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Harriet Wilson Book Returns to NH

Published Friday Feb 4, 2022

Harriet Wilson Book Returns to NH

A rare and precious first edition novel published in 1859 by Harriet E. Wilson, the mother of the African American novel, came home to New Hampshire this week. Three days of celebrations to express appreciation for this gift culminated in a reading of selections from the book at First Congregational Church in Milford on January 22.

Wilson is the first Black woman to publish a novel in English. Rebecca Davis found the copy of Our Nig; or Sketches in the Life of a Free Black, in a safe when settling her husband’s estate. Originally published in Boston, a strong belief that Wilson’s book should be home in New Hampshire, led Davis to the Black Heritage Trail of NH (BHTNH). Long-time supporters John and Shaye Robinson immediately stepped forward to assist with the acquisition.

“I was so excited to get her call,” said JerriAnne Boggis executive director of the BHTNH. “To think she found us on the web and determined that our organization was the perfect home for her treasure is still mind-blowing.”

Davis, a former librarian, hand-delivered the book from California to Portsmouth on Monday.  A local antique dealer authenticated it and Boggis formally accepted the gift on behalf of the Trail.

While Davis was in the area she met with Trail founder Valerie Cunningham, toured historic sites in Portsmouth and Milford including the African Burying Ground, reviewed the Black History archive at Portsmouth Athenaeum, attended a living history presentation about Ona Judge, and visited Rock Rest, the African American guest house listed in the Green Book.

Local African Americans instrumental in making, discovering, and preserving New Hampshire’s Black history, read selections from Wilson’s novel, at a ceremonial reading at the church in Milford where Harriet Wilson was married. Reader’s included Melanie Levesque, first African American State Senator in New Hampshire, Brenda Lett, a long-time civil rights activist in Greater Manchester, Nadine Thompson, award-winning entrepreneur, and Claudette Williams, founding member of the Harriet Wilson Project.

Milford Historical Society (MHS) and BHTNH co-sponsored the public reading and reception which followed. The event was also broadcast via Zoom and will be posted to the Trail’s website.

Davis had a distinguished career as a medical librarian at UC Davis in California. When she retired in 2014, she was Assistant Head, Health Sciences Libraries, and Operational Head of the Blaisdell Medical Library. She lives in Oakland, CA.

When Wilson published the novel, she was free but formerly an indentured servant in Milford. Her stated hope was to earn sufficient money to “support herself and child.” Instead, her novel, Our Nig; or Sketches From the Life of A Free Black, became a powerful and controversial narrative that continues to touch and unsettle readers around the world.

Long thought to be the work of a white author, Wilson’s novel sunk into obscurity until 1983 when Henry Louis Gates republished the novel with his discoveries that the author was African American and that the story was largely autobiographical.

Jerrianne Boggis founded the Harriet Wilson Project in 2003 with Mabelle Barnette, Gloria Henry, and Claudette Williams, in response to an op-ed in Milford’s local paper outlining why high school students should not study Wilson’s novel. The group later expanded to include historian Barbara White, author Stasia Millett, and artist Napoleon-Jones Henderson.

Eventually, the town of Milford agreed to locate a memorial in Bicentennial Park and the Project commissioned sculptor Fern Cunningham to create a statue, unveiled in 2006, to commemorate Harriet Wilson. BHTNH offers tours of Milford each year, telling little-known stories of people, places, and events spanning three centuries that bring the town’s African American heritage to life.

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