Spiced Wine: An Oberlin Scandal of 1862
Mary Edmonia Lewis attended Oberlin from 1859 to 1863. She lived in Keep Cottage, the home of Reverend John Keep. Lewis’ time at Oberlin was cut short due to rumors of her stealing art supplies. These accusations likely stemmed from her role in the “Oberlin Scandal of 1862.” On January 27th, 1862, Lewis had a small get together in her room with two young white women, Maria Miles and Christina Ennes. The women drank wine and prepared for Miles and Ennes to travel to Birmingham to meet with their suitors. On their way to Birmingham, the two women experienced severe stomach pains and stated Lewis as the perpetrator of the incident. In the town of Oberlin, Lewis was accused of poisoning the girls’ wine, however, she was not taken into custody. Instead, she was taken from her home in Keep Cottage, and was beaten and possibly raped in an empty field by two attackers. The attackers were never identified or accused of such crimes. Oberlin cared very little for the health and safety of Edmonia Lewis and worked hard to silence the scandalous event. Once newspapers got word of what happened, there was no way to stop the articles from being printed. Geoffrey Blodgett reported, “As the story [of the poisoned wine] spread, it threatened to smear those values [Oberlin] College claimed most proudly — the virtue of co-education, of racial harmony.”[1] Published in 1970 in the Oberlin Alumni Magazine, “Spiced Wine: An Oberlin Scandal of 1862” shows how Oberlin valued their reputation of having a harmonious student body over the health and safety of their Black and female students.
In an interview in the Oberlin Review, Kirsten Buick, an Art History Professor at the University of New Mexico, states, “[Oberlin’s] liberalism came with conditions and it came with parameters.”[2] Women were only allowed to take specific classes at Oberlin, known as “Ladies Courses,” which resulted in an education degree. Lewis’ undergraduate education came with constraints. Although she had a passion for sculpture, there is no record of Edmonia Lewis studying art at Oberlin. Lewis attended Oberlin College upon her brother’s recommendation and financial support. When Lewis began her studies at Oberlin in 1859, approximately 30 Black students were enrolled in the college. As a Black student attending a predominantly white college at the start of the Civil War, Edmonia Lewis encountered racial tensions throughout the town and college. In the same interview, Kirsten Buick states, “Even as [Oberlin] accepted women and even as they accepted people of color, the hierarchies of race and gender were still firmly kept in place.”[3]
To the outside world, Oberlin was a progressive, leftist college and town that welcomed students from minority backgrounds. Even with this perception, racism persisted in both the town and college of Oberlin. In 1860, a clock containing images of men in Black face hung in a Jewelry shop window. Despite protests demanding that the clock be taken down, the owner of the shop did not remove the clock. In response, several students shot through the window of the jewelry shop, breaking the clock, and harming no one. The local newspaper at the time reported, “An element of rowdyism and lawlessness is springing up in our village.”[4] Despite their efforts to maintain an image free from racial tension, Oberlin did not put the necessary work into protecting their minority students.
Throughout the 19th century, the town and College were still very divided among race and gender. The majority of Black students attending Oberlin in the 1860s lived in the southeastern quarter of the town, separated from the white students. Edmonia Lewis, however, was the only African American woman to live in Keep Cottage during her time at Oberlin. Reverend John Keep was the dean of the College trustees and played an instrumental role in the decision to admit Black students to Oberlin in 1835. He fought for women’s right to education as well as cared for the female students who lived in his home while attending Oberlin College. When Edmonia Lewis was accused of poisoning two white students’ wine, the Keep family worked hard to protect her. However, in order to save Edmonia Lewis’ life, the Keep family was forced to offer her up for arrest. As a student at Oberlin, Lewis had to put her trust in an all-white household, rather than the institution itself. Although the Keep family worked to protect Edmonia Lewis, she was kidnapped, abused, and ultimately arrested for a wrongful conviction. The health and safety of Oberlin’s Black students depended not on one family, but rather the institution and town as a whole. The College and town failed to protect Edmonia Lewis. Edmonia Lewis also stood out among her Black female peers as a more rebellious student. She had a deep passion for art, and thus was unable to thrive as a female attending Oberlin College. Oberlin was ultimately a small chapter in Mary Edmonia Lewis’ life. After being accused of stealing art supplies and not being allowed to graduate, Lewis moved to Boston to begin her career in sculpture. Edmonia Lewis’ presence on campus challenged the town and College to grow and learn from their mistakes. As Buick writes, “Over time, the presence of women [at Oberlin College], and the early presence of African Americans, has shaped this institution and been in conversation with the institution.”
The scandal of 1862 is extremely important to Oberlin’s history because it challenges the student body to reflect on the racism that persisted throughout the College in the 19th century. Oberlin College has the privilege of relying on their progressive past, as the first coeducational college and one of the first colleges to admit African American students. However, Edmonia Lewis’ experience at Oberlin forces the college to question their liberalism, as well as pushes them to learn from their wrongdoings and progress. “Spiced Wine: An Oberlin Scandal of 1862” was published in February of 1970 by Geoffrey Blodgett, a former history professor and student at Oberlin. Almost one-hundred years after Edmonia Lewis’ arrest, this story was reopened. As an institution, we must not forget how Oberlin treated Mary Edmonia Lewis, and must continue to hold student health, safety, and learning over our reputation.
[1] Blodgett, Geoffrey. “Spiced Wine: An Oberlin Scandal of 1862.” Oberlin Alumni Magazine , February 1970, page 7
[2] Dunbar, Kameron, and Alex Davies. “OTC: Kirsten Pai Buick, Art History Professor – The ...” The Oberlin Review, March 9, 2018. https://oberlinreview.org/15769/news/otc-kirsten-pai-buick-art-history-professor/.
[3] ibid
[4] ibid