Joseph Seamon Cotter, Sr
Joseph Seamon Cotter, Sr. was a significant African American educator, poet, and playwright born on February 2, 1861, in Bardstown, Kentucky. He came from a diverse heritage, with his mother being the freeborn daughter of an African slave woman. Despite facing considerable challenges, including the need to leave formal schooling at an early age to support his family, Cotter's determination led him to eventually obtain a diploma from Louisville's first "colored" night school at age twenty-two. He dedicated much of his life to education, serving as a teacher and eventually becoming the principal of the Samuel Taylor Coleridge School in Louisville for nearly fifty years.
Cotter also made his mark as a writer, publishing several books of poetry, a play, and collections of stories aimed at improving the understanding of African American culture. His poetry, particularly those intended for children, received acclaim for their inventive use of rhyme and rhythm. In addition to his literary contributions, Cotter was an advocate for racial equality and the welfare of black children, utilizing his work to challenge negative stereotypes and promote a better understanding of the African American experience. He passed away in 1949, having outlived all of his children.
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Joseph Seamon Cotter, Sr.
Author
- Born: February 2, 1861
- Birthplace: Nelson County, Kentucky
- Died: March 14, 1949
- Place of death: Louisville, Kentucky
Biography
Joseph Seamon Cotter, Sr., was born on February 2, 1861, on a farm in Bardstown, Kentucky, the property of his great- grandfather, a tanner who bought his own freedom and eventually that of other family members. Cotter’s father was Micheil J. Cotter, a Scotch-Irishman; his mother, the common-law wife of Micheil Cotter, was Martha Vaughn, the freeborn daughter of an African slave woman and a man of English and Cherokee Indian descent.
Cotter was a precocious child and was taught to read by his mother when he was three years old. He was able to complete only the first three grades of formal schooling before he had to quit school at age eight and work to help support his mother, who had moved her family to Louisville. He worked various jobs over several years, including rag picker, brickyard laborer, distillery worker, levee teamster, and prize fighter.
He finally managed to return to formal schooling when he was twenty-two years old, attending Louisville’s first “colored” night school. After ten months he received his diploma, and shortly thereafter he took a job as teacher in a public school in Cloverport, Kentucky. Other teaching jobs included one in 1893 at the Western Colored School and at the private school he founded in Louisville and named for his friend, the African American poet Paul Lawrence Dunbar. Cotter became principal of the Samuel Taylor Coleridge School in Louisville in 1911 and remained there for nearly fifty years. He married a fellow teacher, Maria F. Cox, on July 22, 1891, and they were the parents of three children: Florence Olivia, Joseph Seamon, Jr., and Leonidas.
Cotter’s serious writing efforts produced his first book of poetry, A Rhyming, in 1895 and a second book, Links of Friendship, in 1898. During his career, he published several books of poetry, a play, and collections of short stories and miscellaneous prose pieces, including aphorisms, proverbs, jokes, and tales. He is best known for his poetry, and his poems written for children are considered his finest work. Using the rhyme schemes and meters of the Italian sonnet and the traditional English ballad, his best poems achieved what one critic described as “rushing rhythms” and “ingenious rhymes.”
Among his lesser-known works is a closet drama, Caleb the Degenerate: A Play in Four Acts, a Study of the Types, Customs, and Needs of the American Negro. Its dialogue is stilted, but it is notable for several reasons: it is written in blank verse; it shows a mastery of the epic simile contrived by English poet John Milton; and while it reflects the somewhat controversial views of educator and writer Booker T. Washington, it realistically depicts customs and aspirations of African Americans. In 1912, Cotter published a collection of short stories, Negro Tales.
Dedicated to the cause of the African American race, Cotter was particularly concerned with the education and welfare of black children. He used his writings to promote better understanding of African Americans, to champion their desire for racial equality, and to change the demeaning stereotypes of black people that had been perpetuated by white writers. When he died in 1949, he had outlived all of his children, two of whom died of tuberculosis in their twenties.