Read – Page 11 – Before We Were White

MC5 and the Multi-Ethnic Roots of Punk Music

8 May 2024/0 Comments/in Blog /by Brian Halpin

MC5 [1967] left to right: Fred Smith, Michael Davis, Dennis Thompson, Wayne Kramer, Rob Tyner

Some people think the English invented punk rock in the mid-1970s with bands like The Sex Pistols and The Clash. Good bands. Bad history.

Others think that punk was born somewhat earlier in CBGB’s nightclub in New York, with groups like The Ramones. Maybe?

Still others find the roots of punk in American garage bands of the late 1960s, especially bands coming out of places like Detroit.

Iggy and the Stooges. MC5 (Motor City 5).

It would be easy to assume that a band like MC5 from Detroit were just another city thing – a bunch of bored, rowdy “white” kids from America’s new suburbia.

But their singer Rob Tyner (who took his stage name from Black jazz great McCoy Tyner) was of mixed indigenous ancestry.

Drummer Dennis Thompson – the only surviving member of MC5 – always cited Black jazz legend Elvin Jones as one of his main inspirations.

Co-founder Wayne Kramer (who sadly passed away just last month) was the son of first generation immigrants from Greece and Poland on his father’s side, while his mother was the daughter of French or French Métis immigrants from Canada.

Guitarist and co-founder Fred “Sonic” Smith came straight out of the hills of West Virginia, and married a woman sharing the same birth name. Patti Smith – poet, singer, songwriter, and author. No relation, by the way. Fred died relatively young of a heart attack, aged only 46.

The ripples on the water include the band Sonic Youth, who took their name from Frederick Dewey Smith‘s nickname. Fred and Patti Smith’s son Jackson Smith would marry Meg White of The White Stripes.

The reason for this wordage?

Over the course of six decades, I’ve become convinced that most major new social or musical movements came when people of different backgrounds and ethnicities chose to find their common ground.

Very few Americans (including historians of music) would realise that Southern Appalachian people like Fred Smith came from extremely complex ethnic communities which included European, African, indigenous, and likely Romani and Jewish ancestors.

Mainstream music history will record him as a “white” kid who formed a band in Detroit, Michigan, and died young.

He and his bandmates were a lot more than that.

#MC5 #punk #musichistory

I’m No Saint

8 May 2024/0 Comments/in Blog /by Brian Halpin

Croagh Patrick in County Mayo, Ireland, a place of Catholic pilgrimage where tradition holds that St. Patrick spent 40 days fasting

A “saint” who was never made a saint by the church which claims him.

Culturally he was almost certainly a Welshman. Or more specifically, he was “Romano-Welsh”, born in about 386 CE to wealthy parents who lived and prospered at the outer British fringe of the Roman Empire.

In 386 CE, Wales encompassed lands now lying in Wales, Cornwall, and Scotland.

Many scholars believe he was from a part of ancient Wales now lying in SW Scotland.

His real name will probably never be known for certain – some believe his native Welsh name was “Maewyn Succat“, but it is not impossible that his ethnic roots lay elsewhere within the Roman Empire, and his parents just happened to be living in Wales at the time of his birth.

History has remembered him as “Patrick“, from the Latin name “Patricius” – meaning “noble one”.

“Padraic” or “Padrig” to his Gaelic-speaking contemporaries.

“Paddy” to his friends <joke>

*****

At the time of Patrick‘s birth in about 386 CE, Britain had only recently been introduced to Christianity, following upon Roman Emperor Constantine’s own conversion to that faith a generation or two earlier. In Roman Britain, Christians were seen as just one religious cult among many. Patrick’s parents, and one of his grandfathers, was a follower of the multi-branched cult of Christianity – but not Patrick.

Patrick also happened to be born about three years after the armies of Rome were withdrawn from Great Britain, following over three and a half centuries of indigenous British-Roman cultural integration. Do not confuse the ancient Britons or “British” peoples with the later Germanic “English”.

Other northern European peoples who had never fallen under Roman control were not slow in spotting the now poorly defended island – raids for booty and land settlement began in earnest.

Germanic peoples from what is now Northern Germany and Denmark arrived in boats from coasts lying to the southeast of Britain.

“Picts” swept down from Caledonia in the north, and the Irish or Gaels raided from Hibernia, across the Irish Sea to the west.

It was during one such Irish raid on the west coast of Wales that Maewyn Succat was taken prisoner (according to his own account), and sold as a slave to an Irish buyer, who set him to work as a herdsman for many years – most likely somewhere in or around present-day County Antrim. Maewyn says that it was only during his six years of slavery that he began to cling to the faith of his fathers.

Maewyn eventually escaped back home to Wales, spent some time travelling, and acquired an education.

Around the 450s CE, something compelled him to return to Ireland – this time operating out of what is present-day County Mayo. His own account tells of a need to share his growing sense of religious fervour.

Patrick was not the first Christian missionary in Ireland. That distinction belongs to Palladius, who was sent in 431 CE to act as the first bishop to those Irish who had already accepted the Christian message. How these Gaels first came into contact with Christianity is unclear.

The Roman Catholic Church later claimed that their own Pope Celestine I had sent Maewyn/Patrick to Ireland as a missionary, but there is simply no documentary evidence for this claim.

“Patrick” is the only known Romano-Welsh or Romano-British Christian to have written of his own life and thoughts, and he says nothing of being sent by the Roman Church to Ireland, nor does the contemporary or near-contemporary Roman Catholic Church mention him. It would seem that Patrick was simply part of the wider Christian cult which was popular at the time.

These earliest British, Welsh, Gaelic, and Gallic Christians were “free agents”, unconnected to any formal church structures, and followers of no formal doctrine. While they might have venerated or respected individual Roman Christians, they most certainly were not “Catholics” or “Roman Catholics” in the modern sense of those terms.

Ireland is the only “pagan” nation believed to have become almost wholly Christianised without widespread bloodshed. It is worth pondering whether this was due not so much to the power of the Christian message, as to the introduction of LITERACY, which arrived with the new religion.

