The Black Family and Community As Contributors to Increased Academic Achievement: the Ethnographical and Historical Case of the Archer Family from 1647-2017
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The Black Family and Community as Contributors to Increased Academic Achievement: The Ethnographical and Historical Case of the Archer Family From 1647-2017 The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Douglass, Melvin. 2017. The Black Family and Community as Contributors to Increased Academic Achievement: The Ethnographical and Historical Case of the Archer Family From 1647-2017. Master's thesis, Harvard Extension School. Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:33825893 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA The Black Family and Community as Contributors to Increased Academic Achievement: The Ethnographical and Historical Case of the Archer Family from 1647-2017 Melvin Isadore Douglass A Thesis in the Field of Anthropology and Archaeology for the Degree of Master of Liberal Arts in Extension Studies Harvard University May 2017 © May 2017 Melvin Isadore Douglass Abstract The Black Family and Community as Contributors to Increased Academic Achievement: The Ethnographical and Historical Case of the Archer Family from 1647-2017, is a study that focuses on John Archer (1647-1718), who was one of the first freedman in the colony of Virginia about one hundred years prior to the American Revolution and two hundred years before the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation (Heinegg, 1994). He is the patriarch of descendants with a distinguished military and academic history dating back to the American Revolutionary War. In recent years, one of his descendants, Lieutenant Colonel Lee Archer, was the recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor and the Presidential Medal of Freedom ( Lee Archer, 1)). John Archer and his descendants lived through some of the most tumultuous times in American history and managed to achieve educational levels that were above average for the time in which they lived. In this study, the researcher constructed educational biographies of ten generations beginning with John Archer, 1647-1718; Thomas Archer, 1687-1761; John Archer, 1715-1791; Benjamin Archer, 1855-1954; Levi Archer, Sr., 1790-after 1837; Levi Archer, Jr., 1807-1855; Nancy Archer, 1857-1954; Noby Mary Archer-Lilly, 1892-1957; Esther Louvinia (Archer- Lilly)Tripp, 1927-2010 and Melvin Isadore (Archer-Lilly) Douglass, 1948-present, to see why/how certain external factors within the family and community helped to shape the lives of ten generations of members of the Archer family. The researcher interviewed members of the Archer family, personal friends, and professional associates, as well as black historians who offered additional insight on the biographies of the ten people included in the educational research. In addition, the researcher reviewed and analyzed pertinent written material that related to the ten people in this study. Included in these written materials were life histories (autobiography, letters and obituaries), historical data and fictional writings. More importantly, the three major elements that related to the literacy of the subjects were: (1) tradition, (2) external factors, and (3) good fortune. The researcher found that in each instance certain traditions played a major role in the lives of the subject under investigation. All of the subjects received and handed down certain beliefs, legends, and customs from generation to generation. The traditional values that were passed on were: piety, thrift, respect for education, and race pride. The researcher also found several external factors in the family: the family's history of manumission; the history of family literacy; the family’s worth as it related to property; the family’s size; the strong parental figures, and the family's attitude toward and support of learning. These factors contributed to the academic achievement of each person. Furthermore, the researcher found several factors within the community that were equally important to the subject under investigation: public and private learning institutions, religious institutions, and educational climate of the communities at the time. Also of major importance, the researcher found that good fortune played a role in the academic achievement of the individuals in this research report. In other words, they were at the right place at the right time. This analysis enabled the researcher to identify some of the positive factors that contributed to black academic achievement. By completing the study, the researcher hopes the findings will enable schools and other social agencies to identify and isolate factors in students that contribute to increased academic achievement, so that these factors can be used to help low academic achievers reach their fullest academic potential. In addition, the researcher aims to give a broader, more holistic picture of our larger society. Thomas says: Jesus said, “If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.” Gospel of Thomas Each generation must determine the meaning of a committed life. Each must acknowledge and understand its family history, its culture, its traditions, and its values. Each must recognize that, without the knowledge of these, the essence of being alive and connected to something greater than oneself, is lost. Existence becomes meaningless and void of substance, and what Ecclesiastes calls “vanity of vanities.” Melvin Isadore Douglass Dedicated to My Mother, Esther Louvinia (Archer-Lilly) Tripp, 1927-2010 vii Acknowledgments In order to complete a project of this type, I had to depend on the use of the qualitative interview approach to probe for details into the lives of the subjects under investigation. The qualitative interview approach allowed for an opportunity to explore the voices and experiences of the subjects. It was important to capture the essence of the subjects in their entirety to gain a clear and holistic picture into their lives. Using the above research method, the researcher relied upon information from members of the Archer family, which he was grateful to receive. Among the contributors were: Sarah Lee (Archer-Lilly) Tripp, Esther Louvinia (Archer-Lilly) Tripp, Ella Louise (Archer-Lilly) Tripp, Angeline (Archer-Lilly) Tripp, Archibald Anthony (Archer-Lilly) Tripp, William (Archer-Lilly) Brown III, Dixie Beatrice (Archer-Lilly) Jones, Eloise (Archer-Lilly) Lightfoot and Isadore Douglass. The information gathered from these sanitized narratives was helpful. However, the story of the subjects' lives lies only partly in human memory. The researcher was fortunate to find several repositories of documents, (obituaries, newspapers, books, letters, pictures, and internet sources) that provided revealing windows on their lives, in the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the Widener Library at Harvard and the East Hampton Library. As a result of the aforementioned, the researcher discovered, in the end, a story that began with people searching for a fresh start in a new world. Even with the aid of the above people interviewed and historical materials gathered, the researcher is greatly indebted to many scholars, who might gain some satisfaction from being recognized in this limited study. Each of them can be certain that their aid, in the viii development of the study focusing on the Archer family herein, was important to the researcher. The researcher owes particular gratitude to the following individuals for their generous and valuable assistance: Dr. Jayasinhji Jhala, an amiable anthropologist, who permitted the researcher to do a documentary film on the Archer family in his class entitled: Anthropology of Exploration and Discovery at Harvard in 2014; Dr. Evan Kleiman, who taught Graduate Research Methods and Scholarly Writing in Anthropology at Harvard and encouraged the researcher to write a proposal for the study on the Archer family; Dr. James Morris, who served as a research adviser for students in the field of anthropology and made insightful comments regarding ways to enhance the researcher's proposal while working tirelessly to find a research director for the development of the study from proposal to thesis; Dr. Gordon Teskey, a scholar extraordinaire, who went above and beyond the call of duty to make sure that the study was done by offering himself to serve as research director, providing painstaking editing while also giving the researcher advice and encouragement; and Dr. Gay Bullock, who served as a consultant that cheerfully and gratuitously helped the researcher assemble materials for the study and served as a proofreader. The researcher appreciates her for providing him support and inspiration every step of the way. ix Table of Contents Dedication………………………………………………………………………………………..vii Acknowledgments………………………………………………………………………………viii Chapter I. Introduction……………………………………………………………………………1 The Research Problem…………………………………………………………………….3 Definition of Terms……………………………………………………………………….8 Background of the Problem……………………………………………………………….8 Research Method………………………………………………………………………...14 Research Limitations…………………………………………………………………….18 Chapter II. From Slavery to Freedom……………………………………………………………20 John Archer (born 1647)…………………………………………………………………20 Thomas Archer (born 1686/87)………………………………………………………….24