Julia C. Collins (? - 1865). Essayist, teacher, and author, her work, The Curse of Caste, is considered to be among the first published novels by an African American woman. In 1865, it was serialized in the African Methodist Episcopal Christian Recorder, a publication with nationwide circulation. Her life and writings provide a glimpse into the rarely documented experiences of nineteenth-century African American women, their families, and their communities.