fun fact about american history: george washington was apparently so sexy that when he was 17 he went swimming a river and some girl that had a crush on him stole his clothes and watched as he walked around naked looking for them
aaron burr, the guy who shot alexander hamilton and also the second vice president of the united states, tried to start an empire out in texas
marquis de lafayette literally had to sneak out of france to come aid america and while some versions of the story claim that he disguised himself as a commoner, other versions say he dressed up like a woman
literally all the founding fathers had daddy issues, specifically alexander hamilton who refused to even befriend george washington initially because he didn’t want to grow close to someone who had the potential to become a father like figure to him
thomas jeffereson kept a bust of alexander hamilton in his house at monticello for no reason other than the fact that hamilton was his sworn enemy and he felt as though he needed a very expensive bust of his sworn enemy in his house
I love all of this please keep going.
they didn’t let hamilton try this one course of study at king’s college because it was so intense that it made one student literally get sick and have to go home for months on end and that student was james madison
george washington made a rule banning snacks during cabinet meetings because thomas jefferson would always eat mac n cheese which wasn’t big in the us at the time and all the other founding fathers thought it was disgusting
aaron burr once set himself on fire because he attempted to light a candle by shooting it because he was too tired to get an actual match and his gun was nearby
flashback to about 40 years before the Civil War. there was a widely-present but oft-overlooked class of white Americans who were too poor to own slaves, and too expensive to hire (because…slavery). they were described by other classes as ignorant, degenerate criminals.
much like the slaves, they were treated as cannon fodder in the war, and absent conscripts were hunted with dogs.
after the war, freed blacks were considered “humble, quiet, and hardworking” while the impoverished whites were called “illiterate, vicious, worthless barbarians”
this is not to undermine the injustice of slavery – racial or otherwise – in any way, but I do think if white privilege wasn’t even a thing before the Civil War, it’s certainly not a thing today
This entire article is fascinating but
Can we stop romanticizing the confederacy now? The people I’m talking to know who they are
August 11, 1917 – Teddy Roosevelt Calls for Censorship of German-language Newspapers
Pictured – The US government encouraged anti-German sentiment in the press and the media, as we see here in a scene from the Liberty-Loan endorsement film “Stake Uncle Sam to Play Your Hand.” For the country’s significant German-American population, however, this anger led to censorship, hostility, and in a few horrific cases, even lynching.
Former president Teddy Roosevelt made a speech in August 1917 in which he called for the muzzling of America’s significant German-language press. “I trust that Congress will pass a law refusing to allow any newspaper to be published in German or in the language of any other of our opponents… let [German-Americans]] talk in a language ordinary Americans understand – so we shall all know just what they are saying and doing.
Although not on the level of racialiized hostility to Japanese-Americans during WW2, anti-German sentiment was a serious issue during World War One, particularly in America’s very Germanic Midwest. Patriotism was conflated with anti-Germanism. In Ohio, for example, Governor James Cox created an Americanization Committee that censored German language newspapers (of which there were very many in American at the time), and removing “pro-German” books from libraries.
Time to smell the gravy, marvel at your auntie’s pretty place-settings, and listen to the 5edgy9me once-a-year intellectuals crawling out of their local Starbucks like zombies from the damn grave, moaning
Thanksgiving in the USA was officially adopted as a holiday during the Civil War, though it had been off-again-on-again celebrated since 1621 – This is thought to be the famous ‘Pilgrims at Plymouth’ Thanksgiving.
Originally, it was celebrated because of a particularly successful harvest was managed less than a year after the Pilgrims first settled the Plymouth colony with the few surviving members of the journey from Europe. This sort of feast wouldn’t happen again until a bountiful rainfall broke a treacherous drought in 1623.
That might not sound like a lot initially, but keep in mind that there were only 50 Pilgrims there, so the feast was almost 2:1 Native.
Now, with respect to ‘Genocide’, lemme learn you some knowledge..
Claims of Native genocide by the Pilgrims mostly originate from happenings during the 1637 Pequot War – Also known as the Mystic Massacre.
Essentially, in the area the Plymouth Pilgrims had settled, there were a few major warring Native bands. Specifically, the Pequot, the Mohegan, the Narragansett, the Wampanoag, and the Algonquians.
Basically, the Pequot sucked. They were the most powerful tribe, and were constantly trying to expand their territory – Even before the Pilgrims had come. They regularly raided the Wampanoag and the Algonquians, and bullied the Mohegan and Narragansett. When the fur trade started up, they tried to scare all the other tribes out of competition.
This led pretty much all of the tribes in the area, with emphasis of the Mohegan and Narragansett, to ally with the Pilgrims when shit started to go down.
The Pequot seemed to have the least resistance to the foreign bacteria the Pilgrims brought in, and it weakened them a lot, leaving the other tribes and Pilgrims the ability to reclaim or take over a lot of their land.
About 700 Pequot died during the war. A great deal of them were also taken/given to the other tribes as slaves.
A great deal of the bullshittery surrounding the settlement and colonization of North America comes from people who are unwilling to admit that Natives were brutal with each other… That they were just these awesome, no-socialist hippies that just sang songs and ate berries all day.
I don’t just think that’s dishonest, I think it’s pretty derogatory.
I remember vividly a time I was on a long busride in my home of British Columbia, which has a very high Native population. I was seated next to an Aboriginal man from a Kwakwaka’wakw band and he told me, very proudly, about his tribe’s impressive archive of ancient weave records depicting a great victory over neighboring tribes leaving 600,000 of them killed by the Kwakwaka’wakw warriors, who were greatly outnumbered. I would find out later that Kwakwaka’wakw were known headhunters and cannibals.
Once again, Thanksgiving was celebrated very sporadically, and certainly not as a consistent holiday, until the Civil War.
Thanksgiving never had anything to do with the Natives, other than their participation in a mutually-beneficial relationship with people who genuinely appreciated their help, and thus were willing to share what little food they had with them. It was about farming and harvesting, and later about peace and reconciliation.
We here in Canada celebrated Thanksgiving back in October, but I’ve always liked the story of American Thanksgiving better. To me, all of it’s incarnations have represented unity in one way or another – Different people working together to make everyone’s life better. Whether that be the Natives and the Pilgrims, or the Northern and Southern States.
People just being good to each other, if only for a little bit.
(Oneida Indian Nation has participated in the Macy’s Parade every year since 2010 in what they call ‘The True Spirit of Thanksgiving’)
Happy Thanksgiving, guys!
Reblogged this last year, but reblogging it again for this year for people who haven’t seen it yet.
Wide Spread Interests 