Wilson, Harriet E.

Wilson, Harriet E.

 orig. Harriet E. Adams

(born 1828?, Milford, N.H.?, U.S.—died 1863?, Boston, Mass.?) U.S. writer, probably the first African American to publish a novel in English in the U.S. Little is known of her history until 1850. She may have been an indentured servant in Milford, N.H., before becoming a domestic in Massachusetts. In 1851 she married a fugitive slave who ran off to sea before the birth of their son. Her one book, written to make money to reclaim her son from foster care, is Our Nig (1859), a largely autobiographical novel that treats racism in the pre-Civil War North. After 1863 Wilson disappeared from the public record.