Person, Place, and Thing: March 15 - 22

 (Apologies: The Metaverse is not treating me very well lately, and some posts are missing from this recap.)

Person.

It was announced yesterday that prolific historical fiction author John Jakes had died Saturday in a Sarasota Florida hospice at age 90.

Born on March 31, 1932 in Chicago, Jakes published his first short story at 18, and he went on to write more than 80 books in his lifetime that sold more than 120 million copies worldwide. Like James Clavell, James Michener, Herman Wouk, and Larry McMurtry, his huge sweeping historical novels were adapted into huge sweeping TV miniseries in the 1970s and 1980s, generating huge ratings and sales.

The breakthrough was the 8 volume Kent Family Chronicles, with the first volume, The Bastard, released in 1974. Set around the American Revolution, it was perfect for America's Bicentennial. His North and South trilogy, about the Civil War, was even more popular, made into three tv miniseries. He also wrote and directed plays and musicals, including a very popular 50 minute adaptation of A Christmas Carol by his favorite author, Charles Dickens.

Jakes is survived by his wife of 71 years, four children, 11 grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.

Place.

It was announced yesterday that prolific historical fiction author John Jakes had died Saturday in a Sarasota Florida hospice at age 90.

Born on March 31, 1932 in Chicago, Jakes published his first short story at 18, and he went on to write more than 80 books in his lifetime that sold more than 120 million copies worldwide. Like James Clavell, James Michener, Herman Wouk, and Larry McMurtry, his huge sweeping historical novels were adapted into huge sweeping TV miniseries in the 1970s and 1980s, generating huge ratings and sales.

The first home for his writing was Fantastic Adventures, a sci-fi and fantasy pulp magazine published from 1939 to 1953, initially edited by Raymond A. Palmer who also edited Amazing Stories. The November 1950 edition featured Jakes' story "The Dreaming Trees" when he was an 18 year old college freshman. He earned $25 for it. Over the next 20 years, Jakes wrote several fantasy stories and novels and a few unsuccessful historical novels that he himself said weren't very good. He told an interviewer once that he was almost ready to give up writing before he achieved the success of the Kent Family Chronicles.

Thing.

It was announced yesterday that prolific historical fiction author John Jakes had died Saturday in a Sarasota Florida hospice at age 90.

Born on March 31, 1932 in Chicago, Jakes published his first short story at 18, and he went on to write more than 80 books in his lifetime that sold more than 120 million copies worldwide. Like James Clavell, James Michener, Herman Wouk, and Larry McMurtry, his huge sweeping historical novels were adapted into huge sweeping TV miniseries in the 1970s and 1980s, generating huge ratings and sales.

Although he is probably most famous today for his historical fiction novels, he wrote a lot of fantasy novels and short stories from the 1950s to the 1970s. He was one of the charter members of the Swordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild of America or SAGA, an informal group of American fantasy writers active from the 1960s through the 1980s, noted for their contributions to the "Sword and Sorcery" kind of heroic fantasy, itself a subgenre of fantasy. The group's purpose was to develop and to promote the popularity and respectability of Sword and Sorcery fiction.

Lin Carter, L. Sprague de Camp, and Jakes started the Guild with tongues firmly in cheeks originally. They met for drinks and hijinks at fan conventions and author gatherings, and they made up fun titles and offices for themselves.Eventually, they became more serious about promoting their genre. They began publishing their work in anthologies, and they invited other authors to join. The organization went into decline in the late 1980s and petered out.

Person.

The US Military Academy at West Point, New York was established on March 16, 1802.

The site is the oldest continuously operating Army post in the US, first fortified in 1778. Since 1794, "cadets" were trained in artillery and engineering there. Alexander Hamilton introduced a bill in Congress to establish a military academy, and Thomas Jefferson directed that the academy be built at West Point shortly after his inauguration in 1801, and the official act was signed on March 16 1802, with official commencement of operations on July 4.

Born in Thomasville Georgia in 1856, Henry Ossian Flipper became the first black graduate of West Point in 1877. He became the first black officer to lead the 10th cavalry buffalo soldiers, serving with distinction during the Apache campaigns. Having endured tremendous discrimination and racism at West Point, his army career wasn't very different. He was court-martialed and dismissed in 1882. He led a successful government and engineering career subsequently before retiring to Atlanta, where he died in 1940.

In 1994, his descendants petitioned for a re-examination of his case. A review found the court martial conviction and punishment unjust and unwarranted. President Clinton pardoned him in 1999.

Stephen Ambrose wrote the history of West Point called Duty, Honor, and Country.

