Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins (1859 – August 13, 1930) was an American
novelist
A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...
,
journalist
A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...
,
playwright
A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays.
Etymology
The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...
,
historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...
, and
editor
Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, photographic, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, orga ...
. She is considered a pioneer in her use of the
romantic novel
A romance novel or romantic novel generally refers to a type of genre fiction novel which places its primary focus on the relationship and romantic love between two people, and usually has an "emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending." Pre ...
to explore social and racial themes, as demonstrated in her first major novel ''
Contending Forces: A Romance Illustrative of Negro Life North and South.'' In addition, Hopkins is known for her significant contributions as Editor for the ''
Colored American Magazine
''The Colored American Magazine'' was the first monthly publication in the United States that covered African-American culture. It ran from May 1900 to November 1909 and had a peak circulation of 17,000. The magazine was initially published out o ...
,'' which was recognized as being among the first periodicals specifically celebrating African-American culture through various short stories, essays and serial novels. She is also known to have prominent connections to other influential African-American figures of the time, such as
Booker T. Washington
Booker Taliaferro Washington (April 5, 1856November 14, 1915) was an American educator, author, orator, and adviser to several presidents of the United States. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the dominant leader in the African-American c ...
and
William Wells Brown
William Wells Brown (c. 1814 – November 6, 1884) was a prominent abolitionist lecturer, novelist, playwright, and historian in the United States. Born into slavery in Montgomery County, Kentucky, near the town of Mount Sterling, Brown escape ...
.
Hopkins' spent most of her life in Boston, Massachusetts, where she completed the majority of her life's work. As an active contributor to the racial, political and feminist discourse of the time, Hopkins is known as being one of the significant intellectuals of the early 20th century to contribute to racial uplift through her writing.
Early life
Hopkins was born to Northrop Hopkins (also reported as Benjamin Northup) and Sarah A. Hopkins (née Allen) in
Portland, Maine
Portland is the largest city in the U.S. state of Maine and the seat of Cumberland County. Portland's population was 68,408 in April 2020. The Greater Portland metropolitan area is home to over half a million people, the 104th-largest metropol ...
, and grew up in
Boston, Massachusetts. Her father was influential in
Providence, Rhode Island
Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay ...
, due to his political ties and her mother was a native of
Exeter, New Hampshire
Exeter is a town in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 16,049 at the 2020 census, up from 14,306 at the 2010 census. Exeter was the county seat until 1997, when county offices were moved to neighboring Brentwood. ...
. Her maternal ancestry traces back to the famous New-Hampshire natives
Nathaniel
, nickname =
{{Plainlist,
* Nat
* Nate
, footnotes =
Nathaniel is an English variant of the biblical Greek name Nathanael.
People with the name Nathaniel
* Nathaniel Archibald (1952–2018), American basketball player
* Nate A ...
and
Thomas Paul, who were of religious prominence for their Baptist ministry and the latter for opening the first Black Baptist church in the Boston area
Allegations of infidelity led to Allen filing for divorce and shortly afterwards she met and married William Hopkins.
The high-achieving Hopkins household encouraged Pauline academically, which led her to develop an appreciation for literature. In addition to hailing from a well-educated household, she was inspired from an early age by the great African-American leaders of the time, such as Fredrick Douglass, whom she later cited as having "god-like gifts" in her recollection of attending one of his talks during adolescence. In 1874, after completing her second year at
Girls High School
Girls High School is a historically and architecturally notable public secondary school building located at 475 Nostrand Avenue in the Bedford–Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City. It was built in 1886.''Brooklyn: a soup-to-nuts g ...
, she entered an essay contest held by the Congregational Publishing Society of Boston and funded by former slave, novelist, and dramatist
William Wells Brown
William Wells Brown (c. 1814 – November 6, 1884) was a prominent abolitionist lecturer, novelist, playwright, and historian in the United States. Born into slavery in Montgomery County, Kentucky, near the town of Mount Sterling, Brown escape ...
.
Her submission, "Evils of Intemperance and Their Remedy", highlighted the problems with intemperance and urged parents to be in control of their children's social upbringing. She placed first in the contest and won $10 in gold.
