Aunt Aggie: 90 Years a Slave

Her mother was born free. She was snatched from her native land and brought to a place that was strange and the climate not to her liking. The ship docked in Virginia and all of the captives were unloaded like cattle to be sold. I don't know what year that was, but I read that it was before the Revolution.  

The Campbell's were rich and the government sold them a lot of land at a cheap price.  They needed help to develop the land.  Aggie was about 10 years old when she came to live with my 9th Great-Grandfather back in Virginia.when the Revolution began. The Campbell family lived in Virginia until 1796 and then made their way to Jefferson County, Tennessee with a land grant under their belt. Archibald Campbell died in 1801 and Aggie was passed on to James, Archibald's son.  When James passed away in 1826, Aggie went to live with Robert Fleming Campbell. In 1851, Robert and his family, with Aggie, moved to Dallas County, Texas. By this time, Aggie had children: Fay, Jim, and Archie.

Robert Fleming Campbell

Aunt Aggie witnessed another war. When the Civil War broke out her sons fought along side the rest of the soldiers for freedom. A freedom that they wanted more than life itself. Then came the Emancipation Proclamation.  She had been a slave for nearly 90 years.  She was finally free. Robert offered to care for her the rest of her life, but freedom was what they fought for. Just to taste it, like a forbidden fruit was all she wanted. Aggie's time wasn't long for this earth and she knew it. Along with Jake, her grandson, they left the farm to make their own way in the world. She is free at last...

The Route of the Freedom Riders Via Charlotta Janssen

Artist Charlotta Janssen’s Freedom Riders portraits are now on display at the Fort Wayne Museum of Art through January 27^th. Janssen brought the Civil Rights Movement back to life by painting mug shots of those people who were taken into custody for not complying with segregation laws. Her portraits consist of paint with collage, each one a study of a moment in that person’s life.

Born in Maine, Charlotta lived at one time in West Berlin and also in Iran. Two places where one had to keep their mouth shut about their rights, especially as a woman and an American.



Photo by Anita Jones

Once Charlotta talked with Freedom Rider Joseph Charles Jones, she felt even more compelled to re-tell their story with pictures. Being from New York she had never experienced the south. “The issue of race is a really sad subject. It’s so unnecessary, but it has deep roots and a deep history and you have to deal with them in order to be able to move on. I think that I can be of help with dealing with a history like that because I’ve had to learn by default to deal with that history by birth—by the fact that I was born German, as well as American.” Janssen’s creation shows riders from all over the country, not just the south. This is her tribute.

Janssen, also produced a collection of portraits from the Great Depression, which is well worth looking at too. 

Lincoln and the "Elective Franchise"

Abraham Lincoln will forever go down in history as the President who set the slaves free.  In his last speech, President Lincoln thought that if the black man is free then he should be given the right to vote as well.  He mentioned the "elective franchise" several times as I read through the speech.  Why not?  A country fighting against itself over slavery and the treatment of a race of people should be given all rights as the rest of the citizens of this country. They were entitled to those rights.  But radical confederates thought that this was too much.  First there was freedom and now the vote? John Wilkes Booth thought that if Lincoln was stopped then the black man would never get the vote. Booth was so very wrong. Abraham Lincoln is said to have had a nightmare about being assassinated, a few days before his death. He described seeing himself in a casket, with inconsolable people mourning around his dead body. This was Lincoln's destiny, his life purpose.

There is so much that I don't know about the history of my country, which is very sad to say.  History class was the most boring subject for me in school.  But when I started tracing my family history and found that my relatives fought in the Civil War (among many wars) is when I became interested. The subject was no longer those people but "my people" fought in those wars.  My family is from Tennessee and Georgia and the men who fought joined the confederate army when they enlisted except for one man.  It makes me wonder why they fought?  Was it for the money or the cause?  I sure would like to know. 

Anyway, there is a wonderful movie in the theaters now called, Lincoln.  Daniel Day-Lewis does a wonderful job as the President. The movie shows Lincoln not only as the President but a man fighting for something that was morally wrong.  If you get the chance, go see this movie.  

Educating Girls is Obscene

The attack on 14-year-old Malala Yousufzai a week ago horrified people across Pakistan and abroad. Today, she was taken to the UK for specialized treatment. She was shot because she was promoting education for girls. Why? It was the Taliban who attacked this girl, with intentions to do it again if she lives.  Did you know that they are not Afghan people at all, but radical Muslims from Saudi Arabia and Yemen. According to the Taliban, educating girls is an obscenity.  Do you know why they think this?  Because the girls will be able to think for themselves. Education is a human right. Women want more from life than to live under the dark cloud of total submission.

The female mind is a terrible thing to waste.

Kacem El Ghazzali: REBEL

Living blindly is how a majority of the population goes about their daily lives, especially when it comes to religion.  We believe the things that our parents taught us without giving much thought to the validity of their beliefs.  Religion has been passed down from generation to generation for centuries. Most believers never challenge their beliefs or are afraid to.  Many times I was told to just believe and have faith when things didn’t make sense to me. Besides, good upstanding people believe in the religion of those that came before them, but not so for Kacem El Ghazzali.  He is Moroccan, but a displaced Moroccan.  He is now residing in Switzerland where he has found freedom.  Kacem is once again feeling the pressure from fellow Muslims in his new homeland. He has asked that those in authority to help him find a place to live away from those who are threatening his life.  Yet the people who are wanting his demise must feel threatened in some way because of his vocalized opinions.  

I talked to Kacem several years ago when I first started blogging.  He was a teenager and very passionate about his beliefs.  My then husband tried to talk to Kacem but the conversation ended in frustration.  Kacem was reprimanded for his unbelief.  I, however, continued talking with him.  I agreed with his point of view and encouraged him to stand up for his convictions. However, there isn’t any religion that encourages apostasy. Sometimes death can be the outcome for such a person.  I am not an atheist, but I do believe in freedom of choice when it comes to religion, whether it is practiced or not.  The threat to others is when one is brave enough to say, "I cannot believe this anymore."