History Camp Boston 2019

2019-04-15

I attended History Camp Boston on March 16th. This was my first History Camp, and I enjoyed myself quite a bit.

History Camp is a small conference that brings together people who have a passion for history, regardless of their background or academic achievements. Anyone can present; there are no stringent requirements for giving a presentation. There is no specific theme. It’s intended to be cost-efficient and unobtrusive.

I was impressed on two fronts: the content of the sessions I attended and the passion of all the participants.

Each of the six sessions I attended examined a small time period, but in captivating depth. The speakers were able to speak at length about their chosen topics during their prepared presentation and entertained questions from the audience with answers that truly revealed just how passionate and knowledgable they were about the subjects. Some of the sessions I attended covered topics that to a layperson looked like the minutiae of history. However, the presenters were mostly able to convincingly convey why the topic was so interesting and important. I was impressed with their pursuit of the topic, even though it may not have the flashiness or reach of more well-known historical topics.

I was delighted that gatekeeping was entirely avoided in all of the sessions and with all the participants I talked to. All were excited to be in attendance, sharing their genuine interest for history with the strangers around them. All interactions began with a smile and authentic pleasantries. All presentations began with an expectation of no prior knowledge. I really appreciated that the conference had such a welcoming tone and was so approachable for an amateur like me.

The passion of those in the crowd was obvious as well. Part of the History Camp tradition is for each audience member to introduce themselves and offer up a little information about their background or why they were attending. A majority of those in attendance were part of a historical preservation society, some as a paid employee but most in a volunteer role. There were a few local high school and university students. A small number like myself weren’t tied to an organization but here simply because we were amateur history observers.

I’ve attached the notes I took below.

Notes from History Camp Boston 2019

Sessions attended

Tales from Boston’s Pre-Revolutionary Newspaper Wars
“Suspense” and Sexism in Popular Radio Dramas After WWII
Salem’s Gallows Hill Project
More Than Names on a Wall: Bringing One Town’s Civil War Memorial to Life
When America Despised the Irish: The 19th Century’s Refugee Crisis
Searching For Black Confederates
One if by Landfill: Exploring Boston’s History through Maps

Tales from Boston’s Pre-Revolutionary Newspaper Wars

J.L. Bell www.boston1775.net

Boston has the oldest newspaper culture
First Newspaper: Public Occurrences
1690
4 pages long
Shut down after first printing
After 1754, all of Boston’s newspapers were independent companies, not by government officials
British Empire at some sense of Free Press being good
Printers did not need prior approval before printing things by this time
Still careful not to print “seditious libel”
Massachusetts Gazette
Boston Postboy (Mondays) and the Boston Weekly News-Letter (Thursdays)
Both got the contract for the Massachusetts province. However, separate editions and companies
Close to the provincial government
Boston Gazette was close to the town government, and always pushing back against the provincial government (Mondays)
Close to John Adams, Samuel Adams, they were writing essays out in the shop
Boston Evening-Post (Mondays)
tried to stay in the middle
Mostly just reprinting what people had already printed, some commentary afterward
Due to the fact that printers printed once a week, printers could not really be in the business of sharing “breaking” news
Stamp Act in 1775, newspapers became more heated
Made the paper it was printed in more expensive
Boston Evening-Post published a long letter that pushed for a boycott of British goods to pressure removal of the Stamp Act
Back and forth commentary about the boycott led to many back-and-forths via submissions to the newspaper under aliases, bringing in ad hominem and personal attacks about illegitimate children, personal favors, etc.
- One side thought to be written by Samuel Waterhouse
“Look like discussions on internet forms”
- Except, you have a week to think of your response
1766 Parliament repealed the Stamp Act
Even the Post-Boy, a supporter of the government, ran an anti-Stamp
Boston Chronicle 1767 (twice a week)
Founded by John Mein from Scotland. Partner was John Fleming
Locals took suspicion due to them being foreigners
1767
Attacked a friend of the Whigs (Pitt?)
Attacked Hancock as “Johnny Dupe, Esq.”
John Mein and other printer scuffle involving pistols and a shovel caused a mob to attack a custom sailor later that night, which was the first tar and feathering
Mein became public enemy #1
1770 - Boston Chronicle goes out of business after John Mein did not pay back a British book printer, who the gave power of attorney to John Hancock to sue John Mein
The Massachusetts Spy 1770 (Tuesday, Thursdays, Saturdays)
Isiah Thomas
Only two pages
Wanted to not only attract merchants as customers, but factory owners and “mechanics”
Failed…, but restarted as a weekly published on Thursday
Set in the top floor of where the Union Oyster House is

