And what was the “Boston Massacre,” class?

A mob of unemployed, angry (and probably three-sheets to the wind) dockworkers got into a shouting match with some of the much-hated British soldiers then quartered in Boston –and competing for jobs at the port in their off-duty hours. Curses were exchanged, snowballs thrown, then rocks. In an instant, shots rang out and several of the Boston men fell dead. A Paul Revere engraving of the event quickly became a patriot icon and a propaganda coup – a graphic image of the brutality and tyranny of British rule.

Then came a trial of the men accused of murdering these “townies.” Undoubtedly, these eight British soldiers and the officer in command were as reviled as “jihadists” and “Guantanamo detainees” are in America today. Which brings us to the question at hand.

What sort of man would possibly defend such heinous “killers?” It is a question that has taken on new poignancy with the recent controversy over the attacks by Elizabeth Cheney and other “conservatives” from “Keep America Safe” on the attorneys who have defended some of the Guantanamo detainees.

The attorney who defended those British soldiers was also assailed in his time. He knew his business would suffer from taking on such unpopular clients. But he did it –and for very little compensation, the colonial equivalent of a Legal Aid attorney. His name was John Adams.

In spite of the public grief he took –including some from his more radical and outspoken cousin, Samuel— 34-year-old attorney John Adams took the case of defending the soldiers on principle. And he stated that principle himself at the time:

“The reason is, because it’s of more importance to community, that innocence should be protected, than it is, that guilt should be punished.”

Adams was successful in the two trials. In the first, the officer in command was found not guilty. In the second, six soldiers were completely acquitted and two were found guilty of manslaughter for which they were branded on their thumbs.

Adams would be publicly assailed over his decision and later said he lost half of his business. For his part, Samuel Adams mostly kept quiet about the case realizing that this very public display of fairness looked good for the then-blossoming patriot cause. A lynch mob might well have been a disaster for the Americans.

In his old age, Adams looked back at the case and wrote that his part in the defense of the British soldiers was

“one of the most gallant, generous, manly and disinterested actions of my whole life, and one of the best pieces of service I ever rendered my country.”

True Conservatives have traditionally professed to respect the rule of law, honor the ideals of the “Founders” and hold high the notion that individual rights are to be protected against the possible tyranny of a despotic government. The so-called “conservatives” attacking the Guantanamo attorneys might want to brush up on their middle school American History. As John Adams himself told the jury back then,

“Facts are stubborn things and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictums of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”

On March 3, 1931, The Star Spangled Banner, with words written in 1814 and set to an old drinking song, became the national anthem.

It was September 13, 1814, American was at war with England for the second time since 1776. Francis Scott Key was an attorney attempting to negotiate the return of a civilian prisoner held by the British who had just burned Washington DC and had set their sights on Baltimore. As the British attacked the city, Key watched the naval bombardment from a ship in Baltimore’s harbor. In the morning, he could see that the Stars and Stripes still flew over Fort McHenry.

But here’s what they didn’t tell you:

Yes, Washington, D.C. was burned in 1814, including the President’s Home which would later get a fresh coat of paint and be called the “White House.” But Washington was torched in retaliation for the burning of York –now Toronto—in Canada earlier in the war.

Key wrote words. But the music comes from an old English drinking song. Good thing it wasn’t 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall.
Here’s a link to the original lyrics of the Drinking song via Poem of the Week
http://www.potw.org/archive/potw234.html
The Star Spangled Banner did not become the national anthem until 1916 when President Wilson declared it by Executive Order. But that didn’t really count. In 1931, it became the National Anthem by Congressional resolution signed by President Herbert Hoover.,

Now, here are couple of footnotes to the Francis Scott Key story—his son, Philip Barton Key, was a District attorney in Washington. DC. He was shot and killed by Congressman Daniel Sickles. Sickles was acquitted with the first use of the defense of temporary insanity in 1859. And went on to serve as a Civil War general –and not a very good one.
And speaking of the Civil War, Key’s grandson was later imprisoned in Fort McHenry along wit Baltimore’s Mayor and other pro-Confederate sympathizers.

Here are some places to learn more about Fort McHenry, Key and the Flag that inspired the National Anthem.
http://www.nps.gov/archive/fomc/home.htm
The images and music in this video are courtesy of the Smithsonian Museum of American History: http://americanhistory.si.ed/starspangledbanner/

This version of the anthem is on 19th century instruments:
http://americanhistory.si.edu/starspangledbanner/mp3/song.ssb.dsl.mp3

If you were Theodor S. Geisel, get a friend to publish the book. Thus was born Dr. Seuss. Actually born on this date, March 2, 1904, Theodore Seuss Geisel first turned his knack for words and pictures to advertising and editorial cartoons. But Dr. Seuss influenced entire generations of children with his nonsensical poems that put “See Spot run” on the endangered species list.

