Reading Response: As The Lord Lives, He Is One of Our Mother's Children - Pauline E. Hopkins

Pauline E. Hopkins

1859-1930

Reading Response: As The Lord Lives, He Is One of Our Mother's Children

This story deals with the race binary being that Negroes were discriminated against harshly, however when a Negro is of a mixed heritage, and his appearance can be taken for being white, then a Negro would be able to exist and bypass some of the harsh discrimination simply because people were not aware of their African heritage.

In this story Gentleman Jim is a man that is hiding out from the mob of committee citizens that accused him of a murder he did not commit.  The real murderer was a white man that lied accusing Gentleman Jim. Gentleman Jim knows that he will not see a fair trial if he is captured because the mob of citizens after him know that he is a Negro.  Being Negro during this time period didn't have any fair connotations attached to it.  If a Negro is even suspected of any wrongdoing much less murder, he would surely be hung.  However, not everyone in this town is familiar with Gentleman Jim.  Gentleman Jim is a Negro of mixed heritage.  He could surely pass for being white.  So when Jim ended up in this town after his escape from being taken alive for something he did not do; his main concern was keeping a low profile out of the mainstream of the townspeople.

When Gentleman Jim is encountered by Rev. Septimus Stevens, he is ill near death and passed out in a river. The reverend takes him in and nurses him back to good health.  The reverend did not have any inclination that Gentleman Jim could possibly be a Negro.  Knowing this, Gentleman Jim recovered of his illness and became good friends with the reverend and his family.  He began working around the reverend's church keeping to himself and never really being in contact with the people of this town.  He was reluctant to tell the reverend his secret for fear of the reverend being angry with him and turning him in to that angry mob of people.  He simply did not know how to deal with the fact that he is wanted for murder, because in his mind, there was nothing that would help his situation.  If a white man said a Negro did it, (whatever it was) that settled it.  There would be no debate about it, no fairness and surely no listening to any other side to the story.

However, contrary to what Jim believed, when the reverend suspected that Jim was the man wanted for murder he did not become angry, nor did he turn him in.  He asked Jim to be honest and tell him the truth.  When he did, the reverend knew what would happen if he turned him in.  He would be lynched without question.  All the reverend could think about was Gentleman Jim's (now only being referred to as the Negro) life in his hand.  In the reverend's eyes the Negro's life was important to save without regard to his Negro heritage being a factor in making that decision.  The reverend was an example of a human being of real moral character.  A life is a life, no matter what your racial background happens to be.  He was not blinded by the hatred of racism and discrimination like the mob of committee citizens and other white people during this time frame.  His generosity did not cease when he learned of the truth.  In fact, he allowed him to stay longer until it was safe for him to move on.  What other reason could there be for him to do this for the Negro?

Gentleman Jim was unspeakably overwhelmed with gratitude.  It was astonishing to him that he did not have to fear being captured and turned in by the hands of Reverend Stevens.  Upon moving on to a new state, he still did not have much interaction with people.  He still felt enormous gratitude toward the reverend and felt the need to do something to show just how much.  Suddenly, it occurred to Jim that the reverend and his child would be on a train passing through the state where Jim had moved to.  However, the train tracks were blocked by an extremely large tree that had fallen due to a storm.  Gentleman Jim could not rest knowing this tree was blocking the train's path and would cause a fatal crash.  He had to do something and he stopped at nothing to remove this obstacle in his path.  His determination and adrenaline must have been key factors in how he miraculously got this tree off  of the track moments before the train arrived.  Although he saved the train from killing it's passengers, he was not able to save himself from being struck and killed by the train.

