The character of Texas Lake Country pioneer, Harriet Potter Ames, was at issue last Friday evening at the Mount Pleasant Library.† Before a packed house, and double showing at the premiere of†The Chronicles of Harriet Potter Ames, †the panelists of Honors Northeast and members of the audience exchanged views on the wife of the Texas Navy Secretary, Robert Potter.† Harriet Potter Ames lived from 1810 to 1902, and became widely known as the ?bravest woman of the Texas Revolution.? Living in a huge estate on† Caddo Lake, and averse to the lawlessness that led to the death of her famous husband, Harriet Potter was an early proponent of ?prosperity and civilization? in Northeast Texas.
The film, a production of Honors Northeast, featured a more materialistic, security-conscious protagonist than the ?Harriet? known to devotees of the internationally best-selling historical romance,†Love is a Wild Assault.†Miranda Mendoza, author of an 18-page essay detailing the differences between Kirkland?s Harriet and the historical Harriet noted that Kirkland ?romanticized, spiritualized, and de-southernized? the real Harriet.† For the purposes of the novel, and because of her own interest in New Age spiritualism, Kirkland, according to Mendoza, transformed Harriet into a robust romantic, and an enthusiast of equality, and indian spirituality.† Mendoza, who presented both in Mount Pleasant, and the day before to the Shakespeare Club of Mount Vernon, was a formative researcher for honors last summer in evaluating the original manuscripts relating to Harriet Potter at the Dolph Briscoe Center in Austin.
Both Mendoza and Cassia Rose, who starred as Harriet in the film, argued that however materialistic, Harriet Potter was not a gold digger in the modern sense.† Cassia Rose, who will be presenting work on†legendary†southern housewives at the Great Plains Honors Council meeting this April, noted that in all of her marriages and major decisions, Harriet Potter fought for security amidst the tumultuous frontier years of early Texas. ?She did not seek out wealthy men, but had a predilection to beguile men who offered her protection from the many threats of the Texas frontier, and Revolutionary era.?
In the film, the Lawyer, Charles Ames, in the closing scene argues that ?Harriet? will one day be seen as the ?mother of Northeast Texas.?
Any interested in a group showing and discussion of the film are welcome to contact Dr. Andrew Yox, Director of Honors Northeast, at 903-434-8229 or†ayox@ntcc.edu.† William Villalobos, the film?s producer also has placed the entire one-hour film on YouTube (search Chronicles of Harriet Potter) to view the film.
