My Own Story - Couverture souple

Pankhurst, Emmeline

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 1177781735 ISBN 13 : 9781177781732

Editeur : Nabu Press, 2010

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur :

CHAPTER I Those men and women are fortunate who are born at a time when a great struggle for human freedom is in progress. It is an added good fortune to have parents who take a personal part in the great movements of their time. I am glad and thankful that this was my case. One of my earliest recollections is of a great bazaar which was held in my native city of Manchester, the object of the bazaar being to raise money to relieve the poverty of the newly emancipated negro slaves in the United States. My mother took an active part in this effort, and I, as a small child, was entrusted with a lucky bag by means of which I helped to collect money. Young as I was—I could not have been older than five years—I knew perfectly well the meaning of the words slavery and emancipation. From infancy I had been accustomed to hear pro and con discussions of slavery and the American Civil War. Although the British government finally decided not to recognise the Confederacy, public opinion in England was sharply divided on the questions both of slavery and of secession. Broadly speaking, the propertied classes were pro-slavery, but there were many [Pg 2]exceptions to the rule. Most of those who formed the circle of our family friends were opposed to slavery, and my father, Robert Goulden, was always a most ardent abolitionist. He was prominent enough in the movement to be appointed on a committee to meet and welcome Henry Ward Beecher when he arrived in England for a lecture tour. Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel, "Uncle Tom's Cabin," was so great a favourite with my mother that she used it continually as a source of bedtime stories for our fascinated ears. Those stories, told almost fifty years ago, are as fresh in my mind to-day as events detailed in the morning's papers. Indeed they are more vivid, because they made a much deeper impression on my consciousness. I can still definitely recall the thrill I experienced every time my mother related the tale of Eliza's race for freedom over the broken ice of the Ohio River, the agonizing pursuit, and the final rescue at the hands of the determined old Quaker. Another thrilling tale was the story of a negro boy's flight from the plantation of his cruel master. The boy had never seen a railroad train, and when, staggering along the unfamiliar railroad track, he heard the roar of an approaching train, the clattering car-wheels seemed to his strained imagination to be repeating over and over again the awful words, "Catch a nigger—catch a nigger—catch a nigger—" This was a terrible story, and throughout my childhood, whenever I rode in a train, I thought of that poor runaway slave escaping from the pursuing monster. These stories, with the bazaars and the relief funds and subscriptions of which I heard so much talk, I[Pg 3] am sure made a permanent impression on my brain and my character. They awakened in me the two sets of sensations to which all my life I have most readily responded: first, admiration for that spirit of fighting and heroic sacrifice by which alone the soul of civilisation is saved; and next after that, appreciation of the gentler spirit which is moved to mend and repair the ...

Présentation de l'éditeur :

Suffragette is now on release as a major motion picture starring Meryl Streep as Emmeline Pankhurst.

• Illustrated with nineteen photographs
• Introduction contextualizing Mrs Pankhurst and the path to women's suffrage
• Suggestions for further reading
• Timeline of events
• Annotations: 100 footnotes explaining concepts and characters

Emmeline Pankhurst was the most well known of the activists striving for the right for women to vote in the early twentieth century. This book is her story. It was first published in 1914 at the start of the First World War and before women received enfranchisement. In the text Mrs Pankhurst describes her path to radical politics and her life as leader of the suffragette movement. She does not hold back on her descriptions of the violent tactics employed or indeed the savage treatment of the women by the authorities. The accounts of the often sadistic cruelty of the British Establishment towards these women are not easy to forget. The book contains the sixteen photographs from the original 1914 publication with three additional images from Mrs Pankhurst’s visit to the USA. The text has been annotated by the publisher with short footnotes giving explanations of terms and descriptions of the people mentioned. The publisher is pleased to be able to include an introduction and a timeline written by Lesley Gray that provide an overview of the struggle for women to obtain the vote and of Mrs Pankhurst’s role in the suffragette movement.

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Nabu Press
• Date d'édition: 2010
• ISBN 10: 1177781735
• ISBN 13: 9781177781732
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 422