Shell’s English Blog

My academic studies over the last eight years have proved a great learning curve for me, both academically and personally. I have changed and grown so much in both aspects that describing it is somehow difficult. One very important aspect though is the fact that writing and walking go hand in hand for me and have for some time now. During my undergraduate degree in social sciences I walked a lot with my dog at the time, Lady. Then in 2020-21 I completed a Higher Diploma in English at UCC and I always found that walking helped with my writing. It cleared my head and allowed for new thinking; sometimes to think outside the box, so to speak. It was essential during Covid and those dreadful lockdowns. Walking helped greatly during the previous four great years studying social sciences. All through this time my faithful companion and best friend, Lady, was by my side. Her little sister, Gracie, took over when she passed away. Of course, Gracie being a puppy needed lots of walking! So now Gracie and I walk the paths, beaches and woods that once Lady and I did. This has been so important for my personal and academic lives. Mental health and physical well-being are as vital to each other as life and the air we breathe. So in turn it helps with my academic studies and writing.

I have learnt more about my strengths and weaknesses during my studies. For example, poetry was never a strong point for me; I never really gave it much thought. It just seemed too difficult to comprehend. That is until I studied the Higher Diploma in English. I completed two poetry modules, Poetry of the Vikings and What a Literary War. Both opened my eyes to a different way of writing, and understanding the content in them. Poetry can tell us so much; it’s not just the feelings, emotions and ideas of the author, it also tells us so much about history, the cultural and societal aspects of the time and the lives of people. Take Poetry of the Vikings for example. The poems, chants and writings, originally written in Old Norse, tell us about the mythology, beliefs, battles and lives of the Vikings. The collection of poems in the Poetic Edda by Carolyne Carrington is well worth taking the time to read. The original manuscript, known as the Codex Regius is kept very safely and contains 31 anonymous poems. It was written during the 13^th century. Also worth reading alongside the poems is Snorri Sturluson’s Prose Edda which is a text book rather than poems. It helps readers understand the poems and the stories behind them. This is actually a very difficult form of poetry to understand, but I welcomed the challenge and enjoyed it immensely.

Two of my more favourite poems are about “the story of the creation, and indeed destruction, of the world as written in the Vǫluspá, told by a Seeress, a female Shaman, who has access to the world of sprits, both good and evil. Hávamál , although a didactic poem giving ethical advice about human relations and social behaviour, warms men about women, particularly ones who refuse to be controlled. But the poem also goes on to recount Óðinn’s own bad behaviour in the seduction of giantess Gunnlod” (Farley 1).

The module What a Literary War was also very interesting. It gives a harrowing account of the destruction of World War 1.I especially liked the poetry by Vera Brittain. She not only recounted the horrors and traumas of the First World War from her own experiences as a VAD nurse but also from the experiences of her own brother, two friends and fiancée, Roland Leighton. They all died during the war, and left her very badly affected. The poems also are very emotional, and tell a love story developing between Brittain and Leighton. “Chronicle of Youth: The War Diary, 1913-1917 (1981) was based on Brittain’s diary and is maybe one of the most accurate writings she has published. This diary was written from childhood on a regular basis, throughout the war, and contains vivid information about the experiences she went through, her reactions to them and her feelings and emotions at the time. Letters From a Lost Generation (1998) contains letters written during the First World War between herself, her fiancé Roland, her brother Edward and their two friends, Victor and Geoffrey. Both of these accounts are important as they give, perhaps, a more accurate account of her experiences rather than her autobiography Testament of Youth (1933)” (Farley). I read them alongside each other, and it all gives a great understanding of the First World War, how people’s lives were shattered and the conditions of the time. The descriptions of the trenches in France and the human suffering feel as real now as it actually was at the time; her poetry is very vivid.

Rudyard Kipling wrote a moving poem titled My Boy Jack. Many believed it was about his son who went missing in action while serving with the Irish Guards in the Battle of Loos during World War 1 after only 3 weeks in France in 1915. His body was never found: he was just 18. Kipling had great difficulty accepting his son’s death. However, it is not actually about his own private grief. It is about a 16 year old boy called Jack Cornwall, the youngest recipient of the Victoria Cross, who stayed at his post on board ship during the Battle of Jutland. 

Have you news of my boy Jack? ”
Not this tide.
“When d’you think that he’ll come back?”
Not with this wind blowing, and this tide.

“Has any one else had word of him?”
Not this tide.
For what is sunk will hardly swim,
Not with this wind blowing, and this tide.

“Oh, dear, what comfort can I find?”
None this tide,
Nor any tide,
Except he did not shame his kind—
Not even with that wind blowing, and that tide.

Then hold your head up all the more,
This tide,
And every tide;
Because he was the son you bore,

And gave to that wind blowing and that tide!

My Boy Jack.  Poetry by Heart

http://www.poetrybyheart.org.uk/poems/my-boy-jack//

Well, after completing all those English essays, I went on to complete a Post Graduate Diploma in Philosophy, also at UCC. This was also a great experience. I read some fantastic texts and studied the ideas and thoughts of some of the great philosophers such as Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Isaiah Berlin, Jeremy Bentham, Plato, Aristotle and Descartes. Initially, I had to re-think my essay style and writing; philosophy essays are very different from other essays. So after many years writing in one style, I had to change the way I was writing. It was challenging to start, I was busy attempting to follow instructions and learn from reading other philosophy essays. I actually really enjoyed writing them; it was an opportunity to really give my own strong opinion about an issue and therefore make a strong argument about it. Coming from a social care background, and working with people in difficult circumstances it was good to discuss a few things that I have come across, and that are important to me. Human rights were a big one. I wrote an essay discussing the issue of human rights regarding mental health. Another discussed liberty and the lockdowns we faced during Covid. This aimed at the political side, governments and law. I found Hobbes’s ideas of natural law fascinating. He believed that one could do whatever to survive and defend oneself, even kill, in a state of nature. He suggests that we imaging a state of nature, a hypothetical situation without any political authority. He states “the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short” (Hobbes 91-92). So man must do what is necessary to survive. He states in Leviathan “hereby it is manifest, that during the time men live without a power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is war; and such a war is of every man against every man” (Hobbes 91-92). So with no authority, law or government anything goes for your own survival, which is pretty bleak really. Locke comes in here with his notion of law. He declares that an authority is required to maintain social order, law and state-building.

