Description
Book SynopsisThe Woman of Colour is a unique literary account of a black heiress' life immediately after the abolition of the British slave trade. Olivia Fairfield, the biracial heroine and orphaned daughter of a slaveholder, must travel from Jamaica to England, and as a condition of her father's will either marry her Caucasian first cousin or become dependent on his mercenary elder brother and sister-in-law. As Olivia decides between these two conflicting possibilities, her letters recount her impressions of Britain and its inhabitants as only a black woman could record them. She gives scathing descriptions of London, Bristol, and the British, as well as progressive critiques of race, racism, and slavery. The narrative follows her life from the heights of her arranged marriage to its swift descent into annulment and destitution, only to culminate in her resurrection as a self-proclaimed "widow" who flouts the conventional marriage plot.
The appendices, which include contemporary reviews of the novel, historical documents on race and inheritance in Jamaica, and examples of other women of colour in early British prose fiction, will further inspire readers to rethink issues of race, gender, class, and empire from an African woman's perspective.
Trade Review“This exemplary edition of The Woman of Colour, with its abundant historical context, explores vital interconnections of race, gender, and class. Its rich contribution to the debate about cultural identity and colonial power marks it as a classic.” — Moira Ferguson, University of Missouri Kansas City
“Women of colour in eighteenth-century literature have become a ‘spectral presence,’ pushed into the invisibility of darkness, their voices unread or ignored. Now what has been in darkness is restored to light, as Olivia Fairfield can be heard anew. Born in Jamaica into a society in which one of her parents had enslaved the other, she is forced by law and custom to travel to the heart of colonial darkness in England itself. In a manner ‘polite yet aggressive,’ she makes her voice heard.” — Lise Winer, McGill University
Table of ContentsAppendix A: Lucy Peacock, “The Creole” (1786)
Appendix B: Anonymous poem “written by a Mulatto Woman” (1794)
Appendix C: Minor Heiresses of Color in British Long Prose Fiction
- Agnes Musgrave, Solemn Injunction (1798)
- Jane Austen, Fragment of a Novel (1817)
- Edmund Marshall, Edmund and Eleonora (1797)
- Robert Bissett, Douglas; or, The Highlander (1800)
- Mrs. Charles Mathews, Memoirs of a Scots Heiress (1791)
Appendix D: Historical and Social Accounts of People of Color in Jamaica
- Bryan Edwards, The History, Civil and Commercial, of the British Colonies in the West Indies (1799)
- Edward Long, The History of Jamaica (1774)
- J.B. Moreton, West India Customs and Manners (1793)
Appendix E: People of Color in British Epistolary Narratives
- Richard Griffith, The Gordian Knot (1769)
- Hester Thrale, “Letter to Mrs. Pennington” (1802)
- Clara Reeve, Plans of Education (1792)
Appendix F: The Woman of Colour: Contemporary Reviews
- The British Critic (March 1810)
- The Critical Review (May 1810)
- The Monthly Review (June 1810)
Appendix G: Jamaican Petitions, Votes of the Assembly, and an Englishman’s Will
- From Votes of the Honourable House of Assembly of Jamaica (1792)
- From Andrew Wright’ “Last Will and Testament” (1806)
Select Bibliography
