Clarissa Minnie Thompson Allen (October 1, 1859 – November 23, 1941) was an American educator and author. She wrote fictional stories about wealthy African-American families in the

American South The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, Dixieland, or simply the South) is census regions United States Census Bureau. It is between the Atlantic Ocean and the ...

Personal life

Clarissa Minnie Thompson was born in

Columbia, South Carolina Columbia is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of South Carolina. With a population of 136,632 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is List of municipalities in South Carolina, the second-mo ...

, one of nine children of Eliza Henrietta Montgomery, a socialite, and Samuel Benjamin Thompson, a delegate in the

South Carolina Constitutional Convention South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both west and east. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþaz' ...

. She attended Howard Junior High School and a normal school in

South Carolina South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...

. She worked at three different schools, including

Allen University Allen University is a private Historically black colleges and universities, historically black university in Columbia, South Carolina, United States. It has more than 600 students and still serves a predominantly Black constituency. The campus ...

, where she taught subjects like algebra, Latin, physical geology, and history. She moved to

Jefferson, Texas Jefferson is a city and county seat of Marion County, Texas, in Northeast Texas. It has a population of 1,875 as of the 2020 United States census. History Almost every commercial building and house on the main arterial road in Jefferson has a h ...

, around 1886, where she taught at a public school. She also lived in Ft. Worth, Texas, and worked in the public school system.

Career

Allen wrote fiction based around true stories about wealthy African-American families in the Southern United States. Her most notable work was ''Treading the Winepress'', also called ''A Mountain of Misfortune''. The book consisted of 41 stories about two families. The stories took place in "Capitolia," which was based on

. The book includes love triangles and murder, as well as themes of womanhood, charity, and madness. It was a serialized publication and believed to be the first novel by an African-American woman from South Carolina.Epps, Edwin C. ''Literary South Carolina''. Hub City Writers Project: 2004: 25. She also wrote

novelette Novelette may refer to: * ''Novelette'' (ballet), a 1926 ballet by Martha Graham * Novelette (literature), a work of narrative prose fiction that is longer than a short story but shorter than a novella * Novelette (music), a short piece of lyri ...

s for Texas-based publications. Her poetry was also published in

African American newspapers African or Africans may refer to: * Anything from or pertaining to the continent of Africa: ** People who are native to Africa, descendants of natives of Africa, or individuals who trace their ancestry to indigenous inhabitants of Africa *** List ...

. Some reviewers believed that her work was anti-religious, specifically towards the

African Methodist Episcopal Church The African Methodist Episcopal Church, usually called the AME Church or AME, is a Methodist denomination based in the United States. It adheres to Wesleyan theology, Wesleyan–Arminian theology and has a connexionalism, connexional polity. It ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Allen, Clarissa 1859 births 1941 deaths Writers from Columbia, South Carolina 19th-century American women writers African-American poets American women poets American women novelists 19th-century American educators 19th-century African-American educators Educators from Fort Worth, Texas Writers from Fort Worth, Texas 19th-century American novelists 19th-century American poets 19th-century African-American women writers 19th-century African-American writers Allen University faculty Novelists from South Carolina 19th-century American women educators American women academics African-American novelists 20th-century African-American educators 20th-century American educators 20th-century African-American women writers 20th-century American women writers 20th-century African-American writers African-American women novelists

Personal life

Career

Further reading

References