#OnThisDay: Berlin Airlift, 1948

When I read that today was the 76^th anniversary of the Berlin Airlift, I must admit my mind was a little short on details. One of the perks of writing this blog is that I get to study events in history and then share what I have learned.

Three of my last four blog posts have been light-hearted as I regaled you with details of my recent trip to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. It was a fun trip and I enjoyed sharing my memories and photographs with you; however, it is time for me to return to real life with my blog and other aspects of my life.

I learned a lot about the Berlin Airlift so I could blog about it today. If you, like me, were born after 1948, you maybe never studied mid-20^th century history when you were in school.

Background

At the Potsdam Conference at the end of World War II, it was agreed that Germany would be divided into four parts for the country’s transition into a post-war economy and government. The United States, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union were designated to occupy the four sectors. The city of Berlin, which sits in the center of Germany, was also divided into four sectors with the same plan for occupation.

The Russian sector covered the eastern half of Berlin and the other three countries split up the western half.

Under the plan, it was the responsibility of the Allied countries to support the German people in their designated sectors with food, medical supplies, and fuel until Germany could recover from its defeat in the war.

Berlin was in the middle of the Soviet-controlled sector of the country. In hindsight it is easy for me to see that this situation had trouble written all over it, but I must be reminded that the Soviet Union, France, Great Britain, and the United States were allies in World War II. That is difficult to get my mind around, since I grew up during the so-called “Cold War” of the 1950s and 1960s.

The straw that broke the camel’s back

The United States, Great Britain, and France introduced a new currency – the Deutschmark – in an effort to revive the German economy. The Soviet Union balked at the proposal because it wanted to continue to bring Germany to its knees.

In response to the monetary proposal made by the Western Allies, the Soviet Union imposed a blockade of Berlin on June 24, 1948 after giving the Western Allies just 24 hours’ notice.

It was on that day, 76 years ago today, that the roads and waterways into Berlin were closed to American, British, and French access.

The Soviets wanted to starve West Berliners and through the very threat of starvation wanted to force West Berliners into coming across to the Soviet side.

The blockade meant that the Western Allies could no longer bring supplies in via roads or the rivers. For a while, East and West Berliners could freely move from one sector to another. Many of them needed to travel into the opposing sector for jobs.

But in October 1948 new regulations prohibited free movement. Seventy-one roadblocks were set up and everyone wishing to cross into or out of the Soviet-occupied sector was searched.

The solution

The solution to the Soviet-imposed blockade was the Berlin Airlift. The Germans called it Luftbrücke which translates into English as “airbridge.”

I have found conflicting statistics about the Berlin Airlift, which lasted until the blockade was lifted on May 12, 1949. Allied planes were constantly landing around-the-clock at airfields in Berlin. One source said it was every three minutes, and another source said at its busiest a plane was landing every 45 seconds.

It was described as a constant noise, but it was a noise that reminded Berliners that they had not been abandoned by the United States, Great Britain, or France when the Soviet Union left them out to dry. They were not at the mercy of the Soviet Union.

It is said that the airlift brought more than food, medical supplies, and fuel into Berlin. Perhaps most importantly, it brought Berliners hope. The Berliners did not just sit idly by waiting for help. More than 10,000 of them worked at the airfields in various support positions to keep the airlift running as smoothly as possible.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was created on April 4, 1949, which sent a strong message to the Soviet Union and, no doubt, prompted an end to the blockade five weeks later.

After the Berlin Airlift

West Germany was established as a democratic state two weeks after the end of the Berlin Airlift. Soon thereafter, East Germany was created.

For those of you too young to remember and who have not studied post-World War II world history, West Germany continued to exist as a free country and East Germany existed as a communist country until the reunification of Germany on October 3, 1990.

East Germany had to put a stop to East Germans fleeing to West Berlin. The Berlin Wall went up literally overnight on August 12, 1961 and encircled West Berlin until 1989. Overnight tens of thousands of West Berliners lost their jobs in East Berlin because the wall could not be crossed.

A small section of the Berlin Wall. Photo by Immo Wegmann on Unsplash.

The Berlin Wall was a series of concentric barriers – a concrete wall with guard towers, anti-vehicle trenches, beds of nails and barbed wire. It was rare for anyone to successfully cross the wall. At least 171 people were killed trying to escape East Berlin.

The Berlin Wall. Photo by Tomas Val on Unsplash.

The tearing down of the Berlin Wall

Sign at “Checkpoint Charlie” in Berlin. Photo by Etienne Girardet on Unsplash.

On November 9, 1989 the East German Community Party announced new policies regarding border crossings and the gates were opened.

People took picks and hammers and started tearing down the concrete wall. Bulldozers pushed down sections of the wall until it was gone.

After 44 years, Berlin once again became one city. And Germany was finally once again one sovereign country.

