The oft quoted saying that history is written by the victors
is sometimes attributed to Winston Churchill and sometimes to Machiavelli. It
can be disputed and is losing its claim to accuracy in this post-colonial world
in which increasingly all lives and voices, particularly black, brown and
indigenous lives matter. Each week the Kentucky Faith and Public History
Education Project features a famous Kentucky Christian on our Facebook page. We
are intentionally researching and then portraying men and women from each race
and ethnicity that has impacted the history of Kentucky with their lives who gave clear credit to their Christian faith for their achievements. It is
significantly more difficult to find written records of Kentucky women than
men. It is most difficult to find written records of Kentucky’s African
American women. Effie Waller Smith is one such woman. Her story and her
perspective on the early events of the twentieth century are woven through her
poems. They are written in powerful but easily grasped language and take a
traditional approach to rhyme, meter and stanzas.
Elementary students can appreciate poems that reveal her
childhood such as these lines from the poem, “Apple Sauce and Chicken Fried”:
“Our modern cooks know how to fix
Their
dainty dishes rare,
But,
friend, just let me tell you what!
None
of them can compare
With
what my mother used to fix,
And
for which I’ve often cried,
When
I was but a little tot,-
Apple
sauce and chicken fried.”[1]
Older
students can derive contemporary perspectives on American history from some of
her other poems. She mourned in a poem about the 1906 San Francisco earthquake like
this:
“While the earth shook and trembled and hungry flames wild
Leaped
skyward as building on building were piled.
They perish by thousands, fathers and mothers,
Husbands,
wives, sisters, sweethearts and brothers;
The
rich and the poor, the high and the low,
In
the beautiful city of San Francisco”[2]
Writing about the Spanish American War, she asks questions
that could inform a discussion about that war or about war, in general:
“What was it caused our nation
To
take up arms ‘gainst stubborn Spain?
Was
it to only conquer her
That
she might praise and glory gain?
Or
was it territorial greed,
That
she might richer be?
Or
was it beneficial
To
her on land or sea?”[3]
Students might be encouraged to write their own poems about
current events. Their voices matter. Their perspectives matter.
Born of formerly enslaved parents in Pike County, Kentucky,
educated at the Kentucky Normal School for Colored Persons in Frankfort, Effie Waller Smith
became a teacher and a poet. Thanks to the support of the white woman who
became the first woman to serve in the Kentucky House of
Representatives, Mary Elliot Flannery, Smith’s first book of poetry, Songs of the Months, was published[4]
in 1904. Two other volumes of poetry, Rhymes
from the Cumberland and Rosemary and
Pansies, were published in 1909. Her poems concerned history, the beauty of
the Cumberland and portraits of some of its people, and her Christian faith.
These poems stand alone as well-crafted literary selections. They offer a rare
glimpse into one African American woman’s life, observations and opinions. They
could serve as interesting prompts for student research, creative expression
and writing.
She even offers a melancholy perspective on her experience
as a teacher. Her poem, “After the Last Lesson”, is one that teachers can
perhaps relate to:
“The child I taught lies dead!
I
was his teacher yesterday –
…
Last
week he bent his anxious brows
O’er
maps with puzzling Poles and Zone;
Now
he, perchance, knows more than all
The
scientists have known…”[5]
[1]
Effie Waller Smith. “Apple Sauce and Chicken Fried”.
[2] Effie
Waller Smith. “The Frisco Earthquake”
[3]
Effie Waller Smith. “The Cuban Cause”
[4] Deskins,
David. “Introduction” to The Collected
Works of Effie Waller Smith. Schomburg Library of Nineteenth Century Black
Women Writers. New York. Oxford University Press.
[5]
Effie Waller Smith. “After the Last Lesson”
Comments
Post a Comment