{"id":24759,"date":"2025-10-01T16:00:41","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T16:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/?p=24759"},"modified":"2026-06-08T22:00:50","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T22:00:50","slug":"power-publication-and-liberation-literature-of-the-american-civil-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/?p=24759","title":{"rendered":"Power, Publication, and Liberation: Literature of the American Civil War"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-getwid-tabs\" data-active-tab=\"0\"><ul class=\"wp-block-getwid-tabs__nav-links\"><\/ul>\n<div class=\"wp-block-getwid-tabs__nav-link\"><span class=\"wp-block-getwid-tabs__title-wrapper\"><a href=\"#\"><span class=\"wp-block-getwid-tabs__title\">Essay<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div><div class=\"wp-block-getwid-tabs__tab-content-wrapper\"><div class=\"wp-block-getwid-tabs__tab-content\">\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Introduction<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is difficult to fathom what it might have been like to live through the American Civil War. Between 1861 and 1865, 620,000 soldiers were killed, approximately 200,000 women were widowed, and at the close, four million enslaved persons were freed. The numbers are staggering but hard to picture. Thankfully, books, poems, newspapers, illustrations, and essays written by those who endured the war give us a window through which we might see how people lived, what their anxieties were, and how they imagined their communities might move forward.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cLiterature of the American Civil War\u201d explores a variety of texts published around or during the American Civil War, from approximately 1861-1865. This digital collection focuses on five main topics relating to the people who wrote and published during the war, their relationship to the war, and how they reflected on it: Abolitionist literature, types of publications, literature on the warfront, Southern voices, and reflections on the war. Questions that arose for these writers not only reflect fears about the war and the dissolution and reconstruction of the Union. They are also questions we still face today about what it means to be a free subject; what it means to be a citizen; what it means to do good; and what we can learn from conflict. At the center of these questions was the institution of slavery.\u202f&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Slavery had a profound impact on the lives of enslaved people and those forcing them into bondage. It also impacted those not living within the eleven states that seceded from the Union in 1861. Northern economics were tied up in slavery through cotton factories located in New England; New York City residents owned plantations in the south; Wall Street investments in shipping, manufacturing, and insurance industries were entwined with enslaved labor; Americans owned plantations abroad, like in Cuba and Mexico; and popular commodities like coffee, sugar, fabric, and tobacco were harvested by enslaved people. As slavery was economically everywhere, so too was it constantly on the minds of writers, who used the status of the enslaved to comprehend and define the concepts of liberty and oppression in their writing. To put it in simpler terms, any time an author of this period discussed freedom, they were thinking about the enslaved.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Because slavery had a profound impact on literature written during the Civil War, this essay begins with abolitionist literature written just before the war. What do these primary sources tell us about the world in which they were penned? What kinds of information can we learn from the printed word that we cannot learn elsewhere? How do different kinds of publications inform our interpretation of our own histories?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-995f960e wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:33.33%\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Essential Questions <\/h5>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:66.66%\">\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>How does literature produced in the American Civil War era reflect broader concerns of the historical moment of 1861-1865?&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What commonalities do these different literary artifacts share? What qualities make them different from each other? Consider the political stances depicted, the forms in which they are presented, the visuals accompanying them, and how these texts might be in conversation with each other.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>How is the Civil War remembered now? What kinds of messages about the Civil War are we aware of today that are rooted in these documents? What narratives about the Civil War are not represented in these documents?&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Abolitionist Literature<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Historians agree that the eleven states that formed the Confederacy seceded because they determined that the 1860 election of President Abraham Lincoln threatened the institution of slavery.\u202fLong before the war broke out, writers published hundreds of works over many decades aiming to abolish slavery.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To understand the literature published during the war, it is vital to examine the radical abolitionist literature that circulated in the years leading up to it. Newspapers, journals, tracts (small pamphlets), and books were the primary means by which nineteenth-century Americans learned about the political and moral structures of their society and expressed opinions and arguments about their world. Abolitionist literature was a genre of texts that had one thing in common: every text called for the abolition of slavery. However, these texts take a wide range of forms, including novels, short stories, personal essays, speeches, poems, opinion articles, book reviews, and the most impactful form, narratives of enslavement. Most abolitionist activism was rooted in Massachusetts, especially Boston, and New York, especially New York City and Rochester. The literature printed in these cities circulated throughout the United States, including in the South, where it was met with a firestorm of disapproval and threats of violence to abolitionist authors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Abolitionist Newspapers<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><em>The Liberator<\/em><\/h6>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8ZSWBKMVK?WS=AssetManagement\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"322\" src=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/995120458805867_order_a6_115_may_25_1855_pg_081-1024x322.jpg\" alt=\"Newspaper masthead. On the far left is a column of information about the paper, including its title, staff information, and information about payment. On the far right is a column of text entitled, &quot;No Union with Slaveholders!&quot; with a long quote from John Qunicy Adams about how the Constitution's 3\/5 compromise &quot;tainted&quot; the document. In the middle is a large illustration showing Jesus (white) appearing between a kneeling Black enslaved man and a cowering white enslaver. Around Jesus are rays of light and the words, &quot;I come to break the bonds of the oppressor.&quot; To the left of this tableau is an image of an auction block where a white man sells enslaved people and animals under an American flag. To the right is an image of a free Black family in a farmhouse and a crowd of Black people in the distance walking towards a gate labeled &quot;Emancipation.&quot; Below is the title of the paper, The Liberator, and the phrases &quot;thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself&quot; and &quot;our country is the world, our countrymen all mankind.&quot;\" class=\"wp-image-24650\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/995120458805867_order_a6_115_may_25_1855_pg_081-1024x322.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/995120458805867_order_a6_115_may_25_1855_pg_081-300x94.jpg 300w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/995120458805867_order_a6_115_may_25_1855_pg_081-768x242.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/995120458805867_order_a6_115_may_25_1855_pg_081-1536x484.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/995120458805867_order_a6_115_may_25_1855_pg_081-2048x645.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8ZSWBKMVK?WS=AssetManagement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Masthead of <em>The Liberator<\/em> (May 25, 1855)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-995f960e wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:33.33%\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Ask Students<\/h5>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:66.66%\">\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Look at the top of the newspaper. What kinds of images are depicted near the title? What do these images make you expect as you read the newspaper? For example, what do you think you will be reading about? Who will be the subjects of what you read? The authors? What kinds of tones do you expect to encounter (earnest, provocative, unsure, angry, ironic)?\u202f&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One influential abolitionist text is William Lloyd Garrison\u2019s weekly newspaper, <em>The Liberator<\/em>, which ran from 1831 until 1865 in Boston. <em>The Liberator<\/em> was the premier abolitionist newspaper and had a wide audience, including those who had escaped slavery. Frederick Douglass, perhaps the most famous formerly enslaved author, was an avid reader and would eventually eclipse Garrison with his own newspaper. Approximately three-quarters of Garrison\u2019s readers were African American, almost all living in the North. The newspaper contained articles about current events, like lectures; essays on the antislavery cause; and poems, letters, and advertisements for books. It emphasized religious and moral rejection of slavery through nonviolence.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-995f960e wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890FB_E?BRPN=3&amp;WS=AssetManagement\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"645\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/995120458805867_ord_a6_115_march_15_1861_pg_044_detail_01-645x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Poem entitled &quot;The Sword and the Pen,&quot; printed in newspaper reading, &quot;Say not the glittering, blood-stained sword\/ Is mightier than the pen,\/ Or wields a deeper, stronger power\/ Over the hearts of men.\/ The sword is mighty to destroy,\/ To shroud the earth in gloom,\/ To crowd with legions, red with gore,\/ The pathway to the tomb;\/ To crush the lonely widow's heart,\/ To wake the orphan's cry,\/ To fill the earth with wretchedness,\/ And crime of deepest dye.\/ But mightier far the peaceful pen,\/ Scattering the gems of mind,\/ Like precious seed throughout the earth,\/ To save and bless mankind.\/ And when from its destroying work\/ The gleaming sword shall rest,\/When with sweet peace and righteousness\/ The blooming earth is blest--\/ Then shall the pen assert its power,\/ And then mankind shall feel\/ That mightier is its influence\/ Than the sword's glittering steel.&quot;\" class=\"wp-image-24653\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/995120458805867_ord_a6_115_march_15_1861_pg_044_detail_01-645x1024.jpg 645w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/995120458805867_ord_a6_115_march_15_1861_pg_044_detail_01-189x300.jpg 189w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/995120458805867_ord_a6_115_march_15_1861_pg_044_detail_01-768x1219.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/995120458805867_ord_a6_115_march_15_1861_pg_044_detail_01-967x1536.jpg 967w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/995120458805867_ord_a6_115_march_15_1861_pg_044_detail_01-1290x2048.jpg 1290w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/995120458805867_ord_a6_115_march_15_1861_pg_044_detail_01.jpg 1414w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 645px) 100vw, 645px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890FB_E?BRPN=3&amp;WS=AssetManagement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Sarah S. Socwell, &#8220;The Sword and the Pen,&#8221; <em>The Liberator<\/em> (Jan. 11, 1861)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890FB_E?BRPN=1&amp;WS=AssetManagement\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"875\" src=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/995120458805867_a6_115_Jan_11_1861_detail-1024x875.jpg\" alt=\"Poem entitled &quot;Secession Consummated,&quot; printed in a newspaper reading, &quot;Yankee Doodle took a saw,\/ With patriot devotion,\/ To trim the Tree of Liberty,\/ According to his 'notion!'\/ Yankee Doodle on a limb,\/ Like another noodle,\/ Cut between the tree and him,\/ And down came Yankee Doodle!\/ Yankee Doodle broke his neck,\/ Every bone about him,\/ Adn then the Tree of Liberty\/ Did very well without him!&quot;\" class=\"wp-image-24628\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/995120458805867_a6_115_Jan_11_1861_detail-1024x875.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/995120458805867_a6_115_Jan_11_1861_detail-300x256.jpg 300w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/995120458805867_a6_115_Jan_11_1861_detail-768x656.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/995120458805867_a6_115_Jan_11_1861_detail-1536x1312.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/995120458805867_a6_115_Jan_11_1861_detail.jpg 1708w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890FB_E?BRPN=1&amp;WS=AssetManagement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">&#8220;Secession Consummated,&#8221; <em>The Liberator<\/em> <br>(Jan. 11, 1861)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Depicted above are two poems published in <em>The Liberator<\/em> in 1861, with vastly different tones but similar political commentary.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-995f960e wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:33.33%\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Ask Students<\/h5>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:66.66%\">\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>What does \u201cSecession Consummated\u201d call for? What does \u201cThe Sword and the Pen\u201d call for? How are these messages different? How are they similar?&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>How would you characterize the difference in tone between these two poems? How would you characterize their different methods of expression? What methods do they use to persuade?&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Imagine the reading audience for this newspaper. How do you think they interacted with these poems?\u202f&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><em>Douglass&#8217; Monthly<\/em><\/h6>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.loc.gov\/resource\/sn84026366\/1860-06-08\/ed-1\/?st=gallery\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/External_Frederick-Douglass-Paper-June-8-1860-e1758145518350-1024x315.png\" alt=\"Masthead of a newspaper. In large Gothic lettering across the top of the page is the title, &quot;Frederick Douglass' Paper.&quot; Below that is the phrase &quot;Devoted to the rights of all mankind, without distinction of color, glass, or clime.&quot; Below this are volume information, the publication place (Rochester, NY), and the date.\" class=\"wp-image-24654\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/External_Frederick-Douglass-Paper-June-8-1860-e1758145518350-1024x315.png 1024w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/External_Frederick-Douglass-Paper-June-8-1860-e1758145518350-300x92.png 300w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/External_Frederick-Douglass-Paper-June-8-1860-e1758145518350-768x236.png 768w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/External_Frederick-Douglass-Paper-June-8-1860-e1758145518350-1536x473.png 1536w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/External_Frederick-Douglass-Paper-June-8-1860-e1758145518350.png 1917w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.loc.gov\/resource\/sn84026366\/1860-06-08\/ed-1\/?st=gallery\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Masthead of <em>Frederick Douglass&#8217; Paper<\/em> (June 8, 1860). Courtesy of the Library of Congress.<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Frederick Douglass, author of <em>Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, A Slave <\/em>(1845), was a bestselling author and one of the most influential abolitionists. After a rift with Garrison that involved a philosophical disagreement, he started his own newspaper, <em>The North Star<\/em>, first published in Rochester in 1847. He changed the name of the paper several times, including <em>Frederick Douglass\u2019 Paper<\/em>, and during the war, <em>Douglass\u2019 Monthly.<\/em> It ultimately had about one thousand more subscribers than Garrison\u2019s (Petruzzello, \u201cThe North Star\u201d).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-995f960e wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:33.33%\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Ask Students<\/h5>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:66.66%\">\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>What are the differences among the three titles of Douglass\u2019 papers? What do you think each tells the reader about what they can expect to read?&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Why do you think the paper ultimately was named <em>Frederick Douglass\u2019s Paper<\/em>, and what does that say about Douglass\u2019 role as a celebrity?&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What are the main differences between the first page of Douglass\u2019 paper versus Garrison\u2019s? What do they have in common visually, textually, or otherwise?&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-995f960e wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:33.33%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.loc.gov\/resource\/sn84026366\/1860-06-08\/ed-1\/?sp=4\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"571\" height=\"1015\" src=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/External_Frederick-Douglass-Paper-Children-Pleading-e1758145089758-edited.png\" alt=\"Poem entitled &quot;Children Pleading for the Slave,&quot; printed in a newspaper. Poem reads, &quot;God of the wide creation,\/ Of air, and earth, and sea,\/ Accept the young oblation,\/ We children bring to thee.\/ We come, thy sons attending,\/ And join our notes with theirs;\/ At mercy's footstool bending,\/ We lift our youthful prayers.\/ And will the Lord of glory,\/ Who dwells beyond the sky,\/ Regard our humble story,\/ And answer them on high?\/ He will! for he hath told us\/ In his eternal word,\/ He always doth behold us,\/ His ears have ever heard.\/ When Samuel bow'd before him,\/ And clasped his hands and prayed,\/ God taught him to adore him,\/ And heard the prayer he said;\/ Now, Samuel's God is near us,\/ Where we have met to-day;\/ He bows his ear to hear us,\/ And teaches us to pray.\/ Then bless, great God of heaven!\/ The helpless, bleeding slave;\/ Let light and truth be given.\/ His darkened soul to save;\/ And speed, good Lord! the season,\/ When Slavery's reign shall end,\/ And masters, swayed by reason,\/ Shall call the slave their friend.&quot;\" class=\"wp-image-24761\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/External_Frederick-Douglass-Paper-Children-Pleading-e1758145089758-edited.png 571w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/External_Frederick-Douglass-Paper-Children-Pleading-e1758145089758-edited-169x300.png 169w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 571px) 100vw, 571px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.loc.gov\/resource\/sn84026366\/1860-06-08\/ed-1\/?sp=4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">&#8220;Children Pleading for the Slave,&#8221; in<em> Frederick Douglass&#8217; Paper<\/em> (June 8, 1860). Courtesy of the Library of Congress.<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:66.66%\">\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Look at the poem, \u201cChildren Pleading for the Slave.\u201d In the first stanza, the author establishes who is speaking and who the poem is addressing. Identify these two roles. How would you characterize their conversation? Is it one-sided, or are both parties speaking? What is being asked or argued for?&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Look at the final stanza. Which metaphors are the author using (i.e., what happens literally, versus figuratively)? What does this poem say about the persuasive methods of the paper overall? Are they militant, aggressive, assertive, emotional, etc.?&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Abolitionist Novels<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><em>Uncle Tom&#8217;s Cabin<\/em> by Harriet Beecher Stowe<\/h6>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Abraham Lincoln supposedly lauded Harriet Beecher Stowe as \u201cthe little lady who started this great war\u201d upon meeting her, because she was the author of <em>Uncle Tom\u2019s Cabin <\/em>(1852). <em>Uncle Tom\u2019s Cabin <\/em>is often acknowledged as a central book that fueled abolitionist sentiment over the decade leading to the Civil War. The novel follows the stories of several enslaved people as they grapple with the violence and oppression of slavery, including Eliza, a woman who is threatened with separation from her son, and Tom, the titular character. The illness and death of Little Eva, a young white girl, is also often interpreted as caused by slavery, a symbolic plague that can infect anyone. Nevertheless, contemporary scholars critique the novel\u2019s depiction of enslaved persons as riddled with problematic stereotypes, such as the subservient Black man.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The book is also an example of sentimental literature, a genre that dominated the literary marketplace in the early nineteenth century. Scholars have pointed out that sentimental literature\u2019s primary goal is to evoke a strong feeling in the reader\u2013actual crying, for example\u2013which could take place <em>instead<\/em> of political action. Below are illustrations of scenes from the novel included with the full printed version of <em>Uncle Tom\u2019s Cabin<\/em>.\u202f\u202f<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-995f960e wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890F6_G?BRPN=2\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1462\" height=\"2128\" src=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997051108805867_ord_y_255_s885_opp_pg_46-edited-1.jpg\" alt=\"Engraved illustration of a Black woman carrying an infant using ice flows to cross a river. She is being chased by three white men, who stand on the shore behind her yelling and waving sticks.\" class=\"wp-image-24764\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997051108805867_ord_y_255_s885_opp_pg_46-edited-1.jpg 1462w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997051108805867_ord_y_255_s885_opp_pg_46-edited-1-206x300.jpg 206w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997051108805867_ord_y_255_s885_opp_pg_46-edited-1-704x1024.jpg 704w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997051108805867_ord_y_255_s885_opp_pg_46-edited-1-768x1118.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997051108805867_ord_y_255_s885_opp_pg_46-edited-1-1055x1536.jpg 1055w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997051108805867_ord_y_255_s885_opp_pg_46-edited-1-1407x2048.jpg 1407w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1462px) 100vw, 1462px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890F6_G?BRPN=2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">&#8220;Eliza&#8217;s Escape from Haley,&#8221; in Uncle Tom&#8217;s Cabin (1852)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890F6_G?BRPN=1\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1378\" height=\"2013\" src=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997051108805867_ord_y_255_s885_opp_pg_233-edited.jpg\" alt=\"Engraved illustration showing four adults gathered around a bed with a girl who has just died. The adults are in various positions of mourning. The girl and three of the adults are white, while the man in the most prominent position in front of the bed is Black.