Our Nig: or, Sketches from the Life of a Free Black (Penguin Classics) - Softcover

Wilson, Harriet E.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0143105760 ISBN 13: 9780143105763

Publisher: Penguin Classics, 2009

First published in 1859, Our Nig is an autobiographical narrative that stands as one of the most important accounts of the life of a black woman in the antebellum North. In the story of Frado, a spirited black girl who is abused and overworked as the indentured servant to a New England family, Harriet E. Wilson tells a heartbreaking story about the resilience of the human spirit. This edition incorporates new research showing that Wilson was not only a pioneering African-American literary figure but also an entrepreneur in the black women's hair care market fifty years before Madame C. J. Walker's hair care empire made her the country's first woman millionaire.

Review:

" The landmark research and skillful criticism done by Foreman and Pitts should shape discussion of Our Nig for years to come."
-African American Review

About the Author:

Harriet E. Wilson (1825-1900) was born in New Hampshire, where she worked from a young age as a servant to an abusive family.

• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0143105760
• ISBN 13: 9780143105763
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 176