How do you solve a problem like Theresa?

Foster, Frances Smith

Freedom's Journal is well known as the "first newspaper published by African Americans." Words written in the first issue are often quoted and generally used to define its scope and purpose: "We wish to plead our own cause. Too long have others spoken for us" (Freedom 1.1 1). The dominant story of its origins is that this newspaper was published to defend African Americans after a particularly invidious assault against the character of the race by a Jewish journalist in New York and to compensate for the exclusion of African American points of view from public media. Freedom's Journal was, everyone knows, obviously an abolitionist paper written to inform and to persuade people to oppose slavery.

I had read somewhere, in a footnote or a brief textual aside, that Freedom's Journal included fiction. I don't remember in what context or when I stumbled across this tidbit, but I do remember that at the time, Frederick Douglass's "The Heroic Slave" (1852) was regularly deemed "the first published short story" by an African American and that accolades for the "first novel by an African American" went to William Wells Brown for his first version of Clotel, which had been published in England in 1852. I am pretty sure that when I began looking for fiction in Freedom's Journal, rediscovery of Emma Dunham Kelley's Megda published in 1891 had replaced Frances E. W. Harper's Iola Leroy (1892) as the "first novel by an African American woman writer." It mattered but little that there were few clues as to who Emma Dunham Kelley was or why her novel seemed so out of synch with other African American literature of the time. Indeed, the mystery of Megda's author was soon rendered moot by the discovery of Harriet E. Wilson's Our Nig, published in 1859. Scholars were delighted to find an even earlier debut for published prose by women, so they did not press hard on the questions of genre. As P. Gabrielle Foreman asserts, "The year of 1859 was a year of important 'firsts' for African American women's writing. Frances Ellen Watkins Harper's short story "The Two Offers" appeared and Harriet E. Wilson's Our Nig became the first novel by an African American to be published in the United States" (Foreman 317). Indeed, an entry of women writers even as late as 1859 gave a certain literary cach6 to the decade that preceded the Civil War. Douglass and Brown in 1852, Harper and Wilson in 1859 both featured and expanded slavery and freedom as the heart of antebellum African American literary history.

As I worked my way through page after indistinct page of Freedom's Journal microfilm, Victor Sejour's "Le Mulatre" had become a challenger to "The Heroic Slave" for "the first" title among male African American writers. The rediscovery of Victor Sejour as an African American writer was not without controversy, however. Some questioned whether a text published in French, in France, and apparently for "the French" could be considered authentic African American literature. Others accepted Sejour as an African American; after all, he was born in New Orleans to parents with some African ancestry. But they questioned whether he could be said to represent or to have influenced "the" African American literary tradition. Others welcomed the idea of African American literature as multilingual and diverse. Adding Sejour, who was also a very popular and prolific playwright in France, also evidenced early participation in the genre of drama as well as proof of international literary acclaim for writers of African descent. And certainly the 1837 publication in La revue des colonies made the published debut of an African American fiction writer almost a generation earlier than previously thought.

Before I found "Theresa--a Haytien Tale," I knew that Freedom's Journal was much more than--indeed may not have been intended to be--an abolitionist paper. Its first issue makes that clear. Founded by a diverse group of African Americans from several cities, it was created as a "public channel" by which "whatever concerns us as a people, will ever find ready admission" (Freedom 1.1 1). While they were concerned about scurrilous attacks upon the character of people of African descent, and while they believed slavery to be inimical to God's design for humanity, these black people did not create this paper to plead their cause to white people. Even a hasty and haphazard reading of the original paper verified that Freedom's Journal was created as a medium through which people of African descent could speak for themselves about themselves primarily to themselves but also to any who would hear them. Even before I found "Theresa--a Haytien Tale," I knew that in addition to national and international news, this newspaper from its beginnings did in fact publish fiction and poetry, lectures and summaries of conferences and conversations. Freedom's Journal was what Elizabeth McHenry calls a "technological tool" designed to help build a strong and lasting African family, national or racial identity. Published and projected primarily to African Americans, it was nonetheless an international or diasporic medium with distribution from Maine to New York to Washington, DC, Maryland, North Carolina, Canada, England, and Haiti.

What's Next? and So What?

When I found "Theresa--a Haytien Tale," I had found what I had been looking for. But the discovery presented more problems. What had I found? Who had written this tale? Why was it published where it was, and why then? I also needed to decide what difference this discovery might make to black literary history? By then it was clear to me that the "first" was only the first until an earlier text was found. And I had some concern about the relevance of any contest for primacy. Finally, the best we could do would be to locate the earliest extant text. African Americanists can never be sure of what may have once existed but does no more. And what does being "first" matter? We all know there is a significant difference between a first draft and a final draft. I think that finding a prototype or identifying an archetype may have more merit than landing a "first." The cornerstones of our reconstructed literary history should be our most influential, representative, or creative texts.

