August 23, 1939- The Non-Aggression Pact

Joseph Stalin. 1943. US Signal Corps. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Joseph_Stalin_%28colorized%29.jpg

Adolf Hitler. 1938. German Federal Archive. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-H1216-0500-002,_Adolf_Hitler.jpg

At the end of World War 1 Germany was defeated and subjected to numerous restrictions on its military as well as war reparations to the Allies that devastated its economy. This state of affairs contributed to the rise of the Nazi Party and a German foreign policy aimed at regaining lost territory and greater expansion.

The war also ended with the collapse of the Tsarist regime in Russia. Out of the various factions that created a provisional government, the Bolshevic communists emerged victorious and founded the Soviet Union. The capitalist states of Western Europe and the U.S saw the communist regime as a direct threat to their global power and worked to isolate them internationally.

When Hitler took power in Germany he immediately began building up the military and annexed Austria and part of Czechoslovakia. France and Britain attempted several diplomatic efforts to prevent another European war. They also signed a treaty with Poland vowing to come to its aid if it was invaded by a foreign power.

The Nazis were even more hostile to the Soviet Union than other Western states due to their ideological rejection of communism and their racist convictions that saw many Eastern Europeans, particularly Slavic peoples, as genetically inferior.

So it was a shock to the Allies when Germany and Russia signed a non-aggression pact, formally agreeing not to attack each other for 10 years, and not to aid any third power that may attack the other. One of the main reasons many argue that Germany lost the first World War was that it was fighting states on either side of it. The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact seemed to ensure that would not happen again, making war with Western Europe more likely. Soon after the pact was signed Germany invaded Poland, beginning the second World War. 2 weeks later Russia invaded Poland from the east. 

At the end of the war it was revealed that there was a secret protocol included in the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact that specified how Germany and Russia would carve up Eastern Europe into separate spheres of influence, including the division of Poland between them.

The pact was dissolved in 1941 when the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union in a surprise attack known as “Operation Barbarossa.” Most historians argue that despite Hitler and the Nazis’ deep hostility to communism and racist stance towards Slavic peoples, Stalin and the leadership of the Soviet Union were genuinely caught off guard by the invasion. Initial gains by Germany were soon bogged down in arguably the most vicious fighting of the war. Many battle sites on the eastern front, such as Stalingrad, still bear devastation directly related to the constant bombardment. 27 million Russians died in World War 2- approximately 19 million civilians and 9 million military personnel. 

Sources:

Molotov-Ribbentrop: The Pact That Changed Europe's Borders- 

Radio Free Europe

German-Soviet Pact- The Holocaust Encyclopedia

The Molotov-Ribbentrop pact – Archive- The Guardian

August 16, 1933- The Christie Pits Riot

Photograph of two individuals displaying swastikas, August 1933

(Toronto Daily Star/8 August 1933)

At the beginning of the 20th century anti-Semitism was far more prevalent in Canada, the US, and western Europe than it is today. The Great Depression that followed the stock market crash of 1929 exacerbated this dynamic globally. Swastika clubs proliferated in Toronto. Members would parade through public parks and beaches with swastika flags to try and drive Jewish citizens out.

At a baseball game at the Christie Pits ballpark involving one mostly Jewish team, a group of young anti-Semites ran out onto the field with a swastika banner. During the night they returned and wrote “Hail Hitler” on the roof of the clubhouse.

2 days later on August 16, 1933, at the follow-up game, anti-Semites showed up in large numbers, but so did young Jews, joined by Italians and other minorities that at the time were not considered White. Fights broke out in the stands throughout the game and near the end another swastika banner was marched out onto the field. Violence exploded as the rival groups fought over possession of the banner.

The riot spilled out onto the streets, ultimately involving 10,000 people brawling with clubs and improvised weapons. There were no casualties, but hundreds were injured. In the aftermath Toronto’s mayor, William Stewart, announced that future displays of the swastika in public would be prosecuted.

Sources:

Christie Pits Riot- Canadian Encyclopedia

Toronto’s Christie Pits Riot- Museum of Toronto

Remembering the Christie Pits Riot- Canadian Broadcasting Company

August 9, 1956- Women's March Protesting Apartheid in South Africa

1956 Women’s March. Photographer unknown. https://artscomments.wordpress.com/2013/08/09/lillian-ngoyi-one-of-the-women-who-gave-us-womens-day/

For centuries the landmass that would become the nation of South Africa was home to a variety of indigenous African peoples. In the 1600s Dutch and British traders began to establish port communities to supply their ships. Many opted to stay after leaving employment with their trading houses rather than return to their homelands. As the British Empire grew, it came to dominate the region in its pursuit for gold and other valuable minerals. They fought several wars with African tribes, as well as Dutch-descended communities known as Boers. In the 20th century Boers and their descendants, Afrikaners, gained some independence as The Union of South Africa, a dominion of the British Empire. In 1931 it became fully independent.

In 1948 the National Party gained a political majority and began enacting the formal apartheid regime. This program was built on a foundation of long standing racial segregation and labor exploitation from the colonial era, but was designed to institutionalize these policies in a modern nation-state and control the movements and labor of Black, Indian, and mixed-race citizens and deny them any political power or cultural legitimacy within South Africa.

Resistance to such policies dated back to the colonial era but historically faced stiff resistance from White elites. As apartheid became entrenched, political and labor organizing intensified among communities of color and their allies. Black men seeking work in White communities had long been required to carry passbooks. Those who were caught without them were routinely jailed and fined. In the 1950s the government sought to extend the pass system to Black women as well, sparking more protest.

On August 9, 1956, a group of 20,000 dissident women marched to the capitol building in Pretoria to demonstrate against the laws and deliver their petitions directly to Prime Minister Johannes Strijdom. Strijdom was conveniently absent. While the march was a powerful demonstration of resistance and further legitimized the role of women in various political networks, pass laws were indeed imposed on women. It would take many decades of struggle before apartheid was dismantled in the 1990s.

August 9 is still celebrated as National Women’s Day in South Africa.

Sources:

South African Women Commemorate Historic 1956 March- CGTN Africa

The 1956 Women's March Pretoria 9 August-South African History Online

How did Apartheid Change South Africa?- Encyclopedia Britannica

Pass Law- Encyclopedia Britannica

Lillian Masediba Ngoyi- South African History Online

Helen Joseph- South African History Online

Rahima Moosa- South African History Online

Sophia Theresa Williams de Bruyn- South African History Online

August 2, 1936- Hitler Snubs Cornelius Johnson

Cornelius Johnson, winner of the gold medal at the Olympics, in a high jump. , 1936. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2017767777/.

The 1936 Olympic Games were held in Nazi Germany. The men’s high jump was dominated by the American team- Cornelius Johnson won the gold, David Albritton the silver, and Delos Thurber the bronze. Johnson and Albritton were Black.

David Albritton. Author unknown.

On the first day Hitler made a point to congratulate all the gold medalists with a handshake. Rather than shake Johnson’s hand, Hitler left the stadium before the ceremony. He was then reprimanded by the Olympic Committee who told him he would have to shake all the gold medalists’ hands or none. The Führer opted for none. 

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the US president, also snubbed the Black American Olympians, declining to invite them to the traditional White House ceremony along with their White counterparts.

