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= Our_Nig =
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Introduction
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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 reissued with an introduction by Gates (London: Allison
& Busby, 1984). 'Our Nig' has since been republished in several
other editions. It was long considered 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.
Beginning
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'Our Nig' opens with the story of Mag Smith, a white woman who lives
in the northern United States. She has been seduced and left with a
child born out-of-wedlock. After the child dies, Mag moves away to a
place where no one knows her. In this new town, she meets a
"kind-hearted African" man named Jim who falls in love with her.
Impoverished, she soon realizes that she can either marry Jim or
become a beggar. Jim and Mag marry and they have two children, a
daughter, Frado, and an unnamed son.
Jim becomes sick and dies, leaving Mag to provide for their children.
Embittered, she allows Seth, one of Jim's business partners, to become
her common-law husband. Eventually, Mag and Seth decide they must
leave town to search for work, and do not want to take both of the
children. He suggests they send her daughter Frado to live with and
work for the Bellmonts, a lower middle-class white family who live
nearby. Mag, indifferent, agrees. Six-year-old Frado is dropped off
at the Bellmonts under the pretense that Mag will be back to pick her
up later in the day.
After a few days, the Bellmonts and Frado realize Mag never intended
to return. Mr. Bellmont is portrayed as kind and humane but Mrs.
Bellmont is the complete opposite. The Bellmonts have five children,
three boys, Jack, James, and Lewis (the latter two are not currently
living with the family) and two girls (sickly Jane and irascible
Mary). Mr. Bellmont's sister, Abby, also lives with the family. The
family debates whether or not to keep Frado, and if they do, where she
will sleep. Frado is sent to live in a separate part of the house that
she will soon outgrow. The following day, Mrs. Bellmont calls for
Frado early in the morning and puts her to work in the kitchen,
washing dishes, preparing food, etc.
Life with the Bellmonts
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Jack accepts Frado since her skin is not very dark. His sister Mary
resents Frado being there and wants her to go to the County Home
instead. Mrs. Bellmont is not happy with Frado living with them but
puts her to work doing household chores, frequently upbraiding her and
hitting her. Mr. Bellmont is kindlier but does not wish to interfere
with his wife's right to rule the house and so does not protest Mrs.
Bellmont's treatment of her. Frado now lives in a small room, an
unfinished chamber over the kitchen. As a year passes, Frado accepts
that she is part of the Bellmont family. Jack buys Frado a dog named
Fido, who becomes her friend and eases her loneliness.
Frado is allowed to attend school with Mary. One afternoon on their
way home, Mary tries to force Frado into a stream but falls in
instead. Mary runs home to tell her mother that Frado pushed her into
the water. Frado receives a whipping from Mrs. Bellmont while Jack
tries to defend the girl.
Frado runs away; Mr. Bellmont, Jack and a visiting James search for
her. After she is found she tells James that if God made him, Aunt
Abby and Mrs. Bellmont white, then she dislikes God for making her
black.
On the first day of spring a letter arrives from James about his
declining health. He returns with his wife and son to visit the
family. Mrs. Bellmont beats Frado senseless and says if she tells
James, Mrs. Bellmont will "cut her tongue out".
By November, James' health starts to deteriorate further. Mary leaves
home to stay with her brother Lewis. James requests that Frado stay by
his bed side until further notice. Mrs. Bellmont discovers Frado
reading the Bible and speaks to her husband about Frado going to the
evening meetings.
James dies the following spring.
Illness and sorrow
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After James' death, Frado suffers conflict, feeling she is unworthy to
be in Heaven. She seeks the aid of Aunt Abby (Mr. Bellmont's sister),
who teaches Frado about God and the Bible, invites her to a church
meeting, and encourages her to believe in God and seek the passage of
Heaven.
Mr. Bellmont grows concerned for Frado's health from her beatings by
Mrs. Bellmont, and advises Frado to avoid them whenever she can.
