Moments in History: People and Events Worth Remembering

By Mark R. Brewer

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• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Dec 20, 2019
• ISBN: 9781796074437

Mark R. Brewer

MARK R. BREWER has an MA in US history from Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He taught history in New Jersey for nearly a hundred years. He is really old.

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Copyright © 2020 by Mark R. Brewer.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted

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Rev. date: 12/20/2019

Xlibris

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For my brother Jeff,

who I love, though I tormented

him when we were kids.

I am so grateful to call you brother.

CONTENTS

Introduction

Acknowledgements

Chapter 1 The Admiral

Chapter 2 The Judge

Chapter 3 The Radical

Chapter 4 The General

Chapter 5 The Candidate

Chapter 6 The Duelist

Chapter 7 The Inventor

Chapter 8 The Prophet

Chapter 9 The Hero

Chapter 10 The Abolitionist

Chapter 11 The Congressman

Chapter 12 The Virginian

Chapter 13 The Woman

Chapter 14 The Slave

Chapter 15 The Senator

Chapter 16 The Major

Chapter 17 The Novelist

Chapter 18 The Suffragette

Chapter 19 The Assassin

Chapter 20 The Slugger

Notes

Bibliography

INTRODUCTION

There are so many fascinating tales from history that I could probably write a hundred volumes like this one (except it would get incredibly tiresome, plus I would be long dead before completing such an undertaking). What follows are twenty stories from history that I personally find fascinating. The people at the center of these stories are often noble, sometimes heroic, occasionally tragic, but always interesting. Should any reader desire to know more about any of these characters, I suggest they peruse the Bibliography near the end of the book.

All quotes contain the original spelling and punctuation.

Mark R. Brewer

Pitman, NJ

December, 2019.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am, once again, indebted to my brother Michael A. Brewer and my friend George J. Heidemark, for reading my manuscript and offering comments, suggestions, corrections, and encouragement. I would, quite frankly, be lost without their aid. I am eternally grateful to my wife Laurie, my son Nick, and my daughter Maddie, for their constant love and support. I am also thankful to my sisters, Joyce and Janet, and my brother, Jeff, who support me in everything I do and love me despite my many faults. Lastly, I am thankful to my brother-in-law Hap McCleish for his guidance in life. Should he ever become King of the World, it will make this scary planet a better place.

True history is what we should all be reading.

Allan I. Brewer

ONE

The Admiral

Tuesday, October 9, 1492.

Two hundred miles off the coast of the Bahamas.

They had traveled well beyond 800 leagues and had more than doubled the previous record for ocean navigation. They had been at sea for more than two months and had long since passed the point where the Admiral, Christopher Columbus, had said they would reach landfall. The crews of the three tiny ships feared they had come too far to ever find their way home again. But they wanted to try.

The wind was variable on this day, meaning it was next to nothing and often changing direction. They were moving quite slowly, just over two knots. The lack of speed allowed the captain of the Nina, Vincente Yanez Pinzon, and his younger brother, the captain of the Pinta, Martin Alonso Pinzon, to be rowed over to the flagship, Santa Maria, to plead their case with the Admiral. They demanded that the search for land be abandoned. Instead they wanted to turn back immediately. Columbus met the two captains in his cabin, where a heated discussion took place. The Admiral reminded them that they had seen birds but two days before. Land must be near. He got the captains to agree to go west for three more days. If land were not found by that time, Columbus would turn back. (¹)

The very next morning, the wind picked up, and the fleet glided along at seven knots. But this merely caused the forty-man crew of the Santa Maria to be filled with fear. They were moving so fast and thus further and further from home. That fear quickly morphed into anger and then open mutiny. The crew did not trust the Admiral. They were Spanish and he was Italian. Columbus biographer Samuel Eliot Morison says that this day, October 10, was the most critical day of the entire voyage. (²)

The Admiral kept a journal on the voyage. It has long since been lost, but Bartolome de Las Casas obtained a copy in Barcelona years afterward, and he made an abstract for his own use. In it, he quoted long passages from the original. Of the mutiny on October 10, Las Casas wrote that the crew complained of the long voyage; but the Admiral cheered them as best he could, holding out good hope of the advantages they might have; and he added that it was useless to complain, since he had come to go to the Indies, and so had to continue until he found them, with the help of our Lord. (³)

The Admiral was of a singular mind. They would reach the Indies. There would be no turning back.

