History

Franklin_Roosevelt

Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Childhood and Education

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On January 30, 1882, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, named for his mother’s uncle Franklin Hughes Delano, [i] was born the only child of James Roosevelt and Sara Ann Delano in the Hudson Valley of Hyde Park, New York, at the Roosevelt estate that overlooked the Hudson River, seventy-five miles north of New York City. When his son was born, James Roosevelt wrote in Sara’s diary: “At quarter to nine my Sallie had a splendid large boy, but was unconscious when he was born. Baby weighs ten pounds without clothes.”[ii] For a moment, the family was in a tight spot. The mother and child came very close to dying, as the doctor administered too much chloroform due to Sara’s intense labor pains. Franklin was not breathing at birth.

Soon overcoming the birth issues, Roosevelt grew up healthily in a privileged family.  The estate had been in the family’s possession for one hundred years. Both his parents derived from very wealthy and old New York families of English descent. American businessman and horse-breeder, James Roosevelt I worked primarily in the coal and transportation businesses, and he served as vice president for the Delaware and Hudson Railway and also served as president for the Southern Railway Security Company. As the inheritor of a good bit of wealth and a man who held a distaste for the business world, he retired early to the family estate and focused on his health, which was not always well. His family was Dutch, first appearing in America in 1654. Sara Ann Delano was James Roosevelt’s second wife, and she devoted her life to caring for her son. Her family was Flemish and arrived in Massachusetts earlier than the Roosevelts appeared in New York. Their families had close ties over the years. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s parents were related long distance as sixth cousins.[iii]

At the Roosevelt estate, Franklin spend most of his time with his mother; he grew up in a very patriarchal household. Sara was very protective of her son, while James was relatively absent, although biographer James MacGregor Burns notes that he was more involved than many of his fellow fathers.[iv] Regardless, Roosevelt’s mother remained his primary caretaker and influencer for his formative years, neglecting other life and wife duties. Over the years, she formed what some may consider an unhealthy relationship with her son and grew jealous of anyone who held his attention. First and foremost, she wanted to be the most important person in his life and shunned away others, including family. Sara is cited as saying, “My son Franklin is a Delano, not a Roosevelt at all.”[v]

As many of his status, Franklin did not lack the benefits of his family’s privilege. As a five-year-old, Roosevelt visited the White House with his father where President Grover Cleveland told him, “I have one wish for you, little man, that you will never be president of the United States.” Little did President Cleveland know that Franklin would hold the record for the most terms in office. In the summers, Roosevelt and his mother spent their days in Fairhaven, Massachusetts, at the Delano Homestead, and every year, Roosevelt’s family would travel to Europe where he grew fluent in German and French and the family toured churches, museums, and palaces.[vi],[vii] During this time, Roosevelt began formulating opinions on other countries and their people. Franklin loved France, along with the people who lived there. On the other hand, he claimed that Germany and its citizens were rude and that they constantly said they were better than everyone else. There is a possibility that he inherited his opinions on Germany from his parents who thought that the people were “filthy … German swine.”[viii]

During his formative years, Roosevelt dabbled in many sports and hobbies. He learned to shoot, row, ride horses, and play lawn tennis and polo. In his teenage years, he took up golf and learned to sail.[ix] As befitting the son of a wealthy household, Roosevelt received a sailboat named New Moon from his father when he turned sixteen.[x] In his early childhood, Roosevelt received his education at home from private tutors. During this time, he learned varying amounts of French, German, and Spanish, as this was the time that his family traveled often.

Many young men began their boarding schools at twelve, but that idea made Sara incredibly nervous. When he reached the age that his mother considered appropriate, which was fourteen years old, Franklin enrolled in an Episcopal boarding school, Groton School, in Groton, Massachusetts, known as the “bastion of the elite,” and he learned alongside students from many other wealthy families.[xi] In fact, ninety percent of the attendees were on the social register, a United States document, now outdated, that provides a directory of prominent American families. The document includes members of the social elite who lived within the boundaries of the American upper class, those of “old money” who identify as White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPs).

Here at Groton, Franklin formed a bond with Endicott Peabody, the headmaster who encouraged Christians to engage public service and provide assistance to those less fortunate than them. He said, “If some Groton boys do not enter political life and do something for our land, it won’t be because they have not been urged.”[xii] Peabody was a champion of independent thought, stating that he held no opinions but instead upheld his beliefs, which he claimed were always true and beyond question.[xiii] Of Peabody, Roosevelt later said, “It was a blessing in my life to have the privilege of [his] guiding hand.”[xiv] He went as far as to write Peabody a letter after gaining presidency, saying, “For all that you have been and are to me I owe a debt of gratitude.”[xv] Peabody remained in Franklin’s life, serving as the officiate at his wedding and paying a visit to Roosevelt during his presidency.[xvi]

Although he formed a great bond with the headmaster, Franklin gained little attention while in school. The other students thought he was showy, too eager to gain teachers’ attentions. In an attempt to fit in, Franklin purposely garnered demerits in the classroom for small offenses, such as whispering during class time.[xvii] His best work was elsewhere, though. While Franklin did not excel in baseball, he stood out as an excellent manager, which helped his leadership skills flourish. In addition, he was a good orator, which allowed him to go far in the debating society. Peabody claimed that Roosevelt was “a quiet, satisfactory boy of more than ordinary intelligence, taking a good position in his form but not brilliant.”[xviii] Recalling little about him that stood out, another classmate said he was “nice, but completely colorless.”[xix] What others did notice was that Roosevelt was the only student who self-identified as a Democrat, which followed a family tradition.

Along with many of his classmates, Franklin began Harvard College in 1900 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, [xx] where he joined the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity[xxi] and the Fly Club,[xxii] along with the Signet Society and the Hasty Pudding Club. He majored in history and political science while in college but showed no express interest in college work itself, and often cut classes. In fact, he escaped out a window during one lecture and climbed down a fire escape while the professor had his attention elsewhere. Therefore, he kept a “gentleman’s C” in most classes, which means that he barely managed to pass. Just as at Groton, Roosevelt’s classmates at Harvard held various opinions on him. One of his cousins, Alice, said, “He was a good little mother’s boy whose friends were dull, who belonged to the minor clubs, and who never was at the really gay parties.”[xxiii] In light of such, Franklin had to earn his name elsewhere.

Roosevelt gained the titles of president and editor of The Harvard Crimson, Harvard’s daily newspaper, during his last year. In this position, he learned leadership and responsibility while developing a taste for ambition. The staff members said that he was “a king of frictionless command,” a trait that followed Roosevelt throughout the rest of his life.[xxiv]

Looking back on his classes, Roosevelt said, “I took economics courses in college for four years, and everything I was taught was wrong.”[xxv] He graduated in 1903 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history. In 1904, Roosevelt gained entry into Columbia Law School but decided to quit in 1907 after he passed the New York State Bar exam. In 1929, Franklin received an honorary LL.D. from Harvard,[xxvi] and he received a posthumous J.D. from Columbia Law School.[xxvii]

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[i] “Roosevelt’s Genealogy.” Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum. http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/archives/resources/genealogy.html. Accessed 19 June 2017.

[ii] Marrin, Albert. FDR and the American Crisis. 2015.

[iii] Burns, James MacGregor. Roosevelt. 1956.

[iv] Burns, James MacGregor. Roosevelt. 1956.

[v] Burns, James MacGregor. Roosevelt. 1956.

[vi] Smith, Jean Edward. FDR. 2007.

[vii] Marrin, Albert. FDR and the American Crisis. 2015.

[viii] Marrin, Albert. FDR and the American Crisis. 2015.

[ix] Smith, Jean Edward. FDR. 2007.

[x] Black, Conrad. Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Champion of Freedom. 2005.

[xi] Marrin, Albert. FDR and the American Crisis. 2015.

[xii] Marrin, Albert. FDR and the American Crisis. 2015.

[xiii] Marrin, Albert. FDR and the American Crisis. 2015.

[xiv] Burns, James MacGregor. Roosevelt. 1956.

[xv] Marrin, Albert. FDR and the American Crisis. 2015.

[xvi] Gunther, John. Roosevelt in Retrospect. 1950.

[xvii] Marrin, Albert. FDR and the American Crisis. 2015.

[xviii] Smith, Jean Edward. FDR. 2007.

[xix] Gunther, John. Roosevelt in Retrospect. 1950.

[xx] Gunther, John. Roosevelt in Retrospect. 1950.

[xxi] “Family of Wealth Gave Advantages.” New York Times. 13 April 1945. http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0130.html. Accessed 20 June 2017.

[xxii] Gunther, John. Roosevelt in Retrospect. 1950.

[xxiii] Marrin, Albert. FDR and the American Crisis. 2015.

[xxiv] Marrin, Albert. FDR and the American Crisis. 2015.

[xxv] Burns, James MacGregor. Roosevelt. 1956.

[xxvi] “Obama Joins List of Seven Presidents with Harvard Degrees.” Harvard Gazette. 6 November 2008. http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2008/11/obama-joins-list-of-seven-presidents-with-harvard-degrees/. Accessed 20 June 2017.

[xxvii] Kelly, Erin. “Presidents Roosevelt Awarded Posthumous J.D.s.” Columbia Law School. 25 September 2008. http://www.law.columbia.edu/media_inquiries/news_events/2008/september2008/roosevelt_jds. Accessed 20 June 2017.

Jackie_Kennedy

Jackie Kennedy’s Childhood and Early Education

On July 28, 1929, Jackie was born as Jacqueline Lee Bouvier in Southampton, New York, in Southampton Hospital. Her mother was Janet Norton Lee (1907 –1989), and her father was John Vernou “Black Jack” Bouvier III (1891 – 1957). Janet Norton Lee’s ancestry was of Irish descent, while John Vernou Bouvier III’s family hailed from France, Scotland, and England. Soon after her birth, Jacqueline was baptized at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola in Manhattan. A few years later in 1933, the Bouvier family welcomed a new member, Caroline Lee Bouvier, who would later be Caroline Lee Radziwill-Ross. Both sisters were reared strictly in the Catholic faith.

As a young child, Jackie was establishing her independence and quick wit, and it was noticeable to everyone who interacted with her. While on a walk with her nanny and little sister, Jackie wandered away from the small group. When a police officer stopped her, worried about a young girl alone, she told him, “My nurse and baby sister seem to be lost,” effectively displaying that she did not blame herself for the situation.[i] Her take-control attitude followed her throughout her entire life.

