Chapter 1b: Revisiting American History via Poetry, 1890-1899
The 1890s was far from a great time for African American communities in terms of race relations. The peak period for lynchings was during this era, with more than 150 lynchings per year between 1880-1901. Several poems from this period deal with racialized violence; a representative example might be Frances E.W. Harper’s “The Martyr of Alabama” (1895).
It’s important to remember that despite the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1870, Black people generally could not vote in most southern states, as the states created work arounds and various ‘tests’. Segregation was also widespread, with racial separation imposed for public accommodations like hotels and restaurants as well as on trains and buses.
Schools and colleges were generally segregated – though the Black community aimed to address this by developing a robust network of Black Colleges and Universities (today referred to as HBCUs); these feature prominently in the poetry of this period. Finally, the Black Church was an extremely important part of the Black experience at this time, and many poets were churchgoing people. As a result, theology inspired by social justice and racial justice concepts permeates many of the poems in this collection.
Frances E.W. Harper (1825-1911) was a poet, novelist, and public speaker who was born free in Maryland in 1825. She was raised by her uncle and aunt, who were active in the Abolitionist movement. As a young adult, she worked often as a teacher in northern states, including Ohio and Pennsylvania. Starting in the early 1850s, she became active as a speaker on the abolitionist speaker circuit through northern states, and the poems she wrote during this period often had a distinctly activist tone, as she often recited them alongside her talks and lectures on the evils of slavery. Two of her best known poems from the 1850s are “Bury Me in a Free Land” and “Ethiopia.”
After the Civil War, Harper spent several years visiting with newly-emancipated Black communities in the south. Her political activism also changed in certain ways, as she became involved with both the mainstream, predominantly-White feminist movement and the “Temperance” movement that encouraged abstinence from alcohol. However, she continued to also write poems arguing for racial justice; the following poem from the 1890s is one such example.
Here is a poem by Harper inspired by a real-life incident:
Frances E.W. Harper, "The Martyr of Alabama" (1895)
[Author's note: The following news item appeared in the newspapers throughout the country, issue of December 27th, 1894:
“Tim Thompson, a little negro boy, was asked to dance for the amusement of some white toughs. He refused, saying he was a church member. One of the men knocked him down with a club and then danced upon his prostrate form. He then shot the boy in the hip. The boy is dead: his murderer is still at large.”]
He lifted up his pleading eyes,
And scanned each cruel face,
Where cold and brutal cowardice
Had left its evil trace.
[...]
A dark-browed boy had drawn anear
A band of savage men,
Just as a hapless lamb might stray
Into a tiger’s den.
Cruel and dull, they saw in him
For sport an evil chance,
And then demanded of the child
To give to them a dance.
“Come dance for us,” the rough men said;
“I can’t,” the child replied,
“I cannot for the dear Lord’s sake,
Who for my sins once died.”
Tho’ they were strong and he was weak,
He wouldn’t his Lord deny.
His life lay in their cruel hands,
But he for Christ could die.
Heard they aright? Did that brave child
Their mandates dare resist?
Did he against their stern commands
Have courage to resist?
Then recklessly a man arose,
And dealt a fearful blow.
He crushed the portals of that life,
And laid the brave child low.
And trampled on his prostrate form,
As on a broken toy;
Then danced with careless, brutal feet,
Upon the murdered boy.
[The text above is just an excerpt. To read the entire poem, click here]
Incidentally, internet searches do confirm this newspaper clipping involving a child named Tim Thompson in 1894. However, it appears to be just a clipping – we have been unable to learn more about the incident involving the murder of Tim Thompson in Alabama in December of 1894. It’s quite possible it was never seriously investigated by authorities at the time. So the poem may be our best and only account of the ‘real’ story of what happened that day.
In general, the poem represents an important part of Harper’s method as a poet – she was inspired by current events, and used her poetry to narrate her perspective on them. Sometimes the events were ‘big’ stories, like the Civil War, the Emancipation Proclamation, or the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment. But sometimes she focused on the sufferings of individual people, often using them as a symbol of a larger pattern of injustice. An example from the 1850s might be the story of Margaret Garner, which Harper turned into verse form in “The Slave Mother: A Tale of the Ohio” (1857). For Harper, that incident revealed the deep inhumanity of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1853, which meant that even people who had escaped from slavery into free states would be sent back to enslavement by force.
The poem here, “The Martyr of Alabama,” highlights the apparent failure of a predominantly Christian nation to actually adhere to the foundational values of Christianity.
Native American Themes.
Alongside concerns for injustice as experienced by Black folks, many African American poets of the late 19th century were acutely aware of the ongoing genocidal war against Native American peoples, which by the 1890s was in its final stages. The widespread sympathy many Black communities felt for indigenous people was complicated somewhat by the fact that some of the military units employed by the U.S. government to subdue or eliminate Native American resistance were actually predominantly Black units (most famously, the ‘Buffalo Soldiers’). While many Black poets condemned violence against Native Americans, others celebrated the military achievements of predominantly Black soldiers in the Indian Wars as well as in the Spanish American War (1898-1900).
