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Contending Forces: A Romance Illustrative of Negro Life North and South
In 1900, a mere 35 years after the Civil War had ended the practice of one human being owning another, Pauline Hopkins, black and female, published Contending Forces, whose rediscovery here shocks us into recognition that our national literature does indeed contain examples of black awareness and pride.
Like Harriet Beecher Stowe, Pauline Hopkins writes of the injustices suffered by blacks at the hands of whites. But her novel penetrates deeper than Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Nor is the white man the sole devil in Hopkins’s fiction; there are the contending forces: “Conservatism, lack of brotherly affiliation, lack of energy for the right and the power of the almighty dollar which deadens men’s hearts to the sufferings of their brothers, and makes them feel that if only they can rise to the top of the ladder may God help the hindermost man, are . . . the contending forces that are dooming this race to despair.”
Very little is known about this remarkable author. She was born in 1859 in Portland, Maine, and died in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1930. In the 1900–1904 period, she was a member of the staff of Colored American Magazine, the most important black magazine of the time. Her novel was published in Boston by The Colored Co-operative Publishing Co.
464 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1900
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461 people want to read
About the author
Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins
25 books60 followersPauline Elizabeth Hopkins (1859 – August 13, 1930) was a prominent African-American novelist, journalist, playwright, historian, and editor. She is considered a pioneer in her use of the romantic novel to explore social and racial themes. Her work reflects the influence of W. E. B. Du Bois.
She also wrote under the pseudonym Sarah A. Allen.
She also wrote under the pseudonym Sarah A. Allen.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews
May 4, 2017
3.5 stars
An intense novel about race relations, familial ties that transcend generations, and the ways in which capitalism and race interact to deaden our souls. This epic romantic saga spans several years and many characters. Amidst all of this, Pauline Hopkins shows how the contending forces that created slavery still exist and harm black people. I appreciated Hopkins's emphasis on the past repeating itself. With Trump's recent victory, we cannot pretend that racism, sexism, greed, etc. have disappeared when those powers put him into office. One quote I found meaningful that articulates this idea:
"Mob-law is nothing new. Southern sentiment has not been changed; the old ideas close in analogy to the spirit of the buccaneers, who formed in many instances the first settlers of the Southland, still prevail, and break forth clothed in new forms to force the whole republic to an acceptance of its principles... the atrocity of the acts committed one hundred years ago are duplicated today, when slavery is supposed to no longer exist."
Other aspects of this novel I enjoyed: the presence of an empowering friendship between two women, Hopkins's fast-paced and riveting plot, and the overall astute critique of capitalism. I did not love how the book conformed to romantic standards (e.g., the large amount of marriages annoyed me) and sometimes the plot moved in a confusing, jarring way across space and time. Still, reading and discussing this book in a college class on feminism did make me more aware of the cruelty that arises when you blindly ascribe to systemic forms of oppression, in particular racism and the dark side of capitalism.
An intense novel about race relations, familial ties that transcend generations, and the ways in which capitalism and race interact to deaden our souls. This epic romantic saga spans several years and many characters. Amidst all of this, Pauline Hopkins shows how the contending forces that created slavery still exist and harm black people. I appreciated Hopkins's emphasis on the past repeating itself. With Trump's recent victory, we cannot pretend that racism, sexism, greed, etc. have disappeared when those powers put him into office. One quote I found meaningful that articulates this idea:
"Mob-law is nothing new. Southern sentiment has not been changed; the old ideas close in analogy to the spirit of the buccaneers, who formed in many instances the first settlers of the Southland, still prevail, and break forth clothed in new forms to force the whole republic to an acceptance of its principles... the atrocity of the acts committed one hundred years ago are duplicated today, when slavery is supposed to no longer exist."
Other aspects of this novel I enjoyed: the presence of an empowering friendship between two women, Hopkins's fast-paced and riveting plot, and the overall astute critique of capitalism. I did not love how the book conformed to romantic standards (e.g., the large amount of marriages annoyed me) and sometimes the plot moved in a confusing, jarring way across space and time. Still, reading and discussing this book in a college class on feminism did make me more aware of the cruelty that arises when you blindly ascribe to systemic forms of oppression, in particular racism and the dark side of capitalism.
