A study of the complexities of intimate relationships among the enslaved on plantations, in towns... more A study of the complexities of intimate relationships among the enslaved on plantations, in towns, and on small farms in antebellum North Carolina, USA.
From the Introduction:
"I've heard some of the young people laugh about slave love, but they should envy the love which kept mother and father so close together in life and even held them in death." Alonzo Haywood's comment reflected on the relationship between his father, Willis Haywood, and his mother, Mirana Denson, who were both enslaved in antebellum North Carolina. He explained that while his father was enslaved at Falls of Neuse, he fell in love with Mirana Denson, who lived in Raleigh. "He come to see her every chance he got and then they were married." Reflecting on the strength and sincerity of his parents' feelings for one another he commented, "Mother died near twenty years ago and father died four years later. He did not care to live since mother left him."
Reconstruction was a time of contradictions and conflicts, great expectations, and widespread vio... more Reconstruction was a time of contradictions and conflicts, great expectations, and widespread violence. as four million formerly enslaved African Americans embraced freedom and struggled to strengthen communities and secure new livelihoods and equal rights, white southerners struggled, often violently, to reconcile themselves to a world without slavery in ways consistent with deeply held, white supremacist beliefs. One of the most controversial and divisive periods in American history, Reconstruction redefined the nation and its people. The edited collection examines the course and consequences of Reconstruction on the former Confederate states by focussing on the experiences of everyday people at all levels of society. A fascinating collection of essays and documents illuminates the experiences of ordinary Americans in the South - veterans, freed slaves and former slaveholders, farmers and city residents, Native Americans, and others - at a time when the nation was struggling to overcome the violent divisions wrought by the Civil War.
Of all the Federal Arts Projects set up as part of the New Deal, the Federal Writers' Project (FW... more Of all the Federal Arts Projects set up as part of the New Deal, the Federal Writers' Project (FWP) was, in the words of one contemporary, the 'ugly duckling' (p. 35). As Catherine Stewart notes in her fascinating book, the American public looked on with scepticism as unemployed writers, academics and sundry whitecollar 'boondogglers' were removed from relief rolls and set to work producing copy on the history and culture of the United States. One of the many branches of the FWP was the Ex-Slave Project. Conceived in 1937, this initiative saw scores of interviewers dispatched across 17 states to gather life histories from the rapidly diminishing number of formerly enslaved African Americans. Two years later, over 2,300 interviews were sent to the Library of Congress, where they remain a monument to oral history and its ability to rescue the voices of the marginalised. The New Social Historians of the 1970s were quick to grasp the value of the Ex-Slave Project; indeed, when Eugene Genovese's Roll, Jordan, Roll was published in 1974, readers were treated to over 600 references to FWP interviews.(1) Yet, as primary material, the interviews are far from unproblematic. In 1940, Benjamin Botkin, the FWP's recently appointed folklore editor, composed a memorandum adumbrating the shortcomings of the interviews as historical evidence: the interviewers, he warned, were amateur, their informants senescent and, in translating recollections from word to page, 'much of the scent as well as the sense' was lost (p. 237). Passing the buck somewhat, the Harvard-educated academic decided that their historical value was a Gordian knot best 'left to the scholars' to untangle (p. 237). In the eight decades since Botkin penned this memorandum, however, critical consensus on the interviews has remained elusive. Many historians have noted that, because most of the FWP interviewers were white, African-American interviewees would have felt constrained by racial mores to downplay negative memories of slavery, resulting in rosy recollections of interracial bonhomie. Nevertheless, for historians seeking to reconstruct the lived experience of the enslaved, the interviews remain a crucial, if compromised, source of evidence. Long Past Slavery strikes out from this debate in an important new direction. Rather than approaching the FWP interviews as sources of social history, Stewart uses them to illuminate the racial politics of the 1930s. The FWP, she argues, should be approached as a site of contested meaning, within which competing parties struggled to inscribe divergent representations of African-American identity onto the nation's consciousness. According to Stewart, debate over the place of African Americans within the body politic intensified during
This paper examines the work and lives of black female activist intellectuals in the years before... more This paper examines the work and lives of black female activist intellectuals in the years before the formation of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs (NACWC) in 1896. Looking deeper at arguments originally made by Maria Stewart concerning the denial of black women's ambitions and limiting potential in their working lives, the analysis employs the work of the Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci, in particular his notion of the intellectual, to help reflect on the centrality of these black women in the development of an early counterhegemonic movement.
