[lit-ideas] Re: Son of the Soil (The Forgotten Kemble Butler)
- From: "Judith Evans" <judithevans1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2007 00:20:45 +0100
>Hard to believe, but I must (believe J. Evans) that the
>words of this Kemble woman below come from the lips of an abolitionist
You don't have to believe *me*, it's a matter of public record.
(An abolitionist is not necessarily a non-racist and certainly not necessarily
not snobbish)
"Upon inheriting their uncle's estate in 1836, Pierce Butler and his
brother became the second largest slaveholders in Georgia. Kemble,
whose antislavery sentiments were long held and openly expressed,
nevertheless shared her husband's racial attitudes and was willing
"to believe that her husband's family were 'good' slaveholders,
indulgent and paternalistic" (p. 111). Her journey to her husband's
plantation in the fall of 1838, however, disabused her of the
possibility of benevolent slaveholding. Recognizing that her own financial
well-being rested on slavery, Kemble issued her husband an ultimatum:
she would not stay with him if he continued to earn his money from slavery, "
http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=75711001960338
and
"Best known, however, is their conflict over slavery. During her
1838-39 visit to Butler's plantations, Kemble questioned the reports
that his slaves were among the best treated in the region. Her
despairing, horrified letters from Georgia circulated among n
orthern abolitionists at the time, and they reached a much wider
audience when Kemble published them during the Civil War.
As the biography's title suggests, it is Kemble's position in the
history of slavery and abolition that most fascinates Clinton.
Kemble was by no means free of prejudice, responding to blacks
(and other whites) with deeply entrenched aesthetic and
moral preconceptions. However, she quickly recognized the
links between slaves' deprivation and her luxury, their exploitation
and her leisure. While in Georgia, she permitted slave women to
bring their complaints to her, although eventually Butler forbade
her to importune him on their behalf."
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Fanny+Kemble's+Civil+Wars-a090471677 )
also see
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/f/fanny_kemble.html
and
http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/ww/people_kemble.html
or you could see the movie...
http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/187136/Enslavement-The-True-Story-of-Fanny-Kemble/overview
----- Original Message -----
From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Thursday, October 18, 2007 11:49 PM
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Son of the Soil (The Forgotten Kemble Butler)
Hard to believe, but I must (believe J. Evans) that the words of this
Kemble woman below come from the lips of an abolitionist. But then it's Geary
who knows everything about Slavery Studies.
Cheers,
JL
Fanny Kemble wrote:
"The children of the slave owners, brought among
the slaves acquire thei Negro mode of
talking -- slavish speech surely it is.
"This ignoble trick of
pronunciation"
"I SHALL NOT ALLOW THIS TO BECOME
A HABIT [with my own]. This is the way
[the local whites] acquire the
thick and inelegant pronunciation which distinguishes
their utterances and I have no
desire that my [own] should adorn [their] mother tongue
with either PECULIARITY."
J
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