13 Facts About the 13 Colonies-- Part 2

Again, go to the site for more information.

7.  New Hampshire offered parcels of land in exchange  for one ear of corn each year.  (Sounds like a deal to me.)

8.  Georgia was founded as a new haven for debtors and impoverished people.

9.  New York became  the first target of British trade restrictions -- for exporting fur hats.

10.  South Carolina benefited from the demand for blue dye.

11.  North Carolina was sold back to the British Crown.

12.  Rhode Island played a big role in the slave trade.  (By 1775, slaves made up 11.5% of its population.)

13.  Delaware really wasn't  formed until 1776.

--CootCol

11 Little-Known Facts About George Washington-- Part 2

6.  When he stepped down as commander of the Army, he didn't want to run his country.

7.   He had no biological children, but his wife, Martha Custis was a wealthy widow who had two children and he became legal guardian of them:  John Parke Custis and Martha Parke Custis.

8.  Washington was really into his animals.  He was America's first mule breeder.  There were many dog breeds at Mt. Vernon.

9.  He was pretty cagey when it came to his religious beliefs.

10.  Washington had a complicated relationship with slavery.

11.  He was a tough man to kill.  He had had many diseases and two horses shot out from him in battle as well as clothing with bullet holes.  Ironically it was a cold that did him in.

And, Again, Thanks for Our Country.  --DaCoot

Family of First Enslaved Africans in America Marks 400 Years-- Part 2

The men and women who came from what is now Angola in Africa arrived on two ships and were traded for food and supplies from the English colonists in Virginia.  The landing is considered a pivotal moment in American history, setting the stage for a system of race-based slavery that continues to haunt the nation.

Many of the first Africans in America are known only by their first names.  That included Anthony and Isabella, who became servants for a Captain William Tucker.

They had a son named William Tucker who many believe was the first documented African child born in English-occupied North America.

"We're still here," Wanda Tucker shouted in her family's shaded cemetery, which included many worn gravestones, as well as white crosses where ground penetrating radar had recently found unmarked graves.

The Africans were just 12 years after the founding of Jamestown, England's first permanent colony, and weeks after the first English-style legislature was convened there.

Family of First Enslaved Africans in America Marks 400 Years Back in 2019-- Part 1

From the August 24, 2019, Dubuque (Iowa) Telegraph Herald by Ben Finley, AP.

Hampton, Virginia --  A family that traces its bloodline to America's first enslaved Africans said Friday that their ancestors endured unimaginable toil and hardship -- but they helped forge the nation.

"Four hundred years ago, our family started building America, can I get an Amen?" Wanda Tucker said before a crowd in the Tucker Family Cemetery in Hampton, Virginia.

"They loved," she continued.  "They experienced loss.  They worked.  They created.  They made a way out of no way, determined that their labor would not be in vain."

Tucker, a college professor in Arizona, spoke at one of several events in Virginia this weekend that will mark the anniversary of the arrival of more than 30 enslaved Africans at a spot on the Chesapeake Bay in August 1619.

It is amazing that any family can trace its roots back so far,  Congratulations Tucker family.  And, it is so good to see Virginia commemorating its history these days.

Virginia Commemorating 400th Anniversary of Arrival of African Slaves-- Part 3

Though little noted at the time, the arrival of the enslaved Africans in England's first successful colony in the New World is now considered a pivotal moment in American history.

Englishman John Rolfe documented the landing of the first slave ship, the White Lion, at what was then called Point Comfort (where Fortress Monroe is located).  He wrote that the colonists traded supplies and provisions for the slaves.

From the White Lion, and a second ship, the English colonists took more than 30 Africans to properties along the James River, including Jamestown.

By that time, more than 500,000 enslaved Africans had already crossed the Atlantic to European colonies, but the Africans in Virginia are widely considered the first in English-controlled North America.

They came 12 years after the founding of Jamestown, England's first permanent colony, and weeks after the first English-style legislature was (the House of Burgesses) was convened there.

Virginia Commemorating the 400th Anniversary of Arrival of African Slaves-- Part 2: "What Became a Nation"

Virginia's two senators and governor will make remarks at a Saturday ceremony.  And, a family that traces its bloodlines to those first Africans will hold a reflection at its cemetery on Friday.

"This moment means everything to folks like myself who are African American and to folks on the continent as well, " said Mary Elliott, curator of American Slavery at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture.

"But it should mean something to everybody, regardless of race,"  she added,"because it is a moment that define a nation -- what became a nation."

Virginia Commemorating 400th Anniversary of Arrival of African Slaves-- Part 1

From the August 23, 2019, Dubuque (Iowa) Telegraph Herald by Bill Finley A.P.

