Nellie Arnold Plummer (September 7, 1860 to 1933)[1][2] was a former slave who became the first female student to attend the Normal Department of Wayland Seminary in Washington, D.C.[3] She subsequently worked as a teacher for over forty-five years and published Out of the Depths, or the Triumph of the Cross, a notable biography of her family in 1927.
Literary scholar Joanne M. Braxton describes Out of the Depths as a "'crossover' text bearing aspects of folklore, autobiography, and biography.
Plummer mortgaged $1000 worth of her family's land in order to publish Out of the Depths, or the Triumph of the Cross in 1927.
[8] The book traces the history of Plummer's family in Prince George’s County, Maryland beginning with her great grandfather Cupid Plummer, who served as a soldier in the American revolution.
Her publication of this history scandalized family members, who neither wanted to recall nor be reminded of their past.