In conclusion

This is a condensed version of what happened and all sources do not agree on every date. If you wish to do your own research, there are many books that offer the details and idiosyncrasies of the airlift. Check the public library and the internet for a list of reputable sources.

Until my next blog post

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog today.

My next blog post will be on July 1. June just flew by!

I hope you have a good book to read – one that you don’t want to put down!

Value the time you have with friends and family.

Remember the people of Ukraine.

Janet

#OnThisDay: Gideon v. Wainwright

I should have kept my notes from studying the Gideon v. Wainwright US Supreme Court case when I took Constitutional Law as a senior political science major in college. Fifty years later, I remembered the Gideon case as the one that gave individuals charged with a crime in the United States the right to legal counsel, but I was more than a little fuzzy on the details. Hence, today’s post necessitated my doing some research.

Who was Wainwright?

Louie L. Wainwright was the Secretary of Florida Department of Corrections from 1962 to 1967.

Who was Gideon?

Clarence Earl Gideon had an eighth-grade education. He reportedly ran away from home while a middle school student. He was no stranger to the law throughout his life as he was jailed or in prison more than once for committing nonviolent crimes.

So how in the world did his name get attached to a landmark US Supreme Court case in 1963?

Earlier charges against Gideon bear no bearing on the Gideon v. Wainwright case. The pertinent background facts in the determination of this case are as follows:

Gideon was charged with breaking and entering with intent to commit a misdemeanor after allegedly breaking into a pool hall in Panama City, Florida in June 1961 with intent to commit a misdemeanor. At that time (I do not know the current Florida laws) that charge constituted a felony. Gideon asked the judge in that case to appoint legal counsel from him because he could not afford an attorney. Florida law only permitted for free legal counsel in capital offense cases at that time.

After the judge was forced under state law to deny Gideon’s request, Gideon represented himself in the trial. Despite doing a commendable job considering his education and background, he was found guilty and sentenced to five years in prison.

On the grounds of his constitutional rights having been violated, Gideon filed a petition with the Florida Supreme Court. The state court denied the petition.

Against all odds, Gideon then filed a handwritten petition with the United States Supreme Court and the justices agreed to hear the case. What Gideon was calling into question was the interpretation of the last clause in the Sixth Amendment to the US Constitution.

The Sixth Amendment was ratified with the following wording in 1791 and has never been amended:

“In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.”

The US Supreme Court agreed to hear Gideon’s case in part to determine if the 1942 Betts v. Brady case should be reconsidered. In Betts v. Brady, the US Supreme Court had ruled that persons charged with a felony in a State Court was not guaranteed legal counsel under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

The Outcome of Gideon v. Wainwright

The US Supreme Court unanimously overturned the Betts v. Brady decision. The Court found the Court had ignored precedent set by Powell v. Alabama (1932) when it decided Betts v. Brady.

Justice Hugo Lafayette Black wrote the opinion for the Court. In part, he stated that “reason and reflection require us to recognize that in our adversary system of criminal justice, any person hauled into court, who is too poor to hire a lawyer, cannot be assured a fair trial unless counsel is provided for him.”

Justice Black went on to say that the ideal of a fair trial cannot be met if a poor defendant is not granted the right of legal counsel.

Therefore, today we have the perseverance of Clarence Earl Gideon and a decision by the US Supreme Court 61 years ago today on March 18, 1963 for the right individuals in the United States have to free legal counsel to defend them in-person in a trial whether it be in a state or federal district case, if they cannot afford to hire an attorney.

Being in the Bill of Rights, the right to a fair trial is fundamental in the United States. This is a right people in such countries as Russia, China, and North Korea cannot imagine.

Remember that when you vote in November.

Until my next blog post

I hope you have at least one good book to read this week.

Don’t forget to visit https://www.janetmorrisonbooks.com to subscribe to my e-newsletter and to read about the books and short stories I have written.

Remember the people of Ukraine, Gaza, and all the other places in the world where innocent people are suffering.

You and I do not have to agree on politics but, at least for now, I am free to state my opinions. I hope you are free to state yours.

Janet

#OnThisDay: The Blizzard of 1888

I am wearing my historian hat today to write another #OnThisDay blog post. Sometimes I’m quite familiar with the topics covered in my occasional #OnThisDay blog posts, but today’s subject was one I knew nothing about. I need a topic like that to come along once in a while to keep my research juices flowing.

The Blizzard of 1888

I had never heard of the Great Blizzard of 1888 until I stumbled upon it in a reference book that lists events of note for every day of the year. It turns out that the blizzard in March 1888, also known as the Great White Hurricane, was not measured in feet like the snow in the Sierra Nevada ten days ago. However, it was a paralyzing blizzard in the Northeast US and eastern Canada.

It was unseasonably mild leading up to the March 1888 blizzard. Temperatures plummeted and it snowed for a day and a half. Many people were stranded at their places of employment. It is said that prisons and hotels were crowded with people seeking shelter from the storm.

