Thoreau on Slavery and a Pre-Civil War Poem by Thomas J. Lees

Many of us when we think of Thoreau think of Walden, of peaceful reflection, of quiet and contemplation. We recall to mind the influence his ideas on nonviolent resistance had on men like Mohandas Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. But people are seldom so one-dimensional as to be summed up in such a snappy pigeon-hole, and Thoreau is no exception.

While reading this summer I came across a reference to Thoreau's support for the actions of John Brown* and it sent me to inquire further.

For those unfamiliar, John Brown's 1859 raid is usually cited as a critical event leading up to the Civil War. The raid was an attempt by Brown, a radical abolitionist, to start an armed slave revolt by seizing a United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Brown's raid was defeated by a detachment of U.S. Marines led by Col. Robert E. Lee, whose opinion of the man was that he was insane.

In response to John Brown's raid at Harper's Ferry, Henry David Thoreau two weeks later delivered a speech in support of John Brown's actions.

Thoreau had delivered his lecture “The Character and Actions of Capt. John Brown” for the first time in the vestry of the First Parish Meetinghouse in Concord... He delivered the speech that evening to a crowd of twenty five hundred at the Tremont Temple, and the lecture was widely reported in the newspapers.**


What struck me about this is how contradictory it seemed to and at odds with what many would believe to be his Pacifism. How could Thoreau endorse John Brown's use of violence to achieve a noble end?

Though we associate Thoreau with the idea of non-violent resistance, here in his Tremont Temple lecture Thoreau gives the strongest support possible to a man who three years earlier lead a group of anti-slavery partisans to assault and kill five pro-slavery settlers in Kansas in the Pottawatomie massacre. Thoreau makes John Brown out to be a hero. It would appear that when it comes to changing society Thoreau's support for Brown seems to put him more in alignment with the Black Panthers and Irish Republican Army (IRA) than the non-violent attitudes of Gandhi and Dr. King.

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Last week I acquired a copy of Stories and Verse of West Virginia, compiled by Ella May Turner (copyright 1923.)  The following poem, titled Slavery, appears on pages 34-35. The poem by Thomas J. Lees, a native of New Jersey, was written while he was living in Wheeling in what was then Virginia before it broke off in 1863. He also wrote poems that addressed women's issues, how little they were paid for their labors and their limited rights as people.

Slavery

On seeing a drove of Africans pass through  certain town in Virginia, Bound in Chains

Hark to the clang! What means that sound?
'Tis slavery shakes its chains--
Man dragging Man in fettes bound,
And this where freedom reigns!

Say, what have these poor wretches done,
That claims their lot should be?
Are they not punished to atone
For some great robbery?

Or deeds of bloody homicide,
Or treason 'gainst the land?
Ah! no--to pamper human pride,
Man chains his fellow man!

God's noblest work, through thirst for gol,
Is thus to market driven
Like herds of cattle, bought and sold,
By Christians! heirs of heaven!

Great God! does such hypocrisy
Not call for vengeance due?
Shall Freemen shout for Liberty,
And act the tyrant too!

Columbia's Sons, why will ye nurse
The serpent on your soil?
Why hug ye that which threats to curse
The fruit of all your toil?

Think ye that heav'n will bless the hand
That deals in huan blood? ----
It cannot be--this impious land
Must feel the wrath of God!

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*http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/thoreau_001.asp
**http://pastispresent.org/2011/good-sources/a-story-you-probably-didnt-know-about-john-browns-body-douglass-emerson-and-thoreau/

Eight Minutes with Northland Painter Aaron Kloss

“By the shores of Gitche Gumee,
By the shining Big-Sea-Water,
Stood the wigwam of Nokomis,
Daughter of the Moon, Nokomis.
Dark behind it rose the forest,
Rose the black and gloomy pine-trees,
Rose the firs with cones upon them...”
~H.W. Longfellow

His paintings of pines and birches show the same affection for nature that once enthralled Longfellow and Thoreau. Northland artist Aaron Kloss, however, works with a paintbrush and not a pen. His paintings evoke mystery and solemnity, and are worth the extra time it takes to find a way to see them in person.

Ennyman: When did you first take an interest in art?

