Raising Gifted Parents
  • Home
  • Define gifted...
  • Lessons
  • About
  • Home
  • Define gifted...
  • Lessons
  • About
Raising Gifted Parents

family relationships

3/24/2023

 
The parents of your father and/or mother are your grandparents (your grandmother and/or grandfather) and their parents are your great grandparents. Your parents' brothers and sisters are your uncles and aunts. The brothers and sisters of your grandparents are often called your great uncles or great aunts, but this is incorrect. They are actually your grand aunts and grand uncles. The brothers and sisters of your great grandparents are your great grand uncles and great grand aunts.
Picture

What about the cousins?

You may have heard some cousins referred to as your 1st cousin, or 2nd cousin. You may have even heard of them referred to as your 2nd cousin once removed. These relationships aren't as difficult to figure out as it seems.
Picture

voting rights

3/24/2023

 

Winning the right to vote

Picture
During the early years of the United States, voting rights were limited to a small percentage of the population. Despite having over 4 million citizens, only about 120,000 were eligible to vote, with the privilege usually reserved for free white men who owned property. However, by 1860, most states allowed all white men above the age of 21 to vote.

Following the Civil War in 1861-65, voting rights were granted to men of all races with the passing of the 15th Amendment to the Constitution. Women were later granted the right to vote in 1920 through the 19th Amendment, while 18-year-olds were given the right to vote with the 26th Amendment in 1971. The government has implemented federal laws to ensure that Americans can exercise their voting rights, including those with disabilities and those who speak languages other than English.

In the early days of voting in the US, ballots were not private. Voters would often announce their votes out loud or raise their hands to indicate their choices. Printed ballots became more common after the Civil War, but they were distributed by individual candidates or parties and often had distinctive colors or shapes that made it easy to see how someone voted.
It wasn't until the 1890s that voting became truly secret, with the government issuing ballots that showed the names of all candidates. These ballots were distributed only at polling places, and voting was done in private booths to ensure that every voter had the right to a secret ballot.

Voting rights of the 1960s

In 1957 and 1960, laws were passed by Congress to safeguard African American voters. Despite this, during the 1964 presidential elections, they still faced difficulties in registering to vote, encountering opposition and even brutal violence during voter registration drives. In March 1965, Martin Luther King Jr. organized a march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, to draw attention to the issue. Following this, President Lyndon B. Johnson sent a voting rights bill to Congress, which was passed and became the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The Act empowered the U.S. attorney general to dispatch federal examiners to assist with African American voter registration and abolished literacy tests in certain states. It had an immediate effect, with around 250,000 new African American voters registered by the end of 1965. The Act was subsequently strengthened in 1970, 1975, and 1982, and was extended for 25 years in 2006 by President George W. Bush.

However, in 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated a crucial provision of the Act in the Shelby County v. Holder case. The Court determined that states with a history of voter bias no longer required federal pre-approval to amend their election laws, affecting mainly Southern states. Chief Justice John Roberts cited improvements in voting conditions in these states as the reason for the Court's decision. President Barack Obama criticized the ruling, calling for new legislation to safeguard equal access to the polls for all voters.


Mnemonics

3/10/2023

 
Mnemonics (the first m is silent) are tricks or strategies to help you remember information. A mnemonic can be a word, phrase, a rhyme, a song, or anything else you use to help you remember something. One mnemonic you know already is the alphabet song. This help kids remember the letters of the alphabet. Below are some other examples:

HOMES

Knowing the mnemonic H.O.M.E.S. can help you remember the names of the Great Lakes: Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Eerie, and Superior. This mnemonic uses the first letter of each lake to create another common word.

spring forward, fall back

Picture
This mnemonic helps us to remember to move our clocks forward in the spring for daylight savings time and backward in the fall. It uses the double meanings of spring and fall—it makes sense that a coiled spring would move something forward, and when you fall, you tend to fall backwards.

knuckle mnemonic

Picture
This mnemonic uses your knuckles to remember which months have 30 days and which have 31 (or 28). The higher bumps of your knuckles let you know a higher number should match, while the dips between your knuckles are lower, helping you remember a lower number corresponds with the dips.

