Category: 1830s

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1830s Birds Essay Wild animals

The Wild Pigeon of America

The Wild Pigeon of America

By John James Audubon
Annotations by Josh Benjamin
Artist Unknown. Original illustration from Parley’s Magazine p. 94.

The wild pigeon of America, or, as it is often called, the passenger pigeon, is sixteen inches long, and twenty-four in extent. In the spring, multitudes of these birds are seen on the wing, speeding to the northern and western regions of the continent. Here, in the extensive forests, they collect in vast companies, and devote themselves to the rearing of their young. They build their nests in the tops of trees, and such is the almost incredible multitude sometimes assembled at a particular place, that they break the branches of the trees by their weight, and desolate the forest for miles around.

Towards autumn, these birds with the young ones now added to their number, set out for their return to the southern latitudes to spend the winter. The flocks that are sometimes seen, particularly in the Western States, contain many millions. A continued stream, for several miles in width, and many hours in duration, is often seen to pour along the air, sweeping forward with almost incredible swiftness. When the roosts of these birds are first discovered, the inhabitants from a considerable distance visit them in the night, with guns, clubs, pots of sulphur, and various other engines of destruction. In a few hours they fill many sacks, and load their horses with them. By the Indians a pigeon roost, or breeding place, is considered an important source of national profit and dependence for that season; and all their active ingenuity is exercised on the occasion.

The migrations of these birds are thus noticed by Mr. Audubon. “Their great power of flight enables them when in need, to survey and pass over an astonishing extent of country in a very short time. This is proved by facts known to the greater number of observers in America. Pigeons for example have been killed in the neighborhood of New York with their crops still filled with rice, collected by them in the fields of Georgia and Carolina, the nearest point at which this supply could possibly have been obtained; and, as it is well ascertained, that owing to their great power of digestion, they will decompose food entirely in twelve hours, they must have travelled between three hundred and four hundred miles in six hours, making their speed at an average about one mile in a minute, and this would enable one of these birds, if so inclined, to visit the European continent, as swallows are undoubtedly able to do, in a couple of days.”

“This great power of flight is seconded by as great a power of vision, which enables them as they travel at that swift rate, to view objects below, to discover their food with facility, and thus put an immediate end to their journey. This I have also proved to be the case, by having observed the Pigeons, when passing over a destitute part of the country, keep high in air, and in such an extensive front, as to enable them to survey hundreds of acres at once. But if on the contrary, the land is richly covered with food, or the trees with mast, they will fly low, in order to discover the portion most plentifully supplied, and upon these they alight progressively.

United States National Museum Photographic Library. Passenger Pigeon “Martha.” Gelatin silver print, 1914. Smithsonian Institution Archives, Washington, D.C.
audubon, john james. “The wild pigeon of America.” Parley’s Magazine 1 (March 1833): 94-95.
Contexts

The same year this article appeared in print, Audubon believed the passenger pigeon to have the highest population of all birds in North America. There may have been as many as three billion passenger pigeons worldwide in the early 1800s, which would have made it the most numerous bird species. By 1900, no passenger pigeons were left in the wild. The bird pictured above, Martha, was the last surviving passenger pigeon, and she died in September 1914 at the Cincinnati Zoo.

Resources for Further Study
Contemporary Connections

Advancements in genetic science have sparked conversations about the possibility of de-extinction. Scientific American looks at some of the issues surrounding restoring animals, such as the passenger pigeon, and Science.org examines how de-extinction may affect conservation efforts.

Categories
1830s Essay Fable

The Wonders of the Ocean

The Wonders of the Ocean

By Anonymous
Annotations by Kristina Bowers
“Ocean Life” by James M. Sommerville, 1859, Watercolor, gouache, graphite, and gum arabic on off-white wove paper. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Erving Wolf, in memory of Diane R. Wolf, 1977. Public Domain.

COLLECTED AND ARRANGED FROM AUTHENTIC SOURCES.

[Continued.]