Sources:

Los Angeles oak tree carries legacy of forgotten 1936 Olympic athlete- CBS Mornings

Athlete Bio: Cornelius Johnson- USATF

David D. Albritton- Ohio Statehouse

Colonizing Hawai'i/Part 8 The Territory and the Big Five

Admission Day Ceremony of the Territory of Hawaii held on June 14, 1900. Author Unknown. Bernice P. Bishop Museum. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hawaii_Territory_Admission_Day_Ceremonies.jpg

Most of the wealthiest sugar planters were not dedicated annexationists, primarily because they feared being joined with the United States would put an end to importing Asian contract laborers, a cost saving measure that was necessary to make the sugar industry as profitable as it was. Nor were most of them supportive of enfranchising Asian workers or Native Hawaiians. The most militant annexationists tended to be lawyers and businessmen with some investments in various sugar plantations. The wealthier planters could afford to sit on the fence between the Hawaiian monarchy and the Annexationists.

The largest corporations which came to be known as the Big Five, were C. Brewer, Castle & Cooke, Alexander and Baldwin, Theo. Davies & Co., and Hackfeld & Co., which later became American Factors. These companies owned multiple plantations, as well as the companies that supplied them, the refineries and factories that processed and sold the sugar for them, as well as the banks that made it all possible.

They imported indentured servants and other coerced laborers in large groups by contract, first with Chinese, then Japanese and Portuguese, and then Filipino workers. Multiple anti-Asian laws of both Hawaiian and American origin prevented many of these people from naturalizing and earning citizenship. It would take these groups many decades to effectively organize for political rights.

The Big Five wanted to be wealthy and powerful enough to control or strongly influence politics, without being responsible for politicking. They wanted to provide jobs that made the majority of workers dependent on them without the responsibility of adhering to the prevailing labor laws of the day in their home countries. They poured money into schools for non-Whites but also supported stipulations that banned Hawaiian language and culture, and required a particular American ideology that institutionalized White supremacy and classism. 

The grassroots political organizations created by Native Hawaiians, the Hui Kālai ‘āina, and the Hui Aloha ‘Āina both vigorously protested American annexation. They both delivered petitions signed by a majority of the Native population. Queen Lili’uokalani also submitted a formal protest to the annexation and appropriation of her crown lands. Regardless of their clearly communicated legitimate claims or their allies in the US and around the globe, the McKinley administration pushed annexation through in the midst of the Spanish/American War. The majority of Americans and Europeans saw the Native Hawaiians, and Polynesians generally, the same way they saw all the indigenous peoples of the Americas, as “vanishing races” whose populations were rapidly decreasing and could be disregarded politically and socially. This prevalent racist worldview, combined with the strategic benefit of the Hawaiian islands’ location in the Pacific for a fledgeling empire made American politicians confident in seizing control of the kingdom along with the Philippines and other islands.

Seal of the Territory of Hawaii. Translation:

“The Life of the Land is Perpetuated in Righteousness.”

Following the formal annexation, all the laws of the illegally established Republic of Hawaii were left in place until Congress could establish a territorial government for the islands. Dole and Thurston were hard at work advocating for terms that would retain the privileged position of wealthy Whites and keep Asian laborers and Native Hawaiians politically sidelined. Robert Wilcox played a pivotal role in lobbying Congress to remove property requirements from voting rights, the main tactic that had kept Native Hawaiians from voting in their own country. He also worked to establish an Independent Home Rule Party that would challenge White rule in the legislature. Hawaiian language newspapers were already numerous, but they rapidly increased in number as a tactic for preserving Hawaiian language, culture, history and bolstering an indigenous nationalism in resistance to American hegemony. As a territory, Hawaii elected a non-voting delegate to the US Congress to represent them. Robert Wilcox was among the first to be elected to this post. 

Sources:

Hawai’i Plantation Museum

Hawai’i’s Territorial Period in Context- University of Hawai’i

History of Labor in Hawai’i- University of Hawai’i

Kihei Soli Niheu plays Robert Kalanihiapo Wilcox, Jan. 1993- Hawaiian Voice

Katrina-Ann, R. “The Hawaiian Language Revitalization Movement.” In A Nation Rising: Hawaiian Movements for Life, Land, and Sovereignty, edited by Goodyear-Kaopua, Noelani, Ikaika Hussey, and Erin Kahunawaika’ala Wright, 78-85. Duke University Press, 2024. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=m9LZBAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA26&dq=the+hawaiian+language+revitalization+movement+katrina-ann+r.&ots=yQzWC3dTuL&sig=XRtAkbjsBf99WICpEYyEP6eO8cw.

Silva, Noenoe K. “I Kū Mau Mau: How Kānaka Maoli Tried to Sustain National Identity within the United States Political System.” American Studies 45, no. 3 (2004): 9–31.

———. “Joseph Moku’ōhai Poepoe.” In The Power of the Steel-Tipped Pen: Reconstructing Native Hawaiian Intellectual History. 105-149. Duke University Press, 2017. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=L8LADgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PT8&dq=Reconstructing+Native+Hawaiian+Intellectual+history:+joseph+mokuohai+poepoe&ots=1_dfQm4DtZ&sig=IVwOiUOJpgOMRcxTqDVOjMpN6WA.

Whitehead, John S. “Western Progressives, Old South Planters, or Colonial Oppressors: The Enigma of Hawaii’s ‘Big Five,’ 1898–1940.” Western Historical Quarterly 30, no. 3 (1999): 295–326.

Colonizing Hawai'i/Part 7- From Republic to Annexation

Members of the Constitutional Convention, Republic of Hawaii, 1894. Unknown author.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Members_of_the_Constitutional_Convention,_Republic_of_Hawaii_(PP-28-7-023)_(cropped).jpg

Temporarily thwarted in their bid for US annexation, the Provisional Government called a constitutional convention in June of 1894. 19 of its 37 delegates were selected by Sanford B. Dole, and the remaining 18 were elected. The constitution that was enacted, written primarily by Dole and Lorrin Thurston, established a president as the head of government, and converted the house of Nobles to a Hawaiian Senate, to more closely resemble the US government.

Voting rights were limited to male citizens of the Republic. Citizens naturalized before 1893 were excluded unless they were “a native of a country having, or have had, treaty relations with Hawaii.” This was designed specifically to exclude Chinese and Japanese citizens. Certain non-citizens could vote, if they received “certificates of service” or “letters of denization” from the Hawaiian government, provided they took an oath to support the constitution and republic, and to not aid any attempts to restore the monarchy. The vast majority of Native Hawaiians refused to take such an oath, leaving them ineligible to participate in elections or the government of their homeland.’

Following the forced adoption of the Bayonet Constitution in 1887, Native Hawaiian leaders formed the Hui Kālai ‘āina, roughly translated as “Hawaiian Political Association.” This group worked to organize petition drives to demand a new constitution. They remained active after the coup in petitioning the US to restore Queen Lili’uokalani. Another organization was formed after the overthrow by former Native Hawaiian legislators called the Hui Aloha ‘Āina, roughly translated to the “Patriotic league.” There were initially separate organizations for men and women. These groups were able to deliver petitions arguing against annexation and restoration of the monarchy with signatures of nearly all the 40,000 Native Hawaiians in the Republic. 

