Our Nig: Or, Sketches from the Life of a Free Black - Paperback

by Harriet E. Wilson (Author), P. Gabrielle Foreman (Editor), Reginald Pitts (Editor)

For the 150th anniversary of its first publication, a new edition of the pioneering African American classic, reflecting groundbreaking discoveries about its author's life

A Penguin Classic

First published in 1859, Our Nig is an autobiographical narrative that stands as one of the most important accounts of the life of a black woman in the antebellum North. In the story of Frado, a spirited black girl who is abused and overworked as the indentured servant to a New England family, Harriet E. Wilson tells a heartbreaking story about the resilience of the human spirit. This edition incorporates new research showing that Wilson was not only a pioneering African-American literary figure but also an entrepreneur in the black women's hair care market fifty years before Madame C. J. Walker's hair care empire made her the country's first woman millionaire.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Author Biography

Harriet E. Wilson (1825-1900) was born in New Hampshire, where she worked from a young age as a servant to an abusive family.

P. Gabrielle Foreman, a MacArthur Fellow, is a professor of American literature, African American studies, and history at Pennsylvania State University, where she is also the founding co-director of the Center for Black Digital Research/#DigBlk.

Reginald Pitts is a historical researcher and genealogist with more than twenty years' experience.