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dailyanarchistposts · 6 months ago

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G.3.1 Is “anarcho”-capitalism American anarchism?

Unlike Rothbard, some “anarcho”-capitalists are more than happy to proclaim themselves “individualist anarchists” and so suggest that their notions are identical, or nearly so, with the likes of Tucker, Ingalls and Labadie. As part of this, they tend to stress that individualist anarchism is uniquely American, an indigenous form of anarchism unlike social anarchism. To do so, however, means ignoring not only the many European influences on individualist anarchism itself (most notably, Proudhon) but also downplaying the realities of American capitalism which quickly made social anarchism the dominant form of Anarchism in America. Ironically, such a position is deeply contradictory as “anarcho”-capitalism itself is most heavily influenced by a European ideology, namely “Austrian” economics, which has lead its proponents to reject key aspects of the indigenous American anarchist tradition.

For example, “anarcho”-capitalist Wendy McElroy does this in a short essay provoked by the Seattle protests in 1999. While Canadian, her rampant American nationalism is at odds with the internationalism of the individualist anarchists, stating that after property destruction in Seattle which placed American anarchists back in the media social anarchism “is not American anarchism. Individualist anarchism, the indigenous form of the political philosophy, stands in rigorous opposition to attacking the person or property of individuals.” Like an ideological protectionist, she argued that “Left [sic!] anarchism (socialist and communist) are foreign imports that flooded the country like cheap goods during the 19th century.” [Anarchism: Two Kinds] Apparently Albert and Lucy Parsons were un-Americans, as was Voltairine de Cleyre who turned from individualist to communist anarchism. And best not mention the social conditions in America which quickly made communist-anarchism predominant in the movement or that individualist anarchists like Tucker proudly proclaimed their ideas socialist!

She argued that ”[m]any of these anarchists (especially those escaping Russia) introduced lamentable traits into American radicalism” such as “propaganda by deed” as well as a class analysis which “divided society into economic classes that were at war with each other.” Taking the issue of “propaganda by the deed” first, it should be noted that use of violence against person or property was hardly alien to American traditions. The Boston Tea Party was just as “lamentable” an attack on “property of individuals” as the window breaking at Seattle while the revolution and revolutionary war were hardly fought using pacifist methods or respecting the “person or property of individuals” who supported imperialist Britain. Similarly, the struggle against slavery was not conducted purely by means Quakers would have supported (John Brown springs to mind), nor was (to use just one example) Shay’s rebellion. So “attacking the person or property of individuals” was hardly alien to American radicalism and so was definitely not imported by “foreign” anarchists.

Of course, anarchism in American became associated with terrorism (or “propaganda by the deed”) due to the Haymarket events of 1886 and Berkman’s assassination attempt against Frick during the Homestead strike. Significantly, McElroy makes no mention of the substantial state and employer violence which provoked many anarchists to advocate violence in self-defence. For example, the great strike of 1877 saw the police opened fire on strikers on July 25th, killing five and injuring many more. “For several days, meetings of workmen were broken up by the police, who again and again interfered with the rights of free speech and assembly.” The Chicago Times called for the use of hand grenades against strikers and state troops were called in, killing a dozen strikers. “In two days of fighting, between 25 and 50 civilians had been killed, some 200 seriously injured, and between 300 and 400 arrested. Not a single policeman or soldier had lost his life.” This context explains why many workers, including those in reformist trade unions as well as anarchist groups like the IWPA, turned to armed self-defence (“violence”). The Haymarket meeting itself was organised in response to the police firing on strikers and killing at least two. The Haymarket bomb was thrown after the police tried to break-up a peaceful meeting by force: “It is clear then that … it was the police and not the anarchists who were the perpetrators of the violence at the Haymarket.” All but one of the deaths and most of the injuries were caused by the police firing indiscriminately in the panic after the explosion. [Paul Avrich, The Maymarket Tragedy, pp. 32–4, p. 189, p. 210, and pp. 208–9] As for Berkman’s assassination attempt, this was provoked by the employer’s Pinkerton police opening fire on strikers, killing and wounding many. [Emma Goldman, Living My Life, vol. 1, p. 86]

In other words, it was not foreign anarchists or alien ideas which associated anarchism with violence but, rather, the reality of American capitalism. As historian Eugenia C. Delamotte puts it, “the view that anarchism stood for violence … spread rapidly in the mainstream press from the 1870s” because of “the use of violence against strikers and demonstrators in the labour agitation that marked these decades — struggles for the eight-hour day, better wages, and the right to unionise, for example. Police, militia, and private security guards harassed, intimidated, bludgeoned, and shot workers routinely in conflicts that were just as routinely portrayed in the media as worker violence rather than state violence; labour activists were also subject to brutal attacks, threats of lynching, and many other forms of physical assault and intimidation … the question of how to respond to such violence became a critical issue in the 1870s, with the upswelling of labour agitation and attempts to suppress it violently.” [Voltairine de Cleyre and the Revolution of the Mind, pp. 51–2]

Joseph Labadie, it should be noted, thought the “Beastly police” got what they deserved at Haymarket as they had attempted to break up a peaceful public meeting and such people should “go at the peril of their lives. If it is necessary to use dynamite to protect the rights of free meeting, free press and free speech, then the sooner we learn its manufacture and use … the better it will be for the toilers of the world.” The radical paper he was involved in, the Labor Leaf, had previously argued that “should trouble come, the capitalists will use the regular army and militia to shoot down those who are not satisfied. It won’t be so if the people are equally ready.” Even reformist unions were arming themselves to protect themselves, with many workers applauding their attempts to organise union militias. As worker put it, ”[w]ith union men well armed and accustomed to military tactics, we could keep Pinkerton’s men at a distance … Employers would think twice, too, before they attempted to use troops against us … Every union ought to have its company of sharpshooters.” [quoted by Richard Jules Oestreicher, Solidarity and Fragmentation, p. 200 and p. 135]

While the violent rhetoric of the Chicago anarchists was used at their trial and is remembered (in part because enemies of anarchism take great glee in repeating it), the state and employer violence which provoked it has been forgotten or ignored. Unless this is mentioned, a seriously distorted picture of both communist-anarchism and capitalism are created. It is significant, of course, that while the words of the Martyrs are taken as evidence of anarchism’s violent nature, the actual violence (up to and including murder) against strikers by state and private police apparently tells us nothing about the nature of the state or capitalist system (Ward Churchill presents an excellent summary such activities in his article “From the Pinkertons to the PATRIOT Act: The Trajectory of Political Policing in the United States, 1870 to the Present” [CR: The New Centennial Review, Vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 1–72]).

So, as can be seen, McElroy distorts the context of anarchist violence by utterly ignoring the far worse capitalist violence which provoked it. Like more obvious statists, she demonises the resistance to the oppressed while ignoring that of the oppressor. Equally, it should also be noted Tucker rejected violent methods to end class oppression not out of principle, but rather strategy as there “was no doubt in his mind as to the righteousness of resistance to oppression by recourse to violence, but his concern now was with its expedience … he was absolutely convinced that the desired social revolution would be possible only through the utility of peaceful propaganda and passive resistance.” [James J. Martin, Men Against the State, p. 225] For Tucker “as long as freedom of speech and of the press is not struck down, there should be no resort to physical force in the struggle against oppression.” [quoted by Morgan Edwards, “Neither Bombs Nor Ballots: Liberty & the Strategy of Anarchism”, pp. 65–91, Benjamin R. Tucker and the Champions of Liberty, Coughlin, Hamilton and Sullivan (eds.), p. 67] Nor should we forget that Spooner’s rhetoric could be as blood-thirsty as Johann Most’s at times and that American individualist anarchist Dyer Lum was an advocate of insurrection.

As far as class analysis does, which “divided society into economic classes that were at war with each other”, it can be seen that the “left” anarchists were simply acknowledging the reality of the situation — as did, it must be stressed, the individualist anarchists. As we noted in section G.1, the individualist anarchists were well aware that there was a class war going on, one in which the capitalist class used the state to ensure its position (the individualist anarchist “knows very well that the present State is an historical development, that it is simply the tool of the property-owning class; he knows that primitive accumulation began through robbery bold and daring, and that the freebooters then organised the State in its present form for their own self-preservation.” [A.H. Simpson, The Individualist Anarchists, p. 92]). Thus workers had a right to a genuinely free market for ”[i]f the man with labour to sell has not this free market, then his liberty is violated and his property virtually taken from him. Now, such a market has constantly been denied … to labourers of the entire civilised world. And the men who have denied it are … Capitalists … [who] have placed and kept on the statue-books all sorts of prohibitions and taxes designed to limit and effective in limiting the number of bidders for the labour of those who have labour to sell.” [Instead of a Book, p. 454] For Joshua King Ingalls, ”[i]n any question as between the worker and the holder of privilege, [the state] is certain to throw itself into the scale with the latter, for it is itself the source of privilege, the creator of class rule.” [quoted by Bowman N. Hall, “Joshua K. Ingalls, American Individualist: Land Reformer, Opponent of Henry George and Advocate of Land Leasing, Now an Established Mode,” pp. 383–96, American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Vol. 39, No. 4, p. 292] Ultimately, the state was “a police force to regulate the people in the interests of the plutocracy.” [Ingalls, quoted by Martin, Op. Cit., p. 152]

Discussing Henry Frick, manager of the Homestead steelworkers who was shot by Berkman for using violence against striking workers, Tucker noted that Frick did not “aspire, as I do, to live in a society of mutually helpful equals” but rather it was “his determination to live in luxury produced by the toil and suffering of men whose necks are under his heel. He has deliberately chosen to live on terms of hostility with the greater part of the human race.” While opposing Berkman’s act, Tucker believed that he was “a man with whom I have much in common, — much more at any rate than with such a man as Frick.” Berkman “would like to live on terms of equality with his fellows, doing his share of work for not more than his share of pay.” [The Individualist Anarchists, pp. 307–8] Clearly, Tucker was well aware of the class struggle and why, while not supporting such actions, violence occurred when fighting it.

As Victor Yarros summarised, for the individualist anarchists the “State is the servant of the robbers, and it exists chiefly to prevent the expropriation of the robbers and the restoration of a free and fair field for legitimate competition and wholesome, effective voluntary cooperation.” [“Philosophical Anarchism: Its Rise, Decline, and Eclipse”, pp. 470–483, The American Journal of Sociology, vol. 41, no. 4, p. 475] For “anarcho”-capitalists, the state exploits all classes subject to it (perhaps the rich most, by means of taxation to fund welfare programmes and legal support for union rights and strikes).

So when McElroy states that, “Individualist anarchism rejects the State because it is the institutionalisation of force against peaceful individuals”, she is only partly correct. While it may be true for “anarcho”-capitalism, it fails to note that for the individualist anarchists the modern state was the institutionalisation of force by the capitalist class to deny the working class a free market. The individualist anarchists, in other words, like social anarchists also rejected the state because it imposed certain class monopolies and class legislation which ensured the exploitation of labour by capital — a significant omission on McElroy’s part. “Can it be soberly pretended for a moment that the State … is purely a defensive institution?” asked Tucker. “Surely not … you will find that a good nine-tenths of existing legislation serves … either to prescribe the individual’s personal habits, or, worse still, to create and sustain commercial, industrial, financial, and proprietary monopolies which deprive labour of a large part of the reward that it would receive in a perfectly free market.” [Tucker, Instead of a Book, pp. 25–6] In fact:

“As long as a portion of the products of labour are appropriated for the payment of fat salaries to useless officials and big dividends to idle stockholders, labour is entitled to consider itself defrauded, and all just men will sympathise with its protest.” [Tucker, Liberty, no. 19, p. 1]

It goes without saying that almost all “anarcho”-capitalists follow Rothbard in being totally opposed to labour unions, strikes and other forms of working class protest. As such, the individualist anarchists, just as much as the “left” anarchists McElroy is so keen to disassociate them from, argued that ”[t]hose who made a profit from buying or selling were class criminals and their customers or employees were class victims. It did not matter if the exchanges were voluntary ones. Thus, left anarchists hated the free market as deeply as they hated the State.” [McElroy, Op. Cit.] Yet, as any individualist anarchist of the time would have told her, the “free market” did not exist because the capitalist class used the state to oppress the working class and reduce the options available to choose from so allowing the exploitation of labour to occur. Class analysis, in other words, was not limited to “foreign” anarchism, nor was the notion that making a profit was a form of exploitation (usury). As Tucker continually stressed: “Liberty will abolish interest; it will abolish profit; it will abolish monopolistic rent; it will abolish taxation; it will abolish the exploitation of labour.” [The Individualist Anarchists, p. 157]

It should also be noted that the “left” anarchist opposition to the individualist anarchist “free market” is due to an analysis which argues that it will not, in fact, result in the anarchist aim of ending exploitation nor will it maximise individual freedom (see section G.4). We do not “hate” the free market, rather we love individual liberty and seek the best kind of society to ensure free people. By concentrating on markets being free, “anarcho”-capitalism ensures that it is wilfully blind to the freedom-destroying similarities between capitalist property and the state (as we discussed in section F.1). An analysis which many individualist anarchists recognised, with the likes of Dyer Lum seeing that replacing the authority of the state with that of the boss was no great improvement in terms of freedom and so advocating co-operative workplaces to abolish wage slavery. Equally, in terms of land ownership the individualist anarchists opposed any voluntary exchanges which violated “occupancy and use” and so they, so, “hated the free market as deeply as they hated the State.” Or, more correctly, they recognised that voluntary exchanges can result in concentrations of wealth and so power which made a mockery of individual freedom. In other words, that while the market may be free the individuals within it would not be.

McElroy partly admits this, saying that “the two schools of anarchism had enough in common to shake hands when they first met. To some degree, they spoke a mutual language. For example, they both reviled the State and denounced capitalism. But, by the latter, individualist anarchists meant ‘state-capitalism’ the alliance of government and business.” Yet this “alliance of government and business” has been the only kind of capitalism that has ever existed. They were well aware that such an alliance made the capitalist system what it was, i.e., a system based on the exploitation of labour. William Bailie, in an article entitled “The Rule of the Monopolists” simply repeated the standard socialist analysis of the state when he talked about the “gigantic monopolies, which control not only our industry, but all the machinery of the State, — legislative, judicial, executive, — together with school, college, press, and pulpit.” Thus the “preponderance in the number of injunctions against striking, boycotting, and agitating, compared with the number against locking-out, blacklisting, and the employment of armed mercenaries.” The courts could not ensure justice because of the “subserviency of the judiciary to the capitalist class … and the nature of the reward in store for the accommodating judge.” Government “is the instrument by means of which the monopolist maintains his supremacy” as the law-makers “enact what he desires; the judiciary interprets his will; the executive is his submissive agent; the military arm exists in reality to defend his country, protect his property, and suppress his enemies, the workers on strike.” Ultimately, “when the producer no longer obeys the State, his economic master will have lost his power.” [Liberty, no. 368, p. 4 and p. 5] Little wonder, then, that the individualist anarchists thought that the end of the state and the class monopolies it enforces would produce a radically different society rather than one essentially similar to the current one but without taxes. Their support for the “free market” implied the end of capitalism and its replacement with a new social system, one which would end the exploitation of labour.

She herself admits, in a roundabout way, that “anarcho”-capitalism is significantly different that individualist anarchism. “The schism between the two forms of anarchism has deepened with time,” she asserts. This was ”[l]argely due to the path breaking work of Murray Rothbard” and so, unlike genuine individualist anarchism, the new “individualist anarchism” (i.e., “anarcho”-capitalism) “is no longer inherently suspicious of profit-making practices, such as charging interest. Indeed, it embraces the free market as the voluntary vehicle of economic exchange” (does this mean that the old version of it did not, in fact, embrace “the free market” after all?) This is because it “draws increasingly upon the work of Austrian economists such as Mises and Hayek” and so “it draws increasingly farther away from left anarchism” and, she fails to note, the likes of Warren and Tucker. As such, it would be churlish to note that “Austrian” economics was even more of a “foreign import” much at odds with American anarchist traditions as communist anarchism, but we will! After all, Rothbard’s support of usury (interest, rent and profit) would be unlikely to find much support from someone who looked forward to the development of “an attitude of hostility to usury, in any form, which will ultimately cause any person who charges more than cost for any product to be regarded very much as we now regard a pickpocket.” [Tucker, The Individualist Anarchists, p. 155] Nor, as noted above, would Rothbard’s support for an “Archist” (capitalist) land ownership system have won him anything but dismissal nor would his judge, jurist and lawyer driven political system have been seen as anything other than rule by the few rather than rule by none.

Ultimately, it is a case of influences and the kind of socio-political analysis and aims it inspires. Unsurprisingly, the main influences in individualist anarchism came from social movements and protests. Thus poverty-stricken farmers and labour unions seeking monetary and land reform to ease their position and subservience to capital all plainly played their part in shaping the theory, as did the Single-Tax ideas of Henry George and the radical critiques of capitalism provided by Proudhon and Marx. In contrast, “anarcho”-capitalism’s major (indeed, predominant) influence is “Austrian” economists, an ideology developed (in part) to provide intellectual support against such movements and their proposals for reform. As we will discuss in the next section, this explains the quite fundamental differences between the two systems for all the attempts of “anarcho”-capitalists to appropriate the legacy of the likes of Tucker.

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quietlytheygo · 7 months ago

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Grumblethorpe

Had a lovely day visiting the generational home of the Wisters, a Philadelphia family of merchants and Quakers. This was their summer residence in Germantown, built by John Wister in 1744, which stayed in the family for nearly two centuries. Originally known as "John Wister's Big House," it came to be known as Grumblethorpe in the 18th century.

