Newark Tah Day 2

Newark TAH Day 2 Morning Historian Discussions by Professor Carol Berkin: 1. From Abolition to Women’s Rights 2. What Did You Do in the War, Mother? Newark Museum Staff Workshop

Note: We’ll look at some of the documents related to Professor Berkin’s presentations tomorrow afternoon.

SOURCES Primary •

Original Documents (including excerpts)

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Firsthand account

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Written at time of event

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Primarily factual

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Creative Work

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Material Artifacts

Secondary INTERPRETS a primary source ANALYZES a primary source At least once removed from event

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Examples:

Examples:

Emancipation Proclamation History textbooks Letters written to and from Lincoln Monographs (books) by Professor Oakes Music written during Civil War era Music written about previous events Diaries/Memoirs Encyclopedias (print and online) Interview with participant Interview with friend/relative of participant Art/creative works from same era Art created later

Excerpts from the Memoirs of Varina Howell Davis:* 1. In her old age, the wife of the President of the Confederacy recalled the suffering that came with inflation and shortages of vital supplies. She praised Confederate women for their ability to ‘make do’: “The Confederate women made a substitute for coffee out of parched sweet potatoes and parched corn, and also of the grain of rye; for sugar they used sorghum syrup. They wove cotton cloth for blankets, and sewed up coverings for their feet out of old carpets, or rather such bits as were left after cutting them up for soldiers blankets. They had only carpet or canvas soles. “ [Memoirs, II, p. 527] 2. Varina believed that the Yankee invaders and conquerers inflicted cruel punishments on civilians as well as soldiers, on women as well as men, on blacks as well as whites. In 1863, she recalled: “Complaints from the people of the subjugated States came in daily. Women were set adrift across our borders with their children, penniless and separated from all they held dear. Their property was confiscated….Peaceful and aged citizens, unresisting captives and non-combatants, were confined at hard labor with ball and chain, others were ironed for selling medicines to ill Confederates…the whole population were given the choice to perjure themselves, or starve. The slaves, after New Orleans was taken, were driven from their homes, or if left undisturbed were forced to work under bayonet guard on the plantations…” [Memoirs, II, 369-370] 3. Varinaalways spoke with pride about the bravery and loyalty to the cause of Confederate women. Long after defeat, she wrote, these women believed in the justice of their cause: “…Confederate women render their hearts’ best homage to the gallant nameless dead, the ‘high privates’ of our splendid army, and to those survivors who wear their ‘hodden gray’ with proud memories of sacrifices made and duty faithfully performed, for no other reward than an approving conscience, who labor for their daily bread without a murmur, and are as ready now to affirm the justice of their cause as they are to fight for the United States. They do not say we believed we were right then, but they loudly proclaim we knew it then and know it now.” [Memoirs, II, 609] *Excerpts provided by Professor Carol Berkin.

Using Memoirs to Teach History 4. Notes about Varina Howell Davis from Dr. Berkin:

5. Notes about Southern women and the Civil War from Dr. Berkin:

6. Dr. Berkin provides some additional historical context about this excerpt from Varina Howell Davis’ memoirs in this short introduction to the quote by Varina below: Varina believed that the Yankee invaders and conquerers inflicted cruel punishments on civilians as well as soldiers, on women as well as men, on blacks as well as whites. In 1863, she recalled: “Complaints from the people of the subjugated States came in daily. Women were set adrift across our borders with their children, penniless and separated from all they held dear. Their property was confiscated….Peaceful and aged citizens, unresisting captives and non-combatants, were confined at hard labor with ball and chain, others were ironed for selling medicines to ill Confederates…the whole population were given the choice to perjure themselves, or starve. The slaves, after New Orleans was taken, were driven from their homes, or if left undisturbed were forced to work under bayonet guard on the plantations…” [Memoirs, II, 369-370]

Women: Children:

Men:

Blacks/African Americans:

7. Advantages of Using Memoirs to Understand American History: much more interesting than a textbook!!!

8. Limitations of Using Memoirs to Understand American History: only one person’s opinion

9. So why is it so important to provide historical context when using a memoir to understand American history?

10.What are some possible sources we might use to analyze Varina’s claims/assertions? Where would we find them?