So after all of this, here I am completing a Masters Degree in English at UCC. First module, Theories of Modernity, was great. I read some great texts, and we looked at the theories behind the literature. Two I found interesting were Darwin’s On the Origin of Species and Andrew Ure’s1835 article The Philosophy of Manufacturers. Ure argues that technology, manufacturing and the factory system that developed in England were good for workers. “The principle of the factory system then, is to substitute mechanical science for hand skill, and the partition of a process into its essential constituents, for the division or graduation of labour among artisans. On the handicraft plan, labour more or less skilled was usually the most expensive element of production…. but on the automatic plan, skilled labour gets progressively superseded, and will, eventually, be replaced by mere over lookers of machines” as stated by Ure. So human man power becomes less, and the machines take over. That is, of course, exactly what happened. Technology and machines have taken over so much of life that once was done by human hand.

Darwin discusses how any certain species can change over time; a new species can actually come from one that already exists. All of the species will share a common ancestor; however, different traits will be passed on from parent to offspring. Every type of species will have its own unique genetic differences, which will take a long time to develop. Darwin called this natural selection. The good qualities passed down enable offspring to adapt to new environments and thrive. He makes a significant link between variety and how a particular species survives and thrives. However, he further goes on to explain that any one species cannot become over populated due to the availability of resources such as water, shelter, food and many other required resources. Geography and not having enough room also play a part. So an infinite number cannot survive. This, in turn, creates species fighting with not only each other, but the environment in which they live. Here we have natural selection. Darwin maintains that any species with better, or more advantageous, traits will be better equipped to survive and adapt to their environment than those with less such attributes. So it will go on over time. Those less well adapted may well become extinct.

If we relate both of these readings to humans it becomes even more interesting. Humans who are better equipped with inherited traits will no doubt do better in life. If we add in availability of resources, education, health and living conditions a bigger picture about human life evolves. Those who are well educated, healthy, with good living conditions and a good income will thrive. The weaker, uneducated and those living in poorer conditions will not do so well. The worker who has enough skill to work in Ure’s idea of the factory system will get a job, and therefore, a better standard of life. Those who cannot work technology or machines will be left behind. Also Ure suggests that children and women can be employed to save a lot of money as they are a lot cheaper! Not really such a great system. The younger male with good skill to work the machines will fare better.

So I wrote an essay based on these two readings, Darwin’s On the Origin of Species and Andrew Ure’sThe Philosophy of Manufacturers. I attempted to demonstrate the negative side of technology on humans, as it may relate to Darwin and his idea of survival of the fittest. Humans also compete for resources to survive; the better equipped usually does better that those more marginalised and disadvantaged. I attempted to bring in some of the philosophy style to make my points. However, attempting to combine these two writings styles did not go so well. I seem to write too much about the issue of poorer humans being left behind, rather than analyse the texts. In social care studies, this was necessary, but English essays are different in that respect. This is something I make a mistake about too often, and is a point I need to reflect and improve on going forward with my MA English essays and dissertation.

Seminars

I attended two great seminars. The first, Dun Emer Press, “Spreading the News:  Publicity, Networks and the Dun Emer Press” by Dr. Caoifhionn Ní Bheacháin was very interesting. It was great to discover that not only was Irish publishing taking place, but that it was being done by female workers at a time when they were really not supported in such a profession. Not only was great Irish literature able to be published in Dublin, but young women were being trained, educated and paid to work in the profession. There was a great archive kept, with material being stored for future reference, which provides opportunity for future explorations into the Dun Emer Press and the work they published.

The second was a webinar by Illuminations at the University of California titled, “500 years of looking for Richard III”. The speakers were author and Harvard lecturer Jeffery Wilson along with actor and writer Thomas Varga. This was inspirational in two ways. Firstly, the introduction by Thomas in truly Shakespearean form was great – a fantastic voice that can carry for miles! The knowledge about King Richard III by Jeffrey Wilson regarding Richard’s disability was outstanding and a thought provoking experience. It helps shed light on how disability has been viewed in the past, but also how society comes to see disability in the present. It is a view that has truly been transported through time. There is a lot of information regarding this on my blog.

So now I already had two great ideas for my MA dissertation, from the poetry modules regarding the First World War or Darwin and survival of the fittest. Nonetheless, reading on with further modules one particular area of interest was rekindled for me.

I loved Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park. If we think about the most viscous, humiliating and degrading human rights violations of all times throughout history it has to that of slavery. Yet it went on for hundreds of years supported by people, communities, governments and laws. Just looking back at my module on human rights during philosophy, it is the worst violation on liberty that has ever existed. Oksala states that Hobbes insisted “all men are born equal and free” (43). But in fact they were not; many were rounded up, shackled and transported to a foreign land and worked to the death as slaves. Many more were born into slavery. Many more slave women were raped and bore children to their white masters. Such children also became slaves; a free form of slaves the owners did not even have to buy. Hobbes advocated that Aristotle was wrong when he claimed that humans have a natural hierarchy, where some are superior (Oksala 43). But this hierarchy is implemented by human beings, those that are more fortunate and able to dominate others. The poor slaves did not stand a chance against the might of the British Empire. A lack of education and literacy amongst slaves did not help them. The state powers only worsen their plight; laws were brought in to legalize slavery for a very long time. This so called hierarchy can only be achieved by implementing a state power. He states in Leviathan “hereby it is manifest, that during the time men live without a power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is war; and such a war is of every man against every man” (Hobbes 91-92). What a terrible state the great British Empire was for slaves.