My primary interest in the Wisters surrounds Sarah "Sally" Wister who wrote a journal in 1777-1778 during which many important events of the American Revolution took place - the battle of Germantown, the siege and reduction of the forts below Philadelphia, the surrender of Burgoyne, the maneuvers at Whitemarsh, the march to Valley Forge and winter encampment there, etc etc.

Sally's family fled their home on Market Street (in Philadelphia proper) for the Foulke Mansion in North Wales, where Sally wrote her journal. Meanwhile, the Germantown residence became a headquarters for British Brigadier-General James Agnew, who was shot during the Battle of Germantown. He was taken back to the Wister house and bled to death in the parlor. Apparently his blood stains are still visible in the wooden floor (pictured above - I think it's more likely whatever the servants used to scrub it clean).

Also pictured is the original silhouette of Sally Wister, the face of the main house, and the Wister library. Because the house remained in the family for so long, passing through relatively few hands over the centuries, much of the property retains its original artifacts.

This is a very peaceful place nearly untouched by time. I highly, highly recommend visiting Grumblethorpe for anyone near Philadelphia with an interest in the American Revolution.

#this is so disorganized #i'll add more later #I love the wisters #especially sally #sarah!!!#american revolution #germantown #philadelphia #colonial america

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makethatelevenrings · 2 years ago

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For All the Light I Shut Out - FIVE

Chapter Warnings: panic attack

Masterlist (mobile WIP)

“-and I said they were the best damn cookies next to my Ma’s.”

“‘Cause you’re a fuckin’ suck-up.”

“Well, now she won’t stop bringin’ me those damn oatmeal cookies! It’s like she’s got a central line to the fucking Quaker guy.”

Lily stifled her laugh as she passed Sal and Marnie, two of the administrative assistants for the HR and accounting floors. Fawn from the HR department crowed that she had the greatest cookies of all time and insisted on feeding everyone who would talk to her. Most folks learned quickly to avoid her sugary bricks, but it appeared that Sal was her new target.

“Amapola! Get your cute little tush over here.” A hand waved over the heads of the crowd seated in the Wayne Enterprises cafeteria and Lily followed it to find Gloria, Teddy, and Malcolm in their usual seats. Lily set her tray down and slid into her seat, immediately slapping Teddy’s hand away from her slice of pie.

“I��ll beat your ass and you know I will,” she warned. Teddy offered her a sheepish grin which Lily responded with an eye roll.

The administrative assistants tried to get lunch everyday together. It gave them a chance to get away from their bosses and gossip about what was happening on their floors. Lily rarely had something to contribute but she soaked up every bit of information that was offered. She would then help out Lucius by keeping him up to date on office politics. Who was cheating on their spouse, who was possibly embezzling funds, etc.

Assistants saw and heard everything. People forgot that they were present or assumed that they weren’t intelligent enough to understand what was being discussed. Lily had been underestimated and patronized her whole life. She learned to use that to her advantage.

“Hot topic of the day,” Gloria declared. “Bruce Wayne is back and hot as ever.”

“He passed me in the hall earlier and I nearly swooned,” Malcolm gasped. “What do you think his workout routine is?”

“More like, who is…”

“I’m losing my appetite over here,” Lily grumbled. In fact, she didn’t really have an appetite in the first place. For a Fortune 100 company who raked in billions every year, Wayne Enterprises’ employee cafeteria had awful food options. It was free, so she shouldn’t complain, and it was better than when she dug through trash cans for scraps, but still. Was the gray slop on her tray even edible?

“You look like shit,” Gloria observed. “Which is surprising since you average about four hours of sleep a night and still look fresh as a daisy, so what’s up?”

She shrugged and pushed some of the puce-shaded meatloaf across her tray. “Long night.”

Lily could offer up an anecdote about her run-ins with Wayne. She could tell them about how she almost got mugged -- and worse -- last night. She could talk about how her little sister was now in medical school after over a decade of Lily doing everything in her power just to keep Nadia alive.

But she instead deflected.

“Has anyone seen Kallie?”

Kalliope Marks was the only non-assistant allowed in their little group. Where Lily was the science, Kallie was the math. She was a whizz at calculations and quickly became one of the company’s top accountants. But she was a quiet figure who hated being the center of attention. When Gloria asked if she could bring along someone to lunch and Kallie joined them, Lily took one look at the shy woman and decided that they would be best friends.

Gloria grimaced. “Last I heard, Vandeer was chewing her out over a late report.”

James Vandeer, also known as the head of accounting and the biggest asshole of the company. Lily shot out of her seat and tossed the supposed food into the trash. She threw her tray onto the stack growing by the doors and headed for the elevator. Swiping her ID, Lily slammed on the up button repeatedly until the door opened.

The ride to the fortieth floor was agonizingly slow and Lily internally cursed every single dollar that went into the construction of this building. Again, billions of dollars and they couldn’t fund a faster elevator?

The floor was almost silent when Lily stepped out of the elevator. The accounting department occupied two floors and the majority of employees were either in the cafeteria or out at lunch. She swung by Kallie’s cubicle first and swore when she found it empty.

Bathroom, maybe?

Kallie was sweet, but she was also a doormat. She wasn’t a Gotham native, but instead came from Central City after she was offered a job here. Lily’s protective streak ran a mile wide and so when she found out that Kallie wasn’t used to the rough and tumble ways of the city, she took her under her wing. Vandeer yelling at her was bound to make her cry.

Quiet voices in the hallway to the left caught her attention and Lily headed that way. She paused at the sight before her and anger flared in her chest. Bruce fucking Wayne was towering over a shaking, sobbing Kallie. Lily saw red.

She didn’t give a flying fuck if he was her boss or her boss’s boss. As far as she was concerned, he was just a rich trust fund bitch baby who was about to learn a few new insults.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she snarled as she approached them. Lily placed herself directly between them and glared up at Bruce, her dark eyes flashing something fierce. He blinked in surprise and held his hands up to show his innocence. Lily jabbed her finger in his chest, her rage superseding her rationality.

“I don’t know what they teach you rich fucks at Yale and shit, but where I come from, we don’t terrorize innocent people.”

A hand tugged on the hem of her skirt and Lily looked down into the wide, tear filled eyes of her best friend. “He was helping me, Lils. It’s okay. I…I’m just not feeling that great.”

Her hand fell from where she was currently poking Bruce Wayne in the tie and Lily glanced between them. She didn’t have time to feel embarrassed before she kneeled down next to Kallie.

“What’s going on? Gloria told me about Vandeer. Is it okay if I touch you?” At Kallie’s nod, Lily started to rub her back.

“Mac broke up with me this morning and kicked me out of the apartment,” Kallie whispered. Lily’s jaw tightened and she sucked in a tight breath. She hated Kallie’s shitty boyfriend and this was a clear example why. Mac would come crawling back tomorrow, begging for Kallie to come back, and the rose-colored glasses would go right back on. Lily had been urging her to leave him for months now.

“I can key his car,” Lily offered, earning a watery laugh. “I’m not kidding.”

“Should we really be discussing you committing a felony in front of our boss?”

Lily glanced up at Mr. Wayne and found him looking at them with an almost amused smile on his lips. She shrugged and turned back to her friend. “It’s more of a misdemeanor, really.”

“Oh my god, that’s not the point.” The tears had stopped flowing and Lily grinned, wiping off some moisture from Kallie’s cheek with the edge of her sleeve.

“The breakup, Vandeer being a dick as per usual, and being homeless for the day all came bubbling up, huh?”

“Yeah. Mr. Wayne found me sitting here like an idiot trying to do my breathing exercises. It’s so stupid. I had a panic attack over work. I like my job, I swear!” Kallie’s breathing picked up again when she realized who exactly she had been interacting with.

And then Bruce fucking Wayne surprised the hell out of Lily by crouching down in his Armani suit and offering Kallie a charming smile.

“If I’m being honest…some days I don’t like work either. And it sounds like you’ve been dealt a bad hand today. Why don’t you take the rest of the day off? I’ll let Vandeer and Fox know that you’ll be gone for the day because you’re running an errand for me. Miss Amapola can be excused as well.”

Mr. Wayne reached into his pocket and extracted a wallet. He flipped it open, pulled out a crisp hundred, and handed it to Lily who grasped it gingerly, as if it might spontaneously combust when her fingers touched it.

“Use that to buy some lunch,” he explained.

“I’ll leave the change with Ernie at the front desk tomorrow morning,” Lily replied. He met her gaze with an unreadable expression in his blue eyes.

“Keep it. It’s yours to do with what you want.”

“Thank you, sir,” Kallie murmured.

“Feel better, Miss Marks. Wayne Enterprises is lucky to have you and we want to make sure you enjoy your time here.” Mr. Wayne stood and began to walk away, but Lily darted after him and grabbed his arm with the hand not currently occupied with the biggest bill she’s ever held in her life.

“I’m sorry, sir. For assuming.”

He flashed that charming, tabloid ready smile and waved her off. “It’s fine, Miss Amapola. It’s good to see that my company is protected by strong individuals.”

“I was out of line and I really hope it doesn’t reflect poorly on Mr. Fox or Kallie. I was just conc-”

“Miss Amapola.” He held her gaze and Lily felt herself freeze. There was something about his stare that locked her in place, something that didn’t exist for the cameras. “People rarely go toe to toe with me and tell me what to do.”

Her mouth went dry and Lily shut her eyes, praying that he didn’t fire her. She needed rent money for this month.

“It was refreshing and I hope you don’t start to censor yourself because of me. Sometimes I need to be put in my place.”

She opened her eyes and felt her lips curl into a hint of a smile. Mr. Wayne stepped back from her and nodded in farewell before departing for the elevator. Lily turned back to face Kallie and held out her hand for her friend to pull herself up with.

“You got some bags at your desk? C’mon, let’s grab them and you’ll stay with me for a bit. What do you want for lunch? We’re about to make somebody’s day with the size of this tip.”

#bruce wayne fanfiction #bruce wayne x oc #batman fanfiction #batman x oc #lilyfic

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xtruss · 2 years ago

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Phillis Wheatley: The Unsung Black Poet Who Shaped the US

She is believed to be the first enslaved person and first African American to publish a book of poetry. She also forced the US to reckon with slavery's hypocrisy.

(Image credit: Paul Matzner/Alamy)

When the Dartmouth sliced through the frigid waters of Boston Harbor on 28 November 1773, the Quaker-owned whaler carried a cargo that included 114 chests of British East India Company tea. Eighteen days later, the tea, along with 228 additional trunks from the soon-to-arrive Beaverand Eleanor, would play a starring role in the US Colonies' most iconic act of resistance, which ultimately led to the Revolutionary War.

In the Dartmouth's hold was another precious cargo: freshly printed copies of Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, a collection by Phillis Wheatley, the first enslaved person, first African American woman and third female in the US colonies to publish a book of poetry. Her life and work would become emblematic of the US struggle for freedom, a tale whose most visible representation – the Boston Tea Party, when American colonists protested Britain's "taxation without representation" by dumping tea into the harbour – celebrates its 250th anniversary this year.

Evan O'Brien, creative manager of the Boston Tea Party & Ships Museum, said, "Our mission, especially this year, is to talk not just about the individuals who were onboard the vessels, destroying the tea, but everyone who lived in Boston in 1773, including Phillis Wheatley."

Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral is believed to be the first book of published poetry by an enslaved person in the US (Credit: SBS Eclectic Images/Alamy)

Actor Cathryn Philippe, who interprets Wheatley at the museum, connected with the poet's remarkable accomplishments. "You often hear about the tragedy of enslavement, which is a part of history that needs to be understood. But we don't hear much about the joy or successes of enslaved or formerly enslaved Africans."

Wheatley was born in what is now Senegal or Gambia and was abducted in 1761 when she was just seven or eight years old. Forced, along with 94 other Africans, aboard the slave-trading brigantine Phillis, she survived the treacherous Middle Passage, which claimed the lives of nearly two million enslaved people – including a quarter of the Phillis' "cargo" – over a 360-year period, and arrived on Boston's shores that summer.

“We Shouldn't Hesitate To Call Her A Genius”

Frail after eight weeks at sea, the girl caught the attention of wealthy merchant and tailor John Wheatley. He purchased the child as a gift for his wife, Susanna, and renamed her after the vessel that had spirited her away from her home.

Phillis showed a natural aptitude for language. David Waldstreicher, professor of history at the City University of New York and author of the forthcoming biography The Odyssey of Phillis Wheatley, said, "She became fluent and culturally literate and able to write poems in English so quickly that we shouldn't hesitate to call her a genius."

Despite Wheatley's connection to the Boston Tea Party, her legacy remains largely unknown (Credit: Robin Catalano)

Although the Wheatleys were not abolitionists (they enslaved several people, and segregated Phillis from them) they recognised Phillis' talents and encouraged her to study Latin, Greek, history, theology and poetry. Inspired by the likes of Alexander Pope and Isaac Watts, she stayed up at night, writing heroic couplets and elegies to notable figures by candlelight. She published her first verse, in the Newport Mercury, at age 13.

While many New Englanders took note of the poet's gifts, no American printer would publish a book by a Black writer. Poems on Various Subjects was eventually financed by Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon, and published in London. As a 19-year-old in 1773, Phillis travelled to the city, escorted by the Wheatleys' son. She was an instant sensation. Her celebrity, along with England's criticism of a new nation that simultaneously subjugated her while comparing its own relationship to the Crown as slavery, led the Wheatleys to manumit her in 1774.

A keen observer, Phillis frequently wrote about significant moments in America's fight for independence, carefully walking a fine line between being overtly political or critical of the colonial government as a Black woman. As a 14-year-old in 1768, she praised King George III in the poem To the King's Most Excellent Majesty for repealing the Stamp Act. Two years later, in On the Death of Mr. Snider Murder'd by Richardson, she memorialised the killing of 12-year-old Christopher Snider by a Massachusetts-born Loyalist during a protest over imported British goods.

Soon after, in 1770, a skirmish between Colonists and British soldiers erupted in front of the Old State House, not far from where Phillis lived on King Street, culminating in the Boston Massacre. Today, a circle of granite pavers, its bronze letters dulled by age and thousands of footsteps, marks the spot where blood was spilled. Following the incident, Phillis was inspired to write the poem On the Affray in King Street, on the Evening of the 5th of March, 1770.

The Boston Massacre took place near Phillis' residence (Credit: Ian Dagnall Computing/Alamy)

Scholars estimate that Phillis produced upwards of 100 poems. Because her work makes few references to her own condition and is often couched in Christian concepts and the extolling of popular figures of the day, she has sometimes been dismissed as a white apologist.

Ade Solanke, a writer and Fulbright Scholar whose play Phillis in London will be performed in Boston later this year, said, "I think the biggest misconception about her is that she wasn't an abolitionist. You think of Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, people who were explicitly condemning slavery and going to war against it. But the act of writing poetry as a Black woman in this time period was pretty radical."

Wendy Roberts, a University at Albany professor who recently discovered a lost Wheatley poem in a Quaker commonplace book in Philadelphia, agrees. "I don't think any deep reader of Wheatley comes away thinking she's an apologist. She was asserting herself, her agency, her wish for freedom, her presence as a person."

Most buildings in Boston with a direct connection to Phillis' life no longer stand. Some were razed by a pair of fires in the 18th and 19th Centuries, and others have been replaced by urban renewal in the mid-1900s. The Old South Meeting House, a stately Georgian red-brick church built in 1729 and tucked between glass-and-concrete skyscrapers on Washington Street, is an exception. Besides being Phillis's place of worship, it was a cradle of philosophical debate, and served as planning headquarters for the Boston Tea Party. It now operates as a museum, with a statue of the poet flanked by exhibits on other ground-breaking figures from the pre- and post-Revolutionary eras.

The Old South Meeting House where Phillis worshipped is one of the few buildings in Boston that remain with a connection to her life (Credit: Ian Dagnall/Alamy)

The writer almost certainly strolled through 50-acre Boston Common, the country's oldest public park (and site of the newly unveiled, and controversial, statue honouring Civil Rights icons Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King). Phillis may have conducted the Wheatley family's shopping at Faneuil Hall, once the city's main marketplace for household goods – and located next to where enslaved people were once sold. It's now a retail centre, where visitors can pick up souvenirs, sample a variety of foods, or take a tour with a guide outfitted in 18th-Century breeches, waistcoat and tricorne hat.

Some experts speculate that Phillis participated in funeral processions for Snider and the five victims of the Boston Massacre, in which their coffins were paraded from Faneuil Hall to the Granary Burying Ground – also the final resting place of Revolutionaries like Samuel Adams, John Hancock and Paul Revere. Sombre and quiet, the cemetery bears more than 2,000 slate, greenstone and marble gravestones, many carved with traditional Puritan motifs like blank-eyed death's heads and frowning angels.

Phillis, who died in poverty after developing pneumonia at age 31, is thought to be buried in an unmarked grave, with her deceased newborn child, at Copp's Hill, in Boston's North End neighbourhood. An elegant statue of her, alongside renderings of women's rights advocate Abigail Adams and abolitionist Lucy Stone, holds court over the Commonwealth Avenue Mall. This year, when a replica of the Dartmouth sails into the Boston Tea Party & Ships Museum on Griffin's Wharf, it will host a permanent exhibit on the poet.

In addition to a statue of Wheatley at the Boston Women's Memorial, a second statue of her is located inside the Old South Meeting House (Credit: Robin Catalano)

Phillis's legacy is perhaps best experienced in the work of contemporary artists. As part of the 250th anniversary celebrations, Revolution 250, a consortium of 70 organisations dedicated to exploring Revolutionary history, will host a variety of performances and exhibits, including a full-scale re-enactment of the Tea Party on 16 December. Several events will honour the poet, among them a photography exhibit by Valerie Anselme, who will recreate Phillis' frontispiece that adorned the original publication of Poems on Various Subjects.

