Written by the foremost black woman activist of the nineteenth century, the novel sheds light on the movements for abolition, public education, and voting rights through a compelling narrative. Iola Leroy adopts and adapts three genres that commanded significant audiences in the nineteenth century: the sentimental romance, the slave narrative, and plantation fiction. This novel, which was re-printed 4 times in its first 4 years of existence, follows the life of the beautiful, light-skinned Iola Leroy to tell the story of black families in slavery, during the Civil War, and after Emancipation. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, while calling out the racism she experienced in those circles. She also remained active in mainstream feminist organizations, commanding the respect of women like Susan B.
She was easily as prominent as Frederick Douglass, so the only reason her name isn’t as well known today is that she was a woman. And Harper was one of the most important black woman activist-authors of the nineteenth century. Frances Harper’s most famous novel, Iola Leroy (1892), is about a woman who can pass for white but refuses to do so.
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