Friday, January 31, 2020

Statement of Intent

Kinda hokey but ok right? for my grad school application
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Over the entrance to my current workplace, Richmond Hill, in bronze letters slightly greened, is a small portion of a famous verse from the prophet Jeremiah. “Seek the welfare of the city to which I have sent you” (Jer 29:7). Inspiring and challenging! That verse charges and re-charges us, seemingly inexhaustible in potential.

By truncating this verse we have found a strong and positive moto, but we’ve also dulled the jarring force and offensiveness of the full verse, which describes its social context. “But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.” Jeremiah is exhorting his compatriots to seek the welfare of their captors’ community, to pray for their oppressors’ city! If I were in a similar situation, would I listen to Jeremiah? Or would I rather scream revenge like the psalmist (137)? “O daughter Babylon, you devastator! Happy shall they be who pay you back...happy shall they be who take your little ones and dash them against the rock!”

In pursuing this counseling program, I hope not only to seek the welfare of myself and community, but to learn the skills to help others help themselves and their community. I hope to learn and pass on the process of welfaring, not just the little welfare I might contribute.

And I realize, at least in a limited way, that the context of each person’s healing and whole-ing process is different. I have struggled with depression most of my adult life, and mental health challenges have dogged our family. Thanks to great counselors, doctors, good jobs, and health insurance we are all doing okay. In my social context, we had clear paths to getting help; I come from a white, middle-class, college educated, and fully employed context.

What if I’d been in a situation of economic or geographical confinement? Or if I didn’t trust mental health workers because I’d experienced racial discrimination in healthcare? Or if I couldn’t get people to take my health seriously because I was differently abled mentally or physically? “Seek the welfare” of myself and community might sound a lot different to me, then.

In short, I hope to become a counselor, to empower others as I’ve been empowered, and also to empower others as I haven’t been empowered. I hope to learn a variety of methods to support others dealing with a variety of challenges in a variety of social contexts.

I don’t have any specific experience working in mental health per say, but I feel like I have had very relevant jobs, the kinds of jobs that might give me a solid base to transition into counseling. For example I have “counseled” and encouraged youth in several different capacities.

As a camp counselor I learned about teamwork, communication, and the fine art of dancing around the campfire. Perhaps my most valuable lesson from working in the boarding school dormitory is that punitive-based motivational structures can work, but they are not the healthiest long-term strategy. At St. Joseph’s Villa, in the autism classroom I was introduced to an amazing group of students and staff, all working with Applied Behavioral Analysis (which would have helped me so much at the boarding school!).

For the better part of the last decade, I have worked at Richmond Hill, an outreach ministry and retreat center in Richmond. As I alluded to above, our mission is the “healing of the city,” healing in all senses and for all people, and since I first encountered the place I have been smitten with it. I have filled various roles in the organization, doing the best I can, but I’ve yet to find the “right fit.” Based on my current experience in the “Ruah” School at Richmond Hill - which is a class to train “spiritual directors” (one-on-one listening and open-ended questioning) - and my previous experience in the Pastoral Care training program, also at Richmond Hill - I believe I have the desire and ability to be a counselor.

Academically I have been fortunate to have great teachers every step of the way, beginning with my parents and grandparents, and my enthusiasm for reading and study hasn’t dimmed in the dozen years since college. I am not particularly smart or talented, but love to learn. I’m confident I will be able to keep up with the coursework. I’m excited to apply and hope this program is possible for me!

Wednesday, January 29, 2020

Work

Work: how to find joy and meaning in each hour of the day - Thich Nhat Hanh

I'm kinda resistant to fandom, personal heroes, wholeheartedly looking up to someone. Why is that?

But I sure would love to hang out with this guy. Not necessarily to talk about stuff. Just to follow him around for a month or two.

I bought this book for the Brother Lawrence retreat, but I didn't read it in time to incorporate it. I'm not sure how I would have anyways, and Bro Lawrence is good to go. No supplements needed.

My initial take-aways
  • Gatha's for everthing! His gatha's are so awesome. He encourages using or creating them for key moments throughout your day, such as putting on your clothes, drinking your coffee, walking in the factory door, between projects, on the way home, etc. Predictable events or transition moments. Mostly I attempt to use the Jesus prayer and deep breathing, but I'd like to explore short scripture passages as gathas relevant to certain actions or times of day.
  • "Conditions for happiness." He almost never says, "do this so that you will be joyful or peaceful or happy." Usually he says, "do this so that joy, peace, or happiness will become possible." This lines up so well with advice I've found in various depression books. Directly grasping for wholeness, happiness, or health often doesn't work out very well. Instead seek the conditions for happiness, which are slightly different for different people. Common conditions are: loving others and being loved, talking and deep listening, looking and listening to the world around you, useful work, some discipline. None of these guarantee happiness.
  • He and his community rules clearly state that if you're in-the-moment-angry, you should not speak right away. It's ok to talk about your anger, but not ok to lash out in anger. Great advice! But is it always great advice? I mean, I know he's not trying to be legalistic and say you can't scream at a giant about to stomp on your house. I'd like to learn how to speak faithfully in the moment, when I'm seeing red. Likely that's unrealistic. Can you rage in a non-hurtful way?
  • Build continuity, somehow, between home and work. Maybe it's a prayer or a song, maybe a purpose or mission, maybe a way of thinking about or structuring your day. He advises against falling into the trap of depending on home life too much or work life too much. Develop your practice at home and at work, then something deeper, something that includes home, work, and everywhere will become dependable for you.

Limited Infinite Meaning

Just a little analogy I use to calm myself...

I get anxious a lot.

You know how the set of all whole numbers (0,1,2,...) is infinite...
yet the set of all integers (...-2,-1,0,1,2,...) is larger...
and the rational numbers even larger?

But even the rational number set has certain limits, or bounds, or a definition. I guess that's what we mean by a "set."

Anyway, I like to think of literary and poetic meaning that way. Interpretive variations are endless (not really), yet they have limits (maybe not).

"How now brown cow" can mean lots of things to a single reader, to a group, or even to the author.

What are the limits? I guess the sound or light waves received and the body-brain receiving them are two limits. But socially, linguistically, how might we hypothesize the limits?

You might say that each word has a herd of meanings, rambling around but mostly staying in the herd, and the order of the words is like some cowpokes rounding up the herds into one bigger herd, and the context is like the contours of the pastureland. And the reader is out there in the middle of it, doing what? Who knows, throwing rocks at rattle snakes or some other bad idea.


Sunday, January 26, 2020

Naked Gun

Pistols and Bazookas

    One of my all-time favorite movie scenes is from Naked Gun 2, when O.J. pulls out a pistol during a shoot-out and begins to upgrade it, pulling add-on after add-on out of nowhere. Leslie Nielson and the foes are firing away wildly, but O.J.'s no help because he's still assembling his gun. Eventually, as Nielson is trying to figure out how to get into a building, "boom!" O.J. fires what has become some kind of cannon and saves the day by blasting open the door.
   I think the vast majority of Americans recognize that, with regard to weapons, as with most aspects of life, we need a balance between personal freedom and public safety. Wouldn't most Americans agree that individuals have a right to use a gun to defend themselves from violence? And, at the same time, wouldn't most people agree that private citizens don't have a right to be driving around in tanks or carrying dirty bombs in their backpacks? If we can agree on the extremes, and establish the basic framework for the argument, perhaps we can compromise.
    Why does the NRA insist on drawing the line at assault rifles? It sounds like they're primarily using the slippery-slope argument, saying that any new restrictions will lead to more restrictions, which will eventually lead to a ban on guns, altogether. That argument is always available.


Why Ballistic Persistence?

   When did guns overtake other weapons as the most popular? I guess at different times in different places. 16th-17th century, colonial expansion mostly? Let's just say that by the beginning of the 19th century guns were far and away the most popular weapon.
   Think of how technological genres have changed and advanced since then. Transportation, communication, medicine, building, manufacturing. Unbelievable. What would a kid from 1800 Virginia recognize in today's world? Houses, crops, furniture. Guns, definitely. For at least 200 years, the world's weapon of choice has more or less been the same thing. A little explosion in a barrel that hurls and spins a piece of metal into an animal or a person, puncturing skin and blasting muscle, shattering bone, finding its home in flesh and blood or continuing its journey beyond the body.
   And if we include the bow-and-arrow, atlatl, sling-shots, and other hurled object technology, of course we're going way back thousands and thousands of years. They would count as ballistic weapons right?
   But back to the mystery. Why hasn't the basic design of hand-held attacking technology changed, when so many other things have changed? Is it just a really efficient design? Or has the economic success of relatively inexpensive guns decreased the allure of innovation and competition? Or have gun producers squashed potential replacements? Or do we just love guns like we love guitars and bricks? All of the above, right?
   Eventually guns will go the way of older weapons. For hobbying, hunting, or sports. Some other terrifying weapon, probably more precise in its effect, likely using some kind of artificial intelligence, will overtake it. 
  Can we re-direct this flow? Why must lethal-ness be the main design pressure? Are we incapable of developing effective, affordable, non-lethal self-defense technologies? Where's our ingenuity when we most need it?

"Guns Save Lives"

    That was the sticker the NRA gave out on the Jan 13th rally. I understand what they are trying to say - that guns are used to protect - but the way they phrased it is maddening, heart breaking. You might as well say that "killing saves lives." Yes, you can argue that the threat of killing-power has a deterrent effect and therefore saves lives, but you wouldn't put that on a bumper sticker would you?
   What happened to the NRA? It used to be a marksmanship club. Now it appears semi-religious, at least from the way its leaders talk. Honestly the tone is very John Calhoun-ish. I don't know, I just pulled that out of nowhere. But their statements sound anticipatory, like preemptive nostalgia or grief. I think they know that more and more guns isn't going to help our situation, but if they believe in it hard enough it will be true and righteous. An older friend of mine said that things started getting wacky in the NRA after JFK was assassinated.

Guns and White Supremacy

    The other day at work we had a brief but good debate about whether or not the VCDL rally on Jan 20th was an expression of white supremacy. Some related thoughts:
   1) It's really hard to be white-cultured without being white supremicist, at least a little bit. I say that based on my own experience and reflection as a white man who loves his heritage. I also say that based on good history. If I understand it correctly, whiteness developed in the process of western-european domination of non-european peoples. It was a during-and-after-the-fact rationalization, justification, and explanation (Kendi persuasively makes the case that most racist ideas follow this pattern - they develop during and after racist behavior, not before; the next question is, then, if there was no racist consciousness beforehand, how did the whites manage to behave racistly?). 
   Before colonialism, "race" in european languages meant "people group" or "ethnic group." Certainly race was associated with phenotypic features, and there was plenty of skin color bias, but nobody believed that all white skinned people were of the same race, or all black skinned people were of the same race, etc.
   All that to say - get a bunch of white dudes together who are excited about some part of their heritage (could be anything), there's gonna be white supremacy weaved into the fabric of the gathering. I know, that's so broad! That statement can apply to so many things in my life and most white people's life! It's unavoidable. It's just something we need to face up to as white folks - not so that we can wallow in shame and self-hatred - but to truly repent and create a better life.
   2) Me to me questions. Were guns used to help create whiteness? Yes. Did guns cause whiteness? No. Was the Constitution originally written from a racist perspective? Yes. Does that mean the 2nd Amendment is racist? Inherently, no. But contextually, yes. I think.
   Isn't it fair to say that the founding dudes wanted guns and militias around as much for "protecting" white power from "savage" Indians and "seditious" enslaved Africans as they did for fighting Spain or France or checking some future tyrannical government? In Virginia, at least, the militias and related patrols were mostly concerned with slave rebellions.
   That tradition of white men maintaining race-based power in armed groups continued after the civil war, helping to bring an end to reconstruction and establish Jim Crow. As white folks we can't just snap our fingers and dissolve all the these cultural patterns. "Heritage not hate" is a good idea but we're going to have to prove that it's possible. Gathering a large, well-armed group on MLK day, displacing other groups who had hoped to demonstrate, tolerating support from people you know are explicitly racist...come on VCDL. You can do better than that. Why not just coalesce with the NRA on the 13th? At least then they could have avoided dishonoring a day dedicated to a non-violent prophetic leader gunned downed by racism.
   I'm not trying to say that the NRA or VCDL has a secret racist agenda. I don't mean to say that legal structures like the 2nd amendment are inherently racist. But they are genealogically racist. I mean the arguments were created, at least in part, for racist ends, and then passed down relatively unaltered to people who no longer consciously intend to be racist. As white folks we can't just say "we've changed" and then keep walking the same way we've always walked.
  
  

Saturday, January 25, 2020

Thinking with Cars and Guns

    I was driving home to R. Hill from band practice, riding north on 95 from Petersburg and had just crossed into Richmond when "wham," all-a-sudden my car decelerated. I can't remember exactly what the sound was like, but it was not a happy sound. Kind-of a mix between a growl and a screech. "Uh-oh."
    I'd been told several times that my little red bucket (a chevrolet metro) was leaking oil something fierce and that it need all manner of new gaskets. But, I'd hoped that by refilling the oil each week it might survive another year or two. No such luck.
   I pushed it along the shoulder for about half-an-hour, thinking that if I could top the little hill by the paper mill, perhaps I could roll down to Maury street. Yeah I didn't even get close, so I called a tow truck. Turns out some seal had burst and broken the camshaft. It was my last drive in the little red bucket, a great car.
   For the next year and a half I navigated life without my own car. Fortunately I was a very very lucky non-car owner: I lived where I worked, someone else (with a car) did all the grocery shopping, I had friends from whom I could occasionally borrow a car, Richmond had a consistent albeit very geographically constrained bus system, and my neighborhood was pedestrian friendly.
   Nevertheless, even with all these supports for life without a car, my life changed drastically. I had no idea how much our new-south cities and lives had been designed by and for car-driving adults. I had no idea how much my identity and sense of independent power was contingent on owning a car. I had no idea that, for all practical purposes, in most American cities and towns, car ownership is economic and social citizenship. If you don't have a car you are by default half a citizen, at the most.
   On the other hand - and this positivity was made possible by all the privileges listed above - I encountered a new sense of time and place. Honestly it felt more humane, more real somehow. When you're not thinking in terms of driving your car, your days are sized differently. The landscape is more and more alive. 
   Cars are great, fascinating works of art and engineering. And I love to drive. But, I think owning a car for personal use gives us a feeling of power that at the end of the day is false. It's a "worldly" power, yes, but not a spiritual power.
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   That ended up being a long intro! How can I transition now to guns? What I'm trying to say is: in America we collectively think with guns, as pervasively as we think with cars. The analogy doesn't line up perfectly, I know, but I've been trying to think of a way to compare the feelings of gun ownership to other common aspects of American life. Cell phones, maybe?
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   For many folks, at the individual level, owning a gun is part of who they are. It's as natural as starting up your car and driving to the grocery store. And the feelings of power, independence, identity, responsibility, and citizenship are similar to car ownership. Is that a fair comparison?
   The rational arguments for and against private gun ownership are very important, and I hope the "powers that be" will allow (I'm looking at you Congress with the CDC) honest studies of the variable relationship between gun ownership and personal safety, gun ownership and public health, so on and so forth.
   But based on my own experience with family and friends, I think most people who own a gun do so because of the feelings associated with it. Feelings of power-over-fear or strength-against-danger. Feelings of power to project into their daily lives, for better and for worse. Gun ownership is a social posture, like literacy or income or cars. If you own a gun, you know that you have the power of fire and metal, and you carry that knowledge when you're not carrying the gun.
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   At the collective level guns are also part of who we are. Historically, of course, you know the vital role ballistic weapons played in the invasion and occupation of the lands we now call the United States of America. They have been central to hunting and rural life. They have been the basic technology in our wars and battles, most of our oppressive endeavors and some of our liberative ones.
   If you're a citizen, even if you don't privately own a gun, you own guns. In fact if we counted up the number state-owned guns, and divided by the number of citizens, how many guns would each person own? I'm thinking at least a dozen, but that's a wild guess based on wild guesses from google. Ballistic weapons are the backbone of our national defense, our law enforcement strategies, our sense of ordering-power, right? Do we have any idea what life would be like without guns? 
   I'd like to find out. How do we get there from here!? I know that turning our swords into plowshares is not practical or safe or in our nation's best interest, but I agree with Walter Wink's interpretation of the "kingdom of God." It's a kingdom of power and weakness, destruction and regeneration, but it's not a kingdom of "domination," built by humans with horses and chariots. How do we trust God and not violent power? How? Help us Lord.

Friday, January 24, 2020

The Powers that Be

The Powers That Be: Theology For A New Millennium - Walter Wink

   One of our Ruah books from last month, another good one. I'm not smitten with the sociological analysis - like, the five basic worldviews, the 5000 year history of the Domination System and the Myth of Redemptive Violence. But his interaction with Scripture is lively. I especially appreciated his insights on the creativity of Jesus' non-violent actions and words, and on the necessary creativity in non-violent resistance generally.
    How bout the idea that all human groups or institutions have an individual spiritual power at their core? Good leaders and teachers in my life seem to have a knack for sensing or feeling out the particular spirit of the group. Whether or not they actually believe that this power or spirit is somehow separate, independent of human life, I'm not sure. 
   In any case, I think most folks would agree, based on their own experiences in groups and teams, that group dynamics is a "thing," objectifiable and approachable, as much as any social or psychological phenomenon can be. We are social and understand ourselves as parts. Identifying a group's behavior and feeling patterns as an operative "power" seems like it would be fruitful even for non-religious folks. Could we just call it the group's collective unconscious? On the other hand, "the powers that be" is an important bridge to the Scriptural concepts, so maybe that's unfair.
   Is group-sense stuff at the heart of the development of religion?

Friday, January 10, 2020

Brother Lawrence Intro



“Since by His mercy He gives us still a little time, let us begin in earnest…”





Who was Brother Lawrence?





Nicolas Herman was born in Herimesnil, in Lorraine, France, about 1611.


As a teenager (16 or 18?) he joined the army, but was soon wounded in battle.


He experience a conversion at the age of 18.


“That he had been a footman to M. Fieubert, the treasurer, and that he was a great awkward fellow who broke everything.”


He attempted to live the life a hermit, but became frustrated and discouraged.


Herman joined the Discalced Carmelites of Paris as a lay-brother and was given the name Lawrence of the Resurrection.


He was assigned work in the kitchen, “to which he had naturally a great aversion.”


He lived to 80 years of age, after about 40 years in the monastery.






The Conversion



“That in the winter, seeing a tree stripped of its leaves, and considering that within a little time the leaves would be renewed, and after that the flowers and fruit appear, he received a high view of the providence and power of God, which has never since been effaced from his soul. That this view had perfectly set him loose from the world, and kindled in him such a love for God that he could not tell whether it had increased during the more than forty year he had lived since.”





The Resolution



“...at my entrance into religion, I took a resolution to give myself up to God, as the best return I could make for His love, and, for the love of Him, to renounce all besides…”


“...to form a habit of conversing with God continually, and referring all we do to Him…”


“...having resolved to make the love of God the end of all his actions…”











Early Troubles...











“That he had been long troubled in mind from a certain belief that he should be damned...this trouble of mind had lasted four years, during which time he had suffered much...”


“...I must tell you that for the first ten years I suffered much. The apprehension that I was not devoted to God as I wished to be, my past sins always present to mind, and the great unmerited favors which God did me, were the matter and source of my sufferings.”


Grace upon grace






“When I thought of nothing but to end my days in these troubles (which did not at all diminish the trust I had in God, and which served only to increase my faith), I found myself changed all at once; and my soul, which till that time was in trouble, felt a profound inward peace, as if she were in her center and place of rest.”






“Ever since that time I walk before God simply, in faith, with humility and with love…”






“That he had so often experienced the ready succors of divine grace upon all occasions…”






“That the greater perfection a soul aspires after, the more dependent it is upon divine grace…”





The Practice of the Presence of God






“And I make it my business only to persevere in His holy presence, wherein I keep myself by a simple attention, and a general fond regard for God, which I may call an actual presence of God; or, to speak better, an habitual silent, and secret conversation of the soul with God…”


“Let him then think of God the most he can. Let him accustom himself, by degrees, to this small but holy exercise.”


“During our work and other activities...we ought to stop for a moment, as often as we can, in order to worship God in our hearts…”


“That we need only to recognize God intimately present with us, to address ourselves to Him every moment, that we may beg His assistance...praising, adoring, and loving Him incessantly…”


Discussion Questions






What most interests or excites you most about Brother Lawrence’s story?


Does anything disturb you or confound you?


Have you had any experiences similar to Brother Lawrence?


When do you most feel in the “actual presence” of God?


Are there any practices that help you live and work in God’s presence?


“...as persons sent from God and standing in God’s presence” (2 Cor 2:17)


In which parts of your life do you most need this practice? Job? Home? Traffic? Church? Family life? Morning? Evening? Etc.?


Is Brother Lawrence’s practice the same as “unceasing prayer?”


“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (1 Thess 5:16-18)


What resolution would you like to make for your day tomorrow?

Brother Lawrence Ten Tips



Developing a Holy Habit: Ten Tips from Brother Lawrence





Renounce all besides


Thoughts as prayers


Talking to your Friend


Watch yourself


Return, and return again


Don’t be discouraged


Please, Thank You, I’m sorry


Holy pause; holy inactivity


It’s the little things


Don’t Give Up




Renounce all besides...



“I took a resolution to give myself up to God, as the best return I could make for His love, and, for the love of Him, to renounce all besides.”


“I know that for the right practice of it the heart must be empty of all other things, because God will possess the heart alone; and as He cannot possess it alone without emptying it of all besides, so neither can He act there, and do in it what He pleases, unless it be left vacant to Him.”


“He told me that all consists in one hearty renunciation of everything which we are sensible does not lead to God.”


“Let us renounce, let us generously renounce, for the love of Him, all that is not Himself.”


Thoughts and prayers



“Pray remember what I have recommended to you, which is, to think often on God, by day, by night, in your business, and even in your diversions.”


“How can we pray to Him without being with Him? How can we be with Him but in thinking of Him often? And how can we often think of Him but by a holy habit?”


“Let us think of Him perpetually.”


“Let it be your business to keep you mind in the presence of the Lord.”


“Thus I continued some years, applying my mind carefully the rest of the day, and even in the midst of my business, to the presence of God, whom I considered always as with me, often as in me.”


“That useless thoughts spoil all; that the mischief began there”


Talking to your Friend



“That in order to form a habit of conversing with God continually, and referring all we do to Him, we must at first apply to Him with some diligence.”


“That we ought to act with God in the greatest simplicity, speaking to Him frankly and plainly, and imploring His assistance in our affairs, just as the happen.”


“...an habitual, silent, and secret conversation of the soul with God.”


“He is always near you and with you; leave him not alone. You would think it rude to leave a friend alone who came to visit you; why, then, must God be neglected?”


Watch Yourself



“That to arrive at such resignation as God requires, we should watch attentively over all the passions which mingle as well in spiritual things as in those of a grosser nature…”


“...I drove away from my mind everything that was capable of interrupting my thoughts of God.”


“My most useful method is this simple attention, and such a general fond regard to God…”


“Hold yourself in prayer before God like a dumb or paralytic beggar at a rich man’s gate.”


“I say again, let us enter into ourselves.”


Return, and return again



“...but that we ought to reject them [useless thoughts] as soon as we perceived their impertinence to the matter in hand, or our salvation, and return to our communion with God.”


“When outward business diverted him a little from the thought of God, a fresh remembrance coming from God invested his soul…”


“...by rising after my falls, and by frequently renewed acts of faith and love, I am come to a state wherein it would be as difficult for me not to think of God as it was at first to accustom myself to it.”


“If sometimes my thoughts wander from it by necessity or infirmity, I am presently recalled by inward motions…”


“...the least little remembrance will always be acceptable to him.”


“Our mind is extremely roving; but as the will is mistress of all our faculties, she must recall them, and carry them to God as their last end.”


Don’t Be Discouraged



“If it [your mind] sometimes wanders and withdraws itself from Him, do not much disquiet yourself for that: trouble and disquiet serve rather to distract the mind than to recollect it.”


