Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825-1911) was among the most prolific and versatile writers of the nineteenth century. She was born free in Baltimore, MD, and raised by her uncle, William Watkins, Sr., who ran the Academy for Negro Youth. Her first poetry collection, Forest Leaves, appeared around 1846. In addition to four novels (three serialized in newspapers) and approximately a dozen poetry collections, Harper published poems, essays, short fiction, letters, and speeches across a wide array of periodicals. During Reconstruction, Harper toured Southern states lecturing on civil rights, the role of Black women, and education. In later years, she helped found the American Woman Suffrage Association and the National Association of Colored Women, and she was one of the few women to be recognized and to speak at multiple colored conventions. Harper excelled at the ballad, using the ostensibly simple form to develop complex characterizations and to voice early Black feminist ideas. Harper often used her writing as a teaching tool, whether focused on the evils of enslavement, the harmful effects of alcoholism, or the importance of Black women’s political power.