Well written and powerful as usual! But I do hope you'll spill some ink (or illuminate some pixels?) regarding how tied to slavery and its economy the entire North, and indeed the whole of the United States, so thoroughly was.
My dad's family's story on this continent begins in Boston in 1652, when unwilling Scots on the wrong side of Ol…
Well written and powerful as usual! But I do hope you'll spill some ink (or illuminate some pixels?) regarding how tied to slavery and its economy the entire North, and indeed the whole of the United States, so thoroughly was.
My dad's family's story on this continent begins in Boston in 1652, when unwilling Scots on the wrong side of Oliver Cromwell were exiled here. I live just a few kilometers (#GoMetric) from where their ship, the John & Sarah, docked that year after a trecherous winter crossing of the Atlantic. My mother's history in Boston begins with her folks starting in the 1920s (she passed of Covid back in May at the age of 86 by the way - I'm just 44 myself, she had me late). Her dad, my grandfather, had a stint co-running the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital (now Brigham & Women's) back when it was a small outfit just finding its sea legs after he graduated Harvard Med School.
And it was my mother's brother, a well-connected jazz artist who played and produced records until he passed about 8 years ago now, has childhood memories of very old Civil War soldiers marching in the streets of Boston on July 4th (he actually played his way through the Army years later) and he always said the Civil War was America's "long shadow," a rift that we've never truly recovered from.
Let's take Faneuil Hall, for example, dubbed the "Cradle of Liberty" since the American Revolution -- it was absolutely financed with money from Peter Faneuil's slave trading business. More and more are we (re)discovering these truths. I want to be honest with you, Professor - sometimes, not all the time, but sometimes I find some (not all) aspects of your narrative concerning these United States of America a little too tidy. A little too attached to this narrative habit we've had in Boston for quite some time - that we've been the enlightened home of abolitionists, and the South has been source of racist rot in our country.
One of my ancestors was legal witness in the 17th century to one of the, shall we say, "shady real estate deals" that was vehicle for the colonization of this continent, the violent cultural and physical genocide our nation is entirely predicated on.
I'd really appreciate it if you chose to delve a little more unflinchingly into America - the full story. For example, we all should learn the horrible history of Thanksgiving. Abraham Lincoln, whom you venerate reasonably on some counts, proclaimed a day of Thanksgiving in 1863, right? And the federal government declared the last Thursday in November as the legal Thanksgiving holiday in 1898.
However, the meaning of Thanksgiving is whitewashed with the happy feasting Pilgrims & Indians story. And yes, that did happen. Once. In 1614 when a band of English explorers sailed home to England with a ship full of Patuxet Indians bound for slavery. (As you know, they left behind smallpox which almost entirely wiped out those who'd escaped.) By the time the Pilgrims got to Mass Bay, they found only one living Patuxet Indian, a man named Squanto who'd survived slavery in England and knew English. He taught them to grow corn and fish and negotiated a peace treaty between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Nation. At the end of their first year, the Pilgrims held a great feast honoring Squanto and the Wampanoags.
Hurrah.
BUT, as word spread in England about this new world paradise, religious zealots (you guessed it, the Puritans) began arriving by the boatload (no, they were not all fleeing religious persecution - they actually had a great deal of religious freedom - most were pursuing an economic opportunity). In any event, finding no fences around the land, they considered it to be public domain. Joined by other British settlers (whom my highland ancestors would later fight in the Battles of Dunbar and Worcester), they seized land, capturing strong young Natives for slaves and killing the rest.
The Pequot Nation, however, hadn't agreed to this peace treaty that Squanto negotiated and dared to fight back.
The Pequot War was one of the bloodiest Indian wars ever fought. In 1637 near today's Groton CT, over 700 men, women and kids of the Pequot Tribe were having an annual "Green Corn Festival." In the predawn hours the slumbering tribe members were surrounded by English and Dutch mercenaries who ordered them to come outside. Those who came out were shot or clubbed to death while the terrified women and children who huddled inside the longhouse were then literally burned alive inside (yup, pretty horrid - if any tried to come out, they were of course shot).
The NEXT day, Mass Bay Colony governor John Winthrop declared “A Day Of Thanksgiving” because 700 unarmed men, women and children had been murdered. Elated by the “victory” God granted them, the "brave" colonists attacked village after village. Women and children over 14 were sold into slavery while the rest were murdered. Boats loaded with as many as 500 slaves regularly left New England ports.
Following an especially successful raid against the Pequot in what is now Stamford CT, the churches announced a 2nd day of Thanksgiving to celebrate victory over the heathen savages. During the feasting, the hacked-off heads of Natives were kicked through the streets like soccer balls. Even the friendly Wampanoag did not escape the madness. Their chief, Metacom (son of the original welcoming Massasoit, whose statue you can find in Plymouth) was beheaded, and his head impaled on a pole in Plymouth, Massachusetts where it remained on display for ~25 years after King Phillip's War (which was arguably this continent's first battle for independence, or cultural survival, however you look at it).