So what do you know about Seuss? Heaven Save Us/Try this quick quiz.

1. Inspired by the rhythmic sound of an ocean liner’s engine, what was Seuss’s first book?
2. Which Seuss classic used just 225 words?
3. Boris Karloff once made his voice rather scary/But in a remake, he was played by Jim Carey. Who is he?
4. Here’s a clue that may surprise you/What did Seuss do/during the War known as Two?

Dr. Seuss died in 1991.

Here is a link to the informative and whimsical Dr. Seuss Memorial Sculpture Garden in his birthplace, Springfield, Mass.
http://www.catinthehat.org/history.htm

Answers
1. And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street. The idea came to Seuss on an ocean cruise.
2. The Cat in the Hat, written in response to the 1954 reports of poor reading in America.
3. The Grinch.
4. He drew anti-Nazi and anti-Japanese propaganda cartoons, images sharply at odds with his whimsical drawings for children.

People ask me two questions all the time: Why don’t we know much about History?
And why is so much of America’s History Hidden?
To the first the answer is simple. It was boring.
And to the second, we lie.
Sometimes these lies are little white lies –like Washington and the Cherry Tree. But sometimes they are Big Lies.
Let me give you an example of a BIG LIE. I was in a wonderful historical village in Florida, doing some research. A Spanish mission, with a neighboring Indian village, it featured an enthusiastic, well-versed staff in period costume. It was exactly the kind of place I like to suggest to parents and teachers to take their kids to get them excited about history.
Then I went into their “educational center.” On the wall was a time chart of Florida’s history and under the date 1565, I saw this legend: “The French are banished from Florida.”

Not so fast… The French Protestants, or Huguenots who were America’s real first pilgrims, were not “banished.” They were massacred by the Spanish. And not because they were French but because they were Protestants–”heretics.” It happened in September and October 1565.

October is also the month in which those folks who brought you the Salem Witch Trials executed a couple of Quakers –who had been banned from Boston and the Bay Colony in October 1656. A year later, another Quaker named Mary Dyer was executed and a fourth was hung in 1661 –simply for the crime of being a Quaker.
They left that part out of the Thanksgiving Story, didn’t they? These are some of the “hidden history” moments that we don’t talk about when we discuss America as a so-called “Christian nation” and the Puritans coming for freedom of religion. That meant their religion not anyone else’s.
We hide our history when the truth is ugly. We like to paint a picture of that that makes history tidy and acceptable. But our history isn’t tidy or bloodless. And it certainly isn’t boring as these stories prove.

You can read more about the French Pilgrims and the Quakers in America’s Hidden History

Here is a link the national monument at Fort Matanzas, site of the Massacre:
http://www.nps.gov/foma/index.htm
This is a brief biography of Mary Dyer from teh Masschusetts stae website:
http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=mg2terminal&L=6&L0=Home&L1=State+Government&L2=About+Massachusetts&L3=Interactive+State+House&L4=Inside+the+State+House&L5=Statues+in+Bronze&sid=massgov2&b=terminalcontent&f=interactive_statehouse_statue_dyer&csid=massgov2

John Steinbeck built his reputation writing about the struggles of down-and-out people: Dust Bowl farmers and pearl divers, prostitutes, jobless migrants, and Depression-era hobos. Before his death in 1968, Steinbeck became one of America’s most popular storytellers and among his many works are the epic classic The Grapes of Wrath and the brief but memorable Of Mice and Men.

In later years, he signed all his letters with a “pigasus” logo: a funny stamp of a little round pig with wings.Around the pig, Steinbeck added the words, Ad Astra Per Alia Porci, or “To the stars on the wings of a pig”—an apt motto for an author who portrayed the goodness, even holiness, of the common man. What do you know about the man who won a Nobel Prize in 1962? Try this quiz adapted from Don’t Know Much About Literature

1. What did Steinbeck study at Stanford? (Hint: he returned to this subject in his non-fiction book, Sea of Cortez, 1941, with Edward F. Ricketts.)
2. Who wrote and performed the song, “The Ballad of Tom Joad,” inspired by the main character in The Grapes of Wrath?
3. What Biblical story inspired the family drama in East of Eden?
4. Which of John Steinbeck’s novels have been adapted into Oscar-winning films?
5. Steinbeck wrote the screenplay for what biopic (for which Anthony Quinn won an Oscar)?

Here’s a link to the Steinbeck Center in Salinas, CA. with a brief biography and other information
http://www.steinbeck.org/Bio.html

Answers
1. Marine Biology.
2. Woody Guthrie. Bruce Springsteen also wrote a song inspired by The Grapes of Wrath: “The Ghost of Tom Joad,” released on an album of the same name.
3. The story of Cain and Abel.
4. The Grapes of Wrath (1940) won two Oscars (Best Actress and Best Director) out of five nominations. East of Eden (1955) won Best Actress. Of Mice and Men (1939), Tortilla Flat (1942), Lifeboat (1944) (based on a Steinbeck short story), and A Medal for Benny (1945) (another short story) all received Academy Award nominations.
5. Viva Zapata!

