Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins ― Black Daughter of the Revolution

Born into an educated free black family in Portland, Maine, Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins (1859-1930) was a pioneering playwright, journalist, novelist, feminist, and public intellectual. In this critical biography, Lois Brown documents for the first time Hopkins's early family life and her ancestral connections to 18th-century New England, the African slave trade, and twentieth-century race activism in the North. Brown re-creates the life of a remarkable woman in the context of her times, revealing Hopkins as the descendant of a family comprising many distinguished individuals, an active participant and supporter of the arts, a woman of stature among professional peers and clubwomen, and a gracious and outspoken crusader for African American rights.