Person.
Name a Victorian serial killer. You probably went immediately to Jack the Ripper or maybe to H.H. Holmes. However, in the 1880s and early 1890s, Dr. Thomas Neill Cream (1850-1892) was pretty infamous in Canada, the US, and the UK. Born in Glasgow, Cream and his family immigrated to Quebec City in 1854. He graduated from McGill University in Montreal in 1876, and he completed his post graduate training at St. Thomas' Hospital Medical School in London. He then practiced medicine in several U.S. and Canadian cities, including Des Moines, London Ontario, Waterloo Quebec, and Chicago.
Early in his career, he began performing illegal abortions, and then he began using strychnine tablets to murder lower class women, especially prostitutes. Not only did he brag to acquaintances about killing streetwalkers, but he sent numerous blackmail letters to various citizens threatening to expose them as murders. Still, it took years to convict him. He served time in the Illinois State Prison in Joliet before having his sentence commuted. He then returned to London UK and resumed his murders. Altogether he was linked to at least 10 murders in three countries, but was probably guilty of more. He was executed in 1892 at Newgate Prison in the UK. His case was a major step in the development of Scotland Yard and the use of scientific investigatory methods.
The Case of the Murderous Dr. Cream tells his story.
Place.
Dr. Thomas Neill Cream was known as the "Lambeth poisoner." After his return to London from the Joliet Illinois Prison, he took a room in the south London district known as Lambeth, in the county of Surrey, and murdered several victims there. By the late Victorian period, the district was grim, overcrowded, and home to many of London's most destitute women and children. It was known as an unsavory district, with more than its share of sex workers.
Most of the area was destroyed by the German bombs of World War II. Today, the area, near Waterloo Station and directly across the Thames from the Houses of Parliament, is known for its museums, performance halls, and The London Eye ferris wheel, but it also includes a diverse and thriving residential population.
Thing.
In the Victorian age, there were practically no regulations in the realm of medicines. Doctors and pharmacists ( or chemists in the UK) routinely dispensed medicines that had never been tested for safety or effectiveness and contained ingredients like alcohol, cocaine, arsenic, opium, morphine, laudanum, heroin, and strychnine and other poisons. They were available by prescription or over the counter, and they were often compounded, or manufactured, by the doctor or pharmacist himself. These poisons and drugs were found in medicines for adults and children alike.
Changes didn't come in the U.S. until the Pure Food and Drug Act was passed, and the Food and Drug Administration was created, in 1906.
Serial murderer Dr. Thomas Neill Cream had easy access to poisons, and his victims asked few questions about what they were given.
Person.
Continuing the themes of true Victorian crime and serial killers with The Five, the untold stories of the five canonical victims of Jack the Ripper.
Annie Chapman, Mary Jane Nichols, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, and Mary Jane Kelly are the acknowledged victims of Jack the Ripper in 1888. (There is no picture of Kelly in life.) I, like everyone else, believed the story that popular culture, the media, and, unfortunately, history have repeated for over a hundred years: that the women were streetwalkers, sex workers brutally attacked in dark alleys.
Author Hallie Rubenhold has turned the conventional wisdom upside down with her thoroughly researched book. Imagine taking the approach of examining the crimes through the lives of their victims, who were typical of many lower class Victorian women. They were not only victims of the Ripper, but they were victims of society's misogyny. The press and the police created and perpetuated the lie that the women were prostitutes, despite the fact that only one or two of them ever had been prostitutes, and none of them was active when killed. In fact, they had started out lives of respectability, in varying degrees, with a comfortable lower middle class life within grasp. Then, disaster struck. Abandonment, abuse, alcoholism, and poverty destroyed their lives, and the Victorian press, police, and public in general lumped them together on the lowest rung of society
Continuing the themes of true Victorian crime and serial killers with The Five, the untold stories of the five canonical victims of Jack the Ripper.
Annie Chapman, Mary Jane Nichols, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, and Mary Jane Kelly are the acknowledged victims of Jack the Ripper in 1888. (There is no picture of Kelly in life.) I, like everyone else, believed the story that popular culture, the media, and, unfortunately, history have repeated for over a hundred years: that the women were streetwalkers, sex workers brutally attacked in dark alleys.