Snow depths from 10 to 58 inches accompanied by sustained 45 mile-per-hour winds created 50-foot snow drifts. It took eight days to clear the New York-New Haven rail line at Westport, Connecticut. Telegraph service infrastructure was knocked out in Montreal and from Washington, DC to Boston for days. In fact, the disabling of rail and telegraph lines by that storm prompted authorities in New York City to start working toward moving of some of those services underground.

More than 400 people died as a result of the blizzard, including 100 seamen as more than 200 ships were grounded or wrecked. Immobilized fire stations prevented firefighters from responding to fires. Loss of property to fires alone during the blizzard amounted to $25 million (in 1888 dollars), which is the equivalent of $810 million in 2024.

The Children’s Blizzard of 1888

In researching the Great Blizzard of 1888, I found information about another blizzard that year and a book about it – The Children’s Blizzard, by David Laskin. I read the book and thought it would be interesting to supplement what I had learned about The Blizzard of 1888 with a few details about The Children’s Blizzard.

Photo of dark clouds looming over a herd of buffalo on the Great Plains — Photo by Laura Ockel on Unsplash

To my surprise, The Children’s Blizzard, by David Laskin captivated my interest. The stories about the so-called Children’s Blizzard dwarfed the more famous “Blizzard of 1888” in the northeastern states. Granted, the snow drifts in the northeast might have been higher than in the Children’s Blizzard in the Plains states two months earlier, but the sheer brutality and suddenness of the storm in Montana, the Dakota Territory, Nebraska, and Minnesota made the one in the northeast pale in comparison.

The snowstorm on January 12, 1888 in the Plains was called the Children’s Blizzard because so many school children were caught off-guard in their one-room schoolhouses that mild winter day when a monster blizzard roared in at break-neck speed. In today’s meteorological parlance, it would probably be described as a “perfect storm,” as all the forces of nature converged to create a blizzard beyond comprehension.

Photo of a person just visible in blinding snow — Photo by Zac Durant on Unsplash

Like the Blizzard of 1888 in the northeastern states and eastern Canada, the Children’s Blizzard was preceded by at least a few hours of mild weather. This lulled people, except for the most seasoned Plains residents, into a false sense of security. Folks across the Plains welcomed a morning when the temperatures did not dictate the wearing of their heaviest winter clothing. Children were glad to have a pleasant morning on which to walk to school.

The state of weather prediction in 1888 did not afford the people enough – and in some cases, not any – warning that within several hours a dramatic drop in temperature and blinding snow would engulf them.

I will write more about The Children’s Blizzard, by David Laskin in my blog post scheduled for the first Monday in April.

Until my next blog post

Never be without a book to read. I hope you are reading one now that you don’t want to put down.

Don’t forget to visit https://www.janetmorrisonbooks.com to subscribe to my e-newsletter and to read about the books and short stories I’ve written.

Remember the people of Ukraine who have been fighting for their lives and democracy for two years now. Can the members of the US Congress not see what Putin is doing?

Remember the innocent people in Gaza who it appears more convincing by the day are the victims of a genocide. I do not condone in any way the terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, 2023; however, that event does not warrant the wholesale bombing of millions of innocent people. This war will not lead to peace in the Middle East. It will lead to countless generations of hatred on the part of survivors and the descendants of those who are murdered. And that hatred will be turned against not only Israel but also on the countries that enable Israel.

You and I don’t have to agree on politics but, at least for now, I am free to state my opinions. I hope you are free to state yours.

Janet

#OnThisDay: U.S. Supreme Court on Abortion, 1973

Before I address today’s topic, I need to apologize for an error I made in my January 15, 2024 blog post. I stated that Dr. Gregory Davis was the first African-American president of Central Piedmont Community College. That, of course, is not true! What I meant to write and thought I wrote was that he was the first African-American student body president at Central Piedmont Community College. My eagle-eyed sister, Marie, found the mistake and brought it to my attention. I have corrected that post, but I wanted to make sure those of you who read the original post knew about the error.

Points of View

Before I launch into Roe v. Wade, I will share two quotes I happened upon last night while reading a blog post about how to write a novel with multiple points of view. I had already written today’s post and scheduled it. It was worth opening it up to add these quotes. Although they were intended to help me be a better writer of fiction, they dovetailed nicely with the true theme of today’s post — which isn’t abortion. Abortion is just an example of the issues over which U.S. citizens are deeply divided.

“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view.” ~ attributed to Harper Lee.

“If there is one secret to success, it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view.” ~ attributed to Henry Ford.

Fasten your seatbelts. I’m getting ready to step on some toes.

Roe v. Wade

It was on this date in 1973 that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on the case of Roe v. Wade. It was believed by the Court then that a woman had a constitutional right to obtain an abortion as a protected right of privacy.

