the faux bohemian

Posts tagged slavery

3 notes

We are always interested in understanding more about the College’s relationship with black people and red people,” said College President Taylor Reveley. “We already know a lot about the College’s relationship with white people. We’ve had black people and red people here since the beginning, so now we are trying to better understand that history, and one way of doing that is through archeological discovery.
This is a really strange way to say what you’re trying to say, T Reve. Was the reporter a 5-year old child?

(Source: flathatnews.com)

Filed under flat hat william & mary taylor revely archeology wren building slavery history quote black people red people white people william and mary

129 notes

We’re working on transcribing and album in the collection right now called The Idle Record of an Idle Summer, hand-written with photographs made by an unnamed wealthy woman spending the summer of 1909 at Atlantic City. The photographs are really great, and a treasure trove for someone interested in early 20th century leisure and resort culture, but the more I find out about this woman, the more I dislike her. She’s stuck-up, of course, but also mocks suffragettes for being unladylike and unrealistic, records her disgust at “Boogie Day” (apparently the one day that black visitors were welcome on the Boardwalk), and displays a near-total lack of knowledge about anything beyond poetry, obscure flowers, and good food. One thing she does know about, however, and expects her reader to know equally as well, is the story of Millie-Christine McCoy, pictured above. The conjoined twins were born into slavery and spent their lives touring the world as main attractions of circuses and sideshows. They learned to speak five languages, play instruments, and sing, and often toured as “The Two-Headed Nightingale”. In Idle Summer, the author simply uses them to frame a joke, saying that she’s going to present a poem as would Millie-Christine, “in couplets”. Moral of the story: she’s a jerk. But Millie-Christine McCoy is/are cool, and is lithograph print of them serendipitously appeared on my dashboard today. turnofthecentury: via artbrutist

We’re working on transcribing and album in the collection right now called The Idle Record of an Idle Summer, hand-written with photographs made by an unnamed wealthy woman spending the summer of 1909 at Atlantic City. The photographs are really great, and a treasure trove for someone interested in early 20th century leisure and resort culture, but the more I find out about this woman, the more I dislike her. She’s stuck-up, of course, but also mocks suffragettes for being unladylike and unrealistic, records her disgust at “Boogie Day” (apparently the one day that black visitors were welcome on the Boardwalk), and displays a near-total lack of knowledge about anything beyond poetry, obscure flowers, and good food.

One thing she does know about, however, and expects her reader to know equally as well, is the story of Millie-Christine McCoy, pictured above. The conjoined twins were born into slavery and spent their lives touring the world as main attractions of circuses and sideshows. They learned to speak five languages, play instruments, and sing, and often toured as “The Two-Headed Nightingale”. In Idle Summer, the author simply uses them to frame a joke, saying that she’s going to present a poem as would Millie-Christine, “in couplets”. Moral of the story: she’s a jerk. But Millie-Christine McCoy is/are cool, and is lithograph print of them serendipitously appeared on my dashboard today.

turnofthecentury:

via artbrutist

Filed under millie-christine mccoy conjoined twins sideshows leisure american culture slavery circuses american south the idle record of an idle summer photographic history

0 notes

The Robert Smalls House, in Beaufort, South Carolina.  Awesome story about this house - Smalls was born into slavery here, where he worked for the owner (and probably his father), the planter Henry McKee.  In 1862, he was working on the CSS Planter, a confederate gunboat, and smuggled his family and three other enslaved families on to the ship after dark, then piloted it to the Union blockade of Charleston, where he and the others received their freedom.  Smalls aided the Union army deactivating mines and leading raiding parties into the lowcountry, and used his pay to purchase the house where he was once enslaved.  After the war, he was elected one of the first African-American congressmen. Now that’s a story.

The Robert Smalls House, in Beaufort, South Carolina.  Awesome story about this house - Smalls was born into slavery here, where he worked for the owner (and probably his father), the planter Henry McKee.  In 1862, he was working on the CSS Planter, a confederate gunboat, and smuggled his family and three other enslaved families on to the ship after dark, then piloted it to the Union blockade of Charleston, where he and the others received their freedom.  Smalls aided the Union army deactivating mines and leading raiding parties into the lowcountry, and used his pay to purchase the house where he was once enslaved.  After the war, he was elected one of the first African-American congressmen. Now that’s a story.

Filed under civil war slavery robert smalls beaufort south carolina south