Dessert  vs  desert

A dessert is something sweet you typically have at the end of a meal. Desert (pronounced the same way) is to abandon someone or something.

When trying to decide which spelling to use, you can remember that you want seconds of dessert so you will need a second s, while "desert" has abandoned one of its s's.

Even though the geographical place that doesn't get much rain (desert) is pronounced differently, this mnemonic can help with its spelling, too!
Picture

tarring and feathering

1/11/2023

 
The practice of tarring and feathering as punishment began in the 1100s when Richard the Lionheart began using it to punish thieves. It consists of removing a person's clothing, pouring hot tar on them and then covered with feathers that would stick to the tar. As you can imagine, the hot tar caused severe blistering and was incredibly painful to remove. The feathers made this even more difficult.
Picture
This image is of a German farmer who was tarred and feathered in 1918 for not supporting WWI war bond drives. Image from the National Archives and Records Administration
Picture
This image is of a journalist tarred and feathered in 1862 for supporting the South in the Civil War. Public Domain image from Wikimedia Commons.

Why tar and feathers?

This form of intimidation and punishment was used extensively during the American Colonial Period, especially the 1760s when Patriots used it against Loyalists and British officials. Tar could easily be found in shipyards. Pine tar was applied between the boards in ships to make them water-proof. Most pillows of the time were stuffed with feathers, so they, also, were easy to obtain.

Tarring and Feathering was not usually fatal. The tar was painful and the feathers were intended to make the person appear comical. It was designed to embarrass and humiliate the victim. Sometimes, a person's clothing was left on when they were tarred and feathered as a lesser punishment or warning. Because the tar was heated to make it spreadable, it often caused blistering when applied to bare skin. When a victim tried to remove the tar, their blistered skin was also removed. This was, of course, incredibly painful, but the beatings and other tortures that frequently went along with tarring and feathering were often more life-threatening.

Did it work?

Tarring and feathering was successful. Tax collectors were often threatened. Though there are no records of a stamp commissioner being tarred and feathered, the threats were enough that when the Stamp Act tax went into effect in 1765, there were no stamp commissioners left in the colonies to collect it.

It was also successful in protesting the Townshend Duties which included the tea tax that led to the Boston Tea Party.

Other materials were used to exact the same punishment such as syrup instead of tar or cattails instead of feathers. John Robert Shaw described a tarring and feathering in his autobiography:
in this excursion, among other plunder, we took a store of molasses, the hogshead being rolled out and their heads knocked in, a soldier’s wife was stooping to fill her kettle, a soldier slipped behind her and threw her into the hogshead ; when she was hauled out, a bystander then threw a parcel of feathers on her, which adhering to the molasses made her appear frightful enough;–This little circumstance afforded us a good deal of amusement.
Picture
Public Domain image from Wikimedia Commons



“ A New Method of Macarony Making, as Practised at Boston in North America.” Wikimedia Commons, British Museum, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_New_Method_of_Macarony_Making,_as_practised_at_Boston_in_North_America_(BM_J,5.67).jpg. Accessed 11 Jan. 2023.

Bell, J. L. “5 Myths of Tarring and Feathering.” Journal of the American Revolution, 28 Aug. 2016, https://allthingsliberty.com/2013/12/5-myths-tarring-feathering/.

Brainard, Jennifer. “Tarring and Feathering .” History Wiz, 2008, http://www.historywiz.com/didyouknow/tarringandfeathering.htm.

https://web.archive.org/web/20190309190342/http://www.historywiz.com/didyouknow/tarringandfeathering.htmBurns, Janet. “A Brief, Sticky History of Tarring and Feathering.” Mental Floss, Mental Floss, 6 Aug. 2015, https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/66830/brief-sticky-history-tarring-and-feathering.

“John Meintz, Punished during World War I.” Wikimedia Commons, U.S. District Court for the Second (Mankato) Division of the District of Minnesota, 2016, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John_Meintz,_punished_during_World_War_I_-_NARA_-_283633_-_restored.jpg. Accessed 11 Jan. 2023.