Anyway, the killings became more and more frenzied, with days of thanksgiving feasts being held after each successful massacre. Eventually we get to George Washington himself, who finally suggested that only one day of Thanksgiving per year be set aside instead of celebrating each and every massacre. Later still, our beloved Abraham Lincoln decreed Thanksgiving Day to be a legal national holiday during the Civil War (on the same day he ordered troops to march against the starving Sioux in Minnesota).
So, professor Richardson, that version of the story doesn’t have quite the same fuzzy feelings associated with it as the one where the Indians and Pilgrims are all sitting down together at a big feast, and I've been kind of hoping you'd write more about the things we need to unflinchingly reckon with as a nation. I think you'd agree we need to look at history square in the face, so I truly hope you continue to work in service of the truth of our mutually conjoined stories.
Sincerely from Somerville (once Charlestown, which was later annexed anyway and is now Boston),
Michael Monroe
P.S. Connected with James Monroe, yes - I actually share his birthday. By the way, he owned enslaved people. None of us are of noble blood, and I really think we, as white people, need to talk about it A LOT more.
Michael Monroe, thank you for your reminding detail of the horrible history of European assault of the Native Americans and appropriation of the land in what is now New England.
For anyone interested in further reading of a history book that reads like a novel:
Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War (2006) by Nathaniel Philbrick.
Dr. Richardson has mentioned her study of the Puritans and Native American history. My interpretation is that her Letter tonight was to take pride in connecting dots of her home state's contributors to American democracy, and not to depict the history of Maine in a "warm and fuzzy" whitewashed way.
As to your comment about Lincoln's declaration of Thanksgiving as a national holiday, Dr. Richardson expounded upon this in her Letter of Nov. 25, 2020, that Lincoln was not referencing the myth of the Pilgrims, but in Dr. Richardson's words, established the holiday in the context of the Civil War "to celebrate the survival of our democratic government."
Hello, Roland! I was wondering where you were. Glad to see you as well as lol the other familiar names here. You all keep me going as I consider the possibility that we’ve all been accidentally assigned to an insane asylum.
Thank you, that's high praise! I personally find Heather's writing voice just so amazing though, don't you? She's just got this je ne sais quoi that I adore - haven't found anything out there quite like it.
You could be equally shocked by a true history of any area of this country. If interested, check out what Cortez did to Pueblo Indians in the southwest — etc., etc., etc.
It was a different world . Christian people believed God was in the sky looking down on them and that their prayers would reach God if the church steeple was tall enough. Be glad we survived until now and for the science we have.
And I wonder if perhaps you might be hired by a great university to teach history where you could help educate future voters - would the school board of directors approve of your selection and let you teach what you have written here? I have recently learned about racism in places where I never suspected it existed. It’s deplorable and, for me, unforgivable. Knowing makes me responsible, but I haven’t yet learned how to effectively change humanity. How do we learn that? Who teaches that?
It depends on how one defines Christians, by word or by deed. Jesus was a Jew who taught certain values, upon which Western civil law is based. Fervor directed in a civil way is not destructive. Irrational fervor can become a frenzied killing spree. I seem always to come back to human fear of death, or even of being ignored, and our need for validation, everyones need to justify their existence. Every time I bring up over-population, the human need to procreate overwhelms rational thought, but it seems to me that our biggest dilemma is a fight for a place in the world, not heaven.
But wait, I was taught that our laws were based on the Greeks and Romans, with a bit of help from the original people's covenants, the very ones the "pilgrims" massacred. I'm embarrassed to say that I can't remember the exact tribe at this moment, even though it was mentioned.
I think the whole "we owe our nation's laws (ie values) to Christianity" is a dangerous simplification.
Many of our greatest founding fathers rejected the Judeo-Christian-Muslim tradition in favor of agnosticism or deism, largely because of the history of war and oppression associated with Christianity in their own motherland.
Their fate is outlined in the Book of Job, but a lot of them don’t read the Old Testament and don’t have the cultural history of it to understand what they’re reading. They remind me of Renaissance painters who painted biblical characters costumed in 15th century Florentine clothing.
Some did. Cultural relativity is often used as an excuse for overlooking something uncomfortable: Not all people at the time bought into that story. There were arguments and schisms among congregations over the treatment of indigenous peoples. There was the interesting tendency of white settlers to leave and go to live with native people- as one of them. Towns of both sometimes existed side by side or intermixed. Things were much, much more complex than even our "enlightened" revisions recognize. The world was not so different then as we think.
But isn't that exactly what the White "Christian" Nationalists being weaponized by the Oligarchy are still saying now, in 2024? They are not focused on the height of the steeple, but on the dome of Congress and the White House porch. (they have already completed a judicial coup, thus proving their Divine Destiny.)
