Our Nig by Harriet E Wilson
Preface, introduction and notes by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., afterword by Barbara A. White. The first novel ever written by a black American, this fusion of the sentimental novel and the slave narrative, first published in 1859, was neglected until it recently became the subject of renewed scholarly interest. Recently the subject of a front page New York Times article, Our Nig traces the life of Frado, a Mulatto girl who grows up as an indentured servant to a white Massachusetts family, offering an enormous contribution to the study of black American literature and history.Harriet E. Wilson (1825-1900) was an African American novelist. Born a free person of color in New Hampshire, Wilson was the daughter of an African American father and an Irish American mother. Following the death of her father, Wilson was abandoned by her mother at the farm of Nehemiah Hayward Jr., who held her as an indentured servant until the age of eighteen. Upon reaching adulthood, Wilson worked as a house servant and seamstress before, in 1851, marrying an escaped slave named Thomas Wilson, who later abandoned her during pregnancy. Although he returned for a brief time, he died at sea soon after, leaving Wilson a widow. She struggled immensely over the next several years to provide for her son, who would die at the age of seven in 1860. During this period, however, Wilson managed to write Our Nig; or Sketches from the Life of a Free Black (1859), which she published anonymously as a means of raising money for her sick child. Now recognized as the first novel published by an African American in the United States, Wilson's autobiographical work is the only thing she published in her lifetime. After George's death, Wilson moved to Boston, where she remarried; divorced; and worked as a housekeeper, medium, and lecturer.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781400031207 |
| ISBN 10 | 1400031206 |
| Title | Our Nig |
| Author | Harriet Wilson |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Vintage |
| Year published | 2002-04-16 |
| Number of pages | 304 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |