Comments on: Black Herstory Month

By: Clio Bluestocking

Clio Bluestocking — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 17:36:40 +0000

I have the citation (I didn’t last night): “Lucy Terry Prince: Singer of History” by David R. Proper, Historic Deerfield. Prince’s dates are 1725-1821, so she’s several decades after 1704, but the pamplet suggests some of the slave trading and connections among the enslaved people that were going on in that area. He also cites several sources that seem to go back further.

I wouldn’t necessarily call my work “progress” at the moment! Just organizing and figuring out how to approach the thing. Thank you because I will need all the luck I can get!

By: Historiann

Historiann — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 13:48:41 +0000

Thanks for the tip in Deerfield–it’s actually quite related to Wells, Maine in many ways because they were both towns targeted for raids by the Abenaki in 1704, and Historic Deerfield is such a wonderful material culture and public history resource. And good to hear you’re making progress on Douglass’s women–congratulations, and good luck!

By: Clio Bluestocking

Clio Bluestocking — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 01:34:18 +0000

Your Wheelwright project sounds fascinating, especially with this dimension of slaves in Maine. What a difficult group of people to excavate. I know that Deerfield, Massachusetts, is a long way from Maine, but someone associated with Historic Deerfield wrote a pamplet about an enslaved woman there. Then, of course, there was Tituba in Salem. It makes you wonder how these enslaved people, particularly the women, fit into that whole Puritan worldview of “us Saints” against “them Devils,” since the enslaved women occupied this odd place of not being particularly one of the Puritans, yet also being part of their community.

Anyway, thanks for the shout out! Seems I may be plowing ahead on that Douglass biography, thanks to your encouragement! (What am I getting myself into?)

By: Historiann

Historiann — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 22:56:50 +0000

Hi, David–thanks for writing! No–I don’t know that book, although it looks a lot like the fictionalized biographies that I devoured as a child. I’ve just focused on the historical work on her, of which there isn’t very much. FYI, another Wheelwright descendant is working on a new non-ficiton bio too, Julie Wheelwright. Her book should be out next year with Harper-Collins Canada, probably long before mine will be. She and I have collaborated on research trips and a documentary film about Esther. You Wheelwright descendants are a proud and enterprizing lot!

By: David Sewall

David Sewall — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 22:14:08 +0000

You are undoubtedly aware of this book:

Esther Wheelwright, Indian captive.
by Marguerite Vance
Type: Book
Language: English
Publisher: New York, Dutton [1964]
Edition: [1st ed.]
OCLC: 1373313

David Sewall,
a Wheelwright descendant

By: Susan

Susan — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 21:27:02 +0000

Your comments on the slaves in Maine are similar to my thoughts about the slaves in rural England in the late 17th century. At least in the cities there were other slaves. In England at least, the irony is that we only see blacks (slave or not) when they are in white households.