Our Nig

In 1859, Harriet Wilson, a black servant from Milford, New Hampshire, published an auto-biographical novel called Our Nig; or Sketches From the Life of A Free Black. It's the story of a black woman in the north who suffered great mistreatment at the hands of her employers. It was the first book to be published by a black woman in the United States. The book fell into obscurity almost immediately, but was resurrected by Henry Louis Gates Jr. of Harvard in 1983. The Harriet Wilson Project is now celebrating Wilson- trying to get a memorial built in Milford and holding an event on May 2nd featuring a keynote speech by Gates among other things. Dr. Gates joins us to talk about how he re-discovered the book and its importance. Barbara White, Professor Emerita from UNH, also joins us to talk about pre-Civil War Milford and Harriet Wilson's life.