by Elizabeth Hill-Caruso

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper was an African American cultural icon in the nineteenth century. She was a formally educated and well-connected free black woman, author, and activist. Harper championed multiple causes, including abolition, reconstruction, temperance, and women’s rights. She wrote poetry and fiction, participated in the Colored Conventions Movement, formed women’s societies, and toured the United States. Her visibility in African American newspapers also indicates the ways in which Harper’s public image represented the cultural ideals of femininity during that time. Therefore, it is important to analyze what Frances Harper’s public image, as depicted in newspapers between 1853 and 1871, say about black women in the public sphere during the decades surrounding the Civil War. The ideologies of newspapers in which she was featured, as well as the typesetting, placement, and the content of her mentions illuminate the celebratory, sexist, and politicized development of her public image.

Harper began lecturing in the mid-1850s, so her notoriety grew alongside the overflowing tensions leading to the Civil War and established itself amid early struggles for equality after the Confederacy surrendered (Boyd 25). I became interested in the ways Harper’s public persona evolved before, during, and after the Civil War and was particularly interested in the ways male newspaper editors in the Black press depicted her in their attempt to cultivate black culture in print. These interests led me to examine how African American newspapers between 1853 and 1871 presented Harper as a woman, as an activist, and as an orator. Two of my sources, The Liberator and Anti-Slavery Bugle were founded and edited by white abolitionists. In accordance with Eric Gardener and Joycelyn Moody’s method for identifying what classifies as an African American newspaper, I’ve chosen to include these in my assessments as their focus remained on the lives and issues of enslaved and free black populations often relying on contributions by black community members[1]. Interested in the way others described Harper, I focused on advertising, lecture synopses, and mentions of her name. I examined the history and political doctrine of newspapers driving her persona. I paid close attention to typesetting and placement in the newspapers, as well as the content of the articles mentioning her.

Frances Ellen Watkins was born free in Maryland in 1825. For clarity, she will be referred to by her married name, Harper. In early childhood, she moved in with her uncle, William Watkins, after both her parents died. (Boyd 15). William Watkins was an influential member of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, a poet, and founder of the William Watkins Academy for Negro Youth. Watkins developed close, influential relationships with prominent members of the anti-slavery movement such as Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison (Boyd 36-37). Under Watkins’s tutelage, Frances Harper attended formal school, became politically motivated, and associated with some of the most influential members of the African American political and publishing communities. She delivered her first anti-slavery lecture on August 24, 1854, eight years after she published her first collection of poetry, The following month, “she began her activist work as a writer and an orator” (Boyd 42). Frances Harper demonstrated intelligence, artistic talent, and oratory skills. Frederick Douglass was one of the most visible figures in the nineteenth century, and a friend of the Watkins family. He established Harper as a model for African American femininity early in her career (Boyd 54). Douglass and Watkins provided her the access to other political influencers, ministers, and publishers. Thus, Harper had the platform to gain notoriety by her own merits. By the time she began her public speaking career in the mid 1850s, Harper was an established figure in northern, middle class African American society.

Prior to 1854, newspapers typically mentioned Harper’s name in reference to her poetry. The December 30, 1853, issue of Frederick Douglass’ Paper printed a correction to a Harper poem, which appeared the previous week. While the notice is quite brief, its position in the paper and its content establishes Harper’s prominence as well as provides evidence Douglass’s journalistic standards. Harper’s name appears in the third notice beneath a major heading. Furthermore, the correction is right beneath an announcement about Horace Greeley. Greeley was an outspoken white newspaper man and a key ally to Frederick Douglass and the abolition movement (“Horace Greeley, Abolitionist Born”). Evidently, Harper, via her anti-slavery poem, is held to comparable importance with a very powerful man. Similarly, Douglass’s dedication to accuracy by offering a correction of the misprinted poem demonstrates the importance of Harper’s message. Of course, accuracy was integral to journalism, but it’s notable that the correction printed on page two successfully advertises her poem originally printed on page four of the previous week’s issue. The correction renews attention to Harper and the poem’s anti-slavery rhetoric and effectively identified her as an established literary figure in African American culture.