Artist Amanda Shea, who frequently hosts spoken word events and poetry readings around the city, explained that, in many ways, she is carrying on a legacy pioneered so long ago. "I feel like I'm part of the continuum of Phillis Wheatley. It's really important to be able to write and tell our stories. It's our duty as artists to reflect the times in which we live."

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crashdown · 3 years ago

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for anyone who wants to claim that jim's story was unrealistic, that nonbinary people didn't exist in the 1700s, i'd love to introduce them to one of my favourite queer icons:

the public universal friend

so the puf was born in 1752 in cumberland, rhode island. their parents were quakers, and they grew up surrounded by religon. they were quite smart, athletic, good with horses, and could quote the scripture from memory.

in 1776, at the age of 24, they fell ill and became bedridden. they nearly died but made a miraculous recovery, and insisted that their soul was taken to heaven where god sent down a new spirit, tasked with preaching his word. this spirit was named the "publick universal friend" and was entierly genderless, rejecting the women's clothes worn by their body before and refusing to respond to their old name or any gendered pronouns. they dressed androgynously or leaned to masculine styles.

many people found this strange, but for the most part, the friend was respected in terms of their prefrence. when asked if they were male or female, they would simply respond "i am that i am". in text, people would either avoid using pronouns at all with the friend or simply use "he".

they began to travel just as they had been assigned, preaching the word of god and gathering followers as they did. they did not bring a bible with them, but preached from memory, just as they did as a child. they grew a group of followers known as the "universal friends" as they traveled, which makes them the first american to found a religous community.

they beleived that anyone with free will, regardless of gender, could gain access to god's light, and they preached celibacy, though in the end they expressed the right of their followers to choose whether or not to marry or obstain from sex. they valued peace and humility to everyone, and in this they condemned slavery, urging those who followed them to free their slaves. many followers were also black.

they said that women should "obey god rather than men", and there were four dozen women amongst the universal friends known as the faithful sisterhood who remained unmarried and took on leadership roles usually reserved for men.

in 1785, the friend met sarah richards and her husband. her husband died shortly after and sarah began to live with the friend, dressing in a similar androgynous fasion and dubbing herself "sarah friend". sarah friend continued to live with the puf for the rest of her life, eventually dying and leaving her daughter in the friend's care.

at 2:25 on july 1st, 1819, at the age of 67, the friend died after a long period of illness. it's often debated on whether or not the friend would have identified as nonbinary or even trans in any fasion, but their legacy remained one of peace, tollerance, oportunity, and equality regardless of sex or race.

our flag means death takes place in 1717, and though it's before the birth of the puf, there's no doubt that gender non-conformity (or gender fuckery, if you will) has existed in some fasion for a very, very long time. i don't find the way people treat jim unrealistic for the time period at all. people love to nit-pick when it comes to history that they know nothing about.

this is only a fraction of the friend's story, so if you're interested i highly reccomend looking into it further. they were a very interesting person, and trans history is undertaught yet so, so important to know.

#sorry for the long post #i just have Feelings about the friend #and so many other trans people in history #our flag means death #ofmd #jim jimenez #the public universal friend #trans history

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st-just · 3 years ago

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Well, I just read through the Pale Horse Thread on Alternate history while procrastinating work I need to be doing. Any other threads on there that you'd recommend?

Oh, glad you liked it!

So nothing very recent, but I did spend waaaay too much time reading this stuff when I was a teenager, so in terms of older stuff (in more or less descending order of how sure of my own recomendation I am)...

Fight and Be Right by Ed Thomas: Late 19th century UK, following the alternate career of Lord Randolph Churchill if his career wasn't derailed in a royal scandal as he remakes British politics around his new ideology of 'Tory Democracy', everything spirals well out of control from there. There's an excellent series of epilogues set in 1936 in the form of a series of interviews for FACTS magazine by Italian-American journalist 'Benny Moss'. Actually complete! Though I can't find live links to the polished pdfs and image links in the thread are mostly dead, but still one of my favorites, if only for all the truly wild bit of historical trivia in the footnotes (the world circa 1936 as described by the epilogue is also just an amazing pulp setting imo).

The Bloody Man, also by Ed Thomas: Intertwined histories of the England (sprawling to Scotland, Ireland, France, etc) and New England following Cromwell having a different sort of religious experience and emigrating to the new world, ending up as the leading figure of what in our world became Connecticut, and one of the dominant personalities of mid-17th-century New England generally. More importantly, without his leadership and influence, the English Revolution (and it's pretty indisputably a revolution this time) gets quite a bit messier, and the parliamentarian cause a good deal more radical. Also: the Quakers instead end up going by 'terrorists', the 'Salvation Army' goes down in history as a fanatical band of millenariens who cut a bloody swathe through the countryside awaiting the end time, contains the absolutely amazing line 'freedom was for all men, even Papists'.

Fear Not The Revolution, Habibi by Azander12: Asking what if Salah Jadid beat out Hafez al-Assad for control of the Syrian baathist party in 1970, leading to a much more ideological and meaningful arab nationalist state. Shit mainly hitting the fan when said state takes more than a passing interest in an alternate Black September in Jordan. Focused on Syria, Jordan and Israel in particular, and to a lesser extent the middle east in general, though there's some blowback to the superpowers as well, of course.

Male Rising, by Johnathan Edelstein: Following a nearly-successful slave revolution in Brazil, an army of ten thousand maroons and rebels are given passage to west Africa as a peace agreement (the rebellion's leader being Fulani and rather interested in going home). Unsurprisingly, this upends Sahelan politics something fierce, with effects eventually spreading throughout the world. (probably the only rec on this list to go beyond 'not dystopian' to 'actively better than real life'.

A World of Laughter, A World of Tears, by Statichaos: Taking the crack premise of 'what if Walt Disney was elected president' and gong from there (Eisenhower declines to run, gets drafted by the GOP as a complete hail mary compromise after a deadlock). Despite that very well written and tries to make everything believable - leading to something of a soft dystopia, what with having a vociferous anti-communist and strong believer in States Rights in the White House with of all Disney's eccentricities, and all.

No Spanish Civil War in 1936 by Dr. Strangelove: This one's pretty self-explanatory - the Republic's leaders are better at politics and intrigue than OTL, and Franco is bought off rather than leading the coup attempt which started the civil war otl. Spain remains a left-wing democracy as WW2 begins, and is predictably dragged into it as the nazis speed towards the Pyrenees.

A Cat of a Different Color: China After Mao by Rediv: As the name might imply, about an alternate fallout to Mao's death in 1976, specifically one where Deng Xiaoping's rise to power gets thoroughly derailed and there's quite a bit more intrigue and turmoil over the future course of Chinese politics.

All About My Brother: A Taiping Rebellion Timeline by subersivepancakes: Again, as the name might imply, about an alternate result of the Taiping Rebellion in 19th century China - specifically one that results in a partition between a Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in the south and a surviving Qing Empire in the north. More than a little bit memey, from what I recall, but more in the fun way than the eye-rolley way.

Sooo yeah, hopefully at least one of those decade-old forum threads catches your interest!

#reply #circletofcircles #alternate history #recomendations #in this essay i will #there's also a really good one about an alternate post-decolonization Somalia I can't find atm #but it died after 3 chapters so

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astrognossienne · 3 years ago

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scandalous star: paul robeson - an analysis

“My father was a slave and my people died to build this country and I am going to stay here and have a part of it just like you.” - Paul Robeson

He was the man the US government tried to erase from history. From the 1920s through the early 1960s legendary bass-baritone Paul Robeson was a musical giant on the world stage but from the late 1940s he was almost unknown within his own country. He was a large man who lived a large life. He was proud to be Black and practiced and preached race pride when it wasn’t cool. He was a Renaissance man who spent most of his life fighting injustice, for which he was roundly persecuted. The son of a former slave turned preacher, Robeson attended Rutgers University, where he was an All-America football player. Upon graduating from Rutgers at the head of his class, he rejected a career as a professional athlete and instead entered Columbia University. He obtained a law degree in 1923, but, because of the lack of opportunity for blacks in the legal profession, he drifted to the stage, making a London debut in 1922. He was also a singer; a linguist, he sang songs promoting world peace and human rights in 25 languages, including Russian, Chinese and several African languages. They were often traditional spirituals or folk songs telling of struggle, resilience and survival. Part folk hero, part star of stage and screen, Robeson became an unlikely celebrity at the peak of Jim Crow and segregation; he was a 6'3" black man in a world where most people were 5'4" and most white Americans were afraid of blacks. Despite the everyday racism of the society he lived in, he was renowned for his charismatic warmth, as well as the rare beauty of his voice. It was a voice that people could feel resonating inside them and the intensely personal connection that deep sound made with an audience allowed Robeson to cross racial boundaries and be both loved and respected as a performer.

Paul Robeson, according to astrotheme, was an Aries sun and Scorpio moon (the moon is speculative). Princeton, New Jersey, Paul Robeson was the youngest of five children. His father William was a runaway slave who went on to graduate from Lincoln University and become a minister, and his mother Maria came from an abolitionist Quaker family. Robeson's family knew both hardship and the determination to rise above it. A disagreement between Robeson’s father William and white financial supporters of the church he ministered arose and he found himself ousted from the church. The loss of his position forced him to work menial jobs until he found stable parsonage at the another church. When Paul was six, his mother, who was nearly blind, died in a house fire. His own life was no less challenging. In 1915, Paul Robeson won a four-year academic scholarship to Rutgers University. Despite violence and racism from teammates, he won 15 varsity letters in sports (baseball, basketball, track) and was twice named to the All-American Football Team. He received the Phi Beta Kappa key in his junior year, belonged to the Cap & Skull Honor Society, and graduated as Valedictorian. At Columbia Law School (1919-1923), Robeson met and married Eslanda Cordoza “Essie” Goode, who was to become the first Black woman to head a pathology laboratory. He took a job with a law firm, but left when a white secretary refused to take dictation from him.

He left the practice of law to use his artistic talents in theater and music to promote African and African-American history and culture. In November 1927, his namesake son was born, Paul Robeson, Jr. He also performed in Eugene O'Neill's All God's Chillun Got Wings in London then returned to the United States to star as Brutus in the film The Emperor Jones—the first film to feature an African American in a starring role, a feat not repeated for more than two decades in the U.S. His 11 films included Body and Soul (1924), Jericho (1937), and Proud Valley (1939). Robeson's travels taught him that racism was not as virulent in Europe as in the U.S. At home, it was difficult to find restaurants that would serve him, theaters in New York would only seat Blacks in the upper balconies, and his performances were often surrounded with threats or outright harassment. In London, on the other hand, Robeson's opening night performance of Emperor Jones brought the audience to its feet with cheers for twelve encores. The success of his acting placed him in elite social circles and his ascension to fame, which was forcefully aided by Essie, had occurred at a startling pace. In London, Robeson earned international acclaim for his lead role in Othello, opposite Peggy Ashcroft as Desdemona. Essie had learned early in their marriage that Robeson had been involved in extramarital affairs, but she tolerated them. However when she found out that her husband and Ashcroft were having an affair, she decided to seek a divorce and they split up. As well as advancing the cause of black Americans, he used his music to share the cultures of other countries and to benefit the labour and social movements of his time.

Robeson became known as a citizen of the world, equally comfortable with the people of Moscow, Nairobi, and Harlem. Among his friends were future African leader Jomo Kenyatta, India's Nehru, historian Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois, anarchist Emma Goldman, and writers James Joyce and Ernest Hemingway. During the 1940s, Robeson continued to perform and to speak out against racism, in support of labor, and for peace. He was a champion of working people and organized labor. He spoke and performed at strike rallies, conferences, and labor festivals worldwide. As a passionate believer in international cooperation, Robeson protested the growing Cold War and worked tirelessly for friendship and respect between the U.S. and the USSR (now modern-day Russia). In 1945, he headed an organization that challenged President Truman to support an anti-lynching law. In the late 1940s, when dissent was scarcely tolerated in the U.S., Robeson openly questioned why African Americans should fight in the army of a government that tolerated racism. Because of his outspokenness, he was accused by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) of being a Communist. Robeson saw this as an attack on the democratic rights of everyone who worked for international friendship and for equality, an accusation that nearly ended his career. Eighty of his concerts were canceled, and in 1949 two interracial outdoor concerts in Peekskill, N.Y. were attacked by racist mobs while state police stood by. Defiant, Robeson responded,

"I'm going to sing wherever the people want me to sing...and I won't be frightened by crosses burning in Peekskill or anywhere else."

In 1950, the U.S. revoked Robeson's passport, leading to an eight-year battle to resecure it and to travel again. During those years, Robeson studied Chinese, met with Albert Einstein to discuss the prospects for world peace, published his autobiography, Here I Stand, and sang at Carnegie Hall. Two major labor-related events took place during this time. In 1952 and 1953, he held two concerts at Peace Arch Park on the U.S.-Canadian border, singing to 30-40,000 people in both countries. In 1957, he made a transatlantic radiophone broadcast from New York to coal miners in Wales. In 1960, Robeson made his last concert tour to New Zealand and Australia. In ill health, Paul Robeson retired from public life in 1963. He died on January 23, 1976, at age 77, in Philadelphia.

Next, I’ll talk about a somewhat tragic and quite interesting individual that blurred the lines of race whose brilliance burned bright, but whose demons were dark: Leo Philippa Schuyler.

STATS

birthdate: August 2, 1898*

*note*: due to the absence of a birth time, this analysis will be even more speculative.

major planets:

Sun: Aries

Moon: Scorpio

Rising: unknown

Mercury: Taurus

Venus: Taurus

Mars: Pisces

Midheaven: unknown

Jupiter: Libra

Saturn: Sagittarius

Uranus: Sagittarius

Neptune: Gemini

Pluto: Gemini

Overall personality snapshot: He was a forceful individual with drive, energy and tenacity. He knew what he wanted and found ways, direct or indirect, of achieving it. But he could become torn between an impatient, up-front, naive, trusting approach to the world and a suspicious, distrustful doubt; between a self-denying, intense, slow-burning determination and a go-for-it pizzazz. When these two sides of himself worked against each other he may have found himself becoming embroiled in bitter conflicts which seem to be none of his making. Relationships fell apart, and those he thought of as friends stabbed him in the back. When he got his act together, however, he became unstoppable, a courageous, humorous, charismatic, co-operative leader, prepared to push himself to the limit and beyond in his determination to set the world to rights, and to leave his mark. People may have seen him as cynical, brash, self-assured and pushy, or as somewhat private and quietly purposeful, but none doubted his sincerity and commitment to his chosen path. Most would, however, be surprised at how much he cared about others’ good opinions. For though he wanted to make a real and lasting impact upon the world by one route or another, he especially wanted and needed the approval, appreciation and loud applause of his peers and could even brood, get bitter and self-destructive if his path is blocked, or his plans are crossed. His secret weapon, when he found it at his center, was his belief in his own abilities. This gave him a formidable will to win. Equally it gave him a great capacity to help others stand on their own two feet, and to motivate and encourage them. To bring out this creative core he needed demanding projects and ambitions to occupy his energies, especially when young.

Life for him was a drama, and self-dramatization was his forte. This drew him towards the theater or any arena, such as sports, where there was an opportunity to shine. No matter what career he followed, however, he made a career out of his life. He believed in himself and made a natural leader, but at the same time he wanted to be thought well of, and could become withdrawn and even bitter if his enthusiastic ideas met with resistance. His was a sharp, clear-headed, penetrating approach to life. He identified what he wanted to achieve and he went about achieving it with a natural gift of strategy and leadership. He had many of the qualities of the natural leader: an ability to put himself and his cause first single-mindedly; dedication; charisma; force; a talent for research, probing into hidden corners, which was excellent for military campaigning tactics and maneuvers, but also for campaigning journalism; and a gift for psychological insights and penetrating analysis. He was attracted to physical exercise and sport. If he did not consciously channel his physical, emotional and mental aggression in a purposeful way he could become very bitter, frustrated and self-destructive. He could take a real disliking to people, and could be arrogant, irascible, rude and bloody-minded. Yet he was a person of integrity. He was frank, honest and liked to tell it as he saw and felt it. This refreshing honesty kept him young and open-minded, always ready for new ideas and experiences. His forceful, sharp, biting wit and wry cynicism about human weaknesses made him an excellent humorist and comedian.

He was practical, steady and patient, but he could be inflexible in his views. One thing he did have was plenty of common sense and good powers of concentration, although he tended to think that purely abstract thought was a waste of time. His thought processes weren’t as quick as others, but his decisions were made with a lot of thought behind them. He also had a gloriously resonant speaking-voice. He knew how to make people feel at ease and instinctively knew how to resolve conflict. He was easy-going, frank and optimistic. He was quite sociable and expected other people to behave well at all times. He was eager for close personal relationships, so he tended to have a wide circle of friends. Self-indulgence could have been a problem for him, as could laziness and conceit in relationships. He was to be impatient with superficial details, preferring large-scale situations, and he disliked being tied down by obligations over which he had little control. It was often difficult for him to maintain his self-confidence and optimism, and he was easily discouraged. However, he was very intelligent. He tended to feel that there was no problem that cannot be resolved, as long as he was sufficiently informed. He could be quite cynical and fearless in his speech, but he could also be tactless. Although he was popular, periods of seclusion were necessary for him. He always tried to make sure that he was acting for the noblest of motives, and he may have had a tendency to moralize at times. However, he had a contradictory side to his nature in that whilst he accepted challenges that stretched him, he also liked to stick with the tried and true. This made his attitudes seem erratic at times.

