Our Nig, or Sketches from the Life of a Free Black in a Two-Story White House

This is the autobiographical novel by Harriet Wilson, the first African-American to publish a novel in North America. Originally published in 1859, it was rediscovered in 1982.The novel begins as Frado, a six-year-old mulatto, is abandoned by her white mother. While serving the Bellmont family as an indentured servant, she is treated cruelly. Frado earns her freedom at the age of 18 but has many difficulties earning a living on her own. She marries Tom, a fugitive slave and a lecturer for the Abolitionist Movement. Frado has a baby, but is again abandoned and must find a way to support herself. At the end of the novel, the author appeals in her own voice for sales of her book.Read more