Shin-Kickers From History: Sojourner Truth
Sojourner Truth was born into slavery in 1797 as Isabella Baumfree. She spent her early life as a slave on estate in New York*--running away when her master failed to keep his promise to set her free. Active in both the anti-slavery and women's rights movements, she was one of the most important human rights activists of the nineteenth century.
Quite frankly, nothing I say about Sojourner Truth--or human rights--could be as powerful as a speech she made at the women's rights convention in Akron, Ohio:
Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter. I think that 'twixt the negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what's all this here talking about?
That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?
Then they talk about this thing in the head; what's this they call it? [member of audience whispers, "intellect"] That's it, honey. What's that got to do with women's rights or negroes' rights? If my cup won't hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn't you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full?
Then that little man in black there, he says women can't have as much rights as men, 'cause Christ wasn't a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.
If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back , and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.
Obliged to you for hearing me, and now old Sojourner ain't got nothing more to say.
As far as I'm concerned, that equals the Gettysburg Address for power and truth.
* A useful reminder that the northern United States was not innocent in the matter of slavery.
In which I consider soccer, or at least books about soccer
The World Cup is over and some of you are suffering from soccer* withdrawal. Unlikely though it may seem to those of you who know me in real life,I have some reading suggestions that will let you feed both lingering soccer mania and history curiosity.
Franklin Foer's How Soccer Explains The World: An {Unlikely} Theory of Globalization looks at soccer as both an international phenomenon and as rooted in "local cultures local blood feuds and even local corruption". (Think British soccer hooligans, the role of soccer in the Balkan Wars of 1990s, and the success of Jewish soccer clubs in 1920s Europe.) How Soccer Explains the World is a wonderful piece of social/historical reporting and totally accessible for the soccer-challenged.
David Goldblatt's The Ball is Round: A Global History of Soccer directly addresses historian Eric Hobsbawm's observation that "The twentieth century was the American century in every way but one: sport." Goldblatt describes his work as the only history of the modern world in which the United States is "a transatlantic curiosity rather than a central attraction." Beginning with ancient games involving a man kicking a ball and ending with soccer in Africa post-Cold War, The Ball is Round is an exhaustive account of history as a game, with a heavy emphasis on "American exceptionalism".*** At 900 pages, this is a work for the hard-core soccer fan, or perhaps someone with ulterior motives for learning more about the game.
A lagniappe: Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch is a brilliant account of one fan's relationship to the game, set in a specific time and space. This one is worth reading even if you are sports averse.
Score!
*Or football, depending on where you kick the ball.
**A term normally applied to the relative failure of socialism in America. And now that I think of it, there are some interesting parallels between the distribution of soccer and socialism in America. Any social scientists out there looking for a research topic?
Timelines
A couple of weeks ago I got an e-mail from a reader in response to my post on historical periodization that cried out for for further thought. He raised the question of timelines, saying he found it useful to look at “what was happening elsewhere when this was happening to me and mine".
Personally, I love timelines--and I buy books of historical timelines whenever I get a chance.* I've actually worn out two copies of Bernard Grun's remarkable Timetables of History, thereby justifying buying up-dated editions. One of my other favorites is Who Was When by Miriam Allen de Ford and Joan Jackson--I'm keeping my eye out for a second hand copy of the third edition at a reasonable price.
But no matter how good a printed timeline is, there is nothing quite like building your own timeline for a specific project. In addition to the events directly related to my project, I've learned to include a "universal history" line for events happening outside my story. It's amazing how often that line gives me an unexpected insight.
I started building timelines when I was writing my senior comprehensive paper in college because I was having trouble keeping track of how events from different parts of the British empire fit together.** I found a new use for timelines when I started writing fiction and discovered that I have a tendency to squeeze extra days into the week.*** You can always tell when I'm in the middle of a project that has a complicated chronology, because I'll have a timeline taped somewhere to my office wall. Back in the days when cut and paste was not a metaphor, I drew them by hand on sheets of legal pad turned sideways. Then I used Excel, which was more legible but clunky because spreadsheets and timelines are not really the same. These days I'm using Aeon timeline software, which is pretty amazing.
Anyone else out there a timeline fan or creator? Recommendations welcome.
* What can I say? Reference books are a weakness. I also snap up historical atlases and virtually anything at a second-had book store called "a dictionary of some subject I'm vaguely interested in or think I might be interested in, or that I ought to be interested in or that looks cool".
**If someone has published a good (or even a bad) timeline of European imperialism, please let me know.
***If I could just figure out how to do that in real life….