Episodes

The Tape Family, The Morning Call (San Francisco, CA), November 23, 1892. (Library of Congress) “You have expended a lot of the Public money foolishly, all because of a one poor little Child. Her playmates is all Caucasians, ever since she could toddle around. If she is good enough to play with them! Then is she not good enough to be in the same room and studie with them? You had better come and see for yourselves. See if the Tape’s is not same as other Caucasians, except in features. It seems n...

*This episode discusses child abuse, human trafficking, and prostitution. A Mui Tsai in San Francisco (image credit: Stanford Special Collections / California State Library) “I was nineteen when this man came to my mother and said that in America there was a great deal of gold. Even if I just peeled potatoes there, he told my mother, I would earn seven or eight dollars a day, and if I was willing to do any work at all I would earn lots of money. He was a laundryman, but said he earned plenty of...

The story of large-scale Chinese immigration to the United States begins in the 1850s. Most came from Guangdong Province, wracked for decades by civil and economic unrest. Gam Saan, or “Gold Mountain,” held the promise of wealth that could enrich an entire village. When the Gold Rush subsided, Chinese men found work on the Transcontinental Railroad. They would build 90% of the Central Pacific Railroad, laying track in record time. However, while the Chinese were initially heralded for their indu...

In this final episode, Elinore gets an education in the Mormon practice of polygamy in the early 1900s. She also recounts her successes growing and raising food on her homestead. She definitely paints a rosy picture, rosier than the one we saw during the Women Homesteader's episode. Was that Elinore having a positive attitude, applying a positive spin, or something else? Maybe we can just say, Elinore being Elinore.

Image credit: James Owen on Unsplash I crossed a ravine with equal frequency, and all looked alike. It is not surprising that soon I could not guess where I was. We could turn back and retrace our tracks, but actual danger lay there; so it seemed wiser to push on, as there was, perhaps, no greater danger than discomfort ahead. The sun hung like a big red ball ready to drop into the hazy distance when we came clear of the buttes and down on to a broad plateau, on which grass grew plentifully. Th...

Sally Hemings’s Quarters (image credit: monticello.org) Someone On The Internet said, “Studying history will sometimes make you feel extremely angry. If studying history always makes you feel proud and happy, you probably aren’t studying history.” I must be doing it right! I had forgotten that Elinore was born and raised in the antebellum South, but she reminded me with her Christmas letter and racist party “game.” As I was trying to figure out a way out of recording it, I remembered why the ...

It is true, I want a great many things I haven’t got, but I don’t want them enough to be discontented and not enjoy the many blessings that are mine. I have my home among the blue mountains, my healthy, well-formed children, my clean, honest husband, my kind, gentle milk cows, my garden which I make myself. I have loads and loads of flowers which I tend myself. There are lots of chickens, turkeys, and pigs which are my own special care. I have some slow old gentle horses and an old wagon. I can ...

For decades, before they were forced onto reservations, Native Americans had friendly and even intimate contact with non-natives. But as settlements increased, so did the violence, and death. Eventually, the US government calculated that it was cheaper to kill the Indian way of life than to kill Indians.

Image credit: Adam Jahiel Photography Elinore continues her awe-inspiring descriptions of the Wyoming frontier. Her signature humor is also alive and well. This time, Elinore gets a little taste of cowboy living, and of cackle-berries. And though she doesn’t mention the race of the cowboys she meets, it is worth mentioning that at least one in five cowboys was African American. Two of the most famous were Nat Love and Bass Reeves, but there were hundreds of other black men who made their living...

“Miss Mary Longfellow holding down a claim west of Broken Bow, Nebraska” (image credit: nps.gov) “In about a week we had a cabin ready to move into. It had a dirt floor and dirt roof, but I tacked muslin overhead and put down lots of hay and spread a rag carpet on the floor. I put the tool chest, the trunks, the goods box made into a cupboard, and the beds all around the wall to hold down the carpet, as there was nothing to tack it to. The beds had curtains and there was a curtained alcove betwe...

image credit: goodreads Leatherstocking Tales, James Fenimore Cooper February, 1912 Dear Mrs. Coney,—…Soon we started again, and if not quite so jolly as we were before, at least we looked forward to our supper with a keen relish and the horses were urged faster than they otherwise would have been. The beautiful snow is rather depressing, however, when there is snow everywhere. The afternoon passed swiftly and the horses were becoming jaded. At four o’clock it was almost dark. We had been goin...