Author Hallie Rubenhold has turned the conventional wisdom upside down with her thoroughly researched book. Imagine taking the approach of examining the crimes through the lives of their victims, who were typical of many lower class Victorian women. They were not only victims of the Ripper, but they were victims of society's misogyny. The press and the police created and perpetuated the lie that the women were prostitutes, despite the fact that only one or two of them ever had been prostitutes, and none of them was active when killed. In fact, they had started out lives of respectability, in varying degrees, with a comfortable lower middle class life within grasp. Then, disaster struck. Abandonment, abuse, alcoholism, and poverty destroyed their lives, and the Victorian press, police, and public in general lumped them together on the lowest rung of society
Whitechapel is a part of London's East End. Because of its proximity to the London Docklands, it has historically been an area of immigrants and working class people. In the late 19th century and early 20th century, it was the center of London's Jewish community.
By the 1840s, Whitechapel had become the quintessential image of Dickensian London, known for overcrowding and poverty. In 1888, the Metropolitan Police estimated that there were 1,200 prostitutes and 62 brothels in the district. From 1888 to 1891, there were 11 unsolved murders of women, including The Five in 1888, with at least some attributed to Jack the Ripper.
Whitechapel was also the home of Joseph Merrick, "the Elephant Man," who was exhibited in a Whitechapel shop across the street from the Royal London Hospital where he went into the care of Dr. Treves. In 1902, American novelist Jack London dressed in rags and lived in Whitechapel to research his book The People of the Abyss. Today, forty percent of Whitechapel residents are Bangladeshi immigrants.
Thing.
During the fall of 1888 especially, the London police and press received hundreds of letters claiming responsibility for the Whitechapel murders. One, addressed "Dear Boss," was the first to use the name Jack the Ripper. Most or all of the letters are considered to be hoaxes, written by deranged people or members of the press to amp up the story. However, some experts believe that if any of the letters are genuine, the "Dear Boss" and "Saucy Jack" ones are.
The "Dear Boss" letter, along with other investigation documents, mysteriously disappeared at the conclusion of the investigation, but it was returned anonymously to Scotland Yard in 1987. In 1931, a journalist named Fred Best confessed that he and a colleague had written the "Dear Boss" and "saucy Jack" letters among others to generate newspaper sales, but the confession hasn't been corroborated.
During the fall of 1888 especially, the London police and press received hundreds of letters claiming responsibility for the Whitechapel murders. One, addressed "Dear Boss," was the first to use the name Jack the Ripper. Most or all of the letters are considered to be hoaxes, written by deranged people or members of the press to amp up the story. However, some experts believe that if any of the letters are genuine, the "Dear Boss" and "Saucy Jack" ones are.
The "Dear Boss" letter, along with other investigation documents, mysteriously disappeared at the conclusion of the investigation, but it was returned anonymously to Scotland Yard in 1987. In 1931, a journalist named Fred Best confessed that he and a colleague had written the "Dear Boss" and "saucy Jack" letters among others to generate newspaper sales, but the confession hasn't been corroborated.
John Lloyd Stephens (1805-1852) was an American explorer, writer, and diplomat. Frederick Catherwood (1799-1854) was an English artist, architect, and explorer. Before their meeting, they were already known as explorers and travel writers, and they had separately traveled extensively in the Middle East and the Mediterranean. Catherwood had published many drawings of ancient sites and ruins, and he disagreed with the eurocentric conventional wisdom at the time that refused to accept that native peoples were responsible for them. He argued that the architecture was unique, and the structures must be native-built.
The two joined forces when stories emerged of ruins hidden deep within the rainforests of the Yucatan and Central America. They met and decided to explore together. In 1839, they began their expedition. They are credited with the rediscovery of the Mayan ruins of major sites like Chicken Itza, Tulum, Palenque, Uxmal, and Copan among others. Catherwood's drawings and Stephens' written accounts caused major ripples among historians and archaeologists because their work revealed a thriving, advanced civilization in Central America existing at the same time as the height of ancient Greek and Roman cultures and rivaling them in many ways. Their books were huge bestsellers, and they became famous, but over the next century, their fame diminished. Today, they are credited with jump starting archaeology in the Americas.
Jungle of Stone is a chronicle of their expedition.
Place.
Chichen Itza is one of the Mayan cities "discovered," or re-discovered and explored by Frederick Catherwood and John Lloyd Stephens. It is located in the eastern Yucatan region of Mexico, and it was a regional economic and political center, from about 600 AD to 1200 AD. It is believed that as many as 50,000 lived in the city at its height, probably doubling the populations of London and Paris at the same time.
There is still debate as to whether Chichen Itza was abandoned when the Spanish arrived. The Spanish did note that there was a large population, but it's unclear if they meant within the city proper or in the area. Today, it is one of Mexico's most visited archaeological sites, with over 2million visitors per year.