However, Hobbes declared that in a state of natural law it is ok to do what is needed to survive, even kill. Is it any surprise that slaves made every attempt to escape and the abolitionist movement strived ahead? They had to fight to survive. Hobbes asks us to imagine a state of nature; a hypothetical situation without any political authority (Oksala 46). He suggests “the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short” (Hobbes 91-92). This was definitely so for slaves. In contrast Locke argued that a state of nature is not intolerable and people are generally good. If we look at slavery, many were not; they participated in a dreadful practice. Locke states that we must all actively consent to live in a certain way. He argues that by giving tactic consent meaning implied consent we agree to a power influencing and controlling us (Parvin and Chambers 120). However, slaves never had this option.

This brings me back to my latest essay and Mansfield Park. I discussed the issue of slavery regarding Mansfield Park.  “One of the most interesting aspects, regarding Mansfield Park, is the reference Austen makes with her title of the novel. Lord Mansfield, or William Murray, actually came from an aristocratic family and became a lawyer. After positions of Solicitor-General, Attorney-General, and chief Justice of the King’s Bench he became a private councillor advising the king. He often spoke in the House of Lords, and became a very “influential and powerful Man” (Kelly 173). It is also important to note that the character of Sir Bertram is also a member of parliament. Unlike Sir Bertram, however, Lord Mansfield made a very notable and perhaps ground-breaking verdict in a court case; the case of the slave James Somerset. He was brought by his master from America to England in 1769 where he was later abducted and shackled to a slave ship. The intention was to transport him to Virginia where he could be sold. A habeas corpus was obtained by anti-slavery activists and he appeared in court. Lord Mansfield was reluctant to make a judgement; nonetheless he did rule that “contract for the sale of a slave is good here”. In contrast, he also declared that “the person of the slave himself is immediately the object of inquiry” and ruled that the imprisonment was illegal (Kelly 176/7). His intention was not to outlaw slavery; nonetheless it was a celebration for abolitionists. However, even with this, according to Bundock “what the law said” and how people actually behaved were entirely different (61). By Austen using his name as the title of the novel, she forms a link between it and the de-humanising practice of slavery that England accepted” (Farley). 2907

I discussed the issue of slavery in Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park. I mentioned the ground breaking case Lord Mansfield ruled over regarding the slave James Somerset. Another important case he ruled over was the Zong case. The Zong was a ship bound for Jamaica in 1781 when 133 slaves were thrown overbroad. It seemed they were worth more in an insurance claim under British law. However, the insurers brought as legal case against the ships’ owners. This was murder after all. Lord Mansfield heard the case. When abolitionist Granville Sharp found out, he tried to have the ship’s captain tried for murder. Lord Mansfield ordered a re-trail, but the trail never took place. The massacre was shocking and disgusting to the public; it was a turning point in the campaign to end slavery.

Watch the full movie here

One other important matter was that of Francis Barber who became the heir to Samual Johnson. Barber died on 13^th January 1801 and was buried in Stafford. He started his life as a slave in Jamaica and was brought to England by Samual Johnson until Johnson died in 1784. He left Barber £70 pounds a year (that’s like £9,000 now !) which he opened a drapers shop with and married a local women. A very unusual outcome for a salve indeed. One of the happier endings, but I don’t think it takes away from the dreadful practice that was slavery.

My MA dissertation has been inspired by one of the most interesting and inspiring authors I have come across to date, Frederick Douglass. He was a slave who escaped from Maryland to New York and became a public speaker, advocate for women’s rights, author, editor, abolitionist and civil servant. His three autobiographies give a harrowing account of his time in slavery and his later life as a civil servant and author. He campaigned extensively for the abolition of slavery and women’s rights. I have become so extremely interested in his life and writings that I have decided to base my MA dissertation on him. I have titled it Frederick Douglass and Human Rights Violations against Women.

Sources

Austen, Jane. Mansfield Park.  Wordsworth Editions Ltd. 2020.

Farley, Michelle. If Mansfield Park stands for England, then England as it is represented in Austen’s novel is decadent and in need of reform.” 2022.

Farley, Michelle. “Stories about Norse goddesses may have been supressed in the transmission of the poetry, but accounts of female figures that survive still complicate our notion of women’s roles in early medieval society.” 2020.

Farley, Michelle. “Vera Brittain makes use of various genres to articulate her personal experience of the First World War”. 2021.

Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan. Pp. 91-92/261-2; slightly modernized. Penguin Classics. 1651.

Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan. Pp. 91-92/261-2; slightly modernized. Penguin Classics. 1651.

Kipling, Rudyard. My Boy Jack.  Poetry by Heart

http://www.poetrybyheart.org.uk/poems/my-boy-jack//

Oksala, Johanna. All That Matters Political Philosophy. . Hodder and Stroughton. 2013.

Parvin, Phil and Chambers, Clare. Political Philosophy: A Complete Introduction. Hodder and Stroughton. 2012.

Frederick Douglas and Human Rights Violations against Women

Abstract

“When the true history of the antislavery cause shall be written, women will occupy a large space in its pages, for the cause of the slave has been peculiarly a woman’s cause” (Life and Times of Frederick Douglass pg no reg).

This famous quote by Frederick Douglass is a strong testimony to the plight of women who were held in slavery from 1776 through to 1865. The atrocities committed against enslaved women were horrendous. Forced into manual labour, raped and forced to bear children to white slave owners to further their stock of slaves, the history of slavery is indeed very much a women’s human rights concern.  The Declaration of Human Rights article one states “[a]ll human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood” while article three states “[e[veryone has the right to life, liberty and security of person” (United Nations). Even though the actual Declaration of Human Rights did not arrive until 1948, the world did not need this during slavery to fully understand that gross human rights violations were committed against female slaves.

