As Time Unfolds: how can our family heritage influence our life paths?

As Time Unfolds by Barbara Zerfoss is the story of one woman’s search for her family’s history and lessons learned that can help save a life. Bethany Miller’s life is on the fast track as she is the CEO and owner of an advertising agency when it comes to a halt with a surprising phone call. She has inherited an ancestral home from the biological mother she never knew. Unsure what to do, she visits the home in Jameson, Virginia. Inside the grandfather clock known as The Timekeeper, Bethany discovers a treasured family journal. In it, generations of first daughters wrote one entry, sharing family secrets, chronicling a courageous life in challenging times and words of wisdom for the next generation of daughters. Reading these women’s stories, Bethany takes the chance to reassess her life moving forward. When an alarming encounter with one young girl’s soul piercing eyes keeps haunting her thoughts, Bethany senses a pull to help. But how? Can the stories of her maternal ancestors give her the strength and courage to fight for someone else? Even if it comes at a personal cost? 

As Time Unfolds is a story that dragged in the beginning and picked up at the halfway point. The connections between Bethany, her family’s legacy and the young missing girl isn’t made until the end. However, there was enough pull and intrigue to keep the reader looking for the connection. I enjoyed the story of Bethany discovering her family heritage more than the connection with the missing girl. I also enjoyed the grandfather clock. The Timekeeper was the silent character that stood watch as a guard and a guide. Although the issue of human trafficking is an important and current crisis, I felt it didn’t quite fit. The two stories didn’t quite mesh. There was also a lot of repeating information. At one point, Bethany finds newspaper articles that just rehash information that is revealed in the journal entries. It would have been possible to introduce the articles without doing another information dump to rehash information the reader already knows. Overall, I enjoyed As Time Unfolds for its story of courageous women from the past that informs and molds the courageous acts of today. I recommend As Time Unfolds. 

As Time Unfolds is available in paperback and eBook

On this day in history: Frederick Douglass publishes the first issue of The North Star

Today in history Frederick Douglass begins to publish his newspaper, The North Star. Douglass is an important part of American history as he was a social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman at a time when the commonly held belief stated he couldn’t, shouldn’t be able to. He was the living rebuttal to the argument of many slaveowners that slaves lacked the intellectual capacity to be a functioning citizen. He would escape slavery in Maryland and would become a national leader of the abolitionist movement in Massachusetts and New York. Who was Frederick Douglass? What was his newspaper, The North Star? And what legacy does he leave us today?

Frederick Douglass was born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey circa February 1818. The exact date of his birth is unknown. He chose February 14 as his birthdate as his mother called him “Little Valentine.” At age 6, he was given to the Auld Family and by age 8, Lucretia Auld sent him to her brother-in-law, Hugh Auld, in Baltimore. It was there that he began his education when Hugh’s wife, Sophia, began to teach him the alphabet, Fredrick would continue his education by teaching himself. In 1837, he met and fell in love with Anna Murray, a free black woman. After gaining his freedom, they would marry on September 15, 1838. They would be married for 44 years until her death in 1882. Douglass would write three autobiographies, the most famous, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass an American Slave (1845), would be a bestseller and influential in the abolition movement. He would also be an active supporter of women’s suffrage. On February 20, 1895, he attended a meeting of the National Council of Women in Washington, D.C. He would die from a massive heart attack after returning home. He was 77.

Douglass was inspired to start his newspaper in 1846 after subscribing to The Liberator, published by William Lloyd Garrison. He began to publish his newspaper, The North Star, on December 3, 1847. The antislavery newspaper would run until June 1851 when it merged with Gerrit Smith’s Liberty Party Paper. The title is a reference to the directions given to runaway slaves in order to reach the Northern states and Canada: “Follow the North Star.” The North Star’s slogan was “Right is of no Sex. Truth is of no Color. God is the Father of us all, and we are brethren.” Eventually, The North Star would have more than 4,000 readers in the US, Europe, and the Caribbean. The newspaper focused on current events concerning abolitionist issues with editorials, letters from readers, news articles, poetry, and book reviews. He would write with great passion especially about the discrepancy in America’s Christian beliefs and the prejudice and discrimination he witnessed. Sadly, very few copies of The North Star survive as many of Douglass’ papers were destroyed in a fire in June 1872.

