The Life Of Harriet E. Wilson: The 1st Black Woman To Publish A Novel

Harriet E. Wilson, born Harriet Adams around 1825 in Milford, New Hampshire, is widely recognized as the first Black woman to publish a novel in the United States. Yet for more than a century, both her life and work were largely forgotten.

In 1859, Wilson published Our Nig; or, Sketches from the Life of a Free Black, in a Two-story White House, North. Showing that Slavery’s Shadows Fall Even There. Printed by George C. Rand and Avery in Boston, the semi-autobiographical novel tells the harrowing story of Frado, a biracial girl abandoned by her mother and raised by a white family in New Hampshire who subjected her to relentless abuse, despite living in a region known for its abolitionist leanings, according to Blackpast.

Cultural Front notes that the book was published on Sept. 5, 1859; however Encyclopedia reports that “the first edition” of Our Nig was printed by Rand and Avery, and copyrighted by Wilson on Aug. 18, 1859.

The novel, likely selling fewer than 100 copies at the time, quickly faded into obscurity, NHPR noted. It wasn’t until 1981 that scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. rediscovered the work in a New York City bookstore. Upon republishing it in 1983, Gates revealed that Wilson was not white—as previously assumed—but a free Black woman writing largely from her own experience. This revelation reshaped the history of African American literature, which had previously credited Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (with lola Leroy, published in 1892) as the first Black woman novelist.

Harriet E. Wilson’s life story, according to historians.

Wilson’s life was marked by hardship. Her father, a free Black man, died when she was seven. Her mother, possibly a white woman from Portsmouth, abandoned her shortly after. Historians believe she was placed in indentured servitude with the Hayward family. She attended school sporadically and worked for various families before eventually relocating to Massachusetts to work as a seamstress and servant.

In 1851, she married Thomas Wilson—a man later revealed to be a con artist—who abandoned her before the birth of their son, George Mason Wilson. Struggling with poor health and poverty, she was forced to place her infant son in a poorhouse while she returned to Boston to earn a living. Historians believe that her inspiration behind the book may have been largely fueled by her desperation to regain custody of her son. Wilson was certain she could make a living off the book to finally be able to provide for George. 

During this time, she began writing Our Nig, inspired by the growing popularity of slave narratives. She also launched a hair care business, selling “Mrs. Wilson’s Hair Regenerator,” one of the earliest known Black-owned beauty products. Ads for the product date back to 1857, NHPR reported. 

JerriAnne Boggis, executive director of the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire, said she was stunned to learn the book was published by an abolitionist printer in Boston, defying the era’s most “treasured institutions.”

“Take motherhood – Mrs B, the protagonist, was an evil woman to her children. Motherhood took a blow. She called the church hypocrites. The abolitionist movement was hypocritical because here you are fighting for us, but you won’t have one of us to dinner in your home,” Boggis explained during an interview with NHPR in 2018. 

Tragically, Wilson’s son died not long after the book was published. His death certificate identified Harriet as a Black woman—an important detail that Gates Jr. uncovered during his research into the true identity of the author.

Though little else is known about her later life, Wilson’s contribution to American literature is now firmly cemented, and we wonder what life would have been like for the author had she continued writing.

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