Abolitionist, teacher, social reformer, poet and writer Frances Ellen Watkins Harper was born in Baltimore, but had significant Ohio connections. Educated at her uncle’s school where she learned Bible, literature and public speaking, she taught at Union Seminary in Columbus from 1850 to 1854. After moving to Pennsylvania and lecturing on a national circuit, she married Fenton Harper in Cincinnati in 1860, bought a farm and gave birth to her daughter, Mary. After the Civil War and death of her husband, Harper toured the South where she saw appalling injustices. She then joined the Christian Women’s Temperance Union and the American Women’s Suffrage Association and co-founded the National Association of Colored Women.

Her influential 1883 World’s Fair speech, “Women’s Political Future”, deserves study by contemporary audiences. For Semicolon Club, we’ll look at this speech, her influential abolitionist poem, “Bury me in a Free Land”, and her nine poems selected by the Poetry Foundation, including one based on Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. We will also talk about chapters 11, 12, 31 and 32 of Harper’s novel Iola Leroy. Links for all material are provided at https://stowehousecincy.org/semi-colon-club.html

This event is free, though registration is required.