She became well known for her various roles as a dramatist, actress and singer. In March 1877, she participated in her first dramatic performance, ''Pauline Western, the Belle of Saratoga''. After this, she acted in several other plays and received positive reviews. However, it was not until the beginning of the 1900s that she decided to focus more on her literary passions.
Literary career
Plays, novels and short stories
Her earliest known work, a musical play called ''Slaves’ Escape; or, The Underground Railroad'' (later revised as ''Peculiar Sam; or, The Underground Railroad''), was first performed at Oakland Garden in Boston during the year 1880.
Afterwards, she wrote another unpublished play titled ''One Scene from the Drama of Early Days,'' which was dramatized rendition of the biblical story known as ''
Daniel in the lions' den
Daniel in the lions' den (chapter 6 of the Book of Daniel) tells of how the biblical Daniel is saved from lions by the God of Israel "because I was found blameless before him" (Daniel 6:22). It parallels and complements chapter 3, the story of ...
''.
Her short story "Talma Gordon", published in 1900, is often noted as being the first African-American mystery story. She explored the difficulties faced by African-Americans amid the
racist
Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...
violence of post-
Civil War
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
America in her first novel, ''
Contending Forces: A Romance Illustrative of Negro Life North and South'', published in 1900. In the following years, she published three serial novels between 1901 and 1903 in the African-American periodical ''
Colored American Magazine
''The Colored American Magazine'' was the first monthly publication in the United States that covered African-American culture. It ran from May 1900 to November 1909 and had a peak circulation of 17,000. The magazine was initially published out o ...
'': ''Hagar's Daughter: A Story of Southern Caste Prejudice'', ''Winona: A Tale of Negro Life in the South and Southwest'', and ''Of One Blood: Or, The Hidden Self''.
''Of One Blood: Or, The Hidden Self''
![Original Cover of](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/64/Original_Cover_of_%22Contending_Forces%22_by_Pauline_Hopkins_%281900%29.jpg)
The last of Hopkins' four novels, ''
Of One Blood: Or, The Hidden Self,'' first appeared in serial form in ''
The Colored American Magazine
''The Colored American Magazine'' was the first monthly publication in the United States that covered African-American culture. It ran from May 1900 to November 1909 and had a peak circulation of 17,000. The magazine was initially published out o ...
'' in the November and December 1902 and the January 1903 issues of the publication, during the four-year period in which Hopkins served as its editor. Elements of the work have been compared to
Goethe's ''Faust''.
![Hopkins - Of One Blood 0000](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/Hopkins_-_Of_One_Blood_0000.jpg)
''Of One Blood: Or, The Hidden Self'' tells the story of Reuel Briggs, a medical student who does not care about being black or appreciating African history but finds himself in Ethiopia on an archaeological trip. His motive is to raid the country of lost treasures, which he does find. However, he discovers much more than he expected: the painful truth about blood, race, and the half of his history that was never told. Hopkins wrote the novel intending, in her own words, to "raise the stigma of degradation from
he Blackrace." The title, ''Of One Blood'', refers to the biological kinship of all human beings.
Although ''Of One Blood: Or, The Hidden Self'' is a work of fiction, Hopkins constructs an historical argument in her novel, using historical and literary sources, as well as travelogues.
Her argument, which ran counter to many histories of that time, was that the ancient cultures of the Nile Valley were African in origin, not imported to the area from elsewhere.
''Colored American Magazine''
From the beginning of the nine-year run of the ''Colored American Magazine,'' Hopkins served as a major contributor to the periodical's success. Hopkins short story "The Mystery Within Us" was included in the first issue of Colored American Magazine, a monthly periodical started by the same company who published Hopkins' novel ''
Contending Forces'' in the same year. She was named Editor of the Women's Department by the second issue, and Literary Editor of the magazine by November 1903.
In addition, she would go on to write sketches for the periodical known as "Famous Women of the Negro Race" and "Famous Men of the Negro Race." This series gave recognition to many of the influential Black figures of the time through detailing their lives and legacies, including abolitionist
William Wells Brown
William Wells Brown (c. 1814 – November 6, 1884) was a prominent abolitionist lecturer, novelist, playwright, and historian in the United States. Born into slavery in Montgomery County, Kentucky, near the town of Mount Sterling, Brown escape ...
, the same inspiration who had awarded her for her essay-writing ability as a teenager nearly three decades earlier.
