Episodes

  • May '24 Trivia Time!

    May '24 Trivia Time!
    May 22 2024
    The more I learn about the Ohio River’s regional history and culture, the more I feel like I’m taking a Virginia history class. You’ll see why when you take this month’s trivia quiz! If you want a leg up, check out this prior newsletter concerning Virginia’s land claims.Note to my fabulous new subscribers: It’s the rare person who can answer all ten trivia questions without any prep. I couldn’t answer them without a significant amount of research, either! Do your best and enjoy learning something new. Answers in the footnotes.QUESTIONSAll answers are in the footnotes.The first two questions refer to this map. * How did this huge swath of land (above in green) come to be named Virginia? Check all that apply.* When Sir Walter Raleigh’s self-funded settlement on Roanoke Island failed, he needed to curry favor with Elizabeth (the Virgin Queen) to finance another attempt. Part of his pitch was that the new country would be called “Virginia.”* One word: hubris. * Four words: The Doctrine of Discovery.* In what order was Virginia subdivided into colonies? I have alphabetized the answers, so put them in order.* Colony of Carolina.* Colony of Maryland.* Colony of Pennsylvania.* Colony of Plymouth (Plymouth Colony).* Refer to the map below. Virginia was still a huge state in 1783, even after it had been subdivided into the colonies in Q2. Which Virginia founding father, himself trained as a surveyor, authored a plan for ceding Virginia’s northwestern lands to the Confederation Congress in 1784?* Let’s talk about the Virginia Military District in Ohio. In return for ceding its land claims to the Confederation Congress in 1784, Congress granted Virginia roughly 4.2 million acres to provide military bounty land grants as payment (in lieu of cash) for its veterans of the American Revolutionary War. When was the remaining land no longer eligible to be granted to these Virginia veterans? Only one of these is correct:* When the Northwest Territory was established in 1787.* When Ohio became a state in 1803.* On February 18, 1871, when any unsurveyed and unsold District land was ceded to the state of Ohio.* In 1872, when the Ohio legislature gave this land to the Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College (now The Ohio State University).* The Northwest Territory was established in 1787 by the Confederation Congress. When did the Territory cease to exist?* When Ohio became a state in 1803.* When the Indiana Territory was finally settled into the states of Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Illinois (1809).* The Northwest Ordinance that established the Territory specifically prohibited slavery. I wrote about that here. Which of these is true of the history of slavery in this region? More than one may apply.* Slavery was introduced to Illinois in 1719 by Philip Francois Renault who brought 500 slaves with him from San Domingo via the Mississippi River. * While the Northwest Ordinance prohibited slavery, this did not apply to any slaves already in the Territory when it was established (1787).* Enslavers continued the practice by using contracts of indenture that allowed indentured workers to be bought, sold, and inherited.* What is the importance of the Southwest Territory? Choose as many as apply.* It’s formal name is the Territory South of the River Ohio, and was created from lands of the Washington District that had been ceded to the U.S. federal government by North Carolina (which had once been Virginia).* The new territory was essentially governed under the same provisions as the Northwest Ordinance, but the Article outlawing slavery was not applied to the Southwest Territory. * Kentucky and Tennessee were carved out of this Territory.* Virginia produced a lot of presidents and governors. Which Virginia-born governors in the six Ohio River states were slaveholders? More than one choice may apply.* Ohio Governors Thomas Worthington and Allen Trimble* Indiana Governors William Henry Harrison and Thomas Posey* Illinois Governor Edward Coles* Kentucky Governors George Madison and Christopher Greenup* In a departure from the “Virginia Method” of surveying land, The Northwest Territory used the Rectangular Survey System (RSS). This system can be thought of as a grid that covers the U.S. What was the difference between it and the Virginia Method? More than one may be correct:* The Virginia Method used chains and compasses to mark lines from a starting point, typically a natural feature such as a large white oak tree. * Surveying in Virginia was not based on the metric system.* Virginian surveyors were directed to define polygons that enclosed high-quality land for farming and to exclude areas with poor soil.* Beginning with the Seven Ranges in present-day Ohio, the Rectangular Survey System has been used as the primary survey method in the United States. Which states do NOT use this method exclusively?* Ohio* California* Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Wyoming* WisconsinAnd that’s a wrap ...
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    20 mins
  • Did you know the Revolutionary War had a Northwestern Front?