I knew before I started the quest that there are many, many published texts and unpublished manuscripts hidden in plain sight, waiting only for the sufficiently diligent readers to find them. From one perspective, each piece of our history recovered is another part of the puzzle of our past. But beyond their value as artifacts, for some people they hold no more value. They deserve, rather, to rest in peace. I also know now more so than I did then that premature or unmediated publication of rediscovered texts often leads to bad theory and misinterpretation. The cases of texts attributed to the wrong authors and of authors being evicted from or ensconced in the House of Authentic African American Literature have tarnished reputations and established new ones. More seriously, inaccurate data lead to ill-formed theories and can distort our historical narratives and cultural studies. For example, mistaken identity of genre or literary conventions had led to slave narratives being dismissed as inaccurate or fabricated. One misidentification named Lydia Maria Child as author of Harriet Jacobs's Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861) and judged it to be fiction while Mattie Griffiths's Autobiography of a Female Slave (1857) was once erroneously assumed to be nonfiction and used to substantiate new paradigms for slave narratives as a genre.

African American Review, like PMLA, Legacy, and other scholarly journals, recognizes that while the fashion for literary archaeology has been replaced by the fashion for other types of scholarship in the academy, the need for a more complete and accurate corpus, canon, or reconstruction of literary history has not been abated. A theory is only as sound as the data upon which it builds. Interpretations out of context, genre misidentified, rarely found tropes and erroneous attributions pollute the pools of knowledge from which we draw the comprehension of our past and refresh our imaginations of what can be. Literature appreciates when it is properly identified and valued. Taking a satire as realism or an hyperbole as fact does irreparable harm to the artist and the art itself. Literature, I believe, has the dual responsibilities of delighting or elevating our senses even as it instructs and raises our intellects. Moreover, the professional humanist is obliged to offer the most complete and accurate definitions, narratives, and assumptions possible to those who provide the general public with its collective memories and its individual models. Without providing such, our scholars and wise people are superfluous and pedantic--deserving perhaps the smaller salaries and less respect than their Scientists counterparts that Letters professors bemoan. Not publicizing the what and the whys is also to abdicate our responsibilities to popular media and to make the prevalence of misinformation and docufiction in part our fault as well as theirs.

Given the circumstances, "Who? What? When? Why? So What? and What Now?" are important, even crucial questions. I have answered very few of them to my own satisfaction. Having located "Theresa--a Haytien Tale," I want now more solutions to the problems of "Theresa." "What Now?" for "Theresa--A Haytien Tale" was a matter readily solved by this journal issue you have before you. I know that I am not the first to find this story, and maybe this is not the first time it has been republished. But I am making its existence known in a way that seems likely to enlarge our African American literary data set while also inviting and encouraging more scholarship. What better solution than the pages of this periodical dedicated to the exposition and revelations of another recently rediscovered text, Julia C. Collins's The Curse of Caste? As a supplement to the provocative discussions and imitable demonstrations of how to deal with rediscoveries, "Theresa--a Haytien Tale" is a specimen on which readers might hone their own research and analytical tools. If nothing further is found about this story, all is not lost. In the process of trying to solve the problems of "Theresa," other scholars will find other things. At the least, this publication can temper enthusiasts who reflexively announce each new discovery as "the first."

Some of What I Know About =Theresa"

"Theresa--A Haytien Tale" was serialized in Freedom's Journal between January 18, 1828, and February 15, 1828. It is a fictionalized account of the experiences of three women: Theresa, Amanda, and their mother, Madame Paulina. Set during the Haitian revolution between 1791 and 1803, the plot is relatively simple. When her father and uncle died during the "long and bloody contest," Theresa, her sister, and their mother were "unhappy--unprotected, and exposed to all the horrors of the revolution." The three women were, however, also strong, imaginative, and courageous. Madame Paulina feared for her own life, of course, but her "greatest solicitude was for the safety of her daughters, who in the morning of life, were expanding like the foliages [sic] of the rose into elegance and beauty" from death or maybe even worse, the "shame and ruin" that their capture would make inevitable. As enemy troops approached their village, the mother disguised herself as a French officer and the daughters as her prisoners, forged identity papers, and began the dangerous and difficult quest for safety. During one of their adventures, Theresa heard information that could save the lives of Toussaint L'Overture and his men and thus insure the success of the revolution.

Character and conflict, style and setting are particularly important aspects of the tale. The protagonist is the heroic daughter of a heroic woman. The characters in this story are complex, valiant women who, finding themselves in extraordinary circumstances, disobey and "overstep the bounds of modesty." Gender is the single most important element that complicates their conflict and accentuates their heroism. The narrator emphasizes that under normal conditions, all three behave as beautiful, educated, and decorous women should. Indeed, Madame Paulina executes her imaginative and bold escape because she has been widowed by the war and only after she discovers that her plan to seek her brother's protection will not work. Theresa, too, is perplexed by her duty to obey her mother and to cause her no stress, on the one hand, and her desire to save her country, on the other hand. While I am hard pressed to call this story feminist, I recognize that stories of the lone individual who bravely changes the course of history generally have male protagonists. This story does not. True, Madame Paulina cries and sighs at every turn, but she is also inventive, resourceful, confident--and literate. Amanda does swoon, but she recovers and discovers Theresa's reassuring note that they both read "with avidity." And Theresa's self-confidence allows her love of her country to trump her duty to gender decorum. Reaching her critical decision, Theresa proclaims, "Oh Hayti!--be independent, and let Theresa be the unworthy sacrifice offered to that God, who shall raise his mighty arm in defence of thy injured children." And as she tries to evade the enemy and to warn the troops, Theresa prays the Creator to "bless the means, which through her agency," would free her people (emphasis mine).

