Frances Ellen Watkins Harper

A landmark account of the African American experience during the Civil War and its aftermath First published in 1892, this stirring novel by the great writer and activist Frances Harper tells the story of the young daughter of a wealthy Mississippi planter who travels to the North to attend school, only to be sold into slavery in the South when it is discovered that she has Negro blood. After she is freed by the Union army, she works to reunify her family and embrace her heritage, committing herself to improving the conditions for blacks in America. Through her fascinating characters-including Iola's brother, who fights at the front in a colored regiment-Harper weaves a vibrant and provocative chronicle of the Civil War and its consequences through African American eyes in this critical contribution to the nation's literature.

Iola Leroy

Jesse Morley

Ali Cardelli

Frances E.W. Harper

First published in 1892, Iola Leroy was probably the best-selling novel by an African-American writer prior to the twentieth century. Frances Harper had already gained an international reputation as a writer, lecturer, and political activist when Iola Leroy—her only novel—appeared, as evident by the sizable audience she enjoyed of men and women, black and white, in the U.S., Canada, and England. Her writings reveal her in-depth knowledge of African-American literature as well as of other literatures, and through this novel we can see the preferences and aesthetic assumptions of her nineteenth-century audience.

Iola Leroy

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