Whoa, a difficult read. Thank you for that. The immensity of man’s inhumanity to man, (and women, children and animals), can be quite overwhelming when the unvarnished truth of the past, and in some parts of the world, the present, is revealed. Is the collective conscienceless of humanity inching towards the light? I hope so. But the shadows of the past are very long but if the truth is viewed with clear eyes and discernment perhaps it can spark a new vision for the future. To save what progress has been made so far in the universal pursuit of life, liberty and happiness for all, constant vigilance is necessary. We are nowhere near the promised land yet.
No time left to redeem "man's" bad record of inhumanity to others. Prez 45 stands as a monument to the waste of space that human beings can be on earth. A whole lot of "good" people can be trashed by one evil soul. This is not the first rodeo......and there seems to be no improvement, so I'm not sad about earth finishing us off. Too sorry there will be no survival of any to proclaim the worst of humankind as a warning to any future human beings. Also sorry that the best of humankind will be without memorial on this hunk of rock circling the sky.
It’s a tough question about how much grotesque violence we want to focus on from one period of American history to another. I disagree that HCR’s version of history is too tidy. In any historical narrative, choices have to be made about what points are being made. Of course the north was tied economically with the south’s slave profits. And there were people living in the north who were or had been slave traders. It’s a given since we were all tied together before the civil war. What stands out to me is how early the struggle began to keep slavery legal. Another astounding force is the obstruction that remained in effect to the human rights of freed slaves. And we’re still reckoning with this evil.
It *is* a tough question, isn't it. I had an uncommon 6th grade teacher in the 80s who spent the whole year focusing on the Civil War as the main theme while we checked off boxes in other areas as well. She didn't mince words - we learned the (truly) gorey details of the Nat Turner Rebellion, how horrid the seige of Vicksburg truly was, what enslaved people really went through - all kinds of stuff. We were 12, but we could handle it. I think we underestimate the capacity of the moral brain of pre-teens, and I find myself looking to Germany's practices in terms of education and reckoning with the past. We've never really had the same approach here in the US, and perhaps we should.
I’m not up on Germany’s approach but as to the gorey part of war I think the use of films like Lincoln which had scenes of the amputations and discarded body parts can get those difficult parts across so the teacher can focus on the other important parts like the whys and the how did it come to this. I think many teens can deal with sordid stuff but why dwell on it when the other ideas like economics and moral issues plant seeds of questioning and understanding.
Germany's approach to reckoning with its past would be Another great post for you to write. I have often wondered about it, and re Japan as well. What a perfect subject for our times.
Thank you for your well written and illuminating account of the 'Thanksgiving' history. HCR did write about this over the past Thanksgiving, not in such detail, but she did clarify the contrast between the 'Pilgrims and Indians' mythology many of us grew up with and the very different holiday's significance when instituted by Lincoln and, in fact, different states at different times.
Thank you, Michael. To adapt your own phrase, MA has been the home of more enlightened abolitionists than the South, and the South has been source of more racist rot than other parts of the country. Your own account of Thanksgiving verges on mythmaking itself.
Um, that's not actually "my" account? It's all over extant manuscripts of the day, not hard to look it all up, there are mountains of historical data. But on average, probably you're right re: north vs. south. That being said, Boston's INCREDIBLY racist. A lot of People of Color come here and are horrified because the company line, so to speak, is that we're this place that "got over all that." Alas, as we're all learning, we have a lot of work to do.
Sorry, I should have specified the first Thanksgiving. The account of the later development of the holiday is fine, but on the first, it's the conventional mythologized story. Having numerous accounts does not guarantee accuracy; in fact, errors have long been replicated until recent decades Indians turned up and were served, but not invited; venison was the main fare, not turkey; and harmony between New Eng Indians and the English was fleeting despite some exceptions like Squanto (Tisquantum; he's not even known by his real name, and died in 1622), Massasoit, and the praying towns of eastern MA. Americans have been led to accept a sanitized history flattering to Euro Amer sensibilities.
A Cave, The Pequot War
F Jennings, The Invasion of America
K Kupperman, Indians & English
J Loewen, Lies Across America
____, Lies my Teacher told Me
N Salisbury, Manitou and Providence
____, "Squanto," in Struggle & Survival in Early Amer
The name Fern has a deep meaning for me now after I watched Frances McDormand play the lead character Fern in Nomadland yesterday. It’s quite a film. Everyone should see it. It was directed by a Chinese woman who has been nominated as best director for this year’s oscars. It’s about many things but mostly about one woman’s grief.
Thank you, Liz. It took me years to accept the name. I was Bonnie at summer camp. On alert to being teased, because Steve Allen, a man of many talents, and the first host of The Tonight Show, often asked male guests, 'How's your fern'? I escaped ridicule and grew up to own the name, perhaps, because I love plants, ferns included.
Thanks Fern. Michael and I actually have a minor dispute on 1st Thanksgiving going today, but I look forward to more from him. Michael, you are a skilled phrasemaker. Write on.
