Our Nig; or, Sketches from the Life of a Free Black, published in 1859, is considered the first novel published by an African American woman in the United States. Harriet E. Wilson draws on autobiographical elements to tell the story of Frado, a mixed-race girl who suffers abuse and exploitation in a white household in the North. The novel confronts the myth that racism was confined to the South, highlighting systemic oppression in free states. It’s a powerful early voice in African American and feminist literature.
