Frances E.W. Harper – Iola Leroy or shadows uplifted

Frances E.W. Harper; source: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Py8ZMkFSL._SL500_SS500_.jpg.

Discussion Question 1:

What is Iola's position on slavery before she knows anything of her heritage and the hardships she will have to face? (Chapter XII.)

Discussion Question 2:

How does this position change in the course of the book? How does Iola Leroy express Harper's own views on the world?

Fact:

For some time, Iola Leroy was viewed as the first novel published by an African American woman. However, two other female authors of the time may have published their books one year prior to Harper, but this is a topic still under discussion among literary critics. (http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/iolaleroy/context.html)

Frances E.W. Harper helped escaped slaves along the “Underground Railroad”, which was a network of secret routes and safe houses used by 19th-century black slaves in the United States to escape to free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists and allies who were sympathetic to their cause. The term is also applied to the abolitionists, both black and white, free and enslaved, who aided the fugitives. Various other routes led to Mexico or overseas. It reached its height between 1850 and 1860, and one estimate suggests that by 1850, 100,000 slaves had escaped via the "Railroad". This system gets mentioned in many works covered in this blog, starting with Frederick Douglass' Narrative, and ending with Toni Morrison's Beloved, as it was very important for many African-Americans of that time to secure their freedom.

Watch Underground Railroad on PBS. See more from History Detectives.

Source: http://churchillhistory.wikispaces.com/file/view/Underground_Railroad_Map/323881468/Underground_Railroad_Map