When I taught high school social studies, I was often torn about how much "reality" to include. To what extent does one want to jade a 15-16 year old just as he/she is entering the years of dawning awareness and budding idealism? Like Dr. R's letter today, I tried to connect dots but in ways that would not leave them in utter despair.
"It *is* a tough question, isn't it. I had an uncommon 6th grade teacher in the 80s who spent the whole year focusing on the Civil War as the main theme while we checked off boxes in other areas as well. She didn't mince words - we learned the (truly) gorey details of the Nat Turner Rebellion, how horrid the seige of Vicksburg truly was, what enslaved people really went through - all kinds of stuff. We were 12, but we could handle it. I think we underestimate the capacity of the moral brain of pre-teens, and I find myself looking to Germany's practices in terms of education and reckoning with the past. We've never really had the same approach here in the US, and perhaps we should."
Oh yes, I agree. My students were able to absorb a lot and, actually, kids have a very sensitive crap detector that enables them to quickly recognize when they are being patronized. They are also entering the higher stages of moral development. Nonetheless, history contains a disturbing and largely uninterrupted thread of cruelty and viciousness that I, admittedly, softened.
When I look back on myself as a high school student, I think my adult life and understandings, even voting, would have been better served by being taught the truth of our American ways. But it is helpful to hear from the teachers about why they may have done what they did.
Michael Monroe, I always appreciate learning more about our terrible treatment of Native Americans, African Americans, and Asians throughout our history. However, your characterization of Dr. Richardson "whitewashing" history is wrong. If you read her daily for the past 15 or so months she's been sharing daily letters, I believe you'll sing a different tune.
In order to finish my long struggle with earning a bachelor's degree in biology, I was required to take a Freshman history class. It was Freshman only enrollment, so I had to beg and plead my way into class. The professor clearly had taught this class too often, but he was a great storyteller in his way and a wealth of information. I never became a biologist but I did get hooked on history. My favorite history books are the older ones - they often are much more upfront and detailed about the truly horrid history of this country, including the intricate embedded national economics of slavery. And yet we persist in striving toward our highest ideals. I'm reading a book right now, published in 1939, that notes how much of the "old money" in New England was first acquired via the slave trade. As I'm sure Dr. Richardson knows, slaves were sold in Portsmouth NH, just across the border from Maine. History is very complicated and without a doubt one of the most important subjects for students of all ages.
Michael, It felt as I read your comment as though you have carrying in your mind the violent conquests this country has committed to arrive at its power, wealth, might, mythology and 'exceptionalism'. While subscribers here cherish the ideals of democracy, some of us are not proponents of nationalism or captive of the false narratives and omissions concerning the history of the United States of America. I don't know that HCR is a captive of that either. Please continue to share your understanding of this country. I would like to know what you think with regard to the condition of the country now.
Michael Moore. (I'm reading your comment on April 10,2022). Thank you for this extraordinary history! I was bullied in grade school by my first history teacher, a "man", and thus turned off to history for the next 80 years. There is a lot to learn, catch up with. So hopefully people like Dr. Richardson, yourself, and other researchers of history can begin to expand/expose the hidden truths of our earliest months/years, up through and including our current history-making calamities. I'm unlikely to live long enough to witness any significant restitutions, but at least the beginnings are apparent.
Thank you. I agree that “The Lies My Teacher Told Me” was truly an education for me. What I learned was all lies. Oh and btw our dad’s may well have been in med school together. My family are also Bostonians. My mom grew up on Concord Ave in Cambridge. My dad went to Milton Academy and then ended up in Boston, although his family had roots in Boston also. We also had a large family who lived in Yarmouth Port on the Cape.
Thacher’s and Perara’s were in Boston and the Cape. Thacher Island was from my relatives ship wreck. I learned a lot from your reply. I too seek the truth. Small world huh?
Well written and powerful as usual! But I do hope you'll spill some ink (or illuminate some pixels?) regarding how tied to slavery and its economy the entire North, and indeed the whole of the United States, so thoroughly was.
My dad's family's story on this continent begins in Boston in 1652, when unwilling Scots on the wrong side of Oliver Cromwell were exiled here. I live just a few kilometers (#GoMetric) from where their ship, the John & Sarah, docked that year after a trecherous winter crossing of the Atlantic. My mother's history in Boston begins with her folks starting in the 1920s (she passed of Covid back in May at the age of 86 by the way - I'm just 44 myself, she had me late). Her dad, my grandfather, had a stint co-running the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital (now Brigham & Women's) back when it was a small outfit just finding its sea legs after he graduated Harvard Med School.
And it was my mother's brother, a well-connected jazz artist who played and produced records until he passed about 8 years ago now, has childhood memories of very old Civil War soldiers marching in the streets of Boston on July 4th (he actually played his way through the Army years later) and he always said the Civil War was America's "long shadow," a rift that we've never truly recovered from.
