1ST Published Black American Novelist to Get Plaque
By R.A. WALKER – rwalker@sungazette.com
Williamsport is about to make amends to Julia Collins, the first published black American novelist.
Collins left only one published work of fiction: “Curse of the Caste or The Slave Bride,” a serialized novel that appeared in a national church-affiliated magazine in 1865 and has in recent years been re-discovered and published after 145 years in book form.
The author’s life is not well-documented, but it is known she was a school teacher in the city employed to instruct black children and was married to a Civil War veteran with whom she had at least one child, a daughter named Annie.
Annie would have four children including a son who became a groundbreaking sportswriter and a daughter who was a teacher, college dean and poet.
Collins’ place of birth and last name at birth are not documented, but there is evidence she could have been a granddaughter of Simon Cornelius Gilchrist, who moved here with his family from New Jersey and was fluent in several languages.
Collins will be remembered on June 19 with a ceremony on the Susquehanna River Walk to dedicate an historic plaque in her honor.
An old-fashioned melodrama
According to Mary L. Sieminski, project manager for the Lycoming County Women’s History project, Collins’ novel is an old-fashioned melodrama imbued with a feminist slant unusual for the time in which it was written. Each chapter ends with a surprise to keep readers interested and eager for the next installment.
Sieminski said the story takes a look at a woman’s “love life” and interracial relations that at the time was both daring and risky, given the status of blacks even in the pro-Union states.
According to Sieminski, Collins died just before finishing the book. However, the book’s editors have offered two alternate endings. Even with a less than satisfactory conclusion, she said the book remains “a good read.”
The book is peppered with information suggesting the author was “clearly well read” and an obvious feminist.
A serial technique
Publishing novels in serial form in magazines was a way to earn quick money prior to publication in book form in the 1800s.
Charles Dickens and other famous novelists of the 1800s regularly serialized their work, including Thomas Hardy.
Collins also left several essays, which were published by the same magazine and are included in the book version.
Among those giving “The Curse of Caste” new exposure is historian Mitch Kachun of Western Michigan University and genealogist Reginald Pitts of Philadelphia.
They are responsible for putting together the story of Julia Collins.
This much is known from the historic records gathered by people connected to the project:
Collins was hired in 1864 as a school teacher for black children, who were routinely excluded from public schools in the city.
Her husband was Stephen Collins, a Civil War veteran and city barber. The couple had two children, one likely her husband’s by a prior marriage.
Collins’ known daughter, Annie, was raised by her father’s mother and stepfather and married John Caution in this city in 1884. They had four children. One was named John Caution but would later change his name to Frank Albert Young and go on to work as a sports journalist in Chicago.
Young’s sister Ethel Mae Caution-Davis would attend Wellesley College, teach and write poetry. Sister Belva Overton would become a nurse.
Learning about her legacy
Jersey Shore-area resident Jane Luther did not know about Collins’ book until contacted by those looking for local genealogical connections to the author and learning Collins may be a distant relative through a great-grandparent.
Her great-grandfather, an Irish immigrant named Joseph Bryan, married Ann Gilchrist, daughter of Simon Cornelius Gilchrist, who is a possible sister of Julia Collins.
Although there is no direct document proof, it was established that Simon Gilchrist was an educated man who spoke and taught both English and German at St .Boniface school and had a daughter named Julia.
The possible Bryan connection to Collins came to the attention of the Luther family when Mitch Kachun contacted Jane Luther, but Luther’s uncle had also been contacted in the 1980s by Frank Young’s sister who was then near the end of her life and looking for her parents’ burial site.
Talent in the family
Many of Collins’ decendants show a clear literary bent, according to Sieminski.
At least one of Young’s children is a published writer and his brother Russell Caution ran a small publishing business at one time.
Frank and his siblings went to Massachusetts to live with an uncle who provided lodging to black students attending Harvard, among them reportedly a young W.E.B. Dubois.
Ethel M. Caution-Davis graduated from the prestigious Wellesley College and her first employment after completing college was as a school teacher in North Carolina.
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To read excerpts of Ms. Collins novel, click here to read it on Google Books.