Place.

The US Military Academy at West Point, New York was established on March 16, 1802.

The site is the oldest continuously operating Army post in the US, first fortified in 1778. Since 1794, "cadets" were trained in artillery and engineering there. Alexander Hamilton introduced a bill in Congress to establish a military academy, and Thomas Jefferson directed that the academy be built at West Point shortly after his inauguration in 1801, and the official act was signed on March 16 1802, with official commencement of operations on July 4.

West Point was originally established as a fort, since it sits on strategic high ground overlooking the Hudson River with a scenic view, 50 miles north of New York City. The entire central campus is a National Historic Landmark and home to scores of historic sites, buildings, and monuments. The majority of the campus's Norman-style buildings are constructed from gray and black granite. The campus is a popular tourist destination, with a visitor center and the oldest museum in the United States Army.

Stephen Ambrose wrote the history of West Point called Duty, H

Thing.

The US Military Academy at West Point, New York was established on March 16, 1802.

The site is the oldest continuously operating Army post in the US, first fortified in 1778. Since 1794, "cadets" were trained in artillery and engineering there. Alexander Hamilton introduced a bill in Congress to establish a military academy, and Thomas Jefferson directed that the academy be built at West Point shortly after his inauguration in 1801, and the official act was signed on March 16 1802, with official commencement of operations on July 4.

West Point was originally established as a fort, since it sits on strategic high ground overlooking the Hudson River with a scenic view, 50 miles north of New York City. From 1777 to 1782, Continental forces strung chains and log booms across the Hudson River to prevent the British Fleet from sailing west up the Hudson. The first of the Hudson River chains was destroyed by the British in 1777, but the Great Chain was in place from 1778 through the end of the war in 1782.

Person.

March 17 is celebrated as St. Patrick's Day around the wor---- well actually pretty much just the US and Ireland and celebrated very differently in each country. In the US, it's an excuse to get drunk. In Ireland, it has a bit more cultural and religious significance, celebrating the Christian missionary who is credited with bringing Christianity to Ireland, even though there were probably Christians before him.

Little is known about Patrick, but he was a true historical figure probably active in the 5th century, dying perhaps sometime between 460 and 493. He was born near the end of Roman rule in Britain somewhere in the British Isles. He is believed to have been kidnapped at 16 by Irish pirates, taken to Ireland, and enslaved. He converted to Christianity while in captivity, and, according to his Confessions, voices told him how to escape six years later. He continued his studies in Europe and was ordained.

After some unclear accusations of wrongdoing were made against him, perhaps of financial misdeeds or selling ordination or even lying about his kidnapping, he returned to Ireland as a missionary, and by his own account, baptized thousands and ordained many to spread his work.

Many legends sprung up about Patrick. He may have used the shamrock to explain the Trinity. Three was already a very significant number to the Irish pagans. However, there were never any snakes in Ireland so there is the mystery about him banishing snakes from the island. Some think snakes were a metaphor for pagan Irish priests.

There are several interesting graphic novels about Irish history.

Thing.

March 17 is celebrated as St. Patrick's Day around the wor---- well actually pretty much just the US and Ireland and celebrated very differently in each country. In the US, it's an excuse to get drunk. In Ireland, it has a bit more cultural and religious significance, celebrating the Christian missionary who is credited with bringing Christianity to Ireland, even though there were probably Christians before him.

Wikipedia:

"The Great Famine also known within Ireland as the Great Hunger or simply the Famine and outside Ireland as the Irish Potato Famine, was a period of starvation and disease in Ireland from 1845 to 1852 that constituted a historical social crisis which subsequently had a major impact on Irish society and history as a whole. With the most severely affected areas in the west and south of Ireland, where the Irish language was dominant, the period was contemporaneously known in Irish as an Drochshaol, literally translated as "the bad life" (and loosely translated as "the hard times"). The worst year of the period was 1847, which became known as "Black '47". During the Great Hunger, roughly 1 million people died and more than 1 million fled the country, causing the country's population to fall by 20–25% (in some towns falling as much as 67%) between 1841 and 1871. Between 1845 and 1855, at least 2.1 million people left Ireland, primarily on packet ships but also on steamboats and barques—one of the greatest exoduses from a single island in history."

Person.

Happy 61st birthday to tv presenter Mike Rowe born on March 18, 1962. I realize that I run the risk of alienating some undeveloped individuals who aren't mature enough to tolerate differing opinions in their lives, but I have been a fan of Mike Rowe for decades.

