FRANCES ELLEN HARPER.
Mrs. Harper is a native of Maryland, and was born in Baltimore, in 1825, of free parents. What she was deprived of in her younger days in an educational point of view, she made up in after years, and is now considered one of the most scholarly and well-read women of the day. Her poetic genius was early developed, and some of her poems, together with a few prose articles, with the title of “Forest Leaves,” were published, and attracted considerable attention, even before she became known to the public through her able platform orations.
An article on “Christianity,” by Mrs. Harper, will stand a comparison with any paper of the kind in the English language.
Feeling deeply the injury inflicted upon her race, she labored most effectually by both pen and speech for the overthrow of slavery, and for ten years before the commencement of the Rebellion, the press throughout the free states recorded her efforts as amongst the ablest made in the country.
Few of our American poets have written verses more pointed against existing evils, than Frances Ellen Harper. Her eloquent poem, “To the Union Savers of Cleveland,” on the return of a fugitive slave to her master at the South, will always be read with a feeling of indignation against the people of the North who could suffer such things to be done.
“The Slave Mother” will stand alongside of Whittier’s best poems on the “Peculiar Institution.” The poems on “The Proclamation,” and the “Fifteenth Amendment,” will be read by her race with delight in after ages.
All of Mrs. Harper’s writings are characterized by chaste language, much thought, and a soul-stirring ring that are refreshing to the reader.
As a speaker, she ranks deservedly high; her arguments are forcible, her appeals pathetic, her logic fervent, her imagination fervid, and her delivery original and easy. Mrs. Harper is dignified both in public and in private, yet witty and sociable. She is the ablest colored lady who has ever appeared in public in our country, and is an honor to the race she represents.
In person, Mrs. Harper is tall, and of neat figure; mulatto in color, bright eyes, smiling countenance, and intelligent in conversation.