Chichen Itza is one of the Mayan cities "discovered," or re-discovered and explored by Frederick Catherwood and John Lloyd Stephens. It is located in the eastern Yucatan region of Mexico, and it was a regional economic and political center, from about 600 AD to 1200 AD. It is believed that as many as 50,000 lived in the city at its height, probably doubling the populations of London and Paris at the same time.
There is still debate as to whether Chichen Itza was abandoned when the Spanish arrived. The Spanish did note that there was a large population, but it's unclear if they meant within the city proper or in the area. Today, it is one of Mexico's most visited archaeological sites, with over 2million visitors per year.
Thing.
John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood published Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan in 1841 and Incidents in Travel in Yucatan in 1843. Stephens' stories of their explorations and Catherwood's illustrations made the books huge bestsellers. Edgar Allan Poe said that the books were"perhaps the most interesting book(s) of travel ever published." The two men became famous for shedding light on the previously little known Mayans. Today, even though their work is recognized as the beginning of American archaeology, the two men are little known, and much more is known about the Mayans.
Person.
Since the conquests of Herman Cortes, rumors have circulated about a lost city within the depths of the Honduran jungle. Natives called it the White City (La Ciudad Blanca) or the City of the Monkey God, and they claimed that anyone who disturbed it would fall ill and die.
In 1940, journalist and explorer Theodore Morde (1911-1954) was hired by the Museum of the American Indian to lead an expedition to Honduras in search of the city. Morde had been a radio journalist, and he covered the Spanish Civil War. Later, in World War II, he was a correspondent embedded with the British 8th Army in North Africa. He also had ties to the OSS, the forerunner of the CIA.
After four months in the jungle, he and his partner emerged with thousands of artifacts and tales of the city, including seeing evidence of gold, silver, platinum, and oil. They announced plans to return in 1941. They never did. Morde committed suicide in 1953.
In his 2017 book, The Lost City of the Monkey God, novelist Douglas Preston accompanied a new expedition that attempted to retrace Morse's tracks, based on his journals. Using 21st century technology, they discovered a large "lost city," but they also proved that Morde had faked everything, purchasing the artifacts after nearly dying on a gold-hunting expedition.
I'm a fan of Preston's novels and stories of lost jungle civilizations and expeditions, so I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood published Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan in 1841 and Incidents in Travel in Yucatan in 1843. Stephens' stories of their explorations and Catherwood's illustrations made the books huge bestsellers. Edgar Allan Poe said that the books were"perhaps the most interesting book(s) of travel ever published." The two men became famous for shedding light on the previously little known Mayans. Today, even though their work is recognized as the beginning of American archaeology, the two men are little known, and much more is known about the Mayans.
Since the conquests of Herman Cortes, rumors have circulated about a lost city within the depths of the Honduran jungle. Natives called it the White City (La Ciudad Blanca) or the City of the Monkey God, and they claimed that anyone who disturbed it would fall ill and die.
In 1940, journalist and explorer Theodore Morde (1911-1954) was hired by the Museum of the American Indian to lead an expedition to Honduras in search of the city. Morde had been a radio journalist, and he covered the Spanish Civil War. Later, in World War II, he was a correspondent embedded with the British 8th Army in North Africa. He also had ties to the OSS, the forerunner of the CIA.
After four months in the jungle, he and his partner emerged with thousands of artifacts and tales of the city, including seeing evidence of gold, silver, platinum, and oil. They announced plans to return in 1941. They never did. Morde committed suicide in 1953.
In his 2017 book, The Lost City of the Monkey God, novelist Douglas Preston accompanied a new expedition that attempted to retrace Morse's tracks, based on his journals. Using 21st century technology, they discovered a large "lost city," but they also proved that Morde had faked everything, purchasing the artifacts after nearly dying on a gold-hunting expedition.
I'm a fan of Preston's novels and stories of lost jungle civilizations and expeditions, so I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
Place.
As identified by the expedition chronicled by Douglas Preston in The Lost City of the Monkey God, the White City, or Ciudad Blanca lies within some of the most dense rainforest of the Americas, in the 1,350 square miles of Honduras' La Mosquitia region.
Filmmaker and explorer Doug Elkins first identified the possible location in 2015, but he had begun his hunt in the 1990s. Except for illegal logging and wildlife trafficking activity, the region is largely untouched today. However, advanced topographical research reveals that there could be more than 60,000 homes, roads, palaces, and ceremonial buildings buried beneath the forest.
As identified by the expedition chronicled by Douglas Preston in The Lost City of the Monkey God, the White City, or Ciudad Blanca lies within some of the most dense rainforest of the Americas, in the 1,350 square miles of Honduras' La Mosquitia region.