    Did you know the Revolutionary War had a Northwestern Front?
    May 10 2024
    Every class I took on the American Revolution focused on the thirteen colonies. In my limited knowledge of the war, the French and Spanish were doing their own things west of the Mississippi, leaving the British-owned but lightly settled Illinois Country in between that saw no real action. I had no idea that the southern part of the old Northwest Territory had been a theater of war until I got a postcard advertising the Filson Historical Society’s Northwest & Indigenous Revolution Tour. It was time to expand my world view from where I’d left it in high school. Our main tour stops were Fort de Chartres, St. Genevieve, The St. Charles Heritage Museum, The Lewis & Clark Boat House Museum, Cahokia Mounds, George Rogers Clark National Historical Park, and its neighboring site Grouseland on the campus of Vincennes University.France and Spain in the RevolutionThe Bourbon kings of France and Spain were cousins. I would have had to know this to say that I forgot it. The two kingdoms were allied against the British during the Seven Years War, 1756–1763, (we call it the French and Indian War). France was badly beaten by the British during that war, and longed for vengeance. From the Seven Years War to the Revolution, the land west of the Mississippi to the Rocky Mountains, called Louisiana, went back and forth between France and Spain and involved a secret treaty. Here’s a video to explain how and when it happened. You might have to watch it a couple of times—I did! The way these monarchs played with colonies reminds me of third-graders learning chess moves.Anyhow, the upshot of all this is that through 1777, France covertly supported the Revolution with guns, weapons, and cash through a shell company (thanks, Ben Franklin!). French volunteers poured into the continent, chief among them Lafayette. After a decisive American win at Saratoga, France formally declared war on England in 1778. Spain joined France as an ally in 1779 without declaring war on England itself. As had happened in the Seven Years War, the clash of empires began spreading across the globe, heavily in the Caribbean, and the British cut their losses in North America.Speaking of Franklin, I’m enjoying the AppleTV series of that name starring Michael Douglas in the title role. George Rogers Clark Takes Center StageBorn near Charlottesville, Virginia, the founder of Louisville, Kentucky, George Rogers Clark played a key role in this story. We talked about him at nearly every stop on our Filson Society tour. To set the stage for the Illinois theater of war, remember that the Seven Years War included the France relinquishing its Illinois territorial claims to England. At the start of the Revolution, the British relied heavily on native tribes to attack backcountry farms and settlements using guns and ammunition they provided. These attacks had the greatest threats to Virginians in Kentucky County (south of the Ohio River), which the Virginia General Assembly had created 1776. Yes, Kentucky was a Virginia county before it became a state.At the age of 26, Clark requested and was granted public orders from the governor of Virginia to proceed against the British in the Illinois frontier. He also got a secret commission to launch an attack west into British-held territory. His goal was to seize Detroit, but he started easier targets (see the map above) which had few British forces to defend them.In his most successful moments he (Clark) crossed over and acted as an Indian war chief: he used their tactics, employed their methods to create group cohesion, shared their sense of honor and justice, terrorized his opponents into believing in his savagery, and even committed what Europeans regarded as atrocities. At the same time, he could put on a uniform and transform himself into a Virginia gentleman. ~National Park ServiceWith Clark’s victories in hand, after France’s recognition of the new American Republic, the Virginia legislature created the county of Illinois in 1778, comprising all the lands lying west of the Ohio River to which Virginia had any claim. Clark’s Legacy: In 1783, the Revolutionary War officially ended with the signing of the Treaty of Paris, and Clark returned to private life. Of importance to The 981 Project was Clark’s role in allotting lands across the Ohio River from Louisville to men who had taken part in his campaigns. He also was appointed a commissioner to make treaties with tribes north of the Ohio River who were continuing their raids into Kentucky. Fast forward to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s dedication of the Clark memorial June 14, 1936. Here’s part of his address:George Rogers Clark did battle against the tomahawk and the rifle. He saved for us the fair land that lay between the mountains and the Father of Waters. His task is not done. Though we fight with weapons unknown to him, it is still our duty to continue the saving of this fair land. Now, let’s look at Clark in the present moment. ...
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    12 mins
  • April '24 Trivia Time!

