Today’s Leader of Faith
FRANCES E W HARPER
Home Call : 22 Feb 1911
American Abolitionist, Poet, Author, Activist, Teacher, Public Speaker
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825–1911) was an African American Abolitionist who fought tirelessly against racism and advocated for women’s rights throughout her life. She was one of the first Black women to be published in the United States and was a strong advocate for civil rights, women’s rights, and education. She was known for her powerful speeches and writings, including poetry, essays, and novels that addressed issues of slavery, racial injustice, and gender inequality. Many of her poems reflected themes of hope, divine justice, and perseverance through trials, aligning with Christian teachings about faith and endurance. She was also deeply involved in the Women’s Christian Temperance Union and the National Association of Coloured Women.
Harper was born free on September 24, 1825, in Baltimore, Maryland. Orphaned at three, she was raised by her aunt and uncle, Reverend William J. Watkins, Sr., a civil rights activist and minister. She was educated at the Watkins Academy for Negro Youth. At 13, she worked as a seamstress and nursemaid, reading and writing in her spare time. In 1850, she became the first female teacher at Union Seminary, an AME-affiliated school for Black students in Ohio. After Union closed in 1863, she taught at a school in York, Pennsylvania.
Harper was a prominent abolitionist, women’s rights advocate, and suffragist. She began lecturing against slavery in 1854, facing both racial and gender discrimination. She joined the American Anti-Slavery Society and travelled extensively to promote abolition. After the Civil War, she worked in the South to educate freed Black people and encouraged land ownership for self-sufficiency. She was active in the Women’s Christian Temperance Union but criticized its failure to support Black causes. She delivered influential speeches demanding justice for African Americans. In the suffrage movement, she advocated for both women’s and Black rights, supporting the Fifteenth Amendment and co-founding the American Woman Suffrage Association. In 1896, she helped establish the National Association for Coloured Women to address racism in progressive movements. Her works often reflected her Christian faith, using biblical themes, moral teachings, and religious symbolism to advocate for abolition, racial equality, and women’s rights.
Harper passed away from heart failure on February 22, 1911, at the age of 85. Her funeral was held at the First Unitarian Church on Chestnut Street in Philadelphia, and she was laid to rest in Eden Cemetery in Collingdale, Pennsylvania, beside her daughter, Mary.