Sarah Kemble Knight “Madam Knight” By: Cobie Haggard
Who is Sarah Kemble Knight? Sarah Kemble Knight was born in Boston in the year of 1666, to her father Thomas Kemble who was a successful merchant and her mother Elizabeth Trerice. In 1689 she married Richard Knight who was a sea captain. After his death Sarah took on many roles more considerable in the work force unlike many women, she took on running a family business, taking over a shop in Boston, taking in lodgers, working as a court scrivener copying legal documents etc., During her journey and continuous growth in business, Knight opened a school and also taught in the school, it is said that she was the teacher of Benjamin Franklin. And some of the Mather children. Sarah Kemble Knight is known for her diarist writing, in her only work she writes about all of her experiences she as a woman faces during her long travel, many woman in the year of 1704 never travel far distances, but for Sarah Kemble Knight she takes on the challenge and gives great detail of her journey.
Sarah Kemble Knights Works. “ The Private Journal A Journey From Boston to New York.” (1704-1705)
Influences Sarah Kemble Knight had little influences if any, she felt the need to record her travel and experiences during her journey. Though she may not have influences, she did leave a large impact on journal writing or record keeping. She wrote in detail about the people she saw and met, the encounters she faced, the new experiences she had accomplished and most importantly about the days of her travel from Boston to New York. She influenced history as well because she was a woman who traveled by her self during her journey, which was very uncommon at the time as many women did not travel without their spouse and or children. Sarah did her journey alone and documented all she saw and experienced, which helped with a point of view in history about how slavery was in a different light through a woman’s eye.
Pictures. Her Journey from Boston to New York. Madam Knight. The Private Journal by Madam Knight.
Excerpt from the journal. “Friday Octo 6th. I got up very early, in Order to hire somebody to go with mee to New Haven, being in great perplexity at the thoughts of proceeding alone; which my most hospitable entertainer observing, himself went, and soon return’d w(th) a young Gentleman of the town, who he could confide in to Go with mee; and about eight this morning, w(th) Mr. Joshua Wheeler my new Guide, taking leave of this worthy Gentleman, Wee advanced on toward Seabrook. The Rodes along were very bad incumbered with rocks and mountainous passages….”
Summary To summarize her great work, Sarah Kemble Knight travels from her home in Boston to New York, she captures the essence of what it is like for a woman to travel alone and the different encounters she as a woman faces such as meeting new people, her observations, customs, peoples behaviors and mannerisms, etc., Sarah Kemble Knight changed the way literature was back in her era. She took her encounters with racism, life, traveling and humor and put it in a short well constructed diary with great detail of what it is like for a woman to travel. Though her journal was published many years after her passing and a lot of her journal is missing it is still accounted for in detail and a possible accurate account of what type of people and places she encountered.
Themes There can be said to be many occurring themes in Sarah Kemble Knight’s private journal, one could be adventurous, being that she does not hesitate to travel and is definitely not fearful for the unknown road ahead of her during her era. She does wonderfully giving all accounts of the people she meets, the day she is having and about the nature she sees along the way. Knight also includes much imagery in the scenery she sees along her route from Boston to New York. She gives description of the people, places, weather etc., She also had a theme of sociological views about Indians, African Americans, and other settlers in different colonies at the time of her travel. In this view she had was due to her social norms of her time which inevitably shaped her writing and thinking. She speaks of racial interaction between slaves and their “owners” in a disturbing light. "But too Indulgent (especially ye farmers) to their slaves: sufering too great familiarity from them, permitting ym to sit at Table and eat with them, (as they say to save time,) and into the dish goes the black hoof as freely as the white hand."
Questions? Being a Puritan woman and encountering different behaviors and customs, why do you think it was hard or easy for her to travel? Do you believe she over stepped boundaries as a woman taking on a mans role during her era? Why was Sarah Kemble Knights Private Journal of social history from the American past? Why was her writing looked at in the nineteenth century and studied, but not studied in earlier centuries where racism was prominent?
Works Cited Page “American Passages - Unit 3. Utopian Promise: Authors” Web. February 17, 2015 (http://www.learner.org/amerpass/unit03/authors-3.html) “The private journal of a journey from Boston to New York” , Web. February 17, 2015) (http://archive.org/stream/privatejournalof00knig#page/n17/mode/2up) “Narrative and class in a culture of consumption: the signifi[…]”, Web. February 17, 2015 (http://www.freepatentsonline.com/article/College-Literature/15691723.html)