The legacy of The North Star and Douglass himself is that it gave readers an outlet and amplified the growing political power of the African American press (Georgini, 2019). His use of words to fight for freedom and rights for African Americans as well as women’s suffrage left an unmistakable mark on America. His autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass an American Slave, is still required reading for many high school and college students. He is an example of how people can shape their future (Staff, 2013). Douglass would encourage African Americans to rise above their beginnings and achieve freedom. He once stated that he “would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong” and reportedly reconciled with his former slaveowner, Thomas Auld, in 1877, when Auld was near death. Although Douglass was able to reconcile with his former owner, reconciling with slavery itself would prove harder. He once said, “Slavery is indeed gone, but its long, black shadow yet falls broad and large over the face of the whole country,” during an 1881 speech at Storer College in West Virginia (Blackmore, 2018). Douglass would devote the rest of his life to civil rights and equality.

In conclusion, Frederick Douglass and his newspaper, The North Star, were influential in the abolition movement. He is an example of human perseverance. To rise above his origins to achieve what he wanted. He worked hard, faced difficult opponents, and fought everything he had. He believed knowledge is the path to freedom. True freedom. He was correct. When knowledge is given and obtained, the possibilities are endless. The North Star would be an example of how words could be used to influence and forge change. Against all odds and critics, Douglass forged ahead to create his newspaper, to be a mouthpiece for freedom and equality.

 

References

 

Blackmore, Erin (December 4, 2018). Frederick Douglass’s Emotional Meeting With the Man Who Enslaved Him. History. www.history.com/news/frederick-douglass-meeting-former-master. Retrieved November 30, 2020.

 

Georgini, Sara (February 14, 2019). ‘The North Star’ Amplified Black Voices. How a 2019 Reboot of Frederick Douglass’ Paper Hopes to Do the Same. Smithsonian Magazine. www.smithsonianmag.com/history/frederick-douglass-north-star-amplified-black-voices-reboot-newspaper-hoping-do-same-180971500/. Retrieved November 30, 2020.

 

Staff Writer (August 12, 2013). Legacy and Significance of Frederick Douglass. Frederick Douglass Heritage. www.frederick-douglass-heritage.org/legacy-significance/. Retrieved November 30, 2020.

 

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica (November 11, 2016). The North Star. Encyclopaedia Britannica. www.britannica.com/topic/The-North-Star-American-newspaper. Retrieved November 30, 2020.

Susan B. Anthony: her life, her work and her legacy on her 200th birthday

February 15^th marks the 200^th birthday of Susan B. Anthony. She was an American social reformer in the fight for temperance, abolition and labor equality. She is better known a women’s rights activist who played a pivotal role in the women’s suffrage movement. She would spend over forty years, crisscrossing the country fighting for racial reforms as well as women’s reforms. While already well known, she would be brought to great fame and notoriety after she was arrested for voting in the 1872 Presidential Election. Her trial. The United States versus Susan B Anthony (1873) would be another platform for her to make her case for women’s rights. She left behind a legacy of leadership and a passion to stand up against adversity.

