Frances Harper

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Frances Harper

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (* 24. September 1825 in Baltimore , † 22. February 1911 in Philadelphia ) was an author of poetry and prose , working for the abolition of slavery began.

Frances Harper published her first volume of poetry at the age of 20. Her first novel, Iola Leroy , was published in book form when she was 67 years old. The collection of poems Poems on Miscellaneous Subjects became her greatest commercial success. Her short story Two Offers was published in Anglo-African Magazine in 1895 . In 1872 the lyrical Sketches of Southern Life appeared . In it she describes a trip through the American southern states, where she has just met black people who have just been freed from slavery. The poems tell of the harsh conditions many of them had to live in.

In 1850 she taught sewing at Union Seminary. She was the first woman in this position. In 1851 she helped with William Still, chairman of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society , smuggle escaped slaves through the Underground Railroad to Canada . Her political career began when she joined the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1853. Since then she has also appeared as a public speaker. After the American Civil War , she campaigned for women's rights and especially the rights of African American women, but also for other social issues.

She held various offices in several nationwide organizations that pushed social progress. For example, in 1873, Frances Harper became head of the Department of Colored at the Philadelphia and Pennsylvania Women's Christian Temperance Union . In 1894 she helped found the National Association of Colored Women and then served as vice president. "Because of her many magazine articles, she was called the mother of African-American journalism. At the same time she also wrote for periodicals with a mainly white circulation At the same time, she was writing for magazines that were largely aimed at a white readership.) "Harper died on February 22, 1911, nine years before women's suffrage was introduced in the United States. Her funeral took place at the Unitarian Church on Chestnut Street, Philadelphia . She was buried in Eden Cemetery next to her daughter, who had died two years earlier.

life and work

childhood and education

Frances Ellen Watkins was born in Baltimore as a free black child. Her mother died in 1828 when Frances Watkins was three years old. She became an orphan and grew up with an aunt and an uncle on her mother's side. Her uncle, Rev. William Watkins, was a human rights activist . It was taught at his school for black youth. Watkins had a huge impact on her life and work. Frances Harper began working as a seamstress when she was 14.

Writing activity

Frances Harper Forest Leaves' first volume of poetry was published in 1845 and is out of print today. Her second book, Poems on Miscellaneous Subjects , was published in 1854. It was so successful that it was reprinted several times in the years that followed. In general, Frances Harper wrote her poems with conventional rhymes and mostly four-line stanzas. The imagery often came from the Bible and the rhythm was simple and shaped by a tradition of oral tradition. In 1859 a prose piece, The Two Offers, was published in Anglo-African Magazine for the first time. As a result, she continued to publish poems and stories.

Between 1868 and 1888, three of her novels were published as serial novels in a Christian magazine. Her best-known novel, which was also published in book form in 1892, was Iola Leroy, or Shadows Uplifted . Iola Leroy was considered the first novel of a African American until 1982, the 1859 published novel Our Nig of Harriet E. Wilson was rediscovered. In her texts she moves within the literary conventions of her time. Nevertheless, she takes a critical look at important social issues, such as the education of women, the abolition of slavery, the phenomenon of passing , the question of mixed marriages , the abstinence movement ; she also writes about assuming social responsibility.

Teaching and public appearances

In 1850, Frances Harper Watkins moved to Ohio , where she became the first woman to teach at Union Seminary. This Wilberforce school was directed by Rev. John Mifflin Brown, who later became Bishop of the AME Church.

In 1853, Frances Harper Watkins joined the American Anti-Slavery Society and went on lecture tours on their behalf. In 1854 Watkins gave her first anti-slavery speech, "Education and the Elevation of Colored Race." The success of this speech triggered a two-year lecture tour in Maine on behalf of the Anti-Slavery Society. Overall, she traveled from 1856 to 1860 giving lectures through the east and the midwest of the United States.

Marriage and family

On November 22, 1860, Francis Watkins married Fenton Harper in Cincinnati . She was then 35 years old. Fenton Harper was at the time a widower and father of three children. He was from Loudon County, Virginia . The marriage produced a daughter, Mary Frances (1862-1908), who worked as a teacher. Frances Harper temporarily gave up lecture tours in favor of the family. After the death of her husband, she resumed this activity on May 23, 1864.

Sociopolitical engagement

Frances Watkins Harper was committed to the abolition of slavery; she campaigned for prohibition and women's rights. All of these concerns were considered important to the progressive movement in the United States before and after the American Civil War . She was an active member of the Unitarian Church. She often gave readings at church meetings, in particular she read the hugely popular poem Bury Me in a Free Land .

