The Snow Riot of 1835

By Michelle Shocklee

As the Bible says in Ecclesiastes 1:9, "What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun." (NIV) Sadly, that wisdom-filled statement is true when it comes to racial division, particularly in the United States. As I write this blog post, our country is experiencing violence, riots, protests, and hatred aimed at police following the senseless and horrific murder of George Floyd, a black man in Minneapolis, by a police officer. Like many of you, I'm praying for peace and protection of everyone involved, for Mr. Floyd's family, and for our nation.

Twenty-five years before the Civil War erupted, the capital city of Washington DC experienced riots of its own. In this case, it was white residents who rampaged through the city of approximately 20,000, terrorizing black residents. The difference between this riot and the ones taking place today, however, is they were not based on an actual crime. The basis for the Snow Riot of 1835, Washington's first race riot, was fear, rumor, and hatred.

A little back story.

Washington DC in the 1830s

Many free blacks lived in Washington DC, with some owning businesses, including Beverly Snow.

Mr. Snow was born a slave around 1799 in Lynchburg, Virginia. He was owned by Captain William Norvell. Norvell's will left Snow to his daughter with the provision that Snow would be freed at age thirty. Until then, he was allowed to run a small oyster house and keep some of the profits. In 1829, Snow received his freedom papers, and he and his wife moved to the District of Columbia, Washington City, escaping the severe restrictions on freed blacks in Virginia. Snow set himself apart as he was educated, wealthy, and an entrepreneur. Once in Washington, he opened an oyster restaurant, the Epicurean Eating House, which became very popular. This popularity lead to resentment from the pro-slavery white population.

Numerous factors left the city ripe for an outbreak of violence:

• The Nat Turner slave rebellion in Virginia in August 1831 was still fresh in the minds of Washington DC residents. 
• There was heightened tension in the city between abolitionists and people defending slavery.
• The Nation's first labor strike by federal employees began. The strike is known as the Washington Navy Yard Strike. 175 white workers went on strike and through intimidation forced black workers to join them.

Like a match to a powder keg, it only took one drunken man and one unfounded rumor to set the whole city aflame--figuratively and literally. 

Late on the night of August 4, 1835, 18-year old Arthur Bowen, a slave owned by Mrs. Anna Maria Thornton, arrived home after a night of drinking and political discussions with free blacks. According to Arthur (and later Anna herself), he found an ax lying on the basement steps and carried it inside. For unknown reasons (he was quite drunk), he went to the bedroom of his mistress where she, his mother, and Anna's elderly mother slept. Anna woke to find him standing in the doorway with the ax. She was able to get past him and went to the neighbors for help. By her own account, Arthur had not threatened her, and by the time she returned with a male neighbor, Arthur's mother had disarmed him and sent him away. However, word of the incident quickly spread, and Arthur was arrested on August 8. 

Epicurean Eating House owned by Beverly Snow

With the city in an uproar over the supposed attempted murder of a prominent white woman by a black man, slavery defenders pounced on it as an opportunity to rid themselves of anyone opposing them. On August 10, Reuben Crandall, a white physician, Quaker, and abolitionist, was arrested on charges of "seditious libel and inciting slaves and free blacks to revolt." Crandall was nearly killed by the angry mob and was only saved when the mayor called for the milita. The mob wanted Crandall hanged, but the mayor refused and a trial date was set. Denied a lynching, the mob turned their anger onto the blacks in the city, free and slave. 

Beverly Snow got caught up in the storm. It was rumored that he had made disparaging remarks about the wives of the striking naval yard men, and they sought to make him pay. When Snow heard the mob was coming for him, he and his wife made their escape, eventually settling in Toronto, Canada. His restaurant was completely destroyed, but not before the rioters drank all his whiskey and champagne. 

Like a terrible tidal wave, the rioters moved on. Ostensibly looking for abolitionist literature, they attacked and burned homes, businesses, and churches--all owned or associated with free black citizens. They vandalized all-black schoolhouses, destroying completely those operated by Mary Wormley and John F. Cooke, a black man who escaped to Pennsylvania on a horse provided by a white supporter. The rioting lasted a week, and it took an act by President Andrew Jackson to bring the violence to an end. The riot became known as the Snow Riot because it was Beverly Snow's restaurant that was first attacked.

When things finally settled down, the black community as a whole would continue to suffer. There was no compensation given for the destruction of their homes and property. Black Codes, restrictive legislation limiting the rights of free blacks in the city, became increasingly harsh.

