Person.
Jacksonland is a dual biography and an account of their lives leading up to their great clash over the removal of the Cherokee Nation from Georgia to Indian Territory (Oklahoma).
John Ross (1790-1866) was the Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation from 1828-1866, the longest serving person in that position. He was the son of a Cherokee mother and a Scottish father and grew up bilingual and bicultural. After a brief stint as an Indian agent, he served as adjutant of a Cherokee regiment under the command of Andrew Jackson in the War of 1812. Following the war, he became a wealthy tobacco planter and ferry operator, and he got involved in Cherokee tribal politics. Because of his literacy and bilingualism, he became a translator in meetings with government officials and was elected to the Tribal Council. As Principal Chief, he fought every attempt to force the Cherokee off of their land, initiating lawsuits and national petition drives, and using the newspapers to make the case against removal.
When a minority faction, the Treaty Party, signed an illegal treaty agreeing to move to Oklahoma, he led his people on The Trail off Tears. His wife was one of the one-fourth of Cherokee who died on the Trail. Once in Oklahoma, he worked for tribal unity, and, once the Civil War began, he worked to keep the Nation neutral, finding himself in a struggle with the same Treaty Party foes, which had morphed into the Southern Party. He died while on another trip to Washington for his people in 1866.
Place.
In the farthest north of Georgia, in Rossville, sits the Chief John Ross House, a National Historic Landmark since 1973. Legend says it was built by Ross' Scottish grandfather, John McDonald, but dendrochronology tests show that it was likely built in 1816-1817 by John Ross. This is the house in which he was living in forcibly removed to Oklahoma in 1838. During the Civil War, it was used as a hospital by both sides.
In the farthest north of Georgia, in Rossville, sits the Chief John Ross House, a National Historic Landmark since 1973. Legend says it was built by Ross' Scottish grandfather, John McDonald, but dendrochronology tests show that it was likely built in 1816-1817 by John Ross. This is the house in which he was living in forcibly removed to Oklahoma in 1838. During the Civil War, it was used as a hospital by both sides.
Thing.
Considered one of the most prized documents in the Cherokee Nation’s possession, the Cherokee Nation land patent was signed by U.S. President Martin Van Buren on Dec. 31, 1838. The document gave Cherokee Nation the title of more than 13.5 million acres in Indian Territory and was signed three years after Congress voted to remove the tribe from its homelands in southeastern U.S.
Considered one of the most prized documents in the Cherokee Nation’s possession, the Cherokee Nation land patent was signed by U.S. President Martin Van Buren on Dec. 31, 1838. The document gave Cherokee Nation the title of more than 13.5 million acres in Indian Territory and was signed three years after Congress voted to remove the tribe from its homelands in southeastern U.S.
Person.
The Comedians by Kliph Nesteroff is a hugely entertaining look at the history of comedy in the 20th century, on stage, screen, radio, and television. Highly Recommended.
If you're my age, you grew up watching Sanford and Son reruns. It was one of the biggest hits of the 1970s, and it lived on in reruns for decades. Starring as Fred Sanford was Redd Foxx, born John Elroy Sanford, in St. Louis Missouri (1922-1991, his father and older brother were named Fred Sanford). Most viewers like myself, especially white viewers, had no idea how long and important his career before the show was.
He was raised in Chicago by his mother and grandmother. In his youth he was friends with future Chicago mayor Harold Washington and Malcolm Little, who had not become Malcolm X yet. He and Malcolm ran the streets together, selling pot, running numbers, fencing stolen goods, and petty theft here and there. One of their scams was to break into dry cleaners and steal and sell suits. (Malcolm calls him "Chicago Red" in his autobiography.)
In the mid 1940s, Sanford played nightclubs as part of a musical act, and then he started doing raunchy comedy bits. Actress/singer Dinah Washington convinced him to move to Los Angeles, and his nightclub career took off from there. In 1956, he became the first-ever stand-up comedian to make a vinyl record. It was an immediate hit and was followed by many more. The records were so raunchy that they were usually kept behind the counter and wrapped in brown paper, but they were passed around and listened to at parties. He was the first black comedian to headline a Las Vegas hotel in 1966. In 1967, he became the first black business owner in Beverly Hills when he opened a club there. And, of course, he started the comedy record industry.
He gained his most widespread fame on Sanford and Son, an adaptation of a British show, Steptoe and Son, from 1972 to 1977.
The Comedians by Kliph Nesteroff is a hugely entertaining look at the history of comedy in the 20th century, on stage, screen, radio, and television. Highly Recommended.
If you're my age, you grew up watching Sanford and Son reruns. It was one of the biggest hits of the 1970s, and it lived on in reruns for decades. Starring as Fred Sanford was Redd Foxx, born John Elroy Sanford, in St. Louis Missouri (1922-1991, his father and older brother were named Fred Sanford). Most viewers like myself, especially white viewers, had no idea how long and important his career before the show was.
He was raised in Chicago by his mother and grandmother. In his youth he was friends with future Chicago mayor Harold Washington and Malcolm Little, who had not become Malcolm X yet. He and Malcolm ran the streets together, selling pot, running numbers, fencing stolen goods, and petty theft here and there. One of their scams was to break into dry cleaners and steal and sell suits. (Malcolm calls him "Chicago Red" in his autobiography.)
In the mid 1940s, Sanford played nightclubs as part of a musical act, and then he started doing raunchy comedy bits. Actress/singer Dinah Washington convinced him to move to Los Angeles, and his nightclub career took off from there. In 1956, he became the first-ever stand-up comedian to make a vinyl record. It was an immediate hit and was followed by many more. The records were so raunchy that they were usually kept behind the counter and wrapped in brown paper, but they were passed around and listened to at parties. He was the first black comedian to headline a Las Vegas hotel in 1966. In 1967, he became the first black business owner in Beverly Hills when he opened a club there. And, of course, he started the comedy record industry.
