“Go on”

Abstract Chapter 4 explores Harper’s pragmatic evaluation of early Reconstruction, Andrew Johnson’s racist reconciliation policies, growing neo-confederate violence, and nationwide racism. Focusing on 1866 and 1867, it considers Harper’s lecturing broadly, including her work at the 1866 American Equal Rights Association meeting (set up by women’s suffrage activists including Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton) and her first large tour of the South (aided by Black leaders like Nelson Merry and Richard Cain). It studies key lectures, including “Our Nation’s Great Opportunity” and “The Colored Man as a Social and Political Force,” and more occasional texts such as “National Salvation” and “We Are All Bound Up Together.” It explores how these texts moved toward fuller conceptions of national neighborliness and intersectional mutuality. It concludes with her print activism to save African American Jeff Ghee from execution and her creation of the poem now known as “Lines to Miles O’Reilly.”