A question that continues to resound in my heart and mind is, why haven't we learned from history that violence and hatred never win?

Michelle Shocklee is the author of several historical novels. Her work has been included in numerous Chicken Soup for the Soul books, magazines, and blogs. Married to her college sweetheart and the mother of two grown sons, she makes her home in Tennessee, not far from the historical sites she writes about. Visit her online at www.MichellesShocklee.com or visit her Amazon page. 

UNDER THE TULIP TREE

Releasing 9.8.20; Available for PREORDER!

Sixteen-year-old Lorena Leland’s dreams of a rich and fulfilling life as a writer are dashed when the stock market crashes in 1929. Seven years into the Great Depression, Rena’s banker father has retreated into the bottle, her sister is married to a lazy charlatan and gambler, and Rena is an unemployed newspaper reporter. Eager for any writing job, Rena accepts a position interviewing former slaves for the Federal Writers’ Project. There, she meets Frankie Washington, a 101-year-old woman whose honest yet tragic past captivates Rena.

As Frankie recounts her life as a slave, Rena is horrified to learn of all the older woman has endured—especially because Rena’s ancestors owned slaves. While Frankie’s story challenges Rena’s preconceptions about slavery, it also connects the two women whose lives are otherwise separated by age, race, and circumstances. But will this bond of respect, admiration, and friendship be broken by a revelation neither woman sees coming?

https://www.tyndale.com/p/under-the-tulip-tree/9781496446077

German History and the Month of May

By Michelle Shocklee

May is such a pleasant month--flowers blooming, baby birds hatching, sunshine without the heat of summer. But the month of May has become a time in history--German history in particular--that doesn't foster warm, pleasant feelings.

RMS Lusitania (undated AP Photo)

May 7, 1915

By early 1915, a threat to British shipping began to emerge out of Germany. U-boats, or submarines, were being used to attack naval vessels. As they achieved  more successes, U-boats began to attack merchant vessels as well. Desperate to gain an advantage on the Atlantic, the German government decided to step up its submarine campaign. On February 4, 1915, Germany declared the seas around the British Isles a war zone. Beginning on February 18, Allied ships in the area would be sunk without warning. Efforts would be taken to avoid sinking neutral ships, but there were no guarantees.

Painting of sinking RMS Lusitania

The RMS Lusitania, a luxury liner, was scheduled to leave NYC on May 1, headed to Liverpool. In an interesting move, the German Embassy issued a warning to all passengers contemplating passage on the Lusitania. It appeared in 50 US newspapers, including New York. It read:

NOTICE! Travelers intending to embark on the Atlantic voyage are reminded that a state of war exists between Germany and her allies and Great Britain and her allies; that the zone of war includes the waters adjacent to the British Isles; that, in accordance with formal notice given by the Imperial German Government, vessels flying the flag of Great Britain, or any of her allies, are liable to destruction in those waters and that travelers sailing in the war zone on the ships of Great Britain or her allies do so at their own risk.
IMPERIAL GERMAN EMBASSY
Washington, D.C. 22 April 1915

Benito Mussolini, Prime Minister of Italy
1922-1943

Despite the danger, the Lusitania embarked on its voyage. On May 7, a German U-boat torpedoed and sank the British liner off the southern coast of Ireland, killing 1,198 people including 128 Americans, out of the nearly 2,000 on board. In the aftermath of the sinking, the German government tried to justify it by claiming in an official statement that she had been armed with guns, and had "large quantities of war material" in her cargo. They also stated that since she was classed as an auxiliary cruiser, Germany had had a right to destroy her regardless of any passengers aboard, and that the warnings issued by the German Embassy before her sailing relieved Germany of any responsibility for the deaths of American citizens aboard.

May 22, 1939

In May of 1939, Italy and Germany agreed to a military and political alliance, giving birth to the Rome-Berlin Axis.
Mussolini coined the nickname “Pact of Steel” (he had also come up with the metaphor of an “axis” binding Rome and Berlin) after reconsidering his first choice, “Pact of Blood,” to describe this historic agreement with Germany. He saw this partnership as not only a defensive alliance, protection from the Western democracies, with whom he anticipated war, but also a source of backing for his Balkan adventures. Both sides were fearful and distrustful of the other, but in September 1940, the Pact of Steel would become the Tripartite Pact, with Japan making up the third constituent of the triad. World War II became the deadliest military conflict in history. An estimated 70–85 million people perished, which was about 3% of the 1940 world population.

