“Lay the whole foundation anew”

Abstract Chapter 5 considers Harper’s continuing battles for African American rights between late 1867 and the end of 1869. Alongside exploration of her work as an itinerant lecturer-activist, this chapter offers the most detailed composition, publication, and reception histories available of two of Harper’s most important texts, both published in 1869: the epic poem “Moses: A Story of the Nile” (published in pamphlet form after successful public readings) and her first novel, Minnie’s Sacrifice (serialized in the African Methodist Episcopal Church’s weekly newspaper, the Christian Recorder). It sees Harper’s lectures as both corollaries to composition and paratexts for interpretation of these key texts—considering, for example, Harper’s continuing critique of Andrew Johnson as crucial to understanding “Moses” and placing Minnie’s Sacrifice amid early remembrances of the Civil War, the texts that surrounded it in the Recorder, and Harper’s ongoing consideration of women’s suffrage.