Film, culture, history
“It keeps getting colder and colder.” Some people tell me. Yet others complain that we just aren’t as prepared for a cold spell as we used to be.
The Spectator carries an article that says “Snow, what snow?” which claims that “Heathrow ruined thousands of peoples’ plans” by playing it safe. Yet the Expresso states that the “Cold wave has already cause 470 deaths” in Europe.
Is this climate change? Or are we just forgetting our history?
The early settlement of Crawford County, Illinois is still relatively clouded in mystery.
The movies used to simplify the westward expansion as a contest between “Indians” and “The White Man.” But when I presented this stereotype a couple of decades ago, on my visit to the a little town near Russelville in Illinois, I was corrected.
Continue reading “Fort Allison: Black History and the War of 1812 in Illinois”
Stranded on her tropical island, it’s likely that Susannah Lalliment didn’t know or care what happened to her would be rescuers turned deserters, Captain Rowland and his Holkar privateer.
To the British navy and merchant marine, however, the brig Holkar was a menace.
Slowed only by the captured ships and other prizes they had to sell, Captain Rowland and his crew turned back home to turn in his prizes. The Emu was taken to New York, and other prizes to other ports.
Continue reading “The fate of Captain Rowland and his privateer brig Holkar”
Despite her conviction, Susannah Lalliment was lucky. The far off colonies of the Empire had too few loyal subjects, and the parliament had an idea of how to get more people there. Susannah’s death sentence was commuted to banishment, life on the other side of the world. Continue reading “Susannah Lalliment meets the American pirates”
Susanna Lalliment didn’t know how to spell her own name. She was said to be descended from French Huguenot refugees, but she seemed to speak English well enough.
The Lalliments were skilled lace makers in Nottingham. The lace business in Nottingham, however, was changing. New technology put many traditional craftsmen out of work.
Perhaps being descended from immigrants contributed to workforce mobility. Susannah and her father moved to London; and that’s where all the trouble started. Continue reading “Sentenced to death over a ten pound bank note”
There’s a new initiative called World Book Night that allows readers to give away 480,000 books. To join you need to be willing to distribute 24 copies.
I was thinking it would be nice if we could vote for some books that teach history. It would be a shame if some substandard “chewing gum for the brain” book won.
It would be much worse, however, if the winner were one of those dull “classics” that everyone displays but no one reads. Continue reading “What’s your favorite book about 1812?”
Here the Earth, river, &c torn with furious convulsions, opens in huge trenches, whose deep jaws are instantaneously closed; there throws a thousand vents sulfurous streams gushed from its very bowels, leaving a vast and almost unfathomable caverns. – William Leigh Pierce, eyewitness
1812 was a year of science. The discovery of dinosaurs, the electric battery, iodine and many other marvels firmly placed the year within the “Age of Reason.”
At the same time, new “superstitions” were developing. One of these was helped by three of the most powerful earthquakes America had ever known. Some scientists fear such earthquakes could come again, and this time, the devastation could be much greater. Continue reading “When Tecumseh made the Mississippi flow backwards”
From Shakespearean actor Kenneth Branaugh, to a portrayal of former Prime Minister Margaret “Maggie” Thatcher, you’ll see the British flag waving down the aisle at this year’s academy Awards. Again. Yet again.
One starts to wonder if the Americans have a “sense of inferiority” when it comes to the dramatic arts. If so, from whence does this pathetic inferiority complex come? Let’s start in the month of April, 1812. Continue reading “The Empire’s New Talent”
a tale by Candy Korman
The men were celebrating. Pushing the Americans back at Queenston Heights on the Niagara front was, no doubt, a decisive moment in the combat, but there was no telling what turns the war would take. Continue reading “A Man of Science”
“A snake of the diamond kind has been lately killed at Blackwattle swamp, the length of which was 10 feet 4 inches, and its largest circumference five inches.” the Sydney Gazette reported on January 4th, 1812.
A woodcutter was going about his business, when he turned around and saw the “monstrous” creature. Naturally the woodcutter was afraid of snakes, so he whacked the animal on the head.
That didn’t stop the snake much, so the woodcutter ran for his life. Continue reading “Great Snakes! Australia in January 1812.”