"There was yet another room that had lots of plants and windows and was in the shape of an octagon"

The students recently visited the Jemison-Van de Graff Mansion.

This week, the students pondered what Eliza Potter, an antebellum  mixed race woman, might have heard or seen if she had visited the Jemison-Van de Graaff Mansion here in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, The mansion was built between 1859-1862 by Robert Jemison Jr., who held many titles, among them bridge builder and mill operator. He also owned more than 500 enslaved people. Interestingly, he was against secession and reportedly allowed his bondsmen and women to learn how to read and use the indoor toilet in this mansion which was his “town home” (his plantations were located in the more rural parts of Tuscaloosa). The Italianate-styled mansion is  located at 1305 Greensboro Ave in Tuscaloosa.

What might have the opinionated Potter felt or said upon entering this structure? Eight students in this class provided answers after completing a tour of the facility this past Wednesday. All of their responses were fill-in-the-blank sentences. Some of the sentences required them to make something up. No one went out on any imaginative limbs. They generally stuck to factual information about the building and the people who resided there. Their answers have been woven together below:

Hear Potter's life in Cincinnati.

My name is Eliza Potter and I was born in 1820 in New York. I have traveled to many places including France and Canada. My uncle told me not to visit Alabama, but I decided to do so anyway. I traveled by railway to Tuscaloosa where I had a chance to visit the Jemison Mansion. Let me tell you about this place. Where do I begin?  I most remember a particular room that had a Belvedere that was used for heating and cooling purposes. There was also a room that had vibrant carpeting and bright color walls. There was yet another room that had lots of plants and windows and was in the shape of an octagon. These rooms and the house brought back memories of my travels to many places including Saratoga and New Orleans, places where I saw many fine buildings. I also encountered many interesting people and observed many expensive things that made me feel very uneasy. Imagine arriving here at Jemison encountering something similar.  While visiting here I also saw priceless pieces of furniture that had been brought here from abroad via steamboat. I also observed fine craftsmanship and the way these things displayed Jemison’s wealth. I also saw Mrs. Jemison in her study managing the household. She also received visitors including society women. I also saw slaves tending to the conservatory and later heard someone playing piano as the breeze traveled through the house as night. All of these things help me see just how complicated the human condition is. Oh, lest I forget I also wanted to share that I met the ancestors of Michael, Evelyn, Aaron, Ryan, Regan, Lauren, A.J. and Anne Marie, eight students taking “The Nineteenth Century City” at the University of Alabama in 2013. They told me these young people will someday study buildings in the area. Those buildings are Woods Hall, Bryce Hospital, Hunter Chapel, Manly Hall, the campus Guard House and President’s Mansion. These are structures to which I may travel and learn more about this area. For now, I must return to Cincinnati to my own home under my own vine and own fig tree.

If you wish to hear an audio version of Potter’s memoir, which was written in 1859, click here. As an aside, in less than two weeks, the students will turn in short essays about Tuscaloosa structures that existed during the nineteenth century with the exception of one, which is a new structure for a church that existed in the area during this century. Their findings will figure into a short movie that will be presented at 4 pm December 4, 2013 in Room 118 tenHoor, University of Alabama. Katherine Richter, Executive Director of the Tuscaloosa County Historical Society will speak. For now, we want to thank Ian Crawford, who runs the Jemison House, for conducting our recent tour. His assistance (as well as that of Tim, another employee) is greatly appreciated. If you would like to visit the mansion, it is opened Monday through Friday from 10 am to 5 pm. Call 205-758-2906 for more information.

" the line between them was not immutable"

Last week, the students watched the 1940 version of the motion picture Little Old New York, which is set in 1807 New York. The film depicts the efforts of a man to build a steamboat. Throughout the movie, we see the ways in which class and race help define urban life as it had long defined the experiences of people who lived on the countryside. 

I asked the students to compare the experiences of the characters in this film to the experiences of four enslaved women featured in Dolen Perkins-Valdez's novel, Wench. The book uncovers a little-known aspect of southern life, namely the ways in which white southern men traveled to resorts in free territory – in this case – Ohio, taking their enslaved “mistresses” rather than their wives with them. I thought the scene in which four enslaved women were permitted to leave the resort (where they resided seasonally with their masters) and travel to Dayton, Ohio, might be a useful way to think about how different bodies inhabit the city space before the Civil War. Two students did an excellent job of not only thinking this through, but making connections between the movie and Perkins-Valdez’ novel. 

A.J. wrote, “The black women were more respected in Dayton than at the rural resort [where other whites, many of them southerners, were]. They were allowed to go into stores...The women were even trusted with money to buy things. In comparison, the black [tavern worker] in Little Old New York wasn’t trusted very much even though he was left to watch over the tavern while the owner and the other whites [who patronized it] were gone. There were bad stereotypes of blacks in this movie. Blacks were portrayed as being thieves and drunkards to be specific.”

