The Poetry of Frances Ellen Watkins Harper

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper wrote to be heard, and these poems carry the plain force of a woman who spent her life speaking against slavery and injustice. Gathered here are verses on bondage and freedom, faith, motherhood, and the moral duties she believed a nation owed its people, including the often quoted ‘Bury Me in a Free Land.’ Written in clear, hymn-like measures meant for recitation, the poems reached wide audiences at abolitionist meetings and in the Black press of nineteenth-century America. They record both personal feeling and public conscience from one of the era’s most influential Black writers. This free PDF and EPUB edition collects her poetry for new readers.