Frances Harper wrote Iola Leroy as a message of empowerment in hopes to inspire the uplift of the black race up and away from its long-term oppression.

But how?

These two themes run throughout the entire novel and are present in many different ways. In studying biopower and its bias presence in “every level of the social body”, we can understand how and why Harper exercises and promotes racial liberation by means of education and a strong culture of religion (Foucault 46).