Harper AT 200
THE WATKINS FAMILY IN BALTIMORE
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper developed her passion for learning, activism, and writing against the backdrop of Baltimore, Maryland, where she was born and had deep family roots. After Harper’s parents died in 1828, she was raised by her maternal uncle, Reverend William Watkins and his wife, Henrietta (née Russell. Her father was Sharp Street Trustee Richard Russell). The Watkinses were a prominent free Black family who used their status to help educate young Black people and support emancipated and self-emancipated persons, while fighting for abolition of the still-enslaved.
William Watkins Sr. was born in Baltimore in 1801, beginning his education in the Bethel Charity School, an institution founded by formerly enslaved writer and educator Daniel Coker at the Sharp Street Church. When Coker left for Liberia in 1820, Watkins took over his role as headmaster and minister at the church, and by the time he was 25, Watkins merged the Bethel Charity School with his own school, the Watkins Academy of Negro Youth. His school educated more than 50 free Black students per year—an incredible feat, given that Maryland was still a slave state, in spite of Baltimore having the largest population of free Black people of any American city at the time.[1]
In the 1820s, Watkins Sr. married Henrietta Russell. Henrietta’s father, Richard Russell, was a trustee of the Sharp Street Church like Watkins Sr.’s father. It is likely that Henrietta Watkins and William Watkins Sr. grew up together. Henrietta was born and lived her whole life in Baltimore. Little is known about Henrietta or her background, other than the fact that she was born to a free family, and her father was a blacksmith. Henrietta Watkins raised Harper as her own.
As a child, Harper was steeped in a culture of Black activism. Her aunt and uncle had eight children, the oldest of which was William Watkins Jr., born only one year after Frances. The two were raised like siblings and attended Watkins’ academy, where they developed a shared interest in continuing Watkins Sr.’s activist work. Harper was educated at the school until she was thirteen years old. She chose to work outside the home, which was common for children of her age in the nineteenth century. Harper found work as a seamstress for a white family who owned a bookstore, where she spent much time continuing to develop her love of reading.[2]
While Harper began to lend her own passion and skills to the abolitionist movement, Watkins Jr. also continued his activism in various ways, joining the American Reform Society and speaking at the National Conventions of Free Colored People in Philadelphia in 1833 and New York in 1834. He also wrote articles for Black newspapers including The Liberator and Freedom’s Journal, sometimes using the pseudonym “A Colored Baltimorean”.[3] He remained a staunch opponent of both slavery and colonization, disagreeing with his childhood mentor’s emigration to Liberia.[4] Watkins eventually left Baltimore for Toronto in 1852, and opened a grocery store while continuing to write for Black newspapers, changing his pseudonym to “The Colored Canadian.” Watkins died in 1858, but his influence on Harper is undoubtedly present in her continued work as an activist, educator, writer, and lecturer.
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Sydney Watkins
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper’s parentage remains obscure. Orphaned as a toddler, Harper perhaps barely remembered them. While her father’s name remains unknown, Harper noted her mother’s name as Sydney Watkins in her Freedmen’s Bank account records. Harper’s mother was a free woman; an 1867 sketch of Harper notes that it was through the “assertions of her[Harper’s] grandmother” that Sydney Watkins’ freedom was secured.[1] It is not clear if Harper’s grandmother was able to buy her own freedom, but her efforts meant that Sydney and her child would always be legally free even if she had married an enslaved person.
REFERENCES
[1] “National Salvation,” The Evening Telegraph, February 1, 1867.
