Benjamin Franklin

The Sociologist

What was the reaction to Rules by Which a Great Empire can be Reduced to a Small One?

From 1757 to 1775, Benjamin Franklin served in England as a general ambassador for several of the American colonies. His job was to convince the King and Parliament to change their policies towards America. Despite his attempts for most of those eighteen years, Franklin was not having success. There was a lot of tension between England and America during this time when the British Parliament passed the Tea Act (1773), which hurt the colonial merchants. Franklin then turned to political satire to make his point. He wrote “Rules by Which a Great Empire May Be Reduced to a Small One”, which was published in the London Public Advisor in 1773 (http://www.benfranklin300.org/etc_timeline_6.htm). Using irony and reverse logic, Franklin laid out the American case. He began by comparing the British Empire to a great cake: “most easily diminished from the edges.” He continued the analogy by saying England was acting like a gingerbread maker. To facilitate a division, the baker cuts through the dough before baking, creating a perforation of sorts, the cooked gingerbread then breaking at the designated place. Even though English policy seemed to be set against any American interests, there was a small pro-American party in England. These people saw that the Colonies brought immense wealth to England, and keeping the Colonies happy and working were the right thing to do. Unfortunately, Franklin’s satire antagonized these supporters. No doubt comparing the mighty British Empire to a cake did not sit well. While Franklin’s expressiveness helps us today to understand the colonial position, it did not bring the results he hoped for.

In 1773 in the Americas Franklin was exposed as a dishonest schemer, Franklin was denounced before the Privy Council in January 1774 and stripped of his postmaster general's office. Although he continued to work for conciliation, the Boston Tea Party and Britain's oppressive response to it soon doomed such efforts. In March 1775, Franklin sailed for home, sure "the extream corruption in this old rotten State" would ensure "more Mischief than Benefit from a closer Union" between Britain and its colonies.

http://www.history.com/shows/10-things-you-dont-know-about/videos/ben-franklin

Then Franklin served on the Pennsylvania Committee of Safety and in the Continental Congress, submitted articles of confederation for the united colonies, proposed a new constitution for Pennsylvania, and helped draft the Declaration of Independence. He readily signed the declaration, thus becoming a revolutionist at the age of 70 (http://chemistry.mtu.edu/~pcharles/SCIHISTORY/BenjaminFranklin.html).

Emerson/Thoreau

Transcendentalism is the belief that truths about life and death can be reached by going outside the world of the senses. Henry David Thoreau was the prime example of transcendentalism and this is one of my favorite quotes. “Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify, simplify! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb-nail.”  

Thoreau believed living simple was the best way to live. At the age of 28 he went to Walden pond and built his cabin on land owned by Emerson. While at Walden, Thoreau did an incredible amount of reading and writing, yet he also spent much time "sauntering" in nature. This is where he wrote his book Walden (http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/thoreau/).  

Thoreau’s beliefs and ideas influenced many civil rights leaders from Ghandi to Martin Luther King Jr. Ghandi credits Thoreau with helping the abolition of slavery. Martin Luther King Jr. credits Thoreau with giving him his first experience at non-violent protest. Because of this experience, Martin Luther King Jr. was inspired to become one of the most influential civil rights leaders in our nation's history. Once again, the basic counter-cultural impulses can be seen in the early years of the 21st century. People are beginning to explore old and new ideas about self-sufficiency, sustainable living, ecological concerns, a desire for harmony with the natural environment and exploration of new age philosophies and religions. The concerns of the time may have changed, but the push back against public consistency remains the same (http://www.ehow.com/facts_7394279_transcendentalism-affects-today.html).  Today there are also many ways people make things not simple. One example of this is the massive use of technology. It is not simple at all and there wasn’t any less than a hundred years ago. Many things have changed since Thoreau’s time, but many things are still the same.

Edgar Allan Poe

The Mystery and Theories of Edgar Allan Poe’s death

How did Edgar Allan Poe die?