Officials will mark the pivotal moment in American history when enslaved Africans arrived by holding a 'Healing Day.'

Norfolk, Va.  --  Four hundred years after American slavery and democratic self-rule came to what became the state of Virginia, ceremonies will mark the arrival of enslaved Africans and seek healing from the legacy of bondage that still haunts the nation.

Yet, the weekend ceremonies will take place against the backdrop of white supremacism across the country, racist tweets by President Trump and a lingering scandal surrounding Virginia;s governor and a blackface photo.

The commemoration will include Sunday's "Healing Day" on the Chesapeake Bay where two ships traded men and women from what is today Angola for food and supplies from English colonists in August 1619.

A bell will ring for four minutes, while churches across the country are expected to join in.

A Very Unfortunate Event in History.

Chicago Race Riot of 1919-- Part 6: James Crawford Shoots at Police and Is Killed

BIKE TOUR

The first stop after the beach is at the city's oldest black Baptist church, the 145-year-old Oliver Baptist at 3101 S. King Drive.  During the 1920s it had  some 10,000 members and was the largest black church in the United States and the largest Protestant church in the world.

It was an active station on the Underground Railroad during slavery and in effect was the community center in Chicago's segregated "Black Belt" at the time, home of 40 different social, economic and cultural organizations and, during the riots it was headquarters for those trying to stop the violence.

D. Bradford Hunt of Chicago's Newberry Library who helped lead the bike tour said:  "Eugene Williams drowns.  Police refuse to arrest the white guy.  African Americans on the beach are furious.  At some point an African American man shoots a gun at police.  Someone gets injured.  Police chase him over the tracks, toward Olivet, and about two blocks northeast, they shoot and kill the guy."

The man was James Crawford, 37, a Southerner who had come up from Georgia, shot at 6 p.m. on July 27 at 29th Street and Cottage Grove Avenue.

When Presidents Lied or Misled U.S. to War-- Part 4: Lincoln and FDR Are Exceptions

Michael Beschloss does give two examples of American war presidents who did not follow the other three:  Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt.  He says the two waged war for higher moral purposes (saving the Union, abolishing slavery, defending democracy from Fascism).

And, they educated the public about why the country was sacrificing so many lives and so much money, though he does discuss FDR's internment camps and Lincoln's suspension of habeus corpus among other wartime abuses of power.

--Cooter

10 Forgotten Americans-- Part 1: Slavery in New York and Massachusetts

From the March 26, 2015, ListVerse  "10 Forgotten Americans Who Made American History" by Ardelia Lee.

Remember.  More information and pictures at the site.

10.  ELIZABETH JENNINGS GRAHAM--  A black woman in New York City, who in 1854 got on a horse-drawn carriage designated for white people.

9.  JAMES ARMISTEAD LAFAYETTE--  A Virginia slave who was an American spy during the Revolutionary War.

8.  ELIZABETH FREEMAN--  Born a slave in New York.  Brought a case against her owners when they moved to Massachusetts.  Set precedent for the abolition of slavery in Massachusetts.

That's Right.  There Was Slavery in New York and Massachusetts At One  Time.  --Cooter

How About a Kosciuszko Day?-- Part 3: Military Engineer

Kosciuszko made his reputation as a military engineer and architect, overseeing the building of fortifications and selecting sites to fight the British.  This protected the small Continental Army and delayed British forces.  He was promoted to brigadier general.

George Washington was a great admirer of the young Polish officer, but  is said to have trouble spelling his name.  One account said that  he spelled Kosciuszko's name eleven different ways.

During his time with the American Army, his orderly was the dedicated and intelligent Agrippa Hull, a free black man.  As the two bonded, Kosciuszko became increasingly dismayed that white Americans were fighting for universal principles that it denied to half a million enslaved blacks.

--Cooter

How About a Kosciuszko Day?-- Part 2: Early Leader of Universal Human Rights

The write, Mary Wisniewski, of Polish descent herself, says that Tadeusz Kosciuszki was also an American Revolution hero, but his name was much harder to pronounce (I am still having to look at the spelling when typing it).

However, he is more than just a symbol to pride and heroism.  He opposed the oppression of Jews and peasants in Poland and slavery in America.    He was an early leader for universal human rights.

Born in 1746 and a graduate of the Corps of Cadets in Warsaw, he studied in France and then worked as a tutor in Poland.  He fell in love with his employer's daughter and was severely beaten by her father's servants when they tried to elope..

Kosciuszko then went to France and eventually to North America where he joined the Continental Army.