During the American Civil War black women increasingly published opinion pieces in the form of le... more During the American Civil War black women increasingly published opinion pieces in the form of letters, short essays, and in one case, serialised fiction in the African Methodist Episcopal newspaper, The Christian Recorder. This article argues that, collectively, these women's voices contributed to a developing black intellectualism of the early nineteenth century, setting the precedent for black feminist thinking of the Reconstruction period and beyond. Through their public literary activism, these women challenged the boundaries of the gendered and racialised spaces of the public and private spheres. Through a series of case studies published in the Christian Recorder from 1861-66, this article reflects on the ways in which these women developed a conscious writing self which should be understood as literary activism. These women wrote under the most difficult of circumstances in a period of conflict, yet they persisted in having their voices heard. Collectively, they wrote about the importance of action, the influence of women on the African American nation, and the vital influence of women's role in education for racial uplift. This article thus places the literary activism of these women front and centre and highlights the power of their words for subsequent generations. Julia C. Collins must have mailed her essay off from Williamsport, Pennsylvania in the early spring of 1864, to be considered for publication by the Christian Recorder, with no small degree of anxiety. It had taken her time to draft the 400 or so words on the value of education intended for the Recorder, the weekly publication of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME). In between the demands of teaching at the small school house in Williamsport, her daily domestic chores, and caring for her little ones, it must have proven difficult for her find 'Woman's Influence Over Man,' the unnamed author argued that, 'To the formation of manly character, the love and reverence of the virtuous feminine character is essential.' 7 The role of the mother was also venerated within the Recorder, particularly in relation to the teaching of virtues such as love, compassion, and kindness. A short story by an unnamed author published in March 1861, 'Love wins Love' had little Charlie question why the animals all loved his father. In response, Charlie's mother pressed him to think of an answer: 'What is the reason the birdies all love your father…Think Charlie,-try and find a reason yourself.' So, the five-year-old child pondered the question and then resolved that it was because his father demonstrated love towards the animals. Pleased with his answer and that he had solved his own question, Charlie's mother reminded him to love as his father did to receive love in return: Love all things and be kind to them. Do not speak roughly to the dog. Don't pull pussy's tail, nor chase the hens, nor try to frighten the cow. Never throw stones at the birds. Never hurt nor tease anything. Speak gently and lovingly to them. They now as well as you do who has a pleasant voice. Feed them, and seek their comfort, and they will love you, and everybody that knows you will love you too. 8 Through such didactic tales the Recorder celebrated the virtuous and selfless womanmother, daughter, school mistresswho was positioned as the gatekeeper of morality and whose role it was to educate the young on virtues of goodness, decency, and respectability. Historical Invisibilities and Silences in the Archives As the war years progressed, however, a sizeable minority of female contributors to the Recorder began to shift the tone of what might be expected of women in the postemancipation world. In the process, they provided a more meaningful platform for black
This book analyzes the feminist and legal thought of women’s rights founder Elizabeth Cady Stanto... more This book analyzes the feminist and legal thought of women’s rights founder Elizabeth Cady Stanton on gender equality in the family. It discusses Stanton’s theories on marriage, divorce, marital property, domestic violence, reproductive control, and parenting. Revealing Stanton's comprehensive demand for systemic legal reform, it challenges conventional depictions of the narrowness of early feminism, the development of family law, and women's assumed acquiescence in domestic subordination. Stanton demanded change to the institutions of government, church, family, and work, which constituted “a fourfold bondage” of women. The family was one of these keys to full reform because Stanton understood the way in which the private domestic sphere was integrated with the public sphere of work and governance, and its related freedoms and opportunities. The book traces the way in which virtually all of Stanton’s proposals became law—from no-fault divorce to the elimination of dower to ...
Better Understanding a Well Known, but Little-Documented African American Couple Recent years hav... more Better Understanding a Well Known, but Little-Documented African American Couple Recent years have seen a wave of biographies of prominent African American figures from the early republic, antebellum and Civil War eras. These studies-which examine the lives and activism of women and men like Richard Allen, Harriet Tubman, Harriet Jacobs, David Ruggles and James McCune Smith among others-have added immensely to our understanding of the experiences of these specific black individuals, their families, and the nineteenth-century communities in which they lived.
