Tuesday, December 31, 2013

My Postcard To You For The New Year

Best Wishes For The New Year!!!!!

Hope you receive my wishes before midnight, but if not, then hope you still get them.
Hugs and Kisses from me to you.





Monday, December 30, 2013

Women's History Paper #1

Paper #1


Taylor Speer-Sims

  
Women's History
University of Nebraska - Kearney
November 3, 2013



           The first half of the class introduced many different books, authors, subjects, and time periods. There

were differences, but there were also similarities. Arguments by each author introduce ideas that were 

precise and obvious. There were assumptions and biases, which brought each book its’ own interpretation. 

Each work, however, was about women and her triumphs.
Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, the very first in the series for the class, includes extracts from Martha Ballard’s diary. It was also a biography written by Ulrich; therefore the book was both a primary and a secondary source.  Ulrich gave her reader an idea about what daily life was like for a woman of local respect. Martha Ballard was a midwife, thus she had a higher position than most women in the area. Yet, she was still below male doctors, her husband, and even her son. As the men rested from their day, the woman still worked on into the evening, “a woman’s work [was] never done.” [1]
Ulrich also included an idea called the “social web.” This was important to the area where Ballard lived, but also to the book as a whole. It was a social “structure of relations in a community” that linked together like a spider web.[2] Martha Ballard met with everyone in town, if not for midwifery, then for medicinal support as a type of doctor, nurse, apothecary, or in death where she wraped bodies. The idea of the social web continued as others helped out Ballard in the community, and it continued on throughout time. This was really an anthropological idea.
The only obvious political scene within the text was the area where President Washington died. The town held parties and parades, but Ballard was too busy to attend any of these.[3] Could this have been a political statement that Ballard was not interested in politics at all? Was Ballard trying to prove her point that she was more busy than any man, or in fact any one in the town? More to the point, the idea that Ulrich included this almost in passing gave the reader the idea Ulrich was biased, that women did work more, and harder, than any of the men at that time.
There was not much more that Ulrich could have used within her text to improve her point. This book was very well written and included Ballard’ diary material as most points. Ulrich used opposing and congruent information from contemporary letters, estate manifests, petitions, etc. There were some secondary sources, but the book was based mainly on primary documents. Ulrich fully researched her subject before she came up with her argument, at least within this area of history.
Linda K. Kerber included many time periods in history, where Ulrich only had the one. Kerber began her book with the Daughters of Columbia and concluded with the New Republic. Yet, she still included information on the Victorian era, and even postmodern times.[4] Kerber’s main idea is that historiography should be explored and the book traced “the intellectual development” of Kerber through the essays included within.[5] Interpretation of history changes throughout time, including social studies and women’s studies. There are essays that compare women directly with their male counterparts, and then later she targets relational connections or discrepancies.
Because this book was on several essays, fluidity was somewhat choppy between lectures. Just as Ulrich, Kerber emphasized differences in women’s and men’s positions. Most of the sources Kerber used were professional discussions, lectures and/or papers She included quite a lot of historiography on each page within the footnotes. She obviously created a well-regarded set of essays.
The next week found that students read two different works, one from Gerda Lerner and another by Corrine Field. Field’s article was about defining age as sections in one’s life, as well as the different ages and points for white men, minority men and all women. Field pointed out that antebellum women’s argument was that women were always dependent on men, they were minors and that “ her sphere is circumscribed, not by her ability, but by her sex.” [6] Field included an anthropological view on aging. The obvious issue with this work compared with the others, was the limitation due to length. Kerber also had essays; she just had more of them.
Gerda Lerner’s book was a full biography just like Ulrich’s. However, The Grimke Sisters was not primarily diary based. Lerner had a bibliography of thirteen pages that was separated into sections within primary and secondary documents. Another difference was that Lerner wrote on two women, not just one. Lerner argued that the Grimke sisters came from a comfortable life to took up a cause greater than themselves, that of abolition. The “sisters from South Carolina had become the first female abolitionist agents in the United States.”[7]
These women were by far the most visual than any that the class studied. Other writers included these women within their texts, but Lerner does not point that out to her readers. Her words flowed from one chapter to another with the idea that the reader knew nothing about the pair. Lerner wrote subtly, yet clearly. This was done by mentioning how great these women were to their contemporary society such as how Sarah Grimke’ was the “first woman to write a coherent feminist argument,” yet they “lived their faith, with stubbornness, courage and dedication.”[8]
The Grimkes were probably the most important sisters in history, they were the first women speakers in the U.S. Angelina was the first woman to address a legislative body. Both women based their arguments on humanity and Christianity. Even with this recognition, Lerner pointed out that they were considered “masculine, old hens, and unable to attain husbands,” which was a main argument against women mentioned in almost all of the forthcoming books.[9]
The book on Sojourner Truth was about another great woman in the antebellum period. Nell Irvin Painter wrote a biography about one woman more similar to Lerner than to Ulrich’s. Where Ulrich based her book largely on a diary, Painter’s used many more secondary sources. Sojourner Truth “built networks of human contact… [that] sustained her materially and spiritually,” similar to Martha Ballard’s social web.[10]
