Harper at 200

HARPER’S AMERICA

“Mrs. Frances Ellen W. Harper, Poetress, Authoress, Lecturess.” This engraving of Harper can be found in The [Indianapolis] Freeman, the first illustrated Black newspaper in the US founded by Black publisher Edward Elder Cooper before he launched The Colored American (est. 1893) in Washington, DC. Local Indianapolis engraver Charles Nicoli rendered Harper, then aged 66, younger although it is not clear on which existing portraits based his engraving. The Freeman, July 16, 1892. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, Library of Congress.

Harper began her public speaking career in the 1850s, traveling throughout the Northern United States to deliver lectures on abolition, women’s rights, and temperance. Her travels took her to numerous states, including Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York, where she captivated audiences with her powerful oratory and poetry. Harper’s activism was significantly influenced by her interactions and collaborations with fellow women activists of her era. Her involvement in the women’s rights movement brought her into contact with fellow Black women activists and writers, such as Mary Ann Shadd Cary, whom she joined as a co-delegate at the Women’s Congress in Brooklyn in 1887. Cary and Harper were part of a dynamic community that Black women activists across the US who addressed both racial and gender inequality in their work. [See the “Community of Women Activists” section that features individual biographies of Harper’s peers.]

It was inevitable that Harper would be part of the Colored Conventions movement given her cousin William J. Watkins’s involvement in it. Harper attended the 1858 Convention of the Colored Men of Ohio in Cincinnati, Ohio, and addressed the 1864 National Convention of Colored Men in Syracuse, New York, and the 1873 Convention of Colored People in Dover, Delaware. The convention proceedings minimize Harper’s participation and do not give further details about the speeches. However, newspaper reports about her offer insights into the content of her addresses. Harper’s prolific career as a lecturer and writer, however, extended well beyond the Colored Conventions movement. The following pages piece together reports about Harper’s participation in three Colored Conventions and map her travels across the country. Garnering a lot of attention and praise, she was often the subject of articles in Black and white newspapers. Black communities and anti-slavery circles throughout the US recognized the power of her voice. By foregrounding Harper’s labors, we can better understand the magnitude of her influence and confront why Melba Joyce Boyd called Harper’s influence as “Discarded Legacy.”

Credits

Written by Samantha de Vera