Talk:John Carruthers Stanly

Peer Review

Shifon: You are helping to close the gender gap on Wiki by selecting a woman and even more so because she is a woman of color. Only 17% of the bios on Wiki are for women. Your extensive additions represent a lot of research on your part, for example, how the war affected missionary school work; tension between different race teachers; the way you use her words to draw attention to the the evidence of institutional racism and the hypocrisy of teachers professing to be Christians while at the same time practicing racism. You added several links within the article which adds interest to these important segments with popup windows that have pics and deeper descriptions.

• Your lead section is strong, showing importance of your person with the most important info as a lead-in to the rest of the page.
• Your sections are well organized and in chronological order
• Your coverage shows a neutral tone throughout - just the facts.
• Your sources are solid and scholarly.

Comments:

• It’s interesting to learn that there was a “colored board of education.”
• I like that you added she was one of six children because this shows a difference in family structure then and now, although she herself only had one child.
• I like how you added that she studied “Ladies Courses.” This gives us a glimpse into the mindset of education at the time.
• You went deep on the facts about her alleged affair at the AMA and the controversy her marriage to a white man. These are good facts that go to her self-direction and knowing her own mind, not bowing to conventions; it just reinforces the picture of her as an independent-thinking woman.
• Good clarification on the “name confusion” with detailed research. (Interesting piece about a portion of her father being named after a mistress in the family!)
• Great addition of “purchased pew” info because it also enlightens regarding the illegality of solely-owned black churches.
• Good info about the teaching cert & interracial education re activism
• Interesting info re slave uprising + increased legal restrictions on blacks plus the family’s move so they could open schools for black children. (Was it only for black children? The previous sentence says “children of color.”)
• Nice use of church docs to widen info on Sara’s teaching history. I see you added defining info for the American Missionary Association and you clarified that she joined in March, 1864 and was deployed in May, 1864. The previous text did not make this distinction. These facts all add value to the article.
• Paragraph 6 under subtitle "Educator of Freed People":I thought her comment interesting on the “woeful commentary on the hideous iniquity of slavery” in speaking about the students at her teaching assignment in St. Louis. The line before this talks about the "peculiarly white transparent complexion" of white students so I'm not sure what she meant by the slavery comment vis a vis the transparent complexion comment. Maybe it refers to the "ascendency" she mentions. I'm just wondering what she meant.
• Your sources are solid and scholarly!

I’d love to see pictures of Sara G. Stanley on your page; since she died in 1918, any photos of her would be in the public domain (1923 is the cutoff). I don’t see any of her in Wiki Commons but maybe a black history organization or a state history site either where she was born, died or worked…maybe church records or photos from the yearbook where she taught at The Haines Normal and Industrial Institute or Centre Street Colored Methodist Church where she was the principal. There are some interesting photos from this Institute on the Library of Congress website but I don't see her identified in any of them.

I’d love to see her obituary from her local paper if those were published for women of color …. ? (she may be listed as Mrs. Charles Woodward (like Emma Fielding Baker was listed as Mrs. Henry Greenwood on her obit.))

• Is it possible to add the name of Sara’s daughter. Are there birth records that exist? Tracking her down might be difficult because of the naming conventions, as she was known by different names with different spellings.

• Paragraph 4 in the section entitled “Educator of Freed People”: Do you think this last word should be “despised?” I looked for it in the source but I could not locate a electronic copy of the book to check it. ("When one half shade difference is to determine whether an individual is to be respected or despite".[9]

Very nice job, Shifon. I learned a lot about education in the late 19th century and about a woman who would stand strong against prejudice and injustice at a time when that was not only difficult but could be dangerous as well.Spellman888 (talk) 23:12, 1 April 2019 (UTC)