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The Use of Pseudonyms
- University of Georgia Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
TheUseofPseudonyms H opkins published her short story “The Mystery Within Us” in the first issue of the Colored American Magazine (May 1900). In the June issue it was announced that she would be in charge of the women’s column. The September issue featured a long advertisement for her novel Contending Forces, which was forthcoming from the Colored Co-operative Publishing Company. In the next issue her short story “Talma Gordon” appeared. From then onward there was often more than one contribution by Hopkins in each issue of the magazine: usually one biographical sketch and often a short story or one chapter of her novel. In March 1901 the first installment of Hagar’s Daughter: A Story of Southern Caste Prejudice was published. The serial ran each month through March 1902. The author was identified as Sarah A. Allen, and only a year later, when a new serial was about to begin, the editor announced that Hagar’s Daughter was written by Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins under her mother’s name (“Editorial,” March 1902, 335). The use of this pseudonym allowed Hopkins to include up to three contributions in one issue. In the December 1901 issue, for example, she published one short story, one installment of Hagar’s Daughter, and one biographical sketch. Hopkins continued to use this pseudonym off and on in future years. In April 1901 she wrote a sketch about the life of Lewis Hayden, a fugitive slavewhosettledinBoston,becameasuccessfultailor,waselectedtotheMassachusetts Legislature, and served in a position in the office of the secretary of state (see “Famous Men: Lewis Hayden”). Hayden was a famous and active abolitionist involved in the underground railroad, sheltering many fugitive slaves. One such fugitive, whose story Hopkins included in her profile, was a slave named Shadrach, whom Hayden helped to escape. Recently, the case of Shadrach Minkins was reconstructed by Gary Collison to exemplify the abolitionist movement in and around Boston in the 1850s. It can be safely stated that Shadrach was a famous name in Boston and that his capture under the Fugitive Slave Law was one of several that rose to public prominence in 60 The Use of Pseudonyms 61 the immediate pre–Civil War period. In the August 1902 issue, an article entitled “Charles Winter Wood,” by Sarah A. Allen, was announced. The article itself, however, appeared under the name of J. Shirley Shadrach. There is further evidence that J. Shirley Shadrach was another of Hopkins’s aliases. The table of contents for the projected third issue of the New Era Magazine includes a story called “ ‘Butt-In’ Bobby—An Easter Story, How a Boy Scout Saved His Mother” by S. Shadrach. Since Hopkins published “Converting Fanny” in the first issue of the magazine under the name of Sarah A. Allen, it is highly probable that Hopkins continued using her other pen name. In addition, there are repeated phrases that recur in other writings of Hopkins that make it more than probable that Shadrach was another of her pen names. It is easy to understand why Hopkins chose her mother’s name as a pseudonym . It is natural to use a name associated with oneself in some way, and it might show the good relationship between mother and daughter. The daughter pays tribute to the mother and lets her participate in her triumph. The choice of J. Shirley Shadrach is more difficult to explain. Hopkins positioned herself as a kind of female fugitive slave asking for protection. She established an imaginary bond between the fate of the heroic fugitive slave, forced to leave New England because of an inhuman law, and herself, a magazine editor under constant financial and ideological pressure. It was her form of self-protection against criticism from readers and the Colored American Magazine staff, which can be exemplified by an analysis of her contributions to the February and March issues of 1903. A discussion of the Shadrach/Hopkins essays also provides an essential clue to her thinking about race and miscegenation. In general, the use of pseudonyms was not uncommon in the Colored American Magazine and African American periodicals. We find articles by “A. Gude Deekun” (A Good Deacon?), “Deesha,” and “Fair Play” in the Colored American Magazine and a serial by Golden Gladsby in the Voice of the Negro. In “The Value of Race Literature,” Victoria Earle Matthews identifies Augustus M. Hodges as “B. Square,” John E. Bruce as “BruceGrit ,” W.H.A. Moore as “John Mitchell, Jr.,” and Joe...