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Re: Welcome Tonya Bolden!
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From: Tonya Bolden <tonbolden_at_aol.com>
Date: Wed, 25 Jun 2014 17:14:06 -0400
Hello, All!
Thanks so much for your interest in my work! OK . . .
Voice: A couple things were on my mind. I knew up front that I would use the F Douglass quote about the wait at Tremont Temple. As you picked up on, I thought that there was a need for the book because many today tend to look at the EP in terms of what is wasn't. They focus on the letter of the law not the spirit of the law--and what abolitionists and enslaved people made of it.
I once was "they." But over the years while researching other books, I read of people like Douglass and Harper praising/revering the EP. I came across photographs of parades on anniversaries of the EP. One day it dawned on me that if the EP mattered to likes of Frederick Douglass who am I to dismiss it?
With all this in my head, and probably re-reading Douglass' account, it dawned on me that Lincoln could have not issued the EP. Sometimes you have to "make it strange"--forget what you know.
I thought about what it must have been like for abolitionists and enslaved people (who had access to the grapevine) to wait those 100 days btwn the preliminary EP to the final.
I put myself in their shoes, in their minds, in their hearts. That in turn had me thinking about how long a wait it was for the end of slavery--centuries!
That makes you really stop and think about the all the blood, sweat, and tears spent on ending slavery. So next thing I knew I was looking at laws like the Missouri Compromise from the POV of people who stood against slavery.
As I meditated on Douglass's account, I realized, well of course there were people elsewhere in Boston and elsewhere in the nation waiting for the EP. So I went in search of some.
I knew I was going out on a limb with the "We" and the whole structure. Thankfully my editor didn't think I went too far out.
Agency of black people: Yes I wanted to stress that b/c in a book published not that long ago an author suggested that during the Civil War enslaved blacks really didn't know what was going on. OK maybe not in some parts of the Deep South, but not all were clueless. When I spoke to a group of educators about EP, one admitted that he found it hard to believe that there was a grapevine. He meant no offense but he couldn't fathom it. I reminded him of how often even today wealthy powerful people say all kinds of things within earshot of their domestic workers, imagining that these people aren't listening/understanding. I reminded him of enslaved people learning to read on the sly. And of the mobility of many in cities, esp those who were allowed to hire themselves out. And there's the role of black sailors.
Basically it starts with recognizing the humanity: If any of us were being held against our will wouldn't we be trying to escape, get information? Don't people in prisons get messages in and out--and contraband? So how could any of us think that people enslaved in the 19th century wouldn't have done the same things? It's human to want to be free.
On Lincoln: I have concluded that he is a Sphinx. As one scholar said, he can be anything you want him to be. Another reason people have dismissed the EP is because they have discovered that Lincoln had some disturbing views. So they throw out the baby with the bathwater.
Complexity: Yes, I believe we need to teach our children that there are complexities. How can there not be? Few history makers are pure angels or pure devils. And politics is so about complexity. This is why in my book on the New Deal I included that FDR said no to supporting an antilynching bill, for political reasons. And of course the FDR who pushed for social security also had Japanese and other Americans interned during the war.
It's complicated.
One of my favorite pullquotes in that book is the following from Paul Conkin: "Only with trepidation will students of history try to judge the results of the New Deal. . . . But judge they must, not to whip the past but to use it."
This is what we must instill in our children: to learn from the past, use it to make this present era better.
When I discussed EP with some students at a school in Queens, some were very hard on Lincoln. I stressed that the need to keep border states in the Union was real. I reminded them that the majority of whites in the North were not abolitionists, and many not even antislavery. I was trying to get them to stop and really grasp all that Lincoln was grappling with.
I asked these students if there are injustices in our society today, then tried to get them to see that they will persist if they and I and a lot of other people do not get involved in righting the wrongs. We can't look to a president or any other individual to do it.
Something I learned that surprised me: I can't remember all but they include
1. how much energy Lincoln put into colonization. Some have dismissed it as just a ploy/a head fake. After the research I became convinced that at one point he was very serious about it. I found no evidence that he had plans to straight up deport black people as some have suggested.
2. that the concern about Britain and other nations entering on the side of the CSA has been overblown.
I should say that when it comes to Lincoln one of the scholars I trust the most is Eric Foner. I think he's honest. He doesn't demonize Lincoln. He doesn't make excuses for him. As I see it, he simply tells the truth.
Again, I thank you for your time. In future I'll try not to be so longwinded.
Apologies for typos and grammar goofs.
Tonya
On Jun 25, 2014, at 10:05 AM, Megan Schliesman wrote:
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Received on Wed 25 Jun 2014 04:14:31 PM CDT
Date: Wed, 25 Jun 2014 17:14:06 -0400
Hello, All!