He belonged to a generation with fiery enthusiasm for new and innovative ideas and concepts. Rejecting the past and its mistakes, he sought new ideals and people to believe in. As a member of this generation, he felt restless and adventurous, and was attracted towards foreign people, places and cultures. As a member of the Gemini Neptune generation, his restless mind pushed him to explore new intellectual fields. He loved communication and the occult and was likely also fascinated by metaphysical phenomena and astrology. As a Gemini Plutonian, he was mentally restless and willing to examine and change old doctrines, ideas and ways of thinking. As a member of this generation, he showed an enormous amount of mental vitality, originality and perception. Traditional customs and taboos were examined and rejected for newer and more original ways of doing things. As opportunities with education expanded, he questioned more and learned more. As a member of this generation, having more than one occupation at a time would not have been unusual to him.

Love/sex life: He was a doubly sensuous lover, capable of making sex both physically pleasurable and emotionally fulfilling. More importantly, he was also a very practical and grounded lover. He did not let his emotions run away with him and conducted his sex live in a reasonable and generally cautious manner. Of all the lovers of this type, he was the one most likely to make his sexual allure and emotional sensitivity work for him and not against him, revealing the true depth of his luscious sensuality only to a chosen few who, through loyalty, commitment and proven honesty, have paid the price of admission. The problems in his sexual nature were rooted less in his emotional vulnerability than in his self-indulgence. His sexual impulses were so immediate, so intense and so deeply entangled with his emotions that they tended to absorb him completely. Even though he was very sensitive to the emotional needs of others, it was nearly impossible for him to think of anyone but himself when his own sexuality was engaged. He needed to guard against letting the power of his desires drive him to unwise and selfish extremes.

minor asteroids and points:

North Node: Capricorn

Lilith: Gemini

His North Node in Capricorn dictated that he needed to develop the more caring and compassionate side to his personality and try to place less emphasis on the materialistic aspects of his life. His Lilith in Gemini ensured that he was dangerously attracted to women with a kaleidoscopic psyche who were wily, witty, and able to best anyone in a debate and weren’t above flirting, cajoling, wiring, and talking their way to the top.

elemental dominance:

fire

water

He was dynamic and passionate, with strong leadership ability. He generated enormous warmth and vibrancy. He was exciting to be around, because he was genuinely enthusiastic and usually friendly. However, he could either be harnessed into helpful energy or flame up and cause destruction. Ultimately, he chose the former. Confident and opinionated, he was fond of declarative statements such as “I will do this” or “It’s this way.” When out of control—usually because he was bored, or hadn’t been acknowledged—he was bossy, demanding, and even tyrannical. But at his best, his confidence and vision inspired others to conquer new territory in the world, in society, and in themselves. He had high sensitivity and elevation through feelings. His heart and his emotions were his driving forces, and he couldn’t do anything on earth if he didn’t feel a strong effective charge. He needed to love in order to understand, and to feel in order to take action, which caused a certain vulnerability which he should (and often did) fight against.

modality dominance:

mutable

He wasn’t particularly interested in spearheading new ventures or dealing with the day-to-day challenges of organization and management. He excelled at performing tasks and producing outcomes. He was flexible and liked to finish things. Was also likely undependable, lacking in initiative, and disorganized. Had an itchy restlessness and an unwillingness to buckle down to the task at hand. Probably had a chronic inability to commit—to a job, a relationship, or even to a set of values.

planet dominants:

Venus

Mars

Uranus

He was romantic, attractive and valued beauty, had an artistic instinct, and was sociable. He had an easy ability to create close personal relationships, for better or worse, and to form business partnerships. He was aggressive, individualistic and had a high sexual drive. He believed in action and took action. His survival instinct was strong. He wanted to take himself to the limit—and then surpass that limit, which he often did. He ultimately refused to compromise his integrity by following another’s agenda. He didn’t compare herself to other people and didn’t want to dominate or be dominated. He simply wanted to be free to follow his own path, whatever it was. He was unique and protected his individuality. He had disruptions appear in his life that brought unpleasant and unexpected surprises and he immersed herself in areas of his life in which these disruptions occurred. Change galvanized him. He was inventive, creative, and original.

sign dominants:

Taurus

Sagittarius

Aries

His stubbornness and determination kept his around for the long haul on any project or endeavour. He was incredibly patient, singular in his pursuit of goals, and determined to attain what he wanted. Although he lacked versatility, he compensated for it by enduring whatever he had to in order to get what he wanted. He enjoyed being surrounded by nice things. He liked fine art and music, and may have had considerable musical ability. He also had a talent for working with his hands—gardening, woodworking, and sculpting. He was a physically oriented individual who took pride in his body. He sought the truth, expressed it as he saw it—and didn’t care if anyone else agreed with him. He saw the large picture of any issue and couldn’t be bothered with the mundane details. He was always outspoken and likely couldn’t understand why other people weren’t as candid. After all, what was there to hide? He loved his freedom and chafed at any restrictions. He was a physically oriented individual who took pride in his body. He was bold, courageous, and resourceful. He always seemed to know what he believed, what he wanted from life, and where he was going. He could be dynamic and aggressive (sometimes, to a fault) in pursuing his goals—whatever they might be. Could be argumentative, lacked tact, and had a bad temper. On the other hand, his anger rarely lasted long, and he could be warm and loving with those he cared about.

Read more about him under the cut:

This handsome, eloquent and highly charismatic actor became one of the foremost interpreters of Eugene O'Neill's plays and one of the most treasured names in song during the first half of the twentieth century. He also courted disdain and public controversy for most of his career as a staunch Cold War-era advocate for human rights, as well as his very vocal support for Joseph Stalin and the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956. While the backlash of his civil rights activities and left-wing ideology left him embittered and practically ruined his career, he remains today a durable symbol of racial pride and consciousness. Born in Princeton, New Jersey, on April 9, 1898, Paul LeRoy Bustill Robeson and his four siblings (William, Benjamin, Reeve, Marian) lost their mother, a schoolteacher, in a fire while quite young (Paul was only six). Paul's father, a humble Presbyterian minister and former slave, raised the family singlehandedly and the young, impressionable boy grew up singing spirituals in his father's church. Paul was a natural athlete and the tall (6'3"), strapping high school fullback had no trouble earning a scholarship to prestigious Rutgers University in 1915 at age 17 -- becoming only the third member of his race to be admitted at the time. He excelled in football, baseball, basketball, and track and field, graduating as a four-letter man. He was also the holder of a Phi Beta Kappa key in his junior year and was a selected member of their honorary society, Cap and Skull. Moreover, he was the class valedictorian and in his speech was already preaching idealism. Paul subsequently played professional football to earn money while attending Columbia University's law school, and also took part in amateur dramatics. During this time he met and married Eslanda Cardozo Goode in 1921. She eventually became his personal assistant. Despite the fact that he was admitted to the New York bar, Paul's future as an actor was destined and he never did practice law. His wife persuaded him to play a role in "Simon the Cyrenian" at the Harlem YMCA in 1921. This was followed by his Broadway debut the following year in the short-lived play "Taboo", a drama set in Africa, which also went to London. As a result, he was asked to join the Provincetown Players, a Greenwich Village theater group that included in its membership playwright Eugene O'Neill. O'Neill personally asked Paul to star in his plays "All God's Chillun Got Wings" and "The Emperor Jones" in 1924. The reaction from both critics and audiences alike was electrifying...an actor was born. In 1925 Paul delivered his first singing recital and also made his film debut starring in Body and Soul (1925), a rather murky melodrama that nevertheless was ahead of its time in its depictions of black characters. Although Robeson played a scurrilous, corrupt clergyman who takes advantage of his own people, his dynamic personality managed to shine through. Radio and recordings helped spread his name across foreign waters. His resonant bass was a major highlight in the London production of "Show Boat" particularly with his powerful rendition of "Ol' Man River." He remained in London to play the role of Shakespeare's "Othello" in 1930 (at the time no U.S. company would hire him), and was again significant in a highly controversial production. Paul caused a slight stir by co-starring opposite a white actress, Peggy Ashcroft, who played Desdemona. Around this time Paul starred in the landmark British film Borderline (1930), a silent film that dealt strongly with racial themes, and then returned to the stage in the O'Neill play "The Hairy Ape" in 1931. The following year he appeared in a Broadway revival of "Show Boat" again as Joe. In the same production, the noted chanteuse Helen Morgan repeated her original 1927 performance as the half-caste role of Julie, but the white actress Tess Gardella played the role of Queenie in her customary blackface opposite Robeson. Robeson spent most of his time singing and performing in England throughout the 1930s. He also was given the opportunity to recapture two of his greatest stage successes on film: The Emperor Jones (1933) and Show Boat (1936). In Britain he continued to film sporadically with Sanders of the River (1935), Song of Freedom (1936), King Solomon's Mines (1937), Dark Sands (1937) and The Proud Valley (1940) in important roles that resisted demeaning stereotypes. During the 1930s he also gravitated strongly towards economics and politics with a burgeoning interest in social activism. In 1934 he made the first of several trips to the Soviet Union and outwardly extolled the Soviet way of life and his belief that it lacked racial bias, despite the Holodomor and the later Rootless Cosmopolitan Campaign. He was a popular figure in Wales where he became personally involved in their civil rights affairs, notably the Welsh miners. Developing a marked leftist ideology, he continued to criticize the blatant discrimination he found so prevalent in America. The 1940s was a mixture of performance triumphs and poignant, political upheavals. While his title run in the musical drama "John Henry" (1940), was short-lived, he earned widespread acclaim for his Broadway "Othello" in 1943 opposite José Ferrer as Iago and Uta Hagen as Desdemona. By this time, however, Robeson was being reviled by much of white America for his outspoken civil rights speeches against segregation and lynchings, particularly in the South. A founder of the Progressive Party, an independent political party, his outdoor concerts sometimes ignited violence and he was now a full-blown target for "Red Menace" agitators. In 1946 he denied under oath being a member of the Communist Party, but steadfastly refused to refute the accusations under subsequent probes. As a result, his passport was withdrawn and he became engaged in legal battles for nearly a decade in order to retrieve it. Adding fuel to the fire was his only son's (Paul Jr.) marriage to a white woman in 1949 and his being awarded the Stalin Peace Prize in 1952 (he was unable to receive it until 1958 when his passport was returned to him). Essentially blacklisted, tainted press statements continued to hound him. He began performing less and less in America. Despite his growing scorn towards America, he never gave up his American citizenship although the anguish of it all led to a couple of suicide attempts, nervous breakdowns and a dependency on drugs. Europe was a different story. The people continued to hold him in high regard as an artist/concertist above reproach. He had a command of about 20 languages and wound up giving his last acting performance in "Othello" on foreign shores -- at Stratford-on-Avon in 1959. While still performing in the 1960s, his health suddenly took a turn for the worse and he finally returned to the United States in 1963. His poet/wife Eslanda Robeson died of cancer two years later. Paul remained in poor health for pretty much the rest of his life. His last years were spent in Harlem in near-total isolation, denying all interviews and public correspondence, although he was honored for speaking out against apartheid in South Africa in 1978. Paul died at age 77 of complications from a stroke. Among his many honors: he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1995; he received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1998; was honored with a postage stamp during the "Black Heritage" series; and both a Cultural Center at Penn State University and a high school in Brooklyn bear his name. In 1995 his autobiography "Here I Stand" was published in England in 1958; his son, Paul Robeson Jr., also chronicled a book about his father, "Undiscovered Paul Robeson: An Artist's Journey" in 2001. (x)

#aries #paul robeson #star analyses #astrology #long ass post #scandalous stars #mine

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hagleyvault · 4 years ago

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Today’s #TradeCardTuesday brings us this ca. 1880? advertisement for Dobbins' Electric Soap, manufactured by Philadelphia’s Isaiah L. Cragin & Company (est’d 1867).

The brand’s name was bestowed upon it by its original manufacturer, John B. Dobbins, a Philadelphia soapmaker who presumably appended the ‘Electric’ to his product to capitalize on popular enthusiasm for the promise of electrification. Dobbins was also the manufacturer of Dobbins Medicated Toilet Soap and Dobbins Electric Boot Polish.

Dobbins appears to have temporarily lost the rights to the soaps that bore his name in 1869, along with use of his trademarks, manufactory, and the materials within it for a period of twenty years as a result of debts owed to Charles I. Cragin, the son of Isiah L. Cragin. This agreement would later result in a vicious court case. In 1890, rather than relinquish the use of the name as their legal agreement required, the Cragin family continued to make use of Dobbins’ brands and trademarks, and even incorporated in New Jersey as the Dobbins Electric Soap Manufacturing Company. Dobbins, described by J. Warren Coulston, the lawyer who drafted the original agreement as “very old” and “very poor”, chose to pursue the matter.

Ultimately, the New Jersey courts were unimpressed with the Cragins’ argument that the contract’s statement that “they may use his name upon and as descriptive of any soap or blacking they may hereafter make . . .” nullified term limits outlined elsewhere and gave them perpetual rights to the name and trademarks. John B. Dobbins won the case and was awarded nearly one million dollars in royalties that had been denied to him.

It’s not clear from newspaper accounts whether Dobbins was able to collect those funds, however. By 1895, his soap works at the corner of Susquehanna and Germantown Avenues in Philadelphia were in use by the Quaker City Chocolate Works, later known as the Quaker City Camden Company. Dobbins died not long after, on May 17, 1898 in Camden, New Jersey at the age of 68. The site of his soap works is now a vacant lot. The Cragins, meanwhile, retained operations of the Dobbins Soap Manufacturing Company and continued to use the brand name in advertisements denouncing similarly named products as “mediocre” imitators whose products would “rot and ruin clothes”.

Isiah, the elder Cragin, died on October 2, 1901. Charles I. Cragin, by then a wealthy man, who had also inherited his wealthy father’s estate, appears to have spent the rest of his life as president of the company and employed as a director of Philadelphia’s Fourth Street National Bank, though his December 16, 1915 obituary in the city’s Evening Public Ledger noted that he “devoted little time to either enterprise in the last 20 years”, preferring instead to entertain guests in his home in Philadelphia and in Reve D’Ete, his lavish vacation home in Palm Beach, Florida often described in the society pages as “the most luxurious of semi-tropical palaces” and which, in 1891, was touted as the “furthermost south mansion in the United States”.

The Dobbins Soap Manufacturing Company, located at 17th Street and Federal Street, remained in the hands of the Cragin family until 1934, when it was purchased by the Iowa Soap Company. By 1959, the Concord Chemical Company called the manufactory home, remaining there until the late 2000s, when the Concord Chemical Company manufactory became the abandoned Concord Chemical Site. Following intervention from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2010, the site was burned to the ground in a fire on June 19, 2011. In 2018, the former president and CEO of the by then defunct Concord Chemical Co. was sentenced to six months of home confinement for illegally storing and abandoning hazardous, corrosive, and ignitable waste at the facility.

This trade card is part of Hagley Library’s Carter Litchfield collection on the history of fatty materials (Accession 2007.227). As an organic chemist, Carter Litchfield (1932-2007) studied and specialized in edible fats. Over the course of his career, Litchfield built an important collection about the history of fats and fatty materials. This collection has not been digitized in its entirety. The online collection is a curated selection of items and primarily includes paper ephemera such as ration stamps, tax stamps, trade cards, pamphlets, and trade catalogs. You can view it online now by clicking here.

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silent-era-of-cinema · 4 years ago

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Reginald Leigh Dugmore (20 November 1891 – 16 June 1967), better known as Reginald Denny, achieved success both as an English stage, film and television actor, and as an aviator and UAV pioneer. He was also once amateur boxing champion of Great Britain.

Born as Reginald Leigh Dugmore on 20 November 1891 in Richmond, Surrey, England, he came from a theatrical family; his father was actor and opera singer W.H. Denny. In 1899, Master Reginald Denny began his stage career in A Royal Family and starred in several London productions from age seven to twelve. At sixteen, he ran away from a boarding school and trained as a pugilist with Sir Harry Preston at the National Sporting Club; he also appeared in several British stage productions touring the music halls of England of The Merry Widow. In 1911, he went to the United States to appear in Henry B. Harris's stage production of The Quaker Girl, then joined the Bandmann Opera Company as a baritone touring India and the Far East India where he performed for Krishna Raja Wadiyar IV.

Although he worked in "flickers" during 1911 and 1912, Reginald officially began his film career in 1915 with the World Film Company and made films both in the United States and Britain until the 1960s. Among the numerous stage productions in which he starred, Reginald appeared in John Barrymore's 1920 Broadway production of Richard III; the two actors became friends and starred in several films together including Sherlock Holmes (1922), Hamlet (1933), Romeo and Juliet (1936), and Paramount's Bulldog Drummond series (1937-1938).

Denny was a well-known actor in silent films, and with the advent of talkies he became a character actor. He played the lead role in a number of his earlier films, generally as a comedic Englishman in such works as Private Lives (1931) and later had reasonably steady work as a supporting actor in dozens of films, including The Little Minister (1934) with Katharine Hepburn, Anna Karenina (1935) with Greta Garbo, Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca (1940) and the Frank Sinatra crime caper film Assault on a Queen (1966). He made frequent appearances in television during the 1950s and 1960s. His last role was in Batman (1966) as Commodore Schmidlapp. In 2020, Kino Lorber released 4K restorations on DVD and Blu-ray of three of Denny's silent comedies: The Reckless Age, Skinner’s Dress Suit, and What Happened to Jones? in The Reginald Denny Collection.