I don't think he had planned to die that day trying to save the lives of those on the train, but he had more regard for their lives than his own.  He was a man who had probably never experienced generosity much less kindness from a white man that knew he was a Negro.  I think that meant the world to Gentleman Jim and he never really grasped why the reverend had been so kind and did not turn him over to the law.  The reverend had no reason to be, other than genuine human kindness.  In that time period, genuine human kindness toward a Negro from a white person was not a popular occurrence.  He and his friend that had been lynched were exonerated at the end of the story when the real murderer was captured.  I believe the reverend must have felt grateful to have taken this Negro's word for truth value once he learned of his identity and not turning him over to the law as a guilty man.  No matter how bad those times were, people need to know that there were some good hearted whites that did not discriminate against an innocent person simply because of their Negro heritage.

  

Reading Response: We Wear the Mask - Paul Laurence Dunbar

 Paul Laurence Dunbar

1872-1906

Reading Response: We Wear the Mask

I think this poem illustrates Regionalism.  This poem expresses one of the ways African Americans coped with life during the post civil war period.   Paul Dunbar illustrates that during the time after slavery African Americans were wearing a mask or saving face in the eyes of the reality of still being oppressed and facing social injustices. Even though slavery had ended, there was still no happiness, however they had to save face as if to say I better not act like I hate these people who oppress me, for they might put me back in to slavery or I may still be punished for seeming to be ungrateful.  The oppression did not disappear when the emancipation appeared.  White oppressors especially in the South were still very cruel to African Americans and hated the fact that the emancipation ended slavery.  Any former slave that did not travel North, were still servants on their oppressors plantations.  So, former slaves had to tread very carefully in order to survive. 

After being oppressed and dehumanized for so many years, it became quite natural to grin and lie and hide their cheeks.  Grins and lies as if to accept this oppression with a grin and lie to the oppressors face.  Telling them, I know that you oppress me, however I will smile as I suffer through it rather than be tortured or killed.  It was a way of life passed down from generation to generation in order to survive and hope to escape some inhumane punishment or death by the hands of the oppressor.  I can not imagine how much they had to draw upon their inner strength to endure such harsh treatment every day of their lives. To hide their cheeks is to suppress any emotion from appearing on your face. Under no circumstances were they to show any real feelings of self respect to their oppressor.  I can imagine that this had to be especially difficult, however in terms of survival it was achievable.

The writer actually prefers to keep this disguise going, saying: Why should the world be over-wise, In counting all our tears and sighs?  Nay, let them only see us, while we wear the mask.  So, I interpret that to mean that it's better to live life this way during this period of time.  It's better that the world only sees the mask that we hide behind.  As if, there is no reason for the world to see the real pain and suffering within the tears and sighs.  Or perhaps it would have been pointless to show the real pain and suffering within the tears and sighs because it would not make life change for the better and would really be a waste of time and more humiliation added to the mountain of it already in place.

In their prayers to O great Christ,  I believe the writer means that they smile to the world within the mask but Christ is the only one they trust without the mask to hear their true cries.  But let the world continue to think they are willing to withstand because, O great Christ hears their cries and will provide all the strength they need to carry on.

Reading Response: Introduction

Reading Response: Introduction; pp. 2-16

As I go through the reading for this time period, I am trying to gather my thoughts on what it was like for ALL people during this time.  A nation divided, with the South fighting to continue damaging the lives and culture of human beings all for the sake of preserving the antebellum southern plantation myth of owning human beings as property in the institution of slavery.

The Aftermath of the Civil War

An estimated 620,000 people died in the Civil War, over preserving slavery.  It had become so natural and everyday to dehumanize individuals for their benefit of free labor, of which built a nation prior to the Civil War, that the thought of this coming to an end was something the South was willing to risk losing lives by going to war.  I imagine they went to war with something in mind like:  they have the right to treat human beings this way and were willing to put their lives on the line for it.  I can not fathom an intelligent understanding of it.  The North went to war looking to preserve the union among all states by any means necessary. However, if the South couldn't keep slavery and remain the Union, then they would rather secede from the Union in an effort to continue their practice of slavery.