“...let us return to that Father of mercies, who is always ready to receive us affectionately.”


“That he was very sensible of his faults, but not discouraged by them; that he confessed them to God, but did not plead against Him to excuse them. When he had so done, he peaceably resumed his usual practice of love and adoration.”


“That in difficulties we need only have recourse to Jesus Christ, and beg His grace; with that everything became easy.”


Please, Thank You, I’m Sorry



Before you begin a task, or whenever you run into trouble, ask God for help


“That when an occasion of practising some virtue offered, he addressed himself to God, saying, Lord, I cannot do this unless Thou enablest me; and that then he received strength more than sufficient.”


O my God, since Thou art with me, and I must now, in obedience to Thy commands, apply my mind to these outward things, I beseech Thee to grant me the grace to continue in Thy presence; and to this end do Thou prosper me with Thy assistance, receive all my works, and possess all my affections.


“As he proceeded din his work he continued his familiar conversation with his Maker, imploring His grace, and offering to Him all his actions.”


If things go well, say Thank you; if not well, ask pardon or help.


“When he had finished he examined himself how he had discharged his duty; if he found well, he returned thanks to God; if otherwise, he asked pardon, and, without being discouraged, he set his mind right again, and continued his exercise of the presence of God, as if he had never deviated from it.”


The Holy Pause; A Holy Inactivity



Stop for a minute during your work to lift your heart to God…


“During our work and other activities, during our spiritual reading or study, yes, even in our set devotions and vocal prayer, we ought to stop for a moment, as often as we can, in order to worship God in our hearts to touch Him as it were by stealth as He passes. Since you know that God is with you in all your actions, that He is at the very depth and center of your soul, why not then pause an instant in your external occupations, and even in your prayers, to worship Him inwardly, to praise Him, to petition Him, to offer Him your heart and to thank Him?”


Sometimes prayer is just being still with God


“I know that some charge this state with inactivity, delusion, and self-love. I confess that it is a holy inactivity, and would be a happy self-love if the soul in that state were capable of it, because, in effect, while she is in this repose, she cannot be disturbed by such acts as she was formerly accustomed to...I cannot bear that this should be called delusion, because the soul which thus enjoys God desires herein nothing but Him.”


It’s the Little Things



“...he was always pleasing himself in every condition by doing little things for the love of God…”


“That the most excellent method he had found of going to God was that of doing our common business without any view of pleasing men, and (as far as we are capable) purely for the love of God.”


“That we ought not to be weary of doing little things for the love of God, who regards not the greatness of the work, but the love with which it is performed.”


“That he was pleased when he could take up a straw from the ground for the love of God, seeking Him only, and nothing else, not even His gifts.”


Take Heart, Don’t Give Up



“That there needed fidelity in those drynesses or insensibilities and irksomenesses in prayer by which God tries our love to Him…”


“Knock, persevere in knocking, and I answer for it that He will open to you in His due time, and grant you all at once what He has deferred during many years.”


“She seems to me full of good ill, but she would go faster than grace. One does not become holy all at once.”


“If you persevere in this manner, God will have pity on you.”


“...by oft repeating these acts, they become habitual, and the presence of God rendered as it were natural to us.”


“That we should not wonder if, in the beginning, we often failed in our endeavors, but that at last we should gain a habit…”

Brother Lawrence Presentation



Begin with the End: for the love of God





In your own words, how would you describe Bro Lawrence’s goal, or end?


“...seek our satisfaction only in the fulfilling of His will”


“...to make the love of God the end of all his actions”


“...That our only business was to love and delight ourselves in God”


“...by this exercise of the presence of God we are with Him who is our end”


“...united to the will of God”


“...That the end we ought to propose to ourselves is to become, in this life, the most perfect worshipers of God we can possibly be…”


“...That many do not advance in the Christian progress because they stick in penances and particular exercises, while they neglect the love of God, which is the end.”


Can you describe your own personal end or goal?





God is Great, God is good: inner praise and worship




Brother Lawrence advocates a prayer life based on inner worship of God.


Did this begin with the vision and feeling he received in his conversion?




“He told me that the foundation of the spiritual life in him had been a high notion and esteem of God in faith.”


“...he received a high view of the providence and power of God…”


“That in this conversation with God we are also employed in praising, adoring, and loving Him incessantly, for His infinite goodness and perfection.”


“We must make our heart a spiritual temple, wherein to adore Him incessantly.”


“A little lifting up of the heart suffices. A little remembrance of God, one act of inward worship…


“...little internal adorations…”


How is inner worship of God different from love of God? What is your experience with this?


Living Faith: trust the Presence



It’s not clear to me what Bro Lawrence means by faith. What do you think?


“That we ought to quicken - i.e., to enliven - our faith....taking faith for the rule of [our] conduct…” (so faith should be alive and a guiding force)


“...at last he had seen that this trouble [fear of damnation] arose from want of faith...” (faith in God’s mercy)


“That we ought, without anxiety, to expect the pardon of our sins from the blood of Jesus Christ” (faith in forgiveness through Jesus)


“That we ought, once for all, heartily to put our whole trust in God, and make a total surrender of ourselves to Him, secure that He would not deceive us” (faith as trust, trusting ourselves to God, faith in God’s faithfulness)


“Let us seek Him often by faith. He is within us; seek Him not elsewhere.”


“God is nearer to us than we are aware of.” (faith in God’s intimate presence)


Fertile Ground: foundations of his practice



These three principles seem to be the framework for Brother Lawrence’s practical advice.


Make the love of God your goal. (relationship, conversation, intimacy, attachment to the Other and detachment from ego or “world”)


Lift up your heart and worship God. (upward joy, gratitude, infinity, souce of all good and value, going beyond ego and world)


Have faith, or trust, that God is with you; that God will forgive, heal, and direct you. (serenity, courage, allows you to live in present and not worry about future or ego)


What have I left out? Which principle do you most relate to?


This the fertile ground for his practice of the Presence. In turn, his practice will continue to add fertilizer to this ground, creating a positive reinforcement cycle.


Wednesday, January 8, 2020

Satan vs Ignatius J. Reilly

Paradise Lost - John Milton
A Confederacy of Dunces - John Toole

   Dad and I read Paradise Lost little by little (neither one of us had read it before!) over the past few months, and last week I read Dunces hoping for a little laughter pick-me-up (it was funny but not as funny as I'd hoped). So who's better, Satan or Ignatius J. Reilly? (and what does that J. stand for? I can't remember if that ever comes up)
   Part of their greatness as characters is their lack of development. They are fixed, fixated, mostly fit to be tied. Satan is more entertaining, I think, because he is more aware of his deeper "problem." He knows, at least to some degree, that he can't win, that he's a character and someone else is the author. I couldn't tell if he was vacillating between hope and despair, or if his despair was more or less fundamental, and his hope was just a distraction, a diversion, or a mask to play his part. I guess he reminded me most of Iago, so aware of being addicted to antagonism.
   They have a lot in common, Ignatius and Satan. Both suffer constantly - more so mentally than physically; both have wild plans for taking over the world; their efforts at leadership backfire; they complain about people trying to control them. So on and so forth. Have either one of these been made a movie? Who could play Ignatius? John Goodman? Will Ferrel? Paradise Lost would be an awesome comic book. Somebody must have done that. Also I really enjoyed Milton's vocabulary, and Toole's dialect writing for the older white women. I couldn't really accept Toole's dialect for Jones, the main black character. Maybe some of what he was trying to do was specific to late 70's early 80's?