Jacqueline spent much of her early childhood between Manhattan and Lasata, which was the Bouviers’ country estate in East Hampton on Long Island. She and her father formed a very close relationship that often excluded her sister, Lee, much to the younger sister’s disappointment. John Vernou Bouvier III claimed that Jackie was the “most beautiful daughter a man ever had.”[ii]

In her childhood, Jacqueline dabbled in multiple hobbies, as many children do. She exceeded all expectations with her mastery of horseback-riding. In fact, her mother placed her on a horse when she was only one year old. By the time Jackie turned twelve years old, she had a few national championships under her belt. In 1940, The New York Times wrote, “Jacqueline Bouvier, an eleven-year-old equestrienne from Easy Hampton, Long Island, scored a double victory in the horsemanship competition. Miss Bouvier achieved a rare distinction. The occasions are few when a young rider wins both contests in the same show.”[iii] She continued to compete successfully in the sport and lived on as an avid equestrienne for the rest of her life.[iv]

She did not stop her hobbies at horseback-riding. Additionally, Jackie spent long hours buried in books, took ballet lessons, and developed a passion for learning languages. French was a particular favorite and was emphasized in her childhood education.[v] These developed language skills helped Jacqueline as she entered her husband’s political realm. Whereas John F. Kennedy often needed a translator in foreign countries and with foreign dignitaries, his wife could often speak their language fluently.

Before she even began school, young Jackie read all the books on her bookshelves. She loved Mowgli from Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, Little Lord Fauntleroy’s grandfather, Robin Hood, Scarlett O’Hara from Gone with the Wind, and the poetry of Lord Byron. Her mother often wondered if she would one day make a career of writing.[vi] Near a childhood Christmas, she penned the following poem:

“Christmas is coming

Santa Claus is near

Reindeer hooves will soon be drumming

On the roof tops loud and clear.”[vii]

Referring to reading as a child, Jackie said, “I lived in New York City until I was thirteen and spent the summers in the country. I hated dolls, loved horses and dogs, and had skinned knees and braces on my teeth for what must have seemed an interminable length of time to my family. I read a lot when I was little, much of which was too old for me. There were Chekhov and Shaw in the room where I had to take naps and I never slept but sat on the windowsill reading, then scrubbed the soles of my feet so the nurse would not see I had been out of bed.”[viii] Jacqueline had a thirst for learning, and she never quite quenched it.

After attending kindergarten, Jackie enrolled in Manhattan’s Chapin School in 1935. The Chapin School, an all-girls independent day school, presented a space for young Jackie to learn everything she needed to know from grades one to six.[ix] Although she was quite smart, Jackie often found herself in trouble at school. Her teacher said that she was “a darling child, the prettiest little girl, very clever, very artistic, and full of the devil.”[x] She was a very mischievous child and found herself sent to the headmistress, Miss Ethel Stringfellow, many times. Stringfellow wrote on Jacqueline’s report card: “Jacqueline was given a D in Form because her disturbing conduct in her geography class made it necessary to exclude her from the room.”[xi] Like most parents, Jackie’s mother made excuses for her daughter’s actions, saying that Jackie finished assignments early and acted out in boredom.[xii] Janet Bouvier once asked her daughter, “What happens when you’re sent to Miss Stringfellow?” Young Jackie replied, “Well, I go to the office and Miss Stringfellow says, ‘Jacqueline, sit down. I’ve heard bad reports about you.’ I sit down. Then Miss Stringfellow says a lot of things—but I don’t listen.” Cool and calm, she was unwilling to admit guilt.

Biographer Sarah Bradford says, “Jackie was already a rebel, unsubdued by the discipline at Miss Chapin’s. She was brighter than most of her classmates and would get through her work quickly, then was left with nothing to do but doodle and daydream. All the teachers interviewed by Mary Van Rensselaer Thayer twenty years later remembered her for her beauty and, above all, her mischief.”[xiii] Even then, Jackie was creating a name for herself. She would not be forgotten easily.

Nothing in Jackie’s life was smooth. Jacqueline’s father had a reputation for cheating on his wife and partaking in too much liquor too fast. By the time young Jackie was born, John Bouvier was involved in several affairs already. Jackie’s mother attempted to give the marriage another chance, encouraging her husband to focus on his job as a stockbroker, which had thus far produced no positive results.[xiv] She grew embittered with her husband and quickly realized she wanted out of the marriage. She still had her children to consider, though. It bothered Janet Bouvier to no end that her children obviously preferred their father’s company over hers. She had a tendency to overreact to situations and occasionally hit her girls, which only made them prefer their father even more.

In a 2013 interview, Lee, Jackie’s sister, said that her mother was too concerned with her “almost irrational social climbing,” but when referring to her father she said, “He was a wonderful man … He had such funny idiosyncrasies, like always wearing his black patent evening shoes with his swimming trunks. One thing which infuriates me is how he’s always labeled the drunk black prince. He was never drunk with me, though I’m sure he sometimes drank, due to my mother’s constant nagging. You would, and I would.”[xv]

During Jacqueline’s time at the Chapin School, her parents were experiencing another bout of marital issues. On top of her father’s extramarital affairs, he was also an alcoholic. To boot, the family drowned in financial instability after Wall Street crashed in 1929. Although her father built some of the most distinguished apartments on Park Avenue in New York, his loss of money was excessive. He made too many bad investments and did not spend well, in general. Jacqueline later said that she was afraid that her father would not be able to pay her tuition to school.

In 1936, Jacqueline’s parents separated and were granted a divorce four years later. Janet Bouvier hoped that the time apart—the separation—would show her husband that he needed to learn family responsibility. During their separation, the press published all the gory and intimate details of their personal lives. Detailed photographs showed evidence of John Bouvier’s dalliances, which embarrassed his wife no end.[xvi] Lee said, “There was such relentless bitterness on both sides. Jackie was really fortunate to have or acquire the ability to tune out, which she always kept … It was like for the years from ten to twenty never hearing anything [from your parents] except how awful the other one was.”[xvii]

Apparently, Jackie learned at a very young age how to conceal her true feelings. Her cousin John H. Davis said that she had a “tendency to withdraw frequently into a private world of her own.”[xviii] Although she was able to restrain her opinions as a younger woman and child, the truth of it all came out later: she was deeply affected by the divorce and the media attention that came along with it. For the rest of her life, Jackie would hate the press and would try at all costs to control the narrative they were printing. Often, she would seek journalists who would print what she wanted, such as Theodore White, the man who printed her story of Camelot she invented the week after her husband’s assassination.

Jacqueline’s mother remarried later to Hugh Dudley Auchincloss, Jr., the heir of Standard Oil.[xix] The Bouvier sisters had three new stepsiblings from the wedding, offspring of Auchincloss’ previous two marriages. Additionally, Jacqueline’s mother and Auchincloss had two more children together.

After the marriage, the Bouvier sisters moved their primary residence to Auchincloss’ Merrywood estate in McLean, Virginia. They also spent a good deal of time at their new stepfather’s other estate, Hammersmith Farm, in Newport, Rhode Island, and in their father’s homes in Long Island and New York City. Jackie began to see her stepfather as a source of stability; he was able to provide monetary funding and a pampered childhood, which her father could never do on quite as grand a scale. Although Jacqueline felt at home with her new family, she was a bit of an outcast within their new social circle. Many of her new family’s friends were white Anglo-Saxon protestants (WASPS), and her position as a Catholic left her as an outsider with her religion and her status as a child of divorce, which was an uncommon trait in the elite social group.[xx]

Jacqueline grew very fond of her stepfather, regardless of the issues of social anxiety and distance. At the age of twenty-three, she wrote a series of poems that highlighted things in her life made possible by her mother’s marriage to Auchincloss. In an introduction, she wrote: “It seems so hard to believe that you’ve been married ten years. I think they must have been the very best decade of your lives. At the start, in 1942, we all had other lives and we were seven people thrown together, so many little separate units that could have stayed that way. Now we are nine—and what you’ve given us and what we’ve shared has bound us all to each other for the rest of our lives.”[xxi] Jacqueline truly appreciated the stability granted to her by her mother’s divorce.

When Jackie finished six years at the Chapin School, she moved on to the Holton-Arms School in Northwest Washington, D.C., which she attended from 1942 to 1944. Here, she grew fond of Miss Helen Shearman, the Latin teacher. She claimed that the instructor was demanding, “But she was right. We were all lazy teenagers. Everything she taught me stuck, and though I hated to admit it, I adored Latin.”[xxii]

Jacqueline transferred to Miss Porter’s School, a boarding school for girls in Farmington, Connecticut, attending from 1944 to 1947. Along with a rigorous academic schedule, the school emphasized proper manners and the art of conversation. At Miss Porter’s Jacqueline felt she could distance herself from her mother’s new family, allowing her to pursue independence and college preparatory classes.[xxiii] Here, she began learning to function on her own, something she would have to do at various points in her life whether she wanted to do so or not.

Jackie did well at Miss Porter’s School. Upon graduation, Jacqueline was listed as one of the top students of her class; she received the Maria McKinney Memorial Award for Excellence in Literature.[xxiv] Her senior class yearbook claimed that she was known for “her wit, her accomplishment as a horsewoman, and her unwillingness to become a housewife.” She even wrote in the class yearbook under the Ambition in Life section: “Not to be a housewife,” but Jacqueline grew worried about her future prospects eventually.[xxv] She later wrote to a friend: “I just know no one will ever marry me and I’ll end up as a house mother at Farmington.”[xxvi]

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[i] Adler, Bill. The Eloquent Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis: A Portrait in Her Own Words. 2009.

[ii] Leaming, Barbara. Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis: The Untold Story. 2014.

[iii] “Life of Jacqueline B. Kennedy.” John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.” https://www.jfklibrary.org/JFK/Life-of-Jacqueline-B-Kennedy.aspx. Accessed 9 August 2017.

[iv] Tracy, Kathleen. The Everything Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Book: A Portrait of an American Icon. 2008.

[v] Tracy, Kathleen. The Everything Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Book: A Portrait of an American Icon. 2008.

[vi] “Life of Jacqueline B. Kennedy.” John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.” https://www.jfklibrary.org/JFK/Life-of-Jacqueline-B-Kennedy.aspx. Accessed 9 August 2017.

[vii] Adler, Bill. The Eloquent Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis: A Portrait in Her Own Words. 2009.

[viii] Adler, Bill. The Eloquent Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis: A Portrait in Her Own Words. 2009.

[ix] Pottker, Jan. Janet and Jackie: The Story of a Mother and Her Daughter, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. 2002.

[x] “Life of Jacqueline B. Kennedy.” John F. Kennedy: Presidential Library and Museum. https://www.jfklibrary.org/JFK/Life-of-Jacqueline-B-Kennedy.aspx. Accessed 24 July 2017.

[xi] “Life of Jacqueline B. Kennedy.” John F. Kennedy: Presidential Library and Museum. https://www.jfklibrary.org/JFK/Life-of-Jacqueline-B-Kennedy.aspx. Accessed 24 July 2017.

[xii] Harris, Bill. First Ladies Fact Book—Revised and Updated: The Childhoods, Courtships, Marriages, Campaigns, Accomplishments, and Legacies of Every First Lady from Martha Washington to Michelle Obama. 2012.

