“The promise of the Dawn”: Rebecca Harding Davis’s “latent hope” for social class reform

Interestingly enough, history shows that the closer people live to each other, the less they rely on community to succeed. When Rebecca Harding Davis’s Life in the Iron Mills was first published in 1861, the United States had already been moving towards an urbanized, industrial society for many years. French sociologist Émile Durkheim describes one factor in these connected transitions as “organic solidarity,” where relationships are instrumental, and people are basically strangers to one another (Handrick). Davis provides an interesting example of this in Life in the Iron Mills, where the main characters—Hugh and Deborah—and other members of the working class are nearly invisible to the upper class, despite these workers’ important jobs. In Davis’s time, little was known about how the poor lived, and writers and artists in the Romantic Movement glamorized any descriptions that did exist. Davis writes about this scenario, where the rich care very little about the poor, as a means of revealing the harsh truths about social class divisions and prompting change. However, Davis includes no sign of hope in reform at the end of the novella; only Deborah’s hope for a peaceful afterlife is seen. In fact, it is this lack of hope on earth that most clearly demonstrates the working class’s dire situation, and demands for social class reform. Further, the fact that Davis’s only indication of hope is seen in the idea of a Christian heaven suggests that the adoption of Christian morals will result in a beneficial social class transformation.

While the whole of Life in the Iron Mills points to Davis’s sure belief in Christianity, the ending of the novella provides one of the clearest signs that Davis believes her religion has an important role in the development of American society. The story’s conclusion finds Deborah on a Quaker settlement, being cured of her past by “slow, patient Christ-love, needed to make healthy and hopeful [her] impure body and soul” (Davis, Iron Mills 73). Davis gives no indication that Deborah could have succeeded by returning to her old life, and instead suggests that Deborah’s only way out of her previous misery is through this drastic lifestyle change. Rather than having any expectations in her current life, Deborah has “in her heart some latent hope to meet [in heaven] the love denied her [on earth]” (73). Davis seems to indicate that, unless societal changes are made, any “drastic reform needed to save the poor will happen not on earth, but in eternity” (Lasseter 175). The reception of this idea is very important, because it determines whether Davis’s novella is simply a work of Christian fiction, or if it actually calls for steps to be taken to reform social class.

Because of Davis’s personal history, as well as some of the notable themes and symbols in the novella, it seems apparent that Davis wrote Life in the Iron Mills to be more than just a work of fiction. As Lasseter comments, “Davis fiercely resisted passive Christianity” by “[sympathizing] with the abolition movement, [participating] through her writing in debates over woman's place and potential, and [exploring] economic justifications for a ‘Christian’ capitalism” (175). Her ideas regarding this “Christian” capitalism are contemplated throughout Life in the Iron Mills, as she shows how corrupt and flawed the existing economic and social models were. For example, the upper class visitors of the mill toy with the idea of Hugh advancing socially, but they all, either actively or passively, leave him unaided, saying, “’Ce n’est pas mon affaire,’” or, “it’s not my business” (Davis, Iron Mills 54). This attitude is the only one shown among the upper class throughout the novella, and Davis even writes the narration in such a way that implies her readers share a similar point of view. The narrator asks the readers to “hide [their] disgust, take no heed of [their] clean clothes, and come right down with [him or her…], into the thickest of the fog and mud and foul effluvia” to hear Hugh and Deborah’s story (41). This specific portrayal of the upper class, and the attempt to induce empathy from the readers, demonstrates Davis’s desire for the upper class to change their ways and help the poor.

