Because of her critical engagement with social issues that confronted African Americans at the turn of the century, Octavia Albert's The House of Bondage; or, Charlotte Brooks and Other Slaves (1890) remains an important historical work. Albert's concern that the history of African American enslavement be remembered led her to interview former slaves in Louisiana. These interviews vividly depict both the struggles and successes of ordinary people who lived through the years of slavery.

Albert's own life spans the crucial years of slavery and Reconstruction. Octavia Victoria Rogers was born a slave on 24 December 1853 in Oglethorpe, Georgia. The details of her early family life are unknown. After emancipation she was able to attend Atlanta University, where she trained to be a teacher. She accepted her first teaching position in Montezuma, Georgia, where she met the Reverend A. E. P. Albert, a fellow teacher and newly ordained minister. They were...