Queen Lili’uokalani traveled to Washington DC 1897 to petition the Congress against annexation and to restore her monarchy. During this time she wrote “Hawai’i’s story by Hawai’i’s Queen.” Agents of the Republic were also in the capital lobbying William McKinley’s administration for annexation. As in 1894, both parties were unsuccessful in their efforts, and so the Republic endured. However events in 1898 would tip the scales in the annexationists’ favor.

President William McKinley and Vice President Theodore Roosevelt, circa 1900. Library of Congress

Spain had colonized islands in the Caribbean and Pacific for centuries. The country was wracked by internal and colonial revolutions throughout the 19th century. In Cuba, one in a long line of revolts had reached a critical mass in the 1890s. Subduing it required an economically suffering Spain to send more troops it could ill afford and use more brutal tactics than in the past. Notoriously, it sought to separate the general population of Cubans from the insurgents by removing them from their villages to several concentration camps. 

These tactics were seized on by Americans eager to keep expanding US territory throughout the Western Hemisphere. Pro-war newspapers waged a boisterous campaign depicting Spain as an imperialist tyrant and demanding military intervention. The prospect was not popular with the general public or enough mainstream politicians to affect any official actions. William McKinley’s administration sought to secure Spanish withdrawal through diplomatic measures. On February 15th, 1898 a major explosion occurred on the USS Maine, a warship that had been sent to Havana Harbor in preparation to protect any American property should it be endangered during the fighting between the Cubans and Spanish. The ship sank soon after, killing over 250 crewmen. Multiple investigations followed from both Spanish and American governments. Most found that the explosion was the result of an accident in the coal bunker or magazines for its cannon, but some American investigators claimed it was caused by a Spanish torpedo or mine. The verdicts remain a matter of debate to this day. 

The pro-war press and politicians used the incident to renew their cause, coining the rallying cry, “Remember the Maine! To Hell with Spain!” The incident did not immediately move the administration to declare war, but it provided enough pressure to sway public opinion and persuade a sufficient number of politicians. On April 20, McKinely signed a joint resolution drafted by Congress supporting Cuban independence and authorizing a naval blockade of Cuba. Spain responded by declaring war on the US. The US war effort included sending naval forces to all of Spain’s colonies, including Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. The Republic of Hawaii officially adopted a neutral stance in the conflict, but in reality made its harbors available for crucial feuling and resupply of the navy. Pro-annexationists in Hawai’i and the US used this to argue for the strategic necessity of US control of the islands. Spanish resistance was minimal and US casualties low, stoking the war fever throughout the country. 

In July the Newlands Resolution accomplished the annexation of Hawai’i and the end of the war saw the US gain possession of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Philippines, and Guantanamo Bay on the edge of Cuba. By 1900 Congress had passed the Organic Act, making Hawai’i an official US territory. 

Sources:

Queen Lili’uokalani- National Parks Service

Spanish American War in Hawai’i- Aloha Authentic

Joint Resolution to Provide for Annexing the Hawaiian Islands to the United States (1898)- National Archives 

25% of Hawaii's Land (Crown Lands) Taken Illegally (Who Benefited?) with Donovan Preza M.A.- Hawaiian Kingdom Academia

Colonizing Hawai'i/Part 6- The 1893 Coup, Lili'uokalani Overthrown

Robert Wilcox. 1900. Unknown author. Public Domain. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Robert_William_Wilcox_1900.jpg

The Bayonet Constitution all but nullified the political power of the Hawaiian monarchy, and assured White control of the legislature by disenfranchising Chinese and Japanese citizens and residents of the kingdom. 

In July of 1889 Robert Wilcox, a young teacher and representative from Maui, led a revolt in an attempt to force King Kalākaua to sign yet another constitution that would reverse the effects of Bayonet. Some believe he also intended to force the king to abdicate the throne in favor of his heir and sister Lili’uokalani. After a pitched battle with the Honolulu Rifles, Wilcox and his forces surrendered. He was charged with treason and tried, but a Hawaiian jury declined to convict him, indicating the widespread opposition to the Reform Party faction that had instituted the Bayonet Constitution. Wilcox returned to the legislature and worked to build political opposition.

In 1890 the United States passed the McKinley Tariff, which removed the tariffs on imported luxury goods such as sugar. This eliminated the economic advantage to sugar planters the Reciprocity Treaty had created. Hawai’i’s sugar barons grew increasingly worried about their profits and political power after this development. 

Queen Lili’uokalani. Stanislaw Julian Ostrorog. 1887. Public Domain.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Liliuokalani_in_London_(PPWD-16-4.014).jpg

In January of 1891, King Kalākaua died while visiting San Francisco. Queen Lili’uokalani ascended to the throne. The legislature that assembled soon after was sharply divided among political factions and repeatedly voted to remove the Queen’s cabinet, a power created by the Bayonet Constitution. Meanwhile, the Queen was petitioned relentlessly by Hawiians to draft a new constitution that would curtail the power of the Reform Party and plantation owners. Once it became known to them that the Queen was in fact drafting such a document, the Hawaiian League devised a plot to depose the Queen, abolish the monarchy, and secure annexation of the islands by the United States. Largely led by Lorrin Thurston and Sanford Dole, they formed the Committee of Safety, officially chaired by Henry E. Cooper.

On January 17, 1893 a Hawaiian policeman named Leialoha was shot while investigating a wagon of weapons intended for the Committee of Safety. The Honolulu Rifles and other armed forces were mobilized to converge on ‘Iolani Palace and other key locations. John L. Stevens, the US minister to Hawai’i, authorized Captain Wiltse of the USS Boston to land marines and sailors to “secure American property.” The Committee demanded that Queen Lili'uokalani relinquish her throne and remain under house arrest. Seeing no alternative to widespread violence that would likely end in defeat, the Queen surrendered. In her written statement she formally protested all acts of the Committee of Safety and yielded to the “superior force of the United States of America.”

The Hawaiian League assembled a commission to travel to Washington DC to secure US annexation. As with the coup, this was facilitated by Minister Stevens. Lorrin Thurston headed the commission and made sure to leave before the Queen’s allies in order to head off their petitions. In the meantime, the League assembled a provisional government to manage the kingdom in the interim. 

President Harrison’s secretary of state helped the League’s commission draft an annexation treaty and submitted it to the US Senate. Perhaps because of the unusual circumstances, or because the Harrison administration was on its way out, the Senate declined to ratify the treaty before an investigation of the events. Within his first week in office, Grover Cleveland sent agents to Hawai’i to investigate the coup, the role of the US military, and the sentiment of the general population regarding the prospect of American annexation. 

President Grover Cleveland. Unknown author. National Archives. Public domain. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Grover_Cleveland_-_NARA_-_518139_(cropped)_(2).jpg

It was not hard to ascertain that the Provisional Government had little support from the people, and had improperly used the US military to bolster the illegal overthrow of a friendly nation. The Cleveland administration issued a demand to the Provisional Government that they restore the Queen to her constitutional authority. Outraged, Sanford Dole replied that the Provisional Government did not recognize the president’s authority to interfere with their domestic affairs. He charged the Queen with heading a corrupt government and stated that his government was the rightful authority of the islands and would continue to advocate union with the United States.