\" class=\"wp-image-24765\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997051108805867_ord_y_255_s885_opp_pg_233-edited.jpg 1378w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997051108805867_ord_y_255_s885_opp_pg_233-edited-205x300.jpg 205w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997051108805867_ord_y_255_s885_opp_pg_233-edited-701x1024.jpg 701w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997051108805867_ord_y_255_s885_opp_pg_233-edited-768x1122.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997051108805867_ord_y_255_s885_opp_pg_233-edited-1051x1536.jpg 1051w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1378px) 100vw, 1378px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890F6_G?BRPN=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">&#8220;Eva&#8217;s Death&#8221; in <em>Uncle Tom&#8217;s Cabin<\/em> (1852)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-995f960e wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:33.33%\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Ask Students<\/h5>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:66.66%\">\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Look at the illustration of \u201cEliza escaping Haley.\u201d What do you notice about the image? How would you describe the characters and the environment? How does this scene portray the path to liberty for the enslaved character, Eliza?&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Turn to the illustration of Eva\u2019s death and consider the argument above that sentimental literature created feelings in readers instead of action. Notice all of the different figures in the scene and their emotional stances. In what ways does this scene provoke an emotional reaction? How do you know this?\u202f&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>How does pairing illustrations with texts impact your interpretation of the book&#8217;s important scenes?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><em>Our Nig; or, Sketches from the Life of a Free Black\u202f<\/em> by Harriet Wilson <\/h6>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Forced labor was also a fundamental aspect of life in the North. For example, Harriet Wilson published a novel based on her life as an indentured servant in New Hampshire. This book highlights the abuses that Black Northerners had to endure at the hands of white tormentors.\u202fIt represents how race had profound impacts outside the legal bounds of slavery\u2014the borders of the Southern states. For example, a portion of Wilson\u2019s title reads, \u201cShowing That Slavery\u2019s Shadows Fall Even There,\u201d meaning, in the Northern states.\u202fBecause of her vulnerable status, the protagonist Frado has no option but to endure violence and torment in servitude of the Bellmont family until she legally can leave at age eighteen.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Northern readers may have been uncomfortable with the novel because the most significant antagonist is Frado\u2019s white adoptive \u201cmother,\u201d who sees no issue with mistreating the child in her charge. However, many white women would have simply seen Mrs. Bellmont as a typical \u201cbad mother\u201d character, similar to those found in books like <em>Uncle Tom\u2019s Cabin<\/em>. The book did not receive as much critical acclaim as books like <em>Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass<\/em>. Abolitionists at the time may have dismissed it as an important text for African Americans in the United States because it portrays the difficulty of living with racism in the North.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-995f960e wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890FF_F?BRPN=1&amp;WS=AssetManagement\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"659\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997731468805867_ord_case_y_255_w6918_preface_01-659x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Single page of printed text reading, &quot;Preface: In offering to the public the following pages, the writer confesses her inability to minister to the refined and cultivated, the pleasure supplied by abler pens. It is not for such that these crude narrations appear. Deserted by kindred, disabled by failing health, I am forced to some experiment which shall aid me in maintaining myself and child without extinguishing this feeble life. I would not from these motives even palliate slavery at the South, by disclosures of its appurtenances North. My mistress was wholly imbued with southern principles. I do not pretend to divulge every transaction in my own life, which the unprejudiced would declare unfavorable in comparison with treatment of legal bondmen; I have purposely omitted what would most provoke shame in our good anti-slavery friends at home. My humble position and frank confession of errors will, I hope, shield me from severe criticism. Indeed, defects are so apparent it requires no skillful hand to expose them. I sincerely appeal to my colored brethern universally for patronage, hoping they will not condemn this attempt of their sister to be erudite, but rally around me a faithful band of supporters and defenders. H.E.W.&quot;\" class=\"wp-image-24658\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997731468805867_ord_case_y_255_w6918_preface_01-659x1024.jpg 659w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997731468805867_ord_case_y_255_w6918_preface_01-193x300.jpg 193w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997731468805867_ord_case_y_255_w6918_preface_01-768x1193.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997731468805867_ord_case_y_255_w6918_preface_01-989x1536.jpg 989w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997731468805867_ord_case_y_255_w6918_preface_01-1318x2048.jpg 1318w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997731468805867_ord_case_y_255_w6918_preface_01-scaled.jpg 1648w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 659px) 100vw, 659px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890FF_F?BRPN=1&amp;WS=AssetManagement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Harriet Wilson, <em>Our Nig, Or, Sketches from the Life of a Free Black<\/em>, &#8220;Preface&#8221; (ca. 1859)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890FF_F?BRPN=2&amp;WS=AssetManagement\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"670\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997731468805867_ord_case_y_255_w6918_pg_126-670x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Page of printed text, reading, &quot;Chapter XII. The Winding Up of the Matter. 'Nothing new under the sun. - Solomon.' A few years agon, within the compass of my narrative, there appeared often in some of our New England villages, professed fugitives from slavery, who recounted their personal experiences in homely phrase, and awakened the indignation of non-slaveholders against brother Pro. Such a on appeared in the new home of Frado; and as people of color were rare there, was it strange she should attract her dark brother; that he should inquire her out; succeed in seeing her; feel a strange sensation in his heart towards her; that he should toy with her shinning curls, feel proud to provoke her to smile and expose the ivory concealed by thin, ruby lips; that her sparking eyes should fascinate; that he should propose; that they should marry? A short acquaintance was indeed an objection, but she saw&quot;\" class=\"wp-image-24659\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997731468805867_ord_case_y_255_w6918_pg_126-670x1024.jpg 670w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997731468805867_ord_case_y_255_w6918_pg_126-196x300.jpg 196w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997731468805867_ord_case_y_255_w6918_pg_126-768x1174.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997731468805867_ord_case_y_255_w6918_pg_126-1005x1536.jpg 1005w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997731468805867_ord_case_y_255_w6918_pg_126-1339x2048.jpg 1339w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997731468805867_ord_case_y_255_w6918_pg_126-scaled.jpg 1674w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 670px) 100vw, 670px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890FF_F?BRPN=2&amp;WS=AssetManagement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Harriet Wilson, <em>Our Nig, Or, Sketches from the Life of a Free Black<\/em>, 126 (ca. 1859). Click to read the entire excerpt.<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-995f960e wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:33.33%\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Ask Students<\/h5>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:66.66%\">\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Refer back to the preface of the book. What words does Wilson use to refer to herself? Why do you think she describes herself this way?&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What reason does Wilson give for writing this book and publishing it? Why would Wilson need to clarify or justify this before she embarks on her actual story?&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>How would you describe the language of the preface? Is it deferential, condescending, earnest? Why do you think Wilson included this preface? Are the tone and the language in keeping with the supposed reasons Wilson has established for writing the novel? Why or why not?&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>See the text of Chapter XII. This is the final chapter of the book. What is the key life event Wilson hints at on this page of her book? Can you imagine why Wilson closes her story with this particular event?\u202f&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Publication during the Civil War<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Printing presses of all kinds continued production during the Civil War, but especially in large cities like Boston, Philadelphia, New York, and Baltimore. They printed a wide range of publications. The \u201cpenny press\u201d published newspapers cheaply and frequently, like <em>The New York Herald<\/em> and New Orleans\u2019 <em>The Picayune<\/em>, the first American paper to report on \u201csociety.\u201d By contrast, prestige literary journals like <em>The Atlantic Monthly<\/em>, founded in 1857, published political and cultural pieces by the leading authors of the era, such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry W. Longfellow.\u202f&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">&#8220;Life in the Iron Mills: or, The Korl Woman&#8221; by Rebecca Harding Davis<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright size-large is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z898D4RP?WS=AssetManagement\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"709\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/993264188805867_ord_ps_1517_l5_1972_pg_-709x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Page of printed text, reading &quot; 'is this the end?\/O Life, as futile, then, as frail!\/ What hope of answer of redress?' A cloudy day: do you know what that is in a town of iron-works? The sky sank down before dawn, muddy, flat, immovable. The air is thick, clammy with the breath of crowded human beings. It stifles me. I open the window, and, looking out, can scarcely see through the rain the grocer's shop opposite, where a crowd of drunken Irishmen are puffing Lynchburg tobacco in their pipes. I can detect the scent through all the foul smells ranging loose in the air. &quot;The idiosyncrasy of this town is smoke. It rolls sullenly in slow folds from the great chimneys of the iron-foundries, and settles down in black, slimy pools on the muddy streets. Smoke on the wharves, smoke on the dingy boats, on the yellow river,--clinging in a coating of greasy soot to the house-front, the two faded poplars, the faces of the passers-by.&quot;\" class=\"wp-image-24660\" style=\"width:324px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/993264188805867_ord_ps_1517_l5_1972_pg_-709x1024.jpg 709w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/993264188805867_ord_ps_1517_l5_1972_pg_-208x300.jpg 208w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/993264188805867_ord_ps_1517_l5_1972_pg_-768x1110.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/993264188805867_ord_ps_1517_l5_1972_pg_-1063x1536.jpg 1063w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/993264188805867_ord_ps_1517_l5_1972_pg_-1417x2048.jpg 1417w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/993264188805867_ord_ps_1517_l5_1972_pg_-scaled.jpg 1772w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 709px) 100vw, 709px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z898D4RP?WS=AssetManagement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Rebecca Harding Davis, &#8220;Life in the Iron Mills: Or, The Korl Woman,&#8221; 11 (1972, original 1861)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 1861, Rebecca Harding Davis published \u201cLife in the Iron Mills,\u201d a fiction story, in <em>The Atlantic<\/em>. Davis published anonymously and was paid $50, a fine price at the time. The story depicts the lives of Welsh immigrant workers in an iron mill in the 1830s. Hugh is the main character, and readers follow him through the drudgery of his day. Hugh isn\u2019t only an ironworker, though; he is also a sculptor. A group of wealthy society people walk through the mill and spot Hugh\u2019s latest creation, remarking on its unparalleled artistic value. The story takes a turn for the worse when Hugh is wrongly accused of stealing from one of the wealthy men and is sentenced to die.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This story is one of the first instances of literary realism\u2013an influential genre in the postwar era, employed most often to immerse readers in a lifelike environment. \u201cLife in the Iron Mills\u201d signals a shift in the interests of American readers. At this pivotal moment, the more lyrical and fantastical genre of Romanticism, which often dealt with the spiritual or the supernatural, begins to be displaced by stories that readers imagine are rooted in their world and lived experiences. In addition, that <em>The Atlantic <\/em>chose to publish Davis\u2019 story in April 1861, the very same month that the American Civil War began, indicates that highbrow readers were interested in this kind of fiction even during a moment of national turmoil.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-995f960e wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:33.33%\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Ask Students<\/h5>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:66.66%\">\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Take a look at the first page of \u201cLife in the Iron Mills.\u201d What voice is the story in (first-, second-, or third-person)?\u202f&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Can you identify one way Davis makes her story \u201crealistic\u201d in this initial passage? What kinds of devices, images, or phrases does Davis use to make her story immersive?&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Can you imagine why a highbrow audience would want to read this story during such an unsure or catastrophic political moment?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">&#8220;It feels a shame to be alive&#8221; by Emily Dickinson<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By contrast to the publicly available works printed in <em>The Atlantic,<\/em> Emily Dickinson\u2019s work was little-known in her lifetime. During her life, Dickinson wrote 1,789 poems, many of which were a complete secret to even her closest friends and family. Dickinson \u201cpublished\u201d by sewing little books of poems together. She circulated some poems to family members and friends, like the abolitionist Thomas Wentworth Higginson, occasionally toying with the idea of formal publication. But she ultimately decided that her secret books\u2013\u201cfascicles\u201d\u2013were sufficient.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">From 1858 until 1861, Dickinson produced on average about sixty-seven poems per year. But in 1862, Dickinson\u2019s average number skyrocketed to 227. 1863 was her biggest year, with 295 poems. Her final period of extreme production was 1865, when she wrote 229 poems. In 1866, she dropped down to ten poems per year, and the average stayed low for the rest of her life.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We can attribute Dickinson\u2019s great productivity to many factors, like more free time to spend writing, greater confidence, or even life events that inspired her to write more, like death and heartbreak. But 1861 to 1865 were fraught years not just for Dickinson, but for the United States. That she wrote hundreds of poems during the war suggests that it impacted her deeply. In addition, Dickinson was a great reader of a variety of publications, which kept her well-informed about the war and others\u2019 opinions on it.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dickinson\u2019s private, but significant, contribution to the American literary scene during the war demonstrates that there are more ways than one to engage with large political events. Even though Dickinson was not directly involved in the war, as the majority of Americans were not, she still was touched deeply by it. For example, in her poem <a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z89CU8AS?WS=AssetManagement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">\u201cIt feels a shame to be alive,\u201d<\/a> Dickinson reflects on the deaths of those killed in battle from the perspective of those remaining at home. This poem is a useful example of the constructed martyrdom of Union soldiers and the feeling of relative disempowerment of those who could not take up arms.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-995f960e wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.edickinson.org\/editions\/1\/image_sets\/12175032#search-panel=0\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"649\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/External-Dickenson-It-Feels-a-Shame-1-649x1024.png\" alt=\"Page of manuscript text reading, &quot;It feels a shame to be alive-\/When Men so brave - are dead-\/ One envies the Distinguished Dust-\/Permitted - such a Head-\/ The Stone - that tells defending Whom\/ This Spartan put away\/ What little of him we- possessed\/ In Pwan for Liberty-\/ The Price is great - Sublimely paid-\/ Do we deserve - a Thing-\/ That lives - like Dollars - must be piled\/ Before we may obtain?&quot;\" class=\"wp-image-24661\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/External-Dickenson-It-Feels-a-Shame-1-649x1024.png 649w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/External-Dickenson-It-Feels-a-Shame-1-190x300.png 190w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/External-Dickenson-It-Feels-a-Shame-1.png 685w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 649px) 100vw, 649px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.edickinson.org\/editions\/1\/image_sets\/12175032#search-panel=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Emily Dickinson, &#8220;It feels a shame to be alive,&#8221; packet XXIX, Fascicle 24 (ca. 1862). Courtesy of the Emily Dickinson Archive at the Houghton Library.<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It feels a shame to be Alive\u2014<br>When Men so brave\u2014are dead\u2014<br>One&nbsp;envies&nbsp;the&nbsp;Distinguished&nbsp;Dust\u2014<br>Permitted\u2014such a Head\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Stone\u2014that&nbsp;tells&nbsp;defending Whom<br>This&nbsp;Spartan&nbsp;put away<br>What&nbsp;little&nbsp;of Him we\u2014possessed<br>In Pawn for Liberty\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The&nbsp;price&nbsp;is great\u2014Sublimely paid\u2014<br>Do we deserve\u2014a Thing\u2014<br>That lives\u2014like Dollars\u2014must be piled<br>Before we may obtain?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Are we that wait\u2014sufficient worth\u2014<br>That such&nbsp;Enormous&nbsp;Pearl<br>As life\u2014dissolved be\u2014for Us\u2014<br>In Battle&#8217;s\u2014horrid Bowl?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It may be\u2014a&nbsp;Renown&nbsp;to live\u2014<br>I&nbsp;think&nbsp;the Man who die\u2014<br>Those unsustained\u2014Saviors\u2014<br>Present Divinity\u2014<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Compared to a well-circulated author like Harriet Beecher Stowe, Dickinson\u2019s ability to influence anyone\u2019s opinions about the war was small. However, during the Civil War, there was a major increase in women\u2019s participation in public life, due to new employment opportunities and the expectation that all Americans, regardless of gender, contribute to the war effort. Through Dickenson\u2019s private compositions, we see the significance of the war for a woman whose public exposure was the opposite of Stowe\u2019s. One example of their differences is how these documents look. While Stowe\u2019s novel is widely distributed enough to warrant it being printed and includes illustrations, Dickinson\u2019s work is handwritten.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-995f960e wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:33.33%\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Ask Students<\/h5>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:66.66%\">\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Read the first stanza of Dickinson\u2019s poem. How would you summarize it in plain terms? What specific emotions does Dickinson\u2019s poem convey? What relation might these emotions have to the ongoing Civil War?&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Make a list of or circle the nouns and verbs in each stanza. How would you relate these figures, objects, spaces, and actions to the social and political world of the nineteenth century?\u202f&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>How would you describe the function of the final stanza? Is it a response to, a refutation of, or an explanation of the stanzas that come before it?&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Compare the handwritten manuscript with the printed poem. What visual differences do you notice? As an editor, what changes would you have to make to the manuscript to turn it into a text for public reading? Do these changes transform the meaning of the poem?&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Propaganda and Southern \u201cbelles-lettres\u201d&nbsp;<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The <em>Southern Literary Messenger <\/em>was the primary prestige literary publication of the South before and during the Civil War. One might compare its goals to those of <em>The Atlantic<\/em>, the magazine that published Rebecca Harding Davis\u2019 story. During the war, the magazine published a broad range of pieces, like serialized novels, poems, short stories, essays, excerpts from other magazines and newspapers, and advertisements for new books. Copies published from 1862 to 1864 opened with a \u201cHistory of the War\u201d series that gave an account of the war from its beginning until publication ceased in 1864.\u202fMagazines like this one pushed Southern authors to write about the war in a favorable way.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Southern literary scene prior to the war was smaller than that of the North, though writers like Edgar Allan Poe influenced the marketplace broadly. Poe was a popular writer of fiction and poetry until his death in 1849 and briefly served as an editor for the <em>Southern Literary Messenger<\/em>.\u202fEven before the start of the war, certain books and tracts (political or religious pamphlets) were banned in Southern states, such as David Walker\u2019s revolutionary 1829 <em>Appeal<\/em>. Mail<strong> <\/strong>was intercepted in fear that if any of these texts got into the hands of the enslaved, it would incite a rebellion.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The publication industry in the South suffered during the war. The Union\u2019s naval blockade stopped the flow of supplies like paper and ink, and printers could be called to leave their posts and take up arms. In addition, General William T. Sherman targeted printing presses during his invasion of Georgia. As a result, the Southern publishing industry did not recover until the 1930s, when the South experienced a literary renaissance.