fast by
marl - rich, crumbly soil
nathless - nonetheless
hap, hapless, haply
grunsel - threshhold
sottish - stupid
swage - assuage
peerage - peeps
"a fame" - a rumor
scurf - crusty or scabby spot
paynim - pagan
lantskip - landscape
enow - plural of enough
welkin - sky
sable-vested Night, eldest of things
frore - frosty
dint - blow, stroke
maw - mouth
frith - firth, channel
universal hubbub wild
waft
hies - hastens
dun - dusky colored
gloze, glozed, glozing - falsely flattering
umpire
maugre - despite, in spite of
impurpled, inwreathed, embrowned, imbrute, enjoin, etc.
yeanling - newborn
wicket - small door in or beside a large one
limbec (alembic)
arch-chemic sun
clomb - past tense of climb
cote - shelter
rill - little stream
lap - hollow among hills
I ween - I believe
in that dark durance (forced confinement)
limitary - at limit or boundary
interdicted, intervolved
worthy of sacred silence to be heard
fable (as a verb)
displode their second tire - fire their second volley
drauth - thirst
fry ?little in size? young fishes? large numbers? (with fry innumerable swarm)
parsimonious emmet - thrifty ant
wake, waked, wakeful
fume (n.)
wide was the wound (when taking out rib from adam's side)
...thine and all thy sons/ the weal or woe in thee is placed; beware.
tilting furniture - jousting equipment
kine - plural of cow
spangle, glister
gan (past of gin; like begin, began, begun)
unweeting - unwitting
paragon (verb - to compare, rival, or surpass)
ravin - voracity, rapaciousness
sideral - of the stars, influenced by stars
tine - ignite
contumacy - stubborn rebelliousness, insolence
aslope glanced
peccant - sinful
ken - range of vision, sight, knowledge
inly
volant - flying
whelp (v)
bate - pause at an inn for refreshment
plainlier
pravity - corruption
evince - prove or show
puissant - powerful
ope - open
lucre
marish (n) - marsh
they hand in hand with wand'ring steps and slow

The World They Made Together

The World They Made Together: Black and White Values in Eighteenth-Century Virginia - Mechal Sobel

So fascinating! A handful of years ago my friend and boss recommended this book along with Trabelin' On, also by Sobel. I read Trabelin' On - which studies the development of African-American Christianity, mostly Baptist - soon thereafter and was floored. Why didn't I just read this one too? Who knows. As you can see I took a lot of notes.


  1. Intro
    1. interpenetration of values; whites usually unaware
    2. Byrd II feared VA would become "New Guinea"
    3. blacks and most whites both from preindustrial, agrarian cultures
    4. over 60,000 Africans brought directly to VA, most before 1740
      1. mostly west African: Bight of Biafra, Gold Coast, Angola
      2. variety of ethnic groups, including Igbo, Tiv, Kongo, Fante, Asante, Ibibio, Fon
    5. Africans of every class enslaved: rulers, priests, artisans, traders, farmers, slaves
    6. after mid 18thcentury, most slaves in VA born in VA
    7. social order in VA encouraged spreading out (as opposed to NE village pattern)
    8. expansion into piedmont - slaveholding more widespread but usually smaller-scale
  2. Attitudes toward time and work
    1. transition of world view occuring in 17thc england - but mostly in upper classes or puritan circles
    2. poor and young in england mostly outside church life
    3. medieval, catholic, and pagan rituals and beliefs continued for marriage, death, farming, magic, holy days and places
    4. circular time vs linear time
    5. varied cultures from Africa, but shared veneration of ancestors, importance of past
    6. time in 17thc england - mostly tied to function, activities, sun, agricultural process, prayers, church bells; similar in African cultures; upper english classes beginning to view time as independent, method of measuring
    7. ill-omened days "Egyptian" in english folklore
    8. Puritan approach to time and work different: strict, "redeem the time," called by God to work your assigned task
    9. overseers and masters in england complained about "laziness" of workers in much the same way they complained about "laziness" of enslaved africans
    10. Tiv saying: "In your patience is your soul"
    11. Freedom from work and leisure time important goals for most african cultures: generally more power/status meant less work
    12. slaves in african cultures: usually by 2nd generation, there is hope for upward mobility or enmeshment in new culture; 1st generation slaves in precarious position, could be sold or traded easily; slavery norms may have transferred to america
    13. most southern blacks didn't see their forced work as redemptive or sanctifying, but punishment or evil or bad luck or injustice
    14. white term for nighttime, "nigger day-time," at night enslaved blacks could socialize or visit
    15. exact birthdays for africans often not observed, instead usually associated with season, event or other cultural marker; "generations" often grouped together and go through aging rituals together
    16. exact birthdays for enslaved africans in america sometimes recorded by whites for own purposes; Fr. Douglas noted white possession of calendar as power ploy; control
    17. crop cycle as time cycle
    18. elderly slaves more often seen as "human" or "fellow creatures" by whites
    19. in VA about 10% of slaves and maybe 7% of servants joined Bacon's rebellion
    20. after rebellion, crime for black to "lift a hand against a christian"
    21. through 18thc most white owners oversaw their own enslaved people
    22. Robert "King" Carter, largest slave-owner, in 1730's had 26 skilled workmen - 15white and 11 black
    23. independent white artisans also had enslaved "apprentices" or assistants
    24. Africans came with skills from Africa, also learned from other blacks and whites in Am.
    25. widely practiced legal and illegal trade b/w enslaved blacks and poor whites (farm produce for goods or alcohol)
    26. 1784 law said ship crew could only be 1/3 black
    27. "Phillips gang" during revolutionary war; hideout in dismal swamp - interracial group
    28. harvest festivals familiar to both african and english; often in both cultures the rich or rulers would host
    29. many VA upperclass leaders obsessed with classical past - Greece and Rome; look to those sources for inspiration; how tied to elites concern with time?
    30. from Byrd II diary: put bits in mouths of runaways, tied up those who "pretended" to be sick, made a man drink urine for soiling his bed, sexual advances on his slaves, whipped black and white
    31. washington and jefferson - want their plantations to run like "clock work"
    32. well established stereotype of indolent white virginian, both rich and poor
    33. Byrd II, writing about a "lazy" white family in piedmont, "twas almost worth while to be as poor as this man was, to be as perfectly contented"
    34. many claim that slavery making white southerners "lazy"
    35. analysis of birth patterns in middlesex county: white births higher in late winter early spring; black births higher in late spring early summer
    36. christmas became joint period of celebration; a real break for slaves
    37. shared spiritual awakenings in 18th c affected both black and white
  3. Attitudes toward space and natural world
    1. Igbo "omenala" - conduct sanctioned by land, more important than "Iwu" - rules made by man
    2. west african houses - usually approx 12ft in length or diameter; compounds of small houses; much living done outside
    3. many africans brought to american tradition of small rectangular cabins with gable roofs, lightly built
    4. most english cottages about 16 by 16, originally hole in the roof, in 16th and 17th cent more and more chimneys
    5. most african and english still believed in ritual powers, magic, holy or dangerous places, etc
    6. not as much fear/hatred of witches in VA as in NE; Grace Sherwood a famous VA case in Prince Anne County; subjected to float test
    7. ships consulted with witches for fair winds
    8. signs of witchhood - "a teat or place on the body where the devil sucketh them;" and the float test
    9. 3 persons hanged as witches on ships coming to chesapeake, one recorded as confessing to witchcraft
    10. va promoted as garden of eden, what about "garden of chattel"
    11. most wealthy virginians grew up "surrounded by Negros"
    12. Byrd II translating song of songs, includes "white" lover with "black" concubine
    13. Byrd II compared himself to patriarches with flocks and herds, "bondmen and bondwomen"
    14. notice indian figures and names disappearing from maps of VA
    15. few to none African place names, only derrogatory or nicknames, or local names for freeblack communities
    16. African attachment to place without strict private "ownership"
    17. as blacks became Christian; heaven becomes home for all ancestors
    18. west african pattern of decorating trees with shiny objects - afri-american bottle tree
    19. folklore about snakes - coming from africa not england
    20. Lt Gov Gooch pressured enslaved man "Pawpaw" to reveal roots and bark used to cure yaws; as payment Gooch bought Pawpaw's freedom from owner Francis Littlepage, but insisted that Pawpaw remain in contact and reveal more medical-spiritual knowledge
    21. in 1730 - vast majority of whites and blacks in VA live in one or two room houses with lofts, wooden chimneys, earthen or wooden floors
    22. development of "big house" for owners 
    23. middle class or "middling sort" in late 18th cen more likely to have larger house than blacks
    24. "virginia house" - very african in character - very light construction, earth fast, grouped in clusters, mud insullated
    25. slave houses - often have "root cellars," often woodlined, near the chimney
    26. dog-trot house; basically two cabins with a small hall inbetween
    27. africans generally had separate houses for cooking and storing food
    28. John Michael Vlach: careful study of "shotgun" houses in Louisiana, Haiti, and among Yoruba in Nigeria
    29. generally speaking - african house space thought of one room units - added onto if needed; english space thought of as one house divisible into rooms
    30. "the mark of success all over the south, and later in the mid-west, became the two story house, the I house, clearly set off from the slave and poor white cabin"
    31. life in the "Big house" of slave owners - very much influenced by african values through constant presence of enslaved africans
    32. "all the great houses were built by slaves and needed slaves to run them"
    33. tradition of black "mammy" and nurses, even wetnurses; white and black children playing together
    34. book by Eugene Vail, french visitor to monticello, publishes book with chapter on black literature (reminiscences of martha randolph and her slaves)
    35. Byrd whipped white and black servants; sexually advanced on white and black women
    36. "cases of illegitimate mulatto children, born to white women, appear in virtually all the church and county court records, although their number declines in the eighteenth century. only rarely was a case of violence recorded"
    37. "whites who wanted to leave Big House homes for mulattoes or blacks were often unsuccessful"
    38. "the Big House, symbol of white supremacy, was home from a black and white family"
    39. english and african rituals of naming and baptism; both had traditions of naming after grandparents
    40. many africans had more than one name, or different names for different contexts or stages
    41. "it was usual on slave ships to give the names of Adam and Eve to the first man and woman brought on board" (James Arnold 1787, surgeon on the slaver Ruby)
    42. white names for blacks:
      1. same as whites but in "nickname" form or diminuative form
      2. place names from old country
      3. classical names, often demeaning
      4. african names
    43. runaway ads often say that slaves had their own names, or aliases, or went by other names
    44. most whites did not acknowledge black surnames, but many blacks took surnames anyway
    45. in england, servants not allowed to marry without masters approval
    46. 1691 law - if white marries black or indian, must leave state within 3 months
    47. slave marriages not "legal," but later recognized by churches
    48. blacks more likely to be living in "community," with mixed and extended families in same house or area; also with whites, but whites more likely to be "isolated" in frontier or plantation
  4. Causality and Purpose
    1. africans widely believed that humans originally immortal; most popular myth involved God sending two messengers, one fast with message of life, one slow with message of death, fast animal is waylaid or careless and slow animal gets there first
    2. also another myth that God had forbid certain egg or fruit, humans eat and then death comes
    3. africans believed that every death had a cause involving human beings, and that every death should be explained; early deaths or dishonorable deaths could rule you out of participation in next realm
    4. most of english executions for witchcraft took place between 1550-1675
    5. established anglican church in va run by the elite for the elite
    6. after 1750, spiritual revival widespread in va, 1st baptist, then methodist, then baptist again
    7. most revival meetings took place outside or in small buildings
    8. "virtually all 18th c. baptist and methodist churches were mixed churches, in which blacks sometimes preached to whites and in which whites and blacks witnessed together, shouted together, and shared ecstatic experiences...
    9. 1760 James Gordon attended "a pretty large company of the common people and negroes, but very few gentlemen. the gentlemen that even incline to come are afriad of being laughed at."
    10. got so crowded that "mr whitefield was obliged to make the negroes go out to make room for the white people"
    11. 1750's Separate Baptist or "new light" movement started by Shubal Sterns - who was inspired by Whitefield, he came from congregationalist background in NE, preached in va and nc; Sandy Creek NC (Guilford Co; now Liberty NC in Randolph Co)
    12. where was the Dan River church started circa 1760 by William Murphey and Philip Mulkey
    13. wide recognized that black spiritual sensibility helped the whites to "come through"
    14. practiced believers baptism, love feasts, foot washing, kiss of peace and right hand of fellowship, investigated disputes and behavior of both blacks and whites; against dancing, gambling, and drinking to excess
    15. excommunication usually punishment; could "repent" and become reinstated
    16. baptists and methodists begin to condemn slavery, then reverse course by 19th century
    17. blacks regarded this God as a "time God," that is, God came in is own time, on-time at the right time
    18. black visions involved dying and rebirth, new fictive kin - the patriarches, Moses, Jesus, etc
    19. in african societies usually only certain people serve as media for spirits, shaman or priests or prophets; in new movement everyone expected to share in the spiritual "possession"
    20. the baptist church of the 1750s-70s had been church of dispossesed, by late 1780's many white baptists had moved up in social class, many of "middling sort" now joined, and even a few of the elite joined; towards end of 18th c., races more likely to meet separately
    21. 1789 - Baptist General Committee in va against slavery; by 1793 it says decision lies with legislature
    22. at least two black men official preachers to "white" congregations
    23. "Uncle Jack" well-known preacher in Nottaway Co, born in africa circa 1758, brought to va 7 yrs later
    24. many blacks got sick before conversion, "sin-sick"
    25. hell was danger for unconverted, but visited during conversion vision travel
    26. funeral services big deal; a second funeral service was still held, an important african practice at which leavetaking from the soul was properly celebrated
    27. african influeces observed on white burial grounds in upland south va to texas (D.G. Jeane) - mounded graves, scraped clean, decorated, sea-shells, etc
    28. Isaac Watt's hymns very popular with whites and blacks; along with Bibles, Watts hymnals were among the first books given to blacks
    29. whites appear more concerned with backsliding into sin, or falling away
  5. Coda
    1. by the end of 18th c., whites and blacks shared family, clan, and even folk histories that could not be separated one from the other
    2. the "accidental" fact that slavery became a va institution reinforced "educated elites" identification with rome
    3. white va culture also developed "in opposition" to blacks, or reactionary developments
    4. John Woolman vision experience - spiritually identified with suffering of enslaved blacks - as described similar to black vision experiences
    5. the "little me" or "little man" or "inner soul" capable of journeying to hell and heaven
    6. surveying southern culture in the 20th c., henry glassie asks why the children of white farmers in the lowland south are often given carefully homemade negro dolls with which to play
rough estimate of black and white population in va