The Anti-Slavery Bugle (1845-1861) was an abolitionist paper based out of Salem, Ohio, a Quaker enclave of Garrisonian abolitionist ideals and an active Underground Railroad station; the paper printed “letters and speeches,” and “calls-for-meetings and editorials that supported its goals” (Library of Congress). According to contemporary practice, Anti-Slavery Bugle incorporated contributions by many different people in the forms of speeches, letters, and editorialized reporting. As a result, examining papers like Anti-Slavery Bugle provides a multifaceted glimpse into print culture. Frances Harper was heavily featured on the second page of the October 30, 1858 edition of the paper. She appears three times in the “Minutes and Proceedings of the Ohio Yearly Meeting of Friends of Human Progress.” Most notably, she delivered a speech “upon the subject of slavery, in a most eloquent and thrilling speech,” at the first evening session (pg. 2 col. 3). The second piece mentioning Harper is a notice that the Executive Committee of the Western Anti-Slavery Society resolved to commend her excellence as a public figure and to request that she act as an agent for the newspaper (pg. 2 col. 5). An agent represents the publication, attracts subscribers, and collects subscription money, so Harper’s fame, mobility, and connections made her an ideal agent (“American Newspapers, 1800-1860”).

The third piece regarding Harper reviews a speech she delivered in New Lisbon, Ohio in October 1858. The author, identified as F., expresses his delighted surprise that Harper, “only a woman, secured large and quite as attentive audiences as any one of our ministers here can possibly gather together” (pg. 2 col. 5). By 1858, Harper was a widely published author and highly respected member of the anti-slavery movement, so F.’s surprise at the size of her audience is absurd. Later, he asserts that the women of New Lisbon who came out to see her doubtlessly sympathized “with all she said. If the women once get right and moving, you may be sure it will not be without its influence upon the men” (pg. 2 col. 5). Essentially, he suggests that a woman, though capable of drawing man-sized crowds, only has the power to directly influence other women. In his attempt to inspire women to organize, he is careful to diminish their power.

The Christian Recorder was the publication the A.M.E Church ran to disseminated religious doctrine and attended to secular issues concerning African Americans (Library of Congress). The A.M.E. Church was not progressive regarding gender equality. Their disregard for women touched Harper personally in 1850 when she earned a job as a sewing teacher at a Church sponsored school, Union Seminary in Wilberforce, Ohio. Astonishingly, “there was considerable protest against her appointment” (Boyd 38). That a well-educated and competent woman writer was employed as a sewing teacher illustrates the misogynism prevalent in the ideals of the A.M.E. Church; therefore, it’s no surprise that summaries of her speeches within the organization’s paper demonstrate the foundational misogyny of the institution. An article in the Christian Recorder published on May 21, 1864, fails to refer Harper by her first name. The author refers to her by name only once, calling her, “Mrs. Watkins Harper.” At this time in her career, Harper had exceeded her uncle’s fame and financially supported her husband, Fenton Harper, so the elimination of her first name cheapens her accomplishments as an individual. The author carefully notes how remarkable her speech is, “especially for a woman,” and his surprise of Harper’s “comprehension of liberty and Republicanism remarkable in any woman, no matter her color” (Christian Recorder May 21, 1864). The author’s comparison of her to the superior intellect of men is unsurprising. What is surprising are the author’s comments about her race in comparative terms. At the beginning of the article, he not only identifies Harper as “a colored lady”, but also designates the race of the reverend at whose church she lectured. Though published in an African American newspaper, it is reasonable to suspect that this article was written by a white man who used racist and sexist language in his attempt to positively present African American culture.

Willian Lloyd Garrison ran his newspaper, The Liberator, from 1831 to 1865, and its content reflected his revolutionary goals towards the abolition of slavery. While he clashed with Frederick Douglass, their “reserve and respect for Harper’s Uncle, William Watkins, protected [Frances Harper] from an exclusive alignment with either author” (Boyd 60). As a result of her endorsement by both men, Harper reached a wider audience than other public figures had to situate themselves within either Douglass’s or Garrison’s publications. She reached both revolutionary pacifists as well as the realists demanding immediate change (Thompson). A piece in the Liberator on August 1, 1865 codes Harper in terms of her femininity and proximity to male authority while providing a less biased report of her speech than the Christian Recorder. The author refers to her as “Mrs. F.E.W. Harper,” “Mrs. H.,” and “Mrs. Harper” throughout, implying a sense of informality. Even though “Harper” has fewer characters than “Mrs. H.”[2], the author refuses to identify her in gender neutral terms. She is always a Mrs. The author’s language, while identifying gender, does not judge it. In fact, the way in which he identifies her gender reveals more about the patriarchal system of marriage than Harper’s worth as a speaker. Despite the differences in their representations of Harper, the published accounts of her speeches in the Christian Recorder and the Liberator illustrate how Harper’s notoriety exemplified the very top of the glass ceiling.

