Author: Mark Thomas
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Antietam, Slavery and the Emancipation Proclamation
Monday, 17 September 2012 marks the sesquicentennial of the Battle of Antietam. On this date in 1862, more American battle casualties were inflicted than on any other single day previous or since. For the first year and a half of the American Civil War, fighting had mostly consisted of raids, skirmishes by cavalry units and…
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Indiana’s Underground Railroad after Nat Turner
The Ohio River separates Indiana from the slave state of Kentucky however, in 1831 it did not insulate the former state from the inherent issues surrounding the institutional bondage of human beings. Regional and interstate tensions were already straining relations on the border of Free and Slave states by the time blood of both blacks…
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Remembering the Pioneer: Neil Armstrong
I’m enjoying a quite Sunday morning sipping a few mugs of well-prepared, freshly ground coffee. This follows an already satisfying early weekend and restful night. My mood, however, is rightfully tempered by yesterday’s passing of Neil Armstrong who was very much a part of my boyhood. Born in 1961, the year both the USSR and…
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The Reckoning of Nat Turner
Following his hanging, the body was beheaded and skinned by local physicians. Skinned. Nat Turner was executed on November 11, 1831. His death was intended to signal an end to further resistance by those held in bondage, however, Turner’s slave revolt served as a catalyst for debate over the viability of slavery and the disposition of…