Hey, I'm Back!

In writing a blog, it seems like it is either better to imagine you are writing to no one or that you are writing to thousands eager for your words.

It seems to have little of the advantage of self reflection or prophecy to acknowledge the truth – if I contacted some friends and colleagues, most would intend to get around to reading my blog, but probably only a few would actually get there (we’re all so busy). 

This issue of audience seems particularly awkward on a blog that is to announce, hey I’m back!  (echo, echo, echo)  My more than two-year hiatus from the blog bookmarks a transitional time for me.  A mere couple of rings on a tree but a time in which I was learning - or at least experiencing - work and life lessons at breakneck speed.  

Which gets to the point of this blog entry.  Although there was plenty to write about in the last two years to connect the Constitutional Tales to our brave, new world, I was too involved in it to have the time and likely the capacity to offer much worth reading.  The Tales became a part of my worldview that shaped how I approached my work with the State Board of Education, especially in the work of crafting a new vision for the system of public education.  That seemed public enough.

My professional role now is a little more behind the scenes.  And I find the Tales calling to me yet again. I am inspired by reading books like David Celeski’s  recently published book, The fire of Freedom – Abraham Galloway & the Slaves’ Civil War.  It is a reminder that there are so many prisms for looking into history and if we are willing to explore them, we can reshape our understanding of the meaning of the past and the possibilities of the present. 

So what is going on with the Tales?  The website, constitutionaltales.org, is now back up due to the extraordinary work and patience of Carol Place.  (Due to my negligence, the original site, constitutionaltales.net, suffered the worst possible fate of being abandoned and then purchased by a payday loan site.  Oh, the indignity.)  We’ve reworked the new site and added some new materials.  And Constitutional Tales is headed again to the State Capitol, this time as a special production for the North Carolina Association of Educators on March 21.  Lots to do now that I’m back.

Original documents to tell the story of the President of the Convention

This is the second in a series of essays about the North Carolina Constitutional Convention of 1868.  Please see the October 15, 2010 blog for the beginning of this series.

I left the last blog with the following question: was Calvin Cowles – the president of the 1868 N.C. Constitutional Convention – merely a puppet of the “carpetbaggers” or a part of a coalition to promote change?  Before answering this question, I am going to take a detour to delve more into Cowles’ story that is told through original documents available at the North Carolina Department of Archives and History.

As a starting point, I used a number of books, articles, and web sources for the research that was the basis for my story in the last blog.  I was out of town, however, and not able to investigate original documents.  After returning, I spent a couple of days at the State Archives.  Culling through collections of original documents can be both exciting and daunting.  No doubt there are historians out there who could tell you more about the research process, but here’s what happened on this trip. 

I knew from some of my other research that the State Archives had a collection of Calvin Cowles’ papers.  I had no idea how big the collection was until I reviewed the Archives’ description found in a well-aged 3-ring binder.  It explains that the collection consists of 23,000 items contained in 24 manuscript boxes and 24 tissue letterpress books.   If you tend to imagine that frequent communication began with email or text messages, it is rather amazing that the collection holds approximately 18,000 letters written by Calvin Cowles between November 1850 and February 1877.

All of his letters are handwritten and are difficult to read. Cowles’ cursive is very swooopy:  his “s” looks like a “p” or an “l”.  Deciphering is made more difficult by the use of words and phrasing now uncommon and the physical aging of the letters. Reading letters on fragile tissue in the letterpress books is even more challenging.   With these books, Cowles would write on the tissue with a piece of carbon paper behind it to make a copy on stationery. He then would send the stationery copy and the tissue version remained in the letterpress book.

Without some idea of what to look for, it would be extremely time-consuming to read through entire letterpress books.  In this case, I was helped by an excellent “finding-aid” prepared by staff of the Archives.  It mentions a letter written to another postmaster about the conflict Cowles felt in working for the federal government as postmaster in a seceded state.  In the story I created in the last blog, I tell about how Cowles is forced to resign from his postmaster responsibilities because of his allegiance to the Union.  This letter to postmaster A. Hamilton Horton at Elkville shares an ambivalence not clear in Cowles’ later recounting of his forced resignation.  Here’s an excerpt:

Wilkesboro, N.C. Aprl 26/61

My dear sir

…

You and I and thousands of others are in a pretty fix – Federal offices in a seceded state –not yet seceded but will be as soon as the forms can be gone through with --- what are we to do?  Our oaths bind us to support a Constitution that is ignored.  For my part I wish I had not accepted office. I intend to try to guard myself against perjury & to do that I can not raise my hand (nor voice) against the Federal government.  For my dear Hamilton these are the days that will try our pluck – our sworn duty one side & impulse & feelings the others for section will be on is arrayed against section.  Who can refrain from sympathizing with his fellows – the fruit of the same soil.  Moral courage is greater than physical courage or more to be commended – we must do nothing to compromise our oaths of Office and therefore must remain neutral at least.