Aaron Kloss: I first took an interest in art as a child. One of my favorite quotes comes from Pablo Picasso: "Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up." During school, art class was something I looked forward to every day. My teachers were so encouraging. I wanted to become a full time artist while in high school. By my senior year I figured I couldn't make much of a living off my art, but I discovered graphic design and the rest was history. I went to North Hennepin Community College in the cities, and later transferred to UMD to finish my Bachelors in Fine Arts. I majored in graphic design, that's where my head told me to go, yet my heart told me to create art. As a graphic designer I worked at several local publications which would feature fine artists in their A&E sections. Designing page layouts for these art editorials got me thinking again of art as a career...

EN: How did you get back into painting?

AK: I picked up where I left off. I love landscapes and geometric style. I wanted to somehow combine those two into painting, but it took a while. I basically just painted in acrylics and explored different styles and ideas. I was drawn to anything graphic in look and feel, anything that featured the color black. I suppose it was the way the black made the colors pop and give them life. Working towards this goal yet not reaching it was frustrating at times and I did give up. Drawing comes naturally to me, but painting was always a huge stumbling block. I worked for years as an airbrush artist and often would grab my airbrush when I was frustrated with my acrylics on canvas. The feel of the airbrush in my hand, the ease I had using the airbrush after years of experience would soothe my creative blocks and give the feeling of accomplishment. I soon noted that I needed a style, something that would be totally unique and unseen before. Something that would give my work a signature, so that people could glance at it and know I had created it. I needed to be different. I needed a style, and once again I began seeking that style through acrylics on canvas and through trial and error my style emerged one Spring day and once I saw it I knew I had found what I was searching for...

EN: Your paintings have a distinctive style. What do you call it and what attracts you to this form of expression?

AK: I love to know what people think about my work. Usually the first thing they mention is the style. Often they ask me how I get the 'squares' on the canvas. Even people who have painted years longer than I have will often ask. I just paint with a square end 'bright' brush. My paintings have several layers, each transparent, showing the layers beneath, giving an incredible depth. In many places, the black gessoed canvas beneath shows through. I would think that my intent to show my process would be the influence behind that. I'm naturally attracted to complementary colored themes in nature. Blue skies and yellow sunsets. Red cardinals and green evergreens. I'm also drawn to vertical themed compositions. That would explain my tall trees in many of my works. The negative space of a blue sky in the background is often the subject matter of my piece. Many times people will comment on what they see in the distance, then realize the huge birch trees in the foreground they completely missed because of the color in the background. The acrylics applied with the black canvas is just intriguing to many people. As far as a name for it ... I've never thought about naming my style, acrylics on black canvas does sound a little boring. Graphic expressionism would be closer to an official name for what I paint.

EN: How does your personal belief system influence your subject matter?

AK: My personal belief system doesn't directly influence my subject matter. Every artist believes something, whether or not that belief emerges in their body of work is up to the artist. I'm a Christian. I'm an artist. More importantly, I don't want to use art to market my faith, and I've never been too comfortable with sacred or religious art. I paint what attracts me, and that would be landscapes. Like my favorite artist Van Gogh, I've had several experiences with Christians that don't approve of artists or artwork. I've almost given up on art after hearing some negative critisism, but I've spurred myself on, knowing I was created to create. Maybe the best thing to say is that I would want everything I say and do and create to be a reflection of the love and grace that God has given to me.

EN: What is creativity to you?

AK: Creativity to me is creating something genuine. To reproduce or copy someone's style would be the opposite of creativity. I don't have a huge interest in taking painting workshops as I don't want to learn how to paint like someone else. I want to be original, one-of-a-kind. Creativity comes from the heart.

EN: Do you have any upcoming shows lined up?

AK: My website, www.aaronkloss.com, has a list of my upcoming shows in the right hand column. I've been very ambitious this year, scheduling shows back to back, but you only live once, and I love what I do, and want others to see my work.

June 2012 
"Urban Oasis" at Jitter's Coffee 102 West Superior St, Duluth, MN


July 24-August 20 2012 
"Intimate Landscapes" at The Vanilla Bean 812 7th Ave (Hwy 61) Two Harbors, MN


September 2012 
"Awesome Autumn" at Beaner's Central Coffeehouse 324 N. Central Ave, Duluth, MN

EN: Where can people see more of your work?

