195 Author Introduction: Frances Ellen Watkins Harper
195 Author Introduction: Frances Ellen Watkins Harper
FRANCES ELLEN WATKINS HARPER (1825-1911)
Tammie Jenkins
Introduction
The years immediately following the abolishment of slavery in the United States signified a transition in the expectation of the larger society and their role in the development of their community and acquirement of citizenships. Newly freed, Black people endeavored to integrate themselves into these narratives and to consider ways that they could achieve the American Dream. During these critical years, Black activists and scholars such as W. E. B. DuBois, Booker T. Washington, and Marcus Garvey, who began proposing ways that Black Americans could either assimilate or leave the United States as part of a mass exodus back to Africa. DuBois was expounding his notions of a double consciousness which he felt that Black Americans possessed, as vehicle for viewing the world from multiple perspectives including their own. Whereas, Washington taunted the idea that Black Americans needed to adapt skills that demonstrated their usefulness and conformity to the expectations of the larger society. Meanwhile, Garvey encouraged Black Americans to return to Africa and build communities in their homeland. These men were highly vocal and used their words as well as oratorical attributes to present their thoughts in public spaces. Women such as Frances Ellen Watkins Harper began entering these spaces and expressing their ideas regarding the role of Black people in a post-slavery United States through their written and oral texts.
Frances Ellen Harper (née Watkins) was born on September 24, 1825, in Baltimore, Maryland. Her parents have been identified as free persons of color who passed away while she was a young girl. Frances was reared by her maternal uncle, Reverend William Watkins, a civil rights activist, and his wife, Harriet. Harper received her academic and vocational education at Academy for Negro Youth. At the age of fourteen, Frances worked as a seamstress before moving to Ohio and acquiring employment as a school teacher at Union Seminary. By age twenty, Frances had published a book of poetry titled Forest Leaves. She resigned her teaching position and pursued employment as a traveling lecturer with the American Anti-Slavery Society. Harper continued to publish poetry and deliver speeches until she met and married Fenton Harper, a widower with three children in 1860. From their union a daughter, Mary Frances Harper was born. Following her marriage, Frances withdrew from public life and assumed the roles of wife, mother, and homemaker until the death of her husband, Fenton.
Harper returned to public life as a professional lecturer, abolitionist, and author in an effort to provide for her family and to bring socially relevant subject matter such as temperance, women’s suffrage, and civil rights into larger societal conversations. Frances possessed an oratorical style commonly associated with masculinized speech patterns; yet, her wri