President Cleveland’s position was that the Queen should be restored and the Committee of Safety should be granted amnesty for the coup, that political matters should essentially revert back to the status quo before the occupation of Honolulu by US forces. Citing the limits of his office, Cleveland referred the matter to the Congress. It was accompanied by his formal recommendation and the official investigative report of Congressman Blount that charged the Committee of Safety and Minister Stevens with illegally using US forces to aid the overthrow of Hawai’i’s government. Senator John T. Morgan conducted his own investigation into the coup. Despite his 809-page manifesto arguing for annexation, the Senate resolved the matter with the Turpie Resolution which instituted a policy against both annexation and restoration of the Queen.

Resolved to wait for a more friendly US administration to pursue formal annexation, the Hawaiian League established the Republic of Hawaii on July 4, 1894. In the meantime, more revolts by Native Hawaiians were in the works. Robert Wilcox led the Hawaiian Counterrevolution in January of 1895. It consisted of 3 battles over 4 days, ending in defeat for the Hawaiians. Wilcox was tried for treason before a military tribunal and sentenced to death, commuted to 35 years imprisonment. A cache of weapons were discovered and attributed to the Queen who was arrested on January 16 and charged with “misprision of (aiding) treason.” During this confinement Queen Lili’uokalani abdicated her throne in writing, stating that she did so only in exchange for the lives of her supporters who had been sentenced to death. She was found guilty by a military commission of the Republic of Hawaii and sentenced to 5 years of hard labor and a $5000 fine. It was commuted to house arrest in ‘Iolani Palace. 

Sources:

Kūkahekahe: The Overthrow of Queen Lili’uokalani- Kamehameha Schools

Queen Lili’uokalani- Crown of Hawai’i

Hawaiian Situation: The President’s message to Congress- Library of Congress

Kualapai, Lydia. “The Queen Writes Back: Lili’uokalani’s Hawaii’s Story by Hawaii’s Queen.” Studies in American Indian Literatures 17, no. 2 (2005): 32–62.

Colonizing Hawai'i/Part 5- The Bayonet Constitution

Portrait of King Kalākaua. James J. Williams. Circa 1882. Public Domain.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kingdavidkalakaua_dust.jpg

King David Kalākaua’s reign began in 1874 with a bitter election and accusations of corruption. His opponent Emma Rooke, the widow of Kamehameha IV, retained significant popular support among many indigenous Hawaiians. On the other end of the political spectrum, he was under intense pressure, like his predecessors, to facilitate the priorities of wealthy plantation owners whose ultimate goal was US annexation.

Most Hawaiians favored allying the kingdom closer to Britain, another monarchy. However, the US had long made it clear they saw the Hawaiian islands as crucial to US security and would not abide another European power taking possession of the kingdom. The large number of American plantation owners and businessmen working in the Hawaiian government helped bolster this claim. American and European businessmen had already accomplished the political goals of converting the kingdom’s land tenure system to one of private property and passing laws allowing immigrants to purchase land. 

The main plantation commodity on the islands was sugar. Hawaiian and American agents attempted to negotiate a reciprocity treaty in 1855 but Louisiana sugar planters blocked this threat to their profits. 7 years later Southern planters were at war with the United States and Hawaiian sugar saw a boom. After the war concluded these profits decreased and talks for a reciprocity treaty renewed. 

US generals visited the islands in 1872 to evaluate areas for military use, and found Pearl Harbor a prime location. Hawai’i’s government was initially willing to grant exclusive use of the harbor to the US in exchange for the ability to import sugar to the US free of tariffs, but public outrage forced the government to withdraw the offer.

After his election in 1874, King Kalākaua renewed efforts to secure a reciprocity treaty for Hawai’i’s sugar planters. The US settled for a clause that prevented the kingdom’s government from leasing territory to any foreign power for the life of the treaty. The act was signed in 1875. The subsequent boom in sugar production also dramatically affected the demographics of the kingdom as the planters imported Chinese and Japanese contract laborers in large numbers.

When the agreement came up for renewal in 1885, the US took a firmer position on demanding exclusive access to Pearl Harbor. The agreement had been a boon for the sugar producers, and by extension the royal family that taxed them, but most Hawaiians saw little benefit and many of the indigenous Hawaiians were still adamantly opposed to ceding Pearl Harbor to the Americans or any other foreign power. King Kalākaua resisted adding the clause guaranteeing US naval access to the harbor, heightening tensions between his administration and the planter class.

The treaty did not benefit the US economically, but Hawai’i’s sugar producers stood to lose substantial gains if it was not renewed, causing them to tighten their grip on the Hawaiian government. A group of American businessmen, many descended from missionary families, organized an anti-royalist, pro-US-annexation “Reform Party.” Many of these men were also part of a secret cabal known as the Hawaiian League that planned to hasten annexation by staging a coup.

Lorrin A. Thurston. Approx 1892. Author unknown. Public Domain.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lorrin_A._Thurston,_1892.jpg

Lorrin Thurston, the grandson of missionaries, took the lead in executing an insurrection. He commanded a 300-man militia called the Honolulu Rifles. They were almost exclusively White. On June 30, the Hawaiian League demanded that King Kalākaua dismiss his cabinet, headed by Walter M. Gibson, a White politician who opposed the goals of the Hawaiian League.

The next day the Honolulu Rifles took control of a large shipment of arms from an Australian ship, nearly lynched Gibson, exiling him to San Francisco at the last minute, and proceeded to join the members of the Hawaiian League as they informed the king that they would replace his cabinet with their own members, Thurston among them, and that they were drafting a new constitution that he would be signing into law. The king sought counsel from several American and British ministers not aligned with the League, but none were confident enough to oppose them and advised him to comply with their demands. This document was literally signed at gunpoint, earning it the name, the Bayonet Constitution. 

It removed most of the king’s authority by giving the legislature veto powers and stipulating that any official actions required the signature of at least 1 cabinet member. It also changed the voting rights of the kingdom by allowing male citizens and resident aliens of American, European, or Hawaiian descent to vote, provided they could pass a literacy test in a language of those races, and meet the property and income requirements. The literacy and property requirements were features of previous constitutions, but the racial language was used to disenfranchise Chinese and Japanese residents, most of whom were plantation laborers or formerly had been, and at the same time give the vote to Portuguese laborers largely controlled by members of the Reform Party. 

The Bayonet Constitution was never ratified by the Hawaiian Legislature, even after the snap election that brought in a largely Hawaiian League government. Later that summer, the king signed the renewal of the reciprocal agreement, with the clause that guaranteed the US exclusive use of Pearl Harbor for the length of the treaty. Kalākaua remained the head of state, but was sidelined politically. The government of the kingdom was taken over by the Hawaiian League, and the United States gained a valuable naval base in the Pacific region. Most indigenous Hawaiians had long suspected American planters and politicians planned on replacing their government and began organizing against it.

Sources: 

King David Kalākaua- wbur

The 1887 Bayonet Constitution: Beginning of the Insurgency- Hawaiian Kingdom blog

Lorrin A. Thurston- Encyclopedia Britannica

Robert William Wilcox- Crown of Hawai’i

La Croix, Sumner J., and Christopher Grandy. “The Political Instability of Reciprocal Trade and the Overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom.” The Journal of Economic History 57, no. 1 (1997): 161–89.