There were different interpretations of the meaning of this tragic and unnecessary event of American History.  Many writers, both white and black like John W. De Forest and Albion Tourgee both white, voiced their opinions about the war being a threat to all men and their families both white and black. These were white Americans that wanted freedom for all men without the distinction of race or color (pp. 5).  Albion Tourgee referred to the war as "A Fool's Errand."  Being foolish by going to war over preserving slavery and then the government refusing to punish those white supremacy groups responsible for the crimes committed against African Americans.

African American writers, Charles W. Chesnutt and Pauline Hopkins wrote stories about slavery hoping to ruin and put to death the antebellum plantation myth. However, there was just not enough support for these writers to compel a change in America. It seems like, as much as writers like these would write about how bad slavery affected African Americans, white supremacists would take to writing their racist novels.  All of which were complete fiction, depicting slaves as villains and feature films making false depictions of slaves singing dancing as if they enjoyed themselves while being at slave auctions. The even sadder part of it is, is that American people loved and supported such nonsense.  Why would anyone want to support so much untruth at the expense of human beings beings suffering from oppression?

How on earth did African Americans during this time get through this oppression and day to day racism.  How did they figure out how  to gain equality and civil rights?  They got much needed advice and encouragement from renowned speakers like Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Dubois. Their views about how African Americans should pursue equality, however they were both well educated men that offered hope to African Americans with strategies they could believe in and strive to achieve.

There were some real Americans in this country during that time who were willing to speak up and state the obvious of how WRONG slavery was, but there was just not enough voices to make enough noise over everyone else who refused to acknowledge the wrong practices of dehumanizing human beings in the institution of slavery.  The truth of the matter is that more voices prohibiting slavery probably would not have changed anything anymore than it did anyway.  I imagine it took a lot of courage being a white American to speak up and out about it without a lot of support, along with concerns of being ridiculed or that no one would pay any attention to their writings.  But the fact that there were some white Americans that did speak out speaks volumes to them as individuals who simply would not just turn a blind eye about the injustices affecting African Americans suffering at the hands of those who supported white supremacy.

Expansion, Industrialization, and the Emergence of Modern America

At this point, after the war and devastation, how could reconstruction even begin?  Where do people go from here?  What are they thinking about their future.  To me it would seem bleek and uncertain on how a family would simply recover to survive and move forward.  The government had to then try and devise plans to support a start to some type of reconstruction.  Many people went West believing they could get cheap land along with a chance at freedom and opportunity.  Many African Americans went West also, specifically to Kansas.  With so many moving West in search of better opportunities, they referred to it as their "manifest destiny."

However, not so much for others.  Mexicans that were already settled in Texas and California were robbed of their territory by the arrival of Anglo-Americans by way of the railroad who were squatting on their land.  Indians who were also settled in the West were encroached upon by Americans.  After winning a battle to protect their land form them, the government swiftly re-drew boundaries in order to let Americans just move them out of their territory.  Why does it seem that Americans just take whatever they want from other people and then turn around and make it legal???  A white reformer, Helen Hunt Jackson wrote about the disastrous treatment of the Indians in "A Century of Dishonor" which was sent to the U.S. Congress.  Another writer, Sarah Winnemeuca Hopkins of Native American descent, also wrote about this horrific event in her story: "Life Among the Piutes: Their Wrongs and Claims.  Still the government turned a blind eye to these pleadings and did not stop their harsh policies and in fact federal troops succeeded to massacre 100 unarmed Indians at Wounded Knee, SD.

By 1900 30% of the U.S. population was made up of foreign born immigrants.  The U.S. government received the Statue of Liberty, then known as Liberty Enlightening the World from France for commemorating the centennial anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.  Others said different of the statue's meaning, that it was a welcoming symbol to immigrants coming to America from Europe.  If it was a welcoming symbol, was it only for a specific group of immigrants only?  It seemed like it when the U.S. government passed a Chinese Exclusion act prohibiting Chinese from becoming U.S. citizens after they brought them into the country for work for which they were in desperate need of workers.  The government just seemed to kick people to the curb when they are done with them.  No gratitude was shown toward the many people that helped re-build the war torn nation.  It's mind blowing to read how people have been treated over the years.  It seems as though, if you don't fit the profile of what the government saw as worthy then you got the shaft.

