American Epistles

Among the many young girls who arrived in San Francisco in 1868, was one 11-year-old from Shanghai. After five months in Chinatown, she was taken in by Ladies' Protection and Relief Society on Franklin Street, where she was given the name Mary. The following year, Chew Diep arrived from Taishan. In 1875, he met Mary while he delivered milk for the Sterling family. They married on November 16, and before long, Chew Diep changed his name to Joe Tape. By Mary's own account, the family lived, “the same as other Caucasians, except in features.” The Tapes lived in the Black Point neighborhood, now called Cow Hollow, which was predominantly white.  But neither the Tapes' affluence nor assimilation could protect them from discrimination.

While Chinese men flocked to "Gold Mountain," many families in the "Celestial Empire" struggled for survival, and girls were the least valuable members.   Sometimes they were sold away, and ended up in the United States as prostitutes. But they found refuge in organizations like the Women's Occidental Board of Missions, led by Donaldina Cameron. Eventually, Chinese men were able to bring their wives, and San Francisco's Chinatown became a community of families. The demands of home life kept working-class wives very busy. But middle-class Chinese women formed societies that gave them the opportunity to not only socialize, but develop leadership skills, and advocate for issues that were important to them, including suffrage.

The story of large-scale Chinese immigration to the United States begins in the 1850s. Most came from Guangdong Province, wracked for decades by civil and economic unrest. Gam Saan, or “Gold Mountain,” held the promise of wealth that could enrich an entire village. When the Gold Rush subsided, Chinese men found work on the Transcontinental Railroad. They would build 90% of the Central Pacific Railroad, laying track in record time. However, while the Chinese were initially heralded for their industry and efficiency, they would become targets of harassment and violence. In 1882, when Chinese immigrants were 0.21% of the population, Congress passed the Exclusion Act. From 1910 to 1940, the Angel Island Immigration Station played an important role in the enforcement of the law. Poems inscribed into the barracks walls give us a glimpse into life for those waiting to learn their fates.

In this final episode, Elinore gets an education in the Mormon practice of polygamy in the early 1900s. She also recounts her successes growing and raising food on her homestead. She definitely paints a rosy picture, rosier than the one we saw during the Women Homesteader's episode. Was that Elinore having a positive attitude, applying a positive spin, or something else? Maybe we can just say, Elinore being Elinore.

In today's letter, Elinore sets out to hire some help, and ends up being a big help herself. She also educates Mrs. Coney about the proper cookware for a camp-fire breakfast.

I had forgotten that Elinore was born and raised in the antebellum South, but she reminded me with her Christmas letter and racist party “game.” As I was trying to figure out a way out of recording it, I remembered why the American Revolution became more interesting to me. It was because I learned more about the Founding Fathers in their full humanity, and not as demigods in bronze and marble. You'll be glad to know that there are no demigods in this episode. Only fallible human beings.

Elinore shares some of the personal joys and sorrows that she has experienced since moving to Wyoming.

For decades, before they were forced onto reservations, Native Americans had friendly and even intimate contact with non-natives. But as settlements increased, so did the violence, and death. Eventually, the US government calculated that it was cheaper to kill the Indian way of life than to kill Indians.

Elinore continues her awe-inspiring descriptions of the Wyoming frontier.  Her signature humor is also alive and well.  This time, Elinore gets a little taste of cowboy living, and of cackle-berries.   

Under the Homestead Act of 1862 and its revisions, over 1 million applicants received a plot of land from the Federal government.  Thousands of the homesteaders were women.   They were black and they were white.  Some were recent immigrants from Europe.   Some were looking for husbands, others had left husbands, or lost them to death, divorce, or desertion.  Quite a few had no interest at all in a husband.  But they all worked hard to "prove up" their homesteads. And most of them realized that the land they were claiming had been home to Native people for centuries.

Under the Homestead Act of 1862 and its revisions, over 1 million applicants received a plot of land from the Federal government.  Thousands of the homesteaders were women.   They were black and they were white.  Some were recent immigrants from Europe.   Some were looking for husbands, others had left husbands, or lost them to death, divorce, or desertion.  Quite a few had no interest at all in a husband.  But they all worked hard to "prove up" their homesteads. And most of them realized that the land they were claiming had been home to Native people for centuries.

Today, Elinore gives us a peek inside her humble abode, and then tells us about a literature-inspired dinner.  Once again, there's snow involved.

October 6, 1911 Dear Mrs. Coney, … Aggie was angry all through. She vowed she was being robbed. After she had berated me soundly for submitting so tamely, she flounced back to her own room, declaring she would get even with the robbers. I had to hurry like everything that night to get myself and … Continue reading “A very angry Aggie strode in.” (Elinore Rupert, Part 7) →

Zebulon Pike Parker shares his story from home, then a frightening storm is followed by a beautiful sunrise.

