CMCommonwealth School Magazine Spring 2012

In this issue: Defining Race: A student’s research into how science was manipulated to support slavery A Daring Move One Moment, Many Lives Imprisoned by Poverty Walter Crump Why I Made It “Resurrection”

By Anna Gruman ’14

ur life-drawing models aren’t traditional, polished fashion models; they are everyday people, beautiful to us because we can appreciate and understand their flaws in the Ocontext of their individual elegance. What I wished to portray in this painting was not only the model’s beauty but also her humanity and reality. I chose my palette accordingly, using colors like reds and yellows to give my figure warmth. On a large canvas, seven feet tall and four feet wide, I first set out painting with a brush, but hit a roadblock when I got to her face, which I couldn’t seem to render satisfactorily. She looked increasingly inanimate, less like the person I saw before me. Stepping back and observing my painting, I judged my brushstrokes too neat, too smooth. I decided to work on the face using a small trowel palette knife, thinking that maybe the more physical way of handling paint would help me get the features right. And I achieved exactly what I’d been trying to do with my brush, which was to make the texture rougher and the colors more vibrant. With the palette knife, I was able to give the image a three-dimensional solidity and movement I hadn’t been getting before. My result is a larger-than-life fiery figure on a cool green and black backdrop. I built my composition on an axis that runs through the model’s body but begins in the upper right. There, in the mirror behind her, I painted her reflection in the same warm colors, slightly less in focus and with an uneven touch. The effect lit my painting, like the doubling of a candle’s light when put next to a mirror. It brought the picture to life and put the figure into context. Paint and the palette knife allow me to become fully immersed in what I create in a process that is wholly physical. Sometimes I can work so intently on a passage that I don’t see the entire effect until I pull myself out of and away from my painting. But all this is pure joy to me. When I paint, I feel that I’m working without effort. Creation is a compulsion, and the result is happiness.

“Resurrection” and other works of student art will be on display at Commonwealth from May 1 through June 8.

CM 1 FROM THE EDITOR

Launching a new magazine certainly was a thrill; thank you for all the comments. The challenge now is to make Issue 2 Spring 2012 each issue as inventive and fresh as its predecessor. This time around we decided on a cover story that gets at Headmaster Commonwealth a bit more obliquely, by exploring a topic William D. Wharton through the eyes of a student. Editor Last year, as a junior, Gabe Alvarez wrote a humdinger Tristan Davies ’83 [email protected] of a research paper in his U.S. History class. He considered (617) 716-0239 how elements of science (or at least what was defined as Associate Editor scientific at the time) became buttresses for the institution of Rebecca Folkman slavery in antebellum America. Gabe’s enthusiastic teacher, Design Melissa Glenn Haber ’87, sent me a copy of the paper last Jeanne Abboud spring. Soon afterwards, The Concord Review accepted it Contributing Writers for publication, the first time a Commonwealth student’s Melanie Abrams ’13 work has appeared there. Gabriel Alvarez ’12 George Boulukos ’86 This fall I tried, fruitlessly, to pull a short passage to Emily Bullitt ’03 publish in this magazine: the logical flow proved indivisible. Rebecca Folkman I used to be a scientist, and remain interested in things Ivan Krielkamp ’86 Steve Liss ’73 scientific, and I was drawn in, as I hope you will be, by this intersection of science and society. Gabe’s paper also offers www.commschool.org/cm www.facebook.com/commschoolalums a perfect example of how students at Commonwealth are encouraged to explore their (sometimes unusual) interests CM is published twice a year by Commonwealth School, 151 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA through original research. 02116, and distributed without charge to alumni/ae, Despite space constraints, we have managed to give current and former parents, and other members of the Commonwealth community. Opinions expressed you extended excerpts; but I urge you to go to www. in CM are those of the authors and subjects, and do commschool.org/cm where you can download the entire not necessarily represent the views of the school or article as it appeared in the Review. its faculty and students. As always, I invite your opinions on what you see and We welcome your comments and news at read in CM. [email protected]. Letters may be edited for style, length, clarity, and grammar. Tristan Davies ’83 Director of Communications, Editor [email protected] Printed on recycled paper. Please recycle.

2 CM CMCommonwealth School Magazine Spring 2012 Contents

Why I Made It 1 “Resurrection,” by Anna Gruman ’14 7 Your Letters 4 News 5 A quartet of retirements Debating alone Intel science honors 9 A Daring Move: Loren Crary ’03 8 Time in Africa whets an appetite for social entrepreneurship 10 Historical Perspective: Audrey Budding 9 When summer reading includes the Russian Revolution

Defining Race 10 A Commonwealth student examines how antebellum science was used to justify slavery.

Student Fiction: “The Life That You May Live” 18 “She threw her wig into the ocean. I’ve always wondered why she did it—who she was, and what made her decide.” 20 History of a Friendship 20 Parallel lives from punk to professorships

Overheard 24 Words and art from the halls and classrooms of Commonwealth

The Alumni/ae Association 25 News and events for alumni/ae

Class Notes 26 Cover: “Contraband of War,” an engraving depicting a slave who crossed the battle lines during the Civil Alumni/ae Perspective: Steve Liss ’73 36 War in search of freedom (c.1862, from the Picture “We take pictures to remind people that there are faces Collection, New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, behind issues of poverty and injustice.” and Tilden Foundations). See the story on page 10 for a student’s research into how phrenology and evolution became tools of anti-abolitionists.

CM 3 Your Letters A lex Curt iss ’13

It was a pleasure to receive the new I just read the excellent article about Ms. Siporin is even more beautiful than Commonwealth School magazine this English at Commonwealth, and I loved she was when I was there! The English week. I especially enjoyed reading Melissa it. It pleased my children and me greatly program article was very enjoyable, and Glenn Haber’s piece on the intellectual that Anne’s part in establishing the it really took me back. underpinnings of the Commonwealth English at Commonwealth enterprise English curriculum. I have fond memories was acknowledged in the article. Carrie Marotta ’94 of Beginning with Poems—the anthology Lincoln, MA edited by Reuben Brower, Anne Ferry, David Ferry P’78 P’85 and David Kalstone that is also featured Brookline, MA I just wanted to write and say how on the magazine’s cover—but I had never much I enjoyed your article on George before understood the close connection and Laverne. When I was flipping between the Commonwealth English I was glad to see that Beginning With through the magazine the other night, curriculum and Brower’s famous emphasis Poems is still used almost 40 years later [daughter] Emily saw me and told me on “reading in slow motion” in his Hum 6 but I also hope that some diversity of to stop and read that story. I did, and curriculum at Harvard. As a student, I voices has been worked in; recently I marveled at the portrayal of a deep and was not even aware that there was any have enjoyed teaching Eavan Boland, abiding friendship. Rusty’s photo was unified vision of curriculum, but I do think Patricia Smith, Marie Howe, and the perfect complement. You did a great I learned an enormous amount about how Stephen Dunn. job with it, and it made me wish to read carefully during those years. for more. Becky Moore ’75 Curtis Perry ’83 Exeter, NH Taylor McNeil P’12 Urbana, IL Arlington, MA

4 CM Ncommoewsnwealth i e s ’83 Dav T r is tan

Outgoing

Come September, a number of very familiar faces will dith Walker has been many things in her ten years at have retired from Commonwealth’s classrooms, offices, Commonwealth: math teacher, AP test coordinator, class and hallways. Escheduler, and soprano in the chorus, for starters. She also taught the City of Boston class for a number of years with the insight of a native Bostonian who has a keen interest in the city’s social and cultural history.

I look forward to having more time to travel, to work with the Museum of African American History on organizing their

s ’87 To m Kate collection, and to complete a family history project. But I will miss my time in the classroom.

ebecca Folkman has taught French, fiction writing, and film with élan since 1983 while also producing and R editing nearly all of Commonwealth’s publications for fter 35 years in Commonwealth’s front office, many of those years. She recalls her interview: where she made our prose more graceful; managed Awith Ellen Cole a substantial chunk of school As I climbed the steps and saw the cluttered and student-strewn administration; fielded all kinds of “urgent” requests from Commonwealth lobby one dark winter day of 1983, my first teachers, students, and parents; and, amidst the rush about thought, truly, was “Boy! I hope I get this job.” (Bob Vollrath, her, helped settle nerves with her calm bemusement at it all, my interviewer, told me later that another applicant took one Susan Bush retired. She did so with deliberate stealth to avoid look and said “No thanks!”) Now, after sharing 29 adventurous fanfare and celebration, but colleagues immediately felt her years of French and writing and film and editing and art with absence from the office and from the soprano section of the generations of astonishing students and colleagues, it’s time to chorus, where her strong and lovely singing added weight to say goodbye. Sad. Exciting! the young voices around her.

