Kenneth C. Davis's Blog, page 108

Halloween–The Hidden History

When I was a kid in the early 1960s, the autumn social calendar was highlighted by the Halloween party in our church. In these simpler day, the kids all bobbed for apples and paraded through a spooky "haunted house" in homemade costumes –Daniel Boone replete with coonskin caps for the boys; tiaras and fairy princess wands for the girls. It was safe, secure and innocent.

The irony is that our church was a Congregational church — founded by the Puritans of New England. The same people who brought you the Salem Witch Trials.

Here's a link to a history of those Witch Trials in 1692.

Rooted in pagan traditions more than 2000 years old, Halloween grew out of a Celtic Druid celebration that marked summer's end. Called Samhain (pronounced sow-in or sow-een), it combined the Celts' harvest and New Year festivals, held in late October and early November by people in what is now Ireland, Great Britain and elsewhere in Europe. This ancient Druid rite was tied to the seasonal cycles of life and death — as the last crops were harvested, the final apples picked and livestock brought in for winter stables or slaughter. Contrary to what some modern critics believe, Samhain was not the name of a malevolent Celtic deity but meant, "end of summer."

The Celts also saw Samhain as a fearful time, when the barrier between the worlds of living and dead broke, and spirits walked the earth, causing mischief. Going door to door, children collected wood for a sacred bonfire that provided light against the growing darkness, and villagers gathered to burn crops in honor of their agricultural gods. During this fiery festival, the Celts wore masks, often made of animal heads and skins, hoping to frighten off wandering spirits. As the celebration ended, families carried home embers from the communal fire to re-light their hearth fires.

Getting the picture? Costumes, "trick or treat" and Jack-o-lanterns all got started more than two thousand years ago at an Irish bonfire.

Christianity took a dim view of these "heathen" rites. Attempting to replace the Druid festival of the dead with a church-approved holiday, the seventh-century Pope Boniface IV designated November 1 as All Saints' Day to honor saints and martyrs. Then in 1000 AD, the church made November 2 All Souls' Day, a day to remember the departed and pray for their souls. Together, the three celebrations –All Saints' Eve, All Saints' Day, and All Souls Day– were called Hallowmas, and the night before came to be called All-hallows Evening, eventually shortened to "Halloween."

And when millions of Irish and other Europeans emigrated to America, they carried along their traditions. The age-old practice of carrying home embers in a hollowed-out turnip still burns strong. In an Irish folk tale, a man named Stingy Jack once escaped the devil with one of these turnip lanterns. When the Irish came to America, Jack's turnip was exchanged for the more easily carved pumpkin and Stingy Jack's name lives on in "Jack-o-lantern."

Halloween, in other words, is deeply rooted in myths –ancient stories that explain the seasons and the mysteries of life and death.

You can read more about ancient myths in the modern world in Don't Know Much About Mythology

Banned Books Week

The Top Ten list for 2010 is out. And there are some familiar names on it-  The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, Nickel and Dimed  by Barbara Ehrenreich. But these aren't a critics Top Ten Recommendations. They are among the list of books most challenged by people who object to the presence of these books in school and public libraries.

Yes, it is time to think about the "Book Wars" again.

Each year, the American Library Association and other groups mark Banned Books Week during the last week in September. In 2011,  it begins today, September 24, and continues through October 1. (This video was made two years ago, but the issues remain the same.)

In a time when some American parents don't want their children to hear the President of the United States give a speech on education values, or a planned Koran-burning wins with wide popular approval, the importance of this reminder of the right to free expression and the value of THINKING is more urgent than ever.

Where are they pulling books out of libraries? See a map of local "challenges" to books from 2007-2009.

Here are some important links to three groups involved in combating censorship: the American Library Association, the National Coalition Against Censorship, and Teaching Tolerance:

American Library Association Banned Books Week site

The National Coalition Against Censorship

Teaching Tolerance (A project of the Southern Poverty Law Center)

Don't Know Much About® Constitution Day

On September 17, 1787, 39 delegates to the Constitutional Convention meeting in Philadelphia, voted to adopt the United States Constitution. Since the 17th falls on a Saturday in 2011, Constitution Day –a national day to educate Americans about what the Constitution is and says– is marked on September 16.

