LITR 4328 American Renaissance / Model Assignments

Sample Student Research Project 2015: Journal

Dawn Iven

May 2, 2015

Children’s Literature in the American Renaissance

The American Renaissance was a time of change, and the beginning of a movement toward modernization.  Women were writing more and more with tremendous success, and according to Edna Edith Sayers, and Diana Gates, they were “becoming more active in progressive causes in all-female venues, which were construed as extensions of the female domestic sphere” yet their main role was still motherhood (3).  I was especially interested in finding out more about some of the women writers we had studied this semester, so I began researching women authors in American Renaissance, but as I was researching, I began encountering women authors who also wrote literature of children. This fascinated me for a couple of reasons.  First, I did not realize that children’s literature existed at this time, and second, because I am going into the teaching field, and therefore children’s literature interests me immensely.  What I found most interesting is that children’s literature in the Renaissance period was quite different from children’s literature today.  Books written for children were definitely not the same sort of books written today for children.  Many of the children’s books written between 1820 and 1860 were pedagogy books or manuals which “designed stories to show the method in practice,” were written more for the parents and teachers of young children: "they offered more of a correct child nurture for parents” (MacLeod 102).  The books written for the children taught morals, manners, and behavior within society: “children’s fiction taught moral values; stories imparted the many lessons a child must learn if he was to become a responsible citizen and a moral human being” (MacLeod, 101).  This is the direction my research took me and some of the authors I found most interesting.  A few of the authors opened schools or even held teaching positions.  I hope you find these authors included in this journal as interesting as I did. 

One of the best books I found during my research was  American Childhood: Essays on Children's Literature of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries written by Anne Scott MacLeod.  In this book, Ms. MacLeod writes fourteen essays with information that spans over the American Renaissance period into the twentieth century.  She discusses different authors of the time who wrote children’s literature as well as the books and poems that they wrote.  I found this book to be useful as a resource guide when looking at writers who were involved in shaping American childhood at the time.  The information in the book was very helpful as were the listings of books and poems written in the period.

Lydia Huntley Sigourney:

Lydia Huntley Sigourney was born in Norwich, Connecticut in 1791.  According to the Poetry Foundation page on Sigourney, she attended a private school, and later founded a Hartford school for girls in 1814.  In 1815, she published Moral Pieces in Prose and Verse, the first of several.  She met and married Charles Sigourney, in 1819.  He was wealthy with three children from a previous marriage.  The new family settled down in Hartford where they had five more children, although three of them died in infancy.  Mr. Sigourney was supportive of his wife and encouraged her writing; although he implored her anonymously have her work published, which she did until the family fell on financial difficulties in 1833.  “Sigourney became an internationally known poet, the author of more than fifty books, contributor to countless magazines, and, most remarkably, the first American woman to support herself and her family by writing” (Sayers and Gates 3).  She also worked as an editor for Godley’s Lady’s Book according to her biography on The Poetry Foundation website.  Her poetry often dealt with Native American and anti-slavery issues, but she also wrote poetry as well as books for children. 

Lydia Huntley Sigourney, according to Edna Edith Sayers and Diana Gates in their article, Lydia Huntley Sigourney, and the Beginnings of American Deaf Education in Hartford:  It Takes a Village was also a major contributor to the establishment of the school for deaf children in Hartford, Connecticut, the first of its kind in the nation (1).  In an 1833 version of a story Ms. Sigourney wrote about deaf children, How to be Happy, the message she relays to readers is “Do Your Duty to Your Brothers and Sisters” (Sayers and Gates 15).    

Excerpts from The Girl's Reading-book: In Prose and Poetry, for Schools

From “The True Friend”

Young persons are fond of agreeable society.  A lonely room, or a solitary evening, does not suit their cheerful temperament.  They are willing to bear fatigue, the heat of the summer’s sun, or the storm of winter, to meet a pleasant companion (77).

From “The Happy Family”

Sometimes, the smaller children clustered around the grandmother’s chair, begging her for a story.  She told them of the days when she was young like them, and the changes that her life had known.  Especially, she loved to tell of the lessons of her parents, and of the obedience with which she regarded them (84).

