To the First of August.
by Ann Plato
Britannia’s isles proclaim,
That freedom is their theme;
And we do view those honor’d lands,
With soul-delighting mien. Continue reading To the First of August.
Tag Archives: democracy
The Natives of America
The Natives Of America
by Ann Plato
Tell me a story, father please,
And then I sat upon his knees.
Then answer’d he,—“what speech make known,
Or tell the words of native tone,
Of how my Indian fathers dwelt,
And, of sore oppression felt;
And how they mourned a land serene,
It was an ever mournful theme.” Continue reading The Natives of America
Fall of the Charter Oak
Sigourney wrote several poems in homage to the famous Connecticut tree known as the Charter Oak. This poem was written in the period of state-wide grief when the tree was struck by lightening and fell on August 21, 1856. Hartford even organized a funeral procession for the tree that drew crowds of mourners. The wood from the tree was harvested and turned into keepsakes that can still be viewed at places like the CT Museum of Culture and History and the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art. Charles De Wolf Brownell’s painting of 1857 is often on view at the Wadsworth, a spectacular homage to the tree whose frame is made from the Charter Oak’s wood. Read what Mark Twain had to say about the Charter Oak on his first visit to Hartford and to the Wadsworth in this anthology (see “Glimpse of Hartford” under Samuel Clemens/Mark Twain.) To learn what made this such an iconic tree and to see an image of Brownell’s painting, go to The Legend of the Charter Oak on Connecticuthistory.org. Continue reading Fall of the Charter Oak
Uncle Tom’s Cabin – Chapters 5, 7, 9, 12
Prior to Chapter 5, we are introduced to Mr. and Mrs. Shelby, farmers in Kentucky who own a fairly large estate and are presented as slaveholders who are kind to their enslaved workers. Eliza is the enslaved handmaid to Mrs. Shelby; she is light-skinned and is the mother of a young boy named Harry (her husband George Harris is enslaved on a neighboring farm). Chapter 4 introduces life in Uncle Tom’s cabin, where Tom, his wife Aunt Chloe, and their children live in the warmth of family and Christian devotion. We have also been introduced to Haley, a slave trader who has secured ownership of Shelby’s debt and is squeezing him to settle the account by selling some of his human property. The events in Chapter 5 illustrate how precarious the lives of “human property” can be even for those who live under “kind” masters.
from Uncle Tom’s Cabin
by Harriet Beecher Stowe
CHAPTER V
Showing the Feelings of Living Property on Changing Owners Continue reading Uncle Tom’s Cabin – Chapters 5, 7, 9, 12
“A Mother’s Letters to a Daughter on Woman Suffrage” (1868)
A Mother’s Letters to a Daughter on Woman Suffrage
by Isabella Beecher Hooker
Tracts of Connecticut Woman Suffrage Association, No. 2
Hartford, Conn.
The facsimile below is from Harvard Library. To navigate from page-to-page, mouse over the document below and click on the arrow buttons that appear at the bottom left-hand side of the page: 
The document can also be read on the Harvard Library viewer. Continue reading “A Mother’s Letters to a Daughter on Woman Suffrage” (1868)
Shall Women Vote?
SHALL WOMEN VOTE?
A Matrimonial Dialogue
By Isabella Beecher Hooker
Scene: New York, February 18, 1860
Dramatis Personae: Mr. Smith and Mrs. Smith
Mr. Smith:
Did you read this Editorial in the Independent, on women’s voting? Continue reading Shall Women Vote?
The Constitutional Rights Of The Women Of The United States
The Constitutional Rights Of The Women Of The United States: An Address Before the International Council of Women, Washington D. C., March 30, 1888
by Isabella Beecher Hooker
In the month of August, 1774, that eminent statesman and true patriot, Thomas, Jefferson, in a little tract entitled “A Summary View of the Rights of British America,” used certain words which I will take for my text while addressing you to-day on the “Constitutional Rights of the Women Citizens of the United States.” They are these: Continue reading The Constitutional Rights Of The Women Of The United States
from Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Shifting from Clemens’s comical letters, speeches and short pieces to his classic, we get a sense of the depth he brought to his work. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was composed largely at Quarry Farm, Olivia Clemens’s sister Susan Crane’s farm in Elmira, New York. The family spent most of their summers there during the time they lived in Hartford, and Crane had built a study for her brother-in-law high on a hill overlooking the farm and the city. Continue reading from Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court
Clemens’s fascination with English history developed with his visits to the country and his research for The Prince and the Pauper (1881), a tale of a royal and a commoner changing places so each could find out what he had been envying. He was fascinated by the Elizabethan period and its wholesome frankness about sex and bodily functions, which he celebrated in a short obscene work called 1601: Conversation as it Was by the Social Fireside, in the Time of the Tudors. The book was concealed to all but select male friends, but is now freely readable on the Internet. Continue reading from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court