Harriet Wilson Publishes Our Nig — First Novel by Black American Published in US

Harriet E. Wilson self-published 'Our Nig; or, Sketches from the Life of a Free Black' in Boston — the first novel published by a Black American in the United States (William Wells Brown's Clotel appeared in London in 1853). Wilson's semi-autobiographical work documented the brutal conditions faced by free Black indentured servants in the North, exploding the myth that freedom above the Mason-Dixon line meant equality.