Style

For this week, we had to look at a passage from an author in history that demonstrated a writing style that we liked or enjoyed, or represented a style that made us say “that was good” or “I wish I had wrote that.” Below is my passage that I have chosen. I have listed the author and source below it, because I want you to read the passage before you know where it came from, as it is an unsual place to pull a passage for its writing style.

 

“I was thrown about so much in the life of the metropolis that I experienced the workings of this fate in my own person and felt the effects of it in my own soul. One thing stood out clearly before my eyes : It was the sudden changes from work to idleness and vice versa; so that the constant fluctuations thus caused by earnings and expenditure finally destroyed the sense of thrift for many people and also the habit of regulating expenditure in an intelligent way. The body appeared to grow accustomed to the vicissitudes of food and hunger, eating heartily in good times and going hungry in bad. Indeed hunger shatters all plans for rationing expenditure on a regular scale in better times when employment is again found. The reason for this is that the deprivations which the unemployed worker has to endure must be compensated for psychologically by a persistent mental mirage in which he imagines himself eating heartily once again. Therefore the moment work is found anew he forgets to regulate the expenditure of his earnings but spends them to the full without thinking of to-morrow. This leads to confusion in the little weekly housekeeping budget, because the expenditure is not rationally planned. When the phenomenon which I have mentioned first happens, the earnings will last perhaps for five days instead of seven; on subsequent occasions they will last only for three days; as the habit recurs, the earnings will last scarcely for a day; and finally they will disappear in one night of feasting.”

-          Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf

 

The passage that I chose comes from early in the book when Hitler is spending time in Vienna after his mother’s death, and is discussing different impressions that he received during that time, and the lessons that he learned from those experiences. Mein Kampf is an unlikely book to pull a passage from, especially considering that as the book goes on, it can be boring hearing the same thing over and over from Hitler, but the beginning can be quite interesting because of the emotions and experience of Hitler growing up and losing his mother, and just the many struggles that he goes through.

 

What I found particularly well done in this passage is the honesty and insight of it. How this event, as well as others, impacted him and how it affected him. The one thing I feel we as historians tend to overlook the most, is the individual impacts and effects that all of history’s events have on the people of the time, whether it be leaders or everyday people. We fall into the trap of just discussing and discovering the big events of history, and just assume that they were done and they happened and everyone went with it, instead of remembering to see how people felt or were affected by those events, what pieces of that time period affected how those people accepted or were affected by those events.

 

I also really like the emotions that he displays in this passage. How Hitler draws upon emotions that not only he, but others can relate to. The emotions of the body when it faced with trying and rewarding times, changing constantly, but after so much inconsistency, blinding the person to the rational and correct choices that should be made. Maybe this explains some of Hitler’s decisions, because of the “constant fluctuations” of success and failure in his life.

 

I will now try to imitate the strengths of this passage in my own story:

I was so convinced after high school that what I wanted to be was a lawyer, and that I would use history as a simple stepping stone to reach my ultimate goal. I had felt that I would enjoy being a lawyer, and that picking something that I thought was interesting as a major in history, and would use its skill sets to prepare me for law school. But my time at Radford exposed me to something that impacted my career choice, and exhibited emotions that made me change my career path and to make history my choice, and not just my stepping stone. At a modest size school of 9,200 in southwest rural Virginia, I had the ability to really get to know my professors in the history department, and be around them outside the classroom. What changed my decision from law school to history, is those close relationships with my professors, and seeing their relationships with each other. The amount of fun they had around the department with each other, the amount of fun they had with the students, especially those who shared a passion for history like them, and the amount of caring and support that they demonstrated to their students. What I saw and experienced around them brought about emotions and dedication in myself to put all my efforts into history, and to see what I hope to have in my own teaching career down the road. When that happens, I will continue to use that experience to remind myself what it was that made me choose history.

Historical Theory/Big Ideas

For this week, we are supposed to examine big ideas and historical theory, and how it must be applied to all of the many items that we have looked at and worked with this semester. It took me a while to figure out what topic I could do and provide an outline for. I kept thinking through different topics of interests, topics from classes I’ve taken, etc., but then I started thinking about the area I’m in and thought about the National Park with all of the various war memorials that have been erected there.

