Women’s Slave Narratives
by Annie L. Burton and Others
Unflinching accounts of slavery in the antebellum American South are presented in moving testimonies of five African-American women. Covering a wide range of narrative styles, the voices provide authentic recollections of hardship, frustration, and hope — from Mary Prince’s groundbreaking account of a lone woman’s tribulations and courage to Annie Burton’s eulogy to motherhood.
![Lucy, ca.1845. Copyprint of daguerreotype. Courtesy of Mason County Museum, Maysville, Kentucky [via the Library of Congress]
Lucy Cottrell was born the daughter of Dorothea (Dolly) Cottrell, a house servant at Monticello. After Thomas Jefferson’s death in 1826, Lucy was sold at auction and became the property of George Blaetterman, a professor at the University of Virginia. After Blaetterman’s death (ca. 1850), Dolly and Lucy went to Kentucky with the professor’s widow, who freed them five years later.
In this image, Lucy Cottrell is holding Charlotte, Blaetterman’s foster son’s daughter.](http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/jefferson/images/vc12.jpg)
Lucy, ca.1845. Copyprint of daguerreotype. Courtesy of Mason County Museum, Maysville, Kentucky [via the Library of Congress]
Lucy Cottrell was born the daughter of Dorothea (Dolly) Cottrell, a house servant at Monticello. After Thomas Jefferson’s death in 1826, Lucy was sold at auction and became the property of George Blaetterman, a professor at the University of Virginia. After Blaetterman’s death (ca. 1850), Dolly and Lucy went to Kentucky with the professor’s widow, who freed them five years later.
In this image, Lucy Cottrell is holding Charlotte, Blaetterman’s foster son’s daughter.
Closer to Freedom: Enslaved Women and Everyday Resistance in the Plantation South (Gender and American Culture)
by Stephanie M. H. Camp
Recent scholarship on slavery has explored the lives of enslaved people beyond the watchful eye of their masters. Building on this work and the study of space, social relations, gender, and power in the Old South, Stephanie Camp examines the everyday containment and movement of enslaved men and, especially, enslaved women. In her investigation of the movement of bodies, objects, and information, Camp extends our recognition of slave resistance into new arenas and reveals an important and hidden culture of opposition.
Camp discusses the multiple dimensions to acts of resistance that might otherwise appear to be little more than fits of temper. She brings new depth to our understanding of the lives of enslaved women, whose bodies and homes were inevitably political arenas. Through Camp’s insight, truancy becomes an act of pursuing personal privacy. Illegal parties (“frolics”) become an expression of bodily freedom. And bondwomen who acquired printed abolitionist materials and posted them on the walls of their slave cabins (even if they could not read them) become the subtle agitators who inspire more overt acts.
The culture of opposition created by enslaved women’s acts of everyday resistance helped foment and sustain the more visible resistance of men in their individual acts of running away and in the collective action of slave revolts. Ultimately, Camp argues, the Civil War years saw revolutionary change that had been in the making for decades.
I’m closing out Women’s History month with a post about someone I actually knew, my grandmother’s best friend, Jean Moore Fasse.
Mrs. Fasse was born in Lillington, North Carolina, in 1908 and was raised on a Harnett County farm. She worked as a nanny while attending high school and enrolled at Fayetteville State Teachers College (now Fayetteville State University). That’s where she and my grandmother met. They both earned teaching degrees. My grandmother accepted a position at a one-room school in rural Harnett County. Mrs. Fasse’s first teaching job was in a one-room school in Goldsboro, NC. My grandmother spent her career in education, but her friend decided teaching was not her calling.
In 1944, Mrs. Fasse joined the American Red Cross and was sent to Washington, D.C., for training. After training, she was stationed along the Ledo Road, a supply lifeline from India to China, built by the U.S. Army in World War II. She spent time in Calcutta, India and Burma. After the war, Mrs. Fasse returned to the States, but traveling was in her blood by then.