By now, I hope we all know that the cherry tree story is a legend, made up by a pseudobiographer but chiseled into American folklore.
But there is a true story about a young George Washington that most of us never hear. It is the story of his first actual military experience and his signing of a “murder confession.” It is not only more interesting than the cherry tree story but a lot more revealing.

The incident began in late May 1754, with England and France in a brief respite from bouts of relentless war. Relying upon knowledge garnered from reading military manuals, the wet-behind-the-ears Washington was in command of a crew of militiamen dispatched to build an outpost in western Pennsylvania’s contested wilderness.

Encountering a detachment of French soldiers, Washington followed the advice of an ally he barely trusted –an Indian chief known to the English as the Half King. Tossing caution to the wind, the untested Washington defied orders and ambushed the French. When the smoke cleared, one Virginian and several Frenchmen lay dead or wounded; the rest were taken prisoner. “I heard bullets whistle,” Washington later told his brother, famously adding that the sound was “charming.”

What happened next was anything but charming. A wounded French officer frantically waved some papers at Washington. He was, in fact, a diplomat, carrying letters to the British. But before Washington could make sense of this, the Half King buried his tomahawk in the Frenchman’s brain. The Indians fell on the other captives, leaving few alive.

Following this massacre, a French army set off in hot pursuit of Washington. Outnumbered, Washington’s men cobbled together a small wooden shed, surrounded by sharpened stakes, in a meadow about 60 miles south of what is now Pittsburgh. It was called “Fort Necessity” —but “Desperation” would have been more fitting. The Half King’s warriors took one look and beat a hasty retreat.

On a rainy July 3d, the French surrounded Fort Necessity and poured gunfire down on Washington’s hapless troops. Their powder wet, their trenches filling with mud and gore, some of the Virginians ransacked the rum stores. By the morning of the 4th, Washington had no choice. Fortunate he wasn’t shot on the spot, he accepted terms. Among them was signing what amounted to a murder confession. His admission sparked the Seven Years’ War—history’s first true “world war.” (The North American phase was the French and Indian War.)

Insubordinate, incompetent, an admitted murderer who had surrendered in abject defeat –Washington should have been done in by any of these blows to his reputation. But instead, he flourished. The first “Teflon” hero in American history –nothing stuck to the young George Washington.

Clearly, he possessed uncanny survival skills. He had proven that in 1753, during a dangerous trek through the Ohio River Valley wilderness when he was shot at by an Indian and later plunged into an icy river. By all rights, Washington should have died of exposure. But he lived to tell the tale and made a name for himself.

Just as intriguing as this public reversal of Washington’s failures is how they escaped inclusion in your schoolbooks. Maybe it is this simple: his “youthful indiscretions” never fit the tidy “I-cannot-tell-a-lie” image of young Washington that many Americans still cherish. Many Americans still cling to the mythic version of history with heroes as perfectly polished as the marble monuments in the nation’s capitol.

Yet the tale of “Washington’s Confession” is not simply revisionism meant to tarnish an icon. Washington emerged as the “indispensable man” who saw combat at its worst, learned well the politics of war, and was surely shaped by these disastrous misadventures.

“Washington’s Confession” is just one piece of America’s “hidden history,” a reminder that winners tell the tales. And Washington was a winner. Even though –as he surely knew– it is often the defeats and disasters that can teach us the most.

Here is a link to the National Historic site at Washington’s “Fort Necessity”
http://www.nps.gov/fone/index.htm
You can read more of the story of “Washington’s Confession” in America’s Hidden History

When I was a kid, we got two holidays: one for Lincoln’s Birthday and another for Washington’s. Now, we have to make do with a three day weekend in February for Presidents Day.
Think you know about the Father of Our Country?
This video contains a few things that might surprise you.

Want to learn a little more?
Here is the website for the National Park Service’s Birthplace of Washington site:
http://www.nps.gov/gewa/index.htm

And here is the National Park Service website for Fort Necessity, scene of Washington’s surrender and “confession.”
http://www.nps.gov/fone/index.htm

Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.
–Notice at the opening of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

America doesn’t have a national holiday to honor a writer. But if we did, maybe it should be one devoted to Samuel Langhorne Clemens, born in Missouri on November 30, 1835. And maybe we could make it today, February 18, in honor of Huck Finn.