Attempts by the royal authorities to prosecute sedition

Dr. Joesph Warren (anonymously?) published a letter about royal governor Berner(?) in the Boston-Gazette
Berner wanted to prosecute the printer and the writer of the letter
Could not get any branch of the government to support shutting down the newspaper
In 1774, British troops come back to Boston
Eves (Boston Gazette), Gill, and Thomas were mentioned to the British troops as “seditious printers”
Thomas 1775, leaves Boston to Worcester
Eves leaves for Watertown prior to the revolution
During revolution
Boston Evening-Post shut down - wanted to be in political middle, but now there was no political middle
Boston Post-Boy didn’t have enough paper or business
Boston News-Letter was the only remaining newspaper. Was loyalist, so left during the war

Questions:

How do you know how many people are reading newspapers at this time?
Only self-reported by printers. But printers would not be completely accurate with their numbers
Send copies to printers outside of boston. Put them in taverns.
New England probably had the highest literacy rate of the British Empire

Suspense! …and the sad rise of sexism in a popular American radio drama

Lori Rogers-Stokes

New England’s Hidden History
Listened to old radio shows while doing transcription

Suspense as a program

Before WWII, 25% of women in the U.S. worked outside the home (14m)
During WWII, grew to 36%
Salaries for women dropped 26% as men returned from the war
Polls in 1945 shows that 75% of employed women wanted to keep working
July 22nd, 1940 - first episode

The theory

Early 1946, a concerted effort is made by the government for women to leave work so that men could return to work
Big policies have to be played out in every day life, including with radio shows

Them Man in Black - 1942-45

Very neutral - the audience he speaks to is not defined
Most wartime messages were directed toward women, persuade young women to join nurse programs or other wartime efforts

Elsa Maxwell: home makes us Americas - November 21, 1944

After D-Day, bug push about the homefront
Any family can enjoy Roma
“It can be served with any kid of food”, “No special glasses”, “when friends come to dinner, or everyday meals”

We’re all in this together at home

Episode advertisements were all about underlining the fact that domestic life was the reward for winning the war
Roma was the big advertiser at this time

From Roma to Autolite spark plugs
Extreme changes in the message
“If we had to sit around at that hen party your mother’s giving…”
“We leave the house because she’s got the house full of women, and so far there aren’t anything but women in tonight’s AutoLite show”
“Anything but invite a woman’s bridge party in on Thursday night”

Content changes as well

While the advertisements, intros and outros change, the content is changing as well
“Men who dwell in this land of mixed emotions, loving deeply and fiercely and yet, at the same time, hating venomously and murderously…I wish she would die so I wouldn’t depend on her for the affection I’m always so hungry for”
Married men and women about killing their spouses
Suspense! is no longer for women
When it’s on, the house sounds “just like this service station”
Women are not portrayed as smart, savvy homemakers as they were with Roma as the sponsor
Episode #288 - “Celebration” - an insane women is “cured” when her husband shoots her in the head
Arlo Wilcox is a huge mansplainer
“Holiday story”: a husband buries his nagging wife in his basement
“The Bullet”
Husband went to jail (the service) and women took over the business
“I’m back in the business and you can go back to taking care of the house. Cooking…keeping things looking nice.”
“He’s going to kill me - he said so!”
“Kill you? Why he’s in love with you - crazy about you!”
To get her to stop working, he has an empty gun and keeps firing at her to scare her

Can we try to understand it?

Such a compressed time frame of the shift
Deliberateness of the shift
Openness of the shift: “The intensity of the men’s anger toward women in these programs cannot be overemphasized. And because it’s not visual, the violence could often be far more explicit”

Salem’s Gallows Hill Project: The search to locate and commemorate the true site of the 1692 Salem With Trial Executions

Marilynne K. Roach

The city of Salem dedicated a memorial in 1992 to the 20 innocent lives killed as “witches”.