She signed up for the U.S. Special Services and was trained to run recreation clubs in Europe. She spent many years working in Germany, until she married in 1963. She remained in Europe until 1990.
Mrs. Fasse’s visits were always exciting. She was vivacious, quick-witted and sophisticated. And she always had lots of stories to tell. As a child who was curious by nature, she made me want to see the world myself.
The last time I saw Mrs. Fasse was after my grandmother’s funeral in 2002. She spent some time with our family, talking about the friendship she shared with my grandmother. They had a lot in common. They were both adventurous, independent, strong-willed women who thrived on breaking barriers.
Jean Fasse died on June 21, 2008.
Source: Jean Moore Fasse Papers, Jackson Library, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Photo: Jean Fasse in Indian dress, circa 1946
Born on July 22, 1939 in Central Point, Virginia, the soft-spoken, introverted Mildred Delores Jeter became a reluctant Civil Rights activist in the 1960s. Mildred fell in love with Richard Loving at a time when Virginia law banned interracial marriage. Mildred was of African-American and Rappahannock Indian descent. Richard was white. The couple married despite the law. They hung their marriage certificate in their bedroom.
In 1958, the Carolina County sheriff raided the Loving’s home, bursting into the bedroom where Richard and a pregnant Mildred were sleeping. The couple was arrested and forced to leave the state. They relocated to Washington, D.C., returning to Virginia only occasionally to visit friends and family.
But the Lovings never stopped yearning for their home. And in 1963, they began the journey back. Mildred wrote Attorney General Robert Kennedy to ask for his help. Kennedy referred the couple to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Two ACLU lawyers took on the Lovings as clients. Their case eventually went to the US Supreme Court, and on June 12, 1967, the court struck down Virginia’s Racial Integrity Act. Mildred, Richard and their children returned to Virginia.
“We loved each other and got married,” Mildred later reflected. “We are not marrying the state. The law should allow a person to marry anyone he wants.”
________________
Photo: Encyclopedia of Virginia; Richard and Mildred Loving, their daughter Peggy, Mildred’s sister Garnet, and Richard’s mother Lola, on the porch of Mildred’s mother’s house; April 1965, Caroline County. Taken by Grey Villet for Life magazine.
In 1950, Juanita Hall (November 6, 1901 - February 28, 1968) became the first African American to win a Tony Award. The Julliard-trained singer won the award for her role as “Bloody Mary” in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific. In addition to her work on Broadway, Hall performed in concert, in films, and on the radio. In 1958, she reprised Bloody Mary in the film version of South Pacific. She was the only cast member from the original Broadway production to appear in the film. Her voice was dubbed by Muriel Smith, the African American singer who created the role of Carmen Jones on Broadway. The same year, Hall played another Asian character— “Auntie Liang”— in another Rodgers and Hammerstein production, Flower Drum Song.
Photo credit: “Juanita Hall singing ‘Happy Times’ in South Pacific”, Carl Van Vechten, March 26, 1953.
Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Click here to listen to Juanita Hall sing “Bali H’ai”, from the original 1949 Broadway cast recording of South Pacific.
When Ella G. Brown (pictured, center) joined the Hartford, Connecticut Police Department in 1943, she became the state’s first black police officer. Brown spent 26 years in law enforcement, focusing her efforts on preventative and protective work with women and children. In addition to her work in law enforcement, Brown co-founded a travel service and served as executive director of a senior center in North Hartford. During her lifetime, she earned numerous honors and recognition for her civic service and achievements.
Source: Hartford History Center, Hartford Public Library
TONI STONE
aka Marcenia Lyle Alberga
Toni Stone maybe one of the best ballplayer you’ve never heard of.