With a date range in mind, it is then easier to begin looking through the other files for related original documents.  A typed notice dated November 12, 1861, requires the postmaster to register all arrivals and departures of the mail from the office and make it available to the Inspection Office of the Post Office Department of the Confederate States of America.  Such a requirement would have aided the Confederacy in monitoring activities of potential Unionists.  Surely this must have caused Cowles some angst.  It may have even aided the Confederacy in intercepting the letter from Cowles that led to his forced resignation from his postmaster position.  But as can be the case in constructing stories from primary documents, the story stops short of giving us this answer.

Another part of the story I tell in the blog is that “the Confederate Calvary also made its way through, wiping out families’ paltry provisions.  The actions of the Calvary appalled Calvin Cowles and in April of 1864 he wrote to complain to Governor Zebulon Vance.”[1] This was important as a part of the story for showing the dissatisfaction with the Civil War in Wilkes County and Cowles’ position as a prominent local businessman.   Using the cite listed in my footnote, I was able to retrieve the letter.   However, it was not in Cowles’ letterpress book:  instead the original is in the collection of papers for Governor Vance.  Holding the letter in your hands (carefully), you can see how the brown ink spreads across the paper. The red wax seal Governor Vance broke to read the letter remains in the two pieces on the back of the letter.

From this letter, we get a fuller description of what occurred when the Confederate Calvary came through.  It is admittedly much more interesting than my summary statement:

Wilkesboro N.C. Aprl 4^th 1864

Gov. Vance

My dear sir

Longstreets men are here pressing cattle & corn – they are making clean work of it too… Yesterday 40 wagons with long teams came down the river hunting corn – 6 of them being loaded turned across the river toward Jefferson – the others have gone on down the river.  They called here & left a rept [receipt] for 49 Bus. [bushels] Corn which they found on my farm in Caldwell Co. & took – took it though it was all I had there & my tenant not enough to do him and I with less than – 2 bbls [handwriting not clear] in my cribs here and a farm – a grazing farm in Ashe to supply.  It is generally known that the Hokes Geo. Cavalry turned their horses on to my growing crop last fall to eat it up which I had hoped would have given me an immunity from this visit…what can the hundreds of our farmers do toward making a crop this season when deprived of the grain to feed their work horses as they have been & are being?  … What are the poor day laborers to do for bread when every crib in the land is depleted to the lowest possible standard – just enough left for the family & stock?  I see a dark way ahead for the poor sons of toil and in face for us all unless some unforeseen good luck should happen.  Why were these men sent here instead of S.C. or elsewhere where Grain is plenty – it would be better to have Corn sent up to Statesville for them if it can not reach them over the Va RR. .. I throw out the suggestion hoping you will feel significant interest in the subject to propose the adoption of the plan to the secretary of war or others having the control of such matters…

In the next blog, I’ll return to the story line.  This blog is a chance to pause to think about the process of discovery available to all of us at the State Archives and other repositories of original documents.  It is becoming more common in collections such as at the Library of Congress to make available only microfilm copies.  There is no touching or handling, just squinting and hitting the forward button.  But even that is much better than relying solely on textbooks or other secondary sources.  These original documents bring a richness to our understanding of events important in our lives as North Carolinians.

Primary Sources:

C. J. Cowles to A. Hamilton Horton, Apr. 24, 1861, Calvin Cowles Papers, NC Department of Archives and History, Box 111.30, letterpress book December 1859-October-1862.

Confederate States of America, Post Office Department, Inspectio Office, Richmond , VA., Nov. 12, 1861, Calvin Cowles Papers, NC Department of Archives and History, Box 111.5, Folder Correspondence 1860-61.

C.J. Cowles to Z.B. Vance, Apr. 4, 1864, Z. B. Vance Papers NC Department of Archives and History G.P. 175, Correspondence Folder Apr 1-6, 1864.

Other useful resource:

For more information about the State Archives, go to: http://www.archives.ncdcr.gov/

Ann McColl

Constitutionaltales.org

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[1] C.J. Cowles to Z.B. Vance, Apr. 4, 1864, Z. B. Vance Papers NC Department of Archives and History, cited in Barrett, John G., The Civil War in North Carolina, p. 241 (Chapel Hill, N.C.: The University of North Carolina Press 1963)

The unexpected choice in President of the 1868 Constitutional Convention

This is the first in a series of essays about the North Carolina Constitutional Convention of 1868.  North Carolina has been governed by three constitutions known by their dates of 1776, 1868, and 1971.  The 1868 Constitution is created at a constitutional convention.  This essay begins the exploration of the leadership and coalitions important at the convention in creating this constitution.

