The Portable Nineteenth-Century African American Women Writers

by Various

  Campbell has felt this grind more than the others, yet each time his stories have grown in strength.

  Prison officials will not admit more stringent methods than the “solitary” have been used on “Chicken Joe.” Physical force, they say, is taboo in the prison.

  If Campbell has been physically mistreated his appearances belie it. Although pale from confinement in the dark, he appeared in good health. His answers, while given in an anxious manner, at times were almost defiant. Several times he started to take issue with his questioners.

  Mrs. Barnett Protests

  Editor of the Herald: In common with thousands who have read of the horrible murder committed in Joliet penitentiary Sunday last, I have followed the testimony given at the inquest now being held in an effort to find the murderer.

  All shudder to think so terrible a deed could be committed within prison walls, but I write to ask if one more terrible is not now taking place there in the name of justice, and if there is not enough decent human feeling in the state to put a stop to it and give “Chicken Joe” a chance to prove whether he is innocent or guilty.

  The papers say he has been confined in solitary fifty hours, hands chained straight out before him and then brought in to the inquest, sweated and tortured to make him confess a crime that he may not have committed. Is this justice? Is it humanity? Would we stand to see a dog treated in such fashion without protest? I know we would not. Then why will not the justice-loving, law-abiding citizens put a stop to this barbarism?

  The Negro Fellowship League will send a lawyer there tomorrow and we ask that your powerful journal help us to see that he gets a chance to defend “Chicken Joe” and give him an opportunity to prove whether he is innocent.

  IDA B. WELLS-BARNETT,

  REPRESENTING NEGRO FELLOWSHIP LEAGUE.

  WOMEN MEMORIALIZING WOMEN

  51

  S. ELIZABETH FRAZIER

  (1864–1924)

  Susan Elizabeth Frazier was born in New York City into a prominent black family. She graduated from Hunter College in 1888 and went on to become the first black public school teacher in a mixed school in New York. She was a notable member of New York City’s black community and founded the Women’s Auxiliary to the Old Fifteenth National Guard, an organization that aided black soldiers and their families during World War I. A tablet in her memory hangs in St. Philip’s Protestant Episcopal Church in New York.

  Frazier’s “Some Afro-American Women of Mark” is a pointed response to Reverend William Simmons’s Men of Mark: Eminent, Progressive, and Rising (1887), a list of one hundred and seventy-seven influential African American men. Frazier’s essay was first read as a paper before the Brooklyn Literary Union on February 16, 1892. Frazier looks back at some of the writers whose work appears in this anthology (Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Mary Ann Shadd Cary, Charlotte L. Forten Grimké, H. Cordelia Ray, and Fannie Jackson Coppin). The similarities among these women’s biographies are worth noting. Nearly all of them grew up in privileged circumstances, allowing them to pursue intellectual endeavors outside contemporary gender norms. And, later in their lives, nearly all were challenged by racism and poverty, despite their accomplishments.

  “Some Afro-American Women of Mark” (1892)

  SOURCE: Susan Elizabeth Frazier, “Some Afro-American Women of Mark,” African Methodist Episcopal Church Review 8, no. 4 (April 1892).

  WE have heard and read much of men of mark of our race, but comparatively little is known of able Afro-American women. It is my delight to present brief sketches of the lives of “Some Afro-American Women of Mark,” having gained my information concerning them from libraries, public and private, from correspondence and from personal knowledge.

  Notwithstanding the obstacles that presented themselves to Afro-American women, some of them, self-prompted, and in some cases self-taught, have removed obstacles, lived down oppression and fought their way nobly on to achieve the accomplishment of their aim.

  Slavery was the greatest barrier in the way of progress to the African race. History records the fact that slavery was introduced in America in 1620, in Virginia. The slave trade then began by bringing slaves from Africa. This trade continued to grow, and gradually spread throughout the Middle and New England States, except Vermont. Boston, Mass., held her slave markets in common with other cities. In the year 1761, a time when slavery had reached its zenith, was seen one of the most pitiable sights ever witnessed in the Boston slave market, that of eighty girls, of various ages, brought from Africa, each snatched from a mother’s fond embrace by hands most cruel, taken to a slave vessel, huddled together like cattle, with but little clothing to cover their nude forms, a dearth of food and nowhere to rest their weary bodies.