Leslie, Frank. “1862 Kimball of Essex Democrat Haverhill from FrankLeslies.” Wikimedia Commons, Frank Leslie's Pictorial History of the American Civil War, 2012, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1862_Kimball_of_Essex_Democrat_Haverhill_from_FrankLeslies.jpeg. Accessed 11 Jan. 2023.

“Liberty! . The Stamp Act Riots & Tar and Feathering.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, https://www.pbs.org/ktca/liberty/popup_stampact.html.

Seaver, Carl. “The Strange History behind Tarring and Feathering.” History Defined -, 22 July 2022, https://www.historydefined.net/tarring-and-feathering/.

Elements of a story

11/15/2022

 
This is adapted from a page on the Boise State University website created by created by Stefanie Welty that is no longer published.
  • Plot: The chain of related events that explains what happens in a story
  • Conflict: A struggle between two opposing characters or forces
  • Character: A person, animal, or imaginary creature in a story, play, or another literary work
  • Setting: The time and place of a story
  • Theme: The general idea or message about life that is revealed through a work of literature

PLOT AND THE PLOT DIAGRAM

Picture
Plot is the series of events in a story that explain to the reader what is happening. One of the easiest ways to understand plot is to look at the mountain shaped plot diagram and think of story in terms of climbing a mountain.
Stage 1 - Exposition
  • Exposition is at the base of the mountain or the beginning of the story. This is where the author sets up the story including characters, setting, and main conflicts.

Stage 2 - Rising Action
  • The Rising Action occurs as you begin to move throughout the story. This is where conflicts start to build.

Stage 3 - Climax
  • The Climax is the turning point of the story. You have reached the top of the mountain and you cannot go any farther, you have to turn and go down. Though this appears in the center of the mountain diagram above, the climax of a story often happens closer to the end.

Stage 4 - Falling Action
  • Falling Action occurs after the climax as things start to work themselves out in the story. You are coming down the mountain just as you are coming down from the excitement or tension of the climax.

Stage 5 - Resolution
  • The Resolution is the solution to the problem as you have reached the bottom of the mountain. The solution might not be what you want, but the conflict has been resolved.

Conflict

Every story has a conflict - a struggle between two opposing forces. The conflict may be between two people or it may be between a person and some other force such as the weather, a problem, or even a problem a character has with themself. Since every story revolves around conflict,  it is important to understand the two kinds of conflict.
  • Internal Conflict is a struggle that occurs within the main character. This struggle happens within the character's own mind.
  • External Conflict is a struggle that the main character has with another character, with society, or with a natural force.

timeline of music players

11/10/2022

 
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture

how ernst mørch fooled the nazis and saved thousands of jews

7/19/2022

 
Ernst Morch, born in 1908,  was an important doctor in the field of anesthesiology (using gases or drugs to lessen pain, especially before surgery). He became interested in this when he was 5 years old and had his tonsils removed without any anesthesia, which was incredibly painful. He developed medical equipment, learned new techniques, and administered new drugs that helped advance medicine and make surgeries far less painful.

World War II activities

Picture
Ernst Mørch
During World War II, when the Nazis occupied Denmark, newspapers were censored (not allowed to print anything negative about the Nazis), so Dr. Mørch and some others started an underground newspaper in their hospital. Those who worked against the Nazis in Denmark were part of a movement known as the Danish Resistance. They even stole a typewriter, ink, paper, and a copy machine to write and copy their newspaper. Dr. Mørch then distributed the newspapers when he made house calls. Any one of these actions could have gotten them shot by the Nazis.


The Nazis didn't want news about what was really happening in the war to get out to the public, so Dr. Mørch and his colleagues set up a receiver on the roof of the hospital so they could listen to the BBC—the British Broadcasting Company that was a radio station reporting on the war. They then reported what they heard in their underground paper. They also snuck out information they learned about the Nazis to authorities in England.

Saving Danish jews

When the Danish Resistance learned that the Nazis were going to take the 8,000 Jewish people living in Denmark to the concentration camps, Dr. Mørch and other hospital workers hid many of them by admitting them to the hospitals under fake names. They also hid them in homes and churches until they could be evacuated.

