Frances E.W. Harper biography

Profile

Frances Watkins was born on September 24, 1825, in Baltimore, Maryland. She was able to attend school as the daughter of free black parents. Her first poem collection, Forest Leaves, was published around 1845. The delivery of her public speech, “Education and the Elevation of the Colored Race,” resulted in a two-year lecture tour for the Anti-Slavery Society. She died in 1911.