Greetings shut-in veterans. We find ourselves enjoying the blessings of good health (97.9) today. There are 1.2 billion Indians joining our group and the number of American is rising to over  150 million practicing social distancing. Here in Florida our dimwitted Governor pretends he's concerned but there is little effort to increase supplies and numbers of hospital beds and staff. Heck the beaches in my home county are open so that Covid-19 can play beach-blanket-bingo without governmental hinderances.

Local supermarkets are advertising special hours where seniors (such as myself) can shop safely and with less pressure. I took in two of those yesterday in my attempt to get my mother a few items which had run out. My first visit was to Publix (an upscale store). They close their stores at 8 pm every night and disinfect the premisses. The senior shopping began at 7:00 am. I arrive at 6:45 and observed a line which by opening time was very long. There was a Black Friday type rush as the doors opened. I stayed back until the line was gone and they entered the store.  By then every cart was gone and the seniors were frantically filling the carts with mass quantities of items. I dashed around the store an saw that dairy, deli, produce and canned goods had been mostly restocked. Water and paper product shelves were bare. I grabbed a handful of the items on my mother's list and got out of there. My second visit was to Harvey's. There was no line at 8:00 am when they opened and roughly a dozen shoppers in the store at any given time. This is what I was led to expect would be the experience at the upscale store. Once again there was plenty of food available. Stop the panic buying!

After collecting the items on our list I took the items home and disinfected the packaging by wiping with disinfecting clothes. I then sterilized my mask, disinfected the car, clothing, and myself before taking them to my mother for her use. We are adopting a minimizing strategy for our grocery shopping. Our next visit to a grocery store is anticipated to be in two weeks minimum or three weeks if we stretch things. That means we will buy more per visit but have significantly fewer breaks in our ability to completely social distance.

Today we go back to our more normal distance schedule. I take care of the dogs in the morning and work on fighting the jungle. In the mid-afternoon I visit my mother and we share a meal together. I then return home and work on the house and writing projects.

And now... back to history.

A couple of days ago we looked at a pro-vacination article from the 1860s. Below is an article printed in the Leicester Chronicle and Leicester Mercury (that is the real name) on March 25, 1881. This article poo-poohs the benefits of inoculation in fighting smallpox. The article is good reading and food for thought as it relies upon a little statistical sleight-sleight-of-hand. Clearly there were more smallpox deaths even after more than 25 years of compulsory inoculation in England. However, the population of England grew significantly and the comparison of such totals assumes that the Compulsory Act was effective in inoculating the entire populace. It was not. Even if it were able to achieve total inoculation, studies already demonstrated that a single inoculation using the primitive methods of the time often was insufficient to achieve the desired protection. Ultimately the arguments against inoculation look ridiculous since the global inoculation programs effectively wiped out smallpox after decades.

Keep safe and be understanding of one another.

Greetings fellow distance runners. There now are about 100,000,000 Americans in some form of seclusion and at this rate more than half the nation will be in our club by the weekend. The nation struggles with tricky issues of supply and trained staffing for our hospitals. Congress is now under assault by our microbial foe as our legislators  struggle to figure out who would the nation save with its governmental life boat. Should a ride be given to small business, workers, huge corporations, foreign corporations, campaign donors, or a mix of all?  As with the Titanic's tragic sinking the ship's owners put far too many passengers in a boat with far too few lifeboats.

We are gratified to be in good health today (97.2) but  were required by the necessity to take a pet to the veterinarian. This require me to gird myself against viral attack. My home-made face mask had its maiden voyage. At the medical facility they were implementing new procedures to keep social distance. Rather than languishing in a waiting room with other pet owners, they kept me in an isolated room and took the dog somewhere in the back of the building. They took the appropriate blood sampled and injected him with the appropriate vaccines. When they were done with him they returned him to me but left me in that cubicle for a long time thereafter. When the lobby was clear they invited me to pick up my satchel of medicines. I hated them a recently disinfected credit card and they were happy to remove over 600 dollars from it. I then disinfected the card again and returned the dog to my home. There the work began in earnest. The dog was washed thoroughly with an antibiotic shampoo. The truck was disinfected completely. My clothes were washed in sanitizing laundry soap and I was thoroughly washed as well. What would have, before our present circumstances, been a simple hour visit there and back turned into a three hour exercise. 