Rock Springs, Wyoming Railroad Depot Train Station (image credit: hippostcard.com) October 6, 1911 Dear Mrs. Coney, … Aggie was angry all through. She vowed she was being robbed. After she had berated me soundly for submitting so tamely, she flounced back to her own room, declaring she would get even with the robbers. I had to hurry like everything that night to get myself and Jerrine ready for the train, so I could spare no time for Aggie. She was not at the depot, and Jerrine and I had to go...

image credit: homesteader.org September 1, 1910 Dear Mrs. Coney, —It was just a few days after the birthday party and Mrs. O’Shaughnessy was with me again. We were down at the barn looking at some new pigs, when we heard the big corral gates swing shut, so we hastened out to see who it could be so late in the day. It was Zebbie. He had come on the stage to Burnt Fork and the driver had brought him on here…. There was so much to tell, and he whispered he had something to tell me privately, but ...

image credit: homesteader.org August 15, 1910. Dear Mrs. Coney,— … Grandma Edmonson’s birthday is the 30th of May, and Mrs. O’Shaughnessy suggested that we give her a party. I had never seen Grandma, but because of something that happened in her family years ago which a few narrow-heads whom it didn’t concern in the least cannot forgive or forget, I had heard much of her. The family consists of Grandma, Grandpa, and little Cora Belle, who is the sweetest little bud that ever bloomed upon the t...

image credit: homesteader.org “June 16, 1910 My Dear Friend, Your card just to hand. I wrote you some time ago telling you I had a confession to make and have had no letter since, so thought perhaps you were scared I had done something too bad to forgive. I am suffering just now from eye-strain and can’t see to write long at a time, but I reckon I had better confess and get it done with.” In this fourth episode in a multi-part series, Elinore shares big news with Mrs. Coney, her former employ...

Image credit: homestead.org November 22, 1909 My dear Friend,— I was dreadfully afraid that my last letter was too much for you and now I feel plumb guilty. I really don’t know how to write you, for I have to write so much to say so little, and now that my last letter made you sick I almost wish so many things didn’t happen to me, for I always want to tell you. Many things have happened since I last wrote, and Zebulon Pike is not done for by any means, but I guess I will tell you my newest ex...

Image Credit: N.C. Wyeth, Letters from a Homesteader September 28, 1909 Dear Mrs. Coney,— … it was still snowing, great, heavy flakes; they looked as large as dollars. I didn’t want to start “Jeems” until the snow stopped because I wanted him to leave a clear trail. I had sixteen loads for my gun and I reasoned that I could likely kill enough food to last twice that many days by being careful what I shot at. It just kept snowing, so at last I decided to take a little hunt and provide for the d...

Image Credit: Sweetwater County Historical Museum Burnt Fork, Wyoming April 18, 1909 Dear Mrs. Coney, … There is a saddle horse especially for me and a little shotgun with which I am to kill sage chickens. We are between two trout streams, so you can think of me as being happy when the snow is through melting and the water gets clear. We have the finest flock of Plymouth Rocks and get so many nice eggs. It sure seems fine to have all the cream I want after my town experiences. Jerrine is making...

Lick Creek Camp Dwellers, 1922 (Image credit: Library of Congress) “You know our rights under the Constitution, that no man should be condemned or jailed until we have had a free and impartial trial. We claim to be citizens of the United States and we ask for the rights of citizenship ; we claim to be loyal to our country, and we are loyal to our country, and all we ask is that we shall have our rights. We claim that we are citizens of the United States of America, according to the amendment to ...

Mother Jones addressing miners in Montgomery, WV Arms confiscated by National Guard on Paint Creek and Cabin Creek “Mother Jones was then about 80 years of age. Her hair was snow white, but she was yet full of fight. With that brand of oratorical fire that is only found in those who originate from Erin, she could permeate a group of strikers with more fight than any living human being. She fired them with enthusiasm, she burned them with criticism, then cried with them because of their abuses....

Trapper Boy, Turkey Knob Mine, Macdonald, W. Va. Image credit: Library of Congress “My first work in the mines was at Borderland, WV, and I was 13 years old. Back then, people think now, when you say you were 13 years old and start in the mines, they think something funny about it. Back then, there was no such thing as a social security card. All you had to do was be big enough to do a days work. I went to helping my Daddy on the track and I was kind of thin and he told me to put on extra pair o...

Image Credit: The Guardian John Robert Lewis was born on February 21, 1940, in Pike County, Alabama. As he learned during a filming of Finding Your Roots, his great-great-grandfather, Tobias Carter, registered to voted in 1867, 2 years after the abolition of slavery. But almost 100 years later, Lewis, his sharecropper parents, and thousands of other descendants of enslaved people were prevented from voting. Inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Montgomery bus boycott, Lewis organized...

“The Migrants Arrived in Great Numbers,” Jacob Lawrence Image credit: Museum of Modern Art “…the slave went free; stood a brief moment in the sun; then moved back again toward slavery.” — W.E.B. duBois The Civil War was supposed to mean the end of slavery and the beginning of freedom, franchise, and full citizenship for African Americans. And in the decades after the war, many blacks did make legislative, educational, and financial gains. But as we learned in the first episode of American Epis...

James Armistead Lafayette (image credit: Virginia Historical Society) “This is to certify that the bearer by the name of James has done essential services to me while I had the honor to command in this state. His intelligence from the enemy’s camp were industriously collected and most faithfully delivered. He perfectly acquitted himself with some important commissions I gave him and appears to me entitled to every reward his situation can admit of.” — Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, 17...