Just got my Elk County newspaper and thoroughly enjoyed Rudy's editorial on Davy Crockett and Davy Crockett hats during his school days in the mid fifties. Davy Crockett was an icon to many school kids. He was so popular, Walt Disney Studios had to come up with some more episodes after he died fighting at the Alamo (that appears to no longer be true.) The studio came up with Mike Fink as a heavy. Fink was a real person but none of the movies about him and Davy were true.
Sometime around 1948, or so, there was a Civil War craze. Why or how this craze came about is a mystery to me. The only thing I can think of was perhaps a re-release of Gone With the Wind. Dime stores sold both Yankee and Confederate soldier hats but at 98 cents, we could not afford one. As a second grader, I had no clue as to what a Yankee or a Confederate was but I chose sides rather quickly.
In my Independence, Missouri school, we had roving gangs of boys during playtime. These were older third grade boys and were not bad kids and were not gangs in the sense we know now. They were more of a playground association rather than anything else. However, some could be mean. A gang of about five stopped me one day on the playground and asked if I were a confederate or a Yankee. I did not know what either was (don't think the gang did either) and said the first thing that came to my mind, Confederate. I received flying fists from these kids and can yet remember the pain. However, I did not complain to anyone but resolved from then on to be a Yankee because it was safer.
Missouri was a slave state but stayed in the Union, along with three other slave states plus West Virginia which seceded from Virginia.
In later years, I found out my father's side of the family fought for the Confederacy.
Rudy is the same age I am. I had my coonskin hat for many years, until one of my younger sister's friends gave it a hair cut.
Waldo:
I assume that you know this already but I just found out a couple of months ago. :-[
I'm into trivia and one of the items that comes up occasionally is how many stars does the Confederate Battle Flag (the Stars & Bars) have?
The answer is 13 -but- two of the stars represented Missouri and Kentucky. Both of which never officially succeeded from the union although
secessionist factions from both states joined the confederacy in late 1861.
Regards
-=crl=-
Thanks, I did not know that.
I grew up thinking that slavery was something that occurred in the south far away.
Then I learned that a slave market once stood on Main Street in Independence right across from the fire department. (The old fire house now serves as a place to purchase tickets for a bus taking tourists to tour the inside of the Truman home.)
Many times, I have tried to imagine myself being taken to that central market, paraded before prospective buyers, placed on a stage, and auctioned off to the highest bidder.
Then, leaving with the new owner to work for him from sunup to sundown six days a week without pay for the rest of my natural life.
Oh, to be a slave owner and Waldo is on the auction block.
Waldo, that would probably be 7 days a week in many if not most cases. It is hard for me to comprehend how anyone could have been pro-slavery. The part that seems so bad to me is taking the children from the parents and selling them. Many slaves never saw their children again, as a parent that had to be heartbreaking.
Frank
There is a tourist attraction on the Arkansas River in southern Colorado called Bents Fort. Bents Fort was once at the end of the United States. Across the river was Mexico. This was essentially a private operation although the federal government took it over during the Mexican-American War.
The fort had two slaves, a married couple. He was the blacksmith and she the cook. He was boss of the blacksmith shop and she the boss of the kitchen. The fort owner charged for their services.
If he had no blacksmith work, he was free to help his wife.
Their bed was in the kitchen. She had to cook three times a day for fort personnel and visitors. Sometimes if people came in to the fort at night, she had to get up and cook for them and still maintain her daytime schedule.
My Mom's Mormon grandparents met as young adults, while sneaking runaway slaves across the Missouri River to go to Canada. They were Scots and hated slavery.
Waldo, wasn't Prudence Crandall of Elk Falls known for her work in the underground Railroad, helping slaves escape to Free Territory?
Frank
That I could not say. I don't know that much about her other than she was brought up as a Quaker and I think she was a late comer to Elk Falls perhaps living there 15 years or so. What she did between 1832 and when she came to Elk Falls would be interesting.