A difference between Lerner and Painter was that Painter had no bibliography, using his notes to show information as well as sources. Painter wrote in the fashion of Lerner, so that the reader understood that woman were instrumental to history. Of course, Painter’s subject did not begin in a comfortable situation, but as a slave. Truth also based her arguments on humanity and Christianity. Painter told a story about a slave born and kept in the North, and who escaped to be one of the most respected black and/or woman abolitionists in Antebellum America.
Antebellum America had women participate in suffrage movements along with abolition. Jean H. Baker’s book Sisters: The Lives of America’s Suffragists was not about sisters in the biological sense as Lerner’s was, although it does mention the Grimke sisters. Baker had chapters that focused on one person, or groups of women. Eeach section played a role in the next chapter, so the flow was easy. Just as Lerner wrote that women were masculine, Baker emphasized “women, in the conventional wisdom of the day, were considered asexual and passionless.”[11]
Baker shared the fact that women formed groups that battled for women’s suffrage, that women were individuals; they were like others, yet still different. Baker wrote about strong women, and about how those organizations ran mainly on volunteerism.[12] Painter’s and Lerner’s books coincide with Baker’s and the idea of lesbianism being written between the lines. Baker wrote many thought “the African race was entirely composed of males,” yet “women – black and white – were still invisible even to reformers and sympathizers,” just as Painter emphasized. [13] Lucy Stanton and Angelina Grimke found romance and married, and they both were the only females within their books. Baker argued that these women came together (and grew apart) to seek social change for America.
The second time where two sources were used within one week brought a paper by Carole Shammas. This paper’s thesis argued that the Married Women’s Property Acts were “in certain respects… analogous to the emancipation proclamations and related acts concerning enslaved persons.”[14] Even though this was a paper, the subject was nothing like that of the former one. Nor was it truly similar to the other books. This document did have a lot of information about property rights. However, it was not a legal document. The main fault of this paper was Shammas included only basic information on dower rights. She did not include all information. She wrote that a woman could not do with her dower property as she wished. (Women were able to rent out and improve these properties) While she cited many legal books for this statement, there was not one primary document. She did have primary documents throughout the piece. So, not including contradictory information showed her bias.
Margaret D. Jacobs, however, included many contradictory statements within her book. This was obviously a great book because it won the 2010 Bancroft Prize.[15] This was one of the longest, yet easiest to understand. The flow was almost continuous, yet the subheadings and chapters separated it each section for easy reading. Painter wrote about a minority, so too did Jacobs. Also just like Painter, Jacobs’ subjects had to contend with racism as well as sexism. The author had a section on terms and abbreviations, unlike the others. However, Cott had something similar in her book. Jacobs used many secondary sources, and her primary sources were mostly records and interviews.
Jacobs wrote that Native children were stolen away from their families and sent to a school where “if they [ran] away from their slavery there” they were hunted down like convicts.[16] Therefore, Lerner and Jacobs wrote on legalized bondage. Jacob’s title brought out what happened to Truth, as well as to her own subjects. Jacob’s book included all aspects of the problem and included opposing views. Elizabeth Cady Stanton in Baker’s book, was interested in parental rights just as many of the women in Jacobs’ book either claimed to be, or actually was.
Nancy F. Cott wrote in the introduction that her book was “about the time when the word feminism came into use in the Untied States, and the women who used it.”[17] Cott used a flow that was chronological and discussed feminist groups like that of Baker. However, Cott wrote that even though there were some organizations, many did not get together for one purpose. As Baker’s organizations were mostly volunteer based, Cott argued that post suffrage groups had mostly employees. Cott included that some people said women were not a sex, but human. Women thought that they were “morally and superior to men” as apposed to women in the other books who thought that that’s what they were fighting for.[18] Cott gave direct information on lesbianism and how women’s friendships became scrutinized. As the women in Jacob’s books began to feel free with their own sexuality, so too did women in Cott’s book. While women were still “masculine”, this was the book that introduced the idea that women were thought to be communist or socialist if they agreed with disarmament[19]
The last book of this module was another biography. Blanche Wiesen Cook’s work on Eleanor Roosevelt was also the longest book that the class read. Cook, like Painter, did not have a bibliography, but used notes at the end of the book. Like Kerber, Cook had quite a bit of historiography within her notes. Just as Ulrich’s and Painter’s subjects, ER used her connections within family and friends. However, only like Truth did ER use her influence for political purposes. Cook used a chronological flow that was easy and exciting to follow.
Just like Lerner and Ulrich, Cook chose to write on only one person. However only as Lerner, Cook’s subject was on a famous woman, a woman that became more historically visual. As the Grimke sisters were of middle class social status, Elizabeth Cady Stanton was from the upper-middle class, and Cook’s subject, but Eleanor Roosevelt, was from high-society. Just as Sojourner Truth, Eleanor Roosevelt changed herself into a woman of conviction, wisdom and courage. While Roosevelt appeared to have been the least interested in Christianity as an argument, she was very much interested in human rights.[20] Eleanor Roosevelt was certainly the most well known throughout time than any of the other subjects to more people in the world.
Cook argued that ER didn’t care about a person’s social status or income she cared about human beings. ER knew about changing needs of the planet long “before most of America’s leadership” did.[21] Roosevelt was another woman that suffered, yet used her experience to help others. Cook used large quotes within the text to not only emphasize her point, but to get the reader into the story, and to make it feel completely authentic.