In summary, the lengthy Roe v. Wade written decision ruled that in the first trimester a woman had the right to get an abortion and the right to seek advice from her doctor. In the second trimester, the law could impose reasonable restrictions related to the woman’s health. In the third trimester, when the fetus is recognizable as a human being and not completely dependent upon the mother for life, the law had considerable authority to regulate abortion.

Overturning the Roe v. Wade decision became a goal of the Republican Party in 1980. That goal was achieved on June 24, 2022 when the U.S. Supreme Court published their six to three decision to reverse the 1973 ruling.

That reversal left each of the 50 states to adopt laws regarding abortion and left women in many of those states once again being relegated to the pre-1973 back- alley abortions in unsanitary conditions that put their future fertility and very lives at risk.

Sadly, some of the new state laws have forced women to continue to carry a dead fetus because the medical procedure necessary to deliver the dead fetus is now illegal. Whether that was a conscious decision made by legislators or due to their ignorance probably varies from state-to-state. There was a case of that in my own family in the 1950s, and the trauma of that experience is still talked about.

It baffles me that “the party of family values” / “the party of ‘Let’s get the government out of the bedroom’” thinks treating American citizens like this in 2024 is just fine and dandy.

A hijacked segment of Christians and a hijacked political party?

It has always baffled me that people who most-adamantly say they are pro-life because they are Christians are against all government programs designed to make sure those babies have sufficient food and basic healthcare once they are born. I think they should more accurately say they are anti-abortion instead of saying they are pro-life.

The Jesus I follow is all about His followers taking care of the poor and downtrodden. The Jesus I follow is all about forgiveness and compassion. The Jesus I follow is all about loving your neighbor as you love yourself.

I don’t see any of that in the people who wear the MAGA caps, so maybe it’s time for the Christians who support the hatred spewed by that segment of today’s Republican Party to be honest with us and with themselves. It appears from the outside that they have lost sight of Jesus in their zeal to crush anyone who gets in their idol’s way.

I don’t understand why they think it is acceptable to be a racist, misogynist, or a xenophobe and would support a politician who proudly falls into all three of those categories. Jesus is certainly none of those things.

There is something very wrong today if Democrats don’t think Republicans can be Christians and Republicans don’t think Democrats can be Christians.

I miss the America of my younger days when most people did not know and did not care about another person’s political affiliation because most people understood that our democracy thrives when we have choices and two imperfect but relatively healthy political parties.

I miss the America of my younger days when in polite society in the United States you did not talk about religion or politics to a stranger, much less threaten to kill another person if they dared to hold opinions that differed from yours.

I miss the America of my younger days when you could have a civil conversation with a friend or relative with whom you disagreed about politics.

I miss the America of my younger days when I did not realize how very fragile democracy is.

My intentions for my blog

I did not set out to use my blog as a political platform; however, I have been blogging for more than a decade and I think God expects me to use my blog and my freedom of speech — which I will have at least until noon on January 20, 2025, when I just might lose all my rights.

Since my last blog post

I have struggled more than ever before with the writing of a blog post because I know some of the toes I’m stepping on are the toes of some close friends and relatives.

The topic of today’s blog post is complex. There are no easy answers, so I pray that both sides on the issue will try to keep their minds open to differing views and scientific facts as they wrestle with the matter.

The overturning of Roe v. Wade is, no doubt, not the last word on this issue. If we are a democracy after January 20, 2025, this matter will continue to be debated in the United States. I just hope it is debated with more compassion and open-mindedness than it was over the last 51 years. I hope people will stop hating the people whose beliefs on this subject and anything else do not match theirs.

Until my next blog post

I hope you have access to the medical attention you need.

I hope you have a good book to read.

I hope you pay close attention to politics on all levels and practice your responsibility to vote, if you have that right.

I hope you and I will continue to be friends, and in the Presbyterian way, “Agree to disagree agreeably.”

Remember the people of Ukraine during their miserable winter and how cherished freedoms can disappear in the blink of an eye.

Janet

#OnThisDay: September 11, 2001

In memory of the 2,977 innocent victims who died 22 years ago today in the Twin Towers in New York, the crash of hijacked United Airlines Flight 93 in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and The Pentagon in Washington, DC.

A day that all of us who were alive on that day will forever remember with unspeakable sadness.

Until my next blog post

Hold all those you love a little closer.

Janet

#OnThisDay: Anniversary of Hawaii Statehood, 1959

When I was planning my blog post topics for August, I considered writing about today being the 64^th anniversary of the statehood of Hawaii. I thought the 64^th anniversary was a ho-hum time to draw attention to it, so I planned to write about a different subject today.

Then the wildfires erupted on Maui. Fanned by hurricane-force winds, the fires became a raging inferno and in the blink of an eye, at least 1,100 human lives were lost (as 114 deaths have been documented and more then 1,000 people are still unaccounted for as I write this.) Thousands of homes and businesses were destroyed and thousands of people were left not only homeless but with nowhere to work.