  The portion assigned them, the hold of the ship, has been described as having been a room thirteen by twenty-five and five feet eight inches high. Can we imagine the trials, the tortures of these poor innocent girls so situated? As soon as the vessel reached the port of Boston, these girls were taken to the market and advertised for sale, to which sale purchasers flocked. Among the many attending this sale was a Mrs. Wheatley, wife of a Boston merchant. She, although in possession of a number of slaves, was desirous of finding a young slave girl with apparent docile qualities, in order that she might train her to be of service to her in her declining years.

  Mrs. Wheatley carefully observed the various expressions of countenances, the many physical differences of this group, and was particularly moved by the meek and bright countenance of one half-sick, fatigued little girl about eight years old, who, to her mind, possessed the requisite qualities. She immediately purchased her, took her home, clothed and fed her, and gave her the name of Phillis Wheatley. Kind words, nourishment and warm clothing made such a marked change in the child that she was now a new being. Mrs. Wheatley, perceiving the child’s improvement physically, still knew that by nature Phillis was unfit for heavy domestic work, and had her taught that which was lighter. Phillis knew no language save that of her native land, and so Mrs. Wheatley deemed it necessary for her welfare, as well as that of the child, to have her taught to speak the English language, and so requested her only daughter, Miss Mary Wheatley, to teach her to speak the English language and, what was most uncommon, to read it.

  This was in opposition to the principles of slavery; but Mrs. Wheatley dared to do contrary to the slave owners of her time, doubtless through the Divine inspiration of the Almighty, for “God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform.” Miss Wheatley kindly consented to teach Phillis. Much to her surprise, she found Phillis very apt and thirsting for knowledge. Daily she progressed, and in less than two years was able to read the most difficult portions of the Bible with accuracy. Most of her knowledge of writing she acquired through her own efforts, scrutinizing good writing and copying with rude materials upon rough surfaces when paper and pencil were beyond reach. Phillis, unlike other children of her years, sought pleasure in close application to study. Mrs. Wheatley and family determined not to curb the child’s ambition, but to provide her with books and writing material, which were to Phillis the means to procure the end.

  Four years from the time Phillis was purchased in the slave market, she was able to write on many subjects that were hardly expected of one double her years. Her correspondence with some friends of Mrs. Wheatley, in England and with Obour Tanner, a fellow-slave, in Newport (supposed to be one of the girls brought from Africa with Phillis, also intelligent), evinced, from her power of expression and originality of thought, a mind of more than ordinary vigor.

  Feeling that she had acquired sufficient knowledge of the English language, being then in her seventeenth year, she directed her attention to the study of Latin. In this, as in English, her efforts were crowned with success. In a short time she translated one of Ovid’s tales so admirably that the writing attracted the attention of the learned people of Boston and England, who sought her at the home of the Wheatle
ys, and, conversing with her, found she was indeed a literary prodigy. This production, coming from a member of an enslaved race, gave rise to so many comments that all America, as well as England, was in a ferment, for it should be remembered that this period did not witness general culture among the masses of white people, and certainly no facilities for the education of the Negroes. The learned people of Boston invited her to their homes, loaned her books and papers. It is safe for me to say, that contact with the great minds of the time constituted one of the best parts of her education. Phillis was sensitive, and understood the prejudice existing against her race, and, while enjoying many privileges denied her kind, still maintained that meek manner characteristic of her when first seen in the slave market, and treated her fellow-slaves with the utmost consideration, winning from all affection. The inquisitive mind of Phillis was continually prompting her to seek the best works; from her study of the muses she acquired a taste for poetry, and successfully wrote many poems, which were characterized by a spirit of gratitude, simplicity, chastity, Christianity. Early she devoted herself to the service of the Lord, and was received in the Old South Church, Boston. Thus we find many of her poems manifesting the power of faith and the efficiency of grace. The following poem reveals her sympathetic nature:

  ON THE DEATH OF A YOUNG GIRL.

