Our Nig

by Harriet E. Wilson

  92 Truth is stranger than fiction: John Ernest, in his notes to his edition of Our Nig (in Shadowing Slavery, 508) makes the point that this adage is frequently cited in works by and/or about African Americans, in order to convey the cruelly perverse strangeness of the system of slavery and its consequences. So, for example, the 1858 version of the life story of Josiah Henson, who became famous (not quite correctly) as the self-proclaimed inspiration for “Tom” in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, carries the title Truth Stranger than Fiction: Father Henson’s Story of His Own Life. The phrase appears in canto 14 of Lord Byron ’s 1823 poem Don Juan: “ ’Tis strange,—but true; for truth is always strange; / Stranger than fiction: if it could be told, / How much would novels gain by the exchange! / How differently the world would men behold!” (Halifax: Milner and Sowerby, 1823).

  93 “black, but comely”: When “Allida” speaks of the face of “the author of this book” as “black, but comely” she is reinforcing the novel’s message that, in the end, all nonwhites are always seen as black—a message underlined by the fact that the phrase “black, but comely” derives from the Song of Solomon 1:5, “I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon.”

  94 “My cup runneth over. What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits?”: Psalm 23:5, “thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.” This psalm is famous, particularly for verse 4 (“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me”). Later in “Allida” ’s testimonial “the author of this book,” in her letter, quotes from this same psalm (see note 98), which, despite the psalm’s fame, might provide further evidence to support the claim made about Wilson’s possible authorship of these testimonials (see note 91). The phrase “what shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits” comes from Psalm 116:12. Verses 6–13, pertinently, maintain: “The Lord preserveth the simple: I was brought low, and he helped me.… I said in my haste, All men are liars. What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me? I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord.” In turn, these verses are referred to in Matthew 22:21: “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.” This verse has long aroused theological controversy and was often cited by both pro- and antislavery campaigners in support of their arguments. See also Isaac Watts, “What shall I render to my God / For all his gifts to me?” in “Praise for Mercies, Spiritual and Temporal” in The Works of the Reverend and Learned Isaac Watts (London: Printed by and for John Barfield [etc.], 1810), 4: 394.

  95 “it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps”: Jeremiah 10:23, “O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.” The preceding verses run: “For the pastors are become brutish, and have not sought the Lord: therefore they shall not prosper, and all their flocks shall be scattered. Behold, the noise of the bruit is come, and a great commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah desolate, and a den of dragons” (Jeremiah 10:21–22).

  96 that class who are poor in the things of earth, but “rich in faith”: This is derived from James 2:5–6: “Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him? But ye have despised the poor.”

  97 there was nothing to save her from the “County House”: During her lifetime, Wilson was sent to the Hillsborough County Poor Farm in Goffstown, New Hampshire. See also note 33.

  98 “The Lord is my shepherd,—I shall not want”: Psalm 23:1. See also note 94.

  99 “My room was furnished some like the ‘prophet’s chamber,’ except there was no ‘candlestick’ ”: 2 Kings 4:10. The irony becomes clear in a fuller reference: “And it fell on a day, that Elisha passed to Shunem, where was a great woman; and she constrained him to eat bread. And so it was, that, as oft as he passed by, he turned in thither to eat bread. And she said unto her husband, Behold now, I perceive that this is a holy man of God, which passeth by us continually. Let us make a little chamber, I pray thee, on the wall; and let us set for him there a bed, and a table, and a stool, and a candlestick: and it shall be, when he cometh to us, that he shall turn in thither” (2 Kings 4:8–10). Without a candlestick, Frado will be passed by; she herself encounters no such charity.

  100 “I am poor and needy, yet the Lord thinketh upon me”: This comes from Psalm 40:17, “But I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinketh upon me: thou art my help and my deliverer; make no tarrying, O my God.”

  101 “O, holy Father, by thy power”: These verses, written in hymnal long measure, seem most likely not to have been plagiarized but to have been written by “the author of this book” (in “Allida” ‘s phrase) and pay further tribute to her creative abilities. Their unambiguously Christian sentiments stand as something of a contrast to Frado’s more dubious and (at best) semiconsummated conversion to Christianity in the novel itself. While it is true that the final chapter sees Frado “reposing on God” (this page), this “devout and Christian exterior” (this page) seems to cover enduring doubts about whether Christianity was “all for white people” (this page). The switch of tone here, in these verses’ much more conventional piousness, and their biblical framing (see note 88) may be aimed at persuading Our Nig’s readers of the author’s good Christian standing after all, making her a deserving charitable case. See also note 110. The “lines” the author includes here echo some phrases in common with the work of Isaac Watts and others. For example “My heart shall not repine / The saint may live on earthy unknown / And yet in glory shine” echoes phrases in Isaac Watts’s “Psalm 73 … The Mystery of Providence Unfolded”: “And felt my heart repine / While haughty fools with scornful eyes / In robes of honour shine” (Isaac Watts, The Psalms and Hymns of Dr. Watts … in one volume [Philadelphia: David Clark, 1839], n.p. [Psalm 73].) Similarly, “He came unto his own, but lo! / His own received him not” echoes one of John and Charles Wesley’s hymns, “Arise, my soul, arise, / Thy Saviour’s Sacrifice”: “His own on earth He sought / His own received him not” ([John Wesley], A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People Called Methodist by the Rev. John Wesley [London: T. Crodeaux and T. Blanshard, 1820], 190–91.) In this latter case, this phrase has, of course, a common source, namely John 1:11: “He came unto his own, and his own received him not.” That both the poems in the appendix, one ostensibly written by the “author of this book” and one by “Allida,” perhaps share common debts to Watts and Wesley might again suggest their common authorship.