The story is set at 18th-century St. Nicholas and its environs on the island of St. Domingo. A classic romance, the story presents a series of embedded adventurous and dangerous rites of passage after which each adventurer is restored to her community while contributing to the preservation and restoration of that community. The natural elements reflect the emotional and physical situations of the characters. The flora and fauna are lush and Edenic until "the white man, who flourished the child of sensuality, rioting on the miseries of his slaves" provokes "the sons of Africa" to arm themselves. Coconuts, oranges, and mangos sustain the fugitives; hummingbirds divert them from their fears; and lush guava trees provide shade and safety. By contrast, the bloodshed and murder have disturbed the behavior of the island's green lizards, fireflies, and bats. Trees assume more ominous aspects, and famine rules in what had been the granary of the West Indies. In "Theresa--a Haytien Tale," allusions to biblical and pagan mythologies abound, as do echoes of Shakespeare's diction, eloquence, and rhythms. But this is a story printed in an African American newspaper in the nineteenth century and the audience reading the story is primarily African American.

WHY Freedom's Journal? Why 1828?

The editors of Freedom's Journal, Samuel Cornish and John Russwurm, as well as Richard Allen, Thomas Paul, and other members of the coalition of African Americans who founded and funded the newspaper were strong supporters of Haitian emigration. From the first issue, this paper had promoted a Pan-African identity that connected the fate and fortunes of those living in the United States with others of the African diaspora. In the first issue, the editors declared that since "the relations between Hayti and this country are becoming daily more interesting, it is highly important that we have correct information." A brief history of the Haitian revolution appeared in the April 6, 1827, issue; April 20, 1827, marked the beginning of a six-part history of Hayti, and the May 6, 1827, issue included an article on Madame Christophe, former first lady of Haiti, and the first segment of a serialized biography of Toussaint L'Overture. While they did not agree with the motives and campaign of the American Colonization Society, the editors did promote various immigration projects designed by people of African descent. Freedom's Journal ran ads for agricultural workers to contract for work in Haiti, and respondents were directed to contact John Russwurm, the editor of Freedom's Journal. Overall the newspaper and its supporters played leading roles in efforts to promulgate what Elizabeth Rauh Bethel terms a lieu du memoire in which the Haitian Revolution and the American Revolution were equally important strands in the weaving of an African American cultural identity (passim).

Who was "S"?

"Theresa--a Haytien Tale" was published as an "Original Communication For The Freedom's Journal" by "S." Who "S" was, I do not know. In 19th-century periodicals, pseudonyms or pen names were common. Contributors to Freedom's Journal included "Amelia," "Omega," "A Coloured Baltimorean," "A Subscriber," "S. N.," and "G." Some regular columnists were known only as "Mr. Observer," and in the 1828 column series "The Curtain," as "Mr. Curtain." Regular correspondents sent letters that included such headings as "New Haven, July--," such greetings as "Dear Sir," and closing salutations as "Your, &c." but no signatures (Freedom 1.21 82). One assumes the paper's readers either knew who the writer was or didn't care.

Significantly, "Theresa" was marked as an "Original Communication." In early American periodical culture, reprinting from other sources was common. In fact, this practice was encouraged by what were known as "exchanges," or the custom of providing complimentary copies to other editors and receiving in turn copies of their papers. However, when items were borrowed or reprinted, generally, though not always, the paper would indicate the source. For example, a few months prior to the publication of "Theresa," Freedom's Journal published six essays on Haiti. (1) All six sections are identified as being "From the Scrap-Book of Africanus."

Concurrent with the publication of "Theresa," Freedom's Journal carried another serialized short story: "Nights in the Guard House." The newspaper noted that this story was taken from The Military Sketch Book. (2) However, the significance must not be over interpreted. In the earlier instance of the "Hayti" series, "Hayti, No. I" and "Hayti, No. II" were identified as being "From the Christian Watchman." "Hayti No. III," and "Hayti, No. VI" are not attributed to this source but are introduced as being "For the Freedom's Journal" (Freedom 20 Apr. 1827-12 Oct. 1827). (3) It was probably the case with Freedom's Journal, as it had been with the Liberator, The North Star, and The Anti-Slavery Standard, that an author might submit the same material to several papers, each of which then proclaimed the piece as having been written expressly for them.

In the early African American press, especially, such attestations enhanced a paper's uniqueness, ingenuity, and value while demonstrating that these enterprises were indeed communal conversations. Phrases such as "Original Communication" and "for the Freedom's Journal" implied more than authenticity and authority: they also proclaimed the literary and intellectual progress of African Americans themselves. Some periodicals, including the Anglo-African (1858), declared that "All articles in the Magazine, not otherwise designated, will be the products of the pens of colored men and women, from whom we earnestly solicit contributions" (4). The first issue of Freedom's Journal emphasized that it was created by African Americans and intended to be read as the production of African Americans. "To Our Readers," its first statement declares, "We wish to plead our own cause. Too long have others spoken for us" (Freedom 1.11). Its masthead decreed that "Righteousness Exhalted a Nation." Unmistakably, the paper always aimed to promote morality, education, and aesthetic appreciation as well "righteousness," and by the second year, the masthead proclamation that the paper was "Devoted to the Improvement of the coloured Population" underscored its moral emphasis. The early African American press consciously worked to showcase the journalistic and literary abilities of African Americans. It deliberately sought to develop readers and writers. Thus, it seems reasonable to conclude that texts not otherwise attributed to non-African American sources but identified as being produced "for" Freedom's Journal were created by African Americans.