\u202f&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-995f960e wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890F9_Z?BRPN=2&amp;WS=AssetManagement\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"847\" height=\"1505\" src=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997965088805867_ord_a5_861_jan_1865_pg_014-edited-1.jpg\" alt=\"Page of two-column printed text with poem reading, &quot;The Pleasant Days of Old! Oh! the pleasant days of old, which so often people praise--\/True, they wanted all the luxuries that grade our modern days;\/ Bare floors were strewed with rushes--the walls let in the cold;\/ Oh! how they must have shivered in those pleasant days of old!\/ Oh! those ancient lords of old, how magnificent they were!\/ Thet threw down and imprisoned kings, to thwart them who might dare\/ They ruled their serfs right sternly; they took from Jews their gold--; Above both law and equity where those great lords of old!\/ Oh! the gallant knights of old, for their valor so renowned:\/ With sword and lance and armor strong, they scoured the country round;\/ And whenever aught to tempt them, they met by wood or wold,\/ By right of sword they seized the prize--those gallant knights of old!\/ Oh! the gentle dames of old, who quite free from fear and pain\/ Could gaze on joust and tournament, and see their champion slain;\/ They lived on good beefsteaks and ale, which made them strong and bold;\/ Oh! more like men than women were those gentle dames of old!\/ Oh! those mighty towers of old, with their turrets, moat, and keep.\/ Their battlements and bastions, their dungeons dark and deep;\/ Full many a baron held his court within the castle hold,\/ And many a captive languished there, in those strong towers of old.\/ Oh! the troubadours of old, with their gentle minstrelsie\/ of hope and joy, or deep despair, whiche'er their lot might be--\/ For years they served their ladye love ere they their passion told--\/ Oh! wondrous patience must have had those troubadours of old!\/ Oh! those blessed times of old, with their chivalry and state;\/ I love to read their chronicles, which such brave deeds relate--\/ I love to sing their ancient rhymes, to hear their legends told--\/But, Heaven be thanked! I do not live in those blessed times of old!&quot;\" class=\"wp-image-24767\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997965088805867_ord_a5_861_jan_1865_pg_014-edited-1.jpg 847w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997965088805867_ord_a5_861_jan_1865_pg_014-edited-1-169x300.jpg 169w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997965088805867_ord_a5_861_jan_1865_pg_014-edited-1-576x1024.jpg 576w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997965088805867_ord_a5_861_jan_1865_pg_014-edited-1-768x1365.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 847px) 100vw, 847px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890F9_Z?BRPN=2&amp;WS=AssetManagement\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"638\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997965088805867_ord_a5_861_jan_1865_pg_014-edited-e1758816750774-638x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Page of two-column printed text with poem reading, &quot;The Pleasant Days of Old! Oh! the pleasant days of old, which so often people praise--\/True, they wanted all the luxuries that grade our modern days;\/ Bare floors were strewed with rushes--the walls let in the cold;\/ Oh! how they must have shivered in those pleasant days of old!\/ Oh! those ancient lords of old, how magnificent they were!\/ Thet threw down and imprisoned kings, to thwart them who might dare\/ They ruled their serfs right sternly; they took from Jews their gold--; Above both law and equity where those great lords of old!\/ Oh! the gallant knights of old, for their valor so renowned:\/ With sword and lance and armor strong, they scoured the country round;\/ And whenever aught to tempt them, they met by wood or wold,\/ By right of sword they seized the prize--those gallant knights of old!\/ Oh! the gentle dames of old, who quite free from fear and pain\/ Could gaze on joust and tournament, and see their champion slain;\/ They lived on good beefsteaks and ale, which made them strong and bold;\/ Oh! more like men than women were those gentle dames of old!\/ Oh! those mighty towers of old, with their turrets, moat, and keep.\/ Their battlements and bastions, their dungeons dark and deep;\/ Full many a baron held his court within the castle hold,\/ And many a captive languished there, in those strong towers of old.\/ Oh! the troubadours of old, with their gentle minstrelsie\/ of hope and joy, or deep despair, whiche'er their lot might be--\/ For years they served their ladye love ere they their passion told--\/ Oh! wondrous patience must have had those troubadours of old!\/ Oh! those blessed times of old, with their chivalry and state;\/ I love to read their chronicles, which such brave deeds relate--\/ I love to sing their ancient rhymes, to hear their legends told--\/But, Heaven be thanked! I do not live in those blessed times of old!&quot;\" class=\"wp-image-24769\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997965088805867_ord_a5_861_jan_1865_pg_014-edited-e1758816750774-638x1024.jpg 638w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997965088805867_ord_a5_861_jan_1865_pg_014-edited-e1758816750774-187x300.jpg 187w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997965088805867_ord_a5_861_jan_1865_pg_014-edited-e1758816750774-768x1232.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997965088805867_ord_a5_861_jan_1865_pg_014-edited-e1758816750774.jpg 866w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 638px) 100vw, 638px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890F9_Z?BRPN=2&amp;WS=AssetManagement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">&#8220;The Pleasant Days of Old!&#8221; in <em>Southern Literary Messenger<\/em> (January 1863)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890F9_Z?BRPN=1&amp;WS=AssetManagement\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"393\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997965088805867_ord_a5_861_april_1863_pg_0255-393x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Excerpt from a two-column page of printed text, reading, &quot;A Slave Couple. We will now pay a visit to the 'negro quarters,' and drop in for a moment on Mr. Andrew Jackson Marshall and Mrs. Lucretia Victoria Marshall, who are rejoicing in the first blissful quarter of their honeymoon. We find them sitting cozily without 'company,' in their comfortable cabin, with a little work-table between them, the bride busily stitching at one of those small doll-like garments, which seem to afford the greatest possible pleasure to young bridges of all complexions addicted to needlework; while the happy husband grins and gazes in idle admiration at his new-made wife and the object of her delicate industry. The rise and salute the master with the most cordial and respectful deference--'proud ob de honour ob de visit.' The cabin is new, and newly furnished by the wedded pair, whose united savings have enabled them purchase for themselves comfortable chairs, a nice bed, and all the little utensils essential to domestic comfort and economy. We see nothing here of the squalid destitution of an Irish 'shanty;' encounter no smell of pig or whiskey; nothing of the rags, wretchedness, disease, and famine to be found in the huts and holes and caves of the beggars, paupers, and sometimes even the poor labourers of Ireland and even England. The slaves are never stinted in food, but are served with abundant 'rations' of meat and vegetables everyday, 'hog and hominy' being the standard dish of the slave as well as the master, with hot coffee in the morning, and all the various kinds of fruits in their season. In fine weather they generally take their meals in the open air; and breakfast and dinner, in the busiest time of the year, is usually sent to them in the field. In the summer season they are allowed an hour for breakfast, and from two to three hours for dinner. The women enjoy so high a degree of health from regular exercise, temperate living, and from their unrestrained mode of dress, that the functions of maternity lose much of their pains and perils. A month is allowed the mother for her 'confinement;' but one often sees them with an infant in their arms less than a week old, singing and dancing about the plantation, none the weaker, but all the merrier, for the precious burden they have borne.&quot;\" class=\"wp-image-24664\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997965088805867_ord_a5_861_april_1863_pg_0255-393x1024.jpg 393w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997965088805867_ord_a5_861_april_1863_pg_0255-115x300.jpg 115w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997965088805867_ord_a5_861_april_1863_pg_0255-768x2003.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997965088805867_ord_a5_861_april_1863_pg_0255-589x1536.jpg 589w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997965088805867_ord_a5_861_april_1863_pg_0255-785x2048.jpg 785w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997965088805867_ord_a5_861_april_1863_pg_0255.jpg 820w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 393px) 100vw, 393px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890F9_Z?BRPN=1&amp;WS=AssetManagement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">&#8220;A Slave Couple&#8221; in <em>Southern Literary Messenger <\/em>(April 1863)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-995f960e wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:33.33%\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Ask Students<\/h5>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:66.66%\">\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Why do you think <em>The Southern Literary Messenger <\/em>repeated the \u201cHistory of the War\u201d section as its first page? What does this indicate about the magazine\u2019s priorities and about readers\u2019 interests?&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What is the tone of the poem, \u201cThe Pleasant Days of Old\u201d? What is the relationship between the poem\u2019s attitude toward nostalgia, and our own understanding of nostalgia? Are you surprised at all by the author\u2019s attitude toward \u201cthe pleasant days of old\u201d? Why or why not?&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>How would you describe the home environment depicted in \u201cA Slave Couple\u201d? What words are used to refer to each member of the couple? What other communities or groups are these people compared to, and why do you think the poet makes these comparisons?&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Where is the poem <a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890F9_Z?BRPN=2&amp;WS=AssetManagement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">situated in the magazine and on the page<\/a>? Are there other details on this page that give you any other hints or information about the context in which this item was published?&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>How do you interpret the \u201cA Slave Couple\u201d piece? How does your interpretation change knowing that it is a reproduction of a piece printed elsewhere?\u202f&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">On the Warfront<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">During the war, literature did not cease circulation. Women, elders, community leaders, and children read avidly on the home front. Soldiers also spent time reading newspapers, novels, letters from home, and the Bible. Newspapers contained important information about the war and the names of those who had died. They also featured creative works meant to entertain, educate, and sometimes fundraise.\u202f&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Fundraising for the Union<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright size-large is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890FY_M?BRPN=2&amp;WS=AssetManagement\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1291\" height=\"1291\" src=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/998602968805867_ord_f_8345_24_march_02_1864_pg_02_deatil-edited.jpg\" alt=\"Printed poem in a newspaper reading,&quot; Flowers - well, if anybody\/Can the ecstasy define,\/ Half a transport, half a trouble,\/ With which flowers humble men -\/Anybody find the fountain,\/ From which floods so contra flow,\/ I will give him all the Daisies,\/ Which upon the hill-side blow!\/ Too much pathos in their faces.\/ For a simple breast like mine!\/ Butterflies from San Domingo,\/ Cruising round the purple line.\/ Have a system of esthetics\/ Far superior to mine!&quot;\" class=\"wp-image-24770\" style=\"width:386px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/998602968805867_ord_f_8345_24_march_02_1864_pg_02_deatil-edited.jpg 1291w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/998602968805867_ord_f_8345_24_march_02_1864_pg_02_deatil-edited-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/998602968805867_ord_f_8345_24_march_02_1864_pg_02_deatil-edited-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/998602968805867_ord_f_8345_24_march_02_1864_pg_02_deatil-edited-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/998602968805867_ord_f_8345_24_march_02_1864_pg_02_deatil-edited-768x768.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1291px) 100vw, 1291px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890FY_M?BRPN=2&amp;WS=AssetManagement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">&#8220;Flowers&#8221; in <em>Drum Beat<\/em> (March 2, 1864)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The United States Sanitary Commission published a newspaper entitled <em>The Drum Beat<\/em> to fundraise in the spring of 1864. Wartime field hospital conditions were unsanitary and doctors were ill-equipped, so the Sanitary Commission was founded to save the lives of wounded soldiers who might otherwise have died of illness. They were wildly successful at raising money, about twenty-five million dollars by 1865 (a little under $495.5 million in 2025 dollars). They spent the funds on improving army hospital facilities. Copies of <em>The Drum Beat<\/em> were sold cheaply at a \u201cSanitary Fair\u201d in Brooklyn from February to March of 1864. Three anonymous poems in <em>The Drum Beat <\/em>have been identified as written by Emily Dickinson. Dickinson not only cared about the war, but she took an active part in fundraising for the Union.\u202f<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-995f960e wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:33.33%\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Ask Students<\/h5>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:66.66%\">\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Compare this poem to the Dickinson poem, \u201cIt feels a shame to be alive,\u201d printed above. How would you describe the differences in topic and structure? What are the descriptive words in this poem, and how do they compare to or contrast the language of \u201cIt feels a shame to be alive\u201d? Why would the topics of these two poems be different?&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Can you think of a reason why an author might publish this poem in a fundraising paper? Who was the intended audience? What evidence can you find in the newspaper for your opinion?&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Can you think of any publications (contemporary or historical) that are similar to <em>The Drum Beat<\/em>?<em> <\/em>Do you know of any publications that are sold for a fundraising effort?&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Military Literature<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Black regiments of the Union army, the United States Colored Troops, were legendary at the time and still are. Many Black soldiers were formerly enslaved persons who, hearing about emancipation, walked off their plantations and directly onto Union military bases.\u202f&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the North, Black abolitionists capitalized on the fervor for emancipation and the ever-present desire for liberty to recruit Black soldiers for the Union. In 1863, after the Union belatedly authorized Black troops\u2019 enlistment, a large party of prominent abolitionists, including Frederick Douglass, held a convention in Philadelphia that promoted the enlistment of Black troops. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890FJ_0?BRPN=5&amp;WS=AssetManagement\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"798\" src=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/994767648805867_ord_f_8348_177_add_pg_05-scaled-e1758728924937-1024x798.jpg\" alt=\"Page of printed text in two columns reading, &quot;Speech of Mr. Frederick Douglass\/ Mr. President and Fellow-Citizens--I shall not attempt to follow Judge Kelley and Miss Dickinson in their eloquent and thrilling appeals to colored men to enlist in the service of the United States. They have left nothing to be desired on that point. I propose to look at the subject in a plain and practical common-sense light. There are obviously two vices to be taken of such enlistments--a broad view and a narrow view. I am willing to take both, and consider both. The narrow view of this subject is that which represents the matter of dollars and cents. There are those among us who say they are in favor of taking a hand in this tremendous war, but they add they wish to do so on terms of equality with white men. They say if they enter the service, endure all the hardships, perils and suffering--if they make bare their breasts, and with strong arms and courageous hearts confront rebel cannons, and wring victory from the jaws of death, they should have the same pay, the same rations, the same bounty, and the same favorable conditions every way afforded to other men.\/ I shall not oppose this view. There is something deep down in the soul of every man present which assents to the justice of the claim thus made, and honors the manhood and self-respect which insists upon it. [Applause.] I say at once, in peace and in war, I am content with nothing for the black man short of equal and exact justice. The only question I have, and the point at which I differ from those who refuse to enlist, is whether the colored man is more likely to obtain justice and equality while refusing to assist in putting down this tremendous rebellion than he would be if he should promptly, generously and earnestly give his hand and heart to the salvation of the country in this its day of calamity and peril. Nothing can be more plain, nothing more plain, nothing more certain than that the speediest and best possible way to open us to manhood, equal rights and elevation, is that we enter this service. For my own part, I hold that if the Government of the United States offered nothing more, as inducement to colored men to enlist, than the bare subsistence and arms, considering the moral effect of compliance upon ourselves, it would be the wisest and best thing for us to enlist. [Applause.] There is something ennobling in the possession of arms, and we of all other people in the world stand in need of their ennobling influence.\/ The case presented in the present war, and the light in which every colored man is bound&quot;\" class=\"wp-image-24683\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/994767648805867_ord_f_8348_177_add_pg_05-scaled-e1758728924937-1024x798.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/994767648805867_ord_f_8348_177_add_pg_05-scaled-e1758728924937-300x234.jpg 300w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/994767648805867_ord_f_8348_177_add_pg_05-scaled-e1758728924937-768x598.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/994767648805867_ord_f_8348_177_add_pg_05-scaled-e1758728924937-1536x1197.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/994767648805867_ord_f_8348_177_add_pg_05-scaled-e1758728924937.jpg 1698w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Frederick Dou<a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890FJ_0?BRPN=5&amp;WS=AssetManagement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">glass, speech at a mass meeting in support of US Colored Troops (July 6, 1863). Click for the complete speech.<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-995f960e wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:33.33%\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Ask Students<\/h5>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:66.66%\">\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Read the first two paragraphs of Frederick Douglass\u2019 speech. What are the two \u201cviews\u201d that Douglass introduces about the enlistment of Black troops? What are the key differences between these two views? Can you imagine why Douglass would include both, and does one seem more compelling?&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Compare the language in Douglass\u2019 speech to the text on the broadside below. Which feels more explicit? Which feels more analytical or persuasive?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After the convention, a broadside was circulated as a call-to-arms. A broadside is printed on one side of a sheet of paper, unlike a newspaper, which is printed on both sides. The broadsides would have been passed around and hung as posters.\u202f&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-995f960e wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:33.33%\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Ask Students<\/h5>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/nmaahc.si.edu\/object\/nmaahc_2012.133\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"518\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/External-Men-of-Color-Recruitment-NMAAHC-518x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Broadside reading&quot; Men of Color\/ to Arms! To Arms!\/ Now or Never\/ This is our golden moment! The Government of the United States calls for every Able-bodied colored Man to enter the Army for the\/ Three Years' Service!\/ And join in fighting the\/ Battles of Liberty and the Union\/ A new era is open to us. For generations we have suffered under the horrors of slavery, outrage and wrong; our manhood has been denied, our citizenship blotted out, our souls seared and burned, our spirits cowed and crushed, and the hopes of the future of our race involved in doubt and darkness. But now our relations to the white race are changed. Now, therefore, is our most precious moment. Let us rush to arms!\/ Fall now, &amp; our race is doomed\/ On this the soil of our birth. We must now awake, arise, or be forever fallen. If we value liberty, if we wish to be free in this land, if we love our country, if we love our families, our children, our home, we must strike now while the country calls; we must rise up in the dignity of our manhood, and show by our right arms that we are worthy to be freemen. Our enemies have made the country believe that we are craven cowards, without soul, without manhood, without the spirit of soldiers. Shall we die with this stigma resting upon our graves? Shall we leave this inheritance of Shame to our Children? No! A thousand times NO! We WILL Rise! The alternative is upon us. Let us rather die freeman than live to be slaves. What is life without liberty? We say that we have manhood; how is the time to prove it. A nation or a people that cannot fight may be pitted, btu cannot be respected. If we would be regard men, if we would forever\/Silence the tough of calumny\/ of prejudice and hate, let us rise now and fly to arms! We have seen what\/ Valor and Heroism\/ our brothers displayed at\/ Port Hudson and Milkmen's Bend,\/ Though they are just from the galling, poisoning grasp of Slavery, they have startled the World by the most exalted heroism. If they have proved themselves heroes, cannot we prove ourselves men?\/ Are freemen less brave than slaves\/ More than a Million White Men have left Comfortable Homes and joined the Armies of the Union to save their Country. Cannot we leave ours, and swell the Hosts of the Union, to save our liberties, vindicate our manhood, and deserve well of our Country. Men of color! the Englishman, the Irishman, the Frenchman, the German, the American, have been called to assert their claim to freedom and a manly character, by an appeal to the sword. The day that\/ Our last opportunity has come\/ If we are not lower in the scale of humanity than Englishmen, Irishmen, White Americans, and other Races, we can show it now.\/ Men of Color, Brothers and Fathers!\/ We Appeal to You!\/ By all your concern for yourselves and your liberties, by all your regard for God and humanity, by all your desire for Citizenship and Equality before the law, by all your love for the Country, to stop at no subterfuge, listen to nothing that shall deter you from rallying for the Army. Come Forward, and at once Enroll your Names for Three Years' Service.