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John Chapman a.k.a Johnny Appleseed
Most people think they know the story of Johnny Appleseed as a friendly wandering hobo that planted apple orchards out of the goodness of his heart and his love of apples. Not exactly true. The real story is a bit more complicated than that.John Chapman was born September 26, 1774, in Leominster, Massachusetts. His father, Nathaniel, was a minuteman in the Revolutionary War and fought in the Battle of Bunker Hill. The elder Chapman went on to serve under George Washington and help pr [...]
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Aaron Burr Part II- Would be King of America
After Aaron Burr, dubbed by his contemporaries as the American Catiline, shot and killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel, he fled west. Please see this post for more information: http://www.historynaked.com/hamilton-burr-clash-titans/ People in the south western territories were more accepting of matters of honor and were solidly anti-Federalist. The Louisiana Purchase had just gone through, the borders of which were disputed by Spain. Many of the residents of the new territory openly spoke of secession. He traveled to New Orleans to sound out opportunities there, and then made his way north to Tennessee, where he was hailed as a hero. He was handsomely entertained by Andrew Jackson at the Hermitage,…
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Hamilton and Burr- Clash of the Titans
In post-revolutionary America, the founders were all scrambling to find their place. As Joseph Ellis describes it in Founding Brothers, they were all classically educated and were comparing their Great Experiment to the glory days of the Republic of Rome. Everyone jostled for the title of Cincinnatus, Cato, Solon or Cicero. However, they all waited with baited breath to see who would be America’s Catiline. The name may not mean anything to our modern ears, but to those with familiarity with the history of the Roman Republic know that the Catiline conspiracy nearly brought it down. In the aftermath of the election of 1800, Alexander Hamilton thought he had found…
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The Trail of Tears/ Indian Removal Act of 1830
It should have never happened… Thousands of Native Americans were forced to relocate following the Indian Removal Act of 1830. The removal included members of the Five Civilized Tribes: Cherokee, Muscogee, Seminole, Chickasaw, and Choctaw nations. Many Native Americans suffered from exposure, disease, and starvation while going on the route to their destinations, 2,000-6,000 of the 16,543 Cherokee died. This is were we get the name “Trail of Tears”. By 1837, 46,000 Native Americans from the south-eastern states had been removed from their homelands, thereby opening 25 million acres for settlement. The fixed boundaries of autonomous tribal nations, comprised of large areas of the United States and were subject to…
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The Louisiana Purchase
The Louisiana Purchase was the acquisition of the Louisiana territory (828,000 square miles) by the United States from France in 1803. The U.S. paid fifty million francs ($11,250,000 USD) and a cancellation of debts worth eighteen million francs ($3,750,000 USD) for a total of sixty-eight million francs ($15,000,000 USD) which averages to approximately four cents per acre. Adjusting for inflation, the modern financial equivalent spent for the Purchase of the Louisiana territory is approximately ($236 million in 2014 U.S. dollars which averages to less than forty-two cents per acre). The Louisiana territory included land from fifteen present U.S. states and two Canadian provinces. The territory contained land that forms Arkansas,…