Irish chieftains in the NW of the island must have been impressed by the ability of these literate Christians to bypass the years of training required by the Druidic class. Being able to store ancestral memory, poetry, legal and religious tracts, and FINANCIAL ACCOUNTS on parchments, rather than within physical human memory, would have made a man like Patrick very useful indeed…

Literacy is an awesome power, and Latin literacy in particular would have allowed a relative economic backwater and fringe linguistic community to engage more fully in European trade and diplomacy via the emerging lingua franca of the European Christian church.

This extra-somatic literacy eventually eliminated much of the raison d’etre for the entire Druidic stratum/class of society – a class which had hitherto been extremely powerful – and replaced that class with a new bureaucracy of literate Christian scribes/monks. Needless to say, the Druidic class would have pushed-back against their loss of social status.

Patrick’s own “Confessio” hints at these struggles and intrigues – and this quasi-history is far more interesting than later folk tales and legends fabricated by the Catholic church concerning snake banishing and numerous other outlandish “miracles”.

Technically, Patrick isn’t even a saint! His life and works took place in a time before the rules for canonisation had even been devised and laid-down.

Whatever about technicalities, he was being venerated as the patron saint of Ireland by the 7th century, and his day was marked by sombre reflection and prayer until 19th and 20th century Irish-Americans changed gears…

#history #saintpatrick

AI With A Whiskey Chaser

7 May 2024/0 Comments/in Blog /by Brian Halpin

Widespread use of large language model AI is going to distort public education, research, and general knowledge in ways scarcely imaginable.

Most people are utterly unaware that even an “old-fashioned” Google search is subject to opaque ranking methods and keyword “auctions” which affect the search results we see.

Large language model AI is far worse. In its current iteration, it simply collects the most commonly repeated answer to any given question, by scouring vast amounts of text.

It then regurgitates this text in a convincingly crafted way which resembles a well-researched, balanced, properly considered and thoughtful expert opinion.

For those who care to double-check the sources used by AI, they will quickly discover that AI is often using “sources” which themselves often cite worthless or non-primary sources.

*****

While recently working on an article tangentially related to Jack Daniel (he of the whiskey distillery fame), I thought I would compare two main sources used by almost everyone today – ChatGPT and Wikipedia.

I simply asked for a brief biography of Jasper Newton “Jack” Daniel.

Here is the first paragraph of ChatGPT‘s offering:

“Jack Daniel, born Jasper Newton Daniel on September 5, 1846, was an American whiskey distiller and the founder of the renowned Jack Daniel’s Tennessee whiskey brand. He was born into a large family in Lynchburg, Tennessee, and orphaned at a young age. A local preacher and distiller, Dan Call, took him under his wing, teaching him the art of whiskey making.”

This is astonishing, as ChatGPT is repeating the “official” story told throughout most of the 20th century, a story we now know to be untrue.

Jack Daniel DID go to work for Dan Call, and Dan Call DID own a small distillery. But Call was a busy man between his grocers store and church work, which meant his distillery was run by slaves. The master distiller who personally taught Jack Daniel how to make Tennessee-style whiskey was a Black gentleman named Nathan Green, better-known as “Nearest Green” post-emancipation.

One of the least understood aspects of slavery – especially in a Southern Appalachian context – is the fact that compared to the situation in the Deep South, “field slaves” were relatively rare. In the eastern half of states like Kentucky and Tennessee, slaves were just as likely to be skilled laborers, craftsmen and tradespeople. Not all slaves were “owned” outright by the people for whom they worked – many were hired-out on job contracts on a short- or medium-term basis by “slave rental” agencies.

Nearest Green had been hired from such an agency, specifically due to his skills as a distiller. Whenever we hear someone repeat the received wisdom that Appalachian whiskey distilling was a distinctly “Scots-Irish” thing, it is worth remembering that the Caribbean sugar industry, with its side industry of rum production, had produced generations of enslaved people highly skilled in the art and craft of spirit distillation. Such people were much sought after, and slaveholders and people who “rented” slaves paid a premium for those with skills and experience in blacksmithing, carpentry, bricklaying, or distillery work.

Wikipedia does mention Nathan “Nearest” Green, but falls down with this tidbit – a typically dubious account of Southern Appalachian ancestry common across the internet:

“Jack was the youngest of 10 children born to his mother, Lucinda (Cook) Daniel, and father Calaway Daniel. After Lucinda’s death, his father remarried and had three more children. Calaway Daniel’s father, Joseph “Job” Daniel, had emigrated from Wales to the United States with his Scottish wife, the former Elizabeth Calaway. Jack Daniel’s ancestry included English, and Scots-Irish as well.”

If we follow up the source given for the origin of Jack Daniel’s grandfather (Wales), the source actually says no such thing. This source was an article published in 1972, quoting from a biography written by Ben E. Green in 1967, and it actually suggests that Jack Daniel’s grandfather MAY have come from England via Scotland to America. But again, this is based on rather fanciful-sounding lore passed down by the family of Lemuel “Lem” Motlow, a politician and horse breeder who inherited ownership of the Daniel distillery (Motlow’s mother was a sister of the childless Jack Daniel).

The earliest DOCUMENTED ancestor of Jack Daniel actually lived in New Bern, North Carolina during the late 1700s, and migrated into Tennessee about 20 years after the American Revolution.

The “source” for “Scots-Irish” ancestry offered on Wikipedia is a dead link which once connected to an unknown blogger’s web page.

The truth is that we have no primary documentary sources showing the pre-America origins of Jack Daniel’s family at all.

His ethnic origins fade into the mists of colonial era America, like so many others from humble backgrounds.

In fairness to Jack Daniel himself, during his own lifetime he gave full credit to the skills of Nearest Green, and never disguised his respect for the man who had helped make him rich.