If I were to outline a topic around the various war memorials located there, I would have to examine what questions that I wanted to answer. Why were the memorials built where they are? What factors went into the designs of each of the memorials? What is represented by the various aspects of each memorial? What was the process of designing each memorial and making sure certain aspects were incorporated and represented? How was the final design received by the veterans of those wars, and by the public?

To answer some of these questions, I could use things that we have used so far in the class. To help with why the location of the memorials is where it is, I could use various maps to chart how the current location has grown and developed over time, before and after the memorials. I could take images of each memorial and its design, and examine the various aspects of each memorial’s design, just like we did with the Frimmel’s Quilting Frolic. For reactions, not only could you find accounts of various people who have visited the memorials, including veterans, family members of lost soldiers, and citizens with no other ties but being Americans, but you could also go to the time of each memorial’s unveiling and look through images of people and their reactions who were present. It could also be looked into what types of items people bring and leave at the memorials. I know from my visits there in the past, that the Vietnam Wall had plenty of things left there by people, but unsure about the other memorials. If certain memorials attract more attention and items than others, it could be a factor of design of the memorial, as well as the number of years removed from the particular war the memorial represents.

Such a project could be a very in-depth endeavor, as well as a long process to complete each aspect of the project with each of the war memorials, and there may be some things that cannot be found or pinpointed, but it could be a very interesting project to work on.

Early 19th Century Homes and Rooms

For this week, we were given the John Krimmel work, The Quilting Frolic, and each given part of the picture to research and report back so that we could combine our findings as a class to look more into life in the early 19th century.

I had the room-at-large, to examine the style of the room and what made it up. To start, the room has a high ceiling in it. It also appears that the left side of the room is brighter than the right side, making the appearance that off to the left of the room that there is a fairly large window. The combination of high ceilings with large windows provided the best lighting for homes.

The fireplace would have been a feature in any room where people would have gathered in the home, as it would have been the sole heat source to stay warm. The fireplace would have also been used at this time as the main source for cooking, because the invention and use of the cast iron stove would not appear until the 1820s. If you look close at the picture, you can see that there is a tea kettle hanging over the fire.

The wood floors of the home would have most likely been made of pine wood at the time, and left unfinished as staining and varnishing would not have appeared until after the Civil War. To clean these floors, they were scrubbed with a lye-water, which could cause the color of the wood to wear down, and even get a “grayish” coloring. In the picture you can see how the wood is lighter in the main part of the room and near the fireplace. Possibly because this part of the floor would have been dirtier, especially with the fire place there, and would have been cleaned more often.

The door in this picture is an unglazed door, meaning that it did not have any windows or glass in it. The door also appears to have a Federal style design to it, with the two small molds at the top of the door. The finish on the doors would have been called a “grain,” meaning they would have thin layers of paint to imitate the appearance of various kinds of wood. For example, there would be a bright ink base for mahogany, or a light beige base for a walnut. If you look closely at the door opening, it appears that you can see outside where there is trees and another house, making this the main door into the house. It is also leads me to believe, that this was a one-bedroom house, which was not uncommon at this time, and would explain why everyone was gathering and being entertained, preparing to eat, cook, sew, etc. all in the same room.

There is a lot to be gathered here just from this one picture of 1813 living. Krimmel really likes his material things, and is able to incorporate a great deal of them into this picture, and into one room.

Barrow’s Plantation – Where is it?

This week we were to take a historic plantation that has been used repeatedly as a teaching aid to show the difference in pre- and post-Civil War plantations, and try to find a picture of it and determine what is wrong with the map, and to try and find its current location.

I began my search on both Google and Bing by looking for the location of the historical Barrow Plantation. What I did not realize while I was initially looking was that Barrow was just the owner’s name, who owned 3 plantations. So when I went looking for the current location of the plantation, it made knowing what I had found a bit more difficult. I found the coordinates to be around 31 degrees latitude and -84 degrees longitude, which turned out to be the Syll’s Fork plantation from the map. The plantation is located in the southeast part of Oglethorpe County, Georgia. However, there is an error in the map, and that is the map is not oriented to the north. So the plantation’s north end is where the bottom left end of the map is.

This map has been around for a long time as an example of plantation changes, and was first used the same year as the map image. Barrow’s Plantation map first appeared in the April 1881 issue of Scribner Magazine.

I struggled in finding the current location of the plantation, but listening to classmates I learned different approaches to take to solving a problem such as this in the future, and to make sure I look at the smallest of details and then think outside the box on how to use that information.

