Serenity… an expedition


Archive for the 'repairing the past' Category

what do you know?

This is not a philosophical question. Or, not entirely, anyway. And yes, as usual this rumination is really about me, not you (unless you want it to be).

No, it’s more the question I’ve been asking myself lately as I sit here looking at the blank screen day after day, realizing I feel I have [...]

Sunday, February 28th

snapshot

The newspapers spread wide against the wall are so bright it is only a moment later that I notice the small woman framed by them and the old quilts covering the beds, they’d probably bring a fortune today but then they were just old quilts.
Who was she? The credits say “Mulatto ex-slave in her house [...]

Monday, February 15th

ruminations on the house and the field

The other day I was reading a post over at the Field Negro’s site that primarily dealt with Black conservatives, but also, somewhere in there, talked about the name he uses as his handle and also as his blog’s name – Field Negro.

Not surprisingly, there has been a bit of controversy over the name from [...]

Tuesday, December 15th

blank page, blank mind

Well, that’s not really true, the blank mind* part. Rather there is so much tumbling around in my brain that I think it’s created a bottle neck. I wish I could figure out a way out of that. Not that I can’t just sit down and yammer on – obviously I can. But when it [...]

Tuesday, September 8th

Random Question: when did black people all start looking alike?

Because it seems we sure didn’t used to.
Reading lately about the underground railroad (great stuff!) and other things dealing with the antebellum South, and I got to wondering…  when enslaved persons ran away, how did people recognize them?
For instance:

This says, in part- $150 REWARD
Ranaway from the subscriber, on the night of Monday the 11th July, [...]

Monday, September 7th

From place to place

I’ve just finished (well, all but a few pages) the underground railroad book. What a read, I don’t want it to end. Well, I do because I think it ends at the Civil War, but I’d love it if it was twice the size, with more stories of the various escapes and the workings of [...]

Tuesday, September 1st

What will be remembered?

I am not so interested in dictating to others how they should remember their past. Let the Lost Cause find itself, our search lies within. And when it’s over, we will put Ida Wells up against Nathan Forrest, on any day of the week, and leave the generations to judge. Sooner or later, in the [...]

Wednesday, June 24th