Sources aren’t sure when Julia Collins was born, but a number of them place her birth in 1842, Williamsport, Pennsylvania. All sources believe her to have been freeborn and possibly the stepdaughter of Enoch Gilchrist a noted abolitionist, Underground railroad conductor, active member of the local African Methodist Episcopal Church, and ardent fighter for African Americans’ legal rights.

She married Stephen Collins, a barber, Civil War veteran and commander of a veterans’ organization for African American civil war soldiers in Williamsport. They had a daughter, Annie, and raised her with Stephen’s child from his first marriage, Sarah. Both are believed to have been under ten years of age when Julia died.

She was appointed a teacher for the African children in Williamsport and began teaching on April 11,1864.

The Christian Recorder, a newspaper of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, published six essays by Julia from 1864 to 1865. The essays titled “Mental Improvement”, “School Teaching”, “Intelligent Women”, “A Letter from Oswego: Originality of Ideas”, “Life is Earnest”, and “Memory and Imagination” dealt with racial uplift and empowerment. Because Julia references the works of writers like Shakespeare, Longfellow and Tennyson in her essays many assume she belonged to a highly educated middle or upper middle-class family.

In 1865, The Christian Recorder serialized Julia’s novel, The Curse of Caste, or The Slave Bride, every week for eight months. The story focused on the trials and tribulations suffered by a mother and daughter due to the issues of racial identity and interracial marriage. Julia died of tuberculosis in November 1865, leaving incomplete one of the first novels ever written by an African American woman. Doing research on a different topic, two scholars, William Andrews and Mitch Kachun, learned of Julia and her works. They had her novel published with the Oxford University Press in 2007.

A Pennsylvania State Historical Marker honoring her in Williamsport celebrates her for three firsts: the first marker in Lycoming County to honor a woman, an African American and someone in the arts. The marker was dedicated on June 19, 2010 and unveiled on Williamsport’s River Walk near where Collins’ home and school are believed to have been located. Julia’s descendants were present for the unveiling. One of them as well as a picture of the full marker can be seen here: https://pabook.libraries.psu.edu/literary-cultural-heritage-map-pa/feature-articles/discovering-julia-collins. The marker’s citation begins, “Essayist, teacher, and author, her work, The Curse of Caste, is considered to be among the first published novels by an African American woman.”

As I learned about Julia, I couldn’t help but think of these words penned by John Greenleaf Whittier in his poem Maud Muller:

“For of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: ‘It might have been!'”

If tuberculosis hadn’t cut short her life, who knows what other works Julia may have produced. For a chance at a $10 Amazon gift card, share your thoughts about Julia or any “it might have beens!” that you’re aware of.

“Her Heavenly Phantom” by Michal Scott
from Secret Identities: A Boys Behaving Badly Anthology #8

Forced into a marriage of convenience neither wants, a mild-mannered banker with an intriguing secret discovers his reluctant bride has a secret, too

Excerpt from “Her Heavenly Phantom”… 

Prim, proper, and modest.

Not at all the adjectives Harold Broadman would have used to describe his dream bride. But then the woman standing to his right here in his mother’s parlor, saying “I do” was not his dream bride.

Relaxed, seductive, and flashy.

Those adjectives described his dream bride. His lady of the balcony. What circumstances could have made that dream woman his intended?

The minister harrumphed. Harold shook himself out of his thoughts and answered, “I do.”

His father and father-in-law exchanged hearty congratulations.

“Welcome to the Hampton family, William,” Emily’s father said. “I see great things in our future.”

Unwed and pregnant, Emily Hampton needed a husband. Newly freed and hungry for a foothold among the ranks of the Black elite in 1880s Brooklyn, William Broadman had the answer.

His son Harold.

The warmth shared between the two men stood in stark contrast to the cold chaste kiss Harold and his bride shared. Their coolness continued as they walked up the aisle. Guests, oblivious to their shared contempt, showered them with hugs and handshakes. Harold shivered even more as his father and father-in-law back-patted themselves and toasted the couple’s future happiness at the wedding reception. No doubt the arctic chill between the couple would extend to their first lay as man and wife, too.

Preorder buylink: rb.gy/vv3268