The Jewish people were evacuated, a few at a time, in fishing boats. The boats took them five to fifteen miles across the Kattegat Sea (and elsewhere) to Sweden where they would be safe. The people were hidden under false bottoms in the boats. When the Gestapo (a police organization of the Nazis) began searching the boats with dogs, Dr. Mørch and a pharmacist friend developed a powder using rabbit blood and cocaine that was sprinkled on the decks of the boats. The rabbit blood attracted the dogs and the cocaine numbed their noses so they couldn't smell.
Picture
Denmark is colored in green and Sweden is colored in orange.

His second life-saving formula

After the war, Dr. Mørch rode on one of the buses sent by the Danish government to Buchenwald Concentration Camp in Germany to bring home the Danish citizens who were held there. The prisoners there had been starved for a long time, so when they were given food and milk, they quickly died because their bodies couldn't handle suddenly eating and drinking like normal. Dr. Mørch figured out that small shots of beer, given every 30 minutes along with injected vitamins over the slow ten-day drive back to Denmark, could save thousands. These buses ended up transporting more than just the Danish people and ended up saving 280,000 concentration camp victims.


Bessette, Claire. “Son of Danish WWII Hero Relays Events to Norwich Students.” The Day, 24 Feb. 2016, https://web.archive.org/web/20160225093140/www.theday.com/article/20160223/NWS01/160229657.

Rosenberg, Henry, and Jean K. Axelrod. “Ernst Trier Mørch: Inventor, Medical Pioneer, Heroic Freedom Fighter.” Anesthesia & Analgesia, International Anesthesia Research Society, https://journals.lww.com/anesthesia-analgesia/fulltext/2000/01000/ernst_trier_m_rch__inventor,_medical_pioneer,.43.aspx.
January 2000 - Volume 90 - Issue 1 - p 218-221






TAíNO

6/16/2022

 
Picture
Kmusser, Wikimedia Commons
The map above shows the Caribbean as it is today. Columbus spent the most time on an island called Haiti (though some think it was called Quizquella). He renamed it La Isla Española. When France took over the island it was called Santo Domingo (or Saint Domingue in French). Today the countries of Haiti and The Dominican Republic make up the island, now known as Hispaniola.

before columbus

The people who originally lived on the island we now know as Hispaniola were Taíno. As many as 750,000 Taíno were living on Hispaniola when Columbus first arrived. They lived on many of the islands in the Caribbean, but most historians agree that the largest population of Taíno were on Hispaniola. Other large populations were living on the islands of Cuba and Puerto Rico.
Picture
Michal Zalewski, Wikimedia Commons
A reconstruction of a Taíno village in Cuba.

Taíno women were highly skilled in agriculture (growing food), while the men hunted and fished. They were skilled artisans making beautiful pottery, intricate belts woven from dyed cotton, and they carved incredible images from stone, wood, shell, and bone. Some of the first Spanish who met and wrote about them said they had well-organized communities with each village having a chief known as a cacique if it was a man or a cacica if it was a woman. Villages were then grouped into districts headed by one of the village cacique or cacica. These districts were then grouped into a region headed by the most prominent district cacique or cacica. This organizational structure is similar to the political structure of the United States with mayors, governors, senators, etc.

It seems the Taíno were not used to battle or warfare because Columbus wrote, "They traded with us and gave us everything they had, with good will . . . they took great delight in pleasing us. They are very gentle and without knowledge of what is evil; nor do they murder or steal. Your highness may believe that in all the world there can be no better people . . . They love their neighbours as themselves, and they have the sweetest talk in the world, and are gentle and always laughing." He also wrote, "With 50 men you could subject everyone and make them do what you wished." He eventually did just that.


Many of the words you know are from the Taíno language
including hammock, hurricane, canoe, and tobacco.


depopulation

Columbus wrote of the Taíno people, “They will give all that they do possess for anything that is given to them, exchanging things even for bits of broken crockery. . . . They were very well built, with very handsome bodies and very good faces. . . . They do not carry arms [weapons] or know them. . . . They should be good servants.” He and his men enslaved Taíno men, women, and children and forced them to search for gold, build their settlements, and do any other task they wished. Failure to find gold or work as they expected was met with cruel and vicious punishment, and sometimes death.

