On September 5, 1825, Harriet E. Wilson was born in Milford, New Hampshire, and would go on to be recognized as the first African American woman to publish a novel in North America. Wilson’s contribution, Our Nig; or, Sketches from the Life of a Free Black (1859), stands as a pioneering work. The novel provides a direct, candid account of the challenges faced by free Black women in the antebellum North.
Although Wilson was born free, she experienced the same pervasive oppression African Americans during this period experienced. As a child, she was indentured to a white family, where she endured both harsh labor and mistreatment. Her childhood would become a major influence on her literary work.
With the anonymous publication of Our Nig in 1859, Wilson foregrounded the realities of racism and servitude in the so-called “free” northern states. Unlike contemporaneous works, which focused primarily on Southern slavery, Wilson’s narrative highlighted the exploitation and discrimination endured by free Blacks in the North. Unfortunately, her novel remained largely unrecognized for decades until it was rediscovered by scholars in the late 20th century, securing her rightful place in American literary history.
Following her literary achievement, Wilson supported herself as a seamstress, nurse and spiritualist lecturer. She died in Boston in 1900.
