I sat up most of the night reading and pondering the enormous
significance of Harriet Wilson's Our Nig. -- Author Alice Walker
This seminal autobiographical novel, originally published in 1859, is
believed to have been the first by an African-American woman. Harriet
Wilson's compelling story describes the life of a mulatto girl who,
after the death of her mother, is exploited first by a terrifying
Northern family for whom she worked and then by an opportunistic
husband.
A classic of African-American literature, Our Nig has made an enduring
contribution to understanding the lives of free blacks in the nineteenth
century. A fascinating combination of slave narrative and sentimental
novel, the story traces the hardships and suffering of Frado, who grows
up as an indentured servant to a white family in Massachusetts and
spends much of her destitute life wandering through New England.
A clear and accurate account of race relations and perceptions of race
in the antebellum North, Our Nig is essential reading for students of
African-American history and culture.