March 16, 2019
2/5stars
read for my american fiction class - felt a lot less like a novel and more like an incredibly staged story for the author to shove her ideas down the reader's throat. Even though I agreed with many of the feminist themes, the unnatural conversations and dialogues were cringey at best and obnoxious to read. I didn't care about any of the characters or what happened to them. I might be biased cause i hate the class i read this for and the professor though sooooo
read for my american fiction class - felt a lot less like a novel and more like an incredibly staged story for the author to shove her ideas down the reader's throat. Even though I agreed with many of the feminist themes, the unnatural conversations and dialogues were cringey at best and obnoxious to read. I didn't care about any of the characters or what happened to them. I might be biased cause i hate the class i read this for and the professor though sooooo
April 8, 2025
Discordant. I really appreciate what Hopkins was trying to do and how important this was during the Reconstruction Era. That being said, I think there were better ways to write this novel. The sentimental romance does not match the seriousness of black culture struggles and lynching atrocities. Shifting between romance and political arguments fosters confusion and detracts from Hopkins' message. I believe Hopkins was using the traditional romance to appeal to white readers. However, as we discussed in class, her audience was middle class black people. Therefore, I'm not sure how the idealistic romance fits in and if it's even necessary. Regardless, props to Hopkins for being such a brilliant writer and "woman of genius."
April 7, 2023
Beautifully written, amazing critique on racism and the lasting effects of slavery in post civil war America.
April 29, 2012
I forgot how good this one is, too! Also, +5 to Pauline Hopkins for naming a character Sappho.
May 15, 2021
Amazing turn-of-the-century novel by a Black woman about negotiating life as a Black woman.
February 13, 2021
This book is two-fold; on the one hand, it's a unique look into an African-American perspective from the 1900s, and when do we ever get to see that? On the other hand, a large bulk of its narrative execution is flawed, despite a strong setup and framework. It's certainly not altogether absent of strengths, and at least it has genuinely good ideas present, regardless of how they're executed.
Firstly, the dialogue is an immense strength of this work. Hopkins structural premise, of using the contrast between how different characters speak as a metaphor for the contrast of Southern and Northern African-Americans, works incredibly well. It gives the ensemble of characters a pronounced nuance, reflective of their geographic variety.
Which makes the fact the book ultimately falls under the weight of its flaws all the more disappointing. The book almost immediately abandons its initial premise, then just switches to this completely unrelated subplot for 300 pages. Then out of nowhere, in the final two chapters, it abandons the subplot (now the main plot) and introduces ANOTHER subplot with only two chapters to even explore and resolve it! The third plotline is at least kind of related to the setup, which is good because the book really leaves you worrying there's just going to be no resolution to that setup, so I'll give it some props for that. Still, the middle plot-line (which represents the bulk of the book) is ultimately weak, because there's no set-up for it and it's just abandoned without being resolved.
On top of the shaky narrative framework, the prose is expressively toneless most of the time. The dialogue is very characterized, but whenever a character isn't talking the prose is very static; while Hopkins clearly has a strength for dialogue, she also clearly doesn't have a knack for descriptive text. An author like Lorraine Hansberry is great precisely because of her ability to make the descriptive text just as tonally defined and just as vivid and detailed as her dialogue, but unfortunately Hopkins descriptions of events and actions are just very plain. It feels honestly more like reading a formal essay or newspaper rather than reading a prose narrative. Part of me wants to give Hopkins some credit, since she opens by stating she will "refrain from any passion or emotion" to make the story a "more objective" look at the Black experience, but at the same time wouldn't it be a more effective way to convey the Black perspective by immersing the reader in a Black person's EMOTIONAL experience as well?
On top of these two flaws is the fact that there are several sequences that are just ultimately unimportant; much of the bulk of the book is filled with subplots or minor-character-arcs that are both narratively and thematically irrelevant, advancing neither the story or the deeper meanings. They're just kind of there, distracting and sidetracking the book from the actual point of focus (ancestral baggage inherited by descendants of freed slaves). This ties back to issue of the book immediately abandoning its set up, despite a rushed resolution to it in the final two chapters.
Despite all this, there are clearly strengths on display with this book; the IDEA of the framework is a good one, regardless of whether it's executed well here. The dialogue is objectively well done, characterizing the distinguished ensemble of characters very well. It may not be a perfect book, thematically or narratively, but there are clearly good things to find among its pages.
Firstly, the dialogue is an immense strength of this work. Hopkins structural premise, of using the contrast between how different characters speak as a metaphor for the contrast of Southern and Northern African-Americans, works incredibly well. It gives the ensemble of characters a pronounced nuance, reflective of their geographic variety.