At this moment, I am suspecting that "S," the author of "Theresa--A Haytien Story," may have been Prince Saunders, a New England teacher of African descent who moved to Haiti after the Revolution to organize an education system (and to convert Haitians to Protestantism). In 1816, Saunders published in London the Haytien papers, A Collection of the Very Interesting Proclamations and other Official Documents ... of the Kingdom of Hayti, and in 1819 this work had been reissued in Boston. For a while, Saunders worked in Philadelphia as an energetic advocate of African American emigration to Haiti, a country he depicted as both an asylum from racial oppression and a fertile field for dreams of material and intellectual advancement. Without having thoroughly investigated this line of inquiry, I think it safe to assume (in the absence of evidence to the contrary) both that "S" was African American and that Prince Saunders may well be "S."

It seems further helpful to note that readers of Freedom's Journal had been anxiously awaiting the publication of "Theresa," for in the January 11, 1828, issue, the editor wrote in his notes "To Correspondents," that"--[sic] Haytien Tale, by S is necessarily laid by for next week, for want of room. Other Communications are also deferred for the same reason" (Freedom 1.42 167). In the subsequent issue, which did include the first installment of "Theresa--a Haytien Tale," the editor wrote that "E and Amicus have been received and shall appear next week. S. W. is under consideration. S. [is] in our text." As promised, the next week poems by "E" and by "Amicus" were published along with the second installment of "Theresa." So, the debut of "S," or at least of "Theresa--a Haytien Tale," had been well enough known that the editor needed to acknowledge its delay and assure the readers that it was forthcoming. The context of that assurance was the acknowledgment of other submissions currently being vetted. Apparently, then, "Theresa" had a following so devoted that the delay of an installment aroused readerly alarm and an editor's need to assure readers of its eventual publication.

So, What Next? And So What?

So, what if we can never identify the author? And what if "Theresa is not the earliest published short story by an African American? We can nonetheless conclude that neither fiction as a genre, Haiti as a topic, nor (black) women as heroic protagonists were unfamiliar to the readers of Freedom's Journal. We read Freedom' s Journal and other early African American publications with the knowledge that slavery was not the only--nor always the most pressing--interest in pre-Civil War African America. We realize that freedom was understood to have many forms, some more individual and some more communal than others. We see evidence that while a patriarchal Protestant protocol informed much of early African America, it was not an unmediated mirror of dominant Euro-America. In early African American literature, as in music, art, and folklore, we discover recognition and even celebration of expediency, imagination, and improvisation. Freedom's Journal was edited and dominated by men, and "S" was probably a man. But women writers (or at least writers with feminized pseudonyms) appeared in the paper's earliest issues, and gender and women as subjects and agents were common. "Theresa--a Haytien Tale," Freedom's Journal, and the contents of other early black papers clearly challenge and complicate our current ideas about genre, gender, race, religion, and universality in early African America.

For the Freedom's Journal

"Theresa,--A Haytien Tale"

DURING the long and bloody contest, in St. Domingo, between the white man, who flourished the child of sensuality, rioting on the miseries of his slaves; had the sons of Africa, who, provoked to madness, and armed themselves against French barbarity; Madame Paulina was left a widow, unhappy--unprotected, and exposed to all the horrors of the revolution. Not without much unhappiness, she saw that if she would save her life from the inhumanity of her country's enemy, she must depart from the endeared village of her innocent childhood; still dear to her, though now it was become a theatre of many tragic scenes. The once verdant plains, round its environs had been crimsoned with the blood of innocence, and the nature of the times afforded no security to the oppressed natives of Saint Nicholas.

Famine which had usurped the place of plenty and happiness, with her associate security, were banished from the humble dwellings of the injured Haytiens.

After much unpleasant reflections on her pitiable situation, Madame Paulina resolved to address a letter, soliciting the advice of her brother, then at Cape Marie', and at the head of a party of his patriot brethren, who like him, disdained slavery, and were determined to live free men, or expire in the attempts for liberty and independence. But reason had scarce approved this suggestion of her mind, when suddenly she heard a simultaneous volley of musketry, and the appalling roaring of heavy artillery rumbling along the mountain's ridge, like terrifying thunders; to this distant warfare, the lapse of fifteen minutes brought cessation, which announced, that on either side, many that were, had ceased to be. Silence having ensued, there was a stillness in the air. All at Saint Nicholas, desirous to know the issue of the combat, remained in doubtful anxiety.

Each one's heart was the abode of fear and doubt, while the dense smoke, escaping the despot's fury, and evading the implacable resentment of those armed in the justice of their cause, was seen to overtop the dusky hills, winding its way upwards in the sulphureous columns, as if, to supplicate at the Eternal's Throne, and plead the cause of the injured.