In general the bed of the ocean is tolerably level, but sometimes in the midst of the furious waves, an island raises its head and braves their utmost force. Such islands may be considered as the mountains of the sea. In fact, the surface of the earth below the sea is evidently similar to that above it; here rising into mountains, the summits of which may be called islands and continents, and sinking into vallies[sic]. 

The bottom of the ocean, wherever opportunities of examining it have occurred, is found to resemble the dry land in materials as well as in features; if it is dug to any considerable depth, rock is uniformly met with as in the land. The strata, are similar, and supposed in the same manner, and springs of fresh water, so voluminous as to displace the current of the salt, for a considerable distance, issue from the bed of the sea; neither are there wanting to complete the resemblance, volcanoes, which vomit forth their perpetual fires. 

The earth, therefore, whether dry or covered with water, forms but one whole; the surface of the water being to that of the land as three to one.[1] 

This account of the ocean, its properties, movements, and effects, may be appropriately concluded with the extraordinary history of a Sicilian diver, which is related on the authority of Kircher,[2] and some other ancient authors, but it has so much the air of a fable that it is difficult to determine on the exact degree of credit which it merits. 

Nicola pesce[3] lived in the reign of Frederick, king of Sicily, and obtained his surname from his amazing skill in swimming, and his ability to remain under water for an astonishing length of time. He earned a poor subsistence by diving for corals and oysters; and his long familiarity with the sea made him regard it almost as his natural element. He frequently spent five days at a time in the midst of the waves, with no other provision for his sustenance than raw fish. He often swam from Sicily to Calabria,[4] a tempestuous and dangerous passage, being employed to carry letters of importance. Some mariners at sea one day observed an object at a distance, which they imagined to be a sea monster, but on approaching nearer, they discovered it to be Nicola who was bound on one of his expeditions. They took him with them into their ship, and enquired[sic] whither[5] he was going in so rough and stormy a sea, and at such a distance from land; he showed them a packet of letters, fastened up in a leather bag, which he was carrying to one of the towns of Italy. He remained with them for some time; and after eating, and refreshing himself, he took his leave, and jumped into the sea, to pursue his strange voyage. Nature seemed to have prepared him in a very singular manner for these aquatic expeditions, for the spaces between his toes and fingers were webbed, like the feet of a goose, and his chest became so very capacious,[6] that he could take in at one inspiration, as much breath as would serve him for a whole day.

The account of so extraordinary a person, soon reached the ears of the king; who actuated by a strong curiosity, not unmixed with incredulity, ordered Nicola to be brought before him. It was no easy matter to find an amphibious animal who spent the greater part of his time, in the watery deserts; but at length, after much research, he was discovered and presented to the monarch. The king had conceived a strong desire to gain some knowledge of the bottom of the Gulf of Charybdis;[7] and he gladly availed himself of so unlooked for an opportunity of gratifying it, and disregarding entirely, in his eagerness to obtain the fulfilment[sic] of his wishes, the imminent risk to the life of a fellow-creature, he commanded the poor diver to examine the dreadful whirlpool. To stimulate his efforts he commanded a golden cup to be thrown in and promised that it should be the prize of his success. The poor fisherman was not insensible to the dangers of the enterprize[sic], and ventured to remonstrate[8] against undertaking it; but at last the hope of reward, the desire of pleasing the king, and above all the pride of showing his skill, prevailed, and he consented. He leaped into the gulf, and was instantaneously swallowed up in its abyss.

He continued under water for three quarters of an hour, and re-appeared on the surface, holding the cup triumphantly in one hand, and the other buffetting[sic] the waves. He was received with universal applause, and the golden goblet was his reward. When he was in some measure recovered from his fatigue, which had been excessive he gave an account of what he had seen. According to his statement, four circumstances rendered this gulf terrible, not only to men but even to fish; the force of the water bursting upwards from the bottom; the steepness of the surrounding rocks; the violence of the whirlpool dashing against those rocks; and the vast number of polypus,[9] some as large as a man, adhering to them, and projecting their fibrous arms to entangle every thing that came within their reach.

The curiosity of the king being still unsatisfied, he desired him to descend again into the tremendous gulf. At first he refused compliance with this inhuman mandate; but being earnestly requested, and tempted by the promise of a much more valuable reward, than that bestowed on him before, the unfortunate man plunged again into the whirlpool, and never was heard of more.—Ed.

