Image from: https://www.wbur.org/npr/377606644/gateway-to-freedom-heroes-danger-and-loss-on-the-underground-railroad

​
As I write this blog, news has broken that a group within the United Methodist Church, the denomination to which I belong and have served on church staffs for 27 years, has proposed that the church split over the issue inclusion of LGTBQ+ people.
 
A split has been in the works for a long time. The church has been so obsessed with the question that it has lost its sense of mission and, in the process, its connection to Jesus Christ.
 
But 2020 is not the first time Methodists have faced a major divorce. There was another great schism in the 1844.
 
The push for the abolition of slavery began with the Second Great Awakening, a cross-denominational and cross-racial revival starting in the 1790s, burning its way into the 1800s, and creating a growth spurt in Baptist and Methodists churches. The argument against the enslavement of people of color was rather simple: are not all one in Christ Jesus? But, as we know, there are plenty of verses about slavery in the Bible, and slaveholders latched onto these to support their economic system.
 
Much like today’s issue regarding LGTBQ+ people, the abolition movement simmered within churches and communities. Eventually, it blew up into a divisive social issue.
 
My character Maggie Beatty Blaine Smith was 23, a young married woman with a two-year-old daughter, when her church, the Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) split over slavery in 1844. The pro-slavery faction aligned themselves with the Methodist Episcopal Church South, while the abolitionists remained in the MEC. Because the institution of slavery was primarily located in the southern states, the nation itself would split in less than 20 years.
 
By 1852, Maggie is a lonely, widowed boarding house owner. Supportive of the abolition movement, she sacrifices a little precious money to subscribe to a monthly newspaper, called The National Era. Her interest becomes a passion after The National Era prints a serialized version of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin in March of 1852. Like many other Americans, Maggie was “turned” by the novel’s description of the brutality of slavery.
 
 
Maggie long had been against slavery, but after reading Uncle Tom’s Cabin, she had become passionately abolitionist. In her eyes enslaved people were men and women and children of God. It was beyond her comprehension that one group of people would treat another as a commodity and not as fellow human beings. (“The Dundee Cake.”)
 
 
But she is not an activist. Not yet.

Later in 1852, she makes friends with Emily and Nate Johnson, a black couple involved in the Underground Railroad. But the Johnsons do not share this part of their life with her. Helping self-emancipators get to Canada is civil disobedience and comes with a hefty $1,000 fine (no small change in the 1800s) and six months’ imprisonment, They keep their “other life” a secret until January of 1860, when they finally invite Maggie and newspaperman Eli Smith into their activity. Maggie writes:
 
 
Shall I tell you a secret, dear Journal? I am breaking the law. Nate and Emily serve the Underground Railroad. When they shared this with Eli and me one night four months ago, we did the sensible thing – we joined them in their endeavor. When word comes through, Eli hangs a lantern by his print shop. Nate shepherds the escaped slaves through the darkness and into the shop. We have constructed a hiding place for them. We feed them, clothe them, and then send them on their way. With God’s grace, they will make it to Canada. (Saint Maggie).
 
 
Years after the book's publication, I feel that the tunnel between the boarding house and Eli’s print shop is a bit much. I’m not sure whether I said that Maggie and crew constructed the tunnel because I haven’t sat down and read the first book in its entirety in a while. Shame on me!
 
After Saint Maggie was published, I had the opportunity to delve further into the Underground Railroad and learned that a tunnel would have been rare. Most people working on the UGRR would have hidden self-emancipators in barns or in the house in “hidey-holes,” particularly in the cellar.
 
When Maggie and family are chased out of Blaineton in 1863, Eli arranges for them to sojourn in the Smith family home in Gettysburg. The house also has been a stop on the Underground Railroad and is still in use in 1863 to aid refugees and self-emancipators escaping the war. When Maggie arrives, she is given a tour of the hidey-holes, which include a secret cellar below the annex, panels in bedrooms on the annex’s second floor, and a hiding place in the attic of the older part of the house. Eli’s Quaker sister and brother-in-law have a farm seven miles to the north and hide escaped people in a secret room behind the barn hayloft or keep them in their house during the winter and hurrying self-emancipators into the attic when slave catchers are near. (Walk by Faith)
 
Maggie’s work with the Underground Railroad diminishes as the war wears on. And that part of her political activity comes to an end, but she is becoming increasingly political – like many women of her era.
 
Just for fun, let me leave you with a story, as told in Walk by Faith by Eli and sister Becky about a time slave catchers broke into their home in Gettysburg. Eli speaks first.
 
 
“One time we learned that slave hunters were coming through town. So we had our people hidden in the secret cellar. The men showed up at our door and demanded to search the house.”
 