Thanks so much for your interest in my work! OK . . .
Voice: A couple things were on my mind. I knew up front that I would use the F Douglass quote about the wait at Tremont Temple. As you picked up on, I thought that there was a need for the book because many today tend to look at the EP in terms of what is wasn't. They focus on the letter of the law not the spirit of the law--and what abolitionists and enslaved people made of it.
I once was "they." But over the years while researching other books, I read of people like Douglass and Harper praising/revering the EP. I came across photographs of parades on anniversaries of the EP. One day it dawned on me that if the EP mattered to likes of Frederick Douglass who am I to dismiss it?
With all this in my head, and probably re-reading Douglass' account, it dawned on me that Lincoln could have not issued the EP. Sometimes you have to "make it strange"--forget what you know.
I thought about what it must have been like for abolitionists and enslaved people (who had access to the grapevine) to wait those 100 days btwn the preliminary EP to the final.
I put myself in their shoes, in their minds, in their hearts. That in turn had me thinking about how long a wait it was for the end of slavery--centuries!
That makes you really stop and think about the all the blood, sweat, and tears spent on ending slavery. So next thing I knew I was looking at laws like the Missouri Compromise from the POV of people who stood against slavery.
As I meditated on Douglass's account, I realized, well of course there were people elsewhere in Boston and elsewhere in the nation waiting for the EP. So I went in search of some.
I knew I was going out on a limb with the "We" and the whole structure. Thankfully my editor didn't think I went too far out.
Agency of black people: Yes I wanted to stress that b/c in a book published not that long ago an author suggested that during the Civil War enslaved blacks really didn't know what was going on. OK maybe not in some parts of the Deep South, but not all were clueless. When I spoke to a group of educators about EP, one admitted that he found it hard to believe that there was a grapevine. He meant no offense but he couldn't fathom it. I reminded him of how often even today wealthy powerful people say all kinds of things within earshot of their domestic workers, imagining that these people aren't listening/understanding. I reminded him of enslaved people learning to read on the sly. And of the mobility of many in cities, esp those who were allowed to hire themselves out. And there's the role of black sailors.
Basically it starts with recognizing the humanity: If any of us were being held against our will wouldn't we be trying to escape, get information? Don't people in prisons get messages in and out--and contraband? So how could any of us think that people enslaved in the 19th century wouldn't have done the same things? It's human to want to be free.
On Lincoln: I have concluded that he is a Sphinx. As one scholar said, he can be anything you want him to be. Another reason people have dismissed the EP is because they have discovered that Lincoln had some disturbing views. So they throw out the baby with the bathwater.
Complexity: Yes, I believe we need to teach our children that there are complexities. How can there not be? Few history makers are pure angels or pure devils. And politics is so about complexity. This is why in my book on the New Deal I included that FDR said no to supporting an antilynching bill, for political reasons. And of course the FDR who pushed for social security also had Japanese and other Americans interned during the war.
It's complicated.
One of my favorite pullquotes in that book is the following from Paul Conkin: "Only with trepidation will students of history try to judge the results of the New Deal. . . . But judge they must, not to whip the past but to use it."
This is what we must instill in our children: to learn from the past, use it to make this present era better.
When I discussed EP with some students at a school in Queens, some were very hard on Lincoln. I stressed that the need to keep border states in the Union was real. I reminded them that the majority of whites in the North were not abolitionists, and many not even antislavery. I was trying to get them to stop and really grasp all that Lincoln was grappling with.
I asked these students if there are injustices in our society today, then tried to get them to see that they will persist if they and I and a lot of other people do not get involved in righting the wrongs. We can't look to a president or any other individual to do it.
Something I learned that surprised me: I can't remember all but they include
1. how much energy Lincoln put into colonization. Some have dismissed it as just a ploy/a head fake. After the research I became convinced that at one point he was very serious about it. I found no evidence that he had plans to straight up deport black people as some have suggested.
2. that the concern about Britain and other nations entering on the side of the CSA has been overblown.
I should say that when it comes to Lincoln one of the scholars I trust the most is Eric Foner. I think he's honest. He doesn't demonize Lincoln. He doesn't make excuses for him. As I see it, he simply tells the truth.
Again, I thank you for your time. In future I'll try not to be so longwinded.
Apologies for typos and grammar goofs.
Tonya
On Jun 25, 2014, at 10:05 AM, Megan Schliesman wrote:
==== CCBC-Net Use ==== You are currently subscribed to ccbc-net as: ccbc-archive_at_post.education.wisc.edu.
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To access the archives, go to...
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Received on Wed 25 Jun 2014 04:14:31 PM CDT