Varina Howell Davis and the Civil War 1. Historical Background:

2. Primary Source: Excerpt from Varina Howell Davis’ Memoirs [1863]: “Complaints from the people of the subjugated States came in daily. Women were set adrift across our borders with their children, penniless and separated from all they held dear. Their property was confiscated….Peaceful and aged citizens, unresisting captives and noncombatants, were confined at hard labor with ball and chain, others were ironed for selling medicines to ill Confederates…the whole population were given the choice to perjure themselves, or starve. The slaves, after New Orleans was taken, were driven from their homes, or if left undisturbed were forced to work under bayonet guard on the plantations…” [Memoirs, II, 369-370]

3. Questions to Answer: (Keep higher order thinking skills in mind, i.e. Bloom’s Taxonomy – see handout in this resource packet)

Bloom’s Taxonomy Examples Goal: Move learning beyond facts and dates to higher levels of analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.

Knowledge describe, identify, list, define, name

Comprehension compare, interpret, contrast, group, summarize, explain, paraphrase, restate

Application apply, classify, illustrate, relate, chart, determine

Analysis analyze, arrange, connect, infer, breakdown, correlate, diagram, outline, prioritize

Synthesis combine, compose, generalize, modify, create, formulate, anticipate

Evaluation assess, rank, conclude, judge, support, criticize, defend, persuade, justify

Civil War Documents Provided by Professor Carol Berkin

Document #1: L. Maria Child to Gov. Wise [Oct. 26, 1859] LETTER TO GOV. WISE. Wayland, Mass., Oct. 26th, 1859. Governor Wise: I have heard that you were a man of chivalrous sentiments, and I know you were opposed to the iniquitous attempt to force upon Kansas a Constitution abhorrent to the moral sense of her people. Relying upon these indications of honor and justice in your character, I venture to ask a favor of you. Enclosed is a letter to Capt. John Brown. Will you have the kindness, after reading it yourself, to transmit it to the prisoner? I and all my large circle of abolition acquaintances were taken by surprise when news came of Capt. Brown's recent attempt; nor do I know of a single person who would have approved of it, had they been apprised of his intention. But I and thousands of others feel a natural impulse of sympathy for the brave and suffering man. Perhaps God, who sees the inmost of our souls, perceives some such sentiment in your heart also. He needs a mother or sister to dress his wounds, and speak soothingly to him. Will you allow me to perform that mission of humanity? If you will, may God bless you for the generous deed! I have been for years an uncompromising Abolitionist, and I should scorn to deny it or apologize for it as much as John Brown himself would do. Believing in peace principles, I deeply regret the step that the old veteran has taken, while I honor his humanity towards those who became his prisoners. But because it is my habit to be as open as the daylight, I will also say, that if I believed our religion justified men in fighting for freedom, I should consider the enslaved every where as best entitled to that right. Such an avowal is a simple, frank expression of my sense of natural justice. But I should despise myself utterly if any circumstances could tempt me to seek to advance these opinions in any way, directly or indirectly, after your permission to visit Virginia has been obtained on the plea of sisterly sympathy with a brave and suffering man. I give you my word of honor, which was never broken, that I would use such permission solely and singly for the purpose of nursing your prisoner, and for no other purpose whatsoever. Yours, respectfully, .......... L. MARIA CHILD.

Document #2: Letter from Martha Coffin Wright to Charles Pelham [20 December 1860] (from the Garrison Family Papers, Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College)

