Our Nig
Encyclopedia
Our Nig: Sketches from the Life of a Free Black is an autobiographical slave narrative by Harriet E. Wilson
. It was published in 1859 and rediscovered in 1982 by professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
. It is considered the first novel published by an African-American on the North American continent.
According to John Ernest’s article, "Economies of Identity: Harriet E. Wilson’s Our Nig," Harriet E. Wilson’s novel, "Our Nig: Sketches in the Life of a Free Black," became marginalized by a white audience, and was perceived as appealing directly to a "colored audience". The distribution of "Our Nig: Sketches in the Life of a Free Black" was limited, and not appreciated by northern abolitionists due to the novel's call for awareness of the abuse and "shadow of slavery" that existed even in the Northern United States.
Our Nig did not sell well because of tension between the North and the South at the time. The northern abolitionists, who fought for freedom of the blacks, fought for a capitalist economy in the north. One of their arguments was that the capitalist economy could exist because it was working in the north without slave labor. Harriet Wilson disproves this because she shows that there is still slave treatment in the north except they were called indentured servants. David Dowling, a critic who wrote for College Literature wrote the piece "Other and More Terrible Evils: Anticapitalist Rhetoric in Harriet Wilson’s Our Nig and Proslavery Propaganda". He states that the northern abolitionists did not publicize her book because it disproved their theory.
Wilson published her books two blocks from the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society
.
Harriet E. Wilson
Harriet E. Wilson is traditionally considered the first female African-American novelist as well as the first African American of any gender to publish a novel on the North American continent...
. It was published in 1859 and rediscovered in 1982 by professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Henry Louis “Skip” Gates, Jr., is an American literary critic, educator, scholar, writer, editor, and public intellectual. He was the first African American to receive the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellowship. He has received numerous honorary degrees and awards for his teaching, research, and...
. It is considered the first novel published by an African-American on the North American continent.
According to John Ernest’s article, "Economies of Identity: Harriet E. Wilson’s Our Nig," Harriet E. Wilson’s novel, "Our Nig: Sketches in the Life of a Free Black," became marginalized by a white audience, and was perceived as appealing directly to a "colored audience". The distribution of "Our Nig: Sketches in the Life of a Free Black" was limited, and not appreciated by northern abolitionists due to the novel's call for awareness of the abuse and "shadow of slavery" that existed even in the Northern United States.
Our Nig did not sell well because of tension between the North and the South at the time. The northern abolitionists, who fought for freedom of the blacks, fought for a capitalist economy in the north. One of their arguments was that the capitalist economy could exist because it was working in the north without slave labor. Harriet Wilson disproves this because she shows that there is still slave treatment in the north except they were called indentured servants. David Dowling, a critic who wrote for College Literature wrote the piece "Other and More Terrible Evils: Anticapitalist Rhetoric in Harriet Wilson’s Our Nig and Proslavery Propaganda". He states that the northern abolitionists did not publicize her book because it disproved their theory.
Wilson published her books two blocks from the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society
Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society
The Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society was organized as an auxiliary of the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1835. Its roots were in New England Anti-Slavery Society, organized by William Lloyd Garrison, editor of The Liberator, in 1831...
.
List of characters
- Mr. Bellmont - The patriarch of the Bellmont family. He is a kind and humble man who would not grudge hospitality to the poorest wanderer, nor fail to sympathize with any sufferer, however humble. He makes the ultimate decisions in the household, although they are challenged by Mrs. Bellmont. He is a man that seldom decides controversies at the home, but he ultimately declares that Frado go to school against Mrs. Bellmont’s protest. Although his intentions towards Frado are good, he does not exercise his ability as the patriarch to stop the cruel abuse against the child.
- Mrs. Bellmont-The matriarch of the Bellmont family. She is a tyrannical and capricious woman who never shows any mercy towards Frado. The members of the household live in fear of her erratic behavior. She is an abusive woman who takes Frado into the home because former servants could not bear her abuse. Mrs. Bellmont accepts Frado into her home, because having a black helper in her home is a status symbol. Mrs. Bellmont also influences her daughter Mary to physically and verbally abuse Frado.
- Mag Smith - Mag Smith is the mother of Frado. She is a white, poverty-stricken woman – somewhat of a rarity during this time. Mag is shunned by society. She finds love and happiness with a black man by the name of Jim. The couple produces two children. However, after Jim dies, Mag abandons her responsibility as a mother and runs off with another black man – leaving Frado with the Bellmonts.
- Jim - A black man in love with a white woman; Mag, who has been taken advantage of by a man who left her after he stole her virginity. Mag is exiled because of distain and degradation, Jim is seen, as the escape she hopes will change her life. Jim marries Mag and they have two bi-racial children. Jim falls ill and eventually dies of consumption, leaving Mag alone again with the responsibility of raising two children.
- Seth Shipley - Once a partner in Jim’s business, Seth marries Mag and accompanies her to Singleton Hovel after Jim, her first husband, dies. Together, Seth and Mag leave their home and search for greener pastures; greater opportunity, and a chance for a better life. He and Mag abandon her young 6-year-old child, Fredo at the Belmont’s in an astonishing act of parental betrayal.
- Frado - Frado is the protagonist of the novel. She is what the novel terms mulatto – her mother being Caucasian and her father African American. Following the death of her father, Frado is abandoned by her mother at the age of six. She is left in the possession of the Bellmont family where she endures endless abuse and torture at the hands of Mrs. Bellmont and her daughter, Mary. However, she wins the love and affection of the other members of the family.
- Mary Bellmont - Most active daughter in the household and novel. She follows in her mother's footsteps and shared sentiments about Frado. She abuses Frado both physically and mentally, and participates in her demise where health is concerned. She represents society's racist and and uncaving views about African Americans. She does not believe in furthering Frado's education and attempts to withold her other rights or "priveleges".
- Jack Bellmont - One of the two sons belonging to the Bellmont household. He displays kindness towards Frado and deems her "handsome and bright." There are several instnaces upon which Jack defends Frado and attempts to shelter her from his mother's constant bout of abuse and injustice. However, Jack simultaneously symbolizes greater society due to his somewhat indirect hand in Frado's enslavement. He represents a large portion of whites who seem to accept African Americans as they are but remain stagnant in terms of abolishing their demeaning roles in society.
- James Bellmont
- Samuel
External links
- Our Nig, electronic edition, University of Virginia Library
- Interview with Henry Louis Gates (mp3). Gates and a literary critic discuss Our Nig, Wired for Books