To recap these events:

Working from May 25, when a quorum was established, until September 17, 1787, when the convention voted to endorse the final form of the Constitution, the delegates gathered in Philadelphia's Pennsylvania State House were actually obligated only to revise or amend the Articles of Confederation. Under those Articles, however, the government was plagued by weaknesses, such as its inability to raise revenues to pay its foreign debts or maintain an army. From the outset, most the convention's organizers, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton chief among them, knew that splints and bandages wouldn't do the trick for the broken Articles.

The government was broke –literally and figuratively– and they were going to fix it by inventing an entirely new one. James Madison had been studying more than 200 books on constitutions and republican history sent to him by Thomas Jefferson in preparation for the convention. The moving force behind the convention, Madison came prepared with the outline of a new Constitution.

A reluctant George Washington, whose name was placed at the head of list of Virginia's delegates without his knowledge, was unquestionably spurred by the events in Massachusetts (Shay's Rebellion, a violent protest by Massachusetts farmers). Elected president of the convention, he wrote from Philadelphia in June to his close wartime confidant and ally, the Marquis de Lafayette:

I could not resist the call to a convention of the States which is to determine whether we are to have a government of respectability under which life, liberty, and property will be secured to us, or are to submit to one which may be the result of chance or the moment, springing perhaps from anarchy and Confusion, and dictated perhaps by some aspiring demagogue.

On September 17, Washington signed the parchment copy first, as President of the convention. He was followed by the remaining delegates from the twelve states that sent delegates in geographical order, from north to south, beginning with New Hampshire. (Rhode Island was the only state that did not send a delegation.) When the last of the signatures was added –that of Abraham Baldwin of Georgia– Benjamin Franklin gazed at Washington's chair, on which was painted a bright yellow sun. He then spoke, as James Madison recorded it:

I have, said he, often in the course of a session, and the vicissitudes of my hopes and fears as to its issue, looked at that behind the President without being able to tell if it was rising or setting: But now at length I have the happiness to know that it is a rising and not a setting sun.

In another perhaps more apocryphal tale, Franklin left the building and was confronted by a lady who asked, "Well Doctor, do we have a monarchy or a republic?" The witty sage of Philadelphia replied,

"A republic, madam, if you can keep it."

This post is excerpted from America's Hidden History, which offers fuller account of the Convention and the events that led to it.  You can also read more about the Constitutional Convention and the Constitution in Don't Know Much About History: Anniversary Edition.

For more about the Constitution, visit these sites:

The National Constitutional Center in Philadelphia:

James Madison's Montpelier:

Charters of Freedom at the National Archives

The World is a Pear: Columbus Day

"In fourteen hundred and ninety-two/Columbus sailed the ocean blue."

We all remember that. But after that basic date, things get a little fuzzy. Here's what they didn't tell you–

Most educated people knew that the world was not flat.

Columbus never set foot in what would become America.

Christopher Columbus made four voyages to the so-called New World. And his discoveries opened an astonishing era of exploration and exploitation. His arrival marked the beginning of the end for tens of millions of Native Americans spread across two continents.

Once a hero. Now a villain.

You can read more about Christopher Columbus, his voyages and their impact on American history in Don't Know Much About History and Don't Know Much About Geography.

The story of "Isabella's Pigs," and the role of Queen Isabella in the making of the New World, is depicted in America's Hidden History

Don't Know Much About@ History: Anniversary Edition

Don't Know Much About® St. Augustine — Hidden History of America's "Oldest City"

On September 8, 1565, a group of about 800 Spanish sailors, soldiers, priests and colonists landed in Florida and celebrated what is called "the first parish mass" in America –the "beginning" of Christianity in the future United States of America, as St. Augustine's boosters tell us. This is the founding day of what is called "America's oldest permanent European settlement."

According to the website of the shrine that marks this momentous date in history:

 "Mass was said to hallow the land and draw down the blessing of heaven before the first step was taken to rear a human habitation."

The Spanish colonists were led by Admiral Pedro Menéndez de Aviles. But just what were Menéndez and his 800-strong group doing in Florida?

