Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs

Harriet Jacobs and Frederick Douglass were both slaves who wrote narratives that greatly impacted the world around them. Their narratives were the first insights into the life of a slave for people to read. Their details were quite vivid and depicted the horrors of slavery. Frederick Douglass’s narrative was much longer than Harriet Jacobs and discussed the abuse he endured, his ambition for educating himself, and his struggle for freedom. Harriet Jacobs also goes into detail about the abuse she endured. However, hers could be argued to be on a more devastating level. Male slaves typically are not pursued by their masters for sexual relations. Harriet Jacobs had an owner who was absolutely relentless in his quest to have sex with her.
    Harriet Jacobs notes on the injustice of slavery when it comes to choosing who you want to marry. “If slavery had been abolished, I also, could have married the man of my choice; I could have had a home shielded by the laws; and I should have been spared the painful task of confessing what I am now about to relate; but all my prospects had been blighted by slavery.” Her perspective makes the reader realize how different their lives are and how unjust it is. Her struggle to do what is right ultimately is lost when she realizes that if she does not consent, she will be raped. She wanted some choice in the matter but later regrets her decisions. She begs the reader not to judge her too harshly and it is painful to read. There is something so special about her that you hate that she ever had to go through that struggle.
    Frederick Douglass also gives plenty of details that make you absolutely disgusted with slavery and ashamed that it was apart of our history as a nation. He mentions how children were fed like pigs Colonel Lloyd’s plantation. He says, “We were not regularly allowanced. Our food was coarse corn meal boiled. This was called mush. It was put into a large wooden tray or trough, and set down up on the ground. The children were then called, like so many pigs, and like so many pigs they would come and devour the mush…”  I believe that this would have been upsetting for anyone to read, but most for the parents in that time. Frederick Douglass shows how white people wanted to keep the slaves ignorant so that they would hold power. His quest for educating himself is admirable. I enjoyed reading both of their stories. There is something quite moving about reading about the first hand accounts of past slaves.

Elizabeth Stoddard and Margaret Fuller

    
    Elizabeth Stoddard writes about Margaret Huell, a woman who is attending her wealthy aunt in the midst of a law suit, in Lemorne versus Huell. During the short story, we watch Margaret, who is poor, live a life in upper class style and attract the attention of Mr. Uxbridge. Mr. Uxbridge is the lawyer for the client suing her Aunt Eliza. As the story progresses, Mr. Uxbridge falls in love with Margaret. She eventually grows fond of him as he dotes on her but in the end, she has a dream in which she realizes what a scoundrel her husband is. If Margaret’s aunt won the case, Margaret would be rich and therefore he would be as well. Elizabeth Stoddard writes about a woman who is practical and independent. As Margaret is a teacher of music, she hears it for what it is. When Mr. Uxbridge comments on her lack on interest in the music they are listening to, she says, “I teach music. I can not dream over ‘one, two, three.’”
    Margaret responds to Mr. Uxbridge briefly and matter-of-factly. Her character is not like most women who encourage the attention of a man. She states her opinions without any hesitation. Even when Mr. Uxbridge is clearly interested in her she does not help him in expressing himself.
    “If we understand the impression we make upon each other, what must be said?”
    I made no reply, but fanned myself, neither looking at the moon, nor upon the redowa, nor upon any thing.
    He took the fan from me.
    “Speak of yourself,” he said.
    “Speak you.”
    “I am what I seem, a man within your sphere. By all the accidents of position and circumstance suited to it. Have you no learned it?”
    “I am not what I seem. I never wore so splendid a dress as this till to-night, and shall not again.”
    Mr. Uxbridge goes on to declare his love for Margaret and she realizes that he doesn’t even ask whether she loves him. She knows that she should feel wonderful at the opportunity he was offering through marriage, and yet she couldn’t. She thinks to herself, ‘I was not allowed to give myself-- I was taken.’
    Elizabeth Stoddard shows the cold, non-romantic side of courtship. Margaret Huell was all but forced into his arms rather than seeking them out willingly.
    Margaret Fuller claims that if women were sure of what they wanted, they’d be more self-reliant. When the fictional Miranda states the argument that men are vain and want to be more important to women then they should be, she argues that men haven’t acted like that to her. Miranda says, “No, because the position I early enabled to take, was one of self-reliance. And were all women as sure of their wants as I was, the result would be the same. The difficulty is to get them to the point where they shall naturally develop self-respect, the question how it is to be done.”
     Margaret Fuller also describes a marriage that was based on friendship. “It was only friendship, whose basis was esteem; probably neither party knew love, except by name.” I believe the characters in Elizabeth Stoddard’s short story to be ignorant of love as well. They thought they knew it but both were blind.
     Elizabeth Stoddard wrote fiction and Margaret Fuller wrote about the differences between man and woman. While Elizabeth Stoddard’s style was simplistic and flowed smoothly, Margaret Fuller’s style was complicated and confusing. Fuller did make a few points that were both interesting and seemed rather pivotal for her time, but her wording slowed you down. I didn’t care for it. Elizabeth Stoddard weaved her opinions into the story, allowing the reader to come to their own conclusions rather than forcing her ideas on them.