\/ Strike Now!\/ And you are henceforth and forever Freemen!&quot;\" class=\"wp-image-24666\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/External-Men-of-Color-Recruitment-NMAAHC-518x1024.jpg 518w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/External-Men-of-Color-Recruitment-NMAAHC-152x300.jpg 152w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/External-Men-of-Color-Recruitment-NMAAHC-768x1518.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/External-Men-of-Color-Recruitment-NMAAHC-777x1536.jpg 777w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/External-Men-of-Color-Recruitment-NMAAHC-1036x2048.jpg 1036w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/External-Men-of-Color-Recruitment-NMAAHC-scaled.jpg 1295w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 518px) 100vw, 518px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><a href=\"https:\/\/nmaahc.si.edu\/object\/nmaahc_2012.133\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Frederick Douglass, &#8220;Men of Color To Arms&#8221; (1863). Courtey of the National Musuem of African American History &amp; Culture.<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:66.66%\">\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Read the following paragraph transcribed from the broadside: <em>A new era is open to us. For generations we have suffered under the horrors of slavery, outrage and wrong; our manhood has been denied, our citizenship blotted out, our souls seared and burned, our spirits cowed and crushed, and the hopes of the future of our race involved in doubt and darkness. But now our relations to the white race are changed. Now, therefore, is our most precious moment. Let us rush to arms!<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What words would you use to describe this language? Who does the passage identify as having been wronged, and how would you characterize that mistreatment? Is it religious, gendered, or rooted in the body?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What do you notice about the largest words on the broadside? Compare one or two phrases with those that appear smaller. Why would you imagine the authors of this broadside enlarging these words over others? What is their unique effect?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The primary audience for this broadside and speech is obviously Black men in the North, but can you imagine another reading audience for these objects?\u202f<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>How would you connect the language of the broadside to the languages of revolution (the American, French, and Haitian Revolutions, and slave revolts like Nat Turner\u2019s Rebellion)?\u202f<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Memorializing John Brown<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 1859, abolitionist John Brown, his three sons, and a group of nineteen other abolitionists conducted a raid on a federal armory at Harper\u2019s Ferry, Virginia. Brown\u2019s goal was to arm local enslaved people with the weapons he captured and incite an insurrection. Brown was captured and tried for treason instead, eventually being executed on December 2 of that year. The trial was the first in United States history to be covered in national newspapers, and so Brown\u2019s legacy touched both the North and the South. Southern whites feared further rebellion; northerners were inspired by Brown and lauded him as a martyr. William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass both commented that Brown\u2019s zeal and tenacity were admirable, and yet many political officials and Republican elites distanced themselves from Brown\u2019s violence. In addition to heightening political tension, Brown\u2019s raid also inspired literary adaptation and interpretation.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 1860, Thomas Drew published a book entitled <em>The John Brown Invasion; An Authentic History of the Harper&#8217;s Ferry Tragedy<\/em>. The book attempts to give an objective account of the raid on Harper\u2019s Ferry, the trial, Brown\u2019s execution, and the repercussions of these events. Below are excerpts from the book, including the section in which Drew recounts Brown\u2019s final meeting with his wife before his execution and the last pages of the book, in which Drew includes slander against Brown and refutes it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-995f960e wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890F3_F?WS=AssetManagement\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"213\" src=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/993429198805867_ord_dawes_f_8338_24_pg_062-scaled-e1758818437130-1024x213.jpg\" alt=\"Page of printed text. At the bottom starts a section entitled, &quot;The Last Interview,&quot; which describes the last conversation between John Brown and his wife. She entered his cell and embraced him.\" class=\"wp-image-24668\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/993429198805867_ord_dawes_f_8338_24_pg_062-scaled-e1758818437130-1024x213.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/993429198805867_ord_dawes_f_8338_24_pg_062-scaled-e1758818437130-300x62.jpg 300w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/993429198805867_ord_dawes_f_8338_24_pg_062-scaled-e1758818437130-768x160.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/993429198805867_ord_dawes_f_8338_24_pg_062-scaled-e1758818437130-1536x320.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/993429198805867_ord_dawes_f_8338_24_pg_062-scaled-e1758818437130.jpg 1634w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890F3_F?BRPN=2&amp;WS=AssetManagement\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"835\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/993429198805867_ord_dawes_f_8338_24_pg_063-scaled-e1758818588207-835x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Page of printed text, which describes the last conversation between John Brown and his wife. They discuss their living children, and Brown requests that his wife cremate his body and the bodies of their two sons killed at Harper's Ferry. Mrs. Brown doubts that will be possible, but she asks to receive the chain shackling brown as a family heirloom. She already has the chain that held one of their sons when he was captured and killed in Kansas. Brown gives his wife some letters and then goes over his will with her.\" class=\"wp-image-24669\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/993429198805867_ord_dawes_f_8338_24_pg_063-scaled-e1758818588207-835x1024.jpg 835w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/993429198805867_ord_dawes_f_8338_24_pg_063-scaled-e1758818588207-245x300.jpg 245w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/993429198805867_ord_dawes_f_8338_24_pg_063-scaled-e1758818588207-768x942.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/993429198805867_ord_dawes_f_8338_24_pg_063-scaled-e1758818588207-1252x1536.jpg 1252w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/993429198805867_ord_dawes_f_8338_24_pg_063-scaled-e1758818588207.jpg 1527w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 835px) 100vw, 835px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890F3_F?BRPN=1&amp;WS=AssetManagement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Thomas Drew, The John Brown Invasion, &#8220;The Last Interview,&#8221; 62-63 (1860)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890F3_F?BRPN=3&amp;WS=AssetManagement\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"658\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/993429198805867_ord_dawes_f_8338_24_pg_0111-658x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Single page of printed text reprinting complaints against John Brown's raid at Harper's Ferry that had appeared elsewhere, especially a letter from a woman who claims Brown murdered her husband and sons during a raid in Kansas.\" class=\"wp-image-24667\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/993429198805867_ord_dawes_f_8338_24_pg_0111-658x1024.jpg 658w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/993429198805867_ord_dawes_f_8338_24_pg_0111-193x300.jpg 193w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/993429198805867_ord_dawes_f_8338_24_pg_0111-768x1194.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/993429198805867_ord_dawes_f_8338_24_pg_0111-988x1536.jpg 988w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/993429198805867_ord_dawes_f_8338_24_pg_0111-1317x2048.jpg 1317w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/993429198805867_ord_dawes_f_8338_24_pg_0111-scaled.jpg 1646w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 658px) 100vw, 658px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890F3_F?BRPN=3&amp;WS=AssetManagement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Thomas Drew, <em>The John Brown Invasion<\/em>, &#8220;Slanders Upon John Brown,&#8221; 111 (1860)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-995f960e wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:33.33%\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Ask Students<\/h5>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:66.66%\">\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>How would you describe the tone in the scene in which Brown speaks with his wife? How does the author portray his character, and his wife\u2019s character? How would you compare the tone to the other nineteenth-century texts in this essay?&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What kinds of objects are mentioned in this passage? What do you think they symbolize?&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>In the \u201cSlanders\u201d section, Drew states that the slanders were addressed to Brown while in jail. What is the effect of contextualizing the slanders as received during Brown\u2019s imprisonment? Does it create sympathy? Does it have any different effects?&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>How does Drew refute the slanders? Do you think his arguments are compelling? Why or why not?&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What do Drew\u2019s arguments convey about his attempt to craft Brown\u2019s legacy? In other words, what does Drew want readers to disagree with? What does that tell us about the points he wants readers to take away from his book?&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">During the Civil War, the most popular marching song of the Union army was \u201cJohn Brown\u2019s Body,\u201d which soldiers sang to the tune that would later be used for the \u201cBattle Hymn of the Republic.\u201d The song was reportedly heard nationwide, including in Boston, Virginia, prison camps in Georgia, and after the war in South Carolina, when it was sung in a parade by three thousand formerly enslaved children. The <em>New York Tribune<\/em> even circulated the lyrics to the song in July of 1861.\u202f&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890FH_A?BRPN=1&amp;WS=AssetManagement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">&#8220;The John Brown Song, or Glory Hallelujah&#8221; (1862)<\/a><\/h5>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-jetpack-slideshow aligncenter\" data-effect=\"slide\" style=\"--aspect-ratio:calc(784 \/ 1024)\"><div class=\"wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_container swiper\"><ul class=\"wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_swiper-wrapper swiper-wrapper\"><li class=\"wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_slide swiper-slide\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"784\" height=\"1024\" alt=\"Cover page of a piece of sheet music\" class=\"wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_image wp-image-24670\" data-id=\"24670\" data-aspect-ratio=\"784 \/ 1024\" src=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997009128805867_ord_case_sheet_music_mi_a13_no_2762_01-784x1024.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997009128805867_ord_case_sheet_music_mi_a13_no_2762_01-784x1024.jpg 784w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997009128805867_ord_case_sheet_music_mi_a13_no_2762_01-230x300.jpg 230w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997009128805867_ord_case_sheet_music_mi_a13_no_2762_01-768x1003.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997009128805867_ord_case_sheet_music_mi_a13_no_2762_01-1177x1536.jpg 1177w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997009128805867_ord_case_sheet_music_mi_a13_no_2762_01-1569x2048.jpg 1569w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997009128805867_ord_case_sheet_music_mi_a13_no_2762_01-scaled.jpg 1961w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 784px) 100vw, 784px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_caption gallery-caption\">Root and Cady, &#8220;The John Brown Song or Glory Hallelujah with New and Revised Words,&#8221; cover (1862)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li><li class=\"wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_slide swiper-slide\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"815\" height=\"1024\" alt=\"Page of musical notation with the verses of a song. They read, &quot; 1. Old John Brown's body lies a mould'ring in the grave, While weep the sons of bondage whom he ventured all to save; But tho' he lost his life in struggling for the slave, HIs soul is marching on!\/ 2. John Brown was a hero un-daunted, true and brave; Kansas knew his valor when he fought her rights to save; And now tho' grass grows green above his grave, His soul is marching on!\/ 3. He captured Harpers Ferry, with his nineteen men so few, And he frighten'd Old Verginny 'till she trembled thro' and thro'; They hung him for a traitor, themselves a traitor crew, But his soul is marching on!\/ 4. john Brown was John the Baptist for the Christ we are to see-- Christ who of the bondman shall the Liberator be; And soon throughout the sunny South the slaves shall all be free, For his soul is marching on!\/ 5. The conflict that he heralded, he looks from heav'n to view; On the army of the Union with its flag red, white and blue, And heaven shall ring with anthems o'er the deeds they men to do, For his soul is marching on.\/ 6. O soldiers of freedom, then strike while strike you may, The death blow of oppression in a better time and way; For the dawn of old John Brown has brighten'd into day, And his soul is marching on!&quot;\" class=\"wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_image wp-image-24671\" data-id=\"24671\" data-aspect-ratio=\"815 \/ 1024\" src=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997009128805867_ord_case_sheet_music_mi_a13_no_2762_02-815x1024.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997009128805867_ord_case_sheet_music_mi_a13_no_2762_02-815x1024.jpg 815w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997009128805867_ord_case_sheet_music_mi_a13_no_2762_02-239x300.jpg 239w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997009128805867_ord_case_sheet_music_mi_a13_no_2762_02-768x964.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997009128805867_ord_case_sheet_music_mi_a13_no_2762_02-1223x1536.jpg 1223w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997009128805867_ord_case_sheet_music_mi_a13_no_2762_02-1631x2048.jpg 1631w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997009128805867_ord_case_sheet_music_mi_a13_no_2762_02-scaled.jpg 2039w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 815px) 100vw, 815px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_caption gallery-caption\">Root and Cady, &#8220;The John Brown Song or Glory Hallelujah with New and Revised Words,&#8221; 2 (1862)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li><li class=\"wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_slide swiper-slide\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"784\" height=\"1024\" alt=\"Page of sheet music with musical notation and the words of the chorus of the song, reading &quot; Oh glory hallelujah, Glory glory hallelujah, Oh glory hallelujah, For his soul is marching on!&quot;\" class=\"wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_image wp-image-24672\" data-id=\"24672\" data-aspect-ratio=\"784 \/ 1024\" src=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997009128805867_ord_case_sheet_music_mi_a13_no_2762_03-784x1024.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997009128805867_ord_case_sheet_music_mi_a13_no_2762_03-784x1024.jpg 784w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997009128805867_ord_case_sheet_music_mi_a13_no_2762_03-230x300.jpg 230w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997009128805867_ord_case_sheet_music_mi_a13_no_2762_03-768x1003.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997009128805867_ord_case_sheet_music_mi_a13_no_2762_03-1177x1536.jpg 1177w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997009128805867_ord_case_sheet_music_mi_a13_no_2762_03-1569x2048.jpg 1569w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997009128805867_ord_case_sheet_music_mi_a13_no_2762_03-scaled.jpg 1961w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 784px) 100vw, 784px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_caption gallery-caption\">Root and Cady, &#8220;The John Brown Song or Glory Hallelujah with New and Revised Words,&#8221; 3 (1862)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li><\/ul><a class=\"wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_button-prev swiper-button-prev swiper-button-white\" role=\"button\"><\/a><a class=\"wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_button-next swiper-button-next swiper-button-white\" role=\"button\"><\/a><a aria-label=\"Pause Slideshow\" class=\"wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_button-pause\" role=\"button\"><\/a><div class=\"wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_pagination swiper-pagination swiper-pagination-white\"><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-995f960e wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:33.33%\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Ask Students<\/h5>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:66.66%\">\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>How is John Brown depicted in the song? What words are used to describe him? What imagery is associated with him? Do you recognize that imagery from other places?&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>How do the lyrics portray Brown\u2019s impact on Americans\u2019 ideas about Christianity? How do these lyrics tie together sacred (i.e., Christian theological) images and languages with the context of violence, revolution, and the Union?&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Southern Voices<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Black Poets during the Civil War<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Narratives of enslavement, often called \u201cslave narratives,\u201d were the most popular genre of literature by Black authors just before the war. Other writers broke from the expectation that Black authors could only write personal narratives of enslavement and freedom, however, and wrote poetry, educational materials, and essays. Because enslaved people were banned from reading and writing, those who spent their lives in captivity were unlikely to encounter written poetry. Enslaved persons primarily engaged with poetry through oral culture, such as in song and storytelling. Many enslaved people were also literate and were avid writers.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">George Moses Horton wrote and published multiple volumes of poetry while enslaved. At first, Horton would recite his poems to a transcriber, who wrote them down. By 1829, Horton had gathered enough poems to publish in his first volume, which was the first book published by an African American writer in the South. Horton made enough money each week from writing poetry to buy his time from his enslaver and essentially worked full-time as a poet. He also ceaselessly appealed for his freedom, though he was not freed until the Civil War. Near the close of the war, Horton traveled to Raleigh, North Carolina with a Northern calvary and there published <em>Naked Genius<\/em>, his final volume. After the war, he relocated to Philadelphia and spent the rest of his life writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-995f960e wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890FV_Y?WS=AssetManagement\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"575\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/991440448805867_ord_ps_1999_h473_a6_1997_pg_0120-scaled-e1758819458305-575x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Page with a photograph of the title page of a book. Title page reads, &quot;Naked Genius: By George Moses Horton\/ The Colored Bard of North Carolina\/ Author of &quot;The Black Poet&quot;\/ A work being now compiled and revised by captain Will. H. S. Banks, 9th Michigan Cavalry Volunteers, and which will be ready for publication about the 1st of October, 1865. This work will contain a concise history of the life of the author, written by the compiler, and will be offered to the public as one of the many proofs that God, in his infinite wisdom and mercy, created the Black man for a higher and nobler purpose than to toil his life away under the galling yoke of slavery.\/ Revised and compiled by\/ Will. H. S. Banks\/ Capt. 9th Mich. Cav.\/ WM. B. Smith $ Co.:\/ Southern Feild and Fireside Book Publishing House,\/ Raleigh, N.C.\/ 1865&quot;\" class=\"wp-image-24673\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/991440448805867_ord_ps_1999_h473_a6_1997_pg_0120-scaled-e1758819458305-575x1024.jpg 575w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/991440448805867_ord_ps_1999_h473_a6_1997_pg_0120-scaled-e1758819458305-168x300.jpg 168w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/991440448805867_ord_ps_1999_h473_a6_1997_pg_0120-scaled-e1758819458305-768x1368.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/991440448805867_ord_ps_1999_h473_a6_1997_pg_0120-scaled-e1758819458305-862x1536.jpg 862w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/991440448805867_ord_ps_1999_h473_a6_1997_pg_0120-scaled-e1758819458305.jpg 1114w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 575px) 100vw, 575px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890FV_Y?WS=AssetManagement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Reprint of the cover of <em>Naked Genius<\/em> in <em>The Black Bard of North Carolina<\/em> edited by Joan R. Sherman (1997, original 1865)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890FV_Y?BRPN=2&amp;WS=AssetManagement\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"382\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/991440448805867_ord_ps_1999_h473_a6_1997_pg_0124-scaled-e1758819594796-382x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Printed poem entitled, &quot;The Southern Refugee.&quot; Test reads, &quot;What sudden ill the world await,\/ From my dear residence I roam;\/ I must deplore the bitter fate,\/ To straggle from my native home.\/ The verdant willow drops her head,\/ And seems to bid a fare thee well;\/ The flowers with tears their fragrance shed,\/ Alas! their parting tale to tell.\/ 'Tis like the loss of Paradise,\/ Or Eden's garden left in gloom,\/ Where grief affords us no device;\/ Such is they lot, my native home.\/ I never, never shall forget\/ My sad departure far away,\/ Unit the sun of life is set,\/ And leaves behind no beam of day.\/ How can I from my seat remove\/ And leave my ever devoted home,\/ And the dear garden which I love,\/ The beauty of my native home?\/ Alas! sequestered, set aside,\/ It is a mournful tale to tell;\/ 'Tis like a lone deserted bride\/ That bade her bridegroom fare thee well.\/ I trust I soon shall dry the tear\/ And leave forever hence to roam,\/ Far from a residence so dear,\/ The place of beauty--my native home.&quot;\" class=\"wp-image-24674\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/991440448805867_ord_ps_1999_h473_a6_1997_pg_0124-scaled-e1758819594796-382x1024.jpg 382w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/991440448805867_ord_ps_1999_h473_a6_1997_pg_0124-scaled-e1758819594796-112x300.jpg 112w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/991440448805867_ord_ps_1999_h473_a6_1997_pg_0124-scaled-e1758819594796-768x2061.