Poem from Poems for Children written by Mrs. L. H. Sigourney

Preface to the Parents

It is believed that Poetry might be made an important assistant to early education.  It readily wins attentions in the nursery.  It wakes the mind from dream that enwraps new-born existence,--as the song of the bird breaks the slumber of morning.

“Letter from a Mother to her little Boy”

Written at Niagara

My little son, my little son,

God give his grace to thee,

Though many a weary mile doth stretch,

Between thy home and me:

And many a forest dark and high

Is lifted up between,

Yet still thy form seems near my side,

Amid each stranger scene:

And fondly seems thy full fair eye

Upon my brow to gaze;

And in my dearest dreams I join

And spirit-stirring plays.

Niagara’s glory strikes my view,

It’s awful voice I hear,

But still thy sweetly murmur’d tone

Is closer in mine ear.

And thus through every change of time

Thy mother’s love must be,

My little son, my only one,

God give his grace to thee.  (80-81)

Sarah Josepha Hale

Sarah Josepha Hale was born in New Hampshire in 1788 as Sarah Josepha Buell.  She and her siblings were homeschooled by their mother, who Sarah gave much credit to later in the autobiographical forward of her book The Ladies Wreath, where she wrote,

”I owe my early predilection for literary pursuits to the teaching and example of my mother.  She had enjoyed uncommon advantages of education for a female of her times – possessed a mind clear as rock-water, and a most happy talent of communicating knowledge.”  A voracious reader of whatever books were available, Sarah noticed that”of all the books I saw, few were written by Americans, and none by women,“ and she was inspired, at a very early age, to “promote the reputation of my own sex, and do something for my own country.” 

Sarah began teaching, as well as writing poetry at the age of 18, and in 1812, she married David Hale.  At the age of 34, only nine years after their marriage, David Hale died after having a stroke, leaving Sarah with five children ranging from the age of seven to a newborn, born just two weeks after her husband’s death.  In 1830, Sarah Josepha Hale published a second book of poetry called Poems for Our Children, which contained the famous poem, “Mary Had a Little Lamb.”  Although there is no dispute to the fact that Ms. Hale was the first to publish “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” it is disputed whether she was the actual author of the poem.  According to Hanna B. Zeiger, Hale may not be the true author: “the historical notes about the poem tell about a challenge to Hale’s authorship from another New Englander” (1).  The story she tells is that in 1813, a young girl named Mary Elizabeth Sawyer brought a lamb to school with her and a visitor, John Roulstone decided to “write the first twelve lines of the poem and presented then to her” (1).  In the article, “Lamb Stew,” Andrea Thorpe, the library director in Newport, New Hampshire makes the claim that Hale is the one who wrote the poem saying, “I think our case is so strong, that we don’t have to disprove Sterling’s claim” (1).  As it says in the article, most people never even knew the poem was based on a true story. 

Sarah Josepha Hale is also known as the woman who gave us Thanksgiving with her tireless efforts of lobbying governors, congressmen, and presidents to have it “declared a national holiday” (Scanlan 1).  She introduced the idea of having the day of Thanksgiving fall on the same day of November each year so that people would begin to celebrate it because it would bring families together as well as bring “…joy and gladness to the dwellings of the poor and lowly” (1).  In the article is also states that “she was fully aware of the divisions between North and South, feared the country would break apart, and worked tirelessly to avert that by encouraging feelings of brotherly love, not sectionalism” (1).  So next Thanksgiving, while giving thanks, do not forget to say a word of thanks to Sarah J. Hale for her efforts in establishing the holiday of Thanksgiving.

Excerpt from the Preface of “Poems for Our Children”

“I intended, when I began to write this book to furnish you with a few pretty sons and poems which 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.”  Sarah J. Hale, May 1, 1830.