CM 5 Outgoing, cont. rent Whelan came to Commonwealth in 1988. He has i ana Charle s at been a stalwart close-reading mentor, and will also be Bremembered for his passion for community justice—at J odi - T times skirting beyond the left fringe of even Commonwealth’s social and political sensibilities. He looks forward to new creative explorations:

After 23 years of teaching literary texts to Commonwealth students, I am retiring in the hope of writing a few of my own. The chance to observe the rarified teaching methods of Charlie Chatfield and my other senior colleagues in the English department has been for me a second graduate education; I only hope my students have learned as much as I have. Though longing for the tranquility of my study, I will greatly miss these young people: their bustle and brightness and good will. En avant comme avant! A Musical Trio

“I will remember that concert for the rest of my life,” says senior Danny Makholm (above, left) of his participation in the Massachusetts Music Educators Association All-State concert at Symphony Hall. “It was amazing fun.” Danny joined classmate Asa Goodwillie (right) in the chorus that performed on March 1. Asa’s judgment: “I feel privileged to have had the chance to sing such beautiful music with such a talented chorus.” Bass clarinetist Ben Kim ’13 (center) also took to the stage as a member of the concert band. Ben had high praise for his ensemble’s director, T. André Feagin from the University of Texas at El Paso, “an evocative conductor whose dedication helped him make a strong personal connection with the band.”

A Winning Shot

“Horse on a Cliff” by Thornton Uhl ’14 won a Silver Key in Photography in the Boston Globe Scholastic Arts and Writing Contest. Three other students were recognized in the art awards, and eight students won 14 awards—including four Gold Keys—in the writing awards. Visit www.commschool.org/news for the full list and images of their work.

6 CM i ana Charle s at An Eye on Stem Cells Kathleen D oo her Kathleen

J odi - T or the second year in a row, a Commonwealth student has been named a semi-finalist in the Intel Science FTalent Search. Senior Eloise Wheeler-Shaw was honored for her work in the Biological Microtechnology and BioMEMS Group of the Research Laboratory of Electronics at MIT, where she refined techniques to identify cells of interest in a culture so they can be isolated and studied in detail. Eloise worked with cultures of mouse embryonic stem cells. Embryonic stem cells are defined by their abilities to differentiate into many types of mature cells and to self-renew, producing more stem cells. Even when cultured specifically to remain undifferentiated, some mouse embryonic stem cells change their appearance, which suggests that they have begun to differentiate. These cells have not been amenable to further study, however, because they are not easy to isolate using traditional methods. Eloise’s project began with a method known as polymerization-activated cell sorting, or PACS, in which a liquid polymer is added to the culture dish. A mask shields the cells one wishes to isolate and the plate is exposed to ultraviolet light, which gels the polymer and encapsulates the unwanted cells. Eloise developed ways to automate the Debating Alone identification and masking of cells. After separating the seemingly differentiated cells from those that still looked olicy debate is a raucous sport. Armed ahead of time undifferentiated, she compared several genetic markers and with the topic, “pro” and “anti” teams spend weeks showed that the seemingly differentiated cells had lower Plining up evidence—so much evidence that during the levels of self-renewal markers. actual sessions, there’s a premium on how quickly a debater can talk; the best policy debaters can speak intelligibly at 500 words a minute. The frenzy is part of the appeal for Sophie Bucci ’13, who has been debating since the summer after 9th grade, when she attended the Northwestern University Debate Institute. “At camp one of my lab leaders

described policy debate as ‘competitive thinking,’ and that D oo her Kathleen has a lot to do with why I like it,” she says.. Because Commonwealth’s small size makes a team difficult to sustain, Sophie has sometimes sought out partners from other schools, and at other events has been Commonwealth’s sole competitor. In October, she singlehandedly won the varsity division at the Greater Boston Policy Debate League’s first event of the year, held at Manchester-Essex Regional High School. Nine schools competed, including several from New York. She also placed second as both team and individual at a tournament in Iowa, and made it to the round of 16 in a competition at Harvard that attracted more than 170 debaters. Debate topics relate to current global issues or government policies. Sophie adds, “I also love that the debate world is always adapting and changing—that’s part of the fun.”

Sophie Bucci ’13 singlehandedly won the varsity division at the first Greater Boston Policy Debate League event of the year, at Manchester-Essex Regional High School.

CM 7 C o urte s ty Lo ren Crary

a young alumna: Loren A. Crary ’03 A Daring Move by Rebecca Folkman

etween her second and third years of law school at A summer working “as a bureaucrat” in Senegal for The Stanford, to the bewilderment of her friends and classmates, Millennium Challenge Corporation, a US government aid Loren Crary took a year off and went to Uganda. Her organization—“I visited rice fields and spoke French all summer”— interest in food policy had previously led her to a summer confirmed Loren’s view that “today, the private sector is the driver Bjob in Kampala, with the World Food Programme, a U.N. agency. of development.” She subscribes as well to the growing belief that There, she met Clare Murumba, a former lawyer who runs a lodge “African development will come about through food.” Her dream? for tourists in the west, “near the chimpanzees and on the way to To be part of a social entrepreneurship startup or an organization the gorillas.” empowering the private sector, like the World Food Programme. But Murumba also established Ndali Ventures, a community first she wants to “get a solid grounding in top-notch transactional organization “in rural, rural Uganda” dedicated to education, lawyering.” So next fall she will begin work at Davis Polk & health, and development, where Loren spent six months as a fellow. Wardwell, a big New York law firm, which serendipitously serves as Through the English classes she ran, “since everyone wants to learn legal advisor to the World Food Programme. English,” she also taught nutrition. And she worked to make a garden with local children. “I learned every word for every kind of vegetable in Rutooro,” the language of the area. The land, though fertile, is monocultured, the population subsisting on matoke Above: In Uganda, Loren Crary ’03, kneeling (a staple food similar to plantains). But, says Loren, “you can middle right, helps children build a new garden. encourage the children, who are curious and startlingly self-reliant, “If you decide you want to do something daring to cultivate different foods that enrich their diets.” and valuable…you can do it.”

8 CM Kathleen D oo her Kathleen

faculty spotlight: audrey budding Historical Perspective

f teaching at Commonwealth Audrey Budding says, “I The first time she taught the latter, she “suddenly became aware that treasure the autonomy, being able to decide what to teach these kids were all born in 1989, when the Berlin Wall was falling.” Oand how to teach it.” Her students, too, usually relish new Her life, she realized, is her students’ history. material. “Last year in Modern European History I introduced a For this dedicated historian, summer reading can be intense: last memoir, The World of Yesterday, by Stefan Zweig, the Austrian year Audrey finally made it all the way through Orlando Figes’ A novelist. He wrote about the years before the First World War People’s Tragedy: The Russian Revolution. “If I’ve got some spare in a way that I think conveys the sense of security but also the time, I’m likely to be reading history,” she admits. But because so restrictions.” The students were quite taken with it. “One exclaimed, much of what she has studied and teaches is “extremely grim,” she ‘I started reading on the bus and just kept reading!’ Another told me, relishes “cozies,” a genre of gentle British mystery. Just as these ‘Oh, my dentist said that it’s wonderful we’re reading this.’ Clearly, diversions help balance her inner life, Audrey says teaching at it wasn’t merely another assignment to them. On the other hand, I Commonwealth provides balance as well. “When I was teaching tried out a reading about the introduction of the potato into Prussia, at the college level I used a much smaller part of myself. Here I’m which I found very interesting. The students really didn’t. And the drawing on my experience as a scholar and also as a parent. I get to potato became a running joke in that class.” use all parts of myself, and so I feel very lucky.” Audrey, who grew up in Framingham, came to Commonwealth in 2005 with a deep understanding of European history and politics gained from studies at Harvard and the University of Cambridge, History teacher Audrey Budding came to her subject by and three years with the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade. Aside from way of Classics. “I was a Greek major in college, and I can teaching MEH and Ancient History, she has created classes entitled still recite parts of the Iliad, which is good if you’re waiting Empires and Nationalism and The Rise and Fall of Communism. in line or something. I mean, I do it silently, of course.”

CM 9 rary of C o n g re ss , P r i nt s & h t og raph D v isio n, L C- U SZC4-5321 Lib rary

An iconic image of the abolitionist movement, this woodcut was adopted as the seal of the Society for the Abolition of Slavery in England in the 1780s, and migrated overseas as the antislavery movement grew. This version appeared in a broadsheet publication of John Greenleaf Whittier’s poem, “Our Countrymen in Chains.”