She had connections with the leaders of the national suffragette movement and gave a moving speech at the National Women's Rights Convention in 1866 , calling for equal rights for all, including black women.

Harper got involved in organizations for the rights of the black population. She helped organize events and programs for the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union from 1883 to 1890. She also helped organize the National Association of Colored Women in 1896 ; In 1897 she was elected vice president of this organization.

Works

  • Forest Leaves , verse, 1845
  • Poems on Miscellaneous Subjects , 1854
  • "The Two Offers", 1859
  • Moses: A Story of the Nile , 1869
  • Sketches of Southern Life , 1872
  • Light Beyond the Darkness , 1890
  • The Martyr of Alabama and Other Poems , 1894
  • Iola Leroy or Shadows Uplifted . Garrigues, Philadelphia 1892.
  • Idylls of the Bible , 1901
  • In Memoriam, Wm. McKinley , 1901
  • Free laboratory

In addition, the following three novels were serialized in Christian Recorder magazine between 1868 and 1888 :

  • Minnie's Sacrifice
  • Sowing and reaping
  • Trial and Triumph

The following editions are available:

  • Complete Poems of Frances EW Harper (1988)
  • A Brighter Coming Day: A Frances Ellen Watkins Harper Reader (1990)

Reception and awards

  • Numerous African American women's clubs are named after Frances Harper. Few Harper Leagues and Frances E. Harper Women's Christian Temperance Unions existed throughout the country well into the twentieth century. B. in St. Louis, St. Paul and Pittsburgh.
  • It was included in the anthology Daughters of Africa , edited in 1992 by Margaret Busby in London and New York.
  • At Morgan State University in Baltimore, a female dormitory was named after her and Harriet Tubman . It is known as Harper-Tubman, or just Harper, among students.

literature

  • John Ernest: Resistance and Reformation in Nineteenth-Century African-American Literature . Jackson 1995, ISBN 0-87805-816-8 .
  • Melba Joyce Boyd: Discarded Legacy . Politics and Poetics in the in the Life of Frances EW Harper 1825-1911 . Detroit 1994, ISBN 0-8143-2489-4 .
  • Frances Smith Foster (Ed.): Minnie's Sacrifice. Sowing and reaping. Trial and Triumph . Boston 1994, ISBN 0-8070-8332-1 .
  • Frances Smith Foster (Ed.): A Brighter Coming Day . A Frances Ellen Watkins Harper Reader . New York 1990, ISBN 1-55861-019-7 .
  • Maryemma Graham (Ed.): Complete Poems of Frances EW Harper . New York 1988, ISBN 0-19-505244-7 .
  • Ann A. Shockley: Afro-American Women Writers 1746-1933 . An Anthology and Critical Guide . Boston 1988, ISBN 0-8161-8823-8 .
  • Hazel Carby: Introduction . In: Frances E. Watkins Harper: Iola Leroy . Boston 1987, ISBN 0-8070-6317-7 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Janeen Grohsmeyer: Frances Harper . Unitarian Universalist Association. Archived from the original on May 13, 2008. Retrieved July 21, 2014.
  2. ↑ Hollis Robbins, Ed. "Introduction," Iola Leroy, or, Shadows Uplifted, Penguin Classics, 2010
  3. ↑ Frances Ellen Watkins . University of Minnesota. Retrieved April 26, 2014.
  4. ↑ Frances EW Harper. EncyclopediaBritannica, accessed July 2, 2014 .
  5. ↑ Editorial: The Late Bishop John M. Brown . In: African Methodist Episcopal Church Review . 10, No. 1, July 1893. Retrieved April 26, 2014.
  6. ^ Fenton M. Harper, 'Ohio, Marriages, 1800-1958' . FamilySearch. Retrieved January 14, 2014.
  7. ↑ Fenton M Harper in the database of Find A Grave (English)
  8. ↑ Frances Smith Foster (Ed.): Minnie's Sacrifice. Sowing and reaping. Trial and Triumph . Boston 1994, ISBN 0-8070-8332-1 .
  9. ^ Henry L. Gates: The Norton Anthology . African American Literature . tape 1 . Norton & Co., New York 1997, ISBN 0-393-04001-1 , pp. 491 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Harper, Frances
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Harper, Frances Ellen Watkins
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American poet
DATE OF BIRTH September 24, 1825
PLACE OF BIRTH Baltimore
DATE OF DEATH February 22, 1911
Place of death Philadelphia