“Nearly everybody was looking gay and happy; and yet I came home [from church] with the blues. Threw myself on the bed, and for the first time since I have been here, felt very lonely and pitied myself. But I have reasoned myself into amore sensible mood and am better now.” — Charlotte F. Grimké, Journal entry for December 14, 1862

“Charlotte Forten’s entry is one of the first recorded references to ‘the blues’ as a state of mind.” — Paul Oliver, The Story of the Blues (1969, 1997), p. 5