Anonymous. “The Wonders of the Ocean.” Youth’s Literary Messenger. 1, No. 9 (January 1838): 306-312.

[1] This is accurate, approximately 71% of the Earth’s surface is water.

[2] Athanasius Kircher was a 17th century Jesuit Priest and a prolific scientific thinker and writer.

[3] “Pesce” is the Italian word for “fish.” (Cambridge Dictionary)

[4] This distance equals roughly 173 miles.

[5] Whither: To what place, where. (Merriam-Webster)

[6] Capacious: Containing a great deal.

[7] The Gulf of Charybdis probably refers to the Strait of Messina between Sicily and the “toe” of the boot-shaped Italy. In Greek mythology, Charybdis was a sea monster that represented whirlpools.

[8] Remonstrate: To plead in protest or opposition. (Merriam-Webster)

[9] Polypus is an archaic spelling of “polyps” which are types of coral or sea anemones. (Merriam-Webster)

Resources for Further Study
Categories
1830s Poem

To a Dead Butterfly in a Flower Garden

To a Dead Butterfly in a Flower Garden

By Anna Maria Wells
Annotations by Jessica Abell
Winslow Homer. The Butterfly. Brush and oil paint on canvas, 1872, Cooper Hewitt
Smithsonian Design Museum, New York, NY. 
And is it thus I see thee lying,
   Thou bright and lovely thing,—
And yesterday that thou wert flying,
   The gayest imp of spring!

At morning, when the buds are bending,
   With glitt'ring dew-drops blind,
And flower to flower its incense sending,
   Like thought from mind to mind;

And back and forth the swallows coming,
   Pursue their pleas'd employ,—
And the small insect's ceaseless humming
   Betrays the heart of joy.

'Twas then thy wont mid-summer flowers
   To take thy bliss,—while they,
Blushing with joy in leafy bowers,
   Still wooed thee delay.

Mourn, ev'ry bud and ev'ry blossom—
   Mourn ev'ry verdant thing—
For him, who on your fragrant bosom
   Was wont to rest his wing!

Mourn queen-like rose! Her faded glory
   Let the sad woodbine trail—
Mourn, hyacinth, the hapless story,—
   Sweet pink,—and violent pale!

No more disporting hither, thither,
   His lightsome wing shall pass—
Mourn, mountain daisy,—purple heather,—
   Wild thyme,—and vernal grass!

Ah, life to him was never dreary!
   His fav'rite flow'r beside,
Only of bloom and fragrance weary,
   In the warm sun he died.

This may I yield life's fleeting hours,
   Calm as a summer wave,—
And memory, like the breath of flow'rs,
   Thus linger round my grave.
Wells, anna maria. “To a Dead Butterfly in a Flower Garden.” in The Juvenile Souvenir. Boston: Marsh & Caper, 1830.
Contexts

“To a Dead Butterfly in a Flower Garden” was published in The Juvenile Souvenir, which was a collection made by the editor of The Juvenile Miscellany, a bimonthly children’s magazine. The magazine emphasized middle-class Protestant values and included stories, poems, articles, and puzzles.

From the Cooper Hewitt Museum painting description for the above image: Horizontal view of woman in profile, holding a fan in her right hand and sitting in a folding chair on a shaded spot of lawn; tree foliage in background. She gazes down on a butterfly resting on the back of her left hand; another butterfly flits above the lawn near the left edge of picture.

Resources for Further Study

Full text of The Juvenile Souvenir

Categories
1830s Poem

The Autumnal Moon

The Autumnal Moon

By Anonymous
Annotations by Abby Army
Moonlight on Lake Waikaremoana by PHOTOGLOB CO

                       I.
Daughter of Earth! ye wander hand in hand 
On your unpatched, immeasurable way,
Together mingling with the starry band,
Chanting to cherubim[1] their measured lay:
Thy sleep is on her bosom. Where expand
Her silent vales[2] and deep blue waves at play;
Gently they glow beneath thy radiance mild;
As joys the mother in her young-eyed child.