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn appeared in America on this date in 1885. (It had been published first in London a few months before.) An excellent website devoted to “Huck” and Twain can be found at the University of Virginia’s site:
http://etext.virginia.edu/twain/huckfinn.html

http://etext.virginia.edu/twain/huckfinn.html

(Writers take note of some of the reviews. They were not gentle.)

Best known by his pen name, and often viewed as the creator of such young adult classics as A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, The Prince and the Pauper, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain was much more. In a distinctly American style, Twain wrote biting satire that poked fun at America’s manners and corrupt politics. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), his master work, is now a controversial classic.

But Twain would surely remind people that he once said that a classic is, “A book which people praise and don’t read.” Although he famously told a newspaper in 1897, “The report of my death was an exaggeration,” Twain in fact died in 1910. What else do you know about one of America’s greatest writers? Take this quick quiz (adapted from Don’t Know Much About Anything Else.)

1. Where did he get his pen name “Mark Twain”?
2. How did Twain serve during the Civil War?
3. What short story gave Twain his national fame?
4. Which famous general’s autobiography did Twain publish?

There are two biographies of Mark Twain I would highly recommend:
Mark Twain: A Life by Ron Powers
Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain: A Biography by Justin Kaplan

Answers
1. As a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi River, he knew this phrase meant that the water is two fathoms (12 feet) deep.
2. In 1861, Clemens joined a group of irregular Confederate cavalry from Missouri, deserting after a few weeks time. The experience served as the source of a short memoir, “The Private History of a Campaign that Failed.”
3. “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” (1865), based on a tale Twain heard while working in the California gold fields, was a national sensation.
4. His firm, Charles L. Webster, published Ulysses S. Grant’s Memoirs, a critical and commercial success.

With Presidents Day around the corner, it seems like a good time to think about some other great books about the Presidents and Presidency. Here is a short list of some of my favorite Presidential biographies –all what I call “must reads.” Obviously, this not an exhaustive list, and some may already be familiar. Not all of them focus on the presidential years of the subjects. But this is a good place to start with a collection of accessible and fascinating views of the lives and careers of some of the most significant Commanders in Chief –all told by great storytellers, great writers and great historians.
Since Presidents Day exists to honor Washington and Lincoln, I’ll start with them–

Founding Father: Rediscovering George Washington by Richard Brookhiser. Fairly brief, mostly admiring but honest, and to the point, Brookhiser of the National Review, cuts through the mythology but keeps Washington firmly in place as “Father of Our Country.”
Imperfect God: George Washington, His Slaves and the Creation of America by Henry Wiencek. Rather than an exhaustive biography, this is a study of Washington’s complicated relationship to slavery and his views on emancipation.

Speaking of Emancipation, The Lincoln Library is enormous. But if I had to pick one single-volume biography of “The Great Emancipator,” I choose With Malice Toward None: A Life of Abraham Lincoln by Stephen B. Oates. I like it for its readability and utterly human portrait of one most mythologized of Presidents. A close second to Oates is Lincoln by David Herbert Donald. Lincoln: An Illustrated Biography by Philip B. Kunhardt. Jr., Philip Kunhardt III and Peter W. Kunhardt is a beautiful volume, a “coffee table” book that won’t just sit on the coffee table. It might be especially valuable for households with children, as is Lincoln: A Photobiography, an award-winning book for children by the appropriately named Russell Freedman.

Mornings on Horseback: The Story of an Extraordinary Family, a Vanished Way of Life and the Unique Child Who Became Theodore Roosevelt by David McCullough is one of my favorite biographies, although it focuses not on TR’s astonishing Presidency but on his youth. A magnificent book.
For Teddy Roosevelt’s Presidency, read Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris

For the “other Roosevelt, another of my all time favorite books is Doris Kearn Goodwin’s No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II. It focuses life in the White House during the war years and is the perfect combination of scholarship and great storytelling
Because FDR’s historic “First Hundred Days” got so much attention recently, I would also recommend this fairly slim but excellent overview of the Depression and Roosevelt’s controversial, much-debated response to it: The First Hundred Days by Anthony Badger

For FDR’s successor, the gold standard is Truman by David McCullough

Master of the Senate by Robert Caro. Until Caro finishes the fourth installment of his epic biography of Lyndon Johnson, this book, covering Johnson’s years as the Senator from Texas will have to do.

President Reagan: The Role Of A Lifetime by Lou Cannon. A California journalist, Cannon covered Reagan for years and this is an even-handed assessment.

A comprehensive reading list of these and Presidential biographies can also be found in Don’t Know Much About History

Honest Abe. The Railsplitter. The Great Emancipator. You know some of the basics and the legends. But check out this video to learn some of things you may not know, but should, about the 16th President.

Here’s a link to the Lincoln Birthplace National Park
http://www.nps.gov/ABLI/index.htm

This link is to the Emancipation Proclamation page at the National Archives:
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured_documents/emancipation_proclamation/