At times going by the pseudonym Sarah A. Allen, Hopkins' work at the ''Colored American'' began to gain recognition in the public eye. As a result of this, she was offered the opportunity to become a member of the board of directors, a shareholder and a creditor of the magazine. Along with her writing, she helped to increase subscriptions and raise funding for the magazine as a co-founder of "The American Colored League," which was an organization started in 1904 with the mission of promoting the interests of the ''Colored American''
''.'' These roles alone helped her break into the literary world, with her work making up a substantial amount of the literary and historical materials promoted by the magazine. She would continue to work for the magazine until she left in September 1804 due to health complications.
By her final issue, a total of six of Hopkins' short stories had been published in the magazine including the well-known mystery "Talma Gordon," as well as two of her novels ''Winona: A Tale of Negro Life in the South and Southwest'' and ''Of One Blood or The Hidden Self''
''.''
''New Era Magazine''
![New Era Magazine Cover](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/New_Era_Magazine_Cover.jpg)
Hopkins' final notable works as a writer and editor occurred during the formation of the Boston-based ''New Era Magazine'', which she created with Walter Wallace, whom she had previously worked with at the ''Colored American Magazine''. The cover of the ''New Era Magazine'' included the subheading, "An Illustrated Monthly Devoted to the World-Wide Interests of the Colored Race." Despite its attempts to provide a space appealing to the literary and political interests of African-Americans in the context of the segregation era, the magazine only published two issues in 1916 before ceasing existence and receiving very little recognition within scholarly discourse at the time.
This is often regarded as a failure on Hopkins' part, marking the quiet conclusion of her literary career.
Reception
After presenting ''Contending Forces'' to the Women's Era Club of Boston, readings of the novel spread to other women's clubs throughout the country. It was hailed as being "...undoubtedly the book of the century.... absorbing from the first page to the last" by president of the Colored Women's Business Club of Chicago, Alberta Moore Smith.
Despite the significant contributions through her life's work, Hopkins received very little public recognition in comparison to many of her male counterparts. Her name would be largely forgotten during the time of the Harlem Renaissance, during which other African American artists received much recognition, leading up to her death.
Many details of her life would fall into obscurity until scholar Ann Allen Shockley's biographical essay "Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins: A Biographical Excursion into Obscurity" in 1972, which was followed by her work being featured in
The Schomburg Library of Nineteenth-Century Black Women Writers during 1988.
Legacy
Hopkins is remembered for writing the first, if not one of the first mystery drama plays by a Black woman. She is has also been recognized as "...the most prolific contributor to the ''Colored American Magazine"'' during the four years that regularly contributed to the periodical, setting the foundation for what the magazine would become even after her eventual departure.
Her various works for the magazine such as "Famous Women of the Negro Race" (1901-1902) were known to combat the stereotypes enforced on African-American Americans through showcasing the great successes of the race, often shedding light on the experiences of women in particular.
In 1988,
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
released
The Schomburg Library of Nineteenth-Century Black Women Writers with Professor
Henry Louis Gates
Henry Louis "Skip" Gates Jr. (born September 16, 1950) is an American literary critic, professor, historian, and filmmaker, who serves as the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African and African Am ...
as the general editor of the series. Hopkins' novel ''Contending Forces: A Romance Illustrative of Negro Life North and South'' (with an introduction by
Richard Yarborough) was reprinted as a part of this series. Her magazine novels (with an introduction by
Hazel Carby
Hazel Vivian Carby (born 15 January 1948 in Okehampton, Devon) is Professor Emerita of African American Studies and of American Studies. She served as Charles C & Dorathea S Dilley Professor of African American Studies & American Studies at Ya ...
) were also reprinted as a part of this series. Carby did this as a way to reintroduce Hopkins into the sphere and see how her literature influenced writers in the past, present and now future.
Her work has been regarded among other notable African-American writers at the time such as
Charles Chesnutt
Charles Waddell Chesnutt (June 20, 1858 – November 15, 1932) was an American author, essayist, political activist and lawyer, best known for his novels and short stories exploring complex issues of racial and social identity in the post-Ci ...
,
Paul Laurence Dunbar
Paul Laurence Dunbar (June 27, 1872 – February 9, 1906) was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born in Dayton, Ohio, to parents who had been enslaved in Kentucky before the American C ...