... of Conflict in the Folklore of Slaves By Rebecca Griffin Brer Rabbit dancing and singing plum... more ... of Conflict in the Folklore of Slaves By Rebecca Griffin Brer Rabbit dancing and singing plum turned Miss Wolfs head .... ... For their generous insights and careful criticisms I would like to express my sincere thanks to Dr. Henrice Altink, Dr. Cecily Jones, and Dr. Rebecca Earle. ...
... Pp. 446. ISBN 0 8131 2324 0. David W. Menefee, The First Female Stars: Women of the Silent Er... more ... Pp. 446. ISBN 0 8131 2324 0. David W. Menefee, The First Female Stars: Women of the Silent Era (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2004, $44.95). Pp. ... in 1881, the son of a play-wright and lay Episcopalian minister; he first worked in the live theatre before joining friend Jesse Lasky, and ...
... Pp. 446. ISBN 0 8131 2324 0. David W. Menefee, The First Female Stars: Women of the Silent Er... more ... Pp. 446. ISBN 0 8131 2324 0. David W. Menefee, The First Female Stars: Women of the Silent Era (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2004, $44.95). Pp. ... in 1881, the son of a play-wright and lay Episcopalian minister; he first worked in the live theatre before joining friend Jesse Lasky, and ...
Page 1. Courtship and Love among the Enslaved in North Carolina Rebecca J. Fraser Page 2. Courtsh... more Page 1. Courtship and Love among the Enslaved in North Carolina Rebecca J. Fraser Page 2. Courtship and Love among the Enslaved in North Carolina Rebecm J. Fmser Page 3. Courtship and Love among the Enslaved in North Carolina Page 4. ...
A study of the complexities of intimate relationships among the enslaved on plantations, in towns... more A study of the complexities of intimate relationships among the enslaved on plantations, in towns, and on small farms in antebellum North Carolina, USA.
From the Introduction:
"I've heard some of the young people laugh about slave love, but they should envy the love which kept mother and father so close together in life and even held them in death." Alonzo Haywood's comment reflected on the relationship between his father, Willis Haywood, and his mother, Mirana Denson, who were both enslaved in antebellum North Carolina. He explained that while his father was enslaved at Falls of Neuse, he fell in love with Mirana Denson, who lived in Raleigh. "He come to see her every chance he got and then they were married." Reflecting on the strength and sincerity of his parents' feelings for one another he commented, "Mother died near twenty years ago and father died four years later. He did not care to live since mother left him."
Reconstruction was a time of contradictions and conflicts, great expectations, and widespread vio... more Reconstruction was a time of contradictions and conflicts, great expectations, and widespread violence. as four million formerly enslaved African Americans embraced freedom and struggled to strengthen communities and secure new livelihoods and equal rights, white southerners struggled, often violently, to reconcile themselves to a world without slavery in ways consistent with deeply held, white supremacist beliefs. One of the most controversial and divisive periods in American history, Reconstruction redefined the nation and its people. The edited collection examines the course and consequences of Reconstruction on the former Confederate states by focussing on the experiences of everyday people at all levels of society. A fascinating collection of essays and documents illuminates the experiences of ordinary Americans in the South - veterans, freed slaves and former slaveholders, farmers and city residents, Native Americans, and others - at a time when the nation was struggling to overcome the violent divisions wrought by the Civil War.