He gained his most widespread fame on Sanford and Son, an adaptation of a British show, Steptoe and Son, from 1972 to 1977.
Place.
The Comedians by Kliph Nesteroff is a hugely entertaining look at the history of comedy in the 20th century, on stage, screen, radio, and television. Highly Recommended.
As much of the country was during much of the 20th century, entertainment was segregated. For black entertainers, like comedians Redd Foxx, Mom's Manley, Slappy White, Nipsey Russell, and LaWanda Page (Aunt Esther in Sanford and Son, and her standup act and records were every but as dirty as Foxx's), traveled to black-owned clubs and venues throughout the South, Midwest, and East that made up the so-called "Chitlin Circuit." These venues could be nice theaters like Harlem's Apollo or barns in more rural areas.
Meanwhile, Jewish comedians honed their skills on the stages of the "Borscht Belt." (Have you seen "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel"?) The "Borscht Belt" was the term given to the up to 500 resort hotels in the Catskill Mountains of New York that catered to New York City's middle and upper class Jews. ("Dirty Dancing," anyone?) Practically every famous Jewish performer before 1970 cut his or her teeth on the "Borscht Belt," but dozens of others made very comfortable livings and were never famous outside of the resorts.
The Comedians by Kliph Nesteroff is a hugely entertaining look at the history of comedy in the 20th century, on stage, screen, radio, and television. Highly Recommended.
As much of the country was during much of the 20th century, entertainment was segregated. For black entertainers, like comedians Redd Foxx, Mom's Manley, Slappy White, Nipsey Russell, and LaWanda Page (Aunt Esther in Sanford and Son, and her standup act and records were every but as dirty as Foxx's), traveled to black-owned clubs and venues throughout the South, Midwest, and East that made up the so-called "Chitlin Circuit." These venues could be nice theaters like Harlem's Apollo or barns in more rural areas.
Meanwhile, Jewish comedians honed their skills on the stages of the "Borscht Belt." (Have you seen "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel"?) The "Borscht Belt" was the term given to the up to 500 resort hotels in the Catskill Mountains of New York that catered to New York City's middle and upper class Jews. ("Dirty Dancing," anyone?) Practically every famous Jewish performer before 1970 cut his or her teeth on the "Borscht Belt," but dozens of others made very comfortable livings and were never famous outside of the resorts.
Thing..
The Comedians by Kliph Nesteroff is a hugely entertaining look at the history of comedy in the 20th century, on stage, screen, radio, and television. Highly Recommended.
Believe it or not, there was a time when you couldn't find comedians on demand on social media or YouTube or dozens of different platforms. You had to catch them on a show on one of three tv networks or live in a big city with nightclubs.
Comedian Redd Foxx was the first standup comedian to record his act on vinyl records, in 1957. Comedy records became a huge source of revenue, and every big comedian released albums through the 1960s and 1970s.
The Comedians by Kliph Nesteroff is a hugely entertaining look at the history of comedy in the 20th century, on stage, screen, radio, and television. Highly Recommended.
Believe it or not, there was a time when you couldn't find comedians on demand on social media or YouTube or dozens of different platforms. You had to catch them on a show on one of three tv networks or live in a big city with nightclubs.
Comedian Redd Foxx was the first standup comedian to record his act on vinyl records, in 1957. Comedy records became a huge source of revenue, and every big comedian released albums through the 1960s and 1970s.
Person.
In the 1830s and 1840s, the asylum movement came out of the Second Great Awakening. Led by Crusader Dorothea Dix, the movement sought to create safe places where mentally ill people could be cared for, perhaps even treated. Earlier in her life and travels, Dix had been horrified to find mentally ill people chained up or housed outside of the home by family members and locked in jail cells along with violent criminals. She began a national campaign, and soon states started building asylums.
In December 1842, Georgia opened its Georgia State Lunatic, Idiot, and Epileptic Asylum (the official medical jargon of the day) in the then state capital, Milledgeville. Over the years, the facility grew, morphed, and changed names until it became Central State Hospital. At one point, it was the largest asylum/hospital in the world, consisting of some 200 buildings and 2000 acres, housing 12,000 patients.
Dr. Theophilus O. Powell served as superintendent from 1879 to 1907, and he employed the latest treatments and standards of care, such as they were. At least for white patients. Black patients were first admitted in 1866.
Unfortunately, Powell, who became the President of the American Medico-Psychological Association, subscribed to the theory, common before and after the Civil War by enslavers, that slavery was a positive good for black Americans. He argued that slavery had provided the safety and care that had protected the inferior enslaved blacks. Once Emancipation had occurred, he argued, that safety net had been ripped away, and blacks were not adequately prepared for freedom, and they couldn't handle it. Mental illness was the result.
Mab Segrest's book, The Administrations of Lunacy, is a hard read about the asylum and its racist history.
In the 1830s and 1840s, the asylum movement came out of the Second Great Awakening. Led by Crusader Dorothea Dix, the movement sought to create safe places where mentally ill people could be cared for, perhaps even treated. Earlier in her life and travels, Dix had been horrified to find mentally ill people chained up or housed outside of the home by family members and locked in jail cells along with violent criminals. She began a national campaign, and soon states started building asylums.
In December 1842, Georgia opened its Georgia State Lunatic, Idiot, and Epileptic Asylum (the official medical jargon of the day) in the then state capital, Milledgeville. Over the years, the facility grew, morphed, and changed names until it became Central State Hospital. At one point, it was the largest asylum/hospital in the world, consisting of some 200 buildings and 2000 acres, housing 12,000 patients.
Dr. Theophilus O. Powell served as superintendent from 1879 to 1907, and he employed the latest treatments and standards of care, such as they were. At least for white patients. Black patients were first admitted in 1866.