If you have to go out during our time of social isolation. Take the time to minimize the risks to yourself and others. Be kind with one another.

Greetings fellow social separationites. There now are four states where the citizens are compelled to stay at home. Florida continues to have difficulty reading the handwriting on the wall and imposed an 11 pm to 5 am curfew on a populace which, in the main, is sleeping through those hours. Unfortunately the curfew deprives me of some of the best hours for walking my dogs unmolested by other dog walkers or children who treat every furry visitor within sight as a personal squeak toy. We shall make do. We remain in good health (97.8). 

The local internet provider threw my mother a challenge in her attempts to adjust to isolation. The network was down for most of the day, further isolating my mother from communication and entertainments. It is interesting that my wife sent me by a law firm as to how to get my affairs in order. The things that come out of the woodwork. Of course it is good to have all of one's affairs correct.

I am completing a home-made protective mask for my mother, should we need to take her into coughing distance of the public. Keep doing things to improve your situation and your world.

In researching the history of epidemics I the long history of the anti-vaccination movement has come to light. I know it is a controversy today and I have no wish to debate whether one vaccine causes autism or not. My goal here is to throw some light on the historical debate about the efficacy of small pox vaccination. England made vaccination compulsory in the 1850s. Armies and navies in the 18th century often were vaccinated.

Our own revolutionary armies were handicapped by the large numbers of patriots who refused vaccination on religious grounds. George Washington was forced to scour the armies for men who had survived small pox to have troops to send to fight the British in areas with smallpox outbreaks. The British used vaccination of its troops regularly. It is interesting that Continental soldiers once there was an outbreak of smallpox often chose attempting to vaccinate themselves.  In the 18th century vaccination against smallpox didn't require obtaining a controlled laboratory vaccine. Anyone wishing to vaccinate found a small pox survivor with a scab. The scab was probed with a needle to put killed smallpox on it and then the patient was tattooed with this dirty needle. As you might guess, this was not a very effective delivery system. Through time physicians developed a real vaccine using cowpox and eventually vaccination on a global scale wiped out a virulent disease that killed millions.

Below I have reproduced and article from an article published in a Maryland newspaper the Cecil Whig in March of 1883. This article promotes the perceived benefits of the inoculations, including lowered mortality rates and decreased rates of overall infections. This is largely an anecdotal presentation of the position with a few historical facts thrown in. It is of interest that the poor delivery system for vaccination resulted in multiple vaccinations being performed, especially upon those in the military. The sad story of a complete eradication of a troupe of Eskimos stricken on a tour of Europe despite several of the members being inoculated after the first deaths, is passed off as evidence of faulty inoculation technique. Take some time and read the paper. It is interesting. (By the way if you are wondering if the obituary preceding the article is the Alexander H. Stephens who was the Vice-President of the Confederacy and later Governor of Georgia, they are one and the same. Why these minor achievements in life were omitted is a puzzle as the obituary spills significant ink in describing Stephen's physical issues and painting as a character akin to Dr. Loveless in the Wild, Wild West television series.



​

"If I could be half the person my dog is, I'd be twice the human I am."​ -Charles You

Greetings fellow shut-ins. The pandemic continues to grow. Two more states are now requiring those in "non-essential" jobs to join our company. Every day we hear promises of miracle cures and increases in the length and extent of social separation told in almost the same breath. It is a confusing time and having an accurate grasp on how any of these matters affect us is difficult to grasp. In such times neither sink into despair nor fly on gossamer wings of overoptimism. Do what you can to maintain or improve your situation. Don't fritter away resources today that might be your salvation tomorrow.  At the same time, it is not necessary to live the life of a prisoner in a Soviet Gulag either. Keep yourself grounded in what you do to keep mind and body together.

