Latest / Stuff Mom Never Told You / Female Firsts: Mary S. Peake

Transcript

Female Firsts: Mary S. Peake · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: I'm ocome stuff. I never told you Prodection of my
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: Heart Radio. And it is time once again for another
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: edition of Female First, which means we were once again
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: joined by the wondrous, whimsical Eves.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Welcome.
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: Eaves.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: Sounds like I own like a candy factory somewhere. It
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: does like that.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: It's funny because I had two other adjectives I was
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: going to describe you as, but my brain was like,
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: this is what we're going with, and it could be
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: because of the conversation we just had.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: We're always like we're in the world. Is Eves? What's
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: going on with Eves? Can you tell the listeners what
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: is going on with you? Yeah? I do like to
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: wonder and wander. The older I get, the more I
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: like to wonder and wander. Don't really care about my jels. No,
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: I care about a lot, honestly too much. It plagues me.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: But no, I'm in California right now. This is my
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: first time spend an extended time in northern California. I'm
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: in wine and country, which I'm not like, I'm not
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: a big drinker, but I mean I'm gonna drink I'm
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: gonna go visit something while I'm out here. So yeah,
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: it's beautiful. The hills are the hills are healing. Okay,
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: the sun is shining. We got a little bit of
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: rain that came through and cool things down for the
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: last couple of days, but like barely an he was
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: nice so in the patio and the rain, and I
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: do I'm really enjoying the scenery out here for sure.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: Not enjoying the prices though, no thanks for that. Also,
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: lack of bugs, which we just discussed. Yes, yes, lack
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: of bugs I do enjoy. I do. Yeah, I can't
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: deal with it. I was telling y'all. I was telling
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: Annie and Samantha that I'm so used to bugs in
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: the South, and particularly water bugs, that I have been
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: getting jump I'm jump scaring myself. I know everybody knows,
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: like like the black hair things. If you have like
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: kinky hair like I do, Max Fro, a little ball
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: fluff of hair on the floor can look like a
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: roach in anytime. So I'm jump scaring myself with balls
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: of my own hair and like and little pockets of shadows.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: But I I accept that, you know, there are a
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: lot of things I'm really resilient about and this is
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: not one of them. There them. You know, you've got
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: to accept who you are.
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: I think that's good, Like that's you know why, which
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: is what I was originally gonna describe.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: You as why. That's something that's a word. Yeah.
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Well it's interesting to me because you are joining
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: us on a low sleep schedule, and you were talking
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: about sleeping outside after this, and I feel like that
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: kind of relates in some ways to what we're going
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: to talk about. But I also think sometimes I would
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: get really I would romanticize kind of the sitting outside
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: and reading with a book and you know, doing that,
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: and then the bugs show up and it's suddenly not
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: as romantic as I thought.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: It would be. One of the many traumas of living
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: in the South.
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: I mean, we definitely have to get prepared. When I
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: was younger, it was the sos Avon lotion that was
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: the secret for the sin so you smell real evergreen
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: in the woods because you're trying to ward off all
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: the bugs. But it doesn't always work.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah did that actually work? All the granny say say
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: it does, and they still swear by it, But I
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: don't know if it's just like.
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: I actually worked, because I'm pretty sure I still had
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: tons of bug bites, so I don't feel like it did.
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: But then the tale was that it worked because I
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: could have had more. But I feel like I was
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: lied to.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, hard to prove, hard to prove way uh yeah.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: Speaking of resilient things, mosquitoes far more resilient than I am.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: A kids bugs.
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, well, okay, this I swear less there's this
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: does kind of relate to what we're talking about, very tangentially.
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: And also now I'm determined to use that. You bring
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: on an entomologist. I think that will be very funny.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, we haven't approached that that topic yet here, Yeah,
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: let's do it. Know sometime in the future, I won't
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: look at any of the pictures, okay, not just skip over. Well,
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: in the meantime, In the meantime, who have you brought
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: for us? Today's Today, we're talking about Mary s Peak,
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: who was the first black teacher hired by the American
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: Missionary Association. She did some super cool pioneering things and
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: like that was very important and impacted a lot of people.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: So I'm excited to talk about her today. Yes, yes,
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: another really fascinating and important history. So I'm excited to
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: hear about her. Shall we get into it. Yeah? So
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: she was born Mary Smith Kelsey in eighteen twenty three
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: in Norfolk, Virginia. Her mother was Sarah, who was described
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: as a light skinned, free black woman, and her dad
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: was a white Englishman and they weren't married. But when
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: Mary was six years old, her mother sent her to Alexandria, Virginia.
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: At the time she was able to get schooling, although
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: that would change very soon. Alexandria at the time was
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: then a part of DC, and so she went to
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: a black school there got her schooling, and while she
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: was there she lived with her uncle and aunt, John
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: and Mary Payne, and they lived in a house owned
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: by Rowlins Fowl, which is a very posh name like
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: Rowlins Fowl, okay, who, according to the book Mary s Peak,
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: the colored teacher at Fortress Monroe by Lewis Lockwood. He
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: bought enslaved people, freed them, and set them up in business.
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: So I didn't delve too deep into this man's history,
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: so I don't know the ins and outs of that, y'all.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: I would be interested to know his specific like his
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: specific story as well, so I'm just saying I'm not
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: clear exactly what set them up in business, mean, what
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: the extent of that is. But that book that I
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: just mentioned, Mary s Peak, the color teacher at Fortress
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: Monroe by Lewis Lockwood, that'll come up many more times
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: in this episode. He wrote a biography about her, like
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: he is very short. So if y'all want to go online,
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: y'all can go online and read it for free. Right now.
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: You can go on archive dot organ. It's there, so
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: it's not an issue to get if you want to
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: read it and learn a little bit more about her.
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: But just so y'all know that's where some of the
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: information is coming from. But yeah, so John Payne was
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: one of the enslaved people whom Rolands had freed or
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: Rowlands had freed, and later Mary Kelsey went to another
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: school that was taught by a white Englishman at the
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: first Baptist Colored Church, and eventually Mary had to leave
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: that school. But outside of her schooling, Mary was already
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: pretty religious. She would memorize parts of the Bible at
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: the time, and that'll come back up in her life
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: later on as well. So she left school at age
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: sixteen and then she went back home to Norfolk, and
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: in the book there is a story about out Mary
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: going to a family cemetery near her house at night.
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: Is this what you were referring to Annie with the
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: being sleeping outside? No, but I'm very eager to hear
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: about it. Okay, okay, because that's what I was thinking about.
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: I'm like, yeah, she did, but that is very like
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: there's a very specific moment in her life. That was
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: also very interesting to me when I was reading the
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: book because it was kind of odd. Okay, I'll say it,
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: and I'll come back to that thought. But yeah, so
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: there is if you read the book, it talks about
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: how she would go to at night, leave the house
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: and go to like a family cemetery that was near
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: the house, and she would pray and she would sing there.
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: And there's like a little anecdote in there about the
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: neighbors who would be like, oh, wow, she's so heavenly
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: and angelic, but at this time of night, what is
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: she doing out there? I mean it's really it's a
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: really nice serenate but you know, wow. So it was
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: quite odd to me, not that it's like not as
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: a practice of hers, like, because I mean, do you
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: do get it how you live? But just that out
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: of all of the things in our life that could
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: have been remarked upon, this thing was one that was
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: that like left a mark enough to be talked about
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: in the book. Interesting. It also was like one of
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: those stories if you read a lot of these people's lives,
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: things are embellished in a lot of ways. They're very flowery,
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: you know, they're very hagiographic. It's like this person was
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: really uplifted in the text, which is like I'm I
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: get it, you know, I get it, but I don't
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: you know, I don't know how much of that was
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: that because there was also like a little bit of
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: dialogue in there, so there seemed to be some liberties,
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: probably taken with what exactly people said, but regardless, A
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: little interesting tidbit about Mary. So Mary joined the first
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: Baptist church on Butte Street. Her pastor was Reverend James A. Mitchell,
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: who led the church from the time of Nat Turner's
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: uprising in eighteen thirty one until his death, which was
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: around eighteen fifty two. Many of the church members there
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: were black, and it was said in the book that
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: like Pastor Mitchell, uphold slavery, but he kept his opinion private,
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: and this wasn't unusual for the top, for pastors at
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: the top, so they could continue to do what they did.
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: If he was vocal at all about his opposition to slavery,
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: orifice and opinion that he only held in private. Sometimes
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: it was like it was kind of implied in sermons.