1650 - 400b, 18,000w
1680 - 3,000b, 40,000w
1700 - 15,000, 45,000
1710 - 19,000, 55,000
1730 - 36,500, 84,000
1750 - 107,000, 130,000
1760 - 140,500, 200,000
1770 - 187,500, 260,000
1778 - foreign slave trade to va legally closed
1780 - 223,500, 317,000
1790 - 305,000, 432,000

The Richmond Slave Trade

The Richmond Slave Trade: The Economic Backbone Of The Old Dominion - Jack Trammell

  A good short intro, I think. I mean, I haven't read any other short introductions to the Richmond slave trade, so who am I to judge. I'd like to compare some of its aggregate data to The Half Has Never Been Told, which I read a while back. I hope someone will come along and map out Richmond wealth by family history. Just a sample, of course, but heck in 1800 Richmond didn't have that many people. You could trace maybe two dozen families, white and black, and describe financial ripple effects up to present day. 
  Man I hope more and more folks will accept the general premise that American wealth and power was built by enslaved Black labor and stolen Indian land every bit as much as by ingenuity and hard work in the free market. that's a pretty tame statement, right? can't we accept that as a country, write it into our songs and rituals? etc? maybe that's the rub - the rituals and songs and stuff. I think most folks would accept that statement in a history class, but not on thanksgiving or the 4th of july. mourning and repentance mixed with patriotism and pride? could we combine those somehow? or should they be separate activities? we can have the history lesson, just don't mess with my america. ai yai yai