This is Day four for my family. So far, all are well (97.4). We have good news, our daughter is engaged to be married to a fine young man in Tennessee. She now plans how best to accomplish the task of getting herself to her intended's location. Life continues... as it must. My beautiful bride's park is now closed, but the need for her hard work in service of the public continues. My mother is feeling the separation from her friends deeply today. Two of her friends who were visiting Florida from New York decided to go home two weeks early rather than being confined to a hotel room in a town where the restaurants no longer serve people on the premisses. My mother called and asked to be taken for a ride somewhere. We currently are not under a stay-at-home order yet, so I was able to take her for a cruise which took a roundabout trip to my house. I am certain there are many families with elderly members that find themselves in a similar co-social isolation situation.  At my house my mother was give a healthy dose of vitamin C (for canid). She got to have quality time with her granddogs. They bathed her with doggie kisses and lifted her spirits. Pets of all kinds can be the best medicine. If you can't bring the pets to the person... send pictures and videos.

In our isolation we all need to take the pulse of how our fellow inmates are faring. Reach out to one another. For co-separations it is possible to take a short cruise on the highways. For the rest we have many ways to reach out without violating the need for physical distance to defeat the purposes of the virus. Don't forget to be the person you would most like to meet in this world. Take care of each other and we will emerge from this storm and rebuild our world.

"I'm not feeling well- I need a doctor immediately. Ring the nearest golf course." Groucho Marx

Greetings fellow isolation ward inmates. Sorry about the alliteration in the title. Don't let the Groucho quote fool you. I am feeling fine (97.2) and am hoping you are as well.

A lot is happening. California issued orders to stay at home last night. Beach party people in Florida are being shooed back to their homes, many likely bring the virus with them. I am glad my mother decided to forego her trip to the hairdresser this week. She is in the highest risk category and we need to keep her completely unexposed. Hey, I give my big dogs regular shampoos. I think I can handle this. It will be a welcome relief to finish such a washing and not have the subject suddenly shake off, creating a geyser effect that covers me as well. I know dispensing with her weekly visit to the hairdresser is a big change for her. One of the high points of her day is when I bring our Yorkie to visit. We will keep that up as long as we can and I am trying to get her to learn how to Skype in case the authorities limit my access to her.

There is a palpable change in the level of panic. Last evening I heard a disturbance outside and went out to assure that my beloved mutts were okay. Two of the neighbors were in a spirited "debate" that was escalating past the mundane and boring cussing to a genuine potential for fisticuffs. It was very much a primate display of dominance (stick waving and feces throwing). The genetics in all primates that use such displays as a way of blowing off steam kicked in and the two would-be combatants retreated to their own territory while petitioning higher powers to bring their wrath upon each other. This minor affair was another evidence that the panic of the moment is causing people to lose it. Frank Herbert would write "Fear is the mind-killer."

Voltaire reminds us "The happiest of all lives is a busy solitude." We would do well to view the social distancing not as a prison but as an opportunity. Okay, it can be a low-quality recreational experience.  Find new things to do. Read books. Most of us have done very little in the realm of dealing with stressed supply systems and protecting ourselves from the ravages of the pandemic. Here are a few hints.

1. Take a detailed inventory of the resources you have on hand and consider ways you can make those resources go further.

2. Keep yourself in shape. You can't prevent catching the virus but you do have things you can do to prepare yourself to weather the assault. Watch your nutrition and exercise more. Deciding to empty the liquor cabinet on a several week bender is not a good idea. If you are a smoker... it's a hell of a time to taper back or quit. Get enough sleep.