Lauren wrote, “In the movie Little Old New York, the bar maiden Pat O’Day is a well-seasoned city woman. She is ambitious independent. Pat uses the market to buy and sell ale for profit. The women from Wench, however, were only just finding their independence. As slave women, they weren’t accustomed to the freedom regularly given in the city. For example, Mawu asked the others, “You think they gone let us go into a store and buy something without no note from our master.” Lauren noted that there are other ways to look at the differences between the characters in the book and film. We can look at social rank. Drawing on Gunther Barth’s City People, another text in the class, she wrote, “Barth states that although at times a clash between the have and the have-nots seems imminent, the line between them was not immutable. Lauren pointed out the moment when Lizzie desired to get her master-lover to free a male slave who wants to marry a free African American woman who is the daughter of a barber. Lauren was able to see how Lizzie and this woman formed a connection as individuals who were black and female even though they were very different from one another. Lizzie does not yet know the ways of the city like the barber’s daughter nor is she free like this woman. They do have the capacity to love someone else.

In this blog's next entry, I will share the outcomes of an exercise the students wrote during our visit two days ago to the “city” home of antebellum Alabama businessman and Senator Robert Jemison, his wife, Priscilla Cherokee and their daughter Cherokee.

"she, like many city people, is simply trying to find herself"

Hotel view: Old slavery-freedom border.

Call it seredipity, but I was on my way to the Historians Against Slavery conference in Cincinnati while the students in this course were studying the life of Eliza Potter. Born in New York, Potter, an antebellum woman of mixed race, moved to Cincinnati in 1840. She is best known for traveling to many places including London and Paris. The assigned readings for three weeks is her memoir, A Hairdresser’s Experience in the High Life, which reveals many details about her experiences with the upper class in many places including Cincinnati, where, as she tells us, she lived in her own house under her “own vine and own fig tree.”  Given her cosmopolitan worldview,  I asked the students whether they thought she was one of the “city people” that Gunther Barth describes. All of the students generally said she was though some were able to see the degree to which she was an outsider as a woman of color. Said A.J., “She is always kind of sneaking around to see what’s going on around her, almost as if she wants to know what the high life is like without being able to be a part of it.” Added Lauren, “Barth talks about city people’s search for identity in the new city structure and Potter’s eclectic experiences  is her way of trying to find herself as a mulatto woman in a society that didn’t really have a place for her.” Lewis wrote, “She recounts endless stories that were shared by people not because she was their friend, but because she was their hairdresser.” David added, “She travels around, but she is only a hairdresser.” Anne Marie maintained, “She seems to be easily bored. Being in a city as opposed to a rural area is able to hold her attention far longer.” Aaron offered, “One aspect of Eliza that I thought made her appear very ‘modern’ as Barth describes it was her ability to be critical of those around her…White women’s vanity is something with which she has issues.” Evelyn stated, “She is so ‘forward-thinking’ even though she is a mulatto woman. She is very independent and strongly opinionated. She has no problem telling a wealthy, white child that she will not call him ‘master.’” Bryon said, “Although her situation is very unusual at the time, she, like many  in the city, is simply trying to find herself. She describes the joys of walking around beautiful promenades and gardens in cities. She is very self-conscious of her appearance.” Finally, Michael said, “She is a city person like the people in Barth’s book who are constantly moving.” In their ongoing attention to city life during the nineteenth century as it existed in many places including Tuscaloosa, the students will visit the Jemison Mansion next week. I am very interested in the ways in which they might see this mansion in the manner Eliza Potter might have if she ever had a chance to visit this structure. She tells us pointedly that she wanted to visit Alabama, but her uncle advised her not to do as much. But what if she had? What if she had been invited to style the hair of a white woman who resided in the Jemison Mansion? What would she have seen and found worthy of sharing with others? As an aside, I return to Alabama greatly inspired by efforts to spread the awareness about human trafficking and the ways in which we can make linkages between it and slavery in the United States. Given Potter's low opinion of slavery as it existed in her lifetime, I suspect were she living, she would be inspired, too.

Adrian College students address human trafficking.

on richard strauss and mourning buildings

I thought about our recent discussions on the Kilgore House  while listening to today's episode of Performance Today, an NPR show. This episode mentioned Richard Strauss' Metamorphosen, which was reportedly composed to mourn the bombing of Munich during World War II. A YouTube clip of the song is posted here. After the war, Strauss was especially sadden to see the loss of buildings including the Munich Opera House. Some have questioned why he musically mourned a building and not the lives of people. Such an idea may have meaning for students enrolled in this course. They randomly selected buildings that existed in Tuscaloosa during the nineteenth century. The Kilgore House is the only structure selected that is no more. I am curious about how we will visually consider its absence via a short movie that brings together the students' individual research.