Let's take Faneuil Hall, for example, dubbed the "Cradle of Liberty" since the American Revolution -- it was absolutely financed with money from Peter Faneuil's slave trading business. More and more are we (re)discovering these truths. I want to be honest with you, Professor - sometimes, not all the time, but sometimes I find some (not all) aspects of your narrative concerning these United States of America a little too tidy. A little too attached to this narrative habit we've had in Boston for quite some time - that we've been the enlightened home of abolitionists, and the South has been source of racist rot in our country.
One of my ancestors was legal witness in the 17th century to one of the, shall we say, "shady real estate deals" that was vehicle for the colonization of this continent, the violent cultural and physical genocide our nation is entirely predicated on.
I'd really appreciate it if you chose to delve a little more unflinchingly into America - the full story. For example, we all should learn the horrible history of Thanksgiving. Abraham Lincoln, whom you venerate reasonably on some counts, proclaimed a day of Thanksgiving in 1863, right? And the federal government declared the last Thursday in November as the legal Thanksgiving holiday in 1898.
However, the meaning of Thanksgiving is whitewashed with the happy feasting Pilgrims & Indians story. And yes, that did happen. Once. In 1614 when a band of English explorers sailed home to England with a ship full of Patuxet Indians bound for slavery. (As you know, they left behind smallpox which almost entirely wiped out those who'd escaped.) By the time the Pilgrims got to Mass Bay, they found only one living Patuxet Indian, a man named Squanto who'd survived slavery in England and knew English. He taught them to grow corn and fish and negotiated a peace treaty between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Nation. At the end of their first year, the Pilgrims held a great feast honoring Squanto and the Wampanoags.
Hurrah.
BUT, as word spread in England about this new world paradise, religious zealots (you guessed it, the Puritans) began arriving by the boatload (no, they were not all fleeing religious persecution - they actually had a great deal of religious freedom - most were pursuing an economic opportunity). In any event, finding no fences around the land, they considered it to be public domain. Joined by other British settlers (whom my highland ancestors would later fight in the Battles of Dunbar and Worcester), they seized land, capturing strong young Natives for slaves and killing the rest.
The Pequot Nation, however, hadn't agreed to this peace treaty that Squanto negotiated and dared to fight back.
The Pequot War was one of the bloodiest Indian wars ever fought. In 1637 near today's Groton CT, over 700 men, women and kids of the Pequot Tribe were having an annual "Green Corn Festival." In the predawn hours the slumbering tribe members were surrounded by English and Dutch mercenaries who ordered them to come outside. Those who came out were shot or clubbed to death while the terrified women and children who huddled inside the longhouse were then literally burned alive inside (yup, pretty horrid - if any tried to come out, they were of course shot).
The NEXT day, Mass Bay Colony governor John Winthrop declared “A Day Of Thanksgiving” because 700 unarmed men, women and children had been murdered. Elated by the “victory” God granted them, the "brave" colonists attacked village after village. Women and children over 14 were sold into slavery while the rest were murdered. Boats loaded with as many as 500 slaves regularly left New England ports.
Following an especially successful raid against the Pequot in what is now Stamford CT, the churches announced a 2nd day of Thanksgiving to celebrate victory over the heathen savages. During the feasting, the hacked-off heads of Natives were kicked through the streets like soccer balls. Even the friendly Wampanoag did not escape the madness. Their chief, Metacom (son of the original welcoming Massasoit, whose statue you can find in Plymouth) was beheaded, and his head impaled on a pole in Plymouth, Massachusetts where it remained on display for ~25 years after King Phillip's War (which was arguably this continent's first battle for independence, or cultural survival, however you look at it).
Anyway, the killings became more and more frenzied, with days of thanksgiving feasts being held after each successful massacre. Eventually we get to George Washington himself, who finally suggested that only one day of Thanksgiving per year be set aside instead of celebrating each and every massacre. Later still, our beloved Abraham Lincoln decreed Thanksgiving Day to be a legal national holiday during the Civil War (on the same day he ordered troops to march against the starving Sioux in Minnesota).
So, professor Richardson, that version of the story doesn’t have quite the same fuzzy feelings associated with it as the one where the Indians and Pilgrims are all sitting down together at a big feast, and I've been kind of hoping you'd write more about the things we need to unflinchingly reckon with as a nation. I think you'd agree we need to look at history square in the face, so I truly hope you continue to work in service of the truth of our mutually conjoined stories.
Sincerely from Somerville (once Charlestown, which was later annexed anyway and is now Boston),
Michael Monroe
P.S. Connected with James Monroe, yes - I actually share his birthday. By the way, he owned enslaved people. None of us are of noble blood, and I really think we, as white people, need to talk about it A LOT more.
Michael Monroe, thank you for your reminding detail of the horrible history of European assault of the Native Americans and appropriation of the land in what is now New England.