Denny served as an observer/gunner in the First World War in the new wartime Royal Air Force.

In the 1920s he performed as a stunt pilot with the 13 Black Cats and loaned his WWI Sopwith Snipe biplane to Howard Hughes for use in Hell's Angels (1927). In the early 1930s, Denny became interested in free-flight model airplanes. In 1934, he and oil tycoon Max Whittier's son, Paul Whittier, formed Reginald Denny Industries and opened a model plane shop, which became a chain known as the Reginald Denny Hobby Shop, now California Hobby Distributors.

He designed his "Dennyplane" with its signature model engine "Dennymite," developed by engineer Walter Righter, in addition to the "Denny Jr." which child actors would enter in model plane competitions at Mines Field, which later became Los Angeles International Airport. In 1935, Denny began developing his remote controlled "radioplane" for military use. In 1939, he and his partners won the first military United States Army Air Corps contract for their radio-controlled target drone, the Radioplane OQ-2. In July 1940, they formed the Radioplane Company and manufactured nearly fifteen thousand drones for the US Army during the Second World War. The company was purchased by Northrop in 1952.

Denny had a great deal in common with Robert Loraine, an older actor / Airman. They had been in a West End production together in 1902 in London,[5] they were both veterans of the RFC (and its successor, the Royal Air Force) and were both still flying and making films in Hollywood in the 1930s. It is possible that Denny's interest in radio controlled aircraft was influenced by his old RFC colleagues and the British unmanned aircraft developments.

Denny married actress Irene Hilda Haismann on 28 January 1913 in Calcutta, both were with the Bandmann Opera Company. They had one daughter but were divorced in 1928. Denny married actress Isabelle "Betsy Lee" Stiefel in 1928 and they had three children.

Denny died on 16 June 1967 at the age of 75, after suffering a stroke whilst visiting his sister in his home town of Richmond in England. His body was buried at Forest Lawn-Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles, California. His wife Isabelle survived him until 1996, living to age 89.

#reginald denny #silent era #silent hollywood #silent movie stars #classic movies #classic hollywood #classic movie stars #golden age of hollywood #1910s movies #1920s hollywood #1930s hollywood #1940s hollywood #1950s hollywood #1960s hollywood

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corkcitylibraries · 4 years ago

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Frederick Douglass Series | Part 2

Frederick Douglass escaped slavery as a young adult in 1838 and became an influential leader in the struggle for abolition and women’s suffrage. His dedication to and passion for the protection of human rights brought about transformations in the US constitution.

This year marks the 175th anniversary of Frederick Douglass’ visit to Ireland.

Douglass Week, which runs from 8-14 February 2021, coinciding with Frederick Douglass’ assumed birthday, commemorates this revolutionary man’s visit to Cork.

Cork City Libraries will publish a four-part series, during Douglass Week. This series will chronicle Frederick Douglass’ childhood, his experience as a slave and escape from slavery, his time in Ireland and, in particular, Cork, his two wives, his meeting with Daniel O’Connell and his achievements as an abolitionist, orator and suffragist.

Frederick Douglass in Ireland

by Mary Horgan

Frederick Douglass, 1845 – a whole-plate daguerreotype, which he had taken shortly before his visit to Ireland (from Picturing Frederick Douglass: An Illustrated Biography of the Nineteenth Century’s Most Photographed American)

In 1845, shortly after the publication of Frederick Douglass’ first autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Written By Himself, the American Anti-Slavery Society sent the 27-year-old, as a lecturing agent, on a very successful two-year tour of Great Britain and Ireland to forge stronger links with their anti-slavery movements and to attract new supporters to the abolition cause. Also, he was advised to leave America for his own safety. As Douglass was still considered a fugitive slave under the Constitution of the United States, he lived in the constant knowledge that he could be returned to bondage at any time. Anti-slavery societies in various parts of Great Britain and Ireland were working to enlighten the public mind on the subject of slavery as well as raising funds to aid fugitive slaves as they tried to make good their escape north on the Underground Railroad – a network of secret routes and safe houses - to free states and to Canada.

Soon after his arrival in Dublin on 31 August 1845, Douglass wrote to friends in America: “I am safe in old Ireland, in the beautiful city of Dublin.” He began his four-month visit to Ireland at the home of James Webb and his family, near Trinity College. James’ brother, the Quaker anti-slavery activist, Richard Davis Webb was a friend of American abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison and an important link between British, Irish and American anti-slavery activists. Webb was a founding member of the Hibernian Anti-Slavery Society in 1837 and had founded a printing company in Dublin, in 1828, publishing works from various philanthropic, social and political organisations. In late September 1845, Webb published the first Irish edition of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass with a print run of 2000, which would be sold at Douglass’ various speaking engagements throughout the country. It contained the following notice of recommendation for Douglass from the Hibernian Anti-Slavery Society.

A notice of recommendation for Douglass from the Hibernian Anti-Slavery Society, Richard D. Webb, Secretary (from Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written By Himself. Dublin: Webb and Chapman, 1845, Special Collections, UCC Library).

After a month in Dublin where he gave a number of lectures and met Daniel O’Connell, whom he greatly admired, Douglass travelled onto Wexford and Waterford before arriving in Cork. Though Cork’s 18th/early 19th century economy had benefited through trade links from the existence of slavery in the West Indies, Cork also had a committed Anti-Slavery Society (CASS). It was formed on 6 January 1826, by the Quaker, Joshua Beale, at the Assembly Rooms in George’s Street (now Oliver Plunkett Street). CASS was ecumenical in its membership; as well as Quakers and other protestant dissenters including Unitarian Presbyterians and Methodists, it also attracted members of the Established Church of Ireland as well as Roman Catholics. After the abolition of slavery in the West Indies in 1833, CASS turned its attention to working for the abolition of slavery in the American South. Its auxiliary branch, the Cork Ladies Anti-Slavery Society (CLASS) collected contributions for Bazaars organised by the American Anti-Slavery Society. The following is an appeal from Cork Ladies Anti-Slavery Society for contributions for the Twelfth Annual Bazaar in 1845.

Appeal from Cork Ladies Anti-Slavery Society

A visit by Douglass to Cork was organized by the Cork Anti-Slavery Society (CASS) and its auxiliary branch, the Cork Ladies Anti-Slavery Society (CLASS). On arrival in Cork on 10 October 1845, Douglass went to stay with Thomas and Ann Jennings and their eight children at 9 Brown Street, where he enjoyed the lively family atmosphere and stimulating discussions which helped to make his time in Cork such a personal highlight of his two year tour of Great Britain and Ireland. Thomas owned the Jennings Soda-Water Factory at 11/12 Brown Street. Brown Street is no longer in existence but at the time of Frederick’s visit, it ran through what is now the Paul Street Shopping Centre down towards the River Lee. One of the daughters of the family, 32-year-old Isabel, was Secretary of the Cork Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society and her sisters Charlotte and Hannah also attended its weekly meetings. Isabel arranged Douglass’ speaking engagements, so she was soon able to report to Maria Weston Chapman of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society that his lectures in Cork had been such a success that:

“There never was a person who made a greater sensation in Cork amongst all religious bodies . . . He feels like a friend whom we had long known, and I think before he goes we will quite understand one another”.

Her sister Jane was equally impressed writing to Mrs Chapman:

“We are a large family, my mother, three brothers and five sisters, generally considered not easily pleased – but Frederick won the affection of every one of us.”

(Letters from the Jennings family to Maria Weston Chapman held at Boston Public Library)

During Douglass’ time in Cork, nearly 250 copies of the Narrative of Frederick Douglass were sold in the city, which were on sale in bookshops such as Purcell & Co and Bradford & Co on Patrick Street. So successful was the first Irish edition that a second was published in early 1846. Douglass’ busy schedule in Cork involved at least thirteen lectures with people turning out in droves to hear him. In a series of lectures at the Wesleyan Chapel, the Court House, the Temperance Institute, Lloyd’s Hotel, the Imperial Hotel and the Independent Chapel, Douglass’ powerful oratorical skills drew a wide cross-section of Cork society. He spoke at temperance meetings as well as abolitionist meetings, where he would leave his audiences in no uncertainty about the evils of slavery. On Tuesday 14 October, he gave a breakfast speech at Lloyd’s Hotel, George’s Street, (now Casey’s, Oliver Plunkett Street) where he reminded his audience:

“You will remember that I was a slave . . . that I am still a slave according to the law of the State from which I ran, and according to the General Government of the States of North America”.

(from Cork Examiner, 15 October, 1845).

One of his Cork speeches was reprinted in an American abolitionist newspaper with the following warning:

“Southern slaveholders read the following proceeding, if you wish to know what are the feelings of the People of Ireland, in reference to your nefarious slave system.”

(from The Liberator newspaper).

During Douglass’ time in Cork, he became friendly with the then Mayor of Cork, 51-year-old Richard Dowden, a Unitarian, philanthropist and member of the Cork Anti-Slavery Society. Dowden later ran the Jennings Soda-Water Factory after the death of Thomas Jennings.

Richard Dowden, Mayor of Cork, 1845 (JCHAS, 1992)

Douglass attended the Unitarian Church, Princes Street with Richard Dowden. This church is listed as the oldest place of continuous worship in the city since it was opened in 1717. Dowden was closely associated with Father Theobald Mathew, often fundraising for the ’Apostle of Temperance’ and it was in this church that Father Mathew signed the Temperance Agreement in 1839. Fr Mathew attained national and international prominence for his temperance crusade of the 1830s and 1840s and Douglass was already a great admirer of Fr Mathew when he came to Ireland. Soon after his arrival in Cork, he attended a Temperance soirée with music, dancing and fireworks at the Cork Temperance Institute, Academy Street, to mark Fr Mathew’s fifty-fifth birthday.

Opening of the Cork Temperance Institute, London Illustrated News, 1845 www.corkpastandpresent.ie

Shortly after this, Fr Mathew invited him to breakfast at his home at 7 Cove Street, which Douglass described as being of “all of a very plain order . . . too plain, for so great a man”. Though Douglass had been teetotal for eight years, he was moved to renew his pledge to abstain from alcohol from Fr Mathew, writing:

“So entirely charmed by the goodness of this truly good man was I, that I besought him to administer the pledge to me . . . “

On 20 October, Douglass spoke at Cork Temperance Institute, on ‘Intemperance and Slavery’. Only a few years later, Douglass would be greatly disappointed in Fr Mathew. Though he was a supporter of the anti-slavery cause, Fr Mathew refused to attend anti-slavery rallies or to speak out against slavery when on tour of the United States in 1849. In Douglass’ newspaper, The North Star, he wrote: “We had fondly hoped, from an acquaintance with Fr Mathew . . . that he would not change his morality by changing his location . . . We are however grieved, humbled and mortified to know that HE too, has fallen”. Fr Mathew felt he had to prioritize his temperance crusade and that to condemn slave owners during his visit to the United States would lose his campaign much support.

Cork Examiner, 13 October 1845

This is an advertisement for a lecture titled, ‘I am Here to Spread Light on American Slavery’ at the Court House, Great George’s Street, (now Washington Street), on the following afternoon. The Cork Examiner, 15 October 1845, reported that “The Grand Jury Gallery was thronged with ladies, who seemed to take the liveliest interest in the proceedings” and went on to praise the two-hour lecture as being “one of the most eloquent and impressive discourses we ever heard”.

On Friday 17 October, Douglass delivered a two-hour lecture at the Wesleyan Chapel, St Patrick’s Street, titled ‘Slavery Corrupts American Society and Religion’ in which he was critical of different Protestant groups in America for their lack of support for the anti-slavery cause. In Ireland, he drew people from diverse backgrounds to hear him, cutting across social, religious and political divides. As well as those from the more affluent sections of Cork society, “the suffering poor”, as they were referred to by the Cork Examiner, also came in great numbers. Douglass was adept at being able to tailor his speeches to the different audiences. For instance, when speaking at the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, he refrained from mentioning Daniel O’Connell at all, but at the Court House, where many in the audience were from the Roman Catholic working class, he extolled the man they called ‘The Liberator’, saying that they felt “more sympathy with the slave than did the other sects”.

(Cork Examiner, 15 October 1845).

Cork Constitution, 21 October 1845

Douglass’ final public appearance in Cork was at the Independent Chapel, George’s Street (now Oliver Plunkett Street) on 3 November 1845. This chapel which was built between 1826 and 1831, on the site of the old Assembly Rooms, was the chapel of the Congregationalists, who were also known as Independents because they believed in liberty of conscience and the independence of each congregation.

The remains of the Independent Chapel today behind Euro Giant , Oliver Plunkett St., www.corkpastandpresent.ie

A number of placards including one which read Céad Míle Fáilte decorated the room. Ralph Varian, the secretary of the Cork Anti-Slavery Society read an Address to Frederick Douglass:

“ . . . In the happy hours of social intercourse which we have enjoyed in your society, a further opportunity has been afforded us of becoming acquainted with the details of that abominable system of savage law, and degraded public sentiment by which three millions of human beings are held in bodily and menial bondage yoked to the oar of American Freedom. Never were we so impressed with the horrors of the system, as while listening to one, who was himself born subject to the lash and fetter . . . yet who is so gifted, as he to whom we dedicate this Address, with high [ ], intellectual, and spiritual power, together with so much refinement of mind and manners.

Allow us to say that in estimating the pleasures and advantages which your visit has conferred upon us – we value highly those derivable from your excellent Anti-Slavery work – the unpretending memoir of your escape from chattled bondage to the liberty and light of a moral and intellectual being. While perusing it, we have been charmed to the end by the power of simple truth, and warm and genuine feeling . . . “

Extract from an ‘Address to Frederick Douglass from the Anti-Slavery Society of Cork’

Cork Examiner, 7 November 1845

A verse, ‘Céad Míle Fáilte to the Stranger’ was composed for the occasion by local poet, Daniel Casey, and sung by those in attendance:

“Stranger from a distant nation

We welcome thee with acclamation

And, as a brother warmly greet thee –

Rejoiced in Erin’s Isle to meet thee

Then Cead Mille Failthe to the stranger,

Free from bondage, chains and danger.

Who could have heard thy hapless story,

Of tyrants – canting, base and gory;

Whose heart throbbed not with deep

pulsation

Oh! Why should different hue or feature

Prevent the sacred laws of Nature,

And every tie of feeling sever? –

The voice of Nature thunders ‘Never!’

Then borne o’er the Atlantic waters

The cry of Erin’s sons and daughters

For freedom shall henceforth be blended

Till Slavery’s hellish reign be ended.”

(by Daniel Casey)

In return, Douglass was moved to sing an old abolition song. In his reply to the Address, he thanked the Cork press for reporting his words, saying:

“I did not expect the high position that I enjoy during my stay in the City of Cork . . . I want the Americans to know that in the good city of Cork, I ridiculed their nation - I attempted to excite the utter contempt of the people here upon them”.

(Cork Examiner, 7 November 1845)

Mayor Richard Dowden gave Douglass a signet ring, on behalf of the city, to symbolize the relationship between Frederick and people of Cork. On the next leg of his Irish tour, Douglass sent a letter of heartfelt thanks to Dowden on 11 November 1845.

Letter from Frederick Douglass to Richard Dowden (part) (Courtesy of Cork City and County Archives)

The following is a transcription of part of the letter which is now held at Cork City and County Archives.

“I speak just what I feel – and what all who are acquainted with the facts will confess to be true, when I say that to yours and the deep interest which the Miss Jennings took in me and my mission, I am almost entirely indebted for the success which attended my humble efforts while in the good City of Cork. I shall ever remember my visit with pleasure, and never shall I think of Cork without remembering that yourself and the kind friends just named constituted the source from whence flowed much of the light, life and warmth of humanity which I found in that good City . . .

. . . I received the token of your esteem which you sent, I have it on the little finger of my right hand, I never wore one- or had the disposition to do so before, I shall wear this, and prize it as the representative of the holy feelings with which you espoused and advocated my humble cause”.

Douglass wrote of his time in Ireland as being transformative. As he was about to leave Ireland, he wrote from Belfast the following to William Lloyd Garrison:

“I have been here a little more than four months . . . I can truly say, I have spent some of the happiest moments of my life since landing in this country. I seem to have undergone a transformation, I live a new life”.

(Letter of 1 January 1846, The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass).

Douglass continued his anti-slavery lectures in England and Wales throughout the rest of 1846 and early 1847. On his return to the U.S in April 1847, he published newspapers and further autobiographies. He provided aid for fugitive slaves. During the Civil War, he campaigned for the rights of African Americans to enlist in the Union Army. He was consulted by President Lincoln and later presidents, from whom he received several political appointments. Throughout his life, Douglass was also a great supporter of equal rights for women.

In 1887, Douglass made a short return trip to Dublin to “once more look into the faces and hear the voices of the few remaining friends who gave me sympathy and support during my visit 41 years ago”. He visited the family of Richard Webb, the abolitionist and publisher, who had died in 1872.

Frederick Douglass in Killiney, Co. Dublin, 1887, when he visited the Webb family. (from Picturing Frederick Douglass: An Illustrated Biography of the Nineteenth Century’s Most Photographed American)

On return to Washington D.C., Douglass spoke in favour of Irish Home Rule.

Frederick Douglass died of a heart attack near Washington D.C. on 20 February 1895 after attending a meeting of the Women’s National Council.

Bibliography:

Douglass, F., Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Written by Himself, Webb & Chapman, Dublin, 1845. (Special Collections, UCC)

Douglass, F., Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Written by Himself, Norton & Co., New York, 1997.

Fenton, L., Frederick Douglass in Ireland: ‘The Black O’Connell’. Ulverscroft, Leicester, 2015.

