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blackest Ideas of my
Approaching fate–Sometimes seeing my self drowning, otherwhiles drowned, and at the best like a holy Sister just come out of a Spiritual Bath in dripping Garments." This is not the last danger water presents during Knight's journey. Near the end of the journey, she has a rather close call when she writes, "But in going over the Causeway at Dedham the Bridge being overflowed by the high waters coming down I very narrowly escaped falling over into the river Hors and all wch twas almost a miracle I did not." In addition to the danger posed by the rivers, Knight writes about the less than ideal roads on which she must travel. She explains in her straightforward manner that "he Rodes all along this way are very bad, Incumbred with Rocks and mountainos passages, wch were very disagreeable to my tired carcass." These examples provide just a sampling of the dangers faced by Knight on her journey as chronicled in her journal.
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interrogates her with "silly questions" referring to the unusualness of a woman being on such a journey, to which Knight responds curtly, calling her rude. These instances of hyperbole and character judgment contrast with other, apparently less remarkable interactions, such as the following account of a transaction between two postmen (one of which was her guide), in which she does not even name her guide: "About 8 in the morning, I with the Post proceeded forward without observing any thing remarkable; And about two, on, Arrived at the Post's second stage, where the western Post mett him and exchanged
Letters." This account, however, is immediately followed by a detailed description of a meal Knight was served, which appears to have been notable for its unpleasant appearance and aftermath. Extended scenes describing Knight's unpleasant encounters with food occur often throughout her journal.
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leaving a small shovel full of dirt on the floor, made a full stop, Hugging his own pretty Body with his hands under his arms, Stood staring rown'd him, like a Catt let out of a
Baskett." Clearly, Knight's account of the strangers she met on her journey would conflict with more modern understandings of how we should treat our fellow human beings. However, as an early American writer, Knight's writings offer scholars a view into the controversial complexities of 18th-century life.
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when she writes about an exchange concerning payment for an escort. She tells the woman attempting to get more money from her simply that she “would not be accessary to such extortion.” In the end, Knight stands her ground and is able to bypass the negotiator, deal directly with the would-be escort, and arrange a price she feels is fair. Knight must traverse some rather dangerous landscapes unfamiliar to her. Along the way, Knight may seem to feel fear or apprehension.
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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." Knight also demonstrates racist judgment of Native
Americans: "There are every where in the Towns as I passed, a Number of Indians the Natives of the Country, and are the most salvage of all the salvages of that kind that I had ever Seen: little or no care taken (as I heard upon enquiry) to make them otherwise."
316:, even at the expense of its mimetic and outwardly historical impact, we are able to place the work more clearly in the fruitful tradition of colonial American, and particularly New England, literature...Identification of the individual mythic allusions is only a matter of reading, but seeing the tantalizing pattern they fall into is an indication that this innocent and rough-mannered journal has meanings that a literal reading cannot guess at." By reading the
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about finding moonlight, and poems of frustration about the loud sounds of drunken men late at night. The journal is valuable as a history of the manners and customs of the time, and is full of graphic descriptions of the early settlements in New
England and New York. At the same time, it is interesting for its original orthography and interspersed rhymes.
411:"not proper to be Related by a Female pen," suggesting that even though she wrote privately, Knight was aware of the possibility her work might be read by an external party. However she made no effort to publish and seems to have forgotten to have the journal destroyed before she died, as was common at the time.