  From dark abodes to fair ethereal light,

  The enraptured soul has winged its flight;

  On the kind bosom of eternal love

  She finds unknown beatitudes above.

  This know, ye parents, nor her love deplore—

  She feels the iron hand of pain no more;

  The dispensations of unerring grace

  Should turn your sorrows into grateful praise.

  Let, then, no tears for her henceforward flow,

  Nor suffer grief in this dark vale below.

  Her morning sun, which was divinely bright,

  Was quickly mantled with the gloom of night.

  But hear, in heaven’s best bowers, your child so fair,

  And learn to imitate her language there.

  Then, Lord, whom I behold with glory crowned,

  By what sweet name, and in what tuneful sound

  Wilt thou be praised? Seraphic powers are faint,

  Infinite love and majesty to paint.

  To Thee let all their grateful voices raise,

  And saints and angels join their songs of praise.

  Perfect in bliss, now from her heavenly home

  She looks, and, smiling, beckons you to come.

  Why, then, fond parents, why these fruitless groans?

  Restrain your tears and cease your plaintive moans.

  Freed from a world of sin and snares and pain,

  Why would ye wish your fair one back again?

  Nay, bow resigned; let hope your grief control,

  And check the rising tumult of the soul;

  Calm in the prosperous and adverse day,

  Adore the God who gives and takes away.

  See Him in all; His holy name revere;

  Upright your actions, and your heart sincere;

  Till, having sailed through life’s tempestuous sea,

  And from its rocks and boisterous billows free,

  Yourselves safe landed on the blissful shore,

  Shall join your happy child, to part no more.

  At the age of twenty Phillis was emancipated by her master. It was a source of great delight to her owners to see that, although Phillis had been declared free, she still remained the same, thanking God for His goodness in placing her in such considerate hands:

  ’Twas mercy brought me from my pagan land,

  Taught my benighted soul to understand

  That there’s a God; that there’s a Savior, too.

  Once I redemption neither sought nor knew.

  Some view our sable race with scornful eye:

  “Their color is a diabolic dye.”

  Remember, Christians, Negroes black as Cain

  May be refined, and join the angelic train.

  Signs of precarious health, probably superinduced by too close application to study, became more marked and caused her mistress to become anxious about her. Mrs. Wheatley consulted her physician, who prescribed for Phillis a sea-voyage. Mrs. Wheatley’s only son was about to sail for England on mercantile business, and arrangements were made for Phillis to go with him.

  Her poem, entitled “A Farewell to America,” dated May 7, 1773, is the day on which she is supposed to have sailed. George Williams, in his renowned “History of the Negro Race,” says, “She was heartily welcomed by the leaders of the British metropolis and treated with great consideration.” Under all the trying circumstances of high social life among the nobility and rarest literary genius of London, this redeemed child of the desert coupled to a beautiful modesty the extraordinary powers of an incomparable conversationalist. She carried London by storm. Thoughtful people praised her, titled people dined her, and the press extolled the name of Phillis Wheatley, the African poetess.

  In England, her book of poems was republished through the earnest solicitation of her friends, and dedicated to the Countess of Huntington, with a picture of Phillis, and a letter of recommendation from her master, signed by many of the leading citizens of Boston. This letter was to repress all doubts that might arise concerning the authorship of the poems. Before she had regained her strength she received a letter from home, telling of the illness of Mrs. Wheatley and requesting her to return. As soon as possible, she was at the bedside of her loved one. Mrs. Wheatley expressed her relief at the presence of Phillis, and seemed perfectly satisfied. Day by day Mrs. Wheatley grew worse; finally the end came, March 3, 1774. This was, indeed, a sad hour for Phillis, for she realized that her best, her dearest friend was gone. Phillis remained in the Wheatley household and resumed her literary work.