10 CM Defining Race

By Gabriel Alvarez ’12

“This scholarly and extremely well- s the American abolitionist movement grew in written paper describes the development strength in the decades leading up to the Civil War, of racial thinking in antebellum America, proslavery southerners felt the need to establish a which had its origin in the need to justify more cohesive argument in defense of their peculiar slavery. While most readers are aware of institution. This period was also host to the “first the influence of race on contemporary Ageneration of American professional scientists” and the founding politics, rarely are they exposed to the of the American School of Anthropology, a group of scientists ways in which science and religion dedicated to documenting the development of human beings, planted deep racist roots in American including how racial differences affected this development.1 These culture. Beginning with the cause and 19th-century scientists professed a notion of innate differences effects of Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676 and between the races, using science to support and legitimize their following arguments up to Darwin’s preexisting worldview as members of a race-conscious society. Origin of Species in 1859, Gabriel Proslavery writers adapted these findings to their own arguments Alvarez has told this little-known story.” in favor of continued slavery, framing them in a way that was more accessible to the public and using science as a supposedly —Adelaide M. Cromwell P’70, Professor unbiased source of corroborating evidence. Emerita, Boston University; co-founder By the time of the proliferation of proslavery writers and of the Boston University African Studies scientists, slavery had already become heavily entrenched in the Program and founder of the African American economic and social system, a development that began American Studies Program. just decades after the first colonies were founded on the American continent. Although there is some scholarly debate about the development of the race-based slave system in America,2 many historians argue that the first Africans brought to America had civil rights and a place in society somewhat equal to those of white servants, and that only later factors led to the shift from class- based to race-based social differentiation in southern society.3 Early

Copyright 2011, The Concord Review, Inc., excerpted by permission. Visit www.commschool.org/cm to read the entire article.

1. C. Loring Brace, “Race” is a Four-Letter Word: The Genesis of the Concept (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005) p. 80 2. this debate is discussed in: Audrey Smedley, Race in North America: Origin and Evolution of a Worldview (Colorado: Westview Press, 2007) pp. 98-107, in which Smedley presents her own conclusions about the debate, as cited below. 3. smedley cites the support of “historians Edmund Morgan (1975), Anthony S. Parent Jr. (2003), and Philip D. Morgan (1998)” for this point. In T.H. Breen, “A Changing Labor Force and Race Relations in Virginia 1660-1710,” Journal of Social History Vol. 7, no. 1 (Autumn 1973) pp. 6-7, Breen voices hesitant support for this theory, maintaining that very little is known about the earliest African Americans.

CM 11 southern colonies had very small black populations about which very little is known; Virginia, the largest southern colony at this time, likely had under 2,000 black inhabitants before the 1670s. This black “It appears that in the Negro the growth population was mostly made up of slaves and servants imported of the brain is sooner arrested than in from Barbados who already had at least a general knowledge of the European. This premature union of the English language and the European way of life.4 Not all black southerners at this time were slaves; a significant portion worked as the bones of the skull may give a clue to normal indentured servants and gained freedom after four to seven much of the mental inferiority which is years of labor.5 These blacks were probably not considered a separate class from servants and had some upward mobility, including the seen in the Negro race.” opportunity to become landowners, hold slaves of their own, or even marry a white servant with little social stigma.6 […] James Hunt, The Negro’s Place in Nature, 1863

“degenerated” into the five separate races due to environmental factors. Although Europeans pioneered this way of thinking, Americans participated in human classification during this period as well; Samuel Smith, for example, published an essay in 1787 that attempted to fix blacks’ place in nature while maintaining the orthodox position of a single creation.9 These 18th-century scientists usually based their claims not on quantitative measurements but on subjective descriptions of non-whites and cultural stereotypes.10 As most were writing from Europe and had never seen members of any race other than their own, they tended to base their evidence on personal accounts; this secondhand nature of their research may account for their relatively moderate stance on the origin of the separate races.11 Playing on the concept of the Great Chain of Being, those defending slavery in the late 18th century began to use the works of those such as Linnaeus and Blumenbach to dehumanize blacks by comparing their characteristics to those of unintelligent animals such as primates. These writings featured comparisons of black slavery

io n s As t o r, L en x, an d Ti l F un at General R e s ear c h D i v isio n, T he N w Yo r k P u b l ic Lib rary, to the servitude of domesticated animals, using this comparison as a justification for the slave system. In the late 1700s, these arguments Diagram of a “facial goniometer,” a device used to measure the facial angle in comparative anatomy. From Samuel Morton’s Crania Americana, 1839. were found in books such as Edward Long’s 1774 History of Jamaica. Long devoted his History in part to showing black inferiority by comparing blacks to primates both physically and mentally, placing As the race-based slave system became more heavily entrenched them below whites on the Great Chain of Being.12 […] into American society during the 18th century, belief in innate Despite the lack of aggressive proslavery documents in the late differences between human beings from different areas of the 18th century, Thomas Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia, a world began to gain traction with scholars from both Europe and book written for French intellectuals in 1781,13 provides strong America. These thinkers tended to base their arguments on religion evidence that southerners during this time were beginning to accept and a closely related concept known as the Great Chain of Being. the argument of black racial inferiority. In his Notes, Jefferson The Great Chain of Being attempted to establish a hierarchy for proposed a number of racial arguments about slaves that would all living things on earth, with God at the highest point followed become mainstays of the proslavery cause in the future. Like by angels, humans, animals, and plants.7 In 1735, Carl Linnaeus, a contemporary scientists of the day, Jefferson based the arguments Swedish scientist, published his Systema Naturae, which proposed he makes on personal observation and experience, which led a detailed classification of all living things based on the notion of him to conclude that blacks are “inferior to whites in...body and the Great Chain, promoting future hierarchical classifications.8 mind.”14 Like others such as Edward Long before him, Jefferson Building on Linnaeus’s findings, Johann Blumenbach, a German compared blacks with primates, claiming that black women breed physician, created a widely accepted categorization of humans into with the “oranootan” and that blacks tend to be animal-like in their five distinct races. Unlike later racial thinkers, Blumenbach and his emotions and sexuality. This “inferiority,” wrote Jefferson, posed a contemporaries adhered to the orthodox Christian position that great obstacle to the emancipation of black slaves.15 God had originally created a single, white race of man which had

9. Ibid., pp. 126-127 10. Smedley, p. 172 4. Breen, p. 6 11. Ibid., p. 174 5. smedley, p. 99 12. Ibid., p. 188 6. Ibid., pp. 104-105 13. Paul Finkelman, Defending Slavery: Proslavery Thought in the Old South 7. Ibid., p. 183 (Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2003) p. 47 8. Larry Robert Morrison, The Proslavery Argument in the Early Republic, 1790-1830 14. Jefferson, as quoted in Finkelman, p. 20 (University of Virginia, 1975) pp. 121-122 15. Ibid., p. 21

