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Biography |
Summary of Our Nig
| Questions
for Discussion | Suggested
Reading | Order
the Book
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"Oh,
holy Father, by thy power,
Thus far in life I'm brought;
And now in this dark, trying hour,
O God, forsake me not"
-
Harriet
E. Wilson
In
1859, Harriet Wilson, a mulatto woman
from New Hampshire published
a novel with the stated hope of earning sufficient money
simply to survive. Instead, her novel Our Nig; or
Sketches From the Life of A Free Black, became a
powerful and controversial narrative that continues to
touch and unsettle readers around the world.
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Because of a lack of verifiable
records on people of color in America during the early
years, gathering biographical information on Wilson has
proven to be difficult. However, from the scholarly research work of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., UNH professor Barbara White, Occidental College associate professor P. Gabrielle Foreman, and historical researcher Reginald Pitts, the following information is known or can be surmised:
- 1825 (March 15) - Harriet E. Adams born in Milford, NH
- 1830 -31 - Abandoned by mother at the Nehemiah Hayward family farm
- 1840 (June 1) - Census locates Harriet Adams at the Hayward's
- 1850 -Harriet E. Adams appears as a 22-year-old black woman living with the Boyles on the federal census for Milford
- 1851 (October 6) - Harriet E. Adams marries Thomas Wilson in Milford, NH
- 1852 (May or June) - Harriet E. Wilson gives birth to son George Mason Wilson
- 1855 – 1859 - Harriet Wilson and/or her son appears on the Reports of the Overseers of the Poor for the town of Milford
- 1859 ( August 18) - Harriet Wilson copyrights Our Nig, with a copy deposited in the Office of the Clerk of the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts
- 1859 (September 5) - Our Nig is published by George C. Rand and Avery in Boston
- 1860 (February 16) - Wilson’s son, George Mason Wilson, dies in Milford, ages seven years, eight months
- 1863 - Harriet Wilson appears on the Report of the Overseers of the Poor for the town of Milford
- 1867 - Harriet Wilson listed in the Boston Spiritualist newspaper Banner of Light as living in East Cambridge, Massachusetts. She is known in Spiritualist circles as "the colored medium"
- 1870 (September 29) – Marries John Gallatin Robinson in Boston
- 1870 - 1897 – Mrs. Hattie E. Wilson listed in the Banner of Light as a trance reader and lecturer
- 1900 (June 28) – “Hattie E. Wilson” dies in Quincy Hospital, Massachusetts. She is buried in the Cobb family plot in Mount Wollaston Cemetery in Quincy, plot number 13337, "old section."
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Summary
of Our Nig
Generally
accepted as an autobiographical novel, Wilson’s
innovative work integrates two genres of the American
literary tradition- the Sentimental Novel and the 19th
century Slave Narrative- and stands today as the first
known novel published by a black woman in English and
the earliest novel published in the United States by an
African American.
The
novel unfolds with the six-year-old mulatto protagonist,
Frado, being abandoned by her white mother and placed
into indentured servitude. While in service to the Bellmont
family, Frado is cruelly abused by Mrs. Bellmont and her
daughter, Mary. Not even the sympathetic members of the
family intervene on her behalf. Frado endures this harsh
abuse for 12 years until she reaches her majority and
earns her freedom at age eighteen. Weak and sickly after
the years of severe abuse, Frado departs the Bellmont
household and tries desperately to earn a living on her
own. She eventually marries a fugitive slave named Tom,
who lectures for the Abolitionist Movement. Soon after
their baby son George is born, Frado is once again abandoned
and again must find a way to support herself. The novel
ends with the author speaking in her own voice as she
appeals for support from her readers, not through donations
but through the purchase of her novel.
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Brink,
Carol. HARPS IN THE WIND: THE STORY OF THE SINGING
HUTCHINSONS. New York: Macmillan,
1947. Story of the Hutchinson Family Singers, abolitionists
from Milford and relatives of “Mrs. Bellmont”
of OUR NIG. Jordan, John, Asa, and Abby formed the first
singing group; Jesse Jr. composed many of the songs.
