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Minnie's Sacrifice
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88 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1869
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About the author
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper
82 books81 followersBorn to free parents in Baltimore, Maryland. After her mother died when she was three years old in 1828, Watkins was orphaned. She was raised by her aunt and uncle. She was educated at the Academy for Negro Youth, a school run by her uncle Rev. William Watkins, who was a civil rights activist. He was a major influence on her life and work. At fourteen, she found work as a seamstress.
Frances Watkins had her first volume of verse, Forest Leaves, published in 1845 (it has been lost). Her second book, Poems on Miscellaneous Subjects, published in 1854, was extremely popular. Over the next few years, it was reprinted in 20 editions. Many African American women's service clubs named themselves in her honor, and across the nation, in cities such as St. Louis, St. Paul, and Pittsburgh, F. E. W. Harper Leagues and Frances E. Harper Women's Christian Temperance Unions thrived well into the twentieth century.
In 1850, Watkins moved to Ohio, where she worked as the first woman teacher at Union Seminary, established by the Ohio Conference of the AME Church. (Union closed in 1863 when the AME Church diverted its funds to purchase Wilberforce University.) The school in Wilberforce was run by the Rev. John Brown (not the same as the abolitionist). In 1853, Watkins joined the American Anti-Slavery Society and became a traveling lecturer for the group. In 1854, Watkins delivered her first anti-slavery speech on “Education and the Elevation of Colored Race”. The success of this speech resulted a two-year lecture tour in Maine for the Anti-Slavery Society. She traveled, lecturing throughout the East and Midwest from 1856 to 1860. In 1859, her story “The Two Offers” was published in the Anglo-African Magazine, a great accomplishment as it became the first short story to ever be published by an African American.
In 1860, she married Fenton Harper, a widower with three children. They had a daughter together in 1862. For a time Frances withdrew from the lecture circuit. However, after her husband Fenton died in 1864, Watkins returned to her travels and lecturing.
Frances Harper was a strong supporter of prohibition and woman's suffrage. She was also active in the Unitarian Church, which supported abolition. She often would read her poetry at the public meetings, including the extremely popular Bury Me in a Free Land. She was connected with national leaders in suffrage, and in 1866 gave a moving speech before the National Women's Rights Convention, demanding equal rights for all, including black women. Watkins was very involved in black organizations. From 1883 to 1890, she helped organize activities for the National Woman’s Christian temperance Union.
She also continued with her writing and continued to publish poetry. In 1892 she published Iola Leroy, or Shadows Uplifted. One of the first novels by an African-American woman, it sold well and was reviewed widely.
Harper continued with her political activism. She helped organize the National Association of Colored Women in 1896, and was later elected vice president in 1897.
Frances Watkins had her first volume of verse, Forest Leaves, published in 1845 (it has been lost). Her second book, Poems on Miscellaneous Subjects, published in 1854, was extremely popular. Over the next few years, it was reprinted in 20 editions. Many African American women's service clubs named themselves in her honor, and across the nation, in cities such as St. Louis, St. Paul, and Pittsburgh, F. E. W. Harper Leagues and Frances E. Harper Women's Christian Temperance Unions thrived well into the twentieth century.
In 1850, Watkins moved to Ohio, where she worked as the first woman teacher at Union Seminary, established by the Ohio Conference of the AME Church. (Union closed in 1863 when the AME Church diverted its funds to purchase Wilberforce University.) The school in Wilberforce was run by the Rev. John Brown (not the same as the abolitionist). In 1853, Watkins joined the American Anti-Slavery Society and became a traveling lecturer for the group. In 1854, Watkins delivered her first anti-slavery speech on “Education and the Elevation of Colored Race”. The success of this speech resulted a two-year lecture tour in Maine for the Anti-Slavery Society. She traveled, lecturing throughout the East and Midwest from 1856 to 1860. In 1859, her story “The Two Offers” was published in the Anglo-African Magazine, a great accomplishment as it became the first short story to ever be published by an African American.
In 1860, she married Fenton Harper, a widower with three children. They had a daughter together in 1862. For a time Frances withdrew from the lecture circuit. However, after her husband Fenton died in 1864, Watkins returned to her travels and lecturing.
