American History | Grandma's Ramblings

To celebrate our 40th anniversary my husband and I spent a few days in Mackinaw City. The city is located at the tip of the mitten in Michigan at the foot of the Mackinac Bridge where Lake Michigan and Lake Huron meet. It is the stepping-off place for Mackinac Island and the Upper Peninsula.

One of the main attractions for us was Fort Michilimackinac. Built by the French in 1715, it became the great fur trade center for the Northwest. It remained under French control until the British took control of the area after the French and Indian War. Deciding the wooden fort would be too difficult to protect, the British moved the Fort to Mackinaw Island in 1781 where they built a limestone fort. Upon the end of the Revolutionary War, the area was to be turned over to the United States. However, Britain held on to the fort until 1796.

This area was home to a Native American settlement long before Europeans discovered it. The Anishinaabe (Ojibwa) Indian tribes were some of the first known inhabitants. They considered Mackinac Island to be the sacred home of the Gitche Manitou, or the “Great Spirit,” According to legend, Mackinac Island was created by the Great Hare, Michabou and was the first land to appear after the recession of the Great Flood. The island was a gathering place for the local tribes where their offerings were made to Gitche Manitou and was where tribal chiefs were buried. Some of these graves are over a thousand years old.

The Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians and Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians have worked with Mackinac State Historic Parks to repatriate ancestral human remains from Mackinac Island and Mackinaw City. Today there is a marker recognizing the burials on the island.

Today they have recreated at Mackinaw City the wooden Fort based on pictures and articles from earliest settlers.

There was clearly a difference between the lodging for the officers and the enlisted men.

Bedroom of the commander of the fort
Bedrooms for the enlisted men

In each room there were three bunk beds with a table and benches for eating their meals. Each bunk bed held two men. Their mattress was stuffed with hay or straw. The men shared a pillow, but each had their own blanket. I can’t imagine sleep was very comfortable.

While we were there, we watched volunteers working to uncover row houses where local military people lived. The Mackinac Island State Park Commission contracted with Michigan State University to carry out a season of excavation at Michilimackinac in the summer of 1959. This project has continued every summer since then. By 1969 a full-time archaeologist was hired.

They told us they have found fishhooks, pottery, and other artifacts dating back to around AD 900. Interesting food remains, especially animal bones, are the most common item found. In comparing the time of the French occupation with that of the British, they found two different diets. The French married more often with the local Indians and shared their diet of local deer, waterfowl and berries. The British remain more separate from the Indians and tied to maintain their traditional diet as best they could. They raised farm animals and also imported salted meat.

Many religious artifacts include a brass medallion of Saint Ignatius, founder of the Jesuits. Jesuits were an important part of the community under French control. They have found buttons, shoes and even a champagne bottle. We did not stay long to watch the excavation as it was so hot with no shade around.

Our last stop in the fort was the church. The church was clearly from the Catholic French occupation as we saw a priest and a confessional. The altar area was beautiful.

As a history nut, I was fascinated by standing on a spot where so much history has taken place. First, the Native Americans, then the French, the English and finally the United States. I imagined the sounds of the various languages spoken here, the different religious beliefs and practices that took place here. It would have been great to have a time machine and go back for just a moment in time. Just a moment as I certainly would not want to live in a time without running water, air conditioning, and all the things we take for granted now in 2024.

Tomorrow, we celebrate the fourth of July – Independence Day, we call it. We love to quote our Declaration of Independence which declares “all men are equaled equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

I am thankful to be born in America. Having experienced life in a different country, I am grateful for the freedoms, the comforts, the blessings I enjoy as a citizen of this great land.

However, we must admit that this declaration we love was a little hypocritical. First all men were not given the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It is hard to know for certain how many slaves were in the USA in 1776, but figures range from 500,000 to close to a million. Native Americans who had called this land home long before the Pilgrims arrived were also not granted these unalienable rights. Finally women were completely left out of the equation. This left only white men. However, many of them were initially not given all the rights of the founding fathers. At first, only men who owed property were allowed to vote.

For women the battle for the right to vote began in earnest in 1848. On July 11, 1848 five women met in Jane Hunt’s home in Waterloo, New York. The youngest member of that meeting was Elizabeth Cady Stanton. She convinced the women to call a “Women’s Rights Convention” to meet at the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Seneca Falls, New York. A few days later Stanton met with some friends to draft a document for the convention to consider. The mahogany table on which this document was written is now in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C.