Unfortunately, Powell, who became the President of the American Medico-Psychological Association, subscribed to the theory, common before and after the Civil War by enslavers, that slavery was a positive good for black Americans. He argued that slavery had provided the safety and care that had protected the inferior enslaved blacks. Once Emancipation had occurred, he argued, that safety net had been ripped away, and blacks were not adequately prepared for freedom, and they couldn't handle it. Mental illness was the result.
Mab Segrest's book, The Administrations of Lunacy, is a hard read about the asylum and its racist history.
Place.
In the 1830s and 1840s, the asylum movement came out of the Second Great Awakening. Led by Crusader Dorothea Dix, the movement sought to create safe places where mentally ill people could be cared for, perhaps even treated. Earlier in her life and travels, Dix had been horrified to find mentally ill people chained up or housed outside of the home by family members and locked in jail cells along with violent criminals. She began a national campaign, and soon states started building asylums.
In December 1842, Georgia opened its Georgia State Lunatic, Idiot, and Epileptic Asylum (the official medical jargon of the day) in the then state capital, Milledgeville. Over the years, the facility grew, morphed, and changed names until it became Central State Hospital. At one point, it was the largest asylum/hospital in the world, consisting of some 200 buildings and 2000 acres, housing 12,000 patients.
Today, much of the campus has been abandoned. The mental health facility has shrunk to about 200 patients, and parts of the campus are being developed for other purposes.
Mab Segrest's book, The Administrations of Lunacy, is a hard read about the asylum and its racist history.
In the 1830s and 1840s, the asylum movement came out of the Second Great Awakening. Led by Crusader Dorothea Dix, the movement sought to create safe places where mentally ill people could be cared for, perhaps even treated. Earlier in her life and travels, Dix had been horrified to find mentally ill people chained up or housed outside of the home by family members and locked in jail cells along with violent criminals. She began a national campaign, and soon states started building asylums.
In December 1842, Georgia opened its Georgia State Lunatic, Idiot, and Epileptic Asylum (the official medical jargon of the day) in the then state capital, Milledgeville. Over the years, the facility grew, morphed, and changed names until it became Central State Hospital. At one point, it was the largest asylum/hospital in the world, consisting of some 200 buildings and 2000 acres, housing 12,000 patients.
Today, much of the campus has been abandoned. The mental health facility has shrunk to about 200 patients, and parts of the campus are being developed for other purposes.
Mab Segrest's book, The Administrations of Lunacy, is a hard read about the asylum and its racist history.
Thing
In the 1830s and 1840s, the asylum movement came out of the Second Great Awakening. Led by Crusader Dorothea Dix, the movement sought to create safe places where mentally ill people could be cared for, perhaps even treated. Earlier in her life and travels, Dix had been horrified to find mentally ill people chained up or housed outside of the home by family members and locked in jail cells along with violent criminals. She began a national campaign, and soon states started building asylums.
In December 1842, Georgia opened its Georgia State Lunatic, Idiot, and Epileptic Asylum (the official medical jargon of the day) in the then state capital, Milledgeville. Over the years, the facility grew, morphed, and changed names until it became Central State Hospital. At one point, it was the largest asylum/hospital in the world, consisting of some 200 buildings and 2000 acres, housing 12,000 patients.
Much like at the Georgia State Prison, one of the most haunting sites on the Central State Hospital campus is the cemetery with about 2,000 grave markers, most containing only a number. The markers are supposedly symbolic as the graves were supposed to have been moved. Some people speculate, however, that there may be 10 times that many unmarked graves.
Person.
In the 1830s and 1840s, the asylum movement came out of the Second Great Awakening. Led by Crusader Dorothea Dix, the movement sought to create safe places where mentally ill people could be cared for, perhaps even treated. Earlier in her life and travels, Dix had been horrified to find mentally ill people chained up or housed outside of the home by family members and locked in jail cells along with violent criminals. She began a national campaign, and soon states started building asylums.
In December 1842, Georgia opened its Georgia State Lunatic, Idiot, and Epileptic Asylum (the official medical jargon of the day) in the then state capital, Milledgeville. Over the years, the facility grew, morphed, and changed names until it became Central State Hospital. At one point, it was the largest asylum/hospital in the world, consisting of some 200 buildings and 2000 acres, housing 12,000 patients.
Much like at the Georgia State Prison, one of the most haunting sites on the Central State Hospital campus is the cemetery with about 2,000 grave markers, most containing only a number. The markers are supposedly symbolic as the graves were supposed to have been moved. Some people speculate, however, that there may be 10 times that many unmarked graves.
Lay That Trumpet in Our Hands is a 2002 novel recommended to me when I embarked on my quest to read about Florida. It is the fictional story of a 12-year old white girl in 1951 central Florida and her efforts to come to terms with the murder of her black friend by members of the Ku Klux Klan.
The book introduces a few historical characters like Thurgood Marshall and Harry T. Moore, President of the Florida chapter of the NAACP.
Harry Moore (1905-1951) and his wife Harriette were educators who became active in the Florida NAACP. Moore founded the Brevard County branch. He led registration drives, investigated lynchings, and filed lawsuits. Both he and Harriette were fired from their teaching jobs because of their activism.
On Christmas Day, 1951, members of the local KKK bombed the Moores' home in Mims Florida. The closest hospital, in Titusville, would not treat blacks, and Harry died en route to a black hospital in Sanford, thirty miles away. Harriette died nine days later. They are considered the first martyrs of the Civil Rights Movement. Despite a year-long FBI investigation, no one was ever charged with their murder.
Florida experienced a series of racist bombings throughout the state in the early 1950s, often using sticks of dynamite that were readily available and used to clear land for orange groves. Targets included Jewish synagogues and white business owners who served black customers, in addition to black activists.
Place.
Lay That Trumpet in Our Hands is a 2002 novel recommended to me when I embarked on my quest to read about Florida. It is the fictional story of a 12-year old white girl in 1951 central Florida and her efforts to come to terms with the murder of her black friend by members of the Ku Klux Klan.