Introduction

Frederick Douglas was a slave, fugitive slave, editor, public speaker, author, abolitionist and Civil Servant. Born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey in 1817/18 into slavery in America’s South. He was mixed race; his mother was an enslaved black women, father white, and rumoured to be one of his masters. After a failed attempt in 1837, he escaped in 1838 to the North, New York. During his time as a slave he witnessed first-hand the dreadful abuse of women. After his escape, he would write three autobiographies detailing his life. The first, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave in 1845 gives a harrowing account of his time in slavery. He then published My Bondage and My Freedom in 1855, then Life and Times of Frederick Douglass in 1881 and again in 1892. While the first focused on his life as a slave, his identity as a former slave and the family he created with his first wife Anna Murray when he gained freedom, the latter two autobiographies give a more open, articulate and in depth account. This includes his life experiences and the things he witnessed in slavery. Maybe he was unable to go into more graphic detail in the first, as a fugitive slave he and his family were still in danger.  Also, The Narrative had to appeal to a wide audience; as an autobiography of the time, Douglass had to be very clever in his writing. In The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass he recounts more about his life as a civil servant while married to Helen Pitts, his second white wife.

Chapters

Chapter one of my thesis will discuss this part of his life and the human rights violations against women that he describes in his autobiographies. It will also detail just what is meant by human rights and how it relates to my thesis.

Chapter two will discuss how, after his escape from slavery, he would become a campaigner, public speaker, abolitionist and author who strongly supported women’s rights. The organizations he joined, the talks he gave, his further writings and his work as a civil servant will be debated in relation to his perspective on women’s rights. Human rights that were campaigned for will be debated. Only with, the correct laws could change come. Slavery had pushed human beings into dreadful situations, where they had to do what they could to survive. Locke pointed out that laws are required for the cohesion of society, but he also maintained that when a person is in extreme necessity, they may take the property of others to sustain life (Swanson). I will demonstrate that both female slaves, and free women campaigning for women’s rights, had to do what was necessary to maintain their own lives. Female slaves were forced into fighting for their own survival and to do things they would not otherwise have done. It was only with such laws as the abolition act that gave any protection to slaves. As Bentham argued “a substantive right, is the child of law; from real laws come real rights” (69). 

Chapter three will give an account of the women in his life. This will include his two wives, Anna Murray Douglass, married for 44 years, and his second wife, his former secretary, Helen Pitts, who was an educated white woman. The influence of his grandmother and the lack of a relationship with his mother will be highlighted. I will also detail his relationships with other women including Ruth Cox, Julia Grittiths and Ottilie Assing along with his encounters with Harriot Tubman and Martha Coffin Wright. All of these women played important, albeit very different, roles in his life. They were all vital in his attitudes and perspective towards women. This chapter is relevant in order to appreciate how he viewed different women personally and how they both influenced and conribuated to his role as abolitionist. It will also enable the reader to understand his wider beliefs about women’s human rights.

Chapter four will deal with accounts written by former black female slaves including Sojourner Truth and Harriot Jacobs. This feminist perspective is important to compare and contrast with Frederick Douglass’s own accounts. Both Sojourner Truth and Harriot Jacobs were former slaves; their accounts are harrowing, and a very different perspective on their own trauma.

Statement of Problem

Although he favoured equal rights for all, including women, in his three autobiographies he actually paid little attention to gender per se (Smith xiv). I would question why he was not more vocal about this. Although much literature exists about Frederick Douglass, there appears to be little about the link between his own accounts and how he actually viewed human rights violations against women. There is also some thought among black women that some of his writing is voyeuristic in nature. This needs to be further explored. The discrepancies in his own accounts of the abuse he witnessed against women, and the account of former female slaves also varies greatly. This is an avenue worth exploring further. The perspective of female former slaves is very much a personal, and terrifying, concept. There are situations only relevant to women, not least rape and forced childbirth of children; perhaps no male writer could capture this horror as a female author could.

Methodology This research thesis will be conducted using qualitative research methods. This will include the analysis of Frederick Douglass’s own three biographies; The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave; My Bondage and My Freedom; Life and Times of Frederick Douglass. I will also utilize Frederick Douglas. Prophet of Freedom by David Blight. Further academic literary sources relating to Frederick Douglass will be included; these will be discussed in my literature review. I will also debate the autobiographies of Sojourner Truth and Harriot Jacobs.

Bibliography

Bentham, Jeremy.  “Anarchical Fallacies; being an examination of the Declaration of Rights issues during the French Revolution”. In Jeremy Waldron (Ed) Nonsense Upon Stilts: Bentham, Burke and Marx on the Rights of Man.  Methuen, 1987, p.69).

Douglas, Frederick. My Bondage and My Freedom. Edited and Introduced by John David Smith. Penguin Books.2003.

Douglass, Frederick. The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Feedbooks. 1845.

Douglass, Frederick. Life and Times of Frederick Douglass. Start Publishing. 1881.

Swanson, Scott. “The Medieval Foundations of John Locke’s Theory of Natural Rights: Rights of Subsistence and the Principle of Extreme Necessity”. History of Political Thought. Pg 399-459.

United Nations. Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights

Accessed 31 March 2023

My Thesis will be based on Frederick Douglas and Human Rights Violations against Women. Douglass was a slave, fugitive slave, campaigner, abolitionist, author and civil servant. He worked tirelessly to highlight the plight of enslaved people, their extreme lack of rights, with a big emphasis on women’s rights. Horrendous atrocities were committed against enslaved women. Forced into manual labour, raped and forced to bear children to white slave owners to further their stock of slaves, the history of slavery is indeed very much a women’s human rights concern. 

Douglass seems to not pay a whole lot of attention to women’s rights in his own autobiographies as such. Much literature does exist concerning Douglass; however, his own accounts and those of former female slaves differ. These are areas I wish to explore and discuss. I will also debate the issue of how he actually viewed human rights violations against women. I will explore his involvement with political organizations, the public speeches he made, the campaigning for abolishment he undertook and his work as a civil servant. My thesis will be divided into four chapters. Therefore, I will conduct this review in four themes.