                      II.
Nations have worshipped thee. By the dark Nile
Have maidens wreathed thy lilies in their hair,
While from thy temple on Memphian[3] isle,
Music and fragrance gushed upon the air,
Adoring Persians, by their mountain pile,
Have watched thy slow majestic rising there;
The war-roused Moslem[4] 'mid his steel-clad might,
Lifts high the crescent form, and hails the fight.
                               

                      III.
Queen of the weird and witching hour! thy beam
Calls the logjam fairies from their mossy rest;
Titania[5] and her train by some wild stream,
Dancing upon the green sward’s[6] spotted vest;
Some troop away to gladden with a dream
The fevered artisan, with toil opprest[7];
Spirits unshrived[8], to troubled sleep consigned,
Rise in their sheeted robes and haunt the wind.


                      IV.
At this thy banquet eve, the revelling sea
Moves in her festal[9] robe of white arrayed,
While silken leaves on many a wind-swept tree,
Glitter with ever-varying light and shade.
The riven[10] oak now silvered o'er by thee,
Stoops with a grace amid the darkling glade:
And the hoar[11] ruin mouldered[12] wide with time,
Tells a long legend of its olden prime.


                       V.
The fond heart stirred with thy mysterious spell,
Yield to aeffections[13] beautiful and rare;
The maiden lingers in the shady dell,
The mother listens to her infant’s prayer:
The soldier, musing, hears the village bell,
In the deer breathing of the fitful air;
While the young seaman in the plashing[14] foam,
Hails welcoming voices at his father’s home
Anonymous. “The Autumnal Moon.” The Knickerbocker 7, no. 5 (May 1836): 500.
Photoglob Co., ed. Moonlight on Lake Waikaremoana. 1911. Photograph. Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2017649298/

[1] In the art of the Renaissance, cherubim (or cherubs) are depicted as chubby babies with wings. One of the groups of the angels (dictionary.com)

[2] A more or less extensive tract of land lying between two ranges of hills, or stretches of high ground, and usually traversed by a river or stream; a dale or valley, esp. one which is comparatively wide and flat (Oxford English Dictionary)

[3] A native or inhabitant of the ancient Egyptian city of Memphis (dictionary.com)

[6] Usually with defining phrase of the earth, etc.: The surface or upper layer of ground usually covered with herbage (Oxford English Dictionary)

[7] Spelling from original poem

[8] not Present oneself to a priest for confession, penance, and absolution (lexico.com)

[9] Of or pertaining to a feast or festivity (Oxford English Dictionary)

[10] To tear apart or in pieces by pulling or tugging; to rend or lacerate. In early use also: to destroy (Oxford English Dictionary)

[11] Grey-haired with age; venerable (Oxford English Dictionary)

[12] To decay to dust; to rot; to crumble. Frequently with away; occasionally with down, up (Oxford English Dictionary)

[13] Spelling from original poem

[14] To interlace (growing branches, etc.) in trelliswork; to support or train against a trellis or a wall. Also figurative (Oxford English Dictionary)

Contexts

[4] The concept of the “war-roused Moslem”[sic] is not a contemporary idea. This poem shows that even in 1836, there was a misconception surriounding the Muslim faith since it was perceived as so different than the Christian religion.

[5] The author’s reference to Titania (from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream) adds an extra layer of depth to the narrative of the moon

Contemporary Connections

It is interesting that the author brings up Titania in relation to the moon as one of Uranus’ moons is actually named Titania. While it was probably not named until well after this piece was written, it is a nice connection to make in the modern-day classroom.

Categories
1830s Poem

Vegetables, Minerals, and Animals

Vegetables, Minerals, and Animals

By Ransom G. Williams
Annotations by Jessica Abell
Charles Codman. Landscape with Farm and Mountains. Oil on wood, 1832, Smithsonian
American Art Museum and its Renwick Gallery, Washington, D.C. 
In earth the vegetables grow,
   Fast rooted to the soil,
And minerals lie deep below,
   Dug thence with care and toil.