May 1945

General Alfred Jodl, Hitler’s military advisor, controller of German High Command and chief of the Operations Staff (center), signs the document of surrender (German Capitulation) of the German armed forces at Rheims in General Eisenhower’s headquarters. He is joined by Major Wilhelm Oxenius (left) and Hans Georg von Friedeburg, Admiral of the Fleet (right). Photo by Keystone/Getty Images

On May 7, 1945, Germany officially surrendered to the Allies, bringing an end to the European conflict in World War II. General Alfred Jodl, representing the German High Command, signed the unconditional surrender of both east and west forces in Rheims, France, which would take effect the following day. As a result, May 8 was declared Victory in Europe--VE--Day, a holiday still celebrated by many European countries. While this is certainly a day to celebrate, one can't help but think of all the lives lost through the long years of war.

(Pictured are the remnants of the German Army in Prague surrendering to Allied forces.)

As someone who has German roots, I'm thankful the evil powers of Germany's past are long gone. I hope to visit that beautiful country someday...and I think I'll go in May!



Your turn: Have you visited Germany? Tell me about it!

Michelle Shocklee is the author of several historical novels. Her work has been included in numerous Chicken Soup for the Soul books, magazines, and blogs. Married to her college sweetheart and the mother of two grown sons, she makes her home in Tennessee, not far from the historical sites she writes about. Visit her online at www.MichellesShocklee.com or visit her Amazon page. 

UNDER THE TULIP TREE

Releasing 9.8.20; Available for PREORDER!

Sixteen-year-old Lorena Leland’s dreams of a rich and fulfilling life as a writer are dashed when the stock market crashes in 1929. Seven years into the Great Depression, Rena’s banker father has retreated into the bottle, her sister is married to a lazy charlatan and gambler, and Rena is an unemployed newspaper reporter. Eager for any writing job, Rena accepts a position interviewing former slaves for the Federal Writers’ Project. There, she meets Frankie Washington, a 101-year-old woman whose honest yet tragic past captivates Rena.

As Frankie recounts her life as a slave, Rena is horrified to learn of all the older woman has endured—especially because Rena’s ancestors owned slaves. While Frankie’s story challenges Rena’s preconceptions about slavery, it also connects the two women whose lives are otherwise separated by age, race, and circumstances. But will this bond of respect, admiration, and friendship be broken by a revelation neither woman sees coming?
 

https://www.tyndale.com/p/under-the-tulip-tree/9781496446077

 

Mary Had a Little Lamb and the Fascinating Woman who Wrote It

You've probably heard the nursery rhyme and perhaps even sung the song:

Mary had a little lamb,

   Its fleece was white as snow,

And every where that Mary went

   The lamb was sure to go;

He followed her to school one day—

   That was against the rule,

It made the children laugh and play,

   To see a lamb at school.

Did you know it is based on truth?

In May of 1830, a woman by the name of Sarah Josepha Hale published the three verses, "Mary Had a Little Lamb," in her collection, Poems for Our Children. 

Sarah Josepha Hale, 1831, by James Reid Lambdin. After her husband died, Hale wore black for the rest of her life. Public Domain.

Mrs. Hale had been publishing poetry and fiction since 1823, a year after her husband David's untimely death. With five small children to support, the former schoolteacher took to writing. Her late husband's Freemasons lodge supported her in her fist publication, a poetry collection called The Genius of Oblivion.

After the publication of her novel Northwood: Life North and South in 1827, making her one of the first female novelists in America as well as one of the first authors to write about slavery. After this publication, she was invited to move to Boston to become editor of Ladies' Magazine.  

It was during this period when she wrote "Mary's Lamb" (the original title), drawing on her experience teaching school before she married. At a small school near her home of Newport, New Hampshire, Hale was astonished one morning when her student, Mary, came to school followed by her pet lamb. 

1902 Mother Goose by William Wallace Denslow. Public Domain.

Hale couldn't allow the distracting lamb to stay in class, so Mary had to place it outside until school was dismissed for the day. When Mary came outside to collect it, it ran to her. Hale admired Mary's devotion and care for her pet.

The final two verses in Mother Goose, 1902. Public Domain.

A few years later, Mason Lowell turned the verses into the song so many of us have sung over the years.

Meanwhile, Hale continued on with her work. When Ladies' Magazine was purchased by Godey's Ladies' Book, Hale was requested to stay on as editor, a position she held for forty years until she was 89 years old. 