In brief, it was a search-and-destroy mission and St. Augustine was established to mount a murderous offensive against the small, struggling French colony at Fort Caroline, near modern-day Jacksonville.

Menéndez had been dispatched by Spain's King Philip II to wipe out the French colony, established about a year earlier. These French settlers had come to America, as the Mayflower Pilgrims would more than 50 years later, in search of a religious refuge. Huguenots, or French Protestants, they had been given permission by France's King Charles to establish a colony in America.

Admiral Menéndez was sent to Florida with clear orders–wipe out the "heretic" French colony. After killing most of the inhabitants of Fort Caroline, Menéndez captured and put to the sword several hundred French sailors who had been shipwrecked in a hurricane and came ashore just south of St. Augustine before straggling north towards the Spanish outpost.

The spot where Menéndez did his "pious" work with such ruthless efficiency was known as Matanzas, Spanish for "slaughters."

The site of these killings, Fort Matanzas, is now an off-the-beaten path national monument just south of St. Augustine:

I told the story of Fort Caroline, St. Augustine, and the fate of America's true first pilgrims in "The French Connection," an Op-ed in the New York Times

You can also read a more complete story of the bloody history of America's true "first pilgrims" in a chapter called "Isabella's Pigs" in America's Hidden History.

 

 

"The Blood and Sweat Behind Labor Day" (CNN.com)

"To most Americans, the first Monday in September means a three-day weekend and the last hurrah of summer, a final outing at the shore before school begins, a family picnic.

But Labor Day was born in a time when work was no picnic. As America was moving from farms to factories in the Industrial Age, there was a long, violent, often-deadly struggle for fundamental workers' rights, a struggle that in many ways was America's "other civil war."

Read more about the history of Labor Day at CNN.com

"The Blood and Sweat Behind Labor Day"

"To most Americans, the first Monday in September means a three-day weekend and the last hurrah of summer, a final outing at the shore before school begins, a family picnic.

But Labor Day was born in a time when work was no picnic. As America was moving from farms to factories in the Industrial Age, there was a long, violent, often-deadly struggle for fundamental workers' rights, a struggle that in many ways was America's "other civil war."

Read more about the history of Labor Day at CNN.com

Don't Know Much About the 19th Amendment

Ninety-one years ago, on AUGUST 18, 1920, Tennessee ratified the 19th Amendment, giving it the needed number of states to become part of the U.S. Constitution. Finally, all American women could enjoy the basic right of citizenship. It was a victory in a long struggle for "suffrage" fought by the "Suffragists."

 

Who were the suffragists?

Women in America always endured plenty of suffering. What they lacked was "suffrage" (from the Latin suffragium for "vote"). Many American women as far back as Abigail Adams—who admonished her husband John to "Remember the Ladies" when he went off to declare independence—had pressed for voting rights, but just as consistently had been shut out. Women were fighting against the resistance of church, Constitution, an all-male power structure that held fast to the reins, and many of their own –who believed in a woman's divinely ordained, second-place, "submissive" role.

But at the 19th-century progressed, more women were pressed to work, and they showed the first signs of collective strength. For instance, in the 1860 Lynn, Massachusetts, shoe worker strike, many of the 10,000 workers who marched in protest were women.

Women were also a strong force in the abolitionist movement. But even in a so-called freedom movement, women were accorded second-rate status. To many male abolitionists, the "moral" imperative to free black men and give them the vote carried much greater weight than the somewhat blasphemous notion of equality of the sexes. In fact, it was the exclusion of women from an abolitionist gathering that sparked the first formal organization for women's rights.

The birth of the women's movement in America can be dated to July 19, 1848, when Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902) and Lucretia Mott (1793–1880) called for a women's convention in Seneca Falls, New York, after they had been told to sit in the balcony at a London antislavery meeting.

By the turn of the 20th century, some women began concentrating on winning the vote state by state, a strategy that succeeded in Idaho and Colorado, where grassroots organizations won the vote for women. After 1910, a few more western states relented, and the movement gained new momentum.

