Month: November 2011

Preparations are now in full swing for the Fall 2011 History & Heritage Test to be

unveiled to students on Friday, December 2. Till then, there are no further blog posts.

Below are a few of the items that did not make it to the previous nine fall posts:

African Methodist Episcopal Church (AMEC) — (Almanac, Nov. 8th)

This Christian denomination came into being in the early 1800s, its first bishop the

former slave Richard Allen from Delaware who cast his lot with Wesleyʼs Methodists?

The largely African-American church was a response to a persistent pattern of racial

discrimination found everywhere in America, North and South. Offenses included

instances when black children were denied baptism, and when even free blacks (never

mind slaves) had to wait to receive the Lordʼs Supper until whites were served first.

St. Patrick — (Almanac, Nov. 10)

As tradition would have it, the 5th-century British monk St. Patrick returned to Ireland as

a missionary in 432 AD, preached and baptized there in the presence of his former

captors and slave masters for over fifty years, and assisted in the Christian conversion

of over a hundred thousand souls.

Legends about him abound, of course. But as one respected Irish church historian

(William Dool Killen) observed, “There can be no reasonable doubt that Patrick

preached the gospel, that he was a most zealous and efficient evangelist, and that he is

entitled to be called the Apostle of Ireland.”

Impressive to say the least was Patrickʼs sense of his utter dependence on the triune

God for his own conversion (not to mention that of others) and for his ongoing quest for

true spirituality. He said of his first stay in Ireland as a youth in captivity, “Even when I

was staying out in the woods or on the mountain, I used to rise before dawn for prayer,

in snow and frost and rain, and I felt no ill effect and there was no slackness in me. As I

now realize, it was because the Spirit was glowing in me.”

Quebec City — (America, Vol.1, pp. 58-59)

This venerable North American city served New France as its “Rock of Gibraltar” in

the 17th and 18th-centuries (1600s & 1700s)? Its sense of secure impregnability, both

physical and spiritual, was so acute, in fact, that its cathedral was named Notre Dame

des Victoires (Our Lady of Victories). All that would change, however, in the late 1750s,

when the more aggressive strategy of English Prime Minister William Pitt the Elder

would bring the French citadel to its knees.

William Pitt the Elder — (America, Vol.1, pp. 58-61)

The maker and builder of the British Empire, this prime minister (“the Great

Commoner”) led his country to victory over France in the Seven Years War

(1756–1763)? His vigorous strategy beat back his foreign rivals on the seas, in Europe,

in India, in Africa, and of course in North America where the conflict was called the

French and Indian War. Eventually made 1st Earl of Chatham, he was especially

popular in America for opposing the imposition of fresh taxes on the colonies.

Britainʼs Stamp Tax Rationale — (America, Vol. 1, pp. 63-64)

On the surface, Britainʼs 1760s Stamp Tax rationale seems reasonable enough.

Bennett writes: “The tax was intended to raise revenue in the colonies to cover the

huge debts Britain had incurred during the French and Indian War. . . After all, the costs

of maintaining military defense and civilian administration in the colonies had jumped

[fivefold from about 1750 to 1765]. Under the Stamp Act, colonists would pay a tax on

almost anything written or printed. . .”

Undoubtedly cut and dried from the Britsʼ point of view. However, Britainʼs unbearable

burden of debt was not merely the result of increased activity in North America. It had

much to do with imperial ambition, rivalry, and war worldwide.

“A Wise and Salutary Neglect” — (America, Vol.1, p. 67)

“A wise and salutary neglect” was 18th-century parliamentarian Edmund Burkeʼs way of

describing the policies of Britain toward her Atlantic seaboard possessions from roughly

1607 to 1760. Simply put, Crown and Parliament left the colonies alone. From New

Hampshire to Georgia, the colonists developed their own representative assemblies

through which they governed themselves.

In 1760, George III takes the throne; not long afterward George Grenville would take

over the British treasury (chancellor of the exchequer) and prime ministership. From

that point on Britain, reeling from debt, would try to squeeze more money out of

America, in the process applying direct pressure on the colonies in the form of fresh

taxes and regulations by decree of Parliament across the sea.

So much for Burkeʼs “salutary neglect.” The vital law-making role of the colonial

assemblies was now in jeopardy, and with it the self-governing rights or political liberties

of colonial Englishmen. As the popular saying of the day insisted, “No taxation without

representation.”

This was the crisis of liberty which finally culminated in a unified colonial secession from

the British Empire, and a forceful assertion of the sovereign rights of thirteen “free and

independent states” (see the Declaration of Independence). What was at stake was not

so much the theoretical rights (natural or otherwise) of theoretical individuals. Rather,

the time-tested and customary rights of Englishmen to govern themselves through their

own republican institutions (assemblies and bodies that were homegrown, local,

communal, and colonial in size and scope).

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All Saintsʼ Day — (Almanac, Nov. 1)

So many were martyred in the first three centuries of the church that eventually, by

papal decree, this Christian feast day (November 1) was set aside in their honor? The

persecutions fulfilled the prophecies of Jesus, who told His followers they would be like

sheep sent out in the midst of wolves (Matt. 10:16). Thus, Christian martyrdom, then

and now, is the ultimate witness to the truth of the gospel, to the infinite value of Christ

and His cross, and to the hostility of men toward God and His holy purposes.

Henry Laurens — (Almanac, Nov. 1)

Of Huguenot (French Calvinist) ancestry, this South Carolinian Merchant

(1724–1792) served the American republic as president of the Continental Congress

and, later on, as a diplomat who was captured by the British on the high seas? America

did not get him back until after the decisive Battle of Yorktown (1781), in a momentous

prisoner exchange for Lord General Cornwallis. Following his release, the persevering

patriot participated in the Peace of Paris negotiations to end the War for Independence.