AI is already “training” itself with AI-generated content, and will end up eating itself. It is of extremely limited value to those seeking a proper understanding of complex subjects and issues.

#AI #history #jackdaniel #nearestgreen

Home Is Where The Heart Is

7 May 2024/0 Comments/in Blog /by Brian Halpin

Bouquet receiving war captives

Henry Louis Bouquet was born in Switzerland in 1719.

Joining the military at the age of 17, he served the Dutch Republic and the Kingdom of Sardinia before fetching-up on the shores of North America, where he achieved the rank of Colonel during the Seven Years War (1756-1763).

This conflict could quite rightly be considered the true “World War I”, with belligerents drawn from many nations, and three continents. Most American schoolchildren are taught about this war from a strictly local perspective, and usually refer to it as the “French and Indian War”. It would be more accurate to see the “French and Indian War” as the North American theatre of a war between European empires.

What concerns those of us with Melungeon ancestry is the “hit and run” guerrilla warfare that was being waged by various Native American tribes and nations at that time. Indian hostilities were in response to British fort-building, as well as the growing deluge of settlers encroaching upon Native American lands. Those European settlers too poor to afford land in the east were the ones most likely to risk the dangers of the frontier, where many attempted to “squat” on Indian lands.

Some would pay the ultimate price for their desperate gamble, perishing during attacks and raids which ranged from Pennsylvania to the Carolinas.

What is less well-known, is the sheer numbers of European soldiers, traders, and settlers captured alive by these tribes, who carried them back to the Indian country west of the Alleghenies.

After the British victory of 1763 in the “French and Indian War”, many tribes of the Ohio country (who had been allies of the French), saw the writing on the wall. With their French allies now out of the picture, the Native Americans would need to fight in order to forestall Anglo colonial advances into tribal lands – the only other option was to flee en masse westwards. Further angered by their disdainful treatment at the hands of British officers such as Jeffrey Amherst, native leaders such as Pontiac of the Ottawa, and Guyasuta of the Seneca/Mingo gathered a confederacy to oppose Anglo colonial expansion.

The indigenous insurgency spread rapidly, and at least eight forts were taken, with another two at Detroit and the modern site of Pittsburg besieged.

Most modern historians consider this conflict (often known as Pontiac’s War) to have ended in a stalemate, but not before new standards in wartime brutality had been reached. Thousand of settlers fled their homes from Pennsylvania to Virginia. Innocent indigenous American families who had lived peacefully side-by-side with Europeans in Pennsylvania for years, far from events in the Upper Country, were massacred by ignorant American gangs – in cold blood.

Jeffrey Amherst and Colonel Bouquet shall live forever in infamy for their ruthless introduction of biological warfare into armed conflict – Amherst wrote to Colonel Bouquet on about 29 June 1763 at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, while Bouquet was preparing to lead an expedition to relieve Fort Pitt:

“Could it not be contrived to send the smallpox among the disaffected tribes of Indians? We must on this occasion use every stratagem in our power to reduce them.”

Underlings such as Simeon Ecuyer were already passing infected handkerchiefs to Delaware (Lenape) representatives during peace negotiations. Over the next decade, anywhere between 400,000 and 1,500,000 Native Americans would succumb to the disease…

In the end, a treaty was agreed, with Col. Bouquet demanding the return of all British subjects (including actual British, as well as American colonials) who had been captured by Pontiac’s confederacy during the years of conflict.

This was easier said than done – many of the captives, after eight or even ten years, had by that time been assimilated into the various tribes.

Many were married, with bi-ethnic families. Many no longer spoke English. The pleas of the indigenous peoples went unheeded, and scores of families were torn apart.

Where would such people have gone, as people now caught culturally between two worlds?

Did some choose the mountains of Appalachia? The time-frame matches very neatly indeed the earliest outsider settlement of hill and holler country.

Many of these names appear in Melungeon family trees, and many people of Southern Appalachia show clear genetic connections with living descendants of the Shawnee, Lenape, and others.

Below, I have attempted to compile a simple alphabetical muster roll of the captives “returned” to Colonel Bouquet, from various American and British sources.

I hope it will be of some interest and use to BWWW readers and listeners.

There was some work involved in preparing this list in a clear, easily readable fashion, so please include a mention of BWWW when sharing!

Note we have left name spellings as recorded at the time.

Tribes involved in conflict:

Ottawa
Ojibwa
Potawatomi
Huron
Miami
Weas
Kickapoo
Mascouten
Piankashaw
Delaware
Shawnee
Wyandot
Mingo
Seneca

Captives retrieved by Colonel Bouquet in 1764/1765

Anna Catharina
Babson, Mordicai
Bacon, Catherine
Baskin, Peggy
Beaty, James
Bell, James
Betty
Betty Black Eyes
Bird, Margaret
Bird, Molly
Bittikanety (Biddy Kennedy?)
Blankenship, Stephen
Bonnet, Henry
Boyd, Sarah
Boyd, Thomas
Bridget’s Son
Bryan, Rebeca
Burd, John
Butler, James (or Jemmy Buttler)

Campbell, James
Campbell, Mary
Carpenter, Jerry
Carpenter, Solomon
Cartmill, Molly
Cartmill, Peggy
Castle, Mary
Cawacawachi
Christina
Clandinnon, Jean [Clendenin]
Clark, Andw
Clausser, Betty
Clausser, Magdalen
Clausser, Mary
Clem
Clem, Pelty
Clem, Ludovich
Cobble, Micheal
Cochran, John
Colley, Peggy
Collins, Thomas
Conogoniony
Coon, Elizabeth & two children [Kühn]
Counsman, Elizabeth
Craven, Mary
Crooked Legs
Crow, Jane
Crow, Polly
Cuningham, Margaret

David Bighead
Davis, Willm
Davison, Agnus
Davison, Molly
Davison, Nancy
Devine, Morice
Diver, Hans
Diver, John
Donohoo, John (or John Donehoo) [Donohue]
Dorothy’s son

