Retired & Buck Naked
Stafford 350 stafford’s home-grown abolitionist
By david s. kerr
The popular image, and a fairly accurate one too, was that Stafford County before the Civil War was proslavery. It was a way of life and there was virtually no one who spoke in favor of its abolition. However, there was a prominent exception. He was Stafford County’s homegrown abolitionist. His name was Moncure Daniel Conway. He was born in Falmouth, in Stafford County and was the son of a prosperous slave owner and judge. He grew up with slaves and lived in an environment where slavery was a part of everyday life. But, from an early age, while most white people in the south readily accepted slavery, Conway started to see things differently. Norman Schools, author of “Virginia Shade,” An African American History of Falmouth, Virginia, suggests that Moncure’s mother might have had something to do with his early aversion to slavery. While she wasn’t an abolitionist, she was nonetheless a fair minded and thoughtful individual. Every week she taught a class for slave children to instruct them in the catechism and to help them understand and memorize bible verses. Moncure would later recollect that Mrs. Conway was advised to stop this instruction lest it violate Virginia’s laws against teaching African Americans to read. Moncure’s mother was also a nurse and homeopathic healer who readily attended to anyone in need of her help,
black or white, without concern for payment. As Schools notes in his book Conway also had a strong and unpleasant memory of the slave jail. This thoroughly obnoxious place was where slaves were sent by their owners to be whipped for various infractions. The building is still standing and this rank symbol of oppression, so vilely administered, had a strong impact on Conway’s emerging abolitionist views. Indeed, much of his aversion to slavery, unlike so many abolitionists, came from first hand observation. Moncure Conway was a talented scholar and studied to become a Unitarian minister. By 1855, still in his early 20’s he was preaching in Washington, D.C. and in the course of his sermons made his views on slavery well known. He would eventually be dismissed for them. Though he would continue to preach far and wide. However, because of his strong abolitionist sentiments, home was no longer a welcoming place. His father made it clear that if Moncure was to continue with his anti-slavery activities he wouldn’t be welcome in Falmouth. A few years later, just before the war, Conway visited his home to introduce the family to his new bride. As family get-togethers go, this was a complete disaster, and Moncure Conway, reeling from the rejection and knowing he wasn’t welcomed in Virginia, wouldn’t visit Stafford for another 17 years. Conway’s anti-slavery activity brought him into contact with some of the luminaries of the abolitionist movement and once even shared a podium with Sojourner Truth. Conway’s religious convictions, his beginnings in the slave holding south, combined with his passionate and highly effective preaching made him one of the most prominent abolitionists in America. David S. Kerr writes about Stafford County’s 2014 Celebration of its 350 years every month here.
On The Back Porch
April 2014
Front porch fredericksburg
bulding a legacy through literacy
By A.E. bayne Think Spring by jo middleton
April and the bobbin’ robins are making whoopee and beautiful blue eggs in their nests. You know spring is here when those joyful, plump, red breasted members of the thrush family are out pulling up worms as hard and fast as they can go. Virginia worms are to be found where nobody has been weed killing their lawns and thereby finishing off the wrigglers. The happiest day in the lives of the Master Gardeners, who used to maintain the Mary Washington House garden by first redeeming its barren soil, was when one of them found A WORM! There was dancing in the streets by old girls with earth smudged faces, and brandishing hoes and trowels. Before long, thanks to the hard efforts of the MG girls, baby wormlets were everywhere, as were beautiful flower and vegetable plants which Master Gardeners swore on stacks of Colonial era seed packets were identical to those Mary Ball Washington grew back in the day. The Old Farmer’s Almanac agrees with the song “April showers bring the flowers that bloom in May!” The weathermen love those rainy clouds on their map. Gives them something to wave their arms about, and all purveyors of seeds and plants are joining the celebration. The boys and girls at Roxbury Farm and Garden Store, led by Andy Lynn of the magnificent southern drawl, have forgotten more than I’ll ever know about flowers and the like. They are over on Lafayette Boulevard near the RR station. They have seeds, of the foode type, in glass jars which they measure out for you. You’ll find the serious farmers and gardeners getting those paper bags of seeds. Out in the yard shrubs and trees are for sale to plant Southern Living style. Next stop for April shopping is Ken’s Tackle Shop up Lafayette Boulevard on Hill Street. You are there to buy the best shad lure there is, the Nungesser spoon, created by a French boy who came from France to fish and spoon. The shad have migrated from the ocean up the Rappahannock to spawn, and you will be there to meet them with instructions on how to use the lure you bought from the shad pro, Ken, the guy who owns the tackle shop. He’s owned that store for
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Carol Nicholson
thirty years, and has been on that river his whole life. You’ll be catching some very bony, feisty fish, and cooking it a long, long while. Four and one half hours to be exact. I’ll leave you to the roe of the shad. Some love the stuff, but I put it in the same category as blood pudding. It’s nice to think of spring, especially when writing this in March and snow is still on the ground. Spring is time for new beginnings and this old girl is about to conclude the Front Porch era of her life. We’ve had a good long run, you and I, and I thank you and Rob Grogan for giving me this joyful time. Cheers!