 Photo Credit: :Women's Suffrage," 1820, University of Louisville: http://www.law.louisville.edu/constitution-day/gallery/suffrage (accessed December 30, 2013) 


Bibliography


Baker, Jean H. Sisters: The Lives of America’s Suffragists. New York: Hill and Wang, 2005.

Cook, Blanche Wiesen. Eleanor Roosevelt, Vol I, 1884-1933.  New York:  Penguin Books,
1992.

Field, Corinne T.  “Are Women… All Minors?: Woman’s Rights and the Politics of Aging in
the Antebellum United States”, Journal of Women’s History, Winter 2001, Vol 12, Issue 4. in Ebsco Host. (2013) http://0-web.ebscohost.com.rosi.unk.edu/ehost/detail?sid=bb38942b-4199-4b5f-9e73-a7be63a93213%40sessionmgr14&vid=1&hid=19&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=aph&AN=4146774 (accessed November 3, 2013)

Jacobs, Margaret D.  White Mother to a Dark Race {Settler Colonialism, Maternalism, and
the Removal of Indigenous Children in the American West and Australia, 1880-1940} Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2009.

Kerber, Linda K. Toward an Intellectual History of Women, Essays by Linda K. Kerber.
Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1997.

Lerner, Gerda. The Grimke’ Sisters From South Carolina: Pioneers for Woman’s Rights and
Abolition. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.

Shammas, Carole "Re-Assessing the Married Women's Property Acts," Journal of
Women's History 6:1. Spring 1994, in Ebsco Host. 2013 http://0-web.ebscohost.com.rosi.unk.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=bf2d520f-3730-4aa1-9cbc-c3ca11507260%40sessionmgr13&vid=2&hid=19 (accessed November 3, 2013)

Ulrich, Laurel Thatcher. A Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary,
1785 – 1812. New York: Vintage Books, 1990.




