Sinópsis
Detalles
The texts included in this anthology illustrate the wide range of possibilities that abolitionist writings offered to American children during the first half of the nineteenth century. Composing their works under the wings of the antislavery movement, authors responded to the unequal and controversial development of abolitionist politics during the decades that led up to the outbreak of the Civil War. These writers struggled to teach children “to feel right,” and attempted to instruct them to actively respond to the injustice of the slavery system as rendered visible by a harrowing visual archive of suffering bodies compiled by both English and American antislavery promoters. Reading was equated with knowledge and knowledge was equated with moral responsibility, and therefore reading about “the abominations of slavery” became an act of emotional personal transformation. Children were thus turned into powerful agents of political change and potential activists to spread the abolitionist message. Invited to comply with a higher law that entailed the breaking of their nation’s edicts, they were morally rewarded by the Christian God and approvingly applauded by their elders for their violation of these same American regulations. These texts enclosed immeasurable value for young nineteenth-century Americans to fulfill a more democratic and egalitarian role in their future. Undoubtedly, abolitionist writings for children took away American children’s innocence and transformed them into juvenile abolitionists and empowered compassionate citizens.
Esta antología ilustra el amplio abanico de argumentos que los escritos abolicionistas ofrecieron a los niños estadounidenses durante la primera mitad del siglo XIX. Al componer sus obras desde la perspectiva del movimiento antiesclavista, los autores respondían al desigual y controvertido desarrollo de la política abolicionista durante las décadas que precedieron al estallido de la guerra civil. Estos escritores se esforzaron en enseñar a los niños a “sentirse bien” e intentaron instruirlos para que respondieran activamente a la injusticia del sistema de esclavitud, tal y como lo mostraba un desgarrador archivo visual de cuerpos sufrientes recopilado por los promotores antiesclavistas ingleses y estadounidenses. La lectura se equiparaba con el conocimiento y el conocimiento, con la responsabilidad moral, por lo que leer sobre “las abominaciones de la esclavitud” se convertía en un acto de transformación personal desde las emociones. Los niños se convertían así en poderosos agentes de cambio político y en potenciales activistas para difundir el mensaje abolicionista. Invitados a cumplir con una ley superior que era contraria a los edictos de su nación, eran premiados moralmente por el Dios cristiano y aplaudidos con aprobación por sus mayores por su violación de estas mismas normas americanas. Estos textos encerraban un valor inconmensurable para que los jóvenes estadounidenses del siglo XIX cumplieran un papel más democrático e igualitario cuando se hicieran adultos. Sin duda, los escritos abolicionistas para niños arrancaron de la inocencia a los niños estadounidenses y los transformaron en abolicionistas juveniles y en ciudadanos compasivos empoderados.
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CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
The Children’s Crusade: American Children’s Literature of Atrocity
AMERICAN ANTISLAVERY WRITINGS FOR CHILDREN
“OLD BETTY” (1823) Margaret Bayard Smith
“THE NEGRO NURSE” (1827) Isabel Drysdale
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF OLAUDAH EQUIANO (1829) Abigail Field Mott
“JUMBO AND ZAIREE” (1831) Lydia Maria Child
“MARY FRENCH AND SUSAN EASTON” (1834) Lydia Maria Child
From THE SLAVE’S FRIEND (1835-1839)
From JUVENILE POEMS: FOR THE USE OF FREE AMERICAN CHILDREN, OF EVERY COMPLEXION (1835) William Lloyd Garrison
THE LIBERTY CAP (1846) Eliza Lee Cabot Follen
THE ANTI-SLAVERY ALPHABET (1846) Hannah and Mary Townsend
From THE YOUNG ABOLITIONISTS; OR CONVERSATIONS ON SLAVERY (1848) Jane Elizabeth Jones
From COUSIN ANN’S STORIES FOR CHILDREN (1849) Ann Preston
A PICTURE OF SLAVERY FOR YOUTH (184[?]) Jonathan Walker
PICTURES AND STORIES FROM UNCLE TOM’S CABIN (1853) Harriet Beecher Stowe
THE EDINBURGH DOLL (1854) Aunt Mary
From LOUISA IN HER NEW HOME (1854) Sarah C. Carter
RALPH; OR, I WISH HE WASN’T BLACK (1855) Harriet Newell Greene
From THE CHILD’S BOOK ON SLAVERY; OR, SLAVERY MADE PLAIN (1857) Horace C. Grosvenor
“SELLING BABIES,” “A MOTHER IN PRISON” (1859) Matilda Hamilton Fee
THE CHILD’S ANTI-SLAVERY BOOK, CONTAINING A FEW WORDS ABOUT AMERICAN SLAVE CHILDREN AND STORIES OF SLAVE-LIFE (1859)
“LITTLE LEWIS: THE STORY OF A SLAVE BOY”, Julia Colman
“MARK AND HASTY; OR, SLAVE-LIFE IN MISSOURI,” Matilda G. Thompson
“AUNT JUDY’S STORY: A STORY FROM REAL LIFE”, Matilda G. Thompson
“ME NEBER GIB IT UP!”, Anonymous
STEP BY STEP, OR TIDY’S WAY TO FREEDOM (1862) Mrs Helen E. Brown
THE GOSPEL OF SLAVERY: A PRIMER OF FREEDOM (1864) Iron Gray (Abel C. Thomas)
