March is National Women's History Month. Since 2007,
I have participated in the organization's mission to "…recognize and
celebrate the diverse and historic accomplishments of women by providing
information and educational materials and programs."
From left to right in the picture, authors Suzanne Adair, Phyllis Harrison, and Sharon Ewell Foster at East
Regional Library in Knightdale on 8 March. Our panel had a small audience that
afternoon because we'd just been inflicted with the spring time change, and
everyone was running an hour behind schedule. But our discussion was
phenomenal. In one thread, we talked about the suppression of religion
experienced by various groups throughout history. For example, export a
captured Yoruban into slavery on Saint Domingue (Haiti), and force her to
listen to a Catholic priest, and the result is not the obliteration of
her native beliefs. Instead, those beliefs will be transformed into the
powerful religion of vodou. History provides us with other examples of
suppression being an ineffective tool for obliterating religion, government,
sexuality, etc. Reminds me of what Master Kan said to Grasshopper in the 1970s
TV show "Kung Fu:" "To suppress a truth is to give it force beyond
endurance." A timely message for National Women's History Month.
I presented on the topic of women as camp followers in the
Revolutionary War at the North Carolina Museum of History 11 March, the
museum's "History à la Carte" program. This continues to be a topic
of confusion, as most folks equate "camp follower" with
"prostitute." Technically, the term "camp follower" wasn't
yet used during the Revolution to describe those civilian artisans, sutlers,
and retainers, male and female, who traveled with an army. But even by the time
of the Civil War, when the term had entered the English language, prostitutes
comprised only a tiny segment of an army's non-combatants. So the first matter
I clarify for audiences is that not all women who followed an army were
prostitutes. What amazes me is that these women endured great deprivation and
occasionally found themselves in the middle of battles, just to stay near their
loved ones. It speaks to the innate courage of women and their ability throughout
time to do what needs to be done. Another timely message for the month.