Actions speak louder than words; You have heard that many times before.
The Civil War was a deadly battle in which many individuals lost their lives. Families were broken, children were left without parents. It is how we, as writers, decide to tell the American story to future generations, that shape their overall philosophy of such war. The book titled The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates expresses and illuminates the Civil War by demonstrating the trauma and struggles that Black individuals went through during this time. Through diction and imagery, Coates analyzes the overall toll that The Civil War had on individuals. Hiram, the character that opens up the story, has a memory of his mother Rose as she was sold and taken across the bridge that arched the River Goose. This bridge is symbolic in his remembrance of family members who were sold and taken away from their homes. The bridge is what divides him from them. Sold into Natchez, a major slave trade town in Mississippi. The bridge but also the river, serves as a natural landscape of the division that exists between families. Coates draws parallels here in correlation to the Civil War and what it caused. Coates mentions in this book that “The earthen jar did not move; it seemed almost a part of her, so that no matter her high knees, no matter her dips and bends, her splaying arms, the jar stayed fixed on her head like a crown” (Ta-Nehisi, 4). We see here the power of storytelling and actions in a way that emerges readers into this non-fiction reality of slavery. Many generations to come are able to educate and be exposed to the harsh truth of American history.
Booker T Washington approaches similar ideologies in the book titled Up From Slavery. Specifically, chapter V titled The Reconstruction Period has what can be interpreted as a serious tone. Booker T Washington analyzes the education system in the south during the Reconstruction Period of the Civil War. Here we as readers draw parallels to the harsh conditions Black and Brown individuals were placed in during this time. He mentions “I saw coloured men who were members of the state legislatures, and county officers, who, in some cases, could not read or write, and whose morals were as weak as their education” (Washington, 41). What I find unique to this form of writing is that he does not show readers their inability to read or write; he tells us. This is a form of expressing words not actions. This is a completely different writing style than the one adapted by Coates in The Water Dancer; incorporating imagery, specific diction, and dialogue. Such an approach impacts readers ability to properly understand the seriousness of such an issue and the effects that it had on the Black community. I also can’t help to think that maybe this was done on purpose. Booker T. Washington was an American writer and educator who also advised certain U. S presidents. He was also a leader of the Black community during this time. So wouldn’t he want to elevate the voices of such individuals? Or did this too, cause a moment of vision and memory, similar to the one that Hiram had with his mother at the beginning of The Water Dancer at the bridge?
Such questions may be difficult to answer. However, they are worth thinking about and prompting. Washington mentions then moving to Washington D.C to teach strong men and women with no industrial training. However, instead of showing us how they were strong, he dismisses their experience by just telling us. Is this because he himself does not believe they were strong enough? I ask these questions not to be a harsh critique, but to express the importance of delivery when telling a story, especially from a very important pivotal role of The United States of America. With that being said, you never know who is watching: actions speak louder than words, remember that.