The National Archives Southeast Region presents stories from survivors of the Great Depression overlaid with powerful pictures from era.
The Way We Were: The Great Depression
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No, the American Republic Was NOT Founded on Slavery
Johannes Adam Simon Oertel Pulling Down the Statue of King George III, N.Y.C. ca. 1859
Journalistic propaganda is a powerful instrument of indoctrination. Without evidence, foul ideas can easily penetrate mainstream discourse. For instance, recently it has become fashionable to posit that slavery is America’s original sin. To sensible people, this is a risible claim, because there is nothing particularly American about slavery. But revisiting the history of slavery in non-Western societies in Asia and Africa would do little to change the minds of America’s critics. A more appropriate strategy would be to contrast the opinions of the Founding Fathers on slavery with those of leaders in other countries. Only after undertaking this task will we be able to judge America. Continue reading
Was John Brown Sane?
The exploits of John Brown have long fascinated historians. His actions, for better or worse, certainly had a significant effect on the country prior to Southern secession, but the fascination with Brown is largely driven by the enigma the man himself has proven to be. In trying to explain his actions and motives, historians have wrestled with questionable and biased testimonies by the people who knew him, and many of the mysteries surrounding John Brown have been explained – then and now – by mental disorders. Continue reading
Davy Crockett’s Death at the Alamo Is Now a Case Closed – Or Not?
The details of legendary pioneer Davy Crockett’s death have been told by many sources — Some Questionable!
Each year around March 6, the anniversary of the 1836 Battle of the Alamo, the question arises as to how Davy Crockett died. It is not enough to know that he died. We need to know exactly how this legendary American lost his life in one of our nation’s most famous battles. Thankfully, there were eyewitnesses. Continue reading
Something NEW ~ the Bald Beagle
What you are about to read about – is the FIRST outbound link that we have added to any of our sites in some years, as we feel that it will allow the expansion of a REAL education, specifically aimed at younger students. The image that you see directly below, is also posted in the right side column of our website, which will always provide a direct link to the home page of Bald Beagle. ~ Editor
Bald Beagle is more than a place to find engaging, educational entertainment content for kids. Bald Beagle is a mission.
Bald Beagle’s mission is to present kids with high-quality educational content that illustrates the great – and sometimes complicated – history and principles of these United States we are blessed to call home. From the founding fathers, to how Government actually works, and what kids can do right now to protect and preserve our constitutional republic. Continue reading
Control of the People
Centralized sovereignty is a necessary first step in controlling the people. It is the fundamental platform for tyranny. Thomas Jefferson in all his wisdom pushed America toward a decentralized States Rights doctrine. He knew that government most directly accountable to the people was at State level. That doctrine prevailed in America until 1865 when by force of bayonets it was destroyed, which is why Karl Marx wrote Lincoln a letter of applause for his denial of States Rights. Marx believed that centralized power was an essential first step in herding the people toward his communist utopia. Continue reading
Who paid for the Civil War?
NOTE: Due to the age of the following post, some of the embedded links may no longer be active. We do apologize. ~ Ed.
When war broke out in 1861, the federal government was without its own money machine, though that would soon change. As expenses from the war mounted, the U.S. government once again issued Treasury Notes to help finance it. The Act of July 17, 1861 authorized Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase to issue notes at 7.30%, a rate chosen to make interest calculation so easy they would circulate as money — a $50 note accrued interest at a penny a day, for example. Though the seven-thirties, as they were called, didn’t circulate, the same Act provided for the issuance of Demand Notes that did circulate. As their name implies, Demand Notes were redeemable in specie, but that promise was broken by December, 1861 when the government suspended specie payment. Continue reading
The Techniques of Communism: INVADING Education
CHAPTER X: 208-248 (1954)
Senator Joseph McCarthy he WARNED us!