The next day, October 11, the wind continued to blow and the caravan again made good time. But there were no complaints on this day. The Nina came across a branch and flower floating in the ocean. The Pinta picked up a land plant and another little branch. It was clear that land was near, and everyone, the Admiral wrote, breathed more freely and grew cheerful. (⁴)

*     *     *     *     *

Christopher Columbus had recently turned forty-one, having been born in Genoa, Italy, during the late summer or early autumn of 1451. No contemporary portrait of Columbus survives. But Bartolome de Las Casas, who knew him, described the Admiral as

more than middling tall; face long and giving an air of authority; aquiline nose, blue eyes, complexion light and tending to bright red; beard and hair red when young but soon turned gray from his labors; he was affable and cheerful when speaking, and … eloquent and boastful in his negotiations; he was serious in moderation, affable with strangers, and with members of his household gentle and pleasant, with modest gravity and discreet conversation; and so could easily incite those who saw him to love him. In fine, he was most impressive in his port and countenance, a person of great state and authority and worthy of all reverence. . . In matters of the Christian religion, without doubt he was a Catholic and of great devotion …

His son Ferdinand, who wrote a biography of his father, added that the Admiral was so great an enemy to cursing and swearing, that I swear I never heard him utter any other oath than ‘by San Fernando!’ If Columbus was particularly angry with someone, he might be heard to say, May God take you! (⁵)

Ferdinand wrote that his father took to the sea at the age of fourteen and followed it ever after. By the time Columbus was in his early twenties, he was a highly experienced sailor. (⁶)

There was in Europe at the time a belief that riches could be found in the Far East. Though little was known of Cathay (China), Cipangu (Japan) or the Indies, it was known that wonderful things, including rare spices and silk, were available in that mystical land. Marco Polo had journeyed to the Far East in the Thirteenth Century. His book, The Travels of Marco Polo, inspired Columbus. Polo wrote of the gold in great abundance, because it is found there in measureless quantities. The problem, though, was getting there. (⁷)

The idea that the world was round was nothing new in 1492. Educated people and sailors were well aware of this fact. And Columbus was not the first to believe that the Far East could be reached by sailing west. But for him, the idea became a lifelong obsession. He also thought the world was much smaller than it turned out to be. The Admiral calculated that he would have to travel west some 2,400 miles before reaching the East. In truth, the distance is more than 10,000 miles. But Columbus, along with the rest of Europe, did not know that two continents lay in the way, and that the journey would require crossing two oceans. (⁸)

To prove the theory, Columbus had to have financial backing. He had the seafaring experience to make the journey, but he could not afford the ships, the crew or the provisions the trip would require. (⁹)

Columbus was seeking three ships, manned and provisioned for one year. He also wanted them loaded with goods he could trade, such as beads and colored cloth. He wanted to be given the rank of Great Admiral of the Ocean, with all the rights and privileges that that title entailed. Such a title would make a noble of this humble son of a weaver. He insisted that he be perpetual Viceroy and Governor of all lands he might discover. He also demanded ten percent of all revenues found in these lands. (¹⁰)

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Columbus asked Henry VII of England if he would provide the funds. Henry had been on the throne of England since 1485, when he had defeated Richard III at the battle of Bosworth Field. Richard was killed, and Henry assumed the throne, becoming the first of the Tudor monarchs. His son Henry, who would become Henry VIII in 1509, was one year old in 1492. (¹¹) But Henry VII turned Columbus down. According to Oviedo, Spanish historian and adventurer who traveled to the Caribbean twenty years after Columbus, Henry’s counselors made game of what Columbus said, and held his words to be vain. (¹²) Charles VIII of France and King John II of Portugal also declined the offer Columbus made.