[1] Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, A Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785 – 1812. (New York: Vintage Books, 1990), 210.

[2]Ibid, 75.

[3] Ibid, 32.

[4] Information from this chapter is being used by author for a full paper in another class entitled “Columbia Cried: The Poetic, Romantic, and Enchanted Rituals of Mourning for George Washington.”

[5] Linda K. Kerber, Toward an Intellectual History of Women, Essays by Linda K. Kerber. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1997), back cover.

[6] Corinne T. Field, “Are Women… All Minors?: Woman’s Rights and the Politics of Aging in the Antebellum United States”, Journal of Women’s History, Vol 12, Issue 4 (Winter 2001) in Ebsco Host. (2013) http://0-web.ebscohost.com.rosi.unk.edu/ehost/detail?sid=bb38942b-4199-4b5f-9e73-a7be63a93213%40sessionmgr14&vid=1&hid=19&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=aph&AN=4146774 (accessed November 3, 2013)

[7] Gerda Lerner, The Grimke’ Sisters From South Carolina: Pioneers for Woman’s Rights and Abolition. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), 110.

[8] Ibid, Xviii; 274.

[9] New Hampshire Patriot, (August 15, 1837._ quoted in ibid.

[10] Nell Irvin Painter, Sojourner Truth: A Life, A Symbol. (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1997), 113.

[11] Jean H. Baker, Sisters: The Lives of America’s Suffragists. (New York: Hill and Wang, 2005), 75.

[12] Ibid, 125, 156.


[14] Carole Shammas, "Re-Assessing the Married Women's Property Acts," Journal of Women's History 6:1 (Spring 1994), in Ebsco Host. (2013) http://0-web.ebscohost.com.rosi.unk.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=bf2d520f-3730-4aa1-9cbc-c3ca11507260%40sessionmgr13&vid=2&hid=19 (accessed November 3, 2013)

[15] Margaret D. Jacobs, White Mother to a Dark Race {Settler Colonialism, Maternalism, and the Removal of Indigenous Children in the American West and Australia, 1880-1940} (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2009), front cover.

[16] Ibid, 165.

[17] Nancy F. Cott, The Grounding of Modern Feminism. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987), 3.

[18] Ibid, 17.

[19] Ibid, 257.

[20] Blanche Wiesen Cook, Eleanor Roosevelt, Vol I, 1884-1933.  (New York:  Penguin Books, 1992), 3, 17.
[21] Ibid, 19.

Sunday, December 29, 2013

Guest Writer On Magnolia Grove

Magnolia Grove 

Guest Writer
:DeAnna Stevens:




