Our Nig
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Our Nig: Sketches from the Life of a Free Black is an autobiographical novel by Harriet E. Wilson. First published in 1859, it was rediscovered in 1981 by Henry Louis Gates Jr. and was subsequently re
Original title page (1859)
Slavery
The Bondwoman's Narrative
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The Bondwoman's Narrative is a novel by Hannah Crafts whose plot revolves around an escape from slavery in North Carolina. The manuscript was not authenticated and properly published until 2002. Schol
Our Nig
…the first novel published by an African-American woman in North America, though that record is now contested by another manuscript found by Gates, The Bondwoman's Narrative, which may have been written a few years earlier. Our Nig opens with the story of Mag Smith, a white woman who lives in the northern United States. She…
First edition
Title page of manuscript of The Bondwoman's Narrative. Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, gift of Henry Louis Gates Jr.