Raised in Baltimore, the Eagle Scout developed an interest in theater and singing, earning a degree in communication studies. He first appeared on TV as an on-air host for QVC, the home shopping network, before hosting, narrating, and producing other TV shows. In 2003, he started hosting Dirty Jobs, a series in which he introduced viewers to dirty blue-collar jobs that they didn't know that they relied on. Each episode is filled with real people, interesting topics, and Rowe's blend of quick wit, sarcasm, middle school humor, word play, self-deprecating humor, and dad jokes made him a celebrity. The show also became a platform for his continued activism in promoting vocational and technical skills-based learning.

His interest in history has led to great series like How Booze Built America and a podcast called The Way I Heard It. Originally, each episode of the podcast was 10 to 15 minutes long, and Rowe related some historical story Paul Harvey-style, not that many of you are old enough to know the legendary broadcaster Harvey, delivering a big twist or reveal at the end of the story. Now, the podcast has evolved into longer interviews with curious people, but, a few years ago, the first stories were published, and the book was a bestseller.

Granted some of the stories contain a bit of folklore and aren't overly researched, hence the title, The Way I Heard It, but they are entertaining, and I'm all for anything that encourages people to explore history.

Place.

Happy 61st birthday to tv presenter Mike Rowe born on March 18, 1962. I realize that I run the risk of alienating some undeveloped individuals who aren't mature enough to tolerate differing opinions in their lives, but I have been a fan of Mike Rowe for decades.

Rowe is a proud native of Baltimore Maryland. "In the early 1600s, the immediate Baltimore vicinity was sparsely populated, if at all, by Native Americans. The Baltimore County area northward was used as hunting grounds by the Susquehannock living in the lower Susquehanna River valley. This Iroquoian-speaking people "controlled all of the upper tributaries of the Chesapeake" but "refrained from much contact with Powhatan in the Potomac region" and south into Virginia. Pressured by the Susquehannock, the Piscataway tribe, an Algonquian-speaking people, stayed well south of the Baltimore area and inhabited primarily the north bank of the Potomac River in what are now Charles and southern Prince George's counties in the coastal areas south of the Fall Line.

European colonization of Maryland began in earnest with the arrival of the merchant ship The Ark carrying 140 colonists at St. Clement's Island in the Potomac River on March 25, 1634. Europeans then began to settle the area further north, in what is now Baltimore County. Since Maryland was a colony, Baltimore's streets were named to show loyalty to the mother country, e.g. King, Queen, King George and Caroline streets. The original county seat, known today as Old Baltimore, was located on Bush River within the present-day Aberdeen Proving Ground.The colonists engaged in sporadic warfare with the Susquehannock, whose numbers dwindled primarily from new infectious diseases, such as smallpox, endemic among the Europeans. In 1661 David Jones claimed the area known today as Jonestown on the east bank of the Jones Falls stream." (Wikipedia)

Thing.

Happy 61st birthday to tv presenter Mike Rowe born on March 18, 1962. I realize that I run the risk of alienating some undeveloped individuals who aren't mature enough to tolerate differing opinions in their lives, but I have been a fan of Mike Rowe for decades.

Rowe began the Mike Rowe Works Foundation in 2008 to promote skilled labor. So far, the organization has awarded nearly $7 million in scholarships to people training or apprenticing for skilled jobs.

Person.

Earlier this week, we lost a master of historical fiction and the TV miniseries, John Jakes. Today, I pay tribute to another master whose work I discovered in high school thanks to my US history teacher and the tv miniseries.

Herman Wouk's The Caine Mutiny was published on March 19, 1951 and awarded the 1952 Pulitzer Prize. He later wrote the huge sweeping epics Winds of War and War and Remembrance. Both covered World War II, mixing fictional families with real events and historical figures. Both were made into phenomenal series, and Winds of War, at 886 pages, was required class reading.

Wouk, 1915-2019, was born in the Bronx to Russian Jewish immigrants from what is today Belarus. He graduated from Columbia University at age 19 and became a radio dramatist, followed by writing comedy for radio legend Fred Allen.

He served in the Navy in the Pacific during WWII, participating in 6 invasions. During off duty hours, he began writing a novel, Aurora Dawn, which was eventually published, becoming a Book of the Month Club selection, in 1947. After a sophomore slump with his second novel, The Caine Mutiny re-started his path toward critical and commercial success.

Wouk cherished his privacy during his life; some called him reclusive. He seldom granted interviews or made public appearances, but he donated his private journals, more than 100 volumes, to the Library of Congress in 2008, when he became the first recipient of the Library of Congress Lifetime Achievement Award for Writing Fiction.

