33: Bound by Ink and Liberty: Frances Ellen Watkins Harper and the Vote She Carried

Date: August 06, 2025 Legacy Makers: Stories of Black Inventors and Icons Title and Show Info Episode #33. Bound by Ink and Liberty: Frances Ellen Watkins Harper and the Vote She Carried Featuring: Toni Davis (Host & Storyteller). Summary 🎙️ Bound by Ink and Liberty: Frances Ellen Watkins Harper and the Vote She Carried. Before Rosa Parks sat and before Maya Angelou spoke. Frances Ellen Watkins Harper wrote. In this thrilling, soul-stirring episode, we trace the incendiary arc of Frances Ellen Watkins Harper. Poet, abolitionist, orator, suffragist, and all-around force of nature. Born free but far from safe, in 1825 Baltimore, Frances sharpened her voice in the margins of injustice. Orphaned at a very young age, she was raised on scripture and insurrection, and from that crucible emerged a pen that would not flinch. From the hush of a home library to the pulpit of national suffrage conventions, Frances carried ink like a weapon and used it to carve her name into history. She taught in freedmen’s schools, contributed the Underground Railroad, refused trolley segregation, and comforted John Brown’s widow. Her poems weren’t pretty. They were powder kegs. First to publish a short story as an African American woman. First to unite race, gender, and reform with righteous fire. And when the 15th Amendment split the movement, she chose unity without silence. Through novels, lectures, and leadership in the National Association of Colored Women, she kept lifting as she climbed. Even when loss threatened to undo her. Frances Ellen Watkins Harper didn't live to vote. But her words; fierce, tender, and unrelenting, inked the path toward it. This is not a history lesson. It’s a battle cry. This is Frances Ellen Watkins Harper. 🔥 Pen. Paper. Power. Press play. #LegacyMakers #PodcastEpisode #FrancesEllenWatkinsHarper #BlackSuffragist #VotesForWomen #VoicesThatBuiltAmerica Highlights: 00:57- INTRO. 01:05- FRANCES ELLEN WATKNS’ BIRTH AS A FREE PERSON OF COLOR. 01:42- DECEASED PARENTS. 01:54- ADOPTED BY HER AUNT HENRIETTA & UNCLE WILLIAM WATKINS. 02:38- ATTENDS THE WILLIAM WATKINS ACADEMY FOR NEGRO YOUTH. 02:48- LEAVES SCHOOL. 02:56- WORKS AS A SEAMSTRESS & NURSEMAID. 03:29- PUBLISHES HER 1ST COLLECTION OF POEMS. 03:53- THE FIRST WOMAN TO TEACH AT UNION SEMINARY. 04:08- PENNSYLVANIA, WILLIAM STILL & THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. 04:24- POEM, THE SLAVE MOTHER. 05:10- EVALUATION AND EDUCATION OF OUR PEOPLE. 05:22- MAINE & PENNSYLVANIA ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETIES. 05:36- POEMS ON MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS. 05:41- BURY ME IN A FREE LAND. 06:06- REFUSES TO GIVE UP HER SEAT ON A TROLLEY. 06:20- THE FIRST AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN TO PUBLISH A SHORT STORY. 06:37- WRITES TO JOHN BROWN. 07:04- OUR GREATEST WANT. 07:20- MARRIES FENTON HARPER. 07:42- TO THE CLEVELAND UNION SAVERS. 07:56- SARA LUCY BAGBY. 08:19- GIVES BIRTH TO THEIR DAUGHTER, MARY FRANCES HARPER. 08:31- HER HUSBAND FENTON PASSES AWAY. 08:47- THE CIVIL WAR ENDS. 08:53- SHE RELOCATES SOUTH TO TEACH NEWLY FREED SLAVES. 09:41- THE NATIONAL WOMAN’S RIGHTS CONVENTION. 09:46- WE ARE ALL BOUND UP TOGETHER. 10:05- 15TH AMENDMENT. 10:24- THE AMERICAN WOMAN SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATION. 10:32- NOVEL, MINNIE’S SCARIFICE. 10:55- FREEDMEN’S BUREAU. 11:03- POEMS. 11:07- SKETCHES OF SOUTHERN LIFE. 11:21 NOVEL, SOWING AND REAPING. 11:41- SUPERINTENDENT OF THE COLORED SECTION OF THE PHILADELPHIA AND PENNSYLVANIA WOMEN’S CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE UNION (WCTU). 11:59- NOVEL, TRIAL AND TRIUMPH. 12:05- SPARROW’S FALL AND OTHER POEMS. 12:10- THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF WOMEN IN DC. 12:26- NOVEL, IOLA LEROY. 12:46- THE MARTYR OF ALABAMA AND OTHER POEMS. 12:53- ATLANTA OFFERINGS, POEMS. 12:58- CO-FOUNDS THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF COLORED WOMEN. 13:14- VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE NACW. 13:26- HER DAUGHTER, MARY FRANCES HARPER, PASSES AWAY. 13:50- FRANCES ELLEN WATKINS HARPER PASSES AWAY. 14:19- FUNERAL HELD AT THE FIRST UNITARIAN CHURCH. 14:27- BURIED AT EDEN CEMETERY. 14:48- THE 19TH AMENDMENT. 15:13- CONCLUSION. Subscribe to the podcast. Links To Additional Resources: Frances Ellen Watkins Harper | National Women's History Museum Frances Ellen Watkins Harper - Wikipedia Frances Ellen Watkins Harper | The Poetry Foundation Frances Harper Frances Ellen Watkins Harper - Colored Convention Heartland: Black Organizers, Women and the Ohio Movement Frances Ellen Watkins Harper | Archives of Women's Political Communication Frances Watkins Harper - NATIONAL ABOLITION HALL OF FAME AND MUSEUM How Frances Ellen Watkins Harper inspires The 19th’s fellows “I Speak of Wrongs”—Frances Ellen Watkins Harper | Western States Pave the Way | New Tactics for a New Generation, 1890–1915 | Explore | Shall Not Be Denied: Women Fight for the Vote | Exhibitions at the Library of Congress | Library of Congress Frances Ellen Watkins Harper | DPLA biography.com/authors-writers/frances-ew-harper Frances Ellen Watkins Harper , MSA SC 3520-12499-- revisit Frances Ellen Watkins Harper | ...