After finding very little gold on his second journey in 1493, and needing a cargo other than gold and spices to ship to Spain, Columbus decided to send the Taíno people he had enslaved as a show of the wealth available in the New World. He loaded the "best men and women" onto ships and sent them off to Europe. This was just the beginning of the widespread enslavement of the Native Peoples.

Within thirty years, 80-90% of the Taíno population had died from disease, starvation, or brutal treatment.




 


Baracutei Estevez, Jorge. "On Indigenous Peoples' Day, Meet the Survivors of a 'paper Genocide'." History. National Geographic, 04 May 2021. Web. 7 July 2022.
"Hispaniola." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 04 May 2022. Web. 16 June 2022.

Kmusser. "Caribbean General Map." Wikimedia Commons. Wikipedia Foundations, 9 Apr. 2011. Web. 17 June 2022.

"Native Peoples-the "Indians"." Journey of Christopher Columbus. Glencoe/McGraw-Hill Publishing. Web. 16 June 2022.

Poole, Robert M. "What Became of the Taíno?" Smithsonian.com. Smithsonian Institution, 01 Oct. 2011. Web. 16 June 2022.

"Spanish Settlers Enslave the Taíno of Hispaniola - Timeline - Native Voices." U.S. National Library of Medicine. National Institutes of Health. Web. 17 June 2022.


getting to the gold rush

2/22/2022

 
Information in this post was adapted from the Sacramento Bee gold rush website that is no longer published.
As news of James Marshall's 1848 discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill spread, people from around the world began making the trek to California to seek fortune. In 1849, the steady stream of people from within the United States had established three main routes to California. 

The  overland  route

Picture
Map adapted from Tentotwo, Wikimedia Commons
TRAVEL TIME:  about 4 months
DISTANCE:  approximately 2,000 miles
COST:  $600-$700 for a family of four

Travel often began by steamboat up the Ohio or Mississippi River to reach the trailheads. The most common "jumping off" point was Independence, Missouri. The Oregon trail had been traveled by fur trappers for decades.

  1. Chimney Rock - A 500 ft. tall column marked 550 miles from Independence, Missouri.
  2. The Platte River - The river was sometimes difficult to cross. In 1849, rains made this especially difficult.
  3. Fort Laramie - In the first six months of 1849, more than 39,000 people were recorded passing through Fort Laramie. It is likely that several thousand more passed through unrecorded.
  4. Independence Rock - A rock with hundreds of pioneer names carved upon it.
  5. South Pass - Overland travelers had to cross the continental divide. The South Pass was the easiest place to pass through the Rocky Mountains. At the continental divide, rivers on the east side of the mountains eventually flowed to the Atlantic Ocean, while rivers on the west side eventually flowed to the Pacific. This marked the beginning of the most difficult portions of the trail.
  6. The Humboldt Basin - This 40-mile stretch of desert had no food or water. It was extremely hot and the sand was deep enough to trap oxen. It was littered with heavy items from wagons as travelers, seeking to lighten their load, dumped things they no longer felt was necessary in order to survive the ordeal of crossing.

Forts along the way could provide food, tools, and other supplies. If, however, the wagon train before you had cleaned out the fort's supplies, you were out of luck.

Landmarks such as Chimney Rock and Independence Rock were almost mythical places that weary travelers looked forward to sighting. This meant they were on the right path.
Picture

Dangers

Sickness
The biggest killer along the trail was disease. According to the National Parks Service, of the 350,000 people who traveled by land, they estimate 30,000 people died of disease over the 20-25 years the Emigrant Trail was active. The most common was cholera—a bacteria that caused severe diarrhea and dehydration killing many. Some got it and died before even leaving Independence. Dysentery, from dirty drinking water, also killed many.

