On a slightly different note, I attended a lecture tonight in my town’s high school auditorium by professor David Blight, author of A Slave No More: Two Men Who Escaped to Freedom.
The following is from our town’s library site.
David Blight’s A Slave No More is in effect a memoir–the story of two slaves who made their break for freedom during the chaos of the Civil War. After reconstructing their childhoods as sons of white slave holders through their climb to black working-class stability in the north where they reunited with their families, Blight then reproduces the men’s accounts of their own emancipation in their original language. One of the men, John Washington, eventually retires here to Cohasset [Mass.] where he spends the last five years of his life with his son’s family on North Main Street; he died in 1918 and is buried in Woodside Cemetery. Author David Blight is professor of American History at Yale University.
I put that short blurb there because I admit that I have not yet read the book, despite it being part of our Cohasset Reads Together program. However, I wished I had. Nevertheless, hearing Blight speak was a wonderful glimpse into the book. And since my last book review was based on a professor’s lecture, I thought I would quickly jot down some thoughts about what made this an amazing story and why I think it’s relevant.
The ups and downs of the small town. OK, I live in a small town. Really small town: population 7,000, and you can’t ever leave the house without seeing someone you know. I love that about this place. The one big detractor from this town is that my being 1/2 Pacific islander increased the town’s non-white population to about 2 percent, if that. So for a town like ours to find out a former slave lived out his last years right on North Main Street is a bit surprising. And intriguing enough to bring out a couple hundred folks to listen to a lecture on a cold winter night.
I’m going to start attending more library lectures. At a time when movies cost $10/seat plus $20 in refreshments, going to a free lecture where the speaker captivated an audience, especially when I found myself sitting among friends and neighbors, was a great recession-proof entertainment strategy.
So why this speaker, why this book on a blog for entrepreneurs? John Washington, one of the slaves who left behind a narrative of his life, was unique. He was literate. His mother was literate. But he spent his first years being a slave boy in Virginia (carrying a stool around to sit next to and attend to his mistress’s every whim) and then later shipped out to work in bars, factories, hotels, etc. He eventually escaped during the fall of Fredericksburg and the Union soldiers gave him his freedom.
John Washington went on to be a bartender and painter living in Foggy Bottom, Washington, DC, married his sweetheart (who had been born free) and had five children–all of whom finished high school and college. Some even got master’s degrees and many were educators. One of his sons moved to Cohasset to work on the Old Colony railroad, and that’s who John lived with for his last few years.
How did he manage to walk away from being a slave to raising a family of solidly middle-class educators?
1. Patience and perseverence. He waited for his opportunity to arise and was ready when it happened.
2. Preparation. When he met the soldiers, he was prepared with newspapers and other information to help them.
3. Skills. He was smart, literate and could do everything from work in a factory to being assistant manager of a hotel.
4. Optimism. While Blight never said it, I sensed that John Washington had to be an optimist.
So what does this have to do with being an entrepreneur? The above-listed traits are what also distinguish many of the most successful entrepreneurs. And, according to Blight, the theme of the book is “never say never.”
For more from Blight and John Washington’s overlap with Abraham Lincoln, see this Boston Globe Op-Ed piece.
Top Shelf Bottom Line: Sometimes we need to step out of our myopic world to find great role models. A must-read for civil war buffs.
This entry was posted on Thursday, February 12th, 2009 at 8:06 pm and is filed under Nonfiction. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.One Response to “A Slave No More”
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July 1st, 2009 at 2:34 am
We are all slaves to some extent and it doesn’t matter the color of your skin. I am an African American woman with an 8-5 job like most of us.In this tough economy we cling to our jobs afraid to “step out of the box” to pursue
our dreams of owning our own businesses. Some of us are slaves to jobs we absolutely hate but it pays the bills right. The traits displayed by John Washington are the traits we all need in order to “free”
ourselves from our routine 8-5.
Thanks for the book and the insight!