    April '24 Trivia Time!
    Apr 17 2024
    Welcome new subscribers! One monthly newsletter is devoted to Ohio River trivia, and always includes ten questions. It’s the rare person who can answer all ten correctly without a deep dive into each topic. Do your best and have fun while learning something new.Before delving into the trivia questions, I’ll prime you for this month’s topic with historical background on higher education in the Ohio Valley. * The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 provided for settlement and government of the territory and stated that “…schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.” I talked about this when reviewing David McCullough’s book, The Pioneers. * Before the Northwest Ordinance was approved by the Confederation Congress, a group of Revolutionary War veterans became land speculators by forming the Ohio Company of Associates. They used their Certificate of Indebtedness (an IOU for unpaid service during the war), to buy half a million acres of Ohio land near the mouth of the Muskingum River. * “The appeal of this idea was that it offered to provide (a) a source of funds for the newly formed nation, (b) an opportunity for veterans of the Revolutionary War to get some value from the depreciated scrip in which they had been paid, (c) a scheme for orderly settlement of a frontier area, and (d) an opportunity for financial gain by the initial investors.” Source. * “Provisions of the contract with the Confederation Congress included setting aside two townships in the center of the purchase for a university. These two townships were called ‘College Lands.’" Ohio University was established on them in 1808. Source.QUESTIONSAnswers are in the footnotes.* In 1828, Ohio University conferred an A.B. degree on John Newton Templeton. What is Mr. Templeton’s historical significance ?* He is the namesake of the Templeton Prize, which honors people whose works “affirm life's spiritual dimensions” with an award of over one million dollars. Past winners include Mother Teresa, physicist Freeman Dyson, and ethologist, conservationist, and activist Jane Goodall* He was the first Black graduate of OU and the fourth Black man to graduate from a college in the U.S.* Both * In 1873, Margaret Boyd received her B.A. degree and became the first woman to graduate from Ohio University. Soon after, the institution graduated its first international alumnus from which country?* France* Turkey* Japan* This Indiana college was established in 1801 by William Henry Harrison (the ninth U.S. President) while he served as governor of the Indiana Territory. It is now a university. Name that university.* DePauw University* Valparaiso University* Vincennes University* In 2004, four college students set out to steal several volumes of some of the world’s rarest books from the first educational institution west of the Alleghenies. This institution was established in 1780 by the Commonwealth of Virginia, and its rare books were valued at more than $5.7 million. Name the university.* Spalding University* Transylvania University* Tusculum University* Abraham Lincoln signed the Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act on July 2, 1862. The Act committed the federal government to grant each state at least 90,000 acres of public land (30,000 acres for every senator and representative in the state). States could sell these lands to benefit higher education by building new institutions or improving existing ones. Which Ohio River Valley institutions are recipients of the 1862 Morrill grants? (choose as many as apply).* Ohio University* The Ohio State University* University of Kentucky* West Virginia University* “Who” were land-grant institutions designed to serve? (Choose all that apply)* “Sons and daughters of toil”* Residents of states where training in agriculture, mechanical arts, and military science were largely unavailable * Future farmers, teachers, and engineers* On Aug. 30, 1890, Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd President of the United States, signed the Second Morrill Act of 1890 into law. This Act required states to either establish separate Land-grant Institutions for Black students or show that admission to a 1862 land-grant institution was not restricted by race. Which Ohio River Valley institutions received these funds? (choose as many as apply).* Kentucky State University* West Virginia State University* Lincoln University Missouri* Land-grant institutions were intended to emphasize pragmatic disciplines such as agriculture, science, and engineering without excluding classical studies. Riddle me this: if a land-grant university cuts majors or reduces faculty in foreign languages, public health, community planning, educational administration, and its math doctoral program (the only one in the state), is the university still aligned with the intent of the land-grant act? (choose as many as apply).* According to West Virginia University’s President, Gordon Gee, it is.* Perhaps it aligns, but it doesn’t pass the ...
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    24 mins
  • March '24 Trivia Time!

