Harriet E. Wilson

Novelist

Birthday March 15, 1825

Birth Sign Pisces

Birthplace Milford, NH

DEATH DATE Jun 28, 1900 (75)

#176799 Most Popular

About

Considered the first female African-American novelist, she earned this distinction by anonymously publishing her debut work, Our Nig, in 1859.

Before Fame

She was an indentured servant until she was eighteen years old.

Trivia

Her first novel, Our Nig, or Sketches from the Life of a Free Black, was little known in her lifetime, but was rediscovered by scholar Henry Louis Gates in 1982.

Family Life

She was born in New Hampshire to an African-American father and an Irish mother. She married Thomas Wilson in 1851.

Associated With

Her literary style has been compared to that of Little Women author Louisa May Alcott.