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The
Livingstons of Livingston manor; being the history of that branch of the Scottish house of Callendar which settled in the English province of New York during the reign of Charles the Second; and also including an account of Robert Livingston of Albany, "The nephew," a settler in the same province
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For example, early in the journal, crosses a swamp with a man she sarcastically describes as "honest John." She recounts of how he embellishes the stories of his adventures to appear to her as "a Prince disguis'd." Upon reaching the next stop, Knight is confronted with this man's eldest daughter, who
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Some moments during the journey appear to have had a profound impact on Knight. These experiences are marked by distinct poetic interludes in her journal, in which she abandons the conventions of prose and resorts to metrical composition. In one instance, Knight finds herself riding her horse in the
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represents a deviation from the traditional masculine canon. While her status as a feminist figure remains open for debate, Knight's diary has merited study for its record of an unusual situation (a woman traveling alone through the New
England wilderness); for its uncharacteristically outward focus
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has been valued as both an historical and literary document. As a travel narrative, it recounts the dangerous and primitive conditions of travel in the colonies at this time period. Furthermore, Knight's detailed descriptions of New York, New Haven, and the many small settlements she travels through
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Her journal remains noteworthy both for its larger-than-life central character (Knight) and its telling of a trying journey not normally undertaken by a woman. The discomforts of primitive traveling are described with much sprightliness and not a little humor, including poems of gratitude and relief
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Further on, at a public house in
Fairfield, Ms. Knight was likewise unable to eat the meal prepared for her and went to bed supperless. On being shown to her room, “a little Lento Chamber furnisht amongst other Rubbish with a High Bedd and a Low one down I laid my poor Carkes (never more tired) and
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Knight comments that a certain country gentleman is animal-like and uncouth. She says that country people, like cows, "seldom Loose their Cudd." She also describes the previously mentioned country gentleman as "spitting a Large deal of
Aromatick Tincture, he gave a scrape with his shovel like shoo,
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In the widowed years of her life, Sarah Kemble Knight left Boston for good and moved to New London to live near her married daughter. There, she owned a tavern and an inn, engaged in the buying and selling of land for speculation and became a respected member of her church. Sarah Kemble Knight died
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She recounted her experiences during the five-month journey in the “journals” that have made her known to students of
American colonial literature and history. The small diary of her Boston–New York journey passed into private hands and lay undiscovered until 1825 when it was published posthumously
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Although written as a journal and despite her occasional poetic flights, Knight's writing is primarily focused outward, concerned with taking inner stock of her external surroundings as she travels both inwardly and outwardly. In one instance, she notes that some of her experiences and stories are
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Such experiences, however, were offset by others less wholesome. In Saybrook, where Madam Knight stopped for a mid-day dinner, she complained of the landlady: “Shee told us shee had some mutton wch shee would broil, wch I was glad to hear; but it being pickled and my Guide said it smelt strong of
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Knight's journey was a difficult one for a woman of her station, and both the perils and her courage and recklessness throughout the journey are illustrated in multiple moments throughout her journal. Knight's knowledge of business and determination is apparent early in her account of her journey
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When she composed the journal, Knight was a 38-year-old married woman and keeper of a boarding house in Boston with some experience as a copier of legal documents. She was on her way to New Haven (and later to New York City) to act on behalf of a friend in the settlement of her deceased husband's
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Sarah Kemble Knight was a complex human being with early American racial and class sensibilities. Knight refers to racial interactions between slaves and whites with white supremacist's observations: "But too Indulgent (especially ye farmers) to their slaves: suffering too great familiarity from
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across Connecticut, shed light on colonial life at the turn of the 18th century. She documents eating habits, architecture, religious diversity, and various fashions of the people of New York and New Haven, as well as the living conditions found in rural settlements between Boston and New York.
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The following day, after traveling for miles over roads that were “very bad, incumbered with rocks and mountainous passages,” Sarah Knight came to “a bridge under which the river ran very swift, my horse stumbled, and very narrowly escaped falling into the water, which extremely frightened me.”
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Knight chose to travel with a post rider or other reliable guide, so she was never alone on the road. Still, the difficulties she encountered speak volumes about the physical dangers of long-distance travel by horseback in that era. In crossing the Thames River in a ferry boat that carried both
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Before crossing a particularly hazardous river, Knight cannot rid herself of thoughts of drowning, writing, "The concern of mind this relation sett me in: no thoughts but those of the dang'ros River could entertain my Imagination, and they were as formidable as varios, still Tormenting me with
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Despite the hardships of her journey, Knight infused humor into her journal as she traveled. In addition, many scholars of American Literature cite Knight's picaresque characterizations and her satirical tendencies as reasons to consider her an early precursor to "the sort of broad humor and
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Knight was born in Boston to Captain Thomas Kemble, a merchant of Boston, and Elizabeth Trerice. In 1689, she married Richard Knight. They had one child, Elizabeth. Having been left a widow after her husband's death in 1703, Knight assumed the responsibility of managing her household.
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Cate, Hollis L. "The Figurative Language of Recall in Sarah Kemble Knight's 'Journal'." in The CEA Critic 43.1 (Nov. 1980): 32-35. Rpt. in Literature Criticism from 1400 to 1800. Ed. James E. Person, Jr. Vol. 7. Detroit: Gale Research, 1988. Literature Resource Center. Web. 5 Oct.
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pitch-dark woods alone late at night. She feels intensely fearful until the moon reveals itself and lights her way, after which she experiences a transcendental sense of relief and gratitude toward the moon. She unpacks this tightly bound moment with the following solvent prose:
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passengers and their horses, she wrote in an entry dated “Thirsday, Octobr ye 5th”: “Here, by reason of a very high wind, we met with great difficulty in getting over—the Boat tos’t exceedingly, and our horses capper’d at a very surprising Rate, and set us all in a fright.”