Susan Bronwell Anthony was born February 15, 1820 to Daniel and Lucy (nee Read) Anthony in Adams, Massachusetts as the second of seven children. As a Quaker family, they were passionate for social reform. Although Mr. Anthony would often be at odds with the traditionalist Quaker congregation as he married a non-Quaker. He encouraged Susan as well as all his children to be self-supporting, teaching them business principles and giving them responsibility at a young age. At 17, Susan was sent to a Quaker boarding school but left after one term as the family hit hard times with the Panic of 1837. She would begin teaching at a Quaker school in order to assist her family. After the family moved to Rochester, New York in 1845, her father helped form the Congregational Friends with other Quaker social reformers in 1848. There she would meet Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) who would become her lifelong friend. In 1851, she would meet Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902) and the two would be the dynamic duo for the women’s rights movement. Susan had the organization skills and Elizabeth excelled at the writing. Together, they would start a weekly newspaper, The Revolution, in 1868, with it’s motto “Men, their rights and nothing more: women, their rights and nothing less.” She would work until her death on March 13, 1906 at the age of 86. Although we would not live to see the women’s suffrage on the national level (the 19^th Amendment would be ratified in 1920), she expressed pride at the progress made.

Ms. Anthony was arrested on November 18, 1872 and charged with illegal voting. Her arrest would generate a national controversy. Her trial would begin on June 17, 1873 during which she made the speech entitled, “Is it a Crime for a US Citizen to Vote?” In it, she makes the argument that as citizens of the United States, women have the right to vote and uses the US Constitution to illustrate her point. “It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union. And we formed it, not to give the blessings of liberty, but to secure them; not to the half of ourselves and the half of our posterity, but to the whole people- women as well as men.” She also uses the same logic for women’s suffrage as given for the freed slaves in the 13^th Amendment. “Every discrimination against women in the constitutions and laws of the several states is today null and void, precisely as is every one against Negroes.” She would be ordered to pay a $100 fine, which she said, “I shall never pay a dollar of your unjust penalty.” She never did. It remains unpaid in the courthouse ledger (Rosenthal, 2017).

She left behind an amazing legacy. Anthony, Stanton and others formed the National Woman Suffrage Association in May 1869. That organization still thrives today as it transformed to be the League of Women Voters (League of Women Voters). She demonstrated leadership in many ways. Through devotion to her cause, seizing the opportunity when it presented itself and refused to be intimidated by those in power when fighting for her rights (DeMarco, 2016). She developed a reputation for fearlessness in the face of adversity and controversy. She would wear the Bloomer dress (a controversial style in which pantaloons were worn under a knee length dress) for a time in 1851. She would stop when the focus became her dress and not her ideas. To celebrate her contribution to the suffrage movement, the women of Rochester, New York make a pilgrimage to her grave every election day and place their “I Voted” stickers on her gravestone (Rosenthal, 2017). Her life and work is a great testimony to righting wrong and opening the doors of opportunity through education and defending one’s rights.

In conclusion, Susan B. Anthony was a woman of great passion for her causes. While she is remembered for her fight for women’s suffrage, she also fought for full citizenship for freed slaves, labor equality and overall women’s rights as full citizens of the United States. She is the first woman to be minted on US currency when the Susan B Anthony dollar was first minted in 1979. While this year marks her 200^th birthday, it is also extra special as this year also marks the 100^th anniversary of the 19^th Amendment. Due to her and others commitment to the fight for suffrage, myself and generations of women can cast their votes and have their voices heard.

References

DeMarco, Peter (November 18, 2016). Leader Time: 6 key lessons from the legacy of Susan B. Anthony. https://www.bizjournals.com/bizjournals/how-to/growth-strategies/2016/11/6-key-lessons-from-the-legacy-of-susan-b-anthony.html. Retrieved February 10, 2020.

League of Women Voters. https://www.lwv.org/about-us/history. Retrieved February 11, 2020.

The National Susan B. Anthony Museum and House. www.susanb.org. Retrieved February 10, 2020.

Rosenthal, Peggy (August 22, 2017). Susan B. Anthony: Failure is Impossible. https://imagejournal.org/2017/08/22/susan-b-anthony-failure-impossible/. Retrieved February 10, 2020.