The women adopted Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence to define the program of feminism for the rest of the nineteenth century.

“When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one portion of the family of man to assume among the people of the earth a position different from that which they have hitherto occupied, but one to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes that impel them to such a course.

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights governments are instituted, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of those who suffer from it to refuse allegiance to it, and to insist upon the institution of a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to affect their safety and happiness….But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their duty to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of the women under this government, and such is now the necessity which constrains them to demand the equal station to which they are entitled. The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman, having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over her. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

They then listed facts that they felt hindered women from the rights granted to men. Here are only a few.

He has never permitted her to exercise her inalienable right to the elective franchise.
He has compelled her to submit to laws, in the formation of which she had no voice.
He has made her, if married, in the eye of the law, civilly dead. He has taken from her all right in property. even to the wages she earns.
He has so framed the laws of divorce, as to what shall be the proper causes, and in case of separation, to whom the guardianship of the children shall be given, as to be wholly regardless of the happiness of women, the law, in all cases, going upon a false supposition of the supremacy of man, and giving all power into his hands.
He has monopolized nearly all the profitable employments, and from those she is permitted to follow, she receives but a scanty remuneration. He closes against her all the avenues to wealth and distinction which he considers most honorable to himself. As a teacher of theology, medicine, or law, she is not known.
He has denied her the facilities for obtaining a thorough education, all colleges being closed against her.
He allows her in Church, as well as State, but a subordinate position, claiming Apostolic authority for her exclusion from the ministry, and, with some exceptions, from any public participation in the affairs of the Church.
He has created a false public sentiment by giving to the world a different code of morals for men and women, by which moral delinquencies which exclude women from society, are not only tolerated, but deemed of little account in man.
He has usurped the prerogative of Jehovah himself, claiming it as his right to assign for her a sphere of action, when that belongs to her conscience and to her God.
He has endeavored, in every way that he could, to destroy her confidence in her own powers, to lessen her self-respect and to make her willing to lead a dependent and abject life.

(You can read the entire declaration as well as resolutions they made at https://www.let.rug.nl/usa/documents/1826-1850/the-seneca-falls-declaration-1848.php)

On July 19 about 300 people showed up for the convention. When it was seen that some men had also showed up the women updated their rules and agreed to let the men attend. One of the leaders, Lucretia Mott, turned the leadership for the meeting over to her husband giving way to the tradition that women could not lead a meeting where men were present. Stanton’s husband was dismayed when he realized his wife was going to press the issue for women’s right to vote and left the meeting. The black abolitionist, Frederick Douglas, attended and spoke very strongly for the right of women to vote.

After two days of meetings, the declaration with its supporting resolutions was passed. One hundred people – 68 women and 32 men – signed the declaration. When many of the public was outraged over the declaration, some came back and crossed out their name. Charlotte Woodward drove over forty miles with her family for the meeting. She remained strongly supportive of the declaration. The year 1920 was the first presidential election in which the 19th Amendment had passed giving women the right to vote. Charlotte was the only one of the signers of the declaration to still be alive to cast her ballot.

This weekend I attended a church conference and one speaker’s message really resonated with me. He asked us what we were preoccupied with.

Preoccupied – (of a matter or subject) dominate or engross the mind of (someone) to the exclusion of other thoughts.

Reflecting on that thought I realize there are a few things that do dominate my mind. Blogging is one of them. Often, I read or see something, and I immediately think “that would make a good post.” I hear a favorite song and I think “I want to share that on my blog.” Reading posts from some of my favorite writers on WordPress I then spend time thinking about what they have posted.

American history interests me. My library is full of books about the Revolution Period and our founding fathers. There are volumes on the Civil War and the Reconstruction Period that followed. My eyes were really opened when I began reading of the Reconstruction Period and the Jim Crow that followed when politicians gave up the gains former slaves were beginning to make. Gave them up for political reasons. Watching our current political and economic events I am fascinated by how much is a repeat of our past history. The only difference is with 24-hour news channels and social media we are made more aware of what is happening. Right now, watching the rise of Trump and all the support/opposition reminds me of the rise of Andrew Jackson and the beginning of the two-party system in our country.