I think she might not have had any other place to go so she moved to Elk Falls from Illinois (?) after her husband died and lived with her brother. It seems to me there is a sign in front of a home in Elk Falls which was the site of where she lived.
Below is what I could find in my notes. The 1820 date might not be correct since she was only 17 at the time.
Elk Falls also has a Prudence Crandall memorial on U.S. 160. Miss Crandall made her name in Connecticut where she advocated the education of blacks. She admitted a black girl to a girls' school she founded in 1820. White parents withdrew their girls so she started an all Black girls' school. The state of Connecticut jailed her in 1832 for doing so. She lived the last several years of her life in Elk Falls passing away in 1890.
It took some brave people to get slavery stopped. It seems that Prudence was one of them. I have the utmost respect for Prudence and all of the people that will stand up against all things that are just plain wrong.
Prudence Crandall
Kansas Historical Society marker on US 160 on the west edge of Elk Falls, KS
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In 1831, Prudence Crandall, educator, emancipator, and human rights advocate, established a school which in 1833, became the first Black female academy in New England at Canterbury, Connecticut. This later action resulted in her arrest and imprisonment for violating the "Black Law."
Although she was later released on a technicality, the school was forced to close after being harassed and attacked by a mob. She moved with her husband Reverend Calvin Philleo to Illinois.
After her husband died in 1874, she and her brother moved to a farm near Elk Falls. Prudence taught throughout her long life and was an outspoken champion for equality of education and the rights of women. In 1886, supported by Mark Twain and others, an annuity was granted to her by the Connecticut Legislature. She purchased a house in Elk Falls where she died January 27, 1890.
Over a hundred years later, legal arguments used by her 1834 trial attorney were submitted to the Supreme Court during their consideration of the historic civil rights case of Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education.
This is what is on the memorial stone.
The Prudence Crandall Museum
Junction Routes 169 & 14
Canterbury, CT 06331
(860) 546 9916
Kazimiera Kozlowski, Museum Curator
Museum Hours:
Wednesday - Sunday - . 10:00 AM to 4:30 PM
Closed December 15th to January 31
Admission charged.
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The site of New England's first academy for black girls established by Prudence Crandall, 1833-1834. A National Historic Landmark.
Through permanent and changing exhibits a variety of themes are explored at the museum, including Prudence Crandall, black and women's history and local history. "Prudence Crandall Day," held annually the Saturday of Labor Day weekend, offers children's games, crafts demonstrations and sales, entertainment and refreshments.
The museum also includes three period-rooms, a small research library for in-house study (by appointment only) and a gift shop.
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In the summer of 1831, Prudence Crandall (born in Hopkinton, Rhode Island, 1803) was asked by a group of Canterbury citizens if she would consent to establishing a private academy to instruct local girls and boys. With the purchase of the Luther Paine house (built circa 1805) located on the Canterbury Green, Crandall was able to open the academy in January of 1832, having the complete support and encouragement of the community. Areas of study included reading, writing, arithmetic, English grammar, geography, history, moral philosophy, chemistry and astronomy. Tuition was $25.00 per quarter. Public sentiment shifted dramatically, however, when Sarah Harris, a twenty-year old black woman, was admitted to the school in the fall of 1832. Crandall lost much support from the community, and was forced to dismiss those students not already withdrawn by their parents. On April 1, 1833, after conferring with William Lloyd Garrison and other staunch Abolitionists, Crandall reopened the school for the purpose of instructing "young ladies and little misses of color," thus establishing the first academy for black girls in New England.
In response, on May 24, 1833, the General Assembly in Hartford passed the infamous "Black Law" which made it illegal to establish any school or at academy for the instruction of "colored persons who are not inhabitants of this State." (The law was repealed in 1838). In breaking this law, Crandall was arrested, imprisoned overnight in the Brooklyn, Connecticut jail, and endured three court trials. Due to a legal technicality the case was eventually dismissed in July of 1834.