[xiii] Hunt, Amber, and David Batcher. Kennedy Wives: Triumph and Tragedy in America’s Most Public Family. 2014.

[xiv] Badrun Alam, Mohammed. Jackie Kennedy: Trailblazer. 2006.

[xv] Hunt, Amber, and David Batcher. Kennedy Wives: Triumph and Tragedy in America’s Most Public Family. 2014.

[xvi] Hunt, Amber, and David Batcher. Kennedy Wives: Triumph and Tragedy in America’s Most Public Family. 2014.

[xvii] Hunt, Amber, and David Batcher. Kennedy Wives: Triumph and Tragedy in America’s Most Public Family. 2014.

[xviii] McFadden, Robert D. “Death of a First Lady: Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Dies of Cancer at 64.” New York Times. 20 May 1994. http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0728.html. Accessed 24 July 2017.

[xix] Tracy, Kathleen. The Everything Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Book: A Portrait of an American Icon. 2008.

[xx] Pottker, Jan. Janet and Jackie: The Story of a Mother and Her Daughter, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. 2002.

[xxi] Adler, Bill. The Eloquent Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis: A Portrait in Her Own Words. 2009.

[xxii] Adler, Bill. The Eloquent Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis: A Portrait in Her Own Words. 2009.

[xxiii] Spoto, Donald. Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis: A Life. 2000.

[xxiv] Spoto, Donald. Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis: A Life. 2000.

[xxv] Adler, Bill. The Eloquent Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis: A Portrait in Her Own Words. 2009.

[xxvi] Adler, Bill. The Eloquent Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis: A Portrait in Her Own Words. 2009.

Egyptian_Mythology (1)

Apep: Great Snake of Chaos (Egyptian Mythology)

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There weren’t too many true monsters in Egyptian mythology, unlike the myths of many other cultures. The Norse had their Kraken and great wolf, Fenrir. The Greeks had their Scylla, Charybdis, Echidna, and Typhon. In Egypt’s lore, the only true monster was chaos which took the form of a giant snake. Its name was Apep (Apophis in Ancient Greek). We will look more closely at this creature in a moment.

Fearsome Gods of Egypt

Many of the gods of Egyptian mythology could, at times, be fearsome, but quite often it was to the enemies of Egypt (Kemet) or to those who had done great evil.

For instance, Am-heh, with a name that meant either “eater of eternity” or “devourer of millions,” had the head of a dog and body of a human, and lived on a lake of flame in the underworld. If you got on his bad side, no one but the god Atum-Ra could calm him down. But this was only another reason to live a good and righteous life.

Early in the history of the universe, Ra discovered that his mortal children—humans—had grown dissatisfied with peace and order. They wanted to overthrow Ra, the ruler of the universe, and were plotting to take his place. This deeply troubled Ra that his creation would be working with chaos to upend the order of things.

“What shall I do?” Ra asked of his fellow gods. “It’s all I and Sett can do to hold off Apep when I bring light to the world each day.”

“What should we do with anyone who threatens creation?” asked Hathor. “A criminal must be punished.”

“Or eliminated,” said Shu.

Ra brooded for a moment and finally nodded, turning to Hathor. “Do you have a suggestion?”

Hathor started to reply, but Tefnut spoke instead. “Hathor’s daughter, Sekhmet, could slaughter them. She seems well suited for that kind of task. As a lioness, she can hunt them down and devour them.”

Ra took a deep breath and said, “Sekhmet, come forth. I have need of your talents.”

The lion goddess moved forward to stand before Ra. “Yes, your eminence. How may I serve you?”

“The humans have become egocentric. Their selfishness threatens the very fabric of all creation. I want you to devour them all. Remove their kind from the world.”

“I understand, Lord Ra. But do you realize that once I start, the bloodlust will blind me to any other needs and plug my ears to any other requests?”

“I understand,” replied Ra. “Let it be done. Begin now.”

So, Sekhmet turned from the Ennead and all those gathered in attendance. She went out to the world at large and began slaughtering every human that she could find—man, woman, and child. With her claws, she slashed at their bodies, spilling their blood over everything. She would wallow in that blood and then drink it up. The carnage had begun.

The following day, as Ra moved the sun across the sky, with Sett at the prow of his barge to fend off Apep, he looked down at the world. From even there, he could hear the wailing. He could smell the fear and death.

“Tehuty?” said Ra, turning to the god of wisdom and knowledge. “What do you think of this thing that Sekhmet does below us?”

“While it is true that many of the humans were plotting to overthrow the gods, including you, my Lord, there were some who possessed righteous hearts. Certainly, those who held chaos in their hearts should be punished, but—”

“But you think it was wrong to kill them all.”

Tehuty nodded.

“And Maat? What do you say about all this?”

The goddess of order took several moments to gather her thoughts before speaking. She knew that quick words could create their own chaos. “My Lord, what you have started has its own wisdom. Certainly, the humans have now grown fearful of the gods and many have become repentant for their conspiracies. And I agree that a few were never so treasonous as to deserve such a painful death. If only there were some way to keep a few of the humans to see if the threat of extinction has made them sufficiently humble.”

“But how?” asked Ra. “Sekhmet said herself that she is unstoppable now that she has started drinking up the blood. Would it be valuable to save a few? They had such potential.”

Tehuty nodded. “Saving a few, my Lord, would be a good thing. How? Perhaps we could make Sekhmet drunk so that she would forget her bloodlust.”

Ra laughed and shook his head. “Brilliant suggestion, but how would you carry it out? I don’t see her slowing down to indulge in such things.”

“She seeks only blood,” said Sett. “Give her more blood.”

“Yes,” said Ra. “Make seven thousand jugs of beer. Thicken them and add a color to make them look much as blood. Then pour the beer onto the land before her so that she drinks it up instead of the blood.”

By the next day, the jugs of beer had been brewed, thickened, and colored. All of the gods helped to pour the red liquid before the rampaging Sekhmet. Sure enough, she stopped to drink it all and when she was done, she walked a few more paces and sleepily lay down to rest. When she awoke, Ra was there to give her a new command.

“My dearest Sekhmet,” said Ra.

“My Lord,” she replied, looking away as if burdened by a considerable guilt. “I feel my task is not yet complete.”

“But it is,” said Ra. “You have done well and I now need a few of the humans to remain alive so that they may learn humility from what you have accomplished.”

“I understand.”

And so, Sekhmet had become a scourge to humanity, but only for a brief while. Mankind had called her wrath upon itself.

The Meaning of Apep

Before creation, all was chaos—without form or purpose. This was known as Apep, and it took the form of a giant snake.

It was the job of the gods to dispel the darkness of chaos and to replace it with order and light.

Occasionally, Sett would become overwhelmed while attending to the prow on Ra’s barge. Apep would attempt to swallow the sun, blotting out its light, but always Sett would regain control of the situation, repel Apep and restore the light of the sun.

In the world of reason and science, we know that the “swallowing” of the sun was merely an occurrence of a solar eclipse by the Moon. The order of our physical universe is merely the result of physical law’s constancy and continuity.

Throughout Egyptian history, the pharaohs were agents of the sun in dispelling the chaos of the uncivilized folk who were always attempting to invade their lands. In many ways, those uncivilized people were agents of Apep, destroying the order of things. Thus, all of the Egyptian gods were monsters to the enemies of Kemet and to the instruments of Apep.

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Haitian_Revolution

The Wealth from Saint-Domingue

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Saint-Domingue covered the entire island. Prior to the Treaty of Ryswick that was made in 1697, the island had been a Spanish colony called Hispaniola. Following the treaty, the Spanish recognized France’s claim on the western third of the island. The French had occupied this portion of the island for most of the century, so their system was already established by the time they were considered the rightful owners of the territory. This was part of the reason for the booming success of the territory that came to be known as Saint-Domingue.

Over the next 100 years, the French brought in approximately 800,000 slaves from Africa. The colonists quickly turned to cruel and torturous methods of intimidating their new slaves. As the French turned to increasingly more barbaric methods of controlling their slaves, their slaves became increasingly desperate for change. Most of the 18th century saw small revolts and conspiracies that sought to establish small pockets of freedom. These failed largely because the slaves were not as organized as the slave holders.

As colonists felt they had adequate control over their slaves, they were able to turn the fertile lands into a highly profitable colony for France. Before the Slave Rebellion of 1791, the French colony of Saint-Domingue shared the status of top sugar exporter in the world with Jamaica. As a result of the increasing prosperity and potential of the small island, the capital was moved to the port tow Port-au-Prince on the western side of the island. This allowed for a better flow of transportation and slaves to and from the island.

While sugar was the top export from most of the Caribbean islands, Saint-Domingue was also a source of other high-value exports, particularly coffee and cotton. The rich soil and generally favorable environment for growing crops made it ideal for growing a wide range of products that were difficult to grow on other continents.

However, the agricultural boom had several detrimental factors that helped set up a society that could not be perpetuated. The high demand for labor to retain the status as a jewel among colonies was done on the backs of countless slaves. As one of the most profitable colonies, and certainly the most profitable of the French colonies, the idea of freeing the slaves was not something that the monarchy would consider.

The cruelty and refusal to recognize the humanity of the slaves coupled with the extreme imbalance in the slave-to-colonist ratio resulted in King Louis the XIV becoming so distressed by the savage abuse of the slaves that he enacted the Code Noir in 1685. The code was meant to keep slave owners from the worst kinds of violence that had started to become prevalent at the time. Even though the slaves were considered property, Louis XIV did not see the brutality of the colonists as being justified, or morally acceptable.

Despite the Code Noir, slave owners felt justified that their actions were vindicated by the potential threat of a slave rebellion. Over the next 100 years, their violent treatment of the slaves only grew worse.

Guillaume Raynal was one of the most vocal about the inevitability of an uprising because of the inhumane cruelty of the colonists. As one of the most revered French Enlightenment philosophers of his time, Raynal understood that the slaves were humans who would only endure so much before they would reach a breaking point. He issued a prophetic warning more than ten years before the famous French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen: “The Africans only want a chief, sufficiently courageous, to lead them on to vengeance and slaughter.” While the French were able to see their own oppression under the French monarchy, they could not extend the same ideology to the slaves that they oppressed and abused. The only part of Raynal’s warning that the colonists heeded was the threat of the unified slaves. Instead of modifying their behaviors for the better, the slave masters became crueler, seeking to break the spirits of their slaves. Instead of creating the desired abject fear of their masters, this increased brutality created a greater sense of resolve and rebellion within the slaves.

As Raynal predicted, the slaves would rebel. However, the irony behind the rebellion was that it was triggered by the French Revolution. The ideals and espoused beliefs of the French Revolution resonated with the slaves, but it was the brutality of the oppressed French population under the monarchy that seems to have inspired the slaves into creating a strategic rebellion.