I am very preoccupied with a series of books – “The Oxford History of the United States.” This is a multivolume narrative history of the United States. It is broken down into the different periods of history of our nation. The third volume, which I am now working my way through, is 855 pages of detailed history of the period 1815-1848.

But, enough of that.

What spoke to me this weekend was the speaker’s question: “As a Christian what should I be preoccupied with?” The question that follows that is: “What was Jesus preoccupied with?”

The writer of the Gospel of Luke tells us, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

We were challenged to take a close look at our own life. Just how much time and effort were we spending to share the love of Jesus with our family, our community, our nation. How much of our Savior and His concern for others occupy our mind.

Confession: As I reflect on how I spend my days I realize I fall short of being preoccupied with thoughts of God and of His love for others.

It is my prayer today that I will begin to be more preoccupied with Jesus than with blogging or study of history.

Matthew 22:37 – And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”

2 Peter 3:18 – But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity.

Matthew 28:19 – Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Romans 12:2 – Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.

Matthew 16:24 – Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.

In today’s controversy about teaching black history, I strongly believe we need to know our stories. We need to understand that we all do not come from the same background, do not share the same experiences.

It is only as we are willing to learn from one another that our country can be what it originally promised – “all men (and women) are created equal.”

Sharing a post from a few years ago that addresses the idea that we should acknowledge and celebrate our differences rather than try to ignore them or deny them.

I Refuse to Be Color Blind

I posted this before – but think it is good to know the history of this day. A story of this day you may not have heard in school.

Hampton Park in Charleston, South Carolina, is a beautiful place to walk or just sit and enjoy the many flowers, trees and the fountain. When we spent a few months in Charleston during the winter of 2016 we walked almost every day in the park. At 60 acres, there are plenty of walkways. Just six months out from a knee replacement surgery, I found it a great way to get some exercise to build up my physical strength, but also a wonderful place to just sit and reflect on God’s creation.

But the park is also full of history.

Originally part of a plantation owned by John Gibbes, the portion that is now Hampton Park was purchased by the South Carolina Jockey Club and a race course was built. Named the Washington Race Course, the one-mile loop is now a roadway that runs around the park. Featuring some of the best horse racing in the South, it became the social event of the year during Race Week held every February.

During the Civil War it became a camp for Union prisoners of war. At least 257 Union soldiers died at this location. Facing disease and the advance of the Union Army, Confederate guards hastily buried the dead in an unmarked mass grave. Most white residents abandoned the city and it was ironic that the first troops to enter and march up Meeting Street was the 21st U.S. Colored Infantry.

Days later, free black residents and former slaves walked to the mass grave and reburied the Union soldiers in proper graves. Erecting a marker and a small fence around the burial ground they built a memorial arch which read: “Martyrs of the Race Course.”

On May 1, 1865, black Charlestonians, many former slaves, along with white missionaries and teachers and Union soldiers staged a parade to the race course. They laid flowers on the graves, listened to speakers of both races, and picnicked on the grass.

This celebration has been called by many America’s first Memorial Day. After the war, as the cemetery suffered neglect, the soldiers’ bodies were again exhumed and buried in 1871 in South Carolina’s national cemeteries at Beaufort and Florence.

Interesting that this celebration conducted by former slaves honoring the Union soldiers who died for their freedom has been buried in history and credit for this day of remembrance goes to others.

I would never have known of this Memorial Day celebration had we not walked in that park so full of history

And there’s more history there – but that calls for another blog.

As Black History Month ends, I revisited a couple of blogs I have written about statues of blacks in the USA and did some research on other statutes in the country.

Crispus Attucks and the Boston Massacre Memorial and

Denmark Vesey – Leader of Failed Rebellion

I knew there was a statute of Harriet Tubman in New York City. This statute was dedicated in 2008 and is located on Frederick Douglass Boulevard.

However, I was surprised to find out there is not one, but two statutes of Tubman in Michigan. In researching information on these statutes, I discovered that Michigan was very much involved in the Underground Railroad.

Looking at the map of Michigan it is easy to see why this location would have been perfect for those trying to escape slavery and find freedom in Canada. Surrounded by three of the Great Lakes – Michigan, Huron and Erie, Michigan’s eastern cities are only a short distance from Canada.