 I will begin by analyzing two of Frederick Douglass’s own autobiographies, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (FeedBooks, 1845) and My Bondage and My Freedom, edited and introduced by John David Smith (Penguin Books, 2003). These will provide his own accounts of the dreadful abuse and violations against women that he actually witnessed himself. In terms of Frederick Douglass, the Narrative is one that I am extremely familiar with from my own study during my Higher Diploma in English. This text will greatly influence my thesis. This section will also detail what is meant by a human right and a violation of one. I will draw on information from The United Nations database to do this. I will also draw on Boucher, David and Kelly, Paul Political Thinkers; from Socrates to the Present 3^rd ed. (Oxford University Press, 2017), in particular parts relating to the philosophical ideas about human rights by Thomas Hobbes and John Locke. This will be contextualised by including Richard Newman Abolitionism; A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2018), in particular chapter one “Introduction: Abolitionist agitation in a world of slavery and pain”.

My approach will include an account of Douglass’s work as a campaigner, abolitionist and civil servant. To highlight this I will examine his own third biography The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (Start Publishing, 1881). This will give a good account of his work later in life rather than as a former slave. I will expand on this by including David Blight Frederick Douglass Prophet of Freedom, (Simon and Schuster, 2018). This resource demonstrates the speeches he gave, the tours he went on campaigning, the articles and newspapers he published in his fight for abolition. It further acknowledges his strife for political action, legal law change and even fighting if necessary, rather than just moral persuasion.

To explore the theme of the women in the life of Frederick Douglass, in particular his two wives, I will bring in again David Blight Frederick Douglass Prophet of Freedom, (Simon and Schuster, 2018). I will also draw on the ideas of Blight to highlight other women in Douglass’s life including Ruth Cox, Julia Grittiths and Ottilie Assing. This will be further expanded by utilising Dorothy Wickenden The Agitators. Three Friends Who Fought for Abolition and Women’s Rights (Scribner, 2021). This includes three further accounts of one escaped former slave and two accounts of white female abolitionist and the roles they played in Douglass’s ideas. Further critical analyse will be derived from Leigh Fought Women in the World of Frederick Douglass, (Oxford University Press, 2019) which highlights the complicated and varied relationships he had with women throughout his life, from his grandmother to his wives and colleagues. Following that, in the same theme Maria Diedrich Love Across Color Lines; Ottilie Assing and Frederick Douglass (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1999) will be drawn upon.

The final chapter of my thesis will detail the feminine perspective of slavery and the human rights violations committed against women. In considering this I intend to draw on the true accounts of Harriot Jacobs Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (Compass Circle, 2019) and Sojourner Truth A Life, A Symbol, (Norton, 1997). These harrowing accounts are stark and describe not only the horrendous abuse these women suffered personally, but the fear and trauma they went through can be felt. They are two of the most important resources I will uses for my thesis as they are a contrast with how Douglass writes his own autobiographies. Another vital autobiography is that of Toni Morrison Beloved, (Vintage Classics, 2010) as it gives a terrible in depth story of her life as a slave and how she actually killed her own daughter rather than let her live as a salve girl. This will be broadened by including Sarah Grimke and Angelina Grimke on Slavery and Abolition; Essays and Letters, introduced by Mark Perry, (Penguin Books, 2014). I will focus on chapter two and letters written by Sarah Grimke “Letters on the Equality of the Sexes, and the Condition of Women” addressed to Mary S. Parker, President of the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society. To highlight the feminine critique of Douglass’s writing I will include Deborah E. McDowell’s chapter ‘In the First Place’, in William L. Andrews, ed., Critical Essays on Frederick Douglass (G.K.Hall, 1991). This will emphasise the exclusion of femininity and white patriarchal discourse. To place this in a historical context I will examine two texts. These are Marisa Fuentes Dispossessed Lives. Enslaved Women, Violence, and the Archive, (PENN, 2016). This gives an idea of both slave and free women living in one area during slavery. Also Lalita Tademy Cane River: The Epic Story of Slavery and Freedom in the American Deep South, (Headline, 2001). This text is well built form archives and data bases and tells the stories behind four generations of enslaved women.

This literature review includes the core text that I will utilize and analyse for my thesis. However, it is not exhaustive, and I will consult further and extended reading where required and necessary.

Bibliography

Bentham, Jeremy.  “Anarchical Fallacies; being an examination of the Declaration of Rights issues during the French Revolution”. In Jeremy Waldron (Ed) Nonsense Upon Stilts: Bentham, Burke and Marx on the Rights of Man.  Methuen, 1987, p.69).

Blight, David. Frederick Douglass Prophet of Freedom. Simon and Schuster, 2018.

Boucher, David and Kelly, Paul Political Thinkers; from Socrates to the Present 3^rd ed. (Oxford University Press, 2017

Diedrich, Maria. Love Across Color Lines; Ottilie Assing and Frederick Douglass. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1999.

Douglass, Frederick. My Bondage and My Freedom. Edited and Introduced by John David Smith. Penguin Books,  2003.

Douglass, Frederick. The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. FeedBooks, 1845

Douglass, Frederick. The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass. Start Publishing, 1881.

Fought, Leigh. Women in the World of Frederick Douglass. Oxford University Press, 2019.

Fuentes, Marisa, Dispossessed Lives. Enslaved Women, Violence, and the Archive. PENN, 2016.

Grimke, Sarah and Grimke, Angelina. On Slavery and Abolition; Essays and Letters, introduced by Mark Perry. Penguin Books, 2014.

Jacobs, Harriot. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (Compass Circle, 2019) and Sojourner Truth A Life, A Symbol. Norton, 1997.

McDowell, Deborah, E. ‘In the First Place’, in William L. Andrews, ed., Critical Essays on Frederick Douglass .G.K. Hall, 1991.

Morrison, Toni Beloved. Vintage Classics, 2010.

