Dearest Daddy,
This composition is on the behalf of all the Hemingses of female persuasion. We find a lot of contradictions around our social position that we feel compelled to make plain before you exit this Earth. Being able to be intimate with your whims and personality, we know that you are ambivalent about this system of enslavement and therefore feel that you would donate at least one of your open ears to this plea.
Being a light bright woman does not make our lives right. Bejewel me all you would like with things that form me for the “attentions” of men, but we sorrowfully admit that a man cannot make everything in our world right. We still see our fellow sisters in skin working the fields and yet she can never be treated with this level of dignity you bestow upon us. You dismay at the Native race’s treatment of their women, yet you narrow your scope of fair treatment to only women of your seed. How does my blood, my ancestry, justify the illogical subjection to labor rather than gender alone?
Beyond our gender, we despise the racial term “mulatto.” As one who delights in word choice, I know you have command over the meaning of this word arising from an animal. The mule is a sterile hybrid species that can neither be a horse nor a donkey, but is forever plagued with the loneliness of its own unbefitting path in life. Although I do not feel I am being called an animal, there is something pseudo-biological being fallaciously inferred with that term, now having established the origin.
Therefore, we decree: We blacks and mixed-blacks (or mixed-whites as some prefer to be called) are not a separate species! Can I have my humanity at least, if not my equitable humanity?
As you lie on your bed nearing the end of your full life, Father, we would hope that you could make a bold and progressive move: declare that we women, not just your daughters, deserve respect and fair treatment, no matter what our lineage and ancestry.
Sincerely,
The Hemings Ladies
Questions:
1. How did the law of partus sequitir ventrem (slavehood based on maternal lineage) perhaps complicate Jefferson’s treatment of his daughters?
2. How did society view the mixed-race Americans of the 17th and 18th century? What does white world’s treatment of this group tell us about the role of physical appearance?
Showing posts with label gender. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gender. Show all posts
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Blog: Week Two - Letter from Ellen to William Craft
Dear William,
Bless the Almighty God for our freedom! I am not one to complain but I do feel the need to record my inner most thoughts about what it felt like. I know that you have a book about our journey. But men have written history for SO long and I think it’s my time to produce behind the pen.
Firstly, I was terrified…the entire time. Yet, I had to be a firm, reasonable, and resolute man and my emotions mean so much to me. Emotions are not for the weak, unless you have the right ones: level-headedness, stoutness, firmness of opinion. Therefore, I believe that women, being valued for their emotional nature (which society likely rewards over less fragile ones), are just as strong for these emotions.
Another thing: Sometimes I wonder why you have never asked me how I knew to maintain that male branded countenance. I realize these are the particulars of the situation, but I reckon that since you wrote a book about our plight, you would care to fancy these nuances. Not to get too becoming of my efforts, but my disguise was only one part of the act of passing for a male: I had to play The Part. It did my soul much good to throw off the pseudo-male apparel because I felt that it was so indicative of oppression! The slave-owning male is the archetype for oppression of the woman, the coloured, and the poor.
When I cried trembling tears upon our first step of the thousand-mile journey, it was in part because of my insecurity about being a convincing white male. Then, I realized that all I had to do was be weak enough to mask those feelings and to speak when I got the courage. I learned something profound about my vocal emotional expression: it takes much more strength to offer one’s thoughts in an oppressed capacity than to shirk inside them in a liberated context. I realized that my act of rebellion and choosing my liberty was much more profound than any slouching tyrant’s cracking of the whip.
I say all of this to make it clear that my part in this liberation should cue you in that I am a leader in my own right and our relationship should never be the same.
Lovingly,
Ellen Craft
Bless the Almighty God for our freedom! I am not one to complain but I do feel the need to record my inner most thoughts about what it felt like. I know that you have a book about our journey. But men have written history for SO long and I think it’s my time to produce behind the pen.
Firstly, I was terrified…the entire time. Yet, I had to be a firm, reasonable, and resolute man and my emotions mean so much to me. Emotions are not for the weak, unless you have the right ones: level-headedness, stoutness, firmness of opinion. Therefore, I believe that women, being valued for their emotional nature (which society likely rewards over less fragile ones), are just as strong for these emotions.
Another thing: Sometimes I wonder why you have never asked me how I knew to maintain that male branded countenance. I realize these are the particulars of the situation, but I reckon that since you wrote a book about our plight, you would care to fancy these nuances. Not to get too becoming of my efforts, but my disguise was only one part of the act of passing for a male: I had to play The Part. It did my soul much good to throw off the pseudo-male apparel because I felt that it was so indicative of oppression! The slave-owning male is the archetype for oppression of the woman, the coloured, and the poor.
When I cried trembling tears upon our first step of the thousand-mile journey, it was in part because of my insecurity about being a convincing white male. Then, I realized that all I had to do was be weak enough to mask those feelings and to speak when I got the courage. I learned something profound about my vocal emotional expression: it takes much more strength to offer one’s thoughts in an oppressed capacity than to shirk inside them in a liberated context. I realized that my act of rebellion and choosing my liberty was much more profound than any slouching tyrant’s cracking of the whip.
I say all of this to make it clear that my part in this liberation should cue you in that I am a leader in my own right and our relationship should never be the same.
Lovingly,
Ellen Craft
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