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Thorpe, Peter. "Sarah Kemble Knight and the Picaresque Tradition." CLA Journal 10.2 (Dec. 1966): 114-121. Rpt. in Literature Criticism from 1400 to 1800. Ed. James E. Person, Jr. Vol. 7. Detroit: Gale Research, 1988. Literature Resource Center. Web. 5 Oct.
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As for room and board, Sarah Knight spent an evening with the Congregationalist minister in New London, “where I was very handsomely and plentifully treated and Lodg’d.” The minister, she noted, was “the most affable, courteous, Genero’s and best of men.”
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Knight's diary has also been important in the field of women's history and literary recovery, both of which are movements that seek to recover narratives often forgotten or neglected in favor of more mainstream, canonized works. As a woman's diary,
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Stephens, Robert O. "The Odyssey of Sarah Kemble Knight." CLA Journal 7.3 (Mar. 1964): 247-255. Rpt. in Literature Criticism from 1400 to 1800. Ed. James E. Person, Jr. Vol. 7. Detroit: Gale Research, 1988. Literature Resource Center. Web. 5 Oct.
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Knight's journal is largely a ledger of the places and people she encountered during each day of her trip. The extended scenes highlight remarkable or memorable interactions, usually with people that Knight has strong opinions about.
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In 1706 she opened a boarding house and taught school, which gained some reputation in Boston. She is described as “excelling in the art of teaching composition.” In 1713, Knight's daughter married John Livingston, of
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as an historical account, some scholars, such as Robert O. Stephens, believe it should also be read as an imaginative and creative work. Stephens asserts that "By recognizing the mythic implications of Madam Knight's
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Later, she encounters a very poor family, for whom she seemingly pretends to have an overwhelming sense of empathy (a convention of verse at the time). She draws out the emotional nuances of this vision as follows:
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Stanford, Ann. "Sarah Kemble Knight." American Colonial Writers, 1606-1734. Ed. Emory Elliott. Detroit: Gale Research, 1984. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 24. Literature Resource Center. Web. 5 Oct.
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Knight persevered and after six days on the road arrived in New Haven, where she visited with relatives before resuming her trip to New York, which took an additional three days of hard travel.
270:, where she continued her business and land dealings. Madam Knight, as she was generally called as a mark of respect, spent the rest of her life either in New London or
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estate. Knight kept a journal of her trip, and it provides us with one of the few first-hand-accounts of travel conditions in Connecticut during colonial times.
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304:(as opposed to the typical, inwardly reflective, Puritan diary); and for the unique judgements and strong personality contained within it.
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146:(April 19, 1666 – September 25, 1727) was an American teacher and businesswoman, who is remembered for a brief
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as a mythical account, Stephens hopes to align Knight's work with the narrative style of Nathaniel Hawthorne.
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Stern, Julia. “To Relish and To Spew: Disgust as Cultural Critique in The Journal of Sarah Kemble Knight.”
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Marsden, Jean I. “Beyond Recovery: Feminism and the Future of Eighteenth-Century Literary Studies.”
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One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the
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characterization that would be typical of later American writers," such as Mark Twain.
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head sause, we left it, and pd sixpence apiece for our Dinners, wch was only smell.”
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has subsequently been reprinted by others with additional biographical information.
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Ed. Perry Miller and Thomas H. Johnson. New York: American Book Company, 1938. Web.
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923:- Boston Businesswoman Sarah Knight Travels From Kingston to New London, 1704.
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602:"Unit 3: Utopian Promise; Authors: Sarah Kemble Knight (1666-1727)"
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approximate route of Sarah Kemble Knight's Journey, 1704-1705
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Bush, Sargent, Jr. "Sarah Kemble Knight (1666-1727)."
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While many critics and scholars have praised Knight's
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Knight, Sarah Kemble. "The Journal of Madam Knight."
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507:> Sarah Kemble Knight". Encyclopædia Britannica
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375:And pleasant prospects thou giv'st light to see.
353:Deeming Rough welcomes from these clownish Trees,
212:found my Covering as scanty as my Bed was hard.”
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553:Waisman, Charlotte S.; Tietjen, Jill S. (2008).
400:And their ten thousand ills wch can't be told,
371:And a Bright joy do's through my Soul diffuse.
361:My fainting vitals can't lend strength to say,
357:Yet swelling fears surprise; all dark appears–
347:To Mee's more worth than all the world beside.
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396:Their Lodgings thyn and hard, their Indian fare
27:British teacher and businesswoman (1666 – 1727)
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349:Some Joy I felt just now, when safe got or'e
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402:Makes nature er'e 'tis middle age'd look old.
