a thoughtful companion for reading Harper's Reconstruction-era melodrama, here to help you read Frances E. W. Harper's Iola Leroy closely — its use of the "tragic mulatta" convention, its argument for racial uplift, and its grounding in the real history of slavery, the Civil War, and Reconstruction.
Getting Oriented
Context & Craft
Based on "Iola Leroy; or, Shadows Uplifted" by Frances E. W. Harper