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 no-doubt individuals who lived interesting, active and influential lives. Davy Crockett was one such character. Crockett was born in 1786, just
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 the Republic of Texas and represented Texas in the U. S. Senate. He also
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 war in what is referred to as the “Southern Campaign,” culminating in the victory
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 name a few. Largely forgotten in the telling of the story of the American West is Quanah Parker,
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 North, as well as African-American leaders. Perhaps the most famous of them was Frederick Douglass, who died this day on
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 many books, papers and sermons on the theology of the Puritan faith,
(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 Plymouth Plantation founded by the Pilgrims, New Netherland founded by the Dutch, the Jamestowne Colony, founded by English “adventurers,”
One of the most famous leaders of the rebellion that led to our American Revolution was John Hancock, born this day on January 23, 1737. Hancock was an unlikely warrior—he was not a military man, but was instead a wealthy Boston businessman, who became a major supporter of “The Cause,”
Born this day in 1813, Major-General John C. Fremont was one of the most popular men in America in the mid-1800’s: a soldier, an explorer, a gold speculator, a territorial Governor, a U.S. senator, and a leading candidate for President of the United States. The popular press lionized him, and
One of the most important political leaders in early New England was John Winthrop, who was born this day on January 12, 1587/1588. Beginning in 1630, Winthrop was the long-time Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, with its center in Boston. In 1629-30, Winthrop had organized and led a large
You see his face every day on our $10 bill. A Broadway musical is named after him. And he’s known as the man who was killed in a duel with Aaron Burr in 1804. Alexander Hamilton is a truly iconic figure in American history, and one of the most complex
This month in 1863, in the midst of the Civil War, President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, one of the most important Presidential acts in American history. Since the enactment of the United States Constitution in 1789, the country had wrestled with the issue of slavery, as the nation experienced
Today we briefly pay tribute to one of the bravest women of the Revolutionary War era, who risked her personal safety to follow her husband into battle, and who spent the war years supporting the troops led by her husband, General Nathanael Greene. It was on this day in 1814
United States $1 commemorative coin honoring Sacajawea, 2000. A watershed event in American history was the Lewis & Clark Expedition of 1804-06. We’ve posted remembrances before about Meriwether Lewis and his partner, William Clark, the intrepid explorers who led the famous expedition that led to the opening of the American
Born this day on December 6, 1815, Jane Grey Swisshelm was one of America’s best-known anti-slavery advocates of the 19th century. Born in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, Jane married James Swisshelm at age 20 and moved to Kentucky, where she was first exposed to slavery. Soon she began writing newspaper articles on
Fifteen months before the American Civil War commenced with the shelling of Fort Sumter in April 1861, one of the most memorable events in the history of the abolitionist movement in the United States took place—the execution by hanging of John Brown on this day, December 2, 1859. Brown had