Moblo, Pennie. “Leprosy, Politics, and the Rise of Hawaii’s Reform Party.” The Journal of Pacific History 34, no. 1 (June 1999): 75–89. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223349908572892.

Osorio, Jonathan Kamakawiwo’ole. “‘ What Kine Hawaiian Are You?’: A Mo’olelo about Nationhood, Race, History, and the Contemporary Sovereignty Movement in Hawai’i.” The Contemporary Pacific 13, no. 2 (2001): 359–79.

June 28, 1969- The Stonewall Riots

Gay Pride March, Christopher Street, New York. 1970. Diana Davies/New York Public Library

A small group of plain clothes police raided the Stonewall Inn with the intent to arrest anyone they determined were “cross-dressing.” This was a standard practice in most US cities. 

There was actually no specific law against cross-dressing. Police departments tended to use archaic laws about concealing one’s face in public and other unrelated statutes when processing arrests. Raiding bars and other places where gay people congregated, and the harassment and brutality used to execute them, was not about upholding any laws, but a social norm that gay and queer people live closeted lives, keeping their real selves out of public view. As social conventions like this one and Jim Crow were increasingly challenged throughout the 1950s, police increasingly had to enforce heteronormalcy with arrests and violence, where in the past stigma and shame had kept gay people in line. 

During the raid at Stonewall on June 28, 1969, police encountered a crowd they were not prepared to deal with. Instead of fearful compliance and attempts of arrestees to conceal their faces on the way to jail, the raid was met with a defiant crowd unafraid of drawing attention from bystanders outside or challenging the arresting officers. The throngs of bystanders grew and many began to join in jeering the police and eventually throwing objects at them. As police lost control of the situation, they retreated inside the Stonewall Inn and called for reinforcements. It took them until 4am to clear the streets, and a second riot broke out the next evening. 

Organized resistance to police raids and other acts of homophobic oppression preceded Stonewall, but the event was a tipping point in the movement to end the status quo. The first gay pride marches were organized in 1970 on the anniversary of the Stonewall riots.

Sources:

They Stonewall you know is a Myth, and that’s OK- New York Times

June 28, 1969: The Stonewall Riots- Zinn Education Project

Stonewall Riots: Eye-witness account- National Law Enforcement Museum

How Dressing in Drag was labeled a Crime in the 20th Century- History Channel

Colonizing Hawai'i/Part 4- The Great Māhele

A view of 'Iolani Palace in Honolulu, Hawaii. 2021. Gage Skidmore. Cc-by-sa-2.0

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Iolani_Palace_(51872681413).jpg

The official Māhele took place in 1848 but the term is also used as a catch-all for a process that spanned 1845-55. The Board of Commissioners to Quiet Land Titles was created in 1845. It was made to facilitate and arbitrate land claims by private individuals, native and foreign, that would ensue from the coming land reforms. Between January and March of 1848 the Māhele proper occurred as the King reached agreements with 240 ali’i and konohiki (Hawaiian chiefs) concerning their lands, after which they were to submit their claims to the Board.

The Hawaiian royal family and other indigenous elites throughout the islands had more access to the resources necessary to secure their land claims. Ordinary Hawaiians often did not. Language barriers, as well as the cost of surveyors, added to the challenge of navigating the Māhele’s legal requirements. By the 1848 claim deadline, many commoners had not filed either out of frustration, or outright resistance to what they saw as an alien system.

Also in 1848,  the king divided his own lands into those owned by the Hawaiian government, and those that were his own personal property. The last 2 major steps in the process of the Mālehe occurred in 1850. First the Legislature passed an act to allow foreigners to acquire land in “fee simple.” Fee simple, meaning as private property in the Euro-American fashion. Finally, the Kuleana Act of 1850 gave Hawaiian commoners who had acquired title to their lands by submitting claims, to sell it, completing their transition to fee simple ownership. 

Photograph of William Little Lee and Charles Reed Bishop. Photographer unknown. 1846. Public Domain. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:William_Little_Lee_and_Charles_Reed_Bishop_1846.jpg

2 Americans who went on to serve in the Hawaiian government during this period were William Little Lee and Charles Reed Bishop. Both hailing from New York State, the young professionals had set out for Oregon in 1846, but found opportunities in Hawai’i before reaching the west coast of North America. 

Lee, a lawyer, was soon appointed as judge in O’ahu and made a member of Kamehameha III’s privy council. In 1848 he was appointed as Chief Justice of the Hawaiian Supreme Court. Lee was instrumental in drafting some of the laws of the newly formed constitutional monarchy and served on the land commission that facilitated the Great Mahele. He also helped draft the 1852 constitution which gave the other branches of government increased oversight over the king’s powers. Towards the end of his life, Lee was working on passing reciprocity treaties with the US. He died of tuberculosis in 1857 before the negotiations could be completed.

Charles Reed Bishop found work as a lawyer, then as an agent for the US consul, and then as a customs agent for the Kingdom of Hawai’i. He courted a member of the royal family, Bernice Pauahi Pākī. They were married in 1850. Bishop continued to prosper, founding a bank, and serving on the privy council to several Hawaiian monarchs. He was appointed to the House of Nobles by Kamehameha IV. He and his wife founded the Kamehameha Schools, a school system that educated children of Hawaiian ancestry. 

Kamehameha IV, born Alexander ʻIolani Liholiho Keawenui (1834–1863) Hawaii State Archives. Approx. 1863. Public Domain. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kamehameha_IV_(PP-97-8-002).jpg

Kamehameha IV reigned from 1855-1863 following the death of his predecessor. He worked to balance American subjects’ influence over the kingdom, as they were the largest landowners besides the Hawiian elite, and in many cases far wealthier. His successor, Kamehameha V went even further, refusing to uphold the 1852 constitution. He called a convention to draft a new one in 1864. This constitution abolished the office of kuhina nui, restored some of the king’s autonomy, and converted the House of Nobles and House of Representatives into a single Legislative Assembly. 

King Kamehameha V. Charles Weed. 1865. Public Domain. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kamehameha_the_Fifth.jpg

Kamehameha V died without naming a successor. Choosing the new sovereign from eligible royal family members fell to a vote by the Legislative Assembly. King Lunalilo was elected in 1873, but fell ill with tuberculosis and died in January of 1874. 

Another election was held between David Kalakaua and the former queen and widow of Kamehameha IV, Emma Rooke. Kalakaua won the election amid much controversy, leading to the Honolulu Courthouse Riot. Rooke’s supporters targeted legislators that had supported Kalakaua, injuring many. British and American soldiers docked nearby were called in to restore order.

King Kalakaua was staunchly opposed to ceding any land to foreign nations. At the same time, he negotiated a reciprocity treaty with the US that enriched the owners of Hawai’i’s sugar plantations. Most of these were IS, many of whom advocated American annexation of the kingdom.

Sources:

Kamehameha IV

Kamehameha V

King Lunalilo

King Kalākaua

Banner, Stuart. “Preparing to Be Colonized: Land Tenure and Legal Strategy in Nineteenth-Century Hawaii.” Law & Society Review 39, no. 2 (2005): 273–314.