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/991440448805867_ord_ps_1999_h473_a6_1997_pg_0124-scaled-e1758819594796-763x2048.jpg 763w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/991440448805867_ord_ps_1999_h473_a6_1997_pg_0124-scaled-e1758819594796.jpg 887w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 382px) 100vw, 382px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890FV_Y?BRPN=2&amp;WS=AssetManagement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">George Moses Horton, &#8220;The Southern Refugee,&#8221; reprinted in <em>The Black Bard of North Carolina <\/em>edited by Joan R. Sherman (1997, original ca. 1865)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-995f960e wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:33.33%\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Ask Students<\/h5>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:66.66%\">\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>What do you notice about the explanatory note on the title page of <em>Naked Genius<\/em>? Have you seen any similar explanations on other title pages? What is the impact of this paragraph, especially considering that it\u2019s one of the first things a reader encounters from this volume?&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Look at the poem \u201cThe Southern Refugee.\u201d Compare its style and conventions with other poems you have encountered in this essay. How is Horton\u2019s poem different? How is it similar? What kinds of conventions did Horton use or attempt to use?&nbsp; Why might he value writing poetry in a particular style?&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Do you think this poem would have had a different impact at the beginning of the war and at the end?&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Narratives of Enslavement<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Narrative of Enslavement as a Genre<\/h6>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Also referred to as the \u201cslave narrative,\u201d this genre was extremely popular leading up to the Civil War. It generally consists of a story written or orated by a formerly enslaved person about what it was like to endure slavery, including sketches of enslaved people and their enslavers, the tale of the narrator\u2019s escape and emancipation, and sometimes gaining literacy.\u202f&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Narratives of enslavement were the most widespread genre of literature written by the formerly enslaved in the mid-nineteenth century. Even today when we talk about Black authors of the 1840s, 1850s, and 1860s, we tend to focus on Frederick Douglass\u2019 <em>Narrative <\/em>(1845) and Harriet Jacobs\u2019 <em>Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl<\/em> (1861), rather than poets like George Horton or novelists like Harriet Wilson. Two reasons for this are that these books were well-circulated and key to the abolitionist movement. They had a massive impact and therefore remain iconic and fruitful subjects in literary studies.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright size-large is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890FQ_Z?BRPN=1&amp;WS=AssetManagement\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"653\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/99820558805867_ord_e_444_ji7_a3_1987_frontis-scaled-e1758819792866-653x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Black-and-white photo of an elderly Black woman. She sits in a wooden chair with an elaborately carved back and wears a dark striped dress with a shall. She looks directly at the camera with her hands crossed in her lap.\" class=\"wp-image-24675\" style=\"width:276px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/99820558805867_ord_e_444_ji7_a3_1987_frontis-scaled-e1758819792866-653x1024.jpg 653w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/99820558805867_ord_e_444_ji7_a3_1987_frontis-scaled-e1758819792866-191x300.jpg 191w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/99820558805867_ord_e_444_ji7_a3_1987_frontis-scaled-e1758819792866-768x1205.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/99820558805867_ord_e_444_ji7_a3_1987_frontis-scaled-e1758819792866-979x1536.jpg 979w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/99820558805867_ord_e_444_ji7_a3_1987_frontis-scaled-e1758819792866.jpg 1270w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 653px) 100vw, 653px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890FQ_Z?BRPN=1&amp;WS=AssetManagement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Harriet Jacobs, <em>Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl<\/em>, frontispiece (1987, original 1861)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Harriet Jacobs is unequivocally recognized as the foremost female author of a narrative of enslavement. Her book <em>Incidents<\/em> is often discussed as the sister narrative of Douglass\u2019, meaning that it is contains similar formal elements of the narrative of enslavement, yet more expressly covers the experience of female enslavement. In particular, Jacobs discusses sexual assault as an inherent aspect of slavery for enslaved women. Her story centers around the character Linda, a fictionalized version of herself, who hides in her grandmother\u2019s attic for seven years to avoid sexual predation by her married master, Dr. Flint, who was thirty-five years older than her and unrelenting in his threats.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jacobs first tried to publish her story in 1858. She had difficulty locating a printer but eventually self-published in 1861. Her book was well-received, selling a fair number of copies in the United States and earning an imprint in England. By the twentieth century, though, her book was forgotten, in part because she published it anonymously. It was only rediscovered in the 1980s, when scholar Jean Fagan Yellin proved that Harriet Jacobs was the author through census records and archived correspondence.\u202f&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Authenticating Document<\/h6>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For many narratives of enslavement, authors include an authenticating document, which conveys to readers that the author is trustworthy and the events are verified. A formerly enslaved author might include letters written by people who knew her while she was enslaved, or letters from editors who worked closely with her and attest to her character. The authenticating document is a troubling feature of narratives of enslavement because it indicates a fundamental distrust of stories about slavery. In general, authenticating documents indicated that the story being told was truth, rather than fictional, and that the author was a reliable storyteller. However, in some cases, the document fueled further confusion about the author. For example, before Jacobs was identified as the author of her story, many believed that the true author was Lydia Maria Child, who wrote one of the book\u2019s authenticating documents. In this instance, the document provided doubt regarding the truth of the story because Harriet Jacobs\u2019 identity had not been identified.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-995f960e wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890FQ_Z?BRPN=4&amp;WS=AssetManagement\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1494\" height=\"2381\" src=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/99820558805867_ord_e_444_ji7_a3_1987_tp-edited.jpg\" alt=\"Photograph of title page reading, &quot;Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl\/ Written by Herself\/ 'Northerners know nothing at all about Slavery. They think it is personal bondage only. They have no conception of the depth of degradation involved in that word, Slavery; if they had, they would never cease their efforts until so horrible a system was overthrown.' A Woman of North Carolina\/ 'Rise up, ye women that are at ease! Hear my voice, ye careless daughters! Give ear unto my speech.' Isaiah XXXII. 9.\/ Edited by L. Maria Child.\/ Boston:\/ Published for the Author.\/ 1861&quot;\" class=\"wp-image-24775\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/99820558805867_ord_e_444_ji7_a3_1987_tp-edited.jpg 1494w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/99820558805867_ord_e_444_ji7_a3_1987_tp-edited-188x300.jpg 188w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/99820558805867_ord_e_444_ji7_a3_1987_tp-edited-643x1024.jpg 643w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/99820558805867_ord_e_444_ji7_a3_1987_tp-edited-768x1224.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/99820558805867_ord_e_444_ji7_a3_1987_tp-edited-964x1536.jpg 964w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/99820558805867_ord_e_444_ji7_a3_1987_tp-edited-1285x2048.jpg 1285w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1494px) 100vw, 1494px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890FQ_Z?BRPN=4&amp;WS=AssetManagement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Harriet Jacobs, I<em>ncidents in the Life of a Slave Girl<\/em>, cover of first edition (1987, original 1861)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890FQ_Z?BRPN=2&amp;WS=AssetManagement\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"645\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/99820558805867_ord_e_444_ji7_a3_1987_preface_01-scaled-e1758819978544-645x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Page of printed text in a book reading, &quot;Preface\/ by the Author\/ Reader, be assured this narrative is no fiction. I am aware that some of my adventures may seem incredible; but they are, nevertheless, strictly true. I have not exaggerated the wrongs inflicted by Slavery; on the contrary, my descriptions fall far short of the facts. I have concealed the names of places, and given persons fictitious names. I have no motive for secrecy on my own account, but I deemed it kind and considerate towards others to pursue this course.\/ I wish I were more competent to the task I have undertaken. But I trust my readers will excuse deficiencies in consideration of circumstances. I was born and reared in Slavery; and I remained in a Slave State twenty-seven years. Since I have been at the North, it has been necessary for me to work diligently for my own support, and the education of my children. This has not left me much leisure to make up for the loss of early opportunities to improve myself; and tit has compelled me to write these pages at irregular intervals, whenever I could snatch an hour from household duties.\/ When I first arrived in Philadelphia, Bishop Paine advised me to publish a sketch of my life, but I told him I was altogether incompetent to such an undertaking. Though I have improved my mind somewhat since that time, I still remain of the same opinion; but I trust my motives will excuse me what might otherwise seem presumptuous. I have not written my experiences in order to attract attention to myself; on the contrary, it would have been more pleasant to me to have been silent about my own history. Neither do I care to excite sympathy for my own sufferings. But I do earnestly desire to arouse the women of the North to a realizing sense of the condition of two millions of women at the South, still in bondage, suffering what I suffered, and most of them far worse. I want to add my&quot;\" class=\"wp-image-24678\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/99820558805867_ord_e_444_ji7_a3_1987_preface_01-scaled-e1758819978544-645x1024.jpg 645w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/99820558805867_ord_e_444_ji7_a3_1987_preface_01-scaled-e1758819978544-189x300.jpg 189w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/99820558805867_ord_e_444_ji7_a3_1987_preface_01-scaled-e1758819978544-768x1219.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/99820558805867_ord_e_444_ji7_a3_1987_preface_01-scaled-e1758819978544-968x1536.jpg 968w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/99820558805867_ord_e_444_ji7_a3_1987_preface_01-scaled-e1758819978544-1290x2048.jpg 1290w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/99820558805867_ord_e_444_ji7_a3_1987_preface_01-scaled-e1758819978544.jpg 1323w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 645px) 100vw, 645px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890FQ_Z?BRPN=2&amp;WS=AssetManagement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Harriet Jacobs, <em>Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Preface,<\/em> 1 (1987, original 1861). Click to read the complete preface.<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In an additional example, see Harriet Wilson\u2019s \u201cPreface\u201d above, where she justifies her relationship to her narrative and to writing more generally. In addition, Wilson\u2019s book includes an extensive appendix in which friends and editors include a \u201cfew words in her [sic] behalf,\u201d in other words, vouch for her character. In Harriet Jacobs\u2019 case, she includes a preface written by herself as part of her authenticating documents. Pay special attention to the language Jacobs uses when discussing her own merit as an author and her methods of writing, as well as her assessment of the final product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-995f960e wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:33.33%\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Ask Students<\/h5>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:66.66%\">\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>How does Jacobs characterize herself in her preface? What does this preface indicate as an authenticating document?&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Read the title page to <em>Incidents<\/em>, one line at a time. What does each line do uniquely that the other lines do not? What do they establish about the author? About the text? Its publishers?\u202f&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Why do you think Harriet Jacobs elected to publish her story anonymously? Does this choice align with that of any other authors in this essay? Did these authors have anything in common? What were their motivations as writers?&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890FB_E?BRPN=2&amp;WS=AssetManagement\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"464\" src=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/995120458805867_ord_a6_115_march_01_1861_pg_035_detail_01-e1758820145385-1024x464.jpg\" alt=\"LINDA. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Seven Years concealed in Slavery; narrated by herself; with an Introduction by Lydia Maria Child, and a Letter by Amy Post. A handsome book of 306 pages, just issued, which is receiving highly commendatory notices from the press. Price, $1.00. Orders for mailing must include sixteen cents in postage stamps. Address WM. C. Nell, 222 Washington street.\" class=\"wp-image-24652\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/995120458805867_ord_a6_115_march_01_1861_pg_035_detail_01-e1758820145385-1024x464.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/995120458805867_ord_a6_115_march_01_1861_pg_035_detail_01-e1758820145385-300x136.jpg 300w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/995120458805867_ord_a6_115_march_01_1861_pg_035_detail_01-e1758820145385-768x348.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/995120458805867_ord_a6_115_march_01_1861_pg_035_detail_01-e1758820145385.jpg 1324w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890FB_E?BRPN=2&amp;WS=AssetManagement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Advertisement for <em>Linda<\/em> in <em>The Liberator<\/em> (March 1, 1861)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-995f960e wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:33.33%\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Ask Students<\/h5>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:66.66%\">\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Reflect on how this book is being advertised. What words are most emphasized? How much information about the book is provided, and what is left out, compared to its summary above?&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Can you think of ways books, or other media, are advertised now that have something in common with this form of advertisement?&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Reflections on the War and Its Aftermath<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Walt Whitman<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Walt Whitman, one of the most famous poets of the nineteenth century, was filled with grief at President Abraham Lincoln\u2019s passing. He wrote the famous poem, \u201cO Captain! My Captain\u201d to commemorate Lincoln\u2019s death. Another of his masterpieces is \u201cWhen Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom\u2019d,\u201d which explores the nation\u2019s loss and, self-consciously, Whitman\u2019s own attempts to memorialize that loss. Whitman uses the symbols of the star, lilacs, and the hermit thrush to triangulate his relationship with Lincoln\u2019s death, the passages of time, and his role as a poet attempting to capture the impact of this historical moment.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-995f960e wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890BKLH?BRPN=23&amp;WS=AssetManagement\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"737\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997671958805867_e_5_l639665_000024-737x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Page of printed text in a book entitled &quot;Memories of President Lincoln: I. When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd\/ 1. When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom\u2019d,\/ And the great star early droop\u2019d in the western sky in the night,\/ I mourn\u2019d, and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring.\/ Ever-returning spring, trinity sure to me you bring,\/ Lilac blooming perennial and drooping star in the west,\/ And thought of him I love.\/ 2. O shades of night\u2014O moody, tearful night!\/ O great star disappear\u2019d\u2014O the black murk that hides the star!\/ O cruel hands that hold me powerless\u2014O helpless soul of me!\/ O harsh surrounding cloud that will not free my soul.\/ 3. In the dooryard fronting an old farm-house near the white-wash\u2019d palings,\/ Stands the lilac-bush tall-growing with heart-shaped leaves of rich green,&quot;\" class=\"wp-image-24680\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997671958805867_e_5_l639665_000024-737x1024.jpg 737w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997671958805867_e_5_l639665_000024-216x300.jpg 216w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997671958805867_e_5_l639665_000024-768x1067.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997671958805867_e_5_l639665_000024-1105x1536.jpg 1105w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997671958805867_e_5_l639665_000024-1474x2048.jpg 1474w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997671958805867_e_5_l639665_000024-scaled.jpg 1842w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 737px) 100vw, 737px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890BKLH?BRPN=23&amp;WS=AssetManagement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Walt Whitman, &#8220;When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom&#8217;d&#8221; in <em>Memories of President Lincoln<\/em>, 2 <br>(1912 original 1865)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890BKLH?BRPN=25&amp;WS=AssetManagement\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"739\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997671958805867_e_5_l639665_000026-739x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Page of printed text, reading &quot;With many a pointed blossom rising delicate, with the perfume strong I love,\/ With every leaf a miracle\u2014and from this bush in the dooryard,\/ With delicate-color\u2019d blossoms and heart-shaped leaves of rich green,\/ A sprig with its flower I break.\/ 4. In the swamp in secluded recesses,\/ A shy and hidden bird is warbling a song.\/ Solitary the thrush,\/ The hermit withdrawn to himself, avoiding the settlements,\/ Sings by himself a song.\/ Song of the bleeding throat,\/ Death\u2019s outlet song of life, (for well dear brother I know,\/ If thou wast not granted to sing thou would\u2019st surely die.)\/ 5. Over the breast of the spring, the land, amid cities,\/ Amid lanes and through old woods, where lately the violets peep\u2019d from the ground, spotting the gray debris,\/ Amid the grass in the fields each side of the lanes, passing the endless grass,\/ Passing the yellow-spear\u2019d wheat, every grain from its shroud in the dark-brown fields uprisen,\/ Passing the apple-tree blows of white and pink in the orchards,\/ Carrying a corpse to where it shall rest in the grave,\/ Night and day journeys a coffin.\/ 6\/ Coffin that passes through lanes and streets,\/ Through day and night with the great cloud darkening the land,\/ With the pomp of the inloop\u2019d flags with the cities draped in black,\/ With the show of the States themselves as of crape-veil\u2019d women standing,\/ With processions long and winding and the flambeaus of the night,&quot;\" class=\"wp-image-24679\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997671958805867_e_5_l639665_000026-739x1024.jpg 739w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997671958805867_e_5_l639665_000026-217x300.jpg 217w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997671958805867_e_5_l639665_000026-768x1064.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997671958805867_e_5_l639665_000026-1109x1536.jpg 1109w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997671958805867_e_5_l639665_000026-1479x2048.jpg 1479w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997671958805867_e_5_l639665_000026-scaled.jpg 1848w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 739px) 100vw, 739px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890BKLH?BRPN=25&amp;WS=AssetManagement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Walt Whitman, &#8220;When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom&#8217;d&#8221; in <em>Memories of President Lincoln,<\/em> 3 <br>(1912 original 1865)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-995f960e wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:33.33%\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Ask Students<\/h5>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:66.66%\">\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Whitman sets the stage for this lamentation poem by describing a few different settings. Can you identify the different settings he describes in these first five stanzas? Are they in spaces of nature, or manmade?\u202fWhy do you think he decided to use these settings in the poem?&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Read the first and second stanzas. How would you describe the relationship between the \u201cever-returning\u201d spring that Whitman evokes, alongside his symbol of the \u201cdrooping star\u201d as Lincoln? How would you describe the different layers of emotion Whitman conveys in these two stanzas?&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>In the fourth stanza, Whitman introduces the hermit thrush, \u201cwarbling a song.\u201d Who does this bird represent? Why would he include this in this poem about Lincoln\u2019s death?&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Herman Melville<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Herman Melville, now known for writing <em>Moby-Dick; or, The White Whale<\/em> (1851), had early literary success, but his popularity diminished as his books became more complex. During the Civil War, Melville searched for different ways to become involved in the war effort, including offering his services to the Union\u2019s navy. He never took up a naval post. Melville did spend the majority of the war crafting poems about it, however, and <em>Battle-Pieces<\/em> was one of his final major published works in his lifetime. In the collection, written between 1859 and 1866, Melville used primary sources like newspapers and war reports to illustrate and frame battles and other aspects of the war. For example, in \u201cThe Swamp Angel,\u201d Melville employs the metaphor of the angel to stand in for a particular kind of gun used by the Union in 1863 at Charleston, South Carolina. In addition, Melville was struck by the level of nation-wide grief he witnessed after Lincoln\u2019s assassination. \u201cThe Martyr\u201d is an exploration of Lincoln\u2019s death, but even more so a demonstration of the significance of Americans\u2019 reactions to it.