Frances Watkins Harper

BIOGRAPHY:FrancesWatkinsHarper

Important Event:Frances Watkins Harper was a poet and an anti-slavery activist

Poem:make me a grave where'er you will,In a lowly plain, or a lofty hill; Make it among earth's humblest graves,But not in a land where men are slaves.I could not rest if around my graveI heard the steps of a trembling slave;His shadow above my silent tombWould make it a place of fearful gloom.I could not rest if I heard the treadOf a coffle gang to the shambles led,And the mother's shriek of wild despairRise like a curse on the trembling air.I could not sleep if I saw the lashDrinking her blood at each fearful gash,And I saw her babes torn from her breast,Like trembling doves from their parent nest.

BiographyFrances Ellen Watkins Harper, a 19th century African American woman writer and abolitionist, was born to a free black family in a slave state, Maryland. Frances Watkins Harper became a teacher, an anti-slavery activist, and a writer and poet. She was also an advocate of women's rights and was a member of the American Woman Suffrage Association. The writings of Frances Watkins Harper were often focused on themes of racial justice, equality, and freedom.

FWH Poem:FWH Poem