But animals have power of motion,
   For life to them is given;
On earth, or in the air, or ocean,
   Each kind preserved by Heaven.
Williams, Ransom G. “Vegetables, Minerals, and Animals.” the Slave’s Friend 3, no. 5 (May 1838): 3.
Contexts

The Slave’s Friend was a children’s abolitionist periodical/pamphlet produced from 1836 to 1838 by Ransom G. Williams for the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS). The periodical was a mix of poetry, stories, anti-slavery writings, and woodcut prints. The content was designed for young children to understand the wrongs of slavery.

Though The Slave’s Friend is an abolitionist periodical, its writings are also informative and entertaining for child readers.

Resources for Further Study
Categories
1830s Dialogue

Dialogue of Slavery

Dialogue of Slavery [1]

By Ransom G. Williams
Annotations by Jessica Abell
Image is advertisement of ink on cardboard measuring 2 7/8 x 4 inches. It reads: “Great Negro Mart, No. 87, Adams Street, Memphis, — Tenn. The undersigned would announce to the community at large, that they will keep constantly on hand a General Assortment of Negroes at Private Sale and Auction. They will also receive commission (to Board or for Sale) any Negroes consigned to their care. -> All sales warranted as represented. Hill, Ware & Chrisp.”

Edwin. I heard a gentleman say it was so bad as American[2] slavery. What is American slavery, dear father?

Mr. Williams. I will tell you, my son. All slavery is bad enough, but American slavery is the worst of all.

Edwin. Is it worse than Algerine[3] slavery?

Mr. Williams. Much worse, because this is called a free country. Suppose you were compelled to work every minute on a holiday, you would think it very hard. They had better not have told you it was a holiday. Now we call this land of liberty. It is worse then to enslave men here, then it is to enslave them in a country that is not called free. Slavery is bad every where, but it is very bad in a country called free.

Edwin. I should like to know more about slavery.

Mr. Williams. I shall be pleased to tell you . A horse is a slave. His owner may sell him, dispose of his body and his labor; he can do nothing, possess nothing, nor acquire any thing, but what must belong to his master. And these are the very words of the laws of the state of Louisiana with regard to slaves.

Edwin. A man is treated then like a horse, and must go and come at his master’s bidding, just as brute animals do, must he?

Mr. Williams. Yes, my child, and a man is treated worse than if he were a horse. Slavery is more cruel to men and women and children, than it is to inferior animals, for brutes have no minds. Their bodies only suffer. But slaves have souls, and they are kept in heathenish darkness.

Edwin. I heard some one say the slaves are chattels. What are they?

Mr. Williams. Chattels are goods. Slaves are considered like furniture, books, domestic animals, and are sold at auction or private sale like a bale of cotton, a hogshead of molasses, a box of sugar, a horse or a pig. This is slavery, and American slavery is to do all this in a land of ‘Liberty and Equality.’

Williams, Ransom G. “Dialogue on Slavery.” Slave’s Friend 3, no. 12 (December 1838): 4–5.
Hill, Byrd, et al. Advertisement Card for the “Great Negro Mart” in Memphis, Tennessee. 1960 1859, https://www.si.edu/object/advertisement-card-great-negro-mart-memphis-tennessee%3Anmaahc_2014.63.17.
Contexts

The Slave’s Friend is a children’s abolitionist periodical/pamphlet produced from 1836-1838 by Ransom G. Williams for the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS). The periodical was a mix of poetry, stories, anti-slavery writings and woodcut prints to speak to children. These writings were written for young children to understand the wrongs of slavery.

Resources for Further Study

[1] Originally published in The Slave’s Friend periodical/pamphlet.

[2] All emphasis in original.

[3] Algerine Slavery is slavery that occurred in North Africa. People of all colors and religions were enslaved by Barbary Pirates.

Categories
1830s Short Story

Girl and Butterfly

Girl and Butterfly[1]

By Ransom G. Williams
Annotations by Jessica ABell
Girl and Butterfly. From The New York Public Library

Little Amelia accidentally caught a butterfly, in picking some flowers. But she did not wish to keep it prisoner. So she opened her hand and let it fly. Do you not think she felt more joy in giving it liberty than she could have felt in keeping it?