The 30% influx of immigrants created a way for jobs to be filled, however earnings were less than meager causing workers to exist in deplorable work environments and impoverished households .  So many immigrants had to suffer at the hands of the U.S. government not to mention those non-immigrants already on U.S. soil.  So if you were not of the Anglo-American persuasion could you have expected to be treated unjustly by the U.S. government at their sole discretion?

Reading Response: Zitkala-Sa; The School Days of an Indian Girl

LINK: Zitkala-Sa (1876-1938)

Native American Rights Activist

Reading Response: The School Days of an Indian Girl

I am drawn to writing a response to this piece in American Literature due to my own paternal Sioux Indian heritage.  As I think about other readings during the times after the Civil War, I can't help but see that the European settlers who encroached upon the Indian territory manipulated the Indians into a relationship that soon became one that took away their rights and into being treated as inferior beings after the genocide of their Native American relatives. So, taking over, the federal government then impressed  laws and policies upon Native American people.  One of which sanctioned the removal of small Indian children away from their homes and families forcing Indians to assimilate into European cultures. I wonder, how did that make sense.

Since efforts to integrate European settlers into Native American culture failed, the federal government sought to eradicate Native American cultures and traditions as a part of their invasion of their territory.  I can only imagine the horrifying frustrations of the young Zitkala-Sa after being shipped away from home and finding out that the stories she was told about journey East were far from the reality of her experiences of being sent away to a boarding school.  She originally had been excited about the journey thinking it would be a pleasure to go to a place referred to as: "Red Apple Country."  From the very beginning of the trip on the train, she saw that it would not be a pleasurable journey.  From the unfamiliar faces staring and pointing at her for making fun of her shoes, it only grew more troublesome from then on. She refers to this Christian missionaries as 'palefaces', as their skin was so much paler than she had ever seen before.  Having never seen these people before, whom seemed odd to her, who now have charge over her was deeply troubling for a small child to face so abruptly.  To add insult to injury, the dissappointment of the arrival to the school in the land of Red Apples with freezing temperatures and snow seemed unbearable.

Assimmilating to the culture of the palefaces felt like a prison of which she could not escape.  Everything to her foreign, from the language, to the waking to the schrill of a ringing bell, to the clamouring noise of hard shoes upon wood floors running about, to seeing more Indian girls that were clothed in 'mmodest' clothing.  The traditions of the palefaces were also unknown to her.  In the dining room, she did not know that  she had to wait to be seated and wait to begin eating all by waiting for the sound of each bell. With all of these foreign traditional rules, she was afraid make a move for fear of being scrutinized and glared at.

When she found out about the rule that her hair would need to be cut, she was outraged.  In her heritage, her hair had great symbolism.  If an Indian had cut hair, it meant they were unskilled warriors, mourners or cowards.  This was something she vowed to fight for.  She was so determined to keep her hair that she tried to sneak away and hide hoping to escape the treachery of having 'shingled hair'.

Her tormenting experience seems to never end.  Strict rules for playing in the snow seemed odd to her and her friends.  Terrible stories about the white man's devil and supersticious ideas made her grow bitter towards this idea of assimmilating into this culture of the Christian missionaries.  The experience of boarding school changed who Zitkala-Sa was before she ever went there.  She seemed to keep the memories of all the chaos at the forefront of her mind.  It was something she could not shake or explain her feelings about them to people like her brother and her mother.  She was a person they did not understand upon her return to the Western country for the summer.

When she finished boarding school, I was suprised to learn that Zitkala-Sa chose to stay East to attend a college there.  I thought surely she would go back West to be close to her family.  However, I can understand after having been away for a time now, and being able to understand that she had grown up, she wanted to make something of herself and receive an education to help many people like her.  I admire her for her tenacity and the fact that she could rise above such tormenting circumstances as a young child and become the activist that she did for her fellow Native American people.