Whittier and Wheatley

     Whittier was an abolitionist. Wheatley was once a slave. What have they in common? They are both passionate and expressive through their work. However, they lived separate lives in different centuries and thus are very different authors. Whittier wrote a poem called The Hunters of Men. In this poem, he writes about men chasing down slaves who have run away from their owners. He writes: “Oh! Goodly and grand is our hunting to see,/In this “land of the brave and this home of the free.”/Priest, warrior, and statesman, from Georgia to Maine,/All mounting the saddle- all grasping the iron-/Right merrily hunting the black man, whose sin/Is the curl of his hair and the hue of his skin!” He uses the motto the “land of the brave and this home of the free”  to emphasize that there were multitudes of people who identified with that motto and yet their actions proved that they were no better than the British. They claimed that they lived in the land of the free and chased down slaves who they didn’t feel were worthy of freedom.  He points out how even those who aren’t expected to behave so appallingly join in on the hunt of the slaves. He says of women: “And woman- kind woman- wife, widow and maid-/For the good of the hunted, is lending her aid:/Her foot’s in the stirrup- her hand on the rein-/How blithely she rides to the hunting of me!” The picture he paints shows how inhumane people become when they are involved in the slave hunt.
    Wheatley wrote a poem titled On Being Brought from Africa to America. She wrote: “Twas mercy bought me from my pagan land,/ Taught my benighted soul to understand/ That there’s a God, that there’s a Savior too.” She puts a positive perspective on her past as a slave, for it brought her to her Christian faith. What’s more, she doesn’t take her past lightly. She uses her story and knowledge to try to change the world for the better. Many people admired her and were drawn to her work; for few had read the work of a slave before. Her poem of encouragement to Washington was considered to be highly influential. She wrote: “Proceed, great chief, with virtue on thy side,/ They every action let the goddess guide./ A crown, a mansion, and a throne that shine,/ With gold unfading, Washington! Be thine.” While the Americans were struggling, she believed in their leader and this poem could have determined Washington’s own attitude toward the fight. Needless to say, Whittier and Wheatley were both influential in their time. I think that they both had a common quality for fighting for what they believed in that altered the world at that time.

As Unusual As Their Names...Fern and Poe

    Fanny Fern and Edgar Allen Poe have completely different writing styles and were entertaining in their own way. While Poe wrote using vivid imagery that paints a scary story quite effectively, Fern was relatively straightforward which was refreshing. Rather than being hung up on the wording, her phrasing is exactly what makes it enjoyable. She writes with such energy and insight. She says: “Whether ladies can write novels or not, is a question I do not intend to discuss; but that some of them have no difficulty in finding either publishers or readers, is a matter of history; and that gentlemen often write over feminine signatures would seem also to argue that feminine literature is, after all, in good odor with the reading public.” I love that she uses fact to support her claims and the fact of the matter was that women’s work sold. Period. I also enjoyed her work, A Law More Nice Than Just, which described the inconveniences of women’s society enforced apparel. The fictional character of Mrs. Fanny Fern says, “But oh, the delicious freedom of that walk, after we were well started! No skirts to hold up, or to draggle their wet folds against my ankles; no stifling vail flapping in my face, and blinding my eyes; no umbrella to turn inside out, but instead, the cool rain driving slap into my face, and the resurrectionized blood coursing through my veins, and tingling in my cheeks.”  I can imagine that many women both enjoyed and were shocked to read about a lady who was determined to live her life the way she wanted, making the best of inconveniences that they themselves had to endure.
    Poe’s work has gathered quite a fan base over time. There were not many from his time that wrote with such intensity and suspenseful descriptions that made you feel as if you are right along side the character. He writes in The Fall of the House of Usher: “While I gazed, this fissure rapidly widened-- there came a fierce breath of the whirlwind-- the entire orb of the satellite burst at once upon my sight-- my brain reeled as I saw the mighty walls rushing asunder-- there was a long tumultuous shouting sound like the voice of a thousand waters-- and the deep and dank tarn at my feet closed sullenly and silently over the fragments of the “House of Usher.” That last sentence is arguably one of the most gripping descriptions I’ve read. Over all, I felt as though Poe and Fern were unusual authors and I liked them all the more because of it.