Before Mrs. Bellmont strikes her for taking too long to bring
firewood, Frado threatens to stop working for her if she does. Mrs.
Bellmont unexpectedly relents. After that incident, she whips the girl
less frequently.
News arrives that Mary Bellmont has died of illness. Frado rejoices in
the death of her tormentor, and considers leaving the Bellmonts, but
Aunt Abby counsels her against it. Frado decides to wait until her
indenture contract is over at the age of 18. In the course of time,
Jane Bellmont leaves the house. Jack moves in with his wife, whom Mrs.
Bellmont verbally abuses because of her poverty in Jack's absence.
Frado helps Jack's wife escape Mrs. Bellmont's tormenting.
When Frado turns 18, arrangements are made for her to sew for the
Moore family. Due to her ailing health, she slowly becomes unable to
work. She moves to a shelter where two elderly women take care of her
for two years. For a while, she is nursed by Mrs. Moore, but after her
husband leaves, Frado is forced to find work. She eventually is
employed by a poor woman in Massachusetts who instructs her on making
bonnets.
Aftermath
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Though growing feebler and declining in health, Frado makes
substantial wages. Despite three years of failing health, a few years
later Frado moves to Singleton. She marries a fugitive slave named
Samuel but finds that her back has been more seriously marked by
beatings than his. He constantly leaves her to go "lecture" on the
abolitionist circuit. During his travels, Frado is at home with little
money. She must depend on herself alone, especially during the birth
of her child.
During Samuel's absence, Frado becomes sick again. She takes her child
and finds shelter in the home of a poor woman, where she later
recovers. She receives word that her husband has died of yellow fever
in New Orleans. Forced to find work, Frado travels through the
different towns of Massachusetts. After a friend (Horatio W. Foster,
1816-1860, manufactured Foster's Mountain Compound) gives her a recipe
for turning gray hair back to its original color, she maintains
herself by making and selling the preparation.
The third person narrator concludes the story by relating the
destinies of all its characters. Mr. and Mrs. Bellmont, Aunt Abby,
Jack, and his wife have all died. Jane and her husband Henry, Susan
(James' wife) and her son all have become old. No one remembers Frado.
The last line of the book ends with "but she will never cease to track
them till beyond mortal vision". Even though the families she worked
for may have forgotten about Frado, she still remembers them.
List of characters
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* Mr. Bellmont - The patriarch of the Bellmont family.
* Mrs. Bellmont - The matriarch of the Bellmont family, tyrannical and
capricious.
* Mag Smith - The mother of Frado, a poverty-stricken white woman.
* Jim - Mag's black husband and Frado's father.
* Seth Shipley - Jim's partner, later Mag's common-law husband.
* Frado - The protagonist of the novel.
* Mary Bellmont - Most active daughter in the household.
* Jack Bellmont - The youngest of the three sons belonging to the
Bellmont household.
* Jane Bellmont - Sickly daughter of the family.
* James Bellmont - The middle son of the Bellmonts.
* Lewis Bellmont - The eldest son of the Bellmonts.
* Fido - Frado's dog.
* Aunt Abby - Mr. Bellmont's sister.
Literary criticism
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John Ernest in 'Economies of Identity: Harriet E. Wilson's Our Nig'
argues that Wilson's book was marginalized by a white audience because
it appealed directly to a "colored audience". The distribution of 'Our
Nig: Sketches in the Life of a Free Black' was limited, and not
appreciated by northern abolitionists because Wilson called for
awareness of the abuse and "shadow of slavery" that existed even in
the Northern United States. Ernest asserts that Wilson risked
undermining the paradigm that African-American narratives portrayed of
the "New England ideal".
Robin Bernstein in 'Racial Innocence: Performing American Childhood
from Slavery to Civil Rights' argued that the novel responds
critically to Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel, 'Uncle Tom's Cabin,' and
to other works of abolitionist fiction that debate whether black
children who die may become angels.