Calvin Cowles was as surprised as anyone by his nomination to be president of the North Carolina Constitutional Convention of 1868.  The band of reformers behind his nomination made a tactical decision that this political neophyte was the right person to lead the convention.  But it was a gamble.

Cowles was a delegate from Wilkes County.  Situated in the northwestern mountains, Wilkes lies just below Ashe and Alleghany Counties, which extend to the Virginia border. Wilkes County was formed in 1777 and named in honor of John Wilkes, a rebel defender of popular rights who was not allowed to take his elected seat in England’s Parliament in retaliation for his politics.[1]

Wilkes County continued to have a rebellious character. During the Civil War, the state’s “interior war” played out here. Residents resented the harsh and disproportionate effects of conscription on those without wealth or privilege; they suffered from the requirement that farmer’s hand over one-tenth of all their produce to the Confederacy, and were outraged by the Confederate army’s right to seize personal property – paying only whatever the Army thought appropriate.[2]   Dissatisfaction grew as poverty descended on the region.  By the summer of 1863, over 500 deserters hid in Wilkes County.[3] The Confederate Calvary also made its way through, wiping out families’ paltry provisions.

The actions of the Calvary appalled Calvin Cowles and in April of 1864 he wrote to complain to Governor Zebulon Vance.[4]  His letter likely garnered attention as Cowles was a well-known merchant and owned a store in Wilkesboro.  He exported roots and herbs to the North and England and had deep connections in the community, including with those that eked out a living “yarbin’ it” – collecting roots and herbs for sale.[5]  He was respected and prosperous.

He also was a Unionist.  For this he was arrested and spent time in jail.  It also cost him his position as postmaster.  This happened one day when he returned to his home, a “clapboarded residence” with a “graceful portico”[6], and found the vigilance committee waiting for him.  They had in their possession an intercepted letter Cowles had written and charged that he had said that he would not hold office under the Confederacy.  As Cowles recounted, “There was a home guard parade that day, and the rabble were clamoring in the street. They told me it was too serious a matter to be trifled with. They had hung a negro a day or so before on my lot. So I consulted with my wife, and a loyal friend, who told me that I would be hung unless submitted [to resigning from postmaster]”.[7]

Other than postmaster, Cowles had never held any office.  But he was clear in his opinions and conversed with leaders across the state.  During the War, he sided with those seeking a broad peace movement, which placed him at odds with North Carolina Senator Andrew Cowles, his half brother.[8]  In 1864, newspaper editor William W. Holden shared with Cowles his desire to run a gubernatorial campaign that focused on ceasing hostilities and beginning negotiations.[9]  Holden was unsuccessful in this campaign, but directly after the Civil War, he was appointed as provisional Governor.  Holden also would become Cowles’ father-in-law.

Besides the appointment of Governor Holden, little changed in who held power from before the Civil War to the initial years afterward, and thus, little changed in antebellum practices.  It took intervention by Congress.  In order to be readmitted to the Union, Congress required Confederate states to revise their constitutions to establish and protect specified rights, including the right of males to vote without regard to race. Federal law enfranchised black men and disenfranchised men loyal to the confederate cause in voting for holding a constitutional convention and in electing delegates. Under these conditions, the Republican party – the reform party – won 107 of 120 seats to North Carolina’s constitutional convention. 

This was an extraordinary opportunity to reform the system.  It would be important for the cohesiveness of the party to all stand behind one nominee for president. On the second day of the convention, January 15, 1868, Cowles won the presidency, receiving 101 of 109 votes cast.[10]  “My friends had run me for the Convention,” Cowles later explained. “I had done all I could then, and was returned with the highest vote on the ticket. Coming here to take a back seat, I had been elevated to the Presidency much to my astonishment.”[11]

An historian’s account of the election is similar.  Professor J.D. de Roulhac Hamilton wrote,  “The election of Cowles caused general surprise in the State, as it was supposed that General Abbott and Heaton both desired the position and that one of them would be elected… Cowles was a sincere man of unimpeachable honesty, of only fair ability, and of no political experience”.[12] 

And indeed Abbott and Heaton were both better versed in politics and had legislative experience.  Joseph Abbott, delegate for the coastal county of New Hanover, had been a U.S. senator for New Hampshire, editor, lawyer, and Union general.  David Heaton, delegate for another coastal community, Craven County, had been a U.S. representative as well as a state senator in Ohio and Minnesota.[13] He had been a Union colonel, serving as a special agent of the treasury department in New Bern during the War.