Capturing interest through fiction: Hawthorne and Irving

    Nathaniel Hawthorne and Washington Irving undoubtedly capture the reader’s attention through their work. Yes, there were a few parts that seemed to linger here and there. However, after pushing past the complicated, old-fashioned phrasing of a few sentences that slowed me down, I found myself once again engaged in their stories. The difference between the two would be that Hawthorne had a moral message tied into the story whereas Irving’s did not.
    Hawthorne’s, The Birthmark, stirred me the most. I was quite enraged with Aylmer’s character from beginning to end. His relentless pursuit for perfecting his beautiful wife was absolutely disgusting and pathetic. He could not see past the physical appearance of Georgiana and his scientific work in his lab was obsessive in the sincerest form.  He talks of nothing else with her: “Fear not, dearest!” exclaimed he, “Do not shrink from me! Believe me, Georgiana, I even rejoice in this single imperfection, since it will be such rapture to remove it.”
    “Oh, spare me!” sadly replied his wife-- “Pray do not look at it again. I never can forget that convulsive shudder.”
    Georgiana is clearly distressed over the birthmark she has had since birth and her husband's reaction toward it, yet Aylmer cannot look past it. He says she is noble to undergo his plans of removing it and praises her for it. Although I sympathize with Georgiana and like her character, I am disappointed that she is so blinded by his madness. She believes his love to be true in his own strange way. Georgiana even worships him for his intelligence. She says of his work:“It has made me worship you more than ever,” said she.
    “Ah! Wait for this one success,” rejoined he, “Then worship me if you will. I shall deem myself hardly unworthy of it. But, come! I have sought you for the luxury of your voice. Sing to me, dearest!”
    Again, we see Aylmer’s selfishness. Not only does he not try to stop her from worshiping him, but he also demands her to perform for him to help him relax from his efforts of removing her one physical flaw. What a jerk! In The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, the main character, Ichabod Crane, is similar to Aylmer in that he is not the typical romantic hero portrayed in other stories. He is a poor school master who falls for Katrina for her beauty, and even more for her money. “Ichabod Crane had a soft and foolish heart toward the sex; and it is not to be wondered at, that so tempting a morsel son found favour in his eyes, more especially after he had visited her in her paternal mansion.” He was most interested in her father’s riches. These two are real winners…not.
    Overall, I believe Hawthorne was trying to tell his readers through this story that all of humanity is imperfect and that the only way to be rid of our flaws is through death as we become detached from our bodies and one with our soul. He shows that Georgiana is rid of her birthmark as she is dying and Aylmer sees her beauty as it fades away.Washington Irving’s story was entertaining and had romance and suspense intertwined in the spooky tale. However, I did not take away a moral message when I finished reading it.

Equiano and Apess

     When reading Apess, I was struck by how effective he was in his writing style. He clearly knew his facts, yet, rather than forcing them on the reader, he asked rhetorical questions that make the reader think. Though there is nothing soft about William Apess. He was fierce and determined to shed light on the injustice that was carried against his people and the people of Africa. He also backed up his beliefs with verses from the Bible. One of my favorite questions he poses is this: “Did you ever hear or read of Christ teaching his disciples that they ought to despise one because his skin was different than theirs? Jesus Christ being a Jew, and those of his Apostles certainly were not whites-- and did not he who completed the plan of salvation complete it for the whites as well as for the Jews, and others?” And he continues on with more questions that show how terribly wrong many white people were in their way of thinking.
    When I read Equiano, I was entirely captured by his wording so much that I believed his story to be true. Afterwards, when I found out that it was altered from the truth of his childhood life, I almost didn’t believe it. His story was vivid and filled with horrid details of the cruelty slaves faced that I didn’t mind that he, himself had not gone through it. The fact of the matter is that multitudes of innocent lives had gone through those ordeals and many of them could not share their stories.
    There is not doubt at all that both Equiano and Apess share a similarity for powerful writing. They both bring up the hypocrisy of the lives Christians live. Equaino says: “O, ye nominal Christians! Might not an African ask you -- Learned you this from your God, who says unto you, Do unto men as you would men should do unto you? …Why are parents to lose their children, brothers their sisters, or husbands their wives? Surely, this is a new refinement in cruelty, which, while it has no advantage to atone for it, thus aggravates distress, and adds fresh horrors even to the wretchedness of slavery.” Apess uses scripture to make his point that God calls for men to love one another. “He who loveth God loveth his brother also (I John 4:21). Let us not love in word but in deed (I John 3:18). Let your love be without dissimulation. See that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently (I Peter 1:22).” Both effectively show that Christians say that they are to love, as God has commanded, and their actions hardly match their words. I enjoyed reading both of their work because of this. Although, I preferred Apess because I loved that he defended all who have faced hardships at the white people’s hands, and not just his own people. I liked that he brought attention to small population of white people compared to the much larger portion of other races and the fact that when Jesus was alive, the white people were the “most degraded people on earth  at that time.”

