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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.
Aquesta antologia il·lustra l’ampli ventall de possibilitats que els escrits abolicionistes van oferir als xiquets estatunidencs durant la primera meitat del segle XIX. En compondre les seues obres des de la perspectiva del moviment antiesclavista, els autors responien al desenvolupament, desigual i controvertit, de la política abolicionista durant les dècades que van precedir l’esclat de la guerra civil. Aquests escriptors es van esforçar per ensenyar els xiquets a “sentir-se bé” i van intentar instruir-los perquè respongueren activament a la injustícia del sistema d’esclavitud, tal com el feia visible un arxiu visual punyent de cossos patint recopilat pels promotors antiesclavistes anglesos i estatunidencs. La lectura s’equiparava amb el coneixement i el coneixement s’equiparava amb la responsabilitat moral, per la qual cosa llegir sobre “les abominacions de l’esclavitud” es convertia en un acte de transformació personal des de les emocions. Els xiquets es convertien així en poderosos agents de canvi polític i potencials activistes per a difondre el missatge abolicionista. Convidats a complir una llei superior que era contrària als edictes de la seua nació, eren premiats moralment pel Déu cristià i aplaudits amb aprovació pels seus majors per la violació d’aquestes mateixes normes americanes. Aquests textos tenien un valor incommensurable perquè els joves estatunidencs del segle XIX compliren un paper més democràtic i igualitari en el seu futur. Sens dubte, els escrits abolicionistes per a nens van arrancar la innocència dels xiquets estatunidencs i els van transformar en abolicionistes juvenils i en ciutadans compassius empoderats.
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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)
