Susan Stoderl

12/20/2025

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12/19/2025

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12/18/2025

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12/17/2025

12/12/2025

A modern writer who respects bards of old, like Taliesin, Aneurin, and Myrddin Wilt, combines storytelling, teaching, and compassion through both contemporary and historical themes. Bards of old were poets, musicians, and historians who preserved culture through oral performance. Maybe the reason I feel connected to bards is that, at four, I started studying music, later sang opera, and composed operas and songs to my own words. I have always studied history and believe that history should guide our lives.

Storytellers in the digital age share their stories through blogs, podcasts, social media threads, spoken word performances, and digital and print books. We act as memory keepers and harbingers of what is coming, good and bad.

Bards teach history’s lessons, relating them to modern life, social movements, the changing world, and personal struggles.

I like to use magical realism in my writing for middle-grade readers because it allows me to tell real-life stories with a touch of the mythical lurking in the shadows.

12/10/2025

Elizabeth Keckley (1818–1907) was born enslaved in Virginia. She endured years of hardship, including forced labor and physical and sexual abuse, before purchasing her freedom in 1855. As an extraordinary seamstress, she became the foremost seamstress and dress designer in Washington, DC. During President Abraham Lincoln’s presidency, she became a confidante and dressmaker to Mary Todd Lincoln (1818-1882). These two damaged women from different backgrounds came together and helped improve each other’s well-being.

Slavery’s brutality and sexual abuse were a heavy burden on Keckley. She carried deep emotional scars forever, whereas Todd faced mind-breaking grief. Her son “Eddie” died just before his fourth birthday from consumption in 1850; “Willie” died at 11 of typhoid fever in 1862; her husband died in 1865; and “Tad” died at 18 in 1871, from pleurisy or congestive heart failure. Attendants removed the hysterical, blood-covered Mary Todd Lincoln from her husband as he was dying to work on him.

Racial inequality dulled Keckley’s success as a dressmaker, but she persevered. Society often criticized Todd for dressing too young, politically, and for her mental health. Keckley’s discretion and loyalty made her a trusted confidante.

In 1875, her only surviving son, Robert, committed Todd to a mental institution for several months. After being released, her health deteriorated, and she died at 64. Keckley’s reputation and finances declined following the controversy over her memoir “Behind the Scenes” and a permanent rift with Mary Lincoln. She died at 82 in the Home for Destitute Colored Women and Children.

12/03/2025

11/21/2025

The Marquis de Lafayette (1757-1834), although a member of the French aristocracy, fought for liberty and equality for all people. He fought in the American Revolution and in France, and advocated for a constitutional monarchy and human rights. The Marquis also had one of the longest names in history: Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette. He earned the nickname “Hero of Two Worlds” because of his significant involvement in both the American and French Revolutions.

In 1774, Lafayette volunteered to fight for the American cause without pay. Despite being only 19 and having no prior combat experience, he proved to be a capable leader. The Continental Congress commissioned him as a major general in 1777. He spoke only French when he arrived, but practiced English with George Washington and other officers.

In the Battle of Brandywine, Lafayette organized an orderly retreat after being wounded. At Valley Forge, Lafayette commanded a division and provided uniforms and muskets for his troops. At the siege of Yorktown, he helped trap Cornwallis’ troops, which led to the English surrender. In addition, he brought French troops, ships, and supplies to support American victory.

Lafayette returned to France and became a leader of liberal reform in 1782. With input from Thomas Jefferson, he drafted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen in 1789. He became commander of the National Guard of Paris after the storming of the Bastille. His job was to maintain order, protect the royal family, and support revolutionary reforms. However, as the Revolution grew more radical, Lafayette’s moderate stance made him unpopular. He escaped from France in 1792 to avoid ex*****on during the Reign of Terror. The Austrians held Lafayette prisoner until Napoleon secured his release.

He died of natural causes in 1834 and is buried in Paris beneath soil from Bunker Hill.

11/20/2025

Mary Seacole (née Grant) (1805–1881) was a pioneering nurse and humanitarian during the Crimean War. She was born in Kingston, Jamaica, to a Scottish father and a Jamaican mother who practiced traditional medicine.

Seacole gained experience in tropical diseases while living in Panama (1850-1853). After hearing about the California Gold Rush, she opened a hotel and store for travelers crossing the Isthmus. There, she treated cholera and other tropical disease victims during a severe outbreak in 1850.

During the Crimean War (1853–1856), Florence Nightingale’s team rejected Seacole’s application to work with them. Only white British women served on Nightingale’s nursing staff. Undeterred, Seacole self-funded her trip to the Crimea.

She set up the “British Hotel” to provide food, shelter, and medical care for soldiers. It was a combination of a canteen, a store, and a medical facility, built close to the front lines near Balaclava. Enlisted men who didn’t want to go to the hospital became her customers. She offered meals and provisions to soldiers and officers, medical care to the sick and wounded, and a place for soldiers to recover and socialize, boosting morale. When her business failed, she worked at her boarding house during the day. At night, she volunteered with Florence Nightingale. She treated the wounded on the battlefield, even as the battle continued. Seacole was the lady in the yellow dress, blue bonnet with red ribbons, and medical bag. She took her bag of supplies on one mule and her medical equipment on another.

