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However, after her husband Fenton died in 1864, Watkins returned to her travels and lecturing.įrances Harper was a strong supporter of prohibition and woman's suffrage. For a time Frances withdrew from the lecture circuit.

In 1860, she married Fenton Harper, a widower with three children. 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. She traveled, lecturing throughout the East and Midwest from 1856 to 1860.

The success of this speech resulted a two-year lecture tour in Maine for the Anti-Slavery Society. In 1854, Watkins delivered her first anti-slavery speech on “Education and the Elevation of Colored Race”. In 1853, Watkins joined the American Anti-Slavery Society and became a traveling lecturer for the group. John Brown (not the same as the abolitionist). (Union closed in 1863 when the AME Church diverted its funds to purchase Wilberforce University.) The school in Wilberforce was run by the Rev. 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. Harper Women's Christian Temperance Unions thrived well into the twentieth century. Many African American women's service clubs named themselves in her honor, and across the nation, in cities such as St.

Over the next few years, it was reprinted in 20 editions. Her second book, Poems on Miscellaneous Subjects, published in 1854, was extremely popular. At fourteen, she found work as a seamstress.įrances Watkins had her first volume of verse, Forest Leaves, published in 1845 (it has been lost). He was a major influence on her life and work. William Watkins, who was a civil rights activist. She was educated at the Academy for Negro Youth, a school run by her uncle Rev. After her mother died when she was three years old in 1828, Watkins was orphaned. Many African American women's service clubs named themselves in her honor, and across the nation, in cities such a Born to free parents in Baltimore, Maryland. Frances Watkins had her first volume of verse, Forest Leaves, published in 1845 (it has been lost). At fourteen, she found work as a seamstress. Born to free parents in Baltimore, Maryland.