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: Sometimes the congregants knew it, and then so unclear about that,
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: but either way. In the book, Lockwood said that he
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: reached out to a deacon of the church when he
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: was in Norfolk because he visited there later, and the
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: deacon said about Mary that she quote had a strong
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: desire for the conversion of souls and was often found
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: exhorting them to repentance. Religious language is intense a lot
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: of the time, and I just, I mean, my mind
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: automatically goes to horror when I think conversion of souls.
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: But I get that that means that she was just
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: very pioused, she was faithful, and she wanted people to
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: come over on to the Christian side. So in eighteen
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: forty seven, Mary's mother married Thompson Walker and bought a
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: house in Hampton, Virginia. Thompson just for a little bit
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: of his background. Was an enslaved foreman at a plantation
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: and the founder of Hampton's second oldest black church, which
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: was Zion Baptist Church. So Mary worked as a seamstress.
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: She made clothes to make money, and she also created
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: an organization that was called the Daughters of Zion that
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: helped people who were poor or who were sick. Now,
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: in Virginia at the time, like it was in many
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: other places, it was illegal for black folks to gather
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: and get an education. So Mary began teaching black people
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: out of her own home. She even taught her stepfather,
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: and so in eighteen fifty one she married Thomas Peak,
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: and he was previously previously enslaved, and he was freed,
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: but he had a house and he had a farm,
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: and he worked as a servant at a local hotel.
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: So Mary continued on teaching, and eventually in eighteen fifty six,
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: Mary and Thomas had a daughter. Her name was Hattie
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: aka Daisy. I don't know where she got that. I
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: don't know where the nickname came from. But I saw
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: her more referred to as Daisy than I saw her
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: referred to as Hattie. But yeah, the Civil War the
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: pivotal moment in history that Mary was in Mayor. You're like,
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: You're like, it came out of nowhere, Samantha in the area.
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: What this thing? Okay, what is this event? Yeah? This
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: is years later, there's not I don't know much about
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: that period between eighteen fifty six and eighteen sixty one,
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: but the Civil War broke out and Mary was in Hampton,
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: and in August of eighteen sixty one, Confederates set Hampton
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: on the fire. So Mary had to flee her home
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: and it was destroyed in the chaos. I think it
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: was the day after she left, so I think they
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: were like in I think it was August fifth or sixth,
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: they were led to evacuate, and then the day after
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: that they came through and burned things down. She lost
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: her home. I think I think her husband even lost
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: two homes from my understanding, but either way, they lost
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: their home, they lost where they were living. And so
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: not long after the Civil War started, Union troops occupied Hampton,
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: and then they ended up setting up a base at
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: Fort Monroe, which I'm sure a lot of the people
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: who are listening to this podcast know a little bit
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: about and a lot of enslaved people fled to fort
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: comfort seeking freedom, and in the summer of eighteen sixty one,
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: more than nine hundred adults and children sought refuge at
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: the fort. I can only imagine what that was like, like,
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: you know, the mix of emotions, how emotionally charged it
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: would have been there for people who who had just
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: been through so much tragedy, like for years, but also
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: on their journey to get there, and then also arriving
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: with like just utter hope, and also camaraderie. You got
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: there with other people who were dealing with the same thing,
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: waiting to know what happened next. I mean, I mean,
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: I just can't even imagine. But at the time, all
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: the people who got there were declared contraband of war, okay,
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: and the commander at the fort ordered them not to
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: be returned to slavery. And all. Of course, education was
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: very important, in a priority for people who were newly freed,
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: because they a lot of them didn't know how to read,
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: didn't know how to write, so they needed an education
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: to move through life and to move through their new life.
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: And so Mary began teaching them under a large oak
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: tree near the fort. And I wonder how that felt.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: I imagine, I'm in my head, I'm there, you know,
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: because thinking about being under a tree and things being
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: so different so quickly, like there's so much upheaval, but
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: then there's so much hope at the same time. But yeah,
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: so anyway, the American Missionary Association is part of this
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: whole story. A couple decades prior, abolitionists have founded this association.
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: They denounced slavery. They didn't like how Protestant churches stayed
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: neutral regarding slavery, and in September of eighteen sixty one,
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: the Association sent Louis Lockwood, the author of the book
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: that I was telling y'all about to Fort Morrow. That's
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: where a lot of these observations come from. As a
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: missionary to the newly freed black folks. Some of the
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: children there told Lewis about Mary. According to his account,
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: this is how it went. I'm like, and I'm like,
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: I'm thinking, okay, these children are telling you about Mary,
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: but like and see her when you walked up, like
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: you didn't. She wasn't around town. The kids had to
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: tell you about her, not quite understanding that it's not like,
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: you know, it's not like it was a really huge place.