Historic buildings are found throughout the United States.  From the White House to the rubble of a house in Georgia, each building is a unique piece of American history.  The majority of the buildings are in varying states of disrepair; however, several of these buildings have been purchased by local historical societies and have been or are in the process of being renovated.  This is what has happened to Magnolia Grove in Greensboro, Alabama.  Purchased by the Alabama Historical Commission, Magnolia Grove has been preserved so that future generations of Americans can enjoy the house. 
Built by Colonel Isaac Croom, the exact age of Magnolia Grove is unknown.  However, a historical survey completed in 1936 states that the house was built in the early 1830’s (Burkhardt, 1936).  The architect of Magnolia Grove is unknown.  Located in Hale County, Alabama, Magnolia Grove sits on fifteen acres filled with magnolia trees.  After Isaac Croom’s wife died in 1878, the house passed to their niece, Sarah Hobson.  It was Sarah’s son who made Magnolia Grove a historical landmark due to his achievements as an adult.  Richmond Pearson Hobson grew up in Magnolia Grove and was a naval hero in the Spanish-American War.  Richmond Hobson retired from the navy and was elected a United States Representative.  In 1933, he was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions during the Spanish-American War.  During his time in office, Hobson proposed several constitutional amendments to ban alcohol and became known as the “Father of American Prohibition” (Hanson) (Hobson, Richmond Pearson, (1870-1937)).
The design of Magnolia Grove is typical of Greek Revival style.  Six Roman Doric columns frame the front of the house and the two story portico.  There are eight windows on the front.  Each window is a 6 over 6 blind sash window.  There are two sets of double doors found on the front of Magnolia Grove.  One set is the main entrance and one set leads to a second story balcony.  The doors are identical and each set is framed by sidelights and a transom window.  The second story balcony is slightly wider than the doors and there is a decorative wrought iron railing surrounding the balcony.  The front of the house and the columns are stuccoed. 
The sides and back of Magnolia Grove are exposed brick.  There are four single chimneys, two on each side of the house.  Magnolia Grove has a very simple square floorplan.  On the first floor, a central hall splits the house in half.  On the left side, a parlor and a dining room share equal space.  A larger living room and small study occupy the right side.  Each room has its own fireplace.  There are fifteen windows on the first floor, four in each room except for the study, which has three.  The hallway is lit by the sidelights and transom window as well as a chandelier.  There are double doors at the end of the hall leading out to the rear porch.  Magnolia Grove’s rear porch is also two stories and framed by six cast iron columns.  There is a detached kitchen and cook’s house located just off the rear porch.  The rear of the house also boasts four 6 over 6 blind sash windows.  The other nineteen windows are 6 over 6 sash windows. 
The second floor is the same floor plan as the first floor.  The central hall bisects the house into two sections.  The left side contains two bedrooms of identical size.  There is a fireplace and four windows in each bedroom.  The right side contains one large bedroom and smaller fourth bedroom.  There is a fireplace in both of these bedrooms.  The larger bedroom has four windows and the smaller bedroom has three windows.  There is also a window located above the stairs on the second floor.  Other than the crown molding throughout the house and the beautiful curved staircase, the interior of the house is plain in its ornamentation.  Decorative trim frames each doorway.  Magnolia Grove still contains all of the original Hobson family furniture and pictures of the Hobson and Croom families are located throughout the house.

Bibliography

Burkhardt, E. W. (1936, November 11). Magnolia Grove, 1002 Hobson Street, Greensboro, Hale County, AL. Retrieved December 29, 2012, from Library of Congress: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/al0219/
Hanson, P. D. (n.d.). Richmond Pearson Hobson. Retrieved December 29, 2012, from Alcohol Problems & Solutions: http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/Controversies/Biography-Richmond-Pearson-Hobson.html
Hobson, Richmond Pearson, (1870-1937). (n.d.). Retrieved December 29, 2012, from Congress.gov: http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=H000667

Originally written for Class at APUS: December 30, 2012.


Guest views do not necessarily represent the views of The Sassy Countess of her employees (my dog, kids, brother and mother.)


Photo Credit: http://jxn2whosr166gg2.zippykid.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Greensboro-Magnolia-Grove_4-73_JqclcbslbwText-z800.jpg

Saturday, December 28, 2013

Historic Hottie: John Randolph Of Roanoke

He Was A Dastardly Dandy Too!

The very first "Historic Hottie!" 
http://elektratig.blogspot.com/2011/01/john-randolph-of-roanoke-proceedings.html

Randolph an addict of "brandy and opium," was a brutal slave owner, Senator, madman, and he had a hatred of Clay, whom he dueled. It was really more of a shooting past one another, but Clay shot Randolph and made a hole, which made Randolph say "You owe me a coat, Mr. Clay." (Crawford) He was supposedly the direct descendant of Pocahontas, seventh generation.

Andrew Jackson appointed him U.S. Minister to Russia, but was only there for a week when he returned home. Randolph was consistently drunk and high, and then became obsessed with Jackson. (Crawford)

John Randolph had fallen deeply and madly (literally from what I can tell!) in love with his cousin Nancy. When he found out that she was to marry another cousin, he met with her and told her that he hoped it wasn't true because he wasn't worthy of her. He left the plantation house where they were, "Bazarre," her sister and brother-in-law's home. Afterward, he came to despise Nancy possibly because she turned him down, or possibly because of the horrible scandal she was involved in. (A great story!) He treated her with contempt for the rest of his life.

