[To celebrate
one of my favorite American holidays, this week I’ll AmericanStudy a handful of
inspiring African American leaders, starting with my annual post on more fully
remembering King himself. And leading up to a special Guest Post from one of my
favorite current scholars and writers!]
On an author and
reformer whose efforts and works spanned virtually every significant 19th
century period, issue, and literary genre.
Many of my nominees
for the Hall of American Inspiration have been folks
I have called Renaissance Americans, historical and cultural figures
whose work, writing, interests, and influences spanned many different subjects
and disciplines, communities and events. Such figures, to echo what I
wrote about historical and literary inspirations in this post on Anna Julia
Cooper, exemplify the deepest meaning of an interdisciplinary AmericanStudies
approach, making clear that inspirational American identities do not adhere to
specific categories or boundaries for where and how their influences are felt. And
I don’t know that any American has crossed into more spheres of influence, nor
done so by overcoming more significant obstacles, than Frances Ellen
Watkins (Harper).
Watkins (her
maiden name) was born to free African American parents in Baltimore, but in
1825, a period when (as Frederick
Douglass’s slave experiences of that city around the same time illustrate)
the lives and prospects of free blacks were not often far removed from those of
slaves. Yet before she had turned 30—while slavery was still the law of much of
the land, including of course in Maryland—she had published multiple
collections of poetry, including the very
successful Poems on Miscellaneous Subjects
(1854); had moved to Pennsylvania and was helping William Still
run his portion of the Underground Railroad; and was traveling throughout the
north delivering lectures on behalf of both abolitionism and women’s rights.
Her 1860 marriage to Fenton Harper briefly removed her from such public
efforts, and had she concluded her public careers at that time her life and works
would already constitute an impressive and inspirational part of our histories
and community.
Fentor Harper
tragically died only four years later, however, and Frances Ellen Watkins
Harper (as she would remain known for the remainder of her life) returned to
the public sphere, or really many spheres, with renewed passion and power. She
not only continued to work for African American rights, during and after
Reconstruction and the many other post-war challenges, but became as eloquent and important a
voice for women’s rights and suffrage as any American. She contributed so
many journalistic pieces on those and other issues that she
came to be known as the mother of African American journalism. She released
many more collections of poetry, creating in Sketches of Southern Life (1872)’s Aunt
Chloe one of the era’s most compelling characters and voices. She also
published multiple novels, including one of the most important Reconstruction
novels in Iola Leroy, or Shadows Uplifted (1892).
And throughout she dealt with her period and its far too often dark histories
with the combination of realism and optimism reflected in Iola’s subtitle and best captured in her most famous
lines of poetry (and one of the principal inspirations for my
most recent book): “Yet the shadows bear the promise/Of a brighter coming
day.”
Last figure tomorrow,
Ben
PS. What do you
think? Figures or histories you’d highlight?
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