Dr. Yohuru Williams, Fairfield University

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Historical Fingerprints

• Historical Finger printing simply means identifying the historical roots of modern America or historical antecedents of more recent history. For most of us those fingerprints can be found in our state standards.

Historical FingerprintingCore

CrossoverIsland

Bifurcation

Historical Fingerprinting

• What we will be looking for is the Core. The base of the argument or appeal. The Crossover, how that argument or appeal builds on earlier or relates to later historical events. Island in what ways is it the document unique or an “island” unto itself. And Bifurcation which refers to the main body of one item splitting into two parts. It could mean an argument or idea that has meaning for two different groups or time periods or a person or event that has applicability in two or more areas or eras. Sojourner Truth’s Aren't I A Woman Speech, for example has meaning for both African-American History and Women’s History.

Historical Fingerprinting

Historical Finger printing simply means identifying the historical roots of modern America or historical antecedents of more recent history. For most of us those fingerprints can be found in our state standards.

Historical FingerprintingCore

CrossoverIsland

Bifurcation

Historical Fingerprinting= Cultural Literacy

Slavery & Freedom in the Intersection

• the U.S. Senate version of the proposed new federal "Higher Education Act" (S. 1614) that defines "traditional American history" as "significant constitutional, political, intellectual, economic and foreign policy trends and issues that have shaped the course of American history. . . key episodes, turning points, and leading figures,"

key episodes, turning points, and leading figures

Historical Turning Points

Fingerprinting Turning Points

Fingerprinting Turning Points

CSI: Content Scene Interpretation

Welcome Social Studies Forensic Investigators. This afternoon we will be discussing historical crime scene accident interpretation and reconstruction.

Part One: Red Light Green Light What is a historical crime

scene? How do I construct a

historical crime scene? How do I use historical

fingerprinting along with historical accident reconstruction?

Last but not least, how do I avoid being Dennis Fung?

Using Historiography What was the Psychic Crisis of the 1850s? “In the course of the crisis each

antagonists, according to the immemorial pattern had become convinced of the depravity and evilness of the other. Each believed itself persecuted, menaced . . . paranoia continued to induce counter paranoia, each antagonist infecting the other reciprocally, until the vicious spiral ended in war.”

C. Vann Woodward, “John Brown’s Private War,” in America in Crisis, Daniel Aaron, ed. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, INC, 1952)

The seeds of discontent: ANTEBELLUM A Abolitionism N National Identity T Tariff E Evolving equality Bellum 3 Wars (The

War of 1812, the Mexican War, The Civil War)

A.N.T.E. Bellum Issues The Mexican War The Wilmot Proviso The Compromise of 1850 and the Fugitive Slave Act The Kansas-Nebraska Act The writings of the Southern Fire-Eaters such as George Fitzhugh and James

Henry Hammond The writings of Mary Chestnut and Harriet Beecher Stowe Charles Sumner’s Crime Against Kansas Speech and subsequent canning The rise of the Republican Party The “sectional” partition of the Democratic Party The financial crisis of 1857 John Brown’s Raid on Harper’s Ferry The Lincoln Douglass debates The debacle over the Lecompton Constitution The Dred Scott Decision The religious upsurge of the 1850’s The Civil War

Teaching in Intersections intersect One entry found. Main Entry: to pierce or divide by passing

through or across : cross <a comet intersecting earth's orbit> <one line intersects another>

intransitive verb 1 : to meet and cross at a point

<lines intersecting at right angles> 2 : to share a common area : overlap

<where morality and self-interest intersect>

Red Light Green Light: The Scenario

Imagine that the power has gone out in the city and four cars are sitting at a busy four way intersection. They have all arrived at the same time. There are no police officers around. No authorities to consult . . .

Who should go first? What are the Economic, Social and

Political ramifications of their decision to move forward? What if they fail to move?

This reinforces the concept of agency . . . that historical actors have and make choices.

Document Choices At least three sides Green: A side that wants

things to change (go) Red: A side that wants

things to remain the same (stop)

Yellow: those trapped at the light on caution

Lastly, the individual who has moved into the intersection.

Red Light Green Light as a method of document analysis.

Red light Green light is a method of document analysis that allows students to practice reading comprehension skills and document analysis in a group setting. It has two layers . . .

Using the technique

The teacher reads or has a student read the document at certain junctures to gauge understanding they should stop and ask students to call out or hold up cards that show . . .

Using the technique: Red Light

red light, which means stop I need more explanation,

Using the technique: Green Light

green light, which means this makes sense lets keep going and . . .

Using the technique: Yellow Light

yellow light, which means I have a question I would like to ask.

Red Light Green Light: The Scenario

Andrew Jackson in the Intersection

The Acquisition of Spanish Florida

Remember Spanish Florida 1819 This episode in

American History could easily be called Andrew Jackson in the Intersection . . .

Manifest Destiny in the Intersection

Osceola in the intersection

The United States may have purchased Florida from Spain, but that meant little to many natives like Osceola an Alabama Creek who joined the Seminole tribe during the Second Seminole War from 1835 -1842 against the United States.