Williams, Ransom G. “Girl and Butterfly.” Slave’s Friend, vol. 3, no. 7, July 1838, pp. 2.
Little Girl with a Butterfly. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47da-7557-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99. Accessed 24 Oct. 2020.

[1] Originally published in The Slave’s Friend.

Contexts

The Slave’s Friend is a children’s abolitionist periodical/pamphlet produced from 1836-1838 by Ransom G. Williams for the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS). The periodical was a mix of poetry, stories, anti-slavery writings and woodcut prints to speak to children. These writings were written for young children to understand the wrongs of slavery.

Its publication is over 20 years before the start of the Civil War (April 1861-May 1865).

Resources for Further Study
Pedagogy

“Girl and Butterfly” was included in The Slave’s Friend to provoke the minds of children to consider one’s right to freedom. This very short story of the girl who when catching the butterfly does “not wish to keep it prisoner” ultimately sets it free, is a likened to freedom for slaves.

  • Why does the girl feel the butterfly should be free?
  • How would the girl keeping the butterfly be like keeping it prisoner?
Contemporary Connections

Categories
1830s Poem

Birds.

Birds.

By Sarah J. Hale
Annotations by Kathryn T. Burt/JB
Maria Laumennij. Horizontal Panel of Birds and Tulips. Watercolor, pen and brown and red ink, graphite pencil on paper, 1827, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Boston, MA.
          If ever I see,
          On bush or tree,
Young birds in a pretty nest,
     I must not, in my play,
     Steal the birds away,
To grieve their mother's breast.
          My mother I know,
          Would sorrow so,
Should I be stolen away—
     So I'll speak to the birds,
     In my softest words,
Nor hurt them in my play.
Hale, Sarah J. “Birds,” in Poems For Our Children: Including “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” Designed For Families, Sabbath Schools, and Infant Schools, 5. R. W. Hale, 1830.
Contexts

In the original Preface of Poems for Our Children, Sarah Josepha Buell Hale wrote the following:

To all Good Children in the United States.
  Dear Children,
      I wrote this book for you—to please and instruct you. I know children love to read rhymes, and sing little verses; but they often read silly rhymes, 
and such manner of spending their time is not good. I intended, when I began to write this book, to furnish you with a few pretty songs and poems that
would teach you truths, and, I hope, induce you to love truth and goodness. Children who love their parents and their home, can soon teach their hearts 
to love their God and their country.
      I offer you the 'First Part' of 'Poems for our Children'—if you like these I shall soon write the Second Part, and perhaps I shall make a larger book.
                    Sarah J. Hale
      Boston, May 1, 1830

The poem “Birds.” is the first entry in that original book, and it reflects Hale’s mission to use children’s literature to teach compassion and morals. Hale is the author of the famous lyrical poem “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” which is titled “Mary’s Lamb” in the book. She is also credited with making Thanksgiving a national holiday in the United States due to her lobbying of President Abraham Lincoln.

Resources for Further Study

Categories
1830s Poem

Children in Slavery

Children in Slavery

By Eliza Lee Cabot Follen
Annotations by Jessica Abell/JB
James E. Larkin. Albumen Print of Enslaved Women and Their Children near Alexandria, Virginia. Albumen and silver on paper, c. 1861-1862, National Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. [1]
When children play the livelong day,
   Like birds and butterflies;
As free and gay, sport life away,
   And know not care nor sighs:
Then earth and air seem fresh and fair,
   All peace below, above:
Life's flowers are there, and everywhere
   Is innocence and love.

When children pray with fear all day,
   A blight must be at hand:
Then joys decay, and birds of prey
   Are hovering o'er the land:
When young hearts weep as they go to sleep,
   Then all the world seems sad:
The flesh must creep, and woes are deep
   When children are not glad.
Follen, Eliza Lee Cabot. “Children in Slavery,” in Poems, 175. Boston: William Crosby & Company, 1839.
Contexts

Follen was one of many 19th-century writers who published works on slavery—Poems includes several other verses on the subject: “Where is Thy Brother” (135-36), “Remember the Slave” (138-39), “For the Fourth of July” (173-74), and “The Captive Eagle” (183-84). Baylor University’s Armstrong Browning Library and Museum highlights the anti-slavery writings of several authors who appear elsewhere in this anthology.