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Franklin_Roosevelt

Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Second Term in Presidency

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One of the largest differences in transition from Roosevelt’s first term to his second is his major loss of focus on legislation. Of course, the New Deal policies still ticked away in the background, though. Franklin passed the Housing Act of 1937, which provided subsidized housing to low-income families, and the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which created a standard minimum wage. These two social acts helped raise the standard of living for families living in poverty, and Franklin’s popularity in marginalized communities grew rapidly.

Instead of focusing heavily on legislation, Franklin placed his primary interests on the Supreme Court after the court unanimously ruled in 1935 that the National Recovery Act was unconstitutional. In 1937, he proposed a law that would allow him to appoint six new justices. He said he wanted a “persistent infusion of new blood.”[i] This plan would give the president a large amount of control over the court, so it was opposed heavily by Franklin’s own political party. Franklin pummeled through opposition and appointed seven out of the nine justices of the court by 1941, thereby altering the composition of the court. After this change, his policies flowed through the Supreme Court easily.[ii]

Additionally, the composition of Franklin’s support system altered, though not by his own choice. During his earlier years in presidency, Roosevelt had the backing of labor unions, but they split into the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, two distinct factions that feuded heavily. In their feuding, they had less time and attention to spend on promoting Roosevelt’s agenda. They were too worried about the other labor organizations. Annoyed, Franklin cast a “plague on both [their] houses.”[iii] The Labor Party became too disorganized to provide support for Roosevelt in the 1938 through 1946 elections.

In addition to these issues, Roosevelt found that he must deal with the conservative, southern Democrats in Congress, who opposed his leadership. Therefore, Franklin played a hand in the 1938 Democratic primaries and actively campaigned for people who supported the New Deal reforms. This plan did not go as expected. In the end, he defeated only one target.[iv] By the end of Congressional elections in 1938, Congress was full of conservatives, and many of them thought Franklin was “aiming at a dictatorship.”[v] Historian Chadberg noted: “Conservative Democrats held the balance of power between liberals and Republicans, and they used it to prevent completion of the structure of the Second New Deal.”[vi] In light of this idea, it is no wonder that Roosevelt felt his power was slipping.

In his early years in government, Franklin made a plan. He predicted during the 1932 campaign, “I’ll be in the White House for eight years. When those years are over, there’ll be a Progressive party. It may not be Democratic, but it will be Progressive.” For the most part, it seemed as if Roosevelt’s premonition had come true. His partners in leadership positions within the White House were not the expected, but progressivism was the normed pathway, nonetheless.

Not only was Franklin’s second term difficult in regard to his home country, but foreign policy was falling over the edge. On the cusp of war, the United States of America was watching the progress of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler. To his cousin, Daisy Suckley, Franklin D. Roosevelt wrote: “The news from Germany is bad and though my official people all tell me there is no danger of actual war I always remember their saying the same things in July 1914.”[vii] Adolf Hitler’s German foreign policy had begun to arouse fears of a new world war in 1933, and the United States wanted desperately to remain separated from the issue, continuing the ideology behind isolationism. In 1937, Congress went as far as to pass the Neutrality Act, but Roosevelt found ways to assist China when they were invaded by Japan; he planned a program to build long-range submarines that would blockade Japan.[viii][ix] Again writing to his cousin, Roosevelt said: “Did you hear Hitler today, his shrieks, his histrionics, and the effect on the huge audience? They did not applaud—they made noises like animals.”[x] According to these words, Roosevelt was moved by Hitler’s tactics, not in a way that inspired but rather in a way that brought a queasy illness to his stomach.

During this same time, Franklin prepared his 1937 Quarantine Speech in which he proposed that the world should treat warmongering states and countries as threats to public health and, therefore, should be quarantined. Franklin was very devoted to his isolationist policies and confirmed that the United States would remain neutral if Germany invaded Czechoslovakia, but in 1939 he allowed France to order American aircrafts on a cash-and-carry basis, therefore breaking that pact. When France fell, he ordered that the aircrafts be sold to Great Britain. The isolationist policy was beginning to waver.

Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, thus beginning World War II. At this point, Roosevelt saw fit to reject neutrality and began to determine ways in which he could provide relief to the French and British. He could no longer stand idly by and watch the world fall apart. Germany invaded Denmark and Norway in April 1940 with the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France soon following in May. These actions left Britain separated from the rest of western Europe. At this point, public opinion in America was shifty in regard to World War II, and Franklin planned to take advantage of the turmoil, doing all he could to provide aid for Britain.

The president began preparing a game strategy as for what would happen over the next few years. Roosevelt started by appointing interventionist Republican leaders Henry L. Stimson as Secretary of War and Frank Knox as Secretary of the Navy. With these two men in leadership, the country began to build its military quickly and efficiently. Some people did not follow or agree with Roosevelt’s plans to instill an active part in the next Great War. American isolationists—both individuals such as Charles Lindberg and groups such as America First—referred to the president as an irresponsible warmonger and attacked his decisions in his capacity as the president of the United States. Still notorious for his fireside chats, Roosevelt told his listeners that the United States should be the “Arsenal of Democracy.”[xi] Soon after, he delivered his Four Freedoms speech, which clearly outlined his ideas of the American defense of basic rights. Listeners sat by their radios, taking in the news that Franklin handed them. They heard him detail World War II and America’s reaction; they heard him explain his decisions.

Franklin violated the Neutrality Acts on September 2, 1940 when he passed the Destroyers for Bases Agreement and handed over fifty World War I American destroyers—long-endurance Navy warships—to Britain. In this pact, the United States in return received military base rights in the British Caribbean Islands, Bermuda, and Newfoundland. Later, the United States and Britain would form the Lend-Lease agreement, signed in the United States as the Lend-Lease Act in March 1941, which allowed for the United States to send aid to Britain without expectation of immediate payment. Unfortunately, Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini responded by creating the Tripartite Pact with Japan, which allowed for a defensive military alliance among the three countries.[xii]

In the midst of the Second World War, Roosevelt was running for a third term as president, although the two-term presidency tradition had been an unwritten rule since 1796 when George Washington refused to run for a third term. Franklin sent a message to the Democratic National Convention, saying that he would run for president again only if he were drafted to do so. Of course, he was drafted to do so, by use of his own hand. Cleverly, he maintained support from the people who controlled the auditorium’s sound system; therefore, when everyone gathered together to discuss the upcoming election, the loudspeaker claimed, “We want Roosevelt … The world wants Roosevelt!” He was nominated 946 to 147.

In his 1940 campaign against Republican Wendell Willkie, Franklin D. Roosevelt focused on his experience in the White House, citing his ability to keep the United States from directly fighting in the war. Although this idea would later alter, of course, he won the popular and electoral vote.

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References

[i] Pusey, Merlo J. “FDR vs. The Supreme Court.” American Heritage Magazine. April 1958. https://web.archive.org/web/20060507103227/http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1958/3/1958_3_24.shtml. Accessed 26 June 2017.

[ii] Leuchtenburg, William E. Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal, 1932 – 1840. 1963.

[iii] Pederson, William D. A Companion to Franklin D. Roosevelt. 2011.

[iv] Leuchtenburg, William E. Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal, 1932 – 1840. 1963.

[v] Brogan, Hugh. The Penguin History of the United States of America. 2001.

[vi] Goldberg, Chad Alan. Citizens and Paupers: Relief, Rights, and Race, from the Freedmen’s Bureau to Workfare. 2007.

[vii] Berthon, Simon and Joanna Potts. Warlord: An Extraordinary Re-creation of World War II Through the Eyes and Minds of Hitler, Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin. 2007.

[viii] Dallek, Robert. Franklin D. Roosevelt and American Foreign Policy, 1932 – 1945. 1995.

[ix] Millett, Allan Reed, and Williamson Murray. A War to Be Won: Fighting the Second World War. 2001.

[x] Berthon, Simon and Joanna Potts. Warlord: An Extraordinary Re-creation of World War II Through the Eyes and Minds of Hitler, Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin. 2007.

[xi] Roosevelt, Franklin D. “Fireside Chats.” The American Presidency Project. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/fireside.php. Accessed 27 June 2017.

[xii] Burns, James MacGregor. Roosevelt. 1956.

Winston_Churchill (1)

Winston Churchill’s Personal Life

Often, people feel they know much about Winston Churchill as a servant to his country from easily attained and general information, but they know little about Churchill’s personal life. Churchill was a husband, a father, a painter, and a historian, among many other things. While he also maintains the status of a war hero and prime minister, he was much more in life. His aspirations and desires were a large part of who he was and how he attained his goals.

An important part of every story lies within the family unit. In 1904, Winston attended a ball in Crewe House—the home of the Earl of Crewe and his wife, Margaret Primrose—where he met Clementine Hozier, the granddaughter of the 10th Earl of Airlie.[i] In 1908, they found themselves drawn together at another event, hosted by Lady St. Helier. Imaginably, they were instantly compatible because Churchill proposed to Clementine Hozier at Blenheim Palace, his childhood home, later that year, and they married shortly after.[ii]

Over the course of their marriage, Winston and Clementine Churchill had five children: Diana, Randolph, Sarah, Marigold Frances, and Mary. Unfortunately, Marigold grew fatally ill just short of three years after she was born, and the family buried her in the Kensal Green Cemetery.[iii] Their other children did not suffer the same fate but provided very interesting personalities and habits which the Churchills had to accommodate on very individual levels. Diana was rather flippant and brought her parents great duress. After two failed marriages and three children, Diana committed suicide in 1963. Randolph, after failing to enter parliament several times, finally found acceptance as a Conservative member of parliament for Preston between 1940 and 1945 and continued to become a successful journalist who began Winston S. Churchill’s official biography in the 1960s.[iv] Like his sister, Randolph had two unsuccessful marriages. Additionally, he had two children. Sarah took a career in dramatics, which worked well for a while, but she had the same luck with her love life as her siblings in that she entered two marriages, which ultimately failed, and was then widowed after a third marriage. Mary was the only child who caused her parents little worry or grief. She provided heavy support for them both, especially her mother. Mary’s husband, Christopher Soames, was an Assistant Military Attaché in Paris who later found success in parliament. They had five children, and Nicholas, the eldest, was a prominent member of the Conservative Party in his own time.