Lydia Maria Child

Lydia Maria Child was born in Medford, Massachusetts on February 11, 1802 as Lydia Francis.  She added the name Maria at the age of nineteen.  The youngest of six children, she was very intelligent, artistic, and determined.  Her younger years were spent overcoming the effects of an illness, a mother who was overbearing and distant, and father who was a stout religious orthodox.  When she was twelve, after her mother died, she was sent to live with one of her married sisters in the frontier of Maine.  She found freedom in this place, and was exposed to the circumstances of Native Americans through the “befriending a small community of impoverished Abenaki and Penobscot Indians” (Clifford).  She would later use her writing to champion for the Native Americans, as well as African Americans. When she was nineteen, she went to live with one of her brothers, Convers, who was a Unitarian minister.  He encouraged her to learn to read, and at the young age of twenty-two, “she captivated the Boston literary world with  “Hobomok, A Tale of Early Times, her first novel,”  which was scandalous because of its feminine view and its subject of inter-religion and interracial marriage.  Her first children's book, Evenings in New England: Intended for Juvenile Amusement and Instruction was published in 1824 few years later (Clifford).  According to Professor Carolyn L. Karcher, of Duke University, who authored the article, The First Woman in the Republic:  A Cultural Biography of Lydia Maria Child, “Lydia Maria Child, Child was one of the nineteenth century’s most overlooked figures” (Karcher 235).  Although Child was known for being an abolitionist fighting for the cause of Native Americans, African Americans and women, she was best known for the children’s poem, Over the River and Through the Woods. 

The last two stanzas of Over the River and Through the Woods:

Over the river, and through the wood —

    When grandmother sees us come,

        She will say, Oh dear,

        The children are here,

    Bring a pie for every one.

Over the river, and through the wood —

    Now grandmother's cap I spy!

        Hurra for the fun!

        Is the pudding done?

    Hurra for the pumpkin pie!

Eliza Farrar

Eliza Farrar was born in 1791 in Dunkirk, France during the French Revolution.  Interesting fact stated by Elizabeth Bancroft Schlesinger in the article, Two Early Harvard Wives:  Eliza Farrar and Eliza Follen, Eliza remembers a guillotine in the center of the town as a young girl.  When the British took Dunkirk, her family decided to return to American where she lived the rest of her life.  In 1828, Eliza married John Farrar even though he was twelve years older than her.  She never had children of her own although she had a love for them, which gave her motivation to begin writing children’s literature.  In 1830, she published The Children’s Robinson Crusoe, which she writes in her preface to the reader, “that because Crusoe was ‘a profane, ill-educated, runaway apprentice not a proper hero for children’ she would make him ‘an amiable and well-educated youth, early trained to habits of observation and reflection, whom children may safely love and admire…”  (Schlesinger 152).  In 1831, her story Lafayette, about a hero and his services in the Revolution, “told by a father to his young” was published.  In 1834, she published The Youth’s Letter Writer, in which is a brilliantly written fictional story that has children having so much fun corresponding with their family and friends, they do not realize they are learning (Schlesinger 153).  In her children’s stories, she always had a lesson to teach, but kept her young readers in mind making sure to never preach.  In 1836, her book, The Young Lady’s Friend was published anonymously.  This book would become the most important book she would write and it is praised by Russell Lynes in Domesticated Americans as “one of the liveliest, most sensible and quite justly one of the best remembered of the early manners books” (Schlesinger 153).  This book was not just a book, but instead it taught young girls proper etiquette and manners, which would serve them throughout their lives.

Excerpts from The Young Lady’s Friend:

On Conversation:

“Very young ladies should not aim at being acquainted with the periodical literature of the day, nor with the various new books which they hear their elder friends conversing about.  Their leisure should be chiefly given to standard works in their own language, or the study of classic authors in foreign tongues.”  (423)

On popularity:

“Next to great beauty, good manners are the chief attraction in a party: these combined with good sense and cultivation of mind, generally procure a young lady as much attention as is good for her, as much as she ought to expect.”  (365)

The website that I found most useful and the most interesting was archive.org.  This website is where I found printed copies of the books from which the excerpts were taken.  Reading the works of these women was fascinating and enlightening.  I had no idea these books were available for our reading pleasure until I started doing research for this journal research project.  I found it quite interesting to be able to look at these books and pick out different passages that I found engaging to share with whoever will be reading this in the years to come.

