Henry David Thoreau—truly a 19th century expert on physical distancing!
 
In his masterpiece, Walden: Or, Life in the Woods (1845), he narrates his two-year experiment in simple living in the cabin he built on the shore of Walden Pond, near his native Concord, MA.  Walden condenses Thoreau’s two years at the pond into one cycle of the seasons, thus showing his deep connection with ever-changing, always-alive nature.
 
Thoreau wasn’t a misanthrope, but he was quirky and strongly individualistic.  In the chapter “Visitors,” he celebrates (somewhat tongue-in-cheek) the power of physical distancing to enhance deep discussion and thought: “One inconvenience I sometimes experienced in so small a house, the difficulty of getting to a sufficient distance from my guest when we began to utter the big thoughts in big words.  .  .  .  As the conversation began to assume a loftier and grander tone, we gradually shoved our chairs farther apart till they touched the wall in opposite corners, and then commonly there was not room enough.”
 
It’s unlikely that Harriet Beecher Stowe read Walden, which wasn’t popular in its day.  It’s even more unlikely that Thoreau read Uncle Tom’s Cabin, since he didn’t read modern novels.  But in his journal Thoreau wrote that he owned a figurine of Uncle Tom and Little Eva, the gift of a freedom seeker he helped escape. 
 
Harriet and Henry were both New Englanders, but he didn’t benefit from 18 years in Cincinnati as she did.  Nevertheless, they shared a hatred of slavery, an interest in civil disobedience, and a willingness to help freedom seekers on their way north.
 
For a free download of Walden, go to www.gutenberg.org/walden 
 
Walden can be a challenging read. Please take a few minutes to share your experience, positive or negative, with some or even part of this book. Let us know what comes to your mind when someone mentions Henry David Thoreau. Does Thoreau deserve his reputation as a progenitor of the modern environmental movement?  We welcome your questions and observations about Walden or its author.

About the author:
Dr. John Getz, Professor Emeritus, Xavier University, retired in 2017 after teaching English there for 45 years.  He specializes in American literature, especially nineteenth century, as well as the intersections of literature and peace studies. He has written articles on a variety of authors including Edith Wharton, Sherwood Anderson, and Ursula Le Guin. He appears in the documentary film Becoming Harriet Beecher Stowe, scheduled for release in spring 2020 by Fourth Wall Films.   

Frustrated by physical distancing and having to stay home all the time? Try reading  poems by someone who was an expert at both and actually enjoyed them: Emily Dickinson.  See, for example, her poem “The Soul selects her own Society” (1862).
 
As an adult, Dickinson rarely left her home in Amherst, MA, but she felt close to certain family members and friends.  Without email and text messaging, she wrote them volumes of beautiful letters.  Dickinson’s greatest act of communication, her “letter to the World/That never wrote to Me,” is her poetry. It’s an immense body of work, almost all of it unpublished in her lifetime. 
 
Dickinson’s world may seem narrow, but she read widely, and her poems reveal deep emotion and thought. The subjects are so varied that there’s probably a poem for whatever mood you’re in—from deep religious faith to terrible doubt, from joy in the beauty of nature to shock at its indifference, from supreme self-confidence to fear of going mad.
 
Uncle Tom’s Cabin was one of the many books Dickinson read, and she wryly reported being scolded by her father for it. Critics have observed that Dickinson’s poem “One need not be a Chamber – to be Haunted –" seems based on the plight of superstitious, haunted Simon Legree late in Harriet’s book.
 
Although Dickinson didn’t title her poems, you can find many of them free online if you search by their first lines, which serve today as their titles.
 
Dickinson always invites a variety of reactions from readers. You may already be a fan—or not. If you aren’t sure how you feel about her work—or even if you are--try some of her poems. Then let us know what you think. Please share what you like or don’t like about Dickinson’s poetry or any of your observations or questions about it.     

About the author:
Dr. John Getz, Professor Emeritus, Xavier University, retired in 2017 after teaching English there for 45 years.  He specializes in American literature, especially nineteenth century, as well as the intersections of literature and peace studies. He has written articles on a variety of authors including Edith Wharton, Sherwood Anderson, and Ursula Le Guin. He appears in the documentary film Becoming Harriet Beecher Stowe, scheduled for release in spring 2020 by Fourth Wall Films.   

Looking for some inspiration in these frightening times?  To see a person who summoned amazing courage and strength to triumph against an overwhelming social system, read Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave. 
 
Published in 1845, Douglass’s autobiography became the best known of what we now call freedom narratives (formerly slave narratives) and one of several that Harriet Beecher Stowe drew on when she wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin.  Although we know of only one meeting between Harriet and Frederick, they became friends and gave each other much needed public support.
 
