Survival with Sanity: Sarah Cook, Black Optimistic Realist

Abstract: This essay proposes that employing rigorous historical research in order to tell the stories of individuals or communities who often had little reason to expect just outcomes and yet persisted in seeking such outcomes, is an important function of and purpose for historians and historiography, regardless of whether those individuals and communities succeeded or failed in their efforts. The example provided here is the story of Sarah Cook, who escaped slavery during the Civil War and subsequently embarked upon a twenty-year battle with the Bureau of Pensions as she sought to provide evidence of her marriage to a USCT soldier. Sarah's story suggests a posture that holds potential for, though not promise of, sustaining sanity while struggling with obstacles that may or may not be insurmountable: that of the Black Optimistic Realist.