Resources for Further Study
[1] From the museum description:

An albumen print on paper with a purple, reddish-brown hue depicting two adult women and seven children pictured, from left to right: William, Lucinda, Fannie (seated on Lucinda’s lap), Mary (in cradle), Frances (standing), Martha, Julia (behind Martha), Harriet, and Charles or Marshall. Lucinda Hughes and Frances Hughes were sisters-in-law through Frances’s husband David. The group is posed outside in front of bare trees, one woman is posed as if ironing. Baskets and a dog or dollhouse are placed around the group. The women and their children were enslaved at the time this photograph was taken on a plantation just west of Alexandria, Virginia, that belonged to Felix Richards. Frances and her children were enslaved by Felix, while Lucinda and her children were enslaved by his wife, Amelia Macrae Richards. On the recto, an inscription is written in pencil on the paper mount below the image that reads: “Felix Richards slaves”. On the verso, an inscription is written in pencil along the top center of the paper mount that reads “Felix Richards lived at ‘Volusia’ / Near Alexandria, VA.” 

Categories
1830s Fable Short Story

The Misfortunes of a Yellow Bird

The Misfortunes of a Yellow Bird

By “C.”
Annotations by Celia Hawley
William Home Lizars. Yellow-Crowned Weaver, Plate 32 from Birds of West Africa.
Print from William Swainson engraving, brush and watercolor on paper, 1837. Cooper
Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, New York, N.Y.

When I gained the first knowledge I had of my own existence, I found myself resting very comfortably in the hollow of a neat little house, built of divers[1] materials, such as straw, thread, mud, &c., all being very ingeniously worked together, giving the nest the two needful qualities of strength and warmth. To the truth of the former quality I can give full testimony; having employed myself during my long confinement after birth, in the vain attempt of pulling to pieces my rustic abode.

I had several brothers and sisters for my companions. For many days we lay very quietly, and moved only to receive the food which our kind parents brought us. The foliage of the tree in which our nest was built was very thick, and afforded a delightful shelter from the sun, and reflected mild and pleasant light upon our just opening eyes. After a few days our bodies became strangely metamorphosed, and we appeared like new creatures, in our dress of yellow, ornamented with black edgings. I was much surprised at the sudden change, yet pleased; for truly we were rather uncouth looking animals at our first appearance. So happy were we now, with our splendid garb, that we began to chirp and made many awkward attempts to get out of our nest; we at last succeeded in our efforts to gain the edge of it, and felt quite proud at our wonderful achievement; and our parents sung merrily over us. In a few days, these fond parents taught us to spread our wings and fly to the nearest branches of the tree in which we lived; and soon we were able to fly to all the neighboring trees.

Julius Bien. Yellow-Breasted Chat. Chromolithograph on paper, copy
after John James Audubon, 1860. Smithsonian American Art Museum
and its Renwick Gallery, Washington, D.C.

We were perfectly happy; our days were spent in singing, and flying, and feasting ourselves from the newly budded trees around us, and our nights in quiet and undisturbed repose. We dreamed not of the evil that was awaiting us; but it came; and those happy days which I once knew, will I fear never return.

One beautiful morning we had all been amusing ourselves, by hopping from branch to branch, and flying from tree to tree, until we were quite tired, – and had returned to our nests. We had just quietly laid ourselves to rest, and our parents had gone in search of food, when we heard a loud noise beneath the tree, and immediately the bough, on which our home was built, began to shake so violently, that we were every moment in danger of being thrown down. We were all much terrified, but remained in our nest. In that we had ever found a refuge from the storm, from the birds who were our enemies, and from every other danger which had before threatened us. We therefor clung to it now as our only hope. Presently something was thrown over our nest, which left us in perfect darkness; we were almost dead with fright, and our nest was torn rudely from the tree. Then, for the first time, we heard the sound of the human voice; it sounded harsh and stunning to our ears, and only increased our fear. We were carried some distance with great care. We were then uncovered, but where we were I knew not; fright prevented my knowing.