In the book, the girl's family owns an orange Grove and roadside stand in central Florida, like the operations that one would have seen along the highways of Florida. Before Disney, it was the beaches and the oranges that drew visitors and generated the income. By 1950, fifty percent of the state's oranges became concentrate. By the 1990s, that number would be 90%.
Lay That Trumpet in Our Hands is a 2002 novel recommended to me when I embarked on my quest to read about Florida. It is the fictional story of a 12-year old white girl in 1951 central Florida and her efforts to come to terms with the murder of her black friend by members of the Ku Klux Klan.
In the book, the girl's family owns an orange Grove and roadside stand in central Florida, like the operations that one would have seen along the highways of Florida. Before Disney, it was the beaches and the oranges that drew visitors and generated the income. By 1950, fifty percent of the state's oranges became concentrate. By the 1990s, that number would be 90%.
Thing.
Lay That Trumpet in Our Hands is a 2002 novel recommended to me when I embarked on my quest to read about Florida. It is the fictional story of a 12-year old white girl in 1951 central Florida and her efforts to come to terms with the murder of her black friend by members of the Ku Klux Klan.
Two days ago, Charlie Crist nominated Harry and Harriette Moore for the Presidential Medal of Freedom, posthumously. I'm sure the nomination has nothing to do with the fact that he's currently running for Governor, just like his reopening the investigation into their murders in 2004 had nothing to do with the fact that he was running for state Attorney General at the time.
As for the book, it's ok if you want a quick middle-school read, and To Kill A Mockingbird is not available.
Lay That Trumpet in Our Hands is a 2002 novel recommended to me when I embarked on my quest to read about Florida. It is the fictional story of a 12-year old white girl in 1951 central Florida and her efforts to come to terms with the murder of her black friend by members of the Ku Klux Klan.
Two days ago, Charlie Crist nominated Harry and Harriette Moore for the Presidential Medal of Freedom, posthumously. I'm sure the nomination has nothing to do with the fact that he's currently running for Governor, just like his reopening the investigation into their murders in 2004 had nothing to do with the fact that he was running for state Attorney General at the time.
As for the book, it's ok if you want a quick middle-school read, and To Kill A Mockingbird is not available.
Persons.
Each morning, I look for post inspiration. This morning, I opened the laptop and found a clickbait article about the 10 "Perfect" rock songs of the 1980s. Then, Facebook reminded me of attending a Joe Jackson concert three years ago. (One of my favorite performers. We have tickets for his latest tour in a few months.) So, the topic was chosen, Sweet Dreams: An Oral History by Dylan Jones, published in 2020.
Sweet Dreams is the oral history of the New Romantic era of British music from 1975 to 1985, the second British music invasion, the New Wave movement, based on synthesizers, fashion, androgeny, and the club scene. Ironically, although I am probably the last person you'd expect to find at a club, this my era of music, still.
The book is based on a couple of hundred interviews with the musicians and people who were the movement. Eurythmics, Spandau Ballet, Depeche Mode, Culture Club, Thompson Twins. I could go on and on. The book kind of does, too, but it was a great read.
Each morning, I look for post inspiration. This morning, I opened the laptop and found a clickbait article about the 10 "Perfect" rock songs of the 1980s. Then, Facebook reminded me of attending a Joe Jackson concert three years ago. (One of my favorite performers. We have tickets for his latest tour in a few months.) So, the topic was chosen, Sweet Dreams: An Oral History by Dylan Jones, published in 2020.
Sweet Dreams is the oral history of the New Romantic era of British music from 1975 to 1985, the second British music invasion, the New Wave movement, based on synthesizers, fashion, androgeny, and the club scene. Ironically, although I am probably the last person you'd expect to find at a club, this my era of music, still.
The book is based on a couple of hundred interviews with the musicians and people who were the movement. Eurythmics, Spandau Ballet, Depeche Mode, Culture Club, Thompson Twins. I could go on and on. The book kind of does, too, but it was a great read.
Place.
Each morning, I look for post inspiration. This morning, I opened the laptop and found a clickbait article about the 10 "Perfect" rock songs of the 1980s. Then, Facebook reminded me of attending a Joe Jackson concert three years ago. (One of my favorite performers. We have tickets for his latest tour in a few months.) So, the topic was chosen, Sweet Dreams: An Oral History by Dylan Jones, published in 2020.
The Blitz was ground zero for the London New Romantic music explosion. It was a "shabby Covent Garden wine bar playing host to a crowd of art students, ex-punks and Bowie obsessives, caked in makeup and dressed as Elizabethans, Hollywood vamps, pirates, priests and all points in between" according to The Guardian newspaper. Many of the New Romantics were students at those art schools, and groups formed either in school or at The Blitz. The Blitz was notorious for its strict door policy; if you didn't fit the look, you didn't get in. Mick Jagger was famously denied entry in 1979.
I'm not sure what is in the Blitz space now. The most recent reference I can find says that it was a "lap dance joint" in 2015.
Each morning, I look for post inspiration. This morning, I opened the laptop and found a clickbait article about the 10 "Perfect" rock songs of the 1980s. Then, Facebook reminded me of attending a Joe Jackson concert three years ago. (One of my favorite performers. We have tickets for his latest tour in a few months.) So, the topic was chosen, Sweet Dreams: An Oral History by Dylan Jones, published in 2020.
The Blitz was ground zero for the London New Romantic music explosion. It was a "shabby Covent Garden wine bar playing host to a crowd of art students, ex-punks and Bowie obsessives, caked in makeup and dressed as Elizabethans, Hollywood vamps, pirates, priests and all points in between" according to The Guardian newspaper. Many of the New Romantics were students at those art schools, and groups formed either in school or at The Blitz. The Blitz was notorious for its strict door policy; if you didn't fit the look, you didn't get in. Mick Jagger was famously denied entry in 1979.
I'm not sure what is in the Blitz space now. The most recent reference I can find says that it was a "lap dance joint" in 2015.
Thing.
