Harriet E. Wilson
Our Nig; Or, Sketches from the Life of a Free Black, in a Two-story White House, North
Showing That Slavery's Shadows Fall Even There
"Our Nig; Or, Sketches from the Life of a Free Black, in a Two-story White…" by Harriet E. Wilson is an autobiographical novel published in 1859. It tells the story of Frado, a mixed-race girl abandoned by her impoverished white mother to work as an indentured servant for the Bellmont family in the northern United States. There, she endures brutal treatment from Mrs. Bellmont while finding occasional kindness from other family members. The novel explores themes of racial prejudice, servitude, and survival in pre-Civil War America.