Items related to Iola Leroy, or Shadows Uplifted (Black Women Writers)
Iola Leroy is one of the first novels published by an African-American Woman. The novel by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper tells the tale of the eponymous Ms. Leroy, a mixed-race woman who is the daughter of a wealthy white plantation owner in antebellum Mississippi. Iola's light skin conceals her mixed-race ancestry, and originally she lives a life of privilege with her family. She travels north for education but is kidnapped, confronted with her black ancestry, and sold into slavery in the South. As a slave, she endures abuse and sexual advances by various white masters until she is freed by the Union army during the Civil War. As a newly-freed woman, Iola refused to "pass" for white. Instead, she identifies with the black community and builds a life as a progressive reformer. The novel have been noted for its treatment of the subjects of slavery, women's rights, interracial marriage (or "miscegenation"), Reconstruction, and the social concept of "passing".
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About the Author:
"Probably the best-selling novel by an African-American before the 20th century."--The New York Times
"For all its heavy-handed moralizing, [Iola Leroy] purposefully fought the prevailing negative views about Blacks."--Essence
"Clearly Harper's words prove her awareness of the cultural and political functions of narrative. With its intricate plot, about a mulatto who first assumes she is white, subsequently learns she is the daughter of a slave ('the child follows the condition of its mother') and is therefore black, and who ultimately makes the conscious choice not to pass for white but to live as a black woman, Iola Leroy is a novel filled with the complexities and contradictions of black-and-female existence in America in the nineteenth century. While the success of the novel is indisputable in terms of copies sold, what is harder to measure is the extent to which it altered cultural and racial attitudes."--The Women's Review of Books
"Harper was a persuasive and sensitive writer, a popular and articulate speaker, and friend of some of the best-known political activists, religious leaders, educators, and artists....Long before she attempted her novel, Iola Leroy, or Shadows Uplifted, she had gained an international reputation as a writer, lecturer, and political activist....Iola Leroy represents the transition from the antebellum period to the Harlem Renaissance and links Afro-American fiction to women's fiction. It is a work that has excited controversy and that is currently exciting scholastic interest."--Frances Foster Smith, from her Introduction
"Frances E.W. Harper's Iola LeRoy is finally taking its place as an illuminating late 19th century treatment of the plantation system. Frances Smith Foster's introduction to the novel is excellent."--Dr. Mary Ann Wiensatt McClintock, University of S. Carolina
Frances S. Foster, San Diego State University.
Review:
"Probably the best-selling novel by an African-American before the 20th century."--The New York Times
"For all its heavy-handed moralizing, [Iola Leroy] purposefully fought the prevailing negative views about Blacks."--Essence
"Clearly Harper's words prove her awareness of the cultural and political functions of narrative. With its intricate plot, about a mulatto who first assumes she is white, subsequently learns she is the daughter of a slave ('the child follows the condition of its mother') and is therefore black, and who ultimately makes the conscious choice not to pass for white but to live as a black woman, Iola Leroy is a novel filled with the complexities and contradictions of black-and-female existence in America in the nineteenth century. While the success of the novel is indisputable in terms of copies sold, what is harder to measure is the extent to which it altered cultural and racial attitudes."--The Women's Review of Books
"Harper was a persuasive and sensitive writer, a popular and articulate speaker, and friend of some of the best-known political activists, religious leaders, educators, and artists....Long before she attempted her novel, Iola Leroy, or Shadows Uplifted, she had gained an international reputation as a writer, lecturer, and political activist....Iola Leroy represents the transition from the antebellum period to the Harlem Renaissance and links Afro-American fiction to women's fiction. It is a work that has excited controversy and that is currently exciting scholastic interest."--Frances Foster Smith, from her Introduction
"Frances E.W. Harper's Iola LeRoy is finally taking its place as an illuminating late 19th century treatment of the plantation system. Frances Smith Foster's introduction to the novel is excellent."--Dr. Mary Ann Wiensatt McClintock, University of S. Carolina
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- PublisherBeacon Press
- Publication date1987
- ISBN 10 0807063177
- ISBN 13 9780807063170
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages282
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IOLA LEROY, OR SHADOWS UPLIFTED
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Beacon Press
(1987)
ISBN 10: 0807063177
ISBN 13: 9780807063170
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