The first monument is a bronze statue of not only Tubman but local conductors of the Underground Railroad, Erastus and Sarah Hussey. This statue in Battle Creek, Michigan depicts Tubman and the other two conductors leading a group of runaway slaves to safety. Created in 1993 by sculptor Ed Dwight the W. K. Kellogg Foundation commissioned the work.

The second statue of Tubman is in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Located in Washtenaw County in Southeast Michigan there are numeous sites connected with the Underground Railroad.

Cass County in Southwest Michigan also offers many sites where the Underground Railroad was conducted by both free blacks and whites. Slaves fleeing the South passed through Cass County, then on to Battle Creek and Detroit on their way to freedom in Canada.

For my followers in Michigan if you would like to check out more information on the Underground Railway in Michigan, here is their website.

https://www.michigan.gov/mhc/michigan-history/michiganfreedomtrail

I have several asked me why I post these articles on Black History. Why do we need a month for Black history – but none for white. Perhaps this article I posted last year will help explain that.

“How can a nation founded on the homelands of dispossessed Indigenous people be the world’s most exemplary democracy?”

This is the opening question in a book I started reading this week. The book, “The Rediscovery of America”, written by Ned Blackhawk, raises some hard questions about our claim to being the “city on a hill.”

In school when I took a course “American History” I heard about our founding fathers, Washington, Adams, Jefferson. The Boston Tea Party and the midnight ride by Paul Revere created stories of American heroes. The story of America focused on Europeans and their descendants.

Slavery was given a few chapters but mostly it focused only on the Civil War. Depending on the section of the nation you were in you were taught about the war to free the slaves – or the battle for states’ rights. Little attention was given to the Indigenous people. We saw them in our western movies as half-clothed savages who loved to take the scalps of white settlers.

Most scholars believe that the Indigenous people were living in North America as long ago as 14,000 years ago (or longer – some say as much as 40,000 years ago). These native peoples spoke hundreds of languages. Far from the image we were given of small tribes living in teepees, they ranged from small family units to large scale empires with kings and large cities.

The very word “America” is a European name given to our land. We often say Columbus discovered America. As if before he came this land did not exist, he “discovered” it. Columbus, however, did not think he had found a new world. He was seeking for a new passage to Asia. He mistakenly thought he had reached the East Indies and called the native people “Indians.” This is a name Europeans gave to the Indigenous people, not the name they called themselves. Columbus returned to Spain still not realizing the land he had found was part of a separate continent. It was not until the Italian explorer, Amerigo Vespucci, recognized that this was not Asia, but a different continent, that the name America was given to this area.

Ned Blackhawk writes:

“For centuries American and the New World have been ideas that convey a sense of wonder and possibility, made manifest by discovery, a historical act in which explorers are the protagonists. They are the drama’s actors and subjects. They think and name, conquer and settle, govern and own. They are the center….just as Native Americans remain absent or appear as hostile or passive objects awaiting discovery and domination.”

It was not until 1924 that native peoples were granted U.S. citizenship. By this time the federal government had seized millions of acres of land and removed multitudes of children from their families and placed in boarding schools. At this schools they were forced to take European names and dress in European clothes.

While I (and you) cannot change the past and we are not personally responsible for our past record of slavery and treatment of the Indigenous people, we need to understand and acknowledge the past treatment of these people. We need to recognize the “head start” we have had versus the black and Indigenous people that are still playing “catch up.”

I encourage you to take a look at this book. We probably will not agree with all the author says, but it should give us cause to think and possibly reevaluate our own attitudes and actions.

We think of Alaska as American territory, but the first permanent North American settlement in Alaska by non-natives was Russia in 1784. Emperor Peter I commissioned Vitus Bering to explore the area. He led an expedition from 1725 to 1727 making a map of the northern part of the Pacific Ocean. Following his explorations, it was understood that Asia and North American were not connected by land. The area of sea that separates the two continents is named Bering Strait after Vitus Bering. Only 52 miles separates two countries.

