Octavia Victoria Rogers Albert was born a slave in Oglethorpe, Georgia on December 24, 1853. There are few known facts relating to her personal life. Five years after she was emancipated in 1865, she enrolled in Atlanta University, and studied to be a teacher. She began her career in Montezuma, Georgia, where she met her husband, A. E. P. Albert. They were married in 1874. Mr. Albert was ordained a minister in the Methodist Episcopal church in 1877, and in 1878, Octavia was converted from the African Methodist Episcopal church to her husband's faith. He baptized her in Houma, Louisiana. The Alberts had one child, Laura. They consistently offered food, shelter, instruction, or other assistance to many former slaves in need.

A. E. P. Albert and his daughter Laura published The House of Bondage in 1890, shortly after Octavia's death. It is a compilation of narratives based on Octavia's interviews with seven former slaves in Houma, Louisiana, fifteen years after slavery ended. The most prominent figure in the work is Charlotte Brooks, a former slave sold from her Virginia family to Louisiana. The six other narratives supplement Brooks's material, as do poetry and speeches. Primary subjects include the inhumane treatment endured by many slaves, the status of the freedmen during Reconstruction, and the plight of the elderly. Octavia wrote the work both to combat negative stereotypes of African Americans and to transmit slave stories to future generations. She believed in what she called a "trinity of power"—education, property, and character—as the means for African Americans to achieve the social status they deserve, and the power of her belief gives the work an evangelistic tone.

Works Consulted: Commire, Anne, ed., Women in World History, Waterford, CT: Yorkin Publications, 1999; Garraty, John A. and Mark C. Carnes, eds., American National Biography, vol. 1, New York: Oxford University Press, 1999; Hine, Darlene Clark, ed., Black Women in America, Brooklyn, NY: Carlson Publishing, 1993; Logan, Rayford W. and Michael R. Winston, eds., Dictionary of American Negro Biography, New York: Norton, 1982.

Monique Prince