Propaganda – Showing A People’s True Colors

In regular everyday times, when we see images advertising different things, whether it be a new product, a sports game, a tv show, a restaurant, etc., it is usually shown in a positive and inviting way in order to draw in the viewer to support what is being advertised and not alienate potential consumers. But there are two types of times in which people throw away all of the niceties of advertising and display their true characteristics and thoughts: political elections and war time.

Propaganda is a huge part of just about any war, and it used as a way to “inspire” the people to get behind the war and support the cause. But propaganda, when examined closely, is really a chance for the country to say how we really feel about a group of people, bring out racial stereotypes of other people, and show that while we normally would not allow such things we will allow it for now because its for the war.

For my examples, I want to examine propaganda from the Second World War. My first example is that of our propaganda against the enemy. For the propaganda against the Japanese, America always characterized them as having slanted eyes, glasses, and big buck teeth in all of their images to insure that the American people knew who they were referring to. They almost always used the slang term of “Japs.”

When thinking of war propaganda, it seems that the propaganda should focus on motivating the homefront to support and assist in the war effort and the soldiers fighting, or the evil ways of the enemy, not the enemy’s physical characteristics.  When you look at the propaganda that we used against Hitler and Germany, the worse thing we ever do in those posters is make a cartoon version of Hitler. The propaganda posters did not play off stereotypes of Germans or use slang terms for German people, or mess with the appearance of Hitler. It even shows that potentially, America had little respect for the Japanese in comparison to Hitler and Germany.

Another example of how our propaganda was a way of supporting something we normally would not do, is the propaganda encouraging women to work in the factories and that they could do it and support the soldiers, their husbands, brothers, sons, and country. But really, it seems as if America decided that since we are fighting a war, and so many men are gone, we will allow you women to work because it is convenient to us, and when the war is over you go back home where you belong. But when it is convenient for the country we will let you work for us.

We also showed what we truly thought of our young men who went to fight, with numerous VD and STD posters telling the men to becareful and not get infected. If not that, then why bring up such a topic in war time. And apparently the Germans had the same view of young American men, as they had a propaganda poster aimed to cause divide between American and British soldiers.

So I think these images are not only ways to just inspire people to do the right thing and to fight and support the right cause in a time of need and war, but a time period when people can contradict what they normally stand for, and to give us some insight into what they are really feeling and thinking.

 

 

Picture Sources:

http://files.sharenator.com/american_3_World_War_Two_Propaganda_Posters-s350x470-48191-580.jpg

http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/images/wiki/wikipedia/commons/d/d2/AntiJapanesePropagandaTakeDayOff.gif

http://questgarden.com/12/37/9/051210192950/images/WWII_Propaganda_Our_Homes_are_in_NARA.jpg

http://graphicdesigndegrees.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/propaganda1-223×300.jpg

http://lottieloves.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/johnson-everett-wwii-posters.jpg

http://cache2.allpostersimages.com/p/LRG/20/2032/VQ24D00Z/posters/miller-j-howard-we-can-do-it-rosie-the-riveter.jpg

http://www.oddee.com/_media/imgs/articles/a55_vd.jpg

http://www.boingboing.net/filesroot/boobytrap_0.jpg

http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kpcx7akwfw1qznpc0o1_500.jpg

 

Who Put a Beat Down on Clara

This week we took a look into the trial of the State of Montana v. Edward Rehberg in 1885. It brings to light a family situation, in which a young girl by the name of Clara is going through different sorts of beatings and child abuse, until it ends up putting her in the hospital in Helena, Montana for about the last 3-4 weeks of her life before dying.

In this trial, there are a lot of testimonies and evidence of the abuse that Clara was suffering. The one thing I found troubling, was that if Clara was always working around the house, and helping to prepare and serve meals where everyone would have seen her, then why was nothing said or done about the abuse. From the descriptions of her body, there was some kind of abuse going on before the day she was admitted, but definitely that day it was worse than normal. According to the doctors, whatever was done to her, she could not have lasted any longer than she did before just giving out and collapsing of pain.

We see many things throughout the process of this case that we would not expect to go on in today’s courts, especially the amount of cross-examining that was not allowed. It basically got to the point that it was just re-stating what had already been said. But as we saw in the book Murder in Tombstone, this was a time period in which the processes of court cases were going through changes, especially in the style of cross-examining. But the way cross-examining was allowed (or not) by the presiding judge, impacted this case and how the information was allowed to be presented.