Electronic musical synthesizers became available in music studios in the mid-1960s. Japanese advances in the mid to late 1970s made the technology more affordable, portable, and accessible. Gary Numan (U.S. hit, "Cars") pioneered the use of synthesizers in the UK, influencing the rise of many New Romantic bands that became much more successful than him in the U. S. I was surprised to read in Sweet Dreams that many British musicians and fans admired Numan and even likened him to David Bowie, even calling him "the next Bowie."
While some fans and critics lamented the use of synthesizers claiming the music they produced was unemotional and sterile and that synth-pop musicians had limited musical skills, the 1980s were dominated by the genre.
Electronic musical synthesizers became available in music studios in the mid-1960s. Japanese advances in the mid to late 1970s made the technology more affordable, portable, and accessible. Gary Numan (U.S. hit, "Cars") pioneered the use of synthesizers in the UK, influencing the rise of many New Romantic bands that became much more successful than him in the U. S. I was surprised to read in Sweet Dreams that many British musicians and fans admired Numan and even likened him to David Bowie, even calling him "the next Bowie."
While some fans and critics lamented the use of synthesizers claiming the music they produced was unemotional and sterile and that synth-pop musicians had limited musical skills, the 1980s were dominated by the genre.
Person.
As I watched episode 7 of 1883 ( the prequel to Yellowstone) last night, today's post subject popped into my head.
In 1998, Jim Fergus published One Thousand White Women, inspired by a disputed historical event. (I am unable to find a verified reference.) Supposedly, Northern Cheyenne Chief Little Wolf made a proposal to the U.S. government, either at the Fort Laramie Treaty signing or on a subsequent visit to Washington. According to the story, he realized that the Cheyenne must assimilate or die. Since Cheyenne kinship and culture were matrilineal, or passed through the mother's line, Little Wolf proposed that the U.S. government send "one thousand white women" to intermarry with Cheyenne men and hasten assimilation.
This became the premise of Fergus' book. Nothing happened in real life, but Fergus wrote an alternative history imagining that the government secretly rounded up hundreds of women from asylums, prisons, brothels, and poorhouses and sent them West. The original book, eventually became an award-winning big-seller, and, twenty or so years later, Fergus has written two sequels.
While his story is told through a fictional character's journal entries, Fergus does include a couple of real people, like Little Wolf. Little Wolf (aka Little Coyote, c. 1820-1904) was a chief of the Northern Cheyenne and a great military tactician. He was a signer of the Treaty of Fort Laramie of 1851 which promised peace and permanent ownership of the land to the Plains Indian signers and their tribes.
When whites broke the Treaty, Little Wolf led warriors in Red Cloud's War and the wars of the 1870s. He was not present at Little Big Horn, but he was involved before and after. Once forced to surrender and move to an Oklahoma reservation where many died, he and Dull Knife led their people in an escape in 1878, headed back to their Montana home.
As I watched episode 7 of 1883 ( the prequel to Yellowstone) last night, today's post subject popped into my head.
In 1998, Jim Fergus published One Thousand White Women, inspired by a disputed historical event. (I am unable to find a verified reference.) Supposedly, Northern Cheyenne Chief Little Wolf made a proposal to the U.S. government, either at the Fort Laramie Treaty signing or on a subsequent visit to Washington. According to the story, he realized that the Cheyenne must assimilate or die. Since Cheyenne kinship and culture were matrilineal, or passed through the mother's line, Little Wolf proposed that the U.S. government send "one thousand white women" to intermarry with Cheyenne men and hasten assimilation.
This became the premise of Fergus' book. Nothing happened in real life, but Fergus wrote an alternative history imagining that the government secretly rounded up hundreds of women from asylums, prisons, brothels, and poorhouses and sent them West. The original book, eventually became an award-winning big-seller, and, twenty or so years later, Fergus has written two sequels.
While his story is told through a fictional character's journal entries, Fergus does include a couple of real people, like Little Wolf. Little Wolf (aka Little Coyote, c. 1820-1904) was a chief of the Northern Cheyenne and a great military tactician. He was a signer of the Treaty of Fort Laramie of 1851 which promised peace and permanent ownership of the land to the Plains Indian signers and their tribes.
When whites broke the Treaty, Little Wolf led warriors in Red Cloud's War and the wars of the 1870s. He was not present at Little Big Horn, but he was involved before and after. Once forced to surrender and move to an Oklahoma reservation where many died, he and Dull Knife led their people in an escape in 1878, headed back to their Montana home.
After Chiefs Little Wolf and Dull Knife led 300 Cheyenne in an escape from their Oklahoma reservation, the two groups split up. Dull Knife and his people were captured and forced to return to the reservation. Little Wolf successfully led his people to Montana, and they were allowed to remain, creating the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation, adjacent to the Crow Reservation, about 40 miles from the Little Big Horn historic site, now home to about 5,000.
In 1880, Little Wolf, while intoxicated, shot and killed Starving Elk in a dispute. He went into voluntary exile, and his status as chief was revoked.
In 1880, Little Wolf, while intoxicated, shot and killed Starving Elk in a dispute. He went into voluntary exile, and his status as chief was revoked.
Thing.
In 1998, Jim Fergus published One Thousand White Women, inspired by a disputed historical event. (I am unable to find a verified reference.) Supposedly, Northern Cheyenne Chief Little Wolf made a proposal to the U.S. government, either at the Fort Laramie Treaty signing or on a subsequent visit to Washington. According to the story, he realized that the Cheyenne must assimilate or die. Since Cheyenne kinship and culture were matrilineal, or passed through the mother's line, Little Wolf proposed that the U.S. government send "one thousand white women" to intermarry with Cheyenne men and hasten assimilation.
This became the premise of Fergus' book. Nothing happened in real life, but Fergus wrote an alternative history imagining that the government secretly rounded up hundreds of women from asylums, prisons, brothels, and poorhouses and sent them West. The original book, eventually became an award-winning big-seller, and, twenty or so years later, Fergus has written two sequels.