Likewise, advertisements about Harper rely upon sexist language to reach their intended audience, and often use her gender to draw bigger crowds to her events thus perpetuating the misogynistic believe that Harper was a rarity among women. The New National Era (1870-1874), another Frederick Douglass paper, published an advertisement for Harper’s lectures for booking agents on October 20, 1870 (Library of Congress). Unique because of its intended audience, the ad emphasizes Harper’s respectability, marketability, and social rank. The ad identifies Harper as “[a] well-known and highly respected lady, who for several years past has been received as an acceptable lecturer in the most cultivated circles,” of the United States (pg. 2 col. 1). The word, “lady” signifies status within a society, so by pairing the word “lady” with “respected,” the ad copy elevates her above other women. To finalize her credentials, the ad mentions her “acceptability in cultivated circles.” This emphasis of her social ranking demonstrates the multidimensional class differences throughout African American culture. Harper is educated, middle class, and well connected. The ad echoes the sentiments from earlier copy that she is an ideal speaker and model for African Americans civility and femininity.

There are only two newspapers representing Southern States in this essay: The Louisianan which ran from 1870 to 1871, and the South Carolina Leader published from 1865 to 1867. After the Civil War, Harper traveled South to “to visit the Reconstruction States and lecture to the freedmen and their sympathizers” between 1866 and 1871 (Bacon 35). Both newspapers demonstrate a rarely detected level of respect for Harper as a person irrespective of gender by emphasizing her personal accomplishments. The Louisianan published a standard looking ad for the time announcing an upcoming lecture “‘The Work Before Us’” (pg. 2 col. 2). The typography resembles that of contemporary Northern papers, but the copy enthusiastically sells the content of Harper’s speech. An entire paragraph emphasizes the importance of discourse regarding the future of the nation after the abolition of slavery. According to the ad copy, Harper’s speech about Reconstruction is a “prolific theme for discourse,” and “before us lies a future which…may surpass the proudest era of ancient Egypt” (pg. 2 col. 3). For once, Harper’s gender is not the newsworthy topic of the piece.

The August 25, 1866, advertisement in South Carolina Leader’s elevates Harper beyond gender in a similar way. According to the Illinois Library website, newspaper advertisements in the mid-19^th century were “set in single columns with little graphic display, making them difficult at times to distinguish from news items” (“American Newspapers, 1800-1860”). This advertisement’s centered, front-page placement occupying one half of the column, along with phrase repetition in multiple fonts, in all caps, emphasizes the upmost importance of this event. She is venerated as a speaker when the copy refers to her as a “distinguished colored lectures.” The ad also capitalizes on her reputation as a writer when it loudly informs the reader that in addition to her lecture, “she will read” (pg. 1 col. 4). These newspapers celebrated Harper’s presence and intelligence without making any suggestions of the culturally imposed limitations of her gender. In complete contrast to Northern papers in this sample, the Louisianan and the South Carolina Leader advertise Harper’s lecture without overt or subtle sexism. Perhaps given the stakes for recovery and progress in the Reconstruction south, the message was more paramount than the messenger.

Without analyzing Harper’s poetry and short fiction, it’s impossible to paint a comprehensive picture of who she was, but by analyzing the ways in which other’s portrayed her in the media, we can understand Harper’s place in African American print culture. Harper was clearly talented and unique, but her privilege of free birth, her access to education, and her connections to powerful cultural figures gave her the opportunity to live beyond expectations for her gender. Misjudging the contributors to her success, newspaper men cast her as a rare example of a woman intellectually capable of participating in public discourse. They consistently emphasize her continued inferiority to males, newspaper men thus elevating her above other women creating an ideal to which they could aspire. Ultimately, Harper’s image serves to illustrate the most valuable qualities for women in African American culture of the mid nineteenth century. Harper’s literary talents, understanding of politics and society, her tireless activism, and refinement as presented through newspapers, demonstrated to readers how all women should represent their race, while elevating a particular portrait of black femininity.

