Iola Leroy - Shadows Uplifted

Iola Leroy - Shadows Uplifted

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Iola Leroy, by Frances E.W. Harper
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Title: Iola Leroy Shadows Uplifted
Author: Frances E.W. Harper
Release Date: May 14, 2004 [EBook #12352]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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LEROY ***

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IOLA LEROY,
OR
SHADOWS UPLIFTED.
BY
FRANCES E.W. HARPER.

1893, Philadelphia
TO MY DAUGHTER
MARY E. HARPER,
THIS BOOK IS LOVINGLY DEDICATED.

INTRODUCTION.
I confess when I first learned that Mrs. Harper was about to write "a
story" on some features of the Anglo-African race, growing out of what
was once popularly known as the "peculiar institution," I had my
doubts about the matter. Indeed it was far from being easy for me to
think that she was as fortunate as she might have been in selecting a
subject which would afford her the best opportunity for bringing out a
work of merit and lasting worth to the race--such a work as some of her
personal friends have long desired to see from her graphic pen.
However, after hearing a good portion of the manuscript read, and a
general statement with regard to the object in view, I admit frankly that
my partial indifference was soon swept away; at least I was willing to
wait for further developments.
Being very desirous that one of the race, so long distinguished in the
cause of freedom for her intellectual worth as Mrs. Harper has had the
honor of being, should not at this late date in life make a blunder which
might detract from her own good name, I naturally proposed to await
developments before deciding too quickly in favor of giving
encouragement to her contemplated effort.
However, I was perfectly aware of the fact that she had much material
in her possession for a most interesting book on the subject of the
condition of the colored people in the South. I know of no other woman,
white or colored, anywhere, who has come so intimately in contact
with the colored people in the South as Mrs. Harper. Since
emancipation she has labored in every Southern State in the Union,
save two, Arkansas and Texas; in the colleges, schools, churches, and
the cabins not excepted, she has found a vast field and open doors to
teach and speak on the themes of education, temperance, and good
home building, industry, morality, and the like, and never lacked for
evidences of hearty appreciation and gratitude.
Everywhere help was needed, and her heart being deeply absorbed in
the cause she willingly allowed her sympathies to impel her to perform
most heroic services.
With her it was no uncommon occurrence, in visiting cities or towns, to
speak at two, three, and four meetings a day; sometimes to
promiscuous audiences composed of everybody who would care to
come.

But the kind of meetings she took greatest interest in were meetings
called exclusively for women. In this attitude she could pour out her
sympathies to them as she could not do before a mixed audience; and
indeed she felt their needs were far more pressing than any other class.
And now I am prepared to most fully indorse her story. I doubt whether
she could, if she had tried ever so much, have hit upon a subject so well
adapted to reach a large number of her friends and the public with both
entertaining and instructive matter as successfully as she has done in
this volume.
The grand and ennobling sentiments which have characterized all her
utterances in laboring for the elevation of the oppressed will not be
found missing in this book.
The previous books from her pen, which have been so very widely
circulated and admired, North and South--"Forest Leaves,"
"Miscellaneous Poems," "Moses, a Story of the Nile," "Poems," and
"Sketches of Southern Life" (five in number)--these, I predict, will be
by far eclipsed by this last effort, which will, in all probability, be the
crowning effort of her long and valuable services in the cause of
humanity.
While, as indicated, Mrs. Harper has done a large amount of work in
the South, she has at the same time done much active service in the
temperance cause in the North, as thousands of this class can testify.
Before the war she was engaged as a speaker by anti-slavery
associations; since then, by appointment of the Women's Christian
Temperance Union, she has held the office of "Superintendent of
Colored Work" for years. She has also