Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Anne Hutchinson


(baptized July 20, 1591– August 20, 1643)
Along with Roger Williams founder of Rhode Island, Anne Hutchinson was one of the most important voices of a theology that formed a counter veiling force to the theocratic rule of the Puritans. Ultimately the power of their message would lead to the Great Awakening.

Hutchinson's expression of a set of beliefs that diminished the authority of the clergy led to her banishment from the Massachusetts colony. Her voice, however, would not be stilled. Eventually her view of the relationship between God and humanity (including women) would become the prevailing doctrine throughout the colonies, setting the stage for the Great Awakening and ultimately the Revolution.

Wikipedia Biography
US History Biography

Monday, June 28, 2010

John C. Calhoun

Considered one of the giants of the United States Senate Calhoun was the voice of the South during the lead up to the Civil War.

Biography

Sojourner Truth

Sojourner Truth (c. 1797 – November 26, 1883) was the self-given name, from 1843, of Isabella Baumfree, an African-American abolitionist and women's rights activist. Truth was born into slavery in Swartekill, New York. Her best-known speech, Ain't I a Woman?, was delivered in 1851 at the Ohio Women's Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio.


Wikipedia Biography

Sunday, June 27, 2010

William Lloyd Garrison

William Lloyd Garrison
1805 - 1879
From WGBH Boston Public Radio


William  Lloyd Garrison

In the very first issue of his anti-slavery newspaper, the Liberator, William Lloyd Garrison stated, "I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation. . . . I am in earnest -- I will not equivocate -- I will not excuse -- I will not retreat a single inch -- AND I WILL BE HEARD." And Garrison was heard. For more than three decades, from the first issue of his weekly paper in 1831, until after the end of the Civil War in 1865 when the last issue was published, Garrison spoke out eloquently and passionately against slavery and for the rights of America's black inhabitants.

The son of a merchant sailing master, William Lloyd Garrison was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, in 1805. Due in large measure to the Embargo Act, which Congress had passed in 1807, the Garrison family fell on hard times while William was still young. In 1808 William's father deserted the family, forcing them to scrounge for food from more prosperous families and forcing William to work, selling homemade molasses candy and delivering wood. More

Jonathan Edwards

From Wikipedia

Jonathan Edwards (October 5, 1703 – March 22, 1758) was a preacher, theologian, and missionary to Native Americans. Edwards "is widely acknowledged to be America's most important and original philosophical theologian," and one of America's greatest intellectuals. Edwards's theological work is very broad in scope, but he is often associated with his defense of Reformed theology, the metaphysics of theological determinism, and the Puritan heritage. Recent studies have emphasized how thoroughly Edwards grounded his life's work on conceptions of beauty, harmony, and ethical fittingness, and how central The Enlightenment was to his mindset.

Edwards played a critical role in shaping the First Great Awakening, and oversaw some of the first fires of revival in 1733-1735 at his church in Northampton, Massachusetts. Edwards's sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," is considered a classic of early American literature, which he delivered during another wave of revival in 1741, following George Whitefield's tour of the Thirteen Colonies.

Edwards is widely known for his many books: The End For Which God Created the World; The Life of David Brainerd, which served to inspire thousands of missionaries throughout the nineteenth century; and Religious Affections, which many Reformed Evangelicals read even today.

Edwards died from a smallpox inoculation shortly after beginning the presidency at the College of New Jersey (later to be named Princeton University), and was the grandfather of Aaron Burr.

Saturday, June 26, 2010

William Penn

For more than 75 years until the founding of the new Republic, William Penn's colony of Pennsylvania lived in peace with the Indian people of the area.

Penn, a Quaker, was the original socially responsible businessman who recognized that making a profit by paying attention to what is now called the "triple bottom line" was the surest way to both profitability and sustainability of those profits.

Penn's philosophy made Pennsylvania not only the safest place to live in the colonies but also the most prosperous place to live as well.