Filmmaker and explorer Doug Elkins first identified the possible location in 2015, but he had begun his hunt in the 1990s. Except for illegal logging and wildlife trafficking activity, the region is largely untouched today. However, advanced topographical research reveals that there could be more than 60,000 homes, roads, palaces, and ceremonial buildings buried beneath the forest.
Thing.
The discovery of La Ciudad Blanca or the City of the Monkey God still remains controversial among archaeologists and historians. There are questions about how many settlements there are and whether the White City ever existed. In fact, the area has been renamed City of the Jaguar.
Many artifacts have been discovered, and they've been dated to 800 to 1250 AD. The mystery of who created them remains open for speculation.
The discovery of La Ciudad Blanca or the City of the Monkey God still remains controversial among archaeologists and historians. There are questions about how many settlements there are and whether the White City ever existed. In fact, the area has been renamed City of the Jaguar.
Many artifacts have been discovered, and they've been dated to 800 to 1250 AD. The mystery of who created them remains open for speculation.
Person.
Continuing another theme, it seems. Percy Fawcett (1867-1925?) was the epitome of British explorers in the early 20th century. He was a geographer, artillery officer, cartographer, and archaeologist who disappeared, along with his son Jack and Jack's friend Raleigh Rimmel, during an expedition to find the city of Z within the Brazilian jungle.
There are a lot of similarities with other stories since the Spanish (or Portuguese in the Case of Brazil) conquest: lost cities of riches and/or architectural wonders consumed by impenetrable rain forests and believed to be cursed by the indigenous people in the area. Also, other archaeologists and historians scoffed at the idea that they could exist. After all, they knew, indigenous Americans were incapable of building any such city, especially the small primitive bands of pre-stone age headhunters and cannibals of Amazonia. Besides, the soil and conditions of the region, they said, made it impossible to support small permanent villages, let alone cities of stone.
Between 1906 and 1924, Fawcett made several expeditions, describing previously unknown animals and making friendly contact with indigenous groups. That's when he learned about the lost city, which he named Z. He studied Portuguese accounts and formulated a plan for a future expedition. He, Jack, and Raleigh set off in 1925 and were never heard of again. There were stories of sightings and meetings told by local tribes, but no one claimed to know their fates for a fact. Several other expeditions set out over the next decade to find them, with no success, and several others died.
Years before The Lost City of Z book (2009) and movie (2016), I had found Brazilian Adventure (1933), a best-selling account of one of the later expeditions.
Continuing another theme, it seems. Percy Fawcett (1867-1925?) was the epitome of British explorers in the early 20th century. He was a geographer, artillery officer, cartographer, and archaeologist who disappeared, along with his son Jack and Jack's friend Raleigh Rimmel, during an expedition to find the city of Z within the Brazilian jungle.
There are a lot of similarities with other stories since the Spanish (or Portuguese in the Case of Brazil) conquest: lost cities of riches and/or architectural wonders consumed by impenetrable rain forests and believed to be cursed by the indigenous people in the area. Also, other archaeologists and historians scoffed at the idea that they could exist. After all, they knew, indigenous Americans were incapable of building any such city, especially the small primitive bands of pre-stone age headhunters and cannibals of Amazonia. Besides, the soil and conditions of the region, they said, made it impossible to support small permanent villages, let alone cities of stone.
Between 1906 and 1924, Fawcett made several expeditions, describing previously unknown animals and making friendly contact with indigenous groups. That's when he learned about the lost city, which he named Z. He studied Portuguese accounts and formulated a plan for a future expedition. He, Jack, and Raleigh set off in 1925 and were never heard of again. There were stories of sightings and meetings told by local tribes, but no one claimed to know their fates for a fact. Several other expeditions set out over the next decade to find them, with no success, and several others died.
Years before The Lost City of Z book (2009) and movie (2016), I had found Brazilian Adventure (1933), a best-selling account of one of the later expeditions.
Place.
Just as La Ciudad Blanca or City of the Monkey God hasn't quite lived up to the legend, Percy Fawcett's dream of discovering the lost city of Z didn't quite pan out. While no great stone cities have been discovered in the Amazon, there have been many major discoveries so far in the 21st century, thanks to advanced technology, both on the ground in the air. Not only have a lot of large village sites, possibly housing thousands of people, been discovered, but evidence points to the fact that the Amazonian people carefully managed and shaped the forests to suit their needs. Experts now speculate that the region may have supported millions of people in pre-Columbian times. New discoveries are being made that shake up previously held beliefs about the region and about the settlement of the Americas.