Guns
A common fear was attack from the Native People, though this almost never happened. This fear, however, meant the overland travelers were well armed. Inexperience with guns and cheaply made weapons were a problem, and gunshot wounds were common. Hunting along the route was necessary (and often done just for fun, too) so hunting accidents occurred and diaries of the journey often mention someone shooting themselves while mishandling their own gun.

River crossings
At that time, most people didn't know how to swim. Many died from drowning at river crossings as they tried to get animals and wagons across. If it had recently rained, rivers would be larger and more dangerous, so wagon trains sometimes waited for several days for the river's flow to lessen.

Accidents
Gunshot and drowning weren't the only accidents that happened. Walking 10-15 miles per day, every day, for months, meant people and animals were exhausted, which made them careless. Examples of other accidents that happened include being kicked or dragged by oxen or horses or crushed by wagon wheels.

Weather
The weather on the plains could be severe. Tornadoes, prairie fires, lightning, and hailstones big enough to kill a man were recorded. Crossing the desert meant incredible heat and dehydration. The mountain crossings meant even more problems as snow often occurred, even in summer months.

Supplying your wagon train

Most overland travelers joined a wagon train, banding together for safety and to share resources. They often made sure to have people from many different occupations and abilities along so they would have experienced people to do things like hunt, repair broken wagon wheels, or set a broken bone.
Picture
©This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1927.
Picture
Supplies might include: Cooking stove made of sheet metal, cows, bacon, ham, rice, dried fruit, molasses, packed butter, bread, coffee and tea, tools for mining, farming and repairing wagons, vegetable and flower seeds, medicines, quilts, musical instruments, guns, ammunition, awls, needles strengthened for mending clothes and tents, bedding, including buffalo robes, waterproof india rubber blankets to keep things dry, lock chains to hold wagons back on steep hills.

Plates, silverware, pots and pans were kept in a special box on the back of the wagon.

Space in the wagon was limited, so hooks and ropes tied to the wooden frame of the canvas covering the wagon or the outside of the wagon itself held milk cans, guns, etc. The sloshing milk in the can even churned butter as the wagon rumbled along the trail!

Some brought chickens. Eggs were stored in flour barrels, where they were safe from breaking as long as they didn't touch.

A bucket of grease was hung between the wheels. It was used to lubricate the wheels and axles of the wagon.
Most people walked because, not only was there little space in the wagons, but the ride was incredibly bumpy and uncomfortable. Typically, only the very sick, small children, or pregnant women rode in the wagon.

On the prairie, wood was scarce. Pioneers discovered that buffalo chips (the dried poop from the thousands of wild bison)  created a hot, smokeless and odorless fire.

Picture
A woman with a wheelbarrow of bison chips.

Two routes by sea

Picture

#1 Around  the  horn

Traveling by ship by going "around the horn" meant sailing all the way down the eastern shore of South America, and around the southern tip of the continent, known as Cape Horn. Costs and travel time varied greatly depending on circumstances. Nicer rooms that weren't as far below deck sold for more than hammocks strung between beams amongst dozens of other (usually) men. As demand for the sea route increased, so did prices. Travel time varied depending on the weather. Storms could mean an additional month at sea. Sometimes, when wind and currents were not favorable, ships would have to travel as far a Hawaii (then known as the Sandwich Islands) before being able to travel northward to San Francisco. This could add months to the trip.

Most of the ships along this route were not designed as passenger ships. They were cargo ships that were quickly converted to carry passengers as more and more people began trying to get California.
TRAVEL TIME: about 5  months
DISTANCE:  18,000 miles
COST:  from $600 to more than $1,200 per person

dangers

Sickness
Cholera was a problem on this route, too. Some died, but not nearly as many as on the overland route. Scurvy—a disease caused by lack of vitamin C—made some very sick and killed a few. Sea sickness was a big problem, but almost no one died from just being seasick.
Hunger
Ship captains were trying to make as much money as possible, so the food provided was known to be awful. Around the equator, when temperatures increased, what food they had spoiled quickly. The bread often contained worms, and fresh water was difficult to find. Barrels of fresh water brought on board quickly became foul tasting.

Shipwreck
Rounding the cape was especially dangerous because of incredibly high waves, freezing water, and treacherous winds. Even very experienced captains could have difficulty rounding the cape. The image at right shows a ship rounding the cape.