In One Thousand White Women, the U.S. government secretly "recruits" women to go west and to become wives of the Cheyenne. These women are taken from prisons and mental institutions. The fictional journals that comprise the book are the journals of a character named May Dodd, who was institutionalized by her parents because she had fallen in love with a man "beneath her station" and had two children out of wedlock. As the document here attests, it was relatively easy to institutionalize a woman in the late 1800s. A father, brother, husband, or son could do so. Women who were depressed, argumentative, "promiscuous," eccentric, homosexual, bisexual --- who didn't fit into the societal norms of female behavior of the time were considered deviant. Maybe she read too many romance novels. Maybe she enjoyed sex. Maybe she was asexual. Maybe she never wanted children. Maybe she was suffering from postpartum depression. All of these were actual grounds.
In 1998, Jim Fergus published One Thousand White Women, inspired by a disputed historical event. (I am unable to find a verified reference.) Supposedly, Northern Cheyenne Chief Little Wolf made a proposal to the U.S. government, either at the Fort Laramie Treaty signing or on a subsequent visit to Washington. According to the story, he realized that the Cheyenne must assimilate or die. Since Cheyenne kinship and culture were matrilineal, or passed through the mother's line, Little Wolf proposed that the U.S. government send "one thousand white women" to intermarry with Cheyenne men and hasten assimilation.
This became the premise of Fergus' book. Nothing happened in real life, but Fergus wrote an alternative history imagining that the government secretly rounded up hundreds of women from asylums, prisons, brothels, and poorhouses and sent them West. The original book, eventually became an award-winning big-seller, and, twenty or so years later, Fergus has written two sequels.
In One Thousand White Women, the U.S. government secretly "recruits" women to go west and to become wives of the Cheyenne. These women are taken from prisons and mental institutions. The fictional journals that comprise the book are the journals of a character named May Dodd, who was institutionalized by her parents because she had fallen in love with a man "beneath her station" and had two children out of wedlock. As the document here attests, it was relatively easy to institutionalize a woman in the late 1800s. A father, brother, husband, or son could do so. Women who were depressed, argumentative, "promiscuous," eccentric, homosexual, bisexual --- who didn't fit into the societal norms of female behavior of the time were considered deviant. Maybe she read too many romance novels. Maybe she enjoyed sex. Maybe she was asexual. Maybe she never wanted children. Maybe she was suffering from postpartum depression. All of these were actual grounds.
Person.
One of the most interesting Florida stories that I have encountered so far is that of Anna Madgigine Jai Kingsley, born Anta Majigueen Ndiaye, 1793 to 1870. She was born a Wolof princess in present-day Senegal. At 13, she was kidnapped by slavers and transported to Cuba. From there, she was purchased by a Florida plantation owner and slave trader named Zephaniah Kingsley, who raped, impregnated, and married her. They had three children (four total), Kingsley emancipated her when she turned 18, in 1811, and she took over the responsibilities of managing his East Florida, near modern Jacksonville, plantations.
1810- 1821 was a tumultuous time in Florida which was a Spanish colony but the U.S. government and American "patriots" agitated for the annexation of Florida. Spanish laws treated slavery and Anna's rights as a free black woman planter and slaveowner very differently than the American government would have, and Anna's own experience as an African princess, accustomed to being served by slaves in Africa, would make her a very different kind of slaveholder compared to the Americans. Slavery in Africa was, in practice, very different than slavery in America.
When Spain ceded Florida to the U.S. in 1819, the new American laws about race, permanent chattel slavery, racial intermarriage, and women's and free blacks' rights threatened the Kingsley family, so Kingsley moved with Anna, his son ( His older two daughters had married white Florida planters.), and sixty enslaved people to what is now the Dominican Republic. Since slavery was illegal in their new home, he converted the slaves to indentured servants, eligible for freedom in nine years.
Kingsley died in 1843, and Kingsley's siblings filed a lawsuit to seized his Florida property. Anna returned to fight.
One of the most interesting Florida stories that I have encountered so far is that of Anna Madgigine Jai Kingsley, born Anta Majigueen Ndiaye, 1793 to 1870. She was born a Wolof princess in present-day Senegal. At 13, she was kidnapped by slavers and transported to Cuba. From there, she was purchased by a Florida plantation owner and slave trader named Zephaniah Kingsley, who raped, impregnated, and married her. They had three children (four total), Kingsley emancipated her when she turned 18, in 1811, and she took over the responsibilities of managing his East Florida, near modern Jacksonville, plantations.
1810- 1821 was a tumultuous time in Florida which was a Spanish colony but the U.S. government and American "patriots" agitated for the annexation of Florida. Spanish laws treated slavery and Anna's rights as a free black woman planter and slaveowner very differently than the American government would have, and Anna's own experience as an African princess, accustomed to being served by slaves in Africa, would make her a very different kind of slaveholder compared to the Americans. Slavery in Africa was, in practice, very different than slavery in America.
When Spain ceded Florida to the U.S. in 1819, the new American laws about race, permanent chattel slavery, racial intermarriage, and women's and free blacks' rights threatened the Kingsley family, so Kingsley moved with Anna, his son ( His older two daughters had married white Florida planters.), and sixty enslaved people to what is now the Dominican Republic. Since slavery was illegal in their new home, he converted the slaves to indentured servants, eligible for freedom in nine years.
Kingsley died in 1843, and Kingsley's siblings filed a lawsuit to seized his Florida property. Anna returned to fight.
Place.
One of the most interesting Florida stories that I have encountered so far is that of Anna Madgigine Jai Kingsley, born Anta Majigueen Ndiaye, 1793 to 1870. She was born a Wolof princess in present-day Senegal. At 13, she was kidnapped by slavers and transported to Cuba. From there, she was purchased by a Florida plantation owner and slave trader named Zephaniah Kingsley, who raped, impregnated, and married her. They had three children (four total), Kingsley emancipated her when she turned 18, in 1811, and she took over the responsibilities of managing his East Florida, near modern Jacksonville, plantations.
