Too-la-Loo

I’ve been celebrating Juneteenth for a few years now. Like Kwanzaa, one never knows the depth of the history of the event until one gets the chance to lift one’s gaze from survival (read the rat race) to investigate. The force, the strength, the will of the South to run roughshod over American law is astonishing, but at least we are getting full stories these days. Juneteenth is the celebration of the end of slavery when troops reached Texas in 1865 to inform 800,000 slaves they were free. The Civil War ended in 1863 and slavery was abolished but it took two years for the slaves in Texas to find out. Some say the plantation owners wanted one more harvest before they complied with the new law. Around the same time I learned about Juneteenth, I realized that on the Fourth of July 1776, slavery existed for almost another hundred years in America. I love fireworks and Marc and I used to walk down to Memorial Park here in Beacon to watch the fireworks on Independence Day. Empowered these days by the protests I am investigating further the black perspective on the Fourth of July.

Frederick Douglass gave the most compelling speech when it came to the black perspective on Indepandence Day:

"The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro"

Fellow Citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this republic. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men. They were great men, too, great enough to give frame to a great age. It does not often happen to a nation to raise, at one time, such a number of truly great men. The point from which I am compelled to view them is not, certainly, the most favorable; and yet I cannot contemplate their great deeds with less than admiration. They were statesmen, patriots and heroes, and for the good they did, and the principles they contended for, I will unite with you to honor their memory....

...Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? and am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us?

Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to these questions! Then would my task be light, and my burden easy and delightful. For who is there so cold, that a nation's sympathy could not warm him? Who so obdurate and dead to the claims of gratitude, that would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? Who so stolid and selfish, that would not give his voice to swell the hallelujahs of a nation's jubilee, when the chains of servitude had been torn from his limbs? I am not that man. In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak, and the "lame man leap as an hart."

But such is not the state of the case. I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. I am not included within the pale of glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought light and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day? If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. And let me warn you that it is dangerous to copy the example of a nation whose crimes, towering up to heaven, were thrown down by the breath of the Almighty, burying that nation in irrevocable ruin! I can to-day take up the plaintive lament of a peeled and woe-smitten people!

"By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yea! we wept when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. For there, they that carried us away captive, required of us a song; and they who wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How can we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? If I forget thee, 0 Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth."

Fellow-citizens, above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions! whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are, to-day, rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them. If I do forget, if I do not faithfully remember those bleeding children of sorrow this day, "may my right hand forget her cunning, and may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth!" To forget them, to pass lightly over their wrongs, and to chime in with the popular theme, would be treason most scandalous and shocking, and would make me a reproach before God and the world. My subject, then, fellow-citizens, is American slavery. I shall see this day and its popular characteristics from the slave's point of view. Standing there identified with the American bondman, making his wrongs mine, I do not hesitate to declare, with all my soul, that the character and conduct of this nation never looked blacker to me than on this 4th of July! Whether we turn to the declarations of the past, or to the professions of the present, the conduct of the nation seems equally hideous and revolting. America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. Standing with God and the crushed and bleeding slave on this occasion, I will, in the name of humanity which is outraged, in the name of liberty which is fettered, in the name of the constitution and the Bible which are disregarded and trampled upon, dare to call in question and to denounce, with all the emphasis I can command, everything that serves to perpetuate slavery, the great sin and shame of America! "I will not equivocate; I will not excuse"; I will use the severest language I can command; and yet not one word shall escape me that any man, whose judgment is not blinded by prejudice, or who is not at heart a slaveholder, shall not confess to be right and just.

But I fancy I hear some one of my audience say, "It is just in this circumstance that you and your brother abolitionists fail to make a favorable impression on the public mind. Would you argue more, an denounce less; would you persuade more, and rebuke less; your cause would be much more likely to succeed." But, I submit, where all is plain there is nothing to be argued. What point in the anti-slavery creed would you have me argue? On what branch of the subject do the people of this country need light? Must I undertake to prove that the slave is a man? That point is conceded already. Nobody doubts it. The slaveholders themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of laws for their government. They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the slave. There are seventy-two crimes in the State of Virginia which, if committed by a black man (no matter how ignorant he be), subject him to the punishment of death; while only two of the same crimes will subject a white man to the like punishment. What is this but the acknowledgment that the slave is a moral, intellectual, and responsible being? The manhood of the slave is conceded. It is admitted in the fact that Southern statute books are covered with enactments forbidding, under severe fines and penalties, the teaching of the slave to read or to write. When you can point to any such laws in reference to the beasts of the field, then I may consent to argue the manhood of the slave. When the dogs in your streets, when the fowls of the air, when the cattle on your hills, when the fish of the sea, and the reptiles that crawl, shall be unable to distinguish the slave from a brute, then will I argue with you that the slave is a man!