Throughout her career, she continued with other projects, as well, and one of the things she was most passionate about was ensuring Thanksgiving became a national holiday. She sent letters to Presidents Taylor, Fillmore, Pierce, and Buchanan on the topic, to no avail, but her letter to President Lincoln helped him decide to support legislation establishing it as a holiday in 1863.

Hale's letter to President Lincoln urging him to make Thanksgiving a national holiday, 1863. Library of Congress, Public Domain.

No one ever forgot "Mary's Lamb" and in 1877, the year of her retirement, Thomas Edison chose Hale's poem to be the very first thing he ever recorded on his new invention, the phonograph.

Hale died in 1879, but is remembered for her role as a proponent of women, a historic preservationist, and the woman who persuaded President Lincoln to make Thanksgiving a national holiday. 

***

Susanne Dietze is the award-winning author of stories with Timeless Heart, including The Blizzard Bride from Barbour Publishing. You can learn more about her on her website, www.susannedietze.com.

Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing

Come, Thou Feet of Restless Youth

Back and forth. Seen and not seen, peeking and hiding.

On Sunday morning, my shiny black patent-leather shoes popped from beneath the wooden pew where I sat with my parents in our very proper church, and then they disappeared. My feet didn’t yet touch the floor, but boy, could they swing those shiny shoes. Back and forth. Peeking, hiding.

Unless we were singing.

Then I’d stand next to Mother in those stiff “good” shoes, propping my own hymnal on the back of the pew ahead of us, pretending to read the words.

In fact, church may be the place I first learned to connect letters and sounds and phrases, for music has a way of winding the words around your heart strings and tuning them in with your brain.

I learned the melodies and verses to many old hymns in our traditional church, and they’ve stayed with me over the years that have swept me into the musical freedom of contemporary worship. As a pianist/keyboardist on my church’s worship team, I love and play it all, both the old and the new.

But one song in particular lodged deep inside my childhood experience with its lilting notes that seemed to dance like a butterfly on a clear summer day:

“Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing”

It was the melody that embedded in my young heart, tugging the lyrics along with it. Only later did those words take on meaning. Perhaps one has to experience the floods and fires of life and trudge through the mud and ash before one really understands the cleansing power and need of the Fount.

According to several hymnals, the tune is a Traditional American Melody from John Wyeth’s Repository of Sacred Music, Part Second, 1813. However, Hymnary.org credits the melody for “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing” as the tune “Nettleton,” penned by “Anonymous.” Footnotes mention Asahel Nettleton (1783-1844) as the possible originator of the tune.

Asahel Nettleton, by Samuel Lovett Waldo (1783-1861) & William Jewett (1789-1874) 

[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Though little-known today, Yale-graduate Nettleton was the Billy Graham of the 1820s, according to author and Pastor William P. Farley. This quiet and unassuming evangelist from Connecticut saw the advent of the telegraph and railroads, and the exploration of Lewis and Clark, all linchpins of our nation’s development. He also lived during the ebb and flow of the second Great Awakening of the 1790s through the 1830s (historians debate the actual dates). He died in 1844 at the age of 61. 

Robert Robinson, by Anonymous [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Stanzas 1 – 2 of the song are credited to English clergyman Robert Robinson in 1758 and stanza 3 to Martin Madan in 1760. Several variations of the stanzas exist, as well as a fourth and fifth verse, and the song rests today in the public domain.

It also rests in the corners of my memory, and thus wended its way onto the pages of my recent release, An Unexpected Redemption.

Redemption is the theme of “Come, Thou Fount,” and so it naturally flowed from my mind, through my fingers, and into the heart of Elizabeth (Betsy Parker) Beaumont. In the story, she credits her mother with teaching her the song, and perhaps I am that mother since I gave birth to the fictional Betsy and her impulsive nature.

Certain phrases thread through her struggle, such as,

“Streams of mercy, never ceasing,” 

“Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it, Mount of Thy redeeming love.” 

“Hither by Thy help I’m come; And I hope, by Thy good pleasure, 

Safely to arrive at home.” 

“Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it.”

Regardless of a few obsolete words from centuries past, these confessions can touch the core of a seeker, one who may have wondered on restless childish feet, coming at last to the merciful Fount.

One can certainly hope.

My most favorite rendition of this song is by the very modern David Crowder band that presents it with rich Old World flavor. It can be found here. Bypass the quick ad and listen with your eyes closed.