Wikipedia Biography

University of Virginia Bio

No Cross, No Crown
Written from Jail by William Penn at the age of 24 while he was in prison in the Tower for the “blasphemy” of a pamphlet, The Sandy Foundation Shaken, in which he had assailed what were regarded as the strongholds of the Christian faith. His purpose in writing No Cross No Crown he describes as “to show the nature and discipline of the holy Cross of Christ; and that the denial of self … is the alone way to the Rest and Kingdom of God.”
Written in the old English style and very difficult to read in its original form.
Google Books

Some Fruits of Solitude
William Penn
Bartlebys.com

The Holy Experiment - The Founding of Pennsylvania
Conceived in Liberty Volume 1: Murray Rothbard
Chapter 55


The Pink Cloud



Order this image

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Washington's Farewell Address to the Nation


One of George Washington's great heroes was the Roman leader Cincinatus who governed for a period of time and then returned to his humble roots. Washington saw this as a mark of a great leader - in fact he believed the example so powerful that he and other colonial leaders and founders of the time, including Henry Knox, actually established a social club called the "Society of Cincinati"

Washington's quiet strength was a character trait that created great political capital for him among founders who could agree on little else in the course of the nation's founding period. For this reasons there are actually very few speeches by Washington that are enshrined in the annals of political rhetoric. However his farewell address probably ranks at the top of these.

Washington's Farewell Address to the Nation.

Friday, June 18, 2010

Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce


Joseph is one of the great figures of American history as both a political leader and a military leader.

His fame as a military leader came not from the fact that Joseph was a warrior but rather a great tactician who led a small band of Nez Perce to the border of Canada, with the goal of joining Sitting Bull who had found amnesty and protection in Canada.

In August of 1877 Joseph and his tribe had been ordered to surrender and move to the reservation. In the cover of night they escaped and headed north, first to meet up with members of the Crow nation and then, after being betrayed by the Crow, Joseph turned toward Canada seeking a land where Buffalo still roamed and where his people could live peacefully.

For 3 months Joseph and his small band evaded over 2,000 troops under the command of General Howard, who ultimately gained a grudging admiration for the Nez Perce leader. With 2,000 U.S. soldiers in pursuit, Joseph and other Nez Perce chiefs led 800 Nez Perce. The Nez Perce outmaneuvered and battled their pursuers traveling 1,600 miles (2,570 km) across Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana. General Howard, leading the opposing cavalry, was impressed with the skill with which the Nez Perce fought, using advance and rear guards, skirmish lines, and field fortifications. Finally, after a devastating five-day battle during freezing weather conditions with no food or blankets, Chief Joseph formally surrendered to General Nelson Appleton Miles on October 5, 1877 in the Bear Paw Mountains of the Montana Territory, less than 40 miles (60 km) south of Canada in a place close to the present-day Chinook in Blaine County.

At the end of the Battle, Joseph and the Nez Perce camped - having announced their plans to surrender the following day. Joseph encouraged all those healthy enough to continue on to Canada to escape across the border during the night and he remained behind with the sick and wounded. When Joseph surrendered to General Howard the following day it is said that less than 1/2 of the surviving members of his band were with him and the rest had escaped to freedom in Canada.

The battle is remembered in popular history by the words attributed to Chief Joseph at the formal surrender:

"Tell General Howard I know his heart. What he told me before, I have it in my heart. I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed; Looking Glass is dead, Too-hul-hul-sote is dead. The old men are all dead. It is the young men who say yes or no. He who led on the young men is dead. It is cold, and we have no blankets; the little children are freezing to death. My people, some of them, have run away to the hills, and have no blankets, no food. No one knows where they are—perhaps freezing to death. I want to have time to look for my children, and see how many of them I can find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead. Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired; my heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever."

It is said that his tactics are still taught today at West Point.





Biography of Joseph(Wikipedia)
Speeches of Joseph