Reverend William Watkins
Born in 1801 in Baltimore, Maryland, William Watkins started his educational journey in the Bethel Charity School founded by formerly enslaved writer and educator Daniel Coker at the Sharp Street Church. After Coker migrated to Liberia in 1820 where he founded the West Africa Methodist Church, Watkins picked up Coker’s duties as headmaster and minister of the Sharp Street Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) when just 19. (1) By the time he was 25, he merged the Bethel Charity School with his own school, the Watkins Academy for Negro Youth, educated over 50 free Black students per year. Watkins taught at his academy for over 20 years. (2) Watkins was known by students as a “thorough” and “a great disciplinarian,” focusing on subjects such as English, reading, writing, music, philosophy and speech. (3) Frances Ellen Watkins was one of the plethora of students educated by her uncle’s academy until she decided to find work at the age of 13 sewing for a Quaker family. Some time before 1826, Watkins married a woman named Henrietta Russell, the daughter of Sharp Street Trustee Richard Russell. (4) Together, William and Henrietta had eight children with William J. Watkins being the oldest. Other siblings may have been born between 1826 and 1845 with their names being Richard R. (b. 1827), George T. (b.1828), John L. (b.1831), Henry G. (b.1834), Henrietta (b.1836), Robert P. (b.1841) and Lloyd N. (b.1845). (5) Richard, George and John would grow up to be teachers as well. (6) As they grew older, William J. Watkins and Frances Ellen Watkins would occasionally return to the academy to assist Rev. Watkins. In addition to being a prolific anti-slavery writer, Watkins also studied medicine and was integral in the Black Baltimore community in prescribing medicine to patients. Watkins was a member of the American Moral Reform Society which and attended the 1833 National Convention of Free People of Colour held in Philadelphia, PA and the 1834 National Convention of Free People of Colour held in New York, NY. Watkins emphasized in his writing the importance of education for Black people in the United States. He once wrote, “give them a good education, and then when liberty, in the full sense of the term, shall be conferred upon them, it will be something more than a “sounding brass or a tinkling cym-bal.” (7) His niece followed in his footsteps as a presence in the Black press. Watkins used the pseudonym “The Colored Baltimorean” to speak against the institution of slavery and oppose Black emigration to countries such as Haiti. He published in Black newspapers such as The Liberator and The Genius of Universal Emancipation. Some of his most famous articles include “Who Speaks for the Free Blacks?” and “Memorial by the Free People of Color.” (8) Watkins constantly challenged white ministers and white abolitionists to advocate for Black civil rights, causing them to reflect on what good they had done for Black people in the country. In 1852 Watkins migrated to Canada where he opened a grocery store and changed his pseudonym to “The Colored Canadian,” a name he continued to use until his death in 1858. (9)
REFERENCES
[1] William Watkins (B. Circa 1803 – d. Circa 1858), MSA SC 5496-002535.” Archives of Maryland (Biographical Series). http://msa.maryland.gov/msa/speccol/sc5400/sc5496/002500/002535/html/002535.html, July 2011.
[2] Jackson, Tricia Williams. Women in Black History: Stories of Courage, Faith, and Resilience. Revell, a Division of Baker Publishing Group, 2016.
[3] Gardner, Bettye J. “William Watkins: Antebellum Black Teacher and Anti-Slavery Writer.” Negro History Bulletin, vol. 39, no. 6, 1976, pp. 623–625. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/44175779.
[4] Ibid, 1.
[5] Ibid, 2.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Ibid, 3.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Ibid.
Henrietta Watkins née Russell
Henrietta Watkins was born sometime during the turn of the century. By 1810, there were over 22,000 free Black persons living in Baltimore County and close to 7,000 enslaved people. Henrietta Watkins grew up with several siblings, possibly more than 6, although precise numbers are elusive.[1] According to Sharon Hartman Strom, Henrietta’s father was a prosperous blacksmith who was wealthy enough to serve as a trustee of the Sharp Street Church.[2] Henrietta and her family were deeply involved in the church, and she and her husband raised their sons and daughters to be pastors and educators. Like her, her daughter Sarah Watkins was an educator and married a pastor, Reverend John Henry Holland. Although little is known about her life, Henrietta Warkins’s indelible influence and legacy manifested in the lives and achievements of Frances Ellen Watkins Harper and her children.
REFERENCES
[1] Richard Russell, Henrietta’s father, appears on the 1820 census as having eight free persons under 25 living with him and a free woman aged 45 or older. Fourth Census of the United States, 1820; Census Place: Baltimore Ward 8, Baltimore, Maryland; Page: 295; NARA Roll: M33_42; Image: 161
[2] Sharon Hartman Strom, Fortune, Fame, and Desire: Promoting the Self in the Long Nineteenth Century (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2016), 74.
