Author: James Yates
Publisher: Open Hand Publishing, LLC
ISBN: 9780940880207
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 196
Get Book Here
Book Description
From his birth to a sharecropper family in the cotton fields of Mississippi to the unrest in Chicago and New York during the Depression, James Yates' experience with labor protest and union organizing shaped his vision of freedom and led to his decision to fight against fascism in the Spanish Civil War.
Author: Jay Feldman
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1416583106
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 330
Get Book Here
Book Description
From Jay Feldmen comes an enlightening work about how the most powerful earthquakes in the history of America united the Indians in one last desperate rebellion, reversed the Mississippi River, revealed a seamy murder in the Jefferson family, and altered the course of the War of 1812. On December 15, 1811, two of Thomas Jefferson's nephews murdered a slave in cold blood and put his body parts into a roaring fire. The evidence would have been destroyed but for a rare act of God—or, as some believed, of the Indian chief Tecumseh. That same day, the Mississippi River's first steamboat, piloted by Nicholas Roosevelt, powered itself toward New Orleans on its maiden voyage. The sky grew hazy and red, and jolts of electricity flashed in the air. A prophecy by Tecumseh was about to be fulfilled. He had warned reluctant warrior-tribes that he would stamp his feet and bring down their houses. Sure enough, between December 16, 1811, and late April 1812, a catastrophic series of earthquakes shook the Mississippi River Valley. Of the more than 2,000 tremors that rumbled across the land during this time, three would have measured nearly or greater than 8.0 on the not-yet-devised Richter Scale. Centered in what is now the bootheel region of Missouri, the New Madrid earthquakes were felt as far away as Canada; New York; New Orleans; Washington, DC; and the western part of the Missouri River. A million and a half square miles were affected as the earth's surface remained in a state of constant motion for nearly four months. Towns were destroyed, an eighteen-mile-long by five-mile-wide lake was created, and even the Mississippi River temporarily ran backwards. The quakes uncovered Jefferson's nephews' cruelty and changed the course of the War of 1812 as well as the future of the new republic. In When the Mississippi Ran Backwards, Jay Feldman expertly weaves together the story of the slave murder, the steamboat, Tecumseh, and the war, and brings a forgotten period back to vivid life. Tecumseh's widely believed prophecy, seemingly fulfilled, hastened an unprecedented alliance among southern and northern tribes, who joined the British in a disastrous fight against the U.S. government. By the end of the war, the continental United States was secure against Britain, France, and Spain; the Indians had lost many lives and much land; and Jefferson's nephews were exposed as murderers. The steamboat, which survived the earthquake, was sunk. When the Mississippi Ran Backwards sheds light on this now-obscure yet pivotal period between the Revolutionary and Civil wars, uncovering the era's dramatic geophysical, political, and military upheavals. Feldman paints a vivid picture of how these powerful earthquakes made an impact on every aspect of frontier life—and why similar catastrophic quakes are guaranteed to recur. When the Mississippi Ran Backwards is popular history at its best.
Author: Mary Sue Shy Anton
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 332
Get Book Here
Book Description
New Madrid: A Mississippi River Town in History and Legend focuses on the hearts and minds of a restless population as it moved west into the Mississippi River Valley in the 1800s. The river-port town of New Madrid, Missouri, strategically located just below the junction of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, and destined to be the capital of "New Spain," was en route for thousands of early Americans. New Madrid's pioneers reveal their past and their stories through letters, newspapers, official records, and other sources. The author takes the reader through the town's history, recounting tales of legendary people whose lives crossed with those of area residents. Lively illustrations, photographs, and maps enhance the stories, a treasure for anyone whose ancestors experienced the westward movement, participated in the Civil War, were slave-owners, slaves, or American Indians, or for those who are curious about American life in earlier times.
Author: Conevery Bolton Valencius
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022605392X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 471
Get Book Here
Book Description
From December 1811 to February 1812, massive earthquakes shook the middle Mississippi Valley, collapsing homes, snapping large trees midtrunk, and briefly but dramatically reversing the flow of the continent’s mightiest river. For decades, people puzzled over the causes of the quakes, but by the time the nation began to recover from the Civil War, the New Madrid earthquakes had been essentially forgotten. In The Lost History of the New Madrid Earthquakes, Conevery Bolton Valencius remembers this major environmental disaster, demonstrating how events that have been long forgotten, even denied and ridiculed as tall tales, were in fact enormously important at the time of their occurrence, and continue to affect us today. Valencius weaves together scientific and historical evidence to demonstrate the vast role the New Madrid earthquakes played in the United States in the early nineteenth century, shaping the settlement patterns of early western Cherokees and other Indians, heightening the credibility of Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa for their Indian League in the War of 1812, giving force to frontier religious revival, and spreading scientific inquiry. Moving into the present, Valencius explores the intertwined reasons—environmental, scientific, social, and economic—why something as consequential as major earthquakes can be lost from public knowledge, offering a cautionary tale in a world struggling to respond to global climate change amid widespread willful denial. Engagingly written and ambitiously researched—both in the scientific literature and the writings of the time—The Lost History of the New Madrid Earthquakes will be an important resource in environmental history, geology, and seismology, as well as history of science and medicine and early American and Native American history.