John Randolph of Roanoke was one of the leaders of perhaps the most powerful family in the South from the late 1700's until at least the Civil War. He had served as the legislative leader in the Virginia Assembly for his cousin, Thomas Jefferson. History records that he ruled the Assembly with an iron hand - and a whip. He was the unquestioned master of a string of plantations in the Tidewater area of Virginia. Jonathan Daniel's, in his book The Randolphs of Virginia described the family as "America's foremost family," and Randolph as an orator and businessman "with few peers."
Photograph from the nomination quoted in part below.

Although he competed stride for stride with other members of the Virginia aristocracy by amassing over 8,000 acres of land and 400 slaves, John Randolph had doubts about the morality of the use of slaves all of his life.

He was one of the first plantation owners to recognize the benefits of educating his slaves and treating them as humanely as possible. Randolph personally taught many of them to read and write. He also organized them into groups and gave each separate tracts of land for which they were to be responsible - an unusual approach in those days.


While he may have done this (per the plantation's website), he also was verbally and physically abusive to his slaves. He brutally beat his cook, Queen Betty because she made a plumb pudding with plumbs. Just before his death, he called the doctor and told him that he couldn't breath, and requested a tracheotomy. The doctor refused, and so grabbed a knife and tried to create one himself! The doctor kept him from actually doing it and tried to leave to see another patient. Randolph yelled to his slave, John, to keep him from doing so. John was very loyal to Randolph, barred the door to keep the doctor in.(Crawford) 

So, the man beat his enslaved privately, yet protested their enslavement publicly, and Randolph set them free upon his death. He was a man of contradictions. Being the daughter of an alcoholic myself, I would guess that he was cruel partly because of his addictions. They also came from a need for adulation and a superiority complex, in my opinion. Maybe it was because he was jilted by the woman he loved and still carried a jealousy for his rival? Or, some would say that he was a product of where he grew up. This could be argued in the fact that he tried to push through abolitionist positioning. Yet, he did not release his own slaves until he died....

Alan Pell Crawford, Unwise Passions. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000)

State's rights were argued in 1799, much sooner than what a lot of people realize.

And, dueling.....
http://phw02.newsbank.com/cache/ean/fullsize/pl_012282013_0322_30900_525.pdf

The above news article reads:

The editor of the Richmond Enquirer and John Randolph are engaged in calling each other hard names. Mr. Randolph was the aggressor. The following is from the Enquirer, elicited by the abuse of that unprincipled libeler, John Randolph of Roanoke:

“We owe our acknowledgements to Mr. John Randolph for several favours of the description. The time may come when we shall return the debt with interest. He has calumniated us – how could we expect to escape his remorseless vengeance? Why should he who has abused so many others spared ourselves? Or, how could we, who despise his avaricious spirit, and his unblushing rapacity of the public money, have calculated upon his forbearance?”

In another place, in the same paper, Mr. R, Says:-
           
“A man, who has sinned against his own conscience, and sunk himself in the opinion of all honorable patriots, by plunging his arm into the public coffers, and disgracefully feeding in the public crib, may falsely charge us with looking, only after the loaves and fishes. We scorned to justify his rapacity – and the inextinguishable resentment which we have provoked, may now vent itself in the bitterest and the most unfounded reproaches.”

A little bit of a different story here than what Crawford accounts.



On his death...

http://phw02.newsbank.com/cache/ean/fullsize/pl_012282013_0341_26452_731.pdf
The above news article reads:

Miscellany.

JOHN RANDOLPH – ON HIS DEATH-BED.

The Christian Watchman publishes the following account of the last moments of this eccentric man:--

            Randolph was near his end: Dr. -  was sitting by the table, and his man John (Juba was left at Roanoke) sitting by the bed in perfect silence, when he closed his eyes, but for a few moments, and seamed by his hard breathing to be asleep. But as the s… proved, it was the intense working of his mind. Opening his failing eyes upon the Doctor, he said sharply, “remorse” – soon afterwards, more emphatically, “REMORSE” – presently, at the top of his strength he cried out “REMORSE” He then ended “Let me see the word.” The Doctor, not apprehending his desire, made no reply. Randolph then said to him with great energy, “Let me see the word. Show me it in a Dictionary.” The Doctor, looking round, told him he believed there was none in the room. “Write it then,” said Randolph. The Doctor perceiving one of Randolph’s engraved card on the table, asked if he should write on that. “Nothing more proper,” was the answer. The Doctor then wrote the word in pencil under the printed name and handed it to Randolph. He seized it, and holding it up to his eyes with great earnestness, seemed much agitated. After a few seconds, he handed back the card, saying, “Write it on the other side.” The Doctor did so, in large letters. He took it again and after gazing upon it earnestly a few seconds returned it, and said, “Lend John your pencil, and let him put a stroke under it.” The black man did so, leaving it on the table. “Ah!” said the dying man, “REMORSE, you don’t know what it means.” But added presently, “I cast myself on the Lord Jesus Christ for mercy.”