Dynamic Women Poets: Sarah Morton and Ann Bradstreet

    After reading the poets in our Norton Anthology book, I found that I love the simplicity of poems that also shows hidden depths to the author’s feelings that I sometimes missed until a third or fourth re-reading. When reading Sarah Morton’s poem Stanzas to a Husband Recently United, I was reminded of another woman poet from an earlier reading.  Ann Bradstreet and Sarah Morton are from different centuries but I feel as though they have similar personalities. Their work is both sincere and passionate. These women could not be dead beats if they tried. Their honesty is quite refreshing when too often people try to play down their feelings. Both Sarah and Ann have ambitions for careers in writing poetry. They both concentrate on matters of their heart more so than matters of state. Ann humbly writes in the Prologue: “To sing of wars, of captains, and of kings/ Of cities founded, commonwealths begun,/ For my mean pen are too superior things;/Or how they all, or each their dates have run, / Let poets and historians set these forth,/ My obscure lines shall not so dim their worth.” Ann proceeds to write of her love for writing that might be hindered by the world of superior men in which women are better suited with a needle rather than pen in hand. Sarah also has ambitions of writing, though unlike Bradstreet, her ambitions include writing of America’s history. She did not limit herself in that aspect and published three poems covering her region’s history. Although, the poem selected was about Sarah’s heart more than anything else. After hearing the back story of her life in which her husband had an affair with her sister, her poem had a stronger impact on me. I admire her bravery and lack of passiveness. Rather than becoming a lifeless woman dejected by her husbands betrayal and spending her entire time wallowing, she does the opposite. Yes, she was submissive in the aspect that she allowed him to live in their house once more. Though she makes it quite clear that their love is ruined and that she will not invite him back into the spiritual relationship they once shared. She writes: “No sordid hope’s insidious guise,/ No venal pleasure’s serpent twine/ Invites those soul-illumined eyes,/And blends this feeling heart with thine.” Sarah makes it perfectly clear that she is not happy that they are together and she will not blend her heart with his once more. Both women were without a doubt dynamic and I admire their work. Both kept their love for writing despite the trials they endured. They used their writing almost therapeutically in a sense and because of it, their work is admired centuries later.

External Conflicts with Winthrop vs. Internal Conflicts with Bradstreet

    After reading the journal entries of John Winthrop and the poems of Anne Bradstreet, I realized that there was a striking difference between their styles. John Winthrop’s journal entries were primarily based upon external conflicts. He wrote about Roger Williams and Mrs. Hutchinson and the trials they endured. We learned specific details about the people present in court and their opinions on the matters at hand. However, as much as John Winthrop tells us of other people’s views, we must guess at his. He says of the charges against Mrs. Hutchinson: 
    “There was great hope that the late general assembly would have had some good effect in pacifying the troubles and dissensions about matters of religion; but it fell out otherwise. For though Mr. Wheelwright and those of his party had been clearly confuted and confounded in the assembly, yet they persisted in their opinions, and were as busy in nourishing contentions (the principal of them) as before.”
    John Winthrop appears to give an objective spin on the events that transpired, He writes from the audience perspective without ever really telling us how he feels. It is as though he is a recorder in the courtroom who is merely documenting the events without offering a subjective opinion of his own. Although, this could be because he knew that his journal would be read.
    While John Winthrop writes about external conflicts, Anne Bradstreet writes about internal conflicts. She is fiery and passionate about her writing, even though she had no intention of publishing it. Bradstreet quickly shows her bitterness toward all who deem women who write to be inferior. She says:
                 “I am obnoxious to each carping tongue
                 Who says my hand a needle better fits,
                 A poet’s pen all scorn I should thus wrong,
                 For such despite they cast on female wits:
                 If what I do prove well, it won’t advance,
                 They’ll say it’s stol’n, or else it was by chance.”
   
    Anne Bradstreet shows her vulnerability in her writing as well. Throughout her poems, she reveals personal information about her day to day life. We read about a tragic fire that destroyed her house and saw her faith in the Lord was unshaken. She writes a poem to her husband that was incredibly moving because she openly describes howmuch she loves him. She writes:
              “I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold
               Or all the riches that the East doth hold.
               My love is such that rivers cannot quench,
               Nor ought but love from thee, give recompense.”
    John Winthrop and Anne Bradstreet contrast so noticeably, that I find myself favoring one over the other. I prefer reading about people’s lives and how they are affected by events. As John Winthrop remained aloof of this, I enjoyed reading Anne’s work much more. However, Anne Bradstreet hadn’t known that her poems would ever be published. Had she known this, she may not have been as open with her emotions. Though something about her character makes me think that she would be to a certain degree.