12 CM Another field of so-called science developing around this promoted it invariably ignored these problems, using their science as time was the practice of phrenology, which eventually became a way to achieve the specific result of the inferiority of blacks they inextricably linked to the proslavery argument. Although originally had decided on beforehand.22 entirely separate from racial theory, the practice strengthened Beginning in the 1830s, a new group of American scientists the developing idea of a connection between a person’s physical known as the American School of Anthropology, led by Samuel appearance and his or her mental capabilities, a connection George Morton, began to focus on scientifically classifying the supported as a justification for slavery. […] differences between races. These scientists increasingly argued Phrenologists such as George Combe, the leading American that the various races were too different to belong to the same in the field, won the support of extremely influential American species or even have the same origin, bringing together elements icons for the movement (including future President Garfield, of phrenology and polygenist theories in one scientific field. In Horace Mann, Massachusetts politician Josiah Quincy, and Walt 1830, Charles Caldwell, a North Carolina scientist, applied the Whitman).16 Scientific lectures at this time served as a prime form findings of phrenology to create the first “explicitly polygenist” of entertainment for the upper class and had a great effect on their book written in English, bringing the theory into American public audiences,17 as well as generating (in Combe’s case) up to $750 per discourse and setting the scene for Morton’s teachings.23 Morton lecture, well over the average income in America for a whole year of gained fame with his highly influential and acclaimed Crania work.18 Eventually, supporters of slavery began to use phrenology Americana in 1839, followed by Crania Aegyptiaca in 1844, in to argue that the differences in skull shape made blacks an inferior which he used some elements of phrenology to classify races based race, claiming that “people of slanting foreheads,” as blacks were on their skulls.24 As is demonstrated in a number of letters attributed shown to have, “can never become great or elevated.”19 to him, Morton was personally quite racist, and this racism was reflected in his works.25 Morton directly challenged the idea that races formed a spectrum, promoting Blumenbach’s five varieties of “I experienced pity at the sight of this mankind and describing them as completely distinct groups.26 He invented a number of advanced scientific techniques and used skull degraded and degenerate race, and measurements to determine the brain sizes of people of each race. their lot inspired compassion in me Based on these measurements, Morton attempted to place the races in thinking that they were really men. in order of intelligence; he determined that whites, or “Caucasoids,” had the largest brains, followed by two different groups of Asians, Nonetheless, it is impossible for me to “Mongoloids” and “Malays,” then Native Americans, and finally repress the feeling that they are not of Negroes. Morton argued that the differences between races were innate and not caused by climate, rendering them entirely separate the same blood as us.” species.27 This argument was based on an adherence to the biblical creation date of 4,000 bc, as Morton deemed it impossible for Louis Agassiz, correspondence, 1846 each separate race to “degenerate” from a single pair of humans in such a short period of time.28 Without ever explicitly voicing As scientists increasingly pointed out differences between the support of polygenesis, Morton strongly implied that he accepted the races, some thinkers in both America and Europe began to question theory, stating that “the physical characteristics which distinguish the biblical account that all humans descended from one original the different races... are independent of external cause,” leaving a creation. These thinkers instead proposed a theory known as separate creation as the only possibility for how these differences polygenesis, the theory that God had made a pair of each race of came about.29 In his works, Morton challenged the existing humans in a number of separate creations. This belief tied directly guidelines for species, which considered the ability to produce into the increasing social acceptance of a race-based worldview. fertile offspring to be evidence that two organisms were of the same Polygenist thinkers were actually first seen back in the Renaissance, species, an obstacle for believers in races as separate species. Morton but their position had been considered too radical to be accepted instead defined species as a “primordial organic form,” removing by mainstream society. The movement only began to gain traction this test from consideration in determining species.30 during the Enlightenment as popular thinkers such as Voltaire After Morton’s death in 1851, his cause was taken up by expressed their support of the theory.20 However, it was during the more explicitly polygenist scientists such as Josiah Clark Nott U.S. antebellum period that the movement truly took off, as those and Louis Agassiz, who took his arguments further and applied defending slavery increasingly voiced their support for the polygenist them directly to black inferiority. Nott, who has been described theory, which allowed them to treat blacks as a separate, subhuman as a “bigoted, narrow-minded racist,” became the head of the species. Unlike some aspects of the proslavery argument, polygenesis American School of Anthropology and continued Morton’s work, was never universally accepted among southerners, as it went against the teachings of the Bible.21 […] Polygenesis actually went against many known scientific facts about species, but those scientists that 22. Smedley, p. 239. It is important to note that as the Civil War approached, black inferiority was already so widely accepted across America that the debate over the validity of polygenesis was not over the existence of racial differences but over their extent and whether the races were so different they could be considered separate species. (See Smedley, p. 246) 23. Brace, p. 70 24. Ibid., pp. 81-82 16. Brace, p. 74 25. Ibid., p. 88 17. Ibid., pp. 71-72 26. Ibid., pp. 81-82 18. Ibid., p. 73 27. Ibid., p. 240 19. Richard H. Colfax, Evidence Against the Views of the Abolitionists: Consisting of Physical and Moral Proofs of the National Inferiority of the Negroes (no publisher, New York: 1833) p. 24 28. Ibid., p. 85 20. Brace, pp. 38-40 29. Ibid., p. 83 21. Finkelman, p. 15 30. Smedley, p. 242

CM 13 writing that “Morton was the first to conceive the proper plan; but, he referred to biracial people as “hybrids,” charging them with unfortunately, lived not to carry it out.”31 Agassiz, a Swiss scientist being particularly inferior and making claims about their possible originally studying fossil fish, gained a large following in the U.S. infertility, comparing them to mules.43 Later scientists such as Nott (especially in the Boston area) after he moved there in 1846 and and Agassiz continued to make completely unfounded claims about began giving speaking tours on geology and theology.32 Growing biracial people, again questioning their fertility and claiming they up in Europe, Agassiz was originally a proponent of monogenism.33 had an increased chance of birth defects. […] During his time in America, however, he saw blacks for the first time while dining with wealthy southern planters in cities such as Charleston and was completely shocked, believing there was no “Whether an original diversity of races 34 way black and white people could possibly be of the same origin. be admitted or not, the permanence As he maintained relations with southerners, he gradually adopted their proslavery worldview and used science in his books and of existing physical types will not be speaking tours to argue in favor of slavery and of polygenesis.35 questioned by any Archaeologist or This worldview led him to profess the belief that “human affairs with reference to the colored races would be far more judiciously Naturalist of the present day. Nor, by such conducted if...we were guided by a full consciousness of the real competent arbitrators, can the consequent difference existing between us and them...rather than treating them on terms of equality.”36 To support the theory of polygenesis, permanence of moral and intellectual Agassiz used ideas based on [Johann] Spurzheim’s phrenology peculiarities of types be denied.” [which emphasized a supposed link between skull shape and mental faculty], and his widespread support, especially in the Boston area, Joshua Nott, Types of Mankind, 1854 earned the theory added prestige.37 As with phrenologists Spurzheim and Combe, Agassiz’s speaking tours were extremely profitable, earning him $6,000 in the first six months alone,38 and it is possible As a reaction to the growing abolitionist movement, proslavery (although a cynical thought) that this potential for profit helped to writers during the time of Nott and Agassiz took on a highly motivate Agassiz to focus his science on more controversial topics aggressive and plain-spoken tone, attempting to gain mass popular such as racial theory that were likely to draw larger crowds. appeal. These writers also shifted the basis of their arguments to an In 1854, Nott produced his most influential work,Types of acceptance of black inferiority. The earliest proslavery arguments Mankind, with a supplement written by Agassiz. Types of Mankind focused on the religion of slaves rather than their race, casting 44 was a 700-page volume classifying the characteristics of each race, them as heathens who needed their souls saved by Christians. As explicitly promoting polygenism and defining the institution of slaves converted to Christianity and abolitionist pressures increased, slavery.39 Nott presented his basis for black inferiority as separate proslavery writers began to use “race” as a method of dehumanizing 45 from theology and rooted in “science” alone, writing that “one of blacks; as Smedley writes, “the argument that appeared to make the main objects of this volume is to show...that the diversity of more practical sense was that slavery was a means of controlling races must be accepted as fact, independently of theology.”40 These a savage, ignorant, irrational, and potentially violent population 46 arguments were especially appealing to a society in which trust for and bringing to it the blessings of civilization.” Early slavery science was on the rise, as science could claim to be unbiased and documents, such as Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia, were unmotivated by personal goals.41 often written for intellectuals and took on a scholarly tone. This was Morton and his followers during this period were especially not true in general about the wave of proslavery writings produced concerned with interracial mixing and concluded that it was in the decades leading up to the Civil War. “unnatural,” contributing to the widespread fear of racial mixing Many of these newer proslavery documents were strongly in society and allowing those in favor of slavery to use this fear as worded and unapologetic; for example, as Richard H. Colfax a weapon against abolitionism. Jefferson had previously displayed declares in the introduction to his Evidence against the Views of this fear in his Notes on the State of Virginia, referring to interracial Abolitionists, “the author does not intend to apologize to a certain 47 marriages as “staining the blood of the master,” and arguing that body of men for speaking what he conceives to be the truth.” if slaves were freed, they were “to be removed beyond the reach These writers sought to make the science of Morton, Nott, and of mixture.”42 Morton was an important contributor to this type Agassiz accessible to the public, “stripping the subject of those of thinking; due to his belief that races were separate species, technicalities which have hitherto kept it hidden from almost all but scientific men.”48 Works such as these often dropped the cloak of science to become scathing and sarcastic, asking questions about blacks such as “where has any of their native brilliancy (we 49 31. Josiah Clark Nott et al., Types of Mankind (1854), p. 50. For more general background and almost said mediocrity) been exhibited?” This style of sensational, biographical information on Nott, see Brace, p. 101. popular writing is exhibited in William J. Grayson’s [popular 1856 32. Brace, p. 97 33. Ibid., p. 97 poem] “The Hireling and the Slave” and in the works of Dr. Samuel 34. Smedley, p. 244 35. Brace, p. 100 36. Ibid., p. 102 43. Brace, p. 88 37. Ibid., p. 99 44. Smedley, pp. 115-116 38. Ibid., p. 97 45. Ibid., p. 220 39. Smedley, p. 243 46. Ibid., p. 221 40. Nott et al., p. 56 47. Colfax, p. 3 41. Smedley, p. 235 48. Ibid., p. 4 42. Jefferson, as quoted in Finkelman, p. 54 49. Ibid., pp. 26-27

14 CM rary of C o n g re ss , P r i nt s & h t og raph D v isio n, L C- U SZ62-100747 Lib rary

“The Symbolical Head,” a diagram published c.1842 by Fowler and Strachan depicting which parts of the skull phrenologists correlated with specific character traits.