    March '24 Trivia Time!
    Mar 16 2024

    I heard from lots of folks about the last newsletter, “When Virginia Claimed Pittsburgh,” who were shocked by the power and rivalry of colonial governors. Heads up: to succeed in this month’s Ohio River Trivia quiz, you need to read it first. This month’s trivia is focused on Pittsburgh with a little Philly and Pennsylvania sprinkled in for flavor.

    Okay, as a reminder, the answers are in the footnotes. Good luck!

    QUESTIONS

    * Which of these nicknames is/has been used for Pittsburgh?

    * City of Bridges

    * The ‘Burgh

    * The Paris of Appalachia

    * All the above

    * Only a. and b.

    * “Hell with the Lid Off” refers to:

    * A book of that title exploring the ferocious five-year battle between Pittsburgh and Oakland for NFL supremacy during the turbulent seventies

    * Pittsburgh’s thick smog (coal smoke plus fog)

    * After a decade as a republic under Oliver Cromwell, England “restored” the monarchy under King Charles II in 1660. The restored king settled a large loan with William Penn's father (also named William) by granting him a “restoration colony” of roughly 40,000 square miles of land west and south of New Jersey, Pennsylvania. Which two of the following are also restoration colonies?

    * New York

    * New Jersey

    * The “Lower Counties” of Delaware (New Castle, Sussex, and Kent)

    * South Carolina

    * The British colony of Virginia fought Lord Dunmore’s War on two fronts. First was against the Shawnee and Mingo people of the Ohio Valley. Second was with another colony. Name that colony.

    * In what year was Pittsburgh finally established as being in Pennsylvania, not Virginia?

    * 1768, when the Mason-Dixon survey was completed

    * 1779, when Pennsylvania and Virginia agreed to extend the original Mason-Dixon line westward to a point five degrees from the Delaware river

    * In 1783, when Britain formally recognized the independence of the United States in the Treaties of Paris

    * When Pennsylvania’s Act for Gradual Abolition of Slavery was signed in 1780, were there more enslaved workers in Philadelphia or Pittsburgh?

    * One of the most-photographed scenes in Pittsburgh is the Duquesne Incline on Mt. Washington. The first Pittsburgh funicular was the Ormsby Mine Gravity Plane, built in 1844. In the course of The ‘Burgh’s industrial history, how many inclines were in service?

    * 11

    * 22

    * 23

    * Which of these foodie stories about Pittsburgh is true?

    * The Big Mac was invented there in 1967 by a McDonald’s franchisee

    * The Klondike Bar was invented there in 1929

    * To make any salad a “Pittsburgh Salad,” simply add french fries on top

    * Chipped ham was invented by the same restaurant that invented the Klondike Bar

    * All the above

    * Which of these is NOT a Pittsburgh first?

    * First PBS station

    * First Ferris Wheel

    * First Ice Capades

    * First nighttime World Series Game

    * First American hospital

    * This Pittsburgh native graduated from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary in 1962 and attended Pitt’s Graduate School of Child Development before going on to be a broadcaster in children's television. This TV personality is recognized by more than forty honorary degrees and several awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Emmy in 1997 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2002. Who is this native Pittsburgher?

    Intermission Message

    I always put a little intermission between the questions and answers to keep you from inadvertently seeing the answers before you’re ready. With vacation season straight ahead, I’ve included two posts from my other newsletter. I hope you’ll enjoy them.

    The April 8 solar eclipse will be visible throughout most of the Ohio River Valley. NASA will livestream it. Here’s the official website with cool details and interactive features.