Foner, P. ed), The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglas, International Publishers, New York, 1987.

Kinealy, C., Frederick Douglass and Ireland: In His Own Words, Vol. 1, Routledge, New York, 2018.

Stauffer, J., Trodd, Z., Bernier, C., Picturing Frederick Douglass: An Illustrated Biography of the Nineteenth Century’s Most Photographed American, Norton & Co., New York, 2018.

Ferreira, Patricia J., ‘Frederick Douglass in Ireland: The Dublin Edition of His “Narrative”’, New Hibernia Review, Vol. 5, No. 1, Spring, 2001.

Harrison, Richard S., ‘The Cork Anti-Slavery Society, its Antecedents and Quaker Background 1755-1859’, JCHAS, 1992.

Jenkins, Lee, ‘Beyond the Pale: Frederick Douglass in Cork’, The Irish Review, No. 24, Autumn, 1999.

Quinn, John F., “Safe in Old Ireland”: Frederick Douglass’s Tour, 1845-1846’, The Historian, Vol. 64, Spring/Summer, 2002.

Cork Constitution

Cork Examiner

The North Star

www.corkpastandpresent.ie

#corkcitylibraries #frederickdouglass

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venicepearl · 4 years ago

Photo

Susan B. Anthony (February 15, 1820 – March 13, 1906) was an American social reformer and women's rights activist who played a pivotal role in the women's suffrage movement. Born into a Quaker family committed to social equality, she collected anti-slavery petitions at the age of 17. In 1856, she became the New York state agent for the American Anti-Slavery Society.

In 1851, she met Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who became her lifelong friend and co-worker in social reform activities, primarily in the field of women's rights. In 1852, they founded the New York Women's State Temperance Society after Anthony was prevented from speaking at a temperance conference because she was female. In 1863, they founded the Women's Loyal National League, which conducted the largest petition drive in United States history up to that time, collecting nearly 400,000 signatures in support of the abolition of slavery. In 1866, they initiated the American Equal Rights Association, which campaigned for equal rights for both women and African Americans. In 1868, they began publishing a women's rights newspaper called The Revolution. In 1869, they founded the National Woman Suffrage Association as part of a split in the women's movement. In 1890, the split was formally healed when their organization merged with the rival American Woman Suffrage Association to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association, with Anthony as its key force. In 1876, Anthony and Stanton began working with Matilda Joslyn Gage on what eventually grew into the six-volume History of Woman Suffrage. The interests of Anthony and Stanton diverged somewhat in later years, but the two remained close friends.

In 1872, Anthony was arrested for voting in her hometown of Rochester, New York, and convicted in a widely publicized trial. Although she refused to pay the fine, the authorities declined to take further action. In 1878, Anthony and Stanton arranged for Congress to be presented with an amendment giving women the right to vote. Introduced by Sen. Aaron A. Sargent (R-CA), it later became known colloquially as the Susan B. Anthony Amendment. It was eventually ratified as the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1920.

Anthony traveled extensively in support of women's suffrage, giving as many as 75 to 100 speeches per year and working on many state campaigns. She worked internationally for women's rights, playing a key role in creating the International Council of Women, which is still active. She also helped to bring about the World's Congress of Representative Women at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893.

When she first began campaigning for women's rights, Anthony was harshly ridiculed and accused of trying to destroy the institution of marriage. Public perception of her changed radically during her lifetime, however. Her 80th birthday was celebrated in the White House at the invitation of President William McKinley. She became the first female citizen to be depicted on U.S. coinage when her portrait appeared on the 1979 dollar coin.

#Susan B. Anthony #women in history #women in activism #women for human rights #women for civil rights #civil rights #women rights #XIX century #XX century #people #portrait #photo #photography #Black and White

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memecucker · 4 years ago

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deoadjuvante replied to your post “I swear I think I even saw people trying to uplift John Adams over...”

wait, he didn't own slaves? I thought that there has been a pushback on that narrative in some historical circles, which argue that Chernow took some liberties in white-washing Hamilton's role in the slave trade. Tbh I barely read anything about Hamilton's life so I can't speak to whether its true, but I was under the impression that there is still real debate about his role in the slave trade.

So an issue that I think also is the cause of confusion is that it is true that Hamilton’s opposition to slavery did not prevent his complicity in the system but the form his complicity took was not that of someone like Jefferson.

Hamilton was born on St. Croix out of wedlock with his father leaving his family early on and when Hamilton’s mother died while he was still young he (and his brother from the same father) was prevented from inheriting her property due to being a bastard.

I havent read Chernow’s book but a claim that seems to have been made in it which is common across sympathetic biographers of Hamilton and which is stated as fact in the musical is that Hamilton’s experiences growing up in poverty (relative to the rest of the small white population of St Croix) and the stigma of being a bastard closing off many avenues for social mobility supposedly inculcated an innate sympathy for the marginalized especially slaves. There doesnt actually seem to be much direct evidence for this claim in terms of Hamilton’s own personal writings and letters. The closest from my cursory research seems to have been a letter the young Hamilton wrote to his estranged father discussing the aftermath of a hurricane that swept the region where he attacks the ruling elites of the island (nearly all slave owners or traders) for the selfishness in withholding aid and assistance from impoverished islanders which likely included slaves since there doesnt really seem to have large amount of poor whites (like himself) on the island. Hamilton uses the first-person plural to refer to the impoverished islanders however which seems (again, just going by cursory research) the closest we have to first-hand evidence that Hamilton “identified with” the enslaved but frankly I think its a bit of a stretch especially given the context of referring specifically to rebuilding efforts in the aftermath of a hurricane rather than generally speaking.

That said, the teenaged Alexander Hamilton did find both employment and mentorship on St Croix from a man named Nicolas Cruger. Cruger was part owner of an import-export company named Beekman & Cruger which did participate in the slave trade though sympathetic biographies do try to emphasis that it wasn the main goal of the enterprise (lol). That said, Cruger apparently had such belief and trust in the 14 year old Alexander that when he became heavily ill for some months in 1771 he left him in charge of the entire St Croix branch of the company. This included overseeing the importation and sale of slaves as conducted by the company. This may be the basis for some of the claims of Hamilton having definitively owned slaves but even putting aside that he was 14 years old there wouldve been legal procedures in place to prevent any kind of substantial changes (another reading of this incident may be that Cruger chose a 14 year old specifically because an easier to control youth would be more likely to keep the status quo in place in contrast with a more ambitious adult, though in this case Cruger most likely wouldve feared personal enrichment at the expense of his company rather than emancipation of slaves).

More damning to Hamilton’s reputation as a supposed abolitionist hero IMHO actually has to do with his relationship with his in-laws. The future Mrs Hamilton, Elizabeth Schuyler, was born into a prominent slave-owning family in the New York Colony. Despite his status as a bastard and usual stigma about women “marrying down” Hamilton was nonetheless able to marry into the wealthy and prestigious Schuyler family. He would later go on to assist his in-laws in writing up the purchase and sales of slaves and wrote letters on their behalf pertaining to the return of slaves that had left Schuyler estates for whatever reason. For me those shows a deeper collaboration with the institution of slavery even more than him briefly nominally overseeing his mentor’s company or his looking-the-other-way when it came to the slaves of close friends of his such as George Washington.

Also another that ought to be mentioned is the anti-slavery society Hamilton eventually joined, the New York Manumission Society. The term “manumission” refers specifically to not just the freeing of slaves but their freeing through “legitimate” means typically with the consent or at the very least not against the wishes of the owner. So a slave who is allowed to personally becomes free because of their master’s will upon their death (in some societies this was automatic or in the case of Rome strongly expected) or because they were allowed to sell goods on the side for the purpose of obtaining or even by means of marriage to their master as was commonly the case in Haiti. This is important to point out because the New York Manumission Society was very much a “moderate” society in terms of the cause of abolishing slavery and didnt even require members to not own slaves. It’s founder, John Jay (the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court) even owned a handful of house slaves himself! The Manumission Society very much had a “free slaves- when we and they are ready for it” ethos.

Basically, there’s no evidence Alexander Hamilton ever directly owned slaves. However he was very very much assimilated into the wider slave society of colonial America and the personal reservations he had towards the practice did not amount to much. This contrasts with more forceful abolitionism of contemporaries such as Thomas Paine or even the later Benjamin Franklin who despite having himself owned slaves for his printing business became a stauncher advocate of abolitionism and who unsucessfully petitioned the Continental Congress to ban slavery.

Also to go back to the musical for a sec something that’s interesting is that LMM originally intended for their to be a third “rap battle” song directly about slavery pitting abolitionist Quakers against pro-slavery advocates but it was cut from the musical after he decided it would be improper given that the heroes of his play didnt really do enough for abolitionism (even though Eliza’s song after Hamilton’s death apparently includes a line saying he wouldve done much against slavery had he lived, which doesnt really line up with the evidence)

Miranda: Yeah, that we cut, and it was sort of our homage to "Hail Mary" [by Tupac Shakur]. There was a moment when there were two Quakers from, I think it was Pennsylvania, who tried to ban the importation of slaves and brought it to the house floor. And [James] Madison let them talk about it for two days and then set a gag rule — "We're not talking about slavery until 1808" — basically saying, like, "We don't know how to solve it." They knew it was a problem. Even from the racist perspective, it was, "There's going to be more of them than us!" But no one knew what to do about it, and they all kicked it down the field. And while, yeah, Hamilton was anti-slavery and never owned slaves, between choosing his financial plan and going all in on opposition to slavery, he chose his financial plan. So it was tough to justify keeping that rap battle in the show, because none of them did enough.

#deoadjuvante

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delphinidin4 · 4 years ago

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So my friend handed me a Quaker songbook and pointed to a song in it, and I just...

Give me that old time religion Give me that old time religion Give me that old time religion And that's good enough for me

We will pray to Aphrodite Even tho' she's rather flighty And they say she wears no nightie And that's good enough for me

We will pray with those Egyptians Build pyramids to put our crypts in Cover subways with inscriptions And that's good enough for me

O-old Odin we will follow And in fighting we will wallow Til we wind up in Valhalla And that's good enough for me

Let me follow dear old Buddha For there is nobody cuter He comes in plaster, wood, or pewter And that's good enough for me

We will pray with Zarathustra Pray just like we useta I'm a Zarathustra booster And that's good enough for me

We will pray with those old Druids They drink fermented fluids Waltzing naked thru the woo-ids And that's good enough for me

Hare Krishna gets a laugh on When he sees me dressed in saffron With my hair that's only half on And that's good enough for me

I'll arise at early morning When my Lord gives me the warning That the solar age is dawning And that's good enough for me

And that’s not the end...

Next, I found “Multiple Relationship Blues”:

I love Peggy and George and you, you love me and Bob and Sue Peggy loves George and Sal and Ralph, Helen wants Bob all for herself You know we got the multiple relationship blues

I was pacing up the floor (much uptight) Deciding who to be with (to spend the night) It’s so hard to have to choose between the four of you (Who will it be, maybe him or her or me)

We love each other, it’s plain to see (Why did she choose him instead of me?) I love you all, about the same (I wish you’d stop calling me by his name)

I met someone new to love (o hurray!) I know you will like him (go away!) Let’s spend some time together soon perhaps in early June (He and I we’re very happy together)

Things don’t stop there...

Keeper of the London Zoo

My father was the keeper of the London Zoo And he slept one night with a kangaroo From this union there came three A wallaby and a wombat and the other was me

cho: The monkeys chatter the whole night through Oh, for the life in the London Zoo

I went to a carnival one fine night Went into a tent to see a fight And as the bell went ting a ling I saw my mother standing in the ring

"What has become of my children three?" My mother then she asked of me "One was employed as a pogo stick And the other was given a bishopric."

Her chin connected with a flashing right When I looked again she was out like a light I heard her mutter as she came to "To hell with the keeper of the London Zoo."

And finally, I’m My Own Grandpa:

Now, many many years ago When I was twenty three I was married to a widow Who was pretty as could be This widow had a grown-up daughter Had hair of red My father fell in love with her And soon the two were wed This made my dad my son-in-law And changed my very life My daughter was my mother 'Cause she was my father's wife

To complicate the matters Even though it brought me joy I soon became the father Of a bouncing baby boy My little baby then became A brother-in-law to dad And so became my uncle Though it made me very sad For if he was my uncle That also made him the brother Of the widow's grown-up daughter Who, of course, was my step-mother

I'm my own grandpa I'm my own grandpa It sounds funny I know But it really is so I'm my own grandpa

My father's wife then had a son That kept them on the run And he became my grandchild For he was my daughter's son My wife is now my mother's mother And it makes me blue Because, she is my wife She's my grandmother too

Now, if my wife is my grandmother Then, I am her grandchild And every time I think of it It nearly drives me wild For now I have become The strangest case you ever saw As husband of my grandmother I am my own grandpa

So let’s count up. When Quakers get together to sing, they sing about

paganism

polyamory

bestiality

and something perilously close to incest

now THERE’s a church you can have FUN with!

#lol #funny #paganism #polyamory #church

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blackkudos · 5 years ago

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Paul Robeson

Paul Leroy Robeson ( ROHB-sən; April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976) was an American bass baritone concert artist and stage and film actor who became famous both for his cultural accomplishments and for his political activism. Educated at Rutgers College and Columbia University, he was also a star athlete in his youth. He also studied Swahili and linguistics at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London in 1934. His political activities began with his involvement with unemployed workers and anti-imperialist students whom he met in Britain and continued with support for the Loyalist cause in the Spanish Civil War and his opposition to fascism. In the United States he also became active in the Civil Rights Movement and other social justice campaigns. His sympathies for the Soviet Union and for communism, and his criticism of the United States government and its foreign policies, caused him to be blacklisted during the McCarthy era.

In 1915, Robeson won an academic scholarship to Rutgers College, where he was twice named a consensus All-American in football, and was the class valedictorian. Almost 80 years later, he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. He received his LL.B. from Columbia Law School while playing in the National Football League (NFL). At Columbia, he sang and acted in off-campus productions. After graduating, he became a figure in the Harlem Renaissance with performances in The Emperor Jones and All God's Chillun Got Wings.

Between 1925 and 1961, Robeson recorded and released some 276 distinct songs, many of which were recorded several times. The first of these were the spirituals "Steal Away" backed with "Were You There" in 1925. Robeson's recorded repertoire spanned many styles, including Americana, popular standards, classical music, European folk songs, political songs, poetry and spoken excerpts from plays.

Robeson performed in Britain in a touring melodrama, Voodoo, in 1922, and in Emperor Jones in 1925, and scored a major success in the London premiere of Show Boat in 1928, settling in London for several years with his wife Eslanda. While continuing to establish himself as a concert artist, Robeson also starred in a London production of Othello, the first of three productions of the play over the course of his career. He also gained attention in the film production of Show Boat (1936) and other films such as Sanders of the River (1935) and The Proud Valley (1940). During this period, Robeson became increasingly attuned to the sufferings of people of other cultures, notably the British working class and the colonized peoples of the British Empire. He advocated for Republican forces during the Spanish Civil War and became active in the Council on African Affairs (CAA).

Returning to the United States in 1939, during World War II Robeson supported the American and Allied war efforts. However, his history of supporting civil rights causes and pro-Soviet policies brought scrutiny from the FBI. After the war ended, the CAA was placed on the Attorney General's List of Subversive Organizations and Robeson was investigated during the age of McCarthyism. Due to his decision not to recant his public advocacy, he was denied a passport by the U.S. State Department, and his income, consequently, plummeted. He moved to Harlem and from 1950 to 1955 published a periodical called Freedom which was critical of United States policies. His right to travel was eventually restored as a result of the 1958 United States Supreme Court decision, Kent v. Dulles. In the early 1960s he retired and lived the remaining years of his life privately in Philadelphia.

Early life

1898–1915: Childhood

Paul Leroy Robeson was born in Princeton, New Jersey, in 1898, to Reverend William Drew Robeson and Maria Louisa Bustill. His mother, Maria, was from a prominent Quaker family of mixed ancestry. His father, William, was of Igbo origin and was born into slavery, William escaped from a plantation in his teens and eventually became the minister of Princeton's Witherspoon Street Presbyterian Church in 1881. Robeson had three brothers: William Drew Jr. (born 1881), Reeve (born c. 1887), and Ben (born c. 1893); and one sister, Marian (born c. 1895).

In 1900, a disagreement between William and white financial supporters of Witherspoon arose with apparent racial undertones, which were prevalent in Princeton. William, who had the support of his entirely black congregation, resigned in 1901. The loss of his position forced him to work menial jobs. Three years later when Robeson was six, his mother, who was nearly blind, died in a house fire. Eventually, William became financially incapable of providing a house for himself and his children still living at home, Ben and Paul, so they moved into the attic of a store in Westfield, New Jersey.

William found a stable parsonage at the St. Thomas A.M.E. Zion in 1910, where Robeson filled in for his father during sermons when he was called away. In 1912, Robeson attended Somerville High School in Somerville, New Jersey, where he performed in Julius Caesar and Othello, sang in the chorus, and excelled in football, basketball, baseball and track. His athletic dominance elicited racial taunts which he ignored. Prior to his graduation, he won a statewide academic contest for a scholarship to Rutgers and was named class valedictorian. He took a summer job as a waiter in Narragansett Pier, Rhode Island, where he befriended Fritz Pollard, later to be the first African-American coach in the National Football League.

1915–1919: Rutgers College

In late 1915, Robeson became the third African-American student ever enrolled at Rutgers, and the only one at the time. He tried out for the Rutgers Scarlet Knights football team, and his resolve to make the squad was tested as his teammates engaged in excessive play, during which his nose was broken and his shoulder dislocated. The coach, Foster Sanford, decided he had overcome the provocation and announced that he had made the team.