He died in his Palm Springs home in 2019, 10 days before his 104th birthday, two years after granting an interview that aired in 2017 on CBS Sunday Morning.

Person.

Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin was first published as a book on March 20, 1852, in an initial run of 5,000 copies. It had first appeared in serial installments in a newspaper in 1851. It went on to become one of the most influential and biggest-selling books in American history.

Stowe (1811-1896) was born into an activist family headed by the Reverend Lyman Beecher. Her brothers also became activists and preachers, and she and her sisters received traditional academic educations, unusual for girls at the time. The family was heavily involved in the Second Great Awakening and social reforms, particularly temperance and abolition of slavery.

Inspired to action by the Compromise of 1850 and the Fugitive Slave Act, Stowe decided to write about the horrors and brutality of slavery. The result was Uncle Tom's Cabin which sold 300,000 copies in less than a year. Although it was quickly banned in the South, northerners and Europeans, especially in the UK, responded by joining abolitionist groups and raising their voices against slavery. Robert Lincoln reported that, on meeting her at the White House in 1862, President Lincoln said to her, "so you are the little woman ... who started this great war." She only recorded that she had an enjoyable evening, so we're not 100% sure about the story.

In later years, she started another movement that fewer people know about. She purchased land near Jacksonville Florida and became one of the first "snowbirds," living part of the year in the state. She began writing stories and books extolling the virtues of Florida, and hundreds of former abolitionists followed her, fueling Florida's first wave of tourism and economic development.

One of her neighbors in Florida was Anna Kingsley, the former African princess who had married her enslaver and inherited his plantations and slaves. The two women visited each other often.

Place.

Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin was first published as a book on March 20, 1852, in an initial run of 5,000 copies. It had first appeared in serial installments in a newspaper in 1851. It went on to become one of the most influential and biggest-selling books in American history.

In later years, she started another movement that fewer people know about. She purchased land near Jacksonville Florida and became one of the first "snowbirds," living part of the year in the state. She began writing stories and books extolling the virtues of Florida, and hundreds of former abolitionists followed her, fueling Florida's first wave of tourism and economic development.

She chose a "cottage" on the St. John's River near Mandarin to live in. during the winter. Oranges from her groves were shipped north. She wrote, hosted Bible study groups, assisted with the founding of a Freedmen's Bureau school, and she and her daughters would often put on plays and shows to entertain family, friends, and neighbors. Beginning in 1884, her trips south came to an end because of her declining health.

One of her neighbors in Florida was Anna Kingsley, the former African princess who had married her enslaver and inherited his plantations and slaves. The two women visited each other often.

Thing.

Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin was first published as a book on March 20, 1852, in an initial run of 5,000 copies. It had first appeared in serial installments in a newspaper in 1851. It went on to become one of the most influential and biggest-selling books in American history.

Immediately after Tom was published, southern apologists for slavery began writing what has come to be called "anti-Tom literature" or "plantation literature," novels meant to portray the happy and safe lives enjoyed by the devoted and grateful enslaved people in the South. In 1852 alone, 8 such novels were published.

"These anti-Tom novels tended to feature a benign white patriarchal master and a pure wife, both of whom presided over childlike slaves in a benevolent extended-family-style plantation. The novels either implied, or directly stated, the view that African Americans were unable to live their lives without being directly overseen by white people." (Wikipedia)

Person.

On March 21, 1788, Olaudah Equiano, aka Gustavus Vassa, petitioned British King George III and Queen Charlotte to free enslaved Africans.

Equiano (c. 1745-1797) was captured, along with his sister, by raiders as a child of about 11 in the Kingdom of Benin, southern Nigeria today. About 6 months later, he arrived at the coast where he was sold to a European slaver. His first destination was Barbados and then Virginia, where he was purchased by an officer in the Royal Navy who named him Gustavus Vassa, a name he used the rest of his life, using Equiano only in his autobiography.

He served his enslaver as a valet on board ships during the Seven Years War, hauling gunpowder in battle. The officer sent him to live with his sister-in-law in England where he converted to Christianity and learned to read and write. After a couple of other owners, he purchased his freedom in 1766 while working as a shipping clerk in Georgia, and returned to England.

He continued to work at sea for a while before settling in London where he became an active abolitionist in the 1780s and was encouraged to write his autobiography, published in 1789. It was one of the first published works by an African in Europe, and it became a best-selling phenomenon in Britain and across Europe.

In recent years, a few scholars have cast doubt on the truth of Equiano's story based on a couple of colonial records that show he was born in South Carolina, but most scholars disregard that theory.

Place.