Douglass summarizes his book in one brilliant sentence: “You have seen how a man was made a slave; now you shall see how a slave was made a man.”  To see what he means, you can download the book free at http://utc.iath.virginia.edu/abolitn/dougnarrhp.html
 
As Douglass’s remarkable life unfolded, he added to his autobiography in three more editions, but he’s best known for this one.
 
If you’ve already read Douglass’s story, we’d love to know what incidents or insights made the deepest impression on you or what you found most inspiring or impressive about the book.  Maybe you saw connections with other autobiographies.  We’d like to hear about those too or any other observations or questions about the book.

About the author:
Dr. John Getz, Professor Emeritus, Xavier University, retired in 2017 after teaching English there for 45 years.  He specializes in American literature, especially nineteenth century, as well as the intersections of literature and peace studies. He has written articles on a variety of authors including Edith Wharton, Sherwood Anderson, and Ursula Le Guin. He appears in the documentary film Becoming Harriet Beecher Stowe, scheduled for release in spring 2020 by Fourth Wall Films.   

Days ago, SewMasks4Cincy was organized as a virtual sewing group to address the shortage of masks for the brave souls in the front lines of the battle against coronavirus.  The people behind this effort have struck a chord, bringing together friends, neighbors, strangers--everyone and anyone who can take matters into their own hands; sewing masks, donating fabric, loaning sewing machines, picking up masks, and delivering them to beleaguered workers in need of protection against an unseen and deadly foe. Formed on March 20, 2020, by Tuesday the 24th their Facebook page had over 5,600 followers, like a car going from zero to 100mph in 3 seconds.  Thanks to their dedication, thousands of masks are being made and delivered--at no cost--to those most in need of protection.
 
One hundred and seventy years ago, desperate people among us were fighting for their lives against another invisible enemy…prejudice and its physical manifestation: slavery. Before the Civil War, the brave freedom seekers wading across the river or jumping from skiffs and steamboats at the Public Landing were those most in need of protection.
 
Those risking their lives to cross the Ohio River arrived at a time when they were exhausted and at their most vulnerable.  The penalty if they were captured was torture, physical and psychological, which would scar them for life if they survived. What they needed the most the instant they set foot on the waterfront was a way to look as if they were not in the process of escape. The clothes and rags they wore made them easy marks for professional slave catchers and outraged owners. They needed a disguise, and that’s where Sarah Otis Ernst and the antebellum, abolitionist version of SewMasks4Cincy enters the story.
 
Descended from Pilgrims and abolitionists, Sarah arrived in Cincinnati in 1841, married a wealthy widower, and immediately established herself as a person of action, not only words. Sensing a solution to assist what she noted as “the Fugitives of whom from 600 to a thousand passed through our city annually,” she formed the Cincinnati Anti-Slavery Sewing Circle in 1846.  One of the early members was Margaret Bailey, whose husband Gamaliel advanced the funds to Harriet Beecher Stowe, providing the financial breathing room for her to write Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1851.  Though the annual fairs the Society hosted were celebrated for raising funds and awareness of the need to help fugitives, and attracted such luminaries as William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass to chair the events, it was the day-to-day work of providing clean, presentable clothes to protect the breathless fugitives which did the most good.
 
The sewing circle had direct contacts with the Underground Railroad’s quiet heroes, including Catherine “Kitty” Doram, who escaped from the slave state of Kentucky to Ohio at the age of twelve, arriving in Cincinnati with thirty-six cents to her name. She built her modest finances into one of the largest female-owned fortunes in Cincinnati and she, her brother and sister-in-law were among the first people sought by fugitives. Together with the Anti-Slavery Sewing Circle, they gathered, cut, stitched, fitted, and distributed the product of their work to protect the most vulnerable and achieve victory.  We look forward to similar results from SewMasks4Cincy. We are joining their efforts in memory of women like Sarah and Catherine and encourage our members to do the same. 

About the author:
Chris DeSimio is a financial advisor and amateur historian in Cincinnati, Ohio. He’s been interviewed on NPR and his work has been featured  on WVXU for more than 31 years.
He has served on the board of Tall Stacks, Inc., and is currently on the board of Cincinnati Public Radio. He was president of the Friends of Harriet Beecher Stowe House from 2012 to 2019.

Updated: 3/12/2020, 10pm

This afternoon the leadership of the Ohio History Connection met to discuss site operations for the Ohio History Center, Ohio Village, and the site system, of which the Harriet Beecher Stowe House is a member.  The decision was made to close the Ohio History Center and Ohio Village to the public for the foreseeable future effective tomorrow, Friday March 13th.

The Ohio History Connection site system, including the Harriet Beecher Stowe House, will close to the public for the foreseeable future effective Saturday, March 14th. Updates will be provided when available.