Introduction In the following letter, Martha Wright responded to her nephew Charles Pelham’s letter about the election of Lincoln and secession. Although his letter had clearly angered her, Martha stated that Charles possessed the “same undoubted right” to his opinions as she had to hers, and ended the letter “with much love.” She also sent him information on the other cause of great interest to her, the woman’s rights movement. Auburn, Dec. 20, 1860 My dear nephew: The receipt of your letter, after so long a silence, gave me great pleasure, even tho’ I must still differ from you in sentiment as earnestly as ever. I have often thought of you with the affectionate regard that I must ever cherish for all your family, and have felt the impulse to write, but how did I know that my letter coming from the North, would escape the surveillance of your Vigilance Committees, and that it might not subject you to the annoyance of questionings from those miscreants, if it did not bring upon you some severer ordeal? Many a man as innocent as yourself of any abolition proclivities, has been somewhat roughly handled for the possession of documents less “incendiary” than my letters. It is hard for us of the North to understand how high-spirited Young America at the South, can tamely submit to the tyranny, that suppresses freedom of speech, violates the sacredness of correspondence, and compels to an ignominious silence every man who doubts the wisdom of the present revolutionary movements at the South. As to the election of Lincoln, I am not so much delighted as you imagine, because I do not feel at all sure that he has the courage to meet the present emergency, and that he will not by a temporizing policy, and a mean spirit of compromise, put back the day of universal emancipation for the masters as well as the slaves of the South. While you are prohibited by a despotism worse than Austrian, from welcoming your relatives and friends from the Free States, it is tantalizing for you to express the wish that Marianna and myself were “settled at the South,” and cruel to say “till then a long farewell,” when you know, that delightful as a visit to you, and to that beautiful region would be, if we could shut our eyes to the horrors of slavery, the moment of our advent would be signalized by impertinent questioning from an irresponsible mob, and an ignominious departure insisted on, accompanied perhaps by cruelties, that you, with all your kindness, and your generous and loving nature, would be utterly powerless to prevent:--and this, while insisting on the “compromises of a Constitution” that guarantees to citizens of each state, equal rights in every other state. In your immediate neighborhood, such things may not have occurred, but if you are permitted to see any Northern papers, whose editors dare to speak like freemen, you must be aware of the repeated occurrences, in New Orleans and elsewhere, to which I allude. You regret that we live North of 36°-30"as you “shall rejoice to hear of the bread mobs etc. at the North”--I know that you do not wish that we individually should be

subjected to mob violence, any more than we wish that you, personally, may be the sharers in the inevitable bankrupsy that will result from a persistence in the present course of the South; – or a sufferer from the pestilence and famine that are said to tread on the heels of War, and that are now dimly foreshadowed;--or from the negro insurrections that are sure to arise, and to be successful, the moment the North with-holds the protection hitherto guaranteed to the South. I am astonished at the blindness that leads you to speak of “the spirit of our forefathers to resist oppression, and to throw off the chains which would make them the slaves of a tyrannizing majority,” when you remember that the blood of those forefathers runs in the veins of innumerable slaves, as is unmistakably indicated in their complexion, and that their growing intelligence, makes the motto “Resistance to tyrants, is obedience to God” full of significance. Therefore I am sorry you did not carry out your intention of going to the Northwest, taking your “few negroes” instead of selling them, to convince you, as grateful freemen, requited for their labor, than as irresponsible, hopeless slaves. Very many at the North, are ready to welcome peaceable secession, if that were practicable, as the inevitable precursor of emancipation, and as a fore-runner of a new confederacy of all the states that would be “uncursed by the blood of slaves.” No apology is needed for the freedom of expression in your former letters, to which we both have the same undoubted right. I only regret that you do not see as clearly as Jefferson did, the inevitable result of conflict between wrong and injustice on the one hand, and the eternal and unchanging principle of right, on the other. But if you wait until “Alabama takes a high position among the Nations of the Earth,” I shall hardly live to offer my congratulations on your conversion. Your brother John[A] has graduated at West Point, I suppose, before this time; But I thought that Lieutenants graduated from there had to serve a few years in the U. S. Army. Has he seceded? We hoped to see him before his return to the South. We have not heard from the family in Ky.[B] nor from your Uncle William[C] in a long time. Thomas and Marianna and their three little girls, are well. You asked me in a former letter to recommend to you some publication from which you could learn the present position of the Woman's Rights movement. I send herewith a copy of the Proceedings of the last Convention[D], which will give you the information you ask. With much love to yourself, and affectionate remembrance to your father,-whether in a united or divided confederacy, Affectionately Yr. Aunt Martha C. Wright

