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Kim Hai Pearson
Brian Jennings
Hopkins, Pauline Elizabeth (1859–1930)
The most prolific African-American woman writer
of her generation, Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins, a
contemporary of FRANCES ELLEN WATKINS HARPER,
CHARLES W CHESNUTT, PAU L LAURENCE DUNBAR,
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON, and W. E. B. DUBOIS, was
born in Portland, Maine, but spent most of her life
in Boston. The daughter of William [Northrop?]
and Sarah Allen Hopkins, she first gained recogni-
tion as a writer at age 15 when she won a 10-dollar
prize for her essay “The Evils of Intemperance and
Their Remedy” from the Congregational Publish-
ing Society of Boston. When the distinguished
African-American writer WILLIAM WELLS BROWN
presented her with this award, neither could have
known they would both someday be hailed as fore-
runners of the diverse, innovative African-Ameri-
can literary tradition.
Soon after graduating from Boston’s Girls High
School, Hopkins pursued a career in theater and
writing and wrote musical dramas, including The
Colored Aristocracy and Slaves’ Escape; or The Un-
derground Railroad. A gifted singer, she became
known as “Boston’s Favorite Soprano.” Her love for
the theater and for music probably stemmed from
her participation in her family’s theatrical group,
the Hopkins Colored Troubadors, as both an actor
and a playwright. Despite her many talents, how-
ever, Hopkins found she could not support herself
with her writing and put her artistic aspirations
on hold, spending more than a decade working as
a stenographer.
In 1900, Hopkins returned to writing. During
this year she published her first novel, Contending
Forces: A Romance Illustrative of Negro Life North
and South, and began pouring her intellectual and
creative energies into the newly created periodical
Colored American Magazine. First published in May
1900, the journal, according to its founders, was
meant to provide “the colored people of the United
States a medium through which they can demon-
strate their ability and tastes, in fiction, poetry, and
art, as well as in the arena of historical, social and
economic literature.” Hopkins played a major role
in seeing this goal come to fruition, serving as an
editor and as one of its major contributors. She
published three serial novels, seven short stories,
numerous biographical essays about famous black
men and women, and several editorials about po-
litical and social issues during the four years she
spent at the Colored American Magazine. Her belief
in the power of the written word, especially fiction,
to bring about social change no doubt fueled her
remarkable productivity during this period.
Hopkins dedicated her literary career to racial
uplift. As she states in her preface to Contending
Forces, “In giving this little romance expression in
print, I am not actuated by a desire for profit, but
to do all that I can in an humble way to raise the
degradation of my race.” She goes on to say thatFiction is of great value to any people as a pre-
server of manners and customs—religious,
political and social. It is a record of growth
and development from generation to genera-
tion. No one will do this for us; we must our-
selves develop the men and women who will
faithfully portray the inmost thoughts and
feelings of the Negro with all the fire and ro-
mance which lie dormant in our history, and,
as yet, unrecognized by writers of the Anglo-
Saxon race.Her novels and short stories may strike many
readers as flawed because she often relies on the
stereotypes, contrived plots, sentimentality, and
melodrama found in 19th-century popular fiction.
Hopkins, however, understood the entertainment
value of popular fiction. She employed its narrative
strategies and their ability to entertain as a means
for reaching a wide audience in order to teach her
readers about history, philosophy, morality, politi-252 Hopkins, Pauline Elizabeth