"I determined to travel...to see...the Western world"

This week, the students enrolled in "The Nineteenth Century" will begin reading A Hair-Dresser's Experience in the High Life by Eliza Potter, a nineteenth century woman of mixed race. Potter's up-close experiences with wealthy whites and her travels to many places including Saratoga, Canada, London, Paris and Cincinnati allow us to ponder whether she is one of the "city people" that Gunther Barth describes. The heading of this blog entry comes from her memoir, which was published in 1859.

different takes on "reverence for the past"

The Kilgore House before its recent demolition.

Some of the Kilgore House's turn of the century student-residents.

I received the students’ responses to the long, convoluted question I gave them last week on whether the American spirit is evident in the “city people” Gunther Barth describes, the story of the Kilgore House and a designer’s plans for a building.  I was pleased to receive a range of thoughtful responses. Most of the students saw the American spirit in at least one of these things though a few did so while seeing the complexities of such an idea. It was quite interesting to see them engage the many sides to this issue. Anne Marie was drawn to how the Kilgore House “was used in so many different ways as the needs for it evolved over the years…Not only was it used for a home, but also for a dorm and a magazine office.  Its way of evolving evokes the American spirit." Via such many functions, as Michael maintained, “this single building provided…more life and possibility than many buildings in

Coco Chanel, a modern woman.

the Tuscaloosa area.” A.J. said he saw “the American spirit in how  Bryce patients built the Kilgore House.” He noted how "they were not only laborers. These were human beings just like any of us.” Lauren said she saw the American spirit in the Kilgore House, “especially after glimpsing the photographs…taken there. The women who were student and residents there look so at home. When I think of the American spirit, I think of freedom, liberty and a touch of ruggedness. These women represent that spirit by attending college during a time when this was rare for women.”

Ryan said he thought he saw the American spirit, especially in relation to “growth ... [and] great buildings” and pondering “what [these buildings] mean to… people.” But then he watched the America: The Story of Us documentary and thought more deeply about the assignment. Wrote Ryan, “I saw how America was thriving and moving on to bigger and better…But I wondered how could the American Spirit really be evident when building new and bigger things occurred on the sweat and blood of ... slaves? I read and saw many examples of the success of ‘free workers’ including workers in the newspaper business. There were even women workers in factories. So in a sense I did see the ‘American spirit’ with such advancements in our country,…but…several chapters of our history contradict the promises of that spirit.” Evelyn also saw the American spirit and especially in“the labor of Irish immigrants” who helped build the Erie Canal. Evelyn noted, too, how “southern slaves built the cotton industry.” They along with the Irish, she said, “were the ‘mass producing machines’ at a time when there were no mass producing machines.”  Thinking of modern city life across time, David turned to the demolition of the Kilgore House, saying, “It’s my perception that people in Europe and elsewhere have more reverence for the past. In Sweden and Denmark, very  old buildings have been retooled and repaired…There seems to be something very American in looking at old buildings as being obsolete, or in need of replacing….Perhaps it is because we are such a young country and have space to build that we respond in this way. While Americans in general look at old buildings as landmarks…they do not look at them as living buildings that can still be very functional.” Added Byron, “All too often people in this country see historical sites neglected or destroyed because of capitalistic endeavors that only look at the ‘bottom line’.” Aaron, who was among the UA students who protested the demolition and even helped salvage what could be saved said he ultimately saw the “duality in the situation...The grassroots effort that surrounded the protests [embodied] the American spirit. However, I also see this same spirit in the…greed surrounding the demolition. Still, he acknowledged that “striving for what is ‘new and modern’ … has been a recurring theme throughout American history…as especially evident in the Industrial Revolution.” Indeed, A.J. sees such spirit in “people working in construction on campus to bring money home to their families.” Summing up, perhaps,  three weeks of reading City People, Regan said, “I found it very interesting to learn about the evolution of city life. I think that Barth's mention of the constant improvements in architecture …was an awesome way to show how America keeps growing and improving. So much work goes into  building and improvement of buildings done by so many American who work in different professions.”


Next week, I will post the students responses to yesterday's assignment, which pushed their thinking about the last two chapters of Barth's book, one on baseball, the other on the vaudeville house. They listened intently as Dr. Richard Megraw of UA's American Studies department did a lecture on baseball. I presented a summary on everything discussed to date while also sharing more information about the vaudeville house. At the request of one student who desired to see tensions between the United States and other countries during the 19th century, I showed them a portion of Coco Before Chanel, which sheds light on the cafe-concert profession in which Coco Chanel worked before becoming a fashion designer.