Which makes the fact the book ultimately falls under the weight of its flaws all the more disappointing. The book almost immediately abandons its initial premise, then just switches to this completely unrelated subplot for 300 pages. Then out of nowhere, in the final two chapters, it abandons the subplot (now the main plot) and introduces ANOTHER subplot with only two chapters to even explore and resolve it! The third plotline is at least kind of related to the setup, which is good because the book really leaves you worrying there's just going to be no resolution to that setup, so I'll give it some props for that. Still, the middle plot-line (which represents the bulk of the book) is ultimately weak, because there's no set-up for it and it's just abandoned without being resolved.
On top of the shaky narrative framework, the prose is expressively toneless most of the time. The dialogue is very characterized, but whenever a character isn't talking the prose is very static; while Hopkins clearly has a strength for dialogue, she also clearly doesn't have a knack for descriptive text. An author like Lorraine Hansberry is great precisely because of her ability to make the descriptive text just as tonally defined and just as vivid and detailed as her dialogue, but unfortunately Hopkins descriptions of events and actions are just very plain. It feels honestly more like reading a formal essay or newspaper rather than reading a prose narrative. Part of me wants to give Hopkins some credit, since she opens by stating she will "refrain from any passion or emotion" to make the story a "more objective" look at the Black experience, but at the same time wouldn't it be a more effective way to convey the Black perspective by immersing the reader in a Black person's EMOTIONAL experience as well?
On top of these two flaws is the fact that there are several sequences that are just ultimately unimportant; much of the bulk of the book is filled with subplots or minor-character-arcs that are both narratively and thematically irrelevant, advancing neither the story or the deeper meanings. They're just kind of there, distracting and sidetracking the book from the actual point of focus (ancestral baggage inherited by descendants of freed slaves). This ties back to issue of the book immediately abandoning its set up, despite a rushed resolution to it in the final two chapters.
Despite all this, there are clearly strengths on display with this book; the IDEA of the framework is a good one, regardless of whether it's executed well here. The dialogue is objectively well done, characterizing the distinguished ensemble of characters very well. It may not be a perfect book, thematically or narratively, but there are clearly good things to find among its pages.
March 3, 2021
I read this book a while ago, when I was an undergraduate. It is by a little known reconstruction (very early Harlem Renaissance, you might say) writer who serialized her novels. I have read better written novels, almost all the twentieth century Black critics at the time I read it despised her, but really if you like nineteenth century women's fiction of any variety you will like it. The convention of the woman's novel goes side by side with the demonic legacies of slavery. The main character, Sappho, who is a mulatta, is kidnapped and raped by an officially white uncle and abandoned in a brothel, and her black uncle has his house burned down when he protests. Now, this may not seem like very cheerful reading, but everything does end happily ever after. If you have sexual abuse issues of your own you will be drawn to the book, because Sappho does recover. My only major issue with the book is that the main characters talk in a very stilted fashion. The minor characters use perfectly natural dialog, although it is strangely spelled.
Read the book if you are in a woman's studies class, or the only white student in an African American literature class, like I was. You will confound your professor, because very few people are aware of the novel even now. There are a few more critics, so you will find it easier to do research than I did.
Read the book if you are in a woman's studies class, or the only white student in an African American literature class, like I was. You will confound your professor, because very few people are aware of the novel even now. There are a few more critics, so you will find it easier to do research than I did.
February 16, 2025
A beautiful, if lengthy, saga of a family haunted by slavery and working through Reconstruction. Given her aesthetic choice of romance novel, Hopkins includes several elements that eschew realism, including many Romantic ideas about nature and bodily appearance, certain fantastic coincidences, some vaguely supernatural elements, and long scenes of exposition and even outrageous humor. That won't please all readers. But for a thoughtful, sweeping tale that spans decades and ends with romantic and humanitarian uplift, this is one of the few books of its kind I've read that ends really, truly happily. And I quite liked it for that. It includes no small amount of political, religious, and economic talk that felt more like antebellum styles, but seeing how it subtly shifts its focus from anti-slavery to anti-racism is powerful rhetoric indeed.
March 4, 2019
A novel as intricate, sad, and deeply telling as the legacy of slavery in all its horrors and confusion. Even in moments you think Hopkins is wrong, she endeavors to show she's right and is usually successful. The book combines the struggles of feminism, colorism, racism, sexual assault, religion, occultism, and makes them the common cords that tie black communities and black life. It was difficult to read at times, but absolutely excellent.