1692 and 1693

Over 160 people were at least suspected of witchcraft
52 were tried
30 were found guilty
19 were hanged
Witchcraft was a felony

Finding the spot of the hangings

Detail from the death warrant of Bridget Bishop refers only to “the place provided for her execution” (July 10th, 1692). Usually capital offenses were tried in Boston, but due to the volume of cases the court moved to Salem

Two theories

Gallows Hill

Charles W. Upham
Ex-minister
Thought it was at the top of Gallows Hill
1867: “The suffers of 1692 in grateful remembrance”
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Opposite political side of Upham
However, did think it was at the top of Gallows Hill
Grafton and Hanson St.
“Witch’s Square”: “On this square the execution of people accused of Witchcraft took place”

Proctor’s Ledge

Neighborhood had a continuing tradition that it was the site

Other places:

Ledge Hill, Mack Park
Was private land in 1692
Doesn’t really work logistically
Jail yard
Was at the corner of Federal and St. Petes (?)
Wasn’t big enough for the crowds
Said they were “taken there by car”, but if they were held at the jail there’s no need to move them

1892: How does Salem deal with anniversary?

Some people wanted to ignore the history and focus on the good parts of Salem
Some people liked history and wanted to erect a monument
Essex Institute
Monument proposed as a 30-ft watchtower, but was never built

1911: The Witch Square was removed from maps of Salem

Dr. Henry Wheatland owned the land
Some controversy of whether or not the monument would be on the right place, and whether Proctor’s ledge was the site of the hangings
Essex Institute will sponsor a walking tour
Will start at Proctor’s ledge, with explanation of why speaker (Perley?) thought that was the site
W.S. Nevins
Antiquarian
Of the top-of-the-hill persuasion
Writes a letter to the editor about “Yellow Antiquarianism” of the walking tour

1997

Found another clue
Rebecca Eames
- questioned in Salem August 19th, 1692
- “She was ask if she was at the execution: she was at the house below the hill: she saw a few folk: the women of the house had a pin stuck into her foot: but she ‘d she did not doe it:”

What is known for certain

Executions took place on a hill
the approach was steep enough that the cart of prisoners stuck
the ground was rocky enough that the hasty, temporary graves were shallow
the executions were seen from the “house below the hill”

1936

“Witch Memorial Land” purchased by City of Salem 1936, to “be held forever as a public park”

In 2010, the Gallows Hill group got together

Making sure that the site was not forgotten again
Geo-archaeological investigation of Proctor’s Hill
remote sensing
Ground penetrating radar & soil resistivity
Almost no dirt on Proctor’s Ledge
No evidence of any human remains
No evidence of a Gallows
Lots of investigation into sight lines based on contemporary accounts

Proctor’s Ledge site has always been endangered, even though it was purchased to be park forever

Proposed I-95 connector (1966-1967)
Plan to build condos, needed an access route (1982-1983)

2016

Group worked behind the scenes to designate Proctor’s Ledge as the site
Proctor’s Ledge Memorial designed by Martha Lyon

More Than Names on a Wall: Bringing One Town’s Civil War Memorial to Life

Ken Liss - President of the Brookline Historical Society

There are always stories behind the names

Brookline’s Civil War memorial

People probably think of the soldiers monument outside of the library
Dedicated in 1915, 50 years after the end of the war
There’s actually another memorial that receives less attention
Has 72 names of soldiers and sailors that died in the war
Put together in 1883, placed in the Victorian town hall
They were forgotten about when the town hall was torn in the 1960
Recently found and put inside and dedicated the town hall in 2011

Wilder Dwight

Lawyer from a prominent family
Died on the battlefield of Antietum
Started a letter in the morning, but was badly wounded on the field. He took out the letter and finished the letter as he was bleeding
“All is well with those that have faith”

Howard Dwight

Killed in Louisiana
Surrendered, but was shot and killed
Brother of Wilder Dwight. Both buried in Forest Hills cemetery

Brookline

April 20th, 1861, Brookline gathers to figure out the “disturbed state of affairs” and try to send men and/or money
More than 200 signed up for the initial drill list

Julius Phelps

Battle of Glendale, VA
First killed in battle

Charles Chandler

One of the officers that helped organize the Brookline men
Killed near Hanover Courthouse

Otis N. Harrington

Was a photographer, worked for J.W. Black
Washington, D.C.
A regimental history was written by a man named John D. Billings: “The History of the Tenth Massachusetts Battery of Light Artillery”

Daniel W. Atkinson

Killed near Hatcher’s Run, VA
The battery went through the same area five months later and marked the spot of this death for later recovery. The body was never recovered