3. Do something to improve your situation. This varies from person to person. For myself, I have started to manufacture face masks similar to those our ancestors used during the Swine Flu epidemic of 1918. I have attached an image of the ugly thing. At least it hides most of my ugly face.  I have no illusions that my masks are as effective those used by our brave health care workers, but the multiple layers of gauze should suffice to keep me out of trouble when I need to go to the pharmacy or the grocery story. Given the lack of tangible and visible response from my various levels of government, it felt good to do SOMETHING. I feel better for doing it and for a few moments I was taking control of my destiny at a time when it is really in the hand of so many others. If you don't have something you need, can you build it yourself or improvise?

4. Help one another. If you have a friend who has difficulty dealing with the isolation... use these wonderful technologies to reach out to them and brighten their moments. Watch a show or listen to music "together".  Most of all turn off the weepy-whiney poor-poor-pitiful-me into your own version of a comic genius or self-help guru. Mainly just remember people are different when they're scared. We all need to cut each other a little slack and help where we can.

5. Keep informed but don't overdo it.

6. Choose to be your better self. Panic and misery spread like fire. Give the fuel a spark and stand back. Don't be that spark. We are going to get through this together.

Greetings fellow shut-ins and all the ships at sea. Today is day two of my "isolation." So far... so good (Temp 97.4). It likely has occurred to many of you that the world is reacting to a beast that is very hard to define. Here in the USA the daily briefings do more to create heat than light. This is nothing new. Take for example this historical epidemic you probably never heard of.

The Liverpool England Typhus Epidemic of 1864.

The typhus epidemic is one of the thousands of such events which stain the pages of history, though this one is more in the dustbin.  Typhus is one of those nasty diseases caused by Rickettsia prowazeki or typhi. Humans contract it from the bites of fleas, mites, ticks, or lice. It has common terms as louse fever or jail fever and can have a high death rate. Liverpool in the mid-nineteenth century was a location that has a steady occurrence of typhus. In 1864 the cases of typhus grew radically enough that the inhabitants of town called it an epidemic. The local Vestry authorities commissioned a doctor to present them with a report on the fever and its spread. The report of Doctor Buchanan was summarized in the Liverpool Mercury on January 25, 1865 (see clipping below).  The report described the presence of a highly virulent fever that had caused numerous deaths. It is a curiosity that the report does not say how many were infected and how many had died. This omission is notable because on the same page of newspaper there is a report detailing "Social, Medical, and Criminal Statistics of Drunkeness" by Reverend John Jones which details the sad tales of dozen of deaths of people while drunk. (In one of those ironies within an an irony which often occur in Newsprint, there is a price list for sweet wines and vins de liqueur at James Smith & Company Wine Merchants adjacent to Jone's statistical report.) It is clear in the report that the medical officers of Liverpool were a diverse lot in whether they even tracked the number of fevers they treated, making estimation of the frequency impossible.

The typhus epidemic report provided much of the same kind of information that one hears in the briefings regarding our current pandemic. We learn that it ravages the young (those under 20) more heavily than any other age group. We find that the poor suffer most. We learn that in hospitals the death rate for those afflicted averages 14-15%. We find it occurs with highest frequencies during the final quarter of the year. Not knowing the cause of typhus the good doctor opines on the effects or lack thereof of drainage, crowding, intemperance, hygiene, diet, Irish heritage, and wealth. The good doctor concludes that the causes of typhus in Liverpool is due to "destitution, dirt and intemperance with overcrowding, and bad ventilation of streets and houses. There is not a single hint that the vectors of the disease were the results of all the parasite which thrive in such conditions. Hearing this the Vestry authorities voiced their concerns and  promptly tabled the report as they considered it for two weeks and arranged for copies to be made available to the district medical officers. Nothing was to be done and so the do-nothings allowed the epidemic to continue.