For anyone interested in further reading of a history book that reads like a novel:
Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War (2006) by Nathaniel Philbrick.
Dr. Richardson has mentioned her study of the Puritans and Native American history. My interpretation is that her Letter tonight was to take pride in connecting dots of her home state's contributors to American democracy, and not to depict the history of Maine in a "warm and fuzzy" whitewashed way.
As to your comment about Lincoln's declaration of Thanksgiving as a national holiday, Dr. Richardson expounded upon this in her Letter of Nov. 25, 2020, that Lincoln was not referencing the myth of the Pilgrims, but in Dr. Richardson's words, established the holiday in the context of the Civil War "to celebrate the survival of our democratic government."
Another, from the incomparable Sarah Vowell, is The Wordy Shipmen. One of my favorites of her books.
Sorry: The Wordy Shipmates is the correct title
"Shipmen" seems more appropriate, given Puritan restrictions on women and the fates of Anne Hutchinson and Mary Dyer.
I’ll never forget running across Mary Dyer‘s statue up by the state house. That story is indelibly printed in me.
Hello, Roland! I was wondering where you were. Glad to see you as well as lol the other familiar names here. You all keep me going as I consider the possibility that we’ve all been accidentally assigned to an insane asylum.
HCR provided the carrot, here's the stick.
Both are precious, and we should be grateful for them.
Your last sentence is very important.
At the same time, EVERYONE needs to talk about both aspects, the shadow and the light.
Sounds like a good start for your own history blog.
Thank you, that's high praise! I personally find Heather's writing voice just so amazing though, don't you? She's just got this je ne sais quoi that I adore - haven't found anything out there quite like it.
Well informed history blogs can coexist.
Shocking to read! Hard to internalize. Stomach turning to contemplate.
You could be equally shocked by a true history of any area of this country. If interested, check out what Cortez did to Pueblo Indians in the southwest — etc., etc., etc.
Yes indeed.
It was a different world . Christian people believed God was in the sky looking down on them and that their prayers would reach God if the church steeple was tall enough. Be glad we survived until now and for the science we have.
And I wonder if perhaps you might be hired by a great university to teach history where you could help educate future voters - would the school board of directors approve of your selection and let you teach what you have written here? I have recently learned about racism in places where I never suspected it existed. It’s deplorable and, for me, unforgivable. Knowing makes me responsible, but I haven’t yet learned how to effectively change humanity. How do we learn that? Who teaches that?
Seems to me Christian numbers are decreasing, but their fervor might be increasing?
It depends on how one defines Christians, by word or by deed. Jesus was a Jew who taught certain values, upon which Western civil law is based. Fervor directed in a civil way is not destructive. Irrational fervor can become a frenzied killing spree. I seem always to come back to human fear of death, or even of being ignored, and our need for validation, everyones need to justify their existence. Every time I bring up over-population, the human need to procreate overwhelms rational thought, but it seems to me that our biggest dilemma is a fight for a place in the world, not heaven.
Yup, irrational fervor
But wait, I was taught that our laws were based on the Greeks and Romans, with a bit of help from the original people's covenants, the very ones the "pilgrims" massacred. I'm embarrassed to say that I can't remember the exact tribe at this moment, even though it was mentioned.
I think the whole "we owe our nation's laws (ie values) to Christianity" is a dangerous simplification.
Many of our greatest founding fathers rejected the Judeo-Christian-Muslim tradition in favor of agnosticism or deism, largely because of the history of war and oppression associated with Christianity in their own motherland.
Yes it’s an everyday fight.
But they believed that God only shined on them and not the other...a common problem to this day
Their fate is outlined in the Book of Job, but a lot of them don’t read the Old Testament and don’t have the cultural history of it to understand what they’re reading. They remind me of Renaissance painters who painted biblical characters costumed in 15th century Florentine clothing.
Severe problem
Some did. Cultural relativity is often used as an excuse for overlooking something uncomfortable: Not all people at the time bought into that story. There were arguments and schisms among congregations over the treatment of indigenous peoples. There was the interesting tendency of white settlers to leave and go to live with native people- as one of them. Towns of both sometimes existed side by side or intermixed. Things were much, much more complex than even our "enlightened" revisions recognize. The world was not so different then as we think.
But isn't that exactly what the White "Christian" Nationalists being weaponized by the Oligarchy are still saying now, in 2024? They are not focused on the height of the steeple, but on the dome of Congress and the White House porch. (they have already completed a judicial coup, thus proving their Divine Destiny.)
Whoa, a difficult read. Thank you for that. The immensity of man’s inhumanity to man, (and women, children and animals), can be quite overwhelming when the unvarnished truth of the past, and in some parts of the world, the present, is revealed. Is the collective conscienceless of humanity inching towards the light? I hope so. But the shadows of the past are very long but if the truth is viewed with clear eyes and discernment perhaps it can spark a new vision for the future. To save what progress has been made so far in the universal pursuit of life, liberty and happiness for all, constant vigilance is necessary. We are nowhere near the promised land yet.