Samuel Lamson

Son of the Baptist Church minister
Steamer Ruth caught fire and burned
Could not swim
Was given a window shutter to cling to

James A. Dale

Died of wounds in Louisville, Kentucky
Born in Texas - his mother had moved to Massachusetts from Belfast
Mother’s brother moved to Texas to fight in the war
Mother moved to be with brother
Was from a slave owning family
In 1855 Massachusetts Census in Woburn, likely sent back to Massachusetts for education purpose
Brother died serving in the Confederate Army
Died at the battle of Resaca

Oliver Cromwell Bixby

1850 Census in Hopkinton, part of 8 siblings
Killed at Petersburg, VA
Mother had lost 5 sons in the war
Turns out, she only lost two sons
Abraham Lincoln wrote the “Bixby Letter” to the mother
This letter became very celebrated
Is read in Saving Private Ryan

Charles Webster

Missing in Action in Plymouth, NC
One of four brothers that died in the war
Came down from Kingston, NH to enlist with friends Moses M. Chase and Elbridge G. Collins
Likely followed the lead of Elihu French, also from Kingston, older man
- Had been in the army before
All went into the same company
Plymouth was captured (the last Confederate victory)

Thomas Dillon

Buried in the catholic cemetery in Brookline
Killed in Antietam
His father was the first irish family in Brookline

John Lee

Presumably African-American
Killed on a boat on the way to Texas to protect the border after the war

When America Despised the Irish: The 19th Century’s Refugee Crisis

Christopher Klein: Author of the book “When the Irish invaded Canada”

Dumping of stone

March 6th, 1854, heart of Washington D.C., Washington Monument being built. Group of men snuck in, proceeded to look for a block of marble that says “Rome to America”, and dumped the stone in the Potomac River.

This marble piece was donated by Pope Pious IX. Taken from a Roman ruin. Move was anti-Catholic. “Secret signal from the pope to start an uprising”. How do we get to this point?

George Washington

1780 Morristown NJ, George Washington gave a rare day off to this troops for St. Patricks day. Banned burning effigies of the pope on Guy Fawkes day.

Ireland

Under British rule for 700 year
Oliver Cromwell exterminates tens of thousands of Catholics
Battle of the Boyne, King James II vs. William of Orange
Ushers in Scottish and British protestant setters to Northern Ireland.
1695 Penal laws until 1829
Not allowed to vote, not allowed to hold public office
Could not pass land down, need to divide it across all sons
Except sons that converted to Protestant could be given all the land
Early 1800s, 4/5 of land owned by absentee Protestant landlords
Population rises from 4 million to 8 million
1845 Fredrick Douglas in Ireland: “I see much here to remind me of my former condition”

The Great Hunger

The potato can grow in the small, rocky plots and the damp climate that you can subsist upon
14 pounds a day per person
British government on 1846 don’t want to interfere with hands-off capitalism
British also think this is a good way to /deal with overpopulation/

Migration to US

Not regular passenger ships - just converted from slave ships, small boats
Average of 18 inches of bed space
“Coffin Ships”
A quarter of the passengers die in route to Canada and the US in 1847
Deer Island quarantine station

Boston

Founded by Puritans to escape the Catholic church
1700 law is passed to band priests coming into Massachusetts
Guy Fawkes day capped with burning of the effigy of the pope
Broad Street riot in 1837
Philadelphia Bible Riots
100,000 people during the start of the Great Hunger
Tens of thousands of Irish come to Boston

Irish in America

Most Irish were farmers, but as they settled in metropolitan areas, the life was unfamiliar and they were at the bottom of the economic ladder
Had not assimilated into the culture
Had survived 700 years of British rule by keeping their traditions and language

Mexican-American War

Some Irish-American’s fighting in the Mexican-American war defect due to
bigoted officers
more money on the Mexican side
shared religion with the Mexican side

Anti-Irish

Thomas Naste political drawings

Know-Nothings Party

Anti-Irish, Anti-Catholic
Wanted to
Limited public office to native-born Americans
21-year waiting period before anyone can become a citizen
1854 elections, more than 100 congressmen, 8 governors that are Know-Nothings
Massachusetts has an overwhelming slate of Know-Nothing election wins
Bloody Monday in Louisville
1856 has a presidential candidate, Millard Fillmore
Gains more than 20% of the vote