    ANSWERS



    Get full access to The 981 Project at the981project.com/subscribe
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    17 mins
  • When Virginia Claimed Pittsburgh

    When Virginia Claimed Pittsburgh
    Mar 7 2024
    The more I learn about the European kings who colonized the world, the more they blow my mind. For example, I was just in Barbados and picked up a book about its founding. Essentially, one of King James’s buddies fell into debt with some London merchants and figured the best way out was to start a colony in the Eastern Caribbean, as one does. He asked his king if he could have one, and the sovereign basically said, “Sure, take ‘em all.” It’s always who you know.Something not dissimilar happened when that same King James claimed North America from sea to shining sea and called it Virginia, after his cousin, Elizabeth I. Never did James mind the French and Spanish who had been there long before Jamestown failed, or the native people who’d been there for thousands of years before that. Colonizing kings were like toddlers, claiming everything as mine, mine, mine!We’re on a roll here, so let’s talk about how William Penn got that huge land grant for the colony of Pennsylvania. Once again, debt was a factor. King Charles II of England (grandson to James I) had a large loan with Penn's father (also named William). When Penn pere died, the king settled the debt by granting Penn fils about 40,000 square miles west and south of New Jersey. Penn called it the “sylvania” (Latin for “woods”). Penn + sylvania = Pennsylvania.Now, to the promised story about Virginia and Pittsburgh. This map will help. As you can see, there were boundary disputes aplenty, including the one in the southwest corner that’s of interest to us.To set the stage, the French and Indian Wars, which ended in 1763 with The Treaty of Paris, included a proclamation from King George III that forbade all settlements west of a line drawn along the Appalachian Mountains. The Ohio Country was delineated as an Indian Reserve. Surprise, surprise, white settlers kept exploring and moving into these western lands, leading to a series of conflicts, mostly with Shawnee people, who had historical hunting rights south of the river, from which they launched cross-river attacks.Enter Lord Dunmore, the royal governor of the colony of Virginia. In early 1774, he directed the Virginia militia to seize Fort Pitt and rename it Fort Dunmore to prepare for marching into war with the Shawnee. Dunmore used shrewd logic to justify this power play against Pennsylvania. He admitted that the land once belonged to Pennsylvania, but claimed that they lost the claim during the long French and Indian War, and the crown naturally absorbed title. Bottom line: Dunmore said Pittsburgh belonged to Virginia as a crown colony (Pennsylvania was a “restoration” colony). As the kids would say, what a baller.Dunmore/Virginia/Britain prevailed against the Shawnee Chief Cornstalk at the Battle of Point Pleasant in October, 1774. Before all of his troops arrived home, the Revolutionary War had kicked off with battles at Lexington and Concord. Dunmore, a British loyalist, was now in trouble.I can’t tell you Dunmore’s story any better than the The Baltzer Meyer Historical Society Library and Museum:Dunmore’s British Royal Governorship made him loyal to the crown. As a result, he became an adversary of the colonists. The day after the beginning of the Revolutionary War in April 1775, Dunmore ordered the seizure of weapons and gunpowder from the colonial magazine in Williamsburg, Virginia and had them transferred to a British ship. His deceptive reasoning for this action was his concern that rebellious slaves might get their hands on the arms. Furthermore, on November 7, 1775 Dunmore issued a proclamation offering freedom to all slaves if they became members of the British military and declared their loyalty to the British resistance. Because slavery was the dominant form of colonial labor in Virginia, Dunmore concluded that the fear of emancipation and the arming of slaves would quash colonial insurrection. These contradictory measures, indicating his British allegiance, put him in the crosshairs of colonial revolutionaries.Further angering the rebellious colonists was Dunmore’s engagement in biological warfare by inoculating slaves with smallpox and sending them into the Virginia mainland. This measure backfired because most of his enlisted slaves died from the disease. Despite his villainous attempts at sabotage, the gunpowder incident and Dunmore’s Proclamation, Fort Dunmore was regained and renamed Fort Pitt during the colonists fight for independence,But wait, how did Pennsylvania reclaim Pittsburgh? Dunmore’s ill-fated attempts at securing British power and increasing colonial hostilities led him to seek exile. His asylum took the form of boarding the British warship Fowey off the coast of Yorktown. With Dunmore out of the picture, the boundary line controversy was finally settled during the Revolutionary War when it was agreed to extend the Mason Dixon Line, which had been halted during Pontiac’s Rebellion of 1763. West Virginia Encyclopedia ...
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    10 mins
  • February '24 Trivia Time!