Cartwright, who made fiery, radical claims about blacks, such as his with the exception of the right hip and part of the thigh” to show claim in an 1861 article that “there are no free Negroes...they are that skin color is not affected by climate.52 Most did not consider all in the service of Satan when deprived of the guardianship of the the concept of gradual change over long periods of time; as Colfax white man.”50 Even Nott’s Types of Mankind, despite its scientific argued, “if it can be shown that no Europeans who have left their nature, exhibits this style of writing at times, claiming, “[we] will native country and settled into climates equally hot with that of follow facts wherever they may lead, without regard to imaginary Ethiopia have yet manifested any approach towards the negro consequences...and no longer have any apologies to offer, nor lenient peculiarity...our belief will be well founded,” using the fact that criticism to ask.”51 African colonizers had not become black as “proof” of the fixed Antebellum proslavery writers supported the teachings of quality of race.53 These flawed arguments came about due to the Morton and his followers that species were created with specific acceptance among most proslavery writers of the biblical creation characteristics that could not change over time, concluding that date of 4,000 bc, leaving little time for gradual change; as Nott blacks were a separate species from whites and could not be treated notes, “time, as every one can see now, has affected no alteration, the same. A major goal of these proslavery writers was to “prove” even by transfer to the new world, upon African types...for 3,400 that race was not a long-term effect of climate; to do this, they often years downward.”54 As with Morton, Colfax’s notion of the fixed used shoddy, anecdotal evidence such as “white-spotted negroes” or qualities of the races led him to come up with new criteria for species cited the case of a half-black person who “was white in every part

52. Colfax, pp. 13-14 50. As quoted in Smedley, p. 247 53. Ibid., p. 15 51. Nott et al., pp. 60-61 54. Nott et al., p. 255

CM 15 courageous and proud but often too much so, that Asians were cunning but cowardly, and that blacks were lazy and submissive.62 “I was living among freemen; and was, in Acceptance of black stereotypes, both of physical and personality all respects, equal to them by nature and traits, contributed heavily to the proslavery argument, providing more ways in which blacks could be described as inferior. Colfax, by attainments. Why should I be a slave?” for example, characterized blacks by their “black color, thick lips, flat nose, crisped woolly hair, and rank smell,” and went on to Frederick Douglass, describe laziness as a reason for their “want of capability to receive a My Bondage and Freedom, 1855 complicated education.”63 These stereotypes showed up in Grayson’s poem, which cast blacks as lazy by nature in lines such as, “...his sluggish race/luxuriates in the hot, congenital place.../a careless life of indolence he lives/fed by the fruits perpetual summer gives.”64 This stereotype of blacks as submissive invited Fitzhugh to compare (based on Morton’s), that “the figure and the color of animals, blacks to children, asking, “Would the abolitionist approve of the provided this figure and color can be regularly transmitted from one system of society that set white children free, and admitted them at generation to another, is the proper criterion of species.”55 the age of fourteen...to all the rights...which belong to adults?” And Another popular argument among proslavery writers, tied into he called such a system “criminal.”65 the idea of “nature,” was that blacks had, since their creation, been The scientific characterization of blacks as inferior “savages” in a condition of servitude. Nott’s Types of Mankind devotes an led to a worldview among proslavery writers that it was the job of entire section to proving this fact, concluding that, “we have shown white southerners to “civilize” blacks through the institution of above...that the three ‘Ethiopian’ kings...possess nothing Negroid in slavery. This tied in heavily with the popular proslavery stance of their visages,”56 and were therefore outsiders of another race ruling paternalism, the belief that slavery encouraged white masters to over the black Africans. This widely held belief implied that it was treat slaves humanely and care for them like children, an argument in blacks’ nature to be dominated, leading Colfax and others to that was of central importance to the proslavery cause. Although the conclusion that “the physical and mental differences between Negroes and white men are sufficient to warrant us in affirming that they have descended from distinct origins and therefore no alteration of the social condition of the Negro can be expected to create any “The intellectual inferiority of the negroes change in his nature,” and that “no alteration of their present social is a common, though most absurd, apology condition would be productive of the least benefit to them.”57 for personal prejudice … [T]he present As mentioned above, writers in the 1700s such as Edward Long and Thomas Jefferson had used ideas drawn from the notion of the degraded condition of that unfortunate Great Chain of Being to dehumanize blacks through comparisons race is produced by artificial causes, not by to primates. Later proslavery writers took those arguments much further, transforming “the negro” into a subhuman, half-animal the laws of nature.” creature based heavily on stereotypes.58 Phrenology played a large Lydia Marie Child, role in this characterization, as phrenologists saw a resemblance An Appeal in Favor of That Class of between the skulls of blacks and primates, leading proslavery writers Americans Called Africans, 1833 such as Colfax to argue that “that portion of the brain which presides over the organic or animal functions...will exceed in size the superior or thinking portion.”59 George Fitzhugh, an influential (though controversial) proslavery intellectual, championed these not directly citing science, those supporting paternalism drew comparisons in his writings, arguing that “like the wild horse, [the heavily on the notions of innate black inferiority that scientists had 60 negro] must be caught, tamed, and domesticated.” By far the most helped promote. In his Notes on the State of Virginia, Jefferson involved of these comparisons was James Hunt’s 1863 work On the had voiced his support for the civilizing nature of white society, Negro’s Place in Nature, which devoted itself entirely to proving citing “the improvement of the blacks in body and mind, in the that the differences between blacks and whites were far greater than first instance of their mixture with the whites.”66 Starting in the 61 those between blacks and primates. 1840s, Nott was extremely influential in using Morton’s findings The notion of hierarchical scientific classification went hand to claim a scientific backing for paternalism.67 In his Types of in hand with certain stereotypical characterizations for the Mankind, Nott argued that “Negroes imported to, or born in, the personalities of members of each race, which by the mid-1800s U.S.,” because of their “ceaseless contact with whites, from whom were seen as scientific fact and were increasingly believed by the they derive much instruction,” showed “intellectual improvement.” public. These stereotypes were, most generally, that Indians were Nott then compared American slaves to African natives, claiming

55. Colfax., p. 22 62. Brace, pp. 101-102 56. Nott et al., p. 269 63. Colfax, pp. 16, 26 57. Colfax, pp. 8, 30 64. William Grayson, “The Hireling and the Slave,” in The Hireling and the Slave, 58. Smedley, pp. 190-191 Chicora: and Other Poems (Charleston, South Carolina: McCarter & Co., 1856) p. 63 59. Colfax, p. 24 65. Fitzhugh, as quoted in Finkelman, p. 192 60. Fitzhugh, as quoted in Finkelman, p. 193 66. Jefferson, as quoted in Finkelman, p. 52 61. Smedley, p. 260 67. Smedley, p. 242

