In Honor of Fanny Kemble | Teen Ink

In Honor of Fanny Kemble

May 13, 2009
By VirtueValueVision DIAMOND, Holgate, Ohio
VirtueValueVision DIAMOND, Holgate, Ohio
50 articles 40 photos 7 comments

Favorite Quote:
\\\&quot;History will be kind to me for I intend to write it!\\\&quot; - Sir Winston Churchill<br /> \\\&quot;Contempt is the emotion we feel for an opponent whose arguments are too formidable to refute.\\\&quot; - Ambrose Beirce<br /> Our words are the commentaries on our wills. - Antony Far


"I have sometimes been haunted with the idea that it was an imperative duty, knowing what I know, and having seen what I have seen, to do all that lies in my power to show the dangers and the evils of this frightful institution."- From Fanny’s journal, her aversion to slavery

Your Labor

I was an actress and fell for the act
My marriage became a battle with constant afflictions tightly compact
I befriended a Negro
And little did I know
That the consequences for my compassion would be so immense
And my rebellious behavior being the poker stirring up the heat which exists in a quarrel of prejudice intense
He be my husband not my master
The plot I plan becomes a disaster
To free slaves from our Georgia plantation
And to guide them to the next Underground Railroad station
Do I free them for their sake or to get back at my husband
I am steadfast when I say it was my husband
Who had beaten me with the whip
Part of it was to get back at him but mainly to save and to equip
The ones who were societies rejects
And to inform the world of discrimination’s subjects
Little am I afraid, when I stand alone to face the hungry hounds
I know that what I have done has exceeded beyond conservative bounds
A woman of my time has no voice
And for that, little choice
In what happens around or to her
But I am not one to defer
If something occurs that I know I can prevent
Then you have little chance in convincing me not to do it
The very journal that my husband forbid I publish
Parliament read it and it was the reason that the confederate loan was abolished
During the upcoming war the south would not be able to block
The north’s artillery stock
The Union would win
And blacks judged by character no longer by skin
I returned home, to England
And died at 84 in London
I did not change history, the truth changed history
But so it is not a mystery
I could never give up my freedom how could I expect someone else to give up theirs
And though my mortal existence was not exactly fair
I thank God for hearing me when I prayed
And for catching my tear cascade
When all was said and done
No one lost or won
There is something you need to remember
‘Love thy neighbor as thy self’ and the world will praise your labor!

The author's comments:
Fanny Kemble was a famous actress in England and came to America during pre-civil war times. the man she married went against everything he had told her and they later divorced. The journals she had published while being married to him somehow got into the hands of Parliment and Parlliment did not give the Confedarcy the loan it needed to defeat the Union in the upcoming war. There is a film with Jane Seymour called "Enslavement: the true story of fanny kemble" great film! you can also read her journals.

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