Carol Nicholson knows it’s going to be an interesting day when she hears students in her classroom talking about their latest reading passage on “schmeat”. Their laughter and teasing over the mystery meat is music to her ears, as it means they are actively engaged in their learning. Nicholson’s literacy intervention program at Spotsylvania’s Battlefield Middle School has students interacting with literature, learning reflectively, and experiencing real success in a subject that has long seemed incomprehensible. Nicholson began her teaching career in Montessori school, and those methodologies remain with her in the public school classroom. She now works as an inclusion teacher in 6th, 7th, and 8th grade English, as well as having her own self-contained English class. She says, “I think we in the profession are becoming more like Montessori teachers all the time. We’re determining kids’ strengths and weaknesses and having them work in small groups. We’re told to differentiate and individualize students’ instruction - that’s Montessori.” This background makes Nicholson uniquely suited to help her
school’s neediest readers to acquire skills that will lead them to successful outcomes. She explains her three-pronged approach to reaching students with literacy deficiencies, “We’re getting students later that are reading below grade level, so I’ve received a lot of support from my principal to create a program that will help the kids move forward. Often students are grouped and all given one program. Well, not every student has the same problem with reading. For some kids it’s a learning disability like dyslexia; for some it’s a decoding issue; for others it’s vocabulary building. While all of the interventions would be helpful, we need to treat this issue like a doctor would and say we’re going to intervene with the most severe problem. We’ll have more success if we can figure out the cause. We’ve been working hard to do that and have been making sure our interventions adhere strictly to that idea.” Nicholson’s program appears to be working. In its first year of operation, her students raised their reading levels at least one academic year. This year promises to be similar with about 60% of students who are participating showing
photo by bob martin significant improvement. Nicholson notes, “If you get to the middle school years and you’re still reading at a second grade level, you’ve been resistant to intervention. Many students in the program have improved, and some have attained grade level; one has even graduated from the program. However, those are the kids who are easy; the kids that are really struggling need more intervention. For these, sometimes you’ll see a little bump at the end of the year and a huge growth the second year.” An added bonus of the program has been improved writing skills. Nicholson says, “For most students, writing becomes secondary. Once you can read and have an understanding of the way words work together, then your writing gets better. We use prediction and reflective writing. It goes from me having to basically help them write their first journals at the
beginning of the year, to the students being able to look at their improvements and say, ‘Well, Mrs. Nicholson, I am here, but I want to be here.’” As the program closes its second year, Nicholson assures, “I have a lot of hope for public education. Teachers are focused student growth and how to intervene to help them improve. Above all, we have to make sure we do everything we can to help kids to read. It’s a must. I am passionate about it, and I hope I’m always working with literacy in education.” Do you know an area educator who is doing great things in the classroom? Send r e c o m m e n d a t i o n s to baynefrontporch@gmail.com. A.E. Bayne is Fredericksburg teacher, writer, artist, and monthly contributing columnist for Front Porch Magazine.
Jewel Box Since 1940 Your Hometown Jeweler On-Premise Jewelry Repair Watch Batteries Gold Buying Engraving 212 William Street,Fredericksburg 540-373-5513 Mon-Fri 9-5:30; Sat 9-5 front porch fredericksburg
April 2014
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