Conclusion

When beginning the research for this journal paper, I wanted to learn more about some of the women writers we had studied in class, but in researching them, I started to come across women writers who had written literature for children, which I found extraordinarily interesting.  Why, you might ask did I find it so interesting that children’s literature was written by women during the American Renaissance, well the answer is that I plan on going into the teaching field as an English teacher.  I find incorporating historical elements into literature intriguing because it shows not only the differences in the generations, but it can also show similarities as well.  These are the things that I find so engrossing and want to share with my students.  When I started this paper, I did not even know there was such a thing as children’s literature during the American Renaissance, even if it was mainly books on moral teachings and proper behavior of children.  These books are part of our history just as much as the classics that we all read.  I learned that Mary Had a Little Lamb was written in this time period, which I did not know before, or that the famous Over the River and Through the Woods was also written during this time period.  These are all things I did not know.  I also learned about new women who were strong and confident and loved children just like me.  In fact, some of these women actually taught school, just like I want to.  The women I chose were all women I had never heard of before, and coincidentally none were women we studied in class.  I hope that you as readers will learn something new as well.

Works Cited

Baker, By Peggy M., Director &. Librarian, Pilgrim Society & Pilgrim Hall Museum, and 2007. THE GODMOTHER OF THANKSGIVING: The Story of Sarah Josepha Hale (n.d.): n. pag. The Pilgrim Hall Museum. 2007. Web. 5 May 2015.

Clifford, Deborah P. "Lydia Maria Child." Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, n.d. Web. 06 May 2015.

Edna Edith Sayers. and Diana Gates. "Lydia Huntley Sigourney and the Beginnings of American Deaf Education in Hartford: It Takes a Village." Sign Language Studies 8.4 (2008): 369-411. Project MUSE. Web. 5 May. 2015. https://muse.jhu.edu/

Hale, Sarah J. "Poems for Our Children : Including Mary Had a Little Lamb : Designed for Families, Sabbath Schools, and Infant Schools : Written to Inculcate Moral Truths and Virtuous Sentiments : Hale, Sarah Josepha Buell, 1788-1879 : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive." Internet Archive. Boston: R. W. Hale, 1916. Web. 06 May 2015.

Karcher, Carolyn L. The First Woman in the Republic: A Cultural Biography of Lydia Maria Child. Durham: Duke University Press, 1994. Print.

“Lamb Stew.”  People 50.14 (1998):  91.  Academic Search Complete.  Web. 05 May 2015.

"Lydia Huntley Sigourney." Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, n.d. Web. 05 May 2015.

MacLeod, Anne S. American Childhood: Essays on Children's Literature of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1994. Print.

Neumeyer, Peter F. "American Childhood: Essays On Children's Literature Of The Nineteenth And Twentieth Centuries." Horn Book Magazine 71.1 (1995): 87-89. Academic Search Complete. Web. 4 May 2015.

"Poems for Children / by Mrs. L.H. Sigourney. . - Full View | HathiTrust Digital Library | HathiTrust Digital Library." Poems for Children / by Mrs. L.H. Sigourney. . - Full View | HathiTrust Digital Library | HathiTrust Digital Library. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 May 2015.

Scanlan, Laura Wolff.  “Thanks To Mrs. Hale.”  Humanities 30.6 (2009):  47.  Academic Search Complete. Web. 05 May 2015.

Schlesinger, Elizabeth Bancroft. "Two Early Harvard Wives: Eliza Farrar and Eliza Follen." The New England Quarterly 38.2 (June 1965): 147-67. JSTOR [JSTOR]. Web. 05 May 2015.

Swiniarski, Louise. "Guest Editorial: On Behalf of Childrent." Early Childhood Education Journal 32.4 (2005): 219-20. JSTOR [JSTOR]. Web. 05 May 2015.

“The Girl's Reading-book: In Prose and Poetry, for Schools : Lydia Howard Sigourney : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive." Internet Archive. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 May 2015.

"The Young Lady's Friend : Farrar, John, Mrs., 1791-1870 : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive." Internet Archive. Ed. University of California Libraries. Boston: American Stationers' Co, n.d. Web. 05 May 2015.

Top Collections at the Archive." Internet Archive: Digital Library of Free Books, Movies, Music & Wayback Machine. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 May 2015.

Zeiger, Hanna B.  “Mary Had A Little Lamb.”  Horn Book Magazine 71.4 (1995):  472.  Academic Search Complete.  Web.  05 May 2015.

"Great Star" flag of pre-Civil War USA