Newman, Richard. Abolitionism; A very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press, 2018.

Swanson, Scott. “The Medieval Foundations of John Locke’s Theory of Natural Rights: Rights of Subsistence and the Principle of Extreme Necessity”. History of Political Thought. Pg 399-459.

Tademy, Lalita. Cane River: The Epic Story of Slavery and Freedom in the American Deep South. Headline, 2001.

Wickenden, Dorothy. The Agitators. Three Friends Who Fought for Abolition and Women’s Rights. Scribner, 2021.

United Nations. Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights

Accessed 31 March 2023

Frederick Douglass and His Two Wives

Our MA English Modernities Mini-Conference took place last Thursday, 6^th April 2023 at UCC. What a fantastic day it was. As I had to present my own presentation via teams from home, I followed on Twitter so I could keep up with everything going on. As there was a technical issue with sound, it was brilliant to have the Twitter platform to understand the presentations!

So I was able to successfully present, even though I could not hear what was going on myself!! But no worries, thanks to great support and facilitation from Maureen and Hanke, I was able to do my presentation hassle free! So many thanks for their great efforts and patience with me!! Plus a problem with uploading my presentation, for some unknown reason my lap top decided to block it!! ?? who knows about technology, I feel it takes me over at times. Once again, a quick email to Maureen, Hanke ran it for me, and it went well. I was beginning to really panic by now, as I was really concerned about timing and when to start. With Pecha Kucha each slide is 20 seconds, with 20 slides, so I could not be late starting!! A second maybe, but I just went for it!

Gracie, my dog who I think you are all familiar with my now, was great. She sat down beside me, did not bark or jump up or put her head into the lap top like she sometimes does! So happy days.

My presentation overall went ok. However, on reflection there are things I would have done differently. My theme on the slides, I think was a little dramatic, plain slides may have been better. I could get a good view of them on Twitter afterwards, so this may be a point to bear in mind in the future. One other thing, with Pecha Kucha, a lot of dates and complicated political organization names are not really the thing to talk them through. It would have been better to put these on the slides and then talk about them. I will note this in future.

I am glad that I presented on a topic I not only enjoy discussing, but that I feel passionately about. The history of slavery is the most horrendous human rights violations of all times and must never be forgotten. I was pleased to highlight one of the great campaigners and abolitionists of all times, Frederick Douglass.

Once again, my great thanks to Maureen and Hanke!!

One of the most interesting and inspiring authors I came across to date is Frederick Douglass. He was a former slave who escaped from Maryland to New York and became a public speaker a Public Speaker,  Author, Editor, Abolitionist and Civil Servant. He campaigned extensively for the abolition of slavery and women’s rights.

Here are some key facts;

• Born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey in 1817/18  – Died in 1895
• Mixed race: mother was an enslaved black women, father white, rumoured to be one of his masters.
• After a Failed attempt in 1837,  Escaped in 1838 to the North, New York
• Delivered a first hand account during his speech at the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society about his life as a slave
• White abolitionists William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips and others (The Garrisonians) enlisted him as an anti-slavery platform speaker. He became a devotee of the Garrisons newspaper The Liberator.
• Published The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave 1845
• Still a runaway slave and could be recaptured under the Fugitive Slave Act 1793.
• So in 1845 spends 21 month tour of England, Ireland and Scotland.
• Difference of opinion and campaigning style with the Garrisonians. Felt they were not powerful enough, or doing enough. They relied on moral persuasion where they just wanted him to narrate his experiences, rather than denounce them and push forward a political angle.
• 1846 gains his freedom when English friends the Richardson’s pay £150 to his former master Hugh Auld
• Joined the Liberty Party in 1847 and the Free soil Party in 1848.
• Launched own newspaper,  The North Star , 1847 in New York
•  “Civil servant, serving from 1876 to 1877 as US marshal for the District of Columbia, in 1881 as recorder of deeds for the District of Columbia and from 1889 to 1891 as minister and counsel general to Haiti”
• Published My Bondage and My Freedom  1855
• Published Life and Times of Frederick Douglass 1881
• Distinguished career following the publication of My Bondage and My Freedom, continued to lecture on equality, freedom and justice

“When the true history of the antislavery cause shall be written, women will occupy a large space in its pages, for the cause of the slave has been peculiarly a woman’s cause.” [Life and Times of Frederick Douglass,1881]

He was a campaigner of women’s rights and a strong supporter of the suffragette movement

No doubt the awful human rights violations and atrocities committed against women he witnessed first-hand while in slavery contributed greatly to his feelings about this issue.

Douglass never knew his mother; he was raised in his very early life by his grandmother while his mother was put to hard labour on the plantation. He himself was put to work at a very young age. His first autobiography discusses his time as a salve, his escape and how he identifies as a former slave while speaking publicly about his experiences.

He married Anna Murray who provided him with the stable family life he never knew as a child. They had five children and were married for 44 years until her death in 1882

Some facts about their marriage;

Often seen as the women behind the legacy, Frederick’s First Wife  – Anna Murray Douglass, married in 1827 for 44 years until her death  in 1882

Born in 1813 – Anna was a free women who originally came from the same place as Frederick (Tuckahoe, Talbot County, Maryland).. New each others families . Seventh child born to Bambarra and mary Murray, both slaves. As her mother was released from slavery, Anna was born free (79).

She moved to Baltimore to find work as a housekeeper. Only low wages, as many “ black women struggled for domestic-service positions in white peoples homes” (Blight 80). Saved money, bought goods, later sold them to buy Frederick a train ticket to escape slavery (Blight 80)

After arriving in New York, he sent for Anna who later joined him. Life difficult: although a free state under the fugitive slave act 1793 slaves were returned to their owners, even if in a free state.

Once escaped from slavery in Baltimore and  arrived safely in New York they were sheltered by Mr Ruggles (secretary of the New York Vigilance Committee and involved with the underground railroad.)