Author: Thomas E. Chávez
Publisher: UNM Press
ISBN: 0826327958
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 331
Get Book Here
Book Description
The role of Spain in the birth of the United States is a little known and little understood aspect of U.S. independence. Through actual fighting, provision of supplies, and money, Spain helped the young British colonies succeed in becoming an independent nation. Soldiers were recruited from all over the Spanish empire, from Spain itself and from throughout Spanish America. Many died fighting British soldiers and their allies in Central America, the Caribbean, along the Mississippi River from New Orleans to St. Louis and as far north as Michigan, along the Gulf Coast to Mobile and Pensacola, as well as in Europe. Based on primary research in the archives of Spain, this book is about United States history at its very inception, placing the war in its broadest international context. In short, the information in this book should provide a clearer understanding of the independence of the United States, correct a longstanding omission in its history, and enrich its patrimony. It will appeal to anyone interested in the history of the Revolutionary War and in Spain's role in the development of the Americas.
Author: Gary D. Joiner
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 9780742550988
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 220
Get Book Here
Book Description
The Union inland navy that became the Mississippi Squadron is one of the greatest, yet least studied aspects of the Civil War. Without it, however, the war in the West may not have been won, and the war in the East might have lasted much longer and perhaps ended differently. The men who formed and commanded this large fighting force have, with few exceptions, not been as thoroughly studied as their army counterparts. The vessels they created were highly specialized craft which operated in the narrow confines of the Western rivers in places that could not otherwise receive fire support. Ironclads and gunboats protected army forces and convoyed much needed supplies to far-flung Federal forces. They patrolled thousands of miles of rivers and fought battles that were every bit as harrowing as land engagements yet inside iron monsters that created stifling heat with little ventilation. This book is about the intrepid men who fought under these conditions and the highly improvised boats in which they fought. The tactics their commanders developed were the basis for many later naval operations. Of equal importance were lessons learned about what not to do. The flag officers and admirals of the Mississippi Squadron wrote the rules for modern riverine warfare.
Author: Regina Charboneau
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1493009249
Category : Cooking
Languages : en
Pages : 341
Get Book Here
Book Description
Discover the diverse food and culinary traditions from the ten states that border America’s most important river--and the heart of American cuisine--with 200 contemporary recipes for 30 meals and celebrations, and more than 150 stunning photographs. Starting at the river’s source in Minnesota, renowned chef/restaurateur Regina Charboneau introduces readers to a Native American wild rice harvest dinner, a Scandinavian summer’s end crayfish party, and a Hmong Southeast Asian New Year’s Eve buffet. Next the book moves to the river’s middle region, from Hannibal to New Madrid, featuring a dinner to honor the man most associated with the Mississippi--Mark Twain. Recipes are supplied for imaginative menus for such occasions as a St. Louis Italian spread featuring the city’s famous toasted ravioli, a farmer’s market lunch, and an Arkansas farm supper influenced by the vast farmlands on both sides of the Mississippi. The lower region, from Beale Street to the Bayous of the Gulf of Mexico, gives an insight into the author’s river roots in Natchez. Included are biscuits, shrimp, smoked tomatoes over creamy grits, a New Orleans-style Reveillon dinner, and a blessing of the fleet dinner inspired by the Vietnamese fisherman who shrimp at the mouth of the river. Scattered throughout are intriguing sidebars on such topics as how the paddlewheel steamboat came to ply the waters of the Mississippi, the traditional canoe method of harvesting Minnesota wild rice, and the 3,000 mile River Road lining the waterway. Throughout are stunning photographs of local scenery, dishes, and ingredients taken by renowned photographer Ben Fink on the magnificent American Queen riverboat and at farms, historic homes, and towns along the length of the river.
Author: Larry J. Daniel
Publisher: University of Alabama Press
ISBN: 0817308164
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 216
Get Book Here
Book Description
"This book is useful to historians of the Civil War who wish to draw on it for an authoritative account of this campaign, and Civil War buffs will want it in their libraries". -- James M. McPherson Princeton University
Author: Pedro Almodóvar
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781578065684
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 212
Get Book Here
Book Description
A collection of interviews that documents the 22-year long cinematic career of the most internationally celebrated Spanish art-film director since Luís Buñuel
Author: James Yates
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780917886126
Category : African Americans
Languages : en
Pages : 221
Get Book Here
Book Description