No time left to redeem "man's" bad record of inhumanity to others. Prez 45 stands as a monument to the waste of space that human beings can be on earth. A whole lot of "good" people can be trashed by one evil soul. This is not the first rodeo......and there seems to be no improvement, so I'm not sad about earth finishing us off. Too sorry there will be no survival of any to proclaim the worst of humankind as a warning to any future human beings. Also sorry that the best of humankind will be without memorial on this hunk of rock circling the sky.
I would agree, but I have children.
And remember, Moses was denied entry to the promisedland
It’s a tough question about how much grotesque violence we want to focus on from one period of American history to another. I disagree that HCR’s version of history is too tidy. In any historical narrative, choices have to be made about what points are being made. Of course the north was tied economically with the south’s slave profits. And there were people living in the north who were or had been slave traders. It’s a given since we were all tied together before the civil war. What stands out to me is how early the struggle began to keep slavery legal. Another astounding force is the obstruction that remained in effect to the human rights of freed slaves. And we’re still reckoning with this evil.
It *is* a tough question, isn't it. I had an uncommon 6th grade teacher in the 80s who spent the whole year focusing on the Civil War as the main theme while we checked off boxes in other areas as well. She didn't mince words - we learned the (truly) gorey details of the Nat Turner Rebellion, how horrid the seige of Vicksburg truly was, what enslaved people really went through - all kinds of stuff. We were 12, but we could handle it. I think we underestimate the capacity of the moral brain of pre-teens, and I find myself looking to Germany's practices in terms of education and reckoning with the past. We've never really had the same approach here in the US, and perhaps we should.
I’m not up on Germany’s approach but as to the gorey part of war I think the use of films like Lincoln which had scenes of the amputations and discarded body parts can get those difficult parts across so the teacher can focus on the other important parts like the whys and the how did it come to this. I think many teens can deal with sordid stuff but why dwell on it when the other ideas like economics and moral issues plant seeds of questioning and understanding.
Germany's approach to reckoning with its past would be Another great post for you to write. I have often wondered about it, and re Japan as well. What a perfect subject for our times.
Thank you for your well written and illuminating account of the 'Thanksgiving' history. HCR did write about this over the past Thanksgiving, not in such detail, but she did clarify the contrast between the 'Pilgrims and Indians' mythology many of us grew up with and the very different holiday's significance when instituted by Lincoln and, in fact, different states at different times.
True, that was a hot take that I appreciated as well.
Thank you Michael! I never knew the enormity of THIS! The way you tell it is Explosive. Very sad, but very True!!!
Wish I learned this in Grammar School. Could have gotten me into a Civic and History minded persona earlier!!!!
Thank you again for This History Lesson🤔😟😊
Thank you, Michael. To adapt your own phrase, MA has been the home of more enlightened abolitionists than the South, and the South has been source of more racist rot than other parts of the country. Your own account of Thanksgiving verges on mythmaking itself.
Um, that's not actually "my" account? It's all over extant manuscripts of the day, not hard to look it all up, there are mountains of historical data. But on average, probably you're right re: north vs. south. That being said, Boston's INCREDIBLY racist. A lot of People of Color come here and are horrified because the company line, so to speak, is that we're this place that "got over all that." Alas, as we're all learning, we have a lot of work to do.
Sorry, I should have specified the first Thanksgiving. The account of the later development of the holiday is fine, but on the first, it's the conventional mythologized story. Having numerous accounts does not guarantee accuracy; in fact, errors have long been replicated until recent decades Indians turned up and were served, but not invited; venison was the main fare, not turkey; and harmony between New Eng Indians and the English was fleeting despite some exceptions like Squanto (Tisquantum; he's not even known by his real name, and died in 1622), Massasoit, and the praying towns of eastern MA. Americans have been led to accept a sanitized history flattering to Euro Amer sensibilities.
A Cave, The Pequot War
F Jennings, The Invasion of America
K Kupperman, Indians & English
J Loewen, Lies Across America
____, Lies my Teacher told Me
N Salisbury, Manitou and Providence
____, "Squanto," in Struggle & Survival in Early Amer
Y Kawashima, Igniting King Philip's War
It is a gift to have our knowledge expand as you and Michael exchange information and provide sources. Thank you.
The name Fern has a deep meaning for me now after I watched Frances McDormand play the lead character Fern in Nomadland yesterday. It’s quite a film. Everyone should see it. It was directed by a Chinese woman who has been nominated as best director for this year’s oscars. It’s about many things but mostly about one woman’s grief.
Thank you, Liz. It took me years to accept the name. I was Bonnie at summer camp. On alert to being teased, because Steve Allen, a man of many talents, and the first host of The Tonight Show, often asked male guests, 'How's your fern'? I escaped ridicule and grew up to own the name, perhaps, because I love plants, ferns included.