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-995f960e wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890FR_T?WS=AssetManagement\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"740\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/996283198805867_ord_melville_ps_2384_b3_1866_pg_0107-scaled-e1758836509547-740x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Poem printed in a book, reading &quot;The Swamp Angel\/ There is a coal-black Angel\/ With a thick Afric lip,\/ And he dwells (like the hunted and harried)\/ In a swamp where the green frogs dip.\/ But his face is against a City\/ Which is over a bay of the sea,\/ And he breathes with a breath that is blastment,\/ And dooms by a far decree.\/ By night there is fear in the City,\/ Through the darkness a star soareth on;\/ There\u2019s a scream that screams up to the zenith,\/ Then the poise of a meteor lone\u2014\/ Lighting far the pale fright of the faces,\/ And downward the coming is seen;\/ Then the rush, and the burst, and the havoc,\/ And wails and shrieks between.&quot;\" class=\"wp-image-24681\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/996283198805867_ord_melville_ps_2384_b3_1866_pg_0107-scaled-e1758836509547-740x1024.jpg 740w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/996283198805867_ord_melville_ps_2384_b3_1866_pg_0107-scaled-e1758836509547-217x300.jpg 217w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/996283198805867_ord_melville_ps_2384_b3_1866_pg_0107-scaled-e1758836509547-768x1063.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/996283198805867_ord_melville_ps_2384_b3_1866_pg_0107-scaled-e1758836509547-1110x1536.jpg 1110w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/996283198805867_ord_melville_ps_2384_b3_1866_pg_0107-scaled-e1758836509547.jpg 1270w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890FR_T?WS=AssetManagement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Herman Melville, &#8220;The Swamp Angel&#8221; in <em>Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War <\/em>(1866). Click for the entire poem.<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890FR_T?BRPN=4&amp;WS=AssetManagement\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"702\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/996283198805867_ord_melville_ps_2384_b3_1866_pg_0141-scaled-e1758836458714-702x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Page of a poem in a printed book, reading &quot;The Martyr\/ Indicative of the passion of the people on the 15ht of April, 1865\/ Good Friday was the day\/ Of the prodigy and crime,\/ When they killed him in his pity,\/ When they killed him in his prime\/ Of clemency and calm\u2014\/ When with yearning he was filled\/ To redeem the evil-willed,\/ And, though conqueror, be kind;\/ But they killed him in his kindness,\/ In their madness and their blindness,\/ And they killed him from behind.\/ There is sobbing of the strong,\/ And a pall upon the land;\/ But the People in their weeping\/ Bare the iron hand:&quot;\" class=\"wp-image-24682\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/996283198805867_ord_melville_ps_2384_b3_1866_pg_0141-scaled-e1758836458714-702x1024.jpg 702w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/996283198805867_ord_melville_ps_2384_b3_1866_pg_0141-scaled-e1758836458714-206x300.jpg 206w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/996283198805867_ord_melville_ps_2384_b3_1866_pg_0141-scaled-e1758836458714-768x1121.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/996283198805867_ord_melville_ps_2384_b3_1866_pg_0141-scaled-e1758836458714-1053x1536.jpg 1053w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/996283198805867_ord_melville_ps_2384_b3_1866_pg_0141-scaled-e1758836458714.jpg 1220w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 702px) 100vw, 702px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890FR_T?BRPN=4&amp;WS=AssetManagement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Herman Melville, &#8220;The Martyr&#8221; in <em>Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War<\/em> (1866). Click for the entire poem.<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-995f960e wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:33.33%\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Ask Students<\/h5>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:66.66%\">\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>In the first and fifth stanzas of \u201cThe Swamp Angel,\u201d Melville constructs a comparison between the titular \u201cSwamp Angel\u201d and the image of an African American person. Why does Melville collapse these two very different agents (a gun, a human) into one, especially given the context of the poem? What is the effect of this metaphor?&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Without the context of \u201cThe Swamp Angel\u201d referring to a specific artillery weapon, how would you know that this poem refers to a gun instead of an actual \u201cswamp angel\u201d? Pay special attention to the verbs associated with the angel. See stanzas two and four for example of the swamp angel\u2019s actions.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Notice the refrain in \u201cThe Martyr,\u201d the phrases that are repeated multiple times in the poem (\u201cthe People weeping\u2026\u201d). What does the repetition of this phrase indicate about Melville\u2019s stance in the poem?&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>How would you summarize &#8220;The Martyr\u201d poem? What words in particular indicate Melville\u2019s main message? You might incorporate your analysis of the refrain and pay close attention to how words are emphasized through the use of meter and rhyme. Try reading the poem aloud to see which words stick out.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Compare the language Melville uses to refer to Lincoln in \u201cThe Martyr\u201d with how Whitman illustrates him in \u201cWhen Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom\u2019d.\u201d Would you say one poem is more personal, explicit, metaphorical, or distant than the other?\u202fIf so, how?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Louisa May Alcott<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the years following the Civil War, Louisa May Alcott wrote and published her book, <em>Little Women<\/em>, which was a bestseller of the nineteenth century. Published across two volumes in 1868 and 1869, Alcott weaves together the stories of four sisters before, during, and after the Civil War. <em>Little Women<\/em> depicts how women and girls grappled with the Civil War\u2013simultaneously showing what life was like in the North, how they dealt psychologically with the fear and anxieties of the war, and how they carved out independence without male influence getting in the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8ZSSP9O72?WS=AssetManagement\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"797\" src=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Little-women-frontispiece-title-page-1024x797.jpg\" alt=\"Two-page spread of a printed book. On the right is the title page, reading,&quot; Little Women,\/ Or,\/ Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy by Lousia M. Alcott\/ Illustrated by May Alcott\/ Boston\/ Roberts Brothers\/ 1869.&quot; On the left is an illustration showing the four girls gathering around their mother, who is sitting in an arm chair. Below is a quote describing the image, &quot;They all drew to the fire, mother in the big chair, with Beth at her feet; Meg and May perched on either arm of the chair, and Jo leaning on the back. -- Page 12.&quot;\" class=\"wp-image-13413\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Little-women-frontispiece-title-page-1024x797.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Little-women-frontispiece-title-page-300x233.jpg 300w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Little-women-frontispiece-title-page-scaled-600x467.jpg 600w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Little-women-frontispiece-title-page-768x598.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Little-women-frontispiece-title-page-1536x1195.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Little-women-frontispiece-title-page-2048x1594.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8ZSSP9O72?WS=AssetManagement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Louisa May Alcott, <em>Little Women, or Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy<\/em>, title page and frontispiece (1869)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-995f960e wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:33.33%\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Ask Students<\/h5>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:66.66%\">\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Look at the title page for <em>Little Women<\/em>. What does including the names of the four sisters as an additional title say about the book\u2019s goals?&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Refer back to the illustration that accompanies the title page. It depicts the four sisters gathered around their mother. Can you imagine what this image would evoke for readers about the roles of women in the years following the war? Or, what it might signal to readers to expect as they read <em>Little Women<\/em>?&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What does it say about how women\u2019s roles may have changed during and after the Civil War that <em>Little Women <\/em>was such a popular publication? How does this reflect larger changes in society for women? What kinds of futures do you think <em>Little Women<\/em> readers were imagining for themselves?&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">About the Author<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Michaela Corning-Myers<\/strong> is a PhD Candidate in the Department of English at Northwestern University. Her work centers on the interconnection of mid-nineteenth century texts and naturalist novels published in the 1890s and beyond. Her dissertation, \u201cThe Age of Affliction: Illness, Disability, Gender, and Race in American Literary Naturalism&#8221; argues that the key traits of the genre of naturalism are rooted in mid-nineteenth-century texts, like narratives of enslavement. In particular, attunement to ill and disabled bodies in texts of the 1850s and 1860s prefigures later explorations of the afflicted body in texts written by Edith Wharton, Willa Cather, and Ann Petry, especially through the embodied experiences of race and gender.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-getwid-tabs__nav-link\"><span class=\"wp-block-getwid-tabs__title-wrapper\"><a href=\"#\"><span class=\"wp-block-getwid-tabs__title\">Source Set<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div><div class=\"wp-block-getwid-tabs__tab-content-wrapper\"><div class=\"wp-block-getwid-tabs__tab-content\">\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Abolitionist Literature<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To understand the literature published during the war, it is vital to examine the radical abolitionist literature that circulated in the years leading up to it.&nbsp;These include newspapers, journals, tracts (small pamphlets), and books. Below are excerpts from William Llyod Garrison&#8217;s <em>The Liberator<\/em>, Frederick Douglass&#8217; <em>Frederick Douglass&#8217; Paper<\/em>, Harriet Beecher Stowe&#8217;s <em>Uncle Tom&#8217;s Cabin<\/em>, and Harriet Wilson&#8217;s<em> Our Nig: or, Sketches from the Life of a Free Black.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-995f960e wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8ZSWBKMVK?WS=AssetManagement\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"322\" src=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/995120458805867_order_a6_115_may_25_1855_pg_081-1024x322.jpg\" alt=\"Newspaper masthead. On the far left is a column of information about the paper, including its title, staff information, and information about payment. On the far right is a column of text entitled, &quot;No Union with Slaveholders!&quot; with a long quote from John Qunicy Adams about how the Constitution's 3\/5 compromise &quot;tainted&quot; the document. In the middle is a large illustration showing Jesus (white) appearing between a kneeling Black enslaved man and a cowering white enslaver. Around Jesus are rays of light and the words, &quot;I come to break the bonds of the oppressor.&quot; To the left of this tableau is an image of an auction block where a white man sells enslaved people and animals under an American flag. To the right is an image of a free Black family in a farmhouse and a crowd of Black people in the distance walking towards a gate labeled &quot;Emancipation.&quot; Below is the title of the paper, The Liberator, and the phrases &quot;thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself&quot; and &quot;our country is the world, our countrymen all mankind.&quot;\" class=\"wp-image-24650\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/995120458805867_order_a6_115_may_25_1855_pg_081-1024x322.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/995120458805867_order_a6_115_may_25_1855_pg_081-300x94.jpg 300w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/995120458805867_order_a6_115_may_25_1855_pg_081-768x242.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/995120458805867_order_a6_115_may_25_1855_pg_081-1536x484.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/995120458805867_order_a6_115_may_25_1855_pg_081-2048x645.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8ZSWBKMVK?WS=AssetManagement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Masthead of <em>The Liberator<\/em> (May 25, 1855)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.loc.gov\/resource\/sn84026366\/1860-06-08\/ed-1\/?st=gallery\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/External_Frederick-Douglass-Paper-June-8-1860-e1758145518350-1024x315.png\" alt=\"Masthead of a newspaper. In large Gothic lettering across the top of the page is the title, &quot;Frederick Douglass' Paper.&quot; Below that is the phrase &quot;Devoted to the rights of all mankind, without distinction of color, glass, or clime.&quot; Below this are volume information, the publication place (Rochester, NY), and the date.\" class=\"wp-image-24654\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/External_Frederick-Douglass-Paper-June-8-1860-e1758145518350-1024x315.png 1024w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/External_Frederick-Douglass-Paper-June-8-1860-e1758145518350-300x92.png 300w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/External_Frederick-Douglass-Paper-June-8-1860-e1758145518350-768x236.png 768w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/External_Frederick-Douglass-Paper-June-8-1860-e1758145518350-1536x473.png 1536w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/External_Frederick-Douglass-Paper-June-8-1860-e1758145518350.png 1917w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.loc.gov\/resource\/sn84026366\/1860-06-08\/ed-1\/?st=gallery\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Masthead of <em>Frederick Douglass&#8217; Paper<\/em> (June 8, 1860). Courtesy of the Library of Congress.<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-995f960e wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890FB_E?BRPN=3&amp;WS=AssetManagement\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"645\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/995120458805867_ord_a6_115_march_15_1861_pg_044_detail_01-645x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Poem entitled &quot;The Sword and the Pen,&quot; printed in newspaper reading, &quot;Say not the glittering, blood-stained sword\/ Is mightier than the pen,\/ Or wields a deeper, stronger power\/ Over the hearts of men.\/ The sword is mighty to destroy,\/ To shroud the earth in gloom,\/ To crowd with legions, red with gore,\/ The pathway to the tomb;\/ To crush the lonely widow's heart,\/ To wake the orphan's cry,\/ To fill the earth with wretchedness,\/ And crime of deepest dye.\/ But mightier far the peaceful pen,\/ Scattering the gems of mind,\/ Like precious seed throughout the earth,\/ To save and bless mankind.\/ And when from its destroying work\/ The gleaming sword shall rest,\/When with sweet peace and righteousness\/ The blooming earth is blest--\/ Then shall the pen assert its power,\/ And then mankind shall feel\/ That mightier is its influence\/ Than the sword's glittering steel.&quot;\" class=\"wp-image-24653\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/995120458805867_ord_a6_115_march_15_1861_pg_044_detail_01-645x1024.jpg 645w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/995120458805867_ord_a6_115_march_15_1861_pg_044_detail_01-189x300.jpg 189w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/995120458805867_ord_a6_115_march_15_1861_pg_044_detail_01-768x1219.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/995120458805867_ord_a6_115_march_15_1861_pg_044_detail_01-967x1536.jpg 967w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/995120458805867_ord_a6_115_march_15_1861_pg_044_detail_01-1290x2048.jpg 1290w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/995120458805867_ord_a6_115_march_15_1861_pg_044_detail_01.jpg 1414w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 645px) 100vw, 645px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890FB_E?BRPN=3&amp;WS=AssetManagement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Sarah S. Socwell, &#8220;The Sword and the Pen,&#8221; <em>The Liberator <\/em><\/a><br><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890FB_E?BRPN=3&amp;WS=AssetManagement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">(Jan. 11, 1861)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890FB_E?BRPN=1&amp;WS=AssetManagement\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"875\" src=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/995120458805867_a6_115_Jan_11_1861_detail-1024x875.jpg\" alt=\"Poem entitled &quot;Secession Consummated,&quot; printed in a newspaper reading, &quot;Yankee Doodle took a saw,\/ With patriot devotion,\/ To trim the Tree of Liberty,\/ According to his 'notion!'\/ Yankee Doodle on a limb,\/ Like another noodle,\/ Cut between the tree and him,\/ And down came Yankee Doodle!\/ Yankee Doodle broke his neck,\/ Every bone about him,\/ Adn then the Tree of Liberty\/ Did very well without him!&quot;\" class=\"wp-image-24628\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/995120458805867_a6_115_Jan_11_1861_detail-1024x875.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/995120458805867_a6_115_Jan_11_1861_detail-300x256.jpg 300w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/995120458805867_a6_115_Jan_11_1861_detail-768x656.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/995120458805867_a6_115_Jan_11_1861_detail-1536x1312.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/995120458805867_a6_115_Jan_11_1861_detail.jpg 1708w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890FB_E?BRPN=1&amp;WS=AssetManagement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">&#8220;Secession Consummated,&#8221; <em>The Liberator<\/em> (Jan. 11, 1861)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.loc.gov\/resource\/sn84026366\/1860-06-08\/ed-1\/?sp=4\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"571\" height=\"1015\" src=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/External_Frederick-Douglass-Paper-Children-Pleading-e1758145089758-edited.png\" alt=\"Poem entitled &quot;Children Pleading for the Slave,&quot; printed in a newspaper. Poem reads, &quot;God of the wide creation,\/ Of air, and earth, and sea,\/ Accept the young oblation,\/ We children bring to thee.\/ We come, thy sons attending,\/ And join our notes with theirs;\/ At mercy's footstool bending,\/ We lift our youthful prayers.\/ And will the Lord of glory,\/ Who dwells beyond the sky,\/ Regard our humble story,\/ And answer them on high?\/ He will! for he hath told us\/ In his eternal word,\/ He always doth behold us,\/ His ears have ever heard.\/ When Samuel bow'd before him,\/ And clasped his hands and prayed,\/ God taught him to adore him,\/ And heard the prayer he said;\/ Now, Samuel's God is near us,\/ Where we have met to-day;\/ He bows his ear to hear us,\/ And teaches us to pray.\/ Then bless, great God of heaven!\/ The helpless, bleeding slave;\/ Let light and truth be given.\/ His darkened soul to save;\/ And speed, good Lord! the season,\/ When Slavery's reign shall end,\/ And masters, swayed by reason,\/ Shall call the slave their friend.&quot;\" class=\"wp-image-24761\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/External_Frederick-Douglass-Paper-Children-Pleading-e1758145089758-edited.png 571w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/External_Frederick-Douglass-Paper-Children-Pleading-e1758145089758-edited-169x300.png 169w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 571px) 100vw, 571px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.loc.gov\/resource\/sn84026366\/1860-06-08\/ed-1\/?sp=4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">&#8220;Children Pleading for the Slave,&#8221; <em>in Frederick Douglass&#8217; Pape<\/em>r (June 8, 1860). Courtesy of the Library of Congress.<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-995f960e wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890F6_G?BRPN=2\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"704\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997051108805867_ord_y_255_s885_opp_pg_46-edited-1-704x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Engraved illustration of a Black woman carrying an infant using ice flows to cross a river. She is being chased by three white men, who stand on the shore behind her yelling and waving sticks.\" class=\"wp-image-24764\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997051108805867_ord_y_255_s885_opp_pg_46-edited-1-704x1024.jpg 704w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997051108805867_ord_y_255_s885_opp_pg_46-edited-1-206x300.jpg 206w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997051108805867_ord_y_255_s885_opp_pg_46-edited-1-768x1118.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997051108805867_ord_y_255_s885_opp_pg_46-edited-1-1055x1536.jpg 1055w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997051108805867_ord_y_255_s885_opp_pg_46-edited-1-1407x2048.jpg 1407w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997051108805867_ord_y_255_s885_opp_pg_46-edited-1.jpg 1462w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 704px) 100vw, 704px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890F6_G?BRPN=2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">&#8220;Eliza&#8217;s Escape from Haley,&#8221; in <em>Uncle Tom&#8217;s Cabin<\/em> (1852)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890F6_G?BRPN=1\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"701\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997051108805867_ord_y_255_s885_opp_pg_233-edited-701x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Engraved illustration showing four adults gathered around a bed with a girl who has just died. The adults are in various positions of mourning. The girl and three of the adults are white, while the man in the most prominent position in front of the bed is Black.\" class=\"wp-image-24765\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997051108805867_ord_y_255_s885_opp_pg_233-edited-701x1024.jpg 701w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997051108805867_ord_y_255_s885_opp_pg_233-edited-205x300.jpg 205w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997051108805867_ord_y_255_s885_opp_pg_233-edited-768x1122.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997051108805867_ord_y_255_s885_opp_pg_233-edited-1051x1536.jpg 1051w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997051108805867_ord_y_255_s885_opp_pg_233-edited.jpg 1378w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 701px) 100vw, 701px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890F6_G?BRPN=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">&#8220;Eva&#8217;s Death&#8221; in <em>Uncle Tom&#8217;s Cabin<\/em> (1852)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890FF_F?WS=AssetManagement\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"659\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997731468805867_ord_case_y_255_w6918_preface_01-659x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Single page of printed text reading, &quot;Preface: In offering to the public the following pages, the writer confesses her inability to minister to the refined and cultivated, the pleasure supplied by abler pens. It is not for such that these crude narrations appear. Deserted by kindred, disabled by failing health, I am forced to some experiment which shall aid me in maintaining myself and child without extinguishing this feeble life. I would not from these motives even palliate slavery at the South, by disclosures of its appurtenances North. My mistress was wholly imbued with southern principles. I do not pretend to divulge every transaction in my own life, which the unprejudiced would declare unfavorable in comparison with treatment of legal bondmen; I have purposely omitted what would most provoke shame in our good anti-slavery friends at home. My humble position and frank confession of errors will, I hope, shield me from severe criticism. Indeed, defects are so apparent it requires no skillful hand to expose them. I sincerely appeal to my colored brethern universally for patronage, hoping they will not condemn this attempt of their sister to be erudite, but rally around me a faithful band of supporters and defenders. H.E.W.