So why Cowles? Why did the reformers not elect someone already well known as a leader who was versed in parliamentary procedures? And why would Abbott and Heaton give up the opportunity for the prominence of being the president of convention?  Hamilton speculated:  “Each was ambitious, but probably each concluded that more reputation and influence could be gained on the floor of the convention than as its residing officer.  Hamilton further speculated, “[Cowles] was entirely favorable to reconstruction and, accepting the carpetbaggers as leaders, was thoroughly under their influence.  Their support, combined with the fact that he was a close connection of Holden’s by marriage, procured his election.”[14]

Professor Hamilton’s assessment of Abbott’s and Heaton’s interests might be correct; however, his view of Cowles and the tyranny of northern whites is perhaps too harsh.  Hamilton’s scholarship, while often cited as authoritative, also has been widely criticized by later historians for sanctioning white supremacy and promoting an understanding of history that glorified the established elite and denigrated the contributions of blacks, northerners, and local whites who sought reform. And in this case, at least one of his facts important to his conclusions is wrong:  Cowles did not marry Ida Holden until four months after the convention was over.[15] 

The question remains:  was Cowles merely a puppet of the “carpetbaggers” or a part of a  coalition to promote change?  That’s the subject for the next blog.

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[1] Corbitt, David L., The Formation of the North Carolina Counties 1663-1943, p. 227 (Raleigh, N.C.: North Carolina Division of Archives and History 1950); Federal Writers' Project (N.C.), North Carolina, a guide to the old north State, p. 408-09 (Chapel Hill, N.C.:  The University of North Carolina Press, American Guide Series 1939)

[2] Barrett, John G., The Civil War in North Carolina (Chapel Hill, N.C.: The University of North Carolina Press 1963)

[3] Escott, Paul D., Many Excellent People: Power and Privilege in North Carolina, 1850-1900, p. 47 (Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press 1985).

[4] C.J. Cowles to Z.B. Vance, Apr. 4, 1864, Z. B. Vance Papers NC Department of Archives and History, cited in Barrett, John G., The Civil War in North Carolina, p. 241 (Chapel Hill, N.C.: The University of North Carolina Press 1963)

[5] Federal Writers' Project (N.C.), North Carolina, a guide to the old north State, p. 408 (Chapel Hill, N.C.:  The University of North Carolina Press, American Guide Series 1939)

[6] North Carolina Guide, p. 409.

[7] Ferrell, Joseph, ed., Compilation of the Official Report of the Proceedings of the Convention, March 9, p. 545 (Chapel Hill, N.C.:  unpublished manuscript 2007).  This document compiles the official Report of the Proceedings of the Convention published each day in the Daily Standard by Joseph Holden, the official reporter of the Convention. The editor has expanded Holden's report by adding material from the Daily Sentinel, the newspaper followed by Conservatives, when the Sentinel reported remarks or occurrences omitted from Holden's report, and inserted material from the Journal of the Convention (the record of official actions) to fully identify the action being taken.  In Holden’s report speeches were changed from first to third person accounts.  I have changed these pronouns back to what the speaker likely said, such as changing “he” to “I” or “his” to “my.” I added the bracketed language as this is an excerpt from his account.

[8] A.C. Cowles to Calvin Cowles, 18 Aug. 1863, in Calvin J. Cowles Papers, NCDAH, cited in Escott, Paul D., Many Excellent People: Power and Privilege in North Carolina, 1850-1900, p. 47, fn. 47.

[9] W.W. Holden to C.J. Cowles, 18 Mar. 1864 in W.W. Holden Papers, NCDAH, cited in Escott, Paul D., Many Excellent People: Power and Privilege in North Carolina, 1850-1900, p. 47, fn. 48.

[10] North Carolina, Journal of the Constitutional Convention of the State of North-Carolina, at its Session 1868, p. 11 (Raleigh, N.C.: J.W. Holden, convention printer 1868); transcribed with online access by same title (Documenting the American South, University Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Electronic ed. 2002) available at http://docsouth.unc.edu/nc/conv1868/conv1868.html.

[11] Ferrell, Joseph, ed., Compilation of the Official Report of the Proceedings of the Convention, March 9, p. 545.

[12] Hamilton, J.D. de Roulhac, Reconstruction in North Carolina, p. 255 (Gloucester, Mass.: Peter Smith 1964).

[13] Hamilton, J.D. de Roulhac, Reconstruction in North Carolina, p. 253; Hume, Richard L. & Gough, Jerry B., Blacks, Carpetbaggers, and Scalawags: The Constitutional Conventions of Radical Reconstruction, Appendix C (no page number) (Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press 2008)

[14] Hamilton, J.D. de Roulhac, Reconstruction in North Carolina, p. 255

[15] Daily Sentinel of Raleigh, July 24, 1868, retrieved by Steve Case, Librarian, Government and Heritage Library of the State Library of North Carolina: “Married:  On the morning of the 23^rd inst., at the residence of the bride’s father, by the Rev. Dr. Mason, C.J. Cowles of Wilkes Co., and  Ida A., daughter of Gov. W. H. Holden.” 