16 CM that “in Africa, owing to their natural improvidence, the Negroes are, more frequently than not, a half-starved and therefore half- developed race.”68 Part of paternalism consisted of the belief that blacks were naturally more prone to vices and criminal activity than whites, and that, as Colfax argued, “if [abolition] should go into D oo her Kathleen effect we would internally have our prisons filled and our public charities consumed because of the inability of the negroes to obtain respectable employments.”69 In “The Hireling and the Slave,” Grayson spent much of his time extolling slavery and paternalism, comparing it to the “hireling” system of labor, which he cast as cruel and harsh,70 and attesting that slavery was the most beneficial labor system for blacks, asking, “why peril, then, the Negro’s humble joys/why make him free, if freedom but destroys?/Why take from him that lot that now bestows/more than the Negro elsewhere ever knows.”71 George Fitzhugh expressed a similar view in his writings, believing that there would always be a lowest class of society, and that due to black inferiority and the benefits of paternalism, race-based slavery was the best way to fill this role.72 Fitzhugh speculated about the damage that abolition would cause to blacks and society in general, fearing that if abolition were to occur, blacks “would be far outstripped or outwitted in the chase of free competition,” and that because “the negro is improvident; he will not lay up in the summer for the wants of winter...he would become an insufferable burden to society.”73 As is evident in the works of the numerous proslavery writers of the antebellum period, the findings of racial scientists such as Q. & A. Morton, Nott, and Agassiz had an influential role in mainstream southern society. However, with the publication of Darwin’s The Origin of Species in 1859, the influence of their works gradually with the Author came to an end. In the years that followed the Civil War, the scientific view of the development of species changed dramatically CM. How did you become interested in this topic? and polygenism declined in popularity, forcing scientific racism to take on new forms. Even as the passage of the 13th Amendment Gabe Alvarez. Whenever I’ve read about slavery, I’ve always and the end of the Civil War signaled the end of American slavery, wondered, “How did the people who owned slaves ever new movements founded on racist pseudoscience began to grow in justify what they were doing?” It seemed like something so popularity. These movements included the idea of social Darwinism obviously wrong that no one could possibly argue in its favor. and the eugenics movement, both of which based many of their I found it fascinating that based on their upbringing, ordinary claims on the same principles used by Morton, Nott, and Agassiz. people could come to hold such strong opinions—opinions Although by this point many of the specific findings of these so radically different from what I believe in. Our U.S. History antebellum scientists had been discredited, the racial worldview they class touched on the rise of science and how science was often had helped create lived on even in a society in which Darwinian bent to suit public opinion and this seemed like an interesting evolution became the mainstream scientific position. angle from which to approach the proslavery argument.

CM. What was the most unusual source you used, and what was the most surprising thing you learned while “God is on the side of freedom.” researching the paper?

Frances Ellen Watkins, oratory, 1857 G.A. I read a lot of proslavery sources, including some scientific books and some pamphlets meant to incite southerners against the North. Probably the most unusual was “The Hireling and the Slave.” It’s a poem written by William J. Grayson that was quite popular in the South at the time. It justified slavery by talking about how much worse wage labor was.

68. Nott et al., p. 260 The most surprising discovery for me came in excerpts I 69. Colfax, p. 31 read from Thomas Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia. 70. Grayson, p. 18 I had heard in passing that Jefferson was racist, but in this 71. Ibid., p. 65 72. Fitzhugh, as quoted in Finkelman, p. 189 document he not only supports slavery, but he also talks about 73. Ibid., p. 190 it as a profoundly beneficial institution. It was sobering to realize the depth of his racism.

CM 17 Fiction

mall snippets, heard at family dinners. She was either my grandmother’s grandmother or my grandmother’s great- grandmother. We don’t know much else except that she S came to England from either Russia or Poland, and as the The Life boat neared the shore she threw her wig into the ocean. I’ve always wondered why she did it—who she was, and what made her decide. There are so many reasons she might have emigrated—most likely she was fleeing poverty or pogroms and searching for a better life. That You Since she wore a wig she must have been of age—was she married? Did she bring children with her? Other members of her family? There are so many possibilities: the images dance through my mind.

n n n May Live Maybe the wig grew hot and heavy, the wet summer air weighing it down. Damp, sweat, the pressing of the crowd and the swaying of the ship, and the waves that lapped and lapped on its sides. She By Melanie Abrams ’13 pressed herself to the side of the ship, watching the tongues of water curl back and forth and the clouds twist and curl, blue-green and pale. Faces danced through her mind, and the woman’s stomach moved with them. Salt sprayed her face, refreshing for a moment Photo Collage: “Shattered,” by Colin McIsaac ’14 before the sun warmed it. The woman lifted the wig off her head and held it with one hand, letting the wind tease her cramped hair and pull it away from her. The breeze on the back of her neck, she

18 CM breathed deeply and slowly, the heat leaving. The woman took the wig in both hands and heaved it overboard, a sacrifice to the sickening waves, and turned to look towards the shore, her She did not belong where she was shoulders drooping with relief. The wig writhed in the water behind going. She cast her eyes about her at her, sinking just under the foam, its curls twisting like the tentacles of a blond sea anemone. the escaping faces and knew she would n n n have to escape herself. With a wild Maybe the air stung her cheeks, cold rippling off the dark water. gesture she threw her wig into the The outline of England was growing sharper, and her eyes widened. The woman drew the folds of her fraying shawl closer to her, ocean and joined the crowd. bringing it up around her face. Her breath kept her mouth warm, but the air still whistled around her dry eyes and nose. She stood, wanting to move back into the warm crowd but wanting more to see the approaching shore. Clean lines and shadows shot up from the stones of tall buildings, far enough away to seem colorless. But Maybe the woman knotted her hands, wondering what her beautiful, so beautiful. Through her mouth she inhaled the familiar life would be like. Abstract words and promises couldn’t paint a smells of home that seemed woven into the shawl. But new, cold, picture—if all she knew was one thing, how could she just imagine salt-water scents crept in through her nose, strange, so strange. The “better”? What would be better? Surely some things would be worse woman felt small and shabby, her face and body enveloped by dirty too. It was this, the unknown without a face, that frightened her. It fabric and her hair by a wig. Small hands clutched at the folds of was growing nearer, she could see it in the distance, and the outlines her skirt, left grimy prints. Her hands shook as she pulled the wig of buildings seemed monstrous in their uncertainty. The woman’s from her head. Cold, wet air ripped her tangled graying hair from stomach was a molten lump of worry, churning and lurching with her head and pulled it back and forth. The woman dropped the wig fear. Her heart raced quicker and sharper than usual, as it had been overboard and watched it grow faint and colorless behind her. speeding up for days, and was now so different from its familiar

n n n rhythmic thump. She put a hand on her wrist and felt her pulse, Maybe the woman felt the fog around her like a shroud. It was trying to calm it by breathing slowly, in and out. In, out, in, out. as if the air itself was thickened and condensed, altered. She felt But it sped along, like the boat, like life. She gave up and listened strangely protected by this distortion of light and air, as though it to her heart pound and the waves pound like the many feet of an were a curtain to shield her from what lay behind and ahead. She alien creature chasing her. No, she wouldn’t stop and let those took off her wig and dangled it by one curly, false lock, glaring at things come; she stood up and cast her eyes about for some way it, her hands shaking with a furtive anger. She looked overboard, to change what lay ahead, prepare herself for it, in some way to imagining the wig falling out of sight behind her, drifting back to change herself. She threw her wig overboard, not taking her eyes off her old home where it belonged. What they would say! But still, of England in front, and stood to face the shore. but still. She did not want to put it back on—why should she? She n n n looked around but saw no familiar faces near to her—only outlines Maybe the woman watched twilight creep in and cast a of strangers. What would they think? She laughed softly as she melancholy shadow across the water. The sun had shone so brightly leaned overboard and let the wig drop from her hands and melt into that day until it sank, leaving blood-colored light dripping across the fog. the horizon for a while. But even that had faded to a purple tint

n n n on the clouds. For a short period of time every day, the woman’s Maybe the woman stared at the people on the boat. So many favorite, the world was dark blue. All shapes and faces seemed eerie faces, but only one expression. What was it? Not quite hope, not and new, fluttering in and out of shadow. As a child the mystery of quite sickness, not quite longing or desperation or hate or fear, twilight had enthralled her—it still did but differently this time, for definitely not joy. A sort of tired determination and a deep wanting. another mystery pressed upon her. Alone, she crept, like a criminal, Even the little ones had it, hard lines on their small mouths and like a detective, to the edge of the boat. Strangely, the blue of the delicate chins. Eyes dancing and crying with salt-spray. Did she have water matched the shade of the sky—it was as if she looked down that expression too? She wanted to, she wanted escape more than upon the barrier to the air, not the sea, and she were underwater in anything. That was surely what she had seen on all their faces— this strange twilight universe tucked into the gap between day and escape. They all needed to escape something—why else would they night. She felt she could do anything, say anything, and it would go on a boat across the ocean? This boat that creaked in the night have no bearing on the real world. She was her own, traveling from like a dying tree, full of sickness and rotting and long, long days. her home that was now foreign to the foreign land that would be Had she escaped? Somewhat no doubt. But she was tied home by home. The woman threw her wig into the ocean of the darkening a million threads, stretched thin but unbroken by distance. Her sky, and it landed in the sea that was the air. It floated, drifting in clothing was of home—she could sew new clothing. Her family limbo, and the diminishing light colored its pale threads the blue was still home—she would write, always write. Her language was and purple of an old bruise. of home—she could learn to speak English but she would always speak of home in her mind. She did not belong where she was going. She cast her eyes about her at the escaping faces and knew she would have to escape herself. With a wild gesture she threw her wig into the ocean and joined the crowd. This story received a Gold Key in the Boston Globe Scholastic Writing Awards.

n n n “Shattered” received a Silver Key in the Scholastic Art Awards.