As a teenager she played with the local boy’s teams,in St.Paul, Minnesota. During World War ll she moved to San Francisco, playing first with an American Legion team, and then with the San Francisco Sea Lions, a black, semi-pro barnstorming team. She drove in two runs in her first time up at bat. She didn’t feel that the owner was paying her what they’d originally agreed on, so when the team played in New Orleans, she jumped ship and joined the Black Pelicans. From there she went to the New Orleans Creoles, part of the Negro League minors, where she made $300 a month in 1949.The local press reported that she made several unassisted double plays, and batted .265.( Although the all American Girls Baseball League was active at the time, Toni Stone was not eligible to play. The AAGBL was a “white only” League, so Toni played on otherwise all-male teams. In 1953, Syd Pollack, owner of the Indianapolis Clowns, signed Toni to play second base, a position that had been recently vacated when Hank Aaron was signed by the Boston (soon to be Milwaukee) Braves. Toni became the first woman to play in the Negro Leagues. The Clowns had begun as a gimmick team, much like the Harlem Globetrotters, known as much for their showmanship as their playing. But by the 50’s they had toned down their antics and were playing straight baseball.
Although Pollack claimed he signed Toni Stone for her skill as a player, not as a publicity stunt, having her on the team didn’t hurt revenues, which had been declining steadily since Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in the Majors, and many young black players left the Negro Leagues.
She played the 1954 season for the Monarchs, but she could read the hand writing on the wall. The Negro Leagues were coming to an end, so she retired at the end of the season. She was inducted into the Women’s Sports Hall of Fame in 1993. She is Honored in two separate sections in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown; the “Women in Baseball” exhibit, and the Negro Leagues section.Jackie who?
Incredible.
Bridget “Biddy” Mason (August 15, 1818 – January 15, 1891) was an African American nurse and midwife and a Californian real estate entrepreneur and philanthropist.
Mason was born into slavery in Georgia. She was given to Robert Smith and his wife as a wedding present. After the Smiths became Mormons, they migrated to the Utah territory, taking their slaves with them. In 1851, Smith decided to move to California to establish a Mormon community in San Bernardino. Once in California, Mason managed to escape from her owner, along with Smith’s other slaves. Smith pursued them and tried to recapture them. But Mason sued for and won her freedom in a Los Angeles court, along with the freedom of her three daughters and the other slaves who escaped with them. California had been admitted to the Union in 1850 as a free state and slavery was forbidden there.
Mason settled with her family in Los Angeles and began working as a nurse and midwife. After ten years, she used her savings to purchase land there. Mason was one of the first black women to own land in Los Angeles. Over time, she wisely developed and managed her real estate holdings and eventually amassed a fortune of nearly $300,000.
As highly regarded as Mason was for her business acumen, her true calling was philanthropy. She used the money to feed, clothe and house poor people in her community. She helped establish a traveler’s aid center and an elementary school for black children. She was one of the founders of Los Angeles’ first black church, donating the land upon which the First African Methodist Episcopal Church was built.
To honor her achievements, every year on November 16, the City of Los Angeles celebrates Biddy Mason Day. In 2002, Mason was inducted in the California Social Work Hall of Distinction.
Photo: Bridget “Biddy” Mason, Los Angeles Public Library, Miriam Matthews Collection
Representative Carrie Meek’s shirt reads: “A women’s place is in the House and the Senate.”
Carrie Meek (b. April 29, 1926) wore this prophetic T-shirt in the Florida House chamber in 1980, where she served from 1978 to 1983. In 1982, she became the first African-American woman elected to the Florida Senate. Meek later served in the United States Congress (1992-2001). Prior to her career in politics, she taught at Bethune-Cookman College in Daytona Beach and Florida A&M University in Tallahassee.
Meek’s son, Kendrick Meek (b. September 6, 1966), was the U.S. Representative for Florida’s 17th congressional district from 2003 to 2011. He was the Democratic nominee in the 2010 Senate election for the seat of Mel Martinez, but he and Independent Charlie Crist lost in a three-way race to Republican Marco Rubio.