A 200-year-old church sanctuary was destroyed, as well as the local public library – along with everything else in the town of Lahaina.

There is speculation that the fire was sparked by a tree connecting with a power line. However it started, it was fed by low level winds created by Hurricane Dora some 300 miles away and another weather system thousands of miles to the north. The converging wind circulations of the two weather systems created a recipe for disaster.

Should someone or a government agency have seen it coming and issued warnings? That’s not for me to say. This isn’t the time to place blame. The wounds are still too raw. I’m sure the situation is being carefully investigated. I hope the result will be improvements that will give residents and tourists in the future a better chance to evacuate.

Hawaiians should be celebrating the islands’ statehood today, but instead they are in mourning for the lives, beautiful landscape, jobs, history, and property lost in the wildfire.

It’s too early to tell the prognosis of the massive 150-year-old banyan tree on Front Street in Lahaina. I understand it was quite a local landmark.

Lahaina was the ancient capital of the Kingdom of Hawaii, which makes the total destruction of the town even more painful and significant.

I’m old enough that I remember when Hawaii became the 50^th state in the United States. We heard about it at home and we talked about it at school. It happened during the first week when I was in the first grade. It was a big deal.

Hawaii is 5,000 miles (or 8,000 kilometers) from North Carolina. I didn’t know anyone who had been there on vacation and couldn’t dream in 1959 that I would ever know anyone to do so. Even by the black-and-white photographs we saw, we could tell it was an exotic place of incredible beauty.

Hawaii still holds a mystique for me and probably most Americans in the other 49 states. I don’t expect to ever visit the state, but the photographs of the lush green of the land and azure Pacific Ocean waters on all sides bring the word “paradise” to mind.

A sizeable portion of paradise on Maui got burned beyond recognition just over a week ago. The landscape is changed forever. I’m sure people will rebuild most of the structures that were destroyed, but lives and artefacts cannot be replaced. The history of the place will only live in the hearts and minds of the people who knew the area before the sudden fire.

Since my last blog post

I finally finished formatting The Aunts in the Kitchen: Southern Family Recipes except for the introduction through the help of Atticus.io. It was beginning to look like it was only going to be an e-book, but technical difficulties caused by my ignorance were eventually ironed out. My sister and I hope to publish the cookbook on Amazon in paperback as well as for Kindle in November. I’ll let you know when it is available.

Until my next blog post

I hope you have a good book to hold your interest this week. I hope it inspires, educates, and entertains you.

Appreciate your friends and relatives, even if they disagree with you politically.

Remember the people of Ukraine and the Island of Maui in Hawaii.

Janet

#OnThisDay: The US Constitutional Amendment that Put an End to Poll Taxes

I majored in political science in college, but I’d be hard pressed off the top of my head to tell you what the 24^th Amendment to the United States Constitution is about. Its ratification was completed on January 23, 1964 when South Dakota became the 38^th state to ratify it. The 59^th anniversary of its ratification prompted me to blog about the amendment today.

What the 24^th Amendment prohibits

It prohibits the United States Congress and any state in the union from basing a person’s right to vote for US President, US Vice President, US Senate, or US House of Representatives in a primary or other election based on the payment of any tax.

Photo by The New York Public Library on Unsplash

Why the 24^th Amendment came about

In the late 1890s and until just after the turn of the 20^th century, former Confederate States adopted so-called poll taxes. The laws varied from state to state, but they were created as a way to prevent many black people and poor white people from voting. This was a way the states circumvented the 15^th Amendment to the US Constitution, which prohibits a person being prevented from voting based on “race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” The 15^th Amendment said nothing about taxes.

The constitutionality of poll taxes was upheld by the US Supreme Court in Breedlove v. Suttles in 1937. In that case, Nolan Breedlove, a 28-year-old white man refused to pay the $1.00 per year poll tax in Georgia. By not paying the poll tax, Mr. Breedlove was not allowed to register to vote in any election in the state.

Mr. Breedlove filed a lawsuit against Mr. T. Earl Suttles, the Fulton County, Georgia Tax Collector, arguing that the poll tax was in violation of the 14^th and 19^th Amendments to the US Constitution. Hence, the name of the US Supreme Court case. The Breedlove v. Suttles decision was eventually overturned, but the case serves as an example of the US Supreme Court making wrong decisions sometimes

The Breedlove v. Suttles decision was unanimous! The Court concluded that the “privilege of voting is not derived from the United States, but is conferred by the state, and, save as restrained by the Fifteenth and Nineteenth Amendments and other provisions of the Federal Constitution, the state may condition suffrage as it deems appropriate.”

It was a case, like we’ve seen in other cases as recently as 2022, where the US Supreme Court took the easy way out and clung to the “states’ rights” doctrine.