In undermining a nation such as the United States, the infiltration of the educational process is of prime importance. The Communists have accordingly made the invasion of schools and colleges one of the major considerations in their psychological warfare designed to control the American mind. By such “cultural” work, the Soviet fifth column obtains an influence, directly or indirectly, over at least a portion of American youth. Some of the young men entering our armed forces, and some of the young women who must support them, are brought within the orbit of pro-Communist thinking, to the detriment of our national security. Future community leaders are also affected. Many by-products beneficial to the conspiracy arise from this infiltration, since concealed Communists in education or their friends become sponsors of Communist fronts, aid in financing Communist causes, and sometimes play a part in influencing the attitudes of certain scientists, specific church circles, and government agencies. Continue reading
Training Teachers to FAIL
There’s been a lot of talk recently about the reading crisis in U.S. schools. Careful reporting has pinpointed a common problem: Many newly-trained and veteran teachers are not aware of the latest research on early reading instruction or comprehension. In 2016, NCTQ reviewed the syllabi of 820 teacher preparation programs across the country and found that only 39 percent of programs were teaching the basics of effective reading instruction. Four years later that number of programs has risen to 51 percent. While this signals a positive trend in adopting evidence-informed reading instruction, the fact remains that 49 percent of incoming teachers do not have the tools to effectively teach reading. Continue reading
Benjamin Franklin ~ “The Way to Wealth” (1758)
Courteous Reader,
I have heard that nothing gives an author so great pleasure, as to find his works respectfully quoted by other learned authors. This pleasure I have seldom enjoyed; for tho’ I have been, if I may say it without vanity, an eminent author of almanacs annually now a full quarter of a century, my brother authors in the same way, for what reason I know not, have ever been very sparing in their applauses; and no other author has taken the least notice of me, so that did not my writings produce me some solid pudding, the great deficiency of praise would have quite discouraged me.
I concluded at length, that the people were the best judges of my merit; for they buy my works; and besides, in my rambles, where I am not personally known, I have frequently heard one or other of my adages repeated, with, as Poor Richard says, at the end won’t; this gave me some satisfaction, as it showed not only that my instructions were regarded, but discovered likewise some respect for my authority; and I own, that to encourage the practice of remembering and repeating those wise sentences, I have sometimes quoted myself with great gravity. Continue reading
Public Education, Ben Shapiro, and the Trojan Horse in Our Culture
Perhaps the most successful myth that has been foisted off on a gullible American citizenry is that the education of our children, from kindergarten through high school, is the responsibility of the government. And implicit in that assumption is that the natural rights and duties of the family over the education of its offspring must in nearly all situations take a back seat, must be diminished and not interfere with the prior and dominant role of the state.
By and large, since the mid–20th century this assumption has been considered undebatable truth. No one, not even the most resolute conservatives, will question its basic veracity and the resulting need to continue funding, to shower with taxpayer dollars what has become the most expansive and most successful conquest of the revolutionary managerial state in its advance to complete control over our society. Continue reading
Caruba: A Very Different Generation
December 17, 2008 ~ They are called “Millennials” and, with the election of Barack Obama, have been dubbed “Generation O.” Born from 1980 to 2000, they are as different from their parents as previous generations were different from theirs.
It is common that older generations frequently look at the new one as creatures from another planet. Every new generation develops its own slang, has its own cultural heroes, and most importantly has been imprinted by the events of their early years as well as the kind of care they received from their parents. Continue reading
The Left’s attack on the Fourth of July
Another step in erasing our collective memory
~ Foreward ~
Scot Faulkner offers this insightful analysis of Radical Left efforts to erase our July Fourth holiday – and replace it with “Juneteenth,” to commemorate June 19, 1865, the day a little-known Union general proclaimed that the Civil War was over and slavery was officially abolished in Texas. Continue reading
Benson: Training Your Children To Be Compliant Little Marxists
The ‘ism’ of Marx
Recently, I did an article about Herbert A. Philbrick’s book “I Led Three Lives.” In that article I mentioned Louis Budenz, the director of the Communist newspaper “Daily Worker” and how he had broken with the Communist Party and returned to his Catholic faith.
According to one account I read, Karl Marx said “The education of all children, from the moment they can get along without their mother’s care, shall be in state institutions.” This would be consistent with the 10th plank in his “Communist Manifesto” which said, in part, “Free education for all children in public schools.”