AK: My work can be seen online anytime on my website www.aaronkloss.com, or my blog which features all my paintings and often includes my thoughts for my work too http://aaronkloss.blogspot.com. In person, you can find my work at:

Blue Lake Gallery (Canal Park)
Lizzard's Art Gallery and Framing (Superior Street, Downtown)
Sivertson Gallery - Art of the North (in Grand Marais)

 EN: Thank you.

Portions of this interview originally appeared in The Reader

Thoreau’s Journal

“A perfectly healthy sentence is extremely rare.” ~ Henry David Thoreau

I don't mind repeating the statement, "If a man is worth knowing at all he is worth knowing well." And one of the best ways to know people well is through their letters (Van Gogh) and journals, especially when they have been dead for some time. In fact, journals are possibly the most intimate way to know a person, because when you meet "in person" you seldom get to the deep things in one encounter. If at a party, art opening, a lecture or passing on the street you only exchange niceties, and perhaps encounter the spirit of the person. Even then it is the spirit of the person for only that moment in time.

A journal gives you years of intimate insights as you follow the flow of a person's thoughts as it weaves its way around circumstances, experiences, the most nebulous and the most mundane fragments of a life.

It's been my pleasure to read a number of writers' journals over the years. Thomas Mann and Andre Gide were both Nobel prize winning authors and one can glean much, much, much from a writer's journals and notebooks. If you're serious about a writing career I would recommend Gide's especially. All four volumes.

I myself have endless journal entries with which I stained dozens of notebooks over a period of thirty years. Unlike Gide, or Mann, or in this case Thoreau, the "good stuff" would probably amount to a very thin book in contrast with the volume recently edited and assembled by by Damion Searls. And Searls' version of Thoreau's Journal, while a hefty volume itself, is but one tenth of the original 7,000 pages of material.

To a journal writer like myself, this is quite an output, considering that his journal work lasted only 24 years. Then again, he didn't punch a time clock from eight to five like most of us.

Thoreau's life and world were not like ours. There was no Internet. And though the industrial age was flexing its muscles he stepped back from there, retreating to space where he could become acquainted with, even intimate with the natural world. But he was not a monastic. At Emerson's house in 1857 he met John Brown, who led the raid on Harper's Ferry, one of the powder keg events preceding the Civil War. This fateful meeting caused Thoreau to take up the abolitionist banner. And though Walden is his most well-known book, his book on civil disobedience and the obligation to follow one's conscience was probably his most influential.

As nearly all journal writers do from time to time, Thoreau made entries on the process of journal writing. “We should not endeavor coolly to analyze our thoughts, but, keeping the pen even and parallel with the current, make an accurate transcript of them. Impulse is, after all, the best linguist, and for his logic, if not conformable to Aristotle, it cannot fail to be most convincing.”

I've often considered journal writing a place to hone the skill of capturing nebulous and ethereal ideas and transforming them into concrete words. Or like a man with a butterfly net whose specialty is ultimately pinning these beautiful "finds" in boxes so others can appreciate them.

This excerpt from an Amazon.com reviewer of the book explains how this particular volume was assembled. "The primary objective was to have it read as a representative version of the full journal rather than as a collection of excerpts. The editor therefore tried to balance material among the seasons and months, including keeping one of each month relatively unabridged. Another goal was to make it readable, so there is very little in the way of notes. Entries were chosen by personal preference, not historical importance. As you read, the date appears on the left page and Thoreau's age on the right so you always know where you are both in time and in his life."

Here are some of the headings for various entries:
Composition
The Loss of a Tooth
Rivers
The Dream Valley
Drifting
Aeschylus

His fragment on poetry includes this beautiful thought. “No definition of poetry is adequate unless it be poetry itself.”

Here's another excerpt, which I recently shared on my Facebook page. “Men see God in the ripple but not in the miles of still water. Of all the two-thousand miles that the St. Lawrence flows – pilgrims go only to Niagara.”

What's impressive, and surprising even, is how good the writing is. Like other writers, he used his journal to polish his craft. He appreciated the value of a good sentence, and the two million words he penned were selected, chosen, not simply thrown down to fill space in a notebook.

You can read what others have to say about this book at Amazon.com or go for the overview of his life at Wikipedia. Either way you'll be rewarded. Or you can download it to your Kindle or Nook and take it with you on your next trip.

As you embrace the day, take time to stop and smell the roses.