So did the Catholic Sovereigns, Ferdinand II and Isabella of Spain, at least initially. Indeed, for more than six years Ferdinand and Isabella would string Columbus along, giving him hope that they would fund his voyage. They initially turned him down, their counselors claiming that a voyage to the Orient would require three years. They also said that the Western Ocean was infinite and probably could not be safely navigated. Lastly, they stated that as it was so many centuries after the Creation, it was highly unlikely that Columbus or anyone else would find previously unknown lands of any value. But Spain was also at war at the time, and the Queen told Columbus he could submit his request again after the war had concluded. But somewhere around August of 1491, the monarchs turned down a second petition. By San Fernando! Columbus was heard to say after he left their presence. He packed a few belongings, saddled his mule, and left the city of Santa Fe, where the Royal Court had been staying. (¹³)

The day of his departure, Luis de Santagel, the keeper of the privy purse, and a man who had been impressed with Columbus, went to see Queen Isabella. He told her that he

was astonished too see that her Highness, who had always shown a resolute spirit in matters of great pith and consequence, should lack it now for an enterprise of so little risk, yet which could prove of so great service to God and the exaltation of His Church, not to speak of very great increase and glory for her realms and crown; an enterprise of such a nature that if any other prince should undertake what the Admiral offered to her, it would be a very great damage to her crown, and a grave reproach to her. (¹⁴)

Santagel informed the Queen that if money were a problem, he would pay for the voyage out of his own pocket. Convinced, the Queen immediately sent a message to Columbus. He was found at the village of Pinos-Puente, four miles from Santa Fe, and was told the Queen wished him to come back. Isabella agreed to fund his entire journey.

Why the sudden change of heart? Samuel Eliot Morison says that, personality had much to do with it. The most impressive thing about Columbus’s presentation of his case had not been the facts and the arguments, but the man. His dignity, sincerity and absolute certainty must have left their mark on the Queen. Morison also says female intuition may have had something to do with it. (¹⁵)

In any case, Columbus had his backing and so went about the task of securing ships and a crew. Most everyone knows the names of those ships. The Pinta, which means painted one, was fifty-six feet long. More a boat than a ship, it was called a caravel. It was the fastest of the three and carried a crew of twenty-six. The Nina, which means girl, was only fifty feet long, and like the Pinta, was a one-decker. Its crew numbered twenty-four, and it was the Admiral’s favorite. The Santa Maria was named for the Virgin Mary. It had a second deck, was the flagship of the fleet, and was sixty-two feet long with a crew of forty. (¹⁶) Columbus did not like the Santa Maria, writing that it was very sluggish and not suited to the work of exploration. But all three ships were solid and well built. (¹⁷)

So he planned and prepared, and by August of 1492, the Admiral was ready to put to sea. We departed Friday, the third day of August of the year 1492, from the bar of Saltes at the eighth hour, Columbus wrote to begin his journal. (¹⁸)

The year 1492 is one of a handful dates that most people remember. In Fourteen Hundred and Ninety-Two Columbus sailed the ocean blue. That same year, Ferdinand and Isabella issued the Alhambra Decree, which expelled all Jews from Spain. Interestingly, their daughter Katherine of Aragon later became the first of Henry VIII’s six wives. Katherine was six years older than Henry, who was but eighteen at the time of their marriage. She was thus Queen of England from 1509-1533, when Henry had their marriage annulled so he could marry Anne Boleyn. The only child of Henry and Katherine to survive to adulthood was Mary Tudor, who became Queen of England in her own right—the Bloody Mary of history. (¹⁹) In 1492, Martin Luther was but eight years old. (²⁰)