390:Their best is worn behalfe then my disease.
373:The Boistero's Trees now Lend a Passage Free,
367:E' re thy Bright Aspect rescues from despair:
462:Sidney Gunn (1933). "Knight, Sarah Kemble".
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369:Makes the old Hagg her sable mantle loose,
359:Nothing but Light can dissipate those fears.
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398:The mean Apparel which the wretches wear,
388:These Indigents have hunger wth their ease;
386:All my fatigues shall not extort a grone.
916:The Heath Anthology of American Literature
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530:; Peck, H. T.; Colby, F. M., eds. (1905).
404:When I reflect, my late fatigues do seem
365:The murmer hardly warma the Ambient air,
363:But softly whisper, O I wish 'twere day.
345:In Lonesome woods to meet so kind a guide,
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972:18th-century American non-fiction writers
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384:Tho' Ill at Ă©ase, A stranger and alone,
278:at age 62 and is buried in New London at
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392:Their Misirable butt wch Heat and Cold
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351:Yon Surly River to this Rugged shore,
341:Fair Cynthia, all the Homage that I may
280:Ye Antientist Burial Ground, New London
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394:Alternately without Repulse do hold;
355:Better than Lodgings with Nereidees.
266:, and Madam Knight moved with them to
706:https://www.jstor.org/stable/25679210
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627:Livingston, Edwin Brockholst (1901).
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542:(1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.
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686:https://www.jstor.org/stable/3178795
659:Dames and daughters of colonial days
606:American Passages: A Literary Survey
468:. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
977:18th-century American women writers
634:. New York: The Knickerbocker Press
343:Unto a Creature, unto thee I pay;
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415:Danger, courage, and determination
406:Only a notion or forgotten Dreem.
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578:Rines, George Edwin, ed. (1920).
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680:28.3 (Autumn 2002): 657-662.
631:and his principal descendants
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581:"Knight, Sarah Kemble"
533:"Knight, Sarah Kemble"
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301:The Journal of Madam Knight
292:The Journal of Madam Knight
264:Robert Livingston the Elder
238:The Journal of Madam Knight
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962:Businesspeople from Boston
656:Brooks, Geraldine (1900).
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888:Resources in your library
864:Resources in your library
433:Racism and class concerns
230:The Journal of Mme Knight
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914:- From Houghton Mifflin
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156:Massachusetts Bay Colony
115:Richard Knight (d. 1703)
58:Massachusetts Bay Colony
967:American women diarists
957:American travel writers
905:- From Annenberg Media
557:. Collins. p. 17.
290:Since its publication,
286:Relevance and reception
877:By Sarah Kemble Knight
802:12.2 (1995): 112-120.
587:Encyclopedia Americana
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272:Norwich, Connecticut
164:Province of New York
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903:Sarah Kemble Knight
855:Sarah Kemble Knight
700:14.1 (1997): 1-12.
144:Sarah Kemble Knight
34:Sarah Kemble Knight
952:American educators
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150:of a journey from
84:Connecticut Colony
72:September 25, 1727
947:American diarists
850:Library resources
806:Web. 5 Oct. 2014.
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564:978-0-06-124651-7
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218:
214:
210:
206:
202:
198:
194:
177:
173:
143:
142:
74:(1727-09-25)
18:Sarah Kemble
942:1727 deaths
937:1666 births
907:Learner.org
750:Knight, 37.
496:Knight, 28.
487:Knight, 56.
478:Knight, 13.
260:Connecticut
244:Her journal
92:Occupations
931:Categories
836:Knight, 41
824:Knight, 37
815:Knight, 36
759:Knight, 4.
446:References
268:New London
253:Later life
46:1666-04-19
555:Her Story
324:Structure
170:Biography
128:Signature
120:Children
525::
318:Journal
314:Journal
309:Journal
223:Journal
98:Teacher
80:Norwich
852:about
804:JSTOR.
800:Legacy
702:JSTOR.
698:Legacy
682:JSTOR.
561:
152:Boston
112:Spouse
54:Boston
789:2014.
779:2014.
769:2014.
717:2014.
704:Web.
684:Web.
424:Humor
158:, to
148:diary
640:2016
614:2012
559:ISBN
69:Died
40:Born
664:100
232:by
228:as
933::
829:^
648:^
604:.
584:.
536:.
514:^
454:^
282:.
236:.
162:,
154:,
82:,
60:,
56:,
666:.
642:.
616:.
590:.
567:.
505:"
123:1
48:)
44:(
20:)
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