Frank J. Webb, the author of one of the earliest novels by a black American, The Garies and Their Friends (1857), is a relatively obscure historical figure because his few known literary works--one novel and two novelettes--and Harriet Beecher Stowe's brief preface to The Garies provide little biographical information. Stowe, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852), describes Frank Webb as "a colored young man, born and reared in the city of Philadelphia." She introduces him and his book as proof that "the race at present held as slaves [is] capable of freedom, self-government, and progress," and she presents the author as an accurate recorder and representative of "a large class [in Philadelphia that has] increased in numbers, wealth, and standing--they constitute a peculiar society of their own, presenting many social peculiarities worthy of interest and attention."

If Webb were a "young man" in 1857, he was probably born in the late...