Let’s just say it’s a timely name— I love plants and ferns too. Frances McDormand I think chose the name— I’d call it a no nonsense name.
'No nonsense' is apt in my case, too, Liz.
Me too.
Thanks Fern. Michael and I actually have a minor dispute on 1st Thanksgiving going today, but I look forward to more from him. Michael, you are a skilled phrasemaker. Write on.
Yup. My mother was raised in Braintree and shared your opinion. I remind my self that the last time a schoolbus was bombed was in Southie.
After this pandemic has been blotted out, I’m thinking Thanksgiving will have a deeper meaning than ever.
When I taught high school social studies, I was often torn about how much "reality" to include. To what extent does one want to jade a 15-16 year old just as he/she is entering the years of dawning awareness and budding idealism? Like Dr. R's letter today, I tried to connect dots but in ways that would not leave them in utter despair.
My comment above:
"It *is* a tough question, isn't it. I had an uncommon 6th grade teacher in the 80s who spent the whole year focusing on the Civil War as the main theme while we checked off boxes in other areas as well. She didn't mince words - we learned the (truly) gorey details of the Nat Turner Rebellion, how horrid the seige of Vicksburg truly was, what enslaved people really went through - all kinds of stuff. We were 12, but we could handle it. I think we underestimate the capacity of the moral brain of pre-teens, and I find myself looking to Germany's practices in terms of education and reckoning with the past. We've never really had the same approach here in the US, and perhaps we should."
Oh yes, I agree. My students were able to absorb a lot and, actually, kids have a very sensitive crap detector that enables them to quickly recognize when they are being patronized. They are also entering the higher stages of moral development. Nonetheless, history contains a disturbing and largely uninterrupted thread of cruelty and viciousness that I, admittedly, softened.
When I look back on myself as a high school student, I think my adult life and understandings, even voting, would have been better served by being taught the truth of our American ways. But it is helpful to hear from the teachers about why they may have done what they did.
Exactly, Susan. I was certified to teach high school history and lessons have to be balanced.
Michael Monroe, I always appreciate learning more about our terrible treatment of Native Americans, African Americans, and Asians throughout our history. However, your characterization of Dr. Richardson "whitewashing" history is wrong. If you read her daily for the past 15 or so months she's been sharing daily letters, I believe you'll sing a different tune.
Amen from the "other" Annie!
In order to finish my long struggle with earning a bachelor's degree in biology, I was required to take a Freshman history class. It was Freshman only enrollment, so I had to beg and plead my way into class. The professor clearly had taught this class too often, but he was a great storyteller in his way and a wealth of information. I never became a biologist but I did get hooked on history. My favorite history books are the older ones - they often are much more upfront and detailed about the truly horrid history of this country, including the intricate embedded national economics of slavery. And yet we persist in striving toward our highest ideals. I'm reading a book right now, published in 1939, that notes how much of the "old money" in New England was first acquired via the slave trade. As I'm sure Dr. Richardson knows, slaves were sold in Portsmouth NH, just across the border from Maine. History is very complicated and without a doubt one of the most important subjects for students of all ages.
Michael, It felt as I read your comment as though you have carrying in your mind the violent conquests this country has committed to arrive at its power, wealth, might, mythology and 'exceptionalism'. While subscribers here cherish the ideals of democracy, some of us are not proponents of nationalism or captive of the false narratives and omissions concerning the history of the United States of America. I don't know that HCR is a captive of that either. Please continue to share your understanding of this country. I would like to know what you think with regard to the condition of the country now.
Michael Moore. (I'm reading your comment on April 10,2022). Thank you for this extraordinary history! I was bullied in grade school by my first history teacher, a "man", and thus turned off to history for the next 80 years. There is a lot to learn, catch up with. So hopefully people like Dr. Richardson, yourself, and other researchers of history can begin to expand/expose the hidden truths of our earliest months/years, up through and including our current history-making calamities. I'm unlikely to live long enough to witness any significant restitutions, but at least the beginnings are apparent.
Thank you. I agree that “The Lies My Teacher Told Me” was truly an education for me. What I learned was all lies. Oh and btw our dad’s may well have been in med school together. My family are also Bostonians. My mom grew up on Concord Ave in Cambridge. My dad went to Milton Academy and then ended up in Boston, although his family had roots in Boston also. We also had a large family who lived in Yarmouth Port on the Cape.
Thacher’s and Perara’s were in Boston and the Cape. Thacher Island was from my relatives ship wreck. I learned a lot from your reply. I too seek the truth. Small world huh?
Sarah Thacher
Are you related to the Lexington Monroes?
Yup. If I had my way, the Munro Tavern would turn back into a sweet bar & Inn! ;)
My grandmother’s brother wrote the Genealogy of the Lexington Munroes. You can find me at rtdavisartist@gmail.com.