Jerks in History

[L Verge]

(11-27-2013 09:04 PM)Craig Hipkins Wrote:  I do agree with Joe and Laurie on a few of the points. Like Joe said it is a matter of perspective. It is also hard to sit here in the early 21st century and judge how people lived nearly two centuries in the past. Because we are all human we all have opinions and dogma that we have formed mainly through our experiences in life. We all try to be objective, but often times we are subjective. We cannot help it because it is in our nature. I believe that history can teach us a lot about ourselves.

I was raised in Senator Sumner's home state of Massachusetts. I can recall having it ingrained in my head by an influential history teacher in grade school that the caning was a brutal and savage attack on a man's dignity. At the same time I can remember that the John Brown raid was merely glossed over. There was no praise for what Brown did, but at the same time he wasn't castigated as a villain. I am sure that if I had gone to school in the south these sentiments would have been much different. I am curious to hear what others remember being taught about these two historic episodes.

Craig

I went to school in the northern part of the South, but in what had been a slave state and a state that still depended on an agricultural economy with tenant farmers and sharecroppers - most of them black Americans. I never heard of Preston Brooks and the caning of Charles Sumner until I went to college, and it was taught as an example of how the issue of slavery inflamed and tore asunder our country.

John Brown's massacres in Kansas and his failed raid on Harpers Ferry were mentioned briefly in high school, but in much the same way as the Sumner attack. It happened because the U.S. could not settle the issue of slavery without going to war.

To me, that was the purpose of learning about Brooks, Sumner, and Brown. Their actions were indicative of what was threatening to destroy the Union -- all were doing what they thought acceptable and necessary to get their ideas across in the day and age in which they lived. Very frankly, there are some current situations within our country that leave me with the same bitter and frustrated thoughts today.