Ebenezer
Ewins, John

Fincher, Rachell
Finley, Ann
Fishback, Margaret [Fischbach]
Fishback, Susan (or Susannah Fishback)
Fisher, John
Flat Nose
Flaugherty, Esther
Forsyth, John
Franse. Elizabeth
Freeling, John [Frieling]
Freeling, Peggy
Fulkison, Elizabeth

Gibson, Sarah
Gilmore, Elizabeth
Gilmore, Eiizabeth, Jr.
Gilmore, Jane
Gilmore, John
Gore, Rose
Greenwood, Mary

Haig, John
Hamilton, Archd
Hamilton, Mary
Hamilton, Miriam
Hannah
Hannel, Mary
Hans
Harmantrout, Charles (or Hormontrout) [Harmantraudt]
Harmantrout, Christopher (or Hormontrout) [Harmantraudt]
Harper, Eve
Harper, Thomas
Harris, James
Heat, Catherine
Henry
Henry, Elizabeth
Hormontrout (see Harmantrout)
House, Christina (or Christiana House) [Haus]
Huntsman (see Huntzman)
Huntzman, Adam
Huntzman, Barbara (or Barbara Huntsman)
Huntzman, John (or John Huntsman)
Hutchinson, Florence
Hutchison, David
Hyerd, Leonard

Ice, Catherine
Ice, Christian
Ice. Elizabeth
Ice, Eve
Ice, John
Ice, Lewis
Ice. Thomas
Ice, William
Innis, Francis
Innis, Jenny
Irena

Jacob
James (or Jemmy)
Jean or Ketakatwitche
Johnson, David
Joseph or Pechyloothamo

Ketty
Kincade, Eleonard & two children
Kitty
Knox, Jane
Knox, Mary
Knox, Robert
Knox, Susan A
Knox, Susan, Jr.

Lansisco, Mary & child (or Mary Lanssisco & child)
Leake, Hans
Leake. William
Lengenfield, Mary Cath.
Le Roy, John Jacob
Linenger, Margareta
Linenger, Rachel
Lingerfield, Catherine (or Lengenfield)
Louaveska
Lowry, Jane
Lowry, Mary
Lowry, Susan

McCord, Mary
McCullough
Mcllroy, Elizabeth & child
Mcllroy, Mary
McQueen, Jane
Magdalen, or Pagothow
Mansel, Dorothy
Mansel, Margarite
Martin, James
Martin, Martha
Martin, William
Mekethiva, sister to Jacob
Metch, Molly (or Mitch)
Miller, Beverly
Miller, Margaret
Mitch (see Metch)
Molly
Mouse, Elizabeth
Myers, Frederick

Nalupua (sister to Molly Bird)
Neculissika
Neicheumata
Netumpsico
Nosewelamah

Palmer, John
Pampadour
Paquwesee
Peggy
Peggy (a “mulatto”)
Peter
Petro, Nicholas
Petro, Phillip
Petterson, Micheal
Pheby
Polly
Polly (not her real name)
Pouter (or Wynima)
Price, Hannah
Price, James
Price, Sarah
Punnel, Henry
Punnel, Peggy

Rachel
Red Jacket, Joseph
Rennox, Geor.
Reyneck, Peggy
Rhoads, Daniel
Rhoads, Micheal [Rhodes]
Riddle, John
Rigar, Barbara
Rigar, Dorothy
Ross, Taverner

Sally
Schlyer, Magdalen
Sea, John
Sea, Mary
Sea, Peggy
Sea, Sally
See, Catherine
See, George
See, Mary
See, Micheal
Sheaver, Ebenezer
Sheaver, John
Silkspiner, Joseph
Simon
Sims, Andrew
Sivers, Catherine
Sivers, Elizabeth
Sivers, Margarite
Slover, Elizabeth
Slover, Elizabeth, Jr.
Smeltzer, Hans Adam
Smeltzer, Jacob
Smith, Elizabeth
Smith, Hannah, & child
Snodgrass, Elizabeth
Sore Mouth
Sourbach, Hannah Maria
Sour Plumbs
Stettler, Alice
Stewart, Mary
Stintson, Elizabeth
Stroudman, Catherine (or Kitty Stroudman)
Stroudman, Uly
Studebaker, Joseph

Tamer (a mulatto)
Tanner, Christopher
Tewanima
Theecheapei
Tosher, Elizabeth

Villa, Mary

Wallace, Samuel
Walter, John
Walters, Ephraim
Wampler, Christina
Wapatenequa
Wechquessinah
Westbrook, Catherine (or Kitty Westbrook)
Wheat, Thomas
Whitehead
Wig, Tommy
Wilkins, Elizabeth
Wilkins, Mary
Williams, Catherine
Williams, David
Williams, Jeany
Williams, Mary
Wiseman, John
Wood, Experience

Yoakim, Elizabeth [Joachim]
Yokeham, George
Yokeham, Margaret
Yokim, Sally
Young, Betty
Young, William W

girl with a Sore Knee

Supplementary “List H”, captives not confirmed returned to Bouquet

Bard, Margaret & five children
Barnett, Sarrah & one child
Barnett, Vanny & five children
Bingiman, Lezy [Benjamin]
Boyles, Saley & brother
Burke, Mary & two children
Cabe, Thomas
Carpenter, Soloman
Carpmill, Margrett [Cartmill?]
Cincade, Aley & three children [Kincaid]
Cotter, John
Cowday, Daniel
Cristopher, Moly
Days, Willm
Densey, Hannah
Dutch Garrah & three children
Dutch Girl
Dutch John
Freelands, John & 3 children & wife
Folkison, Ann [Fulkerson]
Fulerton, Nely
Good, Jacob
Gould, Molly
Guthrey, John
Huff, Samuel
Jamison, Betsey
Lodick
Macrakin, Jean & her sister
Martin, John
Medley, Betsey
Medley, Wm
Miller, Nansey
Moore, Mary
Moore, Molly
Ormand, Abraham
Puzy, Robert
Potts, John
Pringer, Mary & two Children
Ramsey, Joseph
Ranock, Nansey her sister & four brothers
Robertson, Benjamin (his son)
Robertson, Betsey
Snodgrass, Betsey
Sovereign, Gower & four children
Stewart, James
Voss, Susanna

Also returned to Col. Bouquet – Thomas Smallman, Indian trader out of Pennsylvania

#beforewewerewhite #warcaptives #pontiac

A Lone Star State of Mind

6 May 2024/0 Comments/in Blog /by Brian Halpin

Slave coffle in 19th century Texas

Britain and the USA support the “right” of people to re-occupy an Eastern Mediterranean land lost to the Romans over TWO THOUSAND years ago.