Although they spent long periods of time apart from one another, Winston and Clementine Churchill maintained a successful marriage, or, rather, as successful as most long marriages prove, generally. As all couples, they had their faults, fights, and failings. In one instance, Clementine hurled a dish of spinach at Churchill, which reportedly missed and splattered behind him. Additionally, she never quite forgave Churchill for buying Chartwell without expressly involving her in the purchase decision, and she brought up her resentment from time to time with a bitter grudge. As stated by Churchill College at Cambridge, “Clementine was high principled and high strung; Winston was stubborn and ambitious,” a volatile combination of personality traits within a married couple.[v]

Churchill spent a good portion of time away from his family, both on business and on holiday. It was a well-known fact that Winston Churchill put work first, but he was devoted to his children, regardless, although he enjoyed spending time abroad with friends and acquaintances much more than his wife and left his children at home; Clementine Churchill often “found the company tedious” and refused to accompany him.[vi] Occasionally, the family would take holidays together, but more often than not, they began taking vacations apart. Churchill holidayed with regularity, visiting wealthy friends in the Mediterranean and cruising with Aristotle Onassis, Greek millionaire ship-owner.[vii] In all, they took eight cruises together. Once when they passed through the Dardanelles, Onassis instructed his crew to pass quietly and during the night so as to avoid drudging up Churchill’s bad members of the location.

Winston Churchill’s close friends included Professor Lindemann, along with Birkenhead, Beaverbrook, and Bracke—cheerfully dubbed “the three Bs”—of whom Clementine Churchill was never particularly fond. Although Clementine did not often travel with Churchill, the two entertained often as a couple, and their guests included the likes of Charlie Chaplin, Albert Einstein, and Lawrence of Arabia.

In addition to entertaining both his friends and family members, Winston Churchill engaged quite a few personal hobbies. As an amateur artist, Churchill enjoyed painting and employed a special gusto after resigning in 1915 as First Lord of the Admiralty.[viii] Paul Maze, a friend of Churchill’s whom he met in World War I, taught him to paint early during Churchill’s career while providing both companionship and influence. Throughout his painting career, Churchill’s skills grew stronger. Churchill is particularly known for his impressionist landscape paintings, and he composed many of these works of art while on holiday in Egypt, Morocco, or the South of France. Not wanting to paint under his own title, Churchill utilized the name “Charles Morin” as a pseudonym and reached the point where he rarely left his home without his painting supplies. Any time he traveled, he tried to slip away for a few moments so that he could spend time with his paints and canvas. Even when Churchill was touring France’s Maginot Line in 1939, he still managed to paint with his friends near Dreux.[ix]

Painting was only one of many hobbies Winston employed to pass his free time. Maybe unexpectedly, one of Churchill’s greatest vices was a slight gambling addiction, and he lost a small fortune when the American stock market crashed in 1929. Although he maintained a famous name and arose from an upper-class family, Churchill did not believe his income supported his established lifestyle, and the 1929 crash didn’t help cushion his ever-slimming pockets. Churchill’s income while out of office arrived primarily from book sales and opinion pieces; therefore, he wrote often and well. Winston Churchill has a small library under his name, which includes a novel, two biographies, three volumes of memoirs, and several historical works. In 1953, he gained the Nobel Prize for Literature, and two of his most famous works brought international fame: The Second World War, his six-volume memoir, and A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, a four-volume history covering the period from Caesar’s invasions of Britain to the beginning of World War I. Additionally, many of Churchill’s speeches are in print, such as Into Battle, published in the United States under Blood, Sweat, and Tears, which Life Magazine included as one of the 100 most astounding books published between 1924 and 1944.[x]

In his spare time at home, Churchill also constructed buildings and garden walls at his house in Chartwell. A few major works he undertook at the country home were building a dam, a swimming pool, and a red brick wall to surround the vegetable garden, as well as retiling a cottage at the end of his garden. In addition to these home improvements, Churchill bought an adjoining farm in 1946 and took up farming.[xi] On the side, he also bred butterflies, an interest left over from his time in India.[xii] Moreover, Churchill found great interest in science and technology, delving into a stint of writing popular-science essays on evolution and fusion power. In Are We Alone in the Universe?, a mostly forgotten piece of writing, Churchill investigated in an unpublished manuscript the possibility of extraterrestrial life.

To top it all off, Churchill began dabbling in horse-racing in 1949 and took advice from his son-in-law, Christopher Soames, on his first purchase, a three-year-old gray colt named Colonist II, the first of many thoroughbreds. In 1950, Churchill was initiated into the Jockey Club, which much pleased him.[xiii]

All in all, Winston S. Churchill had a personal life full of odds-and-ends hobbies, similar to that of any common person. Historians pay close attention to his feats and follies, hoping to gain more insight into the mind of Winston Churchill, the fascinating man who left his mark on history in a way unlike any other. Churchill was a normal man, too, though. He cared for his family, enjoyed the small things in life, and felt that his efforts could be used in many ways.

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References

[i] “Sir Winston Churchill: A Chronology.” Churchill College, Cambridge. https://www.chu.cam.ac.uk/archives/collections/churchill-papers/churchill-biography/. Accessed 22 May 2017.

[ii] Soames, Mary. Speaking for Themselves: The Private Letters of Sir Winston and Lady Churchill. 1999.

[iii] Soames, Mary. Speaking for Themselves: The Private Letters of Sir Winston and Lady Churchill. 1999.

[iv] “Sir Winston Churchill: A Chronology.” Churchill College, Cambridge. https://www.chu.cam.ac.uk/archives/collections/churchill-papers/churchill-biography/. Accessed 22 May 2017.

[v] “Sir Winston Churchill: A Chronology.” Churchill College, Cambridge. https://www.chu.cam.ac.uk/archives/collections/churchill-papers/churchill-biography/. Accessed 22 May 2017.

[vi] Soames, Mary. Speaking for Themselves: The Private Letters of Sir Winston and Lady Churchill. 1999.

[vii] “Sir Winston Churchill: A Chronology.” Churchill College, Cambridge. https://www.chu.cam.ac.uk/archives/collections/churchill-papers/churchill-biography/. Accessed 22 May 2017.

[viii] Jenkins, Roy. Churchill: A Biography. 2011.

[ix] “Sir Winston Churchill: A Chronology.” Churchill College, Cambridge. https://www.chu.cam.ac.uk/archives/collections/churchill-papers/churchill-biography/. Accessed 22 May 2017.

[x] Canby, Henry Seidel, and editors. “The 100 Outstanding Books of 1924-1944.” Life. August 1944.

[xi] “Sir Winston Churchill: A Chronology.” Churchill College, Cambridge. https://www.chu.cam.ac.uk/archives/collections/churchill-papers/churchill-biography/. Accessed 22 May 2017.

[xii] Wainright, Martin. “Winston Churchill’s Butterfly House Brought Back to Life.” The Guardian. August 2010. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2010/aug/19/winston-churchill-butterfly. Accessed 22 May 2017.

[xiii] “Sir Winston Churchill: A Chronology.” Churchill College, Cambridge. https://www.chu.cam.ac.uk/archives/collections/churchill-papers/churchill-biography/. Accessed 22 May 2017.

Churchill and Roosevelt

Winston S. Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Friendship

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When the British settlers landed on the shores of North America, a palpable tension filled the world. At the time, it was unrecognized. Once again, Britain had founded a colony in a “new land.” For a while, things went well. People brought new ideas, new foods, and new exportable goods into the colonies and shipped them back to their homeland. Trade boomed. As more and more people were born in North America, though, a feeling of unrest developed. The people who claimed British heritage but had never seen the Isles and the people who remained in Britain grew further and further apart as time progressed; their methods of exchange altered, and the people themselves developed new ideals that did not quite match their relatives across the Atlantic Ocean. As time progressed, the two peoples became completely separate entities. Indeed, they referred to the war between their peoples by two different names: the British referred to it as the War for American Independence, while the people who transformed into Americans called the same period the Revolutionary War. Each of these names represents how the nations interacted with the war—one gained independence and one lost a large chunk of citizens.

This historical background sets up an interesting dynamic between the two nations. For a while, the two nations acted as children, peering at one another to make sure nothing would happen next to upset their precarious balance, although Britain remained one of the United States’ largest trading partners. Over time, they grew less wary and formed a rocky friendship, somewhat out of necessity. Of course, the leaders of both countries had to work with one another. They continued to find great economic benefits in trade and commerce. Technology was on the brink of exploding, and both countries were eager to host the newest trends. Therefore, they began working together in various ways.

Perhaps the most representative of the alliance between Great Britain and the United States of America is the dynamic duo that led their respective nations during World War II: Franklin Delano Roosevelt (30 January 1882 – 12 April 1945) and Winston S. Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965). In fact, their political relationship is one of the most famous and well-celebrated alliances in history. Franklin D. Roosevelt, or FDR, served as president of the United States for three full terms and part of a fourth from March 4, 1933 – April 12, 1945. Serving in much the same capacity, Winston S. Churchill was the prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. As evidenced by their dates in office, both leaders were strapped in government right in the middle of the World War II crisis.

Through no small effort, Roosevelt and Churchill, leaders of the “Greatest Generation,” pulled their two countries together to defeat the powers rising against them. Along with Joseph Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union, they formed the Big Three, or the Grand Alliance, of World War II. Often called the Strange Alliance, this group of three men united their nations, which consisted of the world’s greatest capitalist state, the world’s greatest colonial power, and the world’s greatest communist state. For all the sense it made, the group never should have formed. They believed in none of the same principles but were united toward one common cause: defeating the Axis Powers.

At this time, Germany, Italy, and Imperial Japan threatened not only Britain but also the entirety of Europe and much of Asia. Churchill spent much of his time trying to convince the United States to join the war. He sent numerous missives to Roosevelt, telling him that the time had come to take up arms and that waiting would surely bring only terrible outcomes. Wary, FDR began gathering supplies, but he did not commit to war. The United States had a commitment to neutrality, although they continued trading with the United Kingdom. Therefore, they remained out of the war until the Imperial Japanese Navy attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. At that point, there was no return. Churchill is cited as saying that he was thankful for the attack, as that blast was what finally pushed Roosevelt to join him in a united front against invading powers. Churchill said America was “up to the neck and in to the death.”

While working together, the Big Three faced many hardships within their relationships with one another. Obviously, Roosevelt and Stalin each opposed the other’s ideological beliefs. Their nations ran under extremely different rules and beliefs. Of course, the Soviets still remembered the United States’ participation in the Russian Civil War and held a hefty bit of bitterness. Additionally, the United States for a long while refused to acknowledge the Soviet Union as a legitimate state, which only fueled their distaste. Therefore, Churchill often played the middle man. He was the one who encouraged the United States to provide aid for the Soviet Union. Without him, there likely would have been no alliance between Roosevelt and Stalin.

In fact, Roosevelt and Churchill worked together so often that they formed a close friendship that led to excellent working relations between them. Of course, they had their normal skirmishes, but they were fast friends for the most part, which was crucial to their efforts to diminish the Axis Powers. After a meeting, Roosevelt told Churchill, “It is fun to be in the same decade as you.” This friendship was cemented on December 24, 1941 when Churchill visited the White House. Standing beside Churchill, Roosevelt said, “And so I am asking my associate, [and] my old and good friend, to say a word to the people of America, old and young tonight—Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of Great Britain.”