When Zephaniah Kingsley died in 1843, his siblings filed a lawsuit to claim his Florida property, citing Florida law that no black person can own property. Anna returned to Florida and won; the court ruled that, according to the Adams-Onus Treaty by which Florida was annexed by the U.S., all free blacks previously living under Spanish rule retained all rights they had under Spanish rule. Anna and her children were Unionists during the Civil War, and they were temporarily evacuated in 1862 when Union forces took Jacksonville. After a year, she returned home and died in 1870.
She has descendants that identify as white, black, and Latino living primarily in the U.S. and the Dominican Republic.
The Kingsley Plantation, outside of Jacksonville, is now part of the Timucuan Ecological and Historical Preserve managed by the U.S. National Park Service. The plantation house is the oldest surviving plantation house in Florida. 25 of the original 32 slave cabins remain standing.
One of the most interesting Florida stories that I have encountered so far is that of Anna Madgigine Jai Kingsley, born Anta Majigueen Ndiaye, 1793 to 1870. She was born a Wolof princess in present-day Senegal. At 13, she was kidnapped by slavers and transported to Cuba. From there, she was purchased by a Florida plantation owner and slave trader named Zephaniah Kingsley, who raped, impregnated, and married her. They had three children (four total), Kingsley emancipated her when she turned 18, in 1811, and she took over the responsibilities of managing his East Florida, near modern Jacksonville, plantations.
When Zephaniah Kingsley died in 1843, his siblings filed a lawsuit to claim his Florida property, citing Florida law that no black person can own property. Anna returned to Florida and won; the court ruled that, according to the Adams-Onus Treaty by which Florida was annexed by the U.S., all free blacks previously living under Spanish rule retained all rights they had under Spanish rule. Anna and her children were Unionists during the Civil War, and they were temporarily evacuated in 1862 when Union forces took Jacksonville. After a year, she returned home and died in 1870.
She has descendants that identify as white, black, and Latino living primarily in the U.S. and the Dominican Republic.
The Kingsley Plantation, outside of Jacksonville, is now part of the Timucuan Ecological and Historical Preserve managed by the U.S. National Park Service. The plantation house is the oldest surviving plantation house in Florida. 25 of the original 32 slave cabins remain standing.
Thing.
Among the most unusual things about the Kingsley Plantation, are the remains of 25 of the original 32 slave cabins, at least the walls of the cabins remain standing. A couple of reconstructed cabins are present as well. The original cabins were built in the 1810s to 1830s.
They are unusual first because they are made of tabby, a common building material used on coastal Florida and Georgia plantations. Tabby consists of shells taken from Indian mounds, burned and pounded into lime, and mixed with water, sand, and oyster and clam shells. The mixture is then poured into wooden foundations and set to dry. The result is extremely durable, insect and weather resistant, and insulated. The technology and know-how was brought to Georgia and Florida by the enslaved Africans themselves.
The second unusual feature is that the cabins are laid out in a semicircle, whereas most plantation slave cabins are laid out in straight lines or squares.
One speculation is that it was a defensive feature against Seminole attacks; there is evidence that at least several Kingsley slaves owned long guns and even pistols. Another speculation is that Anna Kingsley, an African princess would have felt quite at home in the semicircle as African family compounds are usually circular with the husband's home in the center and his wives' homes arranged around it in a circle or semicircle.
Finally, archaeologists have discovered unusual items while digging in and around the cabins. Blue beads have been found in the walls, intended to ward off evil spirits, and chicken bones have been uncovered near doorways, another animistic touch. Kingsley discouraged Christianity amongst his slaves, and they generally continued their traditional beliefs and rituals.
Among the most unusual things about the Kingsley Plantation, are the remains of 25 of the original 32 slave cabins, at least the walls of the cabins remain standing. A couple of reconstructed cabins are present as well. The original cabins were built in the 1810s to 1830s.
They are unusual first because they are made of tabby, a common building material used on coastal Florida and Georgia plantations. Tabby consists of shells taken from Indian mounds, burned and pounded into lime, and mixed with water, sand, and oyster and clam shells. The mixture is then poured into wooden foundations and set to dry. The result is extremely durable, insect and weather resistant, and insulated. The technology and know-how was brought to Georgia and Florida by the enslaved Africans themselves.
The second unusual feature is that the cabins are laid out in a semicircle, whereas most plantation slave cabins are laid out in straight lines or squares.
One speculation is that it was a defensive feature against Seminole attacks; there is evidence that at least several Kingsley slaves owned long guns and even pistols. Another speculation is that Anna Kingsley, an African princess would have felt quite at home in the semicircle as African family compounds are usually circular with the husband's home in the center and his wives' homes arranged around it in a circle or semicircle.
Finally, archaeologists have discovered unusual items while digging in and around the cabins. Blue beads have been found in the walls, intended to ward off evil spirits, and chicken bones have been uncovered near doorways, another animistic touch. Kingsley discouraged Christianity amongst his slaves, and they generally continued their traditional beliefs and rituals.
Person.
Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy by Karen Abbott is the story of four women who served in their own way during the Civil War.
One of the four women is Elizabeth Van Lew (1818-1900), an abolitionist who became a Union spymaster during the war. Sent away to Philadelphia to a Quaker school, she became a committed abolitionist. Upon her father's death, she and her mother freed the family's slaves, but several stayed on as paid servants, including Mary Bowser who became a valuable Union spy.
The Van Lews lived in Richmond, and Elizabeth was active in the Union cause from the beginning, nursing wounded soldiers. When Libby Prison was opened to hold Union prisoners, she began bringing them food, clothing, paper, and other items. In return she left with current information about Confederate activities that she passed on to Union officials. She also aided numerous prisoners to escape and established safe houses. She used her Richmond society connections and position to establish a whole ring of informants throughout the Confederate government, including getting her former slave, Mary Bowser, hired as a maid in the Confederate White House, serving Jefferson Davis and his family. Union commanders considered her activities as extremely beneficial to the war effort.
Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy by Karen Abbott is the story of four women who served in their own way during the Civil War.
One of the four women is Elizabeth Van Lew (1818-1900), an abolitionist who became a Union spymaster during the war. Sent away to Philadelphia to a Quaker school, she became a committed abolitionist. Upon her father's death, she and her mother freed the family's slaves, but several stayed on as paid servants, including Mary Bowser who became a valuable Union spy.
The Van Lews lived in Richmond, and Elizabeth was active in the Union cause from the beginning, nursing wounded soldiers. When Libby Prison was opened to hold Union prisoners, she began bringing them food, clothing, paper, and other items. In return she left with current information about Confederate activities that she passed on to Union officials. She also aided numerous prisoners to escape and established safe houses. She used her Richmond society connections and position to establish a whole ring of informants throughout the Confederate government, including getting her former slave, Mary Bowser, hired as a maid in the Confederate White House, serving Jefferson Davis and his family. Union commanders considered her activities as extremely beneficial to the war effort.
Place.
Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy by Karen Abbott is the story of four women who served in their own way during the Civil War.
One of the four women is Elizabeth Van Lew (1818-1900), an abolitionist who became a Union spymaster during the war. Sent away to Philadelphia to a Quaker school, she became a committed abolitionist. Upon her father's death, she and her mother freed the family's slaves, but several stayed on as paid servants, including Mary Bowser who became a valuable Union spy. Van Lew provided aid to Union prisoners in Libby Prison.
Libby Prison was a Confederate prison in Richmond Virginia for Union officer prisoners. It was originally a three story brick warehouse, and it was first used as a prison in 1861. By 1863, the number of prisoners exceeded the maximum capacity of 1,000. At times, the population exceeded 4,000. The windows were open, but barred, there was no furniture, there was little food, men lacked clothing, and, even though the building was one of a few in the area to have running water, the prisoners' water was drawn from the river. A typical daily ration was a couple of ounces of meat, a 1/2 pound of bread, and a cup of beans or rice. Scurvy, diarrhea, dysentery, and typhoid pneumonia were prevalent. Its notoriety for horrible conditions and high mortality rate was second only to Andersonville.
In 1889, the building was disassembled and rebuilt in Chicago as a war museum. After failing to draw crowds over the next ten years, it was dismantled again, and pieces were sold as souvenirs.
Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy by Karen Abbott is the story of four women who served in their own way during the Civil War.
One of the four women is Elizabeth Van Lew (1818-1900), an abolitionist who became a Union spymaster during the war. Sent away to Philadelphia to a Quaker school, she became a committed abolitionist. Upon her father's death, she and her mother freed the family's slaves, but several stayed on as paid servants, including Mary Bowser who became a valuable Union spy. Van Lew provided aid to Union prisoners in Libby Prison.
Libby Prison was a Confederate prison in Richmond Virginia for Union officer prisoners. It was originally a three story brick warehouse, and it was first used as a prison in 1861. By 1863, the number of prisoners exceeded the maximum capacity of 1,000. At times, the population exceeded 4,000. The windows were open, but barred, there was no furniture, there was little food, men lacked clothing, and, even though the building was one of a few in the area to have running water, the prisoners' water was drawn from the river. A typical daily ration was a couple of ounces of meat, a 1/2 pound of bread, and a cup of beans or rice. Scurvy, diarrhea, dysentery, and typhoid pneumonia were prevalent. Its notoriety for horrible conditions and high mortality rate was second only to Andersonville.
In 1889, the building was disassembled and rebuilt in Chicago as a war museum. After failing to draw crowds over the next ten years, it was dismantled again, and pieces were sold as souvenirs.
Thing.
Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy by Karen Abbott is the story of four women who served in their own way during the Civil War.
One of the four women is Elizabeth Van Lew (1818-1900), an abolitionist who became a Union spymaster during the war. Sent away to Philadelphia to a Quaker school, she became a committed abolitionist. Upon her father's death, she and her mother freed the family's slaves, but several stayed on as paid servants, including Mary Bowser who became a valuable Union spy.
The Van Lews lived in Richmond, and Elizabeth was active in the Union cause from the beginning, nursing wounded soldiers. When Libby Prison was opened to hold Union prisoners, she began bringing them food, clothing, paper, and other items. In return she left with current information about Confederate activities that she passed on to Union officials. She also aided numerous prisoners to escape and established safe houses. She used her Richmond society connections and position to establish a whole ring of informants throughout the Confederate government, including getting her former slave, Mary Bowser, hired as a maid in the Confederate White House, serving Jefferson Davis and his family. Van Lew used cipher codes like the one pictured to transmit secrets Union commanders considered her activities as extremely beneficial to the war effort.
Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy by Karen Abbott is the story of four women who served in their own way during the Civil War.
One of the four women is Elizabeth Van Lew (1818-1900), an abolitionist who became a Union spymaster during the war. Sent away to Philadelphia to a Quaker school, she became a committed abolitionist. Upon her father's death, she and her mother freed the family's slaves, but several stayed on as paid servants, including Mary Bowser who became a valuable Union spy.
The Van Lews lived in Richmond, and Elizabeth was active in the Union cause from the beginning, nursing wounded soldiers. When Libby Prison was opened to hold Union prisoners, she began bringing them food, clothing, paper, and other items. In return she left with current information about Confederate activities that she passed on to Union officials. She also aided numerous prisoners to escape and established safe houses. She used her Richmond society connections and position to establish a whole ring of informants throughout the Confederate government, including getting her former slave, Mary Bowser, hired as a maid in the Confederate White House, serving Jefferson Davis and his family. Van Lew used cipher codes like the one pictured to transmit secrets Union commanders considered her activities as extremely beneficial to the war effort.
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