Works Cited

“American Newspapers, 1800-1860: An Introduction.” History Philosophy and Newspaper Library, Illinois Library, https://www.library.illinois.edu/hpnl/tutorials/antebellum-newspapers-introduction/. Accessed 10 December 2021.

Anti-Slavery Bugle. [Volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, October 30, 1858, Image 2. National Endowment for the Humanities. News about Chronicling America RSS, Ohio American Antislavery Society, https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83035487/1858-10-30/ed-1/seq2/#date1=1825&index=16&rows=20&words=Frances+Watkins&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=&date2=1911&proxtext=%22Frances+Watkins%22&y=20&x=18&dateFilterTpe=yearRange&page=1. Accessed 15 November 2021.

Boyd, Melba Joyce. Discarded Legacy: Politics and Poetics in the Life of Frances E.W. Harper, 1825-1911. Wayne State University Press, 1994.

Bacon, Margaret Hope. “‘One Great Bundle of Humanity’: Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825-1911).” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 113, no. 1, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1989, pp. 21–43, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20092281. Accessed 10 December 2021.

Christian Recorder May 21, 1864. Black Abolitionist Archive: UDM Libraries / Instructional Design Studio, https://libraries.udmercy.edu/archives/special-collections/index.php?collectionCode=baa&record_id=1362&item_id=1605. Accessed 21 November 2021.

“The Christian Recorder (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1861-1960.” The Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/sn93062890. Accessed 13 December 2021.

Frederick Douglass’ Paper (Rochester, N.Y.), December 30, 1853, Image 2. The Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn84026366/1853-12-30/ed-1/?sp=2&q=Frances%2BWatkins&r=0.398%2C0.325%2C0.569%2C0.256%2C0. Accessed 21 November 2021.

Formatting, The Electronic Broadsheet, 30 June 1995, https://www.w3.org/People/howcome/TEB/www/hwl_th_10.html. Accessed 30 June 2022.

The Liberator August 1,1865. Black Abolitionist Archive. Frances Ellen Watkins Harper: UDM Libraries / Instructional Design Studio, https://libraries.udmercy.edu/archives/special-collections/index.php?collectionCode=baa&record_id=255. 21 November 2021.

Gardner, Eric, and Joycelyn Moody. “Introduction: Black Periodical Studies.” American Periodicals, vol. 25, no. 2, The Ohio State University Press, 2015, pp. 105–11, https://doi.org/10.1353/amp.2015.0028. Accessed 8 March 2022.

The Louisianian. (New Orleans, La.) 1870-1871, April 02, 1871, Page 2. National Endowment for the Humanities. “News about Chronicling America RSS, Wm. G. Brown, https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83016630/1871-04-02/ed-1/seq-2/#date1=1825&index=18&rows=20&words=Frances+Harper+W&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=&date2=1911&proxtext=%22Frances+W.+Harper%22&y=14&x=11&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1. Accessed 21 November 2021.

“About Anti-Slavery Bugle.” Library of Congress, National Endowment for the Humanities, https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83035487/. Accessed 13 December 2021.

New National Era (Washington, D.C.), October 20, 1870, Page 2. The Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn84026753/1870-10-20/ed-1/?sp=2&q=Frances%2BHarper&r=-0.002%2C0.741%2C0.452%2C0.203%2C0. Accessed 22 November 2021.

South Carolina Leader. (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-18??, August 25, 1866, Page 1. National Endowment for the Humanities. News about Chronicling America RSS, T. Hurley & Co., https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83025783/1866-08-25/ed-1/seq-1/. Accessed 15 November 2021.

Thompson, Jay. “Toward Douglassonian Abolitionism: The Rift Between Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison.” River Campus Libraries, University of Rochester, https://rbscp.lib.rochester.edu/2842. Accessed 13 December 2021.

 

[1] “In what ways can periodical studies benefit and grow from better understanding the diversity of black periodicals—ranging from the crucial and still-understudied roots of many black periodicals in black religious print to the sometimes tension-filled inter- and intra-racial interactions surrounding periodicals centered on political and/or social activism? In the end, given time and space and especially the compelling need for extended and reflective dialogue on these and other issues, we decided to foreground our questions rather than try to draw conclusions” (Gardener and Moody 108).

 

[2] A space counts as a character in typesetting (Formatting).