Dr. Madsen

“Last seen” and runaway slave ads as primary sources

by Dr. Madsen · Apr 27, 2020

An ad for a runaway slave, offering a $10 reward — A typical ad offering a reward for the capture and return of an enslaved woman. Source: Freedom on the Move database.

1. Visit the Freedom on the Move website.

Click on “Search.”
Use a Gmail (your Boise State account should work) or Facebook account to log in and view the ads, or set up an account.
Use the worksheet to analyze those ads.

2. Browse the ads on the “Last Seen” archive.

Select three ads that are of particular interest.
Use the worksheet to analyze those ads.

You can download the worksheet (.docx).

3. Answer these questions:

The lives of formerly enslaved people changed between the start of the Civil War and the end of Reconstruction. What such changes can you infer from reading Jourdon Anderson’s letter Col. Anderson?
To what extent do the ads from the “Freedom on the Move” and “Last Seen” archives capture or hint at these changes?
Throughout History 111, we have read several primary sources related to slavery. What do we learn from reading the ads alongside these other primary sources that we might miss if we had read only one set of documents or the other?

Walt Whitman and Abraham Lincoln

by Dr. Madsen · Apr 22, 2020

A photographic portrait of Walt Whitman at around age 50 — Walt Whitman circa 1869, via Wikimedia Commons.

1. Based on what you read in History in the Making and what you may know about Lincoln from elsewhere, what was there about Abraham Lincoln’s personality that made him an effective leader?

2. In “O Captain” and “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d,” how does Whitman characterize Lincoln, either literally or figuratively? Are the traits you mentioned in response to question #1 suggested by either poem?

3. In “Lilacs,” how does Whitman depict the nation in 1865? What lines in the poem stand out to you, and why?

4. Some historians have noted that Walt Whitman was fascinated with Lincoln, even though the two men apparently never met. In fact, literature professor Martin Griffin has written of “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d,” “the elegy lays claim to the invisible brotherhood of Abraham Lincoln and Walt Whitman.” It’s clear Lincoln’s life and death deeply affected Whitman, as for many years, Whitman delivered a lecture on Lincoln’s death on the anniversary of the assassination.

Griffin explains that

Lincoln was an unlikely president for a nation in crisis, as Whitman was an unlikely poet of national spiritual exploration. It was not only their similar class origins — Lincoln in Kentucky and Indiana, Whitman on Long Island — in a workingman’s America, far from any social or educational privilege, that they had in common, but also the willingness, in each case, to believe in the task that life had delivered them
Whitman also saw a link with Lincoln in their common language. In [his poetry], Whitman used American idiom to invoke an American democratic landscape, and in particular an egalitarian tolerance. . .He saw the same sort of skill with the same sort of language in Lincoln’s speeches.
There was a poetry to many of Lincoln’s public addresses that tried to find that place in the American psyche, that place where people would grasp the importance of his policies, and of persevering until victory, and subsequently of repairing the nation. The president was, in many ways, walking the road the same road as Whitman: a journey to find the central meaning of the United States, a journey that would shun the path of shallow boosterism, that would embrace ugly truths and hard decisions.

In what ways do the language and imagery in “Lilacs” support Griffin’s assertions about Whitman and Lincoln?

5. As students of history, what can we learn from poetry that we might not learn from other sources? (You might recall as well Puritan Anne Bradstreet’s poems on the deaths of her grandchildren.)

6. What did you learn from “Lilacs” and “O Captain” that you didn’t already know from the textbook or other sources?

Sectional Crisis resources

by Dr. Madsen · Apr 20, 2020

What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?

Full text of Frederick Douglass’s speech

The speech as read by Ossie Davis, part I:

And part II:

Discussion questions

In answering these questions, you may use any resources for this class to provide context, but focus on these primary source documents:

Pun Chi, “A Remonstrance from the Chinese in California to the Congress of the United States”
Political cartoon: “The Problem Solved”
George Fitzhugh, excerpt from Sociology for the South, or the Failure of Free Society
Lucy Armstrong’s letter on slavery, the Wyandotte, and the Methodist Episcopal Church (original handwritten letter)
Frederick Douglass, excerpt from “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”

The definition of who qualifies to be considered a U.S. American has, since the founding of the nation, been under negotiation. In these five primary sources, people residing in America define, implicitly or explicitly, who qualifies as an American. Answer these questions related to the ongoing struggle over inclusion and exclusion:

What criteria do people use to determine who counts as an American? As a citizen?
What arguments are the creators of these documents making for inclusion or exclusion of themselves or others?
In what contexts were these documents written? That is, what was going on in the U.S. at the time, and what had the sources’ creators experienced in their lives? How do these documents relate to other events that culminated in the Civil War (.docx)?
According to the creators of these documents, what role does each of the following play in qualifying someone as of good character and/or an American?

ethnicity/national origin/race/immigration status
labor: hard work, wage work, unpaid work
Christianity

Westward expansion

by Dr. Madsen · Apr 15, 2020

Artifact analysis worksheet (.docx)

Comparing/synthesizing artworks questions (.docx)

John Gast's American Progress. A woman in flowing gowns hovers over the plains, guiding Native peoples, pioneers, farmers, and trains as she strings telegraph wire. — John Gast, *American Progress* (1872). Autry National Center, via Wikimedia Commons.

In this painting, various migrants head west across a rocky, mountainous, and forested North American landscape. — Emanuel Leutze, *Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way* (1862). Architect of the Capitol, via Flickr.

This painting depicts General George Washington in a crowded rowboat crossing an icy river. He is standing, and an American flag flies behind him. — Emanuel Leutze, *Washington Crossing the Delaware* (1851). Metropolitan Museum of Art, via Wikipedia.

