Calinda Shely

ENG 540

Romano

2-27-09

Research Assignment

Part 1:  CSWR trip

            I located a box before my trip to the Anderson room by searching under the general categories of daily life and customs.  I found a box of papers from the Charles Francis Clark family. (Call #:MSS 88BC)  Mr. Clark was a British immigrant from Suffolk, England, who first settled in Wisconsin in February of 1848.  He later moved to Fort Massachusetts, New Mexico; Jefferson, Missouri; and Utah, and then was stationed primarily in Kansas Territory during the Civil War, when he was killed in a campaign in Tennessee in 1862.  The contents of the box are primarily letters, some copies of letters, and a few of the original envelopes.  Most letters from 1847-1862 are from Clark to his parents in England, with a few from Clark to other parties, including his wife, Mary, and some from Mary to her parents and to Clark himself.  The remainder of the letters in the box after Clark’s death are from Mary herself to other parties.  Almost all are the original letters, with a few copies marked as such by Clark.  The letters are on white or pale blue paper; the ink is faded to a sepia color.  The envelopes within the files contain the remains of wax seals, and some even have the original postage stamps.  The handwriting of both Clark and Mary were surprisingly easy to read; Clark himself had a perfect, copperplate script.  Most of the letters were in very good condition, not crumbling or torn at all. 

Letters examined

February 1848:  from Charles Francis Clark to his father, the Rev. Charles Clark, Suffolk, England.  In this letter, Charles apologizes for “running away” from England to search for a life of adventure in America.

May 1849:  from Charles Clark to his father, the Rev. Charles Clark, Suffolk, England.  Charles describes the lure of the California Gold Rush top his father, and how his partner in the fur-trapping business absconded with Charles’ share of the profits to pursue gold mining.

September 1861:  from Charles Clark to his wife, Mary Clark, in Kansas Territory.  In this brief note, written on a tiny piece of paper, Clark describes a little of what he calls the monotony of camp life and encourages Mary to write as often as she can.

May 1862:  from Mary Clark to Mrs. Rev. Charles Clark, Suffolk, England.  This letter contains mostly an account of the pioneer life Mary was living in her husband’s absence during the Civil War.  She also relays news of Charles’ latest letter to her. 

            Mary begins by discussing details pertaining to her children, the oldest two of whom apparently attend school.  The youngest boy is still too young for school, and he and his baby sister are at home with Mary during the day/  Mary describes the play of the children and the distraction it provides for her; she tells her mother-in-law that it helps her be less lonely while Charles is away.  She briefly relates the contents of Charles’ latest letter to his mother, most of which includes encouragement to write as much as possible.  Mary then describes some of the Kansas springtime weather as sunny and uplifting after the prairie winter.  She complains of the uncertainty of the mail system that results from the war and hopes that all of their letters are being received. She mentions at the very end of the letter that “all is quiet in Kansas still,” that the war has not yet reached them. 

            Electronic resources

Initially I began my search in the ejournal finder.  I was just scrolling through the gender studies subsection of the social science category looking for journal dates that were appropriate, and I noticed one title called Englishwoman's Review of Social and Industrial Questions.   The dates for that publication went back to 1866, so I looked at the online link for that journal, which was the Gerritsen collection.  The collection has feminist periodicals and books from all over the world available.  I browsed through all the journal titles and publication information in search of an American one that fit my dates and sounded interesting.  I was first amazed by the number of feminist journals published in Europe during the 19^th century, far more than were published in America.  I picked one to search titled Woman’s Exponent, a journal published from 1872-1940 in Salt Lake City, Utah.  I found a number of articles that dealt with women writing about the temperance movement, yet there was some sort of error in the server, and none of the articles would open in a readable form.  So, I went back to the ejournal finder and this time came across one entitled Lucifer, the Light-Bearer, a periodical published from 1886-1903 and available through America’s Historical Nwespapers.  My temperance search in that journal also revealed many options, but when I selected an issue to look at, another article caught my eye, one called “A Woman’s Warning to Reformers.”  I began to read and was initially surprised to find that there was an author, Gertrude B. Kelley; most of the articles I have seen from this and earlier periods do not provide authors’ names, especially when the author is a woman.  I was doubly surprised, though, when I read Kelley’s words.

            The article opens with a series of rhetorical questions.  Kelley first asks, “Can man be free if woman is a slave?” She provides in addition to the rhetorical questions a hyperbolic metaphor in which she cautions that if women are made to bear the yoke of slavery, then crime and false religion will soon follow (aka the downfall of society).  She then moves into a stinging rebuke against the male sex for allowing women to be subjugated and not allowed to think for themselves.  She asserts that women who do attempt this shocking action are met with harsh ridicule.  Even men who profess sympathy for the women’s movement, Kelley rails, do not truly commit to this movement because they do not allow women to think and act for themselves, an action that she asserts indicates that these men are content to live in a relationship with a person whom they must believe has no sympathy or mental kinship with them whatsoever. 

            Kelley next invokes the rhetoric of fear for her audience by reminding these men that their so-called sympathy for the labor movement and civil rights is being undermined by attempts to silence working girls from factories in the Northeast by convincing them that their duty lies in womanly submission, which not only enslaves them, but also silences the labor movement.  Finally, Kelley calls upon the notion of American pride by casting up the fact that the “backward Russians” allow women more rights than American women are permitted.  She uses a strong pathological appeal to end the article, telling male reformers that unless they focus more on women and calling upon them to utilize and act on their natural intelligence, the labor and civil movements these reformers attempt to effect will never stick, that they will fall away with the next generation without the support of women.