This was something Louis Budenz sought to warn people about after he broke away from Communism. He wrote an autobiography, “This Is My Story” as well as other books and articles which exposed what the Communists were trying to do to this country. Continue reading
1055 ~ Dumbing Down Standardized Tests: The Art Of Dodging Objective Reality
Published in ‘Village of the Damned’ on the first generation Federal Observer, December 4, 2001
“We will never devise the perfect test, a test that accurately assesses students irrespective of parental education and income, the quality of the local schools, and the kind of community a student lives in, but we can do better,” opined Richards C. Atkinson, president of the University of California system. Atkinson insisted, calling again on Nov. 16 for the elimination of the “SAT I” as an admissions requirement at the University of California’s eight undergraduate campuses.
In fact, while “perfection” is indeed an impossible standard, a test which does this extremely well does exist, and it’s called … the SAT. Continue reading
Zappa on Civics and more!
I remember well, that, in Illinois, to graduate from High School, you had to pass a US Constitution Exam. You were first were given the test in your Sophomore year, and a small group of knuckleheads were still taking the test two years later, in their Senior year. However, we all passed the exam before graduation. Apparently many of those people washed all of that information from their brain shortly afterwords. ~ Phillip Meier
Mr. Meier was a classmate of mine back in the day. ~ Ed.
Whitey Ford, Beloved Yankees Pitcher Who Confounded Batters, Dies at 91
‘Take me out to the Ballgame…’ ~ when it was still a ‘sport.’
An irrepressible son of New York City, Ford joined the pantheon of baseball legends who dominated the 1950s and ’60s.
Whitey Ford pitching batting practice at the Yankees’ spring training camp in 1971, four years after retiring. A Yankee for his entire career, he won 236 games, the most of any Yankee, and had a career winning percentage of .690. Ernie Sisto/The New York Times
Whitey Ford, the Yankees’ Hall of Fame left-hander who was celebrated as the Chairman of the Board for his stylish pitching and big-game brilliance on the ball clubs that dominated baseball in the 1950s and early ’60s, died on Thursday night at his home in Lake Success, N.Y., on Long Island. He was 91. The Yankees announced his death. Continue reading
Change American Government School Education Or It Is Game Over!
When people think about modern government school education, the name of the God hating John Dewey usually comes to mind. Of course, it is true that Dewey had a lot to do with the overall decline in the quality of government schools. But there are others who joined in the effort to literally destroy the quality of education. In particular, Chester M. Pierce, (1951-2019) who like other leftists was educated at Harvard, was openly filled with hatred against the God ordained role that parents should carry out in teaching their children the values and traditions that made the United States a great and exceptional republic. Continue reading
Teddy Roosevelt’s on Robert E. Lee’s 100th Birthday Celebration
THE WHITE HOUSE,
WASHINGTON, D.C.
January 16, 1907
To the HON. Hilary A. Herbert, Chairman,
Chief Justice Seth Shepherd, General Marcus J. Wright,
Judge Charles B. Howry, Mr. William A. Gordon,
Mr. Thomas Nelson Page, President Edwin Alderman,
Mr. Joseph Wilmer, and others of the Committee of Arrangement for the Celebration of the Hundredth Anniversary of the Birth of General Robert E. Lee.
Gentlemen:
I regret that it is not in my power to be with you at your celebration. I join with you in honoring the life and career of that great soldier and high-minded citizen whose fame is now a matter of pride to all our countrymen. Terrible though the destruction of the Civil War was, awful though it was that such a conflict should occur between brothers, it is yet a matter for gratitude on the part of all Americans that this, alone among contests of like magnitude, should have left to both sides as a priceless heritage the memory of the mighty men and the glorious deeds that the iron days brought forth. The courage and steadfast endurance, the lofty fealty to the right as it was given to each man to see the right, whether he wore the gray or whether he wore the blue, now make the memories of the valiant feats, alike of those who served under Grant and of those who served under Lee, precious to all good Americans. General Lee has left us the memory, not merely of his extraordinary skill as a general, his dauntless courage and high leadership in campaign and battle, but also of that serene greatness of soul characteristic of those who most readily recognize the obligations of civic duty. Continue reading
Lessons in Spelling and Grammar