Of all the Federal Arts Projects set up as part of the New Deal, the Federal Writers' Project (FW... more Of all the Federal Arts Projects set up as part of the New Deal, the Federal Writers' Project (FWP) was, in the words of one contemporary, the 'ugly duckling' (p. 35). As Catherine Stewart notes in her fascinating book, the American public looked on with scepticism as unemployed writers, academics and sundry whitecollar 'boondogglers' were removed from relief rolls and set to work producing copy on the history and culture of the United States. One of the many branches of the FWP was the Ex-Slave Project. Conceived in 1937, this initiative saw scores of interviewers dispatched across 17 states to gather life histories from the rapidly diminishing number of formerly enslaved African Americans. Two years later, over 2,300 interviews were sent to the Library of Congress, where they remain a monument to oral history and its ability to rescue the voices of the marginalised. The New Social Historians of the 1970s were quick to grasp the value of the Ex-Slave Project; indeed, when Eugene Genovese's Roll, Jordan, Roll was published in 1974, readers were treated to over 600 references to FWP interviews.(1) Yet, as primary material, the interviews are far from unproblematic. In 1940, Benjamin Botkin, the FWP's recently appointed folklore editor, composed a memorandum adumbrating the shortcomings of the interviews as historical evidence: the interviewers, he warned, were amateur, their informants senescent and, in translating recollections from word to page, 'much of the scent as well as the sense' was lost (p. 237). Passing the buck somewhat, the Harvard-educated academic decided that their historical value was a Gordian knot best 'left to the scholars' to untangle (p. 237). In the eight decades since Botkin penned this memorandum, however, critical consensus on the interviews has remained elusive. Many historians have noted that, because most of the FWP interviewers were white, African-American interviewees would have felt constrained by racial mores to downplay negative memories of slavery, resulting in rosy recollections of interracial bonhomie. Nevertheless, for historians seeking to reconstruct the lived experience of the enslaved, the interviews remain a crucial, if compromised, source of evidence. Long Past Slavery strikes out from this debate in an important new direction. Rather than approaching the FWP interviews as sources of social history, Stewart uses them to illuminate the racial politics of the 1930s. The FWP, she argues, should be approached as a site of contested meaning, within which competing parties struggled to inscribe divergent representations of African-American identity onto the nation's consciousness. According to Stewart, debate over the place of African Americans within the body politic intensified during
This paper examines the work and lives of black female activist intellectuals in the years before... more This paper examines the work and lives of black female activist intellectuals in the years before the formation of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs (NACWC) in 1896. Looking deeper at arguments originally made by Maria Stewart concerning the denial of black women's ambitions and limiting potential in their working lives, the analysis employs the work of the Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci, in particular his notion of the intellectual, to help reflect on the centrality of these black women in the development of an early counterhegemonic movement.
During the American Civil War black women increasingly published opinion pieces in the form of le... more During the American Civil War black women increasingly published opinion pieces in the form of letters, short essays, and in one case, serialised fiction in the African Methodist Episcopal newspaper, The Christian Recorder. This article argues that, collectively, these women's voices contributed to a developing black intellectualism of the early nineteenth century, setting the precedent for black feminist thinking of the Reconstruction period and beyond. Through their public literary activism, these women challenged the boundaries of the gendered and racialised spaces of the public and private spheres. Through a series of case studies published in the Christian Recorder from 1861-66, this article reflects on the ways in which these women developed a conscious writing self which should be understood as literary activism. These women wrote under the most difficult of circumstances in a period of conflict, yet they persisted in having their voices heard. Collectively, they wrote about the importance of action, the influence of women on the African American nation, and the vital influence of women's role in education for racial uplift. This article thus places the literary activism of these women front and centre and highlights the power of their words for subsequent generations. Julia C. Collins must have mailed her essay off from Williamsport, Pennsylvania in the early spring of 1864, to be considered for publication by the Christian Recorder, with no small degree of anxiety. It had taken her time to draft the 400 or so words on the value of education intended for the Recorder, the weekly publication of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME). In between the demands of teaching at the small school house in Williamsport, her daily domestic chores, and caring for her little ones, it must have proven difficult for her find 'Woman's Influence Over Man,' the unnamed author argued that, 'To the formation of manly character, the love and reverence of the virtuous feminine character is essential.' 7 The role of the mother was also venerated within the Recorder, particularly in relation to the teaching of virtues such as love, compassion, and kindness. A short story by an unnamed author published in March 1861, 'Love wins Love' had little Charlie question why the animals all loved his father. In response, Charlie's mother pressed him to think of an answer: 'What is the reason the birdies all love your father…Think Charlie,-try and find a reason yourself.' So, the five-year-old child pondered the question and then resolved that it was because his father demonstrated love towards the animals. Pleased with his answer and that he had solved his own question, Charlie's mother reminded him to love as his father did to receive love in return: Love all things and be kind to them. Do not speak roughly to the dog. Don't pull pussy's tail, nor chase the hens, nor try to frighten the cow. Never throw stones at the birds. Never hurt nor tease anything. Speak gently and lovingly to them. They now as well as you do who has a pleasant voice. Feed them, and seek their comfort, and they will love you, and everybody that knows you will love you too. 8 Through such didactic tales the Recorder celebrated the virtuous and selfless womanmother, daughter, school mistresswho was positioned as the gatekeeper of morality and whose role it was to educate the young on virtues of goodness, decency, and respectability. Historical Invisibilities and Silences in the Archives As the war years progressed, however, a sizeable minority of female contributors to the Recorder began to shift the tone of what might be expected of women in the postemancipation world. In the process, they provided a more meaningful platform for black
This book analyzes the feminist and legal thought of women’s rights founder Elizabeth Cady Stanto... more This book analyzes the feminist and legal thought of women’s rights founder Elizabeth Cady Stanton on gender equality in the family. It discusses Stanton’s theories on marriage, divorce, marital property, domestic violence, reproductive control, and parenting. Revealing Stanton's comprehensive demand for systemic legal reform, it challenges conventional depictions of the narrowness of early feminism, the development of family law, and women's assumed acquiescence in domestic subordination. Stanton demanded change to the institutions of government, church, family, and work, which constituted “a fourfold bondage” of women. The family was one of these keys to full reform because Stanton understood the way in which the private domestic sphere was integrated with the public sphere of work and governance, and its related freedoms and opportunities. The book traces the way in which virtually all of Stanton’s proposals became law—from no-fault divorce to the elimination of dower to ...