Kashay, Jennifer Fish. “Agents of Imperialism: Missionaries and Merchants in Early-Nineteenth-Century Hawaii.” The New England Quarterly 80, no. 2 (2007): 280–98.

Kessler, Lawrence H. “A Plantation upon a Hill; Or, Sugar without Rum: Hawai ‘i’s Missionaries and the Founding of the Sugarcane Plantation System.” Pacific Historical Review 84, no. 2 (2014): 129–62.

June 21, 1822- Denmark Vesey Arrested

Statue of Denmark Vesey in Hampton Park in Charleston, South Carolina. 2022. https://holycitysinner.com/imported/city-charleston-denmark-vesey-statue-restored-returned-hampton-park-vandalized/

Denmark Vesey was sold to Captain Joseph Vesey in St. Thomas as a teenager. After several years, he brought Denmark home with him to Charleston, South Carolina. Vesey won a street lottery in 1799 that allowed him to purchase his freedom. He worked as a carpenter and joined the African Methodist Episcopal Church, where he taught classes. Vesey prospered in Charleston, but was reminded of his position in American society when he tried to purchase the freedom of his wife and children, and was refused. This likely played into Vesey’s plan to organize a slave insurrection to free all the enslaved people of Charleston.

News of the plot was leaked to the authorities and on June 21, 1822, 131 men were arrested on suspicion of participating in the conspiracy. 35, along with Vesey were hanged. South Carolina enacted more laws to suppress the movement of Black people, including the Negro Seaman Acts, which required all Black sailors aboard ships docking in Charleston to be jailed until their ship was ready to leave. 

The African Methodist Episcopal Church was burned to the ground. Black churches were then banned in South Carolina. None were openly built until after the end of the Civil War. Vesey was used as a figure of fear in the South, and one of liberation among abolitionists. However, historians still argue how real the conspiracy for a city-wide revolt was, and how much of it was embellished by the court in order to justify more draconian restrictions on enslaved and free Black people in South Carolina.

Sources:

Denmark Vesey- Teaching History

This Far by Faith- PBS

Denmark Vesey- National Park Service

Colonizing Hawai'i/Part 3- The 1840 Constitution

Portrait of Kamehameha III, painted in Boston from a daguerreotype, by an unknown artist

For centuries the Hawaiian islands were ruled by various Ali’is (ah-lee’-ee), a Hawaiian word for chief or leader. In 1795, after many wars, mostly among relatives, the islands were united under the rule of Kamehameha the Great (ka-may-ha-may-ha). Like many of his rivals, he had sought military help from Western sailors, particularly the British, mostly in the form of guns and cannons. After establishing his dynasty, Kamehameha continued to engage with Western powers in order to learn and profit from them, but also to protect his kingdom from them. His descendants continued this balancing act through the 1800s as commerce grew, and Western diseases and planters took an increasing toll on the Native population, their lands, and their labor. 

On June 7, 1839, Kamehameha III published the Hawaiian Declaration of Rights, also known as the 1839 Constitution. The following 1840 Constitution more comprehensively established the Kingdom as a constitutional monarchy with a bicameral (2 houses) parliament.

Kamehameha III’s intent was always to secure the Hawaiian people’s lands and rights, but we will see in coming weeks how this proved to be a continuous struggle as the kingdom modernized.

Sources:

Kamehameha the Great- US National Park Service

Kamehameha II- Royal Family of Hawaii

Kamehameha III- Royal Family of Hawaii

Forming the Hawaiian State- Punahou School

1839 and 1840 Constitutions- Hooilina.org

Colonizing Hawai'i/Part 2- Americans Immigrate

European merchants made frequent visits to the Hawaiian islands once Captain James Cook documented its location in 1778. Not only was it an ideal source of resupply for whaling ships, it was also a convenient stop gap between Canton, China and the western coast of the Americas, major nodes in a prestigious and growing trade network. Merchant ships traded furs, sugar, and coffee for Chinese items like silk, tea, silver, and spices. 

Agents of these trade corporations, like the Hudson’s Bay Company, as well as their suppliers, set up shop in Hawai’i throughout the late 1700s and early 1800s. Unlike many of the lands Europeans rediscovered around the globe, the Hawaiian islands were consolidated politically under a single royal government. Merchants made deals with the royal family or Ali’i or Konohiki (subordinate chiefs), to acquire land. This property was revocable at any time and was still technically owned by the Hawaiians they’d contracted with. 

Missionaries, as in other frontier regions of Euro-American societies, were not far behind the merchants. The first missionaries arrived in the 1810s and 20s. As in other locales, their method of Christianizing indigenous populations centered around European style agriculture and property ownership. In these early decades of the 19th century there was much antagonism between merchant and missionary communities, each blaming the other for encouraging vice and discouraging proper industriousness among the Hawaiian commoners. After the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) revoked funding for the Hawaiian missionaries after an economic downturn in 1837, they became more amenable to large scale plantations, rather than the small scale farming they had administered previously. 

Queen Ka’ahumanu. 1822. Jean-Pierre Norblin de la Gourdaine after painting by Louis Choris. Public Domain.

Kamehameha the Great had several wives. The most influential was Ka'ahumanu. She was born on the island of Maui to an elite family. Upon the king’s death, she informed his council that the king had wished her to rule alongside his named successor. The council created the title of kuhina nui, a sort of prime minister position. Kamehameha II, the former king’s firstborn son (not with Ka’ahumanu) reigned from 1819-1824. He died of measles while visiting London. As his brother and successor, Kamehameha III was only 10 at the time of his ascension, Ka’ahumanu continued her role as regent of the kingdom until her death in 1832. She was one of the primary elite Hawaiians to embrace Christianity and instigate reforms of traditional practices. This was not universally welcomed among Hawaiians, elite or commoners, but she had considerable influence over enough of the population that her leadership in this area was either accepted or cautiously tolerated. 

Kamehameha III in military uniform. Alfred Thomas Agate. 1838-42. Public Domain.

Kamehameha III hired numerous European and American advisors to assist him with foreign trade and increasingly became convinced it was in his kingdom’s and his people’s interests to reform his dynasty as a constitutional monarchy modeled on the British system with a 3-branch government system. It is impossible to say for certain why he took this course, but there were many possibilities.  As he came of age, many islands in the Pacific, such as New Zealand and Tahiti were claimed by the British and French Empires. Kamehameha III had his own brush with a hostile takeover when Lord George Paulet was sent to secure British possessions on the islands, and instead took the opportunity to claim the islands themselves for Britain. The king explained that he had already sent emissaries to settle these disputes, but Paulet was unmoved and threatened to open fire on the island. Under duress, the King yielded to Paulet, who raised the British flag over Hawaii. This episode only lasted 5 months, as Paulet’s superiors were outraged by the act and soon restored Hawai’i’s sovereignty. 

Many historians argue that incidents like these, as well as the high mortality of native Hawaiians to European diseases, convinced Kamehameha III and much of the Hawaiian elite that colonization was inevitable and that the best way to safeguard their land was to convert the kingdom to a constitutional monarchy with a system of land ownership that a colonizing Western power would recognize. Most of the king’s British and American ministers encouraged this view. It should be mentioned that they and other White residents stood to gain immensely by such changes, whether colonization occurred or not.