  102 A kind gentleman and lady took her little boy into their own family, and provided everything necessary for his good: Barbara A. White discovered that the “kind gentleman and lady” taking Harriet E. Wilson’s son into their house were remunerated under Milford’s provisions for the destitute, since “Wilson boy” appears in its register of paupers. See our chronology this page.

  103 they shall be “recompensed at the resurrection of the just”: This comes from Luke 14:14: “For thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.”

  104 another method of procuring her bread—that of writing an Autobiography: Plainly, “Allida” considers Our Nig sufficiently true to life to describe it as an “Autobiography.”

  105 “I will help thee, saith the Lard”: This comes from Isaiah 41:14.

  106 “I will help thee,” promise kind: It is unclear whether these verses are being presented as being written by “Allida” or as being quoted by her. If the latter, then the “source” would be a hymn or a related devotional verse. However, the first four stanzas are composed in long measure and the last three in common measure. Hymns did not make this sort of switch partway through. It seems probable, therefore, that “Allida,” or Wilson (if she herself wrote these testimonials—see note 88), is offering a pastiche here. Much of the phra
sing in this poem is reminiscent of that of John and Charles Wesley. For example, the phrase “supplicating cry” appears three times in The poetical works of John and Charles Wesley: reprinted from the originals, with the last corrections of the authors; together with the poems of Charles Wesley not before published. Collected and arranged by G. Osborn, 13 vols. (London: The Wesleyan Methodist Conference Office, 1868). Similarly, the phrasing of William Cowper and Isaac Watts are echoed in the first two stanzas. See, for example, both Cowper’s “Light Shining Out of Darkness,” “God moves in a mysterious way / His wonders to perform; / He plants his footsteps in the sea, / And rides upon the storm” (The Works of William Cowper [London: Baldwin and Cradock, 1835, 1837], 8: 82) and Watts’s “Our God, our help in ages past/ Our hope for years to come, / Our shelter from the stormy blast, / And our eternal home” (“Psalm XC” in The Works of the Reverend and Learned Isaac Watts [London: Printed by and for John Barfield [etc.], 1810], 4:191). Finally, there are substantial overlaps with the closing stanzas of Sir John Bowring’s hymn “Siste, Viator!”:

  Look above thee—there indeed

  May thy thoughts repose delighted;

  If thy wounded bosom bleed,

  If thy fondest hopes be blighted;

  There a stream of comfort flows,

  There a sun of splendour glows:

  Wander, then, no more benighted!

  Look above thee—ages roll,

  Present, past and future blending;

  Earth hath nought to soothe a soul

  ’Neath affliction’s burthen bending;

  Nothing ’gainst the tempest’s shock;

  Heaven must be the pilgrim’s rock,

  And to heaven his steps are tending.

  Look above thee—never eye

  Saw such pleasures as await thee;

  Thought ne’er reach’d such scenes of joy

  As are there prepared to meet thee:

  Light undying,—seraphs’ lyres,—

  Angel-welcomes,—cherub-choirs

  Smiling thro’ heaven’s doors to greet thee.

  See John Bowring, Matins and Vespers: with Hymns and Occasional Devotional Pieces (Boston: Hilliard, Gray, Little and Wilkins, 1827), 214–17. The sentiments that “Allida” and Bowring share are stock ones, of course.

  107 Allida: A pseudonym. See note 90.

  108 To the friends of our dark-complexioned brethren: Apparently, “Margaretta Thorn,” the writer of this second testimonial, envisages a white as well as an African American readership for Harriet E. Wilson’s work. See note 91.

  109 She was indeed a slave, in every sense of the word: The parallel drawn here between Frado’s life and that of a slave is the most explicit in the book; that it comes in an appended testimonial makes it all the more telling. As Foreman and Pitts point out, “Margaretta Thorn” is effectively charging the Bellmonts retrospectively with a crime, since in 1857 New Hampshire had passed an act outlawing slavery.

  110 Do good as we have opportunity; and we can always find opportunity, if we have the disposition: Many examples of this sort of sanctimoniousness lurk in mid-nineteenth-century writing. If, as we suggest, this testimonial may be the work of Wilson, then the Franklinesque tone of Margaretta Thorn’s words is being used satirically (“Therefore we should do with all our might what our hands find to do.… Therefore, let us work while the day lasts, and we shall in no wise lose our reward” [140]). It is, perhaps, reasonable to suggest that this sort of unreflective religiosity is, precisely, a “thorn” in the side of Frado, making this testimonial a subtle commentary on the shortcomings of white Christian benevolence and a sign that the testimonials are penned by Wilson (see also note 89).