&quot;\" class=\"wp-image-24658\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997731468805867_ord_case_y_255_w6918_preface_01-659x1024.jpg 659w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997731468805867_ord_case_y_255_w6918_preface_01-193x300.jpg 193w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997731468805867_ord_case_y_255_w6918_preface_01-768x1193.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997731468805867_ord_case_y_255_w6918_preface_01-989x1536.jpg 989w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997731468805867_ord_case_y_255_w6918_preface_01-1318x2048.jpg 1318w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997731468805867_ord_case_y_255_w6918_preface_01-scaled.jpg 1648w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 659px) 100vw, 659px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890FF_F?WS=AssetManagement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Harriet Wilson, O<em>ur Nig, Or, Sketches from the Life of a Free Black<\/em> (ca. 1859)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Publication During the Civil War<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Printing presses in the North and South kept publishing during the war. In addition to war-related material, they published everything from cheap newspapers to literary journals. Below is a cross-section of that kind of material: &#8220;Life in the Iron Mills&#8221; published in the prestige journal <em>The Atlantic<\/em>, Emily Dickinson&#8217;s private publications about the war, and examples from a Sothern literary journal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-995f960e wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z898D4RP?WS=AssetManagement\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"709\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/993264188805867_ord_ps_1517_l5_1972_pg_-709x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Page of printed text, reading &quot; 'is this the end?\/O Life, as futile, then, as frail!\/ What hope of answer of redress?' A cloudy day: do you know what that is in a town of iron-works? The sky sank down before dawn, muddy, flat, immovable. The air is thick, clammy with the breath of crowded human beings. It stifles me. I open the window, and, looking out, can scarcely see through the rain the grocer's shop opposite, where a crowd of drunken Irishmen are puffing Lynchburg tobacco in their pipes. I can detect the scent through all the foul smells ranging loose in the air. &quot;The idiosyncrasy of this town is smoke. It rolls sullenly in slow folds from the great chimneys of the iron-foundries, and settles down in black, slimy pools on the muddy streets. Smoke on the wharves, smoke on the dingy boats, on the yellow river,--clinging in a coating of greasy soot to the house-front, the two faded poplars, the faces of the passers-by.&quot;\" class=\"wp-image-24660\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/993264188805867_ord_ps_1517_l5_1972_pg_-709x1024.jpg 709w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/993264188805867_ord_ps_1517_l5_1972_pg_-208x300.jpg 208w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/993264188805867_ord_ps_1517_l5_1972_pg_-768x1110.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/993264188805867_ord_ps_1517_l5_1972_pg_-1063x1536.jpg 1063w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/993264188805867_ord_ps_1517_l5_1972_pg_-1417x2048.jpg 1417w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/993264188805867_ord_ps_1517_l5_1972_pg_-scaled.jpg 1772w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 709px) 100vw, 709px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z898D4RP?WS=AssetManagement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Rebecca Harding Davis, &#8220;Life in the Iron Mills: Or, The Korl Woman,&#8221; 11 (1972, original 1861)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.edickinson.org\/editions\/1\/image_sets\/12175032#search-panel=0\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"649\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/External-Dickenson-It-Feels-a-Shame-1-649x1024.png\" alt=\"Page of manuscript text reading, &quot;It feels a shame to be alive-\/When Men so brave - are dead-\/ One envies the Distinguished Dust-\/Permitted - such a Head-\/ The Stone - that tells defending Whom\/ This Spartan put away\/ What little of him we- possessed\/ In Pwan for Liberty-\/ The Price is great - Sublimely paid-\/ Do we deserve - a Thing-\/ That lives - like Dollars - must be piled\/ Before we may obtain?&quot;\" class=\"wp-image-24661\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/External-Dickenson-It-Feels-a-Shame-1-649x1024.png 649w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/External-Dickenson-It-Feels-a-Shame-1-190x300.png 190w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/External-Dickenson-It-Feels-a-Shame-1.png 685w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 649px) 100vw, 649px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.edickinson.org\/editions\/1\/image_sets\/12175032#search-panel=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Emily Dickinson, &#8220;It feels a shame to be alive,&#8221; packet XXIX, Fascicle 24 (ca. 1862). Courtesy of the Emily Dickinson Archive at the Houghton Library.<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z8J41IKB?WS=AssetManagement\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"644\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997965088805867_ord_a5_861_jan_1865_pg_014-644x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Page of two-column printed text with poem reading, &quot;The Pleasant Days of Old! Oh! the pleasant days of old, which so often people praise--\/True, they wanted all the luxuries that grade our modern days;\/ Bare floors were strewed with rushes--the walls let in the cold;\/ Oh! how they must have shivered in those pleasant days of old!\/ Oh! those ancient lords of old, how magnificent they were!\/ Thet threw down and imprisoned kings, to thwart them who might dare\/ They ruled their serfs right sternly; they took from Jews their gold--; Above both law and equity where those great lords of old!\/ Oh! the gallant knights of old, for their valor so renowned:\/ With sword and lance and armor strong, they scoured the country round;\/ And whenever aught to tempt them, they met by wood or wold,\/ By right of sword they seized the prize--those gallant knights of old!\/ Oh! the gentle dames of old, who quite free from fear and pain\/ Could gaze on joust and tournament, and see their champion slain;\/ They lived on good beefsteaks and ale, which made them strong and bold;\/ Oh! more like men than women were those gentle dames of old!\/ Oh! those mighty towers of old, with their turrets, moat, and keep.\/ Their battlements and bastions, their dungeons dark and deep;\/ Full many a baron held his court within the castle hold,\/ And many a captive languished there, in those strong towers of old.\/ Oh! the troubadours of old, with their gentle minstrelsie\/ of hope and joy, or deep despair, whiche'er their lot might be--\/ For years they served their ladye love ere they their passion told--\/ Oh! wondrous patience must have had those troubadours of old!\/ Oh! those blessed times of old, with their chivalry and state;\/ I love to read their chronicles, which such brave deeds relate--\/ I love to sing their ancient rhymes, to hear their legends told--\/But, Heaven be thanked! I do not live in those blessed times of old!&quot;\" class=\"wp-image-24663\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997965088805867_ord_a5_861_jan_1865_pg_014-644x1024.jpg 644w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997965088805867_ord_a5_861_jan_1865_pg_014-189x300.jpg 189w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997965088805867_ord_a5_861_jan_1865_pg_014-768x1221.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997965088805867_ord_a5_861_jan_1865_pg_014-966x1536.jpg 966w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997965088805867_ord_a5_861_jan_1865_pg_014-1288x2048.jpg 1288w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997965088805867_ord_a5_861_jan_1865_pg_014-scaled.jpg 1610w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 644px) 100vw, 644px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z8J41IKB?WS=AssetManagement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">&#8220;The Pleasant Days of Old!&#8221; in <em>Southern Literary Messenger <\/em>(January 1863)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-995f960e wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890F9_Z?BRPN=1&amp;WS=AssetManagement\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"393\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997965088805867_ord_a5_861_april_1863_pg_0255-393x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Excerpt from a two-column page of printed text, reading, &quot;A Slave Couple. We will now pay a visit to the 'negro quarters,' and drop in for a moment on Mr. Andrew Jackson Marshall and Mrs. Lucretia Victoria Marshall, who are rejoicing in the first blissful quarter of their honeymoon. We find them sitting cozily without 'company,' in their comfortable cabin, with a little work-table between them, the bride busily stitching at one of those small doll-like garments, which seem to afford the greatest possible pleasure to young bridges of all complexions addicted to needlework; while the happy husband grins and gazes in idle admiration at his new-made wife and the object of her delicate industry. The rise and salute the master with the most cordial and respectful deference--'proud ob de honour ob de visit.' The cabin is new, and newly furnished by the wedded pair, whose united savings have enabled them purchase for themselves comfortable chairs, a nice bed, and all the little utensils essential to domestic comfort and economy. We see nothing here of the squalid destitution of an Irish 'shanty;' encounter no smell of pig or whiskey; nothing of the rags, wretchedness, disease, and famine to be found in the huts and holes and caves of the beggars, paupers, and sometimes even the poor labourers of Ireland and even England. The slaves are never stinted in food, but are served with abundant 'rations' of meat and vegetables everyday, 'hog and hominy' being the standard dish of the slave as well as the master, with hot coffee in the morning, and all the various kinds of fruits in their season. In fine weather they generally take their meals in the open air; and breakfast and dinner, in the busiest time of the year, is usually sent to them in the field. In the summer season they are allowed an hour for breakfast, and from two to three hours for dinner. The women enjoy so high a degree of health from regular exercise, temperate living, and from their unrestrained mode of dress, that the functions of maternity lose much of their pains and perils. A month is allowed the mother for her 'confinement;' but one often sees them with an infant in their arms less than a week old, singing and dancing about the plantation, none the weaker, but all the merrier, for the precious burden they have borne.&quot;\" class=\"wp-image-24664\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997965088805867_ord_a5_861_april_1863_pg_0255-393x1024.jpg 393w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997965088805867_ord_a5_861_april_1863_pg_0255-115x300.jpg 115w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997965088805867_ord_a5_861_april_1863_pg_0255-768x2003.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997965088805867_ord_a5_861_april_1863_pg_0255-589x1536.jpg 589w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997965088805867_ord_a5_861_april_1863_pg_0255-785x2048.jpg 785w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997965088805867_ord_a5_861_april_1863_pg_0255.jpg 820w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 393px) 100vw, 393px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890F9_Z?BRPN=1&amp;WS=AssetManagement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">&#8220;A Slave Couple&#8221; in <em>Southern Literary Messenger<\/em> (April 1863)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">On the Warfront<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Soldiers, civilians, and politicians all wrote about the war as it unfolded. Below are a poem published in a newspaper fundraising for the Sanitary Commission, two documents encouraging Black men to enlist in the Union Army, selections from a book posthumously defending John Brown, and the music and lyrics of &#8220;The John Brown Song, Or, Glory Hallelujah.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-995f960e wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890FY_M?BRPN=2&amp;WS=AssetManagement\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/998602968805867_ord_f_8345_24_march_02_1864_pg_02_deatil-edited-1024x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Printed poem in a newspaper reading,&quot; Flowers - well, if anybody\/Can the ecstasy define,\/ Half a transport, half a trouble,\/ With which flowers humble men -\/Anybody find the fountain,\/ From which floods so contra flow,\/ I will give him all the Daisies,\/ Which upon the hill-side blow!\/ Too much pathos in their faces.\/ For a simple breast like mine!\/ Butterflies from San Domingo,\/ Cruising round the purple line.\/ Have a system of esthetics\/ Far superior to mine!&quot;\" class=\"wp-image-24770\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/998602968805867_ord_f_8345_24_march_02_1864_pg_02_deatil-edited-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/998602968805867_ord_f_8345_24_march_02_1864_pg_02_deatil-edited-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/998602968805867_ord_f_8345_24_march_02_1864_pg_02_deatil-edited-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/998602968805867_ord_f_8345_24_march_02_1864_pg_02_deatil-edited-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/998602968805867_ord_f_8345_24_march_02_1864_pg_02_deatil-edited.jpg 1291w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890FY_M?BRPN=2&amp;WS=AssetManagement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">&#8220;Flowers&#8221; in <em>Drum Beat<\/em> <\/a><br><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890FY_M?BRPN=2&amp;WS=AssetManagement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">(March 2, 1864)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890FJ_0?BRPN=5&amp;WS=AssetManagement\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"798\" src=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/994767648805867_ord_f_8348_177_add_pg_05-scaled-e1758728924937-1024x798.jpg\" alt=\"Page of printed text in two columns reading, &quot;Speech of Mr. Frederick Douglass\/ Mr. President and Fellow-Citizens--I shall not attempt to follow Judge Kelley and Miss Dickinson in their eloquent and thrilling appeals to colored men to enlist in the service of the United States. They have left nothing to be desired on that point. I propose to look at the subject in a plain and practical common-sense light. There are obviously two vices to be taken of such enlistments--a broad view and a narrow view. I am willing to take both, and consider both. The narrow view of this subject is that which represents the matter of dollars and cents. There are those among us who say they are in favor of taking a hand in this tremendous war, but they add they wish to do so on terms of equality with white men. They say if they enter the service, endure all the hardships, perils and suffering--if they make bare their breasts, and with strong arms and courageous hearts confront rebel cannons, and wring victory from the jaws of death, they should have the same pay, the same rations, the same bounty, and the same favorable conditions every way afforded to other men.\/ I shall not oppose this view. There is something deep down in the soul of every man present which assents to the justice of the claim thus made, and honors the manhood and self-respect which insists upon it. [Applause.] I say at once, in peace and in war, I am content with nothing for the black man short of equal and exact justice. The only question I have, and the point at which I differ from those who refuse to enlist, is whether the colored man is more likely to obtain justice and equality while refusing to assist in putting down this tremendous rebellion than he would be if he should promptly, generously and earnestly give his hand and heart to the salvation of the country in this its day of calamity and peril. Nothing can be more plain, nothing more plain, nothing more certain than that the speediest and best possible way to open us to manhood, equal rights and elevation, is that we enter this service. For my own part, I hold that if the Government of the United States offered nothing more, as inducement to colored men to enlist, than the bare subsistence and arms, considering the moral effect of compliance upon ourselves, it would be the wisest and best thing for us to enlist. [Applause.] There is something ennobling in the possession of arms, and we of all other people in the world stand in need of their ennobling influence.\/ The case presented in the present war, and the light in which every colored man is bound&quot;\" class=\"wp-image-24683\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/994767648805867_ord_f_8348_177_add_pg_05-scaled-e1758728924937-1024x798.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/994767648805867_ord_f_8348_177_add_pg_05-scaled-e1758728924937-300x234.jpg 300w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/994767648805867_ord_f_8348_177_add_pg_05-scaled-e1758728924937-768x598.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/994767648805867_ord_f_8348_177_add_pg_05-scaled-e1758728924937-1536x1197.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/994767648805867_ord_f_8348_177_add_pg_05-scaled-e1758728924937.jpg 1698w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890FJ_0?BRPN=5&amp;WS=AssetManagement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Frederick Douglass, speech at a mass meeting in support of US Colored Troops (July 6, 1863)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/nmaahc.si.edu\/object\/nmaahc_2012.133\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"518\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/External-Men-of-Color-Recruitment-NMAAHC-518x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Broadside reading&quot; Men of Color\/ to Arms! To Arms!\/ Now or Never\/ This is our golden moment! The Government of the United States calls for every Able-bodied colored Man to enter the Army for the\/ Three Years' Service!\/ And join in fighting the\/ Battles of Liberty and the Union\/ A new era is open to us. For generations we have suffered under the horrors of slavery, outrage and wrong; our manhood has been denied, our citizenship blotted out, our souls seared and burned, our spirits cowed and crushed, and the hopes of the future of our race involved in doubt and darkness. But now our relations to the white race are changed. Now, therefore, is our most precious moment. Let us rush to arms!\/ Fall now, &amp; our race is doomed\/ On this the soil of our birth. We must now awake, arise, or be forever fallen. If we value liberty, if we wish to be free in this land, if we love our country, if we love our families, our children, our home, we must strike now while the country calls; we must rise up in the dignity of our manhood, and show by our right arms that we are worthy to be freemen. Our enemies have made the country believe that we are craven cowards, without soul, without manhood, without the spirit of soldiers. Shall we die with this stigma resting upon our graves? Shall we leave this inheritance of Shame to our Children? No! A thousand times NO! We WILL Rise! The alternative is upon us. Let us rather die freeman than live to be slaves. What is life without liberty? We say that we have manhood; how is the time to prove it. A nation or a people that cannot fight may be pitted, btu cannot be respected. If we would be regard men, if we would forever\/Silence the tough of calumny\/ of prejudice and hate, let us rise now and fly to arms! We have seen what\/ Valor and Heroism\/ our brothers displayed at\/ Port Hudson and Milkmen's Bend,\/ Though they are just from the galling, poisoning grasp of Slavery, they have startled the World by the most exalted heroism. If they have proved themselves heroes, cannot we prove ourselves men?\/ Are freemen less brave than slaves\/ More than a Million White Men have left Comfortable Homes and joined the Armies of the Union to save their Country. Cannot we leave ours, and swell the Hosts of the Union, to save our liberties, vindicate our manhood, and deserve well of our Country. Men of color! the Englishman, the Irishman, the Frenchman, the German, the American, have been called to assert their claim to freedom and a manly character, by an appeal to the sword. The day that\/ Our last opportunity has come\/ If we are not lower in the scale of humanity than Englishmen, Irishmen, White Americans, and other Races, we can show it now.\/ Men of Color, Brothers and Fathers!\/ We Appeal to You!\/ By all your concern for yourselves and your liberties, by all your regard for God and humanity, by all your desire for Citizenship and Equality before the law, by all your love for the Country, to stop at no subterfuge, listen to nothing that shall deter you from rallying for the Army. Come Forward, and at once Enroll your Names for Three Years' Service.\/ Strike Now!\/ And you are henceforth and forever Freemen!&quot;\" class=\"wp-image-24666\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/External-Men-of-Color-Recruitment-NMAAHC-518x1024.jpg 518w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/External-Men-of-Color-Recruitment-NMAAHC-152x300.jpg 152w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/External-Men-of-Color-Recruitment-NMAAHC-768x1518.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/External-Men-of-Color-Recruitment-NMAAHC-777x1536.jpg 777w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/External-Men-of-Color-Recruitment-NMAAHC-1036x2048.jpg 1036w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/External-Men-of-Color-Recruitment-NMAAHC-scaled.jpg 1295w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 518px) 100vw, 518px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><a href=\"https:\/\/nmaahc.si.edu\/object\/nmaahc_2012.133\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Frederick Douglass, &#8220;Men of Color To Arms&#8221; (1863). Courtesy of National Museum of African American History &amp; Culture.<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-995f960e wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890F3_F?WS=AssetManagement\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"658\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/993429198805867_ord_dawes_f_8338_24_pg_0111-658x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Single page of printed text reprinting complaints against John Brown's raid at Harper's Ferry that had appeared elsewhere, especially a letter from a woman who claims Brown murdered her husband and sons during a raid in Kansas.\" class=\"wp-image-24667\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/993429198805867_ord_dawes_f_8338_24_pg_0111-658x1024.jpg 658w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/993429198805867_ord_dawes_f_8338_24_pg_0111-193x300.jpg 193w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/993429198805867_ord_dawes_f_8338_24_pg_0111-768x1194.