Iola Leroy, or Shadows Uplifted by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper. New York. 2010. Penguin Books. 9780143106043. Introduction by Hollis Robbins. General editor - Henry Louis Gates Jr. 215 pages. paperback. Cover illustration by Christopher Brand.
DESCRIPTION - First published in 1892, this extraordinary novel by the great writer and activist Frances Harper tells a remarkable tale of survival and defiance. Iola Leroy, the daughter of a wealthy Mississippi planter, travels to the North to attend school, only to discover that she has Negro blood. Sold into slavery in the South, she must struggle against the depraved intentions of her owners through the onset of the Civil War while her brother, Harry, refuses to pass as white and joins a colored Union regiment to fight and rescue her. With these and other fascinating characters, Harper weaves a vibrant and provocative chronicle of the war and its consequences through African American eyes, creating a masterpiece of social commentary.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY - Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (September 24, 1825 - February 22, 1911) was an African-American abolitionist, poet and author. She was also active in other types of social reform and was a member of the Women's Christian Temperance Union, which advocated the federal government taking a role in progressive reform. Born free in Baltimore, Maryland, she had a long and prolific career, publishing her first book of poetry at age 20 and her first novel, the widely praised Iola Leroy, at age 67. In 1850, she became the first woman to teach sewing at the Union Seminary. In 1851, alongside William Still, chairman of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, she helped escaped slaves along the Underground Railroad on their way to Canada. She began her career as a public speaker and political activist after joining the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1853. Poems on Miscellaneous Subjects (1854) became her biggest commercial success. Her short story 'Two Offers' was published in the Anglo-African in 1859. She published Sketches of Southern Life in 1872. It detailed her experience touring the South and meeting newly freed blacks. In these poems she described the harsh living conditions of many. After the Civil War she continued to fight for the rights of women, African Americans, and many other social causes. She helped or held high office in several national progressive organizations. In 1873 Harper became superintendent of the Colored Section of the Philadelphia and Pennsylvania Women's Christian Temperance Union. In 1894 she helped found the National Association of Colored Women and served as its vice president. Harper died February 22, 1911, nine years before women gained the right to vote. Her funeral service was held at the Unitarian Church on Chestnut Street in Philadelphia. She was buried in Eden Cemetery, next to her daughter, who had died two years before.
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