Frances Rollin Whipper

Frances Anne Rollin Whipper (1845?-1901) was a political activist, teacher, and author. She was born in Charleston, South Carolina, United States to married and free Blacks. Her father was a well to do lumber merchant. She lived her early life as a part of the free Black society in Charleston and was well educated. After the Civil War and the loss of her father’s business her life changed significantly. She eventually researched and wrote The Life and Public Services of Martin R. Delany. It was published using her name as Frank A. Rollin.[1]

Biography

Frances Rollin Whipper was born in 1845 in Charlestown, South Carolina, into a free family of color who originally came from Santo Domingo (now known as the Dominican Republic). During the civil war and lucky to be a free black woman, Whipper utilized her time multi-tasking and educating herself. She attended The Quaker School for Colored Youth in Philadelphia where she also began her career as a writer/author and an activist for civil rights and feminism.

In 1865 and at the age of 20, Whipper returned to her hometown of Charlestown and began working as a teacher for the Freedoms Bureau which was a U.S Federal government agency that aided distressed freed slaves during the Reconstruction Era of the United States. Three years later she was employed and began working for a Pennsylvania-born attorney, William J. Whipper, who had recently been elected to the South Carolina legislature. Despite family opposition, Rollin and Whipper married after a few months of meeting.

While married, Frances Rollin now Frances Whipper began writing diaries which focused on the social life of Columbia, South Carolina and recorded the anti-black, anti-republican violence that was then on-going in the state.

After 12 years, the Whippers' marriage began to decline due to marital and political issues. The dream of an equal opportunity south became irrelevant and the Ku Klux Klan was now on the move and rapidly spreading. Frances decided to separate from her husband and took their three children with her.

In 1892 Rollin contracted an illness while campaigning for Republican Presidential candidate James Blaine. She died nine years later in Beaufort, South Carolina, of consumption on October 17, 1901.

Frances A. Rollin, the, along with her four sisters were very instrumental in politics during the Reconstruction Era.[2] Frances was born in 1844, in Charleston, South Carolina, to free color people.[3] This consisted of a small group of families that were related by blood or marriage, and were notably wealthy and owned value property, including slaves.[2] They were fair-skinned, well-educated, and conducted themselves in a well mannered and respectable way. They also controlled what literary material was read, and established their own organization.[2] One of the organization that were established, was the Brown Fellowship society, this society was developed in1790 and only opened to free light skin men.[2] Which Francis father, William Rollin were a member, while there is little known on whom her mother is. William Rollin is an off spring from the Haitian French, and came from one of the most honorable families in St. Domingo,[2] in addition he was a wealthy wood and lumber dealer, and owned value property, such as slaves. He stood firm on his principle that all his daughters receive a first rate education.[2] Frances the eldest was sent to Philadelphia to take the " ladies course" at the Quaker Institute for Colored Youth, where she began her career as a writer and an advocate for feminism, and civil rights.[2] After returning to Charleston, South Carolina, Francis taught at schools supported by the American Missionary Association.[3] Also Francis and her sister advocate for women rights and suffrage, by recruiting well-to-do black and white Republicans' wives to join them in the fight. Katherine and Charlotte arranged a women's rights convention that was held in 1870 in Columbia, South Carolina, as well as established the South Carolina Branch of the American Woman Suffrage Association.[3]

Frances Ann Rollin began her career as a teacher for Freedmen's Bureau. In 1865, she as illegally refused first class passage on a ferry to Beaufort. She filled a lawsuit against the captain of the ferry and won. Rollin was aided in her case by Major Marin Delany. Delany eventually asked Rollin to write his biography. In 1868, she published Life and Public Services of Martin R. Delany with the help of Lee and Shepard, a Boston publishing company. She wrote the book under her pen name Frank A. Rollin. This became the first full-length biography written by an African American. Frances Ann Rollin began writing a diary that detailed her “writing experiences as well as her meetings with notable abolitionist and luminaries of the Civil War era and notes Delany's financial challenges once the Civil War ended. Her diary became the earliest known diary by a southern black woman. Her diary “allowed a rare glimpse into the social life of Columbia, the South Carolina capital, and recorded the anti-black, anti- Republican violence then ongoing in the state during Reconstruction. She married William J. Whipper, a black attorney who had been recently elected to the South Carolina Legislature despite her family’s disapproval.

During the 1880s, Rollin separated from her husband and took her children with her to Washington, DC. In Washington, she attended Howard University School of Medicine, where she "became one of the first black women physicians in the United States."[4] She helped put her children through college and lived to see them accomplish their career goals. In 1892 “she contracted an illness while campaigning for Republican Presidential Candidate James G. Blaine,”[5] and died in Beaufort, South Carolina on October 17, 1901.

References

  1. ↑ “Frances Ann Rollin Whipper,” Notable Black American Women (1992) Gale Biography in Content Web 13 Sep 2012
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Gatewood, B. W. (1991). "'The Remarkable Misses Rollin': Black woman in the Reconstruction South Carolina". The South Carolina Historical Magazine. 39 (3): 172–188. JSTOR 27568239.
  3. 1 2 3 Hine, C. D.; Hine, C. W.; Harrold, S. (2011). "The African American Odyssey". Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson. ISBN 9780205728817.
  4. ↑ Sommerville, Raymond R. (1992). "Ionia Rollin Whipper". In Carney Smith, Jessie. Notable Black American Women. Detroit: Gale Research. pp. 1248–1249.
  5. ↑ Lewis, Carole Ione. "Rollin, Frances Anne". The Black Past.

Further reading

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