The French in this combat with the Revolutionists, suffered much, both from the extreme sultriness of the day, and the courage of those with whom they contended; disappointed and harassed by the Islanders; they thought it a principle of policy, to resort to acts of cruelty; and to intimidate them, resolved, that none of them should be spared; but that the sword should annihilate, or compel them to submit to their wonted degradations; and St. Nicholas was the unfortunate village, first to be devoted to the resentful rage of the cruel enemy. All the natives were doomed to suffer; the mother and the infant that reposed on her bosom, fell by the same sword, while groans of the sick served only as the guides which discovered them to the inhumanity of the inexorable, at whose hands they met a miserable death.

The sun was fast receding to the west, as if ashamed of man's transactions, boasting itself in the dark mantle of twilight, when Gen. Le'--[], fired the few dwellings, then remaining in the village. Misery was now grabbed in her most terrifying robes, and terror possessed itself the heart of all, except the French, in whose hands were placed the weapons of destruction. The intelligence of defeat of the army recently stationed at Cape Marie, reached the ears of the unhappy Paulina, and with horror she heard that her beloved brother in his attempt to regain St. Nicholas, breathed out his valuable life in the cause of freedom, and for his country. But it was now no time to indulge in grief--Safety was the object of the wretched villagers.

To effect an escape from the horrors of this ominous night, was difficult in the extreme; for the passes leading out into the country were all occupied by the enemy's troops, who were not only vigilant, but relentless and cruel. Madame Paulina apprehended her own danger, but her greatest solicitude was of the safety of her daughters, who in the morning of life, were expanding, like the foliages of the rose into elegance and beauty. She had kept them long concealed from the knowledge of the enemy, whose will she knew was their law, and whose law was injustice--the mother's wretchedness, and the daughter's shame and ruin. In happier days, when peace blessed her native island, she had seen a small hut, during a summer's excursion, in an unfrequented spot, in the delightful valley of Vega Real, and on the eastern bank of the beautiful Yuma; and now she resolved if possible, to retreat thither with both her daughters.

Necessity being the source of human inventions, was now ready to commune with her mind on subjects of moment, and to give birth to the events of its decision--and in the midst of the general uproar in which the village now was--The shrieks of the defenceless, the horrible clashing of arms, and the expiring groans of the aged, Paulina hurried herself in the execution of her plans for escaping.

With a feigned passport and letter, she ingeniously contrived to pass out of the village conducting her daughters, like the pious Aeneas, through all the horrors, in which St. Nicholas was now involved.

But though protected by the mantle of night, Madame was hastening on her way to safety and quiet; she frequently would turn her eyes bathed with the dew of sorrow, and heave her farewell sigh towards her ill-fated village; and like Lot when departing out of Sodom, Paulina prayed for mercy for the enemies of her country, and the destroyers of her peace. She and her daughters, driven by cruel ambition, from their peaceful abodes were wretched. Their souls were occupied by fearful doubts and anxiety. Every whisper of the winds among the leaves of the plantain and orange trees, caused her daughters to apprehend the approach of danger, and she to heave the anxious sigh.

The green lizard crossed not the road in the way to its hole, at the noise of the fugitives feet, but they beheld through the shade of the night a body of the enemy; the distant glare of the firefly, was a light which pointed to the enemies camps; while the bat beating the [] in its nocturnal ranges, often was the false messenger of danger to the fair adventurers. Every tree kissed by the zephyrs, that ruffled its leaves, was an army approaching, and in the trunk of every decored mahogany, was seen a Frenchman in ambush--not less alarming to the fugitives, were the ripe fruit that frequently fell to the earth. Then having turned into a by-path, Paulina felt herself more secure; and with a soul oppressed with mingled grief and joy, she with maternal affection embraced her daughters, and observed to them, that however just may be the cause which induces us to practice duplicity, or the laudable object which gives birth to hypocrisy. Truth alone can make us happy, and prevent the Internal Judge of the human mind, filling us with fearful apprehensions, and painting to our Imaginations the result which would attend detection. S.

Original Communications.

For the Freedom's Journal

"Theresa,--A Haytien Tale"

MORNING had just began to peep forth, and the golden rays of the returning sun were seen to burnish the tops of the majestic cibiao mountains, when the bewildered adventurers were suddenly startled by the shrill blast of a bugle; their surprise was not less than their wretchedness, when at no great distance, they beheld approaching them a detachment of the enemy's cavalry. At this unexpected crisis Madame Paulina overcome with fearful apprehensions, trembled lest she should be wanting in the discharge of her difficult undertaking. But it was not too late; she must either act well her part or be reconducted by the foe to St. Nicholas, and there, after witnessing the destruction of those for whose happiness, she was more concerned, than for her own, receive a cruel and ignominious death.

The party of horsemen being now very near, she gave necessary instructions to her daughters, and conducted them onward with no little confidence in her success. The lieutenant, by whom the French were commanded, observing her attired in the uniform of a French officer, took her for what she was so well affected to be--(a captain of the French army) he made to her the order of the day, and enquired the time she left St. Nicholas, and whether conducting the two prisoners, (for Paulina had the presence of mind to disguise her daughters as such) she replied, and taking forth her letter, she handed it to the lieutenant. Succeeding thus far admirably, our adventuress was led to make some enquiries relative to the welfare of the French troops, stationed west of St. Nicholas, and having collected much valuable information, they parted, and Madame Paulina favoured by a ready address, and with much fortitude, escaped death--conducting the dear objects of her tender solicitude far, from the ill-fated village of their infancy.

