Learning to Read

"Do Not Cheer, Men are Dying" by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1898)

The biography section touched upon Watkins Harper’s other areas of activism. “Do Not Cheer, Men are Dying” expresses Watkins Harper’s often overlooked anti-war sentiments. Written in response to the Spanish-American War, the poem showcases war’s human cost. The Spanish-American War only lasted from April into early December 1898 but cemented the US’ control over the Caribbean. Ironically, one reason the US allegedly entered the conflict was to support Cuba and the Philippines’ vie for independence from Spanish colonial rule. By the war’s end, the US expanded its colonial rule to the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Guam.

The Richmond Planet published “Do Not Cheer, Men are Dying” on December 3, 1898, seven days before the war’s conclusion, although records point that the Christian Recorder may have run it previously.

The poem’s title and epigraph came from US naval captain and Spanish-American War veteran Captain John Woodward Philip, who allegedly said the quote when he saw his men cheering at a burning enemy ship.

Watkins Harper therefore frames the poem’s mourners as not just Americans. “The widowed wife,” the “aged fathers,” and “once joyous maidens” could be citizens of Spain or any country the US might find itself fighting (Lines 10, 13, and 21).

As someone deeply invested in getting people to see each other’s humanity, “Do Not Cheer, Men are Dying” marks a natural evolution in Watkins Harper’s oeuvre. She is not just looking to make Americans equal, but everyone equal. The poem speaks out against the US’s growing imperialist tendencies, implying that the distinction between the Civil War and the Spanish-American War comes from the fact that the Civil War was fought to ensure a marginalized group’s agency and justice. While in this poem, equality and co-habitation can only exist if “each nation / Sheathes the sword and blunts the spear” (Lines 37-38).

"Aunt Chloe’s Politics" by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1872)

“Aunt Chloe’s Politics” precedes “Learning to Read” in Watkins Harper’s poetry collection “Sketches of Southern Life.”

Chloe conveys the skepticism and uncertainty many formerly enslaved people felt about politics and the people in positions of power. Like in “Learning to Read,” Chloe expresses a humility that belies her intelligence and practical goals. In “Learning to Read,” Chloe states she wants to become literate so she can read the Bible. Yet she also implies her literacy secured her the economic means to buy a house.

While Chloe states, “I don’t know very much / About these politics,” at the poem’s start, she advises the reader about the importance of communal responsibility (Lines 1-2). She states:

When we want to school our children,

If the money isn’t there,

Whether black or white have took it,

The loss we all must share (Lines 13-16).

Chloe points out that a person can fulfill their responsibility to their community through thoughtful civic engagement: “I go for voting clean” (Line 20). Watkins Harper also reiterates education as a priority for Black community as an act of healing, agency, and love at this time.

"To the Negro Farmers of the United States" by Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson (1920)

Born during the middle of Watkins Harper’s career in 1875, fellow Black writer Alice Moore Dunmore also grew up to become a writer and activist. While more known for her prose and less publicly known than Watkins Harper, Moore Dunbar-Nelson also celebrated and eulogized the complexities of African American life in the late 19th century and early-20th century.

Dunbar-Nelson’s poem “To the Negro Farmers of the United States” places Black farmers and agrarian workers as “favored ones” of God (Lines 1-2). Following the example of the Aunt Chloe poems, the poem valorizes and centers a segment of people usually looked down upon and overlooked. Dunbar-Nelson praises their ability to create instead of wage war (Dunbar-Nelson, Lines 11-14), just as Watkins Harper decried war in “Do Not Cheer, Men are Dying.”