Private First Class Johnnie Mae Welton, Women’s Army Corps, a laboratory technician trainee, conducts an experiment in the serology laboratory at Fort Jackson Station Hospital, Fort Jackson, South Carolina.
March 20, 1944. Jensen, photographer.
National Archives and Records Administration
During World War II, 6,520 black women served in what became the Women’s Army Corps (WAC). The US Army’s specialist and technical training schools were integrated in 1943, but enlisted women served in segregated units, participated in segregated training, lived in separate quarters, ate at separate tables, and used separate recreational facilities. Following World War II, racial and gender discrimination and segregation persisted in the military. By June 1948, only 125 African American women served in the WAC, four officers and 121 enlisted. After President Truman integrated the armed forces by signing Executive Order 9981 on July 26, 1948, WACs began integrated training and living in April 1950.
Top photo: Studio portrait of sculptor Edmonia Lewis, ca. 1870s; Henry Rocher, photographer; Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Cartes-de-visite collection
Bottom photo: The Death of Cleopatra by Edmonia Lewis, marble, 1867, collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum
Much of Edmonia Lewis’ early life is unknown. She is believed to have been born some time between 1840 and 1845, the daughter of an Ojibwa (Chippewa) mother and a free black father from the West Indies. Her parents died when she was very young and her older brother Samuel provided guidance and material support for her.
Lewis attended Oberlin College but left before completing her studies. After an apprenticeship with a master sculptor in Boston, Massachusetts, she opened her own studio. She used the money she earned from selling portraits of abolitionists— plus funds from Samuel— to finance a trip to Italy, where she had dreamed of studying and working. By 1880, she had settled there permanently, returning to the US frequently to show and sell her work. She gained international acclaim for her portraits of abolitionists and for her depictions of ethnic and religious themes.
By the turn of the 20th century, the neoclassical genre Lewis favored became less popular, and she faded into obscurity. She never married and had no known children. The details of where and when Lewis died remained a mystery until fairly recently. However, in 2011, a British historian an African American cultural historian named Marilyn Richardson uncovered evidence that indicated the artist was living in London when she died on September 17, 1907.
For more information about Edmonia Lewis, please visit her biographer’s website at http://edmonialewis.com/.
Sojourner Truth (1797-1883)
Delivered May 29, 1851
Women’s Convention, Akron, Ohio
Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter. I think that ‘twixt the negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what’s all this here talking about?
That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain’t I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain’t I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! And ain’t I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother’s grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain’t I a woman?
Then they talk about this thing in the head; what’s this they call it? [member of audience whispers, “intellect”] That’s it, honey. What’s that got to do with women’s rights or negroes’ rights? If my cup won’t hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn’t you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full?
Then that little man in black there, he says women can’t have as much rights as men, ‘cause Christ wasn’t a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.
If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back , and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.
Obliged to you for hearing me, and now old Sojourner ain’t got nothing more to say.
Click here to listen to a reading of the speech by author Alice Walker. Part of a reading from Voices of a People’s History of the United States, November 11, 2006 in Berkeley, California.
Beverly Loraine Greene (1915 - 1957) is believed to have been the first licensed black woman architect in the United States. The Chicago native earned a Bachelor’s degree in architectural engineering and a Master’s degree in city planning and housing from the University of Illinois. She also completed a Master’s degree in architecture from Columbia University.
Greene spent her career working for a number of notable architecture firms, shattering glass ceilings along the way. Among her accomplishments were work she did on the arts complex at Sarah Lawrence College, a theater at the University of Arkansas and contributions to the UNESCO UN headquarters in Paris, France.
These are the images and accounts of how people worked, raised families, built communities, worshiped, maintained relationships, expressed themselves and coped with changes and challenges in the past. Most of the subjects are Americans of African descent.
"Know from whence you came. If you know whence you came, there are absolutely no limitations to where you can go." — James Baldwin
