Remembering John Jacob Astor
We don’t often write about American business leaders of the 19th Century, most of whom are not the subject of classroom study or popular history books. If they are studied at all, it’s often the...
Remembering Jim Bridger
When we think of the early settlers of the American West, invariably our minds conjure up the image of intrepid “mountain men” who crossed the Rocky Mountains, battling the elements, fought with...
Remembering Harriet Tubman
One of the most revered figures in the history of the abolitionist movement in the 19th century was Harriet Tubman, who died this day on March 10, 1913 at the age of 90. Harriet’s story is...
Remembering Davy Crockett
Many of us remember the Disney television miniseries titled Davy Crockett and the song “The Ballad of Davy Crockett”. While many western characters obtained nearly mythical status, they were...
Remembering Sam Houston
On this day in 1793, Samuel Houston was born in Rockbridge, Virginia. He was an American general and statesman who was a key figure in the Texas Revolution. He was the first and third president of...
Remembering Francis Marion, the “Swamp Fox”
Our country’s Revolutionary War lasted eight years, from 1775 to 1783. Many historians contend that the War was won in no small part in a series of skirmishes and battles in the final years of the...
Remembering Quanah Parker
Most of us learned in school something about the most famous Native-American tribal leaders during the period of the settlement of the American West: Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and Red Cloud, to...
Remembering Frederick Douglass
We have posted before about the Civil War era and Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. Much of the impetus for Lincoln’s Proclamation came from the radical abolitionists in the...
Remembering Cotton Mather
A major church leader in early America was Cotton Mather, who died this day on February 13, 1728 at the age of 65. He was one of the most controversial Puritan clerics of his era, known for his...
February 1623: Jamestowne Colony Tallies Up the Grim Statistics of the “Livinge & Dead in Virginia,” Following the Massacre of 1622
(contemporaneous engraving of the Massacre of 1622) Looking back 400 years, we often read about events that were defining moments in the history of our earliest American settlements, be they the...
