First published in London in 1857, Frank J. Webb’s ‘The Garies and Their Friends’ is among the earliest novels written by an African American. Although it is not strictly a historical novel, ‘The Garies and Their Friends’ 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.
Born to free blacks in Philadelphia, Webb was the youngest of his parents’ five children, one of whom died in infancy. His father, Francis Webb, was educated and active in various church and civic organizations, and his mother, Louisa Burr Webb, was the illegitimate, mixed-race daughter of former U.S. vice president Aaron Burr. Francis and Louisa participated in an unsuccessful colonization project in Haiti, returning to Philadelphia in 1826, sixteen months before Frank’s birth.
‘The Garies and Their Friends’ narrates the fortunes of two families over several decades. Clarence Garie is a slaveholder living in Georgia with Emily, his slave and common-law wife, and their two children, also named Clarence and Emily. Because their marriage is not legally recognized in Georgia, and their children therefore considered illegitimate, they decide to move north to Philadelphia, where they are met and welcomed by Mr. and Mrs. Ellis and their three children, Esther, Caddie, and Charlie. We follow the Garies and the Ellises as they raise their children in an atmosphere of often vicious racial discrimination…
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Source: philadelphiaencyclopedia.org)