cal issues, race, and gender. By delighting and in-
structing her audience, she hoped to inspire them
to take political action.
The plot of Contending Forces, for example,
revolves around a series of highly improbable
connections among its characters, including the
eventual reunion of African-American and white
descendants of the same family. The novel also in-
cludes a tragic mulatto character forced into pros-
titution by a villainous uncle. This woman finally
overcomes the shame of her past and marries a
good-hearted African-American man dedicated
to civil rights. The contrived plot and familiar
character types might have consigned Contend-
ing Forces, to the large body of largely forgettable
19th- and 20th-century works designed primarily
to titillate and entertain. But in it and in her other
fiction, Hopkins raises sentimental, domestic, and
melodramatic fiction to a higher level by skillfully
weaving history and political and social commen-
tary into the narrative.
Divided into two parts, Contending Forces be-
gins in the 1790s and ends about 100 years later.
Consequently, Hopkins uses these unlikely events
and seemingly stereotypical characters to explore
the struggle of African Americans during slavery
and Reconstruction. The characters, although
sometimes one-dimensional, reflect the ongoing
struggle of African Americans to overcome the ef-
fects of racism. The deeply ingrained attitudes that
made slavery possible remained part of the post-
bellum culture. Nor was racial oppression con-
fined to the southern United States. Hopkins also
uses one of melodrama’s stock character types, the
villain, to jar her African-American readers into
examining their own complicity in perpetuating
racism, forcing them to grapple with the complex-
ity of American culture and human nature in gen-
eral. Greed, jealousy, love, a desire for power, and
lust drive both whites and blacks within the pages
of Contending Forces. In addition, Hopkins creates
a character who expresses ideas similar to those of
Washington and one whose thinking parallels that
of DuBois. Because both of these characters have
positive character traits and present their ideas
well, readers cannot draw facile conclusions about
the Washington-DuBois debate. Likewise, Hopkins
offers several strong, intelligent, independent fe-
male characters, making Contending Forces a pro-
totype of African-American feminist literature.
In her magazine novels and short fiction, Hop-
kins also experimented with the conventions of
popular fiction. Hagar’s Daughter, for example,
although sentimental in many regards, resists clos-
ing with a happy ending and resolving all conflicts.
Its plot centers on the relationship between a white
man and a light-skinned black woman who fall in
love before they know the woman’s racial heritage.
Throughout most of the novel, the man embodies
the noble characteristics of the typical sentimental
hero. But once he realizes he has fallen in love with
and married an African-American woman, he
cannot accept her. Instead, he gives in to his own
prejudice, despite his northern upbringing and his
family’s long-standing involvement in the cause
of African-American freedom and racial progress.
Through this character, Hopkins addresses a larger
issue: the deeply embedded racial prejudice abo-
litionism and philanthropy often mask. Her third
magazine novel, Of One Blood, may be her most
innovative literary effort. This work explores the
notion of Pan-Africanism, and some critics con-
sider it an early example of African-American sci-
ence fiction.
Hopkins left the Colored American Magazine
in 1904, possibly because of her political disagree-
ments with Washington, who had taken control of
the journal. Nonetheless, she continued to write.
In 1905 she published a book titled A Primer of
Facts Pertaining to the Early Greatness of the African
Race and the Possibility of Restoration by Its Descen-
dants—with Epilogue and started another journal,
New Era, in 1916. However, her financial situa-
tion led her to take a position as a stenographer at
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Although
a well-known figure for many years, by the time
she died in a fire in 1930, Hopkins had faded into
obscurity. Fortunately, literary critics have now
begun to recognize the vital place she holds in the
development of African-American literature.Candis LaPradeHopkins. Pauline Elizabeth 253