When she faced financial hardship after the war, British supporters held a fundraising gala in her honor. Seacole published her autobiography, “Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands” (1857), one of the earliest by a Black woman in Britain.

11/18/2025

The American Civil War began on April 12, 1861, with Confederate forces attacking Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. Between 1861 and 1863, enslaved people in the Confederacy carried out most of the manual labor to support the Confederate military. Some served as personal servants to officers. The Union gave work or protection to “Contrabands,” enslaved people who fled to the Union lines. A Union military officer in charge determined the freedom of the escapees. Not all enslaved escapees gained freedom.

The Emancipation Proclamation, issued by President Abraham Lincoln, took effect on January 1, 1863. However, it did not apply to enslaved people in the border states of the Union (Kentucky, Delaware, Maryland, Missouri, and counties allowing slavery in West Virginia). It’s believed that about 350,000 enslaved people remained in those states.

Ending slavery was never a goal of the Civil War. The Proclamation was a military document to prevent the secession of the Southern states and preserve the Union. After the Battle of Antietam, Lincoln’s Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862, stated all enslaved people in Confederate states or parts of states would be free on January 1, 1863. It also noted that the Union Army and Navy would now accept Black men. By the end of the war, Black people were ten percent of those fighting. Besides inspiring all Black people to support the Union cause, Lincoln hoped to prevent England and France from recognizing the Confederacy or providing military aid to it.

The most significant limitation of the Emancipation Proclamation was that its promises depended upon a Union military victory. Complete abolition did not come until the 13th Amendment in December 1865.

Next week, we will look at firsthand accounts of this time.

11/14/2025

The Little Rock Nine, a group of nine African American students, began desegregating Arkansas’s Little Rock Central High School in 1957. Despite the danger and daily harassment requiring military guards, the students excelled in life.

Melba Pattillo Beals experienced severe harassment and threats at school. She wrote about her struggles in her memoir, “Warriors Don’t Cry.”

Once suspended for accidentally spilling chili on white students while being harassed, Minnijean Brown-Trickey underwent another suspension. She then transferred to a school in New York City. She became a social activist and worked for the Canadian government on diversity issues.

A photographer captured Elizabeth Eckford walking alone to school on her first day, surrounded by a hostile mob. She later worked as a journalist and in public service. Her image became an iconic symbol of the civil rights movement.

Ernest Green was the first African American to graduate from Central High School. He later served as assistant secretary of Labor under President Jimmy Carter.

Gloria Ray Karlmark faced daily hostility but persevered through the school year. She became a scientist and patent attorney, then worked internationally in technology and publishing.

Carlotta Walls LaNier was the youngest of the Little Rock Nine. She became a real estate broker and wrote about her experience in “A Mighty Long Way.”

Thelma Mothershed completed her coursework at Central High but graduated elsewhere because of safety concerns. She became a teacher and earned several awards for her work in education and community service.

Terrence Roberts, facing severe hostility, transferred to a school in Los Angeles. He became a clinical psychologist and professor.

Jefferson Thomas endured constant harassment, served in the military, and worked as an accountant.

11/12/2025

Eliza Jane Cate (1812-1884) began working at the Amoskeag Mill in Manchester, New Hampshire, sometime around 1830. By the 1840s, she had moved to Lowell, Massachusetts, because of higher wages. Her first piece appeared in The Lowell Offering in 1842, entitled “Leisure Hours of the Mill Girls.” Her fellow mill-mate and author, Hariet Hanson Robinson, nicknamed her “the Edgeworth of New England.” Both wrote about everyday life, social dynamics, and moral development. The Offering offered excerpts of “Susy L’s Diary,” “Lights and Shadows of Factory Life,” and “Chapters on the Natural Sciences.” She used the pen name of “D.”

Cate also contributed to several other magazines, such as “The New England Offering,” “Peterson’s,” “Sartain’s,” “The Olive Branch,” and “Godey’s Lady’s Book.” Her pen names included “D,” “Jennie,” “Jane,” “E. J. D,” “Frankin, NH,” and “The Author of Susy L.’s Diary.”

Cate wrote at least eight other books. The Baptist Publication Society of Philadelphia published three, and J. Wi******er of New York published two. Book titles include: “A Year with the Franklins,” “Lights and Shadows of Factory Life,” “Rural Scenes in New England,” and “Jenny Ambrose.”

In the opening of “Lights and Shadows of Factory Life in New England,” published in “The New World,” February 1843, Cate writes:

“No pent‑up Utica contracts our powers; for the whole boundless continent is ours. Fearless we stand amid the whirl of busy life, each sister heart quickened by the universal pulse of progress.”

The quote by Cate is actually a metaphor drawn from the Revolutionary-era poet Jonathan M. Sewell, who writes that the new republic offers a life not found in Utica (New York). Cate uses this line to express the freedom, ambition, and expansive potential of mill girls in New England. This is remarkable, given that she could do this with the education provided at the mills.

Eliza Jane Cate’s works aren’t widely read today, but they provide insight into the significance of mill-girl life in 19th-century America.