A review by msand3
Our Nig; or, Sketches from the Life of a Free Black, In A Two-Story White House, North. Showing That Slavery's Shadows Fall Even There by Harriet E. Wilson

3.0

Although containing some flashes of interesting writing at times--the deathbed chapter is powerful, if a little melodramatic--this brief autobiographical novel is mostly a garbled, rambling mess. However, there are some redeeming qualities. Gates' introduction and endnotes are fascinating scholarship, and the novel is important for its historical firsts. The narrative does give us some insight into the life of a black woman in the antebellum Northeast (and a very obvious metaphor for the state of the national dialogue on the issue).