No aspect of Poe’s life has fascinated his fans and detractors as his death. Unfortunately, there is also no greater example of how badly Poe’s biography has been handled. Covered in opinion and disagreement, the important details of Poe’s final days leave people with more questions than answers. Poe’s death will probably always remain a mystery. The puzzle still teases and tempts researchers today. They review the stories over and over again in hopes of finding something new, to settle the question once and for all (http://www.eapoe.org/geninfo/poedeath.htm). Poe was 40 years old when he died on October 7, 1849. He had traveled by train from Richmond, Virginia to Baltimore a few days earlier, on September 28. While in Richmond, he had proposed marriage to a woman who would have become his second wife. Poe intended to continue on to Philadelphia to finalize some business when he became ill. Poe was discovered lying unconscious on September 28 on a wooden plank outside Ryan's saloon on Lombard St. in Baltimore. He was taken to Washington College Hospital.

There are many theories of his death like: alcohol, rabies, and brain tumor.

The Alcohol Theory

This is the theory most people think of when they are asked about Poe’s death. That Poe engaged in bouts of drinking, particularly during Virginia’s long illness is well established, but how exactly he may have died of alcoholism has never really been explained. Clearly, Poe did not have an accident and his drinking seems to have been neither so constant nor so intense as to cause sclerosis of the liver. It has been suggested that poor nutrition and a weakened condition brought on by other illnesses could have allowed hallucination tremens to occur with fewer and less intense episodes of drinking than would normally be required, but none of these offerings completely explain his condition and the change of clothing (http://www.eapoe.org/geninfo/poedeath.htm) . Also there are accounts that say Poe stopped drinking six months prior to his death.

The Rabies Theory

I found an article about the rabies theory at (http://www.umm.edu/news/releases/news-releases-17.htm). The doctors at University of Maryland Medical Center believe that rabies was the cause of Poe’s death and have many reasons why. They released an article about it in September of 1996. This article is really great and everyone should definitely read it.

The Brain Tumor Theory

The theory is what interested me most. Mr. Pearl, a writer, wanted to write a non fiction novel about Poe’s death in 2007. He wanted some actual evidence to go by and discovered something really amazing. He looked through a bunch of articles and discovered that Poe’s body had been exhumed, 26 years after his death, so that his coffin could be moved to a more prominent place at the front of the cemetery. Also a few of the articles suggested that the great man’s brain had been visible to onlookers during the procedure. Mr. Pearl realized there was no way that Poe’s brain was still there after 25 years. He researched and found out that a tumor that was in his brain could have still been there and looked like a shrunken brain. This is just a summary of the article about Mr. Pearl’s discovery. The article is at http://www.observer.com/2007/10/poes-mysterious-death-the-plot-thickens/. This was my favorite theory overall.

There are many theories about Poe’s death, but it is still a mystery. Poe wrote of darkness and mysterious. I believe he would like for his death to always remain a mystery.

Washington Irving

How was Washington Irving’s work considered Romanticism?

Romanticism was a movement of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that marked the reaction in literature, philosophy, art, religion, and politics from the neoclassicism and formal belief of the preceding period. The Romantic Period was during the age of great westward expansion, of the increasing gravity of the slavery question, of an intensification of the spirit of embattled sectionalism in the South, and of a powerful impulse to reform in the North.

One of the first most famous Romanticism writers was Washington Irving. (http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/eng372/intro-h4.htm).Most romantic stories were about the evil of human nature during this time period. The work of Washington Irving showed the influence of European Romanticism. Irving would stress on nature, the supernatural, and superstitions in his stories. Irving began to write for purposes that would be associated with the American Romantic Movement, including the purposes of protesting materialism, development, and the fraudulent nature of American society. One of Irving's works The Legend of Sleepy Hollow demonstrates the power than superstition can have over people. Ichabod Crane was a very careful man who avoided walking under ladders, crossing black cats, or tipping over the salt shaker. When Ichabod heard the legend of sleepy hollow, he was so frightened even the simplest of noises scared him (http://www.123helpme.com/romanticisam-and-washington-irving-view.asp?id=157628). Another Washington Irving story that has examples of Romanticism throughout it is Rip Van Winkle. It begins with a detailed description of the Catskill Mountains,and how they are considered perfect barometers through the "magical hues and shapes" that they exhibit to indicate the weather.  Later, while climbing them, Rip sees the Hudson River moving on its "silent but majestic course, the reflection of a purple cloud, or the sail of a lagging bark, here and there sleeping on its glassy bosom, and at last losing itself in the blue highlands." 