, and
Sutton Griggs by
Richard Yarborough. In relation to women's publications, Yarborough calls her "the single most productive black woman writer at the turn of the century."
"The Northup legacy that Pauline Hopkins would claim as her own was one of impressive public action, fearless civic ambition and strong community consciousness."
Death
In the years leading up to her death, Hopkins was actively employed as a
stenographer for the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...
.
On August 12, 1930, she died from injuries sustained after an accident, during which bandages that she was wearing on her arms to treat her neuritis, soaked in
liniment
Liniment (from la, linere, meaning "to anoint"), also called embrocation and heat rub, is a medicated topical preparation for application to the skin. Some liniments have viscosity similar to that of water; others are lotion or balm; still other ...
, caught aflame from an oil stove that she had in her room. She died in
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...
and was buried in the Garden Cemetery in Chelsea, Massachusetts.
Despite the fact that she had resided in the area during the course of most of her life's work, there was no record of her death posted in the local obituaries. Both
The Chicago Defender
''The Chicago Defender'' is a Chicago-based online African-American newspaper. It was founded in 1905 by Robert S. Abbott and was once considered the "most important" newspaper of its kind. Abbott's newspaper reported and campaigned against Jim ...
and the
Baltimore-Afro-American newspapers reported on her death, wrongly citing her age of death as "79". The Cambridge Death Records of the Massachusetts Department of Vital Statistics confirm that her actual age of death was 71.
To this day, many details of her life are still undiscovered, including her exact birthdate.
Published works
*''Slaves’ Escape; or, The Underground Railroad'', 1880.
''Contending Forces: A Romance Illustrative of Negro Life North and South'', 1900.
*"Talma Gordon". First published in ''The Colored American Magazine'', 1900.
First published serially in ''The Colored American Magazine'', 1901–02.
First published serially in ''The Colored American Magazine'', 1902–03.
*''
Of One Blood: Or, The Hidden Self''. First published serially in ''
The Colored American Magazine
''The Colored American Magazine'' was the first monthly publication in the United States that covered African-American culture. It ran from May 1900 to November 1909 and had a peak circulation of 17,000. The magazine was initially published out o ...
'', 1903.
*
Of One Blood' was rereleased by the MIT Press as part of the Radium Age Series in 2022. This edition featured an introduction by
Minister Faust Malcolm Azania (born 1969), is a Kenyan-Canadian novelist, teacher, writer, and journalist. He is primarily known by his pen name, Minister Faust. In addition to writing science fiction, he is a playwright, journalist, teacher, and poet. He has also ...
.
See also
* ''
The Music Trades
''The Music Trades'' is a -year-old American trade magazine that covers a broad spectrum of music and music commerce, domestically and abroad. Founded in New York City in 1890, it has been based in Englewood, New Jersey, since the mid-1970s. ''Th ...
,'' "History," "Post-1996 findings on Freund" (relating to ''
Colored American Magazine
''The Colored American Magazine'' was the first monthly publication in the United States that covered African-American culture. It ran from May 1900 to November 1909 and had a peak circulation of 17,000. The magazine was initially published out o ...
'')
References
Further reading
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External links
"Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins" ''Voices from the Gaps'', University of Minnesota
Hopkins profileat Literary Encyclopedia
*
ttp://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2838/is_3_36/ai_94335193 Martin Japtok's critical essay, "Pauline Hopkins's Of One Blood, Africa, and the 'Darwinist Trap'"br>
Home pagefor The Schomburg Library of Nineteenth-Century Black Women Writers
The Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins Society
*
*
ttps://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/h#a55156 Works by Pauline Hopkinsat
Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg (PG) is a Virtual volunteering, volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks."
It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the ...
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hopkins, Pauline
1859 births
1930 deaths
19th-century American novelists
African-American women writers
20th-century American novelists
American women dramatists and playwrights
American women journalists
American women novelists
20th-century American women writers
19th-century American women writers
20th-century American dramatists and playwrights
African-American women journalists
African-American journalists
Harlem Renaissance
19th-century American short story writers
20th-century American non-fiction writers
African-American novelists
Deaths from fire
Accidental deaths in Massachusetts
African-American dramatists and playwrights
20th-century African-American women
20th-century African-American writers
19th-century African-American writers
Girls' High School (Boston, Massachusetts) alumni