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Japanese Internment Camps- Paranoia Made National Policy
In the days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, America was jittery. We had just been attacked and we weren’t sure if it was going to happen again. The west coast was especially bad because they were the closest to our newly declared enemy. There was also a large number of people of Japanese descent living on the west coast. Everywhere people went, they saw someone that looked like the enemy. Americans were accusing Americans of having loyalty to the country their ancestors were from instead of their home. People feared the large Japanese-American population was a security risk, both for espionage and in the case of a Japanese…
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Elizabeth and Mary Part 2- Surviving the sister wars
The Tower of London was not a place most people wanted to be, especially those of royal blood. This was doubly true of Elizabeth Tudor as the place was fraught with memories and stories. When she was first put in the tower by Queen Mary’s order, she was lodged in the royal palace in the inner ward of the Tower. Much nicer than a tower or a dungeon, but it had been rebuilt by her father for her mother’s coronation. It was also where her mother, Anne Boleyn, had stayed prior to her trial and execution. Not a good precedent. The queen’s council began their questioning in earnest the following…
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Empress Theodora- Purple is the Noblest Winding Sheet
Born the daughter of a bearkeeper and an acrobat, the prospects for the new baby girl born in the vast city of Constantinople were not that great. Likely she would become a performer like her parents, and if she was lucky the mistress of a wealthy man who would take care of her. At that time an actress was little more than a courtesan and debarred from polite society. If she was unlucky, she would die in poverty like so many others. However, fate had more in store for the young girl her parents named Theodora. It would take her to the highest places in the world, far beyond anyone’s…
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Murder Mystery on the Frontier- The Death of Meriwether Lewis
In 1809, there was no bigger national heroes than Lewis and Clark. They had just spent years traveling across the newly acquired Louisiana Purchase and their exploits had lit the imagination of the country. Meriwether Lewis was a trusted associate of President Jefferson and had been hand picked for both the expedition and to be the governor of the Upper Louisiana Territory. It must have seemed as though Lewis had his life set. However, things were not rosy in the home he shared with one of St. Louis’ most august families, the Chouteaus. He was bored with his desk job and began drinking heavily. Lewis was also deeply in debt,…
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Elizabeth and Mary- Were there ever such devoted sisters
The relationship between Mary Tudor and Elizabeth Tudor was complex to say the least. Mary had been the cherished only living child of Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon, and the presumed heiress of England. Then Henry VIII’s lust for a legitimate son and his wife’s beautiful maid of honor, Anne Boleyn, turned Mary’s world upside down. Her honors and titles were stripped along with any friendly adherents, her Lady Governess and tutors. Instead of being Princess of Wales, as she was named by Henry in 1525, Mary was declared a bastard child of an incestuous marriage and sent to serve her younger half sister. The same younger half sister…
