Tanya Cheadle University of Glasgow Womens History Scotland Annual Conference Glasgow Womens Library 9 th September 2016 James Keir Hardie Lily Bell Bella Pearce Courtesy of Mitchell Library Glasgow ID: 529491
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Slide1
Bella Pearce/ ‘Lily Bell’: Glasgow feminist, socialist and Christian sexual mystic
Tanya Cheadle, University of Glasgow
Women’s History Scotland Annual Conference
Glasgow Women’s Library, 9
th
September 2016Slide2
James Keir
Hardie
‘Lily Bell’/ Bella Pearce
(Courtesy of Mitchell Library, Glasgow)Slide3
‘I left that meeting ready and willing to join in the work, feeling that there was hope for a movement whose leaders had their eyes open to the truth that state Socialism
alone
is powerless to overcome the evils which manifest themselves among us, that without the growth of the spirit of human brotherhood within each one of us personally we cannot even attain the outward ends we seek, or having attained, enjoy them’‘Lily Bell’, Forward, 9 February 1907Slide4
Bella Pearce (1859-1929)
The Making of a Scottish Progressive
Upbringing in Glasgow; early political affiliations; marriage to Charles William Bream Pearce2. Journalism and CampaigningIndependent Labour Party (ILP); Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU)3. FaithThomas Lake Harris and the Brotherhood of the New LifeSlide5
Abbotsford Place,
Laurieston
(Courtesy of Duncan McCallum)
‘Lucerne’,
Rosneath
Penisula
(Courtesy of Maureen Purdie)
‘
Laurentine
Villa’, Queen’s ParkSlide6
‘My own earliest recollections in life are closely associated with [feelings of half-concealed resentment and antagonism], aroused by the unfair and wholly unjust discrimination made between boys and girls … I refused to recognize these arbitrary differences, claiming and taking equal liberty for myself, but as that could only be had by setting myself against the recognized order of things, it meant, of course, much that was disagreeable in facing the general attitude of disapproval and ridicule thus brought upon me.’
‘Lily Bell’,
Forward, 17 November 1906Slide7
Charles William bream
pearce (1840-1905)
Labour Leader
, 27 April 1895(Courtesy of Mitchell Library, Glasgow)
Glasgow Evening News
,
6 May 1895
(Courtesy of Mitchell Library, Glasgow)Slide8
Labour Day on Glasgow Green, 1897
(Courtesy of Mitchell Library, Glasgow)
‘They had heard a great deal about the new woman. This labour movement showed that they were also hearing a great deal of the new man.’
Bella PearceSlide9
‘Matrons and Maidens’,
Labour leader (1894-8)
‘At first I objected. “Why,” I asked, “should there be a special column for women in the Labour Leader? You don’t set up a special column headed ‘For men only’ … You say you believe in the equality of the sexes, and yet here you are proposing to treat us like so many children.’‘Lily Bell’, Labour Leader, 31 March 1994 ‘Dear Madam, - It seems to me a matter of great surprise that the editor of the Labour Leader tolerates your column and a half of bigoted cant week after week … indeed, I am sure it is only the kindly disposition of the editor’‘Hater of Cant’, Labour Leader, 2 February 1995 Slide10
‘Occupying the chair shone a bright-eyed, vivacious little girl, who handled the meeting as though it were her mother’s nursery, and made me feel thankful that I did not get a box on my ear for general ignorance, timidity, and incompetence …. If you imagine a chic, brown-haired creature with the healthy grace and assurance of an American girl, the knowledge of an average man, and the years and artless beauty of a child, you may be able to form some idea of what Miss Knight is.’
‘Marxian’,
Labour Leader, 15 May1897 Slide11
the Brotherhood of the New Life
Thomas Lake Harris
The community at Fountaingrove, California
(Courtesy of Sonoma State University, Special Collections)Slide12
‘Life One Twain’ (1872-3)
‘Unsexed existence weaves but desolation;
It ends in pallid stone;‘Tis only through perpetual infloration,That endless life is known. As frozen seas upon the barren beaches,Unsexed Religions are:The lifeless faith Monasticism teachesPuts very Heaven afar.’Thomas Lake HarrisSlide13
‘This morning for the first time, I felt [my counterpart] enter my head and also pass into my thighs. The first time that it came into my body, that is the trunk, it seemed to enter through the generative organs, and with it came the thought, this is like sexual intercourse, only infinitely more so, in that every atom of your frame enters into union with another atom to the furthest extremity of your body. I am sure I never had such a thought before, nor supposed that anything could be of such infinite magnitude. I felt infinitely calm and peaceful, nothing turbulent and passionate about it, and my only desire was to constantly pray in thankfulness.’
‘Experiences of a Sister in the New Life’Slide14
Labour
Leader, 25 May 1895(Courtesy of Mitchell Library, Glasgow)