There is another interesting theory about Fawcett's motives, by the way. Fawcett, an inspiration for both Indiana Jones and Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World, more than dabbled in the occult and the supernatural. Some people have theorized that he never intended to return to civilization. Instead, the theory goes, he planned to build a commune of sorts, where he and his son Jack would be worshipped as gods.
Just as La Ciudad Blanca or City of the Monkey God hasn't quite lived up to the legend, Percy Fawcett's dream of discovering the lost city of Z didn't quite pan out. While no great stone cities have been discovered in the Amazon, there have been many major discoveries so far in the 21st century, thanks to advanced technology, both on the ground in the air. Not only have a lot of large village sites, possibly housing thousands of people, been discovered, but evidence points to the fact that the Amazonian people carefully managed and shaped the forests to suit their needs. Experts now speculate that the region may have supported millions of people in pre-Columbian times. New discoveries are being made that shake up previously held beliefs about the region and about the settlement of the Americas.
There is another interesting theory about Fawcett's motives, by the way. Fawcett, an inspiration for both Indiana Jones and Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World, more than dabbled in the occult and the supernatural. Some people have theorized that he never intended to return to civilization. Instead, the theory goes, he planned to build a commune of sorts, where he and his son Jack would be worshipped as gods.
Thing.
Very few artifacts related to Percy Fawcett's last expedition have been discovered over the years. In the early 1950s, an explorer brought some human bones out of the jungle, and he had been told that they were Fawcett's. They didn't match.
His purported machete was found stuck in a tree. His compass was discovered in 1933, and his signet ring was discovered in a Brazilian pawn shop in 1979. If you'd like to search for it on the internet, there are photos of a shrunken head with what appear to be European features similar to Fawcett's. I chose not to share it, and I can't find much information about it.
Very few artifacts related to Percy Fawcett's last expedition have been discovered over the years. In the early 1950s, an explorer brought some human bones out of the jungle, and he had been told that they were Fawcett's. They didn't match.
His purported machete was found stuck in a tree. His compass was discovered in 1933, and his signet ring was discovered in a Brazilian pawn shop in 1979. If you'd like to search for it on the internet, there are photos of a shrunken head with what appear to be European features similar to Fawcett's. I chose not to share it, and I can't find much information about it.
Person.
Michael W. Twitty is an African-American Jewish writer, culinary historian, and educator. He wrote The Cooking Gene which won the prestigious James Beard Foundation Book Award in 2018, one of my favorite books of recent years. The Cooking Gene is part memoir, part cookbook, part travelogue, and part history in which Twitty writes about Southern food and Jewish food through the tracing the journey of his own African ancestors. It's educational, insightful, and interesting.
Twitty is also a historical reenactor, and he goes to historic sites to cook and to teach using the tools, recipes, and methods of the enslaved African-Americans who laid the foundation for soul food, Southern food --- much of America's food. He also blogs at Afroculinaria.com . In 2021, he published Rice: A Savor the South Cookbook. Kosher soul will be published on August 9, 2022.
I hope to see him on a book tour or at an historic site appearance one day soon.
Michael W. Twitty is an African-American Jewish writer, culinary historian, and educator. He wrote The Cooking Gene which won the prestigious James Beard Foundation Book Award in 2018, one of my favorite books of recent years. The Cooking Gene is part memoir, part cookbook, part travelogue, and part history in which Twitty writes about Southern food and Jewish food through the tracing the journey of his own African ancestors. It's educational, insightful, and interesting.
Twitty is also a historical reenactor, and he goes to historic sites to cook and to teach using the tools, recipes, and methods of the enslaved African-Americans who laid the foundation for soul food, Southern food --- much of America's food. He also blogs at Afroculinaria.com . In 2021, he published Rice: A Savor the South Cookbook. Kosher soul will be published on August 9, 2022.
I hope to see him on a book tour or at an historic site appearance one day soon.
Place.
The plantation kitchen was the center of the slave owning family's life, just as modern kitchens are for our families in many ways. Of course, the chief difference is that the staff of a plantation kitchen was owned, forced to work, and often close enough to feel the brunt of physical or sexual abuse.
White slaveowners became fond of dishes like gumbo, shrimp and grits, jambalaya, hoppin' John, and fried fish, all African in origin and prepared by enslaved Africans, using traditional African ingredients, recipes, and methods. The plantation mistress might have a hand in planning menus, but that was it.
