History is Not Dates

I have always loved history, ever since I was little. I tease my older brother that my origin story was when we were little and our mom was quizzing him for an upcoming test and one of the questions was "Who painted the Mona Lisa?". He at eight years old couldn't answer. My little four year old voice chimes in "Da Vinci!". I'm still chasing that high of dunking on my older brother.

I never had a lull in my love of history as a good many people do. The dates presented in school never intimidated me, as I mainly looked for the stories. Everyone loves a good story and what is better than a good true story? I believe that dates come after understanding the foundation of the story.

The reason I stuck with history is that I love discovering connections. Realizing that certain people were contemporaries like Edgar Allan Poe and Charles Dickens. Digging deeper and finding out that Poe's reputation as one of the harshest critiques of his era splashed onto Dickens but they remained mutually respectful, having met once in Philadelphia in 1842. Oh to be a fly on that wall, as we can only imagine what the two literary masters discussed since neither wrote down what they talked about. The reason I think it's hard to imagine the two as contemporaries is that Dickens had such a longer career than Poe, and a lot of his most famous works were written after Poe died. Knowing their stories helped me bring the dates into focus later which expanded their stories for me.

I am also excited by the through lines, of seeing how events effect one another and echo through later events. One example is until starting the TV series Victoria, I had never done the mental math of realizing she was George III's granddaughter, whose late in life madness was used against Victoria early in her reign by those who thought she was too young (and of course, a woman on top of that) to rule. She ended up fending them off, and her self confidence rose.

I also just started Mary Shelley by Miranda Seymour and for the first time learning much more about Mary Shelley's parents, anarchist William Godwin and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft. Both were deeply affected by the American and French Revolutions and their political philosophies while rubbing elbows with some of the literary greats of their time including Thomas Paine being present for the awkward tense first meeting of the eventual parents of the legendary novelist. Extraordinary people who made their own stamps on history as well as their daughter. At the same time, looking at these two figures of the Enlightenment shows how they processed world events and went back and forth on the thoughts of the day. Those events shaped Godwin and Wollstonecraft who in turn shaped Mary Shelley who created an entirely new genre of Science Fiction at the tender age of 18. Both Victoria's early reign and Mary Shelley's writing were effected by the eras before their birth. Again, knowing their stories helps to build out their era and then seeing how what came before effected their story.

The face of a woman who's constant thought is "shut the f*** up, I'm monarch and you aren't"

Another example is how Jesse Grant, father of future Civil War General and 18th US President Ulysses S Grant, was a leather tanner who as a young man apprenticed under Owen Brown, father of the infamous John Brown. Owen was a vocal abolitionist, passing on his religious fanaticism and views on the evils of slavery to his son. One can only imagine the dinner table conversations at the Brown house, since Jesse did become an abolitionist (although not a violent one as John became) While Ulysses was not vocal in opposition to slavery before the Civil War, he never had a taste for it and as president worked to pass the 14th and 15th amendments as well as crushing the first version of the KKK.

Grant hated putting on airs and was most comfortable in the grime of an honest days work. #relatable

I also am a believer that small anecdotes can help one quickly understand a historical figure. Mary Shelley's mother died soon after she was born, leaving Mary to navigate the older Mary's rather large shadow alone. Mary Shelley visited her mothers grave often and even lost her virginity to her husband Percy Shelley on said grave. Gotta love a Gothic Emo Queen staying on brand throughout her life.

Mary Shelly, thinking things and feeling feelings for all of us

Other anecdotes can show you the personality of someone. A young Grant was given $25 by his father to go buy a horse that Grant had been wanting for a while. One of the best horseman of his age, Grant was overly excited in negotiations and told the owner of the horse that he had $25 but had been told by his father to first offer $20 and only give the full $25 if the initial offer was rejected. The full $25 was given, and young Grant was chastised by his father. But older Grant thrived under pressure. Being surprised by Confederate forces at Pittsburgh Landing on the Tennessee river near Shiloh Church, Grant was pinned by the river but held his position. At the end of the first day of fighting, Grant's friend and right hand man General Sherman found Grant under a peach tree, smoking one of his signature cigars. "Well" Sherman said, "we've had the devil's own day haven't we?" Grant responded "Yes. But we'll lick em tomorrow though". Grant's reinforcements arrived in the night and early the next morning the fresh Union troops charged the tired Confederate troops, pushing them back to their base in Corinth, Mississippi. Conventional wisdom at the time would have had Grant retreat with his reinforcements, but his determination at following his orders of getting to Corinth held fast, just like his determination to get the horse when he was a child.

Other times anecdotes can make you rethink a figure in history. To return to Poe, his image as a frail, brooding man comes from the last year of his life, well into Life kicking his teeth in. The most famous photograph of Poe was taken just three days after an attempted suicide, and mere months before his mysterious death. Most of his life, Poe tried to present himself as a Virginia Gentleman, well groomed, dressed, educated and physically fit. At 16 Poe swam about 6 miles in the James River against the tide, an impressive physical feat even by todays standards. Poe only became sickly after decades of poverty and 12+ hour days of writing and editing fueled by gallons of coffee interspersed with tea.

If the "This is Fine" meme was a person
Poe in 1849

Now, of course sometimes the issue with anecdotes is that they end up being apocryphal at best and bull s*** at worst. Those stories tell you more about the public perception of the person than the actual living breathing human. That has it's own place, but is usually superficial. A prime example is George Washington and the Cherry Tree, a 100% made up story. When it was first written it was understood to be a folk tale but that nuance has been lost to time for most of the population. The story hides one of the most fascinating men in American history, an ambitious man who learned to temper his roiling emotions and came off as a tightly coiled spring with fiery eyes and a clenched jaw (and who was a hell of a dancer at parties being a graceful 6"2').

My main point is, don't let history intimidate you. It's full of wonderful human stories that sometimes get flattened to bullet points and dates in the classroom. History is the narrative humanity weaves from events of the past. It's why there are hundreds of books examining Abraham Lincoln over 160 years after his death. The complexity of the human condition allows for constant study and debate. History is alive, not stagnant, and can be constantly felt in the present. But that is for another post.

Look for the story. Until next time.

Angela B