Doing History One Breath At a Time
A mishmash of Franklin links:
Handy site for early America: Archiving Early America
I found it while doing a search for an electronic version of The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
Reading The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin this week. I am amazed at how easy it is to read.
I came across this quote in Part 2, which contains letters to Franklin encouraging him to continue writing his autobiography:
I am earnestly desirous, then, my dear sir, that you should let the world into the traits of your genuine character, as civil broils may tend to disguise or traduce it.1
Off to the dictionary I go and find out that a broil in this context is not something you do with food but rather, “A rowdy argument; a brawl”2 and traduce means, ” To cause humiliation or disgrace to by making malicious and false statements.”3
So people writing under the pretension of civility might offer “rowdy” arguments that will cause humiliation or disgrace to Franklin if he doesn’t write his own story.
Trial of Elizabeth Clawson, Stamford, Connecticut - Salem, MA wasn’t the only place going through a witch hunt in 1692. There was another one in Stamford Connecticut. The difference, for reasons I have yet to completely research, is that people in Stamford were less prone to panic and more thoughtful in their approach. While the “water ordeal” is the most famous, least logical form of punishment for women who were accused of witches, many theologians and jurists actually rejected the practice. Increase Mather, one of the more famous preachers in New England, condemned the practice. Elizabeth Clawson was found not guilty of being a witch by a court in Stamford.
Google: Elizabeth Clawson
Google Books: Elizabeth Clawson
The Soveraignty and Goodness of God by Mary Rowlandson, who was taken captive by group of Nipmunk and Narragansett Indians (whom she calls such things as “bloody Heathen” and “merciless Heathen” and “infidel”) in Lancaster, MA. Her account is quite lengthy, detailing her 3 months of capitivity, which ended when she was ransomed for £20.
Another primary document1 we are using this week reveals the testimony of both a Spanish soldier and a Pueblo Indian to Spanish authorities in Santa Fe, Nuevo Mexico in 1680 about the Indian uprising (or “revolt”) against the ruling Spaniards.
Of course, the document is written from the Spanish point of view, so the language used includes words like “conspiracies of the Indian sorcerers” and
“who is said to have communication with the devil.” There is no attempt to understand the true nature of the rebellion. History is rife with this sort of arrogance.
One review, written in 1945, says “their rebellion against the church was regarded as a far more serious offense than their rebellion against the king.”2
Full text of Pedro Naranjo’s testimony
I can tell already, this is going to be a fascinating class. This week’s readings are primary documents from the 17th century, while America had yet to be more than an escape for disgruntled Christians seeking religious tolerance and merchants seeking their fortune.
The first piece is 3 paragraphs from Descriptions of New York by Father Isaac Jogues. On the surface, they read as a bit of a travelogue but as an historian, one must delve into the details and search for the context. Why are these 3 paragraphs important enough to have survived into the 21st century? {Full Novum Belgium e-text or Project Gutenberg Narrative New Netherland.}
Here is what I do whenever approaching something like this:
I keep taking notes on each new piece of information. This gives me a good feel for the context of the time and the importance of the person writing the primary document.