Here's a typical day in the life of an enslaved cook at George Washington's Mount Vernon, from the Mount Vernon website. Awake at 4 AM, Stoke the fire and draw water at 4:30, begin breakfast at 6 AM, Serve breakfast at 7, clear table and clean dishes at 8, start preparing dinner and make a portable lunch for Washington at 9, bake bread at 2 PM, serve dinner at 3 PM, clear table and clean dishes at 4:30, serve tea and sliced bread and leftover meat at 6:30, finish cleaning the kitchen and preparing for morning at 8 PM. All while cooking in cast iron on an open hearth.
This is the kind of day that Michael Twitty re-enacts in historic kitchens. Historic sites have only recently begun telling the truth about kitchen work; even today, you are likely to see white women in a plantation kitchen. Twitty and others have begun to tell the whole story.
The plantation kitchen was the center of the slave owning family's life, just as modern kitchens are for our families in many ways. Of course, the chief difference is that the staff of a plantation kitchen was owned, forced to work, and often close enough to feel the brunt of physical or sexual abuse.
White slaveowners became fond of dishes like gumbo, shrimp and grits, jambalaya, hoppin' John, and fried fish, all African in origin and prepared by enslaved Africans, using traditional African ingredients, recipes, and methods. The plantation mistress might have a hand in planning menus, but that was it.
Here's a typical day in the life of an enslaved cook at George Washington's Mount Vernon, from the Mount Vernon website. Awake at 4 AM, Stoke the fire and draw water at 4:30, begin breakfast at 6 AM, Serve breakfast at 7, clear table and clean dishes at 8, start preparing dinner and make a portable lunch for Washington at 9, bake bread at 2 PM, serve dinner at 3 PM, clear table and clean dishes at 4:30, serve tea and sliced bread and leftover meat at 6:30, finish cleaning the kitchen and preparing for morning at 8 PM. All while cooking in cast iron on an open hearth.
This is the kind of day that Michael Twitty re-enacts in historic kitchens. Historic sites have only recently begun telling the truth about kitchen work; even today, you are likely to see white women in a plantation kitchen. Twitty and others have begun to tell the whole story.
Thing.
Imagine this was your kitchen and these were your cooking utensils. You're in the kitchen from 4 or 5 AM to 7 or 8 PM, every day, cooking in the open fireplace hearth in the summer in Louisiana or Georgia or Florida. The fire burns all day. The pot, pans, and utensils are all heavy, hot fast iron.
Learn more about Southern cooking and its African heritage in Michael Twitty's book and work.
Imagine this was your kitchen and these were your cooking utensils. You're in the kitchen from 4 or 5 AM to 7 or 8 PM, every day, cooking in the open fireplace hearth in the summer in Louisiana or Georgia or Florida. The fire burns all day. The pot, pans, and utensils are all heavy, hot fast iron.
Learn more about Southern cooking and its African heritage in Michael Twitty's book and work.
Person
When we moved to Florida, I started immersing myself in Tampa Bay and Florida history, as much as COVID allowed, and I'm still working on it.
One of the fun titles I picked up was Secret Tampa Bay, and author Joshua Ginsberg has also published Tampa Bay Scavenger and has more on the way.
One of the people in Secret Tampa is Vicente Martinez Ybor ( 1818-1896 ), the Spanish entrepreneur who brought cigar-making to Tampa and founded the town of Ybor City in 1885. Ybor City was built for the purpose of making cigars and housing the Cuban, Spanish, and Italian immigrants who made them. Ybor City was annexed into Tampa in 1887. Before Ybor, Tampa was a small, struggling town. After Ybor, Tampa a became a major manufacturing and shipping port in the mid 1900s as other companies opened factories and Tampa was handrolling hundreds of millions of cigars annually by the early 1900s.
Ybor had left Spain to go to Cuba in order to escape compulsory military service. In Cuba, he learned cigar-making. Then, he moved his operations to Key West. After a fire in Key West, he looked for a new home. Galveston Texas was the frontrunner until Tampa caught his attention.
Place.
Tarpon Springs is a city in Pinellas County Florida featured in Secret Tampa Bay. It has the highest percentage of Greek Americans of any city in the U.S.
First settled by white and black farmers and fishermen around 1876, Tarpon Springs became the first incorporated city in what is now Pinellas County in 1887, and the area became a popular wintering spot for wealthy northerners once the railroad arrived in 1888.
In the 1880s, John Chesney founded the first local sponge business, and Greek immigrants soon arrived to work in the industry. Sponge diving led to the recruitment of even more Greek immigrants. Soon, the sponge industry began generating millions of dollars in revenue annually. Shrimping and fishing added to the wealth. Today, Tarpon Springs is a quaint little city known for its Greek food, shops, beaches, and history.
