The appendices, which include contemporary reviews of the novel, historical documents on race and inheritance in Jamaica, and examples of other women of colour in early British prose fiction, will further inspire readers to rethink issues of race, gender, class, and empire from an African woman's perspective.Īppendix A: Lucy Peacock, "The Creole" (1786) Appendix B: Anonymous poem "written by a Mulatto Woman" (1794) Appendix C: Minor Heiresses of Color in British Long Prose Fiction Agnes Musgrave, Solemn Injunction(1798) Jane Austen, Fragment of a Novel(1817) Edmund Marshall, Edmund and Eleonora(1797) Robert Bissett, Douglas or, The Highlander(1800) Mrs.
The narrative follows her life from the heights of her arranged marriage to its swift descent into annulment and destitution, only to culminate in her resurrection as a self-proclaimed "widow" who flouts the conventional marriage plot. She gives scathing descriptions of London, Bristol, and the British, as well as progressive critiques of race, racism, and slavery. As Olivia decides between these two conflicting possibilities, her letters recount her impressions of Britain and its inhabitants as only a black woman could record them. Olivia Fairfield, the biracial heroine and orphaned daughter of a slaveholder, must travel from Jamaica to England, and as a condition of her father's will either marry her Caucasian first cousin or become dependent on his mercenary elder brother and sister-in-law.
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