The Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, 1995, Memorial IssueVarious
History
The Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, 1995, Memorial Issue
Various
African Americans -- Social conditions -- To 1964; Civil rights movements; Martin Luther King, Jr., Day; United States -- History
We all thought it likely; and as the company left her, they shook hands
with her, and thanked her for her very original sermon; and one of the
ministers was overheard to say to another, "There's more of the gospel
in that story than in most sermons."
Sojourner stayed several days with us, a welcome guest. Her conversation
was so strong, simple, shrewd, and with such a droll flavoring of humor,
that the Professor was wont to say of an evening, "Come, I am dull,
can't you get Sojourner up here to talk a little?" She would come up
into the parlor, and sit among pictures and ornaments, in her simple
stuff gown, with her heavy travelling-shoes, the central object of
attention both to parents and children, always ready to talk or to sing,
and putting into the common flow of conversation the keen edge of some
shrewd remark.
"Sojourner, what do you think of Women's Rights?"
"Well, honey, I's ben to der meetins, an' harked a good deal. Dey wanted
me for to speak. So I got up. Says I,--'Sisters, I a'n't clear what
you'd be after. Ef women want any rights more 'n dey's got, why don't
dey jes' TAKE 'EM, an' not be talkin' about it?' Some on 'em came round
me, an' asked why I didn't wear Bloomers. An' I told 'em I had Bloomers
enough when I was in bondage. You see," she said, "dey used to weave
what dey called nigger-cloth, an' each one of us got jes' sech a strip,
an' had to wear it width-wise. Them that was short got along pretty
well, but as for me"--She gave an indescribably droll glance at her long
limbs and then at us, and added,--"Tell YOU, I had enough of Bloomers in
them days."
Sojourner then proceeded to give her views of the relative capacity of
the sexes, in her own way.
"S'pose a man's mind holds a quart, an' a woman's don't hold but a pint;
ef her pint is FULL, it's as good as his quart."
Sojourner was fond of singing an extraordinary lyric, commencing,--
"I'm on my way to Canada,
That cold, but happy land;
The dire effects of Slavery
I can no longer stand.
O righteous Father,
Do look down on me,
And help me on to Canada,
Where colored folks are free!"
The lyric ran on to state, that, when the fugitive crosses the Canada
line,
"The Queen comes down unto the shore,
With arms extended wide,
To welcome the poor fugitive
Safe onto Freedom's side."
In the truth thus set forth she seemed to have the most simple faith.
But her chief delight was to talk of "glory," and to sing hymns whose
burden was,--
"O glory, glory, glory,
Won't you come along with me?"
and when left to herself, she would often hum these with great delight,
nodding her head.
On one occasion, I remember her sitting at a window singing and
fervently keeping time with her head, the little black Puck of a
grandson meanwhile amusing himself with ornamenting her red-and-yellow
turban with green dandelion-curls, which shook and trembled with her
emotions, causing him perfect convulsions of delight.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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