What would Albion Tourgée think of the Wake County School Board?

Note:  this is in a series of essays that I will be using to form the written version of the Tales.  Some are ideas and themes I am exploring -- others may be rough drafts of portions of the Tales.  --Ann McColl

Last night a new majority was formed among Wake County School Board members based on a shared frustration with the process used by the other board members for dismantling the student assignment policy.  They said the other four members moved too quickly and shut out board members and the public from the deliberative process.  (See News and Observer, 10/6/2010) In searching for the broader context, I cannot help but wonder, what would Albion Tourgée think of all of this? 

Albion Tourgée was one of the most prominent public intellectuals of the nineteenth century, writing and speaking extensively about race relations and the process of social reform.  As an elected delegate to the 1868 constitutional convention, Tourgée shaped North Carolina’s Constitution.  (For more background see today’s companion blog, “the problem with ‘re’ words”.)  Given his concerns about equality, I suspect he would be troubled by plans to eliminate factors that provide for diversity in the schools.  But that is speculation.  We can know what he thinks about processes of reform.  First, he places confidence in “the people,” not elected leaders:

“If I were to write any political creed it would be Lincoln’s favorite aphorism.  ‘A government of the people, by the people and for the people,’ including in the term ‘people’ the entire population of the United States.  You know, for we have often talked freely of these matters, how broad and deep the foundations of my faith in the people lie.  I have no faith in politicians, aristocrats, or classes of any sort.”  (Letter to E. S. Parker, 1875, p. 54.)

Second, he calls for giving adequate time to the process.  Even though he fully supported the objectives of equality in reconstruction-era reforms sought by Congress and the Republican party, he finds fault in the impatience for change:

“We have no faith in time!  Milton wrote that the railroad and telegraph have annihilated time and space!  Milton wrote that on of the attributes of Hell was the power to compress eternity into an hour.  The Republican Party and Congress got an idea that they also had this power.  Hence this ‘serious error.’  You remember somebody’s idea that if a Yankee had the contract of creation he would have finished it all up in five days and gone fishing on Saturday?  It was so with our Republican Congress at the close of the war.  They wanted to do the work of a generation in a day.” (Letter to E. S. Parker, 1875, p. 56.)

Process is not all that matters, however. Tourgée is critical of a shift he saw from what “What is Right to What will Win” (“The Reaction,”1868,  p. 33.)  He asserts,

“Now and then comes a time when the question that is uppermost in all minds is not ‘How?’ but ‘What’ – when the question of method, the mere economy of administration, sinks into insignificance in the presence of some peril which threatens the very fact of existence.” (“Aaron’s Rod in Politics,” 1881, p.66.) 

The Wake County School Board has yet to agree on the “what.”  Perhaps by slowing down the process, this can begin to happen.  If they need more advice, I suggest that they read more of the writings of Tourgée.  Just published this year, Mark Elliot and John David Smith provide an excellent anthology of his works.  Check it out.

Source:

Elliot, Mark, & Smith, John David, eds., Undaunted Radical: The Selected Writings and Speeches of Albion Tourgée (Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press 2010)

Other Useful Resource:

Elliott, Mark Emory, Color-blind Justice: Albion Tourgée and the Quest for Racial Equality from the Civil War to Plessy v. Ferguson (Oxford, N.Y.: Oxford University Press 2006).

The problem with "re" words

Note:  this is in a series of essays that I will be using to form the written version of the Tales.  Some are ideas and themes I am exploring -- others may be rough drafts of portions of the Tales.  --Ann McColl

Albion Tourgée is generally recognized as the most famous “carpetbagger” to participate in North Carolina politics after the Civil War.  He left a significant imprint on North Carolina in his role in state constitutional and statutory revisions and as a lawyer and judge.  At the national level, Tourgée had a prominent career that included serving as lead attorney for the plaintiff in Plessy v. Ferguson – a case he lost that established the constitutional principle of separate but equal.  He shared his views as a civil rights activist in both political writings and fiction, including his well-read novel, A Fool’s Errand, which draws on his experiences in North Carolina.  I will use blogs to share brief excerpts and quotes from Tourgée that relate to themes explored in Constitutional Tales. 

Tourgée is in North Carolina during Reconstruction and is an influential delegate to the 1868 N.C. Constitutional Convention.  While fully supportive of the agenda of Congress and the Republican party of securing political rights for blacks, he is critical of the approach, including the choice of term, “reconstruction.”

“The word itself was one of ill-omen, in that it rushed back into the past for the type and model of what was to be in the future.  By its very force it accustomed the people to the idea that the work which was to be done was but the patching up of an old garment; that it was an act of restoration rather than one of creation.”  (“Root, Hog, or Die,” 1876, p. 58.) 