Being informed by the lieutenant, that at the distance of a few miles, there were encamped a company of the French, she thought it judicious to avoid all public roads, and having turned into a thick grove of the Pimento trees, she proposed to her daughters to rest in this spot until darkness again should unfold her mantle.

In this grove of quiet security, the troubled souls of the fugitives ceased partially to be oppressed with fear--the milky juice of the cocoanut allayed their thirst and moistened their parched lips, and the delicious orange, and luxurious mango, in spontaneous abundance, yielded a support to their nearly exhausted natures.

Madame Paulina and her daughters were now seated under the shade of a majestic spreading Guava. The day was fast declining, and though the heat of July was intensely oppressive; in this secluded spot, the air was rendered fragrant with the variety of arometic shrubs, that grew spontaneously in this grove of peace. The hummingbird skipping capriciously from blossom to blossom, displayed its magnificent plumage, and for a while diverted the minds of the unhappy fugitives from grief and from ominous forbodings; wearied and fatigued by a journey which was not less tiresome than hazardous, their much exhausted natures, were greatly refreshed by the cool breeze which gave to their whole bodies a calm sensation, in which their souls soon participated and Madame and her eldest daughter were now lost in the arms of sleep, the kind restorer of vigour to the minds and bodies of men. All around was now still, save the western woodpecker was heard at times to peck the hollow trunk of some decayed tree, or the distant roaring of heavy cannon, which announced that all creative beings were born to enjoy peace, but man, who stimulated by ambition, is more cruel than the beasts of the forest, which soil he ever renders fertile with the blood of his victims. But Mademoiselle Theresa, the youngest of the three adventurers, greeted not sleep. The vigour of her body was indeed much exhausted, but the emotions of her mind were more active than ever; she saw with the mind's eye the great services which might be rendered to her country; she brought to her imagination the once delightful fields of her native Hayti, now dy'd with the blood of her countrymen in their righteous struggle for liberty and for independence.

Not less did she contemplate the once flourishing plantations ruined and St. Domingo once the granary of the West Indies, reduced to famine, now the island of misery, and the abode of wretchedness.

It was but the last night, that she witnessed the most terrifying scenes of her life--when the shrieks of her dying friends made her apprehend justly what her own fate must be, should she fail to effect an escape from the village of her happiest days. Theresa thought of the brave St. Clair; she imagined she saw her beloved uncle weltering in his blood, and the barbarous French fixing his venerable head on a pole, and it exposed on a cross road, as the head of a rebel. She shuddered at this thought; her soul was subdued, and the fount of grief issued from her eyes in copious streams, bathing her febrile cheeks with the dews of sorrow. "Why," said she, "O, my God! hast thou suffered they creatures to be thus afflicted in all they spacious earth? Are not we too thy children? And didst thou not cover us with this sable exterior, by which our race is distinguished, and for which they are contemned and ever been cruelly persecuted! O, my God!--my God!--be propitious to the cause of justice--Be near to the Haytiens in their righteous struggle, to obtain those rights which thou hast graciously bestowed on all they children. Raise up some few of those, who have been long degraded--give to them dominion, and enable them to govern a state of their own--so that the proud and cruel may know that thou art alike the Father of the native of the burning desert, and of the more temperate region."

Original Communications.

For the Freedom's Journal

"Theresa,--A Haytien Tale" (Continued.)

IT was in the presence of Theresa that the conversation between M. L'Motelle and her heroic mother took place. Madame Paulina, on her part leaving nothing undone, which might serve to accomplish the object for which she had been induced to practice duplicity; M. L'Motelle regarded her for what she really appeared to be; and unhesitatingly spoke of matters concerning the nature of the times; of the military and local situations of the French troops: their condition and strength were topics of interest; and Theresa learned that the distance to the camp of the brave Touissant L'Ouverture, was a single league from the place where he communicated the intelligence. Seeming to be inattentive, she pensively bent her eyes towards the earth, listening the while as he unconsciously developed many military schemes, which were about being executed, and if successful, would, in all probability, terminate in the destruction of the Revolutionists, and, in the final success of the French power in this island. These were invaluable discoveries, and could they be made known in due time to those against whose rights, their injustice was intended, it would not fail to give success to Haytien independence, disappoint the arch-enemy, and aid the cause of humanity. But, alas! important as they were to the cause of freedom, by whom shall they be carried.