From the words of Churchill, the relationship between the United Kingdom and the United States was a “special relationship” that was rather unique in light of the world’s international politics. Once enemies, the two nations were bound to work together to defeat a new common enemy. From two countries that functioned in very different manners, the two men did not have a great amount in common when it came to politics. Roosevelt was the president of a democracy that voted for each leader in political office, while Churchill was the prime minister for a country led by a constitutional monarchy. Roosevelt was the decision maker in the highest position. Churchill served the monarch, although he was in the highest voted position. Altogether, the two leaders spent around 113 days together during the war and exchanged almost two thousand messages.

Although they were worlds apart politically, the two men were closer in rank in regard to other roles they played in their lives. They both arose from elite families and chose to study history during their academic careers, and both desired power to a fault. During their childhoods, both men were dismissed as lesser than other students. They both began gaining more feats as they grew into adulthood, climbing political ranks and meeting important people. Perhaps the saddest comparison is that both men tended to abandon their families to pursue their goals in politics. Both had wives and children but chose to spend much of their time in the company of others. Some historians claim Churchill and Roosevelt knew each other better than they knew their own families.

The two men went beyond a political partnership—they were friendly in the way one is with a close neighbor they have known for forty years. Roosevelt and Churchill sent each other gifts and holiday cards and told each other when major events happened with their families and personal lives. They got along relatively well as they laughed, smoked, talked, and drank together. While in the same space, they stayed up long nights, scheming and discussing plans for the future. Of Winston Churchill, Eleanor Roosevelt said, “I was solicitous for his comfort, but I was always glad when he departed, for I knew that my husband would need a rest, since he had carried his usual hours of work in addition to the unusual ones Mr. Churchill preferred.” Both men were filled with determination and a sheer power of will.

Although they were from very different places, Churchill and Roosevelt held some of the same key views on how to go about creating a peace in the world. They decided to agree on the following points: their personal relationship was crucial to winning World War II, the Soviet Union would play a role in the postwar world, a bombing campaign was essential, Germany and Japan would fall, their loyalties were to their own nations and their interests, and the long-term value of the United Nations was doubtful. On the other hand, they held some major points of disagreement, as well. The two men argued over the following points: the fate of Russia, whether Britain should commit to sending its fleet to the Western Hemisphere if Germany successfully invaded the British Isles, invading France to defeat Germany, colonialism, and what to do with Russia after the war.

The relationship between Churchill and Roosevelt and their ability to get along and understand each other was paramount to preserving the security of their own nations and that of the world. Although they had some scruples with one another’s methods of leadership and personal values, they developed a relationship of necessity and candor that budded from their growing mutual admiration.

The clash of their personalities must have been exceedingly entertaining. Churchill was a robust man, always willing to share his opinion aloud. Some of his closest friends and advisors said he was blunt and emotionally involved with everything around him. On the other hand, Roosevelt was more conservative with his feelings. He was charming and cordial even when people around him were harsh and critical. Regardless of their differing personalities, both men were natural leaders and could easily silence a room in seconds. Both men attracted followers, people who were willing to do almost anything they asked.

During the time that Churchill and Roosevelt spent together, so much was at stake. They developed their friendship in the middle of a war as two men who were fighting for a common cause. They came together as an act of diplomacy, as a way to keep the world from falling apart at the seams. While each maintained a focus of the good of the world as a whole, they were sure to remind each other that their own country’s interests were at stake, as well. For a while, Churchill was the leader of the fight against Germany, but Roosevelt rose to that position soon after the United States joined the war. They had to continuously shift the balance of power from one man’s hands to the next to keep things in check. In all, they were joined by the needs of their nation and their people, but over that necessary time together, they formed an impenetrable bond.

Unfortunately, Roosevelt did not live to see the culmination of their friendship—the end of World War II. He died from health issues not an entire month before the war officially ended. Upon Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s death, Winston S. Churchill contacted his dear friend’s wife to say, “I have lost a dear and cherished friendship which was forged in the fire of war. I trust you may find consolation in the magnitude of his work and the glory of his name.” Churchill later wrote about Roosevelt: “I felt I was in contact with a very great man who was also a warm-hearted friend and the foremost champion of the high causes which we served,” and that meeting him had been “like uncorking your first bottle of champagne.” The two men had an unbreakable friendship, one that was held together by days upon days spent in small, locked rooms as they read important documents together, strategized, and hoped for a better future.

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Egyptian_Mythology (1)

Egyptian Mythology: The Sun and Creation

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Similar to the myths of some other cultures, Egyptian creation stories talk of a time before creation which was filled with void and chaos—an expanse called “Nu.”

To the Egyptians, the beginning of all things was Zep Tepi (“first occasion”). The void itself was described as a primordial body of water out of which rose up a mound shaped like a pyramid—a benben. This word is similar to the name given to the sacred bird of rebirth (compare Greek phoenix), the bennu.

From the ancient city of Khemenu (known to the late Greek rulers of Egypt as Hermopolis), their story of creation starts with the formation of eight gods of the Ogdoad.

Nu was male and his female mate was Naunet. Together, they represented the dead, primordial sea.

Huh was male and his female mate was Hauhet. Together, they represented the infinite expanse of that ancient sea.

Kuk was male and his female mate was Kauket. Together, they represented the dim murkiness which was a natural part of that primeval fluid.

Amun was male and his female mate was Amaunet. Together, they represented the opaque obscurity of that earliest of waters. This quality made it impossible to discover more about the water’s nature.

With all of them filled with the theme of water, it should be no surprise that they were symbolized as frogs (male) and water snakes (female).

When the Ogdoad came together, an imbalance was created which forced the emergence of the first benben, and from it, the appearance of the sun to give its light to all of material existence.

From the ancient city of Iunu (known to the late Greek rulers of Egypt as Heliopolis), the creation story takes on a somewhat different form.

To the people of Iunu, Atum created himself out of the watery void. In some versions, Atum is seen sitting on the primordial benben; in others, he is the benben itself. Atum represented the setting sun—where the day reaches its completion.

It’s interesting to note that the Hebrews also viewed sunset as the end of the day and the moment after the sun disappears as the beginning of a new day.

Because of Atum’s association with the sun, he was sometimes called Ra or Atum-Ra. Like many of the myths in other cultures, the gods are frequently described as if they have human-like form. For instance, Atum either masturbates or sneezes his first two children into existence. They are the god of air, Shu, and the goddess of moisture, Tefnut.

The First Tragedy in Creation

While Atum was working on one of his many creation projects, both Shu and Tefnut took an interest in their environment.

“What is this watery substance surrounding the island of creation?” asked Shu.

“Father did not say much about it. Only that it was here before he arrived.”

“Aren’t you curious about it?”

“Well,” replied Tefnut, “perhaps a little. What did you have in mind?”

“Father’s busy. We shouldn’t disturb him.” Shu nodded, gaining confidence in his new decision. “Perhaps we should explore it. Maybe, if we find something of value out there, we can bring it back to Father for him to use.”

Tefnut smiled and also nodded. Abruptly, she jumped into the primordial waters and swam away. Shu followed close behind.

Later, when Atum was ready for a break, he called for his children, but did not hear a reply. Soon, he became frantic. Creation was still brand new and Atum was still learning how to deal with the nature of reality and how to shape its form. Was there something he had missed? Could there be something in the tools with which he was working that created destruction? Then, he noticed a residual swirl in the primordial waters. In an instant, he knew his children had dove into those waters and had swum away.

“Oh! My dear children.” He feared that they might become lost in the murky gloom of that infinite void. His light would not reach infinity. They would not be able to see it if they swam too far.

“What to do?”

All of a sudden, thought and action became one. He plucked out his right eye and cast it into the void. “Find my children!” was the commandment and divine intention.

Not long afterward, this new goddess—the Eye of Ra—returned with the children in tow.

Atum was so relieved that he wept and each teardrop became a new creation, each one an individual human being.

The Supreme Council of Gods

After Atum had worked a while at creating the world and many of the new gods he had needed to help manage all of physical reality, he established a supreme council of gods called the Ennead. Its nine members were Atum-Ra and his two children, Shu and Tefnut, and their two children, Geb and Nut, and their four children, Auser, Asett, Sett, and Nephthys.

In contrast to the Ogdoad, which dealt primarily with the void of chaos, the Ennead handled physical existence.

More Creation Stories

From the ancient city of Inbu-Hedj (known to the late Greek rulers of Egypt as Memphis), their story of creation involves the patron god of all craftsmen, Ptah. Here, the physical world was carefully crafted with intellectual precision, unlike the accident of Khemenu’s creation myth, or the sneeze of Iunu’s creation story.

Ptah possessed an innate ability to see a desired end result in all its details and to find all the necessary resources for its fabrication.

Egyptian myth placed the mental faculties in the heart, rather than in the brain. It was said that when Ptah spoke from the heart, the things he visualized became manifest in physical reality. As he would speak the name of something, it would suddenly appear. His spoken word was the source of all other gods, physical objects, and mortal beings.

At creation, Ptah was connected to Tatjenen, the god of the first benben.

In some respects, Ptah is similar to the Abrahamic God of Judaism and Christianity where creation was more an activity of intelligent intention. In some other respects, Ptah’s method of creation—from the heart—mimics the nature of prayer. Philosopher Rod Martin, Jr. notes, “Prayer, when done right, comes from feeling or ‘the heart.’ It never comes from thought or the words on someone’s lips. A fearful heart, asking for salvation, will receive more to fear. A confident, but humble heart, asking for anything, will receive that thing instantly. And most people are not too confident about instantly, so time (delay) becomes part of the delivery.”

From the ancient city of Waset (known to the late Greek rulers of Egypt as Thebes, and in modern times, Luxor), we receive still another version of creation. To them, Amun was an invisible force behind every aspect of creation and also an element of the Ogdoad. Amun’s form encompassed everything—from beyond the deepest underworld, and the highest of the heavens.

When Amun uttered his first cry, it shattered the sameness of the infinite nothingness and gave birth to both the Ogdoad, and its eight gods, but also the Ennead, and its nine gods.

To the people of Waset, Amun was a mystery shrouded in darkness for even all of the other gods. And the attributes and skills of all the other gods were merely one aspect or another of Amun. The inhabitants of Waset considered their city to be the location of the original benben.

The Sun—A Pivotal Aspect of Creation

Central to all of these stories is the appearance of the sun. All of Kemet (Egypt) worshiped at least one aspect of the sun. In fact, Heliopolis was literally “sun city.”

When Atum plucked out his eye in order to find his children, Shu and Tefnut, that new goddess not only had the ability to perceive, but also the ability to cast the necessary light on her surroundings in order to see more clearly. The Eye of Ra has been represented throughout Egyptian myth by various goddesses. The list is long and includes Bastet, Hathor, Mut, Sekhmet, and Wadjet. This “eye” was sometimes symbolically represented as the solar disk. On the back of the American dollar, it may also be the eye in the benben that is glowing above a truncated pyramid.

