Frances Ellen Watkins Harperby L’Merchie FrazierBorn free in Baltimore, Maryland, novelist, poet, or
Frances Ellen Watkins Harperby L’Merchie FrazierBorn free in Baltimore, Maryland, novelist, poet, orator and abolitionist, one of the best-known black women of her time, Harper was referred to as ‘the Bronze Muse’. During the Victorian era when few women dared to speak in the public realm’s mixed audiences, she was a much admired and sought after activist, hired by the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society, working with William Still and the Maine Anti-Slavery Society as official lecturer and agent, traveling throughout the United States and Canada.1Frances was orphaned at an early age and cared for by her uncle, Rev. William Watkins, founder of a school for black children that she attended. Her fine education and entrepreneurial efforts are evidenced in the sale of over 50,000 copies of her numerous published works that feature concepts of citizenship and nationhood that critique existing society and created models of reform2. Her poem “The Slave Mother” denounces slavery’s compromise to the powerful bond of mother and child.“He is not hers, for cruel handMay rudely tear apartThe only wreath of household loveThat binds her breaking heart……Oh Father, must they part?”-Excerpted from The Slave Mother -- source link
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