Opinions were not confined to the courtroom, however, and the academy's inhabitants were harassed unmercifully throughout this period of turmoil. The students were jeered at and the building was pelted with stones, eggs, and mud. In January 1834, an unsuccessful attempt was made to set the building on fire. In spite of this, the academy remained open until the night of September 9, 1834. That evening a mob of local residents attacked the academy, breaking some ninety window panes. Fearing for the physical safety of the students, Prudence regretfully decided to close the school. She and her husband, Rev. Calvin Phileo (they were married August 12, 1834), left Canterbury soon afterwards and traveled to Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, and later to Illinois, where Calvin died in 1874. In 1877, Prudence and her brother Hezekiah bought property in Elk Falls, Kansas, where they spent their remaining years. Prudence Crandall Phileo taught throughout her long life, never failing in her efforts to bring knowledge to all who had the desire to learn.
In 1886, an annuity was initiated in Canterbury on Crandall's behalf, receiving support from such notable Connecticut residents as Mark Twain. In April of that same year, the Connecticut Legislature granted Prudence $400 per year, a sum she received until her death in 1890, at the age of 87.
In reviewing the events which took place at the Crandall Academy, it must be remembered that this was not a singular incident, but rather a local reaction caused by feelings of racism which pervaded American society during this period of our nation's history. Such occurrences were reported nationwide, and were not restricted either to the town of Canterbury or the State of Connecticut.
Taken from http://amistad.mysticseaport.org/forum/links/others/prudence.crandall.html
Thank you, Janet.
That was interesting.
In a similar vein, I found this to be interesting. It is on the "to-do" list for my GenuineKansas site.
http://www.kckpl.lib.ks.us/kscoll/lochist/quindaro/Quindaro.htm (http://www.kckpl.lib.ks.us/kscoll/lochist/quindaro/Quindaro.htm)
I looked at the area in Google Earth, and you can still see some of the old buildings among the vegetation that has regrown on the riverbank where Quindaro used to be.
Waldo, toured Bent's Fort a few years ago. You mentioned that the female slave was the cook and believe me I seen where and with what she had to cook. Very primative and the living quarters were equally primative. Come to think of it, the "dining room" for the uppity ups wasn't all that spactacular.
Travelers could pay $1 to stay at the fort. Sleeping accommodations were just a community room where they could throw their gear and lie down. That $1, though seems pretty steep, but, it apparently beat sleeping outside the walls in Indian country.
Lincoln is generally given credit for freeing the slaves, but he did no such thing.
He issued a proclamation in 1863 saying slaves in the south were free men. The south laughed.
For political reasons, he could not and did not declare slaves in the north as free.
I still like to hang my fresh washed laundry on the clothes line.
BRINGS BACK MEMORIES!
The clothesline....a dead give away. Do the kids today even know
what a clothesline is?
For all of us that are older, this will really bring memories.
For those of you who are younger, it will add some thoughts.
THE BASIC RULES
1. You had to wash the clothes line before hanging any clothes.
Walk the length of each line with a damp cloth around the line.
2. You had to hang the clothes in a certain order and always
hang whites with whites and hang them first.
3. You never hung a shirt by the shoulders, always by the tail.
What Would the neighbors think
CLOTHESLINES
A clothesline was a news forecast
To neighbors passing by.
There were no secrets you could keep
When clothes were hung to dry.
It also was a friendly link
For neighbors always knew
If company had stopped by
To spend a night or two.
For then you'd see the fancy sheets
And towels upon the line;
You'd see the company table cloths
With intricate design.
The line announced a baby's birth
To folks who lived inside
As brand new infant clothes were hung
So carefully with pride.
The ages of the children could
So readily be known
By watching how the sizes changed
You'd know how much they'd grown.
It also told when illness struck,
As extra sheets were hung;
Then nightclothes, and a bathrobe, too,
Haphazardly were strung.
It said, "Gone on vacation now"
When lines hung limp and bare.
It told, "We're back!" when full lines sagged
With not an inch to spare.
New folks in town were scorned upon
If wash was dingy gray,
As neighbors raised their brows,
And looked the other way..