Tarpon Springs is a city in Pinellas County Florida featured in Secret Tampa Bay. It has the highest percentage of Greek Americans of any city in the U.S.
First settled by white and black farmers and fishermen around 1876, Tarpon Springs became the first incorporated city in what is now Pinellas County in 1887, and the area became a popular wintering spot for wealthy northerners once the railroad arrived in 1888.
In the 1880s, John Chesney founded the first local sponge business, and Greek immigrants soon arrived to work in the industry. Sponge diving led to the recruitment of even more Greek immigrants. Soon, the sponge industry began generating millions of dollars in revenue annually. Shrimping and fishing added to the wealth. Today, Tarpon Springs is a quaint little city known for its Greek food, shops, beaches, and history.
Thing.
The Cuban sandwich. Tampa is the home of the Cuban, a pressed ham and cheese sandwich that started as lunch for the workers in the Ybor City and Tampa cigar factories in the late 1800s. Miami and Key West have laid claims to having the first, or the best, Cuban sandwich, but them's fightin' words in Tampa.
The Tampa Cuban is made with ham, mojo roasted pork, Swiss cheese, pickles, and mustard on toasted and pressed Cuban bread. Salami is included in Tampa's version because of the large Italian population.
The largest baker of Cuban bread in Tampa is La Segunda Central Bakery, established in 1915.
Secret Tampa has dozens more great stories about the "weird, wonderful, and obscure" that makes Tampa Tampa.
The Cuban sandwich. Tampa is the home of the Cuban, a pressed ham and cheese sandwich that started as lunch for the workers in the Ybor City and Tampa cigar factories in the late 1800s. Miami and Key West have laid claims to having the first, or the best, Cuban sandwich, but them's fightin' words in Tampa.
The Tampa Cuban is made with ham, mojo roasted pork, Swiss cheese, pickles, and mustard on toasted and pressed Cuban bread. Salami is included in Tampa's version because of the large Italian population.
The largest baker of Cuban bread in Tampa is La Segunda Central Bakery, established in 1915.
Secret Tampa has dozens more great stories about the "weird, wonderful, and obscure" that makes Tampa Tampa.
Person.
Joan Trumpauer Mulholland (born in 1941) is an American civil rights activist who was born in Washington D.C. and raised in Arlington, Virginia. As a girl, she became very aware of racism and economic disparities and decided to work for change. She planned to attend a small church University in Ohio or Kentucky, but her parents opposed integration and insisted that she attend Duke. After a year, she dropped out of Duke, became active in civil rights demonstrations and sit-ins and was arrested as a Freedom Rider in Jackson Mississippi. Refusing to pay bail, she and several others were imprisoned at the Parchman Penitentiary for two months, at age 19.
After her release, she enrolled at Jackson's historically black Tougaloo College. She became active in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. She continued sit-ins at Jackson department store lunch counters. (That's her in the middle of the famous photo, with her back to the camera.) She was involved in numerous marches and sit-ins subsequently.
She continued to work to educate about the civil rights movement through appearances, books, documentaries, and the Joan Trumpauer Mulholland Foundation. She tells her story in these two beautifully illustrated children's books.
I had the honor of meeting her and hearing her speak a few years ago at the annual Georgia Council for the Social Studies conference. Amazing woman.
Joan Trumpauer Mulholland (born in 1941) is an American civil rights activist who was born in Washington D.C. and raised in Arlington, Virginia. As a girl, she became very aware of racism and economic disparities and decided to work for change. She planned to attend a small church University in Ohio or Kentucky, but her parents opposed integration and insisted that she attend Duke. After a year, she dropped out of Duke, became active in civil rights demonstrations and sit-ins and was arrested as a Freedom Rider in Jackson Mississippi. Refusing to pay bail, she and several others were imprisoned at the Parchman Penitentiary for two months, at age 19.
After her release, she enrolled at Jackson's historically black Tougaloo College. She became active in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. She continued sit-ins at Jackson department store lunch counters. (That's her in the middle of the famous photo, with her back to the camera.) She was involved in numerous marches and sit-ins subsequently.
She continued to work to educate about the civil rights movement through appearances, books, documentaries, and the Joan Trumpauer Mulholland Foundation. She tells her story in these two beautifully illustrated children's books.
I had the honor of meeting her and hearing her speak a few years ago at the annual Georgia Council for the Social Studies conference. Amazing woman.
