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Off to a bad start: John Adams’s tussle over titles
No full textFrom the first days, of the first session, of the first Congress of the United States, the Senate was consumed by an issue that would do immense and lasting political harm to the sitting vice president, John Adams. The issue was a seemingly unimportant one: titles. Adams had strong opinions on what constituted a proper title for important officers of government and, either because he was unconcerned or unaware of the damage it would cause, placed himself in the middle of the brewing dispute. Adams hoped the president would be referred to as, “His highness, the President of the United States of America, and Protector of the Rights of the Same.” The suggestion enraged many, amused some, and was supported by few. He lost the fight over titles and made fast enemies with several of the Senators he was constitutionally obligated to preside over. Adams was savaged in the press, derided in the Senate and denounced by one of his oldest and closest friends. Not simply an isolated incident of political tone-deafness, this event set the stage for the campaign against Adams as a monarchist and provided further proof of his being woefully out of touch
They Moved the Earth: The Slaves Who Built the Tennessee State Capitol
No full textBy utilizing primary and secondary source material, this essay attempts to examine both the use of slavery during the construction of the Tennessee State Capitol and the lives of the slaves involved. Though written histories on the Capitol agree that slavery was used at the construction site, no further details are given. The goal of this essay is to bring to light the full story of the group of slaves that were involved in the construction.
In the spring of 1846, fifteen slaves, all men, were loaned to the state government by A.G. Payne, a Nashville stone mason. For nearly a year they carved out the Capitol’s cellar, their skilled labor worth nearly twice as much as the unskilled labor of free men. These slaves broke through tons of limestone rock, carting it away after digging.
When construction required skilled stonemasons, the slaves returned to their master’s properties. For fourteen years up until Payne’s death, they worked at both a farm and brick factory, the monotony briefly punctuated by being hired out. Due to debts incurred by Payne just before his death, the slaves were to be sold. The Civil War imminent, the slaves remained with Payne’s widow until their emancipation.
After emancipation, the records on all but three of the men stop completely. Out of the three remaining men, the children of one were prospering. They had been taught to read. The government their father had helped physically build was finally working for their interests
PRINCIPALITIES, POWERS, AND FOOLS DOES PREACHING MAKE AN ETHICAL DIFFERENCE
No full textThis paper is the text of a keynote speech delivered at the eighth international conference of Societas Homiletica, held in Copenhagen, Denmark, 19-25 July 2008. The conference theme was “In search for meaning: does preaching make a difference?” This paper along with the response paper by Johan Cilliers, also in this issue of Homiletic, will be published along with the other papers from the conference in the forthcoming book of papers published by Societas Homiletica. Used with permission
The Mechanization of Motherhood: Images of Maternity in Quebec Women Writers of the Quiet Revolution
Get PDFIn her short story “Le Peuplement de la Terre” (“Be Fruitful and Multiply”) Madeleine Ferron reveals the reality of married life for generations of women in Quebec whose lives were a constant cycle of pregnancy, childbirth and mothering. Like other Quebec women writers, such as Marie Claire Blais and Gabrielle Roy, Ferron turns on its head the myth of the tireless, dutiful and fulfilled mother, happy to serve God and country by producing offspring. All three of these writers depict motherhood in the period prior to the Quiet Revolution with disturbing images of childbearing automats, leaving us not with a glorified and tender view of motherhood, but rather a mechanization of mothering. Could the preponderance of such imagery in the works of women writers of this period point to attitudes in the medical establishment and in the social agenda of the first half of the 20th century? Using Ferron’s short story as the primary literary example – with parenthetical references to both Une Saison and Bonheur d’Occasion – I provide historical evidence for the increasingly mechanized nature of mothering in Quebec brought on by the ramping up of social, political, religious and economic pressures placed on women in the first part of the 20th century. The historical evidence will take the form of popular literature of health care professionals in Canada and Quebec during this period, as well as the role of the Cercle de Fermières, a kind of civic group for rural women of Quebec whose ideology of super-productive women is summed up in their motto, “Travaillons sans cesse!