We also see a difference in how the witnesses are treated and how their testimonies are accepted. With Joe Tiebow, you can tell that he is not taken as seriously and is repeatedly asked the same questions and in short statements, most likely because of him being a hired laborer. And the seriousness of which they took Clara’s deposition because of her being a young girl.

In the end, Edward Rehberg is still found guilty of Clara’s murder. I however, would have probably found the step-mother Louisa guilty before the father Edward. The doctors said that whatever had been done to her most recently would have caused her to give out from pain after she took the slightest of breaks from moving, meaning that it would have had to have happened the day she was taken to the hospital. And according to the testimonies, Edward was out working the entire day except for when he came in to eat. Clara, who is the victim here and knows she is dying, tells how she is beaten and abused and by who, with nothing to gain or lose from being honest.

Regardless of how this case turned out, the name Rehberg shows up continuously in Montana. In fact, the name Rehberg shows up presently in Montana, as a man by the name of Dennis Rehberg, who is in the House of Representatives for Montana’s At-Large District.

She Lied, He Tried

This week brings us a very interesting, yet ill-conceived and underhanded divorce case from 1893-4 between Aaron and Della Hershfield. Both parties involved in this divorce were not entirely honest, to put it mildly, but one party went over and above the call of duty to try and create an entirely false premise so that they would not have to pay a cent to the other.

The backdrop for this story is that Aaron, a prominent and well-to-do banker, and Della went in September to the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago. While away they engaged in pre-marital sexual relations, leading to the pregnancy of Della with what would later become their daughter Helena. When Della tells Aaron that she is pregnant, they get married in November of that year and return to Aaron’s hometown of Helena, Montana. From here is where the story begins to slide downhill and out of control.

In January 1894, Aaron leaves Della and goes to North Dakota and begins living there in order to establish residency. Aaron eventually then tries to get the marriage to legally be declared to be a “pretend marriage” and that it was not a consensual and binding agreement that he entered into.

According to Aaron, Della lied to him about being pregnant with their child and through the help of other accomplices, worked to threaten and place fear into his life in order to force Aaron into marrying Della so that she could exploit him for his money, and that she had not even be living in the same place as him. He was also providing her with $15/week, enough for her to live as she did when single, but Aaron said that she was living too extravagantly and incurring large amounts of debts.

According to Della, Aaron and her had sexual relations before marriage in which she became pregnant. They then got married, and were living in the Helena Hotel together until Aaron left her behind with no support to go to North Dakota. She also claimed that Aaron was conspiring with his brother Louis, also a prominent banker, and his wife, to get rid of her.

As I see it from all of the documents, neither of them were completely honest, but Aaron put a lot of effort into trying to make his story believable. The judge, after hearing and seeing all of the evidence and testimonies, rules in favor of Della, awarding her just under $2,000, as well as for Aaron to provide support for her and their daughter Helena.

Della had been truthful that she had only been intimate with Aaron, and that indeed the child was Aaron’s. However, she was by no means living poorly or untaken care of. She had letters claiming that she was left by Aaron with no means of support or care, and that without the fortunate charity of those around her, she would not be able to live and care for herself as she was in poor health, or for their child. She also put in requests that Aaron should provide her with money so that she could hire attorneys to defend her case. Multiple accounts in the forms of affidavits from multiple people, testified that they were constantly seeing Della out and about the city, walking, riding in a horse and carriage, going out for a meal and eating very well, and even visiting the state fair. All of these testimonies commented that she appeared in great health. Della was not without means. She was living in a two-bedroom place, with a nurse, in the one of the nicest hotels in Helena, at a cost of about $200 a month. She spent $394.70 at two dry goods stores, another $76.75 at the drug store, and her housing at the Helena Hotel was up to $1,164.35 as of August 1, 1894, with a combined total of everything being $1,783.05, all of which she billed to Aaron.

Aaron on the other hand though jumped through hoops trying to prove his story. Aaron’s entire motive for moving to North Dakota was to stay out there long enough to establish residency to use for his claim that his wife had not been living with him but intsead had been living without him in Helena, Montana. Aaron also claimed that she and others had physically threatened him and that he feared for his life unless he agreed to marry her. Aaron even went out of his way to hire guys in Chicago to create some false testimonies claiming that they had met Della while they were in Chicago and that she had engaged in sex with them, in an effort to show that it was not even his child.

