Utah’s state constitution bans slavery — mostly

Posted on January 6, 2019 by Eireann

So it turns out Utah’s constitution still allows for slavery, “Except as a punishment for a crime.” This legal loophole was explored in great depth in the excellent Douglas Blackmon book, Slavery By Another Name. (The book was the basis of a PBS documentary, too.) A hundred and fifty plus years after the war ended, it’s amazing to note how slavery’s tendrils are still wound around American laws.

After the Civil War, former slave states leapt to take advantage of the exception carved out by the 13th Amendment, the ACLU of Colorado explained last year in its case for amending the state constitution. African Americans were imprisoned and forced to labor in convict leasing programs that pumped money into the state coffers; more than 70 percent of Alabama’s revenue came from the practice in 1898, the ACLU reported.

Source: Utah’s state constitution bans slavery — mostly. And Rep. Sandra Hollins says mostly isn’t good enough. – The Salt Lake Tribune

The Union’s Mad Scientist

Posted on January 4, 2019 by Eireann

I knew about Thaddeus Lowe, chief of the Union Army’s Balloon Corps, but clearly I’ve never read about him in-depth, as most of these facts were new to me. Sounds like I have some entertaining research ahead of me!

There was a definite need for air superiority, and using hot air balloons to get a height advantage gave Northern scouts an edge. The Balloon Corps actually played a valuable role in yielding Union success at Antietam, Yorktown, and the various battles along the Potomac River.

The balloons themselves weren’t bizarre. The Chief Aeronaut and Commander of the Union Army Balloon Corps, Professor Thaddeus S.C. Lowe, on the other hand… was basically a cartoon mad scientist who somehow wound up in the service o

Source: Why the commander of the Army’s Balloon Corps was just as crazy as you’d expect – We Are The Mighty

Strange Blighted Land

Posted on December 14, 2016 by Eireann

Gregory Coco, author of A Strange and Blighted Land, speaks on this C-Span archive video about the aftermath of the battle of Gettysburg. The book is not an easy read – it’s along the lines of Mary Roach’s Stiff – deeply disturbing if you’re a sensitive person, but fascinating if you’re at all intrigued by the biology and physiology of death.

Source: Strange Blighted Land Gettysburg Aftermath Battle | Video | C-SPAN.org

Sherman’s Voice

Posted on December 5, 2016 by Eireann

I noticed a little something that now has me obsessed. A passing mention in the New York Times from 1888 that mentions a party at which William Tecumseh Sherman related some of his war memories to Thomas Edison, specifically, into Edison’s recording gramophone. No mention anywhere on the web of this recording being recovered or available, though. Historians and antiquarians of the world, please keep an eye (or ear) out for an actual recording of Sherman’s voice! (Until it’s found, he’ll still sound like Arthur Miller in my head.)

There were strange sounds and sights in the unique headquarters of the Electric Club, in East Twenty-second-street, last night. Thomas A. Edison was there with a dozen of his perfected phonographs, and the compact little machines entertained a distinguished company of invited guests with oratorical eloquence and harmonious music. Gen. W. T. Sherman related war reminiscences, which were faithfully recorded and reproduced…

Source: Remembering the Phonograph

Fake news almost destroyed Abraham Lincoln

Posted on December 2, 2016 by Eireann

From the “What goes around, comes around” files, this reminder that the morass of fake news in which we currently swim is not a new phenomenon.

Abraham Lincoln was more than just a foe of slavery. He was also a mixed-race eugenicist, believing that the intermarriage of blacks and whites would yield an American super-race.

Or at least, that’s what newspapers in 1864 would have had you believe. The charge isn’t true. But this miscegenation hoax still “damn near sank Lincoln that year,” says Heather Cox Richardson, history professor at Boston College.

Source: Fake news almost destroyed Abraham Lincoln — Quartz

Abraham Lincoln’s Original Thanksgiving Proclamation

Posted on November 28, 2016 by Eireann

I was questioning my American brother in law – who spent this weekend overindulging and regretting between the moments of gratitude – why the US holiday happens on a Thursday. Little did I realise that it was actually the decision of Honest Abe back in 1863. I had never seen the full text of the Thanksgiving Proclamation before. For all of you in the States who are in need of some distraction from the dinner table, it’s worth a read!

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.

Source: Abraham Lincoln’s Original Thanksgiving Proclamation Is Perfect

Thanksgiving in the Field

Posted on November 27, 2016 by Eireann

Another Thanksgiving weekend is upon us, and as Civil War buffs it’s worth remembering that Lincoln established the nation’s official observance of the holiday. I was surprised to read, in these soldiers’ letters, that gluttony has been a traditional part of Thanksgiving since before the war, but that so too was sombre gratitude. (Funnily enough, there’s no mention of discount shopping in any of these missives home!)

In 1864, the Union League Club of New York City pleaded for donations of “cooked poultry and other proper meats” as well as “mince pies, sausages, and fruits” for men in the field. The call brought in some $57,000 in cash donations, as well as nearly 225,000 pounds of poultry and large quantities of cakes, gingerbread, pickles, apples, vegetables, and cheese. One appreciative soldier saw the deeper meaning, writing that “it isn’t the turkey, but the idea that we care for.”

Source: Civil War soldiers celebrated Thanksgiving in the field | | rapidcityjournal.com

Nat Turner’s Skull

Posted on October 18, 2016 by Eireann

Nat Turner’s skull has been found, and with it comes a series of articles about the history of human body part smuggling and preservation. It’s all a bit gruesome, but particularly when you consider this fact:

Amrita Myers, Associate Professor of History at Indiana University, said the story of Turner’s skull is peculiar because there isn’t historical precedent of African-American body parts being passed down during slavery.

“Black men and women being used in that fashion was a very common phenomenon after the (Civil) War during the rise of lynching, but I’ve been a slavery scholar for the better part of two decades, and I’ve never heard of black men and women body parts under slavery being used for sale or for relics,” Myers said.

The implication being that the keeping of black body parts as trophies has emerged since Reconstruction. Says a lot about the post-bellum society.
Source: Skull thought to be Nat Turner’s, now in possession of former Gary mayor, to be returned to descendants – Post-Tribune

Wartime Whisky Prices

Posted on August 15, 2015 by Eireann

There’s a story, of unknown veracity, that in 1863 President Lincoln asked what whiskey General Ulysses S. Grant drank. Nobody knew the brand, so Lincoln purportedly replied, “Because, if I can only find out, I will send a barrel of this wonderful whiskey to every general in the army.” The timing was particularly poor — that same year, whiskey prices were soaring.

The chart below, courtesy of the David Rumsey Collection, appeared in Henry Gannett’s 1883 Statistical Atlas of the United States, using the American Almanac and Treasury of Facts as its source. You can see prices jumping from roughly 19 cents a gallon to $1.92 a gallon in just 3 years (and soaring even higher after that)…

A jump so big, it soars off the chart. No wonder those New York City Irish were ornery to the point of rioting in 1863! Also interesting to learn that the Confederacy tried – and failed, as in so many other attempted social legislation – to enact prohibition.

via The horrific spike in whiskey prices during the Civil War, in one chart – Vox.

Great Seal of the Confederate States of America

Posted on April 11, 2015 by Eireann

A trip down the Wikipedia wormhole led me to the Great Seal of the Confederacy page. I don’t think I’ve seen this before, though given that the seal couldn’t properly be used it’s unsurprising. And here’s a neat little bit of trivia that shows how effective the blockade became: The official press never made it to the Confederacy, and can now be seen in a museum in Bermuda, which is as far as it got in shipment.

Great Seal of the Confederate States of America – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

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