For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race. Is it not astonishing that, while we are ploughing, planting, and reaping, using all kinds of mechanical tools, erecting houses, constructing bridges, building ships, working in metals of brass, iron, copper, silver and gold; that, while we are reading, writing and ciphering, acting as clerks, merchants and secretaries, having among us lawyers, doctors, ministers, poets, authors, editors, orators and teachers; that, while we are engaged in all manner of enterprises common to other men, digging gold in California, capturing the whale in the Pacific, feeding sheep and cattle on the hill-side, living, moving, acting, thinking, planning, living in families as husbands, wives and children, and, above all, confessing and worshipping the Christian's God, and looking hopefully for life and immortality beyond the grave, we are called upon to prove that we are men!

Would you have me argue that man is entitled to liberty? that he is the rightful owner of his own body? You have already declared it. Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? Is that a question for Republicans? Is it to be settled by the rules of logic and argumentation, as a matter beset with great difficulty, involving a doubtful application of the principle of justice, hard to be understood? How should I look to-day, in the presence of Americans, dividing, and subdividing a discourse, to show that men have a natural right to freedom? speaking of it relatively and positively, negatively and affirmatively. To do so, would be to make myself ridiculous, and to offer an insult to your understanding. There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven that does not know that slavery is wrong for him.

What, am I to argue that it is wrong to make men brutes, to rob them of their liberty, to work them without wages, to keep them ignorant of their relations to their fellow men, to beat them with sticks, to flay their flesh with the lash, to load their limbs with irons, to hunt them with dogs, to sell them at auction, to sunder their families, to knock out their teeth, to burn their flesh, to starve them into obedience and submission to their masters? Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood, and stained with pollution, is wrong? No! I will not. I have better employment for my time and strength than such arguments would imply.

What, then, remains to be argued? Is it that slavery is not divine; that God did not establish it; that our doctors of divinity are mistaken? There is blasphemy in the thought. That which is inhuman, cannot be divine! Who can reason on such a proposition? They that can, may; I cannot. The time for such argument is passed.

At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. O! had I the ability, and could reach the nation's ear, I would, to-day, pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced.

What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy -- a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour.

Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the Old World, travel through South America, search out every abuse, and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this nation, and you will say with me, that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival....

...Allow me to say, in conclusion, notwithstanding the dark picture I have this day presented, of the state of the nation, I do not despair of this country. There are forces in operation which must inevitably work the downfall of slavery. "The arm of the Lord is not shortened," and the doom of slavery is certain. I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope. While drawing encouragement from "the Declaration of Independence," the great principles it contains, and the genius of American Institutions, my spirit is also cheered by the obvious tendencies of the age. Nations do not now stand in the same relation to each other that they did ages ago. No nation can now shut itself up from the surrounding world and trot round in the same old path of its fathers without interference. The time was when such could be done. Long established customs of hurtful character could formerly fence themselves in, and do their evil work with social impunity. Knowledge was then confined and enjoyed by the privileged few, and the multitude walked on in mental darkness. But a change has now come over the affairs of mankind. Walled cities and empires have become unfashionable. The arm of commerce has borne away the gates of the strong city. Intelligence is penetrating the darkest corners of the globe. It makes its pathway over and under the sea, as well as on the earth. Wind, steam, and lightning are its chartered agents. Oceans no longer divide, but link nations together. From Boston to London is now a holiday excursion. Space is comparatively annihilated. -- Thoughts expressed on one side of the Atlantic are distinctly heard on the other.

The far off and almost fabulous Pacific rolls in grandeur at our feet. The Celestial Empire, the mystery of ages, is being solved. The fiat of the Almighty, "Let there be Light," has not yet spent its force. No abuse, no outrage whether in taste, sport or avarice, can now hide itself from the all-pervading light. The iron shoe, and crippled foot of China must be seen in contrast with nature. Africa must rise and put on her yet unwoven garment. 'Ethiopia, shall, stretch. out her hand unto God." In the fervent aspirations of William Lloyd Garrison, I say, and let every heart join in saying it:

God speed the year of jubilee
The wide world o'er!
When from their galling chains set free,
Th' oppress'd shall vilely bend the knee,
And wear the yoke of tyranny
Like brutes no more.
That year will come, and freedom's reign,
To man his plundered rights again
Restore.

God speed the day when human blood
Shall cease to flow!
In every clime be understood,
The claims of human brotherhood,
And each return for evil, good,
Not blow for blow;
That day will come all feuds to end,
And change into a faithful friend
Each foe.