1861: Civil War

Some Irish gain acceptance by fighting in the Civil War
Draft riots in 1863
Irish feel that the are cannon fodder

1870, 1871: the Orange riots

Protestants celebrating the Battle of the Boyne
60 people killed in 1871

Irish invade Canada

US Irish Republic Army
Hope to use Canada to secure Ireland’s independence
John Boyle O’Reilly
19 crimes wine
Crazy life
Fiasco at the Canadian border starts to temper his hope of militarism for Irish improvement
Pushed for Irish assimilation into American culture

Searching for Black Confederates: The Civil War’s Most Persistent Myth

Kevin M. Levin http://cwmemory.com/

Book coming out soon

“The North won the war but the South won the narrative”

Sergeant Andrew Chandler (44th Mississippi Infantry) and Silas Chandler
A famous image depicting a white boy and African-American man dressed in Confederate uniforms “armed to the teeth”
Silas Chandler is enslaved
We don’t know when this image was taken
Author takes this as picture taken in a studio with props
Silas is a personal body servant, or a camp slave
Confederacy suffers from a lack of resources
Confederacy has to mobilize as many bodies as possible
Lee’s army of 75,000 men into southern Penn would likely have included 10,000 slaves
Slaves used for labor, not for fighting
Lieutenant J. Wallace Comer (57th Alabama) and Camp Slave, Burrell
More typical picture - master seated and armed, slave at the side
Enslaved men might find themselves on the battlefield. There are a few accounts of enslaved men picking up rifles and shooting at Yankee soldiers
Accounts often written by owners, where the actions of slaves are seen to reflect their undying loyalty to their masters. Never get the perspective or motivation from slaves
After Gettysburg, slaves are sent back at a higher rate as they’re escaping more often
In 1864, the Confederacy goes through a public debate about including black soldiers
Why have the debate at all if they were already serving in the army?
Eventually, they are allowed to actual enlist
About 45 do, but they are housed in a jail in Richmond and likely never see battle
Both nations start on the same trajectory - no black soldiers before 1863
After 1865, Southerns start to spin the narrative on why the war was fought
“The Lost Cause”
Not due to Slavey, but State’s Rights!
Narrative is that slaves were loyal and part of the family

Confederate Monument at Arlington

There is a black woman taking a baby from a soldier to care for it
There is a uniformed black man, often thought to mean he was a soldier. However, in the dedication of the monument, it’s clear that this represented a camp slave

H.K. Edgerton

African-American that adopts the black confederate soldier narrative
Former president of the NC chapter of the NAACP

“Our Virginia Past and Presenter” (2011)

Masoff writes that :thousands of Southerner blacks fought in Confederate ranks, including two battalions under the command of Stonewall Jackson”
Taught in Virginia 4th history textbooks

One if by landfill: Exploring Boston’s History Through Maps

Rachel Mead, Jill Swan on the Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center at the Boston Public Library

Leventhal Map & Education Center

200,000 maps and 5,000 atlases Adult & school group education programs

Lots of fill came from Needham - 6 days a week, 35 cars worth of material brought. Ran of material from Needham after 5 years, had to move south

1630 - “Plan of Boston before modifying the coastline”
1677 - first map of Boston printed in America
At times it was an island before colonial-era settlers
1689 - map shows Boston coastline starting to be modified
1708 - Plan showing wharves of Boston from Batterymarch Street to Fleet Street
Boston sold the rights to private owners and companies to spur development without public money
First major land creation project in Boston
1723 - John Bonner map
1777 - Map includes firing lines (Pelham, Henry, and Jukes)
1814 - Hales, John Groves
Mill Pond is filled in
Public Garden area is filled in
Charles street originally along the Charles river
- North Slope of Beacon Hill becomes one of the first black communities in Boston because trash was used to help fill in the land, causing smells and low rent rates
1838 - Brandford, T. G.
South End filled in
Plans being made for Back Bay fill
1850 - Bachmann, John, “Bird’s eye view of Boston”
1874
Back Bay has been filled
1877 - Bachmann, John, bird’s eye view
Focus on steam-powered trains
1880 - Justin Winsor, original coastline vs. current state
Boston Proper is mostly filled in
1895
Atlantic Avenue was originally the seawall across Town Cove
Boston shoreline composite - 1999 (very cool)