CM 19 20 CM History of a Friendship Parallel Lives By George Boulukos ’86 and Ivan Kreilkamp ’86

Photos by Brian Krecik

hrough Commonwealth, college, post-college life in Manhattan, dating and romance, grad school, post- docs, MLA job interviews, fatherhood, tenure, and departmental negotiations, we’ve been fighting the same battles and facing the same challenges—starting longT before high school, in fact. At times it feels as if a fundamental congruity of our natures destined us for similar fates. But what really makes us such strong friends—aside from having passed through the crucible of CWS—is the intractability of our differences, which, of course, constitute the deeper source of our compatibility. Today, both married English professors in the Midwest living about five hours apart (Ivan and Sarah Pearce in Bloomington, IN, and George and Laura in Carbondale, IL), we each have two daughters, and manage to get together fairly often. Performing the history of our friendship for our colleagues at conferences has become a reliable shtick for us. It usually begins when someone asks, “So where did you guys meet?...”

CM 21 George. We tell them we went to this intense little high school that was heavily into academics, and we’ve been close friends ever since. But what fun we had figuring out what Ivan. But even before that, we were in Little League together... was cool (and uncool), rummaging

George. ... in 1980, on the worst team in Cambridgeport, “Lee’s through the cheap paperbacks in the Leaguers.” It may not surprise you to learn that two future English basement of the Harvard Book Store— professors didn’t tear up the league. Everyone called us “Lee’s Losers.” the thrill of you handing something to Ivan. George and I were the team’s battery. I was the pitcher, me and saying, “You have to get this!” maybe because I was the only one who could reach the plate with any consistency—

George. Hardly necessary—you were pretty intimidating with your squint, Little-Lord-Fauntleroy curling blond locks, and Coke- bottle glasses—

Ivan. And George was the team leader behind the plate. Actually, though, we first met in preschool, when we were four. And I can recall one time when George was in a play loft and dropped a hammer that hit future fellow Commonwealther Noah Berger ’85 (now a noted Massachusetts policy wonk) on the head. George was an impulsive kid—he always made an impression, sometimes a literal one. I imagine him up there, a kind of baby Zeus, heaving his weapon in rage...or jubilation.

George. I probably only wanted to get the attention of Noah’s sister, Laurel, our future classmate. In one of many remarkable symmetries in their lives, Ivan Kreilkamp and George Boulukos each have two daughters of similar ages. From left: Celeste Kreilkamp, Ivan, Eleni Boulukos, George, Thea Boulukos, and One Mentor to Another Iris Kreilkamp were photographed in Ivan’s Bloomington, IN, living room last Thanksgiving. George. Sometimes I think of our friendship in terms of mentoring. I have always relied on you, Ivan, both to enjoy my impulsiveness th and to help me rein it in. You have influenced me since 9 grade. of buttoned-up kid, a goody-goody, and too much of my identity Ivan was tall, well put-together, calm, prudent, and great at math. came from being a strong student. To me at age 13, George was a I am still jealous about the time I overheard two of the impossibly volatile and hilarious combination of brains, wit, and overwhelming sophisticated girls in our class praising the way he could “hang a passions—shading into compulsion—for music, books, food and t-shirt.” All that, and he shared my taste for sarcasm, dark humor, cooking, friendship, love, you name it. His capacities for outrage, and gossip—and appreciated my zaniness and intensity. He always enthusiasm, and laughter were epic, Falstaffian even (not to imply seemed to have his feet on the ground and to know his next move. I that I was Prince Hal…). was rarely sure if I was on the ground at all. Since high school, he has been there to guide me with wise counsel George. Don’t sell yourself short! Even in Little League, you led or simply as a model to follow. It’s typical that Ivan completed and the way—you got drafted and went to the “majors.” I refused, published his book* years ahead of me, in plenty of time for tenure, stayed in the minors, and managed to bat .500 the year I turned 12. and then subsequently connected me with his editor at Cambridge OK, all the other kids were probably nine, but still.... University Press, who took my book† just in time for me to submit it as part of my tenure review file. Ivan and Sarah waited until he Ivan. Well, maybe I had a few inches on you then, but by the fall had a tenure-track job before having children, whereas Laura and I of 1982, we were both 9th-grade nerds (with one college-English- imprudently got started before I even had a post-doc nailed down. To professor parent each) doing our best to leverage reading and arcane make a literary comparison, I’d say we have a smidge of the Elinor cultural knowledge into a social identity. You and Patrick Amory and Marianne relationship from Sense and Sensibility. ’83, who became a musical guru for our scene, were the school punks. You helped me shed my terrible 8th-grade musical tastes. I Ivan. Hmmm. Jane Austen doesn’t quite capture it for me (though wish I still had the mix cassette you made me that year. My favorite I do think we’d look pretty good in Regency frocks). I was a kind song on it was the Minutemen’s “Bob Dylan Wrote Propaganda Songs,” so you teased me for having predictably bourgeois, critic- approved tastes even in punk music.

*Voice and the Victorian Storyteller, 2005 George. I remember busting you for that, but in retrospect I’m not †The Grateful Slave: The Emergence of Race in Eighteenth-Century sure your tastes were really so bad, and I’m glad you were there to British and American Culture, 2008 talk me through my doctrinaire punk-only phase. I still love some of

22 CM the music you introduced me to—Steely Dan, Neil Young, the Velvet me, clowning around in front of some CWS lockers. Remember how Underground, Billie Holiday, Prince. Plus, if my musical taste was they wanted to be called the Whelps? You talked them around to the more advanced (or just more outré), your taste in literature was much Lemonheads. Well done! more sophisticated than mine. Getting me to read The Moviegoer by Walker Percy put me on a road leading away from pulpy sword-and- Ivan. We would definitely have been in the band—if we had sorcery books towards Borges, Calvino, and Raymond Carver. possessed the slightest musical ability. Or at least I liked to think that at the time. Does the practice tape of the pre-Lemonheads band you Ivan. Thanks for the compliment, but we should admit that even sang for still exist? I hope that unknown classic of ’80s punk, “Pop a as we broadened each other’s horizons, we were also terrible snobs. Zit,” hasn’t been lost to history. Good taste for us meant the likes of the Angry Samoans, Repo Man, and Flipper’s 10-minute drone epic “Sex Bomb.” Maybe we dug George. That cassette is my leverage in case any member of the out esoteric gems, but we were also closed-minded and judgmental: Lemonheads achieves true wealth and fame (beyond where they Enjoy Sting or Billy Joel? You might as well have gone door-to-door are already—successful musicians, filmmakers, getting named to canvassing for Reagan. Our attitude in those days reminds me of a People’s most-beautiful list, and so on). I plan to go all Compeyson line about Pauline Kael: her friendship could tolerate a maximum of on them, and bend them to my will. three movies about which you disagreed. (She was one of my idols, naturally.) At least the pop culture we loved was democratic in spirit, Ivan. Great Expectations reference! We read that freshman year cheap, and widely accessible if someone pointed you in the right with Mr. Hughes! And here I am still a Victorianist. Seriously, direction. We did our best to point one another. I feel like much of my academic work comes right out of my Commonwealth education. Whatever we learned and discussed—in George. You’re right about the snobbery. I have flashbacks of Eric Davis and Judith Siporin’s English and creative writing classes, regret at the mean-spirited judgments I really enjoyed passing back Ellen Kaplan’s U.S. and Modern European History, Bob Kaplan’s then. Although, Sting’s solo work is still wretched. But what fun we philosophy classes, Rusty Crump’s printmaking studio, etc.—we had figuring out what was cool (and uncool), rummaging through tried to carry it over to the records, songs, novels, and movies the cheap paperbacks in the basement of the Harvard Book Store— we consumed outside school. And vice versa. I’m still loyal to the the thrill of you handing something to me and saying, “You have to scrupulous close reading methods I learned in Commonwealth get this!” English. Your book is more cultural-historical, though. Did you feel you drifted away a bit from the Commonwealth method? Ivan. That was a big part of our friendship—passing each other records and books during the hours and hours we spent scouring George. Not really; the secret core of my book is my M.E.H. dollar bins all across Cambridge, Boston, and Allston. You’d hand training in European intellectual history! I’m also committed me a George Clinton LP, I’d trade you a scratched Joni Mitchell. to careful close analysis, as both a scholar and a teacher. No Aesthetic judgments were the focal points of so many friendships in argument—whether about Daniel Defoe or Prince’s “Kiss”— those days. They fed hours-long conversations: arguments, theorizing, is worth making without thorough evidentiary support. speculation, gossip. (Jon Bing ’86 and Sam Baker ’86 were other key interlocutors; the summer after graduation, the four of us constituted Ivan. Indeed. I’m grateful Commonwealth taught us that you can a legendarily incompetent College Pro Painting team.) I remember treat the entire world as a text to be rigorously read. And I guess putting down the phone and coming back minutes later to hear you arguing about what was cool and smart was also our way of in mid-sentence. We had so much to discuss. Was Robert Altman’s showing affection and sorting out how we fit into the world. I enjoy The Long Goodbye (screened at Hancock one year) the ultimate the way we learned that together and still bounce those tastes off Raymond Chandler adaptation? Did the lyrics of R.E.M’s Murmur each other as we move through our curiously parallel lives. mean anything at all, or was it just mumbling? Were Sonic Youth true rock geniuses? George. Occasionally, though, I find it odd that I’ve never felt a big disparity between our involvement in indie rock and punk and George. —Or did they simply lack an understanding of song form? our lives as professors. Shouldn’t those be different worlds? But I Was it OK to love trashy but catchy ’70s rock bands like Kiss? do think you’ve nailed it, Ivan—it’s about maintaining one’s ideals of taste and commitment while keeping judgments open to revision. Ivan. Godard or Truffaut? The Replacements or Hüsker Dü? For my part, I love that we each have two girls around the same Madonna or Adam Ant? Was even Prince capable of reaching the ages, and we can get them together. Your Celeste and Iris and my height of genius represented by Sly Stone’s There’s a Riot Goin’ On? Eleni and Thea have a lot in common, too—big readers all. As much as I have mellowed and grown into the Midwest, I do wish we could George. If a girl gives you a haircut at a party, does it mean she likes send the four of them to Commonwealth. you? What if she stops after one side? Ivan. They would probably start a band… and they’d probably use their iPods for instruments.