Yet meanwhile, The Great Orange Buffoon pledged during his disastrous term in office to build a wall to stop Mexicans entering a land which was MEXICAN much less than TWO HUNDRED years ago.

And Texas governor Greg Abbott continues today with the nasty populist rhetoric, pitting National Guardsmen against federal immigration agencies. An orderly, humane immigration system would be no bad thing. And it would look nothing like what’s going on in Texas today.

*****

A few short years after gaining independence from Spain in 1821, the Mexican government invited American settlers to take-up small land grants in the sparsely populated northern regions of Mexico. Part of the citizenship deal included expectations that the American settlers would learn to speak Spanish – the national language of Mexico. While Americans today expect immigrants to the USA to learn English, such a courtesy was not reciprocated when Americans were the immigrants – very few of these new “Mexican citizens” bothered to honour the terms of their land grants.

These terms also included a prohibition on slavery, a practice illegal under Mexican law. American settlers from Alabama, Tennessee, and elsewhere nonetheless piled into Texas, bringing their slaves with them – within a decade, 1 in 5 “New Texians” would be of African-American ancestry. The law prohibiting slavery was circumvented by forcing African-American slaves to sign bogus contracts of “permanent indentured servitude”.

Cleverly taking advantage of the political turmoil in the newly-independent Mexican nation, the ever more numerous “Texians” agitated strongly in favour of greater regional autonomy, denouncing Mexico’s attempts to bring regional states under greater federal control (which would have likely spelled the end of the Texas slave economy, which was already busily exporting slave-grown and harvested cotton to New Orleans). American folk-hero and Kentucky-born Jim Bowie spent his years prior to The Alamo illegally smuggling slaves into Louisiana with the help of his cartel buddy Jean Lafitte, a notorious pirate along that coast.

Texian settlers declared an independent state in 1836. Amid much political to-ing and fro-ing with the USA congress, President James Polk eventually marched troops into Texas nine years later, making sure to engineer provocations which might act as an excuse for direct military support of a recently-fudged annexation of the territory already declared by a rabidly expansionist US congress in early 1845. The parallels with modern maneuvering in Ukraine and Crimea are striking.

Texas would go on to be declared a state of the USA later that same year (see Luhansk and Donetsk). The Mexican-American War would follow, lasting from 1846 to 1848, but USA expansionism would prevail in the end. Few will recall that many Irish Catholic immigrants to America (fleeing the Great Hunger in Ireland at the time), were among those caught up in this conflict. Many chose to fight for the Mexicans, forming the “San Patricios“; St Patrick’s Battalion.

American history books usually fail to mention that at least half of the earliest settlers of Texas were not even involved in the official Mexican government-sponsored settlement scheme – they were out-and-out illegal immigrants. This bears repeating. Illegal immigration created Texas.

Of course this story utterly neglects to take on board the views of the indigenous peoples of Texas such as the Comanche, who would fight to maintain a footing on their lands for the next 30 years, until being finally overwhelmed and marched to their dusty doom, joining the open-air concentration camps of Oklahoma, now euphemistically called “reservations”.

Texas has only been fully-integrated into the USA and “at peace” since my great-grandmother was a little girl.

I am not enjoying the irony of seeing the great-grandchildren of illegal immigrants stringing razor wire across rivers and demanding that a wall be built to stop “illegal immigrants”.

If the world must accept the “facts on the ground” in places like Texas and Israel, if the world must watch robber barons still driving their pipelines through Native American lands in the Dakotas, the world is most certainly not obliged to also swallow the self-serving, self-righteous cant and mythology of the victors.

The stench of wilful ignorance and hypocrisy is overpowering…

#texas #immigration #history

Bookburners

6 May 2024/0 Comments/in Blog /by Brian Halpin

States ranked by number of books currently banned from school libraries

In 1969, I started first grade in one school, moved house for the fifth time in two years, got pneumonia, and finished first grade in another school.

I think my love of books began with that severe bout of pneumonia aged 5, which kept me bedbound for some time.

Color TV was for families richer than ours, and our black and white set was about the size of a couch, so it tended to stay put.

Kids from my background didn’t have TVs in their shared bedrooms, anyway.

So if you were laid-up sick in bed, it was books, and more books.

I ended-up way ahead of most kids my age in the reading department – not through superior brains, just through natural curiosity and a fluke of circumstance.

I got better, and made it back to my new school in time for the final term. That new school had a great library.

Like a kid in a candy store, I remember our first class visit, and me trying to check-out about ten books. I was crestfallen to discover the limit was two books out at a time.

Books are powerful things. That is why I can still remember the exact two books I checked out that day.

A science book called “Early Man“, published in 1965, and the children’s classic “Where the Wild Things Are“, published in 1963.

I took both books home that day, and still remember sitting at the kitchen table eagerly flipping pages when my mother came into the room.

She glanced down at the open book on the table, and her eyes went wide, before snatching it away.

“What are you reading that for? It’s full of lies! You don’t even understand what it’s about!”

But I did know what it was about. That week in science class our teacher had said something so surprising to my young mind that I went around repeating it out loud to myself.

“Humans are animals, just like tigers and birds.”

You see, being brought up in a fundamentalist evangelical family, we were taught to take The Bible literally. Humans were supposedly made in God’s image.

