The Woman of Colour: A Tale

Content Warning: This section of the guide refers to enslavement and discusses scenes from the source text that include anti-Black slurs, outdated and offensive terminology, and racist sentiments and language.

In a letter to her former governess, Mrs. Milbanke (to whom all her letters are addressed), Olivia Fairfield expresses sadness about leaving Jamaica, the British colony where she was born and raised. The letter is written from an unnamed ship bound for England. Olivia mentions that Mrs. Milbanke instructed her to share all her feelings and observations in letters. She reflects on her relationship with her father, to whom she was very close, and says that she, as “[the] illegitimate offspring of his slave” could never be given full legal rights in Jamaica (53). Although she is a free light-skinned biracial woman, she is not ashamed of being associated with dark-skinned enslaved people of African descent, as she believes everyone is equal in the eyes of God.

She remembers her mother, Marcia, who was kidnapped by enslavers and brought from Africa to Jamaica, where Olivia’s father, an English landowner, soon purchased her. She emphasizes the love that grew between them and reveals that Marcia, having converted to Christianity, scolded Olivia’s father for being an enslaver.