Punk Rock Roots

George. Recently at a dinner party here in Carbondale, somehow CM is interested in hearing about other close friendships that the Lemonheads came up. My colleagues couldn’t believe that we have lasted beyond Commonwealth. Let us know by emailing both appear on the Lemonheads’ 1988 Creator album—you were [email protected]. the cover model, and all four band photos on the inner sleeve are of

CM 23 Overheard

With thanks to the mostly-weekly Quote of the Week contest

One day during announcements… ar ds ’14 Mr. Sherry. “Students in my economics and linear

y so n Edw algebra classes, check your email: you have homework.” A l L Ms. Jackman. “Have you had class yet?” Mr. Sherry. “No.” Ms. Jackman. “I say again, add/drop forms are available outside the front office...”

n n n

“Oh, don’t worry about not being as smart as Einstein, he looks like a dumbass.”

n n n

A fencing coach talks to his protégés about a Commonwealth fencer…

“He is like a panda bear. A big, silly, fuzzy panda bear. “Basically, the Spartans were doing exactly what And what do you do with panda bears?” the Spartans were supposed to do—stand around and die.” “Hug them?”

n n n “NO! You HIT them!” “RNA is like a pony in that it doesn’t look like n n n a walrus.” “You could power the world with a buttered cat.” n n n

Mr. Whelan. “Is quarreling with people a skill?” apen do rp ’13 Ned. “Sam would think so.” Car i n P Sam. “I disagree!”

n n n

“The last assignment sheet and this assignment sheet are intertwined. Not in a suggestive way.”

—a history teacher

24 CM cwsaa The Commonwealth School Alumni/ae Association

Alumni/ae at This fall: Rock Assembly from the president and Reunions SanSan d r i ne L ee

i e s ’83 Dav T r is tan ello fellow pair of alumni/ ock, blues, Commonwealth ae—incisive punk, Halumni/ae! This Asocial thinkers R and funk winter the CWSAA both—enlivened this converge for an Emily Bullitt ’03 board passed the Jeff Schnapp ’72 year’s Assembly lineup. Jonatha Brooke ’81 ultra-cool alumni/ proverbial presidential First was Jeff Schnapp ae concert and baton to my eager hands. I am very thankful ’72, a professor at Harvard and the director dance party on Saturday, November to Julia Hewitt Holloway ’81 for her three of MetaLAB, a collaboration between 10 at the Fresh Pond VFW Hall, 688 years of leadership, and I’m glad she will the Graduate School of Design and the Huron Ave. in Cambridge. The lineup continue to serve on the school’s Board Berkman Center for Internet and Society, includes singer-songwriter Jonatha of Trustees. Jeff Schwartz ’96 is your new who spoke in October. Once he got over the Brooke ’81; founding Lemonhead Ben alumni/ae representative, replacing Romana “uncanny” feeling of returning to the school Deily ’86 and his band Varsity Drag; Vysatova ’82, and joining Borjana Mikic ’87 for the first time in nearly 40 years, Jeff and Johnny Hoy and the Bluefish and Julia. talked about his cutting-edge work in a zone featuring Jeremy Berlin ’80 and All former Commonwealth students are of “collapsed boundaries between science guest fiddler Josh Berlin ’82. Come members of the alumni/ae association. The and culture and the humanities,” imagining and be blown away by this group of CWSAA board runs the association, and our how fields like romance languages and Commonwealthers who actually grew focus is on helping alumni/ae stay in touch medieval culture can affect modern society. up to be rock stars. with each other and with the school. We In April, Niloofar Haeri ’77, a professor In conjunction with the concert, organize and sponsor several events including of anthropology at Johns Hopkins, talked we’re also planning reunions. If your reunions, the annual Merrill Series, and an about the series of anti-sexual-violence class year ends in 1, 2, 6, or 7, there arts-related event most years—see the item at marches dubbed “slutwalks.” An expert will be a gathering for you on Friday, right for more on this fall’s rock concert. in the effect of culture on interpersonal November 9. Let us know if you’d like The CWSAA board is always looking interaction, Niloofar argued for a more to get involved. for new members and new ideas. If you’re nuanced discussion of the connection interested in either, please get in touch with between a woman’s sartorial choices and me at [email protected]. how she is viewed by society.

Then and Now: Fencing Kathleen D oo her Kathleen

Then NOW

One of the first sports offered (wrestling and sailing were One of the school’s most successful sports with several state the others) medalists and Junior Olympic qualifiers in recent years.

Taught at the school by Mr. Merrill Based at Moe Fencing Club, coached by Elif Soyer

Foil only Foil, saber, and épée

CM 25 Steve Liss ’73

perspectives An Eye on Poverty By Steve Liss ’73

hen I was a student at Commonwealth, I In 2009 I founded AmericanPoverty.org, a non-profit believed that every American would have a alliance of photojournalists using visual storytelling to raise chance to succeed. There was injustice, to awareness about the millions of Americans who live in severe be sure, and division amongst us, but I was poverty yet remain invisible, ignored—in the current recession Wan idealistic kid and I still had a sense that ultimately we as they have been for decades—by political leaders and the were all in this together and moving in the right direction. mainstream media. At AmericanPoverty.org we take pictures Over the decades, however, much has changed. Americans to remind people that there are faces behind the issues of have moved apart geographically and spiritually; the yacht- poverty and injustice. owning “job creators” got richer, the middle class shrank, During the Great Depression, photographers created and the poor were left further and further behind. riveting images that helped mold the nation’s collective For virtually all of those years, I have been a memory and conscience, and spur compassionate action. photojournalist. I covered war in the Persian Gulf and six Seventy years later, I believe we can do it again. presidential campaigns, and I was on the field when my beloved Boston Red Sox won their first World Series in nearly 100 years. But the images that keep drawing me back Steve Liss was a staff photographer at Time for 22 years; 43 are those of American poverty, especially children. I have of his photos appeared on the magazine’s cover. His book No spent months living on the streets with homeless teenagers Place for Children: Voices from Juvenile Detention won many in Los Angeles and years photographing inside juvenile awards, including the 2006 Robert F. Kennedy Center for detention facilities, where children as young as 10, virtually Justice and Human Rights Award for Journalism. all from impoverished families, wore shackles and adult prison jumpsuits five sizes too big.

36 CM Kathleen D oo her Kathleen

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