Osceola in the intersection The government wanted to relocate the

tribe to Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River. In 1837, Osceola agreed to peace talks with the American military under a flag of truce but the meeting proved to be subterfuge and General Thomas Jessup had him imprisoned instead. Osceola passed away soon afterward.

Florida in the Intersection

Mexico was not the first time slavery and expansion would be linked. During the Seminole War American military commanders worried what impact the so called “Black Seminoles” would have on slavery. "This, you may be assured,” warned General Thomas Sydney Jessup in a candid letter after being appointed to head up the Government’s campaign against the Seminoles, “is a negro, not an Indian war; and if it be not speedily put down, the south will feel the effects of it on their slave population before the end of the next season.”

The First Emancipation Proclamation? “[T]hat all Negroes the property of the

Seminole...who...delivered themselves up to the Commanding Officer of the Troops should be free."

- General Jesup

It was remarkable. By making a battlefield decision to offer freedom to blacks who surrendered, Jesup enacted the first and only emancipation of rebellious blacks on American soil prior to the Civil War. The largest, most organized, and most violent slave uprising in U.S. history had produced a concession of freedom. In essence, the Black Seminole portion of the uprising was a victory.

“Jesup's Proclamation” “Jesup's Proclamation,” as it came to be known, pre-

dated Lincoln's by twenty-five years. In more ways than one the Black Seminoles were pioneers on the American frontier. Jesup didn't do this out of abolitionist spirit. He did it for very pragmatic reasons.

“The negroes,” he confided in a letter, “have, for their numbers, been the most formidable foe, more bloodthirsty, active, and revengeful, than the Indians .... The negro, returned to his original owner, might have remained a few days, when he again would have fled to the swamps, more vindictive than ever.... Ten resolute negroes, with a knowledge of the country, are sufficient to desolate the frontier, from one extent to the other."

Showing Crossovers: White Out

• What conflict led to the following Congressional decree:

• “neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist in any part of said territory, except for crime, whereof the party shall first be duly convicted.”

Did you say the Civil War?The Wilmot Proviso, 1846Provided, territory from That, as an express and fundamental

condition to the acquisition of any the Republic of Mexico by the United States, by virtue of any treaty which may be negotiated between them, and to the use by the Executive of the moneys herein appropriated, neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist in any part of said territory, except for crime, whereof the party shall first be duly convicted

[Passed by the U.S. House of Representatives, 1846 and 1847, never passed by the U.S. Senate]

Manifest Destiny in Four Intersections

• Mexico (1848) • Cuba (1898)

• France (1803) • Spain (1819)

Chapter One: The Confederacy in the Intersection

Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens details the

causes of the Civil War

Alexander Stephens

• Civil Rights• The Constitution

• The Founding Fathers • Slavery

General Patrick Cleburne C.S.A.• "I am with the South in life or in death, in

victory or in defeat...... I believe the North is about to wage a brutal and unholy war on a people who have done them no wrong, in violation of the Constitution and the fundamental principles of government. They no longer acknowledge that all government derives its validity from the consent of the governed. They are about to invade our peaceful homes, destroy our property, and inaugurate a servile insurrection, murder our men and dishonor our women. We propose no invasion of the North, no attack on them, and only ask to be left alone."

Chapter Two:The Colored Troops in the Intersection

Spotswood Rice & the meaning of Emancipation

A Missouri Black Soldier Writes to his daughter’s Owner (1864) Context: Emancipation

Proclamation (1863) Spotswood Rice (1864) The 13th Amendment

(1865) Green Light: Spotswood

Rice Red Light: Kitty Diggs Yellow: Spot, Noah, Mary,

anyone else?

John C. Fremont in the Intersection

Mrs. Columbia: "Tell me, Doctor, what is the matter with him? Do you think his brain is affected?"

Cartoon of John Fremont (man with black doll) in Harper's Weekly after he declared he would be a candidate in the 1864 election (2nd July, 1864)

Connecticut Cold Case file# 81861

After his death in 1890 the epitaph on the grave stone of this “map worthy” general read “from the ashes of his campfire have sprung cities,” however at his own request he was buried in a plain coffin and a civilian suit. What did he do during the Civil War to shrink his “expansive” reputation?

Connecticut Cold Case file# 81861

In 1850 Fremont was elected as senator for California. A strong opponent of slavery, Fremont became a founding member of the new Republican Party. In 1856 Fremont was selected as the Party’s first presidential candidate. Although the Democratic candidate, James Buchanan, won with 1,838,169 votes, Fremont did well earning 1,335,264 votes.

Connecticut Cold Case file# 81861 When Abraham Lincoln was elected president

in 1860, Fremont was expected to be appointed to the Cabinet. Lincoln was reluctant to do this and instead proposed that Fremont should be appointed minister of France. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, objected, claiming that as Fremont had been born in South Carolina, he could not be trusted to remain loyal during a conflict with the South.