The Constitution of 1840 formally converted Hawai’i to a constitutional monarchy. In 1845 a land commission was established to process land claims by all of Hawai’i’s residents, native and foreign. This process took until 1855 to complete. It is known as the Great Māhele (ma-hail-ay). While intended to safeguard the lands of all Hawaiians, we will take a closer look at how the Māhele fell short of its goal.

Sources:

Ka’ahumanu- Punahou School

Paulet Episode 1843- Ka’iwakīloumoku 

Aftermath: the 1840s and Resistance- Punahou School

June 14, 1381- The "Peasant's" Revolt

Portrait of Richard II of England. Circa 1390s. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Westminster_Portrait_of_Richard_II_of_England_(1390s).jpg

In the wake of the Black Death, England suffered catastrophic population loss. As a result, demand for peasant labor increased dramatically and landlords were forced to pay them much higher wages to ensure they had enough workers. In response to this and to fund a war with France, the parliament passed a law limiting wage increases and began several rounds of poll taxes. These were taxes paid by every adult of the kingdom. They were widely resented because the poor paid as much as the rich, though it impacted them far more severely. When commoners did not have the money to pay, they were forced to pay in seeds or other precious commodities. After the 3rd poll tax in 4 years, resistance began to escalate from avoidance to outright violence against the tax collectors. Some historians argue that the English elite named this movement the Peasants’ Revolt to disparage what was actually a popular rebellion among the common people, including many tradesmen, clergy, and small merchants.

These events occurred spontaneously in several locales and snowballed into an army that marched into London intent on removing Simon Sudbury, the Archbishop of Canterbury and John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster and the king’s uncle, by force. It was widely believed by the commoners that these powerful advisors to the teenage king were corrupt and responsible for the policies they found so onerous. 

It is estimated that approximately 60,000 people took part in this uprising. On their march towards London, they destroyed buildings that housed government records and attacked numerous tax agents, fatally in some cases. In London, the rebels stormed and vandalized the Duke of Lancaster’s palace. Most of their aggression was aimed at wealthy priests and lawyers, but there was also indiscriminate looting in other parts of the city.

The 16 year old King and his council met with the rebellion’s leader, Wat Taylor at Mile End on June 14, 1381. Richard acceded to all the rebel’s demands; it would later become clear he had no intention of fulfilling his word. However, while this meeting was taking place, another division of the rebels stormed the Tower of London and murdered Simon Sudbury, the Archbishop of Canterbury, England’s highest clerical post. They also killed Lord High Treasurer Robert Hales, the highest tax official in the land. They were both beheaded.

A subsequent meeting outside the city at Smithfield ended with Tyler being stabbed in the neck by the Lord Mayor of London, Sir William Walworth. He was taken to a hospital where he either died of his injury, or some say was fatally attacked a second time. The King made another false agreement with the rebels. Not long after they left London, many were hunted down and executed until the status quo was restored. 

While the insurrection was put down, the poll tax was not reinstated, and many peasants and tradesmen continued to drive hard bargains with the employing classes for their labor.

Sources:

What’s in a Name? The Peasant's’ Revolt- History Hub

30th May 1831- History Pod

Wat Tyler and the Peasants' Revolt- Historic UK

About the Peasants Revolt- People of 1381

Colonizing Hawai'i/Part 1- The Polynesian Triangle

The Polynesian Triangle. Kahuroa. 2013. Public Domain. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pacific_Culture_Areas-de.png

The people who would become the Polynesians are believed to have migrated to New Guinea from Southeast Asia around 2000 BC. It is estimated they settled the island of Tonga around 1500 BC and Samoa around 1000 BC. Over the next thousand years they settled islands throughout the Pacific as far east as Rapa Nui (Easter Island) and as far north as Hawaii. Around 950 AD, the Māori (mow’-ray) settled New Zealand in the south. Within this triangle were hundreds of smaller islands.

The history and skills of Polynesian navigators astounded the European sailors they encountered in the 18th century. The great distances between Polynesian lands kept them from becoming a single political entity. Instead, multiple Polynesian societies developed on different islands or island groups. However, religious, linguistic, and economic ties preserved a distinct Polynesian culture in these various locales for centuries. 

There are many stories about the first Polynesian people to discover and populate Hawaii. As with all ancient cultures and nations, there is controversy and disagreement. European colonization in the 19th Century has further confused the historical record, but Natives and non-Natives continue to study and retrieve the history of Hawaii.

Sources:

Native Hawaiians Arrived on the Islands Centuries Ago- KHON2 News

South Pacific Migration History- Travel Video Source

Expansion across the Polynesian Triangle- National Library of Australia 

The Discovery and Settlement of Polynesia- University of Hawaii 

The Menehune: A True Race of People- Ka Wai Ola

May 31, 1870- The First Reinforcement Act

A cartoon threatening that the KKK will lynch scalawags (left) and carpetbaggers (right) on March 4, 1869. Tuscaloosa, Alabama Independent Monitor, Sept. 1, 1868. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kkk-carpetbagger-cartoon.jpg

In the South after the Civil War, the Union’s victory was followed by terrorism.

The Ku Klux Klan was founded in 1865 in Tennessee by Confederate Veterans. It was only one of many secret terrorist groups that formed immediately after the end of the war. While many groups had chapters in different states, none of them exercised much central control. The groups formed and were directed by local members resisting Republican political domination and suppressing the political, social, and economic freedom of newly freed Black people in their towns and cities. The Klan became infamous as “midnight riders,” raiding homes, burning property, and often murdering Black and White people who challenged the old White Supremacist Democratic Party order.

The original klansmen wore hoods and disguises while conducting attacks, but they were not very uniform. The white hoods and burning crosses associated with the KKK were part of the revival movement in the 1910s and 20s.

Mississippi Ku-Klux members in the disguises in which they were captured. Artist Unknown. Harper's Weekly January 27, 1872. Public Domain. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mississippi_ku_klux.jpg

This political violence surged throughout the 1860s, leading to the First and Second Enforcement Acts (1870, 1871), and the Ku Klux Klan Act (1871). These acts authorized the President and Congress to use military powers to enforce the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments (The Reconstruction Amendments) passed between 1865-70. These amendments codified the citizenship and political rights of Black Americans. In reality, US troops were needed to ensure Black voters could participate in elections or hold offices they’d been elected to. Where there was no military presence, vigilantes like the Klan were largely successful in suppressing the rights of Blacks and the authority of Republican politicians and their allies.

Even after the Klan was effectively suppressed in the 1870s, political violence against Black voters, office holders, and jurors was endemic to the Southern United States and much of the North. Groups such as the White League, the Red Shirts, and others used terrorism to intimidate voters and oust Black and Republican politicians and sheriffs.

Ultimately, most United States’ leaders were uncomfortable using their political and military power to defend Black people from White southerners and eventually withdrew from enforcing the Constitution in the South by the end of the 1870s. It would not be until the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that the US government, goaded by hundreds of thousand of activists risking their lives, would again attempt to use its power to secure Americans’ constitutional rights in the South, and to dismantle the systems of segregation throughout the North and the West.