Married by rev. James Pembroke

Had 5 children

Marriage cert printed in narrative: evidence of such “ a human and liberating act as marriage on free soil” (Blight 85).

Moved to New Bedford, Massachusetts. Stayed with Nathan and Mary Johnson who urged them to change names. Did not include Anna in decision. Wanted to retain identity so kept Frederick. So Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey became Frederick Douglass, his wife Anna Murray Douglass.

Rarely accompanied him to speeches while on the road,

Life  of drudgery, hard work, on her knees scrubbing floors, rearing children, keeping house alone while Douglass was away all the time. However, he under estimated her because she was a frugal with money, earning enough from taking in sewing to keep the family and household going while her husband was away.

Other women actually lived in their household while married to Anna including fugitive slave Ruth Cox, later to become Harriot Baily, which was Frederick’s mothers name

Fugitive slave Ruth Cox arrives, after meeting  in 1844 while on tour in Pennsylvania.stays with Anna while Douglass away- link to his family as Anna could not read or write,  she was a women he needed for family cohesion, help rearing his children, companion to Anna. He would write long letters and Ruth to read them to Anna over and over until she understood them. He thanked er for her devotion to his children, anna and to him. Although he promised Ruth “a brothers love and a father’s care” (165)., his role toward her is unclear: when she married Douglass was not happy. Ruth changed her name to Harriot Baily and became a sort of sister to Douglass. He may of mistaken her for his own sister at first, Eliza, not seen since 1836 (163). She was one of the women Douglass would move into the material home. Crucial metator in the difficult marriage. He writes intimate letters to her when he is depressed often returning to slave quarter language “. Talks about his depression to her, buying a fiddle to cope with it, and needing her “sisterly hand” (165). Lectures and berates her when she intends to marry.  It is thought she may have been the literate women he wished he had brought with him rather than the illiterate Anna( Blight).

Also Julia Grittiths, an educated white English women who worked on his newspaper, The North Star with him

In 1884 he married his former secretary, Helen Pitts. She was an educated white women, and he proved a scandal. Some facts;

Her family cut her off, never to reconcile

A lot of discrimination and intrusion into their private lives

Would accompany him on all his speaking tours, including to England and Europe

Well known for her role in preserving his memory and fighting for suffrage.

Blight, David, W. Frederick Douglas. Prophet of Freedom. Simon and Schuster.2018.

Douglas, Frederick. My Bondage and My Freedom. Edited and Introduced by  John David Smith. Penguin Books.2003.

• https://www.google.com/search?q=frederick+douglass+civil+servant+pictures&tbm=isch&source=univ&fir
• https://www.google.com/search?q=frederick+douglass+picture&source=hp&ei=wignZJ_VKI3SgQbPoKK4Cg&iflsig=AOEireoAAAAAZCc20gOz94Jv0fLBHknxBk_jcER_fUyE&ved=0ahUKEwifvtGt6Ib-AhUNacAKHU-

While I am busy with my own blog, I have been reading some of the blogs by other students in my class. They are really interesting, and developing so well.

I have posted some of the links here so you can all follow them. It is great to see such variations and in depth knowledge of different areas.

It Was a Dark and Stormy Night

 https://itwasadarkandstormynight.hcommons.org/Links to an external site..

My blog is titled “Werre and wrake and wonder”, a line excerpted from Sir Gawain and The Green Knight. It can be found on the website gawain.hcommons.org

raved Under Mold, and the first post explains why!

https://gravedundermold.hcommons.org/Links to an external site.

 “Thornfield Hall’s Library” as a nod to Jane Eyre‘s setting, Edward Rochester’s home. https://aroagabaldon.hcommons.org/Links to an external site.

Gondal Stories and you can find it here: https://franciscapicoparedes.hcommons.org/Links to an external site.

 Most Ardently and it can be found at mostardently.hcommons.orgLinks to an external site..

“Convergence”, can be found at https://convergence.hcommons.org/Links to an external site. 

https://kaitlynmcnulty2.wixsite.com/what-lies-around-the/blogLinks to an external site. 

Hello again!

Last week as part of my MA in English we had an assignment to edit a Wikipedia page.

I chose William Golding’s The Inheritors. I recently read this for a module and it is really interesting. It deals with some very serious topics including atrocity, genocide and colonization.  The first human species (Homo sapiens) actual wipe out the Neanderthals as they fear them and feel they are extremely superior to them. It is also a work of “literature of atrocity” according to Paul Crawford the author of Politics and History in William Golding.

So back to the editing business. My time started out really well- I thought I had this covered. I had practised how to enter text and references so I went about getting on with it. All the time I am tweeting my progress. This can be found at #editwikilit. I was so worried about using Twitter, as I am somewhat new to social media. But this was no problem, as it turned out.

This is the page pre-editing.

However,  it actually turned out to be one of the most startling learning cubs of my course so far! And not in a good way. You know that saying – always read the instructions/question and understand it before starting? This was never so truer than during my editing! After I had published, I got a friendly warning and the changes reverted. Oh my God! And it is an assignment! Panik time! Well, ok maybe not quite. I had to stop panicking and actually leave it alone for a few days. So after many walks with my dog Gracie and a lot of thinking I came back to it. Yes, they were right. I just had not read and understood the policies and practices of Wikipedia. I tried to put in ideas and thoughts that were more suitable to an essay, not Wikipedia. So a valuable lesson really learnt on my part – read everything through, take any tutorials available and understand something before commencing. Get help and look things up if need be.

So now I am more than familiar with Wiki policies and guidelines. Although there are no hard and fast rules, there are practices in place. It is an encyclopedia and not a place to discuss themes or other author’s work, however academic it may be. It must always be neutral and publicly verified; it is not a synthesis of work. Although anyone can edit, all editors and contributors should treat each other with respect. These five pillars form the base of Wiki. It is a community platform but best practice is involved. No original research should be included in articles. There are also rules around legalities, enforcement and the deletion of pages.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:List_of_policies

I think I should have clarified this with myself before starting! Even though I may lose out on grade, I have learnt a valuable lesson. Take time to read and understand first – don’t’ just head in and think you know what it is all about!