notes
  • urban slavery; hiring out; self-hire; lots of movement
  • development of "patrols" - formal or informal bands of armed white men
  • Richmond/VA number one in "slave breeding"
  • Wall Street (present 15th street) and blocks around it home to 69 or more slave dealers and auction houses
  • unclear status of first Africans brought to America
  • by 1670s and likely earlier first slaves in Richmond
  • by 1860, more than half a million enslaved people sold in Richmond
  • hiring rates were typically 10-20 percent of persons value, computed annually
  • no white every sentenced to lifetime of slavery
  • white vs non-white became the legal basis, rather than earlier Xian vs non-Xian
  • it is difficult, historically or logically, to determine to what degree racism fueled the growth and acceptance of African slavery, or the practical need for cheap labor facilitated the acceptance of racism or both fed more or less equally off each other
  • tobacco slavocracy
  • 1607 - reportedly 150 Indians at the falls in dozen oblong branch covered houses; one englishman said it was a place natives left their sick to recuperate; easy access to fishing and hunting
  • Byrd I's Fall Platation - b/w Hull Street and Stony Creek. Est. a trading post at Stony Creek, may have been first to bring sizable numbers of enslaved Africans to area
  • built a warehouse near Shockoe circa 1678
  • initially, trading of slaves took place right on the ships at anchor in the river
  • 1800 - cotton 7% of of US exports; by 1869 - 60%
  • infamous Richmond Black Code
  • by 1850 a higher percentage of blacks had parents born in America than whites
  • many slave traders and speculators refused to use their personal names
  • Fredericksburg - slave-trading block at corner of Charles and Williams streets
  • African slaves bought and sold in nearly all counties that would become West VA
  • salt was first major industry in western VA (west va)
  • early Richmond - several homes, one blacksmith, dirt street
  • original native trails preserved by roads - Park Avenue, and maybe Westham Road
  • slave sales peaked at Manchester in 1775-1776, then more and more on the north side of river around Wall street
  • when conducted off ship, business was often advertised with red flags mounted above doorways of taverns and small businesses
  • "sold south"
  • VA ban on importation 1778, US ban 1808: increased business in Richmond
  • other towns and cities had central slave auction location; in Richmond more diffuse across the Wall Street neighborhood
  • hotels also used for slave sales
  • The Odd Fellows Hall, at corner of Franklin and Mayo
  • Midori Takagi: slavery adapted and grew to industrial revolution
  • 1860 - about 60% of enslaved worked outside the home of their owners; usu hired for a year at a time
  • Rev Jasper - eventually given authority to "marry slaves and minister to wounded Civil War soldiers"
  • Van Lew mansion perhaps part of underground railroad
  • people caught running away constantly being delivered to jails in richmond
  • Richmond may have been place for escaped slaves to attempt to disappear into free black community
  • some antislavery factions met at Powhatan House at 11th and Broad, which later became a breeding ground for the discontents who would form the breakaway section of western VA
  • Dickens: ...when they [southerners] speak of freedom, mean the freedom to oppress their kind
  • most often, white Virginians did not mention enslaved people at all, and when they did, they were mentioned in ledgers
  • African slaves not permitted surnames, only name of their owner
  • enslaved people about 1/3 of all liquid capital of south
  • VA's chief export...people
  • slave owners had various options for insurance against loss
  • churches and other businesses also invested in slaves, even when they didn't need the labor
  • on the typical southern plantation with twenty slaves, the slaves themselves were worth more than the total value of the land and implements combined
  • bull market for trading enslaved people at beginning of war
  • 1860 - south had 60% of america's wealthiest men and per capita income rate almost double of north
  • 1860 dollars - value of enslaved people somewhere between 2-5 billion; adjusted to 2011 - 150-200 billion
  • by 1862, largest employer of city enslaved workers was confederate government
  • 1860  VA law- required slave traders to be licensed and registered; earlier 1840 city authorities began selling licenses
  • 1860 cotton crop - 191 million; more than 60% of slave pop worked on its cultivation and harvest
  • confederate money - often had vignettes of slavery on them
  • provost marshal Brig. Gen. John Winder, "his company was always vigorously avoided by blacks and whites alike"
  • lots of profiteering during war
  • so called "divinity students" roamed streets
  • black Union soldiers stopped at Lumpkin's slave jail to pay homage to suffering that had gone on there
  • many former slaves in richmond area, although liberated and now technically free to act as they pleased, were in reality penniless, hungry and limited in their survival options
  • Freedman's Bureau - trying to protect against attack and abuse of freed blacks
  • Freedman's Bank at 10th and Broad
  • Thomas Morris Chester: "nothing can exceed the rejoicings of the negroes since the occupation of this city. They declare that they cannot realize the change; though they have long prayed for it, yet it seems impossible that it has come. Old men and women weep and shout for joy, and praise God for their deliverance through the means of the Union army."

Wednesday, January 1, 2020

Whispers of Rebellion

Whispers of Rebellion: Narrating Gabriel's Conspiracy - Michael Nicholls

  Wow, an amazing book! A gripping and tragic story. All the information comes from white male records, and most of the information comes from trial testimony, from enslaved men under duress, so who knows how much is accurate...but here's a rough outline:


  • Late spring in the year 1800, Sam Byrd Jr begins building support for a freedom fight; mostly in the Brook neighborhood, north of Richmond on the stage coach road.
  • There is a rumor of 1 or 2 frenchmen who encourage a rebellion (some fighting b/w US and France).
  • Also a rumor of a man (white man?) who fought in siege at Yorktown who is willing to help lead the fighting (may have been a recruiting tool).
  • Other early leaders of the plan: George (smith), Gilbert (young), Ben Woolfolk, and Jack Bowler.
  • Jack recruits Gabriel (prosser)
  • Recruitment north as far as Caroline Co and south into Richmond
  • Basic planning goals:
    • recruit hundreds of commitments (Gabriel hopes for 1000); and then hope that others join along the way
    • gather weapons, powder, money, and alcohol (for recruitment purposes)
    • coordinate a night for surprise attack on Richmond city center
  • More specific questions:
    • who's in charge? Gabriel emerges as leader; Jack Bowler also puts himself forward but Gabriel is voted leader at the end
    • promise of military rank to help motivate recruiters
    • where will attack be focused? first on owners in Brook area, then along the way to Richmond, gathering extra weapons as they go, ultimately hope to overrun capitol, capture weapons, and establish a stronghold in Richmond; kill or capture Governor; negotiate with u.s. forces that they anticipate will respond quickly.
    • kill all the whites? just the white men? varying testimony on who will be attacked; some say not the methodists, quakers, or french, or others who agree to free their slaves, etc.
    • are the women involved? not mentioned in testimony, but Gabriel's wife Nanny supportive
  • Sat Aug 9, rumor in Petersburg of a plot.
  • Sunday 10 Aug, Gabriel and a few others able to slip into capitol and view weapons, lent key by Robert Cowley, free black man and Keeper of the Capitol.
  • Date set for rebellion, Sat Aug 30; some debate about sat vs sun.
  • Early on Aug 30, two enslaved men, Pharoah and Tom, report to Mosby Sheppard of the plan. Mosby shares this with various folks; Gov Monroe alerted; some patrols organize b/w Richmond and Brook
  • Terrible storm; said to be one of the worst in recent memory.
  • No rebellion; some may have gathered and agreed to postpone because of weather.
  • Enslaved woman tells William Mosby (who had been part of the patrol) late that night about the plan and that the men postponed attempt till Sunday night.
  • Authorities begin arresting and detaining men, especially from Brook area
  • Henrico trials begin quickly; trials of "oyer and terminer" - no jury, five justices, conviction must be unanimous, acquittal takes one justice, not guilty must be unanimous, can recommend pardon.
  • Mostly convictions in the first few days of trials; looks more like revenge than justice; trying to send message to community; many men quickly hanged in Richmond near the Negro burial ground.
  • Gov Monroe authorized to organize militia; displays of power - troops parading on Capitol grounds and on Church Hill; promises reward for capture of Gabriel, who escaped on boat to Norfolk.
  • As related trials continue in Henrico, Richmond, Caroline Co, Louisa, and Dinwiddie, more and more executions begin to be postponed, Gov. and Council begin to issue pardons.
  • Some citizens petition for ending or moving the hangings. Some men hanged in Brook neighborhood and other areas.
  • Gov Monroe and Council trying to "terrify" the slaves with hangings, but not killing too many slaves; the state has to compensate owners for slaves who are executed.
  • Late september enslaved sailor tips off authorities about Gabriel, but he doesn't end up receiving reward; ship captain criticized but not punished for believing Gabriel's story; Bowler later basically turns himself in early Oct.
  • Free blacks quickly trying to make sure they are registered in Richmond.
  • 72 men tried; one man killed himself before trial
    • 26 men convicted then executed by hanging (mostly in early days of trials)
    • 25 men acquitted
    • 13 men convicted then pardoned
    • 8 men "transported" (sold outside of the country; a new law passed in 1801)
  • Pharoah and Tom bought and freed by the state; a group of men in Richmond buy bonds to establish an annuity for them.
  • Ben (from Thomas Prosser's farm) bought and freed by group of men from Richmond; he gave a lot of info during trials.
  • 24 of the men hanged were from Brook neighborhood - that's about 10% or more of all the men in that area.
  • Gov Monroe asks soon to be Pres Jefferson to look for ways to relocate free blacks and deport convicted blacks.
  • Some people blame rebellion on French ideas of "Liberty and Equality," others cast some blame on Methodists and Baptists and effects of early revivals.