- Ernest, John.
“Economics of Identity: Harriet E. Wilson’s
OUR NIG. PMLA, 109 (May
1994): 424-38.
Economic themes in OUR NIG, by UNH professor.
- Gardner, Eric. “`This
Attempt of Their Sister’: Harriet Wilson’s
OUR NIG from Printer to Readers.”
NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY, 66 (June 1993): 226-46. On early
readers of OUR NIG.
- Gates, Jr., Henry Louis
and David Ames Curtis.“ Establishing the Identity
of the Author of OUR NIG,” in WILD WOMEN
IN THE WHIRLWIND: AFRA-AMERICAN CULTURE AND THE CONTEMPORARY
LITERARY RENAISSANCE, ed. Joanne
M. Braxton and Andree Nicola McLaughlin. New Brunswick,
N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1990. Proofs of Wilson’s
identity.
- Harper, Frances E. W.
IOLA LEROY, OR, SHADOWS UPLIFTED.
Boston: Beacon Press, 1999. Novel first published in 1892.
Considered, until the rediscovery of OUR NIG, the first
novel by an African American woman.
- Jacobs, Harriet A. INCIDENTS
IN THE LIFE OF A SLAVE GIRL, ed.
Jean Fagan Yellin. Cambridge: Harvard University Press,
1987. Compelling autobiography originally published in
1861 under the pseudonym “Linda Brent.”
- WE ARE YOUR SISTERS:
BLACK WOMEN IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY,
ed. Dorothy Sterling. New York: W. W. Norton, 1984. Nineteenth-century
American lives, told in the women’s own words. .
- White, Barbara A. “OUR
NIG and the She-Devil: New Information about Harriet
Wilson and the `Bellmont’ Family.”
AMERICAN LITERATURE 65 (March 1993): 19-52. UNH professor
identifies Milford originals of the “Bellmont”
family.
- Wilson, Harriet E. OUR
NIG; OR, SKETCHES FROM THE LIFE OF A FREE BLACK,
ed. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Third edition. New York: Vintage
Books, 2002. This is the most complete edition of the
book and includes the article by White (above) as an afterword.
There is also an earlier edition of OUR NIG edited by
Gates and a British edition edited by R. J. Ellis (Nottingham:
Trent Editions, 1998)
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Questions
for Discussion
-
Much
has been debated over Wilson 's reason for writing her novel
- economic necessity, an exposé on northern racism,
an indictment on Christianity and the abolitionist movement-
what do you think was Wilson 's true motivation for writing
her novel? Why writing and not the lecture circuit?
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Based on information presented in Our
Nig , how do you think Northern
indentured servitude differed from Southern slavery? How
did the life of a free black in the North differ from the
life of a slave in the South? How were poor whites and free
blacks treated by New England society?
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What are some unusual features of the gender
roles in Our Nig as
exemplified by the Bellmont family? How are women characters
portrayed? Men? How is Mag Smith, Frado's mother, portrayed?
How is the institution of motherhood generally portrayed?
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How many incidents of abandonment occur
in Our Nig ? How are
they handled?
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Why do you think Mrs. Bellmont was so cruel
and abusive to Frado? To what degree did race influence
Mrs. Bellmont's behavior?
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With only three summers
of schooling, how do you think Wilson was able to write
Our Nig? How was Wilson able to publish her novel? What
attributes did Frado/Wilson possess that allowed her to
survive?
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How does Wilson use humor and
satire to tell the story? Does its use in the title help or
hinder the novel?
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What impact does the rediscovery
of Our Nig have, or should have on our world today?
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Purchase
'Our Nig'
.jpg)
The
Toadstool Book Store in Milford, NH
(603) 673-1734
Send email to Toadstool
Or contact The Black Library Booksellers in Boston,
Mass (877) 548-1526
Send email to Black
Library Booksellers |
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