This 1846 pamphlet wants your kids to explain to you why slavery is wrong.
Because if you think owning people is OK, you deserve to have your wrongness explained to you in rhyme.
The year: 1835. The place: Philadelphia. It was then and there that 18 affluent black and white Quaker women decided to form the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society.
They immediately got down to business, but massively shifting public opinion is not an easy task.
Because women were not permitted to vote or hold public office at that time, the society members had to use creative and unconventional means to sway people away from supporting slavery. This included writing letters, fielding petitions and holding annual anti-slavery fairs.
In an effort to reach a new generation of abolitionists, society members Elizabeth Margaret Chandler and Hannah Townsend began writing pamphlets for children explaining why slavery was wrong.
Their reasons for doing so were simple: Young readers were more likely to be horrified by slavery; they could be counted on to bring home what they learned; and they might just be able to change their parents' minds, too. If that sounds familiar, it should. It's the reverse of the logic that inspires companies to advertise sweets and toys directly to kids during cartoons. Except in this case, the cause being promoted was basic human decency and not, you know, cereal.
Hannah Townsend's 1846 pamphlet "The Anti-Slavery Alphabet" is one of the few pieces of child-focused anti-slavery literature to survive the years intact.
All images via Mississippi Department of Archives and History/Flickr.
Using the alphabet as inspiration for a series of four-line rhymes, she tried to tell the story of slavery in a way a child might understand.
Note: Upper Canada had restricted slavery in 1793 and banned it outright in 1834.
In its first 18 years, the Philadelphia Female-Anti-Slavery Society donated $13, 845 to various abolitionist organizations, including ones supporting the Underground Railroad. Adjusted for inflation, their donation would be worth $400,000 today. The group, along with members of other anti-slavery societies across the United States, continued fighting for abolition until the end of the Civil War in 1865; for black suffrage in 1869; and until the ratification of the 15th Amendment in 1870.
If you're feeling uncomfortable after reading "The Anti-Slavery Alphabet," don't worry. You're supposed to feel uncomfortable.
It is not subtle or nuanced. It was written to make readers feel guilty, complicit and enraged. Because when we're talking about humans owning and selling and beating and murdering other humans, there's very little room —even 170 years ago—to dance about in grey areas.
The women of the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society knew that in 1846, and they knew children did, too.
A Generation Jones teenager poses in her room.Image via Wikmedia Commons
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An Irish woman went to the doctor for a routine eye exam. She left with bright neon green eyes.
It's not easy seeing green.
Did she get superpowers?
Going to the eye doctor can be a hassle and a pain. It's not just the routine issues and inconveniences that come along when making a doctor appointment, but sometimes the various devices being used to check your eyes' health feel invasive and uncomfortable. But at least at the end of the appointment, most of us don't look like we're turning into The Incredible Hulk. That wasn't the case for one Irish woman.
Photographer Margerita B. Wargola was just going in for a routine eye exam at the hospital but ended up leaving with her eyes a shocking, bright neon green.
At the doctor's office, the nurse practitioner was prepping Wargola for a test with a machine that Wargola had experienced before. Before the test started, Wargola presumed the nurse had dropped some saline into her eyes, as they were feeling dry. After she blinked, everything went yellow.
Wargola and the nurse initially panicked. Neither knew what was going on as Wargola suddenly had yellow vision and radioactive-looking green eyes. After the initial shock, both realized the issue: the nurse forgot to ask Wargola to remove her contact lenses before putting contrast drops in her eyes for the exam. Wargola and the nurse quickly removed the lenses from her eyes and washed them thoroughly with saline. Fortunately, Wargola's eyes were unharmed. Unfortunately, her contacts were permanently stained and she didn't bring a spare pair.
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Since she has poor vision, Wargola was forced to drive herself home after the eye exam wearing the neon-green contact lenses that make her look like a member of the Green Lantern Corps. She couldn't help but laugh at her predicament and recorded a video explaining it all on social media. Since then, her video has sparked a couple Reddit threads and collected a bunch of comments on Instagram:
“But the REAL question is: do you now have X-Ray vision?”
“You can just say you're a superhero.”
“I would make a few stops on the way home just to freak some people out!”
“I would have lived it up! Grab a coffee, do grocery shopping, walk around a shopping center.”
“This one would pair well with that girl who ate something with turmeric with her invisalign on and walked around Paris smiling at people with seemingly BRIGHT YELLOW TEETH.”
“I would save those for fancy special occasions! WOW!”
“Every time I'd stop I'd turn slowly and stare at the person in the car next to me.”
“Keep them. Tell people what to do. They’ll do your bidding.”
In a follow-up Instagram video, Wargola showed her followers that she was safe at home with normal eyes, showing that the damaged contact lenses were so stained that they turned the saline solution in her contacts case into a bright Gatorade yellow. She wasn't mad at the nurse and, in fact, plans on keeping the lenses to wear on St. Patrick's Day or some other special occasion.
While no harm was done and a good laugh was had, it's still best for doctors, nurses, and patients alike to double-check and ask or tell if contact lenses are being worn before each eye test. If not, there might be more than ultra-green eyes to worry about.