“Thee ran to the annex bedroom,” Becky said with a laugh, “and threw thyself upon the bed, drew the quilts up to thy neck, and pretended to be ill!”
 
“I was moaning as if I were on my deathbed.” Eli chuckled. “I’m surprised the men believed me. I’m no actor.”
 
“I think thee frightened them off. We told them what ailed thee was catching.” Becky began to serve the cake. “They had no right to be in our house, but Mother was alone, and they forced their way in.”
 
 
Next blog: Maggie the activist: Politics

First off, I lied to you about getting a blog out by Monday. It just wasn’t in the cards.

Now, let’s get to the meat of this essay. The last time I posted, I wrote about how 19th-century women were perceived as purer and more moral than men. This led to at least two possibilities for their participation in the machinery of the political arena, considered to be a rough-and-tumble man’s world. First, women could be welcomed, cautiously, into politics and political action, a stance generally held by Republicans of the era. Second, they could be excluded from political activities, a position generally taken by Democrats, who were fearful that politics would sully a woman’s purity and/or challenge men’s patriarchal authority.

My character Maggie’s is modeled after 19th-century women who took their religious beliefs about loving all people, righting injustice, and practicing mercy out of their homes and into the broader culture. I love that about her.

A few weeks ago I was having lunch with a good friend of mine, a pastor with whom I had served as Christian educator. For three years, we did all manner of crazy things, including writing our own Vacation Bible School programs. While we were eating, I gave her a copy of A Good Community. She happily took it, telling me that she found Maggie to be an inspiration. Now, I am a fairly typical author, loaded with insecurities about my work, and learning how she feels about my character came as a heartening revelation.

But what is it about Maggie that is inspiring? For one thing, she has experienced tough times. She has lost homes, witnessed the death of loved ones, and even seen battle. But I think her most outstanding aspect is her big heart. In “The Dundee Cake,” a short story set in 1852, Maggie has acquired four boarders for her rooming house, none of whom can afford much to pay for room and board. Although she worries about paying her bills, she refuses to toss them out. Foolish? Probably. But loving? Yes, definitely, and she continues this throughout the series’ stories.

Maggie also shares her boarding house with an African American couple, Emily and Nate Johnson. Emily initially works as Maggie’s cook, but she and her husband move in when a fire strikes the Johnson home. This, of course, raises eyebrows in town, as the couple are more than employees, they are friends.

Throughout the series and other stories, Maggie continues to welcome others into her home regardless of color. An early example are Matilda Strong and her young daughter, Chloe, self-emancipators who arrive through the Underground Railroad (Saint Maggie).

Even when focused on personal problems, Maggie continues to welcome others. In “The Christmas Eve Visitor” short story, an illness has struck the children of the household. The last thing Maggie needs is a Jewish peddler by the name of Ira Strauss show up at her door in the middle of a blizzard. But their initial conversation is classic Maggie, as she is able to see Ira’s needs despite her concerns:
 

The man smiled and said in accented English, “Good evening, Madam. Would you be needing any ribbons or cloth? Some pans or pots perhaps? Or a bit of lace maybe?”
Peering into the dark beyond him, Maggie could just make out the shape of a handcart. She exclaimed, “Good heavens, sir! Whatever are you doing out on a night like this?”
“Business is business.”
“And freezing is freezing! Please do come in and take supper with us. We have some good, hot chicken soup.”
 

Maggie doesn’t have much to share other than a fire, chicken soup, and bread, but she’s willing to provide them. Ira came to her in the middle of a storm and might very well freeze to death if she turns him away. So, stranger or not, she invites him in.

Other welcoming acts by Maggie include feeding Confederate soldiers and caring for wounded men from both sides while in Gettysburg (Walk by Faith), temporarily housing inmates and employees when a riot consumes the Western New Jersey Hospital for the Insane (Seeing the Elephant) and, when a fire consumes most of the houses on Water Street, taking in black families in need of shelter (A Good Community).

So, why does Maggie do it? Simple. It’s her faith. I could be glib and say that Jesus makes her do it. However, his command to love God and love others goes further than just warm, fuzzy feelings. It is how Maggie chooses to live her life and interact with those around her.
Rosa Hamilton sums it up well in A Good Community:
 

“My brother was killed during the battle in North Anna. I came looking for Maggie Smith because I had nowhere else to go. She didn’t care what color I was. She just cared that I was hurting because my brother had died. She was kind to me without any reservations and invited me into her home. Now I work at Greybeal School, where I’m a teacher.” She smiled. “I always wanted to be a teacher. Mrs. Smith and the Greybeal House school gave me the chance.”
 

Writing Maggie has taught me oceans about welcoming others. I find myself striving to be like her.
 