This final description does not further the story by helping to set the scene because the river is quite distant. It is included to introduce a sense of communion with nature, which is something Irving felt was of supreme importance. Elements of Romanticism pervade all of Irving’s writings.  His love of nature, sense of wonder, and optimism all show through even in his early work. All these elements became more distinct as the freedom of expression. Ultimately, Irving’s work has come to be viewed as a symbol of the Romantic era (http://wolf.flatrock.org.nz/wolf_den/Opinions_Articles/american_romanticism.htm).

These are just two of Washington Irving stories that influenced the Romantic Period.

Frederick Douglass

What were the struggles of African Americans and women to gain the right to vote?

The definition of suffrage to most white men in the 1800’s was simply the right to vote, but to the African American’s and women of this time it was so much more. African Americans and women both struggled to achieve the right to vote. Prior to the Civil War, black abolitionists and white women rights’ activists were strong allies who anticipated that a victory for either cause would be a victory for the other. In 1839, more than 14,000 women signed a petition to the Massachusetts legislature demanding the repeal of laws that discriminated against Blacks and prohibited interracial marriage. Frederick Douglass returned the favor by being a vigorous defender of women’s rights. ‘Right is of no sex,” declared the first issue of his abolitionist newspaper, the North Star, in December 1847. The black abolitionist leader Francies Maria Steward insisted that the struggles for racial and sexual equality were the same. But after the Civil War, in 1866, Republicans proposed the Fourteenth Amendment, penalizing any state that denied suffrage to its male citizens, and in 1868, the Fifteenth Amendment, which forbade states from denying suffrage “on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” (http://teacher.scholastic.com/researchtools/researchstarters/women/).

 

States tried to stop blacks from voting. Some of these things were poll taxes; fees were charged at voting booths and were expensive for most blacks, and the literacy test. Since teaching blacks were illegal, most adult blacks were former slaves and illiterate.  Many African Americans died trying to exercise the right to vote. Segregation was supported by the legal system and police.  But beyond the law there was always a threat by terrorist violence.  The Ku Klux Klan murdered thousands of blacks to prevent them from voting and participating in public life (http://www.kawvalley.k12.ks.us/brown_v_board/segregation.htm). Many years’ later women finally gained citizenship. On August 26, 1920, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was finally ratified, enfranchising and declaring for the first time that all American women, like men, deserve all the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. It took activists and reformers nearly 100 years to win that right, and the campaign was not easy. On Election Day in 1920, millions of American women exercised their right to vote for the first time. (http://www.history.com/topics/the-fight-for-womens-suffrage).

Many African American’s and women fought years to get the right to vote. In the 2008 presidential election 16,416,000 African Americans voted. Women have voted in larger numbers than men since 1980. In the 2008 Presidential race, nine million more women than men voted. So, African Americans and women still do exercise their right to vote, but it is nothing like it was for them a hundred years ago.

Mary Rowlandson

Who were the “Praying Indians”?

In 1646, the General Court of Massachusetts passed an Act for the Propagation of the Gospel amongst the Indians. Reverend John Eliot, a Puritan minister, changed the lives of the Hassanamisco forever. He believed that converting Indians to Christianity would benefit them. Eliot studied the Algonquian language, worked with interpreters and translators, and had translated the Bible into Algonquian.

 By 1650, Indian converted to Christianity had begun moving to Natick to organize what would become the first of several villages known as "Praying Towns", with the Indians in them known as "Praying Indians".