--DaCoot

National Museum of African American History-- Part 5: Bills of Sale, Rosa Parks and Shackles

Some of the other items displayed:

**  1835 bill of sale for a 16-year-old "Negro girl"

**  Dress worn by Rosa Parks

**  Desk from a segregated Depression-Era school

**  Ankle shackles of the type used on slave ships

--Cooter

One Man's Travels By Water in 1836-- Part 4: The Horse Race

In Louisville, Kentucky, "a match horse race came off between the states of Kentucky and Tennessee.  The chivalry of Kentucky staked their bottom dollar on the (bay gelding) Randolph, while the sporting men of Tennessee bet their last nickel on the brown filly Angora."

Randolph won "and the Tennesseeans were stripped to their shoestrings.  Large numbers of them were unable to pay their hotel bills and many were reduced from an easy competence to abject poverty."

After a stop in Cairo, Illinois, "which consisted of one building -- a tavern,"  David Crandall took the Madison, another steamer, to New Orleans, where he had his first glimpse of slavery:  "I found much food for reflection among a people who made slavery in its most brutal aspects the corner stone of their civilization and the chief element of their commercial prosperity."

He Wasn't Much Impressed With Slavery.  --Cooter

Album With Rare Harriet Tubman Photograph Goes for $161,000

From the March 31, 2017, Chicago Tribune.

An album containing a rare photograph of 19th-century abolitionist and Underground Railroad heroine Harriet Tubman was sold March 30 in New York City at an auction for $161,000-- far exceeding presale estimates.

The Tubman photograph was taken in Auburn, New York, in 1868 or 1869.  She was in her late 40s at the time.  Most existing photos of her were taken much later in life.  She looks very young here.

The winning bid was made by Lion Heart Autographs, a Manhattan-based dealer.

The Maryland-born Tubman, an escaped slave, helped scores of other slaves escape the South by guiding them to the North.  She served as a spy during the Civil War.  Afterwards, she settled in Auburn, in the Finger Lakes region of New York.

I wonder who else was in the photo album?

If they have to put her on the twenty dollar bill, I nominate this picture.

Harriet Tubman Like You've Never Seen her Before.  --Cooter

From Slave Cabin to Museum Piece

April 13, 2017, Chicago Tribune by Jesse J. Holland. AP.

Isabell Meggett Lucas, 86, had not been in the tiny house she was born in, a former slave cabin where her ancestors lived in South Carolina.  Today, that tiny two-room house will be viewed by millions inside the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.

The cabin was used during slavery at the Point of Pines Plantation on Edisto Island, S.C..

The new museum has been open for just over six months.  Officials scoured the South looking for former slave quarters for years before finally choosing this one.

It is believed to be one of the oldest preserved slave cabins in the United States.  The oral history of the cabin is being collected as well.

--Cooter

Ten Things You Might Not Know About Presidential Also-Rans-- Part 4: Catholic and Wet and the Nine-Vote Question

7.  New York Gov. Al Smith. the Democratic candidate in 1928, faced nasty campaign tactics targeting his Catholicism.  One example:  A photo of the Holland Tunnel linking New York and New Jersey with a caption saying it secretly led to the Vatican.

If that weren't enough, Smith also strongly opposed Prohibition, which put him in the wet camp.  Naturally, his campaign buttons read:  "Vote for Al Smith and Make Your Wet Dreams Come true."  He lost in a landslide to Herbert Hoover.  Well, at least he didn't get tagged with the Great Depression like Hoover.

8.  MARTIN VAN BUREN's Free Soil candidacy in 1848 was America's first serious third-party movement, but its Abolitionist stance didn't get it anywhere in the South.

Still, when Van Buren was credited with just nine votes in the whole state of Virginia out of 92,000 cast, his campaign called foul.  A Virginia wit responded, "Yes, fraud, and we're still looking for the son-of-a-bitch who voted nine times."

And I Thought That Only Happened in Chicago.  --DaCoot

Ten Things You Might Not Know About Apologies-- Part 1

From the November 17, 2013, Chicago Tribune by Mark Jacob and Stephan Benzkofer.

Once again our intrepid researchers delve into a subject with interesting findings.  This idea grew out of President Obama's apology for the botched roll out of his Affordable Care Act and all that stuff about the Toronto mayor.

1.  The U.S. government has officially apologized for SLAVERY, mistreatment of NATIVE AMERICANS, the overthrow of HAWAII's native leaders in 1893, the TUSKEGEE syphilis study, the Japanese INTERNMENT in World War II, the protection of Gestapo officer Klaus Barbie after the war and other mistakes and deeds.

However, the U.S. has stated it will not apologize for dropping the atom bombs on Japan to end World War II.

After downing the Iranian jetliner in 1988, the U.S. said it regretted the loss of innocent life and paid compensation, but never formally apologized.

--Cooter