Better Understanding a Well Known, but Little-Documented African American Couple Recent years hav... more Better Understanding a Well Known, but Little-Documented African American Couple Recent years have seen a wave of biographies of prominent African American figures from the early republic, antebellum and Civil War eras. These studies-which examine the lives and activism of women and men like Richard Allen, Harriet Tubman, Harriet Jacobs, David Ruggles and James McCune Smith among others-have added immensely to our understanding of the experiences of these specific black individuals, their families, and the nineteenth-century communities in which they lived.
... of Conflict in the Folklore of Slaves By Rebecca Griffin Brer Rabbit dancing and singing plum... more ... of Conflict in the Folklore of Slaves By Rebecca Griffin Brer Rabbit dancing and singing plum turned Miss Wolfs head .... ... For their generous insights and careful criticisms I would like to express my sincere thanks to Dr. Henrice Altink, Dr. Cecily Jones, and Dr. Rebecca Earle. ...
... Pp. 446. ISBN 0 8131 2324 0. David W. Menefee, The First Female Stars: Women of the Silent Er... more ... Pp. 446. ISBN 0 8131 2324 0. David W. Menefee, The First Female Stars: Women of the Silent Era (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2004, $44.95). Pp. ... in 1881, the son of a play-wright and lay Episcopalian minister; he first worked in the live theatre before joining friend Jesse Lasky, and ...
... Pp. 446. ISBN 0 8131 2324 0. David W. Menefee, The First Female Stars: Women of the Silent Er... more ... Pp. 446. ISBN 0 8131 2324 0. David W. Menefee, The First Female Stars: Women of the Silent Era (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2004, $44.95). Pp. ... in 1881, the son of a play-wright and lay Episcopalian minister; he first worked in the live theatre before joining friend Jesse Lasky, and ...
Page 1. Courtship and Love among the Enslaved in North Carolina Rebecca J. Fraser Page 2. Courtsh... more Page 1. Courtship and Love among the Enslaved in North Carolina Rebecca J. Fraser Page 2. Courtship and Love among the Enslaved in North Carolina Rebecm J. Fmser Page 3. Courtship and Love among the Enslaved in North Carolina Page 4. ...
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Books by Rebecca Fraser
From the Introduction:
"I've heard some of the young people laugh about slave love, but they should envy the love which kept mother and father so close together in life and even held them in death." Alonzo Haywood's comment reflected on the relationship between his father, Willis Haywood, and his mother, Mirana Denson, who were both enslaved in antebellum North Carolina. He explained that while his father was enslaved at Falls of Neuse, he fell in love with Mirana Denson, who lived in Raleigh. "He come to see her every chance he got and then they were married." Reflecting on the strength and sincerity of his parents' feelings for one another he commented, "Mother died near twenty years ago and father died four years later. He did not care to live since mother left him."
Papers by Rebecca Fraser
From the Introduction:
"I've heard some of the young people laugh about slave love, but they should envy the love which kept mother and father so close together in life and even held them in death." Alonzo Haywood's comment reflected on the relationship between his father, Willis Haywood, and his mother, Mirana Denson, who were both enslaved in antebellum North Carolina. He explained that while his father was enslaved at Falls of Neuse, he fell in love with Mirana Denson, who lived in Raleigh. "He come to see her every chance he got and then they were married." Reflecting on the strength and sincerity of his parents' feelings for one another he commented, "Mother died near twenty years ago and father died four years later. He did not care to live since mother left him."