Seeing Angels
William H. Burleigh
The Unionist 1833-12-19
Unionist content
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Transcription
Two men in Chatham, Ct. lately saw, according to their own account, an angel! To one of them the celestial visitant appeared three different times, revealing to him a future famine and an earthquake. Now we see no propriety in trying to make it appear as something very strange to see an angel. Such sights are by no means rare in Brooklyn. We see some half dozen every day—and by happy smiles that so beautifully curl their pouting ruby lips we should suppose they were thinking of things more agreeable than famine and earthquake. Ours are intellectual angels withal, for we usually see them with a book under one arm—and—and—but we are a confirmed bachelor and dare not venture another word upon the subject.
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Because William Burleigh was teaching at the Canterbury Female Academy, it is likely he wrote this commentary about his angelic students. This was as defiant of racial norms as was the naming of the school for "Young Ladies and Little Misses of Color." Similar to that move, it may sound discordant to our twenty-first century ears, as if this was a salacious comment, but I doubt it was intended that way.
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See Full Metadata Hide Full MetadataAfrican-American young woman studying