God speed the hour, the glorious hour,
When none on earth
Shall exercise a lordly power,
Nor in a tyrant's presence cower;
But to all manhood's stature tower,
By equal birth!
That hour will come, to each, to all,
And from his Prison-house, to thrall
Go forth.

Until that year, day, hour, arrive,
With head, and heart, and hand I'll strive,
To break the rod, and rend the gyve,
The spoiler of his prey deprive --
So witness Heaven!
And never from my chosen post,
Whate'er the peril or the cost,
Be driven.

The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass, Volume II
Pre-Civil War Decade 1850-1860
Philip S. Foner
International Publishers Co., Inc., New York, 1950

It is heartening to read for the very first time. We (black folks) can now place our contribution in perspective and be proud of ourselves. I am proud of us. We built America structurally and economically. It is undeniable. The former slave did not celebrate Independence Day until the end of the Civil War and it appears they coopted the holiday to the great chagrin of the white Southerner. (The Atlantic “When the Fourth of July was a Black Holiday, July 3, 2018). Frederick Douglass preferred to celebrate the holiday on July 5 “to better accentuate the difference between the high promise of the Fourth and the low realities of life for African Americans, while also avoiding confrontations with drunken white revelers.”

After slavery was abolished and might I say in great black tradition, we created a celebration all our own. The celebration got so large in Charleston South Carolina, they started calling it the Too-la-Loo for a dance created to poke fun at the “elite courtship rituals of their former masters.”. Let’s start calling Independence Day Too-la-Loo! Of course white southerners rose up to squash these celebrations and interestingly enough Confederate and Union veterans actually buried the hatchet and joined forces to eliminate the celebrations.

Go hunt your lover, Too-la-loo!
Go find your lover, Too-la-loo!
Nice little lover, Too-la-loo!
Oh! I love Too-la-loo!

The lady then selects a gentleman, and the two get into the ring, when they perform a jig. While the gentleman dances, the crowd sings the following verse:

Gentleman motion, Too-la-loo!
Watch dat motion, Too-la-loo!
Bull frog motion, Too-la-loo!
Oh! I love Too-la-loo!

Then the lady performs and the crowd sings:

Lady motion, Too-la-loo!
Nice little motion, Too-la-loo!
Pigeon motion, Too-la-loo!
Oh, I love Too-la-loo!

Then the lady and gentleman have a pas-de-deux, during which the refrain is changed by an injunction:

Salute your lady, Too-la-loo!
Kiss dat lady, Too-la-loo!
Berry nice lady, Too-la-loo!
Oh I love Too-la-loo!

At this stage of the performance the gentleman gives the lady a turn, embraces her, smacks her lips and permits her to retire. He then goes through the same performance, selecting another ‘lover’ for the occasion.

At a very moderate calculation, there were fifty rings performing this dance, in different portions of the Garden, and it was entered into with a zest which kept up the sport from 8 o’clock in the morning until after midnight. By sundown ten hours of the performance had worked up the participants into a moist state of patriotism which was equal to the (s)centennial emergency, and it was kept up by moonlight until long after midnight.” (Charleston County Public Library, Too-la-Loo for the Fourth of July)

One can’t help but smile when one says Too-la-Loo!

Friends, I find myself at an interesting time in my gardening life. My gaze is shifting toward big land. My gardens in Beacon – Hiddenbrooke and SDG are planted and I have help. Working at White Pine (www.whitepinecommunityfarm.com) this season, I have had the time to read what Ben refers to as “the bible,” The Organic Medicinal Herb Farmer by Jeff and Melanie Carpenter and now I want herbs on my other partner farm Seed Song (www.seedsongfarm.org). We planted herbs at Seed Song that Creek had transplanted out of Groundwork when I was leaving the space. The planting could not be maintained, but I have checked on the plants annually since, as well as harvesting Goldenrod and I’m considering harvesting Joe Pye Weed this season because it grows wild up there. I’m realizing now that I have my Herbal Family of Plants at Hiddenbrooke, I’m free to roam and wild craft everything else. Schedule the time to harvest just like any garden chore. My time is opening up so I can venture into other realms. It’s time for long term acquisition of herbs and learning the lay of the land throughout Dutchess and Ulster counties! The Carpenters are in Vermont and are promoting the idea of full herb farms in America supporting the supply chain. Many herbs are imported. My work is native and restorative so it fits right in. It’s all coming together in my mind in this moment – very exciting. Big Land! And two, maybe three (Wildseed, www.wildseedcommunity.org) gorgeous spaces to roam.