 
​Next blog: Maggie the 19th Century Activist: Seeking Justice

I found this image at https://thebeetonideal.wordpress.com/2017/09/05/the-salience-of-the-home-19th-century-baptist-womens-domestic-role/, but I don't know its origin.

I haven’t written a blog in weeks. In fact, I haven’t written since December 2.

Long story short, December 2 marked the first week in Advent, the four weeks before Christmas. It is a time for serious reflection, but also a time for increased activity for those who serve on church staffs. For me that meant an extra service one Sunday, a luncheon hosted by the United Methodist Women at which I was the speaker, two separate campaigns to help those in need (one for coats and another for diapers), and the yearly intergenerational Christmas pageant and luncheon. If you notice that we seem to eat a lot at First United Methodist, you’re right. Food is usually involved whenever most Methodists get together. As our pastor likes to say, “food is love.” And we wonder why we have weight issues!

Anyway, I’m writing this blog perched on the edge of the weekend before Christmas and find that I have – crazy as it seems – a bit of breathing space.

So, here’s a little blog on women in 19th century politics. The information comes from Rebecca Edwards’ book, Angels in the Machinery: Gender in American Party Politics from the Civil War to the Progressive Era (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997).

Edwards makes note that the metaphor of machinery was used for electoral systems and parties. Machinery, of course, was the stuff industry was made of. Industry and all activities outside the home were seen as part of the world of men. And it was in the realm of politics and elections that men debated “faith and deeply held values.” The subjects of these debates and campaigns often “rested on opposing views of the family’s relationship to the state.” (Angels, 3)

The opposite of men’s world was “woman’s sphere,” which was defined as the home. Women were to care for children, keep the home a haven of peace, and be responsible for religious nurture. Women became known as “angels of the home.” (NOTE: while these attitudes seemed widespread, they were practiced mainly among middle- and -upper class homes. The working classes, the poor, and enslaved women had vastly different expectations and experiences.) If you’re interested in where the term “angel in the house” originated, please go to http://victorian-era.org/angel-house-coventry-patmore.html

But overall, American society saw women as being selfless and pure, and therefore unfit for politics, which was a rough, tumble, and dirty business. Edwards writes, “The question was, should men manage politics in the interest of women and families, or should women join the debates and exercise power themselves?” (Angels, 3) After all, if the basic building block of American society was the family, then it was “the government’s first duty to preserve proper relationships within the home.” (Angels, 5)

Meanwhile, many women were taking notice of social and economic inequalities in American culture: slavery, poverty, alcoholism, child abuse, prostitution, women’s rights, and more. Women’s groups, such as the Methodists’ Ladies’ Aid Societies and the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, began taking steps to address these things.

Most of us today will agree that our current era is politically polarized. This isn’t a novel thing. The Civil War and the era preceding it had much the same effect, one that lasted into the late 1800s.

Edwards writes: “The war took 600,000 lives and mobilized soldiers and civilians on an unprecedented scale. It also entrenched in Washington a new party with domestic and evangelical purposes. Republicans styled themselves ‘the party of the home’; they celebrated women’s moral influence and praised men who recognized the Christian example set by mothers and wives….By no means all voters shared these values at the time; in fact, a majority probably opposed them. But by the end of the Civil War, Republicans had won a loyal following.” (Angels, 6) On the opposing side, “Democrats attacked this ideology as destructive to patriarchal authority, and its proponents as effete aristocrats.” (Angels, 6)

About now, you should be thinking, “Hmmm… this argument sounds oddly familiar.” And you’d be right. The same attitudes still exist today to varying degrees. The only difference is that the parties seem to have swapped positions. The fascinating story of how that change happened in the 1900s will need to be left for another day – or perhaps another blogger. Let’s stay in the 19th century for the time being.

Since Maggie lives during the Civil War, she is subject to her society’s beliefs about “woman’s sphere” and therefore has an interest in some of the reform movements of her era. Most notably, she is involved in the Underground Railroad, but also has concerns about alcohol abuse, poverty, and women’s rights.

In A Good Community, she, Emily, Rosa, and Abigail seek to address a problem regarding equal education. As a result, Maggie finds herself embroiled in the debate over just how much a woman should get involved in a socially and politically charged question. She is of one opinion. Josiah Norton, the town’s leading industrialist, is of another. And, of course, her husband Eli has his own viewpoint.

I’ll address their stances in my next blog. Since I’m going to write the piece later today, it will be up Monday evening, hence thwarting the possibility that I’ll get derailed by the whirlwind of pre-Christmas work at church. (I have since given up doing all the “traditional” rushing about in my personal life. One can only do so much, after all.)
 
 
Later, gators.