December 22, 2017
I read this book for an American Literature Seminar class that focused on historical fiction, and I loved it! The author does an excellent job at creating a fiction that addresses the stereotypes of African Americans, particularly African American women.
February 28, 2018
This is a great novel. Hopkins explores race, class, and gender relations within the novel. It is truly fascinating how Hopkins uses the language to tell a story about African American friendship and love. The novel blurs the lines between African American women's friendships and love interests.
January 23, 2022
Well written
Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins' writing is excellent! This story is able to address the past as well as reach toward the current issues of racial divide. I'm impressed, and recommend taking the time to read this novel. Support the historic black authors, read this book.
Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins' writing is excellent! This story is able to address the past as well as reach toward the current issues of racial divide. I'm impressed, and recommend taking the time to read this novel. Support the historic black authors, read this book.
April 5, 2025
I really wanted to like this book and it is a good literary historical account of the Black community, but I struggled to get past the sentimental romance and sermon nature of the text. If I hadn’t read this for class, I probably wouldn’t read it at all.
October 26, 2017
I actually liked this a lot for something so long and kind of predictable. Read for class.
December 10, 2021
The only book I like from my English course
March 7, 2022
it was fine
May 9, 2024
Better than Iola Leroy 7/10.
March 27, 2025
DEFINITELY writing my final paper on this book it was so good with really interesting intertextuality
March 13, 2021
Half the book is just political speeches and the other half is a fairly uninteresting romance plot where the point seems to be that mixed race people are the best but only if they have the proper mixture of blood. Not sure if I was more confused by the family tree or by Hopkins's bizarre views on race as a biological reality.
June 30, 2021
Great book and the issues raised are still relevant today.
February 24, 2017
There is something about the book that I enjoyed, I just can't put my finger on it. The reminds me to find more literature fiction and nonfiction about life for blacks after the civil war. My class has a essay due for this book, I don't know what to write about.
October 29, 2014
Pauline Hopkins' CONTENDING FORCES: A ROMANCE ILLUSTRATIVE OF NEGRO LIFE NORTH AND SOUTH is a grand narrative that delivers on its title. Not only are there contending forces racially, sexually, socially, and geographically, but there is also a strong romantic style that contrasts sharply with the realism employed to demonstrate the brutality of slavery as well as the post-Civil War lynchings and double-standard for rape. Hopkins' major characters are almost all of mixed racial backgrounds: the products of rape culture (white men having their way with black slaves most often). The Victorian notions of virtue and gender roles are both revealed and challenged by Hopkins. Importantly, she emphasizes that black women need to mobilize politically because otherwise no one else will promote the change they desire. Through sewing circles, club dinners, community fairs, and lecture meetings, the black community not only raises funds for their church buildings but also create forums for political communication and activism. These gatherings most frequently seek racial uplift--primarily through education reform in the North--as well as discussions of how to end lynchings particularly in the South. Will Smith plays the role of a W.E.B. Du Bois type who argues for educational and political equality while DR. Lewis assumes the role of a Booker T. Washington type who argues for focusing on economic independence rather than agitating whites about political rights.
In addition to the major contemporary political themes surrounding the race issue in America, Hopkins also has a masterful use of literary qualities at play. The way characters connect over time (the Montfort family and the Pollack family over 100 years for example) and the over-arching poetic justice and romantic contrast all combine to make this a complex work and an enjoyable read. It is an amazing testament to the sophistication of female African-American fiction in the late 19th century.
In addition to the major contemporary political themes surrounding the race issue in America, Hopkins also has a masterful use of literary qualities at play. The way characters connect over time (the Montfort family and the Pollack family over 100 years for example) and the over-arching poetic justice and romantic contrast all combine to make this a complex work and an enjoyable read. It is an amazing testament to the sophistication of female African-American fiction in the late 19th century.
February 9, 2017
This was yet another book read for class. I was not expecting to enjoy this, but i found the story and plot to be absolutely fascinating and jaw dropping. Seriously, the situations that go on in this book and the things that happen to the characters is just mind-blowing. This NEEDS to be adapted into a film or a tv show or a mini-series or something! The characters really stick with you and are enjoyable to read. I'm glad I was forced to read this!
