaudah Equiano (c. 1745 Nigeria – 31 March 1797 Eng) Ukawsaw Gronniosaw (c. 1705 Bornu – 1775 Eng) Jean Marteilhe (1684-1777) Roustam Raza (1783–1845) Brigitta Scherzenfeldt (1684–1736) North America: Canada Marie-Joseph Angélique (c. 1710 Portugal – 1734 Montreal) John R. Jewitt (1783 England – 1821 United States) North America: Caribbean Juan Francisco Manzano (1797–1854, Cuba) Esteban Montejo (1860–1965, Cuba) Mary Prince Venerable Pierre Toussaint (1766 Saint-Dominque – June 30, 1853 NY) Marcos Xiorro (c. 1819 – ???, Puerto Rico) North America: United States Sam Aleckson Jordan Anderson William J. Anderson Jared Maurice Arter Solomon Bayley Polly Berry Henry Bibb Leonard Black James Bradley (1834) Henry "Box" Brown John Brown William Wells Brown Peter Bruner (1845 KY – 1938 OH) Ellen and William Craft Hannah Crafts Lucinda Davis Noah Davis Lucy Delaney Ayuba Suleiman Diallo Frederick Douglass Kate Drumgoold Jordan Winston Early (1814 – after 1894) Sarah Jane Woodson Early Peter Fossett (1815 Monticello–1901} David George Moses Grandy William Green (19th century MD) William Grimes Josiah Henson Fountain Hughes (1848/1854 VA – 1957) John Andrew Jackson Harriet Ann Jacobs John Jea Thomas James (minister) Paul Jennings (1799–1874) Elizabeth Keckley Boston King Lunsford Lane J. Vance Lewis Jermain Wesley Loguen Solomon Northup John Parker (1827 VA – 1900) William Parker James Robert Moses Roper Omar ibn Said William Henry Singleton Venture Smith Austin Steward (1793 VA – 1860) Venerable Pierre Toussaint (1766 Saint-Dominque – 1853 NY) Harriet Tubman Wallace Turnage Bethany Veney Booker T. Washington Wallace Willis (19th century Indian Territory) Harriet E. Wilson Zamba Zembola (b. c. 1780 Congo) South America Osifekunde (c. 1795 Nigeria – ? Brazil) Mahommah Gardo Baquaqua (1845–1847, Brazil) Miguel de Buría (? Puerto Rico – 1555 Venezuela) Non-fiction books The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (1789) The Narrative of Robert Adams (1816) American Slavery as It Is (1839) Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845) The Life of Josiah Henson (1849) Twelve Years a Slave (1853) My Bondage and My Freedom (1855) Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861) The Underground Railroad Records (1872) Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (1881) Up from Slavery (1901) Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States (1936–38) The Peculiar Institution (1956) The Slave Community (1972) Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo" (2018) Fiction/novels Oroonoko (1688) Sab (1841) Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) The Heroic Slave (1852) Clotel (1853) Dred: A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp (1856) The Bondwoman's Narrative (c. 1853 – c. 1861) Our Nig (1859) Jubilee (1966) The Confessions of Nat Turner (1967) Roots: The Saga of an American Family (1976) Underground to Canada (1977) Kindred (1979) Dessa Rose (1986) Beloved (1987) Middle Passage (1990) Queen: The Story of an American Family (1993) Hang a Thousand Trees with Ribbons (1996) Ama: A Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade (2001) Walk Through Darkness (2002) The Known World (2003) Unburnable (2006) Copper Sun (2006) The Book of Negroes (2007) The Underground Railroad (2016) Young adult books Amos Fortune, Free Man (1951) I, Juan de Pareja (1965) Essay To a Southern Slaveholder (1848) A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin (1853) Plays The Escape; or, A Leap for Freedom (1858) The Octoroon (1859) Related African-American literature Atlantic slave trade Caribbean literature Films featuring slavery Songs of the Underground Railroad Book of Negroes (1783) Cotton Plantation Record and Account Book (1847) Slave Songs of the United States (1867) Amazing Grace: An Anthology of Poems about Slavery (2002) The Hemingses of Monticello (2008) Documentaries Unchained Memories (2003) Frederick Douglass and the White Negro (2008) Authority control BNE: XX1608738 BNF: cb12053142d (data) ISNI: 0000 0000 3405 1405 LCCN: n83064162 SUDOC: 028762215 VIAF: 61565188 WorldCat Identities: lccn-n83064162 Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Harriet_E._Wilson&oldid=996305603" Categories: 1825 births 1900 deaths People who wrote slave narratives American women novelists African-American women writers African-American writers Indentured servants People from Milford, New Hampshire Novelists from New Hampshire 19th-century American novelists 19th-century American women writers American domestic workers Hidden categories: Articles with Project Gutenberg links Articles with Internet Archive links Articles with LibriVox links Wikipedia articles with BNE identifiers Wikipedia articles with BNF identifiers Wikipedia articles with ISNI identifiers Wikipedia articles with LCCN identifiers Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers Wikipedia articles with VIAF identifiers Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers Navigation menu Personal tools Not logged in Talk Contributions Create account Log in Namespaces Article Talk Variants Views Read Edit View history More Search Navigation Main page Contents Current events Random article About Wikipedia Contact us Donate Contribute Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file Tools What links here Related changes Upload file Special pages Permanent link Page information Cite this page Wikidata item Print/export Download as PDF Printable version In other projects Wikisource Languages العربية Galego Italiano مصرى Norsk bokmål Português Svenska Edit links This page was last edited on 25 December 2020, at 19:45 (UTC). 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