A Socialist Cinderella
A real-life rags to riches to socialism story set in turn-of-the-century New York
A book to read: Rebel Cinderella by Adam Hochschild
Adam Hochschild, a website-less octogenarian, is my favorite historian. He’s the reason I check the calendars of with the biggest bookstores in Seattle every month - I don’t want to miss him the next time he comes to town. I wish my hero wasn’t 81 years old. I have to hold my breath every time I google him.
He’s the author of my 2nd favorite book of all time, KING LEOPOLD’S GHOST. In this interview here he mentions E.D. Morel, one of the real-life protagonists of the tale, wondering “why a hundred people haven't written books about him, I do not know.”
I’m trying Adam!! I’m 70,000 words into the 3rd draft of my book about good ol’ E.D.
But that’s not what we are talking about today. This post is supposed to be about Hochschild’s 2021 book, REBEL CINDERELLA: From Rags to Riches to Radical, the Epic Journey of Rose Pastor Stokes.
I read the book ahead of my trip to New York City, as most of Rose’s life unfolds between the Lower East Side and Greenwich Village.
Rose arrived in New York City as a child and was sent straight to the factories. She spent much of the next decade manufacturing cigars to support all the children her mother kept having. But then (here’s the Cinderella part), she fell in love with and married a rich guy.
The rich guy (James Graham Phelps Stokes) didn’t exactly eschew his wealth, but was a socialist nonetheless. Rose and James bopped around New York giving speeches, supporting labor unions, and generally rabble-rousing. She was the better speaker of the pair, routinely moving audiences to tears.
Like every story about Famous New Yorkers Of Yore, Rose seemed to know everyone (Emma Goldman! Eugene Debs! Margaret Sanger! Jack London! W.E.B. Du Bois) and do everything. She volunteered in the same settlement houses where she once lived, organized labor unions, and took in friends and strangers who needed here help. She had complicated feelings about WWI. Her life twisted and turned right along with history, and the story is fascinating to read.
A place to explore: New York City
Rose Pastor was born in Russia (today’s Poland) in 1879. A Russian Jew during the time of pogroms, Rose’s mother fled home (with 2-year-old Rose in tow) for London and then America.
Rose landed in Manhattan’s Castle Garden in 1890. Writes Hochschild:
“This grim, circular, former fortress of red brick preceded Ellis Island as the main reception center for new immigrants. Its vast main hall reeked of those who had not been able to bathe for weeks on shipboard. Hundreds of bewildered men in fur hats and women in kerchiefs and shawls trooped in, carrying all their possessions in bundles or battered suitcases tied with rope. Con men bilked the gullible out of the savings ..”
While in New York earlier this month, I only had time for three touristy things. Visiting Ellis Island was at the top of my list.
After touring the statue of Liberty, the tourist boat dropped us on Ellis Island, wherein we went upstairs to the main reception area similar to the one Adam Hochschild wrote about:
Maybe it’s just the history teacher in me, or maybe it’s the amazing curators at Ellis Island, but it was so, so easy to imagine the space as it must have been 100 years ago. From audio guides1, we head the crackly voices of elderly Americans, discussing their immigrant experiences. Because we all only remember random bits and details of our childhood, that’s what was shared. We heard people talk about the color of there mother’s hat upon arrival, the taste of that first banana in America, the barking orders of immigration officers and health inspectors, the noise and chaos of languages in the arrivals hall.
After the main arrivals hall, tourists are routed into a series of interconnected room about different facets of the immigration experience: How health inspectors would indicate health concerns via chalk markers on coats, how immigration officials would know the country someone was coming from based on the knots on their luggage, and how 2% of all hopeful immigrants were turned back, having to return to their home country.
Some thoughts:
Immigration seemed much more organized in the early 1900s. Why is it such a disaster now? Sure the Ellis Island arrivals hall was surely noisy and chaotic, but the way so many people were processed and semi taken care of for a few days sees idyllic compared to modern stories of children being ripped away from their parents and imprisoned at the southern border as members of Congress refuse to pass immigration legislation.
The anti-immigration rhetoric we are hearing today is nothing new
Photo by Jenna Vandenberg America is a nation of immigrants. This is our greatest strength
A Lesson to Teach: Labor Unions and everything from Retro Report
Despite my touristy trip to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, I was actually in New York City to work with Retro Report. Retro Report is a nonprofit newsroom that creates documentary videos and classroom resources. The documentary videos are mostly short films (think 7-10 minutes, although there are a few hour-long ones) mostly about History, Civics, Science and Environmental Studies, and Media studies. The documentaries are fabulous - this one and this one were just nominated for 2024 Emmys.
Nearly all of the films include lesson plans written by teachers (like me!) The lesson plans go through several sets of eyes/editors/fact-checkers and are some of the best free resources online for secondary teachers.
Yes - free. The videos, classroom resources, everything, everything, everything is free. If you want to stay up to date on the latest videos and lesson plans that are coming out, sign up for their newsletter here.
I’ve written a couple of lesson plans for the organization and was recently accepted to join their Teacher Ambassador Program, wherein I flew to New York with 20 other teachers to learn more about Retro Report’s interworkings and work on creating more lessons. I’ll share them here once they are published.
Anyway, the very first lesson plan I wrote for Retro Report was about comparing Labor Rights in the USA and UK. The video Labor Union Activism Is on the Rise, Recalling the Great Depression begins with a look at 2022 efforts to union Starbucks stores, which is very relevant for my students, as we live just north of Seattle and many of them are (or plan to be) Starbucks employees. The lesson plan is available to download here (scroll down to the “For Teachers” section on the right).
Happy reading, traveling, and lesson planning y’all! Happy back to school soon for some of you!
Included in the price of admission
You always post such great pictures with your articles! That's awesome about your NYC Trip and Retro Report work.
And all great points about immigration. This summer I've learned so much about where and when my relatives moved to the US, which puts a different spin on the topic.
Great photos, Jenna! :)