An example of a poem expressing strong sympathy for the Native American plight might be Mary Weston Fordham’s “The Cherokee” (1897):
Mary Weston Fordham, “The Cherokee” (1897)
‘Twas a cloudless morn and the sun shone bright,
And dewdrops sparkled clear;
And the hills and the vales of this Western land
Were wreathed with garlands rare.
For verdant spring with her emerald robe
Had decked the forest trees;
Whilst e'er and anon the vine-clad boughs
Waved in the playful breeze.
All, all was still, not a sound was heard,
Save the music of each tree,
As gracefully it bent and bowed
Its branches o'er the lea.
But hark! a sound, 'tis the Red man’s tread,
Breaks on the silent air;
And a sturdy warrior issues forth,
Robed in his native gear.
And wandering on, he neared the brook;
Then sat him down to rest;
'Twas a noble sight—that warrior free—
That Monarch of the West.
He gazed around. O! a wistful gaze
Saddened his upturned brow,
As he thought of those he'd fondly loved,
Of those now laid so low.
He mused aloud “Great Spirit!” list
To the Indian's earnest plea;
And tell me why, from his own loved home,
Must the Indian driven be.
When the "Pale Face" came to our genial clime,
We wondered and were glad;
Then hied us to our chieftain's lodge,
Our noble “Flying Cloud.”
We told him all, and he calmly said
He'd gladly give them place;
And if friends they proved, perchance, extend
The calumet of peace.
But soon, alas! the dread truth rang
That the Pale Face was our foe;
For he made our warriors bite the dust—
Our children lie so low.
So now, my own, dear, sunny land,
Each, woodland and each dell,
Once the Indian's home, now the Indian's grave,
I bid a last farewell.
To the “Great Spirit's" hunting-ground,
To meet my long-lost bride,
My "Raven Wing" I gladly hie—
He said, then calmly died.
[Note a “Calumet” is a North American peace pipe]
This poem might be a little confusing at first, since Fordham shifts between third-person narration (the encounter with the Cherokee warrior), and a first-person account in the warrior’s own voice. The core of the poem might be the fourth and fifth stanzas in the warrior’s voice – as he recounts the arrival of the “Pale Face” (Europeans), and the betrayal of peace treaties that led to the displacement of many indigenous tribes, and in some cases genocidal wars that decimated Native American populations. The Cherokee in particular suffered a painful “Removal” process in 1838-1839 that is often described as the “Trail of Tears.”
Finally, Olivia Ward Bush-Banks has a poem about a man of mixed African and Native American ancestry named Crispus Attucks, who played an important role in the American revolution.
Olivia Ward Bush-Banks, "Crispus Attucks" (1899)
The Nation's heart beat wildly,
And keenly felt the coming strife;
The Country's call was sounding
Brave men must offer life for life.
So long Great Britain's power
Had sternly held unyielding sway,
The people yearned for freedom
And cried, "Our blood must pave the way."
So, on the streets of Boston,
Where madly rushed the British foe;
Men questioned with each other,
"Who shall be first to strike the blow?"
Not that they shrank from duty,
Ah, no! their lives they gladly gave;
But War, with all its terrors,
Brings fear to hearts both true and brave.
But one, with fearless courage,
Inspired them to activity,
And boldly led them forward
With cheering shout, "For Liberty!" *
In face of death and danger,
He met the foe, this soldier true,
Till, charging full upon them,
Their bayonets had pierced him through.
He fell, and o'er the pavement
A Negro's blood was flowing free.
His sable hand was foremost
To strike the blow for liberty.
It was a deed most valiant,
And mighty was the work begun,
For War then waging fiercely,
Ceased not till victory was won.
Naught but a slave was Attucks,
And yet how grand a hero, too.
He gave a life for freedom,
What more could royal sovereign do?
Well may we eulogize him!
And rear a monument of fame.
We hold his memory sacred;
We honor and revere his name.
A century has vanished,
Yet, through the years still rolling on
We emulate his bravery
And praise the deed he nobly done.
Then write in glowing letters
These thrilling words in history,–
That Attucks was a hero,
That Attucks died for Liberty.
One note: in the original printing we have looked at, line 21 of the poem (“With cheering shout, ‘For liberty!’”) ends with a question mark. It is also a question mark in various digital editions that are available online, such as the U-Penn digital edition. We believe the poet must have intended it to be an exclamation, and have rendered it that way here.
The Crispus Attucks described in this poem is a real person, probably of mixed African and Native American descent. He was the first person killed in the Boston Massacre of 1770, and is also thought to have been the first American killed in the Revolutionary War. In contrast to the way he’s portrayed by Olivia Ward Bush-Banks, there is some historical debate as to whether Attucks was actually enslaved at the time he was killed (he may also have been a runaway slave).
The fact that Attucks was also of Native American ancestry – though this is not mentioned by Bush-Banks – gives an added resonance to her claim “That Attucks was a hero, / That Attucks died for Liberty.”