Edmund Burke: an interesting historical figure

During my research for a previous post, I came across Edmund Burke. He is a name that I have heard before but knew very little about the man. I decided to research him and discover who he was and what contributions he made to history. Edmund Burke was an Irish statesman, author, orator, political theorist and philosopher. He served as a member of parliament (MP) from 1766 to 1794 in the House of Commons with the Whig Party. In the 20^th century, he is widely regarded as the philosophical founder of modern British conservatism.

Burke was born in Dublin, Ireland on January 29, 1729 to Mary (nee Nagle) and Richard Burke. His mother was Roman Catholic and his father was a member of the Church of Ireland. Burke adhered to his father’s faith and remained a practicing Anglican throughout his life. He would be educated at a Quaker school in Ballitore, County Kildare. He started Trinity College Dublin in 1744. On March 12, 1757 he would marry Jane Mary Nugent (1734-1812). Burke was first elected to the House of Commons in December 1765 representing the region of Wendover. He argued strongly against unrestrained royal power and thought that the role of the political parties was to maintain a principled opposition to prevent abuses by the king and the government. He would leave the House of Commons in 1780. He would retreat to his country estate where he died July 9, 1797.

He became a proponent of underpinning (solid foundation) virtues with manners in society and of the importance of religious institutions for the moral stability and good of the state (A Vindication of Natural Society, 1756). He criticized the British treatment of the American colonies. He also supported the rights of the colonists to resist authority; however, he opposed the attempts for independence. He urged to make peace with the colonies and to avoid war. He also supported Catholic Emancipation which called for the reducing and removing many restrictions on Roman Catholics in the UK. His support of the Catholic Emancipation and other unpopular causes cost him is seat in 1780. He also supported the impeachment of Warren Hastings for corruption. Hastings was an Englishman who served as the first Governor of the Presidency of Fort William (Bengal) and the head of the Supreme Council of Bengal, effectively being the first Governor-General of India from 1773-1785.

Most scholars agree that Burke had a gift for deep analysis; however, his work was controversial. Supporters like poet William Wordsworth would call Burke “the most sagacious politician of his age.” Opponents, like Karl Marx, would call him a bourgeois stooge of the English ruling class. Burke’s legacy in contained in his extensive writings. He explained a coherent system of ideas about the nature of man, the organic state, the benefits of prejudice, the dangers of government by secret consensus and the role of political parties. With the nature of man, Burke condemned the idea that social harmony can be achieved once differences of race, nationality, culture, gender and ability are removed. He would say that humans are not abstract but “distinctive identities, that we love our kin above strangers and that this must affect the type of society we create. It is not morally bad, it is simply the way we are.” He would also call equality a “monstrous fiction.” According to Andrew Webster, “At worst, ambitious elites use equality as a pretext to reallocate resources to themselves. At best, well-intentioned people see equality as no more than a benign aspiration. They think it would be just in theory but of course not when applied to themselves in practice, lest this endanger their own privileges. This is perhaps the greater error. "Abstract principles, however appealing, cannot be applied directly to solve real political problems. Any attempt to do so will have futile or harmful results.”

In conclusion, Edmund Burke was a man whose importance can be seen today. Reading some of his writings, I was surprised how well he described the future with the political thought of the time. I can see what he warned about in the political climate of today. He acknowledged that humans are unique and cannot be expected to behave in a certain way. Humans nature will always surprise us. Just think about how we are surprised when someone can to horrible things to another human being or when someone does amazing acts of heroism or charity for strangers. I am interested in reading further about Edmund Burke as this post only briefly touches on the man, his ideals and his legacy.

Reference

Webster, Andrew. Edmund Burke’s Legacy www.bigeye.com/burke1.html and www.bigeye.com/burke2.html. Retrieved January 23, 2019

Nartional Winnie the Pooh Day: the story behind everyone's favorite bear

Today is National Winnie the Pooh Day celebrated on the birthday of his creator, author A.A. Milne. “Winnie the Pooh, Winnie the Pooh, Chubby, little cubby all stuffed with fluff” …the song plays in your head. Winnie the Pooh was based on one of Milne’s son’s toys and their adventures took place in a forest near their farm. We all know the bear, most of know a little bit about his creation but what is the full story? While being a beloved character around the world, the success of his stories would bring heartache to the Milne family. Who was A.A. Milne? What is the history behind the beloved character? And why is he so popular 93 years later?