How the 24^th Amendment became the law of the land

After decades of some politicians ignoring the issue of poll taxes and a few politicians pushing for the abolishment of such taxes, Congress finally proposed the 24^th Amendment at the prompting of President John F. Kennedy. The amendment was submitted to the states on September 24, 1962 after a vote of 295 to 86 in the US House of Representatives and a vote of 77 to 16 in the US Senate.

Illinois was the first state to ratify the amendment in November 1962 and South Dakota was the 38^th state to ratify it on January 23, 1964. That 38^th vote was all that was needed.

The aftermath of ratification of the 24^th Amendment

Some states were slow to ratify the amendment even after its national ratification was final in 1964. Some states were slow to amend their constitutions to be in compliance with the federal amendment. Always looking for ways to get around the law, some states continued to require racial minority citizens to pass senseless tests in order to earn the right to vote.

People who want to keep other US citizens from voting have turned to more subtle (and some not-so-subtle) forms of voter intimidation. They’ve felt emboldened over the last seven years and the pendulum is swinging toward bolder attempts to scare certain people away from the voting booth. This is an attack on our democracy.

Our democracy depends on each of us defending the right of all citizens to vote.

Since my last blog post

As my new website has transitioned from the design phase to the development phase, I continued to write new content for the site.

It seemed like I had to learn some new technology every day. There is still more I will have to learn. I hope this is good for my brain cells. It isn’t good for my emotional stability or my disposition.

It’s been gratifying to see how well received my local history book, Harrisburg, Did You Know? Cabarrus History, Book 1 has been on Amazon and in the local bookstore, Second Look Books. Thank you to everyone who has purchased it! Don’t be shy about rating it or even leaving a short review of it on Amazon!

My sister and I took a much-needed break on Saturday afternoon and went to see the movie, “A Man Called Otto.” Tom Hanks was perfect in the role of Otto. The movie is based on the book, A Man Called Ove, by Fredrik Backman. I read the book back in 2017 and I’ve remembered it ever since. Here’s the link my June 2, 2017 blog post in which I wrote about the book: You Need to Read These Books! I recommend the book and the movie.

Until my next blog post

I hope you have a good book to read. While you’re at it, please read one for me. I haven’t had much time to read lately.

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog.

Remember the brave people of Ukraine.

Janet

#OnThisDay: 8 Valley Forge facts that will actually surprise you on this 245th anniversary

The encampment of the Continental Army at Valley Forge began 245 years ago today. We’re all familiar with the image of George Washington leading his troops across the frigid Delaware River. We know that it was a bitterly cold winter, but there are some interesting facts I hope to surprise you with today.

1,700 to 2,000 soldiers died of disease at the six-month encampment.

Food for the troops was scarce. The Oneida delegation, allies of the Patriots, arrived in May 1778 with white corn. Polly Cooper of the delegation instructed them on how to safely prepare the corn for consumption and stayed after most of her fellow Oneidans had left. She received a shawl from Martha Washington in thanks for her assistance.

In December it went down to 6 degrees F., 12 degrees F. in January, 12 degrees F. in February, and 8 degrees F. in March.

It was the last time United States soldiers served in a racially-integrated army until the Korean War in the 1950s.

The volunteer drill master was Baron von Steubon, a Prussian military commander. The Prussian military drills and tactics he taught the troops were used by the United States military for the next 30 years.

It is thought that 250 to 400 women were in the encampment, serving as cooks, nurses, laundresses, and menders of clothing.

Mary Ludwig Hayes, a.k.a., Molly Pitcher, was at Valley Forge with her husband. She is remembered for jumping into service to help load a cannon at the Battle of Monmouth Courthouse after her husband was wounded.

Hannah Till was an enslaved cook for George Washington at Valley Forge. She purchased her freedom a few years later and became a salaried cook.

We hear a lot about our “forefathers” but not enough about our “foremothers!”

Since my last blog post

Look who’s reading my book! He must have found it on Amazon or in Harrisburg, NC at Second Look Books or Gift Innovations! It’s in short supply in Harrisburg until I get my next shipment. If you prefer an e-book, remember it’s available for e-book and in paperback from Amazon.

Until my next blog post

I hope you have a wonderful Christmas or whatever holidays you are celebrating.

I hope you enjoy time with family and friends.

Remember the suffering people of Ukraine.

I’ll see you again here at my blog on December 26 – the last Monday in 2022!

Janet

Did You Know Cabarrus County, NC Survived a Meteorite on Halloween 1849?

Can you imagine hearing and then seeing meteor blazing across the sky and then crashing through a tree before plunging several feet into the dirt? That’s what happened on Hiram Bost’s farm on October 31, 1849.

I grew up in Cabarrus County, but I’d not heard of the meteorite until I happened upon a newspaper article about it while doing research on another topic for a local history column I was writing in 2009 for Harrisburg Horizons weekly newspaper. Last week while I was formatting those newspaper articles for two planned books in 2023, I thought the highlights of the seven-part series I wrote about Mr. Bost’s meteorite would make an interesting blog post on this Halloween.