Humans were given “dominion” over the animals. Humans and animals were supposed to be separate things. As an animal lover, I was delighted to discover that we were almost brothers! Animals!

So of course I asked my science teacher more questions, and he explained how all animals change over time, and being animals, so had humans.

I had taken out the book on early man and evolution to find out how much humans had changed.

My mother wouldn’t give the book back, and I went to bed that night feeling that I had done a very wicked thing indeed…

*****

I kept reading books.

After joining the army on my 17th birthday, I went to boot camp in Oklahoma and got shipped out to what was still called West Germany.

Some of the books I read as a teen stationed along the Iron Curtain quite literally changed my life.

“Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” by Robert Pirsig.

“Slaughterhouse 5” by Kurt Vonnegut.

The latter book deals with the firebombing of Dresden, Germany by the USA and UK during the latter days of WWII – a raid which resulted in over 25,000 civilians being burned alive.

It is a hammerfall of a book, full of humanity, and it set me on my way to questioning militarism and politics for life.

I was astonished this week to read that Slaughterhouse 5 is one of the most banned books in USA schools today.

As is “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini. “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood.

Two masterpieces by Toni Morrison – “The Bluest Eye” and “Beloved” – books without which I would have never understood the true horror of slavery and its trangenerational damage.

The usual justification given for banning many of the aforementioned books is that they include graphic descriptions of violence.

Damn right they contain graphic descriptions of violence. Because American school history books sure as hell don’t.

Anyone who reads and loves books knows the real reason they are being banned. They are being banned because all of them call-out lies, they call-out violence and militarism. They call out hatred and sexism and racism and bigotry.

They call-out the status quo.

Most of all, they call-out the fake realities conjured and constructed by wicked, self-serving, and yes, damaged people. Fake patriotism. Fake history. Fake “whiteness”.

Books are powerful, and bad people know it.

We live in a world where a 17-year-old can be sent to kill other humans halfway around the world in the name of “freedom”, but a 17-year-old cannot read a book about war, vote, or buy a beer in many states.

At least in 1970, I was able to go back to the library during lunch hour, and finish reading the book which so enraged my own mother. It hadn’t been banned outright.

“Moms for Liberty” was a thing for a future dystopia.

#censorship #bookbanning #tonimorrison #kurtvonnegut #margaretatwood #khaledhosseini

Oblivious

6 May 2024/0 Comments/in Blog /by Brian Halpin

Half pint milk carton

It starts when we are children.

Adults lead by example, paying attention to certain things, and ignoring others.

By the time we grow up, we have an almost completely subconscious, in-built hierarchy of what should be seen as “important”. The rest becomes invisible.

On their first day in the history classes I used to teach, I always began by asking kids if they paid attention to the world around them.

All of them said “Of course we do!”

I would then ask them if they had had milk for breakfast. In their tea, on their cereal. Except for a few Vegans, most had.

Then I asked them if they read the things on cereal boxes and milk cartons. Again, most said “Sure!” (this was before everyone had smartphones to scroll through).

“What does it say on a carton of milk?”

“Um, milk obviously.”

“What else?”

“The brand of milk!”

“And?”

By this point, usually only half of the class was still engaged.

“Pasteurised!” a few shouted.

“You all know what that means, right?”

And most of them did know.

“Anything else?”

Mostly silence.

“Come on. One more word that’s on almost every milk carton. Anybody?”

Usually one single person would raise their hand eventually, and say “homogenised”.

“Yes! Homogenised. Can anyone here tell us what that means?”

Silence.

“You’ve all seen that word every day of your life, right?”

Everyone agreed they had.

“And after seeing that word maybe hundreds, maybe thousands of times, you never wondered what it meant?”

Silence.

I would then go on to explain how in the old days, cream would rise to the top of milk, and people had to shake it really hard to mix the cream fat through the milk.

Homogenisation breaks down fat into tiny particles which can remain in solution. No shaking, and always creamier milk. Yay!

*****

This is how I taught kids that there are different levels of human curiosity, different levels of engagement with the world around us, and different levels of obliviousness.

Recognising a carton of milk by its label is enough to navigate a lifetime of breakfasts.

But seeing the word “homogenised”, and caring enough to ask what that word means, opens a door to understanding a lot more about how some things actually work.

And yes, I know, industrial milk processing isn’t the sexiest or most important thing in the world.

But how many other things stare us in the face, every day of our lives, YET WE DO NOT SEE THEM?

I always finished the first day of history class by saying:

“Many of you probably have no great interest in history. You’re not alone. Many adults don’t, either. But history IS important. History is for helping us to unlearn our obliviousness.”

#history

Critical Race Theory for Beginners

6 May 2024/0 Comments/in Blog /by Brian Halpin

Tracy Chapman at 2024 Grammy Awards

I must confess, as someone who hasn’t lived as a person of color in America, I am often a little unsure about how to support or celebrate Black History Month.

It seems almost odd to even need to point out the innumerable achievements of people of color, when such things should be obvious to anyone with open eyes.

But alas, we live in a world where wilful ignorance is not only common, but on the increase.

Much of this wilful ignorance centres lately on the subject of Critical Race Theory, with a section of our citizenry choosing to believe that Critical Race Theory is a form of “woke indoctrination” specifically designed to make “white people” feel bad about their history, their ancestors, and by extension, themselves.

For a start, Critical Race Theory is an outgrowth or sub-branch of a way of thinking called simply “Critical Theory“.

Critical Theory grew out of a movement which began with The Frankfurt School, a group of philosophers, sociologists and intellectuals who gathered at the Institute for Social Research, part of the Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany during the 1920s and 1930s.

Put simply, in the aftermath of The Great War, these people (and many political dissidents), were alarmed at the rise and excesses of fascism, inflexible communist ideologies, and unbridled capitalism.