            Dr. – then showed me the identical card. On one side was written “John Randolph of Roanoke: Remorse,” and on the other side, “Remorse.”

  
Information on Randolph's house and lands:


In America, families spent gigantic amounts of money on their houses, "for no better purpose than to lure a few European fops and empty-headed parasites."

                                               Mansion wits and fops repair,
                                               To game, to feast, to saunter, and to stare,-
                                                Thine eyes amid the crowd, who fawn and bend,
                                               View many a parasite, but not one friend....
                                                                                                    ~ Peter Markoe


http://images.virtualology.com/ac/5/i/ency0089.jpg
 Possibly Cawsons Plantation, where he was born.

                   Following the prolonged Randolph - will litigation, Judge Wood Bouldirt
purchased the Middle Quarter of Roanoke; the Lower and Ferry Quarters along 
with Randolph's other plantations passing to other owners. The Middle 
Quarter, being most intimately associated with the great and eccentric 
Randolph, attracted the attention of his contemporaries and successors who 
recorded their impressions of the land and buildings.... 
                    The remaining cottage is an extremely simple one-story three-bay
structure with exterior-end brick chimneys. The building is covered by a
artist rendering
steep gable roof and is 
fronted 
by a shed roof porch that is 
framed into the
structure of the cottage. 
Immediately to the west of
 the second cottage is a
two-room, gable-end-front 
frame structure that has not 
been positively identified as dating from the Randolph occupancy. Behind these two build-
ings is an early smokehouse. On the lawn just to the west of the present
residence is a low rough boulder marking the site of John ~Randolph's first grave.

              Roanoke Plantation still evokes the image of ~Randolph's time and
milieu, and suggests something of his personality. While one of his
Matoax was the real name of Pocohontas, & his boyhood home.
"cabins" has been 
replaced by a later 
larger 
house, the second 
(with its kitchen and 
an additional 
outbuilding), 
remains in a good 
state of preservation. 
 The wood has been

cut back, but not eliminated. The roadway through the plantation has been improved, but 
follows the original roadbed. At some distance from the house complex, there is another 
early building; this may have been an overseer's house and is presently is unoccupied. 





Later, he was not so hot (in my opinion), but he was still as much a dandy while in politics as he was on his deathbed. And, interesting, most of the locations on the web talk about how he was the great abolitionist man, but did not include his mean, drunken, opium addicted, weirdo side! 
Was he a creapo? Or, was he just forlorn in love?

Wiki Images



Friday, December 27, 2013

Chicago Art Institute - Part 1

Pictures of my trip to the Chicago Art Institute. 

I was there to find something for my farming paper. I did, plus much more!







The next four paintings were so large that these pictures were taken from across the large gallery!






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Thursday, December 26, 2013

18th Century Asparagus in Cream

Adventures in Food


Using modern day materials

It may look ugly, but it is DELICIOUS!
I'm not an asparagus fan, but I really loved these. It does not change the texture, though. My family members who love asparagus, loved it too. It had a taste very appropriate for Thanksgiving and/or Christmas. 

I also want to tell everyone that I am by no means a professional in photography or in cooking! 
I'm just a city lady trying out new things.













Woops, forgot to salt the water before the first batch, but the rest got it!


Got a little over done because I was doing everything, and taking pictures too.
But, at least you can see the next step.





I used allspice so that I wouldn't have to add them separately. 








Because I was taking the picture and trying to separate, it didn't work with the first egg. So, I just used a strainer to drain the white out.





Plated with the Potted Salmon.

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