Hagar's Daughter: A Story of Southern Caste Prejudice

"Hagar's Daughter: A Story of Southern Caste Prejudice" is the first African-American mystery novel and it features the first African-American woman detective, Venus Johnson, a maid who investigates the murder of a white woman. While celebrating African-American values, the novel is critical of the racial discrimination of the time in the United States. The novel was first published in serial form in "Colored American Magazine" over a period of two years.