It is an interesting commentary on the importance of terms.  And “re” words have hardly gone out of style.  We use them to endorse a prior act: we reaffirm (presumably meaning more than once), reapply, reauthorize, recommission, rededicate, and reestablish.  Perhaps Tourgée would not be concerned by this kind of intentional affirmation.  Other times, however, we use “re” words to describe a process of analysis: we reanalyze, reassess, recalibrate, recompute, reevaluate, reexamine, reformulate, revalidate, and revise.  Does the “re” limit the scope of inquiry?  Are we closer here to Tourgée’s concern that we begin an endeavor with a limited intention of patching it up?  And perhaps most problematic is the use of “re” words when we intend a new beginning:  we say we will reconceive, reconceptualize, reconfigure, rediscover, reenvision, reimagine, reorient, retheorize, and rethink.  Are these words of creation?  Or do they keep us from starting anew? 

A constitutional tale tells us something important about history.  But it also should tell something important about us. Tourgée was one of the most significant public intellectuals of the nineteenth century.  Perhaps he can still be of help.

Source:

Elliot, Mark, & Smith, John David, eds., Undaunted Radical: The Selected Writings and Speeches of Albion Tourgée (Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press 2010)

Other Useful Resource:

Elliott, Mark Emory, Color-blind Justice: Albion Tourgée and the Quest for Racial Equality from the Civil War to Plessy v. Ferguson (Oxford, N.Y.: Oxford University Press 2006).

Where are the women in the Tales?: The stories of Mary Jane Conner and Sylvia

I have caught grief for giving presentations of the Constitutional Tales with a cast of all male actors.  Getting beyond personal insinuations (to which I think are unwise to respond), the more serious concern is the lack of presence of women in the Tales.  In part, this is unavoidable:  women were not elected as delegates to the Constitutional Convention of 1868 and did not play a direct role in the writing of the North Carolina Constitution.  I do include references to women in the presentations and writing the Tales will give me an opportunity to share a little more about the lives of women.  These stories help explain the “spirit of the times” that is essential to our understanding of our constitutional history.  I will use this blog to share the lives of Mary Jane Conner and Sylvia.

I first saw pictures of them on a visit to the New Bern Academy, a museum operated by Tryon Palace (currently closed during restoration).  Their pictures are captivating.  In this blog, Mary Jane is to the right, Sylvia, to the left.  From the captions on the photos we know that Mary Jane was a cook and boardinghouse keeper and Sylvia, a seamstress. The photographs were taken June 5, 1863, placing them during the Civil War and after the Union had taken control of New Bern.  I requested electronic copies of these photos from Tryon Palace and have since used them in the Constitutional Tales presentations as they demonstrate how blacks took advantage of opportunities in federally-controlled areas to create businesses. 

But there was more to learn.  I happened to be browsing in one of my favorite bookstores, the Literary Bookpost in Salisbury.  It was after recently being chastised for not including enough about women in the Tales so when I saw North Carolina Women: Making History, I grabbed it off the shelf and it fell open to a page that had these same pictures of Mary Jane Conner and Sylvia.  It may be not a particularly sophisticated version of fate, but it was enough for me to decide to buy the book on the spot. (I highly recommend it:  you can purchase it t from the Literary Bookpost or Amazon).  

From this book I learned that Mary Jane and Sylvia were related – they were sisters-in-law.  Sylvia’s last name probably is Conner as well, although that is not documented.  Further, Mary Jane was famous as a cook and boarding keeper and praised as a “remarkable woman” by a Union soldier.  Following the citation for this quote led me to other books and finally I came to the original source of the quote from the Union soldier, a collection of letters by Private Henry A. Clapp.  And through his words, their stories unfold a little more.

But first, to tell you about the storyteller (for that is always important).  Private Clapp is from Dorchester, Massachusetts, and is 21 years old when he arrives in New Bern in the Fall of 1862.  He is Harvard educated –a graduate and halfway through his law studies at Harvard when he enlists, joining the Forty-Fourth Regiment from Massachusetts.  As Henry’s mother notes, this particular regiment includes “large numbers of the educated, the refined and the pious.”  They are sent to New Bern after it already is under federal control.  Clapp participates in a variety of military missions leading him into different parts of eastern North Carolina.  He also is the chief census taker among African Americans in New Bern.   Clapp writes home to his family to describe this unusual land of the South and approaches its occupants with the curiosity of a scientist. So below, I offer you excerpts of his letters that describe in greater detail who these women are in the eyes of this young Union soldier.