On March 21, 1788, Olaudah Equiano, aka Gustavus Vassa, petitioned British King George III and Queen Charlotte to free enslaved Africans.

Equiano (c. 1745-1797) was captured, along with his sister, by raiders as a child of about 11 in the Kingdom of Benin, southern Nigeria today.

The Kingdom of Benin grew out of the previous Edo Kingdom around the 11th century, and it lasted until it was annexed by the British Empire in 1897. The Kingdom developed a strong economic relationship with Europeans after 1485, trading ivory, pepper, palm oil, and slaves. The Oba, or king, commanded a well-trained and highly organized military that not only defended the Kingdom, but also regularly raided neighboring peoples, enslaving them in Benin as well as selling them into slavery to European and American slavery. The slave trade was a major source of Benin's wealth.

Thing.

On March 21, 1788, Olaudah Equiano, aka Gustavus Vassa, petitioned British King George III and Queen Charlotte to free enslaved Africans.

Equiano (c. 1745-1797) was captured, along with his sister, by raiders as a child of about 11 in the Kingdom of Benin, southern Nigeria today. In 1789, he published his autobiography; it became an extremely influential piece of abolitionist literature.

During the American Revolution, a large number of North American and Caribbean blacks, many enslaved, answered Britain's call to arms against the American rebels. At the end of the war, many were resettled by the British to Canada, but they didn't find it to their liking and ended up in London, often struggling to make a living. A group of philanthropists formed the Committee for the Relief of the Black Poor to offer assistance. Equiano, or Vassa as he was known, became an active member of the Committee, which took up the cause of repatriation thousands of blacks to the new British colony of Sierra Leone. While the Committee hoped to resettle thousands, only about 400 landed there in 1787.

Equiano was also active in numerous other abolitionist and charitable organizations in London.

Person.

On March 22, 1638, Anne Hutchinson was expelled from Massachusetts Bay Colony for heresy.

Anne Marbury (1591-1643) was born in Lincolnshire England to an Anglican minister and teacher, and she received a much better education than most girls at the time. She married William Hutchinson in 1612, and in 1634, they and their 11 children moved to Boston Massachusetts. William became a successful merchant, and Anne served as a midwife.

In London, they had begun following a preacher who emphasized salvation by grace over salvation by works, and, in fact, followed him to Massachusetts. Anne soon began hosting weekly gatherings in her home in which she led other women in dissecting and discussing the day's sermon. Soon, men started attending with their wives, and meetings had as many as 60 in attendance.

At a time when women had no rights, not even the right to a public opinion, these meetings began to distress the colony's leaders. Alarm grew when Anne, a woman, began teaching and leading discussions in the presence of men; that in itself violated their interpretation of Scripture. On top of that, she taught that colonial leaders and established ministers favored works over grace and other ideas that clashed with orthodoxy.

Anne was forced to appear before authorities in 1637. Over the course of her questioning, she repeatedly outwitted and out-argued her accusers. She was found guilty of heresy and sentenced to banishment. She, her husband, and the six younger children moved for a time to Rhode Island, which had a reputation for religious tolerance, before moving to the frontier of New York where they were all killed (except 9 year old Susanna who was kidnapped and ransomed back a few years later) in an Indian attack in 1643.

News of the attack caused great joy among the colonial leaders who had persecuted her, and they praised God for relieving them of their "great and sore affliction."

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On March 22, 1638, Anne Hutchinson was expelled from Massachusetts Bay Colony for heresy.

One of her followers purchased land in Rhode Island from local Indians. Rhode Island was held in disdain by Massachusetts Bay leaders, who called it "Rogues Island" or "Massachusetts Bay's sewer," because founder Roger Williams opened settlement to those deemed undesirable in Massachusetts.

Hutchinson and her family led a group of followers to the land and founded the village of Portsmouth Rhode Island, although the Hutchinsons only remained four years before moving to New York.

Thing.

On March 22, 1638, Anne Hutchinson was expelled from Massachusetts Bay Colony for heresy.

Her teachings that salvation by faith alone was sufficient and that salvation was not dependent on good works or rigidly following Mosaic law clashed with the orthodox teachings of the Puritan leadership of Massachusetts Bay. Her belief is known as antinomianism, from the Greek for "against" "laws," a theological idea put forward by Martin Luther during the Protestant Reformation, but even pre-dating Luther.

"In some Christian belief systems, an antinomian is one who takes the principle of salvation by faith and divine grace to the point of asserting that the saved are not bound to follow the moral law contained in the Ten Commandments. Antinomians believe that faith alone guarantees eternal security in heaven, regardless of one's actions." (Wikipedia)