Our Nig or, Sketches From the Life of a Free Black by Harriet E Wilson Penguin Classics, December 2004 $12, ISBN 0-142-43777-8
The first known novel published by a black author in the United States, Our Nig is an indispensable and rare work that chronicles the struggles faced by black women who lived above the Mason-Dixon Line. Our Nig was first published by Harriet E. Wilson, a free-born woman from New England, in 1859. Frado, a child abandoned by her white mother, is the protagonist and her story loosely mirrors Wilson's own experiences as the indentured servant of a mean-spirited and violent woman.
This edition includes an Introduction by P. Gabrielle Foreman and Reginald H. Pitts, which helps put the story into context for readers unfamiliar with the author's history. Wilson's characters are well developed; their actions and motives are believable; and her writing style reflects the influence of her contemporaries. Wilson freely criticizes the shallow religiosity of the adults who fail to recognize Frado's humanity and is unsparing in her descriptions of the abuses that Frado suffers daily.
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