February 26, 2014
This book was hard for me to digest at first. However, after I got over the traumatic events of the first few chapters, I slowly gained an appreciation of the melodramatic style of Pauline Hopkins and 19th century literature. She uses fiction and metaphor as a bold social and political commentary. The book has to be taken in context of the time it was written in. Knowledge of the key important black political figures that were Hopkins contemporaries is important, as they are represented in Hopkins fictional characters. I did regularly consult essays and articles that have been written about this book in order to understand it. I also read this book in a class with an awesome Professor who has guided us through the text. In the absence of these things, I certainly would have been lost. Nothing written in this book can be taken at face value. Every character represents a figure, an idea , a metaphor. Ever line has a deeper implied meaning. This is not an easy read. At times, it is even a boring read. However, it can be appreciated as a brilliant political commentary disguised in (what was a considered at the time) a gripping romantic fiction.
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November 16, 2008Hopkins' novel is constructed like a Wilkie Collins story set in the United States and focused on a diverse cast of African-American characters connected by an unknown history. Hopkins weaves in a fair amount of overt social commentary, and in the first half of the novel especially that makes the pace a bit irregular. (But given the high stakes of the things she's commentating upon, it feels peevish of me to complain about it.) I was particularly struck by Hopkins' use of epigraphs for each chapter: she consistently draws quotations from canonical English-language authors, thereby making a bid for her novel (and, I think, African-American literature more broadly) to be considered part of the canon itself. Unlike a Wilkie Collins' novel, the plot never becomes consumedly compelling to the reader (or at least not to this reader); instead, the plot is a vehicle for symbolizing and meditating on the roles of African-Americans in American society and politics and on the place of African-American intellectuals within American literary and academic life.
December 1, 2014
Written in 1899, at the end of the heyday of the sentimental romance genre, this was--I feel--a subversive application of the style. Likely written for a white audience, the African-American authoress was determined to counter some of the more pernicious rumors about blacks, especially black women. To use today's terms, Hopkins was floating her own memes, including the idea that the mulatto, rather than being a tragic figure that could not survive in either the black or white world, was actually a strong bridge between the two races. Or that black women were not "hypersexual," but that the intermixture of the races was much more the fault of white male desires.
As fiction, it suffers from the conventions of its genre as much as Hopkins obvious proselytizing. For the student of history, however, its depiction of black life in the 1900s is a treasure trove. Hopkins even recreates the famous debate between Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois through the mouths of her characters. Interesting as a historical document; not sure that I could recommend this for entertainment, however.
As fiction, it suffers from the conventions of its genre as much as Hopkins obvious proselytizing. For the student of history, however, its depiction of black life in the 1900s is a treasure trove. Hopkins even recreates the famous debate between Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois through the mouths of her characters. Interesting as a historical document; not sure that I could recommend this for entertainment, however.
November 20, 2010
This book was completely predictable. From the moment that you learned the Smiths were decendents of that tragic family of the Monfronts you basically knew what was going to happen in the novel. And there was just a lot of fluff added inbetween to make things more complicated and a bit more confusing. When that man from the South came to the discussion about the lynching and the reaction from Sappho I could just guess she was that person. I think it was the predictablity that made this book fairly boring. While it did show the struggles that people would go through if their name was tarnished with the possiblity of them being just a fraction of black, and how the past follows you. The ending was justifiable and some what fulfilling.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 24, 2007
Somewhat interesting as a part of African American political and literary history, but if it weren't on my PhD reading list I would never have finished it. It's not bad, but its techniques come from a genre I have not come to really appreciate--the sentimental novel--and its attempts at being a political novel (explicitly claimed in Hopkins' preface to the book) are seriously undercut by Hopkins' adherence to the genre conventions of the sentimental novel.
March 21, 2025
I didn’t read the entirety of this book. I read the summary a few times and we read a few important chapters in class.
That being said, I loved what Hopkins has to offer with this novel. I’ll likely return and read the entirety of Contending Forces if given the chance (it’s on Google Books for free, but I seriously cannot stomach reading through a device screen).
The best park of the book, from what I’ve read, was Lycurgus Sawyer’s speech — deeply moving and thought provoking.
That being said, I loved what Hopkins has to offer with this novel. I’ll likely return and read the entirety of Contending Forces if given the chance (it’s on Google Books for free, but I seriously cannot stomach reading through a device screen).
The best park of the book, from what I’ve read, was Lycurgus Sawyer’s speech — deeply moving and thought provoking.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews