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= Pauline_Hopkins =
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Introduction
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Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins (May 23, 1859 – August 13, 1930) was an
American novelist, journalist, playwright, historian, and editor. She
is considered a pioneer in her use of the romantic novel to explore
social and racial themes, as demonstrated in her first major novel
'Contending Forces: A Romance Illustrative of Negro Life North and
South.' In addition, Hopkins is known for her significant
contributions as editor for the 'Colored American Magazine,' which was
recognized as being among the first periodicals specifically
celebrating African-American culture through short stories, essays and
serial novels. She is also known to have had connections to other
influential African Americans of the time, such as Booker T.
Washington and William Wells Brown.
Hopkins spent most of her life in Boston, Massachusetts, where she
completed the majority of her works. As an active contributor to the
racial, political and feminist discourse of the time, Hopkins is known
as being one of the significant intellectuals of the early 20th
century to promote racial uplift through her writing.
Early life
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Hopkins was born to Benjamin Northrup and Sarah A. Allen in Portland,
Maine in on May 23, 1859, and grew up in Boston, Massachusetts.
Allegations of infidelity led Allen to file for divorce, and shortly
afterwards she met and married William Hopkins. It was not until age
20 that Pauline Allen took on the name of her stepfather and became
Pauline Hopkins. Northrup had been influential in Providence, Rhode
Island, due to his political ties and Hopkins' mother was a native of
Exeter, New Hampshire. Her maternal ancestry traces back to the famous
New Hampshire natives Nathaniel and Thomas Paul, who were of religious
prominence for their Baptist ministry and the latter for opening the
first Black Baptist church in the Boston area.
The high-achieving Hopkins household encouraged Pauline academically,
which led her to develop an appreciation for literature. In addition
to hailing from a well-educated household, she was inspired from an
early age by African-American leaders of the time, such as Frederick
Douglass, whom she later cited as having "god-like gifts" in her
recollection of attending one of his talks during adolescence. In
1874, after completing her second year at Girls High School, she
entered an essay contest held by the Congregational Publishing Society
of Boston and funded by former slave, novelist, and dramatist William
Wells Brown. Her submission, "Evils of Intemperance and Their Remedy",
highlighted the problems with intemperance and urged parents to be in
control of their children's social upbringing. She placed first in the
contest and won $10 in gold.
Hopkins became well known for her various roles as a dramatist,
actress and singer. In March 1877, she participated in her first
dramatic performance, 'Pauline Western, the Belle of Saratoga'. After
this, she acted in several other plays and received positive reviews.
However, it was not until the beginning of the 1900s that she decided
to focus more on her literary passions.
Plays, novels and short stories
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Hopkins' earliest known work, a musical play called 'Slaves’ Escape;
or, The Underground Railroad' (later revised as 'Peculiar Sam; or, The
Underground Railroad'), was first performed at Oakland Garden in
Boston during the year 1880. Afterwards, she wrote another unpublished
play titled 'One Scene from the Drama of Early Days,' which was
dramatized rendition of the biblical story of Daniel in the lions'
den. Her short story "Talma Gordon," published in 1900, is often noted
as being the first African-American mystery story. She explored the
difficulties faced by African Americans amid the racist violence of
post-Civil War America in her first novel, 'Contending Forces: A
Romance Illustrative of Negro Life North and South', published in
1900. In the following years, she published three serial novels
between 1901 and 1903 in the African-American periodical 'Colored
American Magazine': 'Hagar's Daughter: A Story of Southern Caste
Prejudice', 'Winona: A Tale of Negro Life in the South and Southwest',
and 'Of One Blood: Or, The Hidden Self'.
''Of One Blood: Or, The Hidden Self''
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The last of Hopkins' four novels, 'Of One Blood: Or, The Hidden Self',
first appeared in serial form in 'The Colored American Magazine' from
November 1902 to November 1903, during the four-year period in which
Hopkins served as its editor. Elements of the work have been compared
to Goethe's 'Faust'.Original cover of the magazine in which 'Of One
Blood' was first published (November 1902).
'Of One Blood: Or, The Hidden Self' tells the story of Reuel Briggs, a
medical student who does not care about being black or appreciating
African history, but finds himself in Ethiopia on an archaeological
trip. His motive is to raid the country of lost treasures, which he
does find. However, he discovers much more than he expected: the
painful truth about blood, race, and the half of his history that was
never told. Hopkins wrote the novel intending, in her own words, to
"raise the stigma of degradation from [the Black] race". The title,
'Of One Blood', refers to the biological kinship of all human beings.
Although 'Of One Blood: Or, The Hidden Self' is a work of fiction,
Hopkins constructs an historical argument in her novel, using
historical and literary sources, as well as travelogues. Her argument,
which ran counter to many histories of that time, was that the ancient
cultures of the Nile Valley were African in origin, not imported to
the area from elsewhere.
''Colored American Magazine''
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From the beginning of the nine-year run of the 'Colored American
Magazine,' Hopkins served as a major contributor to the periodical's
success. Hopkins short story "The Mystery Within Us" was included in
the first issue of 'Colored American Magazine', a monthly periodical
started by the same company who published Hopkins' novel 'Contending
Forces' in the same year. She was named Editor of the Women's
Department by the second issue, and Literary Editor of the magazine by
November 1903. In addition, she would go on to write sketches for the
periodical known as "Famous Women of the Negro Race" and "Famous Men
of the Negro Race." This series gave recognition to many of the
influential Black figures of the time through detailing their lives
and legacies, including abolitionist William Wells Brown, the same
inspiration who had awarded her for her essay-writing ability as a
teenager nearly three decades earlier.
At times going by the pseudonym Sarah A. Allen, Hopkins through her
work at the 'Colored American' began to gain recognition in the public
eye. As a result of this, she was offered the opportunity to become a
member of the board of directors, a shareholder and a creditor of the
magazine. Along with her writing, she helped to increase subscriptions
and raise funding for the magazine as a co-founder of "The American
Colored League", which was an organization started in 1904 with the
mission of promoting the interests of the 'Colored American'. These
roles alone helped her break into the literary world, with her work
making up a substantial amount of the literary and historical
materials promoted by the magazine. She would continue to work for the
magazine until she left in September 1804 due to health complications.
By her final issue, a total of six of Hopkins' short stories had been
published in the magazine, including the well-known mystery "Talma
Gordon", as well as two of her novels, 'Winona: A Tale of Negro Life
in the South and Southwest' and 'Of One Blood or The Hidden Self'.
''New Era Magazine''
======================
Hopkins' final notable works as a writer and editor occurred during
the formation of the Boston-based 'New Era Magazine', which she
created with Walter Wallace, whom she had previously worked with at
the 'Colored American Magazine'. The cover of the 'New Era Magazine'
included the subheading "An Illustrated Monthly Devoted to the
World-Wide Interests of the Colored Race". Despite its attempts to
provide a space appealing to the literary and political interests of
African-Americans in the context of the segregation era, the magazine
only published two issues in 1916 before ceasing existence and
receiving very little recognition within scholarly discourse at the
time. This is often regarded as a failure on Hopkins' part, marking
the quiet conclusion of her literary career.
Reception
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After presenting 'Contending Forces' to the Women's Era Club of
Boston, readings of the novel spread to other women's clubs throughout
the country. It was hailed as being "...undoubtedly the book of the
century.... absorbing from the first page to the last" by president of
the Colored Women's Business Club of Chicago, Alberta Moore Smith.
Despite this, Hopkins received little public recognition in comparison
to many of her male counterparts. Her name would be largely forgotten
during the time of the Harlem Renaissance, during which other
African-American artists received much recognition, leading up to her
death. Many details of her life would fall into obscurity until
scholar Ann Allen Shockley's biographical essay "Pauline Elizabeth
Hopkins: A Biographical Excursion into Obscurity" in 1972, which was
followed by her work being featured in The Schomburg Library of
Nineteenth-Century Black Women Writers during 1988.
Legacy
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Hopkins is remembered for writing one of the first mystery drama plays
by a Black woman. She has also been recognized as "...the most
prolific contributor to the 'Colored American Magazine'" during the
four years that regularly contributed to the periodical, setting the
foundation for what the magazine would become even after her eventual
departure. Her various works for the magazine such as "Famous Women of
the Negro Race" (1901-1902) were known to combat the stereotypes
enforced on African Americans through showcasing the great successes
of the race, often shedding light on the experiences of women in
particular.
In 1988, Oxford University Press released The Schomburg Library of
Nineteenth-Century Black Women Writers with Professor Henry Louis
Gates as the general editor of the series. Hopkins' novel 'Contending
Forces: A Romance Illustrative of Negro Life North and South' (with an
introduction by Richard Yarborough) was reprinted as a part of this
series. Her magazine novels (with an introduction by Hazel Carby) were
also reprinted as a part of this series. Carby did this as a way to
reintroduce Hopkins into the sphere and see how her literature
influenced writers in the past, present and now future.
Her work has been regarded among other notable African-American
writers at the time such as Charles Chesnutt, Paul Laurence Dunbar,
and Sutton Griggs by Richard Yarborough. In relation to women's
publications, Yarborough calls her "the single most productive black
woman writer at the turn of the century".
"The Northup legacy that Pauline Hopkins would claim as her own was
one of impressive public action, fearless civic ambition and strong
community consciousness."
Death
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In the years leading up to her death, Hopkins was employed as a
stenographer for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. On August
12, 1930, she died from injuries sustained after an accident, during
which bandages that she was wearing on her arms to treat her neuritis,
soaked in liniment, caught aflame from an oil stove that she had in
her room. She died in Cambridge, Massachusetts and was buried in the
Garden Cemetery in Chelsea, Massachusetts. Despite the fact that she
had resided in the area during the course of most of her life's work,
there was no record of her death posted in the local obituaries. Both
'The Chicago Defender' and the 'Baltimore-Afro-American' newspapers
reported on her death, wrongly citing her age of death as 79. The
Cambridge Death Records of the Massachusetts Department of Vital
Statistics confirm that her actual age of death was 71. To this day,
many details of her life are still undiscovered, including her exact
birthdate.
Published works
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*'Slaves' Escape; or, The Underground Railroad', 1880.
*[
http://digilib.nypl.org/dynaweb/digs/wwm97247/@Generic__BookView?DwebQuery=hopkins&DwebSearchAll=1
'Contending Forces: A Romance Illustrative of Negro Life North and
South'] , 1900.
*"Talma Gordon". First published in 'The Colored American Magazine',
1900.
*[
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/hopkins/hagar/hagar.html
'Hagar's Daughter: A Story of Southern Caste Prejudice']. First
published serially in 'The Colored American Magazine', 1901-02.
*[
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/hopkins/winona/winona.html
'Winona: A Tale of Negro Life in the South and Southwest']. First
published serially in 'The Colored American Magazine', 1902-03.
*'Of One Blood: Or, The Hidden Self'. First published serially in 'The
Colored American Magazine', 1903.
*'Of One Blood: Or, the Hidden Self'. Edited by Deborah McDowell.
Washington Square Press, 2004.
*'Of One Blood: Or, the Hidden Self'. Edited, with notes, by Eric R.
Guignard and Leslie S. Klinger. Poisoned Pen Press/Horror Writers
Association (Haunted Library of Horror Classics), 2021. This edition
featured an introduction by Nisi Shawl.
*'Of One Blood: Or, the Hidden Self'. Edited by Eurie Dahn and Brian
Sweeney. Broadview Press, 2022.
*'Of One Blood' was rereleased by the MIT Press as part of the Radium
Age Series in 2022. This edition featured an introduction by Minister
Faust.
See also
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* 'The Music Trades', "History", "Post-1996 findings on Freund"
(relating to 'Colored American Magazine')
External links
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* [
https://hdl.handle.net/11299/166226 Dasher-Alston, Robin M. (1998).
"Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins."] Retrieved from the University Digital
Conservancy, University of Minnesota.
*[
http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5621
Hopkins profile] at Literary Encyclopedia
*[
http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap6/hopkins.html
Perspectives in American Literature - Pauline Hopkins bibliography]
*[
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2838/is_3_36/ai_94335193
Martin Japtok's critical essay, "Pauline Hopkins's Of One Blood,
Africa, and the 'Darwinist Trap'"]
*[
https://web.archive.org/web/20070310211516/http://www.us.oup.com/us/catalog/general/series/TheSchomburgLibraryofNineteenthC/
Home page] for The Schomburg Library of Nineteenth-Century Black Women
Writers
*[
http://www.paulinehopkinssociety.org The Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins
Society]
*
* [
https://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/h#a55156 Works by Pauline
Hopkins] at Project Gutenberg
*
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pauline_Hopkins