A number of gods were more directly associated with the sun. Of course, there is Ra, who represented the sun at or near zenith, when its blazing light does most of its work in nourishing the plants of the physical world.

Naturally, the sun has different aspects to its daily cycle. Khepri took the first visible slot of the day as the sun rose. Because of this “newborn” state, he also represented rebirth.

The lesser god, Aten, represented the perceptible disk of the sun, but not any of its life-giving warmth or light.

As we’ve already seen, Atum represented the setting sun, which ties in thematically with his status as a source of creation. The setting sun completes each day, and Atum was able to complete each creation by giving it form, substance, and persistence.

And Ptah was long associated with the sun after it set. During each night, the sun replenished itself, preparing for the new day. Besides his skills as a craftsman, Ptah was also a god of the arts and biological creation (fertility).

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Franklin_Roosevelt

Franklin D. Roosevelt’s First Term in Presidency

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Franklin Delano Roosevelt was inaugurated as the thirty-second president of the United States on March 4, 1933 during the country’s worst economic depression in history. At this time, one out of four Americans were unemployed, and agricultural prices fell by sixty percent. That same day, thirty-two of forty-eight states closed their banks and discarded the key until further notice.i People entered a frenzied panic and began withdrawing their money in lump sums. Roosevelt started his inauguration address by blaming the crisis on financiers and bankers, capitalism, and greed. Roosevelt said:

“Plenty is at our doorstep, but a generous use of it languishes in the very sight of supply. Primarily this is because the rulers of the exchange of mankind’s goods have failed, through their own stubbornness and their own incompetence, have admitted their failure, and abdicated. Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men.

True they have tried, but their efforts have been cast in the pattern of an outworn tradition. Faced by failure of credit they have proposed only the lending of more money. Stripped of the lure of profit by which to induce our people to follow their false leadership, they have resorted to exhortations, pleading tearfully for restored confidence. They know only the rules of a generation of self-seekers. They have no vision, and when there is no vision the people perish.

The money changers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization. We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths. The measure of the restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit.

Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The joy and moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits. These dark days will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves and to our fellow men.”ii

With this speech, Franklin D. Roosevelt firmly separated himself from the origins of the Great Depression, claiming that he believed the United States would rise up. He firmly stated that basic economic rights should be seen as a Second Bill of Rights. He looked forward to a new time, a better time for which the people could hope and anticipate.

Franklin soon went about initiating what many historians refer to as his relief, recovery, and reform plan. Under this plan, Franklin would supply relief to the millions of people unemployed in the United Sates, recovery to the economy that desperately needed normalizing, and reform to the tanking financial and banking systems.

Franklin engaged with public radio as a means to present his ideas to the American public, and these talks became known as fireside chats. Public opinion was very important to Roosevelt; therefore, he initiated a method to speak directly to his electorate through mass communication. At this point, Roosevelt’s opposition controlled many of the major newspapers. Historian Betty Houchin Winfieled said, “He and his advisors worried that newspapers’ biases would affect the news columns and rightly so.”iii Historian Douglas B. Craig continued to say that Roosevelt’s use of the radio “offered voters a chance to receive information unadulterated by newspaper proprietors’ bias.”ivOf course, Franklin utilized these chats for more than simply a conduit for information. Each time he spoke to listeners, crowds would send letters to legislation that asked to pass measures Roosevelt proposed over the radio.

The fireside chats created a sense of security for Roosevelt’s listeners because they could actually hear his own voice. Inspiring the term, Franklin’s press secretary, Stephen Early, said that Roosevelt wanted to consider the listeners as people who were sitting with him around his fireside. CBS broadcast executive Harry C. Butcher coined the term in a press release on May 7, 1933. “Fireside chats” trickled throughout the news, and Roosevelt began using it, as well. Eventually, the term grew to become part of American folklore.

Roosevelt’s presidential fireside chats began eight days after his inauguration, on March 12, 1933, and they were especially helpful when the general public panicked over the banks’ closings. He told them “what has been done in the last few days, why it was done, and what the next steps are going to be.”v Historian William L. Silber said the fireside chats initiated a “remarkable turnaround in the public’s confidence … The contemporary press confirms that the public recognized the implicit guarantee and, as a result, believed that the reopened banks would be safe, as the president explained in his first Fireside Chat.”

Of course, the first one hundred days of every new presidency is closely critiqued, but Franklin was under particularly heavy pressure to succeed in a time of such distress. His efforts and legislation became known as the New Deal. In regard to the anxiety that arose due to the banking crisis, Franklin stated, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”vi People were no longer spending money because they were afraid, which made the economic depression worse. The day after his inauguration, Roosevelt initiated a bank holiday and called for a special session of Congress on March 9. He sent Congress a record number of bills between March 9 and June 16, 1933, all of which were passed with no issue and no complaints. As one of the first problems addressed, Congress passed the Emergency Banking Act as Franklin D. Roosevelt’s first step to recovery.vii Then, Roosevelt signed the Glass-Steagall Act, which created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), a program that assured Americans that their money was safe inside banks. In other words, the FDIC underwrote savings deposits.

Franklin’s primary concern was to look at the relief part of his plan. To do so, he continued measures to ensure that Hoover’s major relief program for the unemployed continued under a new name: Federal Emergency Relief Administration. In an attempt to create new jobs, Roosevelt generated a multitude of new agencies, one of the most successful of which was the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), a program that employed 250,000 young men to work on local rural projects. Additionally, he moved to expand the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, one of Hoover’s projects, which provided a major source of financing for industry and railroads. One of Franklin’s main concerns was the agricultural industry; therefore, he set up the first Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA), which forced higher prices for commodities through paying farmers to cut down on herds and crops.viii He also pushed through the Federal Trade Commission, which provided regulatory powers and mortgage relief to millions of farmers and homeowners. With no doubt, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a busy man.

The National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) of 1933 aimed to reform the economy through attempting to end intense competition by requiring that industries create codes to establish the rules of operation. Mandated requirements included minimum prices, non-competition agreements, and production restrictions. As a condition for approval, industry had to raise wages. Later, on May 27, 1935, the NIRA was found to be unconstitutional by a unanimous decision in the US Supreme Court. In reply, Franklin said, “The fundamental purposes and principles of the NIRA are sound. To abandon them is unthinkable. It would spell the return to industrial and labor chaos.”ix

As a continued effort to reform the banking system, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was commissioned to regulate Wall Street. This organization is responsible for enforcing all federal securities laws and proposing securities rules, while regulating the nation’s stock and options exchanges, the securities industry, and other organizations, which include the electronic securities markets in the United States.x Franklin was determined to push through a federal minimum wage as part of the NIRA. He argued, “No business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country.”xi He eventually achieved this goal with the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which provided the last major domestic reform measure of the New Deal.xii

For the most part, federal spending was Roosevelt’s idea of recovery in the United States. The Public Works Administration allowed $3.3 billion worth of spending to stimulate the economy. Out of this idea rose the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), a new program which employed people to build dams and power stations, thereby providing flood-control and modern technology for agricultural areas in the Tennessee Valley, one of the most poverty-stricken areas in the United States. Additionally, Roosevelt moved to repeal prohibition—one of his campaign promises—which brought in new tax revenues. He signed the Cullen-Harrison Act, redefining 3.2% alcohol as the allowed maximum.

As a measure to boost the economy by countering inflation, Franklin pushed through Executive Order 6102, which required that all American citizens were to sell their privately held gold to the United States Treasury; this move raised the price of gold from twenty dollars per ounce to thirty-five dollars per ounce.xiii

All of Franklin’s ideas did not rest as well with the American people, though. One of his most unpopular commissions was his idea to cut the federal budgets by reducing military spending, veterans’ benefits, federal employees’ salaries, and spending on research and education. The American veterans groups came close to a full revolt. They protested heavily, and most benefits were increased or restored by 1934. In fact, Roosevelt restored $50 million in pension payments, then Congress added an additional $46 million.xiv When veteran groups campaigned to alter their benefits to payments due in 1945 to immediate cash—henceforth called the Bonus Act—in January 1936, the economy boosted.

Roosevelt was quickly learning that a change would be necessary for continued growth in the country, and he commenced working toward that goal. In 1935, Franklin began to pursue what was later known as the Second New Deal. He had the largest majorities in both houses after the 1934 Congressional elections, and he started with a fresh set of new legislation ideas. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was one of the first initiatives. The WPA employed two million family heads—usually unemployed male leaders of family units—to carry out public works projects, including the construction of many public roads and buildings. In 1938, the WPA helped bring unemployment down by twenty percent in comparison to 1933’s count.xv

Not only was Roosevelt concerned for younger families, but he also labored toward legislation for those who could not work. Enacted in 1935, the Social Security Act established economic security for the poor, sick, elderly, and otherwise financially unstable citizens of the United States of America. Senator Robert Wagner pushed through the Wagner Act, or the National Labor Relations Act, which established and guaranteed the basic rights of employees to organize unions, engage collective bargaining for better conditions at work, and take collective action to ensure their needs are met. As a result, labor unions became strong proponents of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s re-elections.xvi

Roosevelt was determined to use his power to help the citizens of his country in their pursuits. He did not leave them to struggle out of dark holes on their own; rather, he provided assistance when they fell until they could stand on their own again. As to his ideas on how to improve the country, Franklin said, “The country needs and, unless I mistake its temper, the country demands bold, persistent experimentation … It is common sense to take a method and try it; if it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.”xvii In other words, Roosevelt took action.

In addition to his progress in the economy, Franklin maintained a heavy focus on environmental conservation. In 1931, he said, “Heretofore our conservation policy has been merely to preserve as much as possible of the existing forests. Our new policy goes a step further. It will not only preserve the existing forests, but create new ones.” While in office, Franklin established one hundred and forty national wildlife refuges, twenty-nine national forests, and twenty-nine national parks and monuments.xviii The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built 13,000 miles of trails, upgraded 125,000 miles of dirt roads, and planted two billion trees. Although later critics knew that dam systems were not a component of conservation, Franklin thought they would help the environment and commissioned many dams, thinking they would provide a way to further help the earth’s longevity.xix

During his first term of presidency, Roosevelt had to deal with the onslaught of foreign policy issues, along with all the problems happening within his own country. Roosevelt sided with isolationism, rejecting the League of Nations treaty in 1919. He determined that the best method was to be prepared for war but to avoid taking sides unless absolutely necessary. For the most part, Franklin wanted the United States to mind their own business and avoid dallying in foreign issues. He listed that one of his primary goals with foreign policy was to end European colonialism, as he was vastly opposed to imperialism.xx He wanted each country to rule itself.