notes
  • Anthony Kaye's - Joining Places: Slave Neighborhoods in the Old South
  • "The Brook" neighborhood/area - around stage road (Brook Rd) that crossed Ufnam Brook/Upham Brook - descends eastward into Chickahominy
  • various plantations, mills, etc
  • Thomas Henry Prosser, unmarried 23 year old recent heir of Thomas - the once sheriff, county justice, expelled member of house of burgesses in 1765
  • Deep Run coal pits to the west
  • baptist meeting house near Hungary Branch
  • roads and bridges mostly built and maintained by enslaved black men
  • upper section of Henrico in 1800: 451 free tithables (at least 16 free blacks), 1105 black enslaved tithables (aged 16 or older), 177 enslaved children (12-16 year olds also working)
  • Brook area: wheat, corn, some tobacco, hay, cattle, hogs
  • late on Saturdays, if possible, many enslaved people would travel and visit family, friends, spouses, children; Sundays - continue visits, go to worship, bury dead, talk, play quoits or other card games, fish, etc
  • "slave patrols" run by the militia, irregular monthly riding around area
  • 1800 - first truly contested election (Republican vs Federalists, Jefferson vs Burr); federal troops near Richmond; war with France in the air
  • late spring of 1800, enslaved man Sam Byrd Jr began to gather support for rebellion (owned by Jane Clarke)
  • other early leaders of idea and recruitment - George (Smith), Gilbert (Young), Ben Woolfolk - from Caroline Co. but hired to Young, Jack Bowler (aka Jack Ditcher) hired in the area as well, known for size and strength, long hair, scar above one eye
  • early on, Jack said to be main leader; he first recruited Gabriel, enslaved blacksmith of Prosser, could read and write, also tall and strong, scars on face, two front teeth knocked out; accosted by Absalom Johnson a renting neighbor, in the fight Gabriel bit part of ear; convicted by Henrico court but allowed to "plead benefit of clergy" - a medieval procedure that provided a means of avoiding capital punishment for the educated, a one-time privilege; no longer had anything to do with education; branded his left hand. Two brothers - Martin, older brother, a preacher, Solomon, also a blacksmith, and something of treasurer for the cause
  • Richmond 1784 - 1300 residents, 1800 - 5700
  • fire in Shockoe in 1787 burned Byrd's Warehouse and about 40-50 other houses in about 3 hrs
  • Armistead, enslaved by William Galt, suggested setting fire to wooden houses at "other end of town", disagreement among planners, later agreed that diversion fire in lower town a good idea
  • probably that transformation from loose talk to serious plans began in late April or May
  • recruitment, gathering weapons, reshaping tools to become weapons, buying gun powder, buying alcohol to help recruitment
  • the records of trials reveal more about recruitment than about plan itself - b/c the people were tried for conspiracy, or "To consult, advise, or conspire to rebel, or make insurrection"
  • when George first asked Ben Woolfolk, he asked if he'd like to join a freemason society; Ben responded that all freemason's would go to hell; then George clarified that it was actually a society to fight the white people for their freedom"
  • names for the movement or plan in the trial records: "Society to fight the white people for their freedom", "a combination to kill the white people", "the war against the white people", "the intended insurrection", "a fight for our liberty", "a plan for freeing the Negroes from slavery"
  • typical term of hire - from New Year's Day to Xmas
  • Ned said to lead recruitment among the "warehouse boys" of Richmond
  • promise of military rank
  • who would be killed? all whites? only men? all males? some exceptions suggested: not the poor people, or methodists and quakers and frenchmen; what about blacks that didn't join?
  • basic plan - largest group
  • When Thornton recruiting around Littlepage's Bridge, Bristol, enslaved by Charles Carter, and Primus, enslaved by William Overton, threatened to reveal plot if they didn't stop. recruiters threatened them in turn
  • Gabriel said hoped to have 1000men
  • lists of recruits, or perhaps lists of recruiters
  • how much were women involved? not much mentioned, but Gabriel's wife Nanny supportive
  • who was the frenchman or two frenchmen who encouraged the plot? maybe made up
  • Gilbert mentioned Charles Quersey, probably meant Charles Dequasay
  • who was man who fought at seige of Yorktown?
  • had at least 6 guns and a pistol by Aug 30th, scythe blades into bayonettes
  • Robert Cowley, elderly free black man Keeper of the Capitol and Doorman, lent key to James, enslaved by clerk of va court of appeals; James, Jupiter, and Gabriel slip into view arms stored at capitol sunday aug 10
  • Bowler tried to claim leadership, but after vote, Gabriel
  • talk of making white flag with "liberty or death" written on it
  • Aug 9, John Grammer, Petersburg postmaster, informed Richmond postmaster he'd heard of an insurrection
  • Sat Aug 30, b/4 storm, Pharoah, 27rd old, skilled sctheman, enslaved by Phillip Sheppard, and Tom, often charged with running plantation of Elizabeth Sheppard, go to Mosby Sheppard counting room in Richmond and spill the beans
  • Mosby spreads word to uncle William Mosby, spreads to folks around Brook and with Gov Monroe
  • terrible storm but patrols formed
  • later that night after the patrol, female enslaved tells William Mosby of the plan, and that they might try again the next night
  • arrested about 20 folks from Brook area by Tue Sept 2
  • Gabriel slips onto boat (captain faced with scrutiny; enslaved sailor tipped off authorities in Norfolk) but captured in Norfolk 23 Sept, Bowler in the Brook 9 Oct
  • no report of interrogation techniques
  • reward prize for capture of Gabriel
  • Monroe organizing forces, with approval from Council, parade on Church Hill and capitol grounds
  • Court of Oyer and Terminer, no jury, at least 5 justices, court appointed defense, unanimous decision for guilty, aquitted if any dissent, or could find not guilty; also could recommend pardon
  • early in sept courts convicted and condemning
  • free blacks registering to help protect themselves
  • most hanged in Richmond, some at the Brook
  • petitions from Richmond to stop or move the hangings
  • Monroe asking advice from Jefferson, how much killing is too much?
  • one news report mentioned black folks happy when Gabriel captured
  • state had to reimburse owners for enslaved people executed
  • trial of Martin, a free man, could they use testimony of enslaved people? yes for black but not for white
  • 27 men killed in response to plot, one by suicide
  • a new law the next year permitting "transportation," deportation to another state or country; traders attempt to sell 8 men in spanish america
  • about 10k in security costs, about 11k in reimbursements to owners and costs for transportation; 2600 returned for sales
  • 13 men pardoned, saved state around 4500
  • state purchased and freed Pharoah and Tom; Richmond citizens establish; life annuity, bonds held by Richard Adams; they stayed in area
  • state looking for ways to remove free blacks
  • new law limiting manumissions
  • 1790's state paid 35,892 to owners
  • bills to better arm militias and establish public guard in richmond
  • small group of men from Richmond bought and freed Ben (Prosser), who gave a lot of the info
  • no record of internment of hanged men
  • 24 men hanged from Brook area, about 10% or more of men from Brook
  • "It would take a war, one that involved the largest slave uprising in America's history, one where 'these people [were] instrumental to their own emancipation,' to end the peculiar institution and the whispers of rebellion"
  • 72 trials (58 in Henrico, 3 in Richmond City, 9 in Caroline, 1 in Louisa and 1 in Dinwiddie); all but one man was enslaved; 26 executed; 25 acquitted; 13 pardoned; 8 transported