Back when I first started grad school, I learned about John Wesley Powell. His career was both inspirational and tragic. And Powell’s career was also an interesting encapsulation of the history of the United States after the Civil War. John Wesley Powell was an explorer, a scientist, and, in some ways, a visionary. You’ve probably […]
Category: United States History
The John Wesley Powell Map – A Real West That Could’ve Been?
Take a look at the following map of the American West. It is known as the John Wesley Powell map. Study it for a moment. The title is “Arid Region of the United States, Showing Drainage Districts.” A bland name, perhaps, but straightforward. The map’s author is one of the more important scientists in American […]
What Caused the Salem Witch Trials – What Was Really to Blame?
In my last post (read it with this link) I described the events of what happened in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692. Today, I’ll move on to what caused the Salem Witch Trials. Trials such as those in Salem are not common in American history. Perhaps the closest example from later American history would be in […]
The Salem Witch Trials – True Magic or True Madness?
With Halloween approaching, I feel it’s a good time for a discussion of the 1692 Salem Witch Trials. It’s one of those events that seems rather anomalous in American history. Witch trials were relatively common in Europe starting in the later Middle Ages. To my knowledge, however, this is the only major example of them […]
What Made Roberto Clemente’s Death Such An Awful Tragedy?
If you are a baseball fan, you know the name Roberto Clemente. If you aren’t, you still need to know his story and why it matters. His life was uplifting to many, yet had a tragic end. Furthermore, the story of Roberto Clemente’s death, and life, reveals much about America during the middle of the […]
The Ellenton Riot – One More Bloody Massacre in American History
The Ellenton Riot began about a month after the Hamburg Massacre, on September 16 of 1876. Like the Hamburg Massacre, it was in South Carolina and involved angry, armed, racist whites massacring African Americans. The main difference seems to be that in the Ellenton Riot, the body count of dead African Americans was much greater. […]