May 24, 1854
Rose at five. The sun was shining brightly through my window, and I felt vexed with myself that he should have risen before me; I shall not let him have that advantage again very soon. How bright and beautiful are these May mornings!—The air is so pure and balmy, the trees are in full blossom, and the little birds sing sweetly. I stand by the window listening to their music, but suddenly remember that I have an Arithmetic lesson which employs me until breakfast;then to school;1 recited my lessons, and commenced my journal. After dinner practiced a music lesson, did some sewing, and then took a pleasant walk by the water. I stood for some time, admiring the waves as they rose and fell, sparkling in the sun, and could not help envying a party of boys who were enjoying themselves in a sailing-boat. On my way homes, I stopped at Mrs. Putnam’s and commenced reading“Hard Times,” a new story by Dickens. . . .
The complete text of Charlotte Forten’s Diary can be found here.
Background on Charlotte Forten can be found here.
Read the text with students and then look to the Seven Strategies for help in generating questions for your classroom.
Strategy 1: What are you reading? How can you tell? (It’s probably a journal or diary entry. It could be part of a letter, but there is no salutation and no inquiry into another person’s well being [i.e., “How are you and the family.”] Also, the writer mentions writing in a journal, and the style of chronologically recording the events and impressions of the day is a clue that this is a diary or journal.
Strategy 2: Why was it written and for whom? (It was written for the writer of the journal. The purpose is to record the events and feelings of a day. There may be other purposes as well, including self-expression.)
Strategy 3: Since a diary is not usuallywritten for other people to read, there is only the writer’s deeplyfelt and culturally ingrained biases, not any deliberate attempt toinfluence the reader.
Strategy 4: What can you tell about the writer? When was the entry written? Where was the entry written?
Who: We know that this person is probably a young person because he or she is attending school. We know that this person is probably female because of the clue “did some sewing.” In 1854, sewing was usually done by women and girls. We know that this person is probably of the middle or upper class because she is attending school rather than working.
When: The clue “these May mornings” tells us the month. (Even without that specific information we could determine that it was written close to the summer solstice because the sun was up at 5 AM.) The clue “’Hard Times,’ a new story by Dickens” tells us the year. Hard Times was published in 1854. So this piece of text was written in May 1854.
Where: There is not much information here about the specific of where the text was written. The text tells us that the writer was near the water and that there were trees and birds, which could describe a great many places.
So without any source information the clues in the text tell us that this is a diary entry written by a middle or upper class girl in May, 1854, who lived near water. And in fact this is the Wednesday, May 24 entry from Charlotte Forten’s diary, written while Charlotte was living in Salem, Massachusetts. Charlotte was a free African American girl from a wealthy family.