If you have biked or walked the riverwalk in Williamsport, you might have noticed this historical marker along the path. Julia Collins, who lived in Williamsport PA, was the author of The Curse Of Caste, the first novel written by an African American Woman.
In the April 16th 1864 issue of the Recorder, Enoch Gilchrist announced that Julia Collins was appointed as a school teacher for the African American children in Williamsport Pennsylvania.
That is the only mention of Julia Collins researchers and historians have been able to find. Using the context of other historical records, it is theorized that she was the step daughter of Enoch Gilchrist, who was a black abolitionist and Underground Railroad conductor. A Julia Green was living with him in the 1860 census, and it's thought, although not proven, that this is the Julia who went on to marry Stephen Carlisle Collins. Stephen Collins was an officers servant before enlisting in the civil war in the 6th united states colored infantry regiment. After the war, he operated a barber shop in Williamsport, and served as a commander in the GAR, a veterans organization for civil war soldiers.
Barbers and school teachers were "higher status occupations" for African Americans in the 19th century, leading researchers to believe that the Collins's would have been respected and connected in the Williamsport community.
This "historical drawing of Julia Collins" ran in a 2003 edition of the Williamsport Sun Gazette. Rendered by Isaac Karaffa, it is based from images of Collins’ granddaughter and other family members.
When Julia died on November 25 1865, she left behind a stepdaughter Sarah born about 1858, and a daughter Annie, born about 1862. After Julia's death, Annie was raised by her grandparents, and grew up to marry lumberer John L. Caution. They had four children. Annie died suddenly in 1889, at just 27 years old. John also died young, and their four children were sent off to be raised in different families.
Scholars believe Julia was born a free woman in the North, although her birth name and birth date are unknown. Collins references Pope, Shakespeare, Lord Tennyson, and Longfellow in her essays, making it certain that she was a well read, and likely well educated, woman.
"From city directories we can make a good guess that she lived in the mostly African American section of town, on Mill Street, near the Susquehanna River. Stephen Collins’s parents lived on Mill Street, and most likely, Julia and the children lived with them while Stephen was serving in the Civil War. The African Methodist Episcopal Church was also on Mill Street. The entire section of town was destroyed a large flood in 1889. It is still unclear how long Julia might have lived in Williamsport and where else she might have lived since. To add even more mystery to her life story, several of her essays are datelined Owego and Oswego, towns in upstate New York." https://pabook.libraries.psu.edu/literary-cultural-heritage-map-pa/feature-articles/discovering-julia-collins
- Read 10 pages of the book in a google books preview here
- Find the Kindle Version, or print version, on Amazon here
- Print copies can also be purchased at the Taber House Museum in Williamsport for $15.95
- Download a Study Guide From Lycoming College, here
The Curse Of Caste
"Julia Collins did not publish The Curse of Caste; or the Slave Bride in chronological order. It begins with the story of Claire, a young woman growing up in the North during the tail end of the Civil War. When the reader first meets her, Claire has just completed her education at a women’s seminary and is intending to take a job in the Southern city of New Orleans, working as a governess. It is clear that there is a mystery to Claire’s life that even she cannot fully understand. As an orphan, she was raised by an African American woman named Juno who tells her nothing of her parentage and even warns against her going down South. She offers no explanation for this warning and we as the readers, along with Claire, are equally frustrated and curious.
The mystery of Juno’s warning to Claire is revealed in a brief detour from the main plot. Collins takes the reader into the past, explaining the connection between Claire and Colonel Tracy, her employer. By the time the focus of the story returns to Claire, readers find themselves engaged in the drama and mystery, rooting for a happy ending for all."
"Begun in the waning months of the Civil War, the novel was near its conclusion when Julia Collins died of tuberculosis in November of 1865. In this first-ever book publication of The Curse of Caste; or The Slave Bride, the editors have composed a hopeful and a tragic ending, reflecting two alternatives Collins almost certainly would have considered for the closing of her unprecedented novel. " https://tabermuseum.org/shop/books/other/curse-caste-or-slave-bride-rediscovered-african-american-novel
"Is The Curse of Caste great literature? Hardly—with its stereotyped heroines and villains and tepid style, including first-person plural interjections and labored Greek references (“After a lapse of eighteen years we renew our acquaintance with the worthy son of Aesculapius [the god of medicine and healing].” But the book is probably indicative of the style of women’s fiction at the time (“Was Claire indeed a relative of that strange, dark man, over whom a shadow seemed to have fallen, and, if so, why should she occupy the position she did in Col. Tracy’s house?”) It is also, like Mrs. Collins’ essays, some of which are included at the back of the book, revealing of the author’s hope to inspire educated young black women to assume a meaningful role in society. Andrews, a professor of English and a dean for Fine Arts and Humanities at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Kachun, an associate professor of History at Western Michigan University, scholarly authors both, provide as much information as they can about African American women writers at the time and especially about Julia C. Collins who would want black women, whether through marriage or writing, to rise to their full potential. It should be noted that The New York Times Book Review blasted The Curse of Caste for its melodramatic plot, academic preamble, stilted prose and “problematic” appearance as an incomplete work of fiction. But though “quality” may be found wanting the educational significance of The Curse of Caste as historical artifact should not be overlooked. " http://www.educationupdate.com/archives/2007/FEB/html/books-thecurse.html
The historical marker, located at 41° 14.087′ N, 77° 0.424
was dedicated in 2010.
"Essayist, teacher, and author, her work, The Curse of Caste, is considered to be among the first published novels by an African American woman. In 1865, it was serialized in the African Methodist Episcopal Christian Recorder, a publication with nationwide circulation. Her life and writings provide a glimpse into the rarely documented experiences of nineteenth-century African American women, their families, and their communities."
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