Although the meteorite landed near Midland in Cabarrus County, it was mistakenly named “Monroe.” Meteorites are usually named for where they land. The town of Monroe is actually in the adjoining county and not where the 1849 meteorite crashed to the Earth.

I’ve never heard a meteor or seen one up close. The closest I’ve come is seeing an occasional “shooting star.” The witnesses of the 1849 meteorite described explosions and rumblings They saw a white-hot object in the sky even though it was broad daylight.

Word of the meteorite spread by the proverbial grapevine and in newspapers in Charlotte and Concord. When word reached the Charlotte Branch of the United States Mint, a Mint employee and a Charlotte doctor headed some 20 to 25 miles to the site by horse-drawn wagon.

Knowing he had an item of interest and unknown value on his hands, Mr. Bost displayed the meteorite on top of a pole for all to come and see. It was accompanied by a sign warning people not to touch or break the rock.

I was naïve enough to think that perhaps the Monroe meteorite had ended up intact at the North Carolina Museum of Natural History, but I soon found out that the meteorite has been chopped and sliced into countless pieces and the museum in Raleigh doesn’t even have a piece of it.

One thing led to another, as is always the case when I do historical research, and I went down the rabbit hole of searching for the locations that own part of the meteorite. What I discovered is that pieces and slivers of the meteorite are owned by universities, museums, The Vatican, and private companies and individuals around the world.

I learned that bits and pieces of the Monroe meteorite are for sale by rock and mineral dealers and are sometimes available through rock and mineral auctions. Those pieces and slivers are priced by the gram and aren’t cheap.

To learn more, be on the lookout for my book, Harrisburg, Did You Know? – Book 2 on Amazon in 2023.

I expect to publish Harrisburg, Did You Know? – Book 1 on Amazon in January 2023. I’ll give progress reports in future blog posts. Even if you don’t live in the Harrisburg, North Carolina area, I think you’ll find something of interest in both my local history books.

Since my last blog

I continue to write my first historical novel, The Heirloom.

I hired a company to completely redesign my outdated website, JanetMorrisonBooks.com. My writing is taking a new path and I need a new website to reflect that. With numerous decisions to be made and the holiday season approaching, it might be January before I can unveil the new site.

My sister and I continue to proofread Harrisburg, Did You Know?—Book 1. When I blogged last week, I thought the books would only be available for Kindle, but I now hope to also have them published in paperback.

A word about my blog

Last week’s blog post included a note about a change in my follower count on my blog and the reason I was given for the widget policy change. Apparently, I wasn’t the only blogger to complain, for this week the count once again includes the 1,000+ followers that were dropped last week. I’m happy again!

Until my next blog

I hope you have a good book to read.

Remember the brave people of Ukraine who face freezing to death this winter.

Janet

#OnThisDay: The Wilmot Proviso of 1846

“The what?” you say. I must admit I’m guilty, too. I had to look it up.

In a nutshell, the Wilmot Proviso of 1846 was a failed attempt in the US Congress to ban slavery in the western territories the US obtained as a result of the Mexican-American War. It was just this type action that paved the way for the American Civil War in 1861.

The proviso was named for David Wilmot, the Congressman from Pennsylvania who introduced it on August 8, 1846. The proviso was a rider on a $2 million appropriations bill three months into the Mexican-American War. The bill passed in the House of Representatives but failed in the Senate.

Some background

Perhaps in the southwestern US states, the Mexican-American War is taught in elementary and high schools, but it was my experience in North Carolina that the two-year war in the 1840s was just mentioned in passing. Or perhaps I just wasn’t paying attention. Anyway, I had to do some research to find the details of the Wilmot Proviso.

The Missouri Compromise of 1820 prohibited slavery in the remaining Louisiana Territory above the 36^th parallel, 30 north latitude line. The “compromise” was that Missouri was admitted to the Union as a slave state at the same time Maine was admitted as a free state.

The controversy over the annexation of the Republic of Texas enters into the story, as did New Mexico and California, which had been captured by the US during the Mexican-American War. After substantial land area gains by the US early in the war, Congress started setting its sights on more expansion from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

Slavery was a hot button issue and Democrats and Whigs (the two main political parties in the US at that time) tried to keep it out of national politics. There was no way to avoid it, however. It was the proverbial “elephant in the room.”

Photo by Library of Congress on Unsplash

There was disagreement within the Democratic Party over the way Martin Van Buren had been denied the party’s nomination for US President in 1844 when southern delegates uncovered an old convention rule that required a nominee to receive a two-thirds vote by delegates. (I didn’t take time to thoroughly research that. I’m sure there’s more to the story than meets the eye.)

More and more over time, the Mexican-American War was more popular in the southern states than in the northern states. It was seen by many in the south as a way to gain more territory where slavery would be accepted.