Document #3: Author: Angelina Grimké [1838 letter] Quotation: "Mere circumstances of sex does not give to man higher rights...than to women" During the 1830s, a growing number of female abolitionists became convinced that women suffered legal and economic disabilities similar to those facing enslaved African Americans. Not only were women denied the right to vote and hold public office, they had no access to higher education and were excluded from most professional occupations. American law accepted the principle that a wife had no legal identity apart from her husband. She could not sue, she could not make a legal contract, nor could she own property. She was not permitted to control her own wages or gain custody of her children in case of separation or divorce. In this selection, Angelina Grimké explains how the struggle against slavery sensitized female abolitionists to other, more subtle forms of bondage and coercion. The investigation of the rights of the slave has led me to a better understanding of my own. I have fought the Anti-Slavery cause to be the high school of morals in our land--the school in which human rights are more fully investigated, and better understood and taught, than in any other....Human beings have rights, because they are moral beings: the rights of all men grow out of their moral nature; and as all men have the same moral nature, they have essentially the same rights. These rights may be wrested from the slave, but they cannot be alienated.... Now if rights are founded in the nature of our moral being, then the mere circumstances of sex does not give to man higher rights and responsibilities, than to women.... To suppose that it does, would be to break up utterly the relations, of the two natures...exalting the animal nature into a monarch, and humbling the moral into a slave.... The regulation of duty by the mere circumstance of sex, rather than by the fundamental principle of moral being, has led to all that multifarious train of evils flowing out of the anti-christian doctrine of masculine and feminine virtues. By this doctrine, man has been converted into the warrior, and clothed with sternness...whilst woman has been taught to...sit as a dollar arrayed in "gold, and pearls, and costly array," to be admired for her personal charms, and carssed and humored like a spoiled child, or converted into a mere drudge to suit the convenience of her lord and master.... This principle has given to man a charter for the exercise of tyranny and selfishness, pride and arrogance, lust and brutal violence.... Instead of being a helpmeet to man, as a companion, a co-worker, an equal; she has been a mere appendage of his being, an instrument of his convenicence and pleasure, the pretty toy with which he whiled away his leisure moments, or the pet animal whom he humored into playfulness and submission.... Dost thou ask me, if I would wish to see woman engaged in t e contention and strife of sectarian controversy, or in the intrigues of political partizans? I say no! never-never. I rejoice that she does not stand on the same platform which man now occupies in these respects; but I mourn, also, that he should thus prostitute his higher nature, and vilely cast away his birthright. Angelina Emily Grimke, Letter XII (October 2, 1837), Letters to Catherine E. Beecher (Boston: I. Knapp, 1838)

Document #4: Martha Stewart Speech [1831]: "Religion And The Pure Principles Of Morality, The Sure Foundation On Which We Must Build." The following is an excerpt from a speech given by African American abolitionist Maria Stewart in Boston in 1831. I was born in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1803; was left an orphan at five years of age; was bound out in a clergyman's family; had the seeds of piety and virtue early sown in my mind; but was deprived of the advantages of education, though my soul thirsted for knowledge. Left them at 15 years of age; attended Sabbath Schools until I was 20; in 1826, was married to James W. Stewart; was left a widow in 1829; was, as I humbly hope and trust, brought to the knowledge of the truth, as it is in Jesus, in 1830; in 1831, made a public profession of my faith in Christ. From the moment I experienced the change, I felt a strong desire, with the help and assistance of God, to devote the remainder of my days to piety and virtue, and now possess that spirit of independence, that, were I called upon, I would willingly sacrifice my life for the cause of God and my brethren. All the nations of the earth are crying out for Liberty and Equality. Away, away with tyranny and oppression! And shall Africa's sons be silent any longer? Far be it from me to recommend to you, either to kill, burn, or destroy. But I would strongly recommend to you, to improve your talents; let not one lie buried in the earth. Show forth your powers of mind. Prove to the world, that: Though black your skins as shades of night, Your hearts are pure, your souls are white. I am of a strong opinion, that the day on which we unite, heart and soul, and turn our attention to knowledge and improvement, that day the hissing and reproach among the nations of the earth against us will cease. And even those who now point at us with the finger of scorn, will aid and befriend us. It is of no use for us to sit with our hands folded, hanging our heads like bulrushes, lamenting our wretched condition; but let us make a mighty effort, and arise; and if no one will promote or respect us, let us promote and respect ourselves. The American ladies have the honor conferred on them, that by prudence and economy in their domestic concerns, and their unwearied attention [in] forming the minds and manners of their children, they laid the foundation of their becoming what they now are. The good women of Wethersfield, Conn. toiled in the blazing sun, year after year, weeding onions, then sold the seed and procured money enough to erect them a house of worship; and shall we not imitate their examples, as far as they are worthy of imitation? Why cannot we do something to distinguish ourselves, and contribute some of our hard earnings that would reflect honor upon our memories, and cause our children to arise and call us blessed? Shall it any longer be said of the daughters of Africa, they have no ambition, they have no force? By no means. Let every female heart become united, and let us raise a fund ourselves; and at the end of the one year and a half, we might be able to lay the corner-stone for the building of a High School, that the higher branches of