Who shall reveal them to the Revoluists [sic]. No one interested was near, and they were in the possession of none friendly to the cause of justice, except the three defenceless ones. Theresa herself must be the bearer, or survive only to witness them executed agreeably to the desires of the enemy. In what manner must she act? The salvation of her oppressed country to her, was an object of no little concern; but she also owed a duty to that mother, whose tender solicitude for her happiness, could not be surpassed by any parent, and a sister too, whom she tenderly loved, and whose attachment to her was undivided. Her absence from the grove, she was confidently assured, would be to them their greatest source of affliction; it would probably terminate the already much exhausted life of her dear mother, and complete the measure of Amanda's wretchedness. Her own inexperience in the manner, she should conduct in an affair so important and hazardous, was an obstacle which in connexion with her sense of duty, and care for her mother's happiness, would deter her from embarking in it. She paused, then as if aroused by some internal agent, exclaimed, "Oh Hayti!--be independent, and let Theresa be the unworthy sacrifice offered to that God, who shall raise his mighty arm in defence of thy injured children. She drew from her bosom a pencil and wrote on a piece of bark of the Gourd tree, telling her mother and Amanda, whither she was gone--her errand; begged that, they would not be unhappy on account of her absence; that they would remain at their place of peace and quiet, until she should return to them with an escort, who should conduct them to a safer retreat, and commit them to the protection of friends. This scroll, Theresa pinned on her mother's coat, while she and Amanda were yet indulging in repose, and like an heroine of the age of chivalry, she forsook the grove of Pimento and hastened her way to the camp of L'Ouverture. She had scarce reached the third part of her journey, when her mother dreaming, that one of her daughters had been borne off by an officer of the enemy, awoke from sleep and missing Theresa, believed her dream prophetic. It was now that the keenest anguish filled her soul. Paulina wished not to live. Life to a mother thus sorely afflicted, is misery--she would go in search of the dear object of all her affliction, but where, she knew not. Keen is the grief of a mother, whose child has been forced from her. She is extremely wretched, and her affliction then, cannot be less severe, than it was when in the anguish and sorrow of her soul the dear object of her tenderest solicitude was introduced into the world, to take its station among the Probationers for eternity. Amanda was now awakened by the unhappy and pitiful grief of her bewildered mother. Hastily she enquired for her sister; Paulina in a burst of grief and wild despair, told her, she had been borne off while they slept; with half articulated accents, she related her ominous dream, and the fact was now realized in her absence from the grove. An icy chillness pervaded her whole nature--a dark mist covered her eyes--all the objects by which she was surrounded seemed to recede--her senses were bewildered, and Amanda, unobserved by her mother, swooned and fell to the earth. But soon recovering, she beheld the piece of Gourd bark pinned to the skirt of her mother's coat--she hastened to unpin--it was the hand writing of Theresa--they read it with avidity--joyful in the happy discovery, the mother and the daughter embraced each other. From neither, words found utterance. Silence was perched upon their tongues, while the tears of mingled joy and sorrow poured from their eyes; The troubles of their souls were greatly subsided, but happiness could not be restored, until the success of Theresa be ascertained, and she again be encircled in their arms.

It was uncertain whether she could, in safety reach the camp of the Revolutionists; the roads were at all times traveled by reconnoitering parties of the French; and what would be the fate of the heroic Theresa, if taken by any of them! How cruel would be her usage, particularly, if her intentions and the circumstances, which gave them birth be known. Death inevitable would deprive the world of one so fair, virtuous, and so noble.

Such were the thoughts of the mother and sister of the noble adventuress. But while they were thus grieving, Theresa, favoured by fortune, had safely arrived at the military quarters of the great Toussant: had communicated to the chieftain the object of her visit to his camp, and was receiving all the distinctions due her exalted virtue, and which her dauntless resolution so justly merited.

The sun was now fast receding behind the loft Cibao, whose rugged summits in the morning, appeared burnished by its resplendent rays, and darkness was out-stretching here spacious mantle. The orange and citron groves, and all the rich enameled luxuriance of torrid luxuries, now began to wear a sombre aspect, while the chattering Paroquet ceased to imitate man, and disturb the sweets of solitude, with prating garrulity, had retired to her roost on the sturdy logwood. Now it was, that Theresa, under a strong military escort, left the general's camp of hospitality, retracing her steps towards the grove of Pimento, where, at her departure, she left her dear mother and Amanda, enjoying calm repose; seated in a close carriage, her thoughts reverted to the deplorable state of her country; with a prophetic eye she saw the destruction of the French, and their final expulsion from her native island. She entreated the Creator, that he would bless the means, which through her agency, he had been pleased to put in the possession of her too long oppressed countrymen, and that all might be made useful to the cause of freedom. But turning her thoughts toward her mother and sister, Theresa was conscious, that her absence from the grove could not fail to have given them extreme sorrow and unhappiness; her gentle nature recoiled at the recollection, and she gave way to a flood of tears. But recollecting again the important services, she had rendered her aggrieved country and to the Haytien people--the objects which prompted her to disobedience, which induced her to overstep the bounds of modesty, and expose to immediate dangers her life and sex. She felt that her conduct was exculpated, and self-reproach was lost in the consciousness of her laudable efforts to save St. Domingo. Her noble soul reanimated, recovered its wonted calm, as the ocean its quiet motion when the gentle breeze, and the returned sunshine, succeed a tempestuous sky and boisterous winds. S.

(To be concluded in our next.)

For the Freedom's Journal

"Theresa,--A Haytien Tale" (Concluded.)