The membership at SDG, Sarah Carlisle, Celia Reissig and Terri Pahucki, are lovely and we are working well together. So much work gets down so fast, it makes my head spin. The new herb bed this season is so exciting! We have been harvesting most recently Kale and Cucumbers and now we are close to finishing planting. This week we planted Beans and Squash as well as Bush Beans. Many hands make short work.

Hiddenbrooke is my cultivated Herbal Family of Plants:

Anise Hyssop, Agastache foeniculum, Labiatae, Perennial, Turtle Island
Red Bergamot, (Bee Balm), Monarda didyma, Labiatae, Perennial, Turtle Island
Wild Bergamot, Mondarda fistulosa, Labiatae, Shrub, Turtle Island
Black-eyed Susan, Rudbeckia horta, Asteraceae, Perennial, Turtle Island
Bleeding Heart, Dicentra eliminates, Fumariaceae, Perennial, Turtle Island
Columbine, Aquilegia canadensis, Ranunculaceae, Perennial, Turtle Island
Comfrey, Symphytum officinale, Boraginaceae, Perennial, Europe
Echinacea, Echinacea purpurea, E. angustifolia, Perennial, Turtle Island
Elderberry, Sambucus canadensis, Caprifoliaceae, Tree, Turtle Island (2021)
Elecampane, Inula helenium, Asteraceae, Perennial, Europe
Marigold, Tagetes patula, T. minuta, Asteraceae, Annual, Mexico, Guatemala (T. patula), Peru (T. minuta)
Milk Thistle, Silybum marianum, Asteraceae, Annual, Southwest Europe
Mints
Chocolate Mint, Mentha x piperita, ‘Chocolate,’ Labiatae, Africa, Eurasia
Peppermint, Mentha x piperita, Labiatae, Africa, Eurasia
Spearmint, Mentha spicata, Labiatae, Africa, Eurasia
Nettle, Urtica dioica, Urticaceae, Perennial, Mexico
Phlox, Phlox subulata, Polemoniaceae, Perennial, Turtle Island
Sage, Salvia officinalis, Labiatae, Perennial, North Africa, Mediterranean
St. Joanswort (St. Johnswort), Hypericum perforatum, Guttiferae, Perennial, Turtle Island
Skullcap, Scutellaria lateriflora, Labiatae, Perennial, Turtle Island
Sweet grass, Hrerechloe odorata, Graminae, Perennial, Turtle Island
Valerian, Valeriana officinalis, Valerianaceae, Perennial, West Asia, Europe
Wormwood, Artemisia absinthium, Asteraceae, Perennial, North Africa, Eurasia

Creating this list is as much for you dear reader, as it is for me. To see my Herbal Family of Plants on the page fills me with the imagery of food and medicine. My herbal medicine chest has carried Marc and I health-wise lo this many years. I have studied herbs since 2001. Twenty years! I am experienced! Definitely can see what skills ten years in the field have given me. The season is second nature – heck first nature, as intrinsic as walking and talking. The way it oughta be if you ask me. Gardeners can’t live without gardening. Like caged Hummingbird, we would die.

We shift to shade plants at Sally Garden. I have spent five years planting my Herb Family of Plants, but the garden is a shade garden. I’m growing Pleurisy Root that likes woodland areas. I want to thin Elecampane and bring her up. I’m also considering Lavender, Ginseng and Goldenseal. Lean in to the forest dwellers. I’m inspired by the Ramps we planted last year. We already have Comfrey, Wild Bergamot and Sweetgrass that should be transplanted into sunnier spots. Next steps at Sally Garden.

Misha Cottage Garden has been a hoot. I just got the book Cottage Garden Flowers by Gertrude Jekyll. Too exciting. I believe I heard of Gertrude Jekyll way back at Brooklyn Botanic Garden. You couldn’t have told me then I would be perusing her writings like an old pro! I may be humble to a fault and have no esteem whatsoever, but it has afforded me the opportunity to maintain Beginner’s Mind and delight in every adventure. We have a dry section of the Cottage Garden to plant. Sage, Lavender, etc. Also a bulb section.
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I still have to weed Elecampane and Marshmallow at White Pine. I have had to spend time in the office in the past weeks, but I’ll just keep looking for the opportunity. I want to organize the compost piles come Autumn. Next season will be more organized. Manage the office until April 1 when I head out to the field. First Tuesdays for bill pay and our in-house newsletter Farmhouse News. Solstice/Equinox for our public newsletter. I am a bit obsessive compulsive, but I wouldn’t have been able to last this long in the field if I wasn’t. I love record keeping. I love Staples and Michaels for all the organizing capability they offer me. I love the smell of stationary! Ten years in the field has taught me organizing, numbers, planning start to finish. I have applied these skills to every opportunity that has come my way and what an adventure it has been! Here’s to the next ten years.