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1865–1877
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper A Social Revolution 333
Freeborn Frances ellen Watkins harper
was an influential abolitionist and
women’s rights advocate, a poet and
novelist, and an orator. her well-received
Poems on Miscellaneous Subjects (1854)
treated gender equality as well as
abolitionism. Minnie’s Sacrifice (1869),
a serial novel; Sketches of Southern Life
(1872), a book of poetry; and her most
famous work, the novel Iola Leroy, or
Shadows Uplifted (1892), all address
reconstruction. harper’s life and work
reflect a profound belief in and active
commitment to both gender and racial
equality. In particular, her activism on
behalf of both women’s rights and black
rights led her to become a founding vice
president of the National association of
colored Women in 1896. Granger/Granger — All
rights reserved.

hymns and Testament./Then I got a little cabin—/A place to call my own—/And I
felt as independent/As the queen upon her throne.” 20
Northern teachers, missionaries, and philanthropists helped found hundreds of
schools for black children and adults. Some of these schools were set up in churches
and homes. In other cases, freedpeople pooled their resources to buy land, build
schoolhouses, and hire teachers. The Freedmen’s Bureau assisted by renting facilities,
providing books, and transporting teachers, and the AMA helped fund schools and
hire teachers, white and black. The Pennsylvania Branch of the American Freedmen’s
Union Commission sent out 1,400 teachers to serve 150,000 students. In addition to
these privately sponsored organizations, Reconstruction state governments, often led
by black officials, began to establish public school systems — new for the South — that
gave black children access to education, largely in segregated schools that operated
only during the winter months, when children were not needed for planting and har-
vesting. By 1880 black illiteracy had declined to 70 percent, and by 1910 it was down
to 30 percent. 21
In all these schools, the standard New England curriculum prevailed. The three
Rs — reading, writing, and arithmetic — were emphasized. In the best schools,
instruction in history, geography, spelling, grammar, and music might also be avail-
able. Colleges offered a classical liberal curriculum that included math, science, Latin,
and Greek. Given the pressing need for teachers, they usually emphasized teacher

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