At about the same time, American suffragists took a new direction, borrowed from their British counterparts. The British "suffragettes" (as opposed to the commonly used American term "suffragist") had been using far more radical means to win the vote. Led by Emmeline Pankhurst, British suffragettes chained themselves to buildings, invaded Parliament, blew up mailboxes, and burned buildings. Imprisoned for these actions, the women called themselves "political prisoners" and went on hunger strikes that were met with force-feedings. The cruelty of this official response was significant in attracting public sympathy for the suffragette cause.

Alice Paul (1885–1977)  a Quaker-raised woman who studied in England and had joined the Pankhurst-led demonstrations in London, helped bring these tactics back to America. At the 1913 inauguration of Woodrow Wilson, who opposed the vote for women, Paul organized a demonstration of 10,000 people, most of them women. Her strategy was to hold the party in power—the Democrats in this case—responsible for denying women the vote. By this time, several million women could vote in various states, and Republicans saw, as they had in winning the black vote in Grant's time, that there might be a political advantage in accepting universal suffrage.

After Wilson's 1916 reelection, in which women in some states had voted against him two to one, the protest was taken to Wilson's doorstep as women began to picket around the clock outside the White House. Later imprisoned, Paul and others imitated the British tactic of hunger strikes. Again, sympathies turned in favor of the women. After their convictions were overturned, the militant suffragists returned to their White House protests.

In 1918, Paul's political tactics paid off as a Republican Congress was elected. Among them was Montana's Jeannette Rankin (1880–1973), the first woman elected to Congress. Rankin's first act was to introduce a constitutional suffrage amendment on the House floor. The amendment was approved by a one-vote margin. It took the Senate another eighteen months to pass it, and in June 1919, the Nineteenth Amendment was submitted to the states for ratification. Now fearful of the women's vote in the approaching presidential election, Wilson shifted to support of the measure.

One year later, on August 18, 1920, Tennessee delivered the last needed vote, and on August 26, the Secretary of State certified the ratification. The Nineteenth Amendment was added to the Constitution. It stated simply –

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

It took more than 130 years, but "We the People" finally included the half of the country that had been kept out the longest.

 

There is more about the 19th Amendment at the National Archives website.

 

This material is adapted from Don't Know Much About History–

Don't Know Much About@ History: Anniversary Edition

 

Don't Know Much About® the 19th Amendment

Ninety-one years ago, on AUGUST 18, 1920, Tennessee ratified the 19th Amendment, giving it the needed number of states to become part of the U.S. Constitution. Finally, all American women could enjoy the basic right of citizenship.

Who were the suffragists?

Women in America always endured plenty of suffering. What they lacked was "suffrage" (from the Latin suffragium for "vote"). Many American women as far back as Abigail Adams—who admonished her husband John to "Remember the Ladies" when he went off to declare independence—had consistently pressed for voting rights, but just as consistently had been shut out. Women were fighting against the enormous odds of church, Constitution, an all-male power structure that held fast to its reins, and many of their own –who believed in a woman's divinely ordained, second-place role.

But in the 19th-century, more women were pressed to work, and they showed the first signs of strength. In the 1860 Lynn, Massachusetts, shoe worker strike, many of the 10,000 workers who marched in protest were women.

Women were also a strong force in the abolitionist movement. But even in a so-called freedom movement, women were accorded second-rate status. To many male abolitionists, the "moral" imperative to free black men and give them the vote carried much greater weight than the somewhat blasphemous notion of equality of the sexes. In fact, it was the exclusion of women from an abolitionist gathering that sparked the first formal organization for women's rights.

The birth of the women's movement in America can be dated to July 19, 1848, when Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902) and Lucretia Mott (1793–1880) called for a women's convention in Seneca Falls, New York, after they had been told to sit in the balcony at a London antislavery meeting.

By the turn of the 20th century, some women began concentrating on winning the vote state by state, a strategy that succeeded in Idaho and Colorado, where grassroots organizations won the vote for women. After 1910, a few more western states relented, and the movement gained new momentum.

