Harriet E. Wilson, born Harriet Adams around 1825 in Milford, New Hampshire, is widely recognized as the first Black woman to publish a novel in the United States. Yet for more than a century, both her life and work were largely forgotten.
In 1859, Wilson published Our Nig; or, Sketches from the Life of a Free Black, in a Two-story White House, North. Showing that Slavery’s Shadows Fall Even There. Printed by George C. Rand and Avery in Boston, the semi-autobiographical novel tells the harrowing story of Frado, a biracial girl abandoned by her mother and raised by a white family in New Hampshire who subjected her to relentless abuse, despite living in a region known for its abolitionist leanings, according to Blackpast.
Cultural Front notes that the book was published Sept. 5, 1859; however, Encyclopedia reports that “the first edition” of Our Nig was printed by Rand and Avery, and copyrighted by Wilson on Aug. 18, 1859.
The novel, likely selling fewer than 100 copies at the time, quickly faded into obscurity, NHPR noted. It wasn’t until 1981 that scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. rediscovered the work in a New York City bookstore. Upon republishing it in 1983, Gates revealed that Wilson was not white—as previously assumed—but a free Black woman writing largely from her own experience. This revelation reshaped the history of African American literature, which had previously credited Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (with lola Leroy, published in 1892) as the first Black woman novelist.
Harriet E. Wilson’s life story, according to historians.
Wilson’s life was marked by hardship. Her father, a free Black man, died when she was 7. Her mother, possibly a white woman from Portsmouth, abandoned her shortly after. Historians believe she was placed in indentured servitude with the Hayward family. She attended school sporadically and worked for various families before eventually relocating to Massachusetts to work as a seamstress and servant.
In 1851, she married Thomas Wilson—a man later revealed to be a con artist—who abandoned her before the birth of their son, George Mason Wilson. Struggling with poor health and poverty, she was forced to place her infant son in a poorhouse while she returned to Boston to earn a living. Historians believe that her inspiration behind the book may have been largely fueled by her desperation to regain custody of her son. Wilson was certain she could make a living off the book to finally be able to provide for George.
Source: The Life Of Harriet E. Wilson: The 1st Black Woman To Publish A Novel
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