![]() ![]() The Garies narrates the fortunes of two families over several decades. Francis and Louisa participated in an unsuccessful colonization project in Haiti, returning to Philadelphia in 1826, sixteen months before Frank’s birth. His father, Francis Webb (1788-1829), was educated and active in various church and civic organizations, and his mother, Louisa Burr Webb (1784-1878), was the illegitimate, mixed-race daughter of former U.S. Although it is not strictly a historical novel, The Garies reflects the deteriorating conditions of the free Black community in Philadelphia during Webb’s childhood and early adulthood, in particular, the 1838 disenfranchisement of Black men by the Pennsylvania legislature and the anti-abolitionist and anti-Black violence of the 1830s and 1840s.īorn to free Black residents of Philadelphia, Webb (1828-94) was the youngest of his parents’ five children, one of whom died in infancy. ![]() ![]() Webb’s The Garies and Their Friends is among the earliest novels written by an African American. ![]() Philadelphia, the Place that Loves You BackĮssay In 1857, George Routledge published The Garies and Their Friends, which featured prefaces by Lord Brougham, who was influential in abolishing slavery in Britain, and Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. ![]()
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