Robeson joined the debating team and sang off-campus for spending money, and on-campus with the Glee Club informally, as membership required attending all-white mixers. He also joined the other collegiate athletic teams. As a sophomore, amidst Rutgers' sesquicentennial celebration, he was benched when a Southern team refused to take the field because the Scarlet Knights had fielded a Negro, Robeson.

After a standout junior year of football, he was recognized in The Crisis for his athletic, academic, and singing talents. At this time his father fell grievously ill. Robeson took the sole responsibility in caring for him, shuttling between Rutgers and Somerville. His father, who was the "glory of his boyhood years" soon died, and at Rutgers, Robeson expounded on the incongruity of African Americans fighting to protect America in World War I but, contemporaneously, being without the same opportunities in the United States as whites.

He finished university with four annual oratorical triumphs and varsity letters in multiple sports. His play at end won him first-team All-American selection, in both his junior and senior years. Walter Camp considered him the greatest end ever. Academically, he was accepted into Phi Beta Kappa and Cap and Skull. His classmates recognized him by electing him class valedictorian. The Daily Targum published a poem featuring his achievements. In his valedictory speech, he exhorted his classmates to work for equality for all Americans.

1919–1923: Columbia Law School and marriage

Robeson entered New York University School of Law in fall 1919. To support himself, he became an assistant football coach at Lincoln, where he joined the Alpha Phi Alpha. However, Robeson felt uncomfortable at NYU and moved to Harlem and transferred to Columbia Law School in February 1920. Already known in the black community for his singing, he was selected to perform at the dedication of the Harlem YWCA.

Robeson began dating Eslanda "Essie" Goode and after her coaxing, he gave his theatrical debut as Simon in Ridgely Torrence's Simon of Cyrene. After a year of courtship, they were married in August 1921.

Robeson was recruited by Pollard to play for the NFL's Akron Pros while he continued his law studies. In the spring, Robeson postponed school to portray Jim in Mary Hoyt Wiborg's play Taboo. He then sang in a chorus in an Off-Broadway production of Shuffle Along before he joined Taboo in Britain. The play was adapted by Mrs. Patrick Campbell to highlight his singing. After the play ended, he befriended Lawrence Brown, a classically trained musician, before returning to Columbia while playing for the NFL's Milwaukee Badgers. He ended his football career after 1922, and months later, he graduated from law school.

Theatrical success and ideological transformation

1923–1927: Harlem Renaissance

Robeson worked briefly as a lawyer, but he renounced a career in law due to widespread racism. Essie financially supported them and they frequented the social functions at the future Schomburg Center. In December 1924 he landed the lead role of Jim in Eugene O'Neill's All God's Chillun Got Wings, which culminated with Jim metaphorically consummating his marriage with his white wife by symbolically emasculating himself. Chillun's opening was postponed due to nationwide controversy over its plot.

Chillun's delay led to a revival of The Emperor Jones with Robeson as Brutus, a role pioneered by Charles Sidney Gilpin. The role terrified and galvanized Robeson, as it was practically a 90-minute soliloquy. Reviews declared him an unequivocal success. Though arguably clouded by its controversial subject, his Jim in Chillun was less well received. He deflected criticism of its plot by writing that fate had drawn him to the "untrodden path" of drama and the true measure of a culture is in its artistic contributions, and the only true American culture was African-American.

The success of his acting placed him in elite social circles and his ascension to fame, which was forcefully aided by Essie, had occurred at a startling pace. Essie's ambition for Robeson was a startling dichotomy to his indifference. She quit her job, became his agent, and negotiated his first movie role in a silent race film directed by Oscar Micheaux, Body and Soul (1925). To support a charity for single mothers, he headlined a concert singing spirituals. He performed his repertoire of spirituals on the radio.

Lawrence Brown, who had become renowned while touring as a pianist with gospel singer Roland Hayes, stumbled upon Robeson in Harlem. The two ad-libbed a set of spirituals, with Robeson as lead and Brown as accompanist. This so enthralled them that they booked Provincetown Playhouse for a concert. The pair's rendition of African-American folk songs and spirituals was captivating, and Victor Records signed Robeson to a contract.

The Robesons went to London for a revival of The Emperor Jones, before spending the rest of the fall on holiday on the French Riviera, socializing with Gertrude Stein and Claude McKay. Robeson and Brown performed a series of concert tours in America from January 1926 until May 1927.

During a hiatus in New York, Robeson learned that Essie was several months pregnant. Paul Robeson Jr. was born in November 1927 in New York, while Robeson and Brown toured Europe. Essie experienced complications from the birth, and by mid-December, her health had deteriorated dramatically. Ignoring Essie's objections, her mother wired Robeson and he immediately returned to her bedside. Essie completely recovered after a few months.

1928–1932: Show Boat, Othello, and marriage difficulties

In 1928, Robeson played "Joe" in the London production of the American musical Show Boat, at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. His rendition of "Ol' Man River" became the benchmark for all future performers of the song. Some black critics were not pleased with the play due to its usage of the word "nigger". It was, nonetheless, immensely popular with white audiences. He was summoned for a Royal Command Performance at Buckingham Palace and Robeson was befriended by MPs from the House of Commons. Show Boat continued for 350 performances and, as of 2001, it remained the Royal's most profitable venture. The Robesons bought a home in Hampstead. He reflected on his life in his diary and wrote that it was all part of a "higher plan" and "God watches over me and guides me. He's with me and lets me fight my own battles and hopes I'll win." However, an incident at the Savoy Grill, in which he was refused seating, sparked him to issue a press release describing the insult which subsequently became a matter of public debate.

Essie had learned early in their marriage that Robeson had been involved in extramarital affairs, but she tolerated them. However, when she discovered that he was having another affair, she unfavorably altered the characterization of him in his biography, and defamed him by describing him with "negative racial stereotypes". Despite her uncovering of this tryst, there was no public evidence that their relationship had soured.

The couple appeared in the experimental Swiss film Borderline (1930). He then returned to the Savoy Theatre, in London's West End to play Othello, opposite Peggy Ashcroft as Desdemona. Robeson was the first black actor to play Othello in Britain since Ira Aldridge. The production received mixed reviews which noted Robeson's "highly civilized quality [but lacking the] grand style." Robeson stated the best way to diminish the oppression African Americans faced was for his artistic work to be an example of what "men of my colour" could accomplish rather than to "be a propagandist and make speeches and write articles about what they call the Colour Question."

After Essie discovered Robeson had been having an affair with Ashcroft, she decided to seek a divorce and they split up. Robeson returned to Broadway as Joe in the 1932 revival of Show Boat, to critical and popular acclaim. Subsequently, he received, with immense pride, an honorary master's degree from Rutgers. Thereabout, his former football coach, Foster Sanford, advised him that divorcing Essie and marrying Ashcroft would do irreparable damage to his reputation. Ashcroft and Robeson's relationship ended in 1932, following which Robeson and Essie reconciled, although their relationship was scarred permanently.

1933–1937: Ideological awakening

In 1933, Robeson played the role of Jim in the London production of Chillun, virtually gratis, then returned to the United States to star as Brutus in the film The Emperor Jones, "a feat not repeated for more than two decades in the U.S." His acting in The Emperor Jones—the first film to feature an African American in a starring role—was well received. On the film set he rejected any slight to his dignity, despite the widespread Jim Crow atmosphere in the United States. Upon returning to England he publicly criticized African Americans' rejection of their own culture. Despite negative reactions from the press, such as a New York Amsterdam News retort that Robeson had made a "jolly well [ass of himself]", he also announced that he would reject any offers to perform European opera because the music had no connection to his heritage.

In early 1934 Robeson enrolled in the School of Oriental and African Studies, a constituent college of the University of London, where he studied Phonetics, Swahili and other African languages. His "sudden interest" in African history and its impact on culture coincided with his essay "I Want to be African", wherein he wrote of his desire to embrace his ancestry.

His friends in the anti-imperialism movement and association with British socialists led him to visit the Soviet Union. Robeson, Essie, and Marie Seton traveled to the Soviet Union on an invitation from Sergei Eisenstein in December 1934. A stopover in Berlin enlightened Robeson to the racism in Nazi Germany and, on his arrival in Moscow, in the Soviet Union, Robeson said, "Here I am not a Negro but a human being for the first time in my life ... I walk in full human dignity." Waldemar ("Wally") Hille, who subsequently went on to do arrangements on the People's Songs Bulletin, got his start as an early touring pianist for Robeson.

He undertook the role of Bosambo in the movie Sanders of the River (1935), which he felt would render a realistic view of colonial African culture. Sanders of the River made Robeson an international movie star; but the stereotypical portrayal of a colonial African was seen as embarrassing to his stature as an artist and damaging to his reputation. The Commissioner of Nigeria to London protested the film as slanderous to his country, and Robeson thereafter became more politically conscious of his roles. He appeared in the play Stevedore at the Embassy Theatre in London in May 1935, which was favorably reviewed in The Crisis by Nancy Cunard, who concluded: "Stevedore is extremely valuable in the racial–social question—it is straight from the shoulder". In early 1936, he decided to send his son to school in the Soviet Union to shield him from racist attitudes. He then played the role of Toussaint Louverture in the eponymous play by C.L.R. James at the Westminster Theatre, and appeared in the films Song of Freedom, Show Boat (both 1936), My Song Goes Forth, King Solomon's Mines. and was the narrator of the documentary Big Fella (all 1937). In 1938, he was named by American Motion Picture Herald as the 10th most popular star in British cinema.

1937–1939: Spanish Civil War and political activism

Robeson believed that the struggle against fascism during the Spanish Civil War was a turning point in his life and transformed him into a political activist. In 1937, he used his concert performances to advocate the Republican cause and the war's refugees. He permanently modified his renditions of "Ol' Man River" – initially, by singing the word "darkies" instead of "niggers"; later, by changing some of the stereotypical dialect in the lyrics to standard English and replacing the fatalistic last verse ("Ah gits weary/ An' sick of tryin'/ Ah'm tired of livin'/ An skeered of dyin'") with an uplifting verse of his own ("But I keep laffin'/ Instead of cryin'/ I must keep fightin'/ Until I'm dyin'") – transforming it from a tragic "song of resignation with a hint of protest implied" into a battle hymn of unwavering defiance. His business agent expressed concern about his political involvement, but Robeson overruled him and decided that contemporary events trumped commercialism. In Wales, he commemorated the Welsh people killed while fighting for the Republicans, where he recorded a message that became his epitaph: "The artist must take sides. He must elect to fight for freedom or slavery. I have made my choice. I had no alternative."

After an invitation from J.B.S. Haldane, he traveled to Spain in 1938 because he believed in the International Brigades's cause, visited the hospital of the Benicàssim, singing to the wounded soldiers. Robeson also visited the battlefront and provided a morale boost to the Republicans at a time when their victory was unlikely. Back in England, he hosted Jawaharlal Nehru to support Indian independence, whereat Nehru expounded on imperialism's affiliation with Fascism. Robeson reevaluated the direction of his career and decided to focus on the ordeals of "common people", He appeared in the pro-labor play Plant in the Sun, in which he played an Irishman, his first "white" role. With Max Yergan, and the CAA, Robeson became an advocate in the aspirations of African nationalists for political independence.

Robeson also developed a sympathy for China's side in the Second Sino-Japanese War. In 1940, the Chinese progressive activist, Liu Liangmo taught Robeson the patriotic song "Chee Lai!" ("Arise!"), known as the March of the Volunteers. Robeson memorized the words in Chinese. Robeson premiered the song at a large concert in New York City's Lewisohn Stadium and recorded it in both English and Chinese for Keynote Records in early 1941. Its 3-disc album included a booklet whose preface was written by Soong Ching-ling, widow of Sun Yat-sen, Robeson gave further performances at benefits for the China Aid Council and United China Relief at their sold-out concert at Washington's Uline Arena on April 24, 1941. The Washington Committee for Aid to China had booked Constitution Hall but been blocked by the Daughters of the American Revolution owing to Robeson's race. The indignation was great enough that President Roosevelt's wife Eleanor and Hu Shih, the Chinese ambassador, joined as sponsors. However, when the organizers offered tickets on generous terms to the National Negro Congress to help fill the larger venue, these sponsors withdrew, in objection to the NNC's Communist ties.

Partly because of the favorable international reputation Robeson gave to the song, it became China's National Anthem after 1949. The Chinese lyricist died in a Beijing prison in 1968, but Robeson continued to send royalties to his family.

World War II, the Broadway Othello, political activism, and McCarthyism

1939–1945: World War II and the Broadway Othello

Robeson's last British film was The Proud Valley (1940), set in a Welsh coal-mining town. After the outbreak of World War II, Robeson and his family returned to the United States in 1940, to Enfield, Connecticut, and he became America's "no.1 entertainer" with a radio broadcast of Ballad for Americans. Nevertheless, during a tour in 1940, the Beverly Wilshire Hotel was the only major Los Angeles hotel willing to accommodate him due to his race, at an exorbitant rate and registered under an assumed name, and he therefore dedicated two hours every afternoon to sitting in the lobby, where he was widely recognised, "to ensure that the next time Black[s] come through, they'll have a place to stay." Los Angeles hotels lifted their restrictions on black guests soon afterwards.

Furthermore, the documentary Native Land (1942), which Robeson narrated, was labeled by the FBI as communist propaganda. After an appearance in Tales of Manhattan (1942), a production that he felt was "very offensive to my people", he announced that he would no longer act in films because of the demeaning roles available to blacks.

Robeson participated in benefit concerts on behalf of the war effort and at a concert at the Polo Grounds, he met two emissaries from the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, Solomon Mikhoels and Itzik Feffer Subsequently, Robeson reprised his role of Othello at the Shubert Theatre in 1943, and became the first African American to play the role with a white supporting cast on Broadway. During the same period of time, he addressed a meeting with Kenesaw Mountain Landis in a failed attempt to convince him to admit black players to Major League Baseball. He toured North America with Othello until 1945, and subsequently, his political efforts with the CAA to get colonial powers to discontinue their exploitation of Africa were short-circuited by the United Nations.

1946–1949: Attorney General's List of Subversive Organizations

After the mass lynching of four African Americans on July 25, 1946, Robeson met with President Truman and admonished Truman by stating that if he did not enact legislation to end lynching, "the Negroes will defend themselves". Truman immediately terminated the meeting and declared that the time was not right to propose anti-lynching legislation. Subsequently, Robeson publicly called upon all Americans to demand that Congress pass civil rights legislation. Taking a stance against lynching, Robeson founded the American Crusade Against Lynching organization in 1946. This organization was thought to be a threat to the NAACP antiviolence movement. Robeson received support from W.E.B. Du Bois regarding this matter and officially launched this organization on the anniversary of the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, September 23.

About this time, Robeson's belief that trade unionism was crucial to civil rights became a mainstay of his political beliefs as he became a proponent of the union activist Revels Cayton. Robeson was later called before the Tenney Committee where he responded to questions about his affiliation with the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) by testifying that he was not a member of the CPUSA. Nevertheless, two organizations with which Robeson was intimately involved, the Civil Rights Congress (CRC) and the CAA, were placed on the Attorney General's List of Subversive Organizations (AGLOSO). Subsequently, he was summoned before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, and when questioned about his affiliation with the Communist Party, he refused to answer, stating: "Some of the most brilliant and distinguished Americans are about to go to jail for the failure to answer that question, and I am going to join them, if necessary."

In 1948, Robeson was preeminent in Henry A. Wallace's bid for the President of the United States, during which Robeson traveled to the Deep South, at risk to his own life, to campaign for him. In the ensuing year, Robeson was forced to go overseas to work because his concert performances were canceled at the FBI's behest. While on tour, he spoke at the World Peace Council, at which his speech was publicly reported as equating America with a Fascist state—a depiction that he flatly denied. Nevertheless, the speech publicly attributed to him was a catalyst for his becoming an enemy of mainstream America. Robeson refused to bow to public criticism when he advocated in favor of twelve defendants, including his long-time friend, Benjamin J. Davis Jr., charged during the Smith Act trials of Communist Party leaders.

Robeson traveled to Moscow in June, and tried to find Itzik Feffer. He let Soviet authorities know that he wanted to see him. Reluctant to lose Robeson as a propagandist for the Soviet Union, the Soviets brought Feffer from prison to him. Feffer told him that Mikhoels had been murdered, and he would be summarily executed. To protect the Soviet Union's reputation, and to keep the right wing of the United States from gaining the moral high ground, Robeson denied that any persecution existed in the Soviet Union, and kept the meeting secret for the rest of his life, except from his son. On June 20, 1949, Robeson spoke at the Paris Peace Congress saying that "We in America do not forget that it was on the backs of the white workers from Europe and on the backs of millions of Blacks that the wealth of America was built. And we are resolved to share it equally. We reject any hysterical raving that urges us to make war on anyone. Our will to fight for peace is strong. We shall not make war on anyone. We shall not make war on the Soviet Union. We oppose those who wish to build up imperialist Germany and to establish fascism in Greece. We wish peace with Franco's Spain despite her fascism. We shall support peace and friendship among all nations, with Soviet Russia and the people's Republics." He was blacklisted for saying this in the mainstream press within the United States, including in many periodicals of the Negro press such as The Crisis.

In order to isolate Robeson politically, the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) subpoenaed Jackie Robinson to comment on Robeson's Paris speech. Robinson testified that Robeson's statements, "'if accurately reported', were silly'". Days later, the announcement of a concert headlined by Robeson in New York City provoked the local press to decry the use of their community to support "subversives" and the Peekskill Riots ensued.

