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Nov 26, 2018 · “The Two Offers” by Frances Watkins Harper (1825 – 1922; also known as Frances E.W. Harper and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper) is believed to be the first published short story by an African American writer.
Apr 4, 2022 · Known as the first short story published by an African American, The Two Offers (1859) also marks Frances Ellen Watkins Harper’s first published fiction. From this very first story, Harper emphasizes a womanhood of independence, education, equality, and charity.
- Harper's Political Education
- Feminist Fictions
- Bibliography
The 1850s proved to be an exciting and turbulent decade for Watkins as well as the nation. The struggle over slavery took center stage and Watkins found herself in the middle of all of the major debates of her day. At the same time, the struggle for women's rights gained momentum as well. Watkins was greatly influenced by each of these separate but...
With the publication of "The Two Offers" in 1859, Harper would enter into the debate about the role of marriage and education in women's lives. The story appeared in the Anglo-African Magazine, a black publication founded by Thomas Hamilton in 1859. The publication featured works by black authors, "designed to educate and to encourage, to speak for...
Primary Works
Declaration of Sentiments. http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/Senecafalls.html. Foster, Frances Smith, ed. A Brighter Coming Day: AFrances Ellen Watkins Harper Reader. New York: Feminist Press, 1990. Still, William. Underground Railroad.1872. New York: Arno Press, 1968.
Secondary Works
Boyd, Melba Joyce. Discarded Legacy: Politics and Poetics in the Life of Frances E. W. Harper.Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1994. Carby, Hazel, Reconstructing Womanhood: The Emergence of the Afro-American Woman Novelist. New York and Oxford: Oxford UniversityPress, 1987. Foster, Frances Smith. Written by Herself: Literary Production by African American Women, 1746–1892.Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993. Griffin, Farah Jasmine. "Minnie's Sacrifice: Frances Ellen Watkins Harp...
ÒThe Two OffersÓ was published in June and July of 1859 in the Anglo-African Magazine, a New York publication that featured the writings of black authors. The piece was probably the first published short story by an African American author. The story described the lives of two cousins: Laura Lagrange, who married the wrong
Aug 21, 2024 · The story concerns two cousins, Laura and Janette, who consider two offers of marriage extended to Laura. Though cousins, they represent two different classes, one of privilege and the other of poverty. By juxtaposing their class differences, Harper uses economic contrast to suggest that gender perspectives are related to class consciousness.
“The Two Offers” “The Triumph of Freedom–A Dream” Journalism & Other Works “OUR GREATEST WANT” Moses: A Story of the Nile “FANCY ETCHINGS”/”FANCY SKETCHES” Remembering Harper. Critical Bibliography; Harper in the Archives; Harper in the Public Memory; Harper at #200. Mural and Mural Exhibit; Dance Performance; Symposium ...
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Her short story “The Two Offers” was the first short story published by an African American. Her poetry has been collected in Complete Poems of Frances E.W. Harper (1988, ed. Maryemma Graham), and her prose in A Brighter Coming Day (1990, ed. Frances Smith Foster). She married Fenton Harper in 1860.