Continuing on the topic of foreign policy, one important aspect of Roosevelt’s first term as president was the Good Neighbor Policy. This policy terminated the United States Marines’ occupation of Nicaragua in 1933 and occupation of Haiti in 1934. In this, he was taking additional steps toward isolationism. Additionally, this political and military move led to the extinction of the Platt Amendment by the Treaty of Relations with Cuba in 1934 and, in 1938, the negotiation of compensation for Mexico’s nationalization of foreign-owned oil assets. Cuba and Panama were no longer United States protectorates, as well, and Roosevelt signed the Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States in 1933, giving up the country’s rights to intervene in Latin American affairs.xxi During this term, Roosevelt signed a mandatory arms embargo.xxii The United States was slowly withdrawing its long-reaching arms.

These New Deal policies were bold and impressive, especially for a new president. The people of the United States obviously considered Franklin’s first term successful because he won the next election by a large majority as a New Deal Democrat, carrying every state except Maine and Vermont.

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References

i Alter, Jonathan. The Defining Moment: FDR’s Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope. 2006.

ii Roosevelt, Franklin D. First Inaugural Address. 4 March 1993. http://www.bartleby.com/124/pres49.html. Accessed 23 June 2017.

iii Winfield, Betty Houchin. FDR and the News Media. 1994.

iv Craig, Douglas B. Fireside Politics: Radio and Political Culture in the United States, 1920—1940. 2005.

v “FDR’s First Fireside Chat.” Radio Digest. February 1939.

vi Roosevelt, Franklin D. First Inaugural Address. 4 March 1993. http://www.bartleby.com/124/pres49.html. Accessed 23 June 2017.

vii McJimsey, George T. Documentary History of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidency: The Bank Holiday and the Emergency Banking Act, March 1933. 2001.

viii Smith, Jean Edward. FDR. 2007.

ix Hawley, Ellis. The New Deal and the Problem of Monopoly. 1995.

x “What We Do.” U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. https://www.sec.gov/Article/whatwedo.html. Accessed 23 June 2017.

xi Tritch, Teresa. “FDR Makes the Case for the Minimum Wage.” The New York Times. 7 March 2014. https://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/03/07/f-d-r-makes-the-case-for-the-minimum-wage/. Accessed 23 June 2017.

xii Pederson, William D. A Companion to Franklin D. Roosevelt. 2011.

xiii Freidel, Frank. Franklin D. Roosevelt: Four Volumes. 1952-73.

xiv “Heroes: Economy’s End.” Time. 26 August 1935. http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,748895,00.html. 23 June 2017.

xv Darby, Michael R. “Three and a Half Million US Employees Have Been Mislaid: Or, an Explanation of Unemployment, 1934 – 1941” Journal of Political Economy. February 1976.

xvi Burns, James MacGregor. Roosevelt. 1956.

xvii  Roosevelt, Franklin D. Looking Forward. 1933.

xviii  Roosevelt, Franklin D. Public Paper of the Presidents of the United States: Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1940, Volume 9. 1941.

xix  Brinkley, Douglas. Rightful Heritage: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Land of America. 2016.

xx  Doenecke, Justus D. and Mark A. Stoler. Debating Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Foreign Policies, 1933 – 1945. 2005.

xxi  Leuchtenburg, William E. Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal, 1932 – 1940. 1963.

xxii  Burns, James MacGregor. Roosevelt. 1956.

Haitian_Revolution

A Captivating Guide to How the Haitian Revolution Began

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The slave rebellion that was to shake the western world started in the Northern Province. In the region with the most to lose, the slaves had the most to gain by rising against the people who hoped to turn the French Revolution to their own advantage. The wealthy and powerful plantation owners were so narrowly focused on how to turn the tide in their favor that they failed to recognize the swell of the people they had oppressed for over a century. Segregating their slaves from others had been meant to keep them from hearing anything that could be used as inspiration to rebel. Instead, it provided the slaves with the distance from their masters’ eyes required to plan their own freedom.

The Haitian Revolution began with a secret voodoo ceremony that has been called the Bois Caiman Ceremony. Held in Morne-Rouge in August 1791, the slaves converged to determine their best course of action. Their anger had been fueled by a rumor that the plantation owners were going to fight against equality for freemen and mulattoes. Following months of planning, they were now ready to determine when was the right time to enact their plan.

The actions of Mackandal and Oge were imitated, resulting in more than 200 slaves coming forward as leaders and coordinators of the effort that was to start the rebellion. All from the Northern Province, the leaders held higher positions on their plantations, giving them the necessary authority to persuade other slaves to agree to the revolution. Their positions also ranged across the numerous needs of slave owners. Some of the leaders worked in the fields, others in the homes, and some were free. This created the kind of network that Mackandal had tried to maintain during the six years of his resistance. Through that network, they were able to plan for the Bois Caiman ceremony, and the actions that they were to take to remove the plantation owners from power.

Similar to Mackandal’s use of African tradition and religion to bring the slaves together, the larger underground revolution brought the slaves together. The ceremony highlighted their shared heritage. Meeting in a heavily wooded area, the slaves participated in a solemn voodoo ritual performed by Dutty Boukman, a voodoo priest from Jamaica, and an unnamed high priestess.

Perhaps it is romanticizing the events of the night, but stories about that night have said that a tropical storm or hurricane punctuated the resolve of the participants. In the winds of the storm, the rebels were convinced that it was an omen that pointed to their success. Regardless of the weather, the emotional atmosphere was charged, creating a legend out of the night based on its own merits. There are many aspects on which histories disagree. Some say that the ceremony happened on August 14, while others say it was August 21 or 22. There are a few things on which they do agree. The banning of voodoo under the French had helped to spread it in secret among the slaves. It was a unifying factor that reminded the slaves both what they were fighting for and who the enemy was.

The result of the ceremony was that the slaves had the plan and the signal they needed to act against their oppressors.

History’s Sense of Irony

It is with historic irony that the French colonial elite were given a chance to quell the rebellion. Within days of the Bois Caiman ceremony, a smaller band of slaves acted early. It is possible that they did not understand the instructions provided during the ceremony, or it could have been through impatience, but the early participants were captured in the act of setting an estate on fire. Though it is unclear what caused them to execute the plan early, it was clear that during their interrogation, some of the slaves divulged the plan, as well as the leaders who were to oversee the plan.

The irony is that the plantation owners who oversaw the named leaders could not, or would not, believe that their slaves were involved. Thinking that their slaves were either incapable of such an organized effort or believing that their slaves were too loyal to rebel, the slave owners stood by the very leaders who plotted their demise. The same wealthy and powerful members of the French colony elite had already ignored the vague prognostication of Reynal. Now that they were faced with the reality, they chose to blindly trust in their own perceived superiority and ability to control their slaves than to acknowledge the threat that they had created. Not all of them, but enough slave owners ignored the imminent danger that was reported to them. Those who did believe the reports successfully escaped with their lives and little else.

Despite the fact that the plan had been revealed, the slaves decided to go ahead with the set course of action.

The Revolution Begins

Within ten days of the Bois Caiman ceremony, the Haitian Revolution began. The Northern Province erupted in violence as Boukman and those under him moved across the region, killing or imprisoning everyone of European descent. After taking control of a plantation, they set it on fire.

Slaves carried a wide range of weaponry on their march. Some carried the torches that burned everything that belonged to their oppressor. Some carried rifles or pistols. Many slaves were armed with whatever improvised weapons they could find. At each plantation, the mass of marchers swelled with the slaves from the plantation.

By sunrise the next morning, most of the slaves in the region where Boukman and his marchers went had joined them. With between 1,000 and 2,000 rebels, the group was too big to be efficient. Splintering off into smaller groups, each of the groups moved toward a specific plantation to continue the revolution.

The astounding organization and planning enacted by the uneducated slaves soon proved that they had been severely underestimated. Their numbers continued to swell so that the remaining plantation owners began to fear that the primary city in the north would be taken. The city of Le Cap was considered the cultural heart of the colony, and it was where the majority of the slave owners fled after the slave bands went unchecked. To further discourage the slave owners, any captured slave offered disheartening warnings about the city itself. As they were tortured the former slaves mocked their torturers with the knowledge that the slave rebellion numbers included people everywhere, including within the precious city of Le Cap. Both sides realized the importance that controlling the city would play in the overall revolution.

Those with power within the city set up a way of monitoring the city for any sign of fire, a signal that had come to be associated with the slave rebellion. By monitoring the skyline, they hoped to prevent the destruction of the city by the rebels who lived within it.

Away from the city, the slave rebellion continued to spread, killing those of European descent who had not fled and burning everything that could help the French colony return to its former oppression. However, the rebellion also began to change. Slaves and freemen who were not willing to participate in the revolution were killed. The rebellion would not allow for any potential betrayal based on misplaced loyalty to slave owners.

In less than 48 hours, the slave rebellion had destroyed the majority of the most profitable plantations in the Northern Province. The leaders had planned well beyond the plantations in the north. To succeed, they had to continue to press forward before the French colonists had time to respond. Having found success in the first 48 hours, the marchers rested for a day before beginning the next phase of the plan.

On the morning of August 24, they pressed forward, aiming to reach Port-Margot by the day’s end. This would mean they would reach the La Cap less than a week after the revolution began. Knowing that the rebellion would eventually target the city, the inhabitants prepared. They prepared cannons and station guards at every possible entrance into the city. For the first time since they began marching, the rebellion faced a real challenge. They were not adequately equipped to face such a heavily armed resistance. Even though they had taken little time to rest and had silenced anyone they thought might help the city, the French colonists had adequate incentive to quickly mobilize against them.

The first attempt to take the city failed, and the rebellion fell back to strategize a new plan of attack. Though they had initially succeeded in resisting the slaves, the resistance soon proved to be too short-sighted against the sheer numbers and planning of their former slaves. The same day that they were driven back, the former slaves regrouped and divided to take on different points of the city. Splitting into two different groups, they approached the city from two different locations and began a siege. Though they were not armed with the necessary tools to take the city, the former slaves were able to stop those in the city from gaining any more supplies, including food.

Over the next three weeks, the city’s inhabitants attempted to eliminate the former slaves. Though the city dwellers only had one place to hide, the former slaves had the luxury of time. Whenever the French colonists began to gain the upper hand, the slaves were able to retreat into the woods. The colonials gained nothing from this tactic, and the former slaves continued to wear them down as nothing could make it through the siege.

Slaves to the north east of the city soon joined the rebellion. Their success was swift, and soon all communication between the city and the North Plain was eliminated.

By the end of August 1791, more than 15,000 slaves had joined the rebellion. Le Cap sent out pleas to many of the surrounding islands and the United States asking for military assistance. It had taken the slaves one week and one day to obliterate the plantations in the Northern Province. More than 180 plantations were annihilated. As September 1791 began, there were no plantations within a 50-mile radius of Le Cap.

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