Letter 30

March 31, 1863

To Mother

Mary Ann (as she is called, though her name is Mary Jane Conner) is about the most remarkable colored woman I ever saw…She had been a slave for years (all her life) before our troops took Newbern and been hired out as cook at the great Hotel here the Washington House – and which was burnt by the rebs when we came into Newbern.  She supports an aged and infirm mother.  She told me once or twice in answer to my questions, that if it were not that she felt as if she ought to stay and take care of her mother she would go to New York at once.  She could earn a handsome living any where, for she is thoroughly capable.

Letter 33

April 10, 1863

To Willie (brother)

I want you to tell mother about the seamstress whom we employ to mend our clothes.  She is a sister in law of our famous boarding-house keeper, Mary Jane, and glories in the classical name of “Sylvia.”  She was formerly the slave of one of the richest men in New Berne who owned the house Gen Foster now lives in, and was the family seamstress I should judge.  She is about forty, and though very dark of very pleasant appearance.  Her address and manners are remarkably agreeable and really of unusual refinement.  I’ve seen the wives of millionaires who were much her inferiors in urbanity and polish of manner.  She is a superb seamstress, as my dress-coat just rescued from many rents will bear happy witness.  She seems also to be a woman of very good sense & well worth listening to.  We often wait in the house whilst they are putting the finishing touches on the dinner and spend the time in talking with her and Mary Jane. 

Letter 41

May 18^th, 1863

To Father

The pieces of clothing and the presents for Mary, Sylvia, and Eunice were sent with admirable judgment, as Mother’s always is. .. The bundle was opened in the presence of Mary and the elegant Sylvia who had just returned to her home with Mary after quite a severe illness, and it was very interesting to watch the faces of the spectators as I passed them their separate packages with a few appropriate remarks in each case, and information, as to who the giver was.  … Sylvia remarked that mother “seemed to have guessed her taste exactly” and Mary reechoed the sentiments. 

So now we know a little more.  The beautiful dresses Mary Jane and Sylvia wear in the photographs likely were sent by Private Clapp’s mother, as they received the gifts less than three weeks before their pictures were taken.  More importantly, we know the sisters-in-law were perceived as highly capable, intelligent businesswomen.   Having successful businesses sets the stage for blacks to be able to establish their own schools and churches – which occurs sooner in New Bern than in other parts of North Carolina.  It also means that New Bern will be important politically.  African American leaders will emerge from New Bern who will influence state politics and even become a part of the Constitutional Convention of 1868, including James Walker Hood.  But I won’t say anything more about men in this blog.  This is all about the women who, in extraordinary times, created prosperous businesses while taking care of their families.

Primary Sources:

Barden, John R., ed., Letters to the Home Circle: The North Carolina Service of Pvt. Henry A. Clapp (Raleigh, N.C.: North Carolina Division of Archives and History 1998) (pages xxii, 164-64, 175-77, 210-212 with photos on pages 212-212)

“Mary Jane Connor, Cook and boardinghouse keeper, Photographed in New Berne, N.C., June 5^th, 1863,” photograph from the Henry A. Clapp collection (TP.84.5.4), Tryon Palace Historic Sites & Gardens [her name is spelled Connor on the caption but in Clapp’s letters, it is spelled as Conner].

“Sylvia, Seamstress of New Berne, Photographed in New Berne, N.C., June 5^th, 1863,” photograph from Henry A. Clapp Collection (TP.84.5.3), Tryon Palace Historic Sites & Gardens

Secondary Sources:

Smith, Margaret S. & Wilson, Emily H., North Carolina Women: Making History (Chapel Hill, N.C.: The University of North Carolina Press 1999) (pages 131-132)

Other Useful Resources:

Crow, Jeffrey J., Escott, Paul D., & Hatley, Flora J., A History of African Americans in North Carolina (Raleigh, N.C.: N.C. Department of Cultural Resources, Division of Archives and History 1992)

Escott, Paul D., Many Excellent People: Power and Privilege in North Carolina, 1850-1900 (Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press 1985)

Mobley, Joe A., James City: A Black Community in North Carolina, 1863-1900 (Raleigh, N.C. Division of Archives and History, N.C. Department of Cultural Resources 1981, 2000)

Reverend S.S. Ashley's Path to North Carolina

Note:  this is in a series of essays that I will be using to form the written version of the Tales.  Some are ideas and themes I am exploring -- others may be rough drafts of portions of the Tales.  --Ann McColl

It is as if Samuel Stanford Ashley’s life was pointing him towards North Carolina all along. 

There were the several years in which he taught and served as principal of the Meeting Street School.  And no doubt, his fifteen years as a Congregational minister shaped his passions and brought clarity to his words.  But Ashley’s path to North Carolina began even earlier when George Whipple, mathematics professor at Oberlin College, took a “homesick lad” under his care.

