History, Natural History & the Arts
If you think the spread of sensationalism and “alternative facts” and their divisive effect on the American people are 21st century phenomena, think again. There may be no comparison between the instantaneous, often individually provocative communication of our Internet and the communication technologies of the mid-19th century.
Nevertheless, the pre-Civil War media landscape was hardly calm or trustworthy. [Read more…] about Sensationalism In Historical Context: Wide-Awakes & The Civil War
In 1868, just a few years after the end of the Civil War, novelist John William De Forest published an essay in The Nation, a political magazine that had been founded in July 1865 in Nassau Street, Manhattan. His contribution was titled “The Great American Novel.” [Read more…] about Documentary: The Great American Novel, Truman Capote & Che Guevara
Rev. Robert Everett was a Welsh-American who came to Oneida County, NY in 1823 from Wales. He very quickly became involved in the anti-slavery movement. In 1835, Utica was selected as the site for the first New York State Anti-Slavery Convention.
The meeting was broken up by an angry mob. From Utica Everett was forced to move several times as his church services were often interrupted by people who continued to support slavery. He was physically assaulted while preaching and had his horse injured and home burned down by pro-slavery activists. [Read more…] about Beaten & Burned Out: Welsh Anti-Slavery Hero Robert Everett
“The dream of my life is not yet realized…I still long for a hearthstone of my own.” (Harriet Jacobs in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861).
In 1852, Harriet Jacobs became legally free, but not independent as she yearned. She continued her job as nursemaid for the family of Nathaniel Parker Willis, then editor of the trend-setting magazine Home Journal and one of the country’s most famous authors. The needs of the Willises usually took precedence over her own.
When the family moved to Cornwall, in Orange County, NY, she went too. There, in fits and starts, over the course of more than five years, she wrote the book about her life still read today – Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. [Read more…] about ‘Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl’: Harriet Jacobs in Orange County, New York (Conclusion)
Long before the fictional and shocking “Peyton Place” of TV and film fame came along in the late 1950s, and early 1960s there was an actual suburban community where its residents were roiled by rampant scandal, moral and religious hypocrisy and a sensational a murder in their midst. [Read more…] about The Prophet Matthias and Elijah the Tishbite
When most people discuss the American woman’s suffrage movement they think of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. However, Helen Hinsdale Rich was the first woman to embrace the idea of woman’s suffrage in the North Country.
Learn more about Helen Rich when Bryan Thompson speaks at the St. Lawrence County Historical Association’s next Patricia Harrington Carson Brown Bag Lunch Series at noon on Thursday, November 20th at the Silas Wright House, 3 East Main St., Canton. Brown Bag Lunches are free and open to the public. Bring your own lunch and enjoy a beverage and dessert provided by SLCHA. [Read more…] about Helen Rich And St. Lawrence County Suffrage
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