clair057

This past week I performed a little experiment. I threw the word “history” out to various people–friends, waitresses, store clerks, even a couple of surprised strangers–and asked them to tell me what immediately popped into their minds. Various words were thrown back to me– events, dates, maps, wars, battles –and the list goes on. None of the responses really surprised me, but there are other words to parallel with the word history. Words like preservation, remember, and trust come to mind and unfortunately, the words failure, greed, demolish, surrender, neglect, and ignore are on the flipside as I continue examining the winding path of history a cotton mill where I live has taken. I shared the story over at Douglasville Patch last week where I have a weekly column regarding how Douglasville ended up with the cotton mill and how important the mill was to our economic health over most of the last century. You can see my column from last week here . Now I want to share the rest of the...

The History Carnival is up over at Culture and Stuff .    A blog carnival is a blog post with various links to other blogs that follow the same topic.   In this case the topic is history.    Think of it as the blogosphere’s version of Reader’s Digest with a different blog within the history community hosting each month. It’s always a great read!! I intend to enjoy it one little morsel at a time.   J Enjoy!!!!

So…in my neck of the woods many had the first day of school while other had their first day of pre-planning.    What was it for you? A fellow teacher and friend of mine posted this last night on Facebook, and I felt I needed to share it here.   You may have seen variations of this on the web or in one of those emails that tend to end up in your inbox that has been forwarded hither and yon. My friend tells me she changed a few things here and there to match her own situation. I say BRAVO!.....and may everyone involved in education from the board office to the bus drivers have a most wonderful year!!! T'was the night before school starts And all through the place, Not a smile was seen On any teacher’s face. Our bags were all stuffed With tea bags and glue, And rulers and pencils With erasers to chew. Mournfully we All crawled into bed to sleep tight, But we know that the good life is way out of sight. Then the hubby cames in whistling And kissed me goodnight, With a bright ...

Lanett and Opelika in Alabama….Amity in Arkansas…..Hogansville, Canton, and Douglasville in Georgia….Concord and Carrboro in North Carolina and Cherokee Falls, Piedmont and Whitmire in South Carolina…..All of these places including many other cities and towns across the South were all major mill towns birthed during the New South era. The New South Era has as many definitions as other historical periods such as the Gilded Age or the Progressive Era, but for my purposes here I’m going with Edward L. Ayers.    In his book The Promise of the New South:   Life after Reconstruction he states the New South era began in the 1880s after the biracial and reformist experiment of Reconstruction had ended and the conservative white Democrats had taken power throughout the southern states. A fellow Georgian, Henry W. Grady, is credited with the term “New South” which represents an ideology that emphasized a new reliance upon railroads and industrialization to modernize the South. ...

Over the Fourth of July holiday I was fortunate enough to make a stop at Andrew Jackson’s home, Hermitage, in Nashville, Tennessee. Unfortunately, President Jackson was out, but he had left behind all sorts of interesting things for me to look at. I thought I’d post them for a quick little game.   Don’t worry though…the answers are right here. Go on and take a look and then at the bottom of the post you will find my link to more pictures from Jackson’s lovely home. Okay…what’s this? It looks like carved ivory, doesn’t it?    It carried something both men and women used during Jackson’s time.      Yes, this little crab-shaped item has a little box in it that carried snuff.    You could slip it in your pocket.    I can just imagine the conversations it would start when Jackson brought it out during a meeting. Okay….what about this????      Forgive my fat fingers and the not-too-focused image.  ...

One of the important lessons I teach each year is the Declaration of Independence.   Over the years I’d bring up our nation’s important documents in adult conversations when people would ask what grade I taught.   Sometimes it was very obvious from what was said that the adults I was conversing with didn’t have a clue regarding the difference between documents like the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.   It’s was also very obvious those same adults had never actually read either document. It’s very simple.   The Declaration declares our independence from Great Britain while the U.S. Constitution serves as our plan of government – the rules regarding how our Federal government works. It’s simple, right? Try explaining it to nine and ten year olds when some of them still believe Pocahontas had little animal friends who talked and she frolicked in the forest breaking out into song when the notion hit her as Disney portrays. Finally, I hit on an analogy s...

Tom Horn.  A simple name for a man yet it appears he lived a very complex life.   In fact, Tom Horn himself said of his life, “I have lived about fifteen ordinary lives.   I would like to have had somebody who saw my past and could picture it to the public.   It would be the most interesting reading in the country.” Once guilty, now innocent, but still dead – the description the New York Times gave Tom Horn in 1993. A man Steve McQueen chose to portray in a movie – though historians have several issues with the treatment’s accuracy. Tom Horn is an excellent historical figure for students to analyze while learning a little about the American Southwest during the late 19 th Century.    The details surrounding his life, the historical events swirling around him, and the issue of right and wrong regarding those events in relation to Mr. Horn’s actions could lead to a classroom of very engaged students on various levels. Upon running away from home at the ag...