In the end the judge saw through all of the evidence and ruled that Aaron was of sound mind, that it was indeed his child, and that there was no cause for a divorce. So the judged ruled in favor of Della and declared that Aaron had to pay all of the incurred court and legal fees for Della, as well as provide her with alimony and child support.

The one part left unanswered was that Della had brought a $75,000 suit against Aaron’s brother Louis and his wife for driving Aaron away from her. Was she able to win that case as well, and collect, what would have been valued at today, as $1,960,000? If so, she would have never wanted for anything else the rest of her life.

Mystery of Wyoming – Suicide or Homicide

This week, looking at the coroner’s inquest of Mamie Grover from 1882. Just a note of warning, I struggled to read the documents involved in here, so if I leave something out or misinterpret it, just leave me a comment letting me know.

It appears that Mamie Grover of Wyoming, died of a single gunshot wound to the head, self-inflicted, around February 18 or 19, 1882. The stories of everyone interviewed about the incident, Mr. Grover, Mrs. Mollie Arrington, a Mrs. Ryan, and someone from the brewery, all seem to be very consistent in the accounts from that night. As the story is told, Mr. and Mrs. Grover had went out that night to the local brewery where they had played pool and drank around 5-6 glasses of beer. From there they returned home, where Mr. Grover dropped Mamie off to go inside, while he returned his horses over to the stable. When  Mr. Grover came into the house, Mamie and a Mrs. Arrington were arguing, with Mrs. Arrington accusing Mamie of stealing. Mrs. Arrington then left, and according to Mr. Grover, that if Mamie got upset while she had been drinking, she apparently had repeat past occurences of threatening to kill herself. But after Mrs. Arrington left, Mr. Grover tried to make his wife feel better, but then left to go next door where there was a fire to get warm upon his wife’s request, without taking her with him. He then claimed to hear a pistol shot around 7:30, which he then went running back home to find his wife dead from a pistol shot to the head. He then went back to the brewery to get in contact with the doctor to come quick because Mamie was still breathing.

Mrs. Ryan was supposedly the last one to see her, as she had come for laundry around 8:00 Mamie told her to come back in 30 minutes and it would be ready for her.

Mamie on a normal basis, when looking at an account of her things, only spent $5 or $6 here, $10 or $12 there, never spending or getting cash for more than $20 at a time. But then more expensive purchases began popping up, all for her. A $350 seal skin coat, $275 diamond earrings, $90 dress, and a $75 bracelet. The accusation by Mrs. Arrington seems a very plausible charge, and quite possibly, stealing from more than just Mrs. Arrington. I however am not so sure that it was suicide, as it almost seems to convenient. First of all, given the accusation at her home, which sounds as if Mrs. Arrington could have already been there waiting for her when they got home from the brewery, along with the new, expensive purchases, there was a least one person if not many others not mentioned that would have a reason to kill her. Plus, if her husband knew that she had in the past threatened to kill herself when she was upset and drinking, then why this time, would he leave her alone and go to another person’s house? Just seems like there are too many loose ends left untied in this case, and too many possibilities. So for me, suicide seems a too convenient end to this case for it to be what really happened.

Wills of Caroline Carson (1831) & Robert Christian (1857)

For this assignment I decided to look at the wills of Caroline Carson, a Mississippi woman in 1831, and Robert Christian, a Virginia man in 1857. Each one is the last will and testament for each person respectively, and gives a breakdown and account of each person’s entire belongings and how they want their children to receive, and sometimes how to use, their part of what the person is leaving behind.

Caroline Carson was an older woman at the time of her will being written, as she makes it clear in the beginning that she is “of sound mind though feeble in body.” She also has only one living son left, assumedly, as he is the only mention of a child receiving any inheritance, with the rest of it going to her sisters. Caroline left one thousand dollars (equal to about $26,000 today) and a slave to each of her sisters, along with all of her household furniture, jewelry, and clothes for them to divide up equally between them. Caroline then left the remainder of her estate to her son, including her slaves. Caroline made sure that her slaves were taken care of. She entrusted five hundred dollars to her brother and two sisters to be paid out in January of the following year to her slaves based upon each of them’s merit. She also requested that her slaves be paid some amount annually until her son reached legal age. She then requested that her son favor four slaves in particular for labor as long as they continued to earn it, and that the slave Ned Morris should be emancipated, along with his wife Suckey, and given five hundred dollars on his 38th birthday.