Cynthia J. Davis's article "Speaking the Body's Pain: Harriet Wilson's
Our Nig" argues and analyzes the alternative representations of a
black woman that Harriet Wilson presents. Davis includes other
critics' comments and perspectives in order to come to her own
conclusions. "One marker of the way in which Our Nig 'signifies' on
dominant representations is the fact that, in light of the extreme
sexualization of black women's bodies, it is a white woman whom Wilson
represents as sexual -- Frado's mother Mag, but not Frado herself."
Wilson presents a challenging view of a white woman and a black woman.
Although Frado is born to a white mother, because her father is black
and she has identifiably African features, she is considered black.
She defies convention, as she is not promiscuous. But, her white
mother lost her virginity before marriage, had a child out of wedlock,
and married twice.
Eric Gardner's article, This Attempt of Their Sister': Harriet
Wilson's Our Nig from Printer to Readers", explores why the novel
initially escaped notice and was not widely publicized. He argues that
"of the owners of Our Nig who have been traced, more than half were
children…" (238). Many white abolitionists were not as concerned with
the issue of race as they were with the issue of slavery, and 'Our
Nig' may have seemed unflattering to Northerners and abolitionists in
its content; "Wilson depicts aspects of Northern life that
abolitionists would have regretted" (242). Gardner concludes that
although Wilson may have not received the support she wanted or even
needed, publishing 'Our Nig' may have succeeded in aiding Wilson to
reach her goal of achieving "self-sufficiency and self-satisfaction…"
(246). She did gain a faithful group of supporters, however small.
Lois Leveen's article, "Dwelling in the House of Oppression: The
Spatial, Racial, and Textual Dynamics of Harriet Wilson's 'Our Nig'",
incorporates her view on the "two story house" symbolizing the ties
that bind her. The substandard space which Frado is given makes her
believe in her low status. She starts to believe that she must fit
within these spatial restrictions. Frado knows only what she has been
surrounded by; the Bellmonts and others in their society believe the
individual is determined by race. Frado cannot break the chains of
this household where such inhumane conditions are set, so breaking the
chains in her mind would be equally, if not more difficult, to escape.
The physical prison in which she has been doomed to live translates
into her mental incapacity. Although she leaves the "white house", due
to the damage and treatment she received there, she will never be
truly free. Growing up, that environment is all Frado knew, it's all
the familiarity that she had to compare every other upcoming
experience to. The fact that she grew up in the North, a free place,
further incapacitates her. For there is no escape for her, there is no
geographical positive. She has no sense of freedom because she was
raised as a prisoner in a free land and was cheated out of ever
claiming it. She had no choices, she had no will, she had only her
thoughts and her pain to look to. She can leave the walls that held
her restrained in the past but she cannot leave her mind, thoughts and
memories; they hold her eternally captive.
Reception
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'Our Nig' did not sell well, partly because rather than criticizing
slavery in the South, it also indicts the economy of the northern
states. Specifically, the novel lambasts the practice of keeping poor
people as indentured servants, and the poor treatment of blacks by
whites. Critic David Dowling, in "Other and More Terrible Evils:
Anticapitalist Rhetoric in Harriet Wilson's Our Nig and Proslavery
Propaganda", states that northern abolitionists did not publicize her
book because it criticized the North.
See also
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* African American literature
* 'Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave'
* 'The Bondwoman's Narrative' by Hannah Crafts a preface by Henry
Louis Gates Jr., describing his and its acquisition, verification and
publication
* Free Negro
* Free person of color
External links
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* Our Nig at Project Gutenberg
* Our Nig at Internet Archive
*
*
*
* Poinier, Lauren,
[
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5BJZB7IduzKZTNhYzQ5NTctNzZkNS00OTYxLTk5NGEtZjAwYzU2ZWY0MjFj/edit
"Harriet Wilson's 'Our Nig': The First African-American Novel and
Counter Discursive Work to Break the Silence of 'The Other' in
America"], Senior Thesis, December 21, 2009.
License
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Original Article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Nig
