For the 150th anniversary of its first publication, a new edition of
the pioneering African American classic, reflecting groundbreaking
discoveries about its author's life
A Penguin Classic
First published in 1859, Our Nig is an autobiographical narrative that
stands as one of the most important accounts of the life of a black
woman in the antebellum North. In the story of Frado, a spirited black
girl who is abused and overworked as the indentured servant to a New
England family, Harriet E. Wilson tells a heartbreaking story about the
resilience of the human spirit. This edition incorporates new research
showing that Wilson was not only a pioneering African-American literary
figure but also an entrepreneur in the black women's hair care market
fifty years before Madame C. J. Walker's hair care empire made her the
country's first woman millionaire.
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of
classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700
titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works
throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the
series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and
notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as
up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.