FATED to experience trials, she was now to be made more wretched than ever. St. Lewis was now near the forward progressing company of his brethren in arms. He had been despatched to the Pimento grove, to acquaint Madame Paulina and Amanda of the approach of their dear Theresa. But, alas! by whom, or how was the doleful news to be reported to the heroine? Her mother and sister were not to be found at the place where she had left them: and who shall keep the shocking intelligence from her! Already she saw him approaching; he was now near. She observed the gloomy melancholy, which settled on his brow, that plainly foretold all were not well. She inquired into the result of his journey to the grove, and as an earthquake rends the bosom of the earth, so the intelligence her gentle soul. "Oh! Theresa!--Theresa!" said she in bitter grief, "thou art the murderer of a mother and a loving sister! Where! where shall I hide me from the displeasure of heaven and the curse of man!--Oh, matricide! matricide! whither shalt thou flee from thy accusing conscience! In life I shall be wretched, and after death, oh! who shall release this soul from the bonds of self-condemnation! Oh my affectionate mother! Hast Theresa rewarded thee thus, for thy tender solicitude for her; was it for this, that thou saved me from the devouring flames of my native St. Nicholas! Was it for this, that thou didst exert all thy ingenuity, and saved me from the uplifted sword of the enemy of St. Domingo!--Oh God! forgive this matricide! Forgive Theresa, who to save her country, sacrificed a mother and a sister--Wretched Amanda! and thrice wretched is thy sister, who devoted thee to misery and death!" The body of escorts were now arrived at the Pimento grove--Theresa sprang from her carriage; hastened to the place where her mother and sister reposed at her departure. She cried in the anguish of her soul "My mother, my mother! where art thou!--Come forth--let Theresa embrace thee to her wretched bosom. Come Amanda! dear Amanda, come, and save thy loving sister from black despair! Where, cruel enemy, where have ye conducted them! If ye have murdered my dear mother and sister, let Theresa but embrace their clayey bodies, and while I bless the enemies of the Haytiens!" But her grief was unheard by those, the loss of whom she bitterly deplored; solemn silence occupied the grove, interrupted only by intervals with the moans and sobs of the men of arms, who marked her anguish of soul, and were absorbed into pity. Whither now shall Theresa bend her steps! No kind mother to guide her in life, or affectionate sister, to whom to impart the sorrow of her soul, or participate with in innocent pleasure; friendless and disconsolate, she was now left exposed to many evils, and at a time too when the assiduous care of a mother was most essential in the preservation of her well being. Theresa was on her way back to the camp of the kind Touissant L'Ourverture to claim his fatherly protection, and seek a home in the bosom of those, to whom she had rendered herself dear by her wisdom and virtue. The trampling of many horses was heard rapidly approaching, and bending its way towards the same direction. It was a party of the French troops, and she was now to witness war in all its horrors. The enemy of Haytien freedom was now near. The war trumpet now sounded the terrible blast for the engagement, and the Revolutionists like lions, rushed on to the fight with a simultaneous cry of "Freedom or Death!" The French, great in number, fought in obedience to a cruel master. The Haytiens for liberty and independence, and to obtain their rights of which they long have been unjustly deprived.

The pass between the Mole and the village St. Nicholas, drank up the lives of hundreds in their blood. The French retreated with precipitance, leaving their baggage with their gasping friends, on the spot where victory perched on the standard of freedom: And now the conquerors had began to examine the property deserted by the vanquished. A faint but mournful groan issued from a baggage cart forsaken by the enemy; directed by the light of a flambeau, captain Inginac bent thither his nimble steps. Curiosity is lost in surprise--joy succeeds sorrow--the lost ones are regained. It was Madame Paulina and Amanda, the mother and sister of the unhappy THERESA. S.

Works Cited

The Anglo-African Magazine 1.1 (Jan. 1859): 4.

Bethel, Elizabeth Rauh. "Images of Hayti: The Construction of an Afro-American Lieu De Memoire." Callaloo 15.3 (1992): 827-41.

Foreman, P. Gabrielle. "Our Nig." The Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature. Eds. William L. Andrews, Frances Smith Foster, and Trudier Harris. New York: Oxford UP, 2001. 317.

Freedom's Journal 1.1 (16 Mar. 1827): 1.

--1.21 (3 Aug. 1827): 82.

--1.42 (11 Jan. 1828): 167.

McHenry, Elizabeth. Forgotten Readers: Recovering the Lost History of African American Literary Societies. Durham: Duke UP, 2002.

Notes

(1.) I suspect that the "Christian Watchman" may have been the Christian Watchman which began publication in Boston Massachusetts in 1819 and later was renamed The Christian Watchman and Baptist Register.

(2.) A two-volume publication called The Military Sketch Book, Reminiscences of Seventeen Years in the Service Abroad and at Home, by an Officer of the Line was published in England and in the United States in 1827. I have not checked to see whether the 1828 serialization in Freedom's Journal was from this source.

(3.) "Hayti, No. IV" does not refer to the Christian Watchman nor does it state the article was "For the Freedom's Journal." The series ran from April 20, 1827 to October 12, 1827: "Hayti, No. 1." 1.6 (20 Apr. 1827): 2; "Hayti, No. II." 1.7 (27 Apr. 1827): 26; "Hayti, No. III." 1.8 (4 May 1827): 30; "Hayti, No. IV." 1.14 (15 June 1827): 54; "Hayti, No. V." 1.16 (29 June 1827): 62; and "Hayti, No. VI." 1.31 (12 Oct. 1827): 122.

Frances Smith Foster is a Charles Howard Candler Professor of English and Women's Studies at Emory University. She has published extensively on early African American Culture. Her most recent book, Love and Marriage in Ear/y African America, is an edited collection of familiar and recently discovered writings from the Afro-Protestant Press.