The Elinore Rupert series continues with a family tragedy, a young girl's industry, and a sewing bee.

I'm very excited to announce that I'll be participating in Intelligent Speech 2021! Intelligent Speech is an online conference dedicated to connecting the best independent educational content creators with their listeners. This year’s conference takes place on Saturday, April 24 at 10 AM EST (New York)/3 PM GMT (London).

In this fourth episode in a multi-part series, Elinore Rupert shares big news with Mrs. Coney, her former employer in Denver.

In this third episode of a multi-part series, Elinore Rupert meets a pair of twins with interesting names, and helps arrange a family reunion.

In this second episode of a multi-part series about Elinore Rupert, the author and her daughter Jerrine venture out into the great wilds of Wyoming.  When their explorations take a scary turn, a new friend helps them find their way.

In March 1909, Elinore Rupert moved from Denver, Colorado to Burnt Fork, Wyoming to be a housekeeper for widowed homesteader Clyde Stewart. The Homestead Act of 1862 gave tracts of land to male citizens, widows, single women, and immigrants who pledged to become citizens; Rupert hoped to have a homestead of her own someday. After moving, Rupert began a years-long correspondence with her former employer, Mrs. Juliet Coney, a widowed schoolteacher. The letters would eventually be published in the Atlantic Monthly, and then in a book. Over several episodes, we'll hear Rupert's own words about her adventures in Wyoming.

The West Virginia Mine Wars were a series of armed conflicts between coal mine operators and employees in the Mountain State. The first episode was about the conditions in the West Virginia coal fields in the years leading up to the Mine Wars. The second episode discussed Paint Creek and Cabin Creek strikes that ended in 1913. For several months, the nation’s attention was focused on the war raging across the Atlantic. West Virginia was the second largest producer of the coal needed to fuel steel mills and Navy ships. The higher demand for coal, along with the labor shortage, lead to an increase in miners’ wages. But the increases were not permanent, and many of the issues that had sparked the Paint Creek and Cabin Creek strikes remained. And the violence returned. It culminated in the Battle of Blair Mountain was the largest armed insurrection in United States since the Civil War.

This second episode in a three-part series focuses on the Paint Creek and Cabin Creek Strikes, during which martial law was declared three separate times. At least 20 people were killed.

The West Virginia Mine Wars were violent conflicts between mine workers and mine owners, that took place between 1912 and 1922. In all there were five armed battles over that 10-year period. This first episode in a three-part series focuses on the history of the mining industry, and the conditions and events that led up to the Mine Wars.

John Robert Lewis was born on February 21, 1940, in Pike County, Alabama. As he learned during a filming of Finding Your Roots, his great-great-grandfather Tobias Carter, registered to voted in 1867, 2 years after the abolition of slavery.  But almost 100 years later, Lewis, his sharecropper parents, and thousands of other descendants of enslaved people were prevented from voting. Inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Montgomery bus boycott, Lewis organized non-violent protests such as sit-ins, and joined the 1961 Freedom Rides. Lewis assumed leadership of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1963.  In '64, SNCC and other civil rights groups led an effort to educate African Americans in Mississippi, and register them to vote.  

The Civil War was supposed to mean the end of slavery and the beginning of freedom, franchise, and full citizenship for African Americans. And in the decades after the war, many blacks did make legislative, educational, and financial gains.  But as we learned in the first episode of American Epistles, many more formerly enslaved people and their children faced limited economic opportunity and the constant threat of violence.

During the Revolutionary War, enslaved American James Armistead acted as a double agent and provided valuable information to French general Marquis de Lafayette. Five years after the war, Armistead was granted his freedom and added "Lafayette" to his name.

For enslaved Americans, literacy was a path to freedom. Those who could write forged the “tickets” that both enslaved and free blacks needed to move about. Some of these tickets took enslaved people all the way to free states, and even to Canada. Literacy provided spiritual freedom. It enabled people in bondage to read the whole Bible, and not just the sections that enslavers quoted. The Bible represented liberation, both on earth and in eternity. Enslaved Christians identified with the Israelites, whom Moses led out of Egypt and into the Promised Land. And in sharing their stories, people who had escaped slavery hoped to awaken sympathy in their fellow Americans and achieve freedom for all enslaved people.

Throughout the South, it was illegal for white people to teach black people--enslaved and sometimes free--how to read.  Some whites taught blacks anyway: at times motivated by kindness, other times by self-interest.  But even without the assistance of white people, enslaved Americans learned to read and to write.  Facing the threat of whippings and worse, they learned under cover of night, and in "pit schools" in the woods.  They hid books in their dresses and under their hats so they would be ready for a lesson at any moment.