After Bering led further expeditions into the area, Russian traders brought sea otters and beaver pelts back to Russia. This led Emperor Paul I to direct the Russian-American Co to create new settlements in the area. The name “Alaska” comes from the Russian version of an Aluet name which means “object to which the action of the sea is directed” or “Great Land.” Their colonies reached as far south as northern California. The Russians settlers, however, never reached any great number. It is estimated at its peak there were only 800 people.

Russian missionaries brought the Russian-Orthodoxy religion to the area. The first mission was established in 1794 at Kodiak Island. In 1799 the church appointed the first American Bishop. In 1848 the Cathedral of St. Michael was built.

While there are still Russian Orthodox churches in Alaska, their “golden age” came to an end when Alaska was purchased by the United States.

Russian lost in the Crimean war of 1853 to 1856 and was left financially drained. Afraid they might lose it in another war and realizing the area was sparsely populated Emperor Alexander II offered to sell Alaska int he late 1850’s.

William Seward, Secretary of State, led in the quest to buy Alaska. On March 30, 1867 the United States agreed to pay Russia $7.2 million. After consent by the Senate, President Andrew Johnson ratified the treaty on May 28. A formal ceremony took place on October 18 when the Russian flag was lowered, and the American flag was raised. Today October 18 is a state holiday. There are parades and a re-enactment of the lowering of the Russian flag and raising the American flag.

Copy of check in the amount of $7.2 million issued August 1, 1868

The treaty allowed Russian residents of Alaska the right to return to Russian within three years or remain in Alaska and become full United States citizens. The “uncivilized tribes” (the native people) were not allowed to become citizens but were to be subject to American law.

Many Americans did not agree with this purchase and called it “Seward’s Folly.” The Russian minister who negotiated with treaty was criticized and accused of taking bribes. He quit his job as diplomat and moved to Paris.

Seward died before he could be vindicated. But in 1872 gold was discovered in Alaska and this brought an influx of population leading to boom towns with thriving fishing, trapping and mining. In 1968 oil was discovered and in 1977 the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System led to an oil boom that has funded the state’s budget.

Alaska remained a U.S. military district until 1912 when it became incorporated as a U.S. Territory. During World War II Alaska became an important outpost for the military and was a strategic asset during the Cold War.

In 1949 the Alaska Statehood Committe was created and many prominent citizens, including Eleanor Roosevelt, began advocating for statehood. Republicans defeated statehood bills that were introduced because Alaska was basically a Democratic area. When Republican-based Hawaii applied for statehood, Congress approved making Alaska the 49th state and Hawaii the 50th.

As election time draws near, I often wonder what the founders of our nation would think about the people we have become.

The God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are a gift of God….Thomas Jefferson (This from a man who went through his Bible and cut out all the things he did not agree with. )
We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalianable rights; that among these are life, liberty and pursuit of happiness….Thomas Jefferson (All men – not women. And while saying all men, he continued to hold black men and women as slaves.)
Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased as the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!….Patrick Henry (How ironic. Give me liberty or give me death and talk of slavery while he owned slaves and would deny them the right to declare – give me liberty or give me death.)
I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever….Thomas Jefferson
Of all the animosities which have existed among mankind, those which are caused by a difference of sentiments in religion appear to be the most inveterate and distressing, and ought to be deprecated. I was in hopes that the enlightened and liberal policy, which has marked the present age, would at least have reconciled Christians of every denomination so far that we should never again see the religious disputes carried to such a pitch as to endanger the peace of society…..George Washington
And I have no doubt that every new example will succeed, as every past one has done, in showing that religion and Government will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together. …James Madison
We have abundant reason to rejoice that in this Land the light of truth and reason has triumphed over the power of bigotry and superstition, and that every person may here worship God according to the dictates of his own heart. In this enlightened Age and in this Land of equal liberty it is our boast, that a man’s religious tenets will not forfeit the protection of the Laws, nor deprive him of the right of attaining and holding the highest Offices that are known in the United States…..George Washington
No sooner has one party discovered or invented an amelioration of the condition of man or the order of society, than the opposite party belies it, misrepresents it, ridicules it, insults it and persecutes it….John Adams
Hence it is that democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and in general have been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths … A republic, by which I mean a government in which a scheme of representation takes place, opens a different prospect and promises the cure for which we are seeking….James Madison, Federalist Papers No. 10.
Between a balanced republic and a democracy, the difference is like that between order and chaos….John Marshall