 I did screen shot my editing, however, and below are the pages with my changes–

So after a lot of walking and thinking, I thought I would have another go at editing a different Wikipedia page. If nothing else it may help ease my bruised ego!

So far this seems okay! I was able to do it, and has not (as yet) been reverted! Hurray !! This is the original page

Information and reference added above

So before I move on to the next reading, I thought I might share the following I just jingled! I promised a little poem about my dog and best friend Gracie……

Gracie….

When life hands a bad deal

You always know how I feel

Such a little sweetheart

You just have this art

My baby Gracie

Since a pup

You loved me so much

Even if I went to the pub!

We have a bond that is just such

My baby Gracie

You love a walk on the beach

But always love your toys more

They are never out of reach

Of them you just adore

My baby Gracie

Now seven years old

My little Princess

Is now known as “Your Grace”

Treated like royalty

You expect no less

My baby Gracie

I have just attended this webinar by Illuminations at the University of California, Irvine. The speakers were author and Harvard Lecturer Jeffery Wilson along with actor and writer Thomas Varga. This was inspirational in two ways. Firstly, the introduction by Thomas in truly Shakespearean form was great – a fantastic voice that can carry for miles! The knowledge about King Richard III by Jeffrey Wilson regarding Richard’s disability was outstanding and a thought provoking experience. It helps shed light on how disability has been viewed in the past, but also how society comes to see disability in the present. It is a view that has truly been transported through time.

As Davis points out Wilson manages successfully to tell us how Richards’s body travels through time to Shakespeare. He asserts that “from Richard’s own manuscripts, x-rays of sixteenth-century paintings, and Shakespeare’s soliloquies to eighteenth-century editorial notes, nineteenth-century theatrical costumes, and twenty-first century disability theatre, an interpretation of Richard’s body is never just an interpretation of Richard’s body. When we interpret Richard III, he interprets us in return” (Davis). Richard was portrayed, and still is, as the tragic villain. Wilson states that the story is in fact part history and part fact. It is true that he was stigmatized because of his disability, yet he was a great warrior and also joker. To become King in 1483 he had the notion of killing off the lines of heirs, which he did through war. This was known as the war of the roses and became the Tudor myth. He was King until he had a mental breakdown at his last battle, the battle of Botsworth where he was defeated. Henry VII marries Elizabeth of York and united two dynasties and there is some stability.

Shakespeare highlights Richard’s disability and how he was stigmatized by enemies and how it was actually greatly exaggerated.  He was often portrayed as an awful hunch back, but in fact when his skeleton was discovered it was found he actually had scoliosis. This probably came on his teens. It would have been extremely painful and depilating, but he was not the monster that was portrayed. Even with such a disability he managed to be a powerful warrior and became very rich. He married and had children, two outside marriage. He would have had access to doctors at the time, who may have tried to stretch his bones. This must have been extremely painful. He survived infancy when his siblings did not.

Wilson questions just how he would have dealt with his disability at the time – who would he talk to about it? It must have been a very difficult situation. Yet this did not hold him back. His disability was not central to his life, it seemed no problem to him. He is a disability icon really, as Wilson maintains his disability was not separate from his life, but neither was he reduced to it.

Often referred to as a monster, or a sign of God’s wrath. This was the medieval view of disability. It suggests that his disability is the cause of his villainous ways.  This really first started a more modern idea of disability rather than the medieval one.

In Shakespeare’s Henry part VI he is referred to as “heap of wrath” and “crooked prodigy”. See the passage below from the Third Part of King Henry the Sixth. Scene IV.

QUEEN MARGARET–

Brave warriors, Clifford and Northumberland,
Come, make him stand upon this molehill here,
That raught at mountains with outstretched arms,
Yet parted but the shadow with his hand.
What! was it you that would be England’s king?
Was’t you that revell’d in our parliament,
And made a preachment of your high descent?
Where are your mess of sons to back you now?
“The wanton Edward, and the lusty George?
And where’s that valiant crook-back prodigy,
Dicky your boy, that with his grumbling voice
Was wont to cheer his dad in mutinies?
Or, with the rest, where is your darling Rutland?
Look, York: I stain’d this napkin with the blood
That valiant Clifford, with his rapier’s point,
Made issue from the bosom of the boy;
And if thine eyes can water for his death,
I give thee this to dry thy cheeks withal.
Alas poor York! but that I hate thee deadly,
I should lament thy miserable state.
I prithee, grieve, to make me merry, York.
What, hath thy fiery heart so parch’d thine entrails
That not a tear can fall for Rutland’s death?
Why art thou patient, man? thou shouldst be mad;
And I, to make thee mad, do mock thee thus.
Stamp, rave, and fret, that I may sing and dance.
Thou wouldst be fee’d, I see, to make me sport:
York cannot speak, unless he wear a crown.
A crown for York! and, lords, bow low to him:
Hold you his hands, whilst I do set it on.”

http://shakespeare.mit.edu/3henryvi/3henryvi.1.4.html

Jeffrey R. Wilson ’12 is the author of three books, Richard III’s Bodies from Medieval England to Modernity: Shakespeare and Disability History (2022), Shakespeare and Game of Thrones (2021), and Shakespeare and Trump (2020). His work on Shakespeare and  modern culture has appeared on CNN, NPR, MSNBC, New York Times, Salon, JSTOR Daily, Zocalo Public Square, Academe, CounterPunch, and The Chronicle of Higher Education. Wilson is an Instructional Design” (Davis).

Kirk Davis Jr. Annual Shakespeare Lecture. A UCI Authors event featuring UCI PhD Jeffrey Wilson ’12 (Harvard University) and actor Thomas Varga ’17

watch the video at the following link –