Davis’s wish for reform is often based on her observation of Christian hypocrisy, which is portrayed in Life in the Iron Mills, as well as her other works. In “A Faded Leaf in History,” Davis writes about unchristian acts performed by early “Christian” American settlers, who “met the Indians with the same weapons of distrust and fraud which have proved so effective with us in civilizing them since” (46). This mistrusting treatment is similarly seen in Life in the Iron Mills, when Doctor May condemns Hugh’s actions “after all [his colleagues and his] kindnesses” towards Hugh (65). Davis uses her writing as a means of “challenging the existence of these relations of domination” in order to improve “possibilities for transformation” (Mock 44). By creating these stories, Rebecca Harding Davis has revealed the harsh, hypocritical tensions that exist between social classes; this recognition is the first crucial step in actually causing change.

While Davis does not actually give evidence that social class reform has not taken place at the end of Life in the Iron Mills, nor does she blatantly give examples of possible actions, the novella’s allusions to the idea of seriously adopting Christian morals are quite apparent. Lasseter explains one clear example:

The hope proffered in the concluding sentence of all versions of the story, ‘The Promise of the Dawn,’ may be the vision Davis hopes her orthodox Protestant and Unitarian readers will embrace: a radically liberal Christianity to enact a social justice not only personally (as in the Quaker practice) but also in public policy to end poverty." (175)

This “radically liberal Christianity” that Davis promotes largely involves the concept of humility, which has been highlighted in countless other fiction works, such as The Hobbit and Charlotte’s Web (Keys 221). While these books are obviously more fantastical than Life in the Iron Mills, they all showcase the importance of such a characteristic as humility. Keys points out that, even in the real-life present, there is a “strikingly diverse assortment of political theorists and practitioners […who] have invoked humility as a positive personal social value and a bulwark against the hubris or pride inherent in […] great or superpower politics” (218). Humility, when defined as “a modest or low view of one’s own importance” is a characteristic that is not easily seen in any of the upper class characters in Life in the Iron Mills, nor is it likely one that the novella’s narrator would use to describe his or her audience (Humility). Davis uses Hugh and Deborah’s story as a means of humbling readers into a state of empathy, and therefore causing a feeling of “brotherly love” to work it’s way into the culture (Lasseter 175). Davis makes it clear that, without adopting Christian morals like humility and the resulting “brotherly love,” people like Hugh and Deborah will have no hope for a better life on earth.

The statement Rebecca Harding Davis makes in Life in the Iron Mills is quite a bold one, especially in an America that allows for religious freedom, yet even today identifies itself as a Christian nation. Many “Christian” aristocrats in Davis’s time may have scoffed at the suggestion that their actions were hypocritical, but Davis provides an extremely humbling and empathy-inducing account, which makes it clear that members of the working class are suffering, and social classes need reformation as a result. The novella’s conclusion, which indicates that existing social conditions provide no hope for the main characters on earth, is the last and most important of many examples pointing to Davis’s desire for a serious adoption of Christian morals. With “the promise of the Dawn” still refusing to manifest itself, the world may never know whether or not Davis’s hope was in vain (Davis 74).

Works Cited

Davis, Rebecca Harding. “A Faded Leaf of History.” The Atlantic Monthly 1873: 44-52. Google Books. Web. 15 Dec. 2009.

Davis, Rebecca Harding. Life in the Iron Mills. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 1997. Print.

Handrick, Philip J. “The Quebec Transition.” PowerPoint presentation for ISS 336, Michigan State University. Fall 2009.

"Humility." Ask Oxford. Oxford American Dictionaries. Web. 15 Dec. 2009.

Keys, Mary M. "Humility and Greatness of Soul. " Perspectives on Political Science 37.4 (2008): 217-222. Social Science Module, ProQuest. Web. 15 Dec. 2009.

Lasseter, Janice Milner. "The Censored and Uncensored Literary Lives of Life in the Iron Mills. " Legacy 20.1&2 (2003): 175. Humanities Module, ProQuest. Web. 15 Dec. 2009.

Mock, Michele L. “‘A message to be given’: The spiritual activism of Rebecca Harding Davis." NWSA Journal 12.1 (2000): 44. Women's Interest Module, ProQuest. Web. 15 Dec. 2009.