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: But either way, Mary ended up being hired by or
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: partnering with association to open up her school in a
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: cottage that was right next to the oak and so
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: the kids didn't have far to go. The school was
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: in the front room of the first story of this cottage,
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: and then her family apartments were in the front room
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: of the second story of the cottage, and Mary began
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: teaching the first day of school for these black children.
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: Her first appears in her story, and classes started on
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: September seventeenth, eighteen sixty one. And the school was pretty
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: close to Point Comfort, which is where this first group
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: of enslaved Africans arrived in Virginia about two and a
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: half centuries prior to this time. But yeah, so it's
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: interesting to think about what day to day life would
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: have looked like for them at the time. In the book,
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: Lewis Lockwood's observations as this person who was there for
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: a while but was also like an outsider, you know,
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: who came in from somewhere else. You can go back
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: to somewhere else. But he talked about how Hampton was
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: becoming a thriving, free black settlement. He said, and here's
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: a quote from the book, it seems fit that this place,
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: where injustice has been sanctioned by law, should be converted
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: into a sanctuary of justice, righteousness, and free education. We
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: consider that we are here trying the very highest experiment
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: with ex slaves. They are here emphatically turned loose and
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: are shifting for themselves, doing their own headwork and handwork.
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: End quote. I was kind of feel when his authorship
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: in this quote a little bit like there's some ups
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: and downs, it's some peaks and valleys, it's a roller coaster, okay,
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: because I have so many thoughts about this. I mean,
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: this is me being my over analytical writer self, but like,
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: the interesting thing to me about this is like, right
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: after this quote, he talks about how this place is
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: like it's particularly charged. I can't remember the exact language
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: that he used, but it's like some spiritual language around
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: this place specifically. That is very interesting to me because yes,
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: a lot happened here, but also there are so many
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: places that are charged in similar ways in the South,
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: so I'm just like, I'm curious about that. And also
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: I was a little you know, the word highest experiment
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: with ex slaves didn't really fully sit right with me,
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: because there's a huge history of terrible experimentation on black
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: people in the United States. So I'm like, I don't
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: know if I want y'all to experiment with people, you know,
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: I don't know if I want experiment anyway, even if
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: it's something that's considered a little bit more moral and righteous.
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: I don't, you know. But at the same time, I
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: get that it's it's language. I mean, I don't think
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: I don't think that was that is not the I'm
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: definitely reading that through my twenty twenty five black American eyes,
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: is what I'm saying in that case. But still, you know,
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: didn't say it right with me.
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: I mean, it does still feel like it might be
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: a connotation that he doesn't see them quite human.
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: I agree with you, Samantha. We No, I agree with
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: you because I think it's just m built and so
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: like when you're already referring, you know, you're considering people
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: who are enslaved property, even if you didn't agree with slavery,
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: that's how people. That's how actual people were viewed at
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: the time. And then after that, once they were free,
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: they came here in their contraband, so there's still items
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: you know there's still compared to inanimate objects, things that
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: don then aren't sentient and don't have you know, feelings.
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: So yeah, I totally agree with you. I think it's
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: I think it's both of do I think it's poor
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: choice of wording, but also, like my something that I'm
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: particularly triggered by because of the history that I have
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: lived through after all this time, and it was just
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: natural white for that not even to register for white
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: folks because that's how they viewed them. But yeah, I
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: also that the next line and all be done thinking
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: about this quote right after this, But I do want
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: to talk about this because I do like the language
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: in that last line where he says they are here
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: emphatically turned loose and are shifting for themselves. Isn't that
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: a little jazzy? Like does isn't it giving jazz? Because
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: emphatically it's like that, there feels like there's some agency there.
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: There feels like there's a lot of activity, Like it's
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: not like that word experiment that just came before, which
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: is why I was giving him a little bit more length,
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: because it's like it feels more, feels more powerful, it
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: feels like a celebration. Yeah, turned loose, you know, that
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: feels that feels fluid, and then it's shifting for themselves.