William J. Watkins
WILLIAM J. WATKINS
Born only a year after Harper, William J. Watkins was born in 1826 to Rev. William and Henrietta Watkins. Similar to Harper, Watkins attended his father’s school, the Watkins Academy for Negro Youth, where he learned philosophy, grammar and oratorical skills. We can imagine the Watkins household as a space for lively discussion about the social, political, and racial climate of the 19th century, influencing children such as Harper and Watkins to continue these efforts into adulthood. The oldest of eight children, Watkins followed in his father’s footsteps at an early age and became involved in the Underground Railroad and civil rights efforts after moving to Boston in 1849. There, Watkins became involved with the Garrisonians during the early 1850s. In 1852, Watkins, along with Robert Morris, presented themselves to the Massachusetts Legislature to see a “charter to form an African American militia company in Boston.” (1) William Cooper Nell wrote about the petition and felt that “Success will be certain, and this achieved, all other rights will be added thereto.” (2) However, the Massachusetts Legislature did not follow through with any action.
Watkins was proponent of emigration and followed his father to Toronto sometime in 1852 or 1851. (3) He moved to Rochester, New York, to work as an associate editor for Frederick Douglass’ Paper in 1853. When he joined with Frederick Douglass, he participated more in women’s rights and Colored Conventions. He advised northern Blacks to become more militant in defense of their civil rights. On February 24, 1853, Watkins delivered his “Our Rights as Men” speech before a Boston legislative committee requesting to form an independent militia of Black citizens (Link to speech). Watkins also chastised white abolitionists in his lectures for their reluctance to treat Blacks as equals. (4)
Influence from his father’s activism and writing led Watkins to attend Colored Conventions such as the 1853 National Convention of Free People of Color in Rochester, NY, the 1855 New York State Convention of Colored Men held in Troy, the 1858 New York State Convention of Colored Men held in Troy, and the 1858 Ohio State Convention of Colored Men held in Cincinnati. His cousin Frances Ellen Watkins [Harper] also attended the 1858 Ohio State Convention with proceedings demonstrating both of the Watkins giving a donation of $10 to the Society, the highest donations of the Convention. Their presence together at the 1858 Ohio Convention demonstrates the importance of familial ties, education and upbringing and how these differences factors appear in the Conventions.
This page is adopted from a previous exhibit. Click here to learn more!
CREDITS
Curators: Dr. Christine Anderson, History Department, Xavier University and Nancy Yerian, Independent Historian
Undergraduate Researchers: African-American Struggle for Equality, Xavier University, Spring 2016 Class
Submitted by Khaliq Gatson, English 110, Taught by James Casey, University of Delaware.
Edited and revised by Samantha de Vera, University of Delaware.
REFERENCES
[1] Christian Samilto. Becoming American Under Fire: Irish Americans, African Americans, and the Politics of Citizenship During the Civil War Era. (Ithaca: Cornell UP, 2009). 23
[2] William Cooper Nell, Dorothy Porter Wesley, and Constance Porter Uzelac. William Cooper Nell: Nineteenth-Century American Abolitionist, Historian, Integrationist. (Baltimore: Black Classic P, 2002), 329.
[3] Milton C. Sernett. 319
[4] Michael G. Lacy and Kent A. Ono. Critical Rhetorics of Race. (New York: New York UP, 2011),144.
Edited by: Dr. Gabrielle Foreman.
REFERENCES
[1] Ortner, Johanna. “Lost no More: Recovering Frances Ellen Watkins Harper’s Forest Leaves,” Summer 2015, https://commonplace.online/article/lost-no-more-recovering-frances-ellen-watkins-harpers-forest-leaves/?print=print.
[2] Alexander, Kerri Lee. “Frances Ellen Watkins Harper.” National Women’s History Museum. 2020. www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/frances-ellen-watkins-harper.
[3]“William Watkins.” Archives of Maryland. 8 July, 2011. https://msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc5400/sc5496/002500/002535/html/002002bio.html.
[4]“William Watkins” Archives of Maryland.
CREDITS
Written by Rachel Fernandes and Samantha de Vera.