Picture
©This media file is in the public domain in the United States. This applies to U.S. works where the copyright has expired, often because its first publication occurred prior to January 1, 1927, and if not then due to lack of notice or renewal.
Weather
Being out at sea meant there was no shelter from storms. Lack of wind was also a problem, which could leave a ship stranded for days or weeks. As food and water supplies were used up, this could quickly become a dangerous problem.

supplying  the  ship

Keeping the ship stocked with supplies was difficult. Supplies might include: Salt pork, salt beef, ham, hard bread, salt, 40 pounds of butter and cheese, tea, sugar and spices. One advantage of this route was that the ship could stop at ports along the way to resupply.

  • Almost all ships at the time had rats that would get into and eat the food.
  • Hot temperatures caused food to go bad and candles to melt.
  • Butter and lard went rancid.
  • Bread and flour had weevils.
  • Wine turned to vinegar.
Picture
Public Domain Dedication from the NPS

#2 crossing the isthmus

To shorten the trip by ship, people began getting off the ship on the eastern coast of Panama, traveling by canoe or boat up the Chagres River as far as possible and then walking or riding mules to the Pacific side and catching a different ship to San Francisco. An isthmus is a narrow strip of land, between two bodies of water, that connects two larger land masses, so this was known as "crossing the isthmus."
Picture
TRAVEL TIME: at first, this route would take as little as 3 months, but by 1850 when ships were added along the Pacific coast, the trip was only 6 - 8 weeks
DISTANCE:  10,000 miles
COST:  the cost varied greatly—it was about $400 to get from New York City to the east coast of Panama and then across the isthmus to Panama City on the west coast. They sometimes had to wait weeks before a ship arrived with room to take them from Panama to San Francisco. Not only did they have to pay for this, which was sometimes very expensive, but they often had to wait weeks or even months for a ship came along with room to take them. While waiting, they had the additional expense of having to have a place to stay in Panama City.

Picture
This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or fewer.
This is an 1850 illustration by Charles Christian Nahl of a boat taking travelers up the Chagres River in Panama.

dangers

Sickness
Like the other routes, disease was a major problem. Cholera and dysentery killed some, but crossing the isthmus also meant many got yellow fever or malaria from mosquito bites. Thousands died along this route of disease.
Afong, Lai. “Guangzhou, Chinese Boats by Lai Afong, Cа 1880.” Wikimedia Commons, 2015, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Guangzhou,_Chinese_Boats_by_Lai_Afong,_c%D0%B0_1880.jpg. Accessed 23 Feb. 2022.

“The American Experience | Wayback: Gold Rush | Journey of the Forty-Niners: Around Cape Horn.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, http://www.shoppbs.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/kids/goldrush/journey_capehorn.html.

“Antiope.” Https://Npgallery.nps.gov/ , National Parks Gallery , 1893, https://picryl.com/amp/media/antiope-built-1866-bark-3m-commencement-bay-wa-circa-1893-1905-010fcb. Accessed 23 Feb. 2022.
Bayer, Alicia. Around the Horn, 2010, http://magicalchildhood.com/games/aroundthehorn.htm.

Bonfield, Lynn A. “When Money Was Necessary to Make Dreams Come True: The Cost of the Trip from Vermont to California via Panama.” Vermont Historical Society, 2008. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjQrLrhvpb2AhV7IUQIHRloBQUQFnoECBgQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fvermonthistory.org%2Fjournal%2F76%2FVHS760202_130-148.pdf&usg=AOvVaw37S6RL8D-vF-xQW93EGoLH

“Cholera: A Trail Epidemic (U.S. National Park Service).” National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/cholera-a-trail-epidemic.htm.

“Death and Danger on the Emigrant Trails (U.S. National Park Service).” National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/death-on-trails.htm.

Famartin. “Humboldt Basin.” Wikimedia Commons, 18 May 2015, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2015-04-18_15_36_28_Panorama_of_the_Humboldt_Sink_from_the_West_Humboldt_Range_in_Churchill_County,_Nevada.jpg. Accessed 22 Feb. 2022.

