There are so many novels available to us today from many authors. A novel is fiction literature written in long form that focuses on a character in realistic events. The first African American to publish a novel was Harriet E. Wilson. The year was 1859 and the novel was titled “Our Nig,” alternatively called “Sketches from the Life of a Free Black.” The story focuses on a biracial indentured servant living with a white family. For many years, this novel was thought to be written by a white woman. It wasn’t until the year 1983 that the true identity was discovered.
It was Henry Louis Gates, a Harvard University Professor, who discovered the identity of Wilson. The story in the end was thought to be more autobiographical than fictional. Gates republished her work, and this is when her legacy of being the first was discovered. For many years she did domestic work in various homes to make ends meet and have shelter. Wilson wrote the novel to help care for her child after her divorce. This novel seemed to be the only one she had written in her lifetime.
After her published work, Wilson went on to become a spiritualist and later a nurse before her death in 1900 in Massachusetts. In 2003, the Harriet Wilson Project was created in her known place of birth in Milford, New Hampshire to promote Black history made by many in the state. Then in 2006, her sculpture was placed in the city’s Bicentennial Park; it was the first in the state to honor a person of color. In this month of Women’s History, may we acknowledge the America and Black history created by Wilson.