knowledge might be enjoyed by us; and God would raise us up, and enough to aid us in our laudable designs. Document #5: Josephine Griffing Petition to Congress, [May 1864]HR38AG10.5, Records of the House of Representatives, RG 233, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C. Petitioning was one of the only political outlets for women, as they were denied the right to vote. Anti-slavery women undertook massive petition campaigns before and during the Civil War calling for the abolition of slavery. Josephine Griffing continued the tradition with this petition to the House of Representatives, which asked that Northern and Western women be given special responsibility during the war for the care and education of freedwomen and children. Griffing believed that women would better understand the needs of freedwomen and she envisioned women acting as ministers, teachers, doctors, and providing for the general welfare of these former slaves. She hoped that Congress would give women's work in the freedmen's aid movement governmental approval. THIS MEMORIAL, Representing a large number of the Women of the Republic, who see before your honorable body proposed legislation, looking to the recognition of the manhood of the millions of American people, heretofore slaves in this nation, but now, by the Government made free; aware that the Government is at present burdened, and the men of our country over-taxed with labor and care, necessarily imposed upon those not called into the army. Your memorialists, women of the North and North-West, pray that you will allow us to share more fully in the responsibility and labor, so remarkably laid upon the Government and the men of the North, in the care and education of these freedmen. Government having called the able-bodied men from this emancipated race into the service of the country, their women and children are necessarily exposed and unprotected, and demand and must receive, from the hands of Government, through its appointed agents, such aid as their transmission from slavery to freedom under the above named circumstances demands. These Freedmen's Associations being composed mainly of women and children, whose wants and necessities are fully understood by your memorialists, we ask you to commission us through competent agents to visit these associations to ascertain their condition; to raise funds in the North to supply their needs; to select teachers who are qualified to instruct in all branches of practical education, both of mind and of womanhood--aiming at the direct development of self -reliance and self support, and appoint them to certain associations and specific work; to provide physicians for their hospitals, of either women or men, who are qualified to treat disease on the most safe and natural system, according to the judgement of your memorialists; and to send to them ministers, either men or women, who can simplify religious instruction to the comprehension of those so lately escaping from centuries of gross ignorance, not only of the principles of religion, but of the art of reading--in short, to look after, and secure the general welfare of these women and children of the

freedmen, associated in the various States of the South and West, where they are now, or may be hereafter appointed by the Government to remain. Your memorialists pray further, that you will grant us such commission at the earliest practicable moment, that we may offer the necessary inducement to organization for this specific work, and be able from your commission to give transport to teachers, ministers and physicians, as well as necessary supplies of clothing for these associations, already suffering for want of attention and the common comforts of life. In behalf of the country whose imperious calls for labor and self-sacrifice appeal to all her citizens; and in behalf of our sisters so long held in bondage by chattel slavery in this country. Yours Respectfully, JOSEPHINE S. GRIFFING [with 33 signatures]

Primary Source Activity for Professor Berkin’s Civil War Documents: L. Maria Child to Gov. Wise [Oct. 26, 1859] 1. Historical Background:

2: Primary Source: LETTER TO GOV. WISE. Wayland, Mass., Oct. 26th, 1859. .... I and all my large circle of abolition acquaintances were taken by surprise when news came of Capt. Brown's recent attempt; nor do I know of a single person who would have approved of it, had they been apprised of his intention. But I and thousands of others feel a natural impulse of sympathy for the brave and suffering man. Perhaps God, who sees the inmost of our souls, perceives some such sentiment in your heart also. He needs a mother or sister to dress his wounds, and speak soothingly to him. Will you allow me to perform that mission of humanity? If you will, may God bless you for the generous deed! .... 2. Questions to Answer: