HISTORIA
A PUBLICATION OF THE EPSILON MU CHAPTER OF
PHI ALPHA THETA
AND THE
EASTERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY
HISTORY DEPARTMENT
VOLUME 25 (2016)
EDITORS:
Monica Burney
Adam Crutchley
Kody Haas
Tyler Huss
Joshua Korneta
Kevin Lux
Clara Mattheessen
Dionte McWillis
Michael Olson
Heather Sitkie
Quentin Spannagel
Nicholas Waller
Brandon West
Andrew Youhas
EDITOR IN CHIEF:
Cayla Wagner
FACULTY ADVISOR:
Dr. Michael Shirley
Letter from the Editors
After sorting through many papers and casting votes on countless layout decisions, we
the editors are proud to present the 2016 Historia. We would like to thank the
amazing students and professors here at Eastern Illinois University, as their countless
efforts makes the Historia possible. While reading through all of the papers we saw so
much talent that making the final selection took several meetings to discuss. We
would also like to thank our advisor Dr. Shirley for helping us through this entire
process. The collaborative effort was certainly key to making an exemplary collection
of writings for readers to enjoy.
One thing was clear from the selection, however: it was a real testament to the
excellence of Eastern Illinois University’s History Department. As always, we
encourage everyone to submit their History papers for future editions and we are
pleased to present yet another example of excellent writing.
We hope you enjoy the 2016 edition of Historia.
Table of Contents
Articles
Page
Sparta: A Steadfast Rock Among the Poleis
Nick Waller
1
What does the Epic of Gilgamesh Reveal about
Mesopotamian Culture and Religion?
Hannah Jensen
7
Alexander the Not So Great
William Baran
13
“’Water, earth, and air infected” : How Movement,
Quarantines, and Geographical Limitations Shaped the
Movement of Yellow Fever in 1793
Alyssa Peterson
20
War, Class, and Escapism: A Study of the British Film
Industry From 1917-1939
Josh Korneta
35
American Media and Perspectives on the Firebombing of
Tokyo
Kevin Lux
40
Nuremberg: Trial of the Century
Brandon West
44
Dwight D. Eisenhower and the Suez Crisis of 1956
Michael Olson
50
Candidate Kennedy and Quemoy
Quentin Spannagel
63
A Snip of Life: Black Barbering in Nineteenth-Century
Mattoon, Illinois
Colleen Filipek
70
Broadway Avenue and the Evolution of Mattoon’s Central
Commercial District
Rachel Tavaras
78
Springfield and Sangamon County in the Great War, 19171919
James Bishop
92
Aisha: A Life and Legacy
Cayla Wagner
109
The Fundamental Role of Prostitutes: How Harlots
Dominated Medieval Society
Hailey Perry
113
Petticoats, Passes. And Propaganda: The Role of Female
Spies During the American Revolution 1775-1783
Emily McInerney
118
The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League:
Redefining Women’s History in Sports from 1943-1954
Heather Sitkie
131
Overcoming the Past: Japan’s Involvement and Denial of
the ‘Comfort Women’ System
Alex Jaramillo
136
A Feminist View on the History and Current Reality of
Veiling
Monica Burney
143
A Brief Overview of the Association for Intercollegiate
Athletics for Women
Clara Mattheessen
147
__________________________________________________________________
Sparta: A Steadfast Rock Among the Poleis
Nick Waller
Nick Waller, from Salem, Illinois, wrote this paper about the ancient Spartans for Dr. Lee Patterson’s His 3140
class in the fall semester of 2014. He earned his BA in history in May, 2016, and will return to EIU in the fall to
pursue a Master’s Degree in history, with a focus on ancient history.
______________________________________________________________________________
The two phalanxes look at each other across the field that will soon be bathed in blood. On
one side stands the military super power known as Sparta. On the other side stands the creators of
democracy and owners of the most powerful navy in Greece: the people of Athens. The two armies
soon clash in the othismos causing the ground to shake from the force.1 After several hours of
intense battle the Spartans stand victorious as the Athenians retreat, another victory on the land for
Sparta in the Peloponnesian War. The Athenian dead would be remembered by Pericles later that
year in his great Funeral Oration, a speech that gives a false light into the society of Athens. Yet, in
three long decades, the Peloponnesian War would end the same as this battle did, with the utter
defeat of Athens and with yet another change: one of the many in a long series of changes
throughout the history of Athens, to the society of Athens.2
The Sparta and Athens have had two very different journeys throughout history. From their
early days in existence to the very end of the independence of each Greek polis. The societies and
governments of Sparta and Athens were inherently different: one was like iron, unyielding, and the
other was clay, ever being changed and remolded. Thucydides shows us just how far down society
can collapse thanks to the atrocities brought on by war, and the greatest of which is the collapse of
government, which we see in 411 with a coup by the aristocrats and hoplite social classes. However,
the Spartan side of the war failed to show a complete collapse in government, or even a collapse on
the societal scale that Athens has during the plague that ravaged the city of Athens. This paper will
discuss how the Spartan government and society was built on a much sturdier foundation than that
of Athens, even with the lowest population in the Greek world. The oligarchical, totalitarian form
of government and society of Sparta, in contrast to that of the democratic form of the Athenians,
has been in a more stable state, in terms of society and governmental structure, since the early days
of the polis.
Athens. The birthplace of democracy, philosophy, and the defenders of Greece against the
great threat known as Persia.3 The rise of this polis, which would be considered the most powerful
of Greece, was as long and bumpy one with many turns. The people of Athens are of the descent of
the Ionians, a people that is native to the lands of Greece.4 Like all of the polis, they evolved from a
system under a basileus, a term for a “king” or a chief of a town in Dark Age Greece, to an oligarchy
led by the aristocrats. Early on in Athens’ history they were subject to stasis over and over again.5
So, like every other Greek polis that was subject to stasis, they would bring a tyrant into power to fix
the problems that the aristocrats either could not or would not fix.
Othismos is the initial clash between two phalanxes in battle.
The Peloponnesian War lasts from 434 – 401 BC.
3 Democracy was created in 508 BC by Cleisthenes.
4 Herodotus 1.56.
5 Stasis is a Greek word meaning a period of civil strife.
1
2
1
The first man to attempt to take over Athens and create a tyranny was Cylon. An Olympic
winner, Cylon was able to persuade a group of people to help him seize control of the Acropolis and
with it gain power of Athens for themselves. In the end, the people rise against him and he is forced
to flee, while the rest of him men were killed by the opposing aristocratic family, the Alcmaeonidae.6
While this example is different from the other tyrannies, mainly because this one was unable to
actually succeed in gaining power, it does show how in the early years of Athenian society there were
conflicts between the elite families who were ruling Athens. The polis of Sparta on the other hand
did not have conflicts that resulted in one elite family attempting to form a tyrannical form of
government.7
A few years later Draco, an archon of Athens, attempted to fix the current stasis taking hold
of the polis. Because there had been large scale fighting between factions in Athens seen in c. 620
BC, Draco created laws that were extremely harsh to those who would break them. 8 Draco believed
that these harsh laws would help fix the stasis that was present in Athens during his time.9 However,
something interesting about Draconian law was that it applied to everyone, whether they were of the
aristocratic status of the more common people. It is interesting to note that the stasis at this time
was so bad that the need for incredibly harsh law to be necessary. Not only are the laws harsh but
they also apply to everyone, even the aristocratic families. When Athens is thought of by people it is
always about how they created democracy, or how Athens was the seat of knowledge and
philosophy in the ancient Greek world. What seems to be forgotten the most in common
knowledge is the fact that before Athens got there they were stuck in a state of affairs that is seen
here with the reforms of Draco. An Athens that is so much turmoil, some of the harshest laws seen
are to only seen solution to solving such social turmoil.
When Croesus was attempting to gain support against the growing threat of the Persian
Empire he looked to the Greek poleis for who was the most powerful.10 The choice was between
Sparta and Athens, and seeing how Athens was embroiled in stasis between two aristocratic families
Sparta was chosen as the ally.11 With the stasis being a conflict between two aristocratic houses a
third party saw a chance to come in a take control. This party was led by Pisistratus, son of
Hippocrates. Through some scheming to gain the support of the people of Athens, Pisistratus was
able to get control over the Acropolis and also have control over all of Athens itself.12 While
Pisistratus did not change any of the customs of Greece he brought an end to the stasis, until he was
driven out by the two other parties. What we see this time is that instead of the stasis arising
between the different levels of the society it is merely a struggle for power over Athens between two
aristocratic families.
Pisistratus would eventually pass down his seat of power to his sons. 13 The sons would not
last long however, because Hippias the son of Pisistratus would be driven out of Athens by the
Spartan King Cleomenes.14 This would open up a power vacuum in Athens that would be fought
over by two aristocrats, Isagoras and Cleisthenes. Gaining the support of the people Cleisthenes
Herodotus 5.72.
John Henry Wright, “The Date of Cylon,” Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, no. 3 (1892), http://www.jstor.org/stable/310410
(accessed November 19, 2014).
7 Sparta was not free from the aristocratic family getting in conflicts between each other. The way that it happened was done in a
more political way, as opposed to the bloody attempts to gain power as seen through Cylon.
8 Hence the term “Draconian” meaning extremely harsh and cruel.
9 Robin Lane Fox, The Classical World: An Epic History form Homer to Hadrian (New York: the Penguin Group, 2006), 60.
10 Herodotus 1.53.
11 Herodotus 1.59-70.
12 Herodotus 1.59.
13 Herodotus 1.60-64.
14 Herodotus 5.64-65.
6
2
was able to seize power over Isagoras.15 Similarly, with Pisistratus and Cylon, the stasis is one
between aristocratic families merely vying for power. So what can be learned from this change in
what caused the stasis? Solon’s reforms worked. Because the reforms worked then the aristocrats
would no longer have to worry about the lower classes rising up against them. Thus freeing them to
spend more time attempting to gain power for their respective families. However, under Cleisthenes
a dramatic change in the history of mankind took place, the birth of democracy. In the year 508 BC
democracy is born under a decree that begins with the simple words, “It seemed good for the
people.”16 And from this moment on the society and government of Athens will be constant, for
the first time since the birth of the polis, for almost a hundred years.
Birthed from the fires of war, the people of Sparta would come to be known as the greatest
fighters in Greece. The people of Sparta are not natives to the land of Laconia, but are instead from
northern Greece. Once they established themselves in the Eurotas River Valley they would soon
expand their territory to include all of Laconia and Messenia, c. 735 BC.17 With this acquisition of
land, and with it a large number of slaves, Sparta would need to have to worry about a revolt from
these conquered people. To counter this Lycurgus made changes to the system of government that
Sparta was using.18 This change in social and governmental policy would be called the Great
Rhetra.19 This change in policy turned the oligarchic government into one that had a system of
checks and balances. The Spartan government had a dual kingship, the Agiad and Eurypontid
lineages, the council -Gerousia- that was seen throughout all of Greece, but also he added the
ephors. The ephors were a way to “curb the power” of the oligarchic form in the government.20
Spartan government worked as follows, the two kings of Sparta had been downgraded to only being
members of the Gerousia. However, they did still have leadership when it came to leading an
incursion into enemy territory. The Gerousia was made up of 30 men, including the two kings, and
the role of the Gerousia was to decide what the Assembly would to vote on for that day. The
Gerousia could even override the decisions made. Crimes committed by kings would end up in
front of the Gerousia for deciding on. While the Assembly, made up of only adult age Spartan
males, voted on what laws would pass or actions that Sparta should take; actions like going to war or
not.21
The ephors held the power to decide whether or not a Spartan king had broken the laws or
not. Ephors were also the ones in charge of how the agoge, the training program for Spartan
children, was enacted. With these powers they were equal to, and as stated before, and even above
the Spartan kings in power. That said someone could only serve as ephor once in their life, and the
term in office was merely a year long.22 With a system of government where each “branch” had a
way to control each other so that there was no way for a tyrant, or one person, to gain power, that
government would have a long lasting rule of stability.
With a basic understanding of how the Spartan government works it is clear that the
government had a hold in every aspect of the life of a Spartan citizen. Sparta was created into a
totalitarian society, a system where everything is controlled by the government. But before these
reforms made it is generally believed that Sparta was in fact in a time of stasis, a time worse off than
Herodotus 5.66.
Robin Lane Fox, The Classical World: An Epic History form Homer to Hadrian (New York: the Penguin Group, 2006), 88.
17 Paul Cartledge, Sparta and Lakonia: A regional history 300-362 BC (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd, 2002), 97.
18 Plut. Lycurgus 3.1.
19 Paul Cartledge, The Spartans: The World of the Warrior-Heroes of Ancient Greece (New York: Vintage Books, 2003), 64.
20 Plut. Lycurgus 7.1.
21 Paul Cartledge, The Spartans: The World of the Warrior-Heroes of Ancient Greece (New York: Vintage Books, 2003), 65.
22 Paul Cartledge, The Spartans: The World of the Warrior-Heroes of Ancient Greece (New York: Vintage Books, 2003), 70-72.
15
16
3
any other polis.23 Even with this time of stasis Sparta has never had a tyrant take over the
government like Athens.24 With the government run state the men of Sparta, the demos, never had
a conflict between them and the aristocratic leaders.25 This added with the fact that Sparta was an
egalitarian society and the threat of a helot revolt, which would have severely harmed the society if
ever succeeded, helped to keep the demos of Sparta away from ever having a total collapse in their
society due to stasis.
We must not fall prey to the “Spartan Mirage” when talking about Spartan society, however.
Even though they seem to be a perfect and well run “utopian society,” they were anything but
perfect. The reason why Sparta was such a totalitarian and militaristic society is that was what was
necessary for their survival. After they conquered Messenia in c. 735 BC, the demos of Sparta were
incredibly outnumbered by slave to full citizen ratio.26 And to combat this the Spartan citizens were
at a constant state of war with the helots. Event with the government everything was not perfect.
The leaders would scheme against others to consolidate more power to their favor, sometimes even
forcing others into exile and appointing leaders that they wish to be in power instead. 27 So while it
seemed to be perfect and whole on the outside, Sparta was at a constant state of keeping the power
they gained within their own hands. Important to note is how even within the elite class of
Spartiates, the only true citizens in Sparta, that there were groups who were higher and lower in that
class. Therefore, while the Spartiates were on top of the social class the aristocrats of the Spartiates
were even higher in class than most of the other Spartiates. Since Sparta is a militaristic state the
majority of the Spartiates would have been in the hoplite class.
Having both found a system for their societies that was stable, these two soon grew to
become the two most powerful city states in all of the Greek world. The Athenian Empire and the
Spartan hegemonic league, the Peloponnesian League, would soon come to blows and shake the
very foundations of Greece. By the end of this only one would be left standing, while the other had
fallen into chaos and disorder. Beginning in 431 BC the Peloponnesian War was the culmination of
growing tensions between Athens and Sparta, mainly due to the imperialistic policy that Athens had
adopted under Pericles. Warring against Sparta was a matter that Pericles came up with an idea to
neutralize their superiority in land engagements, he would use the Athenian fleet and the Long Walls
to keep Athens as a citadel.28 And while this was an excellent plan for negating any advantage Sparta
would have over them it would cause a problem for the Athenians in the future.
In the years 430-429 BC a massive plague would sweep through Athens, causing the death of
thousands and showing how Athenian society could collapse in such a hard way. Originating in
Ethiopia, the plague swept through the Persian Empire before suddenly appearing in Athens during
an incursion of Spartans under King Archidamus.29 This plague caused the death of the great leader
Pericles, showing that everyone in Athens was in danger of dying, from the poor to the rich. There
was such a large amount of deaths of the rich population that the poor were inheriting the wealth,
and with the fact that they would soon die they spent a lot of it on indulgences. 30 And in spirit of
this knowledge that death could at any moment take them, people would be headless about the
Paul Cartledge, Sparta and Lakonia: A regional history 300-362 BC (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd, 2002), 115. Herodotus 1.65.,
Thucydides 1.18.
24 Thucydides 1.18.
25 Demos in the Greek word for the people, or those who had citizenship.
26 Paul Cartledge, The Spartans: The World of the Warrior-Heroes of Ancient Greece (New York: Vintage Books, 2003), 28-29.
27 Cleomenes with regards to co-king Demaratus in the 490s BC. For further reading refer to Paul Cartledge, The Spartans: The World of
the Warrior-Heroes of Ancient Greece (New York: Vintage Books, 2003).
28 Donald Kagan, The Peloponnesian War (New York: Penguin Group, 2003), 60-61.
29 Thucydides 2.47-48.
30 Thucydides 2.53.
23
4
laws.31 The collapse of society was so bad that the people failed to give even the basic burial rights
to their dead.32 While Athens had been able to come back from the plague with enough strength to
not only continue fighting the Peloponnesian War but even take the advantage in the war at times
they did not come out of the plague unscathed. Athens lost their leader, Pericles, to the plague.
With the loose of Pericles, Athens would find itself without someone to direct the people to decide
which actions would benefit Athens. Which, as we will see later, could be the greatest cause of the
demise of the polis of Athens.
Sparta’s tribulation was different than the plague that Athens suffered from. In 464 BC there
was a massive earthquake that killed nearly 20,000 Spartans. Seeing an opportunity, the Messenian
helots revolted against the Spartans causing the Third Messenian War to begin. 33 With the help of
their allies, including from Athens, the Spartans were able to put down this rebellion and regain
control over their territory. So with a comparison of two events that shook the very grounds of
society we see that the Spartans were not only able to keep control over their society, but also put
down a rebellion of a people that before the massive loss of life outnumbered them greatly.
The ability to stand up and fight in a war the likes of which has never been seen in Greece is
clearly seen in both Athens and Sparta. The only difference between the two poleis is that Sparta
was better equipped to deal with the war long term. For Athens to decide on a course of action for
the war, one that would not have to be made in the heat of the moment during battle, the decision
would fall onto the demos. When reading the History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides, a
theme is routinely observed. The demos are a very fickle. For example: how the Athenians dealt
with the Mytilenian revolt. Located on the island of Lesbos the people here had been wanting to
revolt from Athens for some time.34 After having the revolt crushed by Paches, an Athenian in
charge of putting down the revolt, the Assembly voted to “put to death… the entire adult male
population of Mytilene, and to make slaves of the women and children.”35 The next day the demos
of Athens had a sudden change of heart, they had a debate as to whether to change their pervious
decision. After many Athenians gave their opinions about what to do the vote was taken and the
Assembly decided to only put to death the Mytilenians who were “chiefly responsible for the
revolt”, take over the Mytilenian navy, destroy their fortifications, and divided the whole of the land
of Lesbos into 3,000 holdings to distribute among the Athenians.36
The greatest example of the fickleness of the demos is of the way the demos handled the
Sicilian Expedition. The polis of Egesta sent for help from Athens to help them against the polis of
Selinuntines, and to do so they brought sixty talents of silver to pay for a fleet of ships to be sent to
Sicily. The Athenians, believing that Egesta was a very wealthy polis agreed to help. The Athenians
agreed to send a total of sixty ships, commanded by Alcibiades, Nicias, and Lamachus to go to Sicily
to help the Egestaeans.37 Nicias was openly opposed to this expedition, and he tried to persuade the
Assembly away from such a course. Nicias tried to convince the Assembly that it would be useless
to go because the Sicilian poleis were so powerful, and the only way to take them would be to send
an overwhelmingly large force.38 The Assembly agreed to send the large force. Not only did they
vote for the original armada but when Nicias needed help, he asked to either have the force
withdraw or to send in another force. The vote was a yes to sending in reinforcements. The
Thucydides 2.53.
Donald Kagan, The Peloponnesian War (New York: Penguin Group, 2003), 78.
33 Paul Cartledge, The Spartans: The World of the Warrior-Heroes of Ancient Greece (New York: Vintage Books, 2003), 151-152.
34 Thucydides 3.2. The people of Lesbos had wanted to revolt before the Peloponnesian War had even begun.
35 Thucydides 3.36.
36 Thucydides 3.50.
37 Thucydides 6.8. They also wanted to see if any wealth could be brought back to be used to help the Athenians win the
Peloponnesian War.
38 Thucydides 6.19-23.
31
32
5
combined forces would end up being nearly obliterated, the survivors becoming slaves forced to
work in mines.
The year is 411 BC and the democracy which had been in place since 508 in Athens has
finally been squashed by an oligarchy. Thanks to the events of the drastic failure of the Sicilian
Expedition taken by Athens, along with the other failures of the war, has caused the demos of
Athens to look for guidance in a different body of government.39 Yet again we see just how fickle
the society of Athens is, the Spartan society had continued even though they suffered heavy losses
during this war.40 For the Spartiates we fail to see such a drastic failure to act logically during the
war. This stems from the fact that the decisions were not made by the demos, but rather by the
aristocratic few who lead Sparta. What this fact means is that the leadership of Sparta is in the hands
of those who are educated, wealthy, and tend to have a better understanding of what is best to do in
dire situations.
The end of the Peloponnesian War in 404 BC saw the end of the Athenian Empire, and
along with it the democracy that it had believed was its greatest asset.41 The iron hard strength of
Sparta is clearly seen throughout the whole history of the age of the polis. While Athens on the
other hand had floundered for several hundred years, and then when the going got difficult in the
Peloponnesian War they fell apart yet again. Today we see a different scene, the totalitarian societies
are the more unstable and fail to last as long as the democracies. A lesson learned from these two
poleis is that while you may believe that your ideals of government are the best, your society must be
able to survive along with them.
Donald Kagan, The Peloponnesian War (New York: Penguin Group, 2003), 361.
This fact is all the more important because of the low population Sparta had at this time. Evidence can be seen at the Battle of
Pylos and Sphacteria.
41 The democracy would be reestablished by the Spartan kings to stop Lysander from, what they believed was his plan of, creating it as
his own seat of power. This all happened in the year 403 BC.
39
40
6
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What does the Epic of Gilgamesh Reveal about Mesopotamian Culture and Religion?
Hannah Jensen
Hannah Jensen, from Olney Illinois, wrote this paper for Dr. Lee Patterson’s Ancient Near East course in the Fall
2015. She is currently a senior, majoring in History and expects to graduate in Summer 2016. After graduation, she
hopes to travel and pursue her Master’s Degree in the future.
______________________________________________________________________________
The Epic of Gilgamesh, from the time it was rediscovered and reconstructed in the late
nineteenth century, has created a sense of controversy and curiosity among historians of the ancient
near east. A huge reason for the excitement was the incorporations of other stories and the
evidence of the flood story from Genesis. With this, the Epic creates a parallel to the bible and the
society of Mesopotamia nearly 4,000 years ago. Gilgamesh is known to be the first great hero, and
the epic is known as the ‘first great masterpiece of world literature’. With this story we can learn a
lot about Mesopotamian culture and their religion, but what exactly? Throughout their culture, we
find many examples of similar instances that continue for years to come. Some of these instances
are the idea of a strong male leader and a council of city elders, but also the gender division, which
is important throughout their religion too. There seems to be a concern with the rights of the
citizens, as Gilgamesh is expected to be a just ruler, and being a ruler with outrage over his abuses
actually leads to the creation of Enkidu in the story.
Religiously, Mesopotamians were a polytheistic society, meaning they were attached to
natural phenomena with gods that were very heavily personified. They would have relationships
with these gods and would pick their favorite or least favorite to guide or destroy. The idea of
afterlife is created to be dark and gray, but since it is fragmented in the epic, it is difficult to form an
accurate picture of their vision of the underworld. Since there are three different versions of the
Epic, I will focus on the 11 translated tablets of the first millennium B.C., translated by Maureen
Gallery Kovacs. Her translations point out tales of the Harlot, Gilgamesh’s dreams, the strangling
of the Lion and the hunter that is somewhat unrelated to the ultimate story, but finds itself creating
a larger picture for the Epic of Gilgamesh.1
The Epic of Gilgamesh recounts the tale of the hero-king of ancient Mesopotamia. Gilgamesh
has encounters with creatures, kings and gods and also provides a story of human relationships,
feelings, loneliness, friendship, loss, love, revenge and the fear of death. He is the wisest, strongest,
and most handsome of all mortals, and is two-thirds god and one-third man. He’s the king of the
city-state Uruk, and builds a huge wall around the city. In the process he overworks his citizens to
the point they begin to pray to the gods for relief. The god Anu hears their prayers and called on
the goddess Aruru to create another mortal/god like Gilgamesh. In order for peace in Uruk, the
two will have to fight for the right to rule. Enkidu is created from clay and is sent to live among the
animals. He is known as the equal to Gilgamesh, but is more native and primal.
The two enemies become inseparable best friends after an “earth-shaking” fight. After
time, Gilgamesh proposes a dangerous adventure to the Cedar Forest, in which they will encounter
the great and terrible guardian, Humbaba. The friends take off with special weapons and are under
protection of the sun god. Once they reach the Cedar Forest, Enkidu tries to convince Gilgamesh
to turn back, but the sun god urges them to continue and confront Humbaba. The exchanges
1
Tigay, Jeffrey H. The Evolution of the Gilgamesh Epic. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1982.
7
between the warriors and Humbaba are not understood by the men, but Enkidu eventually
persuades Gilgamesh to destroy him.
After the defeat and their return to Uruk, the hero, Gilgamesh, is pursued by the goddess,
Ishtar. But knowing her past with lovers, Gilgamesh rejects her invitation, which only manages to
irritate and anger her. In retaliation, Ishtar sends down the Bull of Heaven, which Gilgamesh and
Enkidu are able to defeat. After this, the gods decide that one of the warriors must die in
retribution for slaying Humbaba and the Bull of Heaven. They end up deciding Enkidu is the one
who must die. Gilgamesh is devastated by the loss of his friend and better half, and decides to rebel
and set out find the secret to eternal life.
Gilgamesh meets with Utanapishtim, who has received the gift of eternal life, to learn his
secrets. Utanapishtim tests him by forcing Gilgamesh to go without sleep, a test that he fails and is
sent away. Utanapishtim’s wife urges that they give Gilgamesh something to reward him for his
quest, and they decide on the “plant of rejuvenation”, which will allow him to live his life over
again. Unfortunately for Gilgamesh, he loses his plant to a snake and has to return home empty
handed with no solution to eternity or a second chance at life.2
So let us start with the culture of Mesopotamia during the age of the Epic. Benjamin Foster
puts forth evidence on the idea of sex and love in the culture and society of Mesopotamia. Foster
argues that sex is a type of knowledge, in regards to the chapter on the seduction of Enkidu from
Shamhat. He describes this as sex belongs to the lowest form of human knowledge, because it is
what everyone must experience and understand in order for them to be recognized as human.
Foster also conveys that sex is for fun and is non-productive, and emotionalizes the animal state.
“Gilgamesh transcends such knowledge in a series of stages that leads him, by steps, to the highest
knowledge, where the self is transcended and only accomplishments--e.g., a world of literature.”3
Knowledge of another creates unity, which is only apparent to those with greater knowledge, which
is the goal for all men and is only achieved after all else has been discarded. Foster also puts forth
the idea of knowledge as Knowledge of Humanity, Another, Beginnings of Self-Knowledge, Self,
and the Transcendence of Knowledge beyond the Self. With this, there is difficulty dealing with the
curse Enkidu, who endures because of the prostitute Shamash. Prostitutes were condemned for
giving into seduction, and because Enkidu gave into them, he become more human. This shows
that sex, an act that is far more prevalent today, is seen as a tool by women to humanize men while
making them far more likely to fall into temptation. Other than this from Foster, he describes the
Ninevah Gilgamesh epic, a complex Akkadian poem, and talks about how the Nineveh poet
portrays sex and love as types of sex and knowledge.4
In the Nineveh Epic, which tells of the Niveheh poet portraying sex and love as a type of
knowledge, portays sex as an act belonging to the lowest common level of human knowledge and as
a common experience everyone must have in order to become human. Once the knowledge of sex
is attained, having sex for pleasure rather than production no longer results in the acquisition of
knowledge, and instead becomes a characteristic of the street or change back to the animal state.
The Ninevah Epic credits Enkindu’s giving into the seduction of Shamash as the reason for his
inferiority to Gilgamesh, and also states he no longer has his pristine physical condition because he
is no longer a virgin. At this time Enkidu entered the first stage of knowledge; sexual awareness.
Besides Enkidu, Gilgamesh has an extensive history of sex in the epic, only proving how sex
is a huge part of the culture in Mesopotamia during this time period.5 Gilgamesh is known at the
Kovacs, Maureen Gallery. "Introduction." In The Epic of Gilgamesh. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1989.
Maier, John R. "Benjamin Foster: "Gilgamesh: Sex, Love and the Ascent of Knowledge, 165" In Gilgamesh: A Reader. Wauconda, Ill.,
USA: Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, 1997.
4 Ibid, 163-164.
5 Ibid.
2
3
8
beginning of the epic to have slept with all the pretty and even wed women of Uruk. This shows
Gilgamesh viewed sex as a non-productive hobby and was actually an underlining reason of why
Enkidu was created. When befriending Enkidu, Gilgamesh becomes more of a heroic figure and
looks less to sex and pleasure than before. Instead, he seems to turn it down, especially when he
turns down the sexual advances from the love and war goddess, Ishtar. In doing so, this shows his
ability as a superior man to not be seduced, even by the great goddess, Ishtar. Of course, it is
thought that Gilgamesh didn’t want to be involved due to Ishtar’s previous relationships, but it also
proves him to be mentally strong.6 The role of women is another large part of the culture in
Mesopotamia during this time.
Men were known to be dominant at this time because women weren’t able to control sex
and love, which were not triggered by thought, but by emotion. And true men weren’t said to make
their decisions based on emotions. Women were not seen in a positive light unless they assisted
Gilgamesh or Enkidu, and were expected to nurture and advise in “maternal fashion.” Women in
the Mesopotamian society did not live in a sexual society and their place was outside of the political
sphere and the masculine military domain. Ishtar, the goddess of love and war, is given dedication
to the city of Uruk. And because she controlled two aspects of human nature, which are ruled by
emotion, is the reason Mesopotamians believed women were guided by this instinct and emotion,
rather than reason of other gods and men. Rivkah Harris points out a “comic inversion {in} the
switching of expected roles in the ambiguous figure of Ishtar…”7 Harris states that since
Gilgamesh is a sort of medieval poetry that was more than likely written by men for men, there was
a certain attitude towards women and how they are supportive and subsidiary toward men. This
may actually give a reflection of the lives of women in Mesopotamia at this time, although their
primary role is not necessarily given. There are however a number of women involved in the Epic
that are known as wise, such as Ishtar of course, Shamhat, and Ninsun; Gilgamesh’s goddess
mother. Harris describes how Ishtar reverses the role of goddess, because she is mocked by a
mortal and therefore acts as a man. Another reverse of roles is the relationship of Gilgamesh and
Enkidu, in which they’re marked as husband and wife, which shows that such a relationship can be
seen like a man and woman, according to Harris. Lastly, Harris suggests that “the paradigmatic
image of the mother should be considered in other Mesopotamian myths to determine certain
features of interfamilial life in Mesopotamia.”8
Beyond sex and gender, nature is important to the culture of Mesopotamia, as well as the
Epic. Nature is discussed in the Epic when describing Enkidu and his primitive ways before he
finds his friendship with Gilgamesh. Enkidu is created from clay and the ground and lives in the
desert wastes. “His whole body is shaggy with hair, and his head-hair is like woman’s (which was
unusual in the third millennium B.C.). He feeds on grass with the gazelles and drinks at their
watering-place; he is a wild man”.9 David Damrosch, in “Gilgamesh and
Genesis” also describes Enkidu and the World of Nature. Stating as most historians that
Enkidu begins life as an image of a primitive human being, and his adventurous primitive life. He
roams naked across the steppe and is always in the company of animals. He is known for tearing
down traps and untying animals that have been caught and seems to be hostile and against the
human culture. Damrosch describes the same that Enkidu was perhaps made more fully in
Gilgamesh’s image than the gods had planned and “as Gilgamesh disturbs civil order in Uruk,
Ibid.
Ibid, 79-94.
8 Ibid, 79.
9 Kirk, G. S. "Nature and Culture: Gilgamesh, Centaurs and Cyclopes." In Myth: Its Meaning and Functions in Ancient and Other Cultures,.
Cambridge [England: University Press], 1970.
6
7
9
Enkidu disturbs the pastoral order in the countryside” (Damrosch, pg.195-196).10 Besides Enkidu,
Gilgamesh is brought back to signs of nature when in the near end of the Epic, he goes to see
Utnapishtum, and instead of his clean clothes and crown, he is wearing animal skins because his
clothes are worn out. His wearing of animal skins seems to be a reference to Enkidu and how he
lived before he had met Gilgamesh and was given clothes. Another instance of nature in the epic is
the plant of rejuvenation. Nature, as it is a plant, but also shows how nature in their culture is
important because it gives possibilities of rejuvenation, and reliving one’s life. The plant however is
taken by a snake, which is ironically the symbol of deceit, treachery, and evil in the Old Testament,
and the Creation Story.11
Death is another symbol that is relative to culture and the Epic. Death in the culture of
Mesopotamia portrays a strange image that the underworld is dark and dangerous, and that all the
deceased souls appear to be trapped underground. Death in the Epic occurs with Gilgamesh killing
Humbaba and when Gilgamesh and Enkidu kill the Bull of Heaven, which ultimately leads to the
death of Enkidu. After the death of his best friend, Gilgamesh acts like a madman and doesn’t
believe it until worms take over his body and Enkidu turns to dust. “Death was a part of the
scheme of things, so, since you had to die anyway, let it be a glorious death in the battle with a
worthy foe so that your name and fame would live.”12 After this, Gilgamesh struggles with his
sense of mortality and looks for a way to defeat the inevitable. In the end, after being unable to
find immortality and a way to relive his life, Gilgamesh finds peace with death. Death in the culture
of Mesopotamia is inevitable, as it is in the culture of all lives.13 Death in the Epic is seen through
the story and seems to help Gilgamesh grow up and look it in the face as well. Gilgamesh searches
for ways to stay immortal, but eventually finds peace in death with the hope that he will someday be
reunited with his friend and marital lover, Enkidu. “The loss of the plant stands thus for the loss of
illusion that one can go back to being a child. It brings home the necessity for growing up, for
facing and accepting reality. And in the loss Gilgamesh for the first time can take himself less
seriously, even smile ruefully at himself; he has at last become nature.”14
When it comes to religion in Mesopotamia, the Epic of Gilgamesh shows a similar
presentation of what the Greek and Roman authors would write a thousand years later. Being a
polytheistic society, the gods were attached to natural phenomena and occurrences. Ishtar, as stated
before, is the goddess of love and war; Ea, the god of water and the arts; Shamash, the god of the
sun and his wife; the goddess of the moon. The Gilgamesh Epic compares to the Homeric epics.
Gerald K. Gresseth, states that a line is “traceable from the Sumerian materials from which the
Akkadian epic was formed to the world of Homer. As often with lines of cultural derivation parts
of this line are of greater importance than other parts: in particular, the period when these
somewhat diverse moment for this tradition. What has not generally been seen is that the creation
of this unity--really the creation of heroic epic in the true sense-- was not a fortuitous artistic
discovery but the result of a new idea, that of the human hero as contrasted with an older, more
divine or ‘shamanistic’ type of hero.”15 G.S. Kirk also describes the influence of the Epic of
Gilgamesh on the Greek myths. He states that the Mesopotamian myths are better understood as
Maier, John R., David Damrosch. “"Gilgamesh and Genesis."195-196,” In Gilgamesh: A Reader. Wauconda, Ill., USA: BolchazyCarducci Publishers, 1997.
11 Ibid, 138-139.
12 Jacobsen, Thorkild. "Second Millennium Metaphors. "And Death the Journey's End": The Gilgamesh Epic." In The Treasures of
Darkness: A History of Mesopotamian Religion, 202. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1976.
13 Tigay, Jeffrey H. The Evolution of the Gilgamesh Epic. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1982.
14 Jacobsen, Thorkild. "Second Millennium Metaphors. "And Death the Journey's End": The Gilgamesh Epic." In The Treasures of
Darkness: A History of Mesopotamian Religion, 219. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1976.
15 Gresseth, Gerald. "The Gilgamesh Epic and Homer." The Classical Journal 70, no. 4 (1975).
10
10
their influence overwhelmingly appears and is therefore revealed by details of non-folktales, but that
also have obvious meanings.16
Beyond Greek and Roman myths, religion in Mesopotamia and the Epic is heavily
personified. The gods have relationships in which they choose their favorite mortals to guide and
sometimes choose their least favorite mortals to destroy. Such as when Enlil chooses to destroy
mankind in the Flood, and Ea saves Utnapishtim by guiding him to build a boat, this leads to
Utnapishtim finding divine mortality and being the one that Gilgamesh looks to for the possibility
of becoming immortal. The Flood Story, which is found in the Epic of Gilgamesh, is a similar story
to the Flood Story of Noah’s Ark in Genesis of the Old Testament. In “Gilgamesh and Genesis”,
David Damrosch states there is certainly a parallel to Genesis, but it could also represent a
“historicizing extension into human history of primordial conflicts depicted among the gods in
Enumaelsih.”17 Damrosch states we do not have enough evidence to say whether an older tradition
developed human-history analogues in the Sumerian times of the late Third Millennium. Damrosch
describes four fundamental story elements that appear in the creation-flood epics. The creation of
humans, the cataclysm of the flood, and the establishment of the post-Flood human order and the
creation of the world. All these elements are in Genesis 1-1l, but have major altercations. “If
Genesis 1-11 develops away from this ancient paradigm, the Gilgamesh Epic develops toward it. In
the process, the text loses its former exclusive emphasis on the problem of death and becomes a
wider meditation on the limes from the problem of mortality to the theme of knowledge in Genesis
1-11.”18 The significance of the Flood Story when it comes to Mesopotamian culture and religion is
the citizens and folks rely on the gods to have control over the rivers and the rain that they receive.
When something such as a flood happens, it is seen as a punishment from the gods, because natural
events in the Mesopotamian culture are said to have stemmed from gods.
From the Epic of Gilgamesh, we see that religion and culture in Mesopotamia shines through.
We see a masculine identity with a gender divide pervade through the culture. Sex and religion play
major roles, and are important to the future of cultures and Empires. We see that the masculine
identity is important in their culture just by looking at the description of Gilgamesh and Enkidu.
We see that a leader/king is someone who is masculine and strong, who towers over the rest. The
role of women and gender is also seen in the Epic. We don’t have a definitive description of the
role of women at this time in Mesopotamia, but we do know they are not on the same level as men,
nor are they looked at as respectable. Women are thought to have made decisions based on
emotion and their rational instinct, but men are thought to have a mindset which is the total
opposite. This is where a goddess like Ishtar is a huge example to the gender division; although she
is a woman, she is seen to use her mind more like a man. The role of the mother is not necessarily
pointed out throughout their culture, but in the Epic there are references to the mother, who is a
divine goddess, who gives Gilgamesh his two-thirds god. Sex is a huge role in the culture and even
in the religion of Mesopotamia during this time period. Sex, an emotional and instinctive act, is
what makes a man mortal in this culture. It’s also seen as a form of pleasure, especially when it is
non-productive, making it evens more of a mortal act. Sex plats a role in religion too, because when
a man takes part in the act, it rids him of the possibility of becoming immortal, and is also a way for
the gods to guide or hate a mortal such as Ishtar and Gilgamesh. Religion in the culture of
Mesopotamia is seen everywhere. It is seen in the roles gods play in everyday lives and also gives
Kirk, G. S. "Nature and Culture: Gilgamesh, Centaurs and Cyclopes." In Myth: Its Meaning and Functions in Ancient and Other Cultures,
Cambridge [England: University Press; 1970. 132.
17 Maier, John R. “David Damrosch. "Gilgamesh and Genesis." 193” In Gilgamesh: A Reader. Wauconda, Ill., USA: Bolchazy-Carducci
Publishers, 1997
18 Ibid.
16
11
reference to the Greeks and their mythology. Overall, culture and religion is extremely influential
and relevant in the Epic of Gilgamesh.
12
______________________________________________________________________________
Alexander the Not So Great
William Baran
Bill Baran, from Crystal Lake, Illinois, wrote "Alexander the Not So Great" during his senior year for Dr. Lee
Patterson's Alexander the Great course in Fall 2015. He is currently a senior, majoring in history, and expects to
graduate in May 2016.
______________________________________________________________________________
“It is perhaps Ptolemy who first coined the title ‘Great’ to describe Alexander, an epithet
that has stayed with him to this day.”1 Whether or not this is true, somewhere along the way
Alexander inherited the title “Great,” but is it one that he deserves? Alexander is responsible for
expanding Macedonian territory significantly and it is something that he could not have
accomplished alone. Since the backing of the army was crucial, why did some of Alexander’s
generals not live past the life of Alexander? Although some of the generals and other army
personnel inevitably died while in battle, others did not receive such a glorified death. Under
Alexander’s rule numerous people in his army were murdered or died under suspicious
circumstances. The death witnessed while Alexander ruled did not end there, because the army as a
whole often suffered due to poor decision making on Alexander’s part. Whether direct or indirect
Alexander ordered or caused the deaths of many because of anger, suspicion, or by poor choices.
Alexander does not deserve the title “Great,” because of the deliberate killing under his command of
both individuals and his army.
Before embarking on the journey of tearing down Alexander’s title, it is important to
understand the transition from Philip II to Alexander. Before Alexander inherited the throne, his
father Philip ruled for twenty-four years until his assassination.2 During a festival Phillip was
murdered by Pausanias, who after stabbing the king attempted an escape to waiting horses.
Ultimately, Pausanias was chased down and quickly brought to justice.3 Philip died of his wounds;
the legacy he had established was one of the greatest kingdoms in the Greek world which he
accomplished through diplomatic and military means. A young Alexander took the reins and
attempted to continue what his father had started.4 What is suspicious about the rise of Alexander is
the waiting horses for Pausanias, so the possibility for a conspiracy is there. However, it has never
been proven whether Alexander knew of such plot or not.5 If one were to look at Justin, then the
thought of a conspiracy is not out of reach. Alexander’s mother, Olympias, had Pausanias under her
thumb and Alexander himself knew of the plot.6 If Alexander knew of such a plot why did he not
stop it? The historian Nicholas Geoffrey Lemprière (N.G.L) Hammond also summarizes the events
surrounding the death of Philip and Olympias’s involvement drawing further on Justin 9.7.10-11.
Olympias is the one that placed the awaiting horses for Pausanias to make a quick getaway. After
the death of Philip, Olympias is said to have run to the funeral of Philip. Not only did Olympias run
to Philip’s funeral, but she also crowned the assassin’s corpse and held an annual sacrifice in honor
of the assassin. Once Philip was gone Olympias compelled Cleopatra to hang herself for breaking
apart the marriage of Philip and Olympias thus completing her revenge against Philip and Cleopatra.
Ian Worthington, Alexander the Great: Man and God (Harlow: Pearson/Longman, 2004), 271-1.
Diod. 16.95.1
3 Diod. 16.94.1-4.
4 Diod. 16.95.1-5.
5 Worthington, Alexander the Great, 29.
6 Just. 9.7.1.
1
2
13
Although Hammond dismisses this as historically inaccurate it begs the question if any part of
Justin’s account could be true, however unlikely.7 If the conspiracy were true then from the very
start of his reign there was a dark cloud accumulating around Alexander and it would only continue
to grow. Justin makes a valid argument because Alexander’s campaign saw numerous conspiracies in
Asia, so why not in the Greek world?
Since Alexander had established himself as the new King of Macedonia, the next step he
took was to ensure his kingship. One of Alexander’s first victims was Attalus, a general in his army.
Once Alexander came to power the thought of revolt had crossed Attalus’s mind, but he quickly
reversed that thought and attempted to pledge allegiance to Alexander. Alexander would have none
of that and quickly had Attalus put to death.8 Was the killing of Attalus justified? Before Alexander
had come to power around the time Philip married Cleopatra, there was a disagreement between
Alexander and Attalus. At the wedding banquet of Philip, drink was flowing, which ended in harsh
words between Attalus and Alexander. Philip ended up pulling his sword on Alexander.9 The
historian N.G.L Hammond also makes note of the disagreement between Attalus and Alexander
drawing upon Justin 9.7.1-8 and 9.7.9-14. Similar but slightly different to the previously mentioned
Plutarch account. Attalus and Alexander got into an argument at a wedding banquet when Philip
stepped in and pulled his sword on Alexander. Philip began to chase Alexander around with his
sword only to be persuaded with difficulty by friends watching the unfolding events. 10 Philip
chasing Alexander with his sword is far more violent than Philip just drawing his sword on
Alexander.
Philip was protecting the honor of his general Attalus, but had that left Alexander with some
deep-seated hatred towards Attalus? If so, then Alexander would have used any number of reasons
to get back at Attalus. Also, Alexander had one of his best generals killed, which the importance of
well commanded troops in the upcoming invasion of Asia would have been crucial. Personal
feelings aside, Alexander’s decision making process was second-rate at best.
Another reason Alexander had Attalus killed may have been due to growing paranoia, which grew as
Alexander pushed on into Asia.11 Attalus may have been one of the first in Alexander’s army to be
executed, but he sure would not be the last.
As Alexander pressed on into his Asia campaign the next unfortunate persons to get in the
crosshairs of Alexander were Philotas and Parmenio. Arrian and the court historian view of the
incident starts with Philotas on trial. Philotas had been made aware of a plot against
Alexander’s life and said nothing to the king even though Philotas visited the king’s tent two times a
day. Philotas was quickly dealt with, but was not the only one affected. Parmenio, who was
Philotas’s father, was also sought out and put to death. Alexander believed he too shared in the
conspiracy.12 On the other hand the vulgate tradition states that Philotas knew of the plot and did
not inform Alexander of it, so his guilt laid in his silence of not reporting such a crime.13 However,
the vulgate also expresses that Dimnus, who was involved in the plot, did not speak of Philotas’s
involvement in the plot.14 Furthermore, Nicomachus, Metron and Cebalinus, who knew of the plot
against the king and how the situation unfolded, never mentioned Philotas as a coconspirator. 15
N.G.L. Hammond, Three Historians of Alexander the Great: the so-Called Vulgate Authors, Diodorus, Justin and Curtius (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1983), 89.
8 Diod. 14.5.1-2.
9 Plut. Alex. 9.
10 Hammond, Three Historians of Alexander the Great, 89.
11 John D. Grainger, Alexander the Great Failure: The Collapse of the Macedonian Empire (London: Hambledon Continuum, 2007), 68.
12 Arr. 3.26-27.
13 Curt. 6.9.10-11.
14 Curt. 6.9.16.
15 Curt. 6.9.7.
7
14
From information above it would seem that Philotas was not involved in the conspiracy, but did fail
to report such a plot to Alexander.
The complete lapse in judgement of Alexander, especially in the killing of Parmenio, only
furthers the argument for Alexander to not maintain the title “Great.” After taking the Persian
capital of Persepolis, and while Alexander was continuing his pursuit of Darius after Persepolis,
Parmenio had the task of making sure the vast amounts of wealth. Around 180,000 talents of gold
and silver, had to arrive safely to Ecbatana. On Alexander’s orders, Parmenio took a contingent of
troops and made sure the deed was accomplished.16 Within a fairly short time period Parmenio
would be executed, which begs the question why? How could Alexander have someone he trusted
with transporting the 180,000 talents have executed? The reason why the execution of Parmenio is
baffling is the cargo that Parmenio was protecting. If Parmenio was dead set on taking the throne
from Alexander, he could have accomplished it by other means. Parmenio could have used the
180,000 talents that he was protecting and paid mercenaries to fight with him, who would have
dwarfed any army Alexander held. Other historians even go as far as attributing the Philotas affair
as an aim to assassinate Parmenio, so Philotas just happened to be in the way. 17 This would flip the
conspiracy against Philotas on its head. The conspiracy would not have originated in the depths of
the army, but rather at the top with Alexander himself leading the charge.
Another reason why the killing of Philiotas and Parmenio was not a wise decision is because
of their military experience. Philotas was the commander of the Companion Cavalry, which meant
he was a valuable military asset to Alexander. Parmenio was a general in
Alexander’s army and he too was crucial to Alexander’s campaign in Asia. Why would a supposed
“Great” man kill his army commanders while in the depths of a campaign?18 As Alexander was
drawn deeper into Asia, wouldn’t he have needed well-trained commanders? Alexander had made
something great all right, a great error.
The next victim of Alexander’s rage, Cleitus the Black, was also in Alexander’s army. The
demise of Cleitus began with a banquet that was held where of course much drink was flowing. The
night wore on when Alexander boasted that Philip’s victories were because of him, which left the
Old Guard uneasy.19 Cleitus did not stand by idly and voiced his opinion about the king, while not
being the soberest himself.20 The short fuse known as Alexander was not one to take criticism. So
he grabbed a spear and thrust it into Cleitus, killing him.21 Alexander had killed one of his
commanders in a fit of rage.
Cleitus had spoken out because he believed that the army as a whole should take credit for
victories thus far, not just Alexander. Cleitus was enraged even further when Alexander ordered a
Greek singer to entertain his army, while specifically targeting some commanders, such as Cleitus.
After Cleitus continued to speak openly, Alexander could not take the insults any longer, grabbed a
spear and struck Cleitus dead. Cleitus had been killed for openly expressing criticism against the
king.22 This view on the events that unfolded seems to point towards Alexander intentionally setting
the scene for dissenters. If this interpretation were true, then the paranoia that Alexander is
exhibiting by this stage is quite noticeable. Paranoia however seems to be a common theme.
Previously mentioned in the interpretation of the events surrounding Philotas and Parmenio, some
historians have been led to believe that the real target was Parmenio. Ernst Badian is not alone in
Worthington, Alexander the Great, 151-2.
Ernst Badian, “Conspiracies,” in Alexander the Great in Fact and Fiction, ed. A. B. Bosworth and E. J.
Bayaham (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), 69.
18 Worthington, Alexander the Great, 169-70.
19 Curt. 8.1.22-3.
20 Curt. 8.1.28-9.
21 Curt. 8.1.52.
22 Peter Green, Alexander the Great (New York: Praeger Publishers, 1970), 198-9.
16
17
15
this interpretation, because Peter Green also attributes Philotas’s demise to fabricated charges.23 If
both the Philotas and Cleitus views on Alexander are true then Alexander is paranoid at the highest
level if not borderline delusional and the title “Great” need not apply.
Although Cleitus had spoken out against the king, Alexander had let his emotions get the
best of him. Cleitus was not the enemy. In fact, it is Alexander who owes his life to Cleitus. At the
Battle of Granicus River, Alexander was moments away from being slain, when Cleitus cut the hand
of the enemy off. Cleitus had proven his loyalty to Alexander and also under Philip where he had
demonstrated himself in battle numerous times.24 Why kill such a loyal soldier and excellent
commander? Alexander was not his father; Philip controlled his anger while Alexander had a short
fuse and once started could not be stopped. Both were very fond of having a good time at banquets
or festivals, while sometimes consuming too much drink it often led to outburst of anger. Philip
focused his anger on the enemy, but Alexander turned his anger on his own men. 25 An intoxicated
Alexander let his emotions get the best of him, which cost him a respectable commander.
Another notable person that witnessed the wrath of Alexander was Callisthenes. The events
that led up to Callisthenes execution begin with prostration. Alexander adopted a Persian custom of
prostration, which was not done by the Greeks; Anaxarchus encouraged prostration however.
Alexander believed that he deserved such praise, but the Greeks believed it was blurring the line
between man and god. One night when Alexander was talking to Hephaestion, Callisthenes did not
perform the prostration and went unnoticed by the king until Demetrius spoke up of the disgrace.
Although Callisthenes may not have had the finest manners, Alexander’s growing arrogance was
clearly shown.26 The historian Arrian even believes that Alexander should not have lashed out in
anger as he did. Alexander remembered this moment in time and that is why he was quick to believe
Callisthenes involvement in the royal pages plot.27 If Arrian is correct in Alexander believing
Callisthenes should have performed prostration, because Alexander believed he was a god, then he
was completely delusional. Callisthenes like many of the other Greeks would most likely have not
responded well to such a custom, but keeping quiet meant keeping your life. Unfortunately for
Callisthenes he was not willing to bend his will to such madness and it cost him dearly.
The prostration issue is in the backdrop of the pages plot against Alexander. The young
bodyguards that were supposed to be protecting the king hatched an idea to take his life. The plan
for the bodyguards were to kill Alexander while he was sleeping, luckily for him a woman told
Alexander to stay up and drink the night away, which he obliged. Thus, Alexander’s drinking
problems saved his life and foiled the plot of the royal pages. The royal pages were quickly rounded
up, tortured and confessed there were others involved. The boys mentioned Callisthenes was
involved, but the truth behind that accusation is shaky at best. Alexander was willing to accept
Callisthenes involvement whether he actually was or not because of his dislike of Callisthenes from
the prostration incident. All of the parties there were involved were put to death.28
The death of Callisthenes is unfortunate, but it is also not surprising because Alexander
secured the death of Philotas, Parmenio, and Cleitus. So it is clear that Callisthenes never had a
chance of escape. Alexander knew how to play on other people’s emotions and set the scene for
Callisthenes to fall into his trap. He accomplished this by allowing Callisthenes to orate about the
greatness of the Macedonia then asked him to counter his own argument on how Macedonia was
not great, which he did. Macedonians that heard the oration did not enjoy Callisthenes bad
Ibid, 187. See also Badian ,“Conspiracies,” in Alexander the Great in Fact and Fiction, ed. A. B. Bosworth and E. J. Bayaham, 69.
Curt. 8.1.20.
25 Just. 9.8.14-15.
26 Arr. 4.11-13.
27 Arr. 4.13.
28 Arr. 4.14.
23
24
16
mouthing the Macedonian state.29 Another historian by the name of Lionel Pearson also mentions
Callisthenes’ thoughtlessness drawing on Plutarch Alex. 54. Callisthenes was evidently not liked by
Macedonian officers and his oration of Macedonia would not have improved those relations.
Callisthenes’ brilliant oration regarding Macedonian greatness was challenged by Alexander by him
taking the opposite side and detest Macedonia, which he did. This was proof that Callisthenes held
anti Macedonia feelings. Callisthenes may have thought he was showing his skill as a great orator
when in reality Alexander found his own court was filled with anti-Macedonian sentiments, such as
Callisthenes.30 Alexander could then use the right occasion to rid Callisthenes of his court and he
did just so.
Another death that occurred under Alexander was Coenus and the suspicious circumstances
surrounding his death. Tensions between Alexander and Coenus arose at the Hyphasis River.
Coenus spoke on behalf of the common soldiers, who had journeyed with Alexander to the ends of
the earth. The soldiers had been through numerous battles, had fought off sickness and had stood
by Alexander’s side the entire time. The men yearned to see their homeland again, which they were
thousands of miles away from. After Coenus delivered his speech the common soldiers were
thrilled for the possible journey home. Alexander had no other choice but to turn around and cut
his dream of further expansion eastward.31 Alexander must have felt some resentment towards
Coenus, because the last one that spoke out against Alexander, Callisthenes, paid the price for doing
so. Alexander withdrew to his tent and after a few days of weeping he emerged and admitted defeat.
He turned his troops around due to “unfavorable omens” about continuing east.32
Once the decision was made Alexander turned his army around, but Coenus did not live to
see Macedonia again. Not long after the army had turned around Coenus fell ill and died.33 The
death of Coenus seemed very sudden and for Alexander not to stir up any suspicion he held a rather
grand funeral for Coenus.34 Coenus was a loyal commander and Alexander said he had earned a fine
funeral.35 The timing of Coenus’s death seems rather suspicious. Coenus had travelled many a mile
with Alexander and only after Coenus voiced his opinion and the army turned around he passed. As
has been demonstrated, Alexander has run into those who could not hold their tongue, such as
Cleitus and Callisthenes, both resulting in death. Although the theory that Coenus died from other
than illness cannot be proven, it is still a note worth mentioning.
So far this paper has examined numerous individuals that were unfortunate enough to land
on the wrong side of Alexander. Another aspect that affected more than an individual or two is the
Gedrosia Desert incident. As Alexander and his men approached the Gedrosia Desert the horrors
that lay ahead were ghastly, a journey of which would take sixty days. Whatever the men had
withstood throughout Asia was no comparison to the hardships faced in Gedrosia. Alexander heard
of previous notable figures, such as Semiramis and Cyrus, who attempted the crossing only to come
out barely alive. Alexander was not one to be outshined, so across the desert Alexander went. 36
Alexander had the army following him as well as numerous women and children in tow. Along the
way these women and children set camp near a stream, unknowing to them that heavy rain had
fallen upstream. The heavy rainfall turned into a flash flood and travelled downstream engulfing
most of the women and children.37 Morale was low, and Alexander tried to encourage the men by
Alexander attempted to discredit Callisthenes Philip Freeman, Alexander the Great (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2011), 264-5.
Lionel Pearson, The Lost Histories of Alexander the Great (New York: American Philological Association, 1960), 24.
31 Arr. 5.26-28.
32 Arr. 5.29.
33 Curt. 9.3.20.
34 Badian, “Conspiracies,” In Alexander the Great in Fact and Fiction, edited by A. B. Bosworth and E. J. Bayaham, 74.
35 Arr. 6.2.
36 Arr. 6.24.
37 Arr. 6.26.
29
30
17
dumping water out of his helmets to appear strong and undaunted by the harshness of the desert. 38
Eventually Alexander was able to make it out of Gedrosia, but at an enormous cost.
When Alexander and his army came out on the other side of the desert only one quarter of
the army remained. The blame lay entirely on Alexander’s shoulders, because of his large ego.
Alexander was not one to be outdone by anyone, hearing the stories of Semiramis and Cyrus’s
failure, led him to make that fateful decision.39 Worthington seems to attribute the crossing of the
Gedrosia Desert as a deliberate act relating to Alexander’s ego, whereas Grainger is more cynical.
The Gedrosia Desert was punishment for the army and their mutiny at the Hyphasis River. This
puts Alexander in a much darker mindset rather than chalking it up to ego. Alexander wanted
absolute power, which his supposed faithful army stabbed him in the back, or that’s the way
Alexander may have seen it. Alexander’s frame of mind was one of paranoia, suspicion, and filled
with anger.40 Alexander has killed close friends for speaking out against him, so it is not out of the
question for him to punish his army for the same.
However, not all sources describe the horrors of the Gedrosia Desert, such as Justin. The
historian N.G.L. Hammond briefly mentions the Gedrosia Desert and draws upon Justin 12.10.1
and 12. 10.7. Justin does not elaborate on the crossing and the hardships that Alexander’s men
experienced. In fact, there seemed to be little difficulty in finding water after which Alexander
returned to Babylonia. Justin had been so vocal on other aspects of Alexander, so why not here?
Hammond believes it has to do with the sources that Justin utilized and that the sources Justin used
made little of Gedrosia thus so did Justin.41 Alexander the Great is a notable individual in history,
but is not deserving of his title of “Great.” A prominent feature of Alexander’s rule is the massive
expansion of Macedonia’s territory, however at what cost? As the territory under Alexander
expanded so did his paranoia.
One of Alexander’s first victims was the general Attalus, who was dealt with before
Alexander set out for his Asia campaign. Attalus was one Alexander’s first victims, but certainly not
the last. Philotas and Parmenio, both high ranking commanders in Alexander’s army were wrongly
executed; even longtime friends were not safe under Alexander. Alexander often let his anger get
the best of him and the influence of alcohol did not help the situation, such as in the case of Cleitus
the Black. Cleitus spoke of Alexander’s father Philip II and in a bit of rage Alexander killed Cleitus
on the spot. Alexander seemed to be acting as a barbaric warrior rather than a noble king. Another
individual who ended up on the wrong side of Alexander was Callisthenes. The court historian
Callisthenes failed to perform the Persian custom of prostration, Alexander resented that and waited
until the right opportunity presented itself to rid Callisthenes of the court and his life. The
opportunity came in the form of the pages plot, which Alexander quickly had Callisthenes executed.
One of the most suspicious deaths is that of Coenus. Coenus had spoken bluntly to the king telling
him the men would go no further. Shortly after the army turned around Coenus died due to some
sort of illness. Alexander had a common theme of ridding those who spoke out against him, so it
would not be hard to believe that Alexander may have had a hand in Coenus’s demise. Lastly, the
Gedrosia Desert crossing led not individuals to their death, but tens of thousands. Crossing the
Gedrosia was Alexander’s response to the mutiny at the Hyphasis River. If Alexander could not
achieve his goal of going to the ends of the Earth then his men needed to be punished for crushing
his dream. One important factor to take into consideration is the sources writing of Alexander. No
sources during the time of Alexander remain, so we will never truly know the real Alexander.
Arr. 6.26.
Worthington, Alexander the Great, 231.
40 Grainger, Alexander the Great Failure, 84. See also Green, Alexander the Great, 239.
41 Hammond, Three Historians of Alexander the Great, 106.
38
39
18
However, from what has been gathered the picture painted of Alexander is not of a “Great,” but of
an angry and paranoid king willing to kill however he saw fit.
19
______________________________________________________________________________
“’Water, earth, and air infected”1: How Movement, Quarantines, and Geographical
Limitations Shaped the Movement of Yellow Fever in 1793
Alyssa Peterson
Alyssa Peterson earned her undergraduate degree at Indiana University and a Masters in History at Eastern Illinois
University, where she focused on early American history and the history of disease and medicine within the same time
period. This paper won the 2015 Lavern M. Hamand Graduate Writing Award and was presented in a shortened
version as a poster presentation at the 2016 American Associate for the History of Medicine conference.
______________________________________________________________________________
In 1793, Philadelphia was the capital of the newly formed United States and a fast growing
city full of immigrants, merchants, laborers and free blacks. Late in the summer of that same year,
one of the greatest outbreaks of yellow fever in history swept through the city. People at the time,
including doctors, understood little about how disease came to be or how it spread. Many believed
that infected people and inanimate objects spread diseases. Their first natural reaction was to
quarantine themselves and their city. Yellow fever, spread by mosquitos, was, as many
contemporaries suspected, transported to Philadelphia. The most likely means by which the disease
came into the capital city was in water caskets contaminated with mosquito larva. Once the disease
became entrenched in the city Philadelphians’ focus turned outward toward the prevention of
“infected” people and freight from entering. Surrounding cities and towns also instinctively
employed quarantines over both land and water, stopping and often refusing entry to anyone
coming from the capital. These quarantines had no effect on the spread of the disease. Instead,
environmental conditions as well as the biological limitations of the disease and mosquitos kept the
disease from spreading to other localities. Although historians have known this, to date, no one had
detailed the spread as well as the natural restrictions of the 1793 yellow fever outbreak as this paper
does. Ultimately, it was these environmental and biological limits, and not the regulation of the
movement of people (mainly by quarantine orders) that stopped the spread outward during the 1793
outbreak.
This paper will look at the spread of yellow fever from the first cases in late July and early
August to the end of the outbreak near the end of October. In this paper I will show that the
movement of people played a large role in the dispersion of disease to Philadelphia and within the
city itself. However, because of the nature of the disease and its vector, there were also ecological
and biological limits that could not be overcome, thereby keeping the disease within Philadelphia. It
is these limits that stopped the spread of yellow fever, and any quarantine put into place by either
Philadelphia or any surrounding town was a futile and fearful attempt to stop a disease they knew
nothing about. The outbreak also led to changes in public health in the city, despite continued
ignorance of the disease itself.
There has been much written on the yellow fever outbreak in 1793. There are multiple firsthand accounts written during or shortly after the event. There have also been many secondary
sources that have focused on different aspects of the outbreak, including studies on population
changes, effects on the poor, and even how the disease itself was transmitted to the city.2 There has
J. H. Powell, Bring out Your Dead: The Great Plague of Yellow Fever in Philadelphia in 1793 (New York: Arno Press, 1970).
Susan Klepp, “‘How Many Precious Souls Are Fled?’: The Magnitude of the 1793 Yellow Fever Epidemic,” in A Melancholy Scene of
Devastation: The Public Response to the 1793 Philadelphia Yellow Fever Epidemic (Philadelphia: College of Physicians of Philadelphia and the
Library Company of Philadelphia, 1997), 163–82; Billy G. Smith, The “Lower Sort”: Philadelphia’s Laboring People, 1750-1800 (Ithaca, N.Y:
1
2
20
been a lack of study, however, on the surrounding cities during the epidemic and their citizens’
reactions during the outbreak. It is possible to piece together some of this information from letters,
newspapers, and proclamations, but this seems to be an area in which more study could be done.
From the sources available, especially secondary sources, I was able to follow the spread of the
disease through the city. However, none of the scholars addressed why the disease was fixed in
Philadelphia and did not spread to surrounding areas. I hope to answer that question here.
Section I: What Yellow Fever Is and Eighteenth Century Views of the Disease
Yellow fever is a member of the group of viruses known as flavivirus, which also includes
West Nile, dengue and Japanese encephalitis.3 After one becomes infected with yellow fever, it can
take three to six days for symptoms to appear.4 These symptoms begin as chills, a headache, and
high fever. Many recover after three days, but if they do not, symptoms more traditionally associated
with the disease appear. The liver and kidney begin to shut down, producing pronounced jaundice,
hemorrhaging of internal organs and vomiting up coagulated blood, the most recognized sign of
yellow fever. After two to three days, the patient dies from organ failure or a secondary infection
due to bone marrow failure.5 The strain that caused the epidemic in 1793 seemed to be especially
virulent, as it was often noted that many patients died on the second or third day of the disease.6
The disease is carried and spread through mosquitos. One breed of mosquito in particular,
the Aedes aegypti, flourished in Philadelphia’s climate and boggy areas to the south of the city. We
now know that thirteen different species of mosquitos are capable of carrying yellow fever, some of
which were found in the city at that time.7 Their eggs are normally laid on the damp sides of
containers or in other wet, calm areas, like stagnant mud puddles, water barrels and drinking
troughs. The window for a mosquito to pick up the disease from an infected individual only occurs
if it bites during the first three days of the infection. Even then, only between 5 to 20 percent of
infected mosquitos transmit the disease to other people.8 The idea that the mosquito, or any insect,
could carry or transmit a disease was not considered until the late eighteenth century. Only in 1901,
more than a century after the epidemic that hit Philadelphia, did Dr. Walter Reed conclusively
proved that people’s “things” (i.e. clothing, bedding, suitcases) were not contagious and could not
spread the disease.9
Yellow fever itself was not new to North America, or even the Philadelphia region. The first
epidemic in the city began in 1682. One of the worst outbreaks occurred in 1699, when at least a
third of the white residents and an unknown numbers of slaves fell victim, but very little is known
about the event. After that date, the slave trade increased fivefold to the West Indies.10 Slaves that
could not be sold in the islands were sent to the colonies in North America and this new influx of
slaves more than likely brought both infected men and mosquito larva from Africa to the colonies,
resulting in an increase in epidemics. By 1702, the disease would intermittently visit the city at least 5
Cornell University Press, 1990); Billy G. Smith, Ship of Death: A Voyage That Changed the Atlantic World (New Haven: Yale University
Press, 2013).
3 Molly Caldwell Crosby, The American Plague: The Untold Story of Yellow Fever, the Epidemic That Shaped Our History, (New York: Berkley
Books, 2006), 9.
4 “Yellow Fever: Symptoms and Treatments,” Center for Disease Control and Prevention, December 13, 2011,
http://www.cdc.gov/yellowfever/symptoms/index.html.
5 J. Worth Estes, “Introduction: The Yellow Fever Syndrome and Its Treatment in Philadelphia, 1793,” in A Melancholy Scene of
Devastation: The Public Response to the 1793 Philadelphia Yellow Fever Epidemic (Philadelphia: College of Physicians of Philadelphia and the
Library Company of Philadelphia, 1997), 5; Powell, Bring Out Your Dead, viii.
6 L.H. Butterfield, ed., Letters of Benjamin Rush: Volume II: 1793-1813, vol. II (Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 1951), 664.
7 S. J. Watts, Epidemics and History: Disease, Power, and Imperialism (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997), 216.
8 Smith, Ship of Death, 166–168.
9 Crosby, The American Plague, 191–192.
10 Ibid., 11.
21
more times, including 1741 and 1762.11 By the time the fever struck in 1793, however, Philadelphia
had not seen an outbreak since 1762, and in that thirty year period of time few had gained immunity
to it. Instead the fever “found fertile ground, creating one of the highest mortality levels ever
recorded in an American city.”12
Section II: Background on Medicine and Medical Theory
In the 1790s medical theory was limited. What was understood about sickness and the body
had not changed much from the time of the ancient Greeks. At the time, it was believed that the
body had four different “humors” similar to that of the four elements: yellow bile (fire), black bile
(earth), phlegm (water), and blood (air). When these humors were out of balance, sickness resulted.
Many things could change the balance, including the weather, temperature, and surroundings. Many
doctors believed that sickness could be started by a miasma, or “bad air.” Decaying animals or trash
were often pointed to as the causes of “bad air.”13 Should a patient come down with a fever or
sickness, the doctors were trained to “rebalance” the humors through purges, bleedings, baths and
either limiting the intake of food or prescribing specific foods. What they were not trained to do was
accurately treat disease.14 This lack of knowledge affected the understanding of yellow fever and
treatments given during the 1793 Philadelphia outbreak.
Section III: Yellow Fever Outbreak 1793
Philadelphia was originally designed by William Penn to be a “green country towne,” the
complete opposite of the crowded and sickly London he knew. Instead, people flocking to the city
wanted to live close to employment and amenities, turning Philadelphia into a “city crowded next to
the shore.” Eventually by 1700, the majority of the town lived within three or four blocks of the
river, living on “much smaller, narrower, and more congested lots” than originally planned.15
Yellow fever began to infect Philadelphia late in the summer of 1793. There were two
competing theories as to how the disease started, both of them playing a role in the reactions by the
city and its residents. Benjamin Rush, a prominent physician during the fever, was convinced that
the disease was of local origin: “It is supposed to have been produced by some damaged coffee
which had putrefied on one of the wharves near the middle of [Ball’s Wharf].” 16 The coffee was in
the same neighborhood where Rush saw his first yellow fever victims and he saw their illness as
therefore connected to it.17 He also believed that the climate in Philadelphia had changed, making it
“more vulnerable to ailments spread by bad air.”18 He argued against the disease having been
brought to Philadelphia by noting that something common to the West Indies does not necessarily
mean it was introduced from there: “To suppose, because the yellow fever is an epidemic of the
West-Indies and because it seldom occurs in North-America, that it can exist among us only by
importation, is absurd as to suppose that the hurricanes which are so common in the West-Indies,
and which occur here only once in twenty or thirty years, are all imported from that country.”19
There were many who disagreed with Rush and believed the disease to have come from
outside Philadelphia. Most Philadelphians “hated to think of disease arising from their own
J. Worth Estes and Billy G. Smith, eds., A Melancholy Scene of Devastation: The Public Response to the 1793 Philadelphia Yellow Fever
Epidemic (Philadelphia: College of Physicians of Philadelphia and the Library Company of Philadelphia, 1997), 148.
12 Smith, The “Lower Sort,” 51.
13 Watts, Epidemics and History.
14 Powell, Bring Out Your Dead, ix.
15 Simon Finger, The Contagious City: The Politics of Public Health in Early Philadelphia (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2012), 17–29.
16 Butterfield, Letters of Benjamin Rush, II:637.
17 Powell, Bring Out Your Dead, 12.
18 Smith, Ship of Death, 201.
19 Butterfield, Letters of Benjamin Rush, II, 694.
11
22
‘salutiferous’ air. They insisted it came from abroad.”20 Just prior to the outbreak, over two thousand
French refugees arrived after fleeing the slave revolt in San Domingue.21 Many pointed to these
refugees, as well as the ships themselves, as the reason for the outbreak. Mathew Carey, the
prominent Philadelphian printer, pointed to these ships as the cause of the yellow fever outbreak:
A respectable citizen of Philadelphia, super-cargo of one of our vessels, saw, in July,
six or seven people sick of this fever on board a brig at Cape Francois bound for our
port...A vessel from Cape Francois, which arrived here in July, lost several of her
people with this fever, on her passage…The vessels in which those persons arrived,
and which were infected with the effluvia of the sick and dead, came freely to our
wharves, and particularly to that very one where the disorder made its first
appearance…Persons sick of the yellow fever have been landed in our city from
vessels arrived from the West Indies.22
Table 1. The percent of deaths by occupation according to Carey’s list in his A Short Account. These numbers were taken
from those that included an occupation. Those listed without an occupation have not been included. Carey, A Short Account
of the Malignant Fever, 4th Ed. Graph by Alyssa Peterson.
It can be seen, however, that while Carey points to a theory of importation, the actual causes of the
disease, even immediately following the epidemic, were not well understood. Not only were people
Powell, Bring Out Your Dead, 13.
Alan M. Kraut, Silent Travelers: Germs, Genes, and the “Immigrant Menace” (New York, NY: BasicBooks, 1994), 26.
22 Matthew Carey, A Short Account of the Malignant Fever, Lately Prevalent in Philadelphia: With a Statement of the Proceedings That Took Place on
the Subject, in Different Parts of the United States. To Which Are Added, Accounts of the Plague in London and Marseilles; and a List of the Dead, from
August 1, to the Middle of December, 1793, 4th ed. (Philadelphia, 1794), 68–69,
https://archive.org/stream/shortaccountofma00care#page/n3/mode/2up.
20
21
23
blamed for the spread of the fever, but their dirty beds, linens, and “effluvia” were also seen as
sources of the disease.23 Today, many historians believe that the disease was brought to Philadelphia
from the West Indies by ship. Some, like Billy G. Smith, point to a specific ship (Smith believed the
Hankey) for carrying infected mosquitos (and people) across the ocean to the city.24
The disease first manifested itself in a boardinghouse down by Philadelphia’s wharves, which
housed numerous boarders from different backgrounds. First, a seaman died. Then an Englishman.
Then an Irish boarder and the managers of the boardinghouse expired, followed closely by a French
sailor.25 Doctors were called, but could find no cure and residents continued to die. One doctor
finally consulted Rush, who declared the disease to be yellow fever.26 As soon it was named, those
who could leave the city did. Almost a third to a half of the city’s population left, with the number
of residents dropping from roughly 51,200 before the outbreak to 31,600 during.27
The lower classes were hit the hardest. Most could not afford to leave the city, and had
nowhere to go if they could. They lived in the dirtier and crowded parts of town, where most of the
streets were unpaved and full of muddy holes, perfect breeding grounds for mosquitos. 28 The city’s
working class were also more likely to become infected because their jobs caused them to travel to
the wharves and pothole-ridden side streets that supported mosquitos. Of all the recorded deaths in
Carey’s A Short Account of Malignant Fever, twenty-seven percent were those of lower class job status,
like laborers, apprentices, servants, watermen, carters, and all the men who worked on ships at the
wharves (Table 1).29 Compared to the overall makeup of the job market in Philadelphia at the time,
yellow fever hit these groups in disproportionate numbers. For instance, between 1789 and 1798,
laborers made up less than seven percent of the occupational organization of the city, yet they
accounted for more than ten percent of the deaths in Carey’s account.30 Carey however only lists
the names of 1,415 who died. Other estimates of total deaths vary from 3,293 to 5,019. If we believe
Carey’s list is a reasonable representation of those who died, then it is possible that 889 to 1,355
people who died during the epidemic, or twenty-seven percent of the dead, were from the lower
class and who had more “mobile” vocations.31 These are more than likely low numbers, based on
the lack of information and reporting of those in the poorer areas and classes, which would be the
same group who would have more “mobile” jobs. Thus, it is apparent that those in the lower classes
suffered much more than the upper classes of Philadelphia.
During the epidemic, business and commerce in the city came to a standstill. There were too
few merchants and workers either in the city or willing to work, and the majority of traders stayed
away for fear of the infection.32 The lack of business not only meant a paucity of jobs for many
lower class men, but also a shortage of common needs. As Rush wrote to his wife during the
outbreak: “the sick suffer from the want not only of physicians, bleeders, nurses, and friends, but
from the want of the common necessaries of life.”33
Ibid.
Smith, Ship of Death, 167.
25 Ibid., 188.
26 Powell, Bring Out Your Dead, 8–9.
27 Jacquelyn Miller, “The Wages of Blackness: African American Workers and the Meanings of Race during Philadelphia’s 1793
Yellow Fever Epidemic,” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 129, no. 2 (April 2005): 171.
28 Powell, Bring Out Your Dead, vi; Finger, The Contagious City, 72.
29 Carey, A Short Account of the Malignant Fever, 4th Ed., 121–163.
30 Smith, The “Lower Sort,” 214.
31 From Carey’s death list I have classified the following occupations as “mobile” are: laborer, servant, apprentice, carters, ferrymen,
coachmen, watermen, curriers, seamen, ships carpenters, ships joiners, anchorsmiths, sailmakers, fishermen, shipwrights, naval
officers, and sea captains.. Carey, A Short Account of the Malignant Fever, 4th Ed., 121–163.
32 Russell Frank Weigley, Nicholas B. Wainwright, and Edwin Wolf, eds., Philadelphia: A 300 Year History, 1st ed (New York: W.W.
Norton, 1982), 185.
33 Butterfield, Letters of Benjamin Rush, II:681.
23
24
24
City operations also came to a halt for a time. Those in charge of the business of the city,
such as magistrates, councilmen, and judges, fled or fell ill. Constables and night watchmen failed to
show up for work. Street cleaning stopped and those carting the dead started to dwindle in number.
Even most of the men in charge of the city’s poor relief, the Guardians of the Poor, fled the city. 34
The federal government also halted many operations, with men from departments like the Treasury
and the Customs Service either falling ill or fleeing. Mail delivery stopped and was only available for
daily pick-up during much shortened hours.35 As a response to this shut down, the mayor of
Philadelphia issued an address to the public requesting help in running the city and caring for those
affected by yellow fever. The men who volunteered formed the Committee on Malignant Fever,
who took charge of city safety, creating a hospital for the poor, forming an orphanage to care for
children left behind by the death of their parents, and handing out relief to those in need.36 This
committee helped Philadelphia through the end of the epidemic and restored a sense of order during
a time of chaos.
The deaths due to yellow fever began to decline as fall arrived. In the first week of
November, the city saw its first night of frost, which would have killed any remaining mosquitos and
put the larva into hibernation. Yellow fever proved no exception to the general understanding of the
time that autumnal fevers slowly disappeared when it turned cold.37 The majority of deaths after the
last week of October were of those who had earlier caught the fever and “were mostly of those long
sick.”38 Shortly after the first frost those who had fled the city at the beginning of the outbreak
began to return.
Despite everything that was done by doctors, nurses, or committees during the epidemic,
deaths continued throughout the summer and fall, until the first frost. There has been a large range
of death tolls. Record keeping broke down during the epidemic, and a combination of
underreporting, numbers that include non-yellow fever deaths, and those who died after leaving the
city make precise numbers hard to obtain from available records. Contemporary counts from the
time range from the Committee on Malignant Fever’s total of 3,293 to 5,019 recorded by the Christ
Church.39 Some crude death rates range between 64 and 98 per thousand people (or six to ten
percent) to one in ten of the population.40 These deaths, however, were confined to Philadelphia and
those who had been in the city during the outbreak.
Section IV: Movement, Quarantines, and Geographical Limitations
Yellow fever was spread through the movement of people. During the summer of 1793
French refugees flooded into Philadelphia. Those who arrived mentioned that the fever “ravaged”
the West Indies.41 Even so, contemporaries who believed the disease to be imported still disagreed
as to its origin. Benjamin Franklin Bache, owner of the General Advertiser, believed that it came from
the Caribbean. Others, like Mathew Carey, in the beginning believed that the disease came from
other regions, like Ireland.42 Today, it is believed that ships from the West Indies did indeed bring
yellow fever to Philadelphia.
Once in Philadelphia, yellow fever quickly spread throughout the city. A key element to the fever’s
spread was the movement of people, especially water carriers. Obtaining and maintaining sufficient
Smith, Ship of Death, 203.
Ibid., 209.
36 Powell, Bring Out Your Dead, 151–153, 194–197.
37 Carey, A Short Account of the Malignant Fever, 4th Ed., 64–65.
38 Ibid., 64.
39 Klepp, “The Magnitude of the 1793 Yellow Fever Epidemic,” 166.
40 Ibid.; Smith, Ship of Death, 212.
41 Powell, Bring Out Your Dead, 4.
42 Kraut, Silent Travelers, 27.
34
35
25
supplies of fresh water was a challenge for the residents of many North American colonial cities.
Whether located along brackish waters, such as the James and Hudson Rivers, or being set aside
fresh water rivers, during the eighteenth-century many North American cities had difficulty
providing sufficient drinking water to their ever-increasing populace. Often merchants employed
slaves or servants to fetch drinking water from springs. The result was that the sight of men carrying
barrels of fresh water was a common sight on North American city streets in the eighteenth-century.
43
Philadelphia was normally well known for having multiple water sources, including fountains and
wells, around the city.44 However, the summer of 1793 was unusually hot and dry and “[t]he
city’s…wells fell below pump level. Residents carted water from the river to fill barrels and cisterns
next to their homes.”45 People collected water from the river (where the ships carrying infected
mosquitos were docked) in barrels, ideal breeding homes for mosquitos. They then carried these
barrels throughout the city to deposit into other barrels and cisterns. Those who transported the
water literally carried the disease
throughout the city. Once in a
single barrel, the mosquitoes have
a flight radius of roughly no
further than 400 meters, which is
more than enough distance to fly
to and lay eggs in neighboring
cisterns that would have been
around that summer.46 Because
the Aedes aegypti has a short flying
range, the mosquitoes did not
spread through the city on their
own. They were carried about
Philadelphia by people. By
keeping containers of stagnant
water and carrying these barrels
throughout the city residents
unwittingly fostered and spread
the disease.
Map 1. Movement of yellow fever through Philadelphia, with darker
The primary action taken
colors equating to higher death rates. Map produced by Billy G. Smith and
by
both
Philadelphia
and
Paul Sivitz, Montana State University.
surrounding cities to attempt to
http://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/archive/yellow-fever/.
halt the spread of the yellow fever
epidemic was the implementation of quarantines. Quarantines can positively affect public health.
However, depending on how a disease is spread quarantines can also be ineffective and costly with
the significant loss of commercial trade and a resulting loss of public confidence in health officials.
Because medicine, the science of disease, and understanding how diseases were spread were still in
their infancy in 1793, the quarantine was the only measure contemporaries knew to use, despite its
often complete ineffectiveness.
Jill LePore, New York Burning: Liberty, Slavery, and Conspiracy in Eighteenth-Century Manhattan (New York: Random House, 2005), 133147.
44 Gerard T. Koeppel, Water for Gotham: A History (Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 2000), 27.
45 Smith, Ship of Death, 191.
46 John Robert McNeill, Mosquito Empires: Ecology and War in the Greater Caribbean, 1620 - 1914 (New York: Cambridge University Press,
2010).
43
26
The idea of quarantines in 1793 were not new. New England had used them for nearly a
century. Boston started using inspections and quarantines of ships in 1700. Charles Town, Maryland,
New York, New York, and Halifax, Nova Scotia began using the same tools in 1712.47 In 1784, New
York reenacted their quarantine laws and founded Bedloe’s Island, an isolated island in New York
harbor, as a quarantine station.48 Philadelphia had experience with quarantines as well, although their
history in the city ebbed and flowed depending on the circumstances at the time. In 1700, after a
yellow fever outbreak, Pennsylvania was the first colony to require ships with immigrants to be
inspected.49 Then, twenty years later, additional laws were passed to “more effectively prevent ‘sickly
vessels…from discharging their goods or passengers.’”50 Two decades later, in 1741, following
another yellow fever outbreak, the suggestion for a lazaretto (a quarantine station) was put forward. 51
Despite having quarantine laws on the books, Philadelphia seemed to ignore them after some time
had passed, only to be reminded again why such laws were first put in place.
During the epidemic in 1793, Philadelphia once again imposed a quarantine. The state
legislature, in a hurry to leave the city at the beginning of the outbreak, did not even stop to correct
old language from previous laws. Instead, “Someone unearthed the old quarantine act, copied most
of it, and introduced it as a bill ‘to prevent infectious disease being brought into the province.’’ The
process was done in such a hurry that the measure failed to reflect the change of Pennsylvania from
a ‘province’ to a ‘commonwealth.’ Rushed through, the measure was quickly sent to Governor
Table 2. Graph showing arrival of ships from the West Indies, as well as those from the island of Hispaniola. With the arrival
of numerous ships, it is hard to point to a single ship as the cause of the epidemic. General Advertiser, Google Newspaper
Archives, http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=U073gGq-K-4C. Graph by Alyssa Peterson.
Finger, The Contagious City, 36.
Kraut, Silent Travelers, 24.
49 Estes and Smith, A Melancholy Scene of Devastation, 159.
50 Finger, The Contagious City, 37.
51 Smith, The “Lower Sort,” 46.
47
48
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Mifflin for signature, received back, and implemented immediately.52 The law required that the
Health Officer of the Port inspect any ship arriving from the West Indies. They were to stop at Mud
Island, the unofficial lazaretto, until given a clean bill of health.53 Sick passengers were detained until
deemed healthy. Goods and cargo, though, were seen as being just as contagious as a sick person.
Often, “healthy” passengers were allowed to disembark while the cargo at Mud Island remained to
be disinfected. These passengers could then become ill in the city or could have been bitten by
mosquitoes while in Philadelphia and then transmit infection to others. Quarantine, then, became
ineffective.
Other cities surrounding Philadelphia also imposed quarantines in 1793. They were imposed
as a type of default mechanism when city officials were unsure of what other actions to take. Based
on misunderstandings of the disease, quarantines cut Philadelphians off on both land and water.
Albany, New York, kept a gunboat on the river to prevent ships from Philadelphia from landing.
Authorities in Baltimore, Trenton, and New York forbid communication with the capitol.54
Maryland imposed a forty day quarantine on ships from Philadelphia, as well as requiring a passing
certificate of health if they wanted to stay in the city. Militia was sent from Baltimore to the main
road to prevent Philadelphians from entering.55 A majority of the states imposed a quarantine of
some kind: Virginia, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia all
required a quarantine of two weeks or more.56
All the quarantines in 1793 imposed failed to restrain or stop the yellow fever epidemic
based on their reason for implementation. They did so because they focused on the movement of
people and goods, not on the breeding and movement of Aedes aegypti. All cities, including
Philadelphia, wanted to prevent the spread of a disease they saw as contagious and spread from
person to person. The idea that yellow fever spread by insects was not known until 1900. Scientific
knowledge in 1793 lacked the foresight into the true cause. Cities had a limited number of options at
the time and a limit to what could be done to protect the public health. Quarantine was the fall back
when an illness broke out. There were, however, some preventative measures that were known at
the time that could have been effective if used properly. For instance, in 1774, Dr. James Lind of the
British Royal Navy published a book instructing Navy seamen in the proper use of fumigation in
order to disinfect British ships.57 Fumigation would have at least killed the adult mosquitoes onboard
any incoming vessel, preventing the further laying of eggs.58 It was also known, to a select few it
seemed, how to control the insect population that laid eggs in the water barrels, as an instructional
advertisement in a Philadelphia newspaper at the beginning of the summer directed residents to
pour a thin layer of oil on top the water in the barrels to prevent insects from breeding. 59 There
were, then, other known ways of combating an outbreak of a disease like yellow fever. So why did
cities continue to institute quarantines instead of implementing these more effective measures?
Scientific thought at this time emphasized miasma and “bad air,” which they believed could be
contagious. The idea that a disease could be spread by insects would have seemed outlandish to
scientific men at that time, and the enactment of methods to stop the spread of mosquitoes would
Powell, Bring Out Your Dead, 71.
Ibid., 72.
54 Mulford Stough, “The Yellow Fever in Philadelphia 1793,” Pennsylvania History 6, no. 1 (January 1939): 11.
55 Carey, A Short Account of the Malignant Fever, 4th Ed., 52.
56 Ibid., 50–58.
57 James Lind, An Essay on the Most Effectual Means of Preserving the Health of Seamen in the Royal Navy. and A Dissertation on the Fevers and
Infection (London: Strand, 1774).
58 Samantha Chapman, “Mosquito ‘Fogging’ Will Not Harm You, Reminds WHO and Solomon Islands Ministry of Health,” World
Health Organization: Western Pacific Region, May 2, 2014, http://www.wpro.who.int/southpacific/mediacentre/releases/2014/mosquitofogging/en/.
59 Powell, Bring Out Your Dead, 71.
52
53
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have been seen as a waste of resources. Additionally, less than twenty years after the revolutionary
war it is possible that a bias against anything British, such as Lind’s book on fumigation, continued.
As a result, American cities instead continued the tradition of quarantine despite its ineffectiveness.
Yellow fever, despite the precautions taken by Philadelphia, was most likely brought to the
city by a ship from the West Indies. In Ship of Death: A Voyage that Changed the Atlantic World, Billy G.
Smith argues that it was a single ship, the Hankey, which brought the disease to Philadelphia. In Ship
of Death: A Voyage that Changed the Atlantic World, he follows the path of the Hankey from England to
the African island of Boloma, to French Guiana (present day Guyana), to the West Indies and,
finally, to Philadelphia, before returning to England and being burned at her moorings. His whole
argument rests upon the Hankey picking up a strain of yellow fever in Boloma, carrying it to the
West Indies (where the Hankey’s arrival coincides with the beginning of an outbreak there) and
carrying it further on to Philadelphia. Smith contends that the outbreak in 1793 was started because
of sick passengers and infected water caskets aboard the Hankey alone: “The Hankey docked in
Philadelphia for only a week – long enough to disembark sick refugees from Saint-Domingue, try to
find a cargo, and trade empty water casks and jugs for full ones on the pier. Virus-carrying Aedes
aegypti and their eggs traveled in or flew alongside the containers.”60
Smith’s assumption may have been well founded since at the time of the Haitian slave revolt,
and of the Hankey’s landing, there was a major outbreak of yellow fever on the islands. Because
British forces were on the island attempting to subdue the revolt, there was a constant supply of
non-immune persons, allowing the fever to thrive and spread. From 1793 to 1798, when the British
finally withdrew, 15,000 men, or nearly two-thirds of the soldiers who had fought, had died from
yellow fever and not battle.61 Some units lost eighty percent of their troops to the disease alone.62
With yellow fever rampant among the Caribbean islands, it would be easy for a vessel leaving to pick
up infected mosquitoes in the water casks, infected persons, or both. A long voyage on an isolated
ship would give mosquitoes ample time to infect the whole crew. The revolt that occurred in 1793
did not break the strong economic ties that existed between Philadelphia and Haiti. Even after
violence broke out, American merchants continued to sail to the island. The trade in sugar, molasses,
and coffee that existed was worth the sustained relationship amid the violence and ships continued
to sail and return to Philadelphia in great numbers.63 The problem with Smith’s theory is not his
argument that the disease was brought by ship from the West Indies, but rather his specificity in
pointing to the Hankey as the single source of the yellow fever epidemic. With the increased traffic
from the West Indies shown above (Table 2), it would be impossible to conclude that a single ship
was responsible. During the month of July of that year, fifty-nine ships docked in Philadelphia after
returning from the West Indies, including ships like the Betsy, which made three trips down to the
islands that month.64 Even contemporaries were unable to single out a ship for blame. As Mathew
Carey observed, “This disorder has most unquestionably been imported from the West Indies. As
yet, however, owing to various obvious reasons, it is difficult to fix, with absolute precision, on the
vessel or vessels (for it is very probably it came in several, from the different infected islands) by
which it was introduced.”65 It is much more likely that many of the ships leaving from the island
around the same time also picked up infected water jugs for their voyages, as well as infected
persons. The flurry of transport to and from the West Indies during that time meant that multiple
Smith, Ship of Death, 187.
Ibid., 183.
62 Thomas O. Ott, The Haitian Revolution, 1789-1804, [1st ed (Knoxville]: University of Tennessee Press, 1973), 92.
63 James Alexander Dun, “‘What Avenues of Commerce, Will You, Americans, Not Explore!’: Commercial Philadelphia’s Vantage
onto the Early Haitian Revolution,” The William and Mary Quarterly 62, no. 3 (July 2005): 476.
64 All information from Google Newspaper archives of the General Advertiser, June to August 1793 issues. Accessed 20 October 2014.
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=U073gGq-K-4C.
65 Carey, A Short Account of the Malignant Fever, 4th Ed., 67.
60
61
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ships brought boatloads of people to Philadelphia and landed at roughly the same time. In July and
August of 1793, around the time of the Haitian revolution, nine ships docked multiple times from
trips back and forth from the West Indies. The Betsy arrived in Philadelphia on July 2nd from Cape
Francois, and returned five more times before the end of August from varying ports, including
Virginia, St. Bartholemew, St. Marks, Martinique, and St. Eustatia. In July alone, the Eliza returned
from Cape Francois twice and a trip from St. Croix. The frequency with which ships traveled to and
from the West Indies and Haiti did not slow down during the unrest. The number of new ships
from the same area, however, far outnumbered these regular trading vessels, with sixty-eight ships
docking in Philadelphia only once during the summer.66 Any of these ships, or passengers, could
have been the first to bring the disease to shore.
The movement of people brought the disease to Philadelphia. Fear of the illness led to the
city issuing a quarantine on incoming ships as a preventative measure. Once on land, however, it was
not quarantines that prevented the spread of yellow fever. Instead, there were geographical and
ecological limits that prevented the disease from spreading outside of the Philadelphia area.
The availability of water in the city was something normally found in abundance. Most
houses had their own wells and public pumps were accessible to passersby. 67 The summer of 1793
was a particularly dry one, which led to most of the wells falling below pump level. The need for
water cisterns and water transportation was of sudden importance to the city’s residents, and led to
ideal conditions for mosquitoes. These dry conditions, however, were only a cause of concern for
Philadelphia. Surrounding cities obtained their water from different sources, including the Delaware
River and other streams. Because of this lack of dependence, other surrounding towns did not need
to transport water from the Philadelphia area, keeping the fever from being spread beyond the
capital by movement of contaminated water barrels. With only a small range of flight, the only way
mosquitoes (and yellow fever) would have reached neighboring towns like Wilmington, Burlington,
Trenton, and Salem would have been to physically transport them. Refugees from Philadelphia
flooded into Wilmington at the beginning of the epidemic. Despite the large number of
Philadelphians entering Wilmington, the Delaware city did not experience an outbreak of yellow
fever. ”Philadelphians by the hundreds flocked there, houses were jammed, rents rose to the sky.” 68
Despite this incursion of Philadelphians, because only people arrived and not infected water sources,
Wilmington remained healthy. In fact, of the eight or ten Philadelphians who died in Wilmington
from yellow fever, only one was sent to the hospital. “The others were nursed and attended in the
houses where they fell sick.”69 Therefore, geographically the surrounding towns were far enough
apart to prevent the spread of the disease. Ecologically, these towns had the ability to obtain their
own fresh water, eliminating the need to transport infected water from Philadelphia. These
limitations are what prevented yellow fever from running rampant across North America, not the
imposed quarantines or restriction of movement.
General Advertiser, Google Newspaper archives. Accessed 20 Oct 2014. http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=U073gGq-K-4C.
Weigley, Wainwright, and Wolf, Philadelphia, 69.
68 Powell, Bring Out Your Dead, 244.
69 Carey, A Short Account of the Malignant Fever, 4th Ed., 59.
66
67
30
Table 3. Graph of population change between federal censuses. The population in Philadelphia dropped by 3.21%, while
the other towns increased by at least 5.5%, some as much as 28.8% as seen in Wilmington. “Census of Population and
Housing,” United States Census Bureau, http://www.census.gov/prod/www/decennial.html. Graph by Alyssa Peterson.
Such a large epidemic led to the movement of people as well. Despite the constant influx of
immigrants, the population of Philadelphia declined in the 1790s. In 1790, the first federal census
showed Philadelphia to be United States’ largest city with 42,500 people. The surrounding towns of
Burlington, Trenton, and Salem, and Wilmington were used for comparison. These towns were close
to Philadelphia while still being outside the metropolis and having similar conveniences. Between the
1790 and 1800 federal censuses, the populations of the surrounding towns increased (Table 3).
Philadelphia’s population, however, decreased during this time. Philadelphia around this time was
one of the greatest trading ports in America. Due to its location both on the water and within the
country, it became a popular port for agricultural goods. And because of its system of ranking
imported flour, Philadelphia became known as the “Mart of America,” only surpassed by London
and Liverpool in terms of the amount of trade flowing through the port.70 With such a lively port
and a constant flow of immigrants, why then would Philadelphia’s population decrease in the ten
years between the censuses? One reason could be that these surrounding towns were less swampy
than Philadelphia and had access to their own water supply, keeping them healthier than the capitol
city. Between 1790 and 1800, yellow fever broke out five different times, along with normal seasonal
Arthur L. Jensen, “The Inspection of Exports in Colonial Pennsylvania,” PMB&H, 78:3 (July 1954), 275-297; Thomas M.
Doerflinger, A Vigorous Spirit of Enterprise: Merchants and Economic Development in Revolutionary Philadelphia (New York, 1986), 70-135;
Louis Jensen, The Maritime Commerce of Colonial Philadelphia (Madison, WI, 1963), 5; James G. Lydon, “Fish and Flour for Gold:
Southern Europe and the Colonial American Balance of Payments,” The Business Review 39:2 (Summer 1965), 171-183; Answers of Lt.
Gov. to Board of Trade’s Queries, Mar. 15, 1731, TNA CO 5/1268, ff. 99, 100-102; James Read to Edward Shippen, 1771, quoted in
John Flexer Walzer, “Transportation in the Philadelphia Trading Area, 1740-1775" (Ph. D. diss., University of Wisconsin, 1968), front
piece.
70
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diseases like malaria.71 The lack of stagnant water, like the swamps and dirty streets around
Philadelphia, meant that other cities did not have a natural mosquito habitat that would support
diseases like yellow fever and malaria. It would not be hard to imagine families moving to
surrounding towns to escape the yearly onslaught of disease. An illness brought by the movement of
people ultimately led to more movement.
In the years immediately prior to 1793, yellow fever outbreaks were limited in New
England, with roughly only one or two deaths per year. In 1790, Massachusetts saw one death, New
York had one death in 1791, and New Jersey saw two in 1792.72 After the outbreak in Philadelphia,
yellow fever became embedded in the local mosquito population and was much more frequent,
especially among coastal trading towns. It would also have been easy for an infected person to move
throughout the area during a year that did not see a large epidemic and therefore did not have
quarantine measures in effect. The continual cycle of mosquito to human to mosquito is what
allowed the disease to eventually spread around the area, despite the natural limitations discussed
above. In 1794, New Haven, Connecticut, saw a large outbreak, with at least forty-seven recorded
deaths. Similar smaller outbreaks occurred in Newtownship, Connecticut and Manchester,
Massachusetts that same year. The year 1795 saw a small reappearance in Philadelphia and New
York, but with very few deaths. Newburyport, Massachusetts, had a small outbreak in 1796, along
with another resurgence of the disease occurring in Philadelphia.73 The movement of people,
especially to these towns either centered on trade or on a trade route, spread the disease further
through New England after 1793.
Section V: Yellow Fever’s Impact upon Government and Public Health
During the outbreak the government shut down. The shutdown affected both the local and
federal government, and resulted in confusion and a lack of services.74 During the epidemic, the lack
of communication and misunderstanding about the disease caused everything from delayed supplies
for the army to missed correspondence and accounts by the federal government. Secretary of War
Henry Knox delayed the shipment of uniforms for the US Army because they had been stored in
Philadelphia. Only after some time and consultation with a physician was it determined that the
uniforms were likely unaffected, but were aired out, just in case. 75 The outbreak not only affected
those within the city and surrounding areas, but those who had any possible connection to the city.
When men fled at the beginning of the summer, many government workers and officials left
as well. President Washington “had no one to inform him or bring him reports, none to advise or
confer with him.”76 Along with this lack of personnel to assist President Washington, the paucity of
federal officials resulted in “ridiculous confusion, with clerks and secretaries scattered all over the
country; the President was receiving letters that should have gone to underlings. And no one seemed
Powell, Bring Out Your Dead, 302–303.
Information from newspaper articles at the New York Family History’s Early American Newspaper Database
(http://newyorkfamilyhistory.org/research-discover/elibrary/early-american-newspapers-series-i). Yellow fever at this time was
commonly called the “putrid fever,” and death notices listing this as the cause were taken to mean yellow fever.
73 All information from New York Family History’s Early American Newspapers database
(http://newyorkfamilyhistory.org/research-discover/elibrary/early-american-newspapers-series-i).
74 The local government came to a standstill after men fled or fell ill and the mayor was forced to call on citizens to form a committee,
as discussed above. The committee continued to function as a form of government until November, when enough men had returned
to the city and to their previous jobs, although the transition was not a completely smooth one. While the local government was
adversely affected during and shortly after the epidemic, there are more examples and sources of problems within the federal
government at this time due to its importance to the country as a whole.
75 Henry Knox, “Henry Knox to Isaac Craig,” August 30, 1793, Papers of the War Department: 1784 to 1800,
http://wardepartmentpapers.org/docimage.php?id=9123&docColID=46562&page=2; Samuel Hodgdon, “Samuel Hodgdon to
Henry Knox,” August 31, 1793, Papers of the War Department: 1784 to 1800,
http://wardepartmentpapers.org/docimage.php?id=9143&docColID=10034&page=2.
76 Powell, Bring Out Your Dead, 116.
71
72
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to know where the official papers and records were.”77 And until all those who fled returned to the
city, the confusion would remain. As late as mid-November, Secretary Knox still had no personnel
to inform him as to the happenings in the War Department. This placed him in the embarrassing
circumstances of having to write to the Governor of Virginia, Henry Lee, and apologize for the
unknown status of accounts in his department, stating “As the Accountant of the War department
has not yet joined the department, owing to the malady in Philadelphia, I am uninformed on what
account these advances have been made.”78 Indeed, many federal workers who fled were dragged
back to the city, as Alexander Hamilton was forced to do with several Treasury clerks in midOctober who had refused to return from New York.79 The yellow fever outbreak completely
disrupted the fledgling federal government.
The epidemic also impacted public health and its infrastructure after the outbreak had
ended. Despite what seemed to have occurred during the summer of 1793, public health laws had
been in place since at least 1789, when the city’s charter gave the council the ability “to enact ‘such
and so many laws, ordinances, regulations and constitutions…as shall be necessary and convenient
for the government and welfare of the city.’”80 But, similar with quarantines, the laws and ordinances
only seemed to have been enacted during or immediately after an epidemic, and were otherwise
ignored by the general population.
Following the 1793 epidemic Philadelphia continued to rely on quarantine as their primary
means of defense. However, instead of implementing a quarantine after an outbreak occurred, the
city decided to take preventative measures and require, from May to October, all ships coming from
the West Indies undergo a thirty day quarantine (minus the time spent at sea).81 The city also began
work on a permanent lazaretto on State Island, ten miles south of the city on the Delaware River. It
occupied 10 acres and included living quarters, kitchens, stables, and a large hospital.82 The complex,
which officially opened in 1801, became a required stopping point for all ships planning to dock in
Philadelphia.83 While possibly a good strategy against communicable diseases like smallpox or
consumption (tuberculosis), quarantines like this were still ineffective when guarding against yellow
fever. Despite what the city had just experienced, little scientific knowledge was gained as a result of
the 1793 epidemic and quarantines still remained most American cities’ primary defense mechanism
against yellow fever.
There were, however, some positive changes to the public health infrastructure following the
1793 epidemic. Cleanliness of the city began to be taken into account. Many believed that epidemics
were “somehow related to the poor physical state of the city” and in 1794 the city council “devised a
long-term plan for ‘better cleaning the streets.’”84 On this subject, the city council was partly right.
While they believed more in the sickening miasma and effluvia due to poor conditions, the poor
condition of many of the streets did help support the epidemic: potholes and pools of stagnant
water in the poorly kept streets made ideal breeding areas for mosquitoes. By cleaning and
improving the streets, the city could help cut back on the number of future insects and possibly
reduce the number infected during a later epidemic.
Ibid., 278.
Henry Knox, “Henry Knox to Henry Lee,” November 9, 1793, Papers of the War Department: 1784 to 1800,
http://wardepartmentpapers.org/docimage.php?id=9366&docColID=10314&page=3.
79 Ron Chernow, Alexander Hamilton (New York: Penguin Press, 2004), 452.
80 Finger, The Contagious City, 109.
81 Ibid., 142.
82 Kraut, Silent Travelers, 30.
83 Lance Eisenhower, “Lazaretto,” The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia, 2009,
http://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/archive/lazaretto/.
84 Michal McMahon, “Beyond Therapeutics: Technology and the Question of Public Health in Late-Eighteenth-Century
Philadelphia,” in A Melancholy Scene of Devastation: The Public Response to the 1793 Philadelphia Yellow Fever Epidemic (Philadelphia: College
of Physicians of Philadelphia and the Library Company of Philadelphia, 1997), 101.
77
78
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The city also employed a more active approach to public health. At first, the Committee on
Malignant Fever that had helped Philadelphia through the epidemic was converted into the
Committee of Health. It was their job, until March of 1794, to adopt “measures [that would]
totally…destroy any such infection Matter.”85 Shortly thereafter, the city’s medical and political
leaders formed a Board of Health, who was “responsible for coordinating emergency responses as
well as a long-term strategy for preventing future outbreaks.” It was the Board’s job to collect
reports on the state of the health of their own port, as well as other trading ports Philadelphia ships
might come into contact with. They also enacted new sanitary regulations.86 The Board took a
proactive role in identifying possible outbreaks. Board members talked to colleges and monitored
conditions at jailhouses, almshouses, and dispensaries. They paid informers and talked to ship
captains. They ordered boardinghouses to report any illness. If illness was found, they traced the
traveler’s route to determine the illness’ origin.87 In these ways, the city did improve its response to
illness despite its dependence on antiquated measures like quarantines.
The history of the 1793 yellow fever outbreak is a history of public health and its failures. It
also demonstrates how much the movement of people can affect a disease. Had people not been
moving and traveling, either between the West Indies and Philadelphia or between different parts of
the city itself, the disease would have had a very small range on a very small island or in a section of
the city. But people do move, as do the diseases they carry. And while yellow fever was certainly a
horrible and deadly disease for the city and a great public health concern, the natural limitations of
the disease prevented it from become a regional or even nation-wide epidemic. The movement of
men can only do so much. The transport of mosquitoes was closely connected to the transportation
of water. The transportation of water, in this case, was limited to the Philadelphia area.
Consequently, the limit of the natural infrastructure, not quarantines, stopped the spread and limited
the disease to a finite area. With the current debate on quarantines and its link to modern diseases
like Ebola, it is important to remember that quarantines should be based on scientific facts and
evidence, not used as a defense mechanism out of fear. Quarantines used out of fear, as we have
seen, are normally ineffective. One needs to understand the science behind the disease to fully
recognize protective measures that should be put in place. Ebola, like yellow fever, is also limited by
the infrastructure surrounding it, namely present day hospital sanitation methods, the immediacy of
communication, and scientific understanding. These structures make a mass outbreak unlikely. Even
today, the movement of people continue to spread disease but, like yellow fever in 1793, structural
limitations, not the restriction of movement, are what prevent any further dispersion.
Ibid.
Finger, The Contagious City, 127.
87 Ibid., 128.
85
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______________________________________________________________________________
War, Class, and Escapism: A Study of the British Film Industry From 1917-1939
Josh Korneta
Josh Korneta, from Frankfort, Illinois, earned his BA in History in summer 2016. He wrote this paper for Dr.
Michael Shirley’s HIS 2500 class in spring 2014.
______________________________________________________________________________
The early twentieth century has historically been looked at as a dark age for film. Of all the
major industries, the British film industry would suffer greatly from the overwhelming force of
Hollywood. Many of the films produced were released to poor international opinion, and are still
viewed as being exceptionally inferior. These films, particularly those developed after the invention
of “talkies”, are often viewed as “muddled...cheap, [and] artless,” and “remained notoriously devoid
of either inspiration or vitality.”1 Though this description of the films is understandable, film
historians often overlook the importance of these films to the people of the time, to British culture,
and to the future of British filmmaking. Despite the dissenting opinions of critics and historians, the
films of the early twentieth century were of great importance to the people of the time period.
Prior to 1917, the British film industry rivaled the Continental European film and the
American film industries in terms of size and production. However, in 1910, the ten largest
American film groups combined to form a monopoly on the industry, The Motion Picture Patents
Company (MPPC).2 This company used patent litigations to control the distribution of films, and
intimidated independent outfits into submission. Then in 1914 William Fox of 20th Century Fox,
Carl Laemmle of Universal Pictures, and Adolph Zukor of Famous Players dismantled the MPPC,
creating a power vacuum in the industry that allowed them to “make and sell pictures in any part of
the world...and the part of the world they favored most...was Great Britain.”3 The distribution of
American films in England would take over the British film industry for many years, marking the
beginning of a dark age for the British film.4
During this time period, a moral crusade against the content of the films was started. The
crusade for censorship was started by middle class moralists and clergymen, who claimed that the
“darkened cinemas provided cover for couples to court and... that many were sensational ones about
sexual indecency, crime, and violence.”5 The anti-film crusade went through several phases, ending
during World War I. The social purists’ primarily focused on films that they thought were explicit.
The moral panics of the wartime drew mostly from the fears that the war was weakening societal
morals of the middle class, and the belief that these films were “making it more difficult to control
working-class women and children.”6 It was also believed by these moralists that the war had caused
a surge in attendance, jumping from seven million to twenty-one million tickets sold, leading the
moralists to blame films and the war on the growing of “the film industry’s corrupting impact.”7 By
the end of the boycott, many of the films that were accused of having a corrupting influence, such as
Arthur Knight, The Liveliest Art: A Panoramic History of the Movies (New York: Mentor Books, 1979), 223.
Formed by the combination of the Edison, Vitagraph, Biograph, Essany, Selig, Lubin, Kalem, Star Film Company, American Pathe,
George Kleine, and Eastman Kodak.
3 Ernest Betts, The Film Business: A History of British Cinema 1896-1972, (New York: Pitman Publishing Corporation, 1973), 46.
4 The true beginning and end of this “dark age” is still disputed, but is traditionally assigned by British historians as beginning in 1914
and ending in 1927.
5 Dean Rapp, “Sex In the Cinema: War, Moral Panic, and the British Film Industry, 1906-1918.” Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned
With British Studies, Vol. 34, No. 4, (2002): 422.
6 Ibid.
7 Ibid.
1
2
35
Five Nights, had been lost.8 There were many impacts that this film boycott had on British society.
One was the early beginnings of the censorship movement, particularly by the London County
Council.9 The council would ban certain films and place cinema opening bans on the Sabbath,
leading to what historians have called the Great Boredom.
At the same time, the lower class also struggled with these films. Many of the working class
felt that the cinema was an important part of life during wartime, but at the same time, there were
complaints over the atmosphere of the cinemas themselves. There were reports of sexual abuse of
children by patrons. These reports were supported by the Salvation Army, who claimed that they
had received “letters and complaints from parents in London’s poorer districts that their girls had
been molested…”10 Despite these occurrences, the working class was still very supportive of the
cinema movements, claiming that these films were necessary for the day-to-day struggle of wartime
society. However, the war continued to plague the British. This made it difficult for films to be
distributed, but it also opened the door for many directors and producers to make their mark.
The Great War saw a continuation in the drought of popularity for films in England, but it
also saw the rise of the one of the first giants for the British film industry, George Pearson. Prior to
Pearson, many filmmakers, actors, and writers had gone off to war, the remainder of which that
stayed behind were among the older filmmakers, who had to sate the working class’s appetite for
cinema. Pearson, a former schoolmaster from Oxfordshire, entered the industry in 1913 at age
thirty-six, on the payroll of the American Pathe film company, believing that “British films...had
reached a final twilight of surrender to their foreign competitors.”11 Joining the company without
any experience as a producer or director, he left the company after one year and joined with G. B.
Samuelson. Samuelson was also an upstart director/producer who started out with short films, and
the two of them made their first project together, A Study In Scarlet. After one year, however,
Pearson had become disillusioned with Samuelson and the two parted. As a filmmaker, Pearson was
described as someone who “understood popular taste and had a gift for original stories.” 12 Prior to
their split, Pearson directed the short film The Great European War (1914)13 alongside Samuelson,
which was his first turn as a writer and director.14 The film depicts the beginning of the Great War
and the leaders of the nations that were fighting, such as Kaiser Wilhelm and Prime Minister David
Lloyd George, and it was one of the very first nationalist films in England. Pearson would later leave
Samuelson and create his own company with the assistance of Thomas Welsh, forming the WelshPearson Company. In the latter part of the decade, Pearson directed Britain’s first feature film series,
The Ultus Series,15 which tells the story of a man left for dead in the Australian Outback.16 The
twenties were a new age with new movies, and new actors for Pearson to work with. In 1921,
Pearson directed the first of another feature film series, Squibs, starring Betty Balfour as a flower girl
who falls in love with a Piccadilly policeman. The rest of the series would star Ms. Balfour in
different roles, these films were of the first escapism films. Escapism is a term that would be used to
describe the popular films of the late twenties and thirties that allowed people to “escape” from their
lives for a few hours. With these films, Pearson would become the master of the British silent film.
Victoria Cross, Five Nights, Directed by Bert Haldane, London: 1915.
Originally, the London County Council (LCC) only made sure that the cinemas being opened were safe. However, after the anti-film
crusade the LCC gave more consideration to the banning of certain content.
10 Dean Rapp, “Sex In the Cinema: War, Moral Panic, and the British Film Industry, 1906-1918.”
11 George Pearson, Flashback: An Autobiography of a British Film Maker (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1957), 27.
12 Ernest Betts, The Film Business: A History of British Cinema 1896-1972.
13 George Pearson, The Great European War, Directed by George Pearson, London: 1914.
14 This film was also billed under the title The Cause of the Great European War and the Incidents of the Great European War.
15 George Pearson, Ultus, The Man From the Dead, Directed by George Pearson, London: Welsh-Pearson 1915.
16 The Series follows in order: Ultus, The Man From the Dead. Ultus and the Grey Lady, Ultus and the Secret of the Night, and Ultus and the
Three Button Mystery.
8
9
36
However, with the invention of “talkies” in 1927, and the depression beginning around the world,
Welsh-Pearson began to drown in the sea of the dying British film industry. In 1929, Pearson
directed his last film of significance, Journey’s End. The film was highly profitable, but even with the
its success, Welsh-Pearson closed and Pearson left the main stage of film. With Pearson’s departure,
fresh actors, directors, and producers came to prominence, such as Alexander Korda, Leslie
Howard, and Alfred Hitchcock.
The 1930’s are seen as the lowest point point in British cinema. It is a time period that is
described as “trivial and without contemporary emphasis.”17 This description is understandable, due
to the effect that the American film industry had on affecting the success of the films abroad.
During the thirties, most American distributors “feared the potential damage to its domestic and
foreign markets should the British film industry develop to any great prominence.”18 The thirties did
bring a slew of other problems for the British, such as the “quota-quickies”, which were viewed as
unimportant and undeserving of critical thought, and the schism between realism and escapism. Yet,
even with these blemishes, the negative descriptions of the thirties films are, as described by film
historian Stephen Shafer, “unfair, inappropriate, and inaccurate.”19 Shafer argues that criticisms of
aspects such as the “quota quickies” were actually quite valuable in regards to the training that actors
and directors received. Another reason for these films being mostly unknown is also due to the fact
that they are hard to come by.20 There are several reasons for this: one, the quality of the nitrate film
reels decomposes after a certain amount of time, and two, many of the nitrate films were passed
over for preservation in favor of ones deemed more important. Due to this, a great many films were
simply discarded.
Another major problem for the industry came about when American film companies
blocked most of the British films that tried to enter into the U.S. markets. These companies would
only allow a tiny fraction in, usually through independent distributors and theatres. Alexander Korda
was one filmmaker able to work out a deal with one of these independents, United Artists. Korda
was a British director, writer, and producer who was able to get a few of his films to American
audiences. Even with the help of United Artists and other independents, it was reported that “less
than thirty percent” of these films were able to be released in America.21 However, even with these
setbacks, many like Korda would go on to become prolific and talented directors in England,
producing such films as H.G. Wells’ Things to Come, and The Scarlet Pimpernel.
Korda was the first filmmaker to master the art in the thirties. He was a Hungarian who fled
to England, and established his film company, London Films. One of his first films was the largely
popular Private Life of Henry VIII,22 which chronicled the monarch’s later life. This film was a large
success at home, and garnered an academy award for Charles Laughton’s portrayal of the titular
king. As the thirties progressed, Korda would release several films such as the Scarlet Pimpernel,23 and
Knight Without Armor.24 Many of the films of the thirties saw little financial success, but were effective
at reflecting aspects of British society. However, the opinions of the consumer public still affected
the films in a negative fashion.
The middle class voiced their dislike for these films, especially on how they portrayed
classes. One journalist, Glyn Roberts, described the films as “depicting the picture of contemporary
Gerald Mast, A Short History of the Movies, (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1976), 413.
Stephen Shafer, British Popular Films 1929-1939: The Cinema of Reassurance (London: Routledge, 1997), 11.
19 Ibid, 13.
20 It should be noted that during the course of research, only ten films were able to be located and viewed.
21 W.H. Mooring, “What Americans Think of British Films”, Film Weekly, January 15, 1938 XX, 438, p. 9.
22 Alexander Korda, Private Life of Henry VIII. Directed by Alexander Korda, London, September 23, 1933.
23 Alexander Korda, The Scarlet Pimpernel. Directed by Harold Young, London, February 7, 1935.
24 Alexander Korda, Knight without Armor. Directed by Jacques Feyder, London, July 23, 1937.
Knight Without Armor was a spy film that explored the time period of the Communist revolution in Russia.
17
18
37
Britain presented in our cinemas…” with “a working population” that was “remorselessly goodhumored...and clowned about every damn thing that ever comes along.”25 The working class was
thought to be a hard working, friendly, quiet and, as described by Roberts, “chronically tired,”
group.26 The depiction of the working class continued to upset members of the middle class, feeling
that the films in which the working class are depicted in overemphasize comedy. This overemphasis
made the working class out to look like foolish compared to performers in other countries who
would “specialize in working class...characteristics and remain dignified,”27 as opposed to the
ridiculous British actors.
Members of the working class also felt the same way as Roberts, writing to magazines and
newspapers in opposition to films that portrayed the middle class. One woman wrote to Film Weekly,
saying: “The people who run our picture industry are too class-ridden, too old-school-tie conscious
ever to make or to want to make an honest and sincere working man’s film.”28 Many other readers
shared this opinion, and wrote to publications as well, going so far as to say that they “writhed at the
mental deficients portrayed as workers in british films.”29 While some of the working class had
negative reactions to these films, many more found enjoyment in them. A number of the working
class viewed the films of the 1930’s as excellent depictions of their own lifestyles. In fact, there were
more complaints toward films depicting the seriousness and drama of the wealthy classes. The films
depicting the lower classes, and cockney Brits in particular, were widely enjoyed by many. Gordon
Harker was an actor who specialized at playing Cockneys, and was attacked by middle class
filmgoers for being overly stereotypical. The lower class and cockneys defended Harker and other
cockney actors, calling them “amusing, human, and plausible,”30 in a word: realistic. It was this
realism that would appeal to some filmgoers, no matter if the film was comic or dramatic. However,
this realism was not universally preferred by the working class. There was a group that wanted the
films they were viewing to depict people unlike them, wanting the films to help them escape from
their troubles.
Of the films that were released in the thirties, a great number were dubbed as “escape” films
by the working class. This was the depression, and people sought a distraction from the realities of
life. Many filmgoers wrote to periodicals, such as the Picturegoer, with statements describing their need
for the cinema, one of which was written in 1933, “Plain men and women are turning with almost a
sign of thankfulness to the cinema, which has become…a stark necessity, taking their minds off the
continual struggle...and strain.”31 The working class viewed the films of this time period with a
certain degree of reverence. The films took their minds off their troubles, and gave them an outlet to
relax. However, many of the films would later become reminders of the times.32
At the close of the decade, British films were still suffering from mediocre performance, and
American boycotts. There were few films that were successful commercially, with most of the films
produced having little financial success. However, there is one film that is widely considered the
most important of the time: the adaptation of George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion.33 This film serves as
a culmination of many great British filmmaking techniques and offers great acting. Directed by and
starring Leslie Howard as Professor Henry Higgins, Pygmalion became the autere film, garnering an
Film Weekly 20, no. 497, (1938): 11.
Ibid.
27 Ibid.
28 Ibid 20, no. 499 (1938): 11.
29 Ibid.
30 Picturegoer Weekly 3, no. 158 (1934): 34.
31 Picturegoer Weekly 2 no. 132 (1933): 34.
32 An example is Things To Come (1936). Filmgoers would look back on this film in the forties and fifties as being extremely forward
thinking for society.
33 Gabriel Pascal, Pygmalion. Directed by Leslie Howard and Anthony Asquith. London, 1938.
25
26
38
academy award for Bernard Shaw. The film also became the premiere example when it came to
comparing the lower and middle classes. The principal characters are members of the working class
who become “tied up in middle class morality”34 when they are elevated to a higher economic status.
Pygmalion was the definitive British film of the time period, the success of which lead to the musical
My Fair Lady and the subsequent film adaptation.
Of all the additions to the film industry that the British made, the single most important
contribution to the film industry was the invention of the Documentary Film.35 The earliest
documentaries date back to the mid twenties, but were not listed under a specific genre. These films
were not categorized until John Grierson coined the term in 1926 while reviewing another film
released, Moana.36 Under Grierson, the British film movement had found its impetus with the
creative and memorable films put out by the new group of documentarians. The documentary film is
still considered one of Britain’s largest contribution to the global film industry.
Of all the film producing countries in the world, Britain is looked down upon as having a mediocre
early filmography. The films of the early twentieth century were plagued by American interference in
the market, class conflicts among the masses, and economic turmoil. The films that were produced
were seen as vastly inferior to the rest of the world and the British industry barely held on. With the
help of filmmakers like George Pearson and Alexander Korda, Britain’s industry was given some
relief from the troubles it had. This time period is often looked down upon as being unimportant in
the history of film, but in fact it was one of the most important times for film. This was the time of
the first war films, the first comedies, and the first screen adaptations of plays and novels. It was a
time of changing ideas and morals, with the lines beginning to blur between the middle and working
classes. This was a time of realistic, human stories, of the class-based analogues that had begun to
polarize viewers, such as Pygmalion and Knight Without Armor. The films of the early twentieth century
are often called “muddled...cheap, [and] artless”, and while in some cases this is true, it is equally true
that the 1920’s and 30’s produced some of the finest examples of cinema in history.
Gabriel Pascal, Pygmalion. 1938.
Arguably the main reason why the rest of the decade is so overlooked.
36 Ann Curthoys, Marilyn Lake, editors. Connected Worlds: History in Transnational Perspective, Volume 2004.. Australian National University
Press, (2004), 51.
34
35
39
______________________________________________________________________________
American Media and Perspectives on the Firebombing of Tokyo
Kevin Lux
Kevin Lux, a senior history major, is from Clinton, Illinois. After earning his BA, he intends to study Library
Science at the Graduate level. He wrote “American Media Perspectives on the Firebombing of Tokyo” for Dr. Jinhee
Lee's HIS 4880 Modern Japan class in fall 2015.
______________________________________________________________________________
When it comes to the bombing of cities during the course of World War II, there are three
locations which seem to stick out in the minds of people: Dresden, Germany, the city known for its
artistic beauty and forever memorialized in Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five, or Hiroshima or
Nagasaki, the two cities which, in August of 1945, became the only casualties of atomic weaponry to
date. Interestingly, not Dresden, nor Hiroshima, nor Nagasaki were the deadliest bombing in the
course of the Second World War. That infamous honor belongs to the aerial assault on Tokyo over
the course of the 9th and 10th of March, in which an estimated 100,000 were killed, and another
million were left without homes. Why then, is this not being debated or discussed? The answer is a
result of several combining factors. At the time of the event, the American press, a major influence
and metaphorical barometer of the feelings of Americans, expressed that the bombing in question
was justified and, despite the fact that it was the largest bombardment to date, it received roughly the
same coverage as other bombings. If anything, the coverage of the bombing of Tokyo was toned
down when compared to other events such as the bombing of Dresden. This lack of attention may,
in turn, have something to do with racism stirred up by American propaganda. To a lesser extent,
despite the somewhat controversial nature of the bombing, it has remained somewhat ignored as a
point of discussion in the media since.
It is important to note that there is some distinction between the use of standard explosive
bombs and the firebombs which were dropped on Tokyo. Both were dropped from bombers, with
the B-29 Superfortress being heavily mentioned in the papers at this time, at altitudes of around
7,000 feet. It is there that the similarities between the two end. Fire bombings typically took place
at night, presumably so bombers had less of a chance of being seen and could better tell when they
were hitting their targets, as opposed to standard bombing which the Americans preferred doing
during the day in what they claimed were attempts to minimalize civilian casualties, but was no more
effective at this than night flying. In addition, while standard bombing could be used to hit specific
targets within a more urban setting, they could also be used to hit isolated targets like airbases and
military instillations. Firebombing was used primarily with the intent to destroy indiscriminately and
usually only worked in dense urban settings. Proof of this unquenchable destruction can be seen in
firsthand accounts of the bombings. Many know of the 1988 film Grave of the Fireflies which depicts
the horrific nature of these attacks and the damage which they wrought to both property and
people, and which it does fairly accurately. Further proof may be found in the accounts of people
who lived through the events. A housewife living in Tokyo during the war wrote in her diary two
months after the bombing, “no gas, no electricity, and our faucet is without water. Life in the city is
miserable. However, our surroundings may look palatial to those people who are victims of
bombing.”1
Even in regards to the bombing of other Japanese cities, the American press was less than
favorable in their approach. Most articles did not seek to trivialize what was happening across the
1
David Lu, Japan, A Documentary History: The Late Tokugawa Period to the Present, vol. 2 (Amonk, New York: East Gate, 1997) 449.
40
Pacific Ocean. There was no doubt about the shear level of destruction being used again the various
Japanese cities. Instead, these articles sought in large part to legitimize the attacks as necessary in
stopping the war. An article published in the New York Times on June 3, 1945, titled “1,000-Plane
Blows Daily is Prospect for Japan,” stated simply, “What the tremendous air attacks… will do to
Japan no one can yet say.”2 When an explanation was given, it tended to focus on the fact that Japan
had “tiny piece-work factories”3 throughout cities which were difficult to target individually. This
trend can be further seen in lack of solid numbers in regards to a death count from each bombing.
Though numbers of people left homeless were common enough, the word “death” fails to even
make an appearance (except in the case of bombers who were shot down, which also filled up the
pages). Even on the day of the Japanese surrender, August 15, 1945, articles were still being run
which describe how much damage and how vital of a role the B-29 played in winning the war. In a
bizarre case, the Chicago Tribune actually ran an article which attempted to take a humorous approach
to what was happening. On March 18, 1945 a group of Irish bombardiers were attempting to
celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day in the middle of the mission but their cans of beer slipped out of their
plane and “are presumed in the hands of the enemy.”4
It is important to understand exactly what the United States press was not reacting to in their
coverage of the bombing of Tokyo. In the night between March 9th and 10th, 1945, a massive attack
was conducted against the capital of Japan. Over 300 B-29 Superfortresses took part in dropping
napalm and other flammable bombs on the city, destroying approximately 15 square miles in a single
night. As a result of this, around 100,000 men, women, and children were killed, and another
million were left without homes.
Everything which applied to the bombing of other cities also applies to the way in which the
press described and dealt with the bombing of Tokyo. Justification of the single deadliest attack was
expressed primarily as a need to end the war quickly. The day after the bombing had ended, United
States Air Force General Curtis Le May was quoted by the Chicago Tribune as saying, “I believe that if
there has been a cut from its [the war’s] duration only one day, or one hour, my officers and men
have served a high purpose.”5 The following day, a writer for the same paper added a religious twist
to the message stating, “A Christian people cannot rejoice over such facts as come from Tokyo…
no matter how much the enemy has offended. But war cannot be humane. The objective is to
destroy the enemy and the most destructive methods are likely to be the best in effecting that end.”6
Lauris Norstad, another American Air Force General, stated on the 26 of March that firebombing
was simply the cheaper option for their mission: “the mission of the B-29 air force is to reduce
Japanese production “by any means” and that “incendiary attacks are the economic method.”7 If
further proof is needed about the less than pleasant feelings felt between Americans and the
Japanese at the time, look no further than Lt. Leland Rudiger of Peoria, Illinois, who was quoted in
The Chicago Tribune as describing the site of burning Tokyo as “wonderful” in a word, and adding, “I
Hanson Baldwin, “1,000-Plane Blows Daily Is Prospect for Japan: Vast Intensification of Bombardment Will Be Developed From
Okinawa Comparison With Europe Plane Production Slashed Shift to Tactical Targets Seen To Turn Cities to Ashes,” New York
Times, June 3, 1945.
http://search.proquest.com/hnpnewyorktimes/docview/107294058/74EF4CD32AF544B9PQ/47?accountid=10705.
3 Ibid.
4 “Kobe Burns For 7 Hours After Record B-29 Raid: 12 Square Miles of Big Jap City Damaged,” Chicago Tribune, March 18, 1945.
http://search.proquest.com/hnpchicagotribune/docview/176990109/DFFE222ED7564078PQ/19?accountid=107.
5 “15 Sq. Miles of Tokyo Laid Waste in Raid: 15 Square Miles In Tokyo Heart Razed By Bombs ‘Greatest Damage Ever Done in
One Raid.,’” Chicago Tribune, March 11, 1945.
http://search.proquest.com/hnpchicagotribune/docview/177050588/7F7FF3EFAE2D48A1PQ/54?accountid=10705.
6 “Protecting America,” Chicago Tribune, March 12, 1945.
http://search.proquest.com/hnpchicagotribune/docview/177122302/7F7FF3EFAE2D48A1PQ/78?accountid=10705.
7 “200,000 Tokyo Buildings Left In Ruins by B-29s: 3,000 Plants, Shops Destroyed.,” Chicago Tribune, March 24, 1945.
http://search.proquest.com/hnpchicagotribune/docview/176988627/1E9BBD0E2F1A4FA5PQ/134?accountid=10705.
2
41
was repaid over and over for my 2 ½ years of waiting.”8 The strange thing is, these articles are about
as frequent and descriptive as they are for other bombings. In the remaining twenty-one days of
March, five articles are published in the Chicago Tribune which mention the bombing. Four of
those are within the first week after its occurrence, and the last appears more than two weeks later
following a statement made by an Air Force General. In the New York Times only three mentions are
made of the bombing in March of 1945 and those are all on the same day: March 11 th. There are
other references to bombings of Tokyo after this point, but it is also important to keep in mind that
Americans kept bombing Japan as a whole up until the very end of the war and Tokyo was no
exception. Any future attacks or references to Tokyo could be lumped in with the news of other
bombings, but my research seemed to point to the same type of language used in the various cases
of the Pacific bombings.
There is an incredibly sharp contrast to be made between the coverage of the European and
Pacific theatres by the American press. Looking at the language used in the bombing of German
cities, specifically the most infamous bombing, Dresden, one can easily see the difference. Though
information would continue to appear in the papers for some time after the war had ended, some of
the most horrific articles came during the war. These tended to be detailed in their descriptions,
used a fair amount of negative imagery, and, even over two months after the bombing had occurred,
continued to use gross overestimates of the death count. A single article in the Chicago Times titled
“Dresden Raid Killed 300,000 Say Ex-Captives,” published on May 3rd, 1945, states that British
soldiers were informed by local police that the death count was near 300,000, as opposed to the now
estimate of between 25,000 and 35,000, and that the number was more than believable given the
city’s being packed with refugees fleeing from the collapsing eastern front.9 It goes on to describe
the methods of dealing with the masses of bodies: “The most effective way was to take
flamethrowers and burn the dead as they lay in the ruins for sanitary reasons. They would just turn
flamethrowers into houses, burn the dead, and then close off the entire area.” 10When compared to
the much more neutral tones used to describe Tokyo, it is easy to understand why the bombing of
Dresden may have stuck in people’s minds.
Part of the reason for this change in tone may have had something to do with racism against
the Japanese spun up by propaganda. Arguably some of the most well remembered propaganda
from the Second World War was in the forms of comics and cartoons, especially the works of
Theodor Geisel, Walt Disney, and Tex Avery, as well as Marvel and DC comic books. To be fair,
the Germans are depicted in a poor light as well. They are always unintelligent, everything they own
has a swastika on it, and they are constantly giving the Nazi salute. Perhaps nowhere are the
stereotypes better exemplified than in the 1943 Disney cartoon “Der Fuehrer’s Face”, which stars
Donald Duck and shows him living in Germany, in a house with swastika wallpaper and clocks,
surrounded by a swastika fence and swastika hedges, while working in a factory that makes shells as
a loudspeaker extolls the glory of the Fuhrer.11 Other depictions of the Germans share these traits,
including on the cover of the very first Captain America comic, and in the Popeye the Sailor cartoon
Seein’ Red, White, and Blue. While these may sound or look bad, the depiction of the Japanese is much
worse. Though the Japanese are also depicted as being significantly less intelligent than the
Americans they’re pitted against, the racism goes a step further. The Japanese are generally shown
“15 Sq. Miles of Tokyo Laid Waste in Raid: 15 Square Miles In Tokyo Heart Razed By Bombs ‘Greated Damage Ever Done in One
Raid.’”
9 “Dresden Raid Killed 300,000, Say Ex-Captives,” Chicago Tribune, May 3, 1945.
http://search.proquest.com/hnpchicagotribune/docview/177148371/9EAFF2ABB88E4D24PQ/1?accountid=10705.
10 Ibid.
11 Donald Duck, “Der Fuhrer’s Face,” (originally aired January 1, 1943) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bn20oXFrxxg (accessed
February 9, 2016).
8
42
to be short, with squinty eyes, buck teeth, glasses, abnormally large ears, and, when they spoke, they
did so in very poor, broken English. Slurs were another thing which were thrown around with
impudence in these cartoons. In the 1944 Loony Tunes cartoon “Nip the Nips,” Bugs Bunny refers
to individuals in a group of Japanese as “bow legs,” monkey face,” and “slant eyes,” all within a
matter of seconds.12 In the 1942 Popeye cartoon “Scrap the Japs,” Popeye states, “I ain’t never met
a Jap who wasn’t Yella.”13 Physically, the Japanese in this cartoon match the description already
given, though worse is the cover of Marvel’s Mystery Comic #32, which depicts the Japanese with
razor sharp teeth along with the other physical stereotypes. Perhaps nowhere is the difference
between the Germans and Japanese better shown than in a Dr. Seuss comic from 1942. Though
Hitler appears weak, he is nothing compared to the ugly Japanese woman or their child.
The firebombing of Tokyo has one other thing going against it. In the time of its
occurrence and afterwards, it has failed to be discussed at the same level and in the same earnest as
the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were and still are. Put into the larger narrative of
World War II, its elimination from history is somewhat understandable. It was not the only
firebombing done by the Allies, just the most destructive. The bombings of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki, however, are singular in their identity as the first and only times in which nuclear weapons
have been actively used as a part of a war. In addition, they horrified people in the level of
destruction caused by a single weapon as opposed to fire bombings which took literal tons of bombs
to complete. Both of these facts play into the atomic bombing’s more noteworthy place in history
than the firebombing of Tokyo. American textbooks really do not discuss the bombing either. In a
sampling of five American History textbooks from varying years and levels of education, all five
mentioned the atomic bombing to some length, three specifically mention the bombing of Tokyo,
and only one mentions Dresden at all. There is no connection between them in regards to date
published, with one book from 1999, and the oldest in the selection, mentioning it, and one as new
as 2009 not doing so.14 On top of this is the continued fascination which is associated with atomic
weapons and their after effects, as expressed in popular media. Most notably, this idea was portrayed
in the 1954 film Godzilla and its more than thirty sequels and spin-offs, staring the titular monster
with the ability to literally breathe atomic energy and leave pockets of radiation in its footsteps.
While there is certainly academic debate going on surrounding the ethics of the firebombing of
Tokyo, and there are some pieces of fiction which deal with the effects of firebombings, such as the
already mentioned Grave of the Fireflies, neither is anywhere near the same level as what exists for
the atomic bombings.
The firebombing of Tokyo was horrific and deserves to be remembered. American press at
the time may have given it a pass, but that was seventy years ago. The events of March 9 th and 10th,
1945, needs to be subject to scrutiny and discussed in their ethics and, while a film based upon it
may never reach the stature of Godzilla, it may be enough to get people talking.
Looney Tunes, Bugs Bunny, “Nip the Nips,” (originally aired 1944) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCNw4Nahmhg
(accessed February 9, 2016).
13 Popeye the Sailor, “Scrap the Japs,” (originally aired November 20, 1942) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCFZ6nh9djY
(accessed February 9, 2016).
14 Joyce Appleby, The American Journey (Columbus, Ohio: McGraw Hill Glencoe, 2009); Daniel Boorstin, A History of the United States,
Annotated Teacher’s Edition (Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 1999); Emma Lapsansky-Werner, United States History: Reconstruction
to the Present (Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2010); Edward Ayers, American Anthem (Orlando: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 2007);
Joy Hakim, A History of US: War, Peace, and All That Jazz, vol. Nine (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003).
12
43
______________________________________________________________________________
Nuremberg: Trial of the Century
Brandon West
Brandon West, who graduated with a BA in history from EIU in spring 2016, wrote Trial of the Century for Dr.
Sace Elder’s Historical Research and Writing class in fall 2014.
______________________________________________________________________________
World War II plunged the entire world into one of the bloodiest wars of all time. Much like
World War I, not only the nations of Europe were affected but battles were fought all over the
globe. As the war progressed the leaders of the Allied powers came together and discussed how
these powers would hold those responsible for the war guilt and the atrocities they committed.
However, the idea of holding large numbers of individuals responsible was something that had never
done before, no precedent then existed regarding how to administer justice for war crimes on a large
scale. At the end of the war, the Allied powers came together and instituted war crimes tribunals,
which would hear evidence against the accused, and allow for testimony in a fair and impartial
hearing. There would be those who would condemn the trials as “victors’ justice” and those who
condemned the trials as a waste of time and effort on hearings where the evidence was clear.
Conversely, there were many who supported the Allied war crimes tribunals as necessary to avoid
any appearance of partiality and objectivity. This paper will argue that in fact these trials were held
objectively and fairly in order to bring those responsible for war crimes to justice.
Prior to the end of World War II, there had not been any system in place to deal with war
crimes that had been committed on such a scale as those that had occurred in the European theatre.
The Allied powers felt it necessary to create a system that could potentially prevent any more largescale atrocities in the future. As news of atrocities attributed to Nazi Germany began to circulate
throughout the world early in the war, public opinion in the Allied nations became outraged.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt warned that, “atrocities committed against hostages in France
would only breed hatred.”1 British Prime Minister Winston Churchill then issued a stern warning
that “punishment of these crimes should now be counted among the major goals of the war.”2 Later
Roosevelt would emphasize the importance of justice being handed down to the Axis powers.
“When victory has been achieved,” Roosevelt declared in London in 1942,
it is the purpose of the government of the United States, as I know it is the purpose
of each United Nations, to make appropriate use of the information and evidence in
respect to these barbaric crimes of the invaders in Europe and in Asia…It seems
only fair that they should have this warning that the time will come when they shall
have to stand in courts of law in the very countries which they are now oppressing
and answer their acts.3
The four Allied powers signed the London Agreement, which in turn created the United
Nations War Crimes Commission. The commission would compile a list of criminals and their acts
in preparation for trial after the war. The signing of this agreement began the conversation about
Whitney R. Harris, Tyranny on Trial : The Evidence at Nuremberg, (New York : Barnes & Noble, 1995).
Ibid
3 Ibid, 4.
1
2
44
how to handle those who would be defendants and what steps could be taken to bring them to
justice. The four Allied powers disagreed on how to handle this situation. Many American officials
felt that the crimes of the Nazis were such that they had forfeited the right to a fair trial and that,
once apprehended, the Nazi defendants should be shot on sight. According to Norbert
Ehrenfreund, who covered the trials as a reporter, states in his book The Nuremberg Legacy that,
“Churchill said the Nazis did not deserve a trial; a trial would only give them a chance to spout their
Nazi propaganda…after a summary hearing they should be taken out in the yard and shot by a firing
squad.”4 Further opposition to fair trials for the war crimes suspects would come from Soviet Major
General Ion Nikitchenko who felt that the “Nazi leaders guilt had already been decided and there
was no reason to waste time on that question.”5 However, other American officials believed that
executing Nazis without a trial would only bring about another world war. They felt that due process
was needed to maintain the rule of law in international affairs. Finally, shortly after Roosevelt’s
death, his successor as president, Harry S. Truman, would ask Robert H. Jackson6 to devise a “plan
for preparing and prosecuting charges of atrocities and war crimes.”7 Jackson felt it was his mission
to ensure crimes like these were never committed again, and wanted to send a message to every
nation that there would be severe consequences for those who would engage in those types of
crimes again. Jackson and his associates devised a four category system for indicting potential
defendants: crimes against peace, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and conspiracy to commit
crimes. Jackson felt this was the best method to determine the guilt or innocence of the defendants,
and this system would also serve as a basis for new international law. The tribunals remained
unpopular among segments of public opinion both in the United States and abroad, but Jackson
remained firm in his belief that these trials were necessary, and that the system that had been devised
was the best way possible of ensuring that justice was served.
There was wide speculation amongst Germans that these trials would be little more than
show trials, an exercise in “victors’ justice” regardless of Allied claims of fairness and impartiality.
According to Ehrenfruend, the armed forces newspaper Stars and Stripes had conducted a survey of
Germans and how they viewed the war crimes tribunal. Many Germans believed that “all defendants
would be executed after only a brief hearing.”8 Despite the revelations of the atrocities committed by
the Nazis, a significant portion of the German population felt that those accused would not receive
a fair hearing.
There was a general feeling in the immediate postwar months that some form of due process
and accountability for the outrages of the war was necessary. The New York Times spoke for many
when it said ”by setting up the principle that leaders of a robber nation can be treated as
international criminals who are individually accountable for their actions; it gave new substance to
the theory of international law.”9
However, according to researcher Erich Hula, global public opinion was still conflicted on
what to do with the war crimes defendants. Conflict is particularly apparent when he states that “the
very fact that American opinion, the opinion of the legal profession as well as the laymen, is divided
over the best way of coping with the Axis criminals, clearly indicates that things are not in fact as
Norbert Ehrenfreund, The Nuremberg Legacy : How the Nazi War Crimes Trials Changed the Course of History, (New York : Palgrave
Macmillan, 2007), 7.
5 Ibid, 12.
6 Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1941 to 1954.
7 Harris, Tyranny on Trial : The Evidence at Nuremberg, 11.
8 Ehrenfreund, The Nuremberg Legacy : How the Nazi War Crimes Trials Changed the Course of History, 19.
9 U.S. Signal Corps, “We Accuse--’: The Four Counts in the Indictment of German War Criminals,” New York Times, October 21,
1945, sec. The Week In Review,
http://search.proquest.com.proxy1.library.eiu.edu:2048/hnpnewyorktimes/docview/107213341/abstract/7576A36C452E442EPQ/1
2?accountid=10705. Accessed on October 19th 2014
4
45
simple as they look at first sight.”10 There is no doubt that citizens of countries ravaged by Germany
during the war, especially the Soviet Union, France, and Poland, demanded justice. Many, no doubt,
demanded revenge against the Nazi war crimes defendants. However, Hula notes that “the current
proceedings are the result of painstaking negotiations among governments and legal experts of the
United Nations, negotiations that dragged on through practically the whole war.“ ”A common
decision was essential” in order to assure that justice was served.11 There were still doubts: for
instance, Senator Robert A. Taft12 believed these trials would “be a blot on the American record
which we shall long regret.”13 Taft argued that “our whole attitude in the world, for a year after V-E
Day, seemed to me a departure from the principles of fair and equal treatment which has made
America respected throughout the world before this Second World War.”14 It can be argued
however, that without a precedent already in place on how to treat criminals of this nature, the
ability to treat these trials and the defendants with fairness is not defined.
Dr. August von Knieriem, a German businessmanduring the war, was arrested on suspicion
of slave labor and providing assistance to the Nazi party. Knieriem’s arrest was due primarily to his
position in a successful company that provided assistance to the Nazis. Later found innocent of the
charges laid against him, von Knieriem explained his thoughts on the trials. According to Nicholas
Doman, a lawyer on Robert Jackson’s staff, von Knieriem felt that the German defendants bore a
responsibility to answer for their crimes and felt that Germany itself was a criminal state for its
actions in the later periods of the war. However, despite his willingness that justice be served, von
Knierem is clear that he did not “[approve] the particular law applied, the procedure of the trials or
the evidentiary rules.”15 Von Knieriem describes how he felt the trials should have been handled to
bring about a fair trial and justice on the defendants:
(1) there was no law in force in Germany, international or otherwise, penalizing
many of the acts charged the German defendants at the time these acts were
committed. (2) persons charged with war crimes should have been tried under their
national law. (3) Individuals are not subject to international law and may not be
punished thereunder for any crime by any international tribunal. (4) an order from a
superior authority may confer immunity on the actor.16
The difficulty with von Knieriem’s logic is if there was no law present in Germany at the
time, the chance for justice would not exist; trials for German defendants by German authorities, if
they happened at all, would be rife with bias and corruption, and justice would not be served. von
Knieriem’s opinion would be expected, given that he was a German who had been arrested by the
Allies. Lastly, according to Ehrenfreund, one other problem with the trials was that “the Allies made
all the rules.”17 This is true but at the time Germans could not be expected to judge their former
rulerswithout bias and partiality. The legal practices that the Allies incorporated the in the
prosecution were new ideas to German lawyers, and they would have to scramble “to learn the
Erich Hula, “Punishment For War Crimes,” Social Research 13, no. 1 (March 1, 1946), 1.
Ibid, 2.
12 Republican senator from Ohio, candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 1940, 1944, and 1952. Widely known for
his isolationist foreign policy.
13 Robert A. Taft, The Papers of Robert A. Taft. (Kent, Ohio : Kent State University Press, c1997-c2006.), 200.
14 Ibid.
15 Nicholas R. Doman, “The Nuremberg Trials Revisited,” American Bar Association Journal 47, no. 3 (March 1, 1961): 260.
16 Nicholas R. Doman, “The Nuremberg Trials Revisited,” American Bar Association Journal, 47, no. 3 (March 1, 1961): 261-2.
17 Ehrenfreund, 37.
10
11
46
American adversary procedure, which was vastly different from their own continental or inquisitorial
system.”18
However, despite the opposition from many corners, there is a great deal of evidence that
points to the impartiality of these trials and their importance. Unlike Taft who condemned the trials
as only victors’ justice, Hanson Baldwin, military editor for the New York Times claimed that the
Nuremberg trials were not merely a “mock trial, no forgone verdict; the justice was military and
severe, but it was justice.”19
In the face of such opposition, Robert Jackson knew that a fair trial would be necessary to
ensure faith in the process of justice, and enable future generations to look back with pride on what
was done. Jackson argued that “to free them without a trial would mock the dead and make cynics
of the living….but undiscriminating executions or punishments without definite findings of guilt,
fairly arrived at, would violate pledges repeatedly given, and would not sit easily on the American
conscience or be remembered by our children with pride.”20 Jackson was all too aware of the burden
of history which accompanied his task. “Never before in legal history has an effort been made to
bring within the scope of a single litigation the developments of a decade, covering a whole
continent, and involving a score of nations, countless individuals, and innumerable events.”21
The evidence shows that these trials were not a rushed, unorganized event, but instead well
thought through, and planned by the Allies. One could argue that these trials had no legal basis and
was merely victors’ justice, however, Jackson and his colleagues were navigating uncharted territory,
and had to establish new legal precedent. Justice for the oppressed was their primary objective.
American attorney Telford Taylor, part of Jackson’s prosecution team, stated after the trial began his
belief that “these defendants may be hard pressed but they are not ill-used…if these men are the
first war leaders of a defeated nation to be prosecuted in the name of the law, they are also the first
to be a given a chance to plead for their lives in the name of the law.”22 Taylor goes on later to say
that
they…have a fair opportunity to defend themselves—a favor which these men,
when in power, rarely extended to their countrymen. Despite the fact that public
opinion already condemns their acts, we agree that here they must be given a
presumption of innocence, and we accept the burden of proving criminal acts and
the responsibility of these defendants for their commission.23
These are not words of a group that is just out for vengeance, this is proof that the Allies, no
matter how different their legal system may have been or their feelings towards the criminals, were
willing to attain justice in as fair and impartial a way as possible and treat these criminals as innocent
until proven guilty. A German defendant who was charged with crimes claimed that there was no
law in place, so there were no legal grounds for trying him. Jackson ably replied to this, stating “our
case rest squarely on the provisions of the charter based on international law that empowers this
Ibid.
Hanson W. Baldwin, “Nuremberg Trial Upholds Our Justice: Court’s Proceedings and Acquittals Are Declared to Enhance the
Prestige of Anglo-U.S. Legal System Yamashita Trial Contrasted Rules Called Extraordinary,” New York Times, October 2, 1946,
http://search.proquest.com.proxy1.library.eiu.edu:2048/hnpnewyorktimes/docview/107584105/abstract/4FCDA65DA4B9489CPQ
/3?accountid=10705. Accessed on October 21st 2014.
20 Telford Taylor, “The Nuremberg Trials,” Columbia Law Review 55, no. 4 (April 1, 1955): 497.
21 Michael Biddiss, “The Nuremberg Trial: Two Exercises in Judgment,” Journal of Contemporary History 16, no. 3 (July 1, 1981), 598.
22 Taylor, 505.
23 Ibid.
18
19
47
tribunal to define crimes and empowers the court to impose sentences.”24 Jackson went on to argue
that international law had been in place since the 1907 Hague Convention. 25
Sir Norman Birkett,26 one of the alternative judges from the United Kingdom, who sat in at
the trials, gave his opinion that “it was wise and right and expedient and indeed essential that the
Trial should be held.”27 Birkett firmly insists that “history would have passed a very adverse verdict
upon any country that had taken people and shot them without trial.”28 The defendants would have
preferred to meet a quick and an honorable end confronted with a firing squad rather than the
ignominy of the hangman’s noose. The Soviets and the French would have preferred the speed of
this punishment as well. Knowing that the mindset was set on revenge and quick justice, the British
and American jurists warned against this kind of operation. Taking justice into their own hands like
this would degrade the Allies and their cause in the eyes of the world.
Birkett appealed to the ancient traditions of English common law. “After all,” argued
Birkett, “the principle law of England is that a man is presumed to be innocent until he found
guilty.” The notion of summary executions appalled him, and would render the Allies no better than
the genocidal totalitarians they fought against. “The view that men could be shot without trial,
whatever their alleged crimes might have been, would, in my opinion savor far too much of the Nazi
doctrine itself to have any wide commendation to reasonable people.”29 Birkett notes that the
German defendants had every opportunity to review the charges laid against them, reading
indictments written in German, thirty days before trial30 “The tribunal arranged for the best German
counsel to defend” those charged, rather than afford them little chance with inexperienced or
foreign advocates.31 The tribunal went to great lengths to secure witnesses that the defendants claim
could help prove their case, locate them and bring them to Nuremberg. “The whole trial,” explained
Lord Birkett, “proceeded upon that footing that they should have the fullest opportunity of making
their defense— and, indeed, they did.”32
Francis Biddle,33 the main American judge at the Nuremberg trials, described in a letter to
President Harry S. Truman his view of the accomplishment of the trials. Not only did the trials bring
war criminals to justice, Biddle informs President Truman, “but of greater importance for a world
that longs for peace is this: the judgment has formulated, judicially for the first time, the proposition
that aggressive war is criminal and will be so treated.”34 Robert Jackson adds in his letter to President
Truman that “the nations have given the example of leaving punishment of individuals to the
determination of independent judges, guided by the principles of law, after hearing all of the
evidence for the defense as well as the prosecution. It is not too much to hope that this example of
“Jackson Declares War Charge Legal: Says Charter Setting Up Court Provided for Retroactive Law After Ley Protests Ridicules
Ley’s Stand Cites Hague Convention Von Schroeder Arrested,” New York Times, October 21, 1945.
http://search.proquest.com.proxy1.library.eiu.edu:2048/hnpnewyorktimes/docview/107195328/abstract/7576A36C452E442EPQ/2
?accountid=10705. Accessed on October 20th, 2014
25 For short description of Hague convention visit, “Hague Convention (1899, 1907),” Encyclopedia Britannica, accessed November 17,
2014, http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/251644/Hague-Convention.
26 Judge of the High Court of Justice of England and Wales.
27 Sir Norman Birkett, “International Legal Theories Evolved at Nuremberg,” International Affairs (Royal Institute of International Affairs
1944-) 23, no. 3 (July 1, 1947): 319 doi:10.2307/3017222.
28 Ibid.
29 Ibid.
30 Birkett, 321.
31 Ibid.
32 Ibid.
33 United States Attorney General from 1941 to 1945, appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
34 “Text of Biddle’s Report on Nuremberg and Truman’s Reply: Sees Unity Realized Cites Ban on Interviews Accomplishments Listed
The President’s Reply,” New York Times, November 13, 1946,
http://search.proquest.com.proxy1.library.eiu.edu:2048/hnpnewyorktimes/docview/107307185/abstract/4FCDA65DA4B9489CPQ
/12?accountid=10705. Accessed on October 20th 2014.
24
48
full and fair hearings and tranquil and discriminating judgment will do something toward
strengthening the processes of justice in many countries.”35
Without a precedent to follow, the Allies had no way of knowing the proper way of exacting justice
upon the Nazi regime, but with the Nuremberg trials they were able to establish such precedents and
principles necessary to prevent future crimes and to judge war crimes fairly and without prejudice or
partiality. The Allies were committed to adhering to principles of international law, and, working
together despite differing legal backgrounds, brought to justice those who had committed
unprecedented and unspeakable atrocities, the like and scale of which the world had never before
and, it is to be fervently hoped, never will see again.
“Text of Justice Jackson’s Report to President on the Nuremberg Trial: Statistics on Trial Points to Speed of Trial Method Still
Unsettled Prefers Separate Actions Precedent Established Example to World No Bar to Future War,” New York Times, October 16,
1946.
35
49
______________________________________________________________________________
Dwight D. Eisenhower and the Suez Crisis of 1956
Michael Olson
Michael Olson, from Rockford, Illinois, earned his BA in history in spring 2016. In fall 2016, he will begin work
on an MA in history at the University of Missouri.
______________________________________________________________________________
INTRODUCTION
The Suez Crisis of 1956 was a confrontation between Britain, France, and Israel on one side
and Egypt on the other, during the height of the Cold War. The crisis resulted from the
nationalization of the Suez Canal by Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser in July of that year,
continuing through the fall and culminating in a joint Anglo-French-Israeli invasion of the Sinai
Peninsula in October, and the forced withdrawal of coalition forces by the end of the year. The
invading nations endured tremendous pressure to withdraw from both sides of the Cold War divide.
Particularly, economic pressure from the United States and President Dwight D. Eisenhower
convinced Britain to lead a withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula after initial victories. Eisenhower's
intervention on the side of Egypt, against America's traditional allies, particularly Britain and France,
stemmed from a deep personal dislike of and discomfort with colonial imperialism, and frustration
that his European allies had seemingly returned to their old colonial ways. Domestic political
concerns also influenced Eisenhower's decision-making process; in an election year, and with
Democratic opponent Adlai Stevenson bidding for favor with a staunchly peace-oriented campaign,
Eisenhower felt that American intervention would position the United States as an honest broker
determined to achieve and maintain a peace of strength. The intervention of the United States, in
concert with the threat of intervention by the Soviet Union, resolved the crisis, and destroyed any
remaining credibility Britain and France retained after the Second World War as imperial powers.
A HISTORY OF THE SUEZ CANAL
It is impossible to discuss the Suez Crisis without understanding the history of the Canal.
During the Age of Exploration and throughout the ensuing centuries, European courts dreamed of
building a waterway through the land bridge linking Africa to Asia. Long, dangerous voyages around
the Cape of Good Hope at Africa's southern end inhibited trade and military conquest; for example,
a voyage from Liverpool in England to Calcutta in India took 11,600 miles and many harrowing
weeks. The first attempt to pierce the land bridge came in the late 1790s; revolutionary France, then
locked in the latest of its series of wars with Great Britain, saw a chance to gain a critical military and
commercial advantage over its perennial rival. The Directory (France's plural executive at the time,)
ordered general Napoleon Bonaparte to "take all necessary steps to ensure the free and exclusive use
of the Red Sea by French vessels." Bonaparte chose to investigate the possibility of constructing a
canal across the land bridge, and the Directory empowered Bonaparte to execute its construction if
feasible. Due to using an ancient miscalculation of the levels of the Mediterranean and the Red Seas,
Bonaparte's engineer declared the infeasibility of a canal, and the French dropped the project.1
The idea of a Mediterranean-Red Sea canal did not die, however. By the mid-nineteenth
century, conditions were just right to begin construction. A former French diplomat, Ferdinand de
Donald Neff, Warriors at Suez: Eisenhower Takes America Into the Middle East (New York: The Linden Press/Simon and Schuster, 1981)
15-16.
1
50
Lesseps, whose diplomatic posts had included Egypt, gained a number of key land concessions from
his old friend, the khedive (ruler) of Egypt, Mohammed Said, beginning in 1854. After a colossal
effort, including the partial use of Egyptian forced labor, the Suez Canal opened for business on
November 17, 1869, with de Lesseps himself escorting the Empress Eugenie, consort of Emperor
Napoleon III of France, through the canal on the imperial yacht. Originally granted 44% of Suez
Canal Company stock, in 1875, the Egyptian government found itself compelled to sell its stake to
the British for £4 million to meet debts incurred by operating the canal and the khedive's own
profligate spending. The sale did not rescue Egypt's spiraling economy, the khedive soon declared
bankruptcy, which forced him to cede economic control to Britain and France in exchange for
foreign aid. Fuming over the insult to their country, an Egyptian army officer, Colonel Ahmed
Arabi, instigated a revolt against the khedive in 1881. The British government sent an expeditionary
force to Egypt, which successfully crushed the revolt in 1882. For the time being, stability returned
to Egypt, but the lingering resentments remained bubbling under the surface, as British troops
showed no sign of leaving.2
Six years after the British occupation of Egypt began, the great powers of Europe and the
Egyptian government concluded the Convention of Constantinople, which guaranteed the free use
of the canal, save for any restrictive measure deemed necessary by the khedive for the defense of
Egypt. As historians Anthony Gorst and Lewis Johnman explain, this effectively included any
measures deemed necessary by the British, and they invoked this clause several times over the course
of their presence in Egypt, including during both world wars. The French unofficially ceded political
interest in the governing of Egypt, content to exert influence through the Suez Canal Company.3
Not until 1922 did the United Kingdom concede conditional independence under a pliable king
controlled by London. The 1936 Anglo-Egyptian Treaty officially codified the conditions of
Egyptian independence: in exchange for the withdrawal of British troops from Egypt (except those
needed to protect the canal), the British claimed the right to control the security of the canal, the
right to reoccupy the entire country in the event of war, and the right to protect "foreign interests
and minorities" in Egypt. Britain had the right to invoke these conditions as they saw fit, with or
without consultation of the Egyptian government. Indeed, Britain, desperate to keep the vital link to
their overseas empire and its resources, did invoke these rights during the Second World War.
British troops reoccupied Egypt and forced King Farouk to either accept a government headed by a
prime minister of their choosing or renounce his throne. The king accepted the new government,
dealing a major blow to the long-term future of the Egyptian monarchy, and reigniting the old
resentments of the Egyptian people at the arrogance of Britain's imperialism.4
After the Second World War, Britain found itself in a quandary. To paraphrase Dean
Acheson, United States Secretary of State under President Harry S. Truman, she had lost her empire
and now sought a new role in the world.5 As the British Empire lost its crown jewels, India and
Pakistan, in the late 1940s, the long-simmering differences and resentments between Britain and
Egypt reached the boiling point. By early 1950, talks aimed at bringing about the withdrawal of
British troops from the Suez Canal Zone had stalled. The British Foreign Office, to prod the
Egyptians to conciliation, canceled an order for jet fighters and tanks that the Egyptians had already
purchased. In response, Egyptian prime minister Nahas Pasha, the very same prime minister
London had forced on King Farouk eight years earlier, denounced the 1936 Anglo-Egyptian Treaty
and called for the immediate evacuation of British troops. Talks went on through the first half of
Ibid, 16-18.
Anthony Gorst and Lewis Johnman. The Suez Crisis. (London: Routledge, 1997) 3-6.
4 Ibid, 6-9.
5 Dean Acheson. "Speech to the Military Academy at West Point." (United States Military Academy at West Point, New York,
December 5, 1962.)
2
3
51
1951, with the Egyptians continuing to insist on immediate evacuation, which the British declined to
do until Egypt agreed to a regional defensive pact. Egypt broke off the talks after a "bellicose
speech" on July 30, 1951 by the British Foreign Secretary Herbert Morrison in the British
parliament. Just over two months later, King Farouk announced to the Egyptian parliament that his
abrogation of the 1936 Anglo-Egyptian Treaty. Before another year passed, Farouk would be
deposed by a group of army officers headed by General Mohammed Naguib and Lieutenant Colonel
Gamal Abdel Nasser in July 1952.6 General Naguib himself would be eased out of power by the
spring of 1954, with Lieutenant Colonel Nasser succeeding him, confirming that which most
observers already knew: the true power in the Egyptian government lay with Nasser.7
NASSER COURTS BOTH SIDES
Nasser had not yet secured his hold over Egypt, however. He needed arms to maintain
strength against Israel, which had humiliated Egyptian forces during the Arab-Israeli War of 1948
and, in February 1955, launched a commando raid on the Egyptian-held Gaza Strip. Nasser did not
hesitate to play the two superpowers off each other to acquire the arms that he wanted. He first
approached the United States. Speaking to U. S. ambassador to Egypt Henry Byroade, Nasser made
a request for $28 million in American arms, which would have included "medium-sized tanks and B26 aircraft."8 When U. S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower saw Nasser's request, he expressed
surprise. "Why, this is peanuts," he exclaimed to Secretary of State John Foster Dulles. Yet the
administration did nothing to follow up on Nasser's request. Not willing to take political risks in
angering pro-Israel factions in the United States Congress, and not believing Nasser seriously
intended to negotiate with the Soviet Union, the American administration dragged its feet and set
conditions for the acceptance of aid.9 Sir Humphrey Trevelyan, the British ambassador to Egypt,
thought the Americans had made a terrible mistake in turning a deaf ear to Nasser's pleas. "Nasser
lost patience," Trevelyan explained, and, still concerned with securing his hold on power and
maintaining strong defenses against Israel, felt he had no other choice than to open up talks with the
Soviets.10 The Soviets, keen to exploit any opportunity to gain an advantage over the United States,
eagerly agreed to Nasser's request for arms in exchange for a payment of Egyptian cotton. Indeed
they exceeded his request substantially: the equipment sent to Egypt, which included 100 MiG
fighters, 200 tanks, and jet bombers, with an estimated value of between $90-250 million, far more
than Nasser's original request of $28 million.11 As Eisenhower and Dulles saw it, Nasser's deal with
the Soviets constituted clear and distressing evidence of Moscow's intentions to establish
domination in the Arab world.12 The announcement on September 27, 1955 of the arms deal with
the Soviets, with Czechoslovakia as the intermediary, came only three days after President
Eisenhower had suffered a serious heart attack while on vacation in Denver, Colorado.13
Initially misdiagnosed as a "digestive upset," Eisenhower's heart attack came at a time of
relative quiet, notwithstanding the arms deal between Egypt and the Soviets. The federal
government continued to operate as normal, with Congress out of session, and no other urgent
foreign or domestic business needing the president's attention.14 Despite the initial misdiagnosis of
Steven Z. Freiberger. Dawn over Suez: the Rise of American Power in the Middle East, 1953-1957. (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 1992) 55-57.
Ibid, 70-71.
8 Ray Takeyh. The Origins of the Eisenhower Doctrine: The US, Britain and Nasser's Egypt, 1953-57. (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2000) 81.
9 Jean Edward Smith. Eisenhower in War and Peace. (New York: Random House, 2012) 688.
10 Neff, 72-73.
11 Takeyh, 81-82.
12 Cole C. Kingseed. Eisenhower and the Suez Crisis of 1956. (Baton Rouge and London: Louisiana State University Press, 1995) 32.
13 Clarence G. Lasby. Eisenhower's Heart Attack: How Ike Beat Heart Disease and Held on to the Presidency. (Lawrence, Kansas: University
Press of Kansas, 1997) 73-77.
14 Smith, 676-678.
6
7
52
the president's condition, Eisenhower went on to make a full recovery. But in early 1956, the
completeness of his recovery remained questionable enough to justify speculation about
Eisenhower’s future as president. At the time of the heart attack, the New York Times ventured its
"almost certain” belief “[that] the stricken president [would retire] at the end of his first term."
Informed political opinion concluded that Vice President Richard Nixon would be the Republican
standard bearer in 1956. On the Democratic side, former Illinois governor Adlai Stevenson saw his
chances of being elected in November as greatly improved with Eisenhower potentially out.15
Eisenhower, however considered Nixon and Stevenson, among others, as unsuitable to take his
place, and announced on February 29, 1956 that he would accept nomination by the Republican
National Convention in August.16
After Egypt and the Soviet Union concluded their arms deal, American diplomats finally
realized the failure of its approach to Nasser. Secretary of State Dulles conceded that he found it
"difficult to be critical" of Nasser for seeking weapons that he needed to defend Egypt. But insuring
Egypt’s security with weapons was only one part of Nasser's agenda for consolidating his power.
Setting a broad national goal for the Egyptian people to rally behind seemed a good way for Nasser
to further secure his position. One such project, the Aswan High Dam, needed to irrigate over 1
million acres of new agricultural land to catch up with Egypt's rapidly growing population, would
provide electric power for half of Egypt, flood control for the notoriously flood-prone Nile River,
and create a large reservoir in the form of a 350-mile long lake. 17 The British and American
governments saw an opportunity to counter the Soviet arms sale to Egypt. Both governments
decided to make a joint offer to Egypt to fund the dam together with the World Bank and local
contributions from the Egyptian government, in total, a $1 billion project. An initially enthusiastic
Eisenhower asked Dulles, "is there any reason not to go all out for the dam in Egypt?" 18 On
December 16, 1955, the governments finalized the initial aid package and sent World Bank president
Eugene Black to convey the offer to Nasser. Black and Nasser reached broad agreement on most
points by mid-February, but continuing opposition by southern members of the U. S Congress and
by the diplomatic establishment of both Britain and the United States caused Eisenhower and Dulles
to back off their previous support. They began setting new conditions to try to ease Nasser away
from the deal.19
Meanwhile, in June 1956, President Eisenhower suffered a serious attack of ileitis, and
underwent an operation to correct the serious intestinal condition. More complicated than his
recovery from his heart attack the previous fall, the operation left him on the sidelines of foreign
policy. He delegated responsibility to the secretary of state, Dulles, to handle foreign affairs in the
interim. According to Black, this may have been a mistake. Dulles could be considerably abrasive in
his dealings with others and did not tolerate the concept of diplomatic neutralism as much as
Eisenhower did. The decision by Nasser to recognize the communist People's Republic of China in
May had set Dulles over the edge.20 Nasser, meanwhile, had sent his ambassador to the United
States, Ahmed Hussein, to Washington to notify Dulles that Egypt accepted all the new conditions
set for the aid package but Dulles found this inadequate. At their July 19 meeting, Dulles advised
Hussein that the American government would withdraw its offer of financial support for the Aswan
Dam.21 Unwisely, after the meeting, Dulles released a press statement calling into question Egypt's
James Reston, "Nixon is Considered in Forefront for '56." New York Times, September 26, 1955.
Smith, 680-683.
17 Neff, 124-125.
18 Smith, 689.
19 Ibid, 690.
20 Ibid, 690-691.
21 Neff, 261.
15
16
53
financial ability to carry out the Aswan Dam project. The Secretary of State’s remarks enraged
Nasser, especially a passage which Nasser took as incitement to Egyptians to topple his regime: "The
United States remains deeply interested in the welfare of the Egyptian people."22 The condescending
tone of the release infuriated him and he considered the rebuff a grave public insult. Once the
American government withdrew its offer, the British government quickly followed suit.23 World
Bank president Black considered the handling of the Aswan High Dam project by John Foster
Dulles to be extremely poor: "It's just as if you went to the bank and asked the bank to lend you
some money. They might say we won't lend you any money. You don't put it in the newspaper that
your credit is no good."24 Soon, Nasser would get his retaliation.
NATIONALIZATION
The announcement on July 26, 1956 by Nasser of Egypt's nationalization of the Suez Canal
hit the world like a shock wave. Breaking off a formal dinner for the King of Iraq, British Prime
Minister Sir Anthony Eden immediately called an emergency cabinet meeting. Eden then issued a
denunciation of Nasser's act, in which French premier Guy Mollet quickly joined. The British and
French press reacted with predictable rage and belligerence, demanding the immediate reoccupation
of the canal.25 The nationalization of the canal similarly caught the American government off guard,
but their reaction bore stark contrasts to the reactions of Eden and Mollet. With Secretary of State
John Foster Dulles on the last leg of a series of South American state visits, President Eisenhower
had a relatively free hand in conducting foreign policy during the initial stages of the crisis.
Eisenhower, well-known for his short temper on trivial matters, reacted evenly to the news of
Nasser's nationalization of the canal. A cable from Andrew Foster, the American chargé d'affaires in
London, made it all too plain that Eden had a military response in mind. Eisenhower read the cable
with an almost eerie calm. Nationalizing the canal "was not the same as nationalizing oil wells…
[which] exhaust a nation's resources." Eisenhower likened the canal to a "public utility," which built
up national resources for the benefit of many.26 The president, using a preferred method carried over
from his days as Supreme Commander of Allied forces during the Second World War, quickly
convened a small group of advisers to consult with him on the emerging crisis. Acting Secretary of
State Herbert Hoover, Jr., son of the ex-president, represented the absent John Foster Dulles. Allen
Dulles, director of Central Intelligence (and Secretary Dulles' brother), and defense liaison officer
Colonel Andrew Goodpaster rounded out the group. Following their first discussion, Eisenhower
directed an official statement on behalf of the American government be released expressing the
president's personal concern, but not to give any indication of what the United States may do in
reaction to Nasser's action.27
Eisenhower, though appreciating the tenseness of the situation "did not view [it] as seriously
as did [Prime Minister Eden]." Determined to exhaust all diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis,
Eisenhower immediately agreed to a tripartite conference of the foreign ministers of Britain, France,
and the United States proposed in a cable by Eden. Not willing to part with Acting Secretary
Hoover in the continued absence of Secretary Dulles, the president sent Deputy Under Secretary of
State Robert Murphy to the conference. The president directed Murphy to discourage the hotheaded
French and British governments from a military response. Such a response, Eisenhower feared,
Associated Press, "Text of Nile Dam Statement." New York Times, July 20, 1956.
Neff, 262-263.
24 Eugene R. Black, interview by David Horrocks, May 13, 1975. Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, Abilene, KS. 14-15.
25 Kingseed, 42-44.
26 David A. Nichols. Eisenhower 1956: The President's Year of Crisis: Suez and the Brink of War. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2011) 133134.
27 Kingseed, 45-46.
22
23
54
would only turn world opinion against the West and be of questionable use in achieving a
satisfactory solution. Initially, Eisenhower had reason for hope; Murphy arrived in London on July
28, 1956 to find the attitudes of the British foreign secretary, Selwyn Lloyd, and his French
counterpart Christian Pineau to be restrained, but firm.28 Behind the restrained façade, however,
Britain and France still favored a military solution to the crisis, as Murphy came to realize all too
soon. In discussions the next day with British Chancellor of the Exchequer (analogous to the United
States Secretary of the Treasury) Harold Macmillan and retired Field Marshal the Earl Alexander of
Tunis, Murphy learned that British believed that "Suez was a test which could be met only by the use
of force," and that the French government "saw eye to eye with the British…and that they were
prepared to participate in a military operation." Murphy, drawing on his years of friendship with
both Macmillan and Lord Alexander and believing in their sincerity, dashed off a report to
Eisenhower. Eisenhower, at his home in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, read that both the chancellor
and field marshal had firmly made their decision and were "serene in the belief that they have
decided wisely." On Monday morning, July 30, 1956, Murphy had the president's response: Secretary
Dulles, now back from South America, would fly to London after consulting with Eisenhower.29
EISENHOWER AND DULLES SEEK A DIPLOMATIC SOLUTION
Meanwhile, events moved quickly. Britain and France froze Egyptian assets, and Eden built
up support in Parliament for harsher actions against Egypt.30 On Tuesday, July 31, Dulles arrived for
consultations with Eisenhower. He carried with him cables from Eden and Macmillan declaring
their intention to "break Nasser" and initiate hostilities at the earliest opportunity, within six weeks.
Their determination appalled Eisenhower. "Such a decision – contradictory to what we had
understood – was, I thought, based far more on emotion than on fact and logic." Eisenhower knew
that he could not support any joint military action on the part of Britain and France against Egypt,
and that public opinion would not support it either.31 Dulles agreed. Briefing Vice President Richard
Nixon by telephone, the secretary of state noted that "the British and French are really anxious to
start a war and get us into it. I'm doing the best I can to make them realize they may have to do it
alone." Dulles had congressional opinion to consider as he prepared to go to London. A nearly
apoplectic Democratic Senator Mike Mansfield of Montana decried Nasser's action in a phone call
with the secretary of state. He urged Dulles to collaborate closely with Britain and France in taking
"determined action" against Nasser. Mansfield's opinion seems to have been a minority one;
conversely, Republican Senate Minority Leader William Knowland of California agreed with
Eisenhower that American public opinion would not support military intervention.32
After his consultation with Eisenhower and the crisis group, Dulles left for London, bearing
a letter from the president addressed to Prime Minister Eden. Eisenhower minced no words. All
diplomatic options had to be exhausted before Britain and France could entertain a military
response. He called for a conference of the signatories to the 1888 Convention of Constantinople to
attempt to resolve the crisis, and warned that if Eden resorted to the use of force against Egypt,
alone or with others, he could not rely on automatic American support, military or otherwise, since
Congress, then adjourned, would have to approve such action. Eisenhower cautioned that
congressional support would not come unless "every peaceful means of resolving the difficulty had
previously been exhausted." Without such overtures, the president warned Eden, American public
Dwight D. Eisenhower. The White House Years: Waging Peace 1956-1961. (Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Company, 1965)
36-38.
29 Neff, 284-285.
30 Ibid, 285.
31 Eisenhower, 40.
32 Neff, 285.
28
55
opinion could quickly turn hostile toward Britain and France, and undermine the credibility of
America's traditional allies.33 Upon his arrival in London, Dulles duly presented the president's letter
to Eden. Eden, determined to use military force, did not grasp Eisenhower's obvious message: he
did not consider the nationalization of the Suez Canal worth a war. The prime minister heard and
read only what he wanted to hear and read, and rather bizarrely, interpreted Eisenhower's letter
pleading the case for an international diplomatic resolution, and Dulles' reinforcement of the
president's views as support for the use of force. Steven Freiberger writes that Eden and Dulles had
different definitions of "genuine efforts… [at] negotiation." "While the United States regarded
negotiations as a satisfactory solution, the British saw them as a stalling tactic until force could be
used." Under this assumption, Eden and French foreign minister Pineau agreed with Secretary of
State Dulles to convene an international conference in London on 16 August. Meanwhile, AngloFrench preparations for war continued.34
Eisenhower and Dulles hoped to use negotiations and conferences as a means to delay any
military action until diplomacy could be exhausted. Eden and French premier Guy Mollet hoped to
use negotiations which they believed were doomed to fail as a casus belli against Nasser. Eisenhower
and Dulles understood what Eden and Mollet and their governments failed to understand – "by the
end of July the British and French had already lost the game…'the world had already accepted the
nationalization of the canal as a fait accompli.'"35 Nasser had taken great pains not to impair traffic
through the canal, in accordance with the 1888 Convention of Constantinople.36 As the situation
developed, a major pretext for military action – that the Egyptians could not efficiently operate the
canal – became moot. Public opinion outside Europe appeared to be that Egypt had done nothing
illegal in nationalizing the canal, and concurred with Eisenhower on the impropriety of an armed
conflict. Eden stubbornly held to his conviction of the necessity of a military response, should
Nasser reject any proposal that emerged from the upcoming London conference. As Dulles sought
to forestall armed conflict in his discussions in London, he discovered strong British and French
support for an international body that would operate the canal, rather than be simply an advisory
committee, which Dulles had proposed in a meeting with congressional leaders in Washington
before his departure. He expressed this proposal in his opening speech at the London conference on
August 16, a speech in which he also lashed out at Nasser for acting in the service of "Egyptian
national purposes" only. Dulles' apparent support and understanding of their position satisfied the
French and British, but not Eisenhower.37 Nevertheless, the president sent his approval of Dulles'
proposal as a means of putting the canal in international hands while respecting the rights of the
Egyptians. The proposal carried by a vote of 18-4, with the Soviet Union, India, Ceylon (Sri Lanka),
and Indonesia in opposition. Eden tried in vain to convince Dulles to personally convey the
proposal to Nasser in Cairo, but Dulles, careful to state that the conference did not intend to force
its decisions upon Egypt, refused to head the mission. Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies
agreed to serve after consulting with his home government in Canberra. The London conference
came to a close on August 23, the same day that Eisenhower accepted nomination by the
Republican National Convention for a second term in San Francisco, California. But the crisis
remained unresolved.38
Ibid, 286-287.
Freiberger, 164-166.
35 Ibid, 166.
36 Neff, 283-284.
37 Freiberger, 167-168.
38 Nichols, 155-157.
33
34
56
EDEN AND MOLLET STAB EISENHOWER IN THE BACK
The newly re-nominated president felt he had every reason to feel he and Secretary of State
Dulles had succeeded. Immediate use of force by the British and French had been taken off the
table, and on September 3, Prime Minister Menzies of Australia arrived in Cairo to present the
London conference's proposal to Nasser. However, rumblings from both Eden and Mollet that they
still considered armed conflict inevitable and were continuing military preparations distressed
Eisenhower. Had the president known the true extent of his allies' machinations at this point,
distress may have been the mildest word to describe his reaction. On September 1, French admiral
Andre Barjot, the deputy commander of the proposed joint expeditionary force, conveyed to the
Israeli military attaché in Paris an invitation to take part in the Anglo-French operation. This being
unknown to Eisenhower, his greatest concern remained the contradiction between the public
willingness of his European counterparts to await the results of the Menzies mission to Cairo, and
the overwhelming intelligence that the French and British governments had no intention of allowing
diplomacy a chance to work. Dulles had already reported to the president that Eden, Macmillan, and
Foreign Secretary Selwyn Lloyd all indicated to him that, unless Nasser accepted the proposal of the
London conference by September 10, it would be too late to reverse military preparations. The
secretary of state noted fervent and unified public opinion in France in favor of retaking the canal,
much more fervent and unified than public opinion in Britain. Despite the British government's
continuing preparations for war; the leader of the opposition, Hugh Gaitskell of the Labour party,
opposed military intervention unsanctioned by the United Nations. In the United States, public
opinion closed ranks behind the president and Dulles' leadership; the congressional leadership
strongly supported their actions, the previously bellicose Democratic Senator Mike Mansfield
publicly praised Dulles for "stopping the rush toward aggressive action on the part of France and
England."39
However, the Menzies mission was doomed to failure. Nasser would never agree to ceding
control of the canal back to an international consortium; "collective colonialism" by the back door.
The British and French knew this and wanted to use this refusal as a pretext for invasion. Menzies
did not help his case when he clumsily intimated that refusal to accept the London conference
proposal would end in "trouble." "You are threatening me," Nasser responded evenly. "Very well, I
am finished. There will be no more discussions. It is all over."40 Eden, in a letter to Eisenhower
written as the Menzies mission fell apart, returned to a favorite theme: Nasser was an Arab Hitler
bent on domination of the Middle East. "In the 1930s Hitler established his position by a series of
carefully planned movements," Eden wrote. "These began with the occupation of the Rhineland and
were followed by successive acts of aggression against Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland and the
West." If the international community allowed Nasser to "get away with" nationalizing the Suez
Canal, Eden asserted, his enhanced prestige would enable him to foment revolutions around the
Middle East.41 Eisenhower, smarting at the insinuation that American resistance to action against
Egypt constituted a repudiation of NATO, affirmed his commitment to the alliance, but decried the
“extreme” British and French approach to the crisis. Eden proposed an international "users'
association" which would supervise the canal, and pay a portion of the canal tolls and fees to Nasser
for use of the canal, but in reality would simply be a mechanism to retake the canal. Nasser
immediately laughed off the idea as ridiculous on its face, and in turn proposed a users' association
of the port of London.42
Kingseed, 68-70.
Ibid, 71-72.
41 Sir Anthony Eden to Dwight D. Eisenhower, 6 September 1956, in The Eden-Eisenhower Correspondence, 1955-1957, ed. Peter G. Boyle
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2005) 165-166.
42 Kingseed, 73.
39
40
57
Dulles, his health becoming precarious, in an effort to buy time, requested a second London
conference for September 19 to discuss and launch the users' association proposed by Eden. On
that day, the president received a National Intelligence Estimate that concluded clearly that the
opposition of the United States remained the key obstacle to Anglo-French military operations
against Egypt. While true, the problems of readying the military establishments of Britain and France
were more problematic than previously planned for. Britain and France also lacked a strategic base
from which to launch military operations; the nearest available site being the British possession of
Malta, a thousand miles away from Egypt in the Mediterranean Sea. The would-be belligerents
needed a better way in. They would find it, but it would cost them. The double cross of Eisenhower
had begun.43
ISRAEL COMES ON BOARD
In a completely and totally unexpected move, the British and French governments on
September 23 appealed to the United Nations Security Council to discuss the developing crisis. The
news enraged John Foster Dulles. He knew that the appeal to the Security Council was nothing
more than Britain and France engineering yet another pretext for war. Eden and the British
government, now wholly dedicated to "full-scale deception of Eisenhower," sent the urbane and
witty Chancellor of the Exchequer, Harold Macmillan, to the White House to conduct a charm
offensive on the president. While Macmillan played his part in the grand deception, Eden and
Foreign Secretary Lloyd made a secret flying visit to Paris on September 26 to discuss preparations
and a new launch date for invading Egypt. Then Israeli foreign minister Golda Meir and army chief
of staff Moshe Dayan arrived in Paris on September 29 to begin planning for their part in the
operations against Egypt. Meanwhile, the mobilization of British and French forces gathered steam;
by September's end, 80,000 soldiers, sailors, and pilots and a two-hundred strong fleet of warships
had gathered at Malta. Eisenhower and Dulles, in a meeting on October 2, reviewed the distressing
situation. The secretary of state expressed his doubt that the British and French really desired a
peaceful settlement, taking into account the buildup of forces at Malta and the launch of the Suez
Canal Users' Association, with the bellicose British Foreign Secretary Selwyn Lloyd installed as
chairman. Eisenhower made his position crystal clear: the United States could not have anything to
do with or be seen as endorsing either military action against Egypt or a potential coup attempt
against Nasser.44
As Eisenhower and Dulles took stock, the French continued their efforts to bring Israel into
the coalition. The Israelis, represented by Meir and Dayan, and the French, represented by Foreign
Minister Pineau and Defense Minister Maurice Bourgès-Maunoury, held secret discussions that went
on for two days at the home of Bourgès' military aide on the outskirts of Paris. The United Nations
debate held up the invasion until at least mid-October, and Eden "was being held back" by
Eisenhower and "mounting opposition" within his own Cabinet. In the event unreliable Britain –
"perfidious Albion" – backed out, Pineau wanted to know, could France count on the Israelis to join
in war against Egypt? Meir and Dayan immediately agreed, and the army chief of staff urged war as
soon as possible. The Egyptians had not yet become familiar with the arms procured from the
Soviets, Dayan noted, and better to attack before they could familiarize themselves. The French
quickly agreed to provide more arms to the Israelis in preparation, and Meir and Dayan returned to
Israel ready for war before the end of October. Dayan conferred with Israeli Prime Minister David
Ben Gurion on his return, and despite Ben Gurion's preference for attacking with reliable
43
44
Nichols, 167-170.
Ibid, 171-172.
58
knowledge of Britain's participation, the prime minister set aside his misgivings and endorsed
Dayan's mobilization of the Israeli military.45
France need not have worried about Britain's willingness to attack. Eden’s determination to
retake the canal by force and rid himself of Nasser once and for all remained rock solid. The
Security Council meeting resulted in a six-point resolution which, in large part, simply recapitulated
the proposals of the London conferences of August and September. As Eden hoped, the Egyptians
balked, the Soviets vetoed the resolution, killing it in the council, and gave the British prime minister
another pretext for war. By vetoing the resolution, the Soviets' move made Nasser "appear as a
Communist partisan; opposition to [Nasser] was opposition to Communism." Dulles and
Eisenhower believed that the strategy of stalling for time had shown results, and that the worst of
the crisis may have passed; Dulles convinced himself that plans for war were now "withering on the
vine." A sudden, massive attack by Israel against the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan now shifted
attention away from the Suez. Anxious to save his throne, Jordan’s King Hussein requested Britain
enter the conflict on his side, in accordance with established treaty obligations. Eden, increasingly
erratic due to illness and overreliance on medication, nonetheless understood that entering the
conflict would activate the tangled web of alliances in the region, which could potentially pit Britain
and Jordan against France and Israel, the two nations with whom Britain would attack Egypt.
Eisenhower directed Dulles to make clear his displeasure with Israel and to cease attacks against
Jordan. But U-2 spy plane missions continued to show the Israeli military in a state of mobilization;
American intelligence officials thought Israel had mobilized against Jordan. In reality, Israel had
mobilized against Egypt. France and Israel now included Britain in the secret plotting at a meeting at
the prime minister's country residence, Chequers, on October 14. French major general Maurice
Challe and minister of labor Albert Gazier laid out the plan for an Israeli attack across the Sinai
Peninsula, then subsequent intervention by Britain and France at the canal in order to achieve a
cease fire. Israeli aggression would provide the justification for Anglo-French action. “Thrilled at the
idea,” remembered General Challe, Eden immediately signed on, despite growing opposition in
Britain, both in and outside the government.46
The deception of the American government continued. Both the British and French foreign
ministers lied to their respective American ambassadors resident in London and Paris when they
downplayed the likelihood of conflict in the final weeks of October. The two governments then
began to impose new conditions before they would negotiate with the Egyptians, undermining the
next round of talks scheduled to begin October 29. In extreme secrecy, British, French, and Israeli
delegations descended on Sèvres, a suburb of Paris, to sign a secret diplomatic protocol. The
protocol provided for an Israeli invasion of the Sinai Peninsula on October 29, the date anticipated
for the resumption of negotiations, to be followed by an Anglo-French ultimatum to Israel and
Egypt to cease hostilities and accept joint occupation of the canal. Upon the expected rejection of
the ultimatum by Egypt, bombardment would begin on October 31, to be followed by the landing
of troops. Eisenhower, Dulles, the American ambassadors to Britain and France, the American
diplomatic establishment and the intelligence community all remained unaware of this step. Allen
Dulles and his Intelligence Advisory Committee assumed that there was no reason to immediately
update their intelligence estimates, as no action seemed imminent. In its report, "almost as an
afterthought, that the FBI had picked up a rumor that an unnamed country 'was considering the
initiation of military action against Nasser,'" but somehow no one followed up on this lead.
45
46
Neff, 322-326.
Ibid, 328-337.
59
Eisenhower and Secretary Dulles found it inconceivable that the British and French would act at this
point, certainly not with the American presidential election two weeks away.47
EISENHOWER ACTS TO RESOLVE THE CRISIS
By October 28, however, American intelligence finally caught on to the collusion between
the French and Israelis, noting the more numerous than usual French aircraft among the ranks of
the Israeli air force. The American ambassador to Paris, Douglas Dillon, passed along intelligence
received through a high-ranking French minister that Britain, France, and Israel would attack Egypt,
but following the presidential election in the United States. By the morning of October 29, Secretary
Dulles was convinced that the French "concerted with [the] Israelis to provide action [leading] to
[an] Israeli war against Egypt" with the participation of Britain and France. Infuriated at the duplicity
of his allies, Eisenhower issued stern warnings to Eden and Premier Mollet to pull back. His
warnings came too late.48
On October 29, right on schedule, Israeli paratroopers dropped into the Sinai Peninsula.
Nasser, thinking the Israelis were embarking on one of their frequent retaliatory strikes, was
completely caught unaware. The next day, again, right on schedule, Britain and France issued the
ultimatum calling for Egyptian withdrawal to ten miles from the canal and a cease fire. Yet again,
according to plan, Nasser predictably rejected the ultimatum out of hand, telling the British
ambassador Sir Humphrey Trevelyan that the Israelis were the guilty party; he had no intention of
withdrawing from his own territory. On October 31, aerial bombing of Egyptian military positions
began. Eden put off the landing of the bi-national force until November 5, due to stiff opposition
encountered from the American delegation in the United Nations and his fast-crumbling political
support in Britain.49 The Labour opposition charged Eden with using the Israeli incursion as a
pretext for retaking the canal, which Eden disingenuously denied. Though Eden's Conservative
party held a sizable majority in the Commons, his government only just survived a vote of no
confidence in the House of Commons.50
Eisenhower faced the decision of what to do in order to restore peace in the Suez. On
October 30, the American ambassador to the United Nations, Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., presented a
resolution in the Security Council calling on Israel to withdraw from the Sinai and requesting that
member states of the UN "refrain from using force" in the region. The resolution failed, vetoed by
France and Britain, who then announced that they had issued an ultimatum to Israel and Egypt – in
accordance with the secret protocol of Sèvres. Though the UN General Assembly subsequently
approved the resolution, and Egypt and Israel agreed to cease fire, this action had little impact on
British and French war plans. Stymied, Eisenhower and the ailing Dulles looked for other ways to
force an end to the crisis. They embraced the idea of a United Nations peacekeeping force,
proposed by Lester Pearson, Canadian ambassador to the UN, and the General Assembly approved
a resolution establishing such a force on November 2.51 In the early morning of November 3,
however, Dulles was rushed to hospital, where doctors removed a cancerous tumor in his colon,
leaving Dulles on the sidelines for the remainder of the crisis with Herbert Hoover, Jr. taking his
place as Acting Secretary of State.52
Nichols, 186-190.
Freiberger, 185-186.
49 Ibid, 187-188.
50 Eisenhower, 78.
51 Freiberger, 189-193.
52 Nichols, 233.
47
48
60
The Americans also found that manipulating Britain's economy would most likely be the
most effective way to persuade Eden to back off. Critical to Britain's economic stability was the
matter of its currency. The pound sterling was pegged to the American dollar at a rate of $2.80. This
meant that the British Exchequer required adequate gold reserves to keep the value of the pound
stable.53 By November 2, Britain had already lost $50 million in gold reserves since the conflict
began, on top of a loss of $141 million in September and October, and market speculation against
the pound spiked as British paratroopers entered Egyptian airspace. On November 5, acting
Secretary Hoover reported to Eisenhower that Syrian sabotage in support of Egypt had cut off the
supply of oil from the Middle East, creating further pressure on Britain. Harold Macmillan, the
Chancellor of the Exchequer, increasingly worried about the question of the gold reserves,
approached the International Monetary Fund with a request to withdraw the British contribution to
the Fund. Macmillan received a blunt "no." The US, the "largest depositor" in the IMF and thus
holding veto power, refused the withdrawal at Eisenhower’s direction until Britain agreed to a cease
fire. Macmillan felt he had no other choice than to recommend to Eden and the Cabinet acceptance
of the UN cease fire resolution. Combined with the fear of Cabinet members of Soviet intervention
in the crisis, which threatened to explode the conflict into a nuclear war, the impending financial
crisis helped persuade Eden, his policy bankrupt and his reputation as a skilled diplomat and
statesman now in shreds, to accept the cease fire the evening of November 6. Eden then telephoned
Guy Mollet in Paris and recommended he follow suit in accepting the cease fire.54
WITHDRAWAL
The question now was how to manage the withdrawal of British and French forces from
Egypt. Eden, recuperating from the strain of events in Jamaica, his health having almost completely
broken down, had been sidelined in favor of Chancellor Macmillan and Rab Butler, the leader of the
Conservative party in the House of Commons, who began to jointly run the British government in
Eden's absence.55 Macmillan and Butler, working with Foreign Secretary Selwyn Lloyd, negotiated
withdrawal from Egypt with the American ambassador to London, Winthrop Aldrich, Eisenhower,
and the recovering Dulles. On December 3, Eisenhower expressed discomfort that the British had
not committed to a firm date of withdrawal and transference of military control to the United
Nations peacekeeping force. However, Dulles convinced the president of the sincerity of British and
French intentions to withdraw, and to waive any objections to withdrawal of funds from the IMF or
loan money from the Export-Import Bank as a sign of good faith. To this, Eisenhower agreed, and
Macmillan announced in the House of Commons on December 4 that the United States Treasury
Department "would recommend to Congress that it immediately waive $143 million in interest
payments on a World War II loan," due to be paid by December 31. On December 22, 1956, the last
British and French troops left Egypt.56
CONCLUSION
Eisenhower's success in resolving the Suez Crisis of 1956 is recognized as a pivotal moment
in world history. The old imperial powers, dominant in the region for hundreds of years, gave way to
new, more powerful, more ideological competitors. Britain and France failed to understand that, as a
result of the ongoing decolonization process, their foreign policy had to adapt and evolve to meet
modern needs and their new roles as middle powers. Eisenhower understood this intrinsically. As a
man with a natural American antipathy toward colonialism and sympathy with underdogs, he knew
Ibid, 251.
Neff, 409-413.
55 Nichols, 268.
56 Ibid, 273-274.
53
54
61
that self-determination and sovereignty were inviolable concepts in the modern world. He
understood that in an ideological battle with the Soviet Union, the United States had no alternative
but to compete for favor with and protect the sovereignty of smaller nations, even when the nation
in question was one with whom the United States had serious disagreements, such as Nasser's
Egypt.
Eisenhower also understood that there was no chance at meaningful and lasting peace
outside of the United Nations, which is why the collusion between Britain, France, and Israel that
resulted in the secret protocol of Sèvres infuriated him so. Eisenhower's actions, with his secretary
of state, John Foster Dulles, strengthened the United Nations and established a model for leaders to
follow in the future. In his second inaugural address, delivered on January 21, 1957, mere weeks
after the withdrawal of British and French forces from Egypt, Eisenhower set out his vision: "We
look upon this shaken Earth, and we declare our firm and fixed purpose — the building of a peace
with justice in a world where moral law prevails…there must be justice, sensed and shared by all
peoples, for, without justice the world can know only a tense and unstable truce. There must be law,
steadily invoked and respected by all nations, for without law, the world promises only such meager
justice as the pity of the strong upon the weak. But the law of which we speak, comprehending the
values of freedom, affirms the equality of all nations, great and small. Splendid as can be the
blessings of such a peace, high will be its cost: in toil patiently sustained, in help honorably given, in
sacrifice calmly borne."57 Such is the vision to which humanity continues to aspire.
57
Dwight D. Eisenhower. "Second Inaugural Address." (Washington, DC, January 21, 1957).
62
______________________________________________________________________________
Candidate Kennedy and Quemoy
Quentin Spannagel
Quentin Spannagel, from Villa Grove, IL, wrote “Candidate Kennedy and Quemoy’ during his junior year for Dr.
Edmund Wehrle's Graduate Seminar in Diplomatic History in spring 2015. He graduated with a BA in History
Summa Cum Laude with Departmental Honors in May 2016.
______________________________________________________________________________
Running for president in 1960, John F. Kennedy promised to explore a “New Frontier.” -- a
hybrid of challenges and opportunities that promised progress in both domestic and foreign affairs. 58
In essence, Kennedy advocated for a new America not chained down by the traditional approaches
of the Republican administration before him. In many way, Kennedy achieved what he desired: a
new, more open-minded way of approaching international issues. Though Kennedy struggled to
develop a new diplomatic approach to China, he did show a willingness to compromise with the
Chinese in regards to the islands of Quemoy and Matsu.59 Kennedy remained a “cold warrior”
throughout his presidency but he did begin to cautiously portray himself to the communist Chinese
as more open to negotiation than the Eisenhower administration. This is best reflected in
Kennedy’s stance on the islands of Quemoy and Matsu during the 1960 presidential debate.
The crisis between the Republic of China (ROC)60 and the communist People’s Republic of China
(PRC) was one of the great political tinderboxes for American foreign policy in the 1950s and 1960s.
In 1949, during the administration of President Harry S. Truman, Mao Zedong conquered mainland
China, defeating the nationalist government of Jiang Jieshi.61 The Nationalists fled to the heavily
fortified island of Formosa, but Jiang’s forces managed to hold the offshore islands of Quemoy and
Matsu in the Battle of Guningtou (October 1949). Both islands are close enough to the mainland
that they can easily be seen by the naked eye. The antagonists remained in a stalemate for over a
decade: the PRC controlled the entire mainland and the ROC controlled Taiwan and the nearby
islands of Quemoy and Matsu. On several instances though, tensions between the PRC and ROC
flared up, requiring U.S. intervention to prevent the renewal of the Chinese Civil War.
In 1954-1955, the United States found itself being dragged into the first Taiwan Strait Crisis.
The crisis began when President Dwight D. Eisenhower lifted the Seventh Fleet blockade in the
Taiwan Strait on February 2, 1953, less than two weeks after succeeding Truman as president. This
resulted from American domestic pressure to allow Jiang to attack the mainland, even though the
ROC had no chance of victory. This pressure primarily came from Republicans and the
Kuomintang government which sought reclaiming the mainland from communism. As the ROC
and American military establishments began stationing thousands of troops on Quemoy and Matsu,
an invasion of the mainland appeared likely to the PRC.62 The communists then responded by
directing their heavy artillery straight at Quemoy and Matsu. A few more militant-minded
Americans in the military called for nuclear weapons to stop Chinese aggression against Taiwan.
Eisenhower was reluctant to use nuclear weapons to resolve the crisis, and opted to respond to the
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House (Greenwich: Fawcett Publications, Inc.,1965), 64.
For the purposes of this paper, the islands now known as Kinmen and Matsu will be referred to as “Quemoy and Matsu,” reflecting
the popular American usage during the 1960 presidential campaign.
60 Also widely known as “Taiwan.” The government of the ROC is often referred to as “Nationalists.” This paper will use “ROC,”
“Taiwan,” and “Formosa” interchangeably.
61 Also referred to as Chiang Kai-shek.
62 Nancy Bernkopf Tucker, Dangerous Strait: The U.S.-Taiwan-China Crisis (New York: Columbia University Press, 2005), 188-189.
58
59
63
PRC’s act of aggression by signing the Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty of 1954.The pact
stipulated that if Taiwan was attacked by the PRC, the United States would militarily intervene and
bring U.S. troops to the aid of Taiwan.63 However, this treaty did not guarantee American assistance
in the case of aggression against all islands that Taiwan controlled and claimed to be vital to their
national security.
The ROC had been an American ally since WWII, and American public opinion deemed
unacceptable the idea of abandoning the ROC to conquest by the communist PRC. Bowing to
public opinion, America committed itself to defending the ROC from a communist takeover. From
the perspective of the PRC, Taiwan was a vital province in a state of open rebellion. Thus the PRC
viewed Taiwan as an internal issue; in this light, threats of U.S. involvement challenged PRC
sovereignty. The PRC demanded America abandon all commitments to Taiwan before it would
open up formal relations. This the United States refused to do, unwilling to be seen as allowing
more territory to fall to communism. For this reason, Sino-American relations would not drastically
improve until the 1970s.
Kennedy’s Anti-Communism Credentials
Though the ROC looked at the Democrat Kennedy with apprehension, he made it apparent
during his House and Senate terms that he was a staunch anti-communist. Kennedy expressed his
anti-communist sentiment particularly strongly in political debates and speeches. However, in
private, Kennedy occasionally signaled openness to improving relations with the PRC if it halted its
anti-American rhetoric, accepted the American commitment to Taiwan, and pursued a less
aggressive policy in Southeast Asia.
In 1947, while serving in the House of Representatives, Kennedy called for the indictment of
Harold Christoffel, a United Auto Workers member who in 1941 called for a strike against the AllisChalmers Company, on charges of perjury.64 Kennedy suspected Christoffel of being a communist
and the Allis-Chalmers Company was vital to the national defense effort. Wisconsin Congressman
Charles J. Kersten called Kennedy’s early bold action against communism one of “[T]he first shots
fired against American communism in this country.”65 Then in 1948, Kennedy broke from the
Democratic Party and voted for the Mundt-Nixon Bill, which required domestic communists and
their members to register with the federal government.
In 1949, Representative Kennedy even accused President Truman, the leader of his own
party, and his administration of being soft on communism. He placed exclusive blame on the White
House and the State Department for “losing” China — a position normally associated with
Republicans.66 Probably the most interesting display of Kennedy’s anti-communist background was
his friendship with Joseph McCarthy. McCarthy was the face and heart of the Red Scare of the
1950s and was a family friend of the Kennedys dating back to a friendship with Joseph P. Kennedy,
Sr.67 This family friendship is particularly apparent in the fact that Representative Kennedy’s
younger brother Robert got his start in politics working for McCarthy.68 McCarthy was serving as
the Chair of the Senate Committee, and Robert worked within the Committee.
During a House session on May 9th, 1951, Representative Kennedy criticized Great Britain
and other countries for providing the PRC with rubber and other war materials. As Kennedy
lambasted other nations for their material support of the PRC, American soldiers were fighting and
Ibid, 189.
Thomas J. Whalen, Kennedy versus Lodge: The 1952 Massachusetts Senate Race (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 2000), 112-113.
65 Ibid, 113.
66 Ibid, 113-114.
67 United States Ambassador to the Court of St. James’ (United Kingdom) from 1938 to 1940 and President Kennedy’s father.
68 Marc J. Selverstone, A Companion to John F. Kennedy (United Kingdom: Wiley Blackwell, 2014), 99-100.
63
64
64
sustaining heavy losses against PRC troops in Korea. Kennedy wanted the legislature to disrupt the
PRC’s ability to wage war. “The Congress of the United States must in conscience take action that
will condemn and forbid any further shipment of materials, useful in war, to Communist China
directly, or indirectly through Hong Kong,” declared the young congressman.69
In 1952 when running for election to the United States Senate against the incumbent
Republican Henry Cabot Lodge, Kennedy accused his opponent of being the number one supporter
of the Truman foreign policy that appeased the communists. Kennedy also accused Lodge of failing
as a senator because he refused to support legislation that would have halted the trading of war
materials to communist nations.70 Kennedy’s campaign secretary William Sutton went as far as to
call Kennedy “ultraconservative” and that many of his speeches when running for the House of
Representatives in 1946 stressed anticommunism.71
Kennedy Displays Some Flexibility
Though Kennedy seemed to be constantly positioning himself as a leading anti-communist,
he believed that relations with communist China could slowly be improved without hurting the
American relationship with Taiwan. He took a pragmatic approach to a gradual rapprochement.
Kennedy’s intense anti-colonialism, for instance, actually echoed the communist line, and he was
especially vocal against continued colonialism in French Indochina. In Kennedy’s own words in his
book The Strategy of Peace, “to pour money, materi[a]l, and men into the jungles of Indo-China
without at least a remote prospect of victory would be dangerous, futile, and self-destructive.”72
Kennedy also preached the importance of India and the PRC to the development of the
world, and how they would be models of development in Asia, calling them “poles of power.” 73
Unlike many in the United States government, Kennedy doubted the possibility of Jiang Jieshi
regaining the mainland and accepted the fact that America would have to learn to live alongside the
People’s Republic of China.74 As pleased as Americans would have been if the ROC nationalists
regained the mainland, it would have been a futile and dangerous policy to encourage Jiang to
engage in aggressive behavior.
In 1957, three years before he announced his candidacy for the presidency, Kennedy
admitted that “United States policy was ‘probably too rigid’ and ran the risk of missing opportunities
to improve relations with China.”75 On June 14th, 1960, Kennedy suggested in a speech that the next
administration should try to bring the PRC more into the global community. In particular, Kennedy
asserted that,
Perhaps a way could be found to bring the Chinese into the nuclear ban talks
at Geneva-so that the Soviets could not continue their atomic tests on the mainland
of China without inspection-and because Chinese possession of atomic weapons
could drastically alter the balance of power.76
John F. Kennedy, A Compilation of Statements and Speeches Made During His Service in the United States Senate and House of Representatives
(Washington: The Library of Congress, 1964), 78.
70 Whalen, 111.
71 Ibid, 112.
72 John F. Kennedy, The Strategy of Peace (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1960): 59.
73 Ibid, 141.
74 Jean S. Kang, “Firmness and Flexibility: Initiations for Change in U.S. Policy Toward Communist China, 1961-1963,” American
Asian Review 21, no. 1 (Spring 2003): 111.
75 Thomas Paterson ed. “Clinging to Containment: China Policy,” Kennedy’s Quest for Victory: 1961-1963 (New York: Oxford University
Press, 1989): 180.
76 Russell Bakers, “Kennedy Favors Peiping Contacts: In Major Foreign Policy Talk, He Suggests Red China Join Atom-Ban Parley”,
New York Times, June 15, 1960.
69
65
Kennedy went even further than including the Chinese in the Geneva accords. He went on
to say that “if that contact proves fruitful, further cultural and economic contact should be tried.” 77
In 1960 at least, Kennedy envisioned a China that would back off from the anti-American rhetoric
and informal relations could begin to develop in the country. He was aware that normal diplomatic
relations would not develop overnight and that progress would be miniscule at first. Kennedy knew
opening the front door for China would be impossible but cracking a window might be achievable.
If a window was cracked between the two countries, it could be slowly opened until normal
diplomatic relations became feasible.
Factors that Hindered Rapprochement with China
One of Kennedy’s biggest obstacles when it came to improving relations with China was his
political party. Though an intense ”cold warrior,” Kennedy was still a Democrat, and any
Democrat’s anti-communism credentials were thought by Republicans to be suspect. Republicans
still attacked Democrats, in particular, former President Truman, for being “soft on Communism,”
and for having “lost” China in the first place, despite Truman’s role in helping Jiang Jieshi establish
his hold on Taiwan.78 For this reason, candidate Kennedy would have to be very careful in
reevaluating Chinese foreign policy; if he strayed too far from the status quo, he could easily catch
Republican censure for encouraging communism. “Losing” another Asian country to communism
would be a political disaster for any American president, but particularly a Democratic president.
The stakes were high for Kennedy as he sought the presidency.
Election of 1960 and the Presidential Debates
Though Kennedy made his anti-communism credentials clear long before claiming the
presidency, he also showed he would be open to bringing China into the international community if
they would abide by American standards. Kennedy himself advocated for an “Open Door” where
the U.S. would be willing to negotiate with the PRC if it showed it was willing to negotiate in good
faith. Writing in Foreign Affairs in 1957, Kennedy said, “We should indicate our willingness to talk to
them when they so desire to do so and to set forth conditions of recognition which seem
responsible to the watching world.”79
Later, in 1960, Chester Bowles, a Kennedy campaign advisor and future Undersecretary of
State, echoed this flexibility, asserting that “Sen. John F. Kennedy has time and again warned of the
dangers of the inadequate, insensitive and inept policies with which we have attempted to deal with
the vital questions of foreign policy.”80 Bowles continued that Kennedy realized that international
dilemmas could not always be solved by having the biggest bombs. Instead, the key was to find
areas of agreement with the Soviets and Chinese, whether it was through nuclear testing controls,
arms limitation, or space exploration.81 As Bowles cites Kennedy as saying, “The problem is to find
a beginning.”82
By fall 1960, Senator Kennedy and Republican Vice President Richard Nixon were in the
midst of a heated presidential campaign. For the first time, the two major party presidential
nominees met to debate the issues of the campaign, and the confrontations were televised nationally.
Much of the American population tuned in to watch the two face off. On October 7, 1960,
Kennedy and Nixon engaged in the second presidential debate in Washington, D.C. Near the end
Ibid.
Ibid, 178-179.
79 Kang, 114-115.
80 Chester Bowles, “The Foreign Policy of Senator Kennedy,” America 104, no. 3 (1960): 69.
81 Ibid, 73.
82 Ibid.
77
78
66
of the debate, the topic turned to Quemoy and Kennedy took a pragmatic approach, arguing that
the islands were “indefensible” and not of vital interest to the United States. If the PRC seized the
islands, the United States should not consider it a reason to go to war. In Kennedy’s own words:
“These islands are a few miles - five or six miles -off the coast of Red China, within a general harbor
area and more than a hundred miles from Formosa. We have never said flatly that we will defend
Quemoy and Matsu if it's attacked. We say we will defend it if it's part of a general attack on
Formosa.”83 Nixon immediately attacked Kennedy’s position, saying the islands lay in the zone of
freedom. More importantly, Nixon argued, the communist PRC did not want these islands in and of
themselves, but sought them as a precursor to invading Taiwan itself. The PRC would not be
satisfied till it conquered Taiwan. Nixon further asserted that the Democratic nominee incorrectly
viewed the islands as little more than “indefensible rocks,” instead of the highly fortified protective
islands that they actually were.84
Nixon declared that if Kennedy was elected, the PRC would invade Quemoy and Matsu
knowing the United States would not respond.85 For Nixon, land that had been secured by the
nationalists for ten years would fall to communism due to an inexperienced and inept new president
fumbling the aggressive communist threat. If China was able to conquer Quemoy and Matsu
without a struggle, then they would naturally invade Taiwan and drag the United States into another
war. Nixon argued that, “The last Democratic administration left the nation with one of the
bloodiest and costliest wars in its history, and another Democratic regime would plunge it into
another.”86
The Vice President insisted that, as a matter of principle, Quemoy and Matsu could not be
abandoned to the communists. Republican Senator Hugh Scott (R-PA) echoed Nixon’s attack,
criticizing Kennedy’s declaration as “fuzzy” on the issue and condescendingly adding that Kennedy
“would be better qualified to speak on relations between the United States and Communist China
after he had a little more maturity and experience.”87
Jiang Jieshi also angrily renounced Kennedy’s assertion on the nationalist islands. The ROC
Foreign Ministry said that Nationalist China had not required any American soldiers to defend these
islands over the past ten years and it refused to surrender any more land to the communists.88 The
islands, the Foreign Ministry maintained, were quite important to Taiwan because they were
positions that kept the PRC from staging further attacks across the strait into Taiwan. According to
Admiral Liu Yuzhang of the Nationalist Navy, “The Communists cannot fully use the nearby ports
of Amoy and Foochow for invading Formosa as long as Quemoy and Matsu are under Nationalist
control.”89 If Kennedy allowed these islands to be abandoned, Liu asserted, the American president
would open an alley for the invasion of Taiwan. The Republicans and the China Lobby refused to
allow this to happen.
Kennedy stuck by his guns and refused to apologize or change his position. Kennedy
accused Nixon of wanting war and of being willing to fight the Chinese over a small matter. At a
Democratic party dinner speech on October 12, 1960, one day before the third presidential debate,
Kennedy said: “I will not risk American lives and a nuclear war by permitting any other nation to
drag us into the wrong war at the wrong place at the wrong time through an unwise commitment
“October 7, 1960 Debate Transcript: the Second Kennedy-Nixon Presidential Debate,” Commission on Presidential Debates,
accessed May 2, 2015, www.debates.org/index.php?page=october-7-1960-debate-transcript
84 Willard Edwards, “Nixon Blasts ‘Retreat’ on Chinese Isles: Warns Kennedy Would Blunder Into War,” Chicago Daily Tribune,
October, 12th, 1960.
85 Ibid.
86 Ibid.
87 “Scott Says Kennedy is Fuzzy on Taiwan,” New York Times, July 16, 1960.
88 “Formosa to Kennedy: We Won’t Yield Inch to Reds,” Chicago Daily Tribune, October 15, 1960.
89 Ibid.
83
67
that is unsound militarily, unnecessary to our security, and unsupported by our allies.” 90 By taking a
public stand of pragmatism on the islands, Kennedy tried to channel some flexibility to the PRC.
On October 13, 1960, Kennedy and Nixon engaged in the third debate. This debate was
unique, since Nixon was in Los Angeles and Kennedy was in New York, the candidates debated via
satellite and appeared on television in split screen. Due to identical sets, the candidates appeared to
be debating in the same room when in reality they were across the country from each other. A large
portion of this debate was a continuation from the second debate on what to do in regards to
Quemoy. When asked if he would defend the islands of Quemoy from Chinese attack, Nixon
deflected slightly. He said the Chinese would not be attacking the islands solely for the islands but
as an effort to conquer Formosa. Since this would be the case, Nixon said, “in the event that their
attack then were a prelude to an attack on Formosa, there isn't any question but that the United
States would then again, as in the case of Berlin, honor our treaty obligations and stand by our ally
of Formosa.”91
Kennedy also stuck by his earlier statement during the debate, saying “Now, that is the issue.
I believe we must meet our commitment to…Formosa. I support it and the Pescadores Island. That
is the present American position. The treaty does not include these two islands.” 92 Kennedy also
talked about the proximity of Quemoy to the mainland and is not within the border of the treaty
area. Kennedy also cited Admiral Harry E. Yarnell, former commander of the Asiatic fleet, as saying
“These islands [Quemoy and nearby islands] are not worth the bones of a single American.”93
Kennedy wanted to send a clear message that he was not going to let Republican pressure push him
into changing his Quemoy stance.
Winning the Presidency: Realizing Rapprochement Must Wait
We observe a very different Kennedy in August 1961, less than a year into his presidency.
Sailing with colleagues on his boat off Hyannis Port, Kennedy groaned at the mere mention of
foreign policy talk about China: “Jackie, we need the Bloody Marys now.”94 At this point in his
presidency, Kennedy realized that the New Frontier would not as easily be applied to China as it was
to other global issues. It became apparent that China was unwilling to budge on the topic of Taiwan
and their continued aggression towards India was a serious problem for America. Americans were
especially concerned over Chinese progress towards nuclear weapons since they were showing more
aggressive tendencies than the Soviets. On August 2, 1961, Kennedy reaffirmed U.S. opposition to
the admission of the PRC into the United Nations. Even more antagonizing to the PRC, Kennedy
promised to continue military and economic aid to Taiwan.95
John F. Kennedy won the 1960 presidential election against Richard Nixon by a slim margin.
He beat Nixon in the electoral vote 303 to 219; had Illinois and Texas gone the other way, Vice
President Nixon would have prevailed. The national popular vote was even narrower: Kennedy got
49.7% of the votes compared to Nixon’s 49.6%.96 As this election illustrated, Kennedy did not have
a lot of wiggle room and could not do anything that would alienate a large number of voters.
Congress agreed. In July 1961, the Senate passed a resolution that would ban the admission of China
Peter Kihss, “Kennedy Charges Nixon Risks War: Opponent ‘Trigger-Happy’ on Quemoy,” New York Times, October 13, 1960.
“October 13, 1960 Debate Transcript: The Third Kennedy-Nixon Presidential Debate,” Commission on Presidential Debates,
Accessed May 2, 2015, www.debates.org/index.php?page=october-13-1960-debate-transcript
92 Ibid.
93 Ibid.
94 Paterson, 178.
95 Tom Wicker, “Kennedy Renews Pledge to Taiwan,” New York Times, August 3, 1961.
96 Selverstone, 69.
90
91
68
into the U.N. and would continue to not formally recognize the PRC. This resolution passed the
Senate 76-0, and the House also passed it 395-0.97
The legislative branch had sent a clear message to Kennedy that it was not interested in
improving relations with China. Congress wanted to maintain the status quo as far as admitting the
PRC to the U.N., and was firmly against opening diplomatic relations with the PRC. The American
people agreed in opinion polls. In 1959, 61% of Americans agreed with keeping China out of the
U.N., but the percentage rose to 71% in 1964, largely due to their aggressive policies in India and
continual rhetoric against America.98
Like all good politicians, Kennedy tried to gauge the domestic ramifications for any
diplomatic positions that he took abroad.99 Aware that trying to improve relations with China would
destroy almost any hope of reelection, Kennedy accepted the need to maintain the status quo in
regards to China and Taiwan. It became clear that formal relations would not develop during the
Kennedy administration; instead the focus would be on informal diplomacy, a state of affairs which
would persist until 1972. Kennedy wanted to be flexible with Communist China while preserving
his commitment to Taiwan. He saw the ability to do this through developing informal relations with
China.100
President Kennedy wanted to apply the “New Frontier” to China. He energetically sought a
pragmatic and progressive relationship with the PRC. However, the chains of the 1950s Cold War
could not be broken immediately by the young and ambitious president. Kennedy tried to move too
quickly to open relations with the Chinese and felt an immediate backlash from the Republican
Party, the China Lobby, and Taiwan itself. When this was combined with increased Chinese
aggression in the early 1960s, persistent anti-American rhetoric, and a closing in on nuclear weapons,
China was deemed too aggressive still for Kennedy to reach out to.
However, Kennedy did lay a groundwork by stressing the need to find common ground and
move slowly. Kennedy was right that rapprochement would begin over a common issue, or in his
own words, “The problem is to find a beginning.”101 Interesting enough, it is Republican Richard
Nixon, one of Kennedy’s biggest critics for not being hard enough on the communists, who visits
China in 1972. This visit greatly improved Sino-American relations and led to official recognition in
1979.
Kang, 115.
Ibid.
99 It is important to note here the possible impact of the political career of Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., John F. Kennedy’s father.
Kennedy, Sr. resigned in 1940 because he believed Britain was doomed to be conquered by Nazi Germany and America’s only chance
for survival was to remain isolated from Europe. Roosevelt attacked Joseph as a defeatist and ruined ambitions Joe had of running
for the Presidency himself. This was certainly on his son’s mind when he was discerning if he should take an unpopular stand on
China or not. How significant of a role the ruin of his father’s political career played is impossible to gauge.
100 Kang, 111.
101 This same quote is cited on page 7 of paper.
97
98
69
______________________________________________________________________________
A Snip of Life: Black Barbering in Nineteenth-Century Mattoon, Illinois
Colleen Filipek
Colleen Filipek has a Bachelor of Arts in History from the University of Rochester, a certificate in Museum Studies
from Northwestern University, and is currently working on obtaining a Master of Arts in Historical Administration
at Eastern Illinois University. "A Snip of Life: Black Barbering in Nineteenth Century Mattoon, Illinois" was
written in Fall 2015 for Dr. Terry Barnhart's Class Research Methods in American Local History. She has
presented the paper at Eastern Illinois University's History Careers day in February, 2016.
______________________________________________________________________________
The nineteenth century was a period of great change for African Americans, especially in the
second half of the century. In 1863 President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation
Proclamation, legally freeing all slaves in captured territory. 1 It was the 13th Amendment in 1865 that
made slavery illegal in the United States and it marked a turning point in the lives of black
Americans, even those who were already free.2 While it was a legal turning point, the new law did
not necessarily change people’s attitudes toward African Americans, and many states passed acts
segregating black citizens.3 In this regard, the state of Illinois was much more progressive; in 1865
the state repealed a previous law that made it illegal for blacks to move to Illinois and continued
passing anti-segregation acts well into the 20th century.4 In 1885 public accommodations were barred
from discriminating against black customers and this included barbershops.5
Before the Civil War barbering was a service that was commonly provided by black men,
both enslaved and free. This trend continued after the war, as it was a lucrative business option for
many black Americans.6 Many barbers obtained at least some wealth and increased their social
standing through their work; they gained connections to wealthy and influential white men and, in
the antebellum period, there was no white competition. Black people were considered by many to be
natural hairdressers, so their dominance in this field was not questioned.7 In the early days of
Mattoon, Illinois, prior to the Civil War, there were twenty black people in the city. Of these twenty,
ten were male and four of these men were barbers.8 While it is likely that most of these men did not
own the barbershop in which they worked, the fact that 40% of the black men in Mattoon were
barbers suggests that this was an attractive occupation that provided a living wage. While evidence
of black barbers in Mattoon, Illinois, in the nineteenth century is difficult to attain, it is clear from
the available material that barbering, while lucrative, was a fairly unstable position with high
“Featured Document: The Emancipation Proclamation,” National Archives & Records Administration, accessed December 5, 2015,
https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured_documents/emancipation_ proclamation/.
2 “13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Primary Documents of American History,” Library of Congress: Virtual Programs &
Services, accessed December 5, 2015, http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/13 thamendment.html
3 M. Ruth Little, “The Other Side of the Tracks: The Middle-Class Neighborhoods That Jim Crow Built in Early-Twentieth-Century
North Carolina,” Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture 7, Vernacular Architecture Forum: 269, accessed November 18, 2015,
doi:10.2307/3514397.
4 “African Americans in Illinois,” Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, accessed December 5, 2015,
https://www.illinois.gov/ihpa/Research/Pages/AfAmHist.aspx.
5 “African Americans in Illinois.”
6 Quincy T. Mills, Cutting Along the Color Line: Black Barbers and Barber Shops in America (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press,
2013), 17, 27.
7 Mills, Cutting, 18, 27-29, 21, 15.
8 1860 U.S. census, Coles County, Illinois, population schedule, Mattoon, p. 64; digital image, Ancestry.com, accessed October 24,
2015, http://ancestry.com.
1
70
turnover. It is also apparent that personal feelings regarding black barbers were highly mixed. The
evidence provides insight about how the white population perceived their black neighbors and
opened the door for the appearance of white run barbershops.
The area that eventually became Mattoon Township was first settled in the early 1830s because the
land was fertile.9 However, Mattoon was not mapped as a town until 1854, when it was determined
that the Illinois Central and Terra Haute and Alton railroads would intersect at the site. 10 The town
was first platted by James T. Cunningham, an early resident, and his map was published in 1856. 11
Prior to the arrival of the railroads in 1855, Mattoon was a completely rural area. What is now the
city of Mattoon was comprised of a house and several shanties built for railroad workers. Just two
years after the tracks were laid, Mattoon consisted of over 100 buildings and became a village; by
1861 Mattoon was a city.12 This rapid transformation reflects the impact the railroad had on the area,
and indicates that it would have been an attractive place in Coles County to establish a barbershop.13
Because Mattoon was located at a the crossing of two railroads, the barbers would have had access
to both the people living in Mattoon and those passing through on the railroads.
Barbers, Business Notice, Mattoon Gazette, October 7, 1863
Mattoon was planned on all sides of the tracks from the outset. It was laid out as a grid and the
original planning focuses the town to the east of the Illinois Central Railroad and to the south of the
Terra Haute and Alton line.14 The town was concentrated around the rail crossing and the city hall
was located just northeast of where the tracks intersect, indicating that this was an important place in
the city. It also suggests that the intention was always to expand west, making this the center of
town.15 This central downtown area would have been the ideal place to locate a shop, as it would see
the most business and flow of traffic. It is situated on the railroad crossing and at the location where
the railroad stopped, so a passenger could easily access any of the businesses on this street. This area
is where the majority of the barbershops were located. In the 1890s, most of these shops were on
Broadway Avenue, which began at the railroad, just south of the crossing, and ran east toward
Mattoon, map, in Ronald Nichols, comp., Historical Plat Maps of Coles County, Illinois (Dixon, IL: the PRINT shop of Dixon, Illinois,
1982), 42; “History of Mattoon,” Eastern Illinois University: Localities, accessed October 24, 2015,
http://www.eiu.edu/localite/mattoonhistory.php; “Localities: Mattoon Timeline,” Eastern Illinois University: Localities, accessed
October 24, 2015, http://www.eiu.edu/localite/mattoontime.php.
10 “Localities: Mattoon Timeline”; Alexander Summers, Mr. Mattoon’s City: 1855-1955: 100 Years—The Story of Illinois: 1855-1955: 90
Years—The Story of Mattoon’s First Permanent Bank (Mattoon, IL: National Bank of Mattoon, 1955), accessed October 22, 2015,
https://archive.org/details/mrmattoons city1800summ, 5.
11 James T. Cunningham, et al., Mattoon as Laid Out by James T. Cunningham and Others, map-photocopy, Coles County Clerk’s Office.
12 Craig Sanders, Mattoon and Charleston Area Railroads (Chicago: Arcadia Publishing, 2008), 11; “Localities: Mattoon Timeline”;
Summers, Mr. Mattoon’s City, 9.
13 Mark Voss Hubbard and Newton E. Key, “A Chronicle of the Coles County (Illinois) Region,” EIU: Localities,
http://www.eiu.edu/localite/coleschronicle.pdf.
14 Cunningham, Mattoon as Laid Out by James T. Cunningham.
15 J.W. Smith, Birds Eye View of Mattoon, Illinois 1884, map, Chicago: Shober & Carqueville, 1884, from Library of Congress, Map
Collections, http://www.loc.gov/resource/g4104m.pm001671/ (accessed October 20, 2015).
9
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Charleston.16 Unfortunately, the city directories available for this area only extend back to 1895, but
it is evident that from the beginning the barbershops were situated on Broadway Avenue. A business
notice, published in the Mattoon Gazette in 1863, states that Os. Perry (likely Austin Perry, the first
barber in Mattoon) and John Powell operated their barbershops on Broadway Avenue.17
In 1902 another newspaper article indicates that Austin Perry, the oldest black man in the city, had
his barbershop in the same place on Broadway Avenue for over thirty years.18 Other reports reveal
that Austin Perry’s shop was close to the railroad tracks, as an article in 1879 indicates that
adulterated lemonade was being sold from a stand between his shop and the Illinois Central Railroad
track.19 It can be inferred that Austin Perry was taking advantage of his proximity to the railroad and
that his shop was well known enough to be used as a landmark. Although the 1903 article presented
some facts incorrectly, including a statement that Austin Perry married Susan Powell, when he
actually married Susan Finch in 1860, his shop’s location is likely accurate due to his high status in
the community and the common knowledge of where his shop was located.20 Although Perry was
highly regarded within the community, even serving as alderman of the town council for two terms
in 1880, it is evident in the newspaper articles that the personal feelings among the townspeople
about their black barbers was mixed.21
The barbers in Mattoon appear to have been well liked. One newspaper, in 1860, notes that
“John Powell is the best barber in town” and another, from 1864, states that he was known in the
west of the state as “Honest John,” implying that it is the reason an escaped murderer, from Paris,
Illinois, assumed his identity.22 These early articles indicate that this Mattoon barber was well known
outside the immediate area, probably due to the presence of the railroad. His reputation was
considered so respectable that his identity was co-opted by a known murderer on the run. In 1881
an article enthused that John Powell, likely the son of the John Powell mentioned above, was
returning to Mattoon and entering into a partnership with another black barber, Flavius Brooks.23 It
goes so far as to state, “[t]hese men are nice gentlemen and good businessmen and we predict for
A. Sumerlin, comp., Directory of Coles County and the City of Mattoon: 1895-6: Comprising a List of Residents, Business, Houses, Churches,
Societys, and Miscellaneous Directory (Mattoon, IL: Mattoon Commercial Print, 1895), 184; A. Sumerlin, comp., Mattoon City Directory 1898
(Mattoon, IL: Mattoon Commercial Print, 1898), 225.
17 “Mattoon Business Directory: Barbers,” Mattoon Gazette, October 7, 1863, accessed December 1, 2015, Newspapers.com
(https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3753096/mattoon_business_directory_barbers/); Onaiwu W. Ogbomo, Photographic Images & the
History of African Americans in Coles County, Illinois (Charleston, IL: Eastern Illinois University, 2002), 16.
18 “Just Two of the Business Men of Old Times Still on Broadway. Tell of Changes That Have Occurred in Mattoon Since its
Infancy—Interesting,” Mattoon Daily Journal, July 26, 1902, accessed December 1, 2015, Newspapers.com
(https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3752947/mattoon_daily_journal/).
19 “City in Brief,” Mattoon Gazette, July 11, 1879, accessed December 2, 2015, Newspapers.com
(https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3753028/city_in_brief_mattoon_gazette_11_jul/).
20 In fact, John Powell had a step-daughter who spent time with Austin Perry in August 1860, indicated by a newspaper article about
Powell drunkenly assaulting her when she was talking with Perry. It is possible that Susan Powell and Susan Finch are, in fact, one and
the same, and the newspaper was merely mistaken on the surname. “Almost a Tragedy,” Mattoon Gazette, August 30, 1860, accessed
December 1, 2015, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3753106/almost_a_tragedy_mattoon_gazette_30/); “Just
Two of the Business Men”; Marriage record of Austin Perry and Susan Linch, dated December 18, 1860, Mattoon, Illinois, Coles
County Book of Marriage Records, Volume B: 218, Illinois Regional Archives Depository, Charleston, Illinois.
21 “Just Two of the Business Men.”
22 Mattoon Gazette, June 14, 1860, accessed December 1, 2015, Newspapers.com
(https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3753115/john_powell_mattoon_gazette_14_jun/); “Local Items: Arrest of Jake South,” Mattoon
Gazette, May 11, 1864, accessed December 1, 2015, Newspapers.com
(https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3753079/local_items_arrest_of_jake_south/).
23 1900 U.S. census, Coles County, Illinois, population schedule, Mattoon, p. 252 A (stamped), dwelling 399, family 427, John Powell;
digital image, Ancestry.com, accessed October 24, 2015, http://ancestry.com; “The City in Brief,” Mattoon Gazette, November 25,
1881, accessed December 3, 2015, Newspapers.com
(https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3752977/the_city_in_brief_mattoon_gazette_25/); “Early Days in Mattoon,” The Mattoon Daily
Journal Gazette and Commercial Star, April 27, 1927, accessed December 4, 2015, Newspapers.com
(https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3819586/early_days_in_mattoon_journal_gazette/).
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72
them the success they deserve.”24 This language indicates that these men were well regarded within
their communities and the people of Mattoon wanted them to succeed. This article is unusual in that
it does not indicate the racial status of the two barbers, as was common practice in the newspaper.
That information was obtained from the Directory of Coles County and the City of Mattoon.: 1895-96.25
This is not because only black men were barbers at the time; in fact by 1881 there had been at least
two white barbershops opened in Mattoon.26 Furthermore, in 1862, a year prior to the first white
barbershop, these men were being referred to as “colored” barbers within the text of newspaper
articles.27
“[O]ur colored barber Powell” gets into a fight with a drunk Irishman, Mattoon Gazette, April 17,
1862.
If the use of a color descriptor had been adopted due to the presence of white barbers, it would not
have been used prior to the opening of a white barbershop. The use of a racial status indicates that
although the black barbers in Mattoon were well regarded, they were still considered different. This
use of the term colored was quite common in Mattoon newspapers in the nineteenth century and it
indicates that these men were looked at somewhat patronizingly rather than as direct equals.
This view is also evident in the manner in which white barbers are referred to in the
newspapers. The first white barber in Mattoon was J.H. Conner, who opened his shop in 1863 and a
notice was issued regarding his establishment.28
“The City in Brief.”
Sumerlin, Directory of Coles County, 11, 131.
26 “Local Items: Special Notice,” Mattoon Gazette, February 28, 1863, accessed December 1, 2015, Newspapers.com
(https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3753103/local_items_special_notice_mattoon/); “City in Brief: A new drug store,” Mattoon
Gazette, June 20, 1879, accessed December 3, 2015, Newspapers.com
(https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3753064/city_in_brief_a_new_drug_store/).
27 “BARBER-OUS,” Mattoon Gazette, April 17, 1862, accessed December 2, 2015, Newspapers.com
(https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3753094/barberous_mattoon_gazette_17_apr/).
28 “Local Items: Special Notice.”
24
25
73
Special Notice regarding the opening of a white barbershop, Mattoon Gazette, February 28, 1863.
At the end of the “Special Notice” the writer states, “he is not only white, but seems to be a
gentleman, and shaves well.”29 The order of this list and the italicization of the word white indicates
that the most important aspect was his whiteness, followed by his comportment, while the fact that
he shaved well was his least important quality. While this should be the most important component
of barbering, the fact that it is not considered so in this case indicates that the community may have
preferred to be shaved by a white man, regardless of his skill. This, combined with the use of the
term “darkey barber,” denotes a lack of respect and suggests a prejudiced view of black barbers.30
Beyond the preferential attitude toward white barbers, there were articles that questioned
integrity of black barbers without proof. In 1878 the Mattoon Gazette ran a story from the Washington
Post titled “An Honest Barber,” which featured a white customer who tested his black barber and
was shocked when the man turned out to be honest.31 The article concludes with the remark that the
customer “walked out more astonished than if he had just put his hand on a red-hot stove under the
impression that it was his umbrella.”32 This language indicates a general belief that barbers were not
honest, and as most barbers were black at this point in time it can be inferred that it is a belief in the
dishonesty of black barbers specifically. Interestingly, this clashes with the language used to describe
the Mattoon barbers, including the characterization of the first John Powell as “Honest John” and
the second John Powell, along with Flavius Brooks, as “nice gentlemen and good businessmen.” 33
This indicates that there was a confused, and somewhat paradoxical, view of black barbers in
Mattoon in the nineteenth century. This view was partially due to prejudice towards black
Americans, which was somewhat tempered by the relative lack of white people in the barbering
profession and thus a lack of interracial job competition.34 The black barbers of Mattoon that were
successful earned the trust and business of their patrons by providing good services. The quality and
level of service provided by the barbers of Mattoon may have been a factor in the apparent
instability of Mattoon’s barbering business.
“Local Items: Special Notice.”
“Local Items: Special Notice.”
31 “An Honest Barber,” Mattoon Gazette, May 23, 1879, accessed December 4, 2015, Newspapers.com
(https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3753034/an_honest_barber_mattoon_gazette_23/).
32 “An Honest Barber.”
33 “Local Items: Arrest of Jake South”; “The City in Brief.”
34 Mills, Cutting, 21.
29
30
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Based on census reports and city directories barbering appears to have been an unstable
business in Mattoon, Illinois. Between the years 1860 and 1900, there were only two barbers that
remained the same throughout every census and city directory; they were Austin Perry and Milford
Norton.35 Although the number of barbers increased consistently as the city grew in population,
there was a high turnover rate. In fact, between 1895 and 1898 only fourteen out of the 25 barbers
remained unchanged while eleven were replaced.36 That is a 44% turnover rate over three years.
Furthermore, of the 11 barbershops in 1895, only four remained owned by the same person and
entirely new establishments replaced the others. This represents a 64% turnover rate for the
businesses alone. During this three-year period there was both high employee and business
turnover.37 Between 1898 and 1900 the number of barbers increased from 24 to 38, a large increase
over two years. However, only 26% of the entire community of barbers had been working in
Mattoon for more than a year. 73% of barbers were completely new.38
This high turnover rate was not confined to the 1890s. Between 1860 and 1880 only two barbers
remained the same, while the remaining seven opened their shops sometime between 1861 and
1870.39 In 1880 only four barbers were the same as in 1870, and in 1895 only three remained from
1880.40 Unfortunately, the 1890 census was mostly destroyed in fires, and the records for Mattoon
did not survive. However, it is likely they would reveal a similar story. This indicates that while
barbering was an attractive occupation for black men, due to the relative lack of competition with
white workers and the possibility of gaining wealth, it was not a very stable occupation. It is not clear
whether these men lost their positions and establishments due to a lack of profit, or if they merely
moved elsewhere, but either way their shops were unable to survive for a long period of time in
Mattoon. Because of the number of barbers in the city, it is likely there was a great deal of
competition, which may have driven out some of the barbers. In spite of Mattoon’s rapidly
increasing population and business from the railroad, Mattoon clearly could not sustain the number
of barbers or barbershops it contained. It is also possible that increasing competition from white
barbers negatively affected the ability of both black and white barbers to operate their businesses
and make an adequate living.
1860 U.S. census, Coles County, Illinois, population schedule, Mattoon, p. 64, dwelling 458, family 458, Austin Perry; digital image,
Ancestry.com, accessed October 23, 2015, http://ancestry.com; 1860 U.S. census, Coles County, Illinois, population schedule,
Mattoon, p. 64, dwelling 455, family 455, Milford Norton; digital image, Ancestry.com, accessed October 23, 2015,
http://ancestry.com; 1870 U.S. census, Coles County, Illinois, population schedule, Mattoon, p. 207 A, dwelling 247, family 239,
Austin Perry; digital image, Ancestry.com, accessed October 23, 2015, http://ancestry.com; 1870 U.S. census, Coles County, Illinois,
population schedule, Mattoon, p. 207 B, dwelling 249, family 241, Milford Norton; digital image, Ancestry.com, accessed October 23,
2015, http://ancestry.com; 1880 U.S. census, Coles County, Illinois, population schedule, Mattoon, p. 215 (stamped), dwelling 356,
family 406, Austin Perry; digital image, Ancestry.com, accessed October 24, 2015, http://ancestry.com; 1880 U.S. census, Coles
County, Illinois, population schedule, Mattoon, p. 216 (stamped), dwelling 359, family 409, Milford Norton; digital image,
Ancestry.com, accessed October 24, 2015, http://ancestry.com; Sumerlin, Directory of Coles County, 124, 129; Sumerlin, Mattoon, 151,
158; 1900 U.S. census, Coles County, Illinois, population schedule, Mattoon, p. 252 B (stamped), dwelling 409, family 428, Austin
Perry; digital image, Ancestry.com, accessed October 24, 2015, http://ancestry.com; 1880 U.S. census, Coles County, Illinois,
population schedule, Mattoon, p. 253 B (stamped), dwelling 420, family 449, Milford Norton; digital image, Ancestry.com, accessed
October 24, 2015, http://ancestry.com.
36 Sumerlin, Directory of Coles County; Sumerlin, Mattoon.
37 Sumerlin, Directory of Coles County, 184; Sumerlin, Mattoon, 225.
38 Sumerlin, Mattoon; 1900 U.S. census, Coles County, Illinois, population schedule, Mattoon; digital image, Ancestry.com, accessed
October 24, 2015, http://ancestry.com.
39 1860 U.S. census, Coles County, Illinois, population schedule, Mattoon; digital image, Ancestry.com, accessed October 23, 2015,
http://ancestry.com; 1870 U.S. census, Coles County, Illinois, population schedule, Mattoon; digital image, Ancestry.com, accessed
October 23, 2015, http://ancestry.com.
40 “Genealogy: Census Schedules,” University of Delaware Library, accessed December 5, 2015,
http://guides.lib.udel.edu/c.php?g=85348&p=548893.
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The notice for the first white barbershop in Mattoon suggests that there were some people who did
not want to visit a black barber.41 There is no evidence of how many people felt this way, nor how
many people visited any of the barbershops. However, it is possible that with the advent of white
barbershops, many barbers of both races were not able to attract enough customers due to the
competition. There may have been enough people who preferred white barbers to negatively effect
black barbers, but it may not have been enough to support a white barbershop.
White barbers suffered from the same high turnover rate as black barbers. The first white
barbershop in Mattoon opened in 1863, but J.H. Conner is not listed on the 1870 census.42 In
addition, there are two articles in the Mattoon Gazette from 1879 and one from 1880 that mention a
white barbershop, but there are no white barbers listed on the 1880 census, indicating that by the
time the census was taken, the shop or shops had closed.43 City directories list when a person is
colored, and in 1895 ten of the twenty-five barbers were not listed as such, while in 1898 twelve of
the twenty-four were not listed as black.
List of abbreviations, including col’d for colored,
Directory of Coles County and the City of Mattoon.: 1895-96.
Only five of these white barbers remained; half of them were no longer in the barbering business in
Mattoon only three years later. In fact, the majority of the black barbers remained the same between
1895 and 1898.44 However, it appears that white barbers were starting to push black barbers out of
the market. In 1895 white men owned six of the eleven barbershops and by 1900 twenty-two of the
thirty-six barbers were white compared to only sixteen black barbers. Black men no longer made up
“Local Items: Special Notice.”
“Local Items: Special Notice”; 1870 U.S. census, Coles County, Illinois, population schedule, Mattoon; digital image, Ancestry.com,
accessed October 23, 2015, http://ancestry.com.
43 “City in Brief: A new drug store”; “The Dukes,” The Mattoon Commercial, October 16, 1879, accessed December 2, 2015,
Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3753052/the_dukes_the_mattoon _commercial_16/); “City in Brief: The
white man’s barber shop,” Mattoon Gazette, June 18, 1880, accessed December 2, 2015, Newspapers.com
(https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3753041/city_in_brief_the_white_ mans_barber/).
44 Sumerlin, Directory of Coles County; Sumerlin, Mattoon.
41
42
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the majority of the business, as they had just five years prior.45 This indicates that the market was
shifting to favor white barbers over black barbers, suggesting a very different business climate than
that forty-three years prior when Austin Perry first established his barbershop in Mattoon.46
Barbering in Mattoon began in 1857, only two years after the railroad crossing was
established. The barbers of Mattoon took advantage of their proximity to a major stop on two
railroads to establish profitable businesses. Most barbershops were located in the central downtown
area on Broadway Avenue, near the intersection of the railroads. By doing so they were able to
obtain both local and traveling customers, and some became known in more than just their locality,
at least as far as Council Bluffs, Iowa.47 These early barbers were black men, although there were
some early attempts at establishing white barbershops. These black barbers were subject to
conflicting attitudes; the evidence shows that they were regarded in a positive manner, but also that
they suffered from prejudice due to the color of their skin. Regardless of racial prejudice, these men
were able to hold the market for nearly forty years before the majority of barbers became white men.
However, the profession was far from stable. There was a high turnover rate among barbers, and by
1900 only two of the original Mattoon barbers remained. These men were the first barber, Austin
Perry, and another named Milford Norton, who would later work in the shop of his son Riley
Norton.48 While these men were able to remain successful through to 1900, and even later, many of
the barbers of Mattoon did not remain for more than two years. This turnover rate suggests that the
growing city could not support the amount of barbers that wanted to work there. However,
barbering was still a lucrative business where black men could achieve success, gain the trust and
respect of their community, and potentially rise above the prejudice that pervaded the United States
in the nineteenth century.
Sumerlin, Directory of Coles County, 149; 1900 U.S. census, Coles County, Illinois, population schedule, Mattoon; digital image,
Ancestry.com, accessed October 24, 2015, http://ancestry.com.
46 Ogbomo, Photographic Images, 16.
47 “Local Items: Arrest of Jake South.”
48 Sumerlin, Mattoon, 151, 158. 1880 U.S. census, Coles County, Illinois, population schedule, Mattoon; digital image, Ancestry.com,
accessed October 24, 2015, http://ancestry.com; 1900 U.S. census, Coles County, Illinois, population schedule, Mattoon; digital
image, Ancestry.com, accessed October 24, 2015, http://ancestry.com.
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______________________________________________________________________________
Broadway Avenue and the Evolution of Mattoon’s Central Commercial District
Rachel Tavaras
Rachel Tavaras, who graduated from Indiana University Bloomington in 2015 with a BA in History, is now a
MA candidate in Eastern Illinois University’s Historical Administration program. She wrote “Broadway Avenue
and the Evolution of Mattoon’s Central Commercial District” for Dr. Barnhart’s Fall 2015 Research Methods in
American Local History course.
______________________________________________________________________________
American icon Walt Disney once said, “Main Street, U.S.A, is America at the turn of the
century—the crossroads of an era. The gas lamps and the electric lamps, the horse drawn car and
the auto car. Main Street is everyone’s hometown…the heartland of America.” In this statement,
Walt was referring to his synthetic portrayals of Main Street, an invented version of the
phenomenon found across the country in his Disneyland and Walt Disney World theme parks. In
these portrayals, Walt’s Main Streets are romanticized and nostalgic. They are a tidy set up of
storefronts reminiscent of yesteryear.
Figure 1. Walt Disney World’s Main Street, U.S.A. Image courtesy of Staten Island Live.
In both his portrayals of Main Street and his statement above, Walt effectively captured
idealized perceptions of Main Street. What is Main Street? Main Street most often refers to the street
that was or is the central commercial district of a town or city. Main Street is the brick and mortar
stores that line it, but it is also how these buildings are used that matters. Main Street is a cultural
ideal, an icon of the American experience.49 It is the idea that the shops that line the downtown
districts of towns and cities help shape the American sociocultural experience. In this generic view
Main Street must have been widespread, creating a familiar setup in towns across the United States.
Miles Orvell, The Death and Life of Main Street: Small Towns in American Memory, Space, and Community (Chapel Hill: University of North
Carolina Press, 2012), 3.
49
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This ideal is often times nostalgic, a romanticized reflection of what many deem to be an extinct
phenomenon.
The physical space that creates Main Street shapes this ideology. Main Street America™, an
organization advocating for the preservation of “Main Streets” across the country, defines Main
Street as the historic downtown/neighborhood commercial center.50 One such physical space that
fits this definition within Coles County is Mattoon’s downtown district. Including Broadway Avenue
and the surrounding area near what is now the Mattoon Amtrak Station, Mattoon’s downtown area
presently continues to feature locally owned shops and restaurants. During its time as the central
commercial district of Mattoon, Illinois, Broadway Avenue fit the ideal of Main Street, U.S.A. The
district was lined with shops both locally owned and ones owned by large chains. These businesses
had a powerful presence within the community as evident in how their advertisements dominated
local newspapers.
Mattoon’s Broadway Avenue was the city’s central commercial district for over one-hundred
years but then the central commercial district shifted. As ‘big-box’ stores such as Wal-Mart created a
new central commercial district near the interstate highway, the central commercial district shifted
physically and became increasingly disconnected with the Mattoon community. This might be
interpreted as the “death” of “Main Street,” or in this case, Broadway Avenue. It was at least the
death of Walt Disney’s idealized version of Main Street.
Who is to say that the nostalgic romanticized version of Main Street ever existed? While
Mattoon’s new central commercial district might have more disconnect with the town, these big-box
stores are, for better or for worse, the modern reality. According to the national narrative, and as
indicated by the nostalgic perceptions of Main Street, this trend was national and Mattoon was not
exempt. However, this shift was not simply cause and effect. Rather, for every town this shift
occurred for a compilation of reasons and each set of circumstances was different. In the case of
Mattoon, the town’s central commercial district is not about the death of Broadway Avenue, but,
rather, it is about the natural evolution of a town. In this way, Mattoon very much adheres to the
national narrative through its own unique combination of circumstances and chronology that caused
its central commercial district to shift away from Broadway Avenue.
Figure 2. Mattoon’s Broadway Avenue. Photo by Rachel Tavaras, 2015.
Before exploring why, it is first useful to define what a commercial center is. A commercial
center is simply the area of a city most used for business activity. If it is the most used, there must
Main Street America™, accessed November 4, 2015, http://www.preservationnation.org/mainstreet/?referrer=https://www.google.com/#.VlSl5N-rSb8.
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be something about it that attracts frequent patrons. It must provide a variety of retail stores,
financial services, restaurants, and other businesses that provide everyday goods and services in
such a way that attracts customers within the community.
Figure 3. Map of Mattoon, 2015. Image courtesy of Google Maps. Points by Rachel Tavaras.
The commercial center in Mattoon has shifted, and the stores in this new commercial
center are no longer largely locally owned. The figure above features a Google Map of Mattoon in
2015. The white points indicate a sample of commercial businesses and where they would have
been located in 1955. The commercial businesses that are represented from 1955 include both
locally owned stores such as Gehl Hardware and chain stores such as Montgomery Ward.
Commercial businesses from 2015 are represented with blue points. Those represented include
chain stores such as Dollar General and Wal-Mart. From this map, a shift east towards the
interstate is evident between 1955 and 2015.
Mattoon is not alone in this phenomenon. This shift away from the Main Street ideal is
national in scale. As suggested in nostalgic interpretations of Main Street and a call for its
preservation, this shift could be interpreted as the death of Main Street or the threat of its
extinction. Fear for the extinction of Main Street is hardly new. Even in the 1910s, the period
shortly following Walt Disney’s ideal turn of-the-century Main Street, chain stores such as
Woolworth’s began to move into these downtown areas, threatening the “mom and pop” shops
51
that preceded them.3 However, today more than ever, evidence of the death of Walt Disney’s
ideal is increasingly clear as, for most cities and towns, these Main Streets are no longer the
commercial center.
What, then, happened in Mattoon? In order to understand the shift in Mattoon’s commercial
center, it is essential to understand the origins and evolution of Broadway Avenue and the
immediately surrounding area. Mattoon’s origin story is tied closely to the railroad.52 In 1854, it was
announced that the Illinois Central Railroad and the Terre Haute Alton Railroad would intersect in
Mattoon.53 The arrival of this crossing was so important to the development of Mattoon that the
town’s planners named the town after William B. Mattoon, the chief construction engineer for the
Terre Haute and Alton Railroad.54 There does not seem to be a particular reason why the town was
51
52
3.
53
54
Orvell, 51.
Mr. Mattoon’s City (A Revised Edition of Mattoon, Origin and Growth, Published in 1946) (Mattoon: The National Bank of Mattoon, 1955),
Craig Sanders, Mattoon and Charleston Area Railroads (Chicago: Arcadia Publishing, 2008),11.
Ibid.
80
named for Mattoon instead of Roswell B. Mason, the supervisor for the construction of the
Illinois Central Railroad. It has been speculated that if Mason had arrived before Mattoon that the
city might have been named Mason.55
With the arrival of the railroad, Mattoon’s settlers scurried to plot their newly named
56
town. From the start, Mattoon was oriented towards the railroad crossing that caused its
development. This persisted for quite some time. A birds eye map of Mattoon from 1884, roughly
thirty years after the town was originally plotted, shows a line of commercial buildings next to the
intersection of the Illinois Central Railroad and what was the Terre Haute and Alton Railroad.57
Figure 4. “Birds eye view of Mattoon, Illinois, 1884.” Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.
In the nineteenth century, the commercial buildings that the city had plotted originally were used by
local shops, and Mattoon’s downtown commercial district expanded. Broadway was home to many
businesses that supplied Mattoon residents with everyday goods. The Kahn Brothers opened a
clothing store, one of the first of its kind in Mattoon. There they sold surplus clothing from the
Civil War at their store on 1713 Broadway Avenue. Louis Katz opened a department store selling
clothes, trunks, and other like goods in the 1870s at the corner of 17th and Broadway.
By 1898, Katz sold his building to Valentine Schlicher, who turned the building into his furniture
store.58 In 1882, the firm Bower and Schulhoff opened a store selling housewares such as china
and crockery on Broadway. In 1892, they opened a dry goods store. The George N. Buck store, a
dry goods store located in the middle of the 1700 block on the south side of Broadway Avenue,
became the biggest dry goods store in town in the 1880s. Phillip Woliung’s blacksmith shop was
not on Broadway Avenue, but it was close by at the 100 block of North 15th Street in the 1880s.
Kelly & Kelly’s Bakery and the Mattoon Steam Bakery were both on Broadway Avenue in the
1890s.59
Sesquicentennial Committee, “Honoring 150 most influential people in Mattoon’s History,”
Journal Gazette & Times Courier, August 17, 2005.
56 Mr. Mattoon’s City, 3.
57 At this point, the Terre Haute and Alton Railroad had become the Indianapolis and St. Louis Railroad: Mike McCormick, “Terre
Haute known as railroad hub,” Terre Haute Tribune Star, February 23, 2003.
58 “Department Store Enters 25th Year,” Journal Gazette, September 1, 1955.
59 Jean Johnstone, Alice Larrabe, Gail Lumpkin, and Marianne Thiel, Mattoon: A Pictorial History (St. Louis: G. Bradley Publishing, Inc.,
1993), 36-39, 118.
55
81
Figure 5. Kelly & Kelly’s Baker, 1890s. Image courtesy of Mattoon: A Pictorial History.
The turn of the century saw the continuation of Broadway as a central commercial district. By
1904, there were thirty-seven grocery stores in town. While many were right outside of
community members’ homes, those stores with larger inventories were on Broadway Avenue.
As Mattoon grew, by 1930, there were seventy-six grocery stores.60 Other types of stores also
grew in number. Many of these shops were locally owned, but some were chain stores. The
following list is a sample stores where established on or near Broadway before 1955:
 Eisner food store opened in 1898.61
 In 1900, William Wesley Hendren opened a shoe repair shop on the 1800 block of
Broadway Avenue. He later sold the building in the 1940s and moved his repair shop
to 18th Street.62
 The Kahn Brothers sold their store to Arthur Sommers in the 1900s, who went on to sell
the store to A.H. Adler in 1912. A.H. Adler kept the store until 1922. The Kraft Clothing
Company, a regional chain in the Midwest, then purchased the store. In 1932, when Kraft
was liquidating stores, partners Ross and Breedlove bought the shop. Breedlove left the
firm that same year and Earl Ross continued to run the store, changing the name to Earl
Ross, Clothier.63
 The Basket Grocery opened at 1513-15 Broadway Avenue in 1917. It later became
known as Icenogle Food.64
 Elliot Jeweler opened in 1908.65
 Fred Smith Shoe Store opened in 1910 and moved to 1528 Broadway in 1955.66
Ibid, 132.
Eisner food store, Advertisement, September 1, 1955, Journal Gazette.
62 Ibid, 118.
63 “Ross-Lucas Co. One of City’s Oldest,” Journal Gazette, September 1, 1955.
64 “Icenogle’s Store has Long History,” Journal Gazette, September 1, 1955.
65 Elliot Jeweler, Advertisement, September 1, 1955, Journal Gazette.
60
61
82

The Grand Theater opened in 1911. It burnt down in 1938. Edward Clarke bought
the theater and renamed it to Time Theater.67
 W. Frank Hampton opened Hampton’s Leading Jewelers in 1911 at 109 N. 16th
Street.68
 Henry DeBuhr at 2001 Western Avenue opened DeBuhr Seed Store in 1914.69
 Frank X. Spitz opened a men’s clothing store in 1915 on Broadway.70
 J.E. Leitzell Photo Studio opened in 1913.71
 W.S. Henry Jeweler opened in 1915.72
 J.C. Penney opened in 1920 at 1515 Broadway Avenue.73
 Gehl’s Hardware opened in 1922 at 1815 Broadway Avenue. 74
 Bidwell’s Candies opened in 1924 when Virgil Bidwell moved his business from
Attica, Indiana.75
 Newgent’s Shoe Store opened in 1924.76
 Kirk’s Appliances opened in 1925 at 1622 Broadway Avenue. In 1930, they moved to
109 S. 19th St., then to 1520 Broadway Ave. in 1935, to 1901 Broadway Ave. in 1938,
and finally to 1912-14 Western Ave. in 1941.77
 City Shoe Shop opened in 1926.78
 In 1928, Miss Minnie M. Lewis opened a ready-to-wear clothing store at 1706 Broadway
Avenue. She sold the store to George M. and Helen Montgomery in 1947, and the store’s
name became Helen Montgomery’s.79

Montgomery Ward, a chain department store, opened a store in Mattoon in the late
Fred Smith Shoe Store, Advertisement, September 1, 1955, Journal Gazette.
Mattoon Sesquicentennial Committee.
68 Hampton’s Leading Jewelers, Advertisement, September 1, 1955.
69 Mattoon Sesquicentennial Committee.
70 Spitz, Advertisement, September 1, 1955, Journal Gazette.
71 J.E. Leitzell Photo Studio, Advertisement, September 1, 1955, Journal Gazette.
72 W.S. Henry Jeweler, Advertisement, September 1, 1955, Journal Gazette.
73 J.C. Penney, Advertisement, September 1, 1955, Journal Gazette.
74 Mattoon Sesquicentennial Committee.
75 Ibid.
76 Nugent’s Shoe Store, Advertisement, September 1, 1955, Journal Gazette.
77 Kirk’s Appliances, Advertisement, September 1, 1955, Journal Gazette.
78 City Shoe Shop, Advertisement, September 1, 1955, Journal Gazette.
79 “Quality, Not Price, Builds Business,” Journal Gazette, September 1, 1955.
66
67
83
1920s at the corner of 17th Street and Broadway.80
 Young’s department store was founded in 1931 in the location of what was formerly
Katz and Sons Clothiers then Schlicher’s furniture store. 81
 Burtschi’s Book and Gift Shop opened in 1933 at 1612 Broadway Avenue.82
 William Furste expanded his Charleston-based auto supply store to Mattoon in 1935 at
1622 Broadway Avenue.83
 Warner’s Gift Shop and Office Equipment Stores open in 1937.84
 Sears, a chain department store, opened in Mattoon in 1940 at 1406 Broadway
Avenue.85
 Arcade Drug Store opened in 1940 at the corner of 17th Street and Charleston Avenue.86
 Myers Bros. was a Springfield-based regional department store chain that opened at
1705 Broadway Avenue in 1947.87
The first half of the nineteenth century was a dynamic time of growth for Mattoon. The
population went from 9,622 in 1900 to 17,547 in 1950.88 As evident from this brief list, the
commercial center of Mattoon saw its share of growth and development as well. While grocery
stores such as Basket Grocery and clothiers such as Spitz’s met the basic necessities of Mattoon
residents, the demand for “miscellaneous” products needed to be addressed. Often, chain
department stores or variety stores would answer to this demand.89 This trend was apparent in
Mattoon, as evident when department stores such as J.C. Penney moved onto Broadway Avenue.
These chain stores brought with them modern storefronts and advertising.
In wake of the Great Depression especially, locally owned stores needed to compete.90 Stores in
the 1930s through the 1950s in Mattoon streamlined their exteriors to keep up with the times.
Figure 6 is a collage of stores on Broadway Avenue from the 1930s-1950s. Locally owned shops
such as Furste’s streamlined and modernized their buildings with architectural styles such as Art
Moderne. This trend was not subtle, as stores such as Bower and Schuloff advertised the reopenings for their newly remodeled stores (Figure 7). Such efforts were apparently successful, as
many of these stores stayed open well into the post-World War II era.
Montgomery and Ward, Advertisement, September 1, 1955, Journal Gazette.
“Ross-Lucas Co. One of City’s Oldest.”
82 Mattoon Sesquicentennial Committee.
83 Furste’s, Advertisement, September 1, 1955, Journal Gazette.
84 Warner’s Gift Shop and Office Equipment Stores, Advertisement, September 1, 1955, Journal Gazette.
85 Sears, Advertisements, June 23, 1955 and September 1, 1955, Journal Gazette.
86 Arcade Drug Store, Advertisement, September 1, 1955, Journal Gazette.
87 Myer Bros., Advertisement, September 1, 1955, Journal Gazette.
88 US Census, 1900, Census Place: Mattoon, Coles County, Illinois; US Census, 1950, Census Place:Mattoon, Coles County, Illinois.
89 Orvell, 101.
90 Ibid.
80
81
84
Figure 6. Collage of storefronts on
Broadway Avenue from the 1930s1950s. Image courtesy of Mattoon: A
Pictorial History.
Figure 7. Advertisement for Bower &
Schulhoff Co.’s “Grand Opening” for
their newly remodeled store during the
Great Depression, April 11, 1935. Image
courtesy of the Journal Gazette.
85
However, as suggested before, Broadway Avenue’s days as Mattoon’s commercial center did
not last forever. As indicated by the map in Figure 3, Mattoon’s commercial center has shifted in
the last fifty years. Taking a closer look at the map (Figure 8), it is evident that Broadway was
crowded with shops in 1955.1 But why use 1955 as a point of examination? Many theories and
general postwar national narratives fall into the post-World War II period. The so-called “death of
Main Street” is often considered to be a postwar phenomenon. 1955 falls well into this postwar
period. The year 1955 also falls into the national narrative of the thriving Eisenhower years. At this
time, new consumer goods were flying of off shelves, as, for some Americans, prosperity was
widespread.2
Figure 8. Map of Mattoon, 2015. Image courtesy of Google Maps. Points by Rachel Tavaras.
Such prosperity and the expansion of a consumer-oriented economy led to the advent of the
shopping mall, an event that in theories attribute to the “death” of Main Street.3 In blaming
shopping malls, these theories suggest that the “mushrooming” of these malls in American towns,
starting in the postwar period and pushing through into the 1980s and 1990s, caused original
central commercial business districts to move.4 In Mattoon’s case, Cross County Mall opened a
couple of miles away from the central commercial district on Broadway Avenue in 1971, where the
central commercial district of 2015 stands.5 In 1955, however, this theory had not yet affected
Mattoon.
Other theories attribute the “death” of Main Street with Post-World War II suburbanization,
stating that the retail stores moved to postwar suburbs, causing even mammoth “Main Streets”
such as Chicago’s State Street to falter.6 This theory hardly applies to Mattoon, given that Mattoon
was a small city in its own right and was not suspect to the effects of suburbanization. Being
roughly 130 miles from Indianapolis and 180 miles from Chicago, Mattoon was far from cities that
experienced this phenomenon. Like in most towns, the “death” of Main Street (or Broadway
Again, the white points indicate businesses from 1955 and blue points indicate businesses from 2015. These are not representative of
all businesses present in each year.
2 Paul S. Boyer, Promises to Keep: The United States Since World War II (Belmont: Wadsworth, 2005), 115.
3 Matthew Bailey, “Memory, Place, and the Mall: George Romero on Consumerism,” Studies in Popular Culture
35 (Popular Culture Association in the South, 2013), 96.
4 Kenneth T. Jackson, “All the World’s a Mall: Reflections on the Social and Economic Consequences of the American Shopping
Center,” The American Historical Reviewer 101 (Oxford University Press, 1996), 1117.
5 “Grand Opening Mall Ceremonies Thursday,” Journal Gazette, October 26, 1971.
6 Robert J Carey, “American Downtowns: Past and Present Attempts at Revitalization,” Built Environment 14 (Alexandrine Press,
1988), 47.
1
86
Avenue) in Mattoon as a central commercial district is far more complicated than suburbanization
or the “malling” of Broadway Avenue.
Besides falling into the earlier postwar narrative that addresses the theories mentioned, the
year 1955 in Mattoon saw the longevity of longstanding commercial businesses on and near
Broadway. Many businesses that started between the turn-of-the-century and World War II were
still open in 1955. Stores such as Young’s, (established in 1931), Earl Ross, and Clothier
(established in 1932) maintained a presence within Mattoon’s central commercial district. Using
1955 as a case study demonstrates such continuity.
The year 1955 was also a year of celebration for Mattoon. It was that year that Mattoon
had their centennial. This resulted in a wealth of publications such as Mr. Mattoon’s City that
detailed the history of the town. Local businesses also participated in the celebration, putting out
advertisements that detailed their own histories and place in Mattoon up until that point. The
Journal Gazette, Mattoon’s local newspaper, put out a special issue of 160 pages including blurbs
about the town’s history including the influence of local businesses.
Figure 9. “Centennial Paper Carpets Basketball Court.” Image courtesy of the Journal Gazette,
September 2, 1955.
What, then, did Broadway Avenue in Mattoon look like in 1955? The following list details a
sample of businesses open that year on Broadway by block and near Broadway:

1400 Block, Broadway Avenue
o
Moore and Moore Homebuilders
o
Schwarz Auto Parts
o
Sears: department store chain
o
Time Theater: a local movie theater

1500 Block, Broadway Avenue
o
Mattoon Paint and Wallpaper
o
Gibson’s: furniture store
o
Andermann’s
o
Hampton’s, Inc.: jewelry store
87
o
o
o
o

J.E. Leitzell Photo Studio
J.C. Penney: department store chain
Fred Smith’s Shoe Store
City Shoe Shop (corner of 16th St. and Broadway)
1600 Block, Broadway Avenue
o
Eisner: food store
o
Furste’s Auto Shop
o
Newgent’s Shoe Store
o
Lester’s: clothier
o
Burtschi’s Book and Gift Shop
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Young’s Department Store
Singer Sewing Center
Freedman’s (Clothier)
Bing’s Jewelry & Optical Store
Lord’s (Clothier)
Earl Ross (Clothier)
Spitz Clothiers, Inc.

1700 Block, Broadway Avenue
o
W.S. Henry Jeweler
o
Myers Bros.: regional department store chain
o
Helen Montgomery Ready to Wear Shop: clothier
o
Bergner Store: department store

1800 Block, Broadway Avenue
o
Gehl Hardware
o
Sullivan Sewing Center
o
Parson’s Paint and Wallpaper Store7
These downtown stores dominated the Journal Gazette with advertising. Both local and chain stores
on and near the central commercial district filled 1955 newspapers with illustrative ads and
coupons. When Mattoon celebrated its centennial in 1955, Broadway Avenue stores acknowledged
the feat with congratulatory advertisements. Some local businesses, such as Hampton’s, Inc.,
included a detailed account of their role in Mattoon’s history in these advertisements (Figure 10).
Chain stores such as Sears and J.C. Penney recognized the festivities with advertisements
mentioning their expansions in Mattoon and offered congratulations to the city. Likewise, many
articles from the special centennial issue of the Journal Gazette concentrated on local businesses,
including many of those that were still in existence at the time. These stores, chain and local alike,
clearly had a special place in the community.
7
Addresses provided by the 1955 Mattoon Business Directory and advertisements from the 1955 editions of the Journal Gazette.
88
Figure 10. Hampton’s, Inc. advertisement for Mattoon’s Centennial Celebration. Image courtesy of
the Journal Gazette, September 1, 1955.
With so much influence, what happened to Broadway Avenue? In the 1960s, Mattoon saw
a couple of major changes in its landscape. A new four-lane highway, which became Illinois Route
16, was built between Mattoon and Charleston in 1962, connecting the two cities more efficiently.8
In 1969, an exit off of I-57, an interstate highway, in Mattoon onto Illinois Route 16 was built.9
Cars were becoming more practical in American life.10 This was promoted with similar measures of
transportation efficiency across the country such as the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 that
authorized the construction of a national interstate highway system with the use of federal funds.11
This increased ease of transportation via automobiles allowed for shopping centers outside of the
downtown commercial center to prosper. In 1971, just two years after the interstate exit was built,
Cross County Mall opened in Mattoon off of Route 16. The mall is roughly a couple of miles away
from the original central business district near Broadway and about a mile away from I-57. The
ease of travel offered by I-57 and Route 16 made this location desirable as new shopping centers
inched away from Broadway Avenue. Following its establishment, chain stores like J.C. Penney
and Sears that were once located on Broadway Avenue moved to the shopping mall.
In 1982, Wal-Mart opened in Mattoon at 301 Richmond Avenue, between Mattoon’s
historic downtown and the Cross County Mall.12 The location seemed to acknowledge the town’s
commercial center while maintaining easy access to Route 16. In 1992, Wal-Mart moved to its
current location at Dettro Drive off of Route 16 with close proximity to I-57.13 At that point, WalMart advertised themselves as a “Super Center.” In recent history, stores like Wal-Mart have posed
as a large threat to “Main Street.” Such big-box stores offer cheap merchandise in an efficient,
Rich Carlson, Illinois Highways, Webpage, 2005. Accessed November, 15, 2015.
Arthur Jackman, “Illinois Schedules Its Largest Highway Building Program,” Chicago Tribune, February 16, 1969.
10 Thomas W. Hanchett, “U.S. Tax Policy and the Shopping Center Boom of the 1950s and 1960s,” The American Historical Reviewer
101 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996), 1083.
11 Boyer, 220.
12 “Wal-Mart Set to Open Tuesday in Mattoon,” Journal Gazette, November 1, 1982.
13 “Land in trusts develops near Interstate 57,” Journal Gazette, August 17, 2005.
8
9
89
one-stop place by offering every necessity and beyond, including clothing, groceries, hardware,
auto supplies, stationary, and more.14 The store offers everything that Mattoon’s Broadway
Avenues stores in 1955 offered in one place conveniently located off of the highway.
Other chain stores followed Wal-Mart. Within close proximity, Staples opened in 1998, Home
Depot opened in 2002, and Aldi’s opened in 2004.15 What is striking about these new shopping
centers when compared to the stores that once lined Broadway Avenue is their disconnect with the
community. Unlike the stores such as Gehl Hardware or Eisner’s food store, Wal-Mart does not
have an origin story that ties closely to Mattoon. For instance, the Journal Gazette’s special
sesquicentennial edition mentioned businessman Katz as a notable person, yet Wal-Mart founder
Sam Walton was not mentioned.16
Unlike J.C. Penney or Sears of 1955, Wal-Mart did not actively acknowledge Mattoon’s
sesquicentennial in the town’s publications.17 Some chain businesses such as Dairy Queen, local
organizations such as churches, and local stores such as Schilling Funeral Home congratulated
Mattoon in the newspapers, but the amount of acknowledgment was overall underwhelming when
compared to the newspaper advertisements put out in congratulations to the city in 1955. This
could be in part due to the decline in importance of news print publications throughout recent
years due to the expansion of the Internet, but is seems to be at least in part due to the change in
the city’s commercial landscape.
What does Mattoon’s commercial center look like today? Today, it is a Wal-Mart
Supercenter surrounded by chain stores and restaurants in strip malls near the interstate. If the
commercial center has shifted, what happened to Broadway Avenue? Broadway Avenue, the
commercial center of Mattoon almost fifty years ago, is still home to many local businesses. The
Downtown Diner, Jack and Bill’s clothing store, and D To Z Sports keep customers in the
community coming to Broadway Avenue. Other buildings are the location of services such as the
State Farm insurance company. Many buildings on Broadway Avenue stand empty or are at least in
disrepair. Walking down the avenue, one will find many boarded windows and bare storefronts.
Figure 11. 1824 Broadway Avenue, Mattoon, Illinois. Photo by Rachel Tavaras, 2015.
Charles Fishman, The Wal-Mart Effect: How an Out-of-Town Superstore Became a Superpower (New York: Penguin, 2006), 223.
“Land in trusts develops near Interstate 57.”
16 Journal Gazette, August 17 2005.
17 Ibid.
14
15
90
Despite the disrepair, there have been attempts at revitalization on Broadway Avenue with
a renewed focus on local shops. Sears Hometown on Broadway advertises itself as a locally owned
option affiliated with the Sears hardware store chain. The Facebook group Celebrate Downtown
Mattoon promotes Broadway Avenue and surrounding stores, raising awareness for local options
away from the current commercial center through social media.
It was a combination of circumstances that caused Mattoon’s central commercial district to shift.
Separately, these events were not unique to Mattoon. The establishment of Wal-Mart, shopping
malls, and the federal interstate system was national in scale. Rather, it is how these events
transpired that makes this story unique to Mattoon. From the start, Mattoon’s commercial center
was oriented towards transportation. When railroads were most efficient for transportation, the
town of Mattoon plotted its central commercial district to establish easy access to the intersection
of two rail lines that made the city. This persisted for over one hundred years until automobile
transportation became the most efficient after the development of Route 16 and I-57.
Like many cities, a mall and a Wal-Mart were established in Mattoon, and the shift away from
“Main Street” continued. Today, Broadway Avenue is unrecognizable when compared to the
Broadway Avenue of 1955. This might be interpreted as the “death” of the American ideal of Main
Street. However, Route 16 near I-57 is now, in a sense, the new Main Street. It is a Main Street
lined with Wal-Mart and other chain stores rather than locally owned options mixed in with chains
within charming turn-of-the-century facades. For better or for worse, this is the modern reality
despite their disconnect with the Mattoon community. This might be the death of the ideal Main
Street, but it is not the death of Main Street as a physical space and a commercial center. The
history of Mattoon’s central commercial district is not about a death, but, rather, it is about the
evolution of a town.
91
______________________________________________________________________________
Springfield and Sangamon County in the Great War, 1917-1919
James Bishop
James Bishop, from Springfield, Illinois, wrote "Springfield and Sangamon County in the Great War, 1917-1919"
during my third semester as a graduate student for Dr. Roger Beck's World War I class. He earned a BA in
History and is just now finishing an MA in History, both at Eastern Illinois University. He is currently researching
eighteenth century American educational history and will, in the fall, be working on a Ph.D. at Louisiana State
University.
______________________________________________________________________________
Introduction
The Great War broke out in Europe on July 28, 1914 after the assassination of Archduke
Franz Ferdinand in Serbia. The tangled network of alliances established between the great
European powers led to Germany, France, Great Britain, Russia, and Austria-Hungary being
dragged into a war that would last for over four years and cost millions of lives. The United States,
desiring to maintain their neutrality in European affairs, stayed out of the war until 1917 when they
too were pulled into the war on the side of the Allies. Once the U.S. decisively entered the fray,
American men volunteered for service overseas while women and those not fighting in Europe
volunteered on the home front through local, state, and national organizations.
This paper will focus on the contributions of Springfield, Illinois as well as Sangamon County (the
greater Springfield area) in World War I from 1917 until 1919. This paper is divided into three
parts: the war front, the home front, and the aftermath of the war. The first part will look at
soldiers on the war front from Springfield and Sangamon County including those from the ThirtyThird Division (or Illinois/Prairie Division); the medical units of Tuttle and Otis; Otis B. Duncan
and the 370th Colored Infantry; and Kent Dunlap Hagler and the American Field Service (AFS).
92
The second part will look at the home front in Springfield and Sangamon County especially the
American Red Cross; the sale of Liberty/War Bonds; and Women’s Committee Activities. The third
part will examine the Homecoming Celebration in Sangamon County, the influenza epidemic, and
sum up Sangamon County and Springfield’s contributions to the Great War.
Part I: Sangamon County and The War Front, 1917-1919
America Enters the War, 1915-1917
By the time the United States entered World War I, the war had been raging for three bloody
years with no end in sight. America maintained her neutrality from the outbreak of the war but as
the months flew by it became increasingly more difficult to do so. The chief threat to American
neutrality was “the refusal of the German government to abandon or even modify her program of
submarine warfare as affecting neutral powers.”18 On May 7, 1915, the “Lusitania” was torpedoed
and sunk by a German U-boat costing one hundred American lives. This act served to turn national
sentiment against Germany and ultimately led to the United States going to war on the side of the
Allies. By 1916, Germany was willing to make a gesture of peace but this effort came to nothing and
soon thereafter German decided to resume unconditional submarine warfare. This fateful decision
would ultimately prove fatal to Germany as her resumption of the sinking of American merchant
ships brought America into the war on the side of the Allies. In order to afford more protection
against possible interference with postal, commercial, and military channels, fourteen National
Guard regiments throughout the United States were called to federal service in March 1917, among
them the First, Fifth, and Sixth Illinois Regiments of Infantry.19
The United States declared war on Germany on April 6, 1917 and began the slow and difficult
process of raising and training a much larger army than the U.S. had ever had in its short history.20
With this declaration of war, the Illinois Naval Militia, numbering approximately 600 officers and
men, was immediately mobilized and sent via train to the Philadelphia Naval Yard. On June 30,
1917, the Illinois National Guard numbered 16,766 officers and men.21
The Thirty-Third Division, 1917-1918
After the president’s call to arms, men from the Illinois National
Guard were placed under Federal authority with many soldiers,
especially from the Springfield area, making up the Thirty-Third
Division under Major General George E. Bell, Jr. Because most of
the Thirty-Third Division was from Illinois, it came to be known as
the Illinois or “Prairie” Division. The organization and much of the
training of the Thirty-Third took place at Camp Logan in Houston,
Texas from September 1917 until May 1918 when the division
crossed the Atlantic to fight on the western front in France.22
The units within the Thirty-Third Division that are focused on in this
paper are Company C and Battery A. The majority of men in
Company C were Sangamon County men who joined between March
and April 1917, after the Illinois National Guard was federalized.
Figure 1 Major General George E. Bell, Jr.
Commander of the Thirty-Third Division
Adjutant General’s Report, Roster of the Illinois National Guard and Illinois Naval Militia, 1917, vii. Published under provision of House
Bill No. 410, approved June 1, 1925. Quote taken from the Historical Introduction section of the book which is based on
information from Simonds’ History of the World War and Huidekoper-Jenison’s Illinois in the World War.
19 Ibid, vii.
20 Eric Dorn Brose, A History of the Great War: World War One and the International Crisis of the Early Twentieth Century (New York:
Oxford University Press, 2010), 249.
21 Adjutant General’s Report, Roster of the Illinois National Guard and Illinois Naval Militia, 1917, viii.
22 Duff, 35.
18
93
Company C was deployed to France aboard the U.S.S. Mt Vernon on May 16, 1918 and landed in
France ten days later. On September 6, 1918, Company C was transferred to Boise-des-Sartelles,
near Ballycourt, and “from that time on took part in operations which lasted through the MeuseArgonne Offensive which began September 26, and the operations in the Troyon Sector, which
ended with the Armistice on November 11, 1918.”23
Battery A (124th Field Artillery), composed largely of Springfield and Sangamon County men,
first saw action September 13, 1918, at Mon Sec, and was in action constantly until the signing of the
armistice. The men provided artillery support to seven American divisions: the First, Second,
Thirty-second, Thirty-fifth, Forty-second, Eighty-ninth, and Ninety-first. Battery A made a total
advance of sixty kilometers and fired 16,470 rounds of ammunition.24 Battery A’s artillery fire aided
in the capture of several French towns held by the Germans, including Very, Beauclair, Beaufort,
Cesse, and Martincourt. Battery A participated in the closing battle of Verdun and in the entire
engagement of the Meus-Argonne Offensive from October 26 until November 11, 1918. Overall,
the story of Battery A is one of valiant heroism. Nineteen of the officers and men received citations
for gallantry and bravery in action, and several others received Distinguished Service Crosses.25
Ottis’ and Tuttle’s Units: Illinois Medical Units Overseas
Illinois, in addition to the 351,153 soldiers posted overseas during the war, also contributed
to the federalized medical units that were sent to Europe. One of these, Unit W, which was
organized and commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Mortimer Ottis, consisted of twelve
doctors, twenty-one registered nurses, and fifty orderlies. Unit W was first organized under the
American Red Cross, but was federalized when the organization was completed. All members of
Ottis’ unit were from Springfield or the Sangamon County area with the exception of a few orderlies
who were from neighboring counties. On January 22, 1918, Unit W was called to Ft. McPherson,
Georgia, where it went into training in military service. The entire Unit W was posted to England on
May 11, 1918. There they opened a camp hospital in Plymouth, but were then transferred to
Liverpool and assigned to Camp Hospital No. 40 at Camp Knotty Ash where they were stationed
from June 4, 1918 to May 1, 1919. While at Camp Knotty Ash, Unit W contended with the global
flu epidemic, which took the lives of three members of Ottis’ Unit. They remained in England for
one year until returning to the United States where they were then mustered out.26
The Medical Detachment of the 130th Infantry, Thirty-third Division, generally known as
“Tuttle’s Unit,” was organized and trained by Colonel H.H. Tuttle of Springfield, Illinois. The men
in the unit were recruited in April 1917, and came primarily from from Springfield and the vicinity
“They received training in anatomy, first aid, hospital nursing, litter bearing, dispensary work, and XRay work at St. John’s Hospital in Springfield.”27 Following Colonel Tuttle’s summoning to Camp
Logan, Major Frank P. Hauld assumed command of the unit. In September 1917, Tuttle’s Unit was
transferred to Camp Logan and attached to the Thirty-third Division when they sailed overseas.
The Medical Detachment served with their regiment all the time it was in action, working up to the
front lines. The Unit was divided, with some members in each battalion, and cared for the wounded
of their regiment. After the Armistice, Tuttle’s Unit served with the Army of Occupation where
some members were cited for bravery in action during the war.28 Overall, the medical units from
Illinois served with distinction in World War I, braving the fighting alongside those from the ThirtyIbid, 37.
Ibid., 38-39.
25 Ibid., 39.
26 Ibid., 41.
27 Ibid., 45.
28 Ibid., 45.
23
24
94
Third Division as well as French and British wounded and other nationalities. Their actions
overseas were invaluable to the war effort as they worked tirelessly to treat those wounded in battle.
Otis B. Duncan and the Colored 370th Infantry
Lieutenant Colonel Otis B. Duncan was perhaps the most important
soldier from Springfield, Illinois to fight in World War I, but yet he receives
so little attention because almost no one knows his story. Lt. Col. Duncan
was the highest-ranking black officer to serve in the American Expeditionary
Force (AEF) in Europe in World War I. Duncan came from a prominent
black family in Springfield—his grandfather was William Fleurville, Abraham
Lincoln’s barber and friend—and joined the Illinois National Guard’s allblack Eighth Infantry Regiment in 1902. In 1916, Duncan served with the
regiment during the United States’ Mexican expedition against Mexican Figure 2 Lt. Col. Otis B. Duncan
revolutionary general Pancho Villa.29 When the Eighty Infantry Regiment 370th Infantry, 93rd Division
was called up for federal service in World War I, it was renamed the 370 th Regiment. Duncan, who
at the time was only a major, was put in charge of the Third Battalion of the 370 th Regiment. Upon
deployment in France in 1918, Duncan was promoted to lieutenant colonel. Unlike most other
African-American units during the war, the 370th Regiment’s enlisted men were all black, including
officers. However, the 370th’s black colonel, Franklin Dennison, was replaced in France by a white
officer, Colonel T.A. Roberts—who, like Duncan, was also from Springfield—leaving Duncan as
the AEF’s senior black officer.30 Given race relations at the time, especially in the AEF and the
American military in general, this was quite an accomplishment for Duncan. Duncan and the 370 th
saw their first action in the war in the Argonne Forest, near Soissons, and then along the Ois-Aine
Canal in September 1918. The unit’s most significant engagement occurred on September 30, 1918,
when Duncan’s Third Battalion captured Ferme-de-la-Riviere in France. By the time the Armistice
was signed on November 11, 1918, the 370th Regiment had pursued the Germans all the way back to
the Belgian border.31
In a letter sent by Duncan to his family back in Springfield in December, 1919, he tells them of his
receiving the French Croix de Guerre:
Monday the general decorated six officers of our regiment for distinguished services
in battle. I was awarded a Croix de Guerre with a division citation of which I am very
proud. What it was given to me for is written in French and if I find that I am not to
return soon, I will send you a copy in English. I cannot write this information to all
my friends. I have not the time, but I want them to know it. You show “Doc” this
letter and have him tell them. I should also like to have Mr. Blair know it. There is no
strict censorship now and you may make all this public. A large number of brigade
citations are to be made in this regiment, to both officers and men, for deeds of
bravery on the battlefields, and we are justly proud. We want the people over there
to know that we have given our full contribution to this war, that we have fought,
bled and died for the grand and noble principles of the war, and the sadness is, that
upon returning, we must meet those whose loved ones have lost their lives in this
far-off land.32
“Col. Otis B. Duncan,” SangamonLink, Sangamon County Historical Society, accessed November 18, 2015,
http://sangamoncountyhistory.org/wp/?p=2333.
30 Ibid.
31 Ibid.
32 “Lieut. Duncan Awarded Honors,” Daily Illinois State Journal Register, January 6, 1919, 2.
29
95
The language Duncan uses in this letter is proof that he was just as devoted to the “noble principles
of war” as his white counterparts. He wanted his family and friends at home to know of the brave
deeds that he and his soldiers performed in the war and that his hometown should be proud of their
accomplishments. In a time of racial inequality, both at home and on the war front, Duncan’s
achievements as well as his military rank meant everything. As the highest ranking AfricanAmerican officer in the AEF, Duncan’s achievements in World War I were even more praise-worthy
as he helped to disprove all of those back home who thought blacks inferior to whites. To the city
of Springfield, only a decade removed from the Race Riots of 1908, Duncan was a hero of World
War I. In tribute to Duncan, the Springfield American Legion Post 809 is named after him and he is
interred at Camp Butler National Cemetery right outside the city of Springfield.
Kent Dunlap Hagler and the American Field Service
While Duncan is perhaps the most powerful and inspiring of all the central Illinois World
War I figures, Kent Dunlap Hagler is definitely the most peculiar. Unlike Duncan and the 351,153
soldiers who fought overseas from Illinois, Hagler took a more roundabout way of ending up in
Europe. Professor Chris McDonald’s book “Three Lying or Four Sitting”: From the Front in a Ford,
details the Hagler’s journey through letters and photographs. In 1917, while a student at Harvard,
Hagler applied for, but was denied, entry into the United States military forces. He then left his
home in Springfield, and his place at Harvard, to become a volunteer ambulance driver with the
American Field Service (AFS).
Kent Hagler was born on December 31, 1897 in Springfield, Illinois to Dr. Elmer Hagler
and Kent Rolla Dunlap Hagler, both of whom were embedded in the upper echelons of Springfield
society. Kent had a relatively comfortable upbringing and attended Howe
School in Indiana, a Harvard preparatory, quasi-military school. In 1914 and
1915, Kent attended the University of Illinois at Champaign, where he
completed one academic year before transferring to Harvard in September
1915.33
At the same time Kent was attending school at both Illinois and
Harvard, Europe was “plunged into the catastrophe of the Great War” in the
late summer of 1914.34 Prior to the entry of the United States into World
War I, several American organizations were active in France in a number of
Figure 3 Kent Dunlap Hagler
different ways, but the American Ambulance Field Service (AFS) was to
Ambulance Driver for AFS
become the largest and most sophisticated operation in the medical field.
According to Chris McDonald, “this fact was tacitly recognized in 1917 when the AFS was
militarized and absorbed wholesale into the American Expeditionary Force (AEF).” 35 By 1917, the
AFS had a very active recruitment effort in the United States and was particularly active on the Ivy
League college campuses. Hagler, who was denied entry into the United States military forces due to
a childhood injury, saw the AFS as his only chance to be in the war. In a letter to the family priest,
Father Houghton in Springfield, Hagler expresses his reasons for volunteering:
I least of all know what they were. I should like to be able to say honestly that I acted only
through an unadultered spirit of service, but more or less quiet introspection tells me that
the composition of the complex which constituted the moving spirit in this case was chiefly
Chris McDonald, “Three Lying or Four Sitting” From the Front in a Ford: The WWI Letters of Kent Dunlap Hagler (Springfield, IL: Lincoln
Land Community College Press, 2015), 6-11.
34 Ibid., 11.
35 Ibid., 12.
33
96
an admixture of childish curiosity and a certain discontent with the abstracted, workaday life
of the student.36
This letter shows that there was an element of excitement and adventure to Kent Hagler’s reasons
for volunteering with the AFS. According to James Thomas Lapsley III, “the volunteer ambulance
services were an extension of a conservative and upper class ideology of duty and service that found
expression in the major universities and colleges of pre-war America.”37 In addition to duty and
service, there was also concern for a particular set of values of civilization, a preoccupation with the
notion of strength of character and a commitment to democracy.38 Whether or not these ideals
lined up with Hagler’s reason for joining is debatable, but they
do seem to coincide with elite American values, like those of
President Woodrow Wilson, and America’s reasons for
declaring war on Germany even though Wilson had pledged for
three long years that he was going to keep America out of
European affairs and wars.
Hagler headed off to France “excited and venturesome,
very much a volunteer off on the adventure of a lifetime.”39
Upon landing in France, Hagler and many other American AFS
volunteers were well received. He noted in a letter that “cabbies
lifted their toppers, the children sang ‘The Star-Spangled
Banner’, the women smiled, and even the cops saluted.”40
Hagler’s early experiences in the war were that of a naïve and
exuberant volunteer who loved the attention he received from
his welcomers in France. “After ten days of traveling, sight- Figure 4 AFS Recruitment Poster c. 1917
seeing, and loafing,” Hagler was sent off to the front with the
last of the Ford sections to be formed by the American Ambulance—Section 31 (or S.S.U. 31,
American Field Service).41 Between August 11th and 18th, 1917 Section 31 operated continuously in
and around Bois d’Avocourt. It was not long before over half of the section were suffering from
exposure to poison gas and many of the ambulances were damaged and in need of repair. This was
to be Hagler’s baptism of fire. In one letter he recounts his first experience of war:
Never shall I forget that first afternoon when I went to the outpost for my virgin
look at war. I had heard a great deal about the horror of war and yet somehow I
couldn’t think of it seriously on my way out. The noise of the guns was deafening,
invisible as they are at ten yards’ distance, even when firing, for they are camouflaged
with paint and covered with branches to hide them from the sausages and avions,
and the powder is absolutely smokeless.42
Hagler seems to realize here that he is in a war zone, but there is a sense that he does not fully
understand what war entails.
Ibid., 13-14.
Ibid., 15.
38 Ibid.
39 Ibid., 29.
40 Ibid., 54.
41 Ibid., 56-57. Quote taken from a letter to Hagler’s mother and father but the date is not known.
42 Ibid., 80.
36
37
97
Hagler also described the interactions the ambulance corps volunteers had with the soldiers.
He mentions the theatrical performances and French football [soccer] games being played. He even
tells in one letter of how “we in turn invited the [French] players and officers to come up to our
barracks that evening to discuss the possibilities of a baseball game—which we would teach them—
when the next attack was over.”43 Hagler’s reference to “when the next attack is over” makes it
seem as though they were merely over in Europe to fraternize with their fellow soldiers and not to
fight a bloody war.
In just a short amount of time after his arrival on the front, Kent is “rapidly transformed
from this exuberant, somewhat callow youth into a seasoned veteran of the front-line.”44 In a letter
to his brother, Elmer, Kent notes: “The bravery of the
moment—to do a half-desperate act—is all very well, but
that’s the least of it, for the things that get you are the
things that last for days…The gas; the cold; the rain and
mud; no food for a couple of days sometimes for a week;
bad sleeping quarters, at best in a dripping, muddy ratand-flea-infested abri; and ‘last but not least’ the rather
disconcerting sight of your comrades suffocating or
mussed over the lot.”45 After only a few weeks on the
front, Hagler seemed tired of war and disillusioned with
Figure 5 American Ambulance Service Vehicle and the reasons he originally had for joining the AFS.
Soldier taken just outside Verdun
Kent spent the next several months on the front lines with the AFS, tending to the wounded and
praying for a swift end to the war. On November 11, 1918, Kent got his wish, communicating in a
letter to his mother and father:
The war is done. All firing has ceased; this morning came by wireless the news that
the armistice is signed. There is no comment to make on such news. I am half
unable to realize its import, half incredulous of its truth, wandering desultorily about
shaking hands with old friends and reiterating “C’est fini” as if expecting a
contradiction. The victory is received by most with a great silent joy, superficially
apathetic because too deep to be articulate. Rather than a shout of triumph men
breathe a sigh of relief. The price of the victory is too well known.46
Kent, though happy that the war is over and that the Allies won, understood the price that had been
paid for victory. Too many men died for this to be a happy occasion for the survivers on the front.
Though this was the end of the fighting, it would not be a quick return home for Kent. Hagler’s
section remained on the front for four more months until they received their orders to return to
Paris, where they were demobilized on March 13, 1919.47 By the end of his stay in Europe, Kent
was frustrated with the “bureaucratization of the process of return” and with the United States
military in general. For men like Kent, the frustration was even greater considering that he had
volunteered for this mission and once the job was done found that “un-volunteering” would not be
quite so simple.48
Ibid., 94.
Ibid., 29.
45 Ibid., 97.
46 Ibid., 200.
47 Ibid., 205.
48 Ibid., 29.
43
44
98
Part II: Sangamon County and the Home Front, 1917-1919
American Red Cross in Sangamon County
Crucial to the home front during World War I was the work of the American Red Cross.
In August 1916, a small group of women met at the home of Mrs. William T. Lewis in Springfield to
further the call of the National Red Cross Membership campaign. The group was successful in
adding 1,300 new names and sent a check for $1,300 to Washington D.C. Today, $1,300 seems like
a mere pittance, but at the time this was a decent sum of money, so much so that those in
Washington sent a personal letter of thanks and urged Springfield to form a chapter. In February
1917, a petition was sent to the National Red Cross Society in Washington asking permission to
organize a local chapter. On March 30, 1917, the Springfield Chapter, having complied with all
specifications from Washington, was declared duly organized, having for its jurisdictions all of
Sangamon County, Illinois. After the close of the first membership campaign in April 1917, the
campaign had brought in about 7,000 members. Requests from other areas and towns of the county
and from surrounding counties soon arrived inquiring as to how they might organize and help in the
great work.49 In total, the local chapter of the Red Cross in Springfield organized 25 branches and
43 auxiliaries with permanent headquarters and offices established in Springfield.50
The Sangamon County Red Cross provided much needed services both at home and abroad.
Following America’s official declaration of war against the Central Powers, entirely new conditions
confronted the Chapter. On May 14, 1917 several new committees were created to take care of
impending needs including: Finance Committee, Purchasing Committee, Supplies and Distribution
of Work, Organization of Branches and Auxiliaries, and Chairman of Woman’s Work.51 Another
new, and subsequently very important, committee was the Red Cross Canteen Committee, which
served troop trains both during the war and after the Armistice was signed. The American Red
Cross Bureau of Canteen Service furnished free supplies including: coffee, newspaper, magazines,
soap, matches, paper towels, cigarettes, candy, post cards, sandwiches, and ice.52 Prior to the
Armistice, when the movement of troops was secret, only the Canteen Committee received
information regarding the passage of troop trains through the city. Following the Armistice in
November 1918, returning troop movements made the work of the Canteen service especially
heavy.53
In addition to volunteer recruitment, the Canteen service, and those who had been sent
overseas to either work at hospitals or oversee supplies distribution, the Red Cross also made and
shipped to the Front miscellaneous clothing items. From May 1917 to February 1919, the Sangamon
County Chapter of the Red Cross sent 768,670 total articles to the front lines.54 Furthermore, the
Red Cross also sent over thread, yarn, gauze, gingham, cotton, and flannel totaling approximately
$52,476 in value. In the Red Cross chairman’s report in October 1918, it is noted that “In April
1918 the first collection of clothing for relief of the people in Belgium was carried out at which time
we shipped twenty-seven boxes and crates of clothing, amounting to gross weight of 3900 lbs.” 55
Report of Mr. Barnes, Chair Membership Committee at annual meeting for election of directors November 20, 1918, 1. Sangamon
County Chapter American Red Cross.
50 Duff, 1125-1128. For a full list of all the branches and auxiliaries of the Sangamon County Red Cross see Appendix B.
51 Ibid., 1126.
52 American Red Cross Bureau of Canteen Service Semi-Monthly Report, July 31, 1917.
53 Ibid., 1132.
54 American Red Cross, Articles Made By Sangamon County Chapter Red Cross, From May 1917 to February 1919.
55 Sangamon County Chapter American Red Cross. Report of Chairman for the Year Ending October 1, 1918, 1.
49
99
Five months later, the Sangamon County Red Cross shipped 121 large boxes weighing 14,400 lbs. to
Belgium, nearly four times the amount shipped in April.56
# Sent
The Sangamon County Red Cross Society was also Article
called upon during the influenza epidemic to assist in Surgical Dressings
680,499
opening two emergency hospitals. The first hospital Pajamas
7,996
opened October 10, 1918, while the second opened on Hospital Shirts
13,332
December 15, 1918. In total, the hospital cared for 318 Convalescent Suits
418
patients with total expenditures equaling $8,299.52. Much Socks
30,890
of the equipment for the hospitals was loaned by the State Sweaters
12,750
Board of Agriculture from the Domestic Science School Wristlets and Mufflers
5,307
and many of the local hospitals furnished whatever else Helmets
6,446
was needed.57
Misc.
(pillows,
kits, 9,402
The work of the Sangamon County Red Cross, and handkerchiefs, etc.)
indeed all chapters of the Red Cross both foreign and Refugee Garments
1,300
domestic, contributed greatly to the war cause both at Paper Lined Vests
260
home and on the front. From the gathering of supplies, to Aviator’s Jackets
70
recruitment at home, and dealing with the influenza
epidemic of 1918-19, the Sangamon County Red Cross did Table 1 Articles Made By Sangamon Co.
whatever needed to be done to win the war. By May 1, Chapter Red Cross, From May 1917 to
1919 the Sangamon County Red Cross had dealt with 1,067 February 1919
families, sent relief to 152 families, and expended money on
relief totaling $5,402.93.58 The Red Cross also started two War Funds; the first totaling $90,979.71,
while the second totaled $132,962.37. Both of these funds brought in more money than were the
quotas assigned to Sangamon County.59
Liberty Loans and War Saving Stamps
In order to finance the war effort and build patriotism, the United States Treasury issued
securities termed “Liberty Bonds” in June and October 1917
and in May and October 1918. Because the promised rate of interest on the first Liberty Bond was
only 3.5%, which was too low for market conditions, the government put on a massive bond sales
campaign replete with celebrity endorsements, air shows, sensationalistic posters (like one showing
Manhattan
ablaze
and
Quota
# Subscribers
Amount
German bombers overhead),
$1,640,000 1,800
$1,802,800
window
stickers,
and First Liberty Loan
$4,471,700
buttons.60 The Liberty Loan Second Liberty Loan $2,638,800 8,000
Third
Liberty
Loan
$2,579,280
19,125
$3,631,100
organization in Sangamon
$6,213,100
County was started in May Fourth Liberty Loan $5,424,276 20,282
Victory
Loan
$4,099,750
N/A
$4,258,950
1917 and lasted until May
1919
when
it
went
successfully “over the top.”61 Table 2 Liberty Loan Results for Sangamon County
Ibid., 3.
Duff, 1129.
58 Ibid., 1128.
59 Ibid., 1129.
60 “Liberty Bond,” Museum of American Finance, accessed November 20, 2015,
http://www.moaf.org/exhibits/checks_balances/woodrow-wilson/liberty-bond.
61 Duff, 1139.
56
57
100
The First and Second Liberty loan quotas were exceeded in Sangamon County. The quota
for the Third Liberty Loan for SangamonCounty was $2,579,800. Actual investments in
Government Bonds were made to the amount of $3,716,100, an oversubscription that had few
equals in the United States. The quota assigned to Sangamon County for the Fifth, or Victory Loan,
in May, 1919, was originally $3,377,500, but this quota was voluntarily raised to $4,099,750 by the
Federal Reserve and other outside banks. The quota was exceeded as Sangamon County raised
$4,258,950 in subscriptions.
The estimated cost for World War I for the United States was approximately $32 billion. In
late 1917, in order to help pay for the costs incurred during the war, the United States Treasury
Department also issued war savings stamps.62 The sale of War
Savings Stamps, or “Baby Bonds” as they were more commonly
referred to, was conducted in Sangamon County under the
supervision of the postal authorities. The city and rural mail
carriers were the largest salesman for these “Baby Bonds.” 63 The
war stamp quota for each person in the school districts of
Sangamon County was $20. War savings “pledge days” were held to
raise funds. In every one of the meeting, to which the entire
community was invited, each man, woman, and child present was
given the opportunity to sign a war-savings pledge, to give what
they believed was their part in supporting the nations’ war-savings Figure 6 War Savings Stamps Poster
plan. William M. Conklin, chairman of the War Savings Stamps
Committee in Sangamon County, observed that the “Success of the national war-savings pledge day
meeting means carrying out one of the most gigantic schemes of the kind ever attempted.” 64
Between December 1917 and December 1918, Conklin reported that $1,250,000 was invested in
Thrift and War Savings Stamps in Sangamon County alone.65
“Woman’s Committee” Activities in Springfield
During World War I, women throughout Illinois actively supported the nation’s war effort.
Around the state, women’s support for the war effort was organized through their communities’
units of the Illinois Woman’s Committee (IWC), the statewide organization jointly created by the
state and national governments to mobilize and coordinate women’s war-related volunteer activities
on the home front.66 The women of the IWC, through their county and local branches, participated
in a variety of local activities designed to help their nation win its war, which included
“disseminating information from the government about the war effort, increasing food production,
and conserving food.”67
The Illinois Women’s Committee had a commanding presence in Sangamon County and, in
particular, in the city of Springfield. At its headquarters the Springfield Woman’s Committee kept
printed instructions on gardening as well as exhibits of garden tools available. Seeds were also sold
(given free to the poor), and experts were on hand to provide advice on coping with garden insect
“War Savings Stamps of the United States,” Wikipedia, accessed November 25, 2015,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_savings_stamps_of_the_United_States#World_War_I_Era.
63 Duff, 1141.
64 “146 Districts Ready for Push,” Daily Illinois State Journal Register, June 25, 1918, 3.
65 Duff, 1145.
66 Virginia R. Boynton, “’Even in the remotest parts of the state’: Downstate “Woman’s Committee” Activities on the Illinois Home
Front during World War I,” Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 96, no. 4 (Winter 2003/2004): 318.
67 Ibid.
62
101
pests.68 Local food production committees also worked more directly to increase the number of
fruit and vegetable gardens, sometimes by forming “war gardens clubs.” The Springfield Woman’s
Committee headquarters hung a city map on the wall showing “vacant lots for war gardens; the state
capital’s women also arranged for plow manufactures to demonstrate plows on vacant lots and
incidentally cultivate the land.”69 Overall, Illinois had 102 county Women’s Committees, more than
2,000 local Women’s Committees, more than 7,000 local Women’s Committee department leaders,
almost 700,000 women registered for wartime service, and more than 325,000 active volunteers.
“As the nation’s most quickly and most thoroughly organized state, Illinois was undoubtedly the
shining star of the national Woman’s Committee; when the national Woman’s Committee later
grouped its forty-eight State Divisions into three classes based on their levels of wartime activity and
their accomplishments, the first state listed in “class A” was Illinois.”70
Part III: The Aftermath of World War I, 1918-1919
Influenza Pandemic, 1918-1919
Although the Great War was terrifying in and of itself, it was the Influenza Pandemic that
first appeared in early 1918 that was the most frightening. Recent research demonstrates that the
“first comparatively nonlethal wave of the great influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 began not in
China, South Africa, Spain, or France, as variously claimed in the literature, but rather in rural
Haskell County, Kansas.”71 From rural Kansas in late February 1918 the flu spread quickly to
nearby Camp Funston, infecting 1,100 of 56,000 soldiers stationed there. Over the next few months
it “rampaged through two-thirds of the army’s new cantonments; scores of adjacent towns and
cities; hundreds of troopships; and via these transports to Brest, France.”72 Roughly 400,000
soldiers of all nations —every seventh man in Germany’s 2.8 million man force on the western
front—lay in bed or hospital. In harder-to-supply front line divisions in the middle of exhausting
combat, every third man suffered from the flu.73
As American troops came home from European battlefronts in 1918, they brought more
than battle wounds. Americans’ war against the Spanish flu began at military camps, where vets
were the first to become ill. The flu was first reported in Illinois at the Great Lakes Naval Training
Center, north of Chicago. Springfield had boys at that training center and its first encounter with
the pandemic came on September 22, 1918 when one of them, Charles Pritzlaff, died. By October
9, Sangamon County had 40 reported cases and the city of Springfield had its first flu death –
Lubertl Campbell.74 When the virus struck Springfield, it overwhelmed officials and residents. Dr.
Albert A. Campbell, Springfield’s Board of Health Superintendent, and his aides traveled throughout
the city placing “keep out” signs on homes of those infected with the flu. On October 15, 1918, as
local flu cases rose, the state Department of Health ordered Springfield’s theaters, pool halls and
other entertainment venues closed to stem the flu’s spread. In the middle of Springfield’s
quarantine, news came that Springfield’s health care professionals would be given a recently tested
flu vaccine. However, the vaccine seemed too little, too late, as the flu virus had already done its
job. On November 8, 1918, the quarantine on Springfield was lifted and the epidemic itself would
die out completely by the summer of 1919. Overall, the 1918 flu epidemic killed between an
estimated 20 to 50 million people (the numbers go as high as 100 million). That number included at
Ibid., 326.
Ibid.
70 Ibid., 337.
71 Brose, 337-338.
72 Ibid., 338.
73 Ibid.
74 Terra McClellan McAndrew, “Killer Flu Hits Springfield October 1918: Death Rules the Capital City,” Illinois Times, December 3,
2009. http://illinoistimes.com/article-6658-killer-flu-hits-springfield.html.
68
69
102
least 240 Springfieldians (some estimates suggest possibly as many as 300 or 350) according to the
Illinois Department of Public Health statistics.75 Overall, the flu epidemic of 1918 was even more
deadly than World War I itself as those who died in the war total an estimated 16 million compared
to the 20-50 million who died from the flu epidemic.
Homecoming Celebration in Sangamon County, June 1919
On June 24, 1919, Sangamon County welcomed home all of the men and women who
served their country overseas during the Great War. The celebration was for both men and women,
for white and black, for those in every branch of the service. There were more than 3,000 soldiers,
sailors, and Marines in the great parade, though only a few of the nurses and women in other lines
of War Service had returned before the celebration.76 Among those present at the Homecoming
Celebration were Governor Frank O. Lowden, General George E. Bell, Jr. (commander of the
Thirty-Third Division), and Brigadier General H.D. Todd. Business was suspended, all work ceased,
and everyone in the county flocked to Springfield, the center of the celebration, to pay tribute to the
men who had fought overseas. Bronze medals were presented to the families of the Gold Star men,
each medal giving the name and service of the man who made the ultimate sacrifice for his
country.77 In the words of Governor Lowden: “We have not forgotten the comrades who will come
back no more. The memories of those brave men who fell upon the greatest battlefields of history
will be tenderly cherished in the heart of Illinois and in the heart of our common country. For the
living, our gratitude, our love; for those silent comrades, our gratitude, our pride, our tears.”78 The
Homecoming Celebration was a day unlike any other. Indeed, it was a time of great joy as people
celebrated the end of one of the most horrifying wars in human history. But let us not forget those
who made the ultimate sacrifice.
Conclusion
Overall, hundreds of men and women from Sangamon County fought in, or participated in
through other means, the Great War. In total, Illinois sent 351,153 soldiers into Federal service. To
put that into perspective, one out of every twelve men in the United States Army was from Illinois.
Illinois furnished more men to the army and navy than any other state in the Union, with the
exception of New York and Pennsylvania, both of which had larger populations. By the time the
war had concluded in November 1918, more than 5,000 Illinois men had given their lives in defense
of world freedom and liberty. Of those 5,000 men, approximately 200 of them came from
Springfield or Sangamon County.79 Those men made the ultimate sacrifice on the battlefield in
order to keep their loved ones at home safe and, in the words of President Woodrow Wilson, to
“make the world safe for democracy.” For Illinois Governor Frank O. Lowden:
Those who spent months in camps in the United States and had none of the
excitement and dangers of battle, but who nevertheless served their country to the
best of their ability, also are entitled to our praise and gratitude. Home is Illinois—
America—the best country in the world. It has always been worth fighting for. The
men now sleeping on foreign battlefields have proven that it is worth dying for.80
Ibid. The numbers of those who died in the flu epidemic both in Springfield and in total are based on best estimates as it is hard to
pin down precisely how many died.
76 Duff, 47.
77 Ibid., 48. For a full list of those who were either KIA or died in the influenza epidemic see Appendix A.
78 Ibid., 7.
79 “World War I – Documents,” Illinois Digital Archives, accessed November 29, 2015,
http://www.idaillinois.org/cdm/landingpage/collection/isl8.
80 Duff, 7.
75
103
Though America only fought in World War I for about a year, it too endured hardships and pain just
like everyone else involved in the bloodiest conflict in history to that point. Springfield, and
Sangamon County as a whole, supported the war effort both in terms of soldiers sent and spent as
well as those who were willing to take up the cause on the home front. Their contributions will
never be forgotten nor will those who gave it all for a just cause have died in vain.
104
Appendix A: Sangamon County Casualty List
Orville B. Alexander
John Burley Hill
Wade Haskell Allen
Floyd Newton Hitchcock
George Julius Allman
Oakle Andrew Jackson
Joseph William Austin
Vernon Marion Johnson
Charles J. Ballweg
John Edmund Kelly
William Hazelys Barnes
Joseph Bryan Kelly
John Clyde Barratt
Raymond Joseph Kinsella
Charles Bennett
William Carl Kremitzki
William Leo Benson
John H. Laffey
William Frederick Blanke
Louis J. Lehmann
Rheuna L. Boynton
Harry Thomas Lenhart
Arthur Essex Bundy
Farley Lafore Lock
William Arthur Burke
Dwight Earl Lowry
Geneva Casstevens
Richard P. Ludtke
William F. Collier
Paul V. McGuire
Werner J. Bergschneider
Harry McIntyre
Malcolm Cunningham
Claud James Masterson
Orville DeWitt Cusac
Charles Bryan Morgan
Louis Edward De Souza
Roy Hellesen Mull
Otto Harrison Evans
John Joseph Murphy
Henry John Ferrari
Thomas Sylvester Powell
Francis Drennan Fletcher
Tony Pranchewicz
John Chester Foster
Charles P. Pritzlaff
Allyn Jason Gard
James A. Quick
Phineas C. Gates
John Rees
Frank Daniel Graves
John Andrew Reilly
Basil Francis Greenwood
James J. Rollman
John Thomas Hall
Paul F. Rubley
Joseph M. Hall
Herbert Dickens Ryman
Joseph Mathas Harney
Allyn B. Schaber
Harry Dean Harris
Otto Schorle
George Dewey Harrison
Remmer Harm Schroeder
Frank George Hein
John Louis Schuman
George Fay Henwood
Joseph L. Sment
Calvin William Hesse
Leslie Edwin Smith
Edward A. Kniery
Amos McDevitt
George Edward Alexander
William Anderson
Arthur H. Corson
William Leo Davis
Timothy Halley
Lester Holt
105
Lloyd Alva Staley
William G. Storey
Roy Hubert Sumpter
Harold E. Sweet
Dana Elery Swift
Barney M. Warden
Charles H. Willhite
Abraham Winakor
Frank Battan
Edward Robert Craig
David B. Custin
John Henry Davis
Herbert E. Elliott
Thomas Foggarty
Harry L. Fogle
James A. Gillespie
Isaac V. Goltra
Thomas J. Gudgell
William J. Haugh
Dean Parker Lanham
Walter T. Mannix
William A. Peifer
Stephen Shvagzdis
Charles Henry Simon
Joseph C. Sommers
Culmer T. Towner
James C. Wade
Harvey C. Wayne
John W. White
Carie D. Beasley
Samuel A. Belden
Abraham Lewis Bock
George W. Dunlap
Curtis Lyman Hodgen
Benjamin F. Kincaid
Joseph C. Patterson
Albert Clawson
Captain T. Enright
John Kedis
Appendix B: Red Cross Branches and Auxiliaries in Sangamon County During WWI81
Springfield Area
Rest of Sangamon County
Bergen Park House
Auburn
Bettie Stuart Institute
Bissell
Clementine Memorial Chapel
Buffalo
Converse School
Buffalo Hart
Douglas Avenue
Cantrall
Douglas School
Chatham
Eastern Star
Curran
Edwards Place
Curran Township
Enos School
Dawson
Feitshan’s School
Divernon
First Christian Church
Farmingdale
First Congregationalist Church
Glenarm
First Methodist Church
Illiopolis
George W Reed Circle #74 Ladies of the GAR
Island Grove
Girl’s Auxiliary of the YWCA
Loami
Grace Lutheran Church
Lowder
Harvard Park
Lowder-Talkington Township
Lawrence School
Mechanicsburg
Liberty Community
New Berlin
Masonic Temple, Daughters of Isabella
New City
Masonic Temple, Flower City Chapter
Pawnee
Masonic Temple Stephenson Women’s Relief Corp No 17 Pleasant Plains
McClernand Training School
Riverton
National Women’s Relief Society Auxiliary
Rochester
North Grand Place
Salisbury
Oak Hill
Sherman
Odd Fellows Temple, Triple Link Rebekah Lodge
Thayer
Odd Fellows Temple, Lilla Rebekah Lodge #633
Williamsville
Park Avenue
Sacred Heart Church
South 7th Street Baptist Church
St. John’s German Lutheran Church
Saints Peter & Paul Church
The Lincoln School
Ursuline
West Side #3/West Side Christian Church/West Side Junior
81
American Red Cross Charter of Branches and Auxiliary in Sangamon County 1917/1918.
106
Appendix C: Other Images from World War I
Springfield, IL
Figure 7 German Soldier in WWI Reenactment
Figure 8 WWI Reenactment Springfield IL
Figure 9 WWI Army unit temporarily housed at Hay-Edwards School in Springfield, IL
107
Appendix D: Family Members in WWI
Lee Roy Pryor (maternal great grandfather): Born on February 5,
1893. Farmer from Greene County, IL. Enlisted on September 20,
1917 in Carrollton, Illinois as a Private First Class (PFC). Arrived at
Camp Taylor in Kentucky later that month. Part of the 333 Sanitary
Training Class. On September 8, 1918 sailed from U.S. to France via
England. Drove an ambulance in France as part of the Evacuation
Ambulance 72. He returned to the U.S. on June 19, 1919 and was
discharged from Camp Grant in Illinois on July 1, 1919.
Fred Varnes (maternal great great uncle): Born in Canova, South
Dakota on February 22, 1893. Moved to Mott, North Dakota where
he enlisted in the Army during World War I. Awarded the Silver Star
for bravery in World War I. Saved the life of Teddy Roosevelt, Jr.,
son of the former president, after Roosevelt Jr. was shot in the leg and
gassed. Varnes risked his own life to carry Roosevelt Jr. to safety.
Figure 10 Lee with his Army
buddies at Camp Taylor in
Louisville, KY
John P. Rocklein (paternal great grandfather): Enlisted on October 13, 1915 from New York City as
a Private First Class (PFC) in the 165th Infantry. Fought in the Champagne Marne Defensive from
July 15-18, 1918; Aisne Marne Offensive July 18-August 6, 1918; St. Mihel Offensive from
September 12-16, 1918; Meuse Argonne Offensive from September 26-November 11, 1918. Part of
Army of Occupation from December 1918 to April 1919. Discharged May 7, 1919.
108
______________________________________________________________________________
Aisha: A Life and Legacy
Cayla Wagner
Cayla Wagner graduated with a BA in History with Departmental Honors in May 2016. She has served as
President of Eastern Illinois' History Club and participated in the Women Studies' Living History Program during
her undergraduate career. She wrote ‘Aisha: A Life and Legacy’ for Professor Brian Mann’s Islamic History class in
the Fall of 2015. She will pursue a MA in History with a Historical Administration Option from Eastern Illinois
University come Fall 2016. She comes from Orland Park, Illinois.
______________________________________________________________________________
Early Islam produced many prominent and leading women figures that would inspire and
influence their contemporaries. The most influential of any of the early Muslim women were
Muhammad’s wives, for their closeness to the holy prophet. Aisha, the third of the twelve wives, was
the most influential for her “holy” role as wife, and her political influence following Muhammad’s
death. Many modern Muslim women look to Aisha for influence and guidance. Through this role as
wife and public political figure, Aisha has circumscribed her prominence in Islamic history.
Role as Wife
Aisha bint Abu Bakr was an important influence to early Islam from a young age. 82 The
daughter of the prophet’s favorite and closest companion. Abu Bakr, Aisha rose to prominence at
the age of six, when she was betrothed and married to Muhammad. Her family lineage made Aisha
an extremely important figure to not only Muhammad, but to the Islamic community, and acts as an
important catalyst to establishing her role as wife.
Abu Bakr and his daughters made the hijra, or pilgrimage, to Medina with Muhammad in
622, confirming their conversion to Islam.83 Aisha took the hijra as well and thus converted to Islam
at an early age.84 Furthermore, Abu Bakr and Muhammad’s relationship grew closer after the hijra,
solidifying the trust and closeness between the family and the prophet. In the Islamic tradition, the
closeness of Abu Bakr and Muhammad suggested “a new basis for communal relationships forged
in faith, rather than blood.”85
Indeed, prior to the engagement of Muhammad and Aisha, Abu Bakr wondered how he
could marry his daughter to his brother. Muhammad, in reply, answered “‘you are my brother in
faith.’”86 Since Muhammad revered Abu Bakr, it is no surprise Aisha was revered by the prophet as
well. Furthermore, Sunni Muslims venerate Abu Bakr, and thus Aisha is highly thought of as an
influential individual in Islam.87 The strength of the relationship between Abu Bakr and Muhammad
strengthened the relationship between Aisha and Muhammad. Abu Bakr, considered to be the
“truthful man,” means that Aisha has been titled “daughter of the truthful man.”88 Family lineage
Sources used in this paper have used various spellings for Aisha’s name. This paper will solely spell her name as Aisha bint Abu
Bakr.
83 None of Abu Bakr’s wives went.
84 D.A. Spellberg, Politics, Gender, and the Islamic Past: The Legacy of A’isha bint Abi Bakr (New York: Colombia University Press, 1994),
32.
85 Ibid, 32.
86 Ibid, 32.
87 D.A. Spellberg constitutes the marriage of Aisha and Muhammad as a solidification of Abu Bakr and Muhammad’s “religious
commitment.” She continues to describe the difference in the importance of genealogy between Shi`i and Sunni Muslims: Abu Bakr’s
precedence in faith mattered more over lineage to Sunnis; Shi`i do not buy into the “brother in religion,” and constitute a true, familial
bloodline. See page 33 in her book.
88 Spellberg, 33.
82
109
alone, however, does not mark Aisha as a legacy throughout the history of Islam; while Abu Bakr is
a central figure to Aisha’s legacy, her own agency as wife is important as well.
Aisha’s agency in her role as wife is crucial to her influence in Islam. Prior to her engagement
to Muhammad, Aisha was engaged to a boy around her own age.89 Yet, after the hijra, the boy’s
family grew fearful of his conversion to Islam, and the engagement was subsequently broken. Aisha
was then betrothed to the Prophet alongside a widow named Sawda; both women were picked
because Aisha was a virgin, and Sawda was not.90
It is important to note that Aisha’s virginity seems to be a crucial aspect in her importance in
her role as wife. In a collection of lists dedicated to the reasons why Aisha was the favorite wife,
Aisha specifically notes that she is the only virgin of the twelve wives.91 Yet, the importance of
Aisha’s virginity is more of an attribution to her legacy rather than something to be honored; she
relentlessly reminded Muhammad that she was the only virgin until their marriage consummation
when she was approximately nine-years-old.92 Aisha’s most important role as wife, however,
transcends the physical world; her spiritual role as wife, therefore, makes Aisha crucial in the
influence in Islam.
Aisha’s involvement with the spiritual world not only makes her unlike the other wives, but
solidifies her role as wife and as an important figure in Islamic history. After the death of
Muhammad’s first wife, Khadija, Muhammad dreamt about Aisha. The angel Gabriel came to
Muhammad bearing a silk cloth with Aisha’s likeness, instructing Muhammad to marry her. Though
the stories in the hadith vary on who exactly the angel was and when the angel visited Muhammad, it
signifies the importance of Aisha. D.A. Spellberg continues this, stating: “Aisha is not just defined as
the Prophet’s wife, but his wife ‘in this world and the next,’ a phrase that effectively links her
divinely ordained marital arrangement with her posthumous place in heaven.”93 This ethereal
encounter with Gabriel had given rise to the favoritism of Aisha, thus allowing her to become an
influential figure in Islam.
The encounter with Gabriel sets Aisha apart from the other wives of Muhammad, making
Aisha an important figure in Islam. In her list of why she’s the Prophet’s favorite wife, Aisha notes
several important and intimate actions Muhammad performed in front of her, unlike any other wife.
She states that she was the only wife to wash with Muhammad—both ceremoniously and for
cleanliness.94Ghusl, the ritual washing of the body, was to be done alone in preparation for prayer. 95
Aisha also states that Muhammad would pray and receive revelations in front of her, unlike any of
the other wives. She would even chew a stick before Muhammad used it as a toothbrush, doing so
daily up until his death.96 D.A. Spellberg states:
Her special knowledge of significant acts of prayer, ablution, and cleanliness
performed by the Prophet Muhammad made her an especially valued source of
ritually significant information for the Sunni Muslim community, who in all matters
looked to the Prophet’s human example in the performance of their daily life.97
Aisha was probably around 6 or 7 when she married Muhammad.
Leila Ahmed, “Women and the Advent of Islam,” Signs 11, no. 4 (1986): 674.
91 Spellberg, 30.
92 Spellberg, 40.
93 Spellberg, 43.
94 Spellberg, 30.
95 Ruth Roded, ed. Women in Islam and the Middle East: A Reader (London: I.B. Publishers, 1999), 96.
96 Spellberg, 37.
97 Spellberg, 37.
89
90
110
Aisha’s glimpse into the intimate life of the Prophet Muhammad, unlike the other wives, is
important in the continuation of Islamic tradition and makes her an influential source in Islam.
While other wives did, in fact, contribute a lot to Islam and are revered in the contemporary era,
Aisha’s own lineage, spiritual connection, and intimate practices set her aside from the other wives.
Aisha was truly a “favorite” wife of Muhammad, and truly dedicated to the religion. Her role as a
political and public figure further solidified her influential status.
Role as Public and Political Figure
Aisha’s role in the public and political sphere further cemented her influential and legacy in
Islam. Some pre-Islamic tribes were matrilineal and matrilocal, meaning that many of the practices
were done by women and the ancestral lines were traced through the mother’s line. Furthermore, it
emphasized a great role women played in the political, economic, and social aspect of their tribes.
During the rise of Islam, individuality began to trump tribal focuses, and many scholars pinpoint the
diminishing tribes to the rise of the patriarchy.98
Aisha was probably not involved with politics immediately following her marriage to
Muhammad; after all, she was a young girl, and her political awareness only grew around
Muhammad’s death in 632, when Aisha was eighteen.99 Muhammad built apartment-styled homes on
the eastern wall of the mosque for each of his wives, and would allocate several nights to each of
them. This caused a lot of tension between the wives, each believing the Prophet was spending the
least amount of time with the individual wife. Shortly after, Muhammad received Quranic verse
33:33, and Nikki R. Keddie describes the implications:
[The Quranic verse stated:] ‘And stay in your houses…and do not strut about in the
manner of the former Jahiliyyah, and perform prayer and give the alms, and obey
God and His Prophet. God wishes to put all filthiness away from you, People of the
House.’ The direction to Muhammad’s wives to stay in their houses was later applied
to all women, though only women who did not have to go out to do work and
errands could observe it. This verse was also used [by later Islamic jurists] to
legitimate Muslim women’s exclusion from participating in public affairs.100
Aisha backed Muhammad’s revelation to seclude herself within the houses; she feared antiMuslim individuals would find out who she and the other wives were, molest them, and take them as
slaves.101
This seclusion solidified the growing patriarchy, and Aisha would soon challenge it with her
political and public sphere. “By institution seclusion,” writes Leila Ahmed, “[Muhammad] created a
distance between the wives and this thronging community on their doorstep—the distance
appropriate to the wives of a now powerful and successful patriarchal leader in a newly ambiguously
patriarchal society.”102
Following the death of the Prophet, and the urge to find a successor to the caliphate, Aisha’s
political and public influence challenged the patriarchy—and ultimately failed. Following the death
of Uthman, a successor caliph, and the rise of Ali, Aisha took to a public speech—veiled due to the
Nikki R. Keddie, Women in the Middle East: Past and Present (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2007), 18.
Hoda Elsadda, “Discourses on Women’s Biographies and Cultural Identity: Twentieth-Century Representations of the Life of
‘A’isha Bint Abi Bakr,” Feminist Studies 27, no. 1 (2001): 46.
100 Keddie, 23.
101 Ahmed, 682. Following Muhammad’s death, all of the wives received pensions. Interestingly, Aisha received the largest pension,
and all of the women were allowed to continue to live in the apartment houses.
102 Ahmed, 683.
98
99
111
seclusion revelation—and took to the Battle of the Camel in 656. Though she and her soldiers
ultimately failed in the Battle, the aftermath in the legacy of Aisha was significant and revolutionary.
Defeated, Aisha returned to her home and refrained from political activity; yet, her role in
the Battle of the Camel was significant to the further development and influence in the role of
women in Islam. She felt defeated not only because she had lost the battle, but because she
deliberately broke the seclusion rule Muhammad had laid out.103 Following her loss, adversaries
criticized her for stepping outside of her place in the home; the patriarchy was in full effect, and
Aisha directly challenged it.104
By challenging the patriarchy, Muslim women’s roles were directly challenged in the
generations following the first Muslims. Early hadiths pinpoint Aisha’s loss at the Battle of the
Camel as an example as to why women should not be in politics or seek political advice. According
to the hadith, women are considered fitna, a source of temptation.105 Women’s inferiority was in full
swing. Of course, not all of this can be completely traced back to Aisha and her involvement with
the Battle of the Camel, but Aisha is a prominent figure that scholars have traced back. Nikki R.
Keddie attributes Aisha’s downfall to that of the Judeo-Christian Eve, as a “causer of major
trouble,” and that God had made women foolish.106 Following her fall from political and public ways
of life, Aisha turned to translating over 1200 hadiths. She carried out the remainder of her life quiet,
using the hadith translations as a way to not only further preach the words of the Prophet, but to
spread her influence.107 While the role of Aisha in Islamic History ultimately lead to negative
implications on all Muslim women, Aisha still played an important part in shaping early Islamic
women’s history in general. Through both her roles as wife and public/political leader, Aisha
demonstrates not only Muhammad’s favoritism, but the influence she would have throughout Islam.
Aisha’s role as wife and as a political and public figure makes her a prominent figure in the
early developments in Islam. Aisha witnessed the rise of the patriarchy and made severe attempts to
push past it; though these attempts to push past it ultimately ended in failure and place restrictions
on Muslim women, many Sunni Muslims revere Aisha for her faith to Islam and Muhammad.
Aisha’s strong influence continues throughout Islamic communities today, and because of her
loyalty and dedication, should be labeled as the Prophet’s favorite wife.
Ahmed, 689.
Elsadda, 46.
105 Keddie, 34.
106 Keddie, 35.
107 Roded, 49.
103
104
112
______________________________________________________________________________
The Fundamental Role of Prostitutes: How Harlots Dominated Medieval Society
Hailey Perry
Hailey Perry, from Philo, Illinois, wrote “The Fundamental Role of Prostitutes: How Harlots Dominated Medieval
Society” during her junior year for Dr. Joy Kammerling’s Renaissance and Reformation course in Spring 2015. A
member of Phi Alpha Theta and Golden Key International Honour Society, Hailey will be earning her BA in
History in May 2016.
______________________________________________________________________________
Prostitution, the oldest human profession, played a fundamental role in the lives of medieval
Christians. As a civic resource, brothels provided entertainment for youthful men, as well as an
outlet for their “uncontrollable” sexual desires. Until the Reformation, canonists and theologians
ignored the moral consequences and recognized prostitution as a necessary evil for both men and
women. As a result, municipal brothels were opened in order to render authority over to the city.
“Common women” were assumed universal to all and unfortunately lacked many privileges and
rights other women and men possessed. Although Medieval Christians struggled with prostitution,
without the profession many “honest” women would have perhaps been overwhelmed by crazed,
horny men who lacked an outlet for their irrepressible desires.
So, who was a prostitute? “Most cities contained orphans, ‘ruined’ girls, and untrained
women of the lowest classes who frequently had no choice but to sell their bodies. Their problems
usually increased as they got older; some prostitutes went from one branch of the profession to
another in a downward spiral.”1 For example, a prostitute would start off as a mistress, and then
later become a prostitute at a brothel, but eventually she would become “too old” for the profession
and she may choose to be a brothel-keeper, or madam; however, more often than not, former
prostitutes end up on the streets as beggars.2 Most canonists saw financial need as the main cause of
prostitution, but they did not consider poverty as a justification.3 “Involuntary prostitutes (i.e., girls
who had been sold into prostitution by their parents or masters) could petition the local bishop or
other authority to liberate them from their carnal bondage.”4
The treatment of a prostitute in medieval Europe, as well as how her trade was regulated for
public order and policy, sheds some light on the expansion of power of the canonists at this time.
Canonists, or the lawyers of the medieval church, “constructed an elaborate and closely reasoned
system of jurisprudence to regulate all the branches of human activity that touched upon the moral
interests, the business activities, and the social concerns of the church...”5 The Church and their
canonists were extremely influential in the structure of how society functioned. It is important to
note, that canonists relied heavily on Roman law as a major source for their legal and moral concepts
of law. So, how did the canonists regulate the oldest human profession?6 First of all, they had to rely
on a concrete definition for a prostitute, and they employed Saint Jerome’s basic criteria for a
prostitute: “A whore is one who is available for the lust of many men.”7 A very short and simple
definition, which clearly emphasized the promiscuity of the prostitute. For medieval canonists,
Marty Williams and Anne Echols, Between Pit and Pedestal: Women in the Middle Ages (Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishers,
1994), 99.
2 Williams and Echols, Between Pit and Pedestal, 99.
3 James A. Brundage, “Prostitution in the Medieval Canon Law,” Signs 1 (1997): 836.
4 Ibid., 842.
5 Brundage, “Prostitution in the Medieval Canon Law,” 826.
6 Ibid., 825.
7 Ibid., 827.
1
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promiscuity was the key element of prostitution because without promiscuity, a woman would not
be in the profession. Cardinal Hostiensis, one of the most prominent thirteenth-century canonists,
stressed that “a prostitute was not only sexually promiscuous, she was openly and publicly
promiscuous.”8 Another canonist, Joannes Andrea, also noted that a prostitute “systematically
deceives those whom she serves...the simulation of love or at least emotional intimacy between the
prostitute and her client.”9 Prostitution was an offering of the body in return for money, as long as
the woman made herself available to more than one or two men.10
Canonists disapproved of prostitution, believing that it was morally offensive and needs to
be repressed, however, they lacked argument from the scripture. Instead, they tolerated prostitution,
distinguishing it as a necessary evil. Saint Augustine observed that the elimination of prostitution
would cause a disturbance in social order and in the established patterns of sexual relationships.
According to canonists and theologians, prostitution was necessary for the public good.11 Because
sexual intercourse is a part of nature, the practical toleration of prostitution was justified. It was no
secret to the canonists that men had a natural appetite for sex with women, but, according to
canonists, sexual appetite was not an excused circumstance for having sexual intercourse with a
prostitute.
Though prostitution was seen as necessary evil, the Church still promoted the structure of
marriage and its repression of sexual temptation. Although sex was allowed in marriage, for many
theologians at this time, sex within marriage without intent to procreate, was still sinful. 12 However,
some canonists focused their efforts on promoting sex within marriage so that both husband and
wife would be satisfied and outlets such as prostitution, would not be necessary. The canonists
treated sex within marriage as an obligation, enforceable at law.13 Monogamous marriage was one of
the keys to a Christian life. Promiscuity was strictly forbidden for women, and women were more
severely punished for committing adultery than men.14 There was no space in society for unmarried,
heterosexual, active, single woman.15 If she was not a wife, then she was an assumed prostitute.
According to the Church, women were more susceptible to sexual desires due to overly trusting
nature, ignorance to sin, and their early onset of sexual readiness.16 These “handicaps” enabled the
Church to teach a double standard of sexual morality. Theologians often taught that modesty was a
woman’s glory, so therefore a woman who did not “blush at sex” was “at heart a whore.”17
Commercial prostitution tended to be largely in cities, due to the overwhelmingly wide
variety of services in demand.18 City-run brothels, or municipal brothels required their brothelkeepers to swear an annual oath of office to the Council.19 Because the brothel was a civic asset,
women were subjected to inspection by officials who were usually midwives that were hired to
ensure that the brothel-keeper was fulfilling his obligation to provide the city with “suitable, clean,
and healthy women.”20 Prostitutes at municipal brothels were expected to always be free from
Ibid., 827.
Ibid., 828.
10 Ibid., 828.
11 Brundage, “Prostitution in the Medieval Canon Law,” 830.
12 Ibid., 831.
13 Ibid., 832.
14 Williams and Echols, Between Pit and Pedestal, 92.
15 Ruth Mazo Karras, Sexuality in Medieval Europe: Doing Unto Others (New York: Routledge, 2005), 104.
16 Brundage, “Prostitution in the Medieval Canon Law,” 833.
17 Ibid., 834.
18 Ruth Mazo Karras, Common Women: Prostitution and Sexuality in Medieval England (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996),
14.
19 Lyndal Roper, The Holy Household: Women and Morals in Reformation Augsburg (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989), 89.
20 Ibid., 90.
8
9
114
diseases such as syphilis, should be of age, and of sound mind. 21 Common women were also not
allowed to develop preferences in their clients, even being forbidden to say no to any man who
pays.22
Despite brothels being public institutions, they were not “officially” open to all men;
theoretically, married men were prohibited from entering, and consequently would even face
punishment if they were discovered.23 Of course, brothels were designed for a particular clientele—
“journeymen and apprentices.”24 The brothel served as a rite of passage for many young men,
allowing them to celebrate their youthful male virility; young men were unsuited to marry until they
could support a wife and children, and as a result, the brothel was the ideal evening entertainment
for young men.25 Sexual experience, even with a prostitute, signified a young man becoming “a real
man”; furthermore, due to these prostitutes being “common women”, or belonging to all men in
common, sexual experience with a prostitute also strengthened male bonding.26
Because of the lack of social status for prostitutes, many were not even required to obey the
law because she was beneath the law’s contempt.27 Consequently, common women lacked legal
protection. Prostitutes were not able to sue men for their fees, nor could they accuse anyone of theft
or assault.28 A common assumption at the time was only non-prostitutes, or chaste women, could
actually be raped or assaulted due to a supposition that the women had given consent to all by her
choice of profession.29 On the other hand, town laws and even rape statutes existed in places that
saw prostitution as a vital civic resource, which protected “honest” women from unruly men.30
Money given to prostitutes was not permitted to be reclaimed by the customer, and according to
doctrine of classical Roman lawyers, which was still current law in many secular jurisdictions, “the
client had no right to take back the money he had paid for her sexual services.” 31 Furthermore,
prostitutes were not permitted to charge more than a “just price for her services.”32 The money she
received was lawfully hers, and consequently she was forced to pay tithes from her earnings.33 Saint
Thomas Aquinas declared that she must pay the tithe, but the church is allowed to not accept the
payment until she reforms.34 Although they had some rights, prostitutes had extremely limited power
in regards to either complaining wrongs done to her or alleging an assault or rape.35 “The medieval
law viewed the prostitute as a largely powerless person, socially degraded, but in actual practice
tolerated and allowed to exercise some limited property rights in her earnings.”36
Most clergy advocated reforming prostitutes, perhaps even the conversion of the women
into nuns. They could even marry if they were able to find husbands; in 1198, Pope Innocent III
stated marrying a prostitute as a means to reform her “a work of charity.”37 Additionally, Gospel
writers portrayed prostitutes as poor and exploited women who should be pitied not condemned.38
Ibid., 91.
Ibid., 93
23 Ibid., 91.
24 Roper, The Holy Household, 92.
25 Ibid., 93.
26 Ibid., 94.
27 Brundage, “Prostitution in Medieval Canon Law,” 837.
28 Williams and Echols, Pit and Pedestal, 95.
29 Karras, Sexuality in Medieval Europe, 106.
30 Williams and Echols, Pit and Pedestal, 95.
31 Brundage, “Prostitution in Medieval Canon Law,” 837.
32 Brundage, “Prostitution in the Medieval Canon Law,” 838.
33 Ibid., 838.
34 Ibid., 838.
35 Ibid., 839.
36 Ibid., 841.
37 Williams and Echols, Between Pit and Pedestal, 94.
38 Vern L. Bullough, “Sex Education in Medieval Christianity,” The Journal of Sex Research 13 (1977): 192.
21
22
115
Medieval Christians held a fascination with the legends of Harlot Saints. “Saints who had been
sinners embodied the message that confession, contrition, and penance could wipe away the worst
of sins, and saints who had been whores embodied it most drastically.”39 Hagiography was one of
the most popular literary genres, and four prostitute saints’ legends were widely known at this time:
Mary Magdalen, Mary of Egypt, Thais, and Pelagia.40 A whore who became a saint symbolized “the
sinful soul redeemed through Christ,” while a prostitute who did not quit her profession was a
“figure of sin and temptation.”41 Mary Magdalen, the prostitute mentioned in the Bible who had first
discovered the empty tomb of Jesus and Jesus’s Resurrection, played a pivotal role in the way
medieval Christians viewed prostitutes who sought reform, or redemption.42 Mary was the widow of
rich landowner in Magdala who had began prostitution after spending her inheritance on “frivolous
pleasures.”43 Although Mary was never depicted as a professional prostitute, she became the patron
saint of repentant prostitutes.44 On the other hand, Mary of Egypt’s story is unique: she was a
prostitute all of her life, even paying her passage to Jerusalem with her body. One day in church, a
voice tells her to cross the Jordan in order for her sins to be forgiven. She finished her life as an
ascetic in the desert, even accepting communion once from Saint Zosimus.45 Asceticism and
repentance remained crucial in Mary’s story, much like Thais, who was an extremely beautiful
prostitute who enabled men to give her all of their riches for her services. After she repents to Saint
Paphnutius, she burnt all of her possessions and retired to the desert as an ascetic. Saint Pelagia was
an “actress,” a profession notorious for loose morals. She lived a life emphasizing her beauty, riches,
gold, and gems, but after hearing Bishop Nonnus give a sermon, she converted and became a desert
ascetic. During her final years, she disguised herself as a man, and only after her death did her fellow
ascetics discover her true sex.46
“As small numbers of prostitutes left the brothel, the Council showed its support for the
reintegration of the women into respectable life by presenting them with an outfit of clothes—a gift
47
both practical and symbolic, for the mock noble attire of prostitutes branded them as such.”
Reformers began to question the assumption that male desire was an uncontrollable force, which
justified the means for prostitution.48 Although prostitution was regarded as the cure for male lust,
reformers and others alike began to see contradictions between church doctrine, law, and
prostitution; promoting an illicit act as a necessary evil was no longer going to be accepted by those
following the Reformation. The closure of town brothels represented a new idea that male lust could
be directed towards marriage, and not towards a brothel. However, it would be wrong to assume
that all medieval prostitution ends here: in fact, the line between prostitute and non- prostitute
began to blur and distinguishing “good matrons from evil” was impossible.49 Finally, though, “the
whore” had become a moral category and not just a profession.
Despite resistance from theologians and canonists, prostitutes flourished in medieval society.
Municipal brothels enabled commercial prostitution to an extent that served as an important civic
resource for the city. Brothels played a crucial role, theoretically, as a justified outlet for men’s sexual
desires. Because of their “sacrifice,” women were able to avoid the advances of men who had
Karras, Common Women, 120.
Ibid., 120.
41 Karras, Common Women, 119.
42 Bullough, “Sex Education in Medieval Christianity,” 192.
43 Ibid., 192
44 Ruth Mazo Karras, “Holy Harlots: Prostitute Saints in Medieval England,” Journal of the History of Sexuality 1 (1990): 18.
45 Ibid., 7.
46 Ibid., 14.
47 Karras, “Holy Harlots,” 103.
48 Roper, The Holy Household, 107.
49 Ibid., 130.
39
40
116
uncontrollable emotions. Through hagiography, prostitution was seen as unnecessary evil for both
men and women, until one day when the women would ultimately become pious Christian women
and the men become faithful husbands.
117
______________________________________________________________________________
Petticoats, Passes. And Propaganda: The Role of Female Spies During the American
Revolution 1775-1783
Emily McInerney
Emily McInerney, from Chicago, Illinois, is a graduate student in the History Department with an option in
Historical Administration. Her paper "Petticoats, Passes and Propaganda: The Role of Female Spies during the
American Revolution, 1775-1783" as an independent study under the supervision of Dr. Charles Foy in the spring
semester of the 2014-2015 academic year. Emily expects to complete her Master's Degree in December of 2016.
While every conflict shares similar characteristics, there has always one constant: the desire
of combatants to have information regarding the opposing side’s intentions. Spies, while called a
variety of names, have proven to be one of the most successful means of acquiring intelligence. A
“spy” is a person who takes information intended to be private and passes it along to a third party
for means of creating a tactical advantage. During the American Revolution, both British and
American forces regularly used spies. While scholarship and popular culture tends to highlight male
agents, women had more means of gaining and transporting information effectively.50 Viewed as the
secondary sex, women were frequently overlooked, and therefore could observe and gather data in
an unobtrusive fashion. As a result, during the American Revolution female spies were often more
effective than their male counterparts, whether they sought out information while in their towns,
travelling, or operating in a disguise. In each of these three types of spying women were able to
operate in ways not open to men, thus provide critical information to both British and American
forces.
During the Revolution the region between New York City and Philadelphia was highly
contested. From Washington’s retreat following the Battle of Long Island in 1776 to Evacuation
Day in November 1783 British forces controlled New York City. During the same period, with the
exception of British occupation in 1777-78, the rebels’ capital was in Philadelphia. American and
British forces regularly moved through the area between these two cities seeking to inflict harm
upon their enemy and to assert control over an area that from the Battle of Trenton to the end of
the war neither side was able to dominate. Because the lines of influence were so fluid, spies did not
need to travel great distances to obtain information. This situation also allowed for easier travel,
when necessary. Passes enabled women “to move freely between the lines.”51
Because women were seen as caregivers of their families, they had the ability to travel greater
distances without being noticed. Men would have had a more difficult time moving between states
because they would have to have had an alibi for doing so. Women, on the other hand, could tell
officials they were going out of town to help with an ill relative without raising questions. 52 Since
areas within this contested space where British and American forces might be located were so close
to one another, it would not be unusual for a woman to ask for a pass to cross from a British locale
John A. Nagy and Judith L. Van Buskirk have demonstrated the use of spies, both male and female, during the American
Revolution. John A Nagy, Invisible Ink: Spycraft of the American Revolution. (Yardley, Pennsylvania: Westholme Publishing, 2010); Judith
L. Van Buskirk, Generous Enemies: Patriots and Loyalists in Revolutionary New York (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002).
The TV series Turn depicts spies living in New York working for General Washington. In doing so it shows different methods of
spying and the strains placed on families because of the secrecy involved in spying.
51 John A Nagy, Invisible Ink: Spycraft of the American Revolution. (Yardley, Pennsylvania: Westholme Publishing, 2010), 12.
52 Women’s movements between enemy lines did vex officials on both sides. As Governor William Livingston of New Jersey
observed, it was difficult at times to draw “distinction between who would and who would not injure their country,” when given
passes. Van Buskirk, Generous Enemies, 65.
50
118
to an American locale, or vice versa, to visit a family member.53 Thus, the cheek-to-jowl location of
enemy forces combined with gender attitudes created a circumstance where information could be
transmitted orally, eliminating the possibility of written communications that could prove to be the
death of a spy.
Map 1. John Douglas Alden,
“Battles and Skirmishes of the
American Revolution in New
Jersey” (1877).
The map shows just how close
New York City was to the New
Jersey border. The multiple
waterways in the region allowed
for a multi-frontal military assault,
as well as provided several routes
for spies to quickly transmit
critical information. The lack of
modern formal roads allowed
spies to move undetected and
avoid roadblocks where they
would have been searched by
opposing forces.
Though there has been a good deal of scholarship regarding the use of spies, there is not
much primary documentation of who was actually a spy during the Revolution.54 Because spying was
a treasonous act, often punishable by death, identities were largely kept secret through the use of
code names. As a result, there remains limited documentation of Revolutionary spies’ lives. This
circumstance forces historians to contextualize spying and the types of people who would have the
ability to pass along information easily to develop educated hypothesis as to who were spies and
how they operated. By looking at gender roles, a cohesive picture can be constructed about the lives
of female spies. Women were expected to maintain the home and maintain a conservative public
At the same time, military officials on both sides did not subject correspondence to and from their husbands with the same level of
scrutiny that letters between men received. Thus, when the British intercepted a packet of Washington’s letters they opened all but
sent his letter to Mrs. Washington on to him assuming it was a private matter. Van Buskirk, Generous Enemies, 63.
54 Although John Nagy has been able to successfully identify several spies from letters and journal entries, much of the original
documentation regarding spies had been destroyed during the war in order to protect the spies’ identity. The constant fear of
information being intercepted forced men, like Washington, to take precautions regarding physical evidence of spies working for
them.
53
119
image, since freedoms for women were often seen as “threatening.”55 These socially constructed
ideologies of how each sex was supposed to behave in the late eighteenth-century were reinforced
early on in women’s lives. Each family member was classified in specified ways, whether by age,
gender or skin color creating “ideal relationships.”56 This meant that children grew up knowing men
would be the heads of households while women were to remain in their husbands’ and fathers’
shadows.57 During the Revolution, these rigid conceptions of gender roles allowed some women to
move about unquestioned as their gender caused them to be viewed as non-threatening.
When spying, the rewards women would receive had to surpass the risks. “Patriotism” could
only motivate an individual so much; especially when there were no guarantees the newly formed
nation would be granting any rights to women. Spying was based on a mutual trust of each party
protecting the other. Because women were supposed to be “virtuous, pious, tender, and
understanding,” they made ideal spies.58 When passing information women would not have been
suspected early on. War had always been viewed as a male-dominated affair, something women were
meant to stay out of. It would not have been out of the ordinary for a tavern wench to walk up to a
table of redcoats discussing strategy. A man would not have been able to get that close unnoticed.
Traditionally, women were seen as being “less rational, less capable of controlling emotions than
men” which explains “their subordinate parental status.” 59 This perspective helped women work
undetected, as it would have been inconceivable to many men that a woman could compose herself
enough to be a successful spy.
One way some women chose to step out of their traditional role was to aid the war effort
was through cross-dressing.60 By simply changing clothing to be seen as a man, women opened up to
a whole new world of possibilities. They no longer lived unnoticed, but had to be mindful of their
actions. By stepping into the public sphere, the risks of being caught as a woman, not to mention a
spy, increased. It can be inferred men would be more outraged by a woman dressing as a man than
discovering she was spying. In the maritime community, women were rarely welcomed on board a
vessel. If one were caught cross-dressing they could have been “ducked from the Yard-Arm and
then ‘tarr…all over,” as was a woman who attempted to said on the New York privateer Castor in
1743 by disguising herself as a man.”61 Because few would know about the true identity of a crossdresser there would be few who would defend a woman for dressing as a man. Women had their
place in society; by placing themselves in a man’s sphere, cross-dressing women were disrupting the
balance of roles. Since women were seen as being “the conservators of old values…men can
perceive female freedoms as threatening.”62 The Revolution was a period of great change. However,
such change was often viewed and shaped from a singularly male perspective. If women began
acting like men, society would be turned upside down as they knew it to be. A woman taking on a
male role was received less favorably than a woman who was aiding Washington in the war, whether
as a nurse or a spy. The eighteenth century without a doubt was heavily male-focused. Men and
women “did not take the same roles, but the presence of females blurred all the dichotomous
Catherine Allgor, Parlor Politics: In Which the Ladies of Washington Help Build a City and a Government. (Charlottesville: University Press of
Virginia, 2000), 113-114.
56 Ruth H. Bloch, Gender and Morality in Anglo-American Culture, 1650-1800 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003), 62
57 Joan R. Gundersen and Gwen Victor Gamnel, “Married Women’s Legal Status in Eighteenth-Century New York and Virginia,”
William and Mary Quarterly, 39, no. 1 (Jan. 1982), 116-120.
58 Bloch, Gender and Morality in Anglo-American Culture, 58.
59 Bloch, Gender and Morality in Anglo-American Culture, 64.
60 Similar to a modern definition, “cross-dressing” refers to wearing the clothing of the opposite sex and developing the mannerisms
of that sex. While some chose to live the rest of their lives as the other gender, not all did so because of sexual preferences.
61 Charles R. Foy, “Ports of Freedom: How Slaves Used Northern Seaports’ Maritime Industry to Escape and Create Trans-Atlantic
Identities, 1713-1783”, (PhD. Diss., Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, 2008), 201.
62 Allgor, Parlor Politics, 113-114.
55
120
distinctions.”63 Because it was so important to preserve the image of what men and women were
supposed to be, women had limited options to aid the war in their true identities.
While there is not much information about a woman cross-dressing in order to be a spy
during the Revolution, we do know there were several women who dressed as men to serve in the
Continental Army, an indication that this tactic would have been one available to females who
wanted to spy.64 A Sam Gay enlisted in the Continental Army for three weeks before being “outed”
as a woman, Ann Bailey.65 Even though Bailey proved herself as a useful soldier, leading to her
promotion to corporal, her sex resulted in a warrant for her arrest and eventual imprisonment.66
Unlike Bailey, Deborah Sampson was a much more effective cross-dresser and remembered
better than other female soldiers. Unfortunately, her most popular biography67 asserted “myths, false
statements and fictitious adventures” as truth.68 Thus, like female spies, Sampson’s life is a bit of a
mystery. It is generally accepted Sampson first got the idea to cross-dress while working at Sproats
Tavern on Cape Cod, where men frequently talked about the war. On May 20, 1782 Sampson
volunteered as Robert Shurtliff before being sent to West Point for training.69 Sampson was able to
serve through the war without being detected as a woman
Sampson was not considered to be an especially attractive
woman, which would have helped conceal her true identity.
Plate 1. Jane Keiter, National Women’s History Museum,
Education & Resources, “Deborah Sampson (1760-1827)”
https://www.nwhm.org/education-resources/biography/
biographies/ deborah-sampson (accessed April 12, 2015).
While cross-dressing was not a formally recognized method of spying or being a spy,
Sampson was able to step out of her customary female gendered role and step into the male sphere.
She was able to successfully attain information not meant for non-military personnel, not to mention
women. As rebellions began, women had limited options of showing “’masculine’ forms of virtue by
making public sacrifices for the patriot cause, including boycotts of Loyalist shops and fund raising
for the war effort.”70
Ibid., 116.
Patrick J. Leonard notes there is little information of who these women were. Because they lived under an alias records were only
kept while they were serving in the army. The large gap in time between the war and the interest in the memory of the troops has kept
a veil over these women’s true identities. Patrick J. Leonard, ““As Private Robert Shurtliff, Deborah Sampson Served 18 Months in
the Continental Army,” Military History 18, no. 1 (2001): 16-21.
65 Leonard, "As Private Robert Shurtliff, Deborah Samson Served 18 Months in the Continental Army," 16.
66 Ibid, 16.
67 Herman Mann The Female Review, Memoirs of an American Young Lady, (2012).
68 Leonard, “As Private Robert Shurtliff, Deborah Sampson Served 18 Months in the Continental Army,” 17.
69 Ibid.
70 Judith Hiltner, “She Bled in Secret,” Early American Literature 34, no. 2 (1999), 196.
63
64
121
Cross-dressing allowed women to engage experiences that were quite different from those
they typically engaged in during the late eighteenth century. There were instances of women who
were entered the public domain, especially if their husbands died or went to war. The most common
instances of women working publicly were as tavern owners and shopkeepers.71 Widows would be
able to support themselves and any children without the aid of the state. This was limited, however,
to a limited number of women, mainly in urban areas, who could not afford to keep them on public
welfare. When men dressed as women, they were forced to pay attention to their appearance.
Hairstyles and makeup had to be a certain way to show not only their class, but also their submission
to society. The modern way of “keeping up with the Jones’” was always in play; neighbors pushed
one another to better themselves for fear of being left socially behind. When women cross-dressed
as men, other challenges opened up. While they did not have to worry as much about their physical
appearance, mannerisms had to drastically change. How they walked into a room, spoke to one
another and even how they shook hands had to change.
Established women who had husbands and children did not have the physical ability to
cross-dress to help the war effort. Women in the upper and upper-middle classes had the ability to
become spies without changing their lives or routines. Individuals who spied in their local
communities proved to be just as helpful to the war effort as those who traveled tens of miles to
find camps. The Revolution became a time when loyalties were taken into question and the royal
government began watching residents closely. In-place spies were able to gather intelligence while
maintaining a guise of loyalty to either the crown or the American rebels’ cause. One of the simplest
ways a spy female spy could learn about troop movements was through quartered soldiers in their
home. Because families were forced to take in and feed British soldiers, a perfect opportunity
developed to ask questions about the war. As mentioned before, women were not viewed as a
threat, making any inquiries a way to obtain gossip for the next dinner party. Though not a spy,
Elizabeth Drinker wrote in her diary on January 25, 1777, there were “5 American Soldiers quartered
upon us by order of the Counsel of Safty—two stay’d 2 or 3 days with us, the rest went of in an
hour or two after they came.”72 Even though the soldiers were not in Drinker’s home for a relatively
long time, there would have been opportunities to have a conversation. Similarly, soldiers being
quartered may have had an interest in learning which side of the war the family supported and would
have welcomed inquiries. This is where spies had to develop the skill of lying. Being able to play to
both sides of the war determined their success. Women especially had to adapt to her community’s
loyalty while proving her worth to the Continental Army as a spy. During the war spies had to worry
as much about private opinions of themselves as well as the public opinion.
Social classes affected all aspects of a woman’s life in later eighteenth-century British North
America, from what a woman was supposed to wear, to the kind of home they should own, to the
family their children married into. Largely, those in the lower class had the ability to be invisible, in a
sense, whereas they would not be missed if they left home for a period of time. Newspapers often
reported on the social elite and social functions, making the upper class a type of celebrity. The most
common way such a woman could pass information along with the least amount of risk was moving
from establishment to establishment under a guise. As mentioned previously, passes to travel into a
neighboring state were easily accessed by women. When spying, passes could be obtained under a
false pretense in order to bring a message to a camp:
Serena Zabin, “Women’s Trading Newtworks and Dangerous Economies in Eighteenth-Century New York City,” Early American
Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal 4, no. 2 (Fall 2006): 291-321.
72 Elaine Forman Crane, ed., The Diary of Elizabeth Drinker: The Life Cycle of an Eighteenth Century Woman, Abridged Edition (Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010), 59. Elizabeth Drinker provides one of the most complete diaries of the late 18 th to early 19th
century. Her detailed accounts of her daily life helps form an accurate image of what a woman of the time would experience.
71
122
Yet the hundreds of women who crossed the military lines did not think of
themselves as professional information gatherers. Most crossed the military lines
with a set agenda that had to do with relatives and friends. But while in enemy
territory, their eyes and ears were at work, taking in what was happening around
them, and returning home with the latest news from town or country.73
While many women would not have the luxury to spend several weeks following camps to gain
information, the ability to cross state lines without being noticed was a major accomplishment.
Whether they were bringing information to a general or looking to overhear information about
troop movements, passes were essential to spying.
Literacy also became a major aspect of spying. Women who were able to read and write
could pass along information easier than those who could not. Being able to write notes lessened the
risk of being caught as a spy, but increased the chances of information being seen by the enemy.
Washington in a letter to Benjamin Tallmadge wrote, “This new agent should communicate his
signature and the private marks by which genuine papers are to be distinguished from
counterfeits.”74 The specific spy mentioned had to be able to write in order to pass along intelligence.
It is clear how important it was to Washington to receive accurate information. If a spy was not
literate they had limited spying options because they had to verbally pass intelligence to their person
of contact. When moving through checkpoints spies had to ensure the safety of the messages they
were carrying. If the opposite side caught spies they could have been executed for treason, in the
worst scenario. Maintaining concealment was key. One method was sewing pieces of paper into the
seams of jacket buttons. If a woman, or a child, were searched it would not be thorough enough to
check all seams and fabric. Officials would want to move quickly through the process, overlooking
any paper that may be sewn into a button.
Similarly, carriages would be searched for contraband. If any notes were found containing
information about the war, other than a personal letter with common knowledge, it would be taken
and the individual(s) would be dealt with appropriately. False bottoms would be created in
compartments, such as under seats or in chests, where incriminating messages could be hidden.
When an official would search a carriage and the luggage they would not take the time to check
every piece that closely to look for any secret compartment. Shoe heels were also hollowed out to
hide notes.75 Concealment while moving through areas of contention was key to remaining a spy.
Unless a spy was able to remember a message while traveling, they had no other option other than
hiding notes on their person or in a hidden compartment.
Messages were able to still move from city to city without putting a spy in direct risk was
though drop-off zones. “In the dead drop a spy places a message in a prearranged location—in a
tree or under some rocks—and leave it unattended. It remains there until an agent retrieves the
correspondence from this agreed-on location and sends it to its final destination.”76 By leaving notes
in a wooded area spies were able to stay out of direct danger because the only risks came when
leaving messages and picking them up.
Judith L. Van Buskirk, Generous Enemies: Patriots and Loyalists in Revolutionary New York (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania
Press, 2002), 52.
74 Washington Papers, Letter from George Washington to Benjamin Tallmadge, June 27, 1779, VI, 278. Tallmadge was an officer in
the Continental Army who is known to have had his own “spy ring.” Several spies reported to him throughout the war, allowing him
to then give intelligence and advice to Washington.
75Nagy, Invisible Ink, 101-102.
76 Ibid., 91.
73
123
While hiding messages could be done by both sexes, camp following was largely the
province of women and children.77 Whether women followed troops across the region because of
family connections or for the excitement of being close to war, they naturally could overhear
conversations intended to be private. The Molly Pitchers of the Revolution could have ulterior
motives when volunteering their services.78 As the women walked around the camp with water or in
“hospital” tents, it would have been a relatively easy to eavesdrop on officers talking about
strategies. By allowing women into camps, Washington and Howe were taking a great risk. Both
sides needed medical aid, but there were no guarantees of competency or loyalty. On August 19,
1775 General Washington wrote to Thomas Gage about the treatment of wounded or ill soldiers.
Washington notes different motivations for going to war and the uncertainty of fate:
Whether British, or American Mercy, Fortitude of Patience are most preeminent;
whether our virtuous Citizens whom the Hand of Tyranny has forced into Arms, to
defend their Wives, their Children, and their Property, or to the mercenary
Instruments of lawless Domination, Avarice, and Revenge best deserves the
Appellation of Rebels, and the Punishment of that lord….79
Washington recognized each man had different reasons for joining either side, but that God would
judge everyone in the end. He knew nurses and doctors would do what they could to help soldiers,
but ultimately it was out of their control. By trying to eliminate spies within camps, the deaths and
wounds are slightly more justified. Because officials hopefully did everything in their powers to win
the war, women would have been watched carefully while in camp. Effective female spies would
have been careful, practiced and open to opportunities to gather information.
Camp followers included wives, lovers and well as other women who saw economic opportunities in following the Revolutionary
armies. In addition, men, often as wagoners, also were among army camp followers. Holly A. Mayer, Belonging to the Army: Camp
Followers and Community during the American Revolution (Columbia, S.C.: University of South Carolina Press, 1996), 209-10; A.J.
Schenkman, Washington’s Headquarters in Newburgh: Home to a Revolution (Charleston: The History Press, 2009), 72.
78 Molly Pitcher, whose true identity is debated, became a camp follower after her husband joined the Continental Army aiding injured
and sick soldiers. She stands out from other women because she took her husband’s post at a cannon during battle after he was killed.
“Molly Pitcher” became a term of endearment for women who were able to fill in for men during the war. Esther Pavao,
Revolutionary-War.net, “Molly Pitcher”, http://www.revolutionary-war.net/molly-pitcher.html (accessed April 21, 2015). See: “The
Heroine of Monmouth…June 28, 1778” for a depiction of Pitcher’s bravery at the Battle of Monmouth.
79 The George Washington Collection, Clements Library.
77
124
It reads: “…a Woman who, Craig had
trusted often—came to town last night—she
is well acquainted with Many of the R. A.
[Rebel Americans, probably]—2 particularly
known to Chalmere—one who C.B. … a
great deal of… with—it is proposed to send
her out under… Idea of selling…in… R.C.
she will converse with Chamber: & will
return whenever she may have learned
anything that shall be deserved to be known”
Plate 2. Clements Library Collection, Sir
Henry Clinton Papers Vol. 234: Codes,
Cyphers, Intelligence.
The importance of female spies and their cleverness in operating unseen is made evident in an
undated letter among Henry Clinton’s Paper in the Clements Library (Plate 2). While the writer is
unknown except that it was from a British Loyalist, the letter proves that spies were not only used,
but they did not waste time relaying unnecessary information. The letter also clearly evidences that
military officials believed women could be and were utilized as spies and that these women used
false pretenses to get intelligence. The writer’s reference to “a Woman, who Craig had trusted often”
denotes the regular practice of British forces to utilize females as spies. The writer’s reference that
the unidentified female spy was “particularly known to Chalmere” and “will return” to him
“whenever she may have learned” intelligence, indicates the woman’s connections and ability to
move between American and British lines on more than one occasion.
That the unidentified female spy referenced in Plate 2 was not the only female spy working
for the British is made apparent by the experience of Ann Bates. Bates would go into American
camps under the guise of selling things like “thread, knives, and combs,” where “she listened for
military plans.”80 Bates was able to listen to what soldiers said while walking through camps posing
as a merchant. This allowed her to be visible enough to not be suspected as a spy, but still often
invisible because of her sex. Regardless of how Bates or other camp-following spies obtained
information, they still had to find a way to give it to a superior.
Cyphers were incredibly common and the easiest way to code information. The downside,
however, was each major officer had their own code for spies working for them. Trust had to be
established before keys were exchanged. Personal relationships and opinions mattered and
determined who would serve as a spy. As did the British officials discussing the unidentified female
80
Michael Burgan, Great Women of the American Revolution, (Minneapolis, MN: Compass Pont Books, 2005), 29.
125
spy in Plate 1, Washington recognized this issue and knew how important it was to find spies. In a
letter to Elias Dayton he wrote, “As I am very anxious to learn what they are really doing in New
York, you will oblige me by obtaining and finding me an accurate intelligence…”81 The way
Washington formed the sentence suggests he received inaccurate information about what was going
on in New York, reinforcing the importance of trust from both parties. If Washington could not
trust a spy, he could make potentially deathly mistakes. If the spy could not trust Washington or
their contact official, they would be apprehensive to obtain information. The fear of being caught as
a spy became a major driving force that influenced how often they relayed intelligence. Cyphers were
one form of security for spies because often only one person knew their true identity; others would
only know them as a code name.
Historians often have a difficult time cracking the codes because there were so many
different cyphers used. One of the more common cyphers was “Reversing the alphabet” in a
monoalphabetic manner, so each letter represented a different one. 82 Similarly, spies did not always
use a different name when sending intelligence. “Some just used their initials or their initials in
reverse order. Using one’s initials was not ideal, but it was better than having one’s full name on
treasonous documents.”83 Changing a few letters would not have been the most secure system
because it is simple to crack. Washington and Tallmadge knew this and with the help of John Jay a
new code system was created that required either a key or the memorization of coded names.84
Instead of changing each word, certain names, cities and meeting places would be written as a
different name. Instead of writing “Washington”, “Philadelphia” or “Wallace’s House” the spy
would write “James”, “Jerusalem” and “Peter”, respectably.85 Using names and places from the Bible
would have not drawn as much attention to letters if they were intercepted. The context of the
letters would appear to be truly religious in nature or about another person, since James, John, etc.
were popular male names. The code could have been cracked if British officials kept letters and
figured out what each name represented after the Continental Army made a tactical move. The
effectiveness of cyphers during the Revolution cannot be stated with complete certainty due to the
nature of the question. However, the lack of known cases spies were caught due to cyphers being
broken indicates they probably were very useful in passing information.
Both the Continental Army and the British Red Coats used a pigpen cypher. Instead of using
substitution to change words, each party had a paper with cut out boxes. When placed over a letter
the words inside the boxes created a coherent sentence. Washington also used a numbered system,
similar to code names. A different number represented each word, name or place.86 By far this was
the most difficult to crack, but posed the most risks if either key was lost.
Letter, May 28, 1781 (The George Washington Collection), Clements Library. Dayton was a colonel in a New Jersey Continental
Army regiment, who was also an officer during the French and Indian War. Since he began in New Jersey and would have stayed
around the area, the letter would not have been unusual for Washington to be inquisitous about the neighboring state, New York. See:
National Park Service, “Colonel Elias Dayton”, http://www.nps.gov/yonb/learn/historyculture/daytonbio.htm (accessed April 24,
2015).
82 Clements Library Collection, Sir Henry Clinton Papers Vol. 234: Codes, Cyphers, Intelligence.
83 Nagy, Invisible Ink, 9.
84 Jay was a member of the First Continental Congress who would later become the governor of New York. See: History, “John Jay”,
http://www.history.com/topics/john-jay (accessed April 30, 2015).
85 Clements Library Collection, Sir Henry Clinton Papers Vol. 234: Codes, Cyphers, Intelligence.
86 Nagy, Invisible Ink, 57-59.
81
126
In the undated letter, Washington used a
numbered code to relay information.
Each number represented a different
word, being separated by a period to
avoid confusion. Whoever he was
writing to, probably a spy or another
officer based on the use of initials, would
have a book devoted to the key. They
then would rewrite the letter with the
actual words to read the message. The
new letter would then be destroyed.
Plate 3. The George Washington
Collection, Clements Library
The image shows an example of a pigpen
cypher. The boxes revealed the intended
message within a normal-appearing letter.
Sir Henry Clinton used this specific cypher
during the war.
Plate 4. Clements Library Collection, Sir
Henry Clinton Papers Vol. 234: Codes,
Cyphers, Intelligence.
A different, keyless method of securing intelligence within letters gained popularity as the war
continued. Using “invisible ink” made of lemon juice, grapefruit juice, or vinegar, sometimes
combined with egg whites or quicksilver, allowed notes to be written, unreadable to the naked eye.87
87
Nagy, Invisible Ink, 27. Quicksilver is a type of mercury.
127
One of the top corners of letters would have an A, B, C or F to indicate if the secret message could
be read by using acid, burn/heat, code/cypher or fire.88 So the paper did not appear to be blank, a
“normal” letter would have been written in between the invisible message. Since the traditional
postal service did not exist, mail could be read and then censored or destroyed. Because
concealment was the goal, letters would have to seem boring enough to not raise suspicion—
another aspect literate women would have an easier time than men. Women would naturally gossip
about the war and what was going in in their towns. Using invisible ink ensured the protection of
the message until after it was read. A wrong guess of how to read the letter could mean destroying it
and the intelligence. Acidic keys required rubbing a solution on top of the paper, revealing the letter.
Heated papers showed the invisible writing once the ink became hot enough. Letters that required
fire had to be handled carefully; they were thrown onto a fire, making the letters burn white. Once
the letter was gone so was the intelligence. Since each method, with the exception of cyphers,
essentially destroyed the letters not many original copies exist today.89
One spy was able to maintain her identity so well she is simply known as “355” per the
Washington code system. 355 was said to be “’able to outwit them all’ [and] became one of the net’s
most valued agents.”90 Even though she was able to use her femininity to get into the company of
Major Andre, it was believed she had long-term relations and a child with Robert Townsend Jr.,
another spy for Washington.91 This relationship is different than others because both knew the other
to be a spy and suggests they either confided in one another early on in the war or had met in one of
the camps when relaying intelligence. Although her exact methods are unclear, 355 became so
devoted to Washington she continued to spy through pregnancy until she was captured by British
soldiers in 1779. As punishment, she was placed on board the prison ship HMS Jersey where she died
during childbirth.92 355 is a case that proves spies were interconnected to one another. She not only
was directly connected to Washington, but she also knew another spy. The chart below shows direct
relationships that would not have been unusual for a spy system. Washington ultimately received
intelligence after going through at least one officer, typically. Most spies reported to one person,
who would have access to several other types of spies in different areas.
Ibid., 32.
Ibid., 28.
90 Edmund R. Thompson, Secret New England: Spies of the American Revolution, (Kennebunk, Maine: The David Atlee Phillips New
England Chapter Association of Former Intelligence Officers, 1991), 56.
91 Ibid. Townsend Jr. went by the code name “Culper Jr.”, as his father was called “Culper”. It is believed Townsend Jr. fell in love
with 355, but she refused to marry him because she wanted to continue to spy for Washington.
92 Ibid., 60. The Jersey was notorious for its unhealthy conditions and imprisonment that was viewed by American prisoners as
essentially a death sentence. For 355 to be sent there, not only as a spy but also as a woman, was sending a major message to
Washington. She either had to have discovered severely harming intelligence against the British or angered an officer so much he did
not want to send her to a prison on land where she would be able to receive better aid in giving birth. See: History, ”The HMS
Jersey”, http://www.history.com/topics/american-revolution/the-hms-jersey (accessed April 30, 2015).
88
89
128
355
Major Andre
Townsend/Culper
Jr
Tallmadge
Washington
Culper
Created invisible
ink for spies
John Jay
Plate 5.
Because the spy system was so exclusive, Washington had to be careful about drawing attention to
his spies. Early on in the war, illegal trade became a major problem in ports. The black market
allowed goods to be bought to aid the war, but also served as an ideal setting to gain intelligence for
spies. Black market traders could easily make a profit while gaining intelligence for an officer, though
they were risking much more than other spies. If they were caught they were not only charged with
illegal trade, but also treason. Washington did not do much to stop illegal trade that favored the
British “because he and his generals did use spies whose cover was black market trading with New
York” and his own spies would then be at risk.93 Both Washington and Howe decided to turn blind
eyes to the black market, since both sides were benefitting from it. Ports always had an abundance
of information, since ships could come in from around the world. On May 26, 1775, Thomas Gage
wrote that a “Serjeant McDonald” obtained “intelligence of the arms and ammunition being on
Board the King’s Fisher” while in port.94 A simple inspection of goods gave the British an idea of
what the Continental Army would have at their disposal. This not only hurt the Rebels but also gave
the British an advantage. Ports offered an array of spying possibilities, for both sides.
Regardless of the method, the spy system overall helped end the American Revolution much
sooner than it would have if both sides did not have intelligence. While one side would have
prevailed if no spies were used, it would be based on pure luck. Scouts would have been able to
locate the enemy, but since the New England area consisted largely of wooded areas companies
could have moved almost anywhere. Spies proved to be essential to the Revolution and wars
afterwards. It is known spies were utilized in the American Civil War and the Great War. If spies
had not been so useful in the American Revolution, the following wars probably would not have
used them as early on or had initial faith in their services. The methods used during the Revolution
created a model for later spies, that would have been adapted as technology and society grew. In
each war women were used as spies because of their ability to move through the public and private
93
94
Van Buskirk, Generous Enemies, 119.
The Clements Library, The Papers of General Thomas Gage, 1721-1787 English Series Vol. 30.
129
spheres with ease. Although they were viewed overall as the lesser gender in the eighteenth,
nineteenth and into the twentieth century, women continually proved to be successful spies.
War is more than a physical battle; officers had to have some mental intelligence in order to
be successful. Spies became a perfect outlet to gather information about troop movements, battle
strategies and overall private conversations. Women had the ability to be around conversations
about the war without being noticed right away. Because of the gendered roles women society
expected to be constricted to, they were not suspected of spying. Their sex allowed them to do
things men could not, especially when it came to getting physically close to other men. Whether a
spy moved from place to place, was able to remain at home or had to change their identity, each
played a major role in the war. Spies definitely helped the Continental Army win the Revolution;
though they do not receive the credit they are due. If women were not used as spies the war would
have dragged on, resulting in many more casualties. Because Washington recognized women’s true
worth, he was able to gain useful intelligence, enabling him to win the war. As has been proven,
women overall were better spies than men. By using their sex to their advantage, women were able
to continue with their normal day-to-day lives, travel across state lines with little to no hassle, or be
able to take on a completely new identity in ways men could not.
130
_______________________________________________________________________
The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League: Redefining Women’s History in
Sports from 1943-1954
Heather Sitkie
A senior from Wonder Lake, Illinois, Heather Sitkie wrote this paper for HIS 3900, Women in American History,
In fall of 2015. After receiving her BA in spring 2016, she plans to pursue graduate studies in Higher Education
from Texas Tech University.
______________________________________________________________________________
Americans today all seemingly know the famously quoted line “there’s no crying in baseball.”
This line, made famous from the 1992 movie, A League of Their Own, seems to be just about all
American’s know of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. So why is it that this once
wildly popular baseball league has seemingly disappeared into the past? Much like other women’s
experiences in World War II, these new opportunities were thought of as temporary by society.
After wartime, the women were expected to return to their previous roles. Did the All-American
Girls Professional Baseball League fall victim to this same expectation? The answer is no; these
women went on to make their experience a more permanent one. How were these women perceived
in these new athletic roles? In what way did the role these women have as professional athletes
affect these women bust also women in general? What norms were being broken for these girls to
play? Were women frowned upon for playing? Or seen as masculine? From looking to newspaper
articles from the era of the league as well as evaluating players’ testimonies, it becomes clear that
these women were not respected for their athletic ability initially, but their ability to maintain
womanly-ness while playing. These women as athletes still had to conform to societies’ gender
norms. However, it ended up being their athleticism that caused the AAGPBL to last past the war
years.
The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League was created in 1943 and “was born out
of fear that during World War II the United States government’s manpower needs for its military
forces would decimate the numbers of men playing baseball in the major leagues.”95 Over 1,000
major league baseball players would be enlisted in the war effort between 1942 and 1946.96 “During
World War II, baseball became particularly vital to the American spirit, being viewed by many,
including President Roosevelt, as important for sustaining the nation’s moral.”97 Phillip Wrigley, who
was the owner of the Chicago Cubs, devised an alternative for the 1943 baseball season—believing it
would be good for the community, country, and the war effort.98 A newspaper article from the
Chicago Daily Tribune, titled “If The Cubs Give Up The Park, The Girls May Take Over,” was
written on January 8, 1943, discussing the possibility of a girls’ baseball league. The article discusses
the league as an option solely to keep up attendance at the park and quotes the Cubs’ general
manger saying “It is impossible to make any statement on a softball league at this time because there
may not be a league.” 99 The manager’s tone clearly does not sound enthralled about the idea of a
women’s league. Another interesting note about the article is that it refers to the game as softball
and not baseball. Softball is typically considered to be a female sport, and specially back then, as less
intense version of baseball. The title of the article itself gives off a negative connotation to the idea
Sargent, Jim. We Were the All-American Girls: Interviews with Players of the AAGPBL, 1943-1954, 8.
Weiller and Higgs, "The All American Girls Professional Baseball League, 1943- 1954: Gender Conflict in Sports?” 289.
97 Weiller and Higgs, "Fandom in the 40's: The integrating functions of All American Girls Professional Baseball League," 212.
98 Ibid., 212.
99 "IF CUBS GIVE UP PARK, THE GIRLS MAY TAKE OVER." 1943.Chicago Daily Tribune (1923-1963), Jan 08, 21.
95
96
131
of a girls’ league, as if the girls “taking over” would not be a good thing.
Luckily, Mr. Wrigley pressed forward with his idea, and a women’s baseball league was to be
formed. These women that Wrigley fanaticized of playing were going to be risking a lot to play ball:
“Prior to the World War II era (1939-1945) the dominant American value system prescribed for
women their duties and loyalties to family. Their sphere of influence was to be within the home as
wives and mothers.”100 However, the sudden onset of WWII gave way to a dramatic change in social
structure in American society—labor shortages were resulting in women being drafted to the
workplace. Women at the time did participate in sports, but as a hobby, and by no means
professionally.101 Their opportunities were limited until Mr. Wrigley set his plan into action: “In May
of 1943, over 100 of the country’s best women softball players registered in Chicago to try out for
the new women’s league. At the end of the initial training camp, 60 players were selected by
Wrigley’s managers and divided into four teams.”102 These women came from all different walks of
life. Many were Midwesterners, however there were some girls from the costs as well as provinces in
Canada. One player, Annastasia Batikis, who played outfield for Racine, said of the girls in the
league: “We have such varied backgrounds. There were teachers and farm girls and secretaries and
models and nuns, and we sure did open up the doors for the gals today.”103
The tryouts were a tough affair, not only athletically, but also a tough judgment on the
physical appearance of players. Some players would be dismissed from tryouts or let go from teams
for behavior that was considered too masculine or sexually suspect.104 Society had long withheld
sports as an occupation for women, trying out for the teams themselves was “in violation of the
standards of beauty and behavior set for white middle-class females of the era...”105 To keep from
upsetting the public opinion, the mission statement of the league read as follows: “The All-American
Girls Softball League is created with the highest ideals of womanhood in mind. The natural appeal
of women in every walk of life will be brought out in this venture.”106 The leagues efforts to create a
perfect example of femininity were not subtle by any means; the league’s entire marketing efforts
were centered on the process of shaping baseball around femininity.107
The whole league was sent charm school before starting the regular season. Betsy Jochum,
who played for South Bend, commented on charm school in 1948, stating: “We had our sessions at
the hotel in the evenings...They demonstrated how to put on makeup, and how to go down stairs,
gracefully, one step at a time, and how to sit down and cross your legs properly, all things like that,
and we were given make-up kits.”108 Another player, Vivian Kellogg, who played for Fort Wayne,
said of charm school: “...they did show us how to apply make-up and how to sit and how to come
down stairs. I thought it was a neat thing, because most of the girls came from farms, and not
having the opportunity to learn about the style of the day and make-up, they didn’t know those
things.”109 Not all of the women saw charm school as a bad or discriminating thing they were being
made to do. Like Vivian Kellogg, some players saw the benefit in charm school, “They taught the
largely rural and working-class athletes how to survive in a new social class.”110 Karen H. Weiller and
Catorina T. Higgs conducted a survey of players who were still alive in 1994 in their article “The AllWeiller and Higgs, "The All American Girls Professional Baseball League, 1943- 1954,” 289.
Pierman, "Baseball Conduct, and True Womanhood," 70.
102 Weiller and Higgs, "The All American Girls Professional Baseball League, 1943- 1954,” 290.
103 Sargent, We Were the All-American Girls, 30.
104 Pierman, "Baseball Conduct, and True Womanhood," 70.
105 Ibid., 70.
106 Pierman, "Baseball Conduct, and True Womanhood," 68.
107 Pierman, "Baseball Conduct, and True Womanhood," 71.
108 Sargent, We Were the All-American Girls, 48.
109Sargent, We Were the All-American Girls, 57.
110 Pierman, "Baseball Conduct, and True Womanhood," 75.
100
101
132
American Girls Professional Baseball League, 1943-1954: Gender Conflict in Sport?” Of the players
who responded to their questionnaire, 70% of them felt that the charm school and feminine
expectations placed on them were necessary to maintain a good image.111 Of those women, 54% said
that they felt respected as females, 20% of the subjects however, felt that as women they were
discriminated against in this way.112 There are negatives associated with the fact that these women
were sent to charm school and held to certain expectations, although they may not have seen it:
“Without question, gender ideology does symbolic harm to females who aspire to live independently
of the beauty system and its trivializing practices. Indeed, many have ideology forced violently on
them.”113
When asked by girls today as to why the girls had to play in skirts, Vivian Kellogg states that
“Mr. Wrigley designed the uniforms, and they wanted us to look and act like ladies. That’s why we
had charm school for personal grooming and social behavior.”114 Mr. Wrigley had many expectations
for the women in his league. Wrigley believed image was a vital selling point for the league and
judged women’s beauty as much as their baseball abilities.115 “Baseball was perceived to be maledominated sport and not a gender-neutral one. Wrigley imparted his own beliefs and those of the
time period by insisting that players balance their participation in baseball by displaying the utmost
femininity.”116 The uniforms were made short-skirted to convey a dramatized female image. Despite
exposing the players to serious slide burns and injuries, the uniforms were a public display of
femininity that distinguished the AAGPBL players as “real women.”117 Conduct rules to be carried
out by the girls included a hair, make-up, and dress code, as well as no drinking, no smoking, no use
of foul language, and a curfew.118 All of these were imposed in hopes of removing the tomboy or
lesbian stereotype from female athletics.119 These rules for femininity unfortunately discounted their
athletic abilities and over emphasized their gender.
The American public was kept well informed of the process which these women went
through to remove the stigma of playing in a “man’s game.” The league focused most of its
attention on this aspect: “In league publicity, the AAGPBL promoted its players not only as
outstanding athletes but as ‘real’ ladies, on and off the field...”120 In June of 1943, at the start of the
league, a news paper article entitled “BEAUTY GOES TO BAT UNDER BIG TENT,” is mostly a
collection of photos from the Chicago Daily Tribune that showcase the new AAGPBL teams.
Under the main photo in the article the caption reads “Tough, he-man baseball will give way to the
brand offered by the All-American Softball league in Wrigley field next Sunday.”121 What can be
picked up by this caption is that the printers are unsure of their attitude towards the women, like
many were at the beginning of the league, by referring to “tough, he-man baseball.” Another photo
in this selection, a pitcher named Gloria is featured, and the caption of her photo is commenting on
the fact that she was a second place runner up in a beauty contest in California. They are being sure
to comment on the feminism of the player, and not her ability to pitch. This article demonstrates the
initial resistance to women as professional athletes.
Another article, from May of 1944, entitled “120 GIRLS START SOFTBALL DRILL,”
Weiller and Higgs, "The All American Girls Professional Baseball League, 1943- 1954,” 294.