In this modern age of political correctness, the bright star that was Christopher Columbus has dimmed considerably. It is a fact that he enslaved the peaceful Native Americans he encountered and eventually brought some 1,500 back to Spain as slaves. But it should be noted that Columbus never owned any slaves himself. Bartolome de Las Casa, who admired Columbus as a hero and believed he was inspired by God to make his journey, also criticized him for his treatment of the Natives. He noted how, on October 14, two days after making land on the tiny island of Guanahani in the Outer Bahamas, Columbus wrote, When your Highnesses so command, they [the natives] could all be carried off to Castile or be held captive in the island itself, because with 50 men they could all be subjugated and compelled to do anything one wishes. Several weeks later, Columbus commented that the people he had encountered are very meek and without knowledge of evil nor do they kill others or steal …. (²¹) There is little doubt that Columbus and his men took advantage of these gentle, peaceful people in every way imaginable, and it is difficult to reconcile this knowledge with the hero status he has so long enjoyed. But it is also patently unfair to place our modern values on a person from another time, as their experiences of the world were quite different from ours. Slavery was common in the 15th Century. Indeed, there were more slaves on the Canary Islands off the coast of Africa than Columbus ever had enslaved. There was also a belief that the conquered were to be treated as one saw fit. And, of course, white or European supremacy was an accepted view of the world, at least to whites and Europeans. These are primitive, barbaric views in our time, but they were quite acceptable ones in his day. Most of us living in his time and place would view the world much as he did.

Many people credit the Vikings with coming here long before the Admiral, and this is almost certainly true. But the Vikings did not tell anyone about the land they discovered. Columbus, on the other hand, would return three more times. And he would show others the route to travel to take advantage of the trade winds, both in coming to the New World and returning to Europe. He also had his discovery publicized. It would not be long before the world knew of what he had found.

The effects of his journeys were far reaching and marked, as Columbus biographer Clark B. Hinckley points out, a turning point in history.

Prior to 1492, the world was highly fragmented and diverse. Plant and animal life had developed independently: some plants, like sweet potatoes and corn, grew only in the western hemisphere, where others were unique to Asia. … In our modern age, the same crops and species are found in similar climates on every continent. Even people and races have become intermixed in a way never known before. In the post Columbian world, tomatoes, which originated in Mexico, became a staple of Italian cuisine; chocolate, another Aztec food, became a signature product of Belgium and Switzerland; chili peppers became an integral part of Thai dishes; and potatoes became the principal crop of Ireland. (²²)

The influence of Columbus cannot really be measured. He was a man of his time, as we all are. But he was also ahead of his time. He was not perfect—far from it. But he was extremely brave, as well as dynamic, intelligent, curious, charismatic, decisive, devout, visionary and the greatest mariner of his day. To put it succinctly, the Admiral was a hero.

*     *     *     *     *

By sunset of October 11, no land had been seen. All hands assembled on the deck of the Santa Maria. Columbus told the night watch to keep a sharp lookout. Land must be close. He reminded them of the 10,000 maravedis that the Sovereigns had promised to he who first sighted land, and the Admiral stated that he would immediately give that same man a silk doublet.

The moon was past full but still shining brightly, illuminating anything in front of the ships. The Pinta was leading the three caravels. It was two o’clock in the morning. Samuel Eliot Morison tells the tale. A brave trade wind is blowing and the caravels are rolling, plunging and throwing spray as they cut down the last invisible barrier between the Old World and the New. Only a few moments now, and an era that began in remotest antiquity will end.

Rodrigo de Triana was the lookout on the forecastle of the Pinta. He saw something that appeared to be a white sand cliff on the western horizon. Then he saw a second cliff and a dark stretch of land connecting them. Tierra! Tierra! he cried. It was land. It was the New World, and nothing would ever be the same. (²³)

TWO

The Judge

Monday, January 14, 1697.

