Submitted by Zachary Mason
On September 12, 2023, a virtual event entitled “Inspired by Austen” provided three members with an opportunity to share how Austen’s stories or life inspired them to do further research.
First was Marsha Huff, who gave a presentation on the abolishment of the slave trade, which intersects Jane Austen’s work in Mansfield Park as Baronet Tom Bertram would have been in Parliament when it was being discussed. As a matter of fact, the slave trade was abolished in 1808. People figured if there were no trade, slavery would be phased out. Instead, this led to the breeding of slaves. The actual abolishment of slavery in the colonies would not take place until 1834.
Next, Zachary Mason had an intriguing theory about how Jane Austen may have had a near-death experience in her childhood, leading to a special neural configuration known as an empath. Empaths feel human emotions more deeply than others. This in turn may have led to several unexplained phenomena at Jane Austen’s House (formerly called Chawton Cottage). Jane Austen may have even hid evidence under Janeites’ noses, by having two possible near-death experiences hidden in her works, in Sense and Sensibility and Persuasion.
Finally, Brooke Furmanek gave a fascinating report on the patchwork quilt made by Jane, Cassandra, and their mother. Completing the intricate, symmetrical hand stitching must have been an agonizing undertaking. This quilt has inspired retailers to offer colors based on the quilt’s squares and border, as well as a print of its pattern, for those wishing to make the quilt without needing to assemble all those squares. Brooke has a collection of squares and colors based on the quilt and hopes to hand sew it together (no small undertaking). Event attendee Sarah Clifton admitted to touching the quilt before it became against Chawton Cottage policy, in 1984, making all of us green with envy.
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