The idea was to critique these flawed systems through a variety of lenses – Marxist economic theory, sociology, philosophy, psycho-analytical studies – and to formulate a framework seeking nothing less than full human emancipation from unjust power structures.

Put another way, early Critical Theory looked for ways to formulate and introduce a non-doctrinal form of socialism in which all humans can be treated as truly equal.

American capitalism (and its media and propagandists) have worked overtime for decades to conflate Marxist critiques and democratic socialism with Leninist or Maoist style communism, meaning that Critical Theory gained less of a foothold in the USA than in other developed countries.

Critical Pedagogy is the educating of students in the actual practice and method of employing Critical Theory.

Because Critical Theory encourages the examining of social problems and injustice through multiple lenses, thinkers and practitioners of Critical Pedagogy often focus their energies on one area, which can then be added to the greater pool of expertise.

Some focus on feminism. Some focus on class systems. Others focus on socio-economic questions. Environmental issues.

And some focus on race-based injustice.

“Critical Race Theory” is not a “system” to be put in place. It did not spring fully-formed into life with a set doctrine to be imposed.

“Critical Race Theory” is simply a branch of “Critical Theory”, a way to examine the social injustices arising specifically from racism, structural racism, and systemic racism.

“Critical Race Theory” attempts to use every available metric and tool to show the ways in which racism, past and present, affects many people in multiple aspects of their daily life, today.

Economics. Wage inequity. Educational access. Job access. Sociology. Legislation. Health. Hunger. Crime. Political representation. Housing.

Perhaps every public school in the USA should be made to teach “Critical Theory”, with semesters being dedicated to different subjects. Feminism. Race. Ethics. Capitalism. Ideology.

Then maybe certain people would “get it”.

But in a country in which politics and the media have become an extension of the corporatocracy, I won’t be holding my breath.

I’ll leave the final word to the Critical Pedagogue Ira Shor, who defines Critical Pedagogy as:

“Habits of thought, reading, writing, and speaking which go beneath surface meaning, first impressions, dominant myths, official pronouncements, traditional clichés, received wisdom, and mere opinions, to understand the deep meaning, root causes, social context, ideology, and personal consequences of any action, event, object, process, organization, experience, text, subject matter, policy, mass media, or discourse.”

Now what’s not to like in that?

And here’s to Black History Month!

(with a photo of Tracy Chapman because I adore her, and she happened to write one of the greatest songs in American history about hope and desperation)

#criticalracetheory #blackhistorymonth #tracychapman

“Better Call Saul”, Rhea Seehorn, and the “Black Dutch”

6 May 2024/0 Comments/in Blog /by Brian Halpin

Marmaduke Seahorn riding an ostrich (don’t bother asking – I have no idea)

Finally got around to watching “Better Call Saul“.

Loved every minute of it.

When you do what I do, it’s impossible to watch credits without noticing surnames, and going “Ah! I know something about that person’s family history”.

The lead character Jimmy McGill is played by Bob Odenkirk, whose German and Irish background comes mostly from “late wave” German and Irish immigration during the 19th century.

The character Kim Wexler is played by Rhea Seehorn, also with German and Irish roots, with Bohemian Czech thrown in for good measure.

The Seehorn surname itself is German, and most people bearing the Seehorn family name have roots in America going back to an earlier wave of German immigration during the early 1700s.

Although Rhea Seehorn sports the quintessential blonde hair and blue eyes popularly associated with Germanic peoples, her own Seehorn ancestry peters-out of any reliable documentary record in early 1800s North Carolina, among a plethora of German families commonly associated with what are known as the “Black Dutch”.

Those who follow this blog and podcast will already know that “Black Dutch” was a term used in early colonial and frontier-era America by many people of German ancestry with complex ethnic backgrounds including German Sinti (Romani or “Gypsy”) people, German Jews, or Germans who had intermixed with darker ethnic groups of African or indigenous ancestry.

Ms. Seehorn’s direct ancestors include Grindstaffs, Shouns/Showns, Slemps, Stouts, and Snyders – all of these families can still be found today in Southern Appalachia, which has far more German heritage than most people imagine.

Celia Amanda Stout, ancestor of Rhea Seehorn

Here are just a few of these old families beginning with the letter “S”:

Seahorn (Seehorn, Zeehorn)
Seger/Seeger (Sieger)
Setzer
Shafer/Shaver (Schäfer)
Shawver (Schauber)
Shell (Schell)
Shepherd (Schäfer)
Shown/Shoun (Schaun)
Sides (Seitz)
Siler (Seiler)
Slager (Schläger)
Slemp (Schlemp)
Sliger (Schleiger)
Slusher (Schlösser)
Smelser (Schmelzer)
Smith (Schmidt)
Snider/Snyder (Schneider)
Snodderly (Schnatterle)
Spear{s} (Speer)
Spraker (Sprecher)
Sprinkle (Sprenckel)
Stagner (Steigner?)
Stamper (perhaps from “Stempert”)
Stonecipher (Steinseifer)
Stout (Staudt?)
Stover (Stauffer)
Surface (Zerfass, Zerfuss)
Swadley (possibly “Schwadle” or Swiss German “Schwadli”)
Swearingen (Schweringen, sometimes from Dutch “van Sweeringen”)
Swisher (see “Switzer” and Irish Palatines)
Switzer

#history #rheaseehorn #BetterCallSaul #blackdutch

Bleeding Kansas and Transgenerational Morality

6 May 2024/0 Comments/in Blog /by Brian Halpin

The Immortals of Bleeding Kansas (Silas Soule second from right)

Use discretion: mentions of graphic violence

It has become more and more common for people to accept the idea of trangenerational trauma. This is a step in the right direction.

Studies published over the past decade have shown how poverty, for example, causes our limbic systems to feed a constant stream of stress and fear messaging to our prefrontal cortex. This overloading of our mental faculties can interfere with daily functioning in a number of ways, including our ability to finish tasks efficiently, our ability to set achievable goals – even our ability to act and solve problems in a rational manner.