Boston, Massachusetts

Samuel Sewall took his normal seat in his pew at South Church. He was forty-four years old and a man of some size, with a protruding belly and a double chin. His long dark hair was turning gray. Sewall was a man of some importance, being a judge of the Superior Court of Judicature. The members of his congregation all knew him, as did most of Boston. He had a reputation as a principled man, but was also viewed as being gentle and considerate of other’s feelings. There was an air of confidence about him, and he was sincerely devout. He loved to eat. Indeed, his diary contains frequent references to the meals and drink he so enjoyed. (¹)

Sewall was a regular attendee at South Church, but on this day, he had an ulterior motive for attending. Samuel Sewall had been one of nine judges who heard cases during the Salem witch trials in 1692. As a result of those trials, twenty people were executed for practicing witchcraft. In the ensuing years, it had become apparent that hysteria had ruled the day, and in the ensuing mayhem, innocent people had been accused and summarily put to death. It had all been a horrific mistake. Samuel Sewall had come to apologize.

*     *     *     *     *

The New England of Samuel Sewall’s time contained a number of isolated villages spread across the edge of the frontier. That frontier was a dense forest wilderness, and within it lived a large population of people the colonists viewed as savages. There had been clashes with the local tribes throughout the previous decades, as the native population saw these settlers encroaching more and more on their lands. Two wars had broken out, and entire villages were often burned and their residents brutally murdered. (²)

We cannot imagine how very dark it was at night. There was no electricity, no streetlights, and only candlelight and fireplaces to ward off the darkness. It gave an added and eerie emphasis to things that went bump in the night. The woods of the frontier may have been right outside one’s window, allowing for the natives—what historian Stacy Schiff calls the devilish savage, the swarthy terrorist— to creep unnoticed right up to your door. (³) Historian Mary Beth Norton states that the wars with the natives and the Salem witchcraft crisis are intricately intertwined. (⁴)

Norton also reminds us that New Englanders of the late 17th century, lived in a pre-Enlightenment world that had not yet experienced the scientific revolution, with its emphasis on the careful study of physical phenomena through controlled experimentation and observation. In the world of 1692, many events lacked obvious explanations. Thus, if one’s child died, or if a crop failed, or if your cow stopped giving milk, there was a tendency to attribute the cause to witchcraft. What other explanation was there? (⁵)

The trouble started in mid-January 1692, when two young girls, Betty Parris, age nine, and Abigail Williams, age eleven, began behaving strangely. Betty was the daughter of the Reverend Samuel Parris of Salem Village in the Massachusetts Bay colony. Abigail was Betty’s cousin and lived with the Parris family, which included Mrs. Elizabeth Parris, two other young children, and two Native American slaves. Reverend Parris was dumbfounded. The girls were having fits, writhing and twisting to such a degree that witnesses believed it was too extreme to be epileptic in nature. Abigail and Betty complained they were being painfully pinched and bitten by invisible agents. They were frozen and silent one minute, and then suddenly shuddered and broke into foolish, ridiculous speeches, which neither they themselves nor any others could make sense of. They crawled into holes and under chairs. Abigail threw herself into the air and flapped her hands in an effort to fly. A doctor, William Griggs, examined the girls and could find nothing physically wrong with them. He determined they were under an Evil Hand. The elders of the village soon determined that witchcraft was the cause of this frightening behavior. The Devil was loose in Massachusetts. (⁶)

