Full title: Our Nig; or Sketches from the Life of a Free Black, in a Two-Story House, North. Showing That Slavery’s Shadow Falls Even There
Edited by Henry Louse Gates, Jr. with an Afterword by Barbara A. White
In the early 1980s, the eminent scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr., established that the 1859 novel entitled “Our Nig” was in fact written by an African American woman named Harriet E. Wilson. Previously, it had been assumed that the story was written by a white woman but after poring over historical documents and putting the pieces together, Gates found evidence that Harriet Wilson, who had lived in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, was an impoverished African American woman who published her own novel as a way to support herself and her child. Thus, “Our Nig” is the first novel published by an African American and the first by an African American woman in the US. That alone would make it worth the read, but further historical research on Harriet Wilson reveals that the story behind the publication of the novel is every bit as interesting and revelatory about racism in the United States as Wilson’s story itself.
Gates in his introduction refers to “Our Nig” as an autobiographical novel. Scholars have debated whether it should properly be called a novel at all since it seems to be quite clearly the story of Harriet Wilson herself. As novels go, “Our Nig” is a bit unorthodox. Gates sees it as a mix of the “sentimental novel” and “slave narrative.” The protagonist, a child named Frado, is the daughter of a white woman and a black man. She was “a beautiful mulatto” who, after the death of her father and remarriage of her mother, was abandoned with the Bellmont family as an indentured servant. The Bellmonts are a fairly well off farming family, and while living under their roof, Frado is able to get a few years of education but she is horribly abused by the matriarch Mrs. Bellmont and her daughter Mary. In her own introduction, Wilson indicates that she has left out some of the more egregious examples of abuse out of concern for the effect such revelations would have on the abolitionist movement in the North. What is clear is that Frado is treated similarly to a slave — whipped, beaten and viewed as somehow less than human by Mrs. Bellmont and Mary. The other members of the family, however, have more loving and humane feelings for Frado. Mr. Bellmont, his sons Jack and George, sickly daughter Jane, and sister Aunt Abby are kind to Frado and generally treat her with generosity and compassion. Aunt Abby tries to teach her religion and bring her to church services. Jack, George and Mr. Bellmont try to intervene with Mrs. Bellmont and protect Frado, but they are frequently away and so Frado must suffer constant abuse.
While Frado fervently hopes that one of the Bellmont boys will take her away to work in their homes, she ends up staying for the full period of servitude with Mrs. Bellmont. Upon leaving that place, however, her life gets no easier. Frado is frequently unwell due to years of abuse and neglect. She is sometimes fortunate enough to find support within the community from families that have known her and her skills. But then she falls in love with a man who is not what he seems, has a child and becomes a widow. Frado and her child both battle illness and risk being sent to the county home — a poor house/hospital where conditions are horrendous.
This is the point at which the “novel” ends, and Wilson appeals to the African American community to please buy her book so that she can support herself and her son. Several testimonials from people who know Wilson are included at the end of the narrative, affirming the truth of what Wilson writes. One of these people writes of Wilson,
…I often wonder she had not grown up a monster; those very people calling themselves Christians, (the good Lord deliver me from such,) and they likewise ruined her health by hard work, both in the field and house. She was indeed a slave, in every sense of the word; and a lonely one, too.
The significance of Wilson’s book and these testimonials, of Wilson’s expressed concerns regarding reception by the abolitionist community of the North, and of the full title of “Our Nig” is made clear in the excellent Afterword by Barbara A. White. White did extensive research into the life of Harriet Wilson in an attempt to discover how much of the narrative is fiction and how much fact. Her prime focus was on the Bellmont family and whether she could discover who they really were. As it turns out, the Bellmont family seems to have been the Hayward family of New Hampshire, a prominent and well known family connected to famous abolitionists. Thus, Wilson’s concern for how this book would be received in the North and the negativity it might elicit is well founded. White uncovers a lot of fascinating information about the Haywards as well as about life for the poor and Wilson’s life in particular.
“Our Nig” is, sadly, a timeless story of race relations in the United States. “Good white people” can’t see their own complicity in racism and can’t bear to be called out on it. Those who do talk about it, especially the victims of racism such as Harriet Wilson, can expect to be vilified for doing so. This would be an excellent choice for a classroom or book group. It should be required reading in US high schools.