    February '24 Trivia Time!
    Feb 8 2024

    Hello, beautiful people. It’s trivia time again!

    Those who read my last newsletter reviewing David McCullough’s book about settling the Ohio Territory will remember that the first white settlement on the Ohio River was named Marietta. In a prior quiz, we revealed that Marietta was named for Queen Marie Antoinette, whom Revolutionary veterans thought had done more than anyone else (even Ben Franklin) to convince King Louis XVI to support their effort. So let’s explore more of the French influence in the Ohio River Valley this month, shall we?

    QUESTIONS

    * What’s the name of the county where Marietta, Ohio, is the county seat:

    * Lafayette

    * Washington

    * Orleans

    * The French named the state of Illinois after:

    * An Indian name for warriors plus the French adjective ending “ois”

    * An Indian name for the Devil’s Kitchen Lake

    * It’s a combination of ILLegitimate and the French adjective ending “ois.” Together, referring to an illegitimate claim on the area by Spain

    * Terre Haute, Indiana, got its name from the French phrase terre haute meaning “high land.” French-Canadian explorers and fur trappers named it in the early 18th century to describe the unique location above the Wabash River. At the time of its founding, the area was claimed by both the French and British, making it the border between:

    * Canada and Louisiana

    * Illinois and Indiana

    * France and Spain

    * Napoleon Bonaparte sold the Louisiana Territory to fund:

    * A wedding dowry for his step-daughter Hortense Eugénie Cécile Bonaparte so she could become Queen of Holland by marrying Napoléon’s brother, Louis Bonaparte

    * A war with the British

    * Both

    * In the 1740s, French officials in Canada were concerned over British encroachment into the Ohio Country, which they claimed to be part of New France. They built a series of forts in the 1750s to create a permanent French presence. Their fort, built in what’s now Pittsburgh, was named for the governor general of Canada. What was the name of that fort?

    * Name the French marquis who fought in the Continental Army against the British in the Revolutionary War. If you’ve seen the musical Hamilton, you already have the answer. The same man became the first foreign citizen to address the U.S. House of Representatives on December 10, 1824. Citizens named dozens of cities across the country in his honor.

    * Which American helped Lafayette write the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen for the French? It inspired the French Revolution.

    * The French were famous for building their North American empire on the fur trade. Traders bartered marten, fox, otter, and mink, but beaver became the main staple of the fur trade. The silk hat replaced the beaver hat after a certain member of the British royal family began wearing one in the mid-1800s. Name this man.

    * Which city is home to the first Catholic university in the Northwest Territory? Hint: Founders named it for the “first and greatest Jesuit missionary.”

    * Louisville, Kentucky took its name from King Louis XVI of France in appreciation for his help during the Revolutionary War. The city was founded by the brother of either Meriweather Lewis or William Clark, leaders of the Lewis & Clark Expedition of 1804–1806. Was the founder of Louisville a Lewis or a Clark

    Intermission Suggestions

    Last year I wrote about Tecumseh and the outdoor drama that tells his story in Chillicothe, Ohio. Here’s a podcast about the Ohio-born Shawnee chief from “Ohio Mysteries,” written and narrated by Paula Schleis. Enjoy!

    You might enjoy this article I wrote about the transformative power of travel.