Anti-literacy laws prevented millions of enslaved Americans from learning to read and write, and from chronicling their lives on paper. Thanks to oral history projects, however, not all of the stories of the enslaved are lost. And, thanks to their ingenuity and determination, some Americans in bondage did learn to write their own stories. This series on slave narratives and the pursuit of literacy begins with the memoir of Bethany Veney, also known as Aunty Betty.

July 16, 1964 Dear Mr. Nelson, As you probably already know, there have been many arrests in Greenwood … Tomorrow I expect to be there to picket the jail house. This means almost certain arrest. Yours in freedom, Cephas During the summer of 1964, thousands of young people from across the United States enlisted in … Continue reading “We are afraid to speak for our rights.” (Freedom Summer, 1964: Part 2) →

The Freedom Carrier Greenwood, MS July 16, 1964 It is felt that the state of Mississippi has the worst educational system in the entire United States. As degraded as the white education is, the Negro has the worst half of the worst. A need to try to fill the gap was felt. Therefore COFO initiated … Continue reading “Mississippi is going to be hell this summer.” (Freedom Summer, 1964) →

Women of the Army Signal Corps at First Army Headquarters Image credit: National Archives [/audio] “Every order for an infantry advance, a barrage preparatory to the taking of a new objective and, in fact, for every troop movement, came of these ‘fighting lines,’ as we called them.  These wires connected to the front, up with … Continue reading “I was awakened … by the low roar of guns.” (Hello Girls: Mini Episode) →

[/audio] November 4, 1918 The chauffeurs have been most tremendously busy these last two weeks on account of moving. My life seems to hinge around choked carbureters, broken springs, long hours on the road, food snatched when you can get it, and sleep. Nothing else has mattered to me and I feel like a regular … Continue reading “We fed them what we had.” (Women’s Welfare Work in WWI: Part 3) →

Salvation Army Worker Serving Donuts to the AEF; Image credit:  Smithsonian Magazine “August 10, 1917 I get my appointment and go loco w joy. It seems to me my reason for existence is explained. All my training and experience seem to have fitted me for just this. Bradford Knapp talks and I get two ideas. … Continue reading “Don’t drop them pies!” (Women’s Welfare Work in WWI: Part 2) →

“Their house had been destroyed and they had lost all their farm possessions but one cow. They were living in one side of a dirt-floored barn that belonged to some friend, and someone else had given them a bed. But why this family was living at all, I do not know. They had rushed away … Continue reading “We washed the men and the floors.” (Women’s Welfare Work in WWI: Part 1) →

While the majority of black soldiers serving in World War I were assigned to non-combat jobs such as loading and unloading cargo ships, and burying the dead, soldiers in the 93rdDivision did see combat.

We’ve all heard of Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass, but there were millions of women and men who spoke for, and against, women’s suffrage. Today’s mini-episode shares a few of those voices.

he Civil War is a familiar topic to most of us, and there are several podcasts on the topic. Less familiar is the effect of the war on black women, who faced unique challenges while their loved ones were fighting. Families in the North worried that their sons and husbands would be enslaved if captured by the Confederate Army. Some whites who were angry about black fighting for the Union took it out on the family members that the soldiers left behind. Today we hear a small piece of those families’ stories.

In many ways, the North delivered on its promise.  The migrants enjoyed higher wages, better education for their children, and the opportunity to participate in the political process.  And they no longer had to behave in a subservient manner to white people. However, the migrants clashed culturally with the blacks who had preceded them. There were also violent clashes with whites.

Prior to World War I, African Americans had plenty of reasons to want to leave the South. But they had little reason to believe that life would be better in the North. But the “War to End All Wars” created unprecedented labor opportunities for southern blacks. Labor agents enticed many migrants with free transportation, but it was The Chicago Defender newspaper that probably did the most to encourage African Americans to move. Its portrayal of a comfortable Black Chicago, and advertisements of a “Great Northern Drive,” led many southerners to take a chance. Southern whites expressed alarm and anger that their valuable Negro labor was fleeing. Black leaders also questioned whether migration was the best course. But there was little they could do to stop it.

The Civil War was supposed to mean the end of slavery and the beginning of freedom, franchise, and full citizenship for African Americans. And in the decades after the war, many blacks did make legislative, educational, and financial gains. But as we learned in the first episode of American Epistles, many more formerly enslaved people and their children faced limited economic opportunity and the constant threat of violence.

Where does “history” come from? How do we know, for example, what words didn’t make it into the Declaration of Independence?  Or what the delegates to the Constitutional Convention argued about before the final document was signed on September 17, 1787? To a great degree, our history textbooks started with the diaries that the Founding … Continue reading Welcome to American Epistles! →