Homespun Heroines and Other Women of Distinction, Compiled and Edited by Hallie Q. Brown

Published: Aldine Publishing Company, Xenia, Ohio, 1926

Through all the blight of slavery
They kept their womanhood,
And now they march with heads erect,
To fight for all things good,
Nor care for scorn nor seek for praise,
Just so they please their God.
--Clara Ann Thompson

CONTENTS:

Foreword-- Josephine Turpin Washington ... v
Author's Introduction... vii
Ode to Women-- Sarah G. Jones ... viii
Martha Payne-- H. Q. B .... 1
Catherine Ferguson-- Mrs. Dovie K. Clarke ... 3
Phillis Wheatley-- H. Q. B .... 5
Sara Allen-- H. Q. B .... 11
Sojourner Truth-- H. Q. B .... 13
Elizabeth N. Smith-- Maritcha R. Lyons ... 18
Sarah H. Fayerweather-- Maritcha R. Lyons ... 23
Dinah Cox-- Amy Logan ... 30
Sarah E. Tanner-- Mary T. Mossell ... 32
Charlotta G. M. Pyles-- Mrs. L. C. Jones ... 34
Jane Roberts-- H. Q. B .... 46
"Aunt Mac"-- H. Q. B .... 50
Harriet Tubman-- H. Q. B .... 55
Harriet Tubman-- Maritcha R. Lyons ... 60
Harriet Tubman-- American Review ... 66
"Grandmother" Gross-- Mrs. John Brown ... 69
Frances J. Brown-- H. Q. B .... 71
Eliza Anne Clark-- Willie A. Wagner ... 81
Lucretia H. Simpson-- H. Q. B .... 84
Sarah G. Lee-- Mary E. Lee, Sr .... 86
Catherine A. Delany-- H. Q. B .... 90
Mary A. S. Cary-- S. C. Evans ... 92
Frances E. W. Harper-- H. Q. B .... 97
Caroline S. A. Hill-- Charlotte E. Stephens ... 104
Mary C. Windsor-- H. Q. B .... 108
Sarah J. S. Garnet-- Maritcha R. Lyons ... 110
An Appreciation-- H. Q. B .... 115
Eliza A. Gardner-- Sarah L. Fleming ... 117
Fannie J. Coppin-- H. Q. B .... 119
Anne E. Baltimore-- Her Daughter ... 127
Amanda Smith-- H. Q. B .... 128
Susan P. Vashon-- Emma V. Gossett ... 133
Georgiana F. Putnam-- Maritcha R. Lyons ... 135
Anna E. Hudlun-- Joan S. Porter ... 141
Mary J. Patterson-- Anna H. Jones ... 145
Elizabeth Keckley-- Eva N. Wright ... 147
A Greeting-- H. Q. B .... 150
Josephine St. P. Ruffin-- Sarah L. Fleming ... 151
Margaret E. Reid-- Ernestine W. Green ... 154
Matilda J. Dunbar-- H. Q. B .... 156
Susan S. McK. Steward-- Maritcha R. Lyons ... 160
An Address-- H. Q. B .... 165
Henrietta C. Ray-- Maritcha R. Lyons ... 169
Lucy S. Thurman-- Anna H. Jones ... 176
Josephine S. Yates-- Anna H. Jones ... 178
Maria L. Baldwin-- H. Q. B .... 182
Mary E. Mossell-- Mary M. Lee ... 194
Agnes J. Adams-- Maritcha R. Lyons ... 200
Susie I. L. Shorter-- Pearl S. Smith ... 205
Victoria E. Matthews-- Frances R. Keyser ... 208
Mary B. Talbert-- Nettie L. Napier ... 217
C. J. Walker-- Nettie L. Ransom ... 220
Susan E. Frazier-- H. Q. B .... 222
Margaret M. Washington-- Jennie B. Moton ... 225
Emma A. Hackley-- M. M. Marshall ... 231
Laura A. Brown-- H. Q. B .... 237
California Colored Women Trail Blazers-- Delilah L. Beasley ... 240
Sarah G. Jones-- Ora B. Stokes ... 247
Marietta Chiles-- Ora B. Stokes ... 247
Eliza P. Fox-- Ora B. Stokes ... 247

Interesting as are the facts recorded in this book, they do not constitute its chief value.

That is found in its reflection of the wonderful spirit which moved the women who strove and achieved, despite obstacles greater than any which have stood in the way of other upward struggles.

These sketches breathe aspiration, hope, courage, patience, fortitude, faith.

The youth of today and of other days will come under this influence. They will not relive those lives. That cannot be: conditions change; human beings differ; deeds cannot be duplicated. But the spirit of the noble dead may be enkindled in the hearts of those who live after.

It is said that one can appreciate only that to which he has some inner likeness. The author's spiritual kinship with the women of whom she wrote made possible the rare understanding brought to her subject.

The result is a work which not only furnishes useful information, but-- what is even more--inspires to finer character growth and racial development.

--Josephine Turpin Washington.

Page vii

This book is presented as an evidence of appreciation and as a token of regard to the history-making women of our race.

One chief object of these introductory sentences is to secure for this book the interest of our youth, that they may have instructive light on the struggles endured and the obstacles overcome by our pioneer women.

It has been prepared with the hope that they will read it and derive fresh strength and courage from its records to stimulate and cause them to cleave more tenaciously to the truth and to battle more heroically for the right.

The characters and facts herein set forth are veritable history.

In presenting this volume to the public, it is proper to remark that it has been prepared from a settled conviction that something of the kind is needed.

It is our anxious desire to preserve for future reference an account of these women, their life and character and what they accomplished under the most trying and adverse circumstances,--some of whom passed scatheless through fires of tribulation, only to emerge the purer and stronger,--some who received their commission even at the furnace door, the one moment thinking their all was lost forever, the next in secure consciousness of the Everlasting Arms.

We lack a complete record of these self-sacrificing heroines, but such as we have been permitted to gather we present through this medium to the public, hoping that it may find as much pleasure in its perusal as the writer had in its making.

--Hallie Q. Brown.
Homewood Cottage,
Wilberforce, Ohio. 1926.

Page viii

ODE TO WOMAN

All to Woman! the mother of man,
Whose worth can never be measured.
Her moral and mental and physical life
As mother, or sister, or sweetheart, or wife,
And oft, too, as friend, is e'er treasured.
Her role is extensive and varied through earth:
Her service far-reaching and wide.
The Queen of the hearth and the home and the church;
While the club and the school come under her rule,
And all secular business beside.
The "Joy of Service," her fond heart endures,
From infancy, through many years
Of development; mingled with faith, hope and trust,
She builds to the great, the good and the just,
That the Future may fairly decide.
All hail to our Women! the welkin shall ring,
As the Queen of the Earth passes by.
'Tis her's to "Lift" as she "Climbs" to the heights;
'Tis her's to make day of the darkest of nights,
Let all earth sing her praises aloud.
--Sarah G. Jones.

Poet Laureate of Ohio State Federation.