    ANSWERS



    Get full access to The 981 Project at the981project.com/subscribe
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    14 mins
  • David McCullough's Ohio River Book, "The Pioneers"

    David McCullough's Ohio River Book, "The Pioneers"
    Jan 21 2024
    The other night, my spouse and I were scrolling through the channels and came upon the 1972 pilot of M*A*S*H. Matt and I had watched the CBS reruns on a black-and-white TV every night as we pulled a meal together in his tiny college apartment. We loved the show’s zany characters and its stick-it-to-the-man pacifism and didn’t notice (much less mind) the laugh track. So we curled up on the couch to relive the experience. Here’s the pilot’s plot line: The Swamp’s Korean houseboy, Ho-Jon, gets accepted to study at Hawkeye’s alma mater, but he has to pay to get himself there. The camp raises money by raffling a weekend in Tokyo with a nurse, much to the chagrin of Hot Lips and Burns.Wow. How did we overlook this in the eighties?It didn’t end there. The original cast featured a third doctor in the Swamp with Hawkeye and Trapper John named “Spearchucker” Jones. Yep, he was Black. Our heads swiveled from the TV to each other fast enough to warrant a chiropractic visit. Spearchucker? That was a bridge too far. M*A*S*H will just have to remain a fond college memory in chez Rich. Why did I lead with this little “woke” anecdote when the headline promised a book review? Because the taste and experience of any reviewer grounds their review, and tastes change over time. David McCullough’s approach to his subjects is of a style that no longer appeals to me. He was one of America’s most decorated historians and that alone is reason to read The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West. To his credit, the title clearly tells us he will center WASP men in telling the history of settling the Northwest Territory. I could have chosen not to read it, but I’m not narrow minded. After a lifetime of reading history books that do the same thing—not noticing the bias any more than I noticed “Spearchucker” in M*A*S*H forty years ago—I see it everywhere now and have recalibrated the bar for historians writing today. If McCullough were submitting this manuscript to his publisher in 2024, I’d like to think he would have used his prodigious skills and massive platform to tell a more fulsome version of history. For example, The Pioneers could have included philosophical and religious differences in how native people and white settlers viewed the land. And if he didn’t want to go that broad, I’d have appreciated a good grounding in the scriptural interpretations of New Englanders who “settled” the “untamed wilderness.” Surely, the author came upon transcripts of sermons justifying the murder of fellow human beings in the process of establishing the first white settlement in the Territory, Marietta, Ohio, as a “City upon the Hill.” You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. ~Matthew 5:14Criticism aside, I learned a great deal from reading The Pioneers. McCullough emphasized throughout the book how these early settlers worked tirelessly to establish the Northwest Ordinance’s three “remarkable conditions” into their new communities:* Freedom of religion* Free universal education* The prohibition of slavery. I should say that these are New England values, not those of Virginia, which claimed much of the Territory before the Revolution and whose land and government bordered the southern shores of the Ohio River after the Northwest Ordinance. New Englanders settled southeastern Ohio first, but the Virginians entered soon after and started flexing.Meet the five pioneers of McCullough’s title:* Manasseh Cutler was a Yale-educated New England minister and a leader of the Ohio Company of Associates. This land company bought a large tract in what is now southeast Ohio from the United States after the British ceded it at the end of the Revolutionary War. He vigorously pushed for the Northwest Territory to be slavery free.* General Rufus Putnam also a founder the Ohio Company of Associates and led the first group of settlers in founding Marietta, Ohio. Later, he served as a judge and a member of the Ohio state constitutional convention.* Ephraim Cutler, the eldest son of Manasseh, was not as well-educated as his father had been, yet, he led the charge in establishing a common school system and the Territory’s first university, Ohio University, where he served as a trustee for 29 years. * Samuel Hildreth, a physician, naturalist, and historian who became a member of the Ohio Legislature. With the help of Ephraim Cutler and others, he published Pioneer History in 1848, followed by Memoirs of the Early Pioneer Settlers of Ohio in 1852. * Joseph Barker’s path to prominence was his important skills as a carpenter, architect, and shipbuilder. Some of the many ships he built at his farm were used for that scoundrel Aaron Burr’s expedition, which I must write about soon. Barker reached the rank of colonel of the militia during the Northwest Indian War, was named a justice of the peace in 1799, and elected to serve as the judge of...
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    9 mins
  • January, '24 Trivia Quiz