At about the same time, American suffragists took a new direction, borrowed from their British counterparts. The British "suffragettes" (as opposed to the commonly used American term "suffragist") had been using far more radical means to win the vote. Led by Emmeline Pankhurst, British suffragettes chained themselves to buildings, invaded Parliament, blew up mailboxes, and burned buildings. Imprisoned for these actions, the women called themselves "political prisoners" and went on hunger strikes that were met with force-feedings. The cruelty of this official response was significant in attracting public sympathy for the suffragette cause.

Alice Paul (1885–1977)  a Quaker-raised woman who studied in England and had joined the Pankhurst-led demonstrations in London, helped bring these tactics back to America. At the 1913 inauguration of Woodrow Wilson, who opposed the vote for women, Paul organized a demonstration of 10,000 people, most of them women. Her strategy was to hold the party in power—the Democrats in this case—responsible for denying women the vote. By this time, several million women could vote in various states, and Republicans saw, as they had in winning the black vote in Grant's time, that there might be a political advantage in accepting universal suffrage.

After Wilson's 1916 reelection, in which women in some states had voted against him two to one, the protest was taken to Wilson's doorstep as women began to picket around the clock outside the White House. Later imprisoned, Paul and others imitated the British tactic of hunger strikes. Again, sympathies turned in favor of the women. After their convictions were overturned, the militant suffragists returned to their White House protests.

In 1918, Paul's political tactics paid off as a Republican Congress was elected. Among them was Montana's Jeannette Rankin (1880–1973), the first woman elected to Congress. Rankin's first act was to introduce a constitutional suffrage amendment on the House floor. The amendment was approved by a one-vote margin. It took the Senate another eighteen months to pass it, and in June 1919, the Nineteenth Amendment was submitted to the states for ratification. Now fearful of the women's vote in the approaching presidential election, Wilson shifted to support of the measure.

One year later, on August 18, 1920, Tennessee delivered the last needed vote, and on August 26, the Secretary of State certified the ratification. The Nineteenth Amendment was added to the Constitution. It stated simply –

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

It took more than 130 years, but "We the People" finally included the half of the country that had been kept out the longest.

 

There is more about the 19th Amendment at the National Archives website.

 

This material is adapted from Don't Know Much About History–

Don't Know Much About@ History: Anniversary Edition

 

DON'T KNOW MUCH ABOUT ELECTING THE U.S. PRESIDENT? A Classroom Skype Invitation

BEAM ME IN TO DISCUSS THE AMERICAN ELECTION PROCESS

The Presidential Election of 2012 is about a year away. Americans will go to the polls on Tuesday November 6, 2012.

While the campaigning is already well underway among the Republican ranks, the real business of choosing a candidate in 2012 to face President Obama, the presumptive Democratic candidate, will soon be in full swing. The marathon of caucuses, primaries, conventions and delegate counts will begin in earnest in early 2012 and preoccupy the nation for most of the year.

That makes this a good time to get a handle on America's crazy quilt of election history and rules.

In a session lasting approximately 30 minutes, I would like to use Skype to "Beam in" to your classrooms this Fall to engage your students on the basics of the Presidency and the American election process. I will speak briefly, then take questions from students in a wide-ranging conversation about a system that doesn't always seem to make sense. Here are some of the topics I have in mind–

-Why a President? When they were inventing the American system of government back in 1787, how did those men decide what the office of the President should be?

-Who elected George Washington and what's different today?  How has the process of electing the President changed since George Washington won the office first back in 1789?

-Is the Electoral College a Party School? The Constitution doesn't specifically mention the "Electoral College." What is it? Do I need good SAT scores to get in? Most important, why do we still have it?

-Do we need a President? Are the problems of the country too big for one Chief Executive to handle? Maybe we should split the job up. Benjamin Franklin thought we should have three men to do the job. Was he right?

If you would like to organize a free Skype session, please go to the website Contact page and send me an email request. Please be sure to include the name and location of your school, how many students are in your class, and the grade level. The schedule and dates of the sessions will be set at a mutually convenient time. (Please note: A limited number of Skype visits will be scheduled based on my availability.)

I would also encourage you to consider turning this into a "FAMILY EVENT" by inviting parents and other family members into the classroom to make this an exciting discussion about the role of voting and citizenship in our democracy.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Very best,

Kenneth C. Davis

Don't Know Much About@ History: Anniversary Edition