Let your heart be lifted.

And then let me know if there is an old hymn that has made its way across the years and into the corners of your memory.

~

Wife and mother of professional rodeo bullfighters, Davalynn Spencer writes cowboy romance. She is an ECPA and Publisher's Weekly bestselling author and winner of the Will Rogers Gold Medallion for Inspirational Western Fiction. And she’s fairly certain her previous career as a rodeo journalist and crime-beat reporter prepared her for life in Colorado, wrangling Blue the Cowdog and mouse detectors Annie and Oakley. Connect with her at http://davalynnspencer.com/ 

Shattered by her father’s fatal choice, naïve Betsy Parker elopes with a faithless beau who abandons her for the Dakota gold fields. After taking a job as a type-writer for a prestigious Denver law firm, she rebuffs the advances of a senior partner who fires her and sullies her character. In a desperate bid to redeem her reputation and independence, she returns home to face her toughest critics—the people she grew up with, a rugged lawman who threatens to steal her heart, and the one person unwilling to forgive her.

Portland, Maine’s First Capital

From Colonial days, Maine was part of the colony, and later the state, of Massachusetts. But the two locations were separated by land, industries, and by political leanings.

When Maine became a separate state on March 15, 1820, the city of Portland became its capital without opposition. It remained the capital until 1832, when the seat of government was moved to Augusta.

The present state house in Augusta, Maine. Photo by Terry Ross from Corpus Christi, Texas, United States (Maine State House) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

The first State House was a modest two-story Federal style building at the corner of Congress and Myrtle Streets in Portland. It served as Maine's State House until 1832 and was eventually destroyed in Portland’s Great Fire of 1866.

Portland is the largest city in Maine, located on the state’s southern coast. In 1832, the city was a stage coaching center, and its commercial fleet was the largest on the eastern seaboard.

Portland has an excellent sheltered harbor, and it became a shipping center for timber and other products. Fishermen also thrived there. Fishing fleets caught tons of cod, mackerel, haddock and herring, much of which was exported.

The Jenny Flood Kreger, one of the last large sailing ships built in Maine, launched in 1919.

In the early nineteenth century, the United States became the world’s second largest maritime nation. Maine businessmen owned one fifth of America’s merchant fleet. Maine experienced a boom in shipbuilding. Many clippers and coastal trading ships were built in the Maine shipyards.

Another sought-after product from Maine, and a renewable one, was ice. Every winter, Maine ships carried ice south. Often these ships would unload in the southeastern U.S. and pick up cotton to convey to British textile mills.

Ice harvest

Timber continued to be the most lucrative product of Maine for many years. It was needed for construction all over the nation and in other countries. The wood for many buildings, vessels, and railroad ties came from Maine forests.

In the book Portland by the Sea, Augustus F. Moulton said, “The growth of Maine at this time was and continued to be rapid. The census of 1830 showed an increase of more than one hundred thousand. The Eastern part, with its timber lands and ship building was especially prominent in the general development. As there were no railroads and few public conveyances, it was thought best after a few years to select some place nearer the geographical center of the state of the legislative sessions and the keeping of public records” (for the capital).

Several cities and towns were considered for the honor of becoming the state capitol, including Brunswick, Hallowell, Waterville, Belfast, Wiscasset and Augusta. 

In 1827, the Legislature selected Augusta as the new capital, and construction of a statehouse there was begun. The first session of the legislature was held there January 4, 1832, and Augusta became the permanent capital.

The city of Portland made repeated attempts over the years to have the capital moved back there, without success.

Portland, Moulton notes, “retained its priority as a port and as the principal business emporium of the state and kept upon its prosperous course with undiminished vigor.”

I'm excited to have a new Maine series launched, with three books now available. To enter the giveaway of the first book in the romantic suspense Maine Justice series, leave a comment with your contact information. If the selected winner has read book 1, The Priority Unit, he or she may choose the second book, Fort Point, or another of my books.

 
Susan Page Davis is the author of more than seventy published novels. She’s a two-time winner of the Inspirational Readers’ Choice Award, and also a winner of the Carol Award and two Will Rogers Medallions, and a finalist in the WILLA Awards and the More Than Magic Contest. A Maine native, she lived for a while in Oregon and now lives in Kentucky. Visit her website at: www.susanpagedavis.com , where you can sign up for her occasional newsletter and read a short story on her romance page.