Learning to Read

Storytelling and memory fueled 19th-century African American poet and activist Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825-1911). Born free, she advocated for racial justice and gender equality throughout her life. She provided an especially vital and persuasive voice for the Abolitionist movement, which fought to end American slavery and free enslaved African American people, before and during the four-year-long American Civil War (1861-1865).

From her work on the Underground Railroad to her newspaper articles, Watkins Harper shared free and enslaved African American people’s stories. Communication, especially reading, served as an effective method to encourage legislative change and to underscore Black people’s humanity and preserve their cultures. These beliefs are especially evident in her narrative poem “Learning to Read.” She published the piece in 1872, seven years after the Civil War.

The poem’s speaker, Mrs. Chloe Fleet (also known as Aunt Chloe), is a reoccurring character. In “Learning to Read,” Aunt Chloe expresses delight in her and her fellow enslaved people’s devotion towards learning to read. They express this devotion both during their imprisonment by white southern slave owners and during the new opportunities offered to freed people after the Civil War’s end.

Like many Black abolitionist writers of the late 1800s, Watkins Harper held the continual pursuit of knowledge in the highest regards.