Rustic campsite on the edge of a lake or river. Rowboat with two small figures in the foreground. — Robert S. Duncanson, *Landscape with Campsite* (n.d., but mid-19th century, as Duncanson died in 1872). Smithsonian American Art Museum.

This Land and blood quantum episodes

by Dr. Madsen · Apr 8, 2020

Download today’s discussion outline and questions (.docx).

First thoughts

1. What most surprised you about the This Land and Code Switch episodes? Why?

2. What did you learn in the podcasts that you hadn’t yet learned from textbooks or other sources?

Objectivity

We’ve talked quite a bit about objectivity vs. subjectivity in this course.

Objectivity: “lack of favoritism toward one side or another; freedom from bias”
Subjectivity: a perspective “modified or affected by personal views, experience, or background”
Historians’ preference for objectivity
Use of first-person point-of-view in writing by historians. An excerpt from Helen Sword’s Stylish Academic Writing:

Another surprising finding was the predominance of first-person pronouns in the sciences. The high percentages in medicine, evolutionary biology, and computer science (92, 100, and 82 percent, respectively) confound the commonly held assumption that scientists shun the pronouns I and we in their research writing. By contrast, only 54 percent of the higher education researchers in my data sample and only 40 percent of the historians use first-person pronouns.
Helen Sword. Stylish Academic Writing. Boston: Harvard University Press, 2012. Kindle edition, p. 18.

Strong objectivity, a concept originally named by Sandra Harding

Strong objectivity explanation by Nancy Naples:

The notion of strong objectivity was first articulated by feminist philosopher Sandra Harding in 1987. Strong objectivity builds on the insights of feminist standpoint theory, which argues for the importance of starting from the experiences of those who have been traditionally left out of the production of knowledge. By starting from the lived experiences of women and others who have been traditionally outside of the institutions in which knowledge about social life is generated and classified, more objective and more relevant knowledge can be produced. It is argued that knowledge produced from the point of view of subordinated groups may offer stronger objectivity because of the greater motivation of these groups to understand the views or perspectives of those in positions of power.

3. Can people closer to an event/cultural phenomenon/court case provide better information than others, or can we not trust them because they’re “too close”? How do these concepts apply to Sharp v. Murphy? How do we balance our use of sources if traditionally such sources have been used to disenfranchise Native peoples and have led to their suffering and oppression?

Murder, land, reservations, and resources

This case has been tried at different levels under different case names. The case was previously known as Carpenter v. Murphy and Royal v. Murphy. The current full case name is Tommy Sharp, Interim Warden Oklahoma State Penitentiary, Petitioner v. Patrick Dwayne Murphy.

4. Let’s think about the case itself:

What’s going on with the case Sharp v. Murphy?
Why is it about more than just a murder?
Why does the case matter enough to have made it to the Supreme Court?
Who are the petitioner and the respondent, who has supported each of them with amicus curiae (i.e. “friend of the court” briefs), and why does each side care?

5. The episodes we listened to included some clips of Supreme Court justices’ questions and commentary, as well as background information on the justices’ previous rulings on Native American cases.

Which rulings, commentary, and lines of questioning did you find persuasive, and which less so? Why?
What role does an understanding of history play in the justices’ understanding of the case, and where do you think the justices learned about history?

Blood quantum, tribal membership, and race

5. Why is it important for indigenous Americans that “Native American” is considered a political, and not merely a racial, designation? What’s at stake in this classification? Give specific examples of what’s at stake.

6. Let’s consider blood quantum.

Why does blood quantum matter?
Who made up the blood quantum system, and why?
Why do Native peoples continue to use it?
What do you think the blood quantum system and tribal enrollment will look like two generations from now?

Closing reflections

7. This Land host Rebecca Nagle and others observe that non-Native people don’t pay attention to legislation and court cases regarding indigenous Americans. Why don’t they pay attention, and what’s the result? Be specific in your answers.

8. What are the “lessons learned” from these episodes, and do they change how you understand and perceive Native nations and individuals? Will your future behavior change as a result? If so, how so? If not, why not?

(Optional discussion of Mashpee case reading/listening will follow regular class session)

Finding the eBooks for our next two books

by Dr. Madsen · Mar 13, 2020

Here’s a video showing how to find the ebook versions of Lewis and Clark Through Indian Eyes and Mongrel Nation. Note that Lewis and Clark through Indian Eyes only allows for one user at a time, but Mongrel Nation will allow all students to view it at once.

One update to the information in the video: The librarian I was speaking with told me that each user needs to “return” the ebook when they’re finished in order to free it up for the next user. However, there doesn’t appear to be any way to return the ebook. Instead, from what I see, the eBook remains open to that user until they have been inactive for ~30 minutes.

COVID-19 resources

by Dr. Madsen · Mar 2, 2020

Meme in which a man, labeled "Everyone," is checking out a woman labeled "Literally any mask" while he shocked girlfriend, labeled "Hand washing, disinfection, contact avoidance" looks on.

Cultural habits, beliefs, and values

Zach Purser Brown, “Bubonic plague was so deadly an English village quarantined itself to save others”

Kiona N. Smith, “Today in Science History: The 1907 San Francisco Plague”

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “U.S. Public Health Service of Syphilis Study at Tuskegee”

Facebook post by Adam Grydehøj on residents’ cooperation and collaboration in Hubei Province

People wearing surgical masks and homemade protective clothing retrieve bags of medicine for their neighbors in Hubei Province, China. — Screen shot from Adam Grydehøj’s Facebook post, February 28, 2020.

The best way to protect yourself and others

Wash your hands with soap several times a day, including when you first arrive home. Here’s the proper way, in gifs.
Cough into a tissue or, if no tissue is available, your elbow. Toss the tissue immediately.
Don’t touch your face.
Seriously, wash your hands with soap and stop touching your face.