More on Melville — (Almanac, Nov. 3)

Thereʼs something to be said for a writer, or anyone in any sphere, whoʼs true to himself

and, even more importantly, true to the fundamental and vital issues of life that flow from

the heart (Prov. 4:23).

Herman Melville (1819–1891), as mentioned in an earlier post (Fall H&H — #8), was

such a writer. When he quit his craft in 1857, his novels having failed to satisfy the

demands of mass marketability, he said, “What I feel most moved to write will not pay.

Yet write the other way, I cannot.”

In this respect at least (a refusal to make peace for profitʼs sake with diminished or

debased standards), Melville is a model for us today. On a personal level, there has to

be more to life than success, getting ahead, and making money. Or in some grand

collective sense (the rich, the poor, workers, capitalists, the people, people of color,

women, gays, etc.), striving for an ever greater slice of the pie, not the one supposedly

in the sky but the one most definitely of this world.

Earthʼs necessities (What shall we eat? What shall we drink? What shall we wear?) do

matter, of course, but they never matter most of all. “For what will it profit a man,” asked

Jesus, “if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?” (Matt. 16:26)

Melville, itʼs safe to surmise, wanted to succeed in the literary and commercial milieu of

19th-century America. But not at the expense of his soul.

Salem Revisited — (America, Vol. 1, p. 50)

Compounding the disgrace of the infamous Salem Witch Trials (1692) has been a false

and misleading historiography, down through the years, with respect to the events

themselves. Unfortunately, author Bill Bennett repeats one of the more characteristic

errors when he says that Puritan divine Cotton Mather (1663–1728) “argued that

spectral evidence should be accepted” against the accused.

(spectral evidence consists of claims of threatening or hostile acts made by the ghosts

or specters of those suspected of engaging in the black arts)

Mather, like most of the New England clergy, conceded the existence of witchcraft in

Salem and the legitimacy of the trials to repress it, but cautioned against the use of

spectral evidence. He also recommended prayer and pastoral care for the souls of

those tormented by evil spirits or an inflamed conscience. The whole tenor of his

counsel leaned clearly toward mercy for the accused.

The tragic episode originated in the playful experimentation of adolescent girls

(including the daughter of parish minister Samuel Parris), probably influenced by the

magic arts of a West Indian slave-girl named Tituba. The girlsʼ behavior became

increasingly bizarre (inexplicable fits, convulsions, moans & groans, etc.), and they said

witches in town were doing them harm. Such claims may have seemed fanciful, yet

onlookers couldnʼt deny that something nightmarish had happened to these girls.

In the highly-charged atmosphere of the court, more and more people got implicated.

Finally, when citizens with sterling reputations were also accused of being in league with

the Evil One, the trials ground to a halt. Twenty of the accused (deemed unrepentant)

were executed.

“By 1697 Massachusetts was ready,” writes historian Richard Lovelace, “to confess its

guilt in the shedding of innocent blood by observing a public fast day. The common

opinion by that time was that the Devil had indeed been active in Salem, but not so

much in the suspected witches as in their accusers, who had been both tormented and

used as instruments to slander the innocent.”

Ever since, various “free-thinkers” (those who dismiss religion and tradition as sources

of knowledge) have cited Salem to discredit the existence of witches, devils, the

supernatural realm in general, and the intelligence of Christians.

Wisdom (via the light of the Word and the lamp of experience), however, would concede

the reality of the occult, and reflect on how difficult it can be for a society to deal with it

truly, justly, and compassionately. All our resources in religion, education, science, and

politics seem, oftentimes, unequal to the task.

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But what canʼt be faulted is his genius, his magnanimity, his determination to improve and reform everything to which he applied his mind, his heart, and his labor.Of Teddy Roosevelt, George Grant writes, “He read at least five books every week of his life and wrote nearly fifty on an astonishing array of subjects—from history and biography to natural science and social criticism. He enjoyed hunting, boxing, and wrestling. He was an amateur taxidermist, botanist, ornithologist, and astronomer. He was a devoted familyman who lovingly raised six children. And he enjoyed a lifelong romance with his wife.”

Smallwonder even his rivals and critics respected him.

Maryland — (America, Vol.1, pp. 42-43)

This Anglo-American colony can be traced to Sir George Calvertʼs conversion to Catholicism and his subsequent appeal to King Charles I for permission to settle the north shore of Chesapeake Bay? Sir George died before any action was taken on his request, but a charter was eventually granted to Cecilius, his son, in 1634. Before long, however, Protestants outnumbered Catholics in the new colony, prompting authorities to decree aToleration Act (1649) securing religious liberty to all professing Christians.

Jesuits or Society of Jesus — (America, Vol.1, pp. 47-48)

Isaac Jogues was among the 17th-century French missionaries of this Catholic order of priests and monks who met martyrdom at the hands of North American Indians? Generally, the fearless French priests ventured hundreds of miles throughout Canada and the Great Lakes and had some success, notably among the Hurons. The Iroquois confederation, however, proved unreceptive to the visits of those they called the “black robes”; the Mohawks, for instance, tortured and tomahawked the saintly Jogues. 

smallpox inoculation — (America, Vol.1, p. 53)

BenFranklinʼs scientific career got off to a none-too-promising start when, as a teenager in the early 1720s, he campaigned with his older brother in the pages of their New England Courant against this new medical procedure? The breakthrough had been reported by the Royal Society of London and was strongly supported by the pious and learned Mathers of Boston (Increase & his son, Cotton). The latter felt compelled to critique the youthful Franklinsʼ benighted journalism.

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