Arts Culture
Transcribing A First-Person Identity
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| Kaye Wise Whitehead recently gave a lecture about the diaries of Emlie Davis, a free black woman living in Philadelphia during the 1860s. (Courtesy of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania) |
Emlie Davis’ Diaries On View At HSP
By Lindsay Warner, The Bulletin
Everyday details such as visitors, dinner parties, births, deaths and gentlemen callers sketch out Emlie Davis’ life over a three-year period, recorded in a small pocket diary.
Mixed with the mundane details of ordinary life are items of historical importance, but regardless of content, Davis’ journal holds a special interest for historians — it was written from 916 Rodman St., Philadelphia during the years of 1863 to 1865, and it was written by a free African-American woman. Only a handful of primary sources such as Davis’ diary exist from this time period and social class, and thus far, only Davis’ has been transcribed.
Now on view at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania as part of a “200 Years of Lincoln Exhibit,” and the subject of doctoral candidate Kaye Wise Whitehead’s dissertation, Emlie Davis’ diaries fill in a crucial gap in historical literature from this time period, providing a look at the life of an ordinary free black woman in her own words.
During a lecture held at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania Wednesday night, Ms. Whitehead discussed her own reading of Davis’ diary entries in the context of secondary sources and in the historical setting of mid-1800s Philadelphia.
The journal entries — mostly brief paragraphs consisting of around 30 to 60 words — recount both the ordinary and historic details of life during the Civil War. They note the first African-American draft call, family members going off to fight, the funeral procession for Abraham Lincoln and a lecture given by Frederick Douglass, yet the diary also contains the small details of Emlie’s personal life, too. These mundane, sometimes petty recordings reinforce the knowledge that this diary was not created as a historical record, but rather as a testament to one woman’s personal life.
And while Davis’ entries are brief, she wrote every single day for three years, giving new insight to life as a free black woman — though Davis was officially recorded as “mulatto” by the 1860 census, which likely influenced her ability to attend various functions and events. The diaries also reveal that, although Davis has no recorded source of steady income, she regularly attended societal events, went shopping, traveled and enjoyed many privileges that were only dreamed of by hundreds of thousands of her still-enslaved black peers. As a result, her diaries are an unusual glimpse at how a small community of black men and women lived in Philadelphia during the 1860s.
Still, though, she recorded her own life on a daily basis, Davis’ diaries are full of historical gaps, many filled in by Ms. Whitehead’s research. A sparse entry that notes merely a “good turnout” at a “meeting” is revealed through secondary research to indicate Davis’ membership in the highly influential Ladies Union Association, an organization that raised money for black soldiers who were enlisted in the army. Further research into the demographics of Davis’ church — the First African Presbyterian Church — reveals that Davis was considered a middle-class mulatto woman with some money — not quite enough to attend the more prestigious church, except as a guest at lectures — but enough to lead a life in respectable society. Ms. Whitehead’s decision to read Davis’ words through the lens of black feminist theory also tempers her story, though Ms. Whitehead notes a continued commitment to reading the diaries with what she calls a “determined exactness.” As a result, she is committed to “not using a $25 word when a 5-cent word would do.”
And this is a wise choice. In her transcription, Ms. Whitehead has retained Davis’ exact language, punctuation and meaning as closely as possible, leaving the original words and phrases intact. Yet while Davis’ spelling and grammar sometimes reflects the primary education that she would have received as a middle-class black woman, the fact that she bothered to document her story at all is a conscious act of identity assertion; even if she didn’t write at great length, there was something about her story that she felt was important to preserve.
Her instincts have proved true, as her diaries give us new insight into Philadelphia society, historical events, and just the everyday experiences of being a free black woman in the 1860s with the undeniable twinge of first-person truthfulness.
Lindsay Warner can be reached at calendar@thebulletin.us
Mixed with the mundane details of ordinary life are items of historical importance, but regardless of content, Davis’ journal holds a special interest for historians — it was written from 916 Rodman St., Philadelphia during the years of 1863 to 1865, and it was written by a free African-American woman. Only a handful of primary sources such as Davis’ diary exist from this time period and social class, and thus far, only Davis’ has been transcribed.
Now on view at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania as part of a “200 Years of Lincoln Exhibit,” and the subject of doctoral candidate Kaye Wise Whitehead’s dissertation, Emlie Davis’ diaries fill in a crucial gap in historical literature from this time period, providing a look at the life of an ordinary free black woman in her own words.
During a lecture held at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania Wednesday night, Ms. Whitehead discussed her own reading of Davis’ diary entries in the context of secondary sources and in the historical setting of mid-1800s Philadelphia.
The journal entries — mostly brief paragraphs consisting of around 30 to 60 words — recount both the ordinary and historic details of life during the Civil War. They note the first African-American draft call, family members going off to fight, the funeral procession for Abraham Lincoln and a lecture given by Frederick Douglass, yet the diary also contains the small details of Emlie’s personal life, too. These mundane, sometimes petty recordings reinforce the knowledge that this diary was not created as a historical record, but rather as a testament to one woman’s personal life.
And while Davis’ entries are brief, she wrote every single day for three years, giving new insight to life as a free black woman — though Davis was officially recorded as “mulatto” by the 1860 census, which likely influenced her ability to attend various functions and events. The diaries also reveal that, although Davis has no recorded source of steady income, she regularly attended societal events, went shopping, traveled and enjoyed many privileges that were only dreamed of by hundreds of thousands of her still-enslaved black peers. As a result, her diaries are an unusual glimpse at how a small community of black men and women lived in Philadelphia during the 1860s.
Still, though, she recorded her own life on a daily basis, Davis’ diaries are full of historical gaps, many filled in by Ms. Whitehead’s research. A sparse entry that notes merely a “good turnout” at a “meeting” is revealed through secondary research to indicate Davis’ membership in the highly influential Ladies Union Association, an organization that raised money for black soldiers who were enlisted in the army. Further research into the demographics of Davis’ church — the First African Presbyterian Church — reveals that Davis was considered a middle-class mulatto woman with some money — not quite enough to attend the more prestigious church, except as a guest at lectures — but enough to lead a life in respectable society. Ms. Whitehead’s decision to read Davis’ words through the lens of black feminist theory also tempers her story, though Ms. Whitehead notes a continued commitment to reading the diaries with what she calls a “determined exactness.” As a result, she is committed to “not using a $25 word when a 5-cent word would do.”
And this is a wise choice. In her transcription, Ms. Whitehead has retained Davis’ exact language, punctuation and meaning as closely as possible, leaving the original words and phrases intact. Yet while Davis’ spelling and grammar sometimes reflects the primary education that she would have received as a middle-class black woman, the fact that she bothered to document her story at all is a conscious act of identity assertion; even if she didn’t write at great length, there was something about her story that she felt was important to preserve.
Her instincts have proved true, as her diaries give us new insight into Philadelphia society, historical events, and just the everyday experiences of being a free black woman in the 1860s with the undeniable twinge of first-person truthfulness.
Lindsay Warner can be reached at calendar@thebulletin.us
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