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: It's like, so he's acknowledging that this isn't just me
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: as a missionary coming in and being like, here's what
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: I'm going to do the same with people. This is
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: how I'm going to change them. This is how I'm
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: going to civilize them. You know. He he did acknowledge
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: their own headwork and handwork, and I'm like, I got
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: to use that now, headwork and handwork. I like that.
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: So I'm gonna start you saying you hear you, hear
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: me say, headwork and handwork. No, this will this white
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: man came is what I am from.
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: This is this is the beginning for you.
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: I still phrased it all the time for people that
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: I just like I've run through my head, Like I
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: don't really use them in places, but I just I,
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: you know, I latch into things like this me dude, like,
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: oh I like that. I like that highlight. So Mary
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: was on a mission and she was teaching these these
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: adults and children. So her school at first only had
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: about six students, but in a few days she had
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: about fifty or sixty students, including her own five year
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: old daughter. So, Mary, we all need to know your
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: sales funnel. What was your marketing like without social media too?
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: Come on, yeah, how'd you do that? Girl? I'm I'm
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: just kidding. No. She taught reading, writing, and math, and
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: she also left some religious instruction because, like I said,
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: she's been religious since day one basically, and she was
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: teaching the students to sing hymns as well, like even
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: memorization of the stuff of religious passages wasn't enough. They
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: had to go farther than that. But anyway, she was
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: teaching on all kinds of ways and ways that were
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: important to her because there is a big hooplah of
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: course from this source that is a missionary about her
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: dedicated to Christianity and dedication to spreading the good word.
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: So it was a part of her life though, and
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: that was how that was a type of instruction that
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: she considered important and as important as the rest of
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: the instruction that everybody was getting. Like there was a
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: quote about her saying something like, and in preparation as
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: important as preparatory work is work leading up to the Sabbath,
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: work is as important as that. So all of that
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: was part of her instruction, and then soon Mary the
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: Pioneer kept doing her thing. Other schools opened, and she
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: even began teaching at this evening school for black adults.
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: Of course, of course, a lot of the adults coming
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: in were couldn't read, and so she taught adults to
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: read as well. In her evening classes, she had about
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: twenty adults. And she also helped people from the American
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: Missionary Association start schools in Newport News and Norfolk and
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: and these were some of the first schools in the
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: South where black teachers taught big classes of black people.
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: But unfortunately, although she lived an illustrious life up until
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: this point and clearly was doing important work at a
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: pivotal time in a pivotal place, this part of her
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: life didn't last long. She got sick she had to
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: stay in bed. In the book, they talk about how
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: her students would gather around her even when she was
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: in bed. I'm not sure the extent that she was
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: actually teaching them from her bed, but she seemed to
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: have been doing some sort of instruction or at least
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: just like guidance or the students were supporting her unclear,
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: but they would gather around her when she was in bed.
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: A doctor did recommend that she stopped teaching, but it
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: was around the time there was this big Christmas festival
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: at the school. A little bit after that, Mary got
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: increasingly sick. She was coughing more, she was tired, and
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: she was weak, and it turned doubt that Mary had tuberculosis.
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: She had to stop teaching around January of eighteen sixty two,
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: and she died on February twenty second, eighteen sixty two.
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: She was buried in Elmerton Cemetery in Hampton. But that
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: tree that she taught students under, that's also where people
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: gathered to hear the first reading of the Emancipation Proclamation
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: in the South. It's called that Emancipation Oak and Hampton
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: Normal and Agricultural Institute, which is called then it's now
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: Hampton University, was founded there in eighteen sixty eight by
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: leaders of the American Missionary Association. So that all that
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: is on Hampton, this whole area. And that's the story
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: in Mary Keeth. Yes, the oak tree was what I
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: was talking about. Okay, Yes, okay, I didn't put too
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: and two together.
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: You're smarter than me, No, you had you had a
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: great deep cut ready to go excellent credit.
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: Yes, yes, and there is listeners if you want to
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: look it up.
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: There's a lot, like like you've said, Eves, like you
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: can read the biography. There's a lot of stuff you
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: can find written about her. And it is interesting as
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: we always talk about kind of taking into context all
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: the history going on and who's writing it and all that,
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: but we've also talked before about the power of knowledge
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: and reading and all of that stuff. So just what
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: she was doing was so so important and I didn't
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: really realize until you were talking about it because I'm
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: out of that world now.
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: But we are sort of in back to school season.
