Frances Ellen Ellen Watkins Harper was one of the first women's rights advocates, advocates of abolition and human rights defenders. She wrote and spoke through species and reform platforms during the restive second half of the 19th century.

Her invention derived a familiar new language of moral character, from the masked and educational motifs of previous decades of American-African reform policies, but far surpassed its predecessors in formulating rhetoric for women. Focusing on the way Harper brought her readers critical training for the rhetorical work of life commitment to social reform, this book re-examines its practice as an explicit and fundamental education project.

This study also places Harper's work firmly on the black national lines of which he is routinely excluded, and establishes Harper as the architect of the African-American collective identity, which forms a political and theoretical bridge between the early abolition of slavery and civil rights activism in the 20th century. Contributes to Harper's contemporary portrayal as an important perspective for African-American women, who have radical values ​​of equality that are of lasting relevance to civil rights and human rights workers..