Sources:

The Enforcement Act of 1870- Blackpast

The Enforcement Acts of 1870 and 1871- US Senate

Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871- National Constitution Center

Documenting Reconstruction Violence- Equal Justice Initiative

HST 116- The American Revolution

Dr. Joanne B. Freeman

The American Revolution and the Revolutionary War are difficult events to teach. First of all, most treatments fail to establish sufficient context for Europeans in the Americas, the various cultures of the different British colonies and how they related to each other, as well as their mother country. 

The French and Indian War (1754-1763), a part of the 7 Years War between Britain and France that set off conflicts between several European powers throughout the continent and numerous colonial sites around the globe, is too often glossed over. 

Finally, as with many historical subjects, there is so much myth and political rhetoric heaped upon the actual history of these events that it can be arduous to find information that has not been sensationalized and oversimplified.

Joanne B. Freeman’s course on the topic, available as a podcast by Open Yale Courses, begins by clarifying that the Revolutionary War and the American Revolution were related, but distinct things. The lectures that make up the course are detailed, but listenable. They do an excellent job of presenting the subject to a modern audience by delving into the contexts of place, people, and events. Freeman presents at a brisk pace, but repeats and emphasizes points that provide greater clarity. 

Figures of the Revolutionary Era that often suffer from dull, overly-reverent descriptions are examined with diligence, humor, and a critical eye. Historians often rely too heavily on dates, figures, and theoretical analysis without doing the historical-imaginative work of painting a portrait of the past that gives their audience a rich sense of time and place, allowing them to see historical figures as flesh and blood people, and events as chaotic contingencies, rather than rigid inevitabilities. 

Rather than teaching the American Revolution as a propaganda exercise meant to instill national pride, or countercultural antipathy, Freeman presents it as a phenomenon to be investigated culturally and politically, and related to earlier and later eras, including our own.

Sources:

The American Revolution- Open Yale Courses

Joanne B. Freeman

May 24, 1844- Morse and Vail's First Telegram

Morse Code alphabet

History is not always as informative as we claim. The nature of communicating about things involves deciding what information to omit. Hopefully this is only for the logistical consideration of limited space, time, and attention. 

For this reason we say things like Samuel Morse invented the telegraph. Even a brief web search will reveal that this is debatable, or at least, a major oversimplification. As with nearly all inventions, many people around the globe were working on similar devices, many with the same name. Technology, like war, religion, and art, is something humans have always been passionate about, leading to controversy and complexity regarding the history of developments in these realms. 

People began working on ways to send messages electronically long before electricity was widely available to common people. Governments, universities, and private firms all realized the vast potential in speeding up communications through electricity. There were many versions that were experimented with, but Morse’s patented device, and his alphabet of dots and dashes, Morse Code, eventually became the standards. 

Morse certainly deserves credit for his contributions to telegraph technology, but so does his less mentioned partner, Alfred Vail. On May 24, 1844 Morse sent Vail the first successful message on their telegraph device, from Washington DC to Baltimore, Maryland. It was:

“What hath God wrought?”

Sources:

A Forgotten History: Alfred Vail and Samuel Morse- Smithsonian Institute Archives

Morse- Library of Congress

The Surprising History of the Morse Telegraph- Electronics Notes

May 17, 1756- England declares War on France (7 Years War)

Colonial claims in North America, 1854.

Winston Churchill called the 7 Years War the “First World War.” While it was primarily a conflict between Great Britain and France, it also drew in the Prussian, Austrian, and Russian Empires. The war contained theaters in Europe, North America, Africa, India, and beyond, as Britain sought to hobble the French colonial empire using its navy. 

Most of the nations involved, whether allied or opposed to Britain, record their own part in the war under more descriptive names. In the US it is commonly referred to as the “French and Indian War.” This conflict featured traditional European-style battles between French and British armies in North America, as well as North American tribes on both sides. It was also distinguished by guerrilla-style fighting throughout the borderlands of the colonial rivals.

In the spring of 1753 the French sent a colonial officer into the Ohio Valley to secure French forts that had long been disputed by British colonists and some of the local Native tribes. In the fall of 1753 Virginia’s governor ordered his provincial militia, led by 21 year old Major George Washington, to deliver a written order for the French to leave their territory. Washington did so while dining with the French commander at Fort Le Boeuf. He was unmoved and told Washington that France’s claim to the region was older and that he was not obliged to obey the order.

Washington took the message back to Virginia, but was soon dispatched back into the Ohio Country. An ambush on a French force led to international outrage and Washington’s famous surrender at Fort Necessity. The conflict intensified faultlines between European states, which led to a major political realignment known as the Diplomatic Revolution. Britain allied itself with Portugal and former French allies Prussia and Saxony. France, in turn, allied itself with Austria, Russia, and eventually Spain. 

Britain ultimately won the war, reaped numerous French colonial territories, and established  the dominance of its Naval infrastructure. However the costs of the war had put the Empire in serious debt. Over the next decade, as Britain sought to balance its books by taxing its colonies, separatist  movements in North America gained steam and led to the American Revolution. 

The Seven Years War was not declared until May 17, 1756, but the conflict had its roots in the French and Indian war in North America. For this reason Washington is often said to have set the war in motion with his attack on French forces in the Ohio Country. However, events may have exploded the way they did due to Washington’s Mingo ally Tanaghrisson killing the French commander Ensign Joseph Jumonville. Tanaghrisson executed him with a tomahawk to the skull.

Sources:

French and Indian War/7 Years War- Office of the Historian

Seven Years War- American Revolution Institute

Seven Years War and the Great Awakening- Crash Course

Tanaghrrison, the Half King- National Parks Service

Dangerous Subjects

James D. Saules was one of the earliest Black residents of Oregon’s Willamette (Walamt) Valley and the first to be exiled by the use of racial legislation in the region. Saules arrived in 1841, when the Pacific Northwest was under “Joint Occupation” by the United States and Great Britain. 

At the time the region was sparsely populated by immigrants, mostly French-Canadian fur-traders working for or retired from the Hudson’s Bay Company headquartered at Fort Vancouver on the north side of the Columbia River. These men, as well as maritime traders of various outside nations, had already brought enough foreign diseases to drastically reduce the population of Chinook, Kalapuyan, and other indigenous peoples. 

Most Americans were Protestant missionaries in small communities along the main rivers, the largest being in the Willamette Valley, just south of the Columbia River. US immigrants outside the missionary system began arriving in larger numbers in the early 1840s, sparking the creation of the Provisional Government. Its main purpose was to formalize settler’s land claims and send representatives back to the US to argue for making the “Oregon Country” an official territory. 

After Saules was involved in a dispute with neighboring settlers and a Wasco man named Cockstock, the Provisional Government used the event as a pretext for passing a law excluding Black people from the region. Saules left no records or statements of his own, a common problem  historians face when trying to create narratives to explain past events. Author Kenneth Coleman does an excellent job of telling the story of Saules’ life in Oregon with the primary sources available. 

In so doing, he demonstrates a rigorous and readable approach to history that confronts the omissions and biases of the sources and provides necessary context that allows the reader to better understand the experiences and actions of individuals from the past that have been underrepresented in historical accounts. 

Sources:

Dangerous Subjects- OSU Press

Racial Exclusion in pre-statehood Oregon- Kenneth Coleman