Archive Assignment
ENGL 226
“Papers, 1850-1858”
Throughout history there have been stories that have been
told/retold on just about every topic that a person could possibly think. With
that said, for one reason or another I haven’t been aware of these stories or
collections of the first person accounts of what life was like in the years
surrounding the Civil War. That is especially true for African-Americans that
were forced to deal with a changing nation and all of the troubling times wherever
they happened to be living. These types of stories and journals could really
give an insight into what life was like during this time of transition. It
could also show the real struggle that they faced on a daily basis. This is the
type of literature that could help people to see what it was really like and
truly put in perspective the challenges faced during these tremulous times in
comparison to their much more abundant lives today.
When doing a little digging, there is a collection of
writings that come from one family, the Shepard family. The name of this
collection is simply “Papers, 1850-1858.” This collection contains a variety of
things but mostly consists of letters between family members. There is one
piece that seems to be of value, the “History of the Negro Pioneer Settlers of
Grant County” written by Charles Shepard. Shepard, a freed slave, was one of
the first African-American settlers in the state of Wisconsin, and was brought
here along with his family by their former owner when they moved from Virginia. In this account it discusses how the first African-American
settlers came to Wisconsin after it had been admitted to the Union and it tells
me who they are and how they came to be in Grant County. In the text it talks
about how other settlers came to the area travelling by trains as fugitives of
slavery to find a place they could start a new life. This was their land of
opportunity, a place that people could go to start a life that was their own
and not owned by someone.
If you look at the
letters in this collection these letters were often a lot of personal
conversations that discussed their everyday lives and how things were going.
But by reading these letters it gives the readers an in depth look at how tough
it was to live in such an unsettled time. In one such letter a woman is writing
to her aunt discussing her families travels and then out of nowhere she started
talking about how her sister died and that she wasn’t able to enjoy the letter
that was sent to her. It felt so matter of fact the way she just dropped that
in there like “hey my sister died, but how’s everything with you?” It is not
clear if this was an expected thing or if it was very sudden, but to me this is
information that I would lead with in a letter to a family member. It just goes
to show you that people had a lot of things on their plates back then, and that
there wasn’t as much to keep their minds off of all the things that were going
on around them.
People
back then didn’t have time to spend on leisure activities or money to spend on
frivolous distractions to fill time. They had to focus a large amount of their
energy of how to stay alive. The questions that were on their minds were: How
do we get food? Where do we get food? Is where we live a safe place to stay?
How can we make money? When can we be free? These thoughts were more important than
those of people of the past thirty years and would give some people perspective
on the trivial problems they think they have today.
In
one of the letters in this collection there is a conversation between two
brothers that answered one of the questions I posed. The author of this letter
started out by discussing his health and how he was felling, but shortly into
the letter he mentioned the fates of a number of his family members. He tells
them the days that they are to get their “papers” and become free. After he
mentions their impending freedom heh talks about how they haven’t made up their
mind on whether or not to come and join them in Grant County. He goes on to say
that he had been telling all of those with a family to leave and head out, because
it would be a better place for their family. This just goes to show what the
focus of people’s lives are at this time. People are more concerned with life
issues such as: freedom, health, safety and family. These things are the most
important things in their life and should not be overlooked.
This
is the biggest reasons that I feel that these types of letters and journals should
be published in some way, be it in an article, in a book with similar writings
or by itself. Letters like this can have an impact on people and maybe they
will take stock their own lives. Like how people try to fill their lives with
activities that for all intents and purposes don’t mean a whole lot just so
that they can stay busy. Even all of the addictions in this country like:
drugs, alcohol, food, sex, etc. are ways that people avoid all of the problems
or adversities in their lives. Not to say that some of those things weren’t
happening back then, but they are very prevalent in today’s society because of
what I feel is a lack of perspective on what is important. When looking at
these letters and journals a reader can see how mundane and foolish the
problems of today are in comparison what these people were dealing with every
day.
The
years before the Civil War were not the greatest of times for African-Americans
in the United States, no matter if they were a slave or had their free papers.
It was a struggle for them to find their way in America once they were freed
because they weren’t treated with the same dignity and respect that the white
people were. African-Americans were looking for a fresh place to start a new
life away from the slavery and oppression that was prevalent in the southern
part of the country and portions of the north. This goes back to the letter I
talked about before, how the author was telling all those that would listen to
leave the place they were and go to a better place. A place that offered them a
chance to start a new life with their newly gained freedom. So the ones that
were able to leave the oppression of the southern colonies headed north and
west to the new territories and states out there that had laws against slavery.
Here they could find places that were free of slavery and not be afraid of
being accused of being a slave and therefore being shipped back, so now they could
finally be free. Finding these stories and letters about what was happening
back then that detail what was going on during these trying times is difficult
to do without having some type of documented account of the time. There are a
lot of these types of stories that have fallen through the cracks and put away
where they are not readily available. The Benjamin Franklin Heuston Papers are
another collection of unpublished writing that have stories and letters among
other things that also can give a glimpse of the past and what it was like over
160 years ago.
There
are some stories that have been written and published that have similar themes
within them. A couple that come to mind are the story of Olaudah Equiano in
“The Interesting Narrative of the Life Olaudah Equiano” and the poems by
Phillis Wheatley. These are just a couple of examples of the information that
we can get from writings like this. Wheatley wrote a good number of poems that
describe her situation, being a slave. Equiano wrote about his troubled life of
being a slave and travelling around with different owners. Now these stories
are different from those that would come out of the time around the Civil War,
but reading those accounts you could get a handle on what they were going
through. It would only seem to me that the same type of knowledge can be gained
from the stories of slaves who travelled in search of their freedom or the
troubles that African-Americans faced once they got to a safe place that they
could call home. As well as the letters that went back and forth between family
members detailing the ups and downs of their lives.
These writings are the perfect way to look
into the past and see what it was like for an oppressed people to finally have
their freedom. But then struggle their way through life because of the pitfalls
that they encountered along the way. By looking into the past we can gain a
greater respect for what these people went through, like being away from their families
for long stretches, all of the illnesses that people are suffering from and
have no idea what they are facing. But then also realize that the problems that
we face here in this time of privilege are not a big deal because we are not
living our lives in fear of being slaves, or because we have the luxury of
modern medicine and we can talk to our family with the push of a couple buttons.
Reading these accounts have definitely helped me to empathize with the things
that they went through and has given me a greater respect for what life was like.
Some people say that they were born too late and are living in the wrong era,
but by reading things like this I realize that I am right where I belong and don’t
thing that I could have made it back then.
Works Cited
·
Heuston, Benjamin Franklin. Papers,
1849-1894. Web. 5 Dec. 2014.
<http://arcat.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=11434>
.
.
·
"Kentucky Civil War: African
Americans: Slavery and Freedom." Kentucky Civil War: African Americans:
Slavery and Freedom. Web. 5 Dec. 2014.
<http://www.ket.org/civilwar/aamerican.html>.
·
Shepard, Charles. "Papers,
1850-1858." Web. 5 Dec. 2014.
<http://arcat.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=11434>.
·
Warren, Kim. "Civil War on the
Western Border: The Missouri-Kansas Conflict, 1854-1865." Seeking the
Promised Land: African American Migrations to Kansas. Web. 5 Dec. 2014.
<http://www.civilwaronthewesternborder.org/essay/seeking-promised-land-african-american-migrations-kansas>.
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