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, so it's it's been a well time, like
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: we're all going to school. That's funny.
• 28:04
  Speaker 3: I mean, in general, I think when we talk about
• 28:07
  Speaker 3: the power of education and why groups of people don't
• 28:11
  Speaker 3: want certain groups of people to have that education, that
• 28:14
  Speaker 3: power and is kind of ever growing in conversation and
• 28:19
  Speaker 3: never stopping, never ending. That is because it's still true,
• 28:24
  Speaker 3: like what she was doing was giving power back to
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: her community in an amazing way. And I say short
• 28:32
  Speaker 3: life because I'm like hen she was young. She did
• 28:35
  Speaker 3: so much for her people, for her community, rather that
• 28:39
  Speaker 3: it shows like it spread those schools that opened after her,
• 28:42
  Speaker 3: and that showed that they were thriving. I mean, that's
• 28:46
  Speaker 3: that conversation of like, yeah, this is what it looks
• 28:48
  Speaker 3: like when we actually take that in and understand the
• 28:52
  Speaker 3: power of education, the power of learning and growth.
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Imagine fleeing your home because of an unprecedented war
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: that a lot of lives hinge upon, going like right
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: down the street and being like, I'm going to teach
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: some kids. I'm good. I think, yeah, okay, good, at
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: least good enough to pass along some knowledge exactly. So yes, yeah,
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: shout out to her. I mean seriously, like I it
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: seems like like you have to have great resolve and dedication,
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: like commitment to the cause to do what she did.
• 29:34
  Speaker 3: I wonder too, I haven't researched her at all, because
• 29:36
  Speaker 3: I'm like excited when you come and tell us these
• 29:38
  Speaker 3: people that we should know but we don't know.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: So we're excited.
• 29:41
  Speaker 3: But I wonder how many people have connections with her,
• 29:43
  Speaker 3: like people who taught she taught to read, and that
• 29:46
  Speaker 3: has passed this hype of well legacy down to their family.
• 29:49
  Speaker 3: I would love to hear about that. That would be amazing
• 29:51
  Speaker 3: to see those connections.
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I would too. I'm not sure, but I imagine it exponentially.
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: It was exponential situation. You Yeah, he knows of anybody. Yeah,
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: that would be cool.
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: I do feel like you know, hopefully most of us,
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: if we're lucky, you have that one teacher that really
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: left an impression on you or changed your life, and
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: maybe it was something really small, but it really stuck
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: with you. So I bet I'm sure that there are
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: some people out there that hopefully have had her legacy
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: passed down and maybe have heard stories about her.
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: So that would be really cool. Yeah, it would. I
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: have ninety teachers like that. Yeah, ninety teachers over the
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: course of my life who from the smallest support to
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: the biggest, biggest support, I left huge marks on my life.
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: So always love bringing a teacher and I definitely will
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: be bringing another teacher at some point. I have before,
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: we'll be bringing another teacher on it because you know,
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: deserve some upliftment. They absolutely do, and it really is.
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: It's so valuable.
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: Well, thank you so much, Eves as always for coming on.
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: I hope that you have a wonderful bug free after.
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: I'm wired now I'm up I'm thinking about. Oh no, Well,
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: where can the good listeners find you? Y'all can go
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: to my website which is Eve's Jeffcoat dot com. That's
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: spelled y v E s j E F F C
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: O A T dot com. Y'all can also go to Instagram.
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: I'm on there sometimes my Instagram is not apologizing, and
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: you can also find me on many other episodes of
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: stuff Mom Never Told You talking about these female first
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: about women in history who had awesome accomplishments.
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: Yes, yes, and listeners go check out all of that
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: stuff if you haven't already h And if you would
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: like to contact us, you can. You can email us
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: at Hello at Stuffannever Told You dot com. You can
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: find us on blue Sky at Mom Stuff Podcast, or
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: on Instagram and TikTok at stuff one Never Told You
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: for us on YouTube. We have a new merchandise at
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: Cotton Bureau, and we have a book you can get
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: wherever you get your books. Thanks as always to a
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: super producer, senior executive producer My and.
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: Our contributor Joey. Thank you, and thanks to you for listening.
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: Steffan Never Told You a protection of iHeartRadio for more
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: podcast from my heart Radio. You can check out the
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: iHeart Radio app, Apple podcast, or if you listen to
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: your favorite shows,