Iola Leroy or Shadows Uplifted
About the Author
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper was born in 1825 as a free woman in Maryland. She dedicated her life to her writing, abolition, and the suffrage movement. She was the first woman to ever teach sewing at Union Seminary in 1850 and in 1851 she began to help slave escape to Canada through the Underground Railroad. By 1853 she joined the American Anti-Slavery Society where she was a public speaker and activist for the demolition of slavery. Harper was a strong advocate for temperance and became a superintendent of the Colored Section of the Philadelphia and Pennsylvania Women's Christian Temperance Union. She also helped found the National Association of Colored Women in 1894.Synopsis
Iola Leory or Shadows Uplifted was published in 1893 and was one of the first novels published by an African-American woman. The novel follows the story of Iola Leroy, the free born daughter of a former slave who married her owner. Iola, her mother, and her brother Harry are all able to "pass" as white which leads to complications in their education and social standing through the novel. When Iola's father dies, his cousin Lorraine annulls Iola's mother's marriage and remands her and her children to slavery. Harry is warned to not come back home, but Iola returns only to be sold.After the Emancipation Proclaimation is passed, Iola is freed by fellow slaves who are going to join the Union army that is stationed on the outside of town. There, Iola becomes one of the best nurses at the army hospital despite being plauged by thoughts of where her mother and brother might be. Her biggest goal after the war has ended is to find her family and along the way she finds her Uncle who is also looking for her mother. Along with the search for her family, Iola becomes a teacher at an African-American school in the south where she finds her other life's purpose, education.
Iola eventually finds her family, making herself a utopic home in a dystopic society. One of the main conflicts of the novel is over who Iola is going to marry. Her first marriage offer comes from Dr. Gresham, one of the doctors she worked with in the army hospital. He is white and comes from an affluent northern family, the terms of his proposal would mean Iola hiding her African-American heritage and giving up her dreams of being an educator in the reconstructing south. Dr. Latimer, a friend of Dr. Gresham is also mixed race and has dedicated his life to providing care to freed slaves in the south. In the end, Iola chooses Dr. Latimer over Dr. Gresham because she does not want to conceal who she is to make others comfortable. Dr. Latimer is also someone that shares Iola's values and who will help succeed in her goal of helping educate and care for freed slaves.
Themes
Education
Education is a major theme in this novel. Iola advocates specifically for the education of mothers and she ends up devoting her life to educating freed slaves in the south with her husband by the end of the novel. "Knowlege is power" is central to the development of various characters and education is portrayed as the solution to many of societies problems.Racial Identity
The idea of being "mixed" race and the societal implecations of that is the biggest issue of the novel. Iola, Harry, Dr. Latimer, and various other characters have to navigate not only their perceptions of their race but also how others see their race. The novel calls into question what it means to black and what it means to be white in society and touches upon how these trivial labels determine so much about a person's life.Social Responsibilty
Privilege and what you should do with it is one of the main morals of this novel. Iola had the privilege to be educated in her youth, so she uses it to educate people who did not have the same privileges as herself. The same goes with her brother Harry and Dr. Latimer. The heroes of this novel use the advantages they have in life to help those less fortuante than themselves. Iola had the choice to live in white society, but she refused knowing that she could not help her fellow African-Americans if she were perceived as being white.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Herland
"Sultana's Dream"
Intersectionality
This page has paths:
- Intersectionality in Early Feminist Texts Gabrielle Borders
- Intersectionality Gabrielle Borders