Frances Harper was a strong supporter of prohibition and woman's suffrage. She was also active in the Unitarian Church, which supported abolition. She often would read her poetry at the public meetings, including the extremely popular Bury Me in a Free Land. She was connected with national leaders in suffrage, and in 1866 gave a moving speech before the National Women's Rights Convention, demanding equal rights for all, including black women. Watkins was very involved in black organizations. From 1883 to 1890, she helped organize activities for the National Woman’s Christian temperance Union.
She also continued with her writing and continued to publish poetry. In 1892 she published Iola Leroy, or Shadows Uplifted. One of the first novels by an African-American woman, it sold well and was reviewed widely.
Harper continued with her political activism. She helped organize the National Association of Colored Women in 1896, and was later elected vice president in 1897.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 23, 2020
Minnie’s Sacrifice was written by Frances E.W. Harper around 1869 as a serialized short novel in the black newspaper, The Christian Recorder.
The story follows the fate of two young people who pass for white because their fathers are white slave owners and their mothers are enslaved people.
Harper’s descriptions of the Underground Railroad, slave auctions, passing, and day-to-day life in the Civil War South are vivid. The characters are compelling, especially in their younger years when they are unawares of their true parentage.
The end of the story focused more on theory and became a morality tale, which I didn’t enjoy as much. Additionally, the novel is missing two chapters, making the narrative a little bumpy.
Despite the missing chapters and the disappointing ending, Minnie’s Sacrifice provided detailed and realistic depictions of black people during the Civil War. This story made me want to seek out more of Frances E.W. Harper’s and her contemporaries’ work.
(Note...I listened to this book on Librivox recordings.)
The story follows the fate of two young people who pass for white because their fathers are white slave owners and their mothers are enslaved people.
Harper’s descriptions of the Underground Railroad, slave auctions, passing, and day-to-day life in the Civil War South are vivid. The characters are compelling, especially in their younger years when they are unawares of their true parentage.
The end of the story focused more on theory and became a morality tale, which I didn’t enjoy as much. Additionally, the novel is missing two chapters, making the narrative a little bumpy.
Despite the missing chapters and the disappointing ending, Minnie’s Sacrifice provided detailed and realistic depictions of black people during the Civil War. This story made me want to seek out more of Frances E.W. Harper’s and her contemporaries’ work.
(Note...I listened to this book on Librivox recordings.)
Read
February 24, 2022I read this book on Project Gutenberg. The story was interesting and a somewhat smoother reading experience than Iola Leroy (I don't think the non-linear storytelling in that novel really served it well, although it was a rewarding read.) Drawbacks were the "Text missing" or "Installment missing" interruptions, but that's what comes of reading a text that isn't fully extant. I wandered through digital issues of The Christian Recorder online in case additional issues had been recovered in the period since this book was digitized. I did not find the missing portions, but employed myself annotating my copy as I read with dates for the various installments. Frankly, I would have done better to go directly to the edition that Project Gutenberg cribs from, Minnie's Sacrifice, Sowing and Reaping, Trial and Triumph: Three Rediscovered Novels By Frances Harper (1994), as editor Frances Smith Foster helpfully enumerates the missing or damaged issues in which the missing installments would have appeared:
May 29, 1869
June 5, 1869
June 19, 1869 (pp. 1-2)
August 7, 1869 (pp. 1-2)
September 18, 1869
(Foster xliii)
May 29, 1869
June 5, 1869
June 19, 1869 (pp. 1-2)
August 7, 1869 (pp. 1-2)
September 18, 1869
(Foster xliii)
Read
September 9, 2022A wonderful read but sadly the version available online in my library jumps over how Minnie died and if that was her sacrifice. I imagine her sacrifice was therefore the same as her husband Louis'...ie that two people raised as white, upon individually discovering their black heritage, stood up for that heritage. However Minnie had always done so, even before finding her 'coloured' mother. Louis is the real hero as he had been raised to be pro-slave but was able to change his thinking rather than take the easy road as the white confederate soldier he had planned to be.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 23, 2022
It was quite good for a book written at the time it was. I wish we could find the missing chapters.
September 30, 2024
Great book, I listened to the audiobook version on YouTube. I will leave the link below so that everyone can enjoy it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUhpH...
December 7, 2024
A little hard to follow since some parts of the story are missing.
February 16, 2025
these missing installments are my thirteenth reason
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews