Frances Ellen Watkins Harper wore many hats throughout her illustrious life. She is not well known today, but during the 19th century, she was a household name in the United States.

Resources

1. Bell, Janet Dewart. “Blackbirds Singing: inspiring Black women's speeches from the Civil War to the twenty-first century.” pp. 25-34. New York: The New Press, 2024.

2. Petrino, Elizabeth A. "We are rising as a people": Frances Harper's
radical views on class and racial equality in Sketches of Southern Life"
(2005). English Faculty Publications. 71.
https://digitalcommons.fairfield.edu/english-facultypubs/71

3. Still, William. “The underground railroad. A record of facts, authentic
narratives, letters &c., narrating the hardships, hair-breadth escapes, and
death struggles of the slaves in their efforts for freedom.” Philadelphia, Pa.,
Porter & Coates, 1872.

4. Terborg-Penn, Rosalyn. “African American Woman and the Struggle for
the Vote, 1850 - 1920,” Bloomington, Indiana, Indiana University
Press,1998.

Black Suffragist in the Spotlight is written and produced by Jennifer Rolle. Music: “Passage” by Moija (Uppbeat); “Future” and “Good Feelings” by Aleksandr Shamaluev (Ashamevalue Music). Cover art: Photographs of Hallie Quinn Brown and Helen Nannie Boroughs courtesy of the Library of Congress.