He encouraged the Indians to live in English-style buildings and maintain English work rhythms. He believed that the Hassanamisco would not find salvation until they rejected pagan ways and followed the examples set forth in the Christian doctrine (http://hassanamesit.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=69&Itemid=78).  Indians would renounce their native language, ceremonies, beliefs, traditional dress and customs becoming 'Red' Puritans. Rowlandson writes of one Indian who had been converted to Christianity and sold his father to the English “thereby to purchase his own life”. The reaction of the Englishmen was satisfaction because they would attempt to cleanse this “heathen”. Rowlandson writes that this “praying” Indian “betrayed his own Father…” (http://www.hocuspocustours.com/toppage22.htm). Again Rowlandson makes references about the praying Indians by saying “There was another Praying Indian, so wicked and cruel, as to wear a string about his neck, strung with Christians' fingers.” In Rowlandson writings it seems that she dislikes the Praying Indians (http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5793).  Christian Indians were caught between two warring factions: the English and the hostile Indian tribes. They pledged their loyalty to the English who refused to trust them and, at the same time, faced the hate of their own people. The Praying Indians could have served as an intelligence force for the English. Because the Native Americans knew the territory so well, they made good scouts and guides; they were much better equipped to fight in the forests and could teach the English such fighting techniques as where to set ambushes and how to avoid them. The Praying Indians were never listened to because of the color of their skin. By August 30, 1675, the Governor and Council of the Massachusetts Colony confined these Christian Indians to the Old Praying Indian towns, and restricted their travel to within one mile of the center of those towns and only then when in the company of an Englishman. If a Native American broke these rules, he could be arrested or shot on sight. They were eventually released, but the world to which they returned was totally changed. The English had defeated the warring tribes, leaving the Praying Native Americans strangers in their own homeland (http://www.bio.umass.edu/biology/conn.river/praying.html).

Thomas Paine

Why did only six people attend Thomas Paine’s funeral?

I was researching Thomas Paine, and I wanted to find something interesting but unique. One thing I found that was very interesting is that only six people attended his funeral. I could not believe this due to the fact that all his works had inspired so many people. So, I wanted to discover exactly why Paine’s life went from fame to nothing.

"These are the times that try men's souls." This quotation from The Crisis not only describes the beginnings of the American Revolution, but also the life of Paine himself.

 Thomas Paine was born and raised in England. At the age of twelve Paine failed out of school and began apprenticing for his father.  Again he failed at being a corset maker and went to sea. Not too long after that he returned to England and became a tax officer. When he published The Case of the Officers of Excise (1772), arguing for a pay raise for officers he met Benjamin Franklin who encouraged him to come to America. Paine then came to Philadelphia where he started his journalism career. He wrote many inspiring works like Common Sense and The Crisis. Both of these were pamphlets that encouraged American Revolution and soldiers to fight for freedom. This pamphlet was so popular that taking in to account percentage of the population, it was read by or read to more people than today watch the Super Bowl (http://www.ushistory.org/paine/). So how can someone inspire so many people and then only six show up to his funeral? The answer is in his book The Age of Reasoning. The book criticizes organized religions and many of their doctrines and beliefs. Paine promoted deism as “the one true religion,” and emphasized philosophy and scientific study as the only source of true knowledge (http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Thomas_Paine). Thomas Paine had a grand vision for society: he was against slavery, and he was one of the first to advocate a world peace organization and social security for the poor and elderly(http://www.ushistory.org/paine/).The publication of The Age of Reason made many enemies for Paine and overshadowed his services to the American Revolution (http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Thomas_Paine). Increasingly neglected and disliked, Paine's last years were marked by poverty, poor health and alcoholism. When he died in New York on June 8, 1809, he was virtually an outcast. Since the Quaker church refused to let him be buried there, he was laid to rest in a corner of his small farm in New Rochelle.  (http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/paine.html). Only six people attended Paine’s funeral, two of whom were former slaves. He was considered a man ahead of his time and this is probably why he left the world almost unnoticed.