Back to the Wilmot Proviso

President James K. Polk sent a request to Congress for $2 million to boost negotiations with Mexico to end the war. That was on Saturday, August 8, 1846. Congress was scheduled to adjourn two days later. A special night session was arranged by the Democrats so the request could be considered.

Rules mandated that debate be limited to two hours. No one member of Congress could speak for more than ten minutes. A Polk supporter and friend to many southerners, David Wilmot was selected to present the bill to help ensure its passage.

The following language was included in the proviso that would apply to all territory the United States would acquire from Mexico by virtue of any peace treaty: “neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist in any part of said territory, except for crime, whereof the party shall first be duly convicted.”

The Senate took up the House bill and there was a push to pass it with the exception of the Wilmot Proviso. The Democratic politicians thought the House would then be forced to pass the bill without the proviso due to the bewitching midnight hour when Congress had to adjourn.

Senator John Davis, a Massachusetts Whig, schemed that he would speak on the floor of the Senate so long that the Senate would have to vote on the bill as written because it would be too late to return the bill to the House of Representatives.

Does anyone know what time it is?

In a twist of fate (or by design?), there was an eight-minute difference in the official clocks of the Senate and the House. The clock in the House struck midnight before Davis could call for the vote in the Senate. The 1846 session of Congress had adjourned without full passage of the $2 million bill.

Proponents introduced the bill again in 1847 as a $3 million bill, but it had the same results. There were efforts to resurrect the proviso in 1848 as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, but those efforts also failed.

The Wilmot Proviso would have effectively made the 1820 Missouri Compromise null and void.

What happened about slavery in the western territories/states?

California’s constitution banned slavery, so it was given statehood as a free state in 1850. Nevada was admitted to the Union as a free state in 1864. The US. acquired New Mexico and Utah in 1848, and slavery was legal in those territories until slavery was banned in all US territories in 1862.

How did Texas play into this?

My research about the Wilmot Proviso prompted me to delve into the history of Texas. The Republic of Texas was annexed by the United States and granted statehood in 1845 – just months before the debates over the Wilmot Proviso began. I knew there were slaves in Texas. We just recently celebrated Juneteenth, marking the anniversary of the slaves in Texas finally being told they were free.

I learned that there were African slaves in Texas as early as 1529. Texas joined the United States as a slave state. Slavery was a deciding factor in the annexation of the Republic of Texas while James K. Polk was US president.

Therefore, since Texas was already a US state prior to the debate over the Wilmot Proviso of 1846, slavery in Texas wouldn’t have been affected by the proviso, had it passed. It would have only pertained to territories the US gained as a result of the Mexican-American War.

What a difference one action or inaction can make

My research last week brought to mind how nations evolve and how peoples’ lives can turn on a dime with decisions made by governments. What if the Wilmot Proviso had passed in 1846 (or 1847 or 1848?) What if Texas had not been a state in 1846? What if the US had not won the Mexican-American War? What if the South had won the Civil War? What if African slaves had never been brought to North America? What if America had been defeated in the American Revolutionary War? What if Germany and Japan had won World War II?

How different world history would be if just one of those decisions or wars had gone the other way!

Aftermath of the Wilmot Proviso

If nothing else, the Wilmot Proviso brought to light how divided the United States was between the North and the South. The Democrats and Whigs were both split by regional loyalties.

Neither party wanted to vote on the issue of slavery, but the vote on the Wilmot Proviso pulled the cover off and began to lay bare the true division within the country. What had begun some 70 years earlier as an experiment in democracy was now under more pressure than ever and would ultimately be tested in a civil war just 15 years later.

Even with the end of that civil war, the issue of race relations in the United States would not be settled and, sadly, remains a point of conflict to this day. It is still “the elephant in the room” – that difficult conversation we still struggle with in our society today.

Since my last blog post

As you might guess, I spent several hours researching the Wilmot Proviso and condensing my findings into a somewhat digestible blog post. You’re probably saying, “That was more than I wanted to know about the Wilmot Proviso.” I felt the same way as the history got increasingly complicated.

With the Wilmot Proviso out of the way, I turned my focus to working on my family cookbook project, my historical short stories, and some reading.

Until my next blog post

I hope you have a good book to read. I’ve already read a one this month and I’m ready to share my thoughts about it in my September 5 blog post.

Life is short. Make time for friends and family.

If you don’t have a hobby, find one.

Don’t forget the people of Ukraine, Uvalde, and Highland Park, etc. and the people in Kentucky whose lives have been turned upside down by flooding.

Janet

Janet's Writing Blog

Category: #OnThisDay

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#OnThisDay: The US Constitutional Amendment that Put an End to Poll Taxes

#OnThisDay: 8 Valley Forge facts that will actually surprise you on this 245th anniversary

Did You Know Cabarrus County, NC Survived a Meteorite on Halloween 1849?

#OnThisDay: The Wilmot Proviso of 1846

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