Alan Alexander Milne was born January 18, 1882, Kilburn, London. Kilburn was a small public school his father ran and where one of his teachers was author H.G. Wells. He joined the British army in World War I. He was later injured in the Battle of the Somme (July 7, 1916). He would marry Dorothy “Daphne” de Selincourt in 1913 and their only child, Christopher Robin, was born in 1920. Milne and his wife became estranged from their son who resented the “exploitation of his childhood” and came to hate the book that thrust him into the public eye. However, his son would occasionally visit him as he grew ill. He would write other genres including plays, poetry and detective stories. Given the success of his children’s books, he was annoyed that he could not write whatever he pleased. He was felt “amazement and disgust” at the fame his son was exposed to, commenting that "I feel that the legal Christopher Robin has already had more publicity than I want for him” (AA Milne and the curse of the Pooh bear, BBC January 28, 2016). Although Milne and his wife didn’t exactly shield their son from publicity. Milne would retreat to a private life on his farm. He died January 31, 1956 at the age of 74 from a stroke.

The toy which became Winnie the Pooh was originally named Edward and was a gift to Milne’s son for his first birthday. The name was changed to Winnie in honor of a Canadian black bear named Winnie (from Winnipeg) who was used as a military mascot during World War I and would later be housed at the London Zoo after the war. Piglet, Eeyore, Kanga, Roo and Tigger were also modeled after his son’s toys. The originally toys are on display at the New York Public Library. Only Owl and Rabbit were created from Milne’s imagination. The Hundred Acre Wood was also inspired by the real life Five Hundred Acre Wood in East Sussex which the Milnes lived on the northern side on their farm and where father and son would take walks. Pooh’s first appearance was in a poem known as “Teddy Bear” in a 1924 Punch magazine. He would later appear in books such as Winnie the Pooh (1926) and The House on Pooh Corner (1928). The rights to Winnie the Pooh characters would be sold to the Walt Disney Productions in 1961 with the film, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh being released in 1977.

Everyone is familiar with Winnie the Pooh and his friends. Whether it was growing up with the stories, the Disney films or both, Winnie the Pooh is beloved around the world. Described as naïve and slow-witted, he is also friendly, thoughtful and steadfast. While he is often described as having no brain, Pooh often comes up with clever ideas usually driven by common sense. Everyone also have a favorite Pooh character, my favorite has always been Eeyore. Eeyore is described as the pessimistic, gloomy, depressed donkey which isn’t like me at all because I’m usually very optimistic. However, something about Eeyore draws me to him. Winnie the Pooh and his friends remain popular after so many years. Since the initial publication, the Winnie the Pooh stories have never been out of print. Never. Some say the draw to the characters lies in their relatability. James Campbell, who runs the EH Shepard Trust and is the author of The Art of Winnie-the-Pooh, says, “Readers could recognise these characteristics in themselves or their friends” (What makes the Winnie the Pooh books so popular? September 18, 2017). The stories brought innocence to a population which had suffered a war that the world had not seen before. And for the generations afterward who have known nothing but war, it brings a simplicity and tenderness we wish the world knew.

In conclusion, A.A. Milne is a writer of many genres while being most well known for the Winnie the Pooh stories. While it brought him great success, that success came at a cost. He came to have a love-hate relationship with the bear who brought him success. However, to the world, Winnie the Pooh is a lovable, innocent bear who reminds us of childhood adventures and make believe with our toys. Whether you love Winnie the Pooh or his fellow friends, these characters help us see parts of ourselves. One quote that has been going around sums up the appeal of these stories: “Promise me you'll always remember: You're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” Christopher Robin says this to Pooh. It’s a great reminder to us all.