In this Jacksonian era, the college is known not only for its academics, but also as a driving force in the anti-slavery movement.  Whipple is in the thick of it.  He also is Ashley’s professor and mentor.  Ashley graduates in 1840 and returns in 1846 to begin his theological studies.  The same year, the American Missionary Association is formed with Whipple’s help. The AMA is a Christian organization dedicated to abolishing slavery and promoting rights of blacks. Whipple continues to have a pivotal role with the organization, serving as corresponding secretary beginning in the 1850s.

The AMA’s beliefs are consistent with those of Congregationalists and Ashley is committed to abolition.  In 1860, he collects and sends $6.00 to the AMA to help in releasing Reverend Daniel Worth from prison in North Carolina for circulating antislavery materials. Once the war begins, Ashley promptly offers his services to the AMA to go to the South as a missionary.  But they do not call upon him – not yet.  More than a year later, in December of 1862, Reverend Ashley writes to his friend at the AMA, George Whipple, “inasmuch as I have heard nothing from you I suppose you do not think it worth while for me to engage in any such work among the freed men.  Perhaps I am not needed.  I am the Lord’s servant; he may send or not as he pleases.  I am glad to labor wherever he places me.”

Two years later, Ashley still has not heard from the AMA.  Forty-five years old, married and with two children, he steps down from his position as minister of the Congregational Church of Northborough, Massachusetts, to distribute religious tracks to soldiers in Virginia for the United States Christian Commission.  Finally, in March of 1865, the AMA summons him.

A serious problem has arisen in North Carolina. Captain Horace James of the Twenty-fifth Massachusetts Infantry Regiment is a mutual friend of Whipple’s and Ashley’s.  A Congregational minister, James is serving as a chaplain in New Bern when the military gives him broad supervisory authority over services for freedmen across the state. The AMA is aligned with the Union in efforts to provide education for freedmen, believing it essential as a part of efforts to provide moral, spiritual, and economic support.  Early in 1865, James gives his approval for the AMA to send Brother J.G. Longely to Wilmington to coordinate the efforts to provide schools.

It does not go well.  Longely quickly accumulates a long list of complaints against him:  he is accused of being arrogant and dismissive toward blacks, sexually harassing at least one female teacher, cheating freedmen from pay for their labor, meddling in church affairs, and having a volatile temper. Teachers write in protest, demanding his removal. It is a crisis requiring immediate action.  They need someone from the AMA who can repair relationships with the military, ameliorate the friction with the community, and assure the teachers of their well-being.

James and Whipple both believe Ashley is the right person.  With great haste, Ashley is brought by steamer from Fortress Monroe, Virginia, to Wilmington, stopping in New Bern to pick up James. They arrive in Wilmington on April 2, 1865.  About a week later, James writes to Whipple of the transition, praising Ashley:  “he is calm and judicious and has already won the confidence of teachers and freedmen.”  The military also is impressed:  to give “unity and systems to the operations” James reports that the Generals have named Ashley their superintendent of education for the district. James notes that there “is great work to be done here.  Mr. Ashley will have his hands full.”

And indeed, given the timing, there will be much to be done.  This, however, relates to the circumstances in Wilmington and that will be the subject of other blogs.  It is enough for now to consider the forces that have brought this man to North Carolina – a man who several years later will propose a constitutional right to education that still matters today.  In words unchanged from the 1868 North Carolina Constitution, our current constitution declares that “The people have a right to the privilege of education and it is the duty of the State to guard and maintain that right.”  It is striking to think that we might not enjoy this right if back in the 1840s Samuel Ashley had not befriended George Whipple at Oberlin College.

Primary Sources:

N.C. Constitution, Art. I, Sec. 15 (1971). 

N.C. Constitution, Art. I, Sec. 27 (1868.

Samuel S Ashley to ____, Northboro [now Northborough], Mass., August 29, 1860, No. 54775, American Missionary Association, Amistad Research Center, Tulane University.

S.S. Ashley to George Whipple, Northboro, Mass., December 15, 1862, American Missionary Association, Amistad Research Center, Tulane University.

William L. Coan to A.M.A., Wilmington, N.C., April 5, 1865, American Missionary Association, Amistad Research Center, Tulane University.

Captain Horace James to George Whipple, April 10, 1865, No. 99993, American Missionary Association, Amistad Research Center, Tulane University.

Secondary Sources:

Bell, John L., Samuel Stanford Ashley, Carpetbagger and Educator, 72 N.C. Hist. Rev. 456-483 (1995).

The following sources provide additional information:

Anderson, James D., The Education of Blacks in the South, 1869-1935 (Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press 1988)

O’Quinn, Marion Nolan, Carpetbagger Samuel S. Ashley and his role in North Carolina education 1865-1871 (Unpublished Thesis, available at Raleigh, N.C.: North Carolina State University 1975).

Williams, Heather Andrea, Self-taught: African American Education in Slavery and Freedom (Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press 2005).