Read Online Forever and Forever (Historical Proper Romance) by Josi S. Kilpack - Free Book Online Page A

surprised that you learned from your mother just as I did mine because they both understood the power of ideas and the importance the written word. However, how could our mothers have taught us if they themselves had not been taught by their own mothers?”
    He scarcely waited for a reply before moving forward, caught up in his excitement. “How many women right now are raising children in upper New York or in the wilds of the American frontier and are unable to teach their children to read and write? How can children of such mothers know enough to even hope for more opportunity than what their mothers have received? Boy or girl.”
    “Not every occupation requires reading and writing,” Fanny said, engaged in the debate though she wasn’t truly trying to argue. “A farmer, for instance, or a blacksmith. The frontier is being harnessed by men and women who work with their hands, not with their minds.”
    “Ah,” Mr. Longfellow said, raising his finger and pointing at the sky. “Does not everyone use their mind? Should not every man and woman be able to read the Bible, regardless of his or her occupation? Was that not Martin Luther’s very aim? I think of the understanding and insight I gained from reading Paradise Lost .”
    Fanny nodded; they had indeed shared resounding discussions of Milton’s epic poem.
    Mr. Longfellow continued, “Should not every man and woman be able to access such perspective so that they too might be edified regarding the formation of the world and humanity? Should not every man and woman be able to record their thoughts and impressions of the world in a journal for future generations to learn from? Should not every child be able to print their own name and read the printing of their parents?”
    His eyes were nearly dancing, and Fanny found his energy rather intoxicating. “The frontier will always be the frontier—wild and without order—until lawyers and doctors and people of political minds join those farmers and blacksmiths in forming communities. There must be law and expectations of conduct. It will take education for such things to be enacted and understood for the good of us all.” He shook his head. “I must adamantly propose that all of society would improve if each member could read and write and learn for himself. Once such abilities are in place, the individuals can ponder on cultures and history, look for the pattern of things and plan so as to avoid the pitfalls that have caused such tragedies in the world.
    “With basic education comes the ability to think, and a mind that thinks is a mind that improves upon itself. I would suggest that a farmer would be a better one if he could read the latest literature on soil and botany. I would say that a blacksmith will make a better kettle if he can read up on the science between the different metals he works in his forge. Everyone would have greater potential if they had the ability to learn—man or woman, black or white.”
    Oh dear, is Mr. Longfellow an abolitionist? Fanny’s father had been an advocate for the fair treatment of slaves during his time in Congress, and Fanny herself had opinions regarding the dark-skinned men and women upon whom much of America’s economy depended, but being an abolitionist was not a position to be taken lightly. Her father was a pioneer in the textile industry, which profited directly from the free labor of the cotton plantations in the south. Because of her family’s relationship to the institution she did not often let her mind follow the sympathies of her heart. She hoped Mr. Longfellow would be equally tactful around her father, but she did not know how to broach the subject.
    “You are a very singular man,” Fanny finally said, smiling to let him know she did not mean it as an insult. “I have never heard such a vision. I am quite unsure what to make of it.”
    He looked away as though embarrassed by his fiery speech. “Indeed my opinions are quite singular far too often.