Place.
Up until the early 1970s, many urban department stores featured lunch counters where shopping housewives could meet friends and enjoy a sandwich or soft drink while they were out doing their shopping. In the South, lunch counters were segregated, and black customers were not allowed to sit. In February 1960, four black college students decided it was time to test their Greensboro North Carolina Woolworths lunch counter. They were welcome to spend their money inside the store, they reasoned, but we're not allowed to sit and order a grilled cheese sandwich.
The result was a huge reaction. In Greensboro, the original four were arrested, but soon others, black and white, started taking their places and launching sit-ins in their own stores across the South. SNCC, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and other organizations began training protestors to handle situations with nonviolence. Not only did they face arrest, but protestors were abused by white customers and police, spat on, beaten, and having food and drink dumped on them.
Sit-ins inspired other movements like wade-ins, read-ins, and sleep-ins in other public locations.
The Greensboro Woolworths is now a civil rights museum, exhibiting the lunch counter as it was in 1960. Part of the original counter is at the Smithsonian American History in D.C. The Atlanta National Center for Civil and Human Rights has a great exhibit that allows one to feel and hear, sort of experience in a small way, what protestors experienced.
Up until the early 1970s, many urban department stores featured lunch counters where shopping housewives could meet friends and enjoy a sandwich or soft drink while they were out doing their shopping. In the South, lunch counters were segregated, and black customers were not allowed to sit. In February 1960, four black college students decided it was time to test their Greensboro North Carolina Woolworths lunch counter. They were welcome to spend their money inside the store, they reasoned, but we're not allowed to sit and order a grilled cheese sandwich.
The result was a huge reaction. In Greensboro, the original four were arrested, but soon others, black and white, started taking their places and launching sit-ins in their own stores across the South. SNCC, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and other organizations began training protestors to handle situations with nonviolence. Not only did they face arrest, but protestors were abused by white customers and police, spat on, beaten, and having food and drink dumped on them.
Sit-ins inspired other movements like wade-ins, read-ins, and sleep-ins in other public locations.
The Greensboro Woolworths is now a civil rights museum, exhibiting the lunch counter as it was in 1960. Part of the original counter is at the Smithsonian American History in D.C. The Atlanta National Center for Civil and Human Rights has a great exhibit that allows one to feel and hear, sort of experience in a small way, what protestors experienced.
Thing.
These are the mugshots of Joan Trumpauer Mulholland when she was arrested, at age 19, as a Freedom Rider, one of a group who rode interstate buses across the South to call attention to segregation. Mulholland refused to pay the fine, and she was taken, along with others to a Mississippi penitentiary called the "Parchman Farm."
When they got to Parchman, the women were issued coarse denim black-and-white striped skirts and t-shirts. Prior to being locked in cells, the women were stripped and each given a vaginal examination. The matron cleansed her gloved hand, prior to each exam, in a bucket of liquid that Mulholland said smelled like Lysol. In prison, Mulholland was segregated from her fellow riders. She described the experience as isolating, with everyone unaware of what was going on.
They were housed on death row for two months. "We were in a segregated cell with 17 women and 3 square feet of floor space for each of us," she recalled in 2014.
Many of the freedom riders remained behind bars for about a month, but Mulholland had no plans and no place to go until school opened in the fall. She served her two-month sentence and additional time to work off the US$200 (equivalent to $1,732 in 2020) fine she owed. Each day in prison took three dollars off the fine.
Following her release, she continues her activism.
These are the mugshots of Joan Trumpauer Mulholland when she was arrested, at age 19, as a Freedom Rider, one of a group who rode interstate buses across the South to call attention to segregation. Mulholland refused to pay the fine, and she was taken, along with others to a Mississippi penitentiary called the "Parchman Farm."
When they got to Parchman, the women were issued coarse denim black-and-white striped skirts and t-shirts. Prior to being locked in cells, the women were stripped and each given a vaginal examination. The matron cleansed her gloved hand, prior to each exam, in a bucket of liquid that Mulholland said smelled like Lysol. In prison, Mulholland was segregated from her fellow riders. She described the experience as isolating, with everyone unaware of what was going on.
They were housed on death row for two months. "We were in a segregated cell with 17 women and 3 square feet of floor space for each of us," she recalled in 2014.
Many of the freedom riders remained behind bars for about a month, but Mulholland had no plans and no place to go until school opened in the fall. She served her two-month sentence and additional time to work off the US$200 (equivalent to $1,732 in 2020) fine she owed. Each day in prison took three dollars off the fine.
Following her release, she continues her activism.
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