Julia C. Collins was an African American educator, novelist, and abolitionist best known for her work The Curse of Caste; or, The Slave Bride, considered the first novel written by an African American woman. Born in 1842 to unnamed parents, little is known about her early life, though many believe she was born a free woman in the northern United States.
According to the April 16, 1864, issue of The Christian Recorder, the national newspaper of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Collins worked as a schoolteacher for African American children in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Alongside teaching, she contributed essays to The Christian Recorder focused on racial uplift and empowerment. Her writings often referenced notable literary figures such as William Shakespeare, Alexander Pope, and Lord Tennyson. In one of her essays, she famously wrote, “We are born with faculties and power, capable of almost everything.”
Collins married Stephen Carlisle Collins, a free Black man from Pennsylvania and a Civil War veteran who served in the 6th United States Colored Infantry Regiment. He also operated a barbershop in Williamsport and later served as commander of the Fribley Post of the Grand Army of the Republic, a veterans’ organization for Civil War soldiers.
In 1865, Collins’s novel The Curse of Caste; or, The Slave Bride was serialized weekly in The Christian Recorder over the course of eight months. The story addressed themes of racial identity, interracial marriage, and the injustices of slavery and racism in the United States. In addition to her novel, Collins published six essays in The Christian Recorder, titled: “Mental Improvement,” “School Teaching,” “Intelligent Women,” “A Letter from Oswego: Originality of Ideas,” “Life is Earnest,” and “Memory and Imagination.” These essays conveyed strong messages of racial pride and intellectual advancement for the African American community.
Julia C. Collins died of tuberculosis on November 25, 1865. On her deathbed, she became a member of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Her exact age at death is uncertain, but she was likely 22 or 23 years old. Her novel remained unfinished at the time of her death, but in 2006, Oxford University Press published The Curse of Caste, including an introduction and two alternative endings written by editors Mitch Kachun and William Andrews.
In June 2010, a Pennsylvania State Historical Marker was installed along the Williamsport River Walk near the presumed site of Collins’s home and school. In 2022, HBO’s historical drama The Gilded Age, set in the United States during the Gilded Age, featured a character named Peggy Scott, played by Denée Benton, who was inspired in part by the life of Julia C. Collins.
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