But clotheslines now are of the past
For dryers make work less.
Now what goes on inside a home
Is anybody's guess.
I really miss that way of life.
It was a friendly sign
When neig hbors knew each other best
By what hung on the line!
Have a great day.
I remember hanging clothes to dry very well. I didn't have a dryer until several years after we were married. The clothes always smell so clean and good, but hanging them out in the winter time wasn't too much fun!
mlw
I can remember rapidly changing Nebraska weather and frozen clothes.
:)
We never had a dryer while growing up. Al and I got one after we had been married a couple of years. In early fall the darn birds would poop purple on the sheets from the poke berries and in the spring it was from the mulberries. I finally gave up.
If it started raining in England on washday the first person to notice it would go out and yell "raining" as she took in her laundry by the time you got done bringing it in you could hear women up and down echoing the call (if your neighbour had gone shopping you brought her wash in as well as your own) I missed that when I came to the states
:)Wonderful memories. I can still see my grandma out there in her brown plaid housedress.
She had some kind of metal form sthat she put down the legs of grandad's trouser while they dried so they would
dry straighter and be easier to iron. The old cloths line is still up in my backyard. Although I never use it I still don't want to
get rid of it. Guess I'll paint it and hang some plants from it.
I didn't have a dryer until my youngest was out of diapers. Might be the reason my babies didn't have diaper rash. I enjoyed hanging clothes on the line and liked bringing them in, but I didn't like folding and putting them away and I still don't like to iron.
I didn't have a dryer till my kids were grown and away from home. Things were so soft after being on the line in the breeze. Even jeans I hung so the wind would blow through them. Course out east of town the wind blew 24/7. ;D When I bought this house there were poles and a plastic cord that hung to the ground. The cord I took down, but use one of the poles for bird feeders. Don't want to take down the poles, never know when I might need them. Remember a while back on some thread I asked the question - Why did we go to all the work hanging the clothes on the line to dry, bring them in, dampen them, roll them up so we could iron them the next day? Why not just bring them in damp? And OMG the whites MUST be white to hang out where everyone could see them. Jo, enjoyed that little poem. And I supppose the wives of the Yankees and Confederates hung their clothes on the lines also. Or spread them over the fence.
I had a wonderful long clothesline at home in Howard and used it most of the times unless the wind was in the north - then Lord help me the dirt off that county road would choke a horse...so there were no clothes on the lines on those days.
I don't have a clothes line here at the Elk City State Park, but Fred did buy me a rack and secured it firmly in the ground behind the 5th wheel, where I hang some of my smaller things. At our space in Texas I have great clothes lines, and the clothes dry very fast and we usually have nice wind to "blow out the wrinkles" and a lot of the ladies hang their clothes on the lines at that park. The park is huge -- has 273 parking spaces and there are usually clothes flapping in the breeze every day of the work week. I love the fresh smell of laundry when it is dried out doors.
Quote from: Wilma on August 08, 2007, 02:14:10 PM
I didn't have a dryer until my youngest was out of diapers. Might be the reason my babies didn't have diaper rash.
[/b]
Hummmmm. I wonder why I have it now?????????????????????
You don't run around in nothing but panties now.
Do I need to be older to see this thread?
Why, yes, Kermit, you do, so you just quit reading until I tell you that you are old enough to read this board again.
Tallk about a thread on slaves and slavery taking a 180 to laundry and panties..... ;D
That is not the picture I have of the Sheriff, Myrna just told me to get off of here now.
Frank
Myrna, is this getting too raw for Frank?
The Forum gathering is really going to be interesting. What a great group of people with great senses of humor.This reminds me of home when I was a youngster and in the house with 5 sisters at home.
Frank
I think, Janet, that this is one of those times that I am going to decide to be naughty.
;D
Naughty? When? At the picnic? I hope so, but remember, don't make me mad. I work with bad people. LOL
Yeah, but I could teach them to use "verbal restraint" and some other important sounding words to keep you in line. ;) ;)
Janet -
Heh