The first thing I was conscious of, was being separated from my dear brothers and sister, and being placed in a very odd thing, which the people round me called a cage. I looked about as soon as I was placed in this, and found myself surrounded by numerous boys, some talking loudly, others screaming until I nearly fainted with fear. My prison house looked so slight and frail, that I imagined by beating it, I might force my way out. So I commenced flying against the sides, until seeing it had no effect, I sunk down exhausted by fright and exertion. Many of the boys thought I was dying, and begged my release; but the cruel boy who stole me from my happy home, would not grant their request.

J. Alden Weir. Children Burying a Bird. Oil on canvas mounted on fiberglass, 1878.
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.

For weeks I was kept a prisoner; they treated my kindly — but it was slavery. Oh! how I sighed for my own dear home, for my native woods, with their beautiful shades and the dear music of my woodland loves! Oh, freedom is sweet to the bird, as well as to man! The boys seemed to love me; I could have loved them, had they given me liberty.

Since my captivity there are many kind faces that look at me, as though they wish to set me free; there is one who has often begged for my release, but my hard-hearted master will not grant it. He says he wishes to keep me; and for what wicked purpose think you? What, but, as he says, to lure other birds into his snares! So I have had in my cage a trap fixed, well baited: and it has been my duty to sing, and thus call the birds in to the trap.

One day a cat passed my cage, and the friendly creature, beast though she is, would have opened for me a passage out of my prison, had not the boys, seeing her designs, driven her away. When my imprisonment will end I know not. I live only in the hope that my master’s heart will be softened by my unhappy situation, and that he will set me free. Had I a human voice I would tell him how cruel he is thus to imprison me, and to make my confinement the means of reducing others into the same slavery. And if he would not hear my complaint, I would then appeal to his master, and try to touch his heart with my story, and beg of him to reprove my hard hearted keeper and open the door of my prison, and then might I hope to return to my beautiful home in the tree!

WIlliam Home Lizars. Yellow White-Eye, Plate 3 from Birds of Western Africa. Print from William Swainson engraving, brush and watercolor on paper, 1837. Cooper
Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, New York, N.Y.
C. “THE MISFORTUNES OF A YELLOW BIRD.” The Juvenile Miscellany 6, no. 3 (JulY 1834): 299.
Contexts

Excerpt from History.com’s U.S. Slavery: Timeline, Figures & Abolition:

“By the 1830’s there were more and more voices joining the anti-slavery cause. In the North, the increased repression of southern Black people only fanned the flames of the growing abolitionist movement. From the 1830s to the 1860s, the movement to abolish slavery in America gained strength, led by free Black people such as Frederick Douglass and white supporters such as William Lloyd Garrison, founder of the radical newspaper The Liberator, and Harriet Beecher Stowe, who published the bestselling anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin.”

Children’s magazines such as The Juvenile Miscellany were vehicles for much of the abolitionist sentiment of the time.

Resources for Further Study
  • The child’s anti-slavery book: containing a few words about American slave children and stories of slave-life by Julia Colman and Matilde G. Thompson has this passage: “Children, you are free and happy. …Thank God! thank God! my children for this precious gift. … But are all children in America free like you? No, no! I am sorry to tell you that hundreds of thousands of American children are slaves. Though born beneath the same sun and on the same soil as yourselves, they are nevertheless SLAVES. Alas for them! … I want you to remember one great truth regarding slavery, namely, that a slave is a human being, held and used as property by another human being, and that it is always A SIN AGAINST God to thus hold and use a human being as property!”
  • Aesop’s Fables: Timeless Stories with a Moral
  • Flocabulary: Video and vocabulary games for the fables of Aesop
Contemporary Connections

We can make a connection between the anonymous 19th-century writer of this piece and a well-known 20th-century one. Maya Angelou chose the same allegorical image, that of a caged bird, for the title of her critically acclaimed 1969 autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Angelou was an American poet and author who was the recipient of many honors, among them the 2010 Presidential Medal of Freedom.

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