But the civil war scattered them. Tubman went to South Carolina to establish a settlement for freed slaves and serve as a Union scout and spy. Seward spent time in Washington as the discontented wife of a cabinet member. Her household and Wright’s sent offspring to fight; both mothers anxiously awaited news of their fates. Yet in a quiet testament to her convictions, Wright told her son that he should die before helping return a slave to the South. So that Tubman could continue her indispensable work, Seward became a godmother of sorts to her ten-year-old niece.
但是美國內戰把她們分散了。塔布曼去南卡羅來納州為自由奴隸建立定居點,并擔任聯邦偵察員和間諜。蘇厄德作為一名內閣成員的妻子在華盛頓度過了一段抑郁不滿的時間。蘇厄德和賴特的家人將她們的后代送到了戰場;兩位母親都焦急地等待著有關孩子命運的消息。然而,賴特在遺囑中默默地向自己的兒子傳達自己的信念,寧死也不能把一名黑奴遣送回南方。就這樣,塔布曼繼續著她至關重要的工作,蘇厄德成了她十歲侄女的教母。
Somewhat miraculously, the war claimed just one life in this network of families. The Seward and Wright boys completed their service safely; Tubman would live until 1913. But on the night of Lincoln’s assassination, a co-conspirator came for his secretary of state as well, grievously injuring William Seward and other members of the household. Yet it was not William but Frances who perished. Physically unscathed, she never recovered from the shock of the event and died two months later. “Our calamities do not make us unmindful of the great loss our country has sustained in the death of our good president,” she wrote before the end.
有點不可思議的是,內戰只奪走了這三家人中的一條生命。蘇厄德和賴特的兒子們安全地完成了服役;塔布曼活到1913年。但在林肯遇刺當晚,一名同謀者找到當時的國務卿,重傷威廉·蘇厄德和其他家庭成員。然而,因此去世的不是威廉,而是弗朗西斯。雖然弗朗西斯的身體毫發無損,但她一直未能從這次震驚的事件中恢復過來,兩個月后就去世了。她在臨終前寫道:“縱使我們身處災難,但這不會使我們忽視偉大總統的去世給國家造成的巨大損失。”
By devoting ample space to family life, Ms Wickenden shows how domestic concerns both defined and constrained 19th-century women. Her subjects loved and wanted the best for their children, but were expected to range no further. Wright chafed at these limitations, as did Seward, whose activism created marital tension (particularly when her husband positioned himself as a moderate in the pre-war years). Yet neither Seward nor Wright went as far as their sometime collaborators Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, whose single-mindedness in pursuit of women’s equality eclipsed all else.
通過對家庭生活的充分描寫,威肯登女士展示了家庭問題是如何定義和約束19世紀的女性的。她筆下的主人公疼愛孩子,并希望自己的孩子得到最好的東西,但家人卻希望束縛住她們。賴特對這些限制感到惱火,蘇厄德也是如此,蘇厄德的行動激進甚至造成了婚姻關系的緊張(尤其是當她丈夫在內戰前站隊溫和派時)。然而,蘇厄德和賴特都沒有像他們曾經的合作者蘇珊B·安東尼和伊麗莎白·凱迪·斯坦頓那樣成功,蘇珊和伊麗莎白一心一意追求女性平等,無出其右。
The book’s weakness is conceptual. Including Tubman in the circle of friends will no doubt broaden this volume’s readership, but in every way she stands apart from her allies. Her risks and achievements so outweigh those of Seward and Wright as to place her on a different plane entirely. She belongs in the pantheon of the greatest Americans, not among genteel letter-writers sleeping warmly in their beds. Still, as Ms Wickenden observes, even Moses needed an entourage.
這本書的缺點在于其概念性。把塔布曼置于很多好友中無疑會擴大這本書的讀者群,但她又處處比盟友出眾。塔布曼面臨的風險和成就都超越了蘇沃德和賴特,以至于塔布曼的境界與其他二人也完全不同。她屬于美國偉人之流,而不能和那些白天矯揉造作寫信、晚上暖暖和和睡覺的人士混為一談。然而,正如威肯登女士所觀察到的,即使摩西也需要隨從。
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