Jessie Redmon Fauset entered the world on April 27, 1882, in the small community of Fredericksville—now known as Lawnside—in Camden County, New Jersey. She was the seventh child born to Redmon Fauset, a respected African Methodist Episcopal minister, and his wife Annie Seamon Fauset. Tragedy struck early when Annie died while Jessie was still a young girl, leaving a void that her father filled with unwavering devotio…
“To be a colored man in America and enjoy it, you must be greatly daring, greatly stolid, greatly humorous and greatly sensitive. And at all times a philosopher.”
Neighbourhood:
African American Poets, American Poets, Harlem Renaissance, Modernist Poets, Social Justice Poets, Women Poets
Emotional landscape: Sorrow, Despair, Longing
In the rich tapestry of nineteenth-century American literature and reform, few figures shine as brightly—or with as enduring a flame—as Frances Ellen Watkins Harper. Born into freedom yet forged in the fires of racial injustice, she emerged as a poet of profound moral vision, a tireless abolitionist lecturer, a pioneering novelist, and a champion of women’s rights, temperance, and Black uplift. Her life spanned the a…
“Great evils stare us in the face that need to be throttled by the combined power of an upright manhood and an enlightened womanhood.”
Neighbourhood:
African American Poets, American Poets, Political Poets, Social Justice Poets, Women Poets
Emotional landscape: Sorrow, Despair, Spirituality
