There is a notion, common in human history, that it is acceptable to force some people to labor for their sustenance alone, while others make use of the difference between the value of the forced laborers’ production and their sustenance. Reasons for justifying this involuntary servitude include national necessity, the fate of captives in war,… Continue reading Involuntary Servitude
Category: yankee
Annie Wittenmyer
I ran across this tale while researching Annie Wittenmyer’s life in Iowa for my The Yankee Road trilogy. It is an interesting glimpse into army life in the American Civil War 160 years ago. Extract from: Annie Wittenmyer, UNDER THE GUNS: A WOMAN'S REMINISCENCES OF THE CIVIL WAR, Boston: Stillings, 1895. A WOMAN WOUNDED IN BATTLE,… Continue reading Annie Wittenmyer
Retailing “Yankee Notions”
Every inhabited part of the United States is visited by these men. I have seen them on the peninsula of Cape Cod and in the Neighborhood of Lake Erie, distant from each other more than six hundred miles. They make their way to Detroit, four hundred miles farther, to Canada, to Kentucky, and, if I… Continue reading Retailing “Yankee Notions”
Don’t Fence Me In
As the frontier pushed west past Chicago in the 1840s, a problem appeared with the change from forest to prairie: the need for fencing. Farther east, wood for fencing was easy to come by, but the prairie was nearly treeless. The most common kind of fencing on the Illinois frontier was a large bush called… Continue reading Don’t Fence Me In
Amelia Jenks Bloomer: A Yankee Woman Goes to Iowa
Amelia Jenks was the daughter of Ananias Jenks, who was born in Yankee Rhode Island around 1786. He was a woolen clothmaker by trade who migrated, first to Oneida NY and then south to Homer, in Cortland County, on the eastern margins of the Finger Lakes. Here he operated a woolen mill and married Lucy… Continue reading Amelia Jenks Bloomer: A Yankee Woman Goes to Iowa
The Second Butterfield Stage (Sort Of)
When I was writing a chapter for the second volume of my book, The Yankee Road, I told the story of John Butterfield and his Overland Mail Company, which operated a stagecoach line between St. Louis and San Francisco between 1858 and 1861; its existence cut short by the outbreak of the Civil War. The… Continue reading The Second Butterfield Stage (Sort Of)
A Story for Labour Day
In these days of ‘gig’ employment and lots of home delivery options, we may forget why there is a day dedicated to those who work for a living—that is, most of us. In the late 1800s, there was a lot of labour unrest, in part because of long hours, over-controlling bosses, low pay and dangerous… Continue reading A Story for Labour Day
A Unionist and Two Yankees in Montana
When US 20 leaves the western bounds of Yellowstone Park, it passes through the small southern tip of Montana for about ten miles. Montana therefore deserves a spot of recognition in this tale. Let’s focus on the gold rush to Montana during the Civil War, and on two Yankees and a Georgia Unionist who played… Continue reading A Unionist and Two Yankees in Montana
Those Healthy Yankees Part 2: Joel Shew, Mary Gove Nichols and the Water Cure
This is the second in a two-part piece on the early 19th Century Yankee contribution to healthy lifestyles (you can read of Part 1 here). The parallels with today’s pandemic are most interesting. The material comes from a chapter in Volume 2 of my book, The Yankee Road. By 1840, Massachusetts school reformer Horace Mann… Continue reading Those Healthy Yankees Part 2: Joel Shew, Mary Gove Nichols and the Water Cure
Old Professor by the Sea 