Lenora Rogers's Blog, page 46
February 22, 2017
Lynn Shoeworkers Strike, Feb. 22, 1860
On February 22, 1860, thousands of striking shoeworkers filled Lyceum Hall in Lynn. By choosing to begin their protest on Washington’s birthday, the strikers were invoking the memory of their revolutionary forefathers. Lynn had been a shoemaking town since the early 1800s. Hard times had now caused management to cut wages and speed up production. Declaring they would “live by honest toil, but never consent to be slaves,” over 20,000 workers — more than had...
February 21, 2017
The 1805 Slave Revolt at Chatham
From John Hennessy, (for more on the slave landscape at Chatham see Eric Mink’s posts on here and here):
The laundry at Chatham, once the domain of Chatham’s slaves.
Chatham bubbled in the news the other day when Chance the Rapper won best new artist. One of Chance’s songs, “How Great,” briefly mentions the 1805 uprising of enslaved people at Chatham. We have thus had a few questions. So, I post here a piece I wrote a few years back that sheds light on the uprising...
February 20, 2017
Dr. Merze Tate
Vernie Merze Tate was born to Charles & Myrtle K. (Lett) Tate February 6, 1905 in Blanchard, Michigan. Born on her family’s farm in rural Isabella County, as a child Merze walked nine miles to school, time which she spent memorizing poetry or historic battles. Both her maternal and paternal great grandparents were some of the first African American families that settled in the area, coming from Ohio in response to the Homestead Act of 1862. Consequently, Merze grew up with all white classma...
Caught out, or why expense fiddling is not a modern phenomenon
We are thrilled to welcome Dr Jacqueline Reiter who has written a guest blog for us about her first book The Late Lord: the life of John Pitt, 2nd Earl of Chatham, which was published by Pen & Sword Books in January 2017.
Jacqueline has a PhD in late 18th century political history from the University of Cambridge. A professional librarian, she lives in Cambridge with her husband and two children. She blogs at The Late Lord and you can follow her on Facebook or Twitter.
So...
Frederick McKinley Jonez: A Great Black Inventor with 60 Patentz for Inventionz
#Frederick McKinley Jones was born in Cincinnati, Ohio on May 17, 1893. He was a young orphaned at a very young age. At an early age, Jones showed a great interest in mechanical working, whether taking apart a toy, a watch, or a kitchen appliance. Eventually he became interested in automobiles, so much so that upon turning 12 years of age, he ran away from his home at the rectory and began working at the R.C. Crothers Garage. Growing up as an orphan, he did not attend school o...
Isabella of Angouleme: Wife of King John
Isabella of Angouleme
Isabella of Angouleme was born in 1188 to parents Aymer Taillefer, Count of Angouleme and Alice of Courtenay, sister of Peter II of Courtenay, Emperor of Constantinople and grand-daughter of King Louis VI of France.
Isabella was betrothed to Hugh de Lusignan, Count of LaMarche, but King John of England snatched the twelve year old Isabella, from under his nose. They were married on the 24th August 1200 at Bordeaux, and on the 9th October she...
February 13, 2017
Blackheath Circle, Near Todmorden, West Yorkshire
Panoramic view of Blackheath Circle.
OS Grid Reference: SD 94338 25428. About 1 mile north of Todmorden, west Yorkshire, at the eastern edge of Todmorden Golf Course there is a Bronze Age cairn circle, ring cairn or round barrow. This is usually referred to as Blackheath Circle, but locally it is called Frying Pan Circle, because of its circular shape. It also sometimes goes under the name ‘Blackheath Ringbank Cemetery’. This circular feature is now incorporat...
The sad tale of the miser Mary Luhorne
Isaac Sailmaker; Two Views of an East Indiaman of the Time of William III; National Maritime Museum
Mary Manlove married Nicholas Luhorne, some seven years her senior, in 1715 at St Andrews Holborn. There’s nothing especially noteworthy about either of them on the face of it until after the death of Nicholas, a captain in the navy, when the story of Mary’s life after the loss of her husband became particularly tragic as we discovered in a book, titled Lives and anecdotes...
Matilda of Flanders
October 2016 saw the 950th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings, the event in history during which England gained a new King and a new Royal family. English Heritage led the way with a series of Twitter accounts set up to reveal the thoughts and actions of a collection of people affected by the invasion. One of those accounts was for Matilda of Flanders, the wife of William the Conqueror. I was incredibly relieved that English Heritage included her from the start, not just because history...
February 6, 2017
Catharine Montour
Who was Catharine Montour? No one really knows. We know that she was an Iroquois woman with a white great-grandfather. We know that she lived in what is now Upstate New York sometime between 1710 and 1804. After that, the stories get confusing, but her legacy lives on.
Her grandmother was also named Catharine Montour, and history often conflates the two. Not to mention all the Noble Savage, or just plain savage, tales that grew up around the younger Catharine.
View original post 557 more wo...