    January, '24 Trivia Quiz
    Jan 10 2024
    Hello, friends. I hope your December was better than mine—I came down with Covid and basically napped my way through the last two weeks of 2023. I managed to listen to a couple of good books and catch up on my podcasts, some of which I’ll list in the intermission between questions and answers for this month’s quiz. Oh, and I knitted this scarf. If you come down with something this year, my best advice is to BE SICK. Don’t half-ass your respite, as it will only prolong your misery. Be sick, then be well. Of course, this advice applies to those who aren’t a brief illness away from homelessness, of which there are too many in this country.This month we’ll focus on the interesting history of America’s 35th state, West Virginia. Before we begin, ask yourself what you may have been taught (or picked up) about the reasons West Virginia split from Virginia. I knew it had something to do with slavery since it happened when Virginia seceded, but was slavery the point? I was a blank slate before starting The 981 Project. It never occurred to me that the Northwest Territory’s slavery boundary north of the Ohio River played an oversized role in the drama.I’ve taken several of this month’s quiz questions and answers from this new book, The Fifth Border State: Slavery, Emancipation, and the formation of West Virginia , 1829–1872, by Scott A. MacKenzie.The author argues that West Virginians experienced the Civil War in the same ways as the border states of Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware. These states were both pro-Union and pro-slavery. With that hint of what’s ahead, let’s go to the quiz. QUESTIONS* Which was the largest slaveholding state before the Civil War?* Before the Civil War, which then-Virginian city on the Ohio River did a brisk business in slaves that were headed for New Orleans, the country’s largest market?* Virginia’s first constitution (1776) limited suffrage to (white male) property holders (slaves were definitely considered property). This tilted representation to slaveholders of the Tidewater and Piedmont regions. With planters setting the state’s legislative agenda and tax policy, the rest of the population felt it got short shrift in government services while paying disproportionately high taxes. By 1850, white European immigrants were entering the region in droves, notably the Irish and Germans, and the percentage of enslaved residents, while never high, was trending downward. What percentage of the population in the three largest northwestern counties of Virginia were enslaved in 1850?* 6.2%* 4.9%* 2.0%* Lincoln was elected in November, 1860. On New Year’s Day 1861, the white citizens of Parkersburg met to discuss secession after considering a move taken by South Carolina. Name that South Carolina event.* The Commonwealth of Virginia called a Constitutional Convention for February 4, 1861. The districts in northwestern Virginia sent thirty-two delegates to the convention of 135 in total. Was the predominating mindset of these northwestern delegates?* Fast-ultimatumists who insisted on demanding Lincoln acquiesce to southern demands or else face secession.* Anti-coercionists who sought compromises with the North until they became untenable.* Unconditional Unionists who opposed secession at all costs.* Tax reform became part of the secession debate. The northwesterners argued that if they were going to fight the Union to protect slavery, the slaveholders should bear that cost. In 1859, the Commonwealth’s tax on slaves amounted to $326,487.60. If the northwestern delegation’s proposed tax reform passed, how much would that tax revenue increase to in the following years?* $750,500 (more than 2x the existing)* $1,000,000 (more than 3x the existing)* $1,750,500 (nearly 6x the existing)* The tax reform proposal got a majority pledge of support on April 11, 1861. What national event prevented bringing it up for a floor vote the following day?* Secessionists’ attack on Fort Sumpter, South Carolina.* President Abraham Lincoln’s proclamation calling forth the state militias, to the sum of 75,000 troops, in order to suppress the Southern rebellion.* On February 13, 1861, delegates representing all counties in Virginia met to decide how the state would respond to recent events, especially Abraham Lincoln's election and South Carolina's secession. They voted to remain in the Union and hoped that they could reach a compromise to defuse the situation. Two months later, the same men passed The Virginia Ordinance of Secession, dated April 17, 1861, which declared that “…the bond between Virginia and the United States of America, under the U.S. Constitution, is dissolved.” Delegates at the Virginia Convention of 1861 voted 88–55 to approve the ordinance on April 17 and a statewide referendum confirmed secession on May 23. This meant the northwestern counties needed to act quickly in order to remain part of the Union. What percentage of white men in the ...
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