Why do men sneer when I arise
And stand in their councils,
And look them eye to eye,
And speak their tongue?
Is it because I am black?Cotter clearly criticizes Western culture’s propen-
sity to conflate color with intelligence, as did such
great thinkers as David Hume, Immanuel Kant,
John Locke, and George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel.
As EUGENE REDMOND concludes, Cotter “shows a
sharp awareness... of the plight of blacks and an
even sharper ability to express that plight” (168).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Gates, Henry L., Jr. “Writing ‘Race’ and the Difference
It Makes.” In ‘Race.’ Writing and Difference, 1–20.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985.
Mason, Julian. “Who Was Joseph Seamon Cotter,
Jr.?” The Southern Literary Journal. 23, no. 1 (Fall
1990): 104–106.
Redmond, Eugene. Drumvoices: The Mission of Afro-
American Poetry. A Critical History. Garden City,
N.Y.: Anchor Books, 1976.
Kim Hai Pearson
Brian Jennings
Cotter, Joseph Seamon, Sr. (1861–1949)
Joseph Cotter was born in 1861 in Bardstown,
Kentucky, to Michael Cotter and Martha Vaughan.
Cotter’s mother often told him stories and plays
that she made up while working around the house,
presumably giving Cotter his love of storytelling.
Cotter had little formal education; he had to leave
school in the third grade to help his mother. He
worked a number of odd jobs, including prize-
fighting, bricklaying, ragpicking, and whiskey dis-
tilling. Cotter was smaller than many of the men
he worked with, but because he was a storyteller
he escaped being harassed by his fellow workers.
At age 22, after studying hard in only two ses-
sions of night school at the primary level, Cotter
was considered ready to teach. He taught English
literature and composition at Louisville’s Colored
Ward School. He founded and served as principal
of Paul L. Dunbar School and later was the prin-
cipal of Samuel Taylor Coleridge School. He was a
major voice in his community, serving as the di-
rector of the Louisville Colored Orphan’s Home
Society while belonging to the NATIONAL ASSOCIA-
TION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE,
the Story Teller’s League, the Negro Educational
Association, and the Author’s League of America.
He married Maria F. Cox in 1891; tragically, they
lost both of their children, including the poet JO-
SEPH S. COTTER, JR., to tuberculosis.
Best known for his poetry, Cotter began pub-
lishing his work at the end of the 19th century.
Despite an admirable reputation, he was over-
shadowed by giants PAU L LAURENCE DUNBAR,
JAMES WELDON JOHNSON, CHARLES CHESNUTT, and
W. E. B. DUBOIS. EUGENE REDMOND nonetheless
identifies Cotter as “one of the most gifted and
prolific writers of his era” (104). Cotter published
A Rhyming (1895), Links of Friendship (1898), A
White Song and a Black One (1909), and Negro Tales
(1912). His play Caleb, the Degenerate was pub-
lished in 1903. In 1938 Cotter published Collected
Poems. Cotter’s writing is characterized by variety,
touching on such diverse areas as moral lessons,
folk tales, philosophy, satire, tragedies, and reflec-
tions about people. According to the editors of The
NEGRO CARAVAN, Cotter’s poetry falls under several
categories: that of the schoolmaster, that of teller of
tales for children, and that of race leaders. More-
over, they identified his dialect poetry as “more ra-
cially critical” than Dunbar’s (343). His poetry is a
journey of discovery into human nature.
Although criticized for his precision and intel-
lectual angle (his play Caleb, the Degenerate was
written in blank verse), Cotter’s poetry also beauti-
fully captures people’s language and stories. “Trag-
edy of Pete,” which won an OPPORTUNITY poetry
prize, is exemplary. When Pete, who enjoys getting
drunk at the local bar with his friends, “Both day
and night,” is told, after his Bible-carrying wife is
killed in a car accident, that she was drunk, Pete
murders her accuser. Standing before the judge,
Pete proudly confesses, “I raised my knife / And
drove it in / At the top of his head / And the point
of his chin.” Pete willingly asks to be sent to the124 Cotter, Joseph Seamon, Sr.