Despite the prayers and fasting of Reverend Parris and many others in the community, the afflictions continued. Soon two other young girls, seventeen-year-old Betty Hubbard and twelve-year-old Ann Putnam, were demonstrating the same symptoms. (⁷) The matter was now no longer a question of what afflicted the children, but who. Mary Sibley, a neighbor of the Parris family, decided to find out. In February, she had the Parris slave John make a witch cake, which it was believed would reveal the identity of the witch. It was a mixture of rye or barley meal that also contained the urine of the two afflicted girls. After John cooked it, he was to feed it to the dog. Exactly how it was supposed to work is unclear, but work it did. The girls quickly identified three women who they claimed were the witches who accosted them. They named Tituba, the other Native American slave owned by the Parris family and the wife of John. They also accused Sarah Good, a poor woman who often begged for food from the families of the village. Good was known to have a temper and was often heard muttering to herself. The third person named was Sarah Osborne, a well-to-do woman from the village. The girls claimed they saw these witches flying through the air on a pole. (⁸) When Reverend Parris found out what had transpired in his home, he was furious. By this means, he told his congregation, . . . the Devil has been raised among us, and his rage is vehement and terrible, and when he shall be silenced, the Lord only knows. (⁹) News of the outbreak in Salem spread quickly. There is, wrote Cotton Mather, minister of North Church in Boston, a power of Devils in our Air that are seeking to hurt us. (¹⁰)

The three accused women were arrested and a preliminary hearing was held to gather facts. Two Justices of the Peace presided, Jonathan Corwin and John Hathorne. The two were prominent, well respected men in town. Because of the crowd who wished to attend, the hearings were held in the village meetinghouse. Sarah Good was the first to be interrogated and Hathorne led the questioning.

Q. Sarah Good, what evil spirit have you familiarity with?

A. None.

Q. Have you made no contact with the devil?

Good answered no.

Q. Why do you hurt these children?

A. I do not hurt them. I scorn it.

Q. Who do you employ, then, to do it?

A. I employ nobody.

Q. What creature do you employ then?

A. No creature. But I am falsely accused.

Q. Why did you go away muttering from Mr. Parris’s house?

A. I did not mutter, but I thanked him for what he gave my child.

Q. Have you made no contact with the devil?

A. No.

H (Judge Hathorne) desired the children, all of them, to look upon her and see if this were the person that had hurt them, and so they did all look upon her and said this was one of the persons that did torment them. Presently they were all tormented.

Q. Sarah Good, do you not see what you have done? Why do you not tell us the truth? Why do you torment these poor Children?

A. I do not torment them.

Q. Who do you employ then?

A. I employ nobody. I scorn it. (¹¹)

One of the court reporters noted that Good’s answers were spoken in a very wicked, spiteful manner. Suddenly, several families in town remembered incidents where Sarah Good had threatened them and unexplainable events had followed. Sarah Good and her family had become homeless some three years before. A family had taken them in, but after several months, they threw her out. They said that Good was turbulent, spiteful, and so maliciously bent that they could no longer endure her presence in their house. Good threatened them. That winter their livestock began to die off. Good went to another home seeking shelter, but they turned her away. Good cursed them. The next morning their cow died in a strange unusual manner. Another family who turned Good away saw their cows disappear. So did the evidence mount. (¹²)

The hearings with the other accused went much the same way as Sarah Good’s. Hathorne and Corwin presumed the guilt of the accused. Why do you hurt these children? Hathorne demanded of Tituba, the Parris’s slave. I no hurt them at all, Tituba replied. Then who did? asked Hathorne. The devil, for all I know, she answered, but then she began to describe him. To a room hushed in shock, Tituba admitted that a tall, white-haired man had ordered her to hurt the children. Good and Osborne were with him. The man said he would kill Tituba if she did not obey. As Tituba continued to speak, her tale grew wilder. She testified that to travel about, I ride upon a stick or a pole, Good and Osborne behind me. She also claimed that Sarah Good had turned into a wolf and had stalked the Hubbard girl. The girls became hysterical, crying, howling, choking, falling to the floor, and acting as they had for many weeks. Do you see who torments these children now? Hathorne asked. It was Sarah Good, Tituba answered. Tituba’s confession brought the matter to a new level. Before it was mere talk, but now there was proof. Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne and Tituba were soon carted off to prison in Boston.