Ford, Dixon, and Lee Kreutzer. “Overland Journal.” 2015.
“Gold Rush.” Internet Archive, The Sacramento Bee, https://web.archive.org/web/20210114193358/http://www.calgoldrush.com/.

Kemble, John Haskell. “The Gold Rush by Panama, 1848-1851.” Pacific Historical Review, vol. 18, no. 1, 1949, pp. 45–56., https://doi.org/10.2307/3634427. Accessed 23 Feb. 2022.

Nahl, Charles Christian. “Der Isthmus Von Panama Auf Der Höhe Des Chagres River.” Wikimedia Commons, 2008, Berkeley, California, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nahl_1850,_Der_Isthmus_von_Panama_auf_der_H%C3%B6he_des_Chagres_River.jpg. Accessed 23 Feb. 2022.

Rydell, Raymond A. “The Cape Horn Route to California, 1849.” Pacific Historical Review, vol. 17, no. 2, 1948, pp. 149–163. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/3635514. Accessed 23 Feb. 2022.

Tentotwo. “Fort Hall Location.” Wikimedia Commons, 18 Oct. 2015, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fort_Hall_Location_Map.png. Accessed 22 Feb. 2022.

Unknown author. “Unidentified Tall Ship near Cape Horn.” Wikimedia Commons, National Library of Australia, 2011, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Unidentified_tall_ship_near_Cape_Horn_-_Nla.pic-vn3299637-v.jpg. Accessed 23 Feb. 2022.

Unknown author. “Wagon Train.” Wikimedia Commons, 19 Aug. 2007, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wagon_train.jpg. Accessed 23 Feb. 2022.


The changing U.s. - México Border

4/29/2021

 
Mexican Americans are often asked, "Where do you come from?" This is especially true if they speak Spanish. But what many white Americans don't understand is that in many cases, they didn't "come" from México, instead, because of war and politics, the area in which they live, in which their parents and grandparents lived for centuries, suddenly became a part of the United States when politicians drew a line on a map.
Picture
Made by User:Golbez., CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
Picture
User:Golbez, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

In the animation above you can see how the states within México, the U.S. - México border, and the border with the Republic of Texas changed throughout the years. Because of these border changes, Mexican Americans say, "We didn't cross the border, the border crossed us."
  • In 1821, México gained independence from Spain.
  • In 1836, the Republic of Texas declared independence from México.
  • The United States annexed Texas in 1845.
  • From 1846 to 1848 the Mexican-American War is fought.
  • In 1848, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is signed and land in what is now California, and parts of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, and Texas becomes part of the United States of America.
  • In 1854, the United States of America buys additional land from México (shown in yellow below) in the Gasden Purchase.

Through war and sale, tens of thousands of Mexican citizens suddenly became United States citizens.
Picture
Matthew Trump,, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons


Something else to consider? Canada, México, and 31 other countries are on the American continents—North and South America. We, in the United States, sometimes irritate or insult people in these other countries by calling ourselves "American"  because they, too, are American.

In French speaking Quebec in Canada, United States citizens are called Etats-Uniens. In many Latin American countries, United States citizens are called estadounidense. Both of these mean United States-ian.



“Becoming Part of the United States  :  Mexican  :  Immigration and Relocation in U.S. History  :  Classroom Materials at the Library of Congress  :  Library of Congress.” The Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/immigration/mexican/becoming-part-of-the-united-states/.

Golbez. “Mexico States Evolution.” Wikimedia Commons, Aug. 2013. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mexico_states_evolution.gif

Martinez-Carter, Karina. “What Does 'American' Actually Mean?” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 20 June 2013, www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/06/what-does-american-actually-mean/276999/.

<<Previous

    Author 

    I often struggle to find websites with thorough explanations in simple language to help kids understand historical events or scientific concepts, so I decided to create some of my own!

    -Cookie Davis

    Archives

    April 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    September 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    October 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    June 2017
    May 2017
    March 2017
    August 2016
    January 2016
    July 2015
    May 2015

    RSS Feed