Question

Describe the life that the writer and those childhood friend Martha Washington a coloured girl lead?

Answer 1

Martha Washington was a child, a little older and taller than Helen, "ebony" of skin with black hair tamed by multiple braids. She was both compliant (or yielding) and mischievous, getting into trouble right along with Helen. She disliked conflict while liking play. Her mother was Helen's family's cook and gave them sweet treats, especially at Christmas.

The making ready for Christmas was always a delight to me. .... the pleasant odours that filled the house and the tidbits that were given to Martha Washington and me to keep us quiet. We were sadly in the way, but that did not interfere with our pleasure in the least.

Martha was valued by Helen particularly because Martha understood Helen's signs, so Helen was able to communicate. Martha Washington appears only briefly for a short time at the beginning of Helen's recollections.

In those days ... Martha Washington, the child of our cook, and Belle, an old setter and a great hunter in her day, were my constant companions. Martha Washington understood my signs, and I seldom had any difficulty in making her do just as I wished. It pleased me to domineer over her, and she generally submitted to my tyranny....

Martha Washington and an old and lazy setter named Belle were the two companions Helen had. Belle of course could not understand Helen's signs (not for want of trying to teach her). Martha of course could understand Helen's signs, such as when the hen laid her eggs out and about the grounds and Helen wanted to hunt them. Helen would make fists and put them on the grass. Martha immediately understood the fists meant "eggs" and the grass meant "let's hunt!"

Very different in appearance, Martha and Helen were much alike in interests. Both were curious and didn't mind crossing the line between curiousness and trouble, such as when they crossed from cutting paper dolls to cutting their shoelaces to cutting each other's hair. Helen cut Martha's black braids, then Martha cut Helen's golden curls (or at least one before Helen's mother stopped their play).

Martha loved the out-of-doors, as did Helen. Martha and she explored in the corn storage sheds, the horses stables and the cow yard. Together they pestered the milkman and the cows being milked. The cows defended themselves against the two small nature lovers when they "switched" their tails at the two curious girls.

The sheds where the corn was stored, the stable where the horses were kept, and the yard where the cows were milked morning and evening were unfailing sources of interest to Martha and me.



Martha Washington was a young African American child who lived on the Keller homestead.  She was the daughter of the family cook.  Helen Keller described Martha Washington as being "black as ebony, with little bunches of fuzzy hair tied with shoestrings sticking out all over her head like corkscrews."  Helen would have known what her friend's hair was like by touching it.  Martha Washington was several years older than Helen.

Young Helen Keller was very bossy with Martha Washington.  The little girl "understood [Helen's] signs," which were a makeshift method of communication.  Helen often got her own way when she was with Martha Washington.  Helen's friend was much more timid than she was.  Despite this, they were good friends.  The two girls "spent a great deal of time in the kitchen, kneading dough balls, helping make ice-cream, grinding coffee, quarreling over the cake-bowl, and feeding the hens and turkeys that swarmed about the kitchen steps."  One day they snatched a freshly baked cake from the kitchen and consumed it all, which made them sick.

Like Helen, Martha Washington "had [a] great... love of mischief."  They often got into trouble.  They enjoyed cutting out paper dolls with scissors.  One day Helen decided to cut off some of Martha Washington's hair with the scissors.