Connecticut Cold Case file# 81861

On the outbreak of the American Civil War Fremont was appointed as a Major General in the Union Army and put in command of the newly created Western Department based in St. Louis. On 30th August, 1861, Freemont proclaimed that all slaves owned by Confederates in Missouri were free.

A.N.T.E. Bellum Issues The Mexican War The Wilmot Proviso The Compromise of 1850 and the Fugitive Slave Act The Kansas-Nebraska Act The writings of the Southern Fire-Eaters such as George Fitzhugh and James

Henry Hammond The writings of Mary Chestnut and Harriet Beecher Stowe Charles Sumner’s Crime Against Kansas Speech and subsequent canning The rise of the Republican Party The “sectional” partition of the Democratic Party The financial crisis of 1857 John Brown’s Raid on Harper’s Ferry The Lincoln Douglass debates The debacle over the Lecompton Constitution The Dred Scott Decision The religious upsurge of the 1850’s The Civil War

Political Intersections

The issue of slavery overshadowed all aspects of the political landscape and became one of the defining political issues of the day. Sectional differences and even internal discord within certain locations over the spread of the “peculiar institution” fueled the growth of new “single issue” political parties further dividing the North and South.

Chapter Three

Sullivan Ballou in the Intersection

White Soldiers in Four Intersections

• Honor • Manhood

• Family • Duty

Soldiers in Four Intersections

• Honor • Manhood

• Family • Duty

Chapter Four:Southern Women in the Intersection

The case of Mary Chestnut

Chapter Five:Slave Women in the Intersection

The case of Harriet Jacobs

Cultural IntersectionsThe Southern Way of Life Slavery was an integral part of the

social, economic, political and cultural identity of the South. It served as the economic base for agricultural production in the region, helped to define political rights and created a social bond that linked the social classes in defense of the idea of White Supremacy. While many “Fire Eaters,” ardent defenders of the South, proclaimed the principle issue between the North and South to be one of States Rights, in fact Slavery was at the heart of much of their disagreement.

Women in the Intersection: Mary Chestnut

“The Yankees here say, "The black man must go as the red man has gone; this is a white man's country." The negroes want to run with the hare, but hunt with the hounds. They are charming in their professions to us, but declare that they are to be paid by these blessed Yankees in lands and mules for having been slaves. They were so faithful to us during the war, why should the Yankees reward them, to which the only reply is that it would be by way of punishing rebels. “ June 1, 1865, 396

Fingerprinting Mary Chestnut

"I hate slavery. I hate a man who - You say there are no more fallen women on a plantation than in London in proportion to numbers. But what do you say to this - to a magnate who runs a hideous black harem, with its consequences, under the same roof with his lovely white wife and his beautiful and accomplished daughters? He holds his head high and poses as the model of all human virtues to these poor women whom God and the laws have given him. From the height of his awful majesty he scolds and thunders at them as if he never did wrong in his life. Fancy such a man finding his daughter reading Don Juan. 'You with that immoral book!' he would say, and then he would order her out of his sight. You see Mrs. Stowe did not hit the sorest spot. She makes Legree a bachelor." " Remember George II. and his likes."

Fingerprinting Mary Chestnut A. Who is Mary Chestnut in

dialogue with? What is the island of this

primary source? What about it makes it unique?

What is the core of her argument?

Are there any crossovers? Where is the argument

bifurcated? Does it apply to more than one area of interest or group?

Women in the Intersection: Mary Chestnut

AnalyzingMary Chestnut’s

Critique of SlaveryCore

Island Crossover Bifurcation

Cultural Literacy

Cultural Literacy . . . Don Juan Mrs. Stowe (Harriet

Beecher Stowe) Simon Legree George II Charles Sumner Don Quixote

Mary Chestnut and Elite Southern White Women

• Social Standing • The Franchise

• Labor • Emancipation

Reconstruction

A Ku Klux Klan Visitation (1871)

• Land • The Franchise

• Labor • Social Relations

Chapter Six: What Does the Black Man Want?

Frederick Douglass in the Intersection

Frederick Douglass in the Intersection

• Women’s Suffrage • Responsibility

• Civil Rights • Emancipation

“One cannot run with the hare and hunt with the hounds” “No man can serve two

masters”“Between two stools one falls to the ground”

As shown in this Thomas Nast cartoon, “Worse than Slavery,” white groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and the White League used every form of terror, violence, and intimidation to restore a “white man’s government” and redeem the noble “lost cause.” (Harper’s Weekly, October 24, 1874)

Chapter Seven: A Connecticut Yankee in the Reconstruction

Intersection

A Freedman’s Bureau Agent Predicts A Grim Future.

Document Spotlight: A Freedman’s Bureau Agent Predicts a Grim Future (1867)

Abraham Lincoln in Four Intersections

• Emancipation • Reconstruction

• The Secession Crisis • Commander in Chief

The Problem of the Color Line

• Lynching • World War I

• The Franchise • Segregation

Lyndon Baines Johnson in Four Intersections

• War on Poverty • War in Vietnam

• A National Tragedy • Civil Rights

What Intersections will you explore?