  111 I hope those who call themselves friends of our dark-skinned brethren, will lend a helping hand: See note 8 regarding colored brethren. “Margaretta Thorn” is echoing Wilson’s earlier words, in her preface, “I sincerely appeal to my colored brethren universally for patronage” (this page). This might lend weight to the idea that these are the words of Wilson, not a testimonial writer, for these sentiments handily expand the potential audience to include a white readership. See notes 8 and 19.

  112 inasmuch as ye have done a good deed to one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it to me: This comes from Matthew 25:40.

  113 even a cup of water is not forgotten. Therefore, let us work while the day lasts, and we shall in no wise lose our reward: “Margaretta Thorn” could have picked up this pat nostrum from many a sermon. Certainly George Ware Briggs, in his The Bow in the Cloud (Boston: Joseph Dowe, 1846, 135), uses the words “let us work while the day lasts” as a chorus in one long devotional passage. The other part, “even a cup of water is not forgotten … we shall in no wise lose our reward” may be taken from Mark 9:41 (“For whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink in my name, because ye belong to Christ, verily I say unto you, he shall not lose his reward”) or Matthew 10:42 (“And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward”). Within a decade, Charles Kingsley was drawing on these sources, too, in his “Sermon IX: Ruth,” in The Water of Life and Other Sermons, 1867 (London: Macmillan and Co., 143–57). See note 109.

  114 Margaretta Thorn: “Margaretta Thorn” is likely to be another pseudonym. Certainly the way Margaretta Thorn’s self-help nostrums (see notes 109 and 112) promote a version of the white American creed of self-reliance would make her a sharp “thorn” in the side of the systemically disadvantaged Frado. See also note 90.

  115 Milford: It was this single word at the head of C.D.S.’s testimonial that enabled Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and, subsequently, Barbara A. White to track down the historical identity of Harriet Wilson.

  116 I hope no one will refuse to aid her in her work, as she is worthy the sympathy of all Christians: C.D.S.’s words here echo those of Wilson earlier: “reposing on God … she asks your sympathy, gentle reader.… Enough has been unrolled to demand your sympathy and aid” (this page). Once again, the idea that Wilson authored the testimonials is reinforced.

  117 C. D. S.: A pseudonym. See note 90.

  CHRONOLOGY OF HARRIET E. ADAMS WILSON

  Compiled by R.J. Ellis

  This chronology draws on the research of Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Richard J. Ellis, David A. Curtis, Barbara A. White, P. Gabrielle Foreman, Reginald H. Pitts, Johni Cerny, and Donald Yacovone.

  1825? 1827? 1828?: Birth of Harriet E. Wilson, née Adams or Green. Her birthplace is recorded as “New Hampshire” in the 1850 Milford, New Hampshire, federal census, which gives her name as “Harriet Adams.” She would have been born in 1827 or 1828, based on the 1850 census, which recorded her age as twenty-two years on August 24, 1850, and her race as “B[lack].” The 1851 marriage record of Harriet Adams and Thomas Wilson also records her birthplace as Milford, New Hampshire. Examinations of census details have so far identified an Adams family that fits the deducible details in Our Nig. If the fictionalized autobiography is accurate concerning Wilson’s life—including her natural father’s early death—it is possible that, although there was no free black head of household in New Hampshire in 1830 named Adams, Harriet could have been living with her mother in a family headed by her mother’s common-law husband. In Milford itself, the Timothy Blanchard household, on the Shed[d] farm, as it was marked on a contemporary map (see introduction, page xlii) contained both colored and white residents and young children in the 1830 census, making it the most plausible candidate for Wilson’s childhood household in Milford. Blanchard ran a cooperage, and Frado in Our Nig notes her father was a “hooper of barrels,” “boarding cheap” with a cooper. It is possible Wilson was born earlier, on the basis of the death certificate of Hattie E. Wilson, issued in 1900, who in all likelihood is the same person. On this death certificate, her father and mother are named as Joshua and Margaret Green—an alteration to her last name that cannot be readily explained, though the cooper in Our Nig is
given the pseudonym “Pete Greene.” If Hattie Wilson is Harriet E. Wilson, she is possibly recalling this pseudonym, or just possibly she may, as she claims in the Banner of Light on December 12, 1870, have at some time in the 1860s pursued enquiries about her background that suggested “Adams” was not her surname.1

  1834? 1835? 1836?: Frado “was taken from home so young,” according to “Margaretta Thorn,” one of the three people providing a testimonial for Our Nig. Harriet E. Adams spent her early life living with and in service to the Nehemiah Hayward family.2

  1840 July: The 1840 census lists a female “free colored person” between the ages of ten and twenty-four living on July 1 alongside the Hayward family of “free white persons,” in the Hayward household at the Hayward family farm in Milford. Nehemiah Hayward is the only person referred to by name, as the head of the household. This is also the only reference to a female “free colored person” living in Milford in the 1840 census, which suggests it was indeed Harriet E. Adams.3