Weiller and Higgs, "The All American Girls Professional Baseball League, 1943- 1954,” 294.
113 Pierman, "Baseball Conduct, and True Womanhood," 76.
114 Sargent, We Were the All-American Girls, 57.
115 Weiller and Higgs, "The All American Girls Professional Baseball League, 1943- 1954,” 291.
116 Ibid., 291
117 Pierman, "Baseball Conduct, and True Womanhood," 72.
118 Weiller and Higgs, "The All American Girls Professional Baseball League, 1943- 1954,” 294.
119 Pierman, "Baseball Conduct, and True Womanhood," 73.
120 Weiller and Higgs, "The All American Girls Professional Baseball League, 1943- 1954,” 291.
121 “BEAUTY GOES TO BAT UNDER BIG TENT." Chicago Daily Tribune, 1943, Jun 06, 1. 6
111
112
133
demonstrates a lot more understanding and excitement for the season to start up just a year later. A
notable quote from this Chicago Daily Tribune article comments directly on the leagues goal of
displaying the utmost femininity: “The idea behind the league... is to combine feminine
attractiveness and athletic skill. The muscular, boyish type is out, no matter if she’s a potential Babe
Ruth or Bob Feller.”122The article also discusses how the girls attend personality classes. This article
demonstrates that just a year after the first, more skeptical article, there is an acceptance for the
league. However, this acceptance comes at the cost of extreme feminine expectations with no regard
to their athletic skills whatsoever. “Doris of Des Plaines is Only 17 but She’s a Veteran Baseball
Player,” is another Chicago Daily Tribune article from 1949. The article highlights Doris Carlson for
being a star athlete. Instead of focusing on their athleticism, as the title implies, the article actually
focuses on her as “A honey blonde with blue eyes and a pixie smile.”123 The article actually makes
next to no mention of her athletic capabilities as it shoes images of her doing her make-up before a
game and making cake in the kitchen. The article, still six years after the league’s beginning, is
focusing on her in the “women’s sphere,” taking away from her athletic abilities. Although the
women who played in this league were given an extremely unique opportunity to enter the athletic
sphere, they had many restrictions imposed upon them. These strict feminine expectations were
placed upon these women to accept them as athletes congruent to the gender norms of society
during this era.
Despite the limitations set upon these women’s gender identities, they were still incredible
athletes and sparked much attention for it:; even if the media chose not to show it. “Never before in
the history of the United States has there been a professional women’s team sport group that has
been as successful as the All American Girls Baseball League.”124 What truly makes the AAGPBL so
unique was its ability to outlive the war years. Vivian Kellogg, the previously mentioned Fort Wayne
player, is quoted as saying: “The league was supposed to take the place of the men who were away in
the service in the war, so we were entertaining the home front, but by 1946, the war was over. We
took a lot of ribbing and criticism at first, but when we got the fans out, we had them.”125 At first
many fans had only looked upon the league as a substitute for men’s baseball, however, it was the
high level of play that continued to draw fans in after the war’s end. The league was able to sustain
its popularity for nine additional seasons after the war.126 The popular film, A League of Their Own
gives the impression that women’s baseball died off after the war years, but this was far from the
case as the league was on a gradual incline until its peak in the 1948 season.127 “In 1948, the league
drew close to one million paid admissions.”128 When the AAGPBL started in 1943, it would have
only four teams. At the height of the league, there were as many as ten teams.129 In a polle of former
fans of the AAGPBL, conducted by Karen H. Weiller, fans stated the cause for the leagues success
all those years was because of a high caliber of play: “...when specifically asked why the AAGPBL
lasted beyond the World War II years, the vast majority (85%) indicated the quality of play, the
entertainment value, and identification fans had with local teams as crucial reasons.”130
On average, these women were making $45 to $85 dollars per week, including having their
traveling expenses and lodging expenses paid for.131 This was not as much as the men in major
Prell, "120 GIRLS START SOFTBALL DRILL," Chicago Daily Tribune, May 16, 1944.
"Doris of Des Plaines is Only 17 but She's a Veteran Baseball Player," 1949, Chicago Daily Tribune, Jul 10, 1.
124 Weiller and Higgs, "Fandom in the 40's," 211.
125 Sargent, We Were the All-American Girls, 57.
126 Weiller and Higgs, "Fandom in the 40's," 221.
127 Pierman, "Baseball Conduct, and True Womanhood," 68.
128 Weiller and Higgs, "Fandom in the 40's," 211.
129 Weiller and Higgs, "The All American Girls Professional Baseball League, 1943- 1954,” 290.
130 Weiller and Higgs, "Fandom in the 40's," 222
131 Weiller and Higgs, "The All American Girls Professional Baseball League, 1943- 1954,” 293.
122
123
134
leagues, but still much more than most of their husbands or parents were making. A lot of the girls
were not only able to send money home to their families, but also save money to plan for a life after
baseball.132 Several players used the money that they saved to attend college following their time in
the AAGPBL.133 “While an average of 8.2 percent of women of their generation were earning
college degrees, 35 percent of AAGPBL players did (including the 14 percent who earned graduate
degrees—five physicians and two dentists included).”134 These women were able to demonstrate the
links between sports and education and social mobility at a time when this was largely only afforded
to men. Betsy Jochum, the previously mentioned AAGPBL player commented on her education
during a 2012 interview: “My career as a professional baseball player helped me save money so that
later I could attend college. I earned my college degree and became a physical education teacher in
South Bend. Later, I received my master’s degree at Indiana University.”135 Not only did the league
see success past the war years, but the players themselves did too. They were able to take the
opportunities afforded to them and make them an even greater experience.
The AAGPBL filled the void of major league baseball during World War II, however, it was
the athletes’ skill and high level of play that appealed to fans and kept the league going long after the
war’s end. More than 600 women would end up playing in the league.136 The decline of the league
came in 1954. With a boom in the post-war economy, there was an increase in incomes, giving
people the ability to travel to major league games as well as watch games on their televisions. 137
Karen H. Weiller’s tally of responses as to why fans felt the league came to an end show the same
trend: “responses to why fans believed the league ended included the popularity of television and
men’s baseball returning following World War II (55%).”138 A very unique set of circumstances,
both historically and socially, led to the initial success of the AAGPBL. The roles and behaviors that
were previously assigned to women were temporarily cast aside in the wake of World War II,
allowing these women a great opportunity.139 These women used this opportunity to provide society
with a glimpse into the capabilities, determination, and strength of women. 140 “By challenging the
norms of sexuality and femininity even to the extent that they did, AAGPBL players, like other
women who were the first to toil in occupations usually designated male, offered women a new set
of role models and feasibilities. Rather than abandon the game, they took to the field and
competed.”141 These women took the opportunities they were given and ran with them. They fought
all odds that were against them, including gender stereotypes. As one player commented, “We
played long before it was acceptable.”142
Weiller and Higgs, "The All American Girls Professional Baseball League, 1943- 1954,” 294.
Ibid., 294.
134 Pierman, "Baseball Conduct, and True Womanhood," 69.
135 Sargent, We Were the All-American Girls, 52.
136 Pierman, "Baseball Conduct, and True Womanhood," 68.
137 Weiller and Higgs, "The All American Girls Professional Baseball League, 1943- 1954,” 291.
138 Weiller and Higgs, "Fandom in the 40's," 224.
139 Weiller and Higgs, "The All American Girls Professional Baseball League, 1943- 1954,” 295.
140 Ibid., 296
141 Pierman, "Baseball Conduct, and True Womanhood," 70
142 Ibid, 69.
132
133
135
__________________________________________________________________
Overcoming the Past: Japan’s Involvement and Denial of the ‘Comfort Women’ System
Alex Jaramillo
Alex Jaramillo, who wrote this paper for Dr. Jinee Lee’s Modern Japan course in fall, 2015, earned his BA in
History in spring, 2016.
In 1937, the Second Sino-Japanese war was taking place. Japan pushed deep into Chinese
territory, capturing Nanjing, and massive numbers of lives were lost during the ensuing massacre.
The Japanese military was responsible for the lives of an estimated 40,000 to 300,000 lives1.
Estimates of these casualties vary widely because an undetermined amount of killings were kept
secret and also, after the Japanese surrender of 1945, many documents were never recovered. Along
with the high number of casualties, high estimates of rape occurred. The Japanese government
developed a system where this war crime was not seen as an act of cruelty but as a way to establish
‘comfort stations’ for soldiers across occupied Japanese territories. Needless to say, the Japanese
government was developing organized prostitution and rape, which was sanctioned by their
government. The Japanese government was trying to establish these stations for their soldiers to stay
calm and relax themselves throughout the war, with the help of women’s services. In reality, these
women were forced or tricked into participating in these stations as ‘comfort women’. Despite this
unsettling method of forced sexual involvement of Asian Women, the Japanese government is
unwilling to accept full responsibility even though there are documents that prove their involvement
in the establishment of these ‘comfort stations’ across occupied Japanese territories.
According to Hayashi Hirofumi, the ‘comfort women’ system was established for many
reasons. First, the Japanese military wanted to prevent Japanese soldiers from committing rape. It
was a system to countermeasure the amount of rape already occurring. However, in reality, the
system was only a regulated form of sexual violence and its results were not decreasing the amount
of rape cases. The second reason was to provide “comfort” to soldiers and officers. It was an
intense period of war, and the military authorities thought this was a necessary form of relaxation in
order to keep their soldiers focused and on the battlefield longer. Next, the ‘comfort stations’ were
developed to prevent the spread of venereal disease. According to Hirofumi, in 1941, a major in the
medical division was released to investigate local hygiene conditions. He reported:
“We must pay the strictest attention to ensuring that on no account are rapes allowed to occur, as
this will cause the natives to mistrust the discipline of the Japanese Army. Because they were living
under harsh conditions, many of the natives did engage in prostitution. However, since there is a
great deal of venereal disease in Bangdong and elsewhere, it was necessary to have the village
headmen recruit comfort women, ensure that the women are rigorously checked for venereal
disease, and set up comfort houses”2.
‘Comfort stations’ were also developed to protect military secrets and prevent espionage.
Oppression of human rights was becoming a serious problem and certainly a characteristic of the
Japanese Army. According to Hirofumi, “While they were looting food, fuel, and other goods,
soldiers raped, or ‘looted’ women”3.
Levene, Mark, and Penny Roberts. The Massacre in History. New York: Berghahn Books, 1999. pg. 223-234.
Hirofumi, Hayashi. 1998. "Japanese comfort women in Southeast Asia." Japan Forum 10, no. 2: 211. Academic Search Complete,
EBSCOhost (accessed November 8, 2015).
3 Ibid, 215.
1
2
136
Emma Reynolds stated, “‘Comfort women’ is a translation of the Japanese euphemism, Jugan
Ianfu, (military ‘comfort women’), referring to women of various ethnic and national backgrounds
and social circumstances who became sex slaves for the Japanese troops before and during World
War II”4. Reynolds stated the number of ‘comfort women’ who served is difficult to determine.
However, estimates are ranging from 80,000 to 200,000, of whom close to eighty percent were
thought to have been Korean5. The women who were recruited ranged in age. According to Chinese
legal groups, some of the girls were as young as twelve years old6. Victims also included teenagers to
women in their thirties, including both married women and mothers7. Hirofumi stated, “According
to the testimony of a Malayan woman, after killing her brother, Japanese soldiers abducted her,
raped her and forced her to become a comfort woman. Similar cases were reported in other
Japanese-occupied territories in Southeast Asia”8.
Recruitment employed various methods. The most common forms of recruitment were by
fraud and human trafficking. In Korea, there were also cases of abduction. Hirofumi asserts, “It is
certain that both the Japanese Army and officials of the Government-General of Korea (ChosenSotokufu) were involved in the recruitment of ‘comfort women’ in Korea. Similarly, officials of the
Government-General of Taiwan were involved in recruiting ‘comfort women’”9. It is important to
consider that Korea had been a Japanese colony and the “the system of trafficking women was
already widespread”10. In 1937, close to the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the
number of brothels and human-traffic brokers shifted their business in Korea to the involvement of
Japanese military ‘comfort stations’. Without having to resort to violence, the Japanese Army was
able to invest through these brokers.
A second method was to “entrust the recruitment of ‘comfort women’ to ex-karayuk-isan”11.
This method was common in Malaya where regular prostitutes may have also been exploited. In
Indonesia and the Philippines, the common method was to approach the local leaders in providing
‘comfort women’. The fourth technique involved the recruitment through advertisements in
newspapers. It is unsure if the job description was clear on the true nature of the job. However, a
case in Singapore suggested a woman attempted to end her services because the job was much
harsher than originally expected. The soldiers in charge responded by tying her to the bed and
forcing her to continue her services12. The fifth method involved the recruitment through a
combination of fraud and the other methods. Women were misled at the early stages of recruitment
and were heavily deceived as to what these women were getting themselves into. By the time these
women arrived to their stations, their transformation into ‘comfort women’ was nearly inevitable
and was greatly affected by the use of force. Hirofumi also asserted that there are many known cases
of women being raped and then forced into being ‘comfort women’13. The last method was the
recruitment through forcible abduction. There are many cases of Japanese soldiers forcing their way
into people’s houses, gang-raping, and abducting women, which resulted in these women becoming
‘comfort women’. It was noted by Hirofumi that “the army frequently resorted to violence in order
Reynolds, Emma. 2012. "China's Oldest World War II Sex Slave - Forced to be a 'Comfort Woman' for Japanese Soldiers - dies at
91." Chinese American Forum 28, no. 2: 31-33. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed November 25, 2015), 32.
5 Reynolds, Emma, “China’s oldest World War II sex slave”, Pg. 32.
6 Ibid, 32.
7 Chieko Kuriki, Chicago Tribune. 1992. "Cruel 'Comfort'." Chicago Tribune (1963-Current File), Mar 29, 1.
http://search.proquest.com.proxy1.library.eiu.edu/docview/1703951378?accountid=10705.
8 Hirofumi, Hayashi, “Japanese comfort women in Southeast Asia”, 213.
9 Ibid, 213.
10 Ibid, 213.
11 Ibid, 213.
12 Ibid, 213.
13 Ibid, 214.
4
137
to recruit ‘comfort women’”14. The recruitment consisted of women coming from many different
ethnic groups, including Chinese, Taiwanese, Malays, Filipinos, Thais, Burmese, Vietnamese, Dutch,
Japanese, and Korean. By 1942, it was possible that comfort houses had been set up in almost every
city where Japanese troops were stationed. No matter what ethnic group these women came from,
these women were stripped of their identity to serve their purpose to the men in the army, and, as a
result, their human rights were severally violated.
Details of these women were not entirely known to the public because the Japanese military
destroyed many records regarding the ‘comfort stations’. According to the article written by Chieko
Kuriki, “In documents and court testimony in a 1982 trial, former Japanese Imperial Army soldiers
related that the Japanese military visited villages in Korea to recruit or otherwise obtain woman”15.
In the film “In the Name of the Emperor: The Rape of Nanjing”, it was stated women ranging from
20 to 40 years old were deceived by well-paying jobs or forced out of their homes and into these
‘comfort stations’. According to a survivor in the film, she had given birth three times and was still
required to work while pregnant. After the war ended in 1945, many Korean ‘comfort women’
remained abroad due to the strict morals set on women influenced by Confucianism in Korea. The
experiences of these women are horrific, and it is difficult to imagine how each of these women felt
after the war. Lee Kyong Ok described her experience: “It would be better being a soldier and killed
during the war than being alive as a comfort woman”16. According to Kim Hak Sun’s story:
“When she was 17, Kim was offered a ‘well-paid job’ by Japanese police who visited her
village. When she reported to the meeting place, she was forced to get into a military truck with
another local woman. They were told they would be killed if they tried to escape. The truck traveled
north. After four days, they arrived in China at night. Kim was left alone in a dark room. Suddenly a
Japanese soldier took her to an officer’s room that was divided by curtains. She was told to take off
her clothes. When she did not comply, she was kicked and stripped”17.
Kuriki continued, “Kim went to the next room to see the other woman. She told Kim that
they should die. They cried together. Three other Korean women who were there told him there was
no way to escape. The best was to do what they were told”18. Kim stated she had to ‘attend’ around
ten to twenty Japanese soldiers a day. Even though her life was extremely difficult, she realized she
had to live. Kim did think of escaping, as every woman would. Fortunately, her opportunity came
when she met a Korean man, who was a civilian supplier to the brothel. She had asked that man to
take her out and he agreed. At age nineteen, she married this man and became the mother of two of
his children. Sadly, one child died of illness at the age of four. Kim’s husband blamed her past for
the death of their child. In 1950, the Korean War broke out and Kim’s husband went off to war
because he was associated with the military catering service. Tragically, her husband died during the
war, and her second child had died due to drowning. Kim’s tragic story demonstrates the difficulty
former ‘comfort women’ had to endure after the war ended. As the years passed, these struggles
continued into the present day. For example, Yin Yulin was identified as China’s oldest known sexslave. In the book, Unfolding the ‘Comfort Women’ Debates, Yulin described her ‘comfort station’
experience:
“After that initial time [of raping me at my house], the Japanese soldiers stationed in the
blockhouse on top of nearby Mount Yangma came to my house frequently and raped me...Every
day two or three Japanese soldiers came down the mountain to rape me at my home, which left me
constantly terrified.... Frightened of the rapes while having no place to hide, my body was always
Ibid, 214.
Chieko Kuriki, “Cruel ‘Comfort’”.
16 Ibid.
17 Ibid.
18 Ibid.
14
15
138
trembling with fear. What a horror!. The Japanese soldiers also took me by force to their stronghold
on Mount Yangma, where they raped me"19.
Yulin traveled to Japan twice after her sex-slave identity was revealed. She testified as a
victim, but both courts refused to accept her claims20. As described from Yin Yulin’s story, her
claims were not accepted by the courts and this further proves how difficult it is for survivors to
come out with their stories. Yulin’s story raised doubts but also shed light on this atrocity committed
by the Japanese government.
Stories of former ‘comfort women’ have continued to unfold through a series of interviews
in the book, Can You Hear Us?. One woman by the name of Do-ah Kang, revealed her story as a
woman from Daepyong-myon moving from Taiwan to Balikpapan in Borneo. Kang was the oldest
of ten siblings and would cook and clean the house, while trying to support their family. Her family
encouraged her to “go to where they say” in order to raise money for the family. After much
thought, Kang decided to leave for this “work opportunity” in hopes of raising enough money to
send back to her family so that they could live a happy life. Most of the people found out from the
town offices that these were opportunities to make money. Kang was deceived when she first
arrived in Taiwan. Kang started off doing housework and chores in the house she was taken to, but
was shocked when she was forced to ‘service’ a soldier a little after a month of her arrival. From
there, Kang’s pain continued, as she was forced to ‘serve’ many men a day. Kang stated, “Several
from the first day. I don’t know. I might have fainted. I cannot remember who and how many came
in and violated me”21.
Each woman’s story is unique and different in its own way, yet these stories hold many
commonalities in their experiences. Many, if not all of the women, had to continue ‘serving’
Japanese soldiers after enduring massive amounts of pain from the damages. In the untold
narratives, a woman identifying herself by the name of “Boo” described, “I felt excruciating pain
down there. It was torn actually. The doctor who came, knew about that. He did not seem to be
concerned, though. He applied medicine on it and said it’ll be okay in a week. By then I was told to
take in the soldiers again. They would beat me if I didn’t. The boss would also call me all kinds of
names”22. In another experience, a woman identifying herself as “Aoo” described her experience as
a fourteen-year old serving in these stations located in Yenji, Manchuria, and Chungjin. ‘Aoo’ was
only fourteen when taken, but her body was not fully developed. She was first examined; describing
how she was forced to open her legs and have an instrument resembling a “duckbill” inserted
between her legs. It wouldn’t go in, so she was not sent to serve the soldiers. Since she could not
serve the soldiers, she would be beaten by the head “master” of the station. ‘Aoo’ stated, “I was
beaten because I could not service the men properly. I was the most inexperienced and
underdeveloped girl”23. When ‘Aoo’ turned 15, she began to service the Japanese soldiers and,
therefore, no longer had to suffer beatings. ‘Aoo’s’ story displays the hostility ‘comfort women’ had
to endure at these stations. Kang, ‘Boo’, and ‘Aoo’ spoke about their thoughts they had about
refusing to service the soldiers and fleeing, however, either their location was a major disadvantage
to them or the fear of being killed held them back. As time passed by, the women had not seen a
cent of what they were promised. False promises of money being sent back to their families were
also told.
Kimura, Maki. Unfolding The “Comfort Women” Debates: Modernity, Violence, Women’s Voices. 1st ed. 2016 edition. Palgrave Macmillan,
2016.
20 Reynolds, Emma, “China’s oldest World War II sex slave”, 31-32.
21 Park, In-Hwan. Can You Hear Us?: The Untold Narratives of Comfort Women: A Collection of Oral Narrations of Japanese Military Comfort
Women. Seoul, Korea: Commission on Verification and Support for the Victims of Forced Mobilization under Japanese Colonialism in
Korea (2014): 59.
22 Ibid, 113.
23 Ibid, 90.
19
139
In other forms of stories, the book Comfort Women was published by Nora Okja Keller. This
fictional story deals with the difficulties former ‘comfort women’ had to endure after the war ended,
and the difficulties their families had to endure from their past. Although a fictional book, the story
accurately portrays the difficulties former ‘comfort women’ had to go through, restarting their lives
and trying to regain a sense of identity, which was stripped from them during their time in ‘comfort
stations’. Throughout this fictional story, some similarities can be seen from the untold narratives by
former ‘comfort women’. For example, ‘Aoo’ passed away four months after the interview was
given. Until 2005, the sister of ‘Aoo’ was the only one who knew of the story. In 2005, the daughter
of ‘Aoo’ found out through a report to a committee. Similar to the fictional book, the daughter
described her mother as “easily startled, and bounced to her feet in her sleep, and light a cigarette.
She would change channels or turn TV off, if she saw a program about ‘comfort women’. The
daughter thought her mother acted weird, but didn’t know the reason why. When the daughter
heard about her mother’s old suffering, she beat her chest, “What suffering my mother had. How
could I not know about it until now”24.
After liberation, it was difficult for many of these women to decide what to do. Many
returned back to their homes, not knowing whether to explain to their parents of what occurred.
Possibly because of the feeling of being ashamed of themselves, many women decided not to share
their stories and instead attempted to restart their lives. When Kang returned home, her mother was
still alive but her father had passed away. Kang stated her family was holding a memorial service for
her because her family believed she was dead. Her family was very poor, so she had to sell items
such as fish in order to support her family. Life after liberation was a struggle for these women.
Many of these women decided not to marry. ‘Boo’ stated, she could not bear the thought of
engaging in any more intercourse due to the amount of pain she still suffers from her time as a
‘comfort women’. Even after sixty years, her pain does not go away. Physical and mental pain are
burdens for these women, and their attempts to move on from the ‘comfort stations’ were delayed
by constant reminders of their past, proving to be extremely difficult to truly move on from these
atrocities.
In an “Open letter in support of historians in Japan”, scholars have explained the
importance of the exploitation and suffering of former ‘comfort women’. Scholars have also stressed
the importance of the numerous documents found that demonstrated the military’s involvement “in
the transfer of women and oversight of brothels”. The testimony taken by the victims further
solidifies the case being made by these victims. However, nationalism further delays and insults the
dignity of these former ‘comfort women’. Denial is equally unacceptable, and although the precise
numbers subjected to this atrocity remain uncertain, documents have revealed the exploitation
carried out by the Japanese Empire. The scholars concluded, “Since the equal rights and dignity of
women lie at the core of the ‘comfort women’ issue, its resolution would be a historic step toward
the equality of women and men in Japan, East Asia, and the world”.25
In addition to the open letter, a joint statement was created by associations of History
Scholars and Educators on the ‘comfort women’ issue. The statement further strengthened the open
letter’s argument by listing a few problems within the ‘comfort women’ issue. The Kono statement,
was an official acknowledgment indicating the involvement of the Japanese Army, with their
establishment and operation of military brothels, including forceful recruitment tactics. However,
according to these associations, these statements were not based on the testimony of Seiji Yoshida.
The joint statement stressed the violations enacted by the Japanese government were a violation of
Ibid, 101.
"Open Letter in Support of Historians in Japan." Letter. 2015. See: https://networks.h-net.org/system/files/contributedfiles/japan-scholars-statement-2015.5.4-eng_0.pdf
24
25
140
human rights and the regulations being followed are institutionalized by discrimination between the
colonizer and the colonized. The associations involved concluded the dignity of these victims
continue to be trampled by denial, as if these women had not endured enough hardship.
Furthermore, “by continuing to take the irresponsible stance by denying the facts of wartime sexual
slavery in the Japanese military, certain politicians and sections of the media are essentially conveying
to the rest of the world that Japan does not respect human rights”.26
In response to the open letter, Moteki Hiromichi, Secretary General of the Society of
Dissemination of Historical Fact, asked if the letter was written “without radical prejudice and
misunderstanding about the real facts”.27 Hiromichi asserts that Japan is being falsely accused for the
‘comfort stations’, with no verified evidence. Hiromichi also concludes that scholars have ignored
the counter evidence and did not check the laws and regulations which were then applicable.28
Along with denials stemming from inside the Japanese government, ways of compensating
the victims have come into question. In an article published by the Chicago Tribune in 1992, three
Korean women were seeking to file lawsuits in order to seek compensation because they were
forced to serve as prostitutes by the Japanese government. According to the article, Foreign Prime
Minister Michio Watanabe, has made it clear that Japan is not willing to pay any compensation to the
Korean woman who served as prostitutes during World War II. His stance and statements reflect
Japan’s position and states, “The issue of war reparations was settled in 1965 when Japan normalized
relations with South Korea”.29 The Japanese government is taking a strong stand. Watanabe did
express that Japan is “seeking other ways to apologize, but won’t pay compensation”. 30 It is a
difficult situation with everyone involved, and the Japanese government is standing their ground by
saying that war reparations were settled in 1965. The Japanese government’s involvement with the
‘comfort women’ stations may have been questionable in 1965, but in 1992 for the first time, new
documents were discovered proving the Japanese military forcing Korean and other Asian women
into these stations, legalizing their own form of prostitution in order to serve Japanese troops during
the war.
The ‘comfort stations’ bring much controversy through various stories from former
‘comfort women’ and denials from the Japanese government. Deniers, such has Hiromichi have
stood by their argument that there is no existing evidence indicating government involvement.
However, it is addressed that new documents have been discovered proving the Japanese
government’s involvement in the ‘comfort stations’. Unfortunately, these documents were not
discovered before 1965 when the war reparations and relations with South Korea were normalized.
After much denial from the Japanese government, it is an important step to accept responsibility
from what was done to these former ‘comfort women’. From the former ‘comfort women’
testimonies, it was difficult for these women to restart their lives after the war. There are no official
figures available to say as to how many women served as ‘comfort women’ during the war. Although
the Japanese government continues to deny its involvement, it is still important for these officials to
show empathy for these women and to bring forth some form of compensation to the women
involved in the ‘comfort stations’. Compensation varies because of the severity of the situation, but
issuing no compensation is worse than little while also denying the regulation of these ‘comfort
stations’. Therefore, action needs to be taken by Japanese officials in order to right their wrong.
"Joint Statement by Associations of History Scholars and Educators in Japan on the "Comfort Woman" Issue." Letter. 2015.
"Some Observations About "Open Letter in Support of Historians in Japan"" Letter from Moteki Hiromichi. 2015.
28 "Some Observations About "Open Letter in Support of Historians in Japan"" Letter from Moteki Hiromichi. 2015.
29 "Japan Refuses to Compensate 'Comfort Girls'." 1992. Chicago Tribune (1963-Current File), Feb 21, 1.
http://search.proquest.com.proxy1.library.eiu.edu/docview/1696391464?accountid=10705.
30 N.a., “Japan Refuses to Compensate ‘Comfort Girls’.” n.d.
26
27
141
Denials only set back justice, and acceptance of responsibility will lead to a starting point in the
already long healing process these former ‘comfort women’ have to endure.
142
______________________________________________________________________________
A Feminist View on the History and Current Reality of Veiling
Monica Burney
Originally from Dix, Illinois, Monica Burney earned her BA cum laude with a major in history and a minor in
anthropology in spring 2016. In fall 2016 she will begin work on a Master’s Degree in history at Eastern Illinois
University.
______________________________________________________________________________
As one of the major symbols tied to Islam, veiling has been a controversial topic for almost
as long as the practice has been around. Everyone seems to have their own opinions on the topic,
with some condemning the practice as being sexist and archaic and others stressing the importance
of wearing the garment as an ultimately personal decision. Throughout history the veil has stood for
a number of different things for each person who has worn it throughout history. Despite the
common misconceptions, as well as the occasionally repressive history of the practice, veiling today
can very much be considered a feminist practice in many places in the world.
Historically the tradition of veiling has pre-dated Islam by a good deal of time. One of the first
known mentions of veiling is found in Assyrian texts by the thirteenth century BCE. In the early
days of the practice veils were used as a way to denote social status, with married women wearing
veils to distinguish themselves from prostitutes and people of lower classes. In Persia veils were
often worn by royalty and those of the upper classes, the same is the case with ancient Mesopotamia.
Additionally, early Jews and Christians tended to have their own versions of the practice despite the
idea typically being tied to Islam in modern society. In all of these societies the common thread was
a patriarchal society in which the idea of women’s sexual and spiritual purity tended to be valued.31
Today the term veil can actually apply to a number of different styles. In common western
ideals there are three main styles that people tend to know. The Hijab, which tends to cover the
person’s hair and neck. Further coverage is given by the Niqab, which tends to leave only the
women’s eyes uncovered. Possibly the most conservative of the styles is the Burka where every part
of a woman’s body is covered including her eyes with a screen in place to enable her to see out.32
To understand the importance of veiling in Islam one must first understand its origins in the
religion. In the Qur’an there is no specific mention of veiling in terms of women’s clothing. Most of
the support for the idea of veiling being required comes from one specific quote in general;33
O believers, enter not the houses of the Prophet, except leave is given you for a
meal, without watching for its hour. But when you are invited, then enter; and
when you have had the meal, disperse, neither lingering for idle talk; that is
hurtful to the Prophet, and he is ashamed before you; but God is not ashamed
before the truth. And when you ask wives for any object, ask them from behind a
curtain (hijab); that is cleaner for your hearts and theirs34
As is evident in the quote this idea of having a women being veiled referred primarily to the Prophet
Muhammad’s wives, to protect his wives from unnecessary gossip. It is unclear if this was supposed
Sahar Amer, What is Veiling? (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2014) 5-9.
n.a, “In Graphics: Muslim Veils” BBC News (accessed December 13, 2015)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/05/europe_muslim_veils/html/1.stm.
33 Sahar Amer, What is Veiling?, 23-25.
34 Quran, “33:53” in What is Veiling?, ed. Sahar Amer (Chapel Hill the University of North Carolina Press, 2014) 24.
31
32
143
to be applied to women in general or if only the Prophet’s wives needed to be screened. At first,
many women did not immediately take to the practice. Some still did, however, with the belief that
the visual representation of being a Muslim could help to protect them and Muslim men would
recognize them as one of their own. Additionally, the veil eventually came to stand for women’s
piety as well as the modesty that the Qur’an tended to stress for both men and women. Unlike
previous uses of the practice it appears that veiling at this time was used voluntarily by the choice of
the women.35
There is also one Hadith that is also cited as support for the idea that veiling is a required
part of Islam. In this Hadith it is said that Muhammad at one point gestured to dictate what parts of
a women’s body should be left uncovered, which was reported to be the hands and face. With that
being said this Hadith is not universally recognized as sound, leaving to question if the events it
described did indeed occur.36 Once again the vagueness of the evidence has caused the necessity of
veiling up for a great deal of debate.
As time went on veiling slowly became a much more common practice. As with many
cultures of the time a women’s sexual purity was considered to be of paramount importance to
everyone around. It was even to the point that brothers were socially allowed to kill their sisters if
they believed some sort of sexual misconduct had taken place. In fact, a family’s social status was
often determined by the perceived purity of the women in the family. As such, men would often
insist that their wives and daughters wore veils, effectively changing the practice from a voluntarily
decision back into more of a necessity if the men in the family demanded it (once again taking away
the women’s ability to make decisions about her own life). This also began to denote social status,
with upper class women wearing veils as a way to show that they were wealthy enough to not have
to work.37
At the same time that veiling increased, segregation between men and women was on the
rise. To preserve the purity of the female members of the family, women were often forced to stay
in the house unless leaving was deemed necessary. This could possibly be when the Burka and
Niqab became part of the Islamic culture, as women were veiled virtually as much as possible when
leaving the house in order to avoid the male gaze and head off any rumors that a woman may be
promiscuous.38 While women during this period could have preferred to wear veils, the virtual
necessity for women to wear the veil is often what westerners associate with veiling and Islam. This
is where the mindset comes from, which certainly is not always accurate, that women in Islam are
repressed as a part of the very foundation of the religion.
Rules and laws that are directed at enforcing certain aspects of women’s appearance can be
very specific. Depending on the situation women are expected to wear a number of different styles.
In front of men who are not of blood relation, as well as occasionally with non-Muslim women, it is
expected that only the face and hands are left bare. To close male relatives and fellow Muslim
females it is acceptable for women to show everything except the area between the navel and knee.
Women are also advised against wearing full face veils when going on the Hajj. For men, however,
the rules are much more lax with everything between the navel and the knee being covered at all
times. Once again it appears that more attention is given to female appearances.39
Even though veiling is often tied with Islam today, the practice did take a sharp decline between the
1940’s through the 1970’s as people began to embrace European ideals and styles of dress, often
Sahar Amer, What is Veiling? 23-27, 32-33, 56.
Sahar Amer, What is Veiling? 32-37.
37 Nikki R. Keddie, “The Past and Present of Women in the Muslim World” Journal of World History 1, no. 1 (1990) JSTOR (accessed
December 13, 2015) 84-88.
38 Nikki R. Keddie, “The Past and Present of Women in the Muslim World” 84-90.
39 n.a., “Hijab” BBC News (accessed December 6, 2015) http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/beliefs/hijab_1.shtml.
35
36
144
while shunning some of the more traditional practices tied with the region.40 This movement away
from the practice can be said to have started primarily in the late 1800’s. One man in particular,
Qassim Amin, wrote passionately about how the veil should be banned. It can be said that these
ideals were at least somewhat influenced by English colonizers in Egypt. These views tended to be
that the veil was a visual manifestation of gender inequality in Islam which they used to pointedly
condemn the practice while ignoring the gender issues present in western cultures.41 Though
protection of women was often touted as being of the utmost importance, men involved in the
movement to ban the veil seemed impervious to the irony of forcing women to take off an item of
clothing that they may prefer to wear. One female author stated as such, arguing that women should
choose to remove the veils for personal reasons.42
As with many issues public opinion began to move back in favor of wearing the veils. Many
professional and college aged women began to wear the veils again. This was due in part to a rise in
religious piety as well as a rebellious nature that spread through the area, since veils were also seen as
a way to show one’s dislike for the Egyptian government (which was not fond of veiling at the time).
Many women cited a feeling of freedom and comfort that came with wearing veils as it was believed
that those who wore the veil were more pure and trustworthy than women who did not. 43 Once
again it appears that women were being valued by typical patriarchal ideals such as the need for
women to be virginal. With that being said the fact that women took it upon themselves to veil is of
massive importance, giving women a sense of agency that previous periods did not possess.
In today’s world the topic of veiling is as controversial as ever, especially in the west. Several major
countries have placed banns on various forms of veiling, especially the Niqabs. Most notably is
France which, despite being home to a large Muslim population, easily passed their ban on the style
with a monetary fine placed as a punishment for those who disobey the ban. Many, especially
Muslim women, have made a point to speak against the veil. While some women have ceased
wearing the Niqab, others seem to have adopted it as a way to align themselves with their religion
(showing that women can be French and Muslim at once).44 Canada also had laws that prevented
women from wearing the Niqab during citizenship ceremonies, a ruling which has sense been
overturned after being challenged by Muslim women.45 Other countries that have placed some sort
of restriction on veiling include Switzerland, Russia and China. Transversely there are several
countries that require the ban, namely Saudi Arabia and Iran. 46 Once again it is shown that western
ideals of what a women should look like and wear is given precedence over the opinions of the
women themselves.
Despite the backlash that often comes with wearing any type of veil, women each have their
own unique reasons for going against western social convictions (many declaring it to be a feminist
choice). Among the reasons stated is the freedom from the social idea that women should wear as
little as possible. The ability for a woman to choose to, or not to, wear a veil is feminist in itself
Nikki R. Keddie, “The Past and Present of Women in the Muslim World” 143.
Leila Ahmed, Women and Gender in Islam (New Haven: Yale University Press 1992) 144-145,152-153.
42 Leila Ahmed, Women and Gender in Islam, 180-181.
43 Sahar Amer, What is Veiling? 142-146.
44 Tom Heneghan, “Anniversary of France’s Niqab Ban Passes Almost Unnoticed” The Washington Post (accessed December 10,
2015) https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/religion/anniversary-of-frances-niqab-ban- passes-almostunnoticed/2015/10/20/ff51a85a-7752-11e5-a5e2-40d6b2ad18dd_story.html.
45 Susana Mas and Alsion Crawford, “Justin Trudeau’s Government Drops Controversial Niqab Appeal” CBC News (accessed
December 8, 2015) http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/niqab-appeal-appeal-citizenship-ceremonies- canada-jody-wilson-raybould1.3321264.
46 Adam Taylor, “Map: The Places Where Islamic Face Veils Are Banned” The Washington Post (accessed December 1, 2015)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/01/16/map-the-places-where-islamic- face-veils-are-banned/.
40
41
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because it is granting women agency over their own body and appearance.47 Other reasons that are
often given can range from religious piety to the comfort of covering one’s body. Ultimately the
choice to wear hijabs, in most western societies, is a very independent and personal decision.48
The history of veiling in Islam is majorly fluid, with various government and countries requiring
women to wear or not to wear veils. From its onset veils were meant to show something about the
women that wore it, whether it be a sign of social status, purity, or piety. Throughout its history the
decision of participating in veiling has shifted back and forth with women and men making the
decision for themselves and others. Though the practice was born out of highly patriarchal societies,
which always tend to relate a women’s appearance to her worth, the ability of women to choose if
they wish to wear it or not makes the practice of veiling very empowering to women that choose to
take part in it.
“My Hijab Is Nothing to Do With Oppression. It’s a Feminist Statement – Hanna Yusuf | Comment If Free” Youtube video, 3:10,
posted by “The Guardian” June 24, 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1x5Zu18f7U.
48 “[1/10] HIJABIFY ME: Why do muslim women wear hijab/headscarves?,” YouTube video, 9:27, posted by “thehijabstylist”
October 2, 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyXXuaJYnZY.
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______________________________________________________________________________
A Brief Overview of the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women
Clara Mattheessen
As a class of 2016 Graduate, Clara Mattheessen wrote this paper for Dr. Wehrle for HIS 4960 Contemporary
America in Fall of 2015. She is majoring in History with a Business administration minor. This paper has been
presented at the History Major Day and English Studies Conference and won Honorable Mention in the Women's
Studies Essay Contest. She is a member of Phi Alpha Theta and the honorary music service sorority, Tau Beta
Sigma.
______________________________________________________________________________
The late 1960s and early 1970s was a time of changing landscape for women and athletics in
the United States. Second wave feminism, which sought equality for all, was at its peak when the
Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) was founded in 1971. The AIAW
adopted a stance strongly in favor of Title IX, a federal law specifically prohibiting discrimination on
the basis of sex, enacted in 1972. This push by the AIAW in favor of the law eventually lead to the
organization’s downfall and its merger with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).
In the late 19th century women started to enjoy “delicate” sports, like badminton, walking,
cycling and riding; nothing too complicated and nothing too competitive for fear of physical harm
that might come from such rigorous activity. The exception to this rule was basketball. Women in
America started playing basketball in the early twentieth century. Before 1925 over half of the states
scheduled high school championships for girls.1 Many of the fears about women taking part in
competitive “masculine” sports were that the women would change or harm their reproductive
systems, or make women seem more masculine by causing large muscle growth.2 Because of this
fear, many physical educators took women and trained them. They stated that only trained women
could run women’s sports in the education system.3 Fearing that men would be too harsh on
women, women coaches were trained to minimize harm to them. Women’s basketball rules were less
strict than men’s as they were written with the idea that women are more delicate and tender in the
mind and body than men. In 1899 they created the separate set of women’s rules, though by 1914
half the girls in the country continued to play by the boy’s rules.4
Women educators were initially opposed to the men’s model of intercollegiate athletics. In
1901, Senda Benson, a director of physical education at Smith College and creator of the Women’s
rules of Basketball said: “The spirit of athletics in this country… that one must win at any cost- that
defeat is unspeakable disgrace, must be avoided in women’s sport.”5 Some women applauded
Benson and her thinking and others were appalled, but more importantly the future of women in
athletics was defined by this moment. In 1917 the Committee on Women’s Athletics was founded
by physical educators in hopes to create a standard within athletics. This committee eventually
morphed into the AIAW. The AIAW gained the support of many different organizations through
the years, such as the Girl scouts, YWCA, various women’s clubs and the National Armature
Athletic Foundation.6 In 1923 the platform of “a sport for every girl and every girl in a game” would
Benjamin G. Rader, American Sports: From the Age of Folk Games to the Age of Televised Sports (Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2004),
221.
2 Ibid, 222.
3 Rader, American Sports, 222-23.
4 Ibid.
5 Ibid, 223.
6 Ibid, 228.
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serve as the understanding of women’s athletics until the late 1960s; the game was meant for the girl,
not the spectator or the business of the university.7 In the mid-1920s more than half of the
respondents approved interscholastic basketball for girls, and during the Great Depression, fourteen
statewide basketball tournaments for girls continued to have participants.8 Girls and women also
took to baseball during the 1940s. Many large baseball chains were afraid of the failure of the game
due to the large amount of men fighting overseas due to World War II; so, they created women
leagues such as the All-American Girls Baseball League.9 The league folded in the early 1950s due to
financial failures and a lack of attendance of the women’s games. In the 1950s cheerleading became
a focus of the public eye; previously very masculine, women were intent on feminizing it.10
In 1964, a convention was held to edit the 1923 platform for intercollegiate sports. This led
to the formation of the Commission on the Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (CIAW) within the
Division for Girls and Women’s Sports (DGWS).11 The AIAW was later founded from the
Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics for Women. The CIAW was created to be a framework for
intercollegiate athletics for women, create and publish guidelines and standards for play, encourage
competitive events between universities, and sponsor Division for Girls’ and Women’s Sports’
national championships for women.12 The mission for the CIAW was also used for the Association
for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women “to: foster broad programs consistent with educational aims
and objective; assist in extension and enrichment of programs; stimulate quality leadership and
encourage excellence in performance.”13 The first step toward the creation of the AIAW was in 1969
when a demand emerged for an organization that universities joined to follow the rules and
regulations for women’s athletics. 14 The emergence of the AIAW coincided with the emergence of
the women’s movement.
The Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women created a model for student athletes
that was different than what the National Collegiate Athletic Association had created for male
athletes. The AIAW created a focus on the student where education came first and sports came
second.15 They only wanted universities and colleges who believed that the focus of intercollegiate
athletes should remain on her academics and also if the schools supported programs that had been
operated or stemmed from the DGWS, CIAW and the AIAW.16 Before the creation of this model
the only version of intercollegiate athletics focused on men’s competitive sports first, and the
student second. The code of ethics for coaches highlighted the AIAW’s ideals and focus of the
student first sports second:
Competitive sports provide practice opportunities in making value judgments and
developing social relations… The coach should recognize the uniqueness and worth
of each individual and help her to develop confidence, exhibit cooperation, and
make a contribution to herself and others around her.17
Ibid.
Rader, American Sports, 229.
9 Ibid, 234.
10 Ibid, 231.
11 Ibid, 334.
12 Joan Hult, “NAGWS and AIAW: The Strange and Wondrous Journey to the Athletic Summit, 1950-1990,” Journal of Physical
Education, Recreation & Dance 70 (1999): 26.
13 Ibid.
14 Ibid, 28.
15 Jean Taczak, “EXPO ’96: Sports An Agenda for Change in Women/Girl Sports,” Off Our Backs 26 (April 1996): 20.
16 Martha Adams and Doris Soladay, AIAW Handbook of Policies and Operating Procedures 1972-197, 36.
17 AIAW handbook-Directory 1975-1976, 33.
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The empowerment of the student athlete was at the highest desire of the AIAW and the universities
that supported the AIAW. The NCAA continued to focus on the athleticism and commercialism,
while the AIAW maintained the belief of student first.
Men’s intercollegiate athletics also allowed scholarship opportunities, recruitment, and biased
actions. Women’s athletics through the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women did not
allow many of these same things. In the 1972-1973 AIAW handbook, it states that the disapproval
of scholarships was “not intended to diminish but to protect, the continued development of
athletics for women.”18 Their anti-scholarship position was intended for sport related scholarships
not academic or need based, which allow for the focus to be on studies. 19 According to a report
produced during the time period, the AIAW in 1973 abandoned the policy forbidding female
competitors to accept any financial aid or scholarship based on athletic ability. It was due to a court
case that the AIAW changed.20 The women in athletics had seen how the men’s athletics turned into
a “meat market… a farm for future professional athletes,” and many members thought this was
what the AIAW sponsored intercollegiate athletics would turn into.21 It caused women to wonder if
this is what they wanted their organization and athletics to turn into.
The Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women focused on empowering women to
take charge of their own athletic situation. Although not all of the AIAW were self-proclaimed
feminists, both the athletes and the women’s rights movement did share similar trains of thoughts.
The second wave feminist movement was divided between members of National Organization of
Women (NOW), created in 1966, and the Women’s Liberation Front. They aimed to combat
sexism.22 In the early 1970’s, feminists sought to even the playing field in academics and in life
between males and females. AIAW and other women’s athletic groups craved to gain equality for
women’s intercollegiate athletics; this lead to the passing of Title IX in 1972. Title IX was aided by
the women’s lobbying efforts and pushed through Congress by Representatives Edith Green of
Oregon and Senator Birch Bayh of Indiana. Initially meant for the equality of women working
within the University setting, the bill was later enhanced to provide an understanding for sports
equality.23 Title IX states that no individual, on the basis of sex, could be excluded from participation
in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any educational program or
activity receiving Federal financial assistance.24 The men of the National Collegiate Athletic
Association fought hard to have Title IX rejected. The fight of Title XI for the AIAW is similar to
that of feminists and the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), which was proposed initially in 1920 and
revisited by feminists in 1971, though both times the amendment failed.25 Similar to how Title IX
was opposed by the NCAA, the opposition to the ERA was led by Phyllis Schlafy, a woman who
held a Master’s degree in government from Illinois. 26 The ERA did not pass because only 28 states
ratified it due to Schlafy’s efforts.
The Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women held its own against the National
Collegiate Athletic Association throughout the majority of the 1970’s, until the universities were
forced to comply with Title XI in 1978—when the NCAA gained interest in women’s intercollegiate
athletics. The National Collegiate Athletic Association, founded in 1906, initially opposed the
Adams, AIAW Handbook, 27.
Ibid.
20 Judith Miller, “AIAW Champions Women’s Athletics,” Change, 7 (Taylor & Francis: 1975) 17 and also Rader, 334.
21 Ibid, 18.
22 Edmund Wehrle, “The Women’s Movement,” Lecture, Contemporary America, Eastern Illinois University, November 2, 2015.
23 Rader, American Sports, 334.
24 “Overview Of Title IX Of The Education Amendments Of 1972, 20 U.S.C. A§ 1681 Et. Seq. | CRT | Department of Justice.”
Accessed November 28, 2015. http://www.justice.gov/crt/overview-title-ix-education-amendments-1972-20-usc-1681-et-seq.
25 Wehrle, class lecture 5 November 2015.
26 Wehrle, class lecture 5 November 2015.
18
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legislature. The organization called the equality of Title IX the “doom of men’s intercollegiate
sports,” because they suspected funds would be taken away from men’s athletics and then be given
to women.27 As the NCAA had failed multiple times to get athletics removed from the guidelines of
Title IX, it realized the only way to get what they wanted was to take over both men and women’s
athletics.28 Before the women’s model was absorbed by the NCAA, men’s intercollegiate athletics
had been under the head of the athletics department and women’s intercollegiate athletics had been
within the physical education department of universities.29
The National Collegiate Athletic Association had become an “economic cartel”. No longer
was the NCAA focused on the athlete; they were focused on the money that came with the athlete.30
According to an article from the Gadsden Times, the NCAA “had built up reserves… from ‘football
revenue.’”31 The NCAA offered universities membership deals and incentives for women athletics
that the AIAW could not keep up with. The National Collegiate Athletic Association offered free
trips for women’s teams who participated in national championships, free women’s membership for
those whose men’s teams joined the NCAA, and had made deals with television networks to air
men’s and women’s basketball championships when AIAW held its championship game. 32 The
AIAW tried to halt its demise by claiming that the NCAA was becoming a monopoly under the
Sherman Antitrust act, which would be considered illegal.33 The AIAW lost the case, and thus lost
the majority of its financial base and was forced to fold. Its last year of existence was 1982; the 823
college and universities who stayed with the AIAW were forced to join the NCAA’s system.34
Unfortunately, the leadership opportunities for women in the Association for Intercollegiate
Athletics for Women would not be continued throughout the merger with the National Collegiate
Athletic Association. Within the NCAA’s model of intercollegiate athletics, women, like former
presidents of the AIAW Carole Oglesby, Christine Grant, Charlotte West, and Donna Lopiano,
would have to find different paths in that organization. Grant and West translated a copious amount
of former AIAW policies into the NCAA. Lopiano left the NCAA, but went on to become an
executive director of the Women’s Sports foundation.35 These women were not the only ones who
felt dismay during this period. There were over 300 women who made decisions for women’s
athletics between 1975 and 1985: twenty-one of these women involuntarily gave up their positions
during the merger while sixteen had left athletics completely; none of these women had control of
their budgets post-merger.36 Not only did leadership positions within universities disappear but so
did coaching opportunities after the organizations merger with the NCAA:
In 1972 [one year after the establishment of the [AIAW] more than 90% of the coaches of
women’s intercollegiate teams were cached by women. Today [1996] 48%
of
women’s
intercollegiate teams are coached by women and 1% of men’s … are coached by women.37
Those statistics are almost twenty years old, but still stand relatively accurate in today’s
intercollegiate athletic world. In 2006, forty-two percent of coaches in Division I athletics were
women, dropping six percent in a span of ten years.38
Linda Jean Carpenter and R. Vivaian Acosta, “Back to the Future: Reform with a Woman’s Voice,” Academe 77 (American
Association of University Professors: 1991), 24.
28 Ibid.
29 Ibid, 29.
30 Rader, 280.
31 “NCAA Entry looms Over AIAW Meeting.” Gadsden Times, January 4, 1981.
32 Carpenter and Acosta, Back to the Future, 24.
33 Hult, “NAGWS and AIAW”, 30.
34 Carpenter and Acosta, Back to the Future, 24-5.
35 Hult, “NAGWS and AIAW”, 28-9.
36 Ann Uhlir, “Athletics and the University: Post Woman’s Era”, Academe 73, no. 4 (1987): 27.
37 Taczak, “EXPO”.
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The National Collegiate Athletic Association has not just changed the coaching staff or the
athletic departments throughout the nation but within Division I schools themselves. Women’s
Rugby is still categorized as an emerging sport by the NCAA, meaning that they do not have enough
participants nationwide but soon hopes to. There are only nine Division I women’s Rugby Teams,
two Division II teams, and two Division III teams; overall, eleven women’s rugby teams are
sponsored by the NCAA, although one of these programs has been place on an indefinite temporary
suspension by its university, Eastern Illinois University (EIU).39
The Eastern Illinois University’s women’s rugby team had amazing success during the first
five years of its existence. Soon their finances and recruitment efforts by the university were
depleted. Women’s Rugby at Eastern Illinois University was only allowed one major scholarship, and
many of these student athletes, if they had received aid for their sportsmanship, were only getting
between $500- $1,000.40 Ironically, the reason the university gives for not continuing the rugby
program during the 2015 season is “due to an inadequate number of participants” for the 2015
season.41 The program itself was self-sustaining until recently when its funds were absorbed into the
general athletic funds, according to the EIU Rugby Alumni Organization.42 For many years, the lack
of aid from the university made this full contact sport dangerous for its student athletes. There were
periods when the team of eight women would go against teams of fifteen to thirty women.43 Many
programs throughout the country have gone through similar situations. With money being tight,
women’s athletics are cut. Potentially, if the NCAA would not have absorbed the Association for
Intercollegiate Athletics for Women this particular program would not be in danger due to finances,
as the men’s program would still be housed separately than the women’s budget wise; however, only
an alternate timeline would tell for sure.
American intercollegiate athletics were just beginning for women in the late 1960s and early
1970s. The Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women changed the scene for the future of
athletics from the beginning of the women’s athleticism. The women’s rights movement and Title
IX, along with the AIAW merger with the National Collegiate Athletic Association changed the
landscape of sports forever. They attempted to provided equality and protection to women athletes,
while at the same time diminishing the role of women in athletic coaching and executive decisionmaking. While women are seen as equals externally, there are still issues within the current
intercollegiate athletic system throughout the United States. Overall, intercollegiate athletics need
help understanding how to make things equal between the genders.
Susan Welch and Lee Sigelman, “Who's Calling the Shots? Women Coaches in Division I Women's Sports,” Social Science Quarterly
88 (2007): 1415.
39 “NCAA Sports Sponsorship,” accessed December 2, 2015. http://web1.ncaa.org/onlineDir/exec2/sponsorship.
40Becky Carlson, “We Were Not Empowered at EIU... We Were Marginalized,” LinkedIn Pulse, accessed December 2, 2015,
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/we-were-empowered-eiu-marginalized-becky-carlson.
41 “2015 Women’s Rugby Season Suspended,” accessed December 2, 2015,
http://www.eiupanthers.com/news/2015/9/3/WRUGBY_0903155554.aspx.
42 Carlson, “We Were Not Empowered”.
43 Carlson, this information can also be found in print Sean Hastings, “Rugby Team suspension to be analyzed” The Daily Eastern
News, December 7, 2015 or online as “The season that was never played” The Daily Eastern News, accessed December 7, 2015.
http://www.dailyeasternnews.com/2015/12/07/the-season-that-was-never-played/
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