Robert Christian was much more particular about his estate. His first request was that all debts against his estate be paid off. From there, he left all of his land property to his son. To his four daughters, three of which were married, he left two hundred dollars apiece, of which half would be given a year after his death, and the other half given two years after his death. Robert also gave specific slaves to each of his five children. His son also received all of his farm stock, household furniture, and anything left of his estate. His unmarried daughter, along with her money and slaves, received a place to stay at their father’s property with her brother until she was married, at which time her brother would be responsible for giving her as much personal property as her sisters as received upon their marriage. The first married daughter received her money and slaves without any stipulations, as the slaves were already in her possession. The second and third married daughters were to receive their money and slaves to be soley used for and controlled by them individually, and not their husbands. He also made it clear that for those two daughters when they died, those slaves were to go directly to their children and not to their husbands. If they had no children, the slaves should go to whoever his living heirs were according to Virginia law. As you can see, daddy didn’t approve of the husbands of his second and third daughters, and made it clear that he would never give them anything of his.

When you compare the two, you can see the difference in these two people and how they wrote out their wishes for their estate. Caroline did not worry about how her possessions were used, just as long as they were divided up equally, except for her brother who just got to play executor. She also made sure to keep her slaves taken care of, even allotting the opportunity for a particular man and his wife to receive their freedom and five hundred dollars down the road. Robert showed that there was much more particulars and dislikes in his will based on the specifics for two of his daughters. But Robert did treat all of his daughters equally in what they received, and put no stipulations on his son, unmarried daughter, or first married daughter whose husband Robert apparently liked, or their inheritances other than for the son to provide for the youngest sister until her marriage. Robert though did not show the care and compassion for his slaves as a female slave owner like Caroline did. Robert made sure that each of his slaves stayed in his family, passing them on to each child, and making sure that each of those slaves’ children would remain in the possession of the child they had been given to.

Historically, you can see the difference in a male and a female slave owner and the way they handle the business of their slaves. It could also be a by product of a father whose job it is to always provide, ensuring that his children are provided for even after his death, though Caroline does set in place everything to ensure her son is taken care of until he reaches legal age.

Rocky Mount, Virginia – 1900 Census

In this census activity, I decided to go back to my hometown of Rocky Mount, VA to look at the population make-up from the 1900 census. For my data analysis, I took a sample of 100 people and looked at the make-up of those people from the variety of information that the census provided. I broke down my information into two ways: households and total people.

In my 100 person sample, there were 21 different households. The households ranged in size, with 3 homes with only one person and 2 homes with only a husband a wife, to a home which had 16 people in it. The home with the 16 people in it, seems to have been a very large home, which must have needed help to pay for it, or just wanted the extra money, or were just very generous people, as 10 of those 16 people in the house were boarders. Each of the 21 households had a head of the home,of which all were male except for two. The two females seemed to be an odd situation when you examine the data, unless their husbands were constantly away on business or held political office or something to that effect. The first female was listed as 51 years old, married for 25 years, with 8 children still living, including two daughters who were 10 and 5 that were still living at home with her. The second female was listed as 26 years old, married for 8 years, with four children living at home with her. Also, out of the 21 households, 15 of them were owned by the head of the house, while the other 6 were being rented.

In my 100 person sample, the population broke down as 53 white people and 47 black people. Within those 100 people, there were 36 married people or 18 couples. There was also a 70 year old man who had been windowed, and a 66 year old man who had been divorced. Seven of the people were born outside of the state of Virginia, including North Carolina, Texas, and Ohio. Out of all of the white males who were of age, the 70 year old widowed man was the only one who could not read and write. Out of all of the black males who were of age, only three of them could read and write. This shows us who was able to consistently be taught and get an education. Out of all of the women in the sample, 17 of them were mothers. Of those 17 mothers, two of them had never been married.

Out of all of these families in the census, there were many names that are still in Rocky Mount and Franklin County today, including Walker, Dillard, Richards, Menefee, Lavender, Webb, Allen, Huff, and Muse. The people in the part of the census I used were listed as District 32, which would have put them on north to northwestern end of Rocky Mount.

It is always an interesting adventure to look back at the people in history, whether it is to find out the make-up of your hometown long before you, or even to find your ancestors and where they lived at.