Other studies are beginning to shed light on how historical events affecting the health of our ancestors can be imprinted epigenetically – for example, the descendants of Swedish famine survivors of the 19th century have been shown to exhibit famine-related health issues today.

All of this led me recently to consider the possibility of transgenerational “wellness” or positivity.

Could having a full belly, and living in an environment which includes love, ethical and moral behaviour, and general human decency lead to some form of imprinting and improvement in mental health, happiness, and greater resilience over generations?

Some say the human brain is deeply wired to imprint negative experiences more strongly than the positive. This negativity bias is thought to be crucial to our ability to spot dangers in the future.

The downside to this comes when our tendency to notice the dark clouds makes us ignore the sun over our shoulder.

Perhaps much of the good which gets passed-down the generations often goes unremarked and unnoticed, to our own detriment.

Much of the world often comments on the American propensity for positivity. As far as I know, America’s foundational document is the only one in the world in which “the pursuit of happiness” is explicitly listed as a fundamental right.

Yet writing about American history – real American history – can often lead to a deep sense of pessimism; a sense of being trapped today in a circle created by others in the past.

It is my own sense that events this year might well determine whether American democracy – with all its flaws – manages to survive.

So here is some good medicine for any spirit in need, a balm for those who doubt the power of the better angels of our nature.

There is work ahead, and inspiration from our better ancestors can do no harm.

*****

“Bleeding Kansas”. 1859.

Kansas has been opened for settlement. In a foreshadowing of the Civil War soon to come, pro- and anti-slavery settlers are flooding the territory, in an effort to influence who will hold sway in the Kansas legislature.

Among the anti-slavery abolitionists in Kansas at this time was a military man named Silas Stillman Soule – a personal friend of both Walt Whitman, the poet, and John Brown, the militant abolitionist hanged for his part in the raid on Harper’s Ferry.

As a teenager, Silas was already helping his father operate a stop on the Underground Railway, assisting enslaved African-Americans in their escape from Missouri to points north.

In July of 1859, while attempting to escort thirteen escaped slaves to safety, a local doctor in Lawrence, Kansas named John Doy was ambushed by pro-slavery men who had crossed the border from Missouri looking for “lost property”. Dr. Doy was arrested and brought to a jail in St. Joseph, Missouri. The escaped African-Americans were sold once again into slavery.

A short time later, Silas Soule, showing uncommon daring, bravery and resourcefulness, crossed into Missouri, infiltrated the jail in St. Joseph on a pretext, and effected the late night escape of Dr. John Doy back across the border into Kansas.

In an admirable act of thumbing their noses at their enemies (and to offer encouragement to the cause), the ten men involved in this daring raid had a photograph made, which achieved wide circulation at the time. They became known as “The Immortal Ten”.

And if this alone is not enough to make these men and Silas Soule heroes in the cause of righteousness, five years later this same Silas Soule refused a direct order to participate in the infamous massacre of indigenous Americans at Sand Creek, Colorado, where Black Kettle‘s band had flown a flag of truce only to see their women and children ridden down and slain by Colonel John Chivington on a day of inhuman carnage with few parallels in USA history.

The breasts and genitalia of Cheyenne and Arapaho women, and the fetuses of their unborn children, were taken as “trophies”, and nailed onto the walls of Colorado saloons as grisly displays.

Afterwards, Silas Soule did a thing quite unheard-of for the time. He testified before a congressional committee, against his superiors.

He was assassinated on the streets of Denver, Colorado shortly after.

Silas’ friend Lieutenant James Cannon tracked one of the suspected assassins, Charles Squier, all the way to New Mexico. After being returned to Denver, Charles Squier was “mysteriously” aided in an escape from justice.

Lieutenant Cannon, on the other hand, would be poisoned to death soon after…

But the good people eventually won.

And 150 years later, we still need people like Silas Soule.

Look carefully at the photograph of the “Immortal Ten”. See the faces of men from all backgrounds, united in proud brotherhood. The Good Guys.

This is not to suggest that Black Emancipation was a story of White Saviourism. African-Americans fought their own corner bravely, and paid in blood and suffering, for decades and centuries.

What we see here, is a brilliant example of how to be an ally to those in the heat of struggle.

*****

Silas Soule was a direct descendant of George Soule, one of the signatories of the Mayflower Compact over 400 years ago.

The Petersons in my own family also descend from this same George Soule – and my Elisha “Wright” Peterson married a girl named Nancy Bunch from Grainger County, Tennessee. Elisha came from a line of Quakers, and when he wasn’t working as an Ozark mountain cartwright, he was teaching Native Americans near his Ozark home (and later in Eastern Oklahoma Indian Territory) how to read and write.

The Quakers are one of the groups who shine like a beacon, running like a golden thread through most of American history. They were not saints, nor were they perfect (looking at you, Richard Nixon).

But most were usually better than a lot of those around them – including some of my other, far less savoury forebears.

It is common for certain people today, as they attempt to defend the indefensible in America’s past, to say “We can’t judge people in the past by the standards of today”.

In some senses, they are right. We can’t judge people for once believing the world was only 6,000 years old. The sciences of biology and geology were still in their infancy.

But the systematic belittling, abuse, rape, torture, transgenerational enslavement and dehumanisation of others?

Empathy and fairness do not require a degree in science. Neo-Confederates and the modern alt-right who claim that “slavery wasn’t that bad”, or that “it was just normal for the time” seem to ignore that Quakers had submitted a petition against slavery in America way back in 1688, almost 200 years before slavery’s eventual end. So no, it wasn’t “normal” in the eyes of everyone back then. It was “normalised” in law by legislation based in greed and white supremacy.

Many morally abhorrent things were also legal in Nazi Germany. This does not mean things were “normal”.

Although I’m no Quaker myself, the Quakers in my family history make me immensely proud, and determined to prove that decency does indeed travel down the generations, as surely as wickedness or trauma.

#history #transgenerationaltrauma #quakerism #kansas #beforewewerewhite