Frances Ellen Watkins Harper

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper. , The poet, novelist, orator, and essayist was born in Baltimore on September 24, 1825, and was the only child of her free parents. After she was orphaned as a child, she lived with an aunt on Camden Street and attended a school for free African Americans which was on Sharp Street and was run by her uncle, William J. Watkins. After her formal education, she worked as a live-in maid with a white family, the Armstrongs, whose bookstore and family library further enhanced her education and her interest in poetry. About 1846 she published her first volume of poems, Forest Leaves. In 1850 she left Baltimore for a teaching position in Ohio. In 1860 she married Fenton Harper, who died in 1864. They had one child, Mary. Although Harper's work would take her around the country and into many states, the latter part of her life was spent in Philadelphia., Frances Harper published nine other volumes of poems over the years 1854-1900, with varied subjects, but usually with strong social and religious emphases. Her novel Iola Leroy was published in 1892, and she also published short fiction and essays. During most of her career she was equally as well known as a crusader for human rights and as a compelling orator on many subjects, including slavery, interracial harmony and equality, women's rights, temperance, and education. She also was influential in various local and national organizations and activities concerning all of these. Sometimes referred to as "The Bronze Muse," Harper was one of the most outstanding and best known of nineteenth century African American writers and orators.