Iola Leroy (SparkNotes Literature Guide)

By SparkNotes

Iola Leroy (SparkNotes Literature Guide) by Frances Harper
Making the reading experience fun!
Created by Harvard students for students everywhere, SparkNotes is a new breed of study guide: smarter, better, faster.   Geared to what today's students need to know, SparkNotes provides:   *Chapter-by-chapter analysis
*Explanations of key themes, motifs, and symbols
*A review quiz and essay topics Lively and accessible, these guides are perfect for late-night studying and writing papers

• Language: English
• Publisher: SparkNotes
• Release date: Aug 12, 2014
• ISBN: 9781411475922

Book preview

Cover of SparkNotes Guide to Iola Leroy by SparkNotes Editors

Iola Leroy

Frances Harper

© 2003, 2007 by Spark Publishing

This Spark Publishing edition 2014 by SparkNotes LLC, an Affiliate of Barnes & Noble

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ISBN-13: 978-1-4114-7592-2

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Contents

Context

Plot Overview

Character List

Analysis of Major Characters

Themes, Motifs, and Symbols

Important Quotations Explained

Key Facts

Context

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, born in 1825, enjoyed a prolific career in the public spotlight until her death in 1911. Harper’s Iola Leroy; or, Shadows Uplifted, published in 1892, is arguably the first novel written by an African-American woman. There is some speculation among literary critics that perhaps Amelia Johnson’s In God’s Way or Emma Dunham Kelly’s Megda may have been published in 1891. However, it is fairly undisputed that Harper was the first African-American woman to publish a short story, The Two Offers, written in 1859. Also well known as a poet, Harper published nine volumes of poetry, mostly organized around the theme of equal rights for blacks.

Harper’s career was not limited to writing essays and literature. An influential orator, Harper was particularly active in reform movements that advocated for women’s rights, suffrage, temperance, and the abolition of slavery, and her lectures sometime seeped into her literature. For instance, among other commitments to social causes, Harper was active in establishing Sunday school for black children, helping to launch the National Association for Colored Women, and promoting voting rights for blacks and women with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Frederick Douglas. Harper’s vision for social reform likely began when she was a child, as she was raised by her uncle, the prominent abolitionist William J. Watkins, and his wife. Before becoming active in the Underground Railroad and other abolitionist movements, Harper taught at the Union Seminary for freed