Later that year, Edward R. Murrow had CBS News colleague Don Hollenbeck contribute to the innovative media-review program CBS Views the Press over the radio network's flagship station WCBS. Hollenbeck discussed Edward U. Condon, Alger Hiss, and Paul Robeson. Regarding Robeson and the Peekskill riots of 27 August 1949, Hollenbeck said that, while most newspapers had covered the riots well, the New York World-Telegram had drawn from sources that disliked Robeson, including The Compass (successor to PM, Hollenbeck's former employer).

1950–1955: Blacklisted

A book reviewed in early 1950 as "the most complete record on college football" failed to list Robeson as ever having played on the Rutgers team and as ever having been an All-American. Months later, NBC canceled Robeson's appearance on Eleanor Roosevelt's television program. Subsequently, the State Department denied Robeson a passport and issued a "stop notice" at all ports because it believed that an isolated existence inside United States borders not only afforded him less freedom of expression but also avenge his "extreme advocacy on behalf of the independence of the colonial peoples of Africa." However, when Robeson met with State Department officials and asked why he was denied a passport, he was told that "his frequent criticism of the treatment of blacks in the United States should not be aired in foreign countries".

In 1951, an article titled "Paul Robeson – the Lost Shepherd" was published in The Crisis although Paul Jr. suspected it was written by Amsterdam News columnist Earl Brown. J. Edgar Hoover and the United States State Department arranged for the article to be printed and distributed in Africa in order to defame Robeson's reputation and reduce his and Communists' popularity in colonial countries. Another article by Roy Wilkins (now thought to have been the real author of "Paul Robeson – the Lost Shepherd") denounced Robeson as well as the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) in terms consistent with the anti-Communist FBI propaganda.

On December 17, 1951, Robeson presented to the United Nations an anti-lynching petition titled "We Charge Genocide". The document asserted that the United States federal government, by its failure to act against lynching in the United States, was "guilty of genocide" under Article II of the UN Genocide Convention.

In 1952, Robeson was awarded the International Stalin Prize by the Soviet Union. Unable to travel to Moscow, he accepted the award in New York. In April 1953, shortly after Stalin's death, Robeson penned To You My Beloved Comrade, praising Stalin as dedicated to peace and a guide to the world: "Through his deep humanity, by his wise understanding, he leaves us a rich and monumental heritage." Robeson's opinions about the Soviet Union kept his passport out of reach and stopped his return to the entertainment industry and the civil rights movement. In his opinion, the Soviet Union was the guarantor of political balance in the world.

In a symbolic act of defiance against the travel ban, in May 1952, labor unions in the United States and Canada organized a concert at the International Peace Arch on the border between Washington state and the Canadian province of British Columbia. Robeson returned to perform a second concert at the Peace Arch in 1953, and over the next two years, two further concerts took place. In this period, with the encouragement of his friend the Welsh politician Aneurin Bevan, Robeson recorded a number of radio concerts for supporters in Wales.

1956–1957: End of McCarthyism

In 1956, Robeson was called before HUAC after he refused to sign an affidavit affirming that he was not a Communist. In his testimony, he invoked the Fifth Amendment and refused to reveal his political affiliations. When asked why he had not remained in the Soviet Union because of his affinity with its political ideology, he replied, "because my father was a slave and my people died to build [the United States and], I am going to stay here, and have a part of it just like you and no fascist-minded people will drive me from it!" At that hearing, Robeson stated "Whether I am or not a Communist is irrelevant. The question is whether American citizens, regardless of their political beliefs or sympathies, may enjoy their constitutional rights." In 1957, still unable to accept invitations to perform abroad, Paul Robeson sang for audiences in London, where 1,000 concert tickets for his telephone concert at St Pancras Town Hall sold out within an hour, and Wales via the transatlantic telephone cable TAT-1: "We have to learn the hard way that there is another way to sing". An appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States to reinstate his confiscated passport had been rejected, but over the telephone Robeson was able to sing to the 5,000 gathered there as he had earlier in the year to London.

Due to the reaction to the promulgation of Robeson's political views, his recordings and films were removed from public distribution, and he was universally condemned in the U.S press. During the height of the Cold War, it became increasingly difficult in the United States to hear Robeson sing on commercial radio, buy his music or see his films.

In 1956, in the United Kingdom, Topic Records, at that time part of the Workers Music Association, released a single of Robeson singing "Joe Hill", written by Alfred Hayes and Earl Robinson, backed with "John Brown's Body". Joe Hill (1879–1915) was a labor activist in the early 20th century, and "Joe Hill" sung by Robeson is the third favorite choice of British Labour Party politicians on the BBC radio program Desert Island Discs.

Nikita Khrushchev's denunciation of Stalinism at the 1956 Party Congress silenced Robeson on Stalin, although Robeson continued to praise the Soviet Union. In 1956, after public pressure brought a one-time exemption to the travel ban, Robeson performed two concerts in Canada in February, one in Toronto and the other at a union convention in Sudbury, Ontario. That year Robeson, along with close friend W.E.B. Du Bois, compared the anti-Soviet uprising in Hungary to the "same sort of people who overthrew the Spanish Republican Government" and supported the Soviet invasion and suppression of the revolt.

Later years

1958–1960: Comeback tours

1958 saw the publication of Robeson's "manifesto-autobiography" Here I Stand. His passport was restored in June 1958 via Kent v. Dulles, and he embarked on a world tour using London as his base. In Moscow in August 1959, he received a tumultuous reception at the Luzhniki Stadium where he sang classic Russian songs along with American standards. Robeson and Essie then flew to Yalta to rest and spend time with Nikita Khrushchev.

On October 11, 1959, Robeson took part in a service at St. Paul's Cathedral, the first black performer to sing there. On a trip to Moscow, Robeson experienced bouts of dizziness and heart problems and was hospitalized for two months while Essie was diagnosed with operable cancer. He recovered and returned to the UK to visit the National Eisteddfod.

Meanwhile, the State Department had circulated negative literature about him throughout the media in India.

While leading The Royal Shakespeare Company starring as Othello in Tony Richardson's 1959 production at Stratford-upon-Avon, he befriended actor Andrew Faulds, whose family hosted him in the nearby village of Shottery. In 1960, in what was his final concert performance in Great Britain, Robeson sang to raise money for the Movement for Colonial Freedom at the Royal Festival Hall.

In October 1960, Robeson embarked on a two-month concert tour of Australia and New Zealand with Essie, primarily to generate money, at the behest of Australian politician Bill Morrow. While in Sydney, he became the first major artist to perform at the construction site of the future Sydney Opera House. After appearing at the Brisbane Festival Hall, they went to Auckland where Robeson reaffirmed his support of Marxism, denounced the inequality faced by the Māori and efforts to denigrate their culture. Thereabouts, Robeson publicly stated "..the people of the lands of Socialism want peace dearly".

During the tour he was introduced to Faith Bandler who interested the Robesons in the plight of the Australian Aborigines. Robeson, consequently, became enraged and demanded the Australian government provide the Aborigines citizenship and equal rights. He attacked the view of the Aborigines as being unsophisticated and uncultured, and declared, "there's no such thing as a backward human being, there is only a society which says they are backward."

1961–1963: Health breakdown

Back in London, he decided to return to the United States, where he hoped to resume participation in the civil rights movement, stopping off in Africa and Cuba along the way. Essie argued to stay in London, fearing that he'd be "killed" if he returned and would be "unable to make any money" due to harassment by the United States government. Robeson disagreed and made his own travel arrangements, arriving in Moscow in March 1961.

During an uncharacteristically wild party in his Moscow hotel room, Robeson locked himself in his bedroom and attempted suicide by cutting his wrists. Three days later, under Soviet medical care, he told his son that he felt extreme paranoia, thought that the walls of the room were moving and, overcome by a powerful sense of emptiness and depression, tried to take his own life.

Paul Jr. believed that his father's health problems stemmed from attempts by the CIA and MI5 to "neutralize" his father. He remembered that his father had had such fears prior to his prostate operation. He said that three doctors treating Robeson in London and New York had been CIA contractors, and that his father's symptoms resulted from being "subjected to mind depatterning under MK-ULTRA", a secret CIA programme. Martin Duberman wrote that Robeson's health breakdown was probably brought on by a combination of factors including extreme emotional and physical stress, bipolar depression, exhaustion and the beginning of circulatory and heart problems. "[E]ven without an organic predisposition and accumulated pressures of government harassment he might have been susceptible to a breakdown."

Robeson stayed at the Barvikha Sanatorium until September 1961, when he left for London. There his depression reemerged, and after another period of recuperation in Moscow, he returned to London. Three days after arriving back, he became suicidal and suffered a panic attack while passing the Soviet Embassy. He was admitted to the Priory Hospital, where he underwent electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) and was given heavy doses of drugs for nearly two years, with no accompanying psychotherapy. During his treatment at the Priory, Robeson was being monitored by the British MI5. Both intelligence services were well aware of Robeson's suicidal state of mind. An FBI memo described Robeson's debilitated condition, remarking that his "death would be much publicized" and would be used for Communist propaganda, necessitating continued surveillance. Numerous memos advised that Robeson should be denied a passport renewal, an obstacle that was likely to further jeopardize his recovery process.

In August 1963, disturbed about his treatment, friends and family had Robeson transferred to the Buch Clinic in East Berlin. Given psychotherapy and less medication, his physicians found him still "completely without initiative" and they expressed "doubt and anger" about the "high level of barbiturates and ECT" that had been administered in London. He rapidly improved, though his doctor stressed that "what little is left of Paul's health must be quietly conserved."

1963–1976: Retirement

In 1963, Robeson returned to the United States and for the remainder of his life lived in seclusion. He momentarily assumed a role in the civil rights movement, making a few major public appearances before falling seriously ill during a tour. Double pneumonia and a kidney blockage in 1965 nearly killed him.

Robeson was contacted by both Bayard Rustin and James Farmer about the possibility of becoming involved with the mainstream of the Civil Rights Movement. Because of Rustin's past anti-Communist stances, Robeson declined to meet with him. Robeson eventually met with Farmer, but because he was asked to denounce Communism and the Soviet Union in order to assume a place in the mainstream, Robeson adamantly declined.

After Essie, who had been his spokesperson to the media, died in December 1965, Robeson moved in with his son's family in New York City. He was rarely seen strolling near his Harlem apartment on Jumel Place [sic], and his son responded to press inquiries that his "father's health does not permit him to perform or answer questions."

In 1968, he settled at his sister's home in Philadelphia. Numerous celebrations were held in honor of Robeson over the next several years, including at public arenas that had previously shunned him, but he saw few visitors aside from close friends and gave few statements apart from messages to support current civil rights and international movements, feeling that his record "spoke for itself". In 1974, he posed for a portrait by artist Kenneth Hari at his sisters home. The portrait was unveiled in 1978 at the Paul Robeson Center at Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey, where it remains on display. At a Carnegie Hall tribute to mark his 75th birthday in 1973, he was unable to attend, but a taped message from him was played that said: "Though I have not been able to be active for several years, I want you to know that I am the same Paul, dedicated as ever to the worldwide cause of humanity for freedom, peace and brotherhood."

1976: Death, funeral, and public response

On January 23, 1976, following complications of a stroke, Robeson died in Philadelphia at the age of 77. He lay in state in Harlem and his funeral was held at his brother Ben's former parsonage, Mother Zion AME Zion Church, where Bishop J. Clinton Hoggard performed the eulogy. His twelve pall bearers included Harry Belafonte and Fritz Pollard. He was interred in the Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York. According to biographer Martin Duberman, contemporary post-mortem reflections on Robeson's life in "[the] white [American] press..ignored the continuing inability of white America to tolerate a black maverick who refused to bend, ..downplayed the racist component central to his persecution [during his life]", as they "paid him gingerly respect and tipped their hat to him as a 'great American,'" while the black American press, "which had never, overall, been as hostile to Robeson [as the white American press had], opined that his life '...would always be a challenge to white and Black America.'"

Legacy and honors

Early in his life, Robeson was one of the most influential participants in the Harlem Renaissance. His achievements in sport and culture were all the more incredible given the barriers of racism he had to surmount. Robeson brought Negro spirituals into the American mainstream. His theatrical performances have been recognized as the first to display dignity for black actors and pride in African heritage, and he was among the first artists to refuse to play live to segregated audiences.

After McCarthyism, [Robeson's stand] on anti-colonialism in the 1940s would never again have a voice in American politics, but the [African independence movements] of the late 1950s and 1960s would vindicate his anti-colonial [agenda].

Subsequently, in 1945 he received the Spingarn medal from the NAACP. Several public and private establishments he was associated with have been landmarked, or named after him. His efforts to end Apartheid in South Africa were posthumously rewarded in 1978 by the United Nations General Assembly. Paul Robeson: Tribute to an Artist won an Academy Award for best short documentary in 1980. In 1995, he was named to the College Football Hall of Fame. In the centenary of his birth, which was commemorated around the world, he was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award, as well as a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Robeson is also a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame.

As of 2011, the run of Othello starring Robeson was the longest-running production of a Shakespeare play ever staged on Broadway. He received a Donaldson Award for his performance. His Othello was characterised by Michael A. Morrison in 2011 as a high point in Shakespearean theatre in the 20th century.

Robeson left Australia as a respected, albeit controversial, figure and his support for Aboriginal rights had a profound effect in Australia over the next decade.

Robeson archives exist at the Academy of Arts; Howard University, and the Schomburg Center. In 2010, Susan Robeson launched a project by Swansea University and the Welsh Assembly to create an online learning resource in her grandfather's memory.

Robeson connected his own life and history not only to his fellow Americans and to his people in the South, but to all the people of Africa and its diaspora whose lives had been fundamentally shaped by the same processes that had brought his ancestors to America. While a consensus definition of his legacy remains controversial, to deny his courage in the face of public and governmental pressure would be to defame his courage.

In 1976, the apartment building on Edgecombe Avenue in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan where Robeson lived during the early 1940s was officially renamed the Paul Robeson Residence, and declared a National Historic Landmark. In 1993, the building was designated a New York City landmark as well. Edgecombe Avenue itself was later co-named Paul Robeson Boulevard.

In 1978, TASS announced that the Latvian Shipping Company had named one of its new 40,000-ton tankers Paul Robeson in honor of the singer. TASS said the ship's crew established a Robeson museum aboard the tanker.

In 1998, the second SOAS University London halls of residence was named in his honour.

In 2002, a blue plaque was unveiled by English Heritage on the house in Hampstead where Robeson lived in 1929–30.

In 2004, the U.S. Postal Service issued a 37-cent stamp honoring Robeson.

In 2006, a plaque was unveiled in his honour at the SOAS University London

In 2007, the Criterion Collection, a company that specializes in releasing special-edition versions of classic and contemporary films, released a DVD boxed set of Robeson films.

In 2009, Robeson was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame.

The main campus library at Rutgers University-Camden is named after Robeson, as is the campus center at Rutgers University-Newark. The Paul Robeson Cultural Center is on the campus of Rutgers University-New Brunswick.

In 1972, Penn State established a formal cultural center on the University Park campus. Students and staff chose to name the center for Robeson.

A street in Princeton, New Jersey is named after him. In addition, the block of Davenport Street in Somerville, New Jersey, where St. Thomas AME Zion Church still stands is called Paul Robeson Boulevard.

In West Philadelphia, the Paul Robeson High School, which won 2019 U.S. News & World Report for Best High Schools in Pennsylvania, is also named after him.

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of Robeson's graduation, Rutgers University named an open-air plaza after him on Friday, April 12, 2019. The plaza, next to the Voorhees Mall on the College Avenue campus at Rutgers–New Brunswick, features eight black granite panels with details of Robeson's life. Also in 2019, Commercial Avenue in New Brunswick was renamed Paul Robeson Boulevard.

On March 6, 2019, the city council of New Brunswick, New Jersey approved the renaming of Commercial Avenue to Paul Robeson Boulevard.

In popular culture

In 1954, the Kurdish poet Abdulla Goran wrote the poem "Bangêk bo Pol Ropsin" ("A Call for Paul Robeson"). In the same year, another Kurdish poet, Cegerxwîn, also wrote a poem about him, "Heval Pol Robson" ("Comrade Paul Robeson"), which was put to music by singer Şivan Perwer in 1976.

Black 47's 1989 album Home of the Brave includes the song "Paul Robeson (Born to Be Free)", which features spoken quotes of Robeson as part of the song. These quotes are drawn from Robeson's testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee in June 1956. In 2001, Welsh rock band Manic Street Preachers released a song titled "Let Robeson Sing" as a tribute to Robeson, which reached number 19 on the UK singles chart.

In January 1978, James Earl Jones performed the one-man show Paul Robeson, written by Phillip Hayes Dean, on Broadway. This stage drama was made into a TV movie in 1979, starring Jones and directed by Lloyd Richards. At the 2007 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, British-Nigerian actor Tayo Aluko, himself a baritone soloist, premiered his one-man show, Call Mr. Robeson: A Life with Songs, which has since toured various countries.

Tom Rob Smith's novel Agent 6 (2012) includes the character Jesse Austin, "a black singer, political activist and communist sympathizer modeled after real-life actor/activist Paul Robeson." Robeson also appears in short fiction published in the online literary magazines the Maple Tree Literary Supplement and Every Day Fiction.

In November 2014, it was reported that film director Steve McQueen's next film would be a biographical film about Paul Robeson. As of 2018, the film has not been made.

On September 7, 2019, Crossroads Theater Company performed Phillip Hayes Dean's play Paul Robeson in the inaugural performance of the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center.

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