  When George Washington was appointed by the grand Continental Congress, in 1775, to be Generalissimo of the Armies of North America, Phillis sent him a letter extolling his merits, and also a poem written in his honor, which brought forth the following reply from Washington:

  Cambridge, February 28, 1776.

  MISS PHILLIS:

  I thank you most sincerely for your polite notice of me in the elegant lines you inclosed, and however undeserving I may be of such encomium and panegyric, the style and manner exhibit a striking proof of your poetical talents.

  If you should ever come to Cambridge, or near headquarters, I shall be happy to see a person so favored by the muses, and to whom nature has been so liberal and beneficent in her dispensations.

  I AM,

  WITH GREAT RESPECT,

  GEORGE WASHINGTON.

  Another beautiful production of her pen is a poem “On the Capture of General Charles Lee by the British.” In 1778 Phillis was again prostrated by the death of Mr. Wheatley. Some say she was compelled, after the death of Mr. Wheatley, to depend on her own resources for support. Be that as it may, Phillis had an offer of marriage, and decided to accept rather than be thrown at the mercy of the world. Phillis married John Peters, of Boston, a colored gentleman of considerable intelligence. This marriage was not a happy one. Reverses came. Phillis had never endured hardship, but she knew that the little ones born to them had to be cared for, so she took up the cross and bore it with Christian fortitude. Disease laid its heavy hand upon her, and she sank beneath its weight at the age of thirty-one, a flower in her prime, when the promises of her youth were on the verge of their full accomplishment.

  No woman of the race, since the death of Phillis Wheatley, has attracted more attention by her poetic productions than Frances Ellen Watkins Harper. To her is given the honor of being the ablest female lecturer of her race. Frances Ellen Watkins Harper was born in Batimore, of free parents, in 1825. She attended the school in Baltimore for free
colored children, taught by her uncle, Rev. Peter Watkins, and continued there until her thirteenth year, at which time she was put out to work in a kind and respected family. Although free-born, she suffered much from the oppressive laws that bound her slave-brethren. Like Phillis Wheatley, she possessed an ardent thirst for knowledge. Before she had been employed in this family a year, her poetic productions, especially essays on “Christianity,” attracted the attention of her employers, who encouraged her ambition by giving her the use of their library during her leisure moments. As a result of her communion with the best works, she was able to write many poems, as well as prose pieces, which she had published in a small volume called “Forest Leaves.” This book attracted unusual attention as an earnest of what the writer could do. Feeling herself qualified, she took up teaching. In her own city the opposition was so bitter that she deemed it wise to go to a free State, and chose Ohio for her work.

  Here she became dissatisfied and left for York, Penn., to resume her work. Blessed with a spirit of philanthropy, a generous mind and a sound judgment, understanding the wrongs perpetrated on her kind, she set to work to devise some means of ameliorating the condition of the race. In order that she might concentrate her efforts in this direction, she gave up teaching and found her way into the lecture field from the following circumstance: “About the year 1853, Maryland, her native State, had enacted a law forbidding free people of color from the North from coming into the State on pain of being imprisoned and sold into slavery. A free man, who had unwittingly violated this infamous statute, had recently been sold to Georgia, and had escaped thence by secreting himself behind the wheel-house of a boat bound northward; but before he reached the desired haven he was discovered and remanded to slavery. It was reported that he died soon after from exposure and suffering.”

  In a letter to a friend referring to this outrage, Mrs. Harper thus wrote: “Upon that grave I pledge myself to the anti-slavery cause.” Soon after she left York and went to Philadelphia, then to Boston, to New Bedford. Here she was called upon to deliver an address on the “Education and Elevation of the Colored Race.” In this address she poured forth a stream of eloquence that astonished all present. This occasion marks the beginning of her public career. On she has continued, fearless in her outspoken opinions. She has lectured on freedom in every Southern city except in Arkansas and Texas; has held the position of Superintendent of Colored Work in the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union for nearly seven years, and has lectured and written many poems on temperance, exerting a widespread influence.