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/993429198805867_ord_dawes_f_8338_24_pg_0111-988x1536.jpg 988w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/993429198805867_ord_dawes_f_8338_24_pg_0111-1317x2048.jpg 1317w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/993429198805867_ord_dawes_f_8338_24_pg_0111-scaled.jpg 1646w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 658px) 100vw, 658px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890F3_F?WS=AssetManagement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Thomas Drew, <em>The John Brown Invasion<\/em> (1860)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890FH_A?BRPN=1&amp;WS=AssetManagement\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"784\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997009128805867_ord_case_sheet_music_mi_a13_no_2762_01-784x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Cover page of a piece of sheet music\" class=\"wp-image-24670\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997009128805867_ord_case_sheet_music_mi_a13_no_2762_01-784x1024.jpg 784w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997009128805867_ord_case_sheet_music_mi_a13_no_2762_01-230x300.jpg 230w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997009128805867_ord_case_sheet_music_mi_a13_no_2762_01-768x1003.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997009128805867_ord_case_sheet_music_mi_a13_no_2762_01-1177x1536.jpg 1177w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997009128805867_ord_case_sheet_music_mi_a13_no_2762_01-1569x2048.jpg 1569w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997009128805867_ord_case_sheet_music_mi_a13_no_2762_01-scaled.jpg 1961w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 784px) 100vw, 784px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890FH_A?BRPN=1&amp;WS=AssetManagement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Root and Cady, &#8220;The John Brown Song or Glory Hallelujah with New and Revised Words,&#8221; (1862)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Southern Voices<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While the so-called &#8220;slave narrative&#8221; or narrative of enslavement was the most well-known type of text by Black authors before and during the Civil War, they also wrote poetry and composed texts and songs orally. This section includes an example of George Moses Horton&#8217;s poetry and excerpts from Harriet Jacob&#8217;s <em>Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-995f960e wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890FV_Y?WS=AssetManagement\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"575\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/991440448805867_ord_ps_1999_h473_a6_1997_pg_0120-scaled-e1758819458305-575x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Page with a photograph of the title page of a book. Title page reads, &quot;Naked Genius: By George Moses Horton\/ The Colored Bard of North Carolina\/ Author of &quot;The Black Poet&quot;\/ A work being now compiled and revised by captain Will. H. S. Banks, 9th Michigan Cavalry Volunteers, and which will be ready for publication about the 1st of October, 1865. This work will contain a concise history of the life of the author, written by the compiler, and will be offered to the public as one of the many proofs that God, in his infinite wisdom and mercy, created the Black man for a higher and nobler purpose than to toil his life away under the galling yoke of slavery.\/ Revised and compiled by\/ Will. H. S. Banks\/ Capt. 9th Mich. Cav.\/ WM. B. Smith $ Co.:\/ Southern Feild and Fireside Book Publishing House,\/ Raleigh, N.C.\/ 1865&quot;\" class=\"wp-image-24673\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/991440448805867_ord_ps_1999_h473_a6_1997_pg_0120-scaled-e1758819458305-575x1024.jpg 575w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/991440448805867_ord_ps_1999_h473_a6_1997_pg_0120-scaled-e1758819458305-168x300.jpg 168w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/991440448805867_ord_ps_1999_h473_a6_1997_pg_0120-scaled-e1758819458305-768x1368.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/991440448805867_ord_ps_1999_h473_a6_1997_pg_0120-scaled-e1758819458305-862x1536.jpg 862w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/991440448805867_ord_ps_1999_h473_a6_1997_pg_0120-scaled-e1758819458305.jpg 1114w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 575px) 100vw, 575px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890FV_Y?WS=AssetManagement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Excerpts of <em>Naked Genius<\/em> in <em>The Black Bard of North Carolina<\/em> edited by Joan R. Sherman (1997, original 1865)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890FQ_Z?BRPN=4&amp;WS=AssetManagement\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"643\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/99820558805867_ord_e_444_ji7_a3_1987_tp-643x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Photograph of title page reading, &quot;Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl\/ Written by Herself\/ 'Northerners know nothing at all about Slavery. They think it is personal bondage only. They have no conception of the depth of degradation involved in that word, Slavery; if they had, they would never cease their efforts until so horrible a system was overthrown.' A Woman of North Carolina\/ 'Rise up, ye women that are at ease! Hear my voice, ye careless daughters! Give ear unto my speech.' Isaiah XXXII. 9.\/ Edited by L. Maria Child.\/ Boston:\/ Published for the Author.\/ 1861&quot;\" class=\"wp-image-24676\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/99820558805867_ord_e_444_ji7_a3_1987_tp-643x1024.jpg 643w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/99820558805867_ord_e_444_ji7_a3_1987_tp-188x300.jpg 188w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/99820558805867_ord_e_444_ji7_a3_1987_tp-768x1224.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/99820558805867_ord_e_444_ji7_a3_1987_tp-964x1536.jpg 964w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/99820558805867_ord_e_444_ji7_a3_1987_tp-1285x2048.jpg 1285w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/99820558805867_ord_e_444_ji7_a3_1987_tp-scaled.jpg 1607w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 643px) 100vw, 643px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890FQ_Z?BRPN=4&amp;WS=AssetManagement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Harriet Jacobs, <em>Incidents in the Life of a Slave Gir<\/em>l, cover of first edition (1987, original 1861)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890FB_E?BRPN=2&amp;WS=AssetManagement\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"464\" src=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/995120458805867_ord_a6_115_march_01_1861_pg_035_detail_01-e1758820145385-1024x464.jpg\" alt=\"LINDA. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Seven Years concealed in Slavery; narrated by herself; with an Introduction by Lydia Maria Child, and a Letter by Amy Post. A handsome book of 306 pages, just issued, which is receiving highly commendatory notices from the press. Price, $1.00. Orders for mailing must include sixteen cents in postage stamps. Address WM. C. Nell, 222 Washington street.\" class=\"wp-image-24652\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/995120458805867_ord_a6_115_march_01_1861_pg_035_detail_01-e1758820145385-1024x464.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/995120458805867_ord_a6_115_march_01_1861_pg_035_detail_01-e1758820145385-300x136.jpg 300w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/995120458805867_ord_a6_115_march_01_1861_pg_035_detail_01-e1758820145385-768x348.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/995120458805867_ord_a6_115_march_01_1861_pg_035_detail_01-e1758820145385.jpg 1324w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890FB_E?BRPN=2&amp;WS=AssetManagement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Advertisement for <em>Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl <\/em>in <em>The Liberator<\/em> (March 1, 1861)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Reflections on the War and its Aftermath<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The texts in this section by Walt Whitman, Herman Melville, and Louisa May Alcott demonstrate different responses to the Civil War in its immediate aftermath. These authors discuss the war&#8217;s violence, Lincoln&#8217;s assassination, and the war changed the lives of women and girls in the North.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-995f960e wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890BKLH?BRPN=23&amp;WS=AssetManagement\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"737\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997671958805867_e_5_l639665_000024-737x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Page of printed text in a book entitled &quot;Memories of President Lincoln: I. When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd\/ 1. When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom\u2019d,\/ And the great star early droop\u2019d in the western sky in the night,\/ I mourn\u2019d, and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring.\/ Ever-returning spring, trinity sure to me you bring,\/ Lilac blooming perennial and drooping star in the west,\/ And thought of him I love.\/ 2. O shades of night\u2014O moody, tearful night!\/ O great star disappear\u2019d\u2014O the black murk that hides the star!\/ O cruel hands that hold me powerless\u2014O helpless soul of me!\/ O harsh surrounding cloud that will not free my soul.\/ 3. In the dooryard fronting an old farm-house near the white-wash\u2019d palings,\/ Stands the lilac-bush tall-growing with heart-shaped leaves of rich green,&quot;\" class=\"wp-image-24680\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997671958805867_e_5_l639665_000024-737x1024.jpg 737w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997671958805867_e_5_l639665_000024-216x300.jpg 216w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997671958805867_e_5_l639665_000024-768x1067.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997671958805867_e_5_l639665_000024-1105x1536.jpg 1105w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997671958805867_e_5_l639665_000024-1474x2048.jpg 1474w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/997671958805867_e_5_l639665_000024-scaled.jpg 1842w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 737px) 100vw, 737px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890BKLH?BRPN=23&amp;WS=AssetManagement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Walt Whitman, &#8220;When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom&#8217;d&#8221; in <em>Memories of President Lincoln<\/em> (1912 original 1865)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890FR_T?WS=AssetManagement\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"740\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/996283198805867_ord_melville_ps_2384_b3_1866_pg_0107-scaled-e1758836509547-740x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Poem printed in a book, reading &quot;The Swamp Angel\/ There is a coal-black Angel\/ With a thick Afric lip,\/ And he dwells (like the hunted and harried)\/ In a swamp where the green frogs dip.\/ But his face is against a City\/ Which is over a bay of the sea,\/ And he breathes with a breath that is blastment,\/ And dooms by a far decree.\/ By night there is fear in the City,\/ Through the darkness a star soareth on;\/ There\u2019s a scream that screams up to the zenith,\/ Then the poise of a meteor lone\u2014\/ Lighting far the pale fright of the faces,\/ And downward the coming is seen;\/ Then the rush, and the burst, and the havoc,\/ And wails and shrieks between.&quot;\" class=\"wp-image-24681\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/996283198805867_ord_melville_ps_2384_b3_1866_pg_0107-scaled-e1758836509547-740x1024.jpg 740w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/996283198805867_ord_melville_ps_2384_b3_1866_pg_0107-scaled-e1758836509547-217x300.jpg 217w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/996283198805867_ord_melville_ps_2384_b3_1866_pg_0107-scaled-e1758836509547-768x1063.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/996283198805867_ord_melville_ps_2384_b3_1866_pg_0107-scaled-e1758836509547-1110x1536.jpg 1110w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/996283198805867_ord_melville_ps_2384_b3_1866_pg_0107-scaled-e1758836509547.jpg 1270w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 740px) 100vw, 740px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8Z890FR_T?WS=AssetManagement\">Herman Melville, <em>Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War <\/em>(1866)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8ZSSP9O72?WS=AssetManagement\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1140\" height=\"1521\" src=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Little-women-frontispiece-title-page-scaled-edited-1.jpg\" alt=\"Two-page spread of a printed book. On the right is the title page, reading,&quot; Little Women,\/ Or,\/ Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy by Lousia M. Alcott\/ Illustrated by May Alcott\/ Boston\/ Roberts Brothers\/ 1869.&quot; On the left is an illustration showing the four girls gathering around their mother, who is sitting in an arm chair. Below is a quote describing the image, &quot;They all drew to the fire, mother in the big chair, with Beth at her feet; Meg and May perched on either arm of the chair, and Jo leaning on the back. -- Page 12.&quot;\" class=\"wp-image-24789\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Little-women-frontispiece-title-page-scaled-edited-1.jpg 1140w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Little-women-frontispiece-title-page-scaled-edited-1-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Little-women-frontispiece-title-page-scaled-edited-1-767x1024.jpg 767w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Little-women-frontispiece-title-page-scaled-edited-1-768x1025.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1140px) 100vw, 1140px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><a href=\"https:\/\/collections.newberry.org\/asset-management\/2KXJ8ZSSP9O72?WS=AssetManagement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Louisa May Alcott,<em> Little Women, or Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy<\/em> (1869<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-getwid-tabs__nav-link\"><span class=\"wp-block-getwid-tabs__title-wrapper\"><a href=\"#\"><span class=\"wp-block-getwid-tabs__title\">Further Reading<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div><div class=\"wp-block-getwid-tabs__tab-content-wrapper\"><div class=\"wp-block-getwid-tabs__tab-content\">\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Edited Primary Source Collections<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dickinson, Emily. <em>Emily Dickinson\u2019s Poems\u202f: As She Preserved Them\u202f \/ Edited by Cristanne Miller.<\/em> Ed. by Cristanne Miller. 2016. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Horton, George Moses, and Joan R Sherman. <em>The Black Bard of North Carolina\u202f: George Moses Horton and His Poetry\u202f \/ Edited by Joan R. Sherman.<\/em> 1997.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jacobs, Harriet A. (Harriet Ann), Lydia Maria Child, and Jean Fagan Yellin. <em>Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl\u202f: Written by Herself\u202f \/ by Harriet A. Jacobs\u202f; Edited by L. Maria Child\u202f; Edited and with an Introduction by Jean Fagan Yellin.<\/em> 1987<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Melville, Herman, and Hennig Cohen. <em>The Battle-Pieces of Herman Melville\u202f \/ Edited with Introduction and Notes by Hennig Cohen.<\/em> 1963.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ripley, C. Peter. <em>The Black Abolitionist Papers: Vol. III: The United States, 1830\u20131846<\/em>. 1991.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Whitman, Walt. <em>Drum Taps\u202f.<\/em> 1865. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Whitman, Walt and Richard Maurice Bucke. <em>The Wound Dresser\u202f: A Series of Letters Written from the Hospitals in Washington during the War of the Rebellion\u202f \/ by Walt Whitman\u202f; Edited by Richard Maurice Bucke.<\/em> 1898. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Secondary Scholarship<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">General Reading<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Allukian, Kristin. <em>Slavery, Capitalism, and Women\u2019s Literature\u202f: Economic Insights of American Women Writers, 1852-1869\u202f<\/em>. Print.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cutrer, Thomas. <a href=\"http:\/\/encyclopediavirginia.org\/entries\/popular-literature-during-the-civil-war\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">\u201cPopular Literature during the Civil War.\u201d<\/a>\u202f<em>Encyclopedia Virginia<\/em>, 5 Feb. 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Specific Authors &amp; Texts<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Belasco, Susan. <em>Stowe in Her Own Time\u202f: A Biographical Chronicle of Her Life, Drawn from Recollections, Interviews, and Memoirs by Family, Friends, and Associates<\/em>. 2009.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Clark, Beverly Lyon. <em>The Afterlife of Little Women.<\/em> 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/houghtonmodern\/2009\/06\/03\/earlydickinson\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">\u201cFrom the Stacks\u2026 Three Early Dickinson Publications.\u201d<\/a>\u202f<em>Modern Books and Manuscripts<\/em>, Harvard University Houghton Library, 3 June 2009.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Gardner, Eric. \u201c\u2018This Attempt of Their Sister\u2019: Harriet Wilson&#8217;s Our Nig from Printer to Readers,\u201d <em>The New England Quarterly<\/em> 66, Volume 2 (1993): 226\u2013246.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Garfield, Deborah M, and Rafia Zafar. <em>Harriet Jacobs and Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl\u202f: New Critical Essays\u202f \/ Edited by Deborah M. Garfield, Rafia Zafar.<\/em> 1996.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Habegger, Alfred. <em>My Wars Are Laid Away in Books\u202f: The Life of Emily Dickinson<\/em>. 2001.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jackson, Virginia. <em>Dickinson&#8217;s Misery: A Theory of Lyric Reading<\/em>. 2005.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Petruzzello, Melissa. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/The-North-Star-American-newspaper\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">\u201cThe North Star,\u201d <em>Encyclopedia Britannica<\/em>,<\/a> 11 November 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Quinn, Katrina J. and David B. Sachsman, editors. <em>The Civil War Soldier and the Press<\/em>. 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Reynolds, David S. <em>John Brown, Abolitionist\u202f: The Man Who Killed Slavery, Sparked the Civil War, and Seeded Civil Rights<\/em>. 2005.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Stauffer, John, and Benjamin Soskis. <em>The Battle Hymn of the Republic\u202f: A Biography of the Song That Marches On\u202f<\/em>. 2013.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Weiss, Shira Wolosky. <em>Emily Dickinson\u202f: A Voice of War.<\/em> 1984.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Soldiers &amp; the Military<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Downs, Gregory P. <em>After Appomattox: Military Occupation and the Ends of War.<\/em> 2019.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Leonard, Elizabeth D. <em>Men of Color to Arms!\u202f: Black Soldiers, Indian Wars, and the Quest for Equality\u202f<\/em>. Print.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Willis, Deborah. <em>The Black Civil War Soldier\u202f: A Visual History of Conflict and Citizenship\u202f<\/em>. 2021.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-getwid-tabs__nav-link\"><span class=\"wp-block-getwid-tabs__title-wrapper\"><a href=\"#\"><span class=\"wp-block-getwid-tabs__title\">Related Resources<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div><div class=\"wp-block-getwid-tabs__tab-content-wrapper\"><div class=\"wp-block-getwid-tabs__tab-content\">\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Related Newberry Resources<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-995f960e wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/?p=19421\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"445\" height=\"567\" src=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Civil-War-Letters_Thumbnail.png\" alt=\"Thumbnail for the lesson &quot;Civil War Letters&quot;\" class=\"wp-image-24791\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Civil-War-Letters_Thumbnail.png 445w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Civil-War-Letters_Thumbnail-235x300.png 235w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 445px) 100vw, 445px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><a href=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/?p=19421\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Lesson: Civil War Letters <\/strong><br>by Hiliary Mac Austin and Kathleen Thompson<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/?p=23750\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"468\" height=\"539\" src=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Indenture-and-Enslavement_Thumbnail.png\" alt=\"Thumbnail for the lesson &quot;Indenture and Enslavement in Illinois&quot;\" class=\"wp-image-24792\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Indenture-and-Enslavement_Thumbnail.png 468w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Indenture-and-Enslavement_Thumbnail-260x300.png 260w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 468px) 100vw, 468px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><a href=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/?p=23750\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Lesson: Indenture and Enslavement in Illinois <\/strong><br>by Hilary Mac Austin<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/?p=14392\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"460\" height=\"582\" src=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Anti-Salvery-Movement_Thumbnail.png\" alt=\"Thumbnail image for the essay &quot;The Anti-Slavery Movement in Chicago and Illinois&quot;\" class=\"wp-image-24793\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Anti-Salvery-Movement_Thumbnail.png 460w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Anti-Salvery-Movement_Thumbnail-237x300.png 237w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 460px) 100vw, 460px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><a href=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/?p=14392\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Essay: The Anti-Slavery Movement in Chicago and Illinois <\/strong><br>by Cristen Chapman<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-995f960e wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/?p=14425\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"466\" height=\"514\" src=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Homefront-Visual-Culture-Civil-War-North_Thumbnail.png\" alt=\"Thumbnail for the essay &quot;Home Front: The Visual Culture of the Civil War North&quot;\" class=\"wp-image-24790\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Homefront-Visual-Culture-Civil-War-North_Thumbnail.png 466w, https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Homefront-Visual-Culture-Civil-War-North_Thumbnail-272x300.png 272w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 466px) 100vw, 466px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/?p=14425\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Essay: Home Front: The Visual Culture of the Civil War North <\/a><\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/?p=14425\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">by Hana Layson and Daniel Greene<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":24683,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"[]","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[83,164],"tags":[168,165],"class_list":["post-24759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-19th-century","category-collection-essays","tag-literature","tag-us-history"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/994767648805867_ord_f_8348_177_add_pg_05-scaled-e1758728924937.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24759"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24759\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25308,"href":"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24759\/revisions\/25308"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dcc.newberry.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}