Day Two-

Today the kitchen is my battlefield. I am preparing cheese pizza for my mother and taking the last of the onions and peppers and cooking them for storage in the freezer. In one of those incidents that you just have to laugh about, tiny ants invaded my kitchen and set up a bread line in my Spelt flour. I had six pounds of that delightful baking flour and the ants, who took Day one of my isolation to show up and start depleting my larder. Very funny. As my beautiful bride commented, "Adds protein!" You have to love her good sense.

The allergies are fierce today and we are supposed to reach 85 degrees. That will bring out all the blooms and set my eyes to watering. I will drop off pizza for my mother and then we will watch an old movie. Yesterday we say High Noon.

My helpful hint for today.  To store your onions and peppers longer saute them and freeze them. I use them in sauces and other cooking. If those potatoes are about to go bad you can fry or mash them and use the freezer to extend their use lives. Try to cut down on the amount of garbage we produce. Be safe and remember to help one another.

"It was about the Beginning of September 1664, that (, among the Rest of my Neighbours, heard in ordinary Discourse, that the Plague was return'd again in Holland; for it had been very violent there in 1663, whither they say, it was brought, some said from Italy, others from the Levant among some Goods, which were brought home by their Turkey Fleet; there's said it was brought from Candia; others from Cyprus. It matter'd not, from whence it come; but all agreed, it was come to Holland again." - Daniel Dafoe from A Journal of the Plague Year.

Dafoe's classic work on the horrors of life during the 1664-1665 plague is eclipsed in minds of readers by other works such as Moll Flanders and Robinson Crusoe. The pestilence referred to is the Black Death or Bubonic plague, a malady which killed millions over its centuries of terror. The organism responsible, Yersinia pestis, has been found on archaeological sites going back 6,000 years ago. There are pockets where the Black Death is endemic. Disease historians recognize three major pandemics (Sixth Century, Fourteenth Century, and Nineteenth Century). The periods between pandemics saw hundreds of local recurrences of the Black Death, as described in Dafoe's work.

Since many of us are hunkered down in our imperfect fortresses of isolation hoping to thereby avoid a visit from the most recent infectious bogeyman, I thought it might be interesting to dedicate the next segments of Shadowlands to an examination of one of those oft-repeated themes in human history, surviving epidemics and pandemics. Such historical backdrops bring out the worst and the best in us. Literature and history are filled with examples of heroism and sorrow. Edgar Allan Poe's Mask of the Red Death A Fantasy (known more recently as Masque of the Red Death) is a classic tale of how pestilence can reach into the strongest of isolation cells and have its way with the inmates.

Rod Serling introducing an episode of the Twilight Zone might suggest that we all are embarked upon our own meeting with history and ourselves with his classic introduction of "Picture if you will...". In the coming pages I wish to examine not only historical figures and those of literature who embarked on this uncalled-for journey.  I would like readers to submit their observations and thoughts about remarkable and terrible times. We can leave the current political finger-pointing aside for now. Now that the hoax is locking us in and we hear it shuffling about the front door waiting for a chance to visit, all those political concerns are secondary. This blog will contain hints for dealing with the isolation, keeping safe, making do, and is intended to be a bridge to break through the physical isolation and find within that unwelcome place the kinship of fellow beings embarked on this same journey. Please send your experiences and I will reproduce portions of them here. Please keep yourself and loved ones as safe as you can and remember at the time you feel the most alone we are here beside you.

So... here goes– "Today is day one of our "total" lockdown. I am here with three dogs. My wife and daughter are in the Miami area, where work and college are located. Miami, is ground zero for infection in our state, at the moment and there are restrictions on bars, restaurants, beaches, and other gathering places. People are having the Devil's own time getting tested, a situation which makes contact with anyone a roll of the dice.  My mother, aged 95, lives roughly one mile away as the crow flies but three miles as the crow drives.  We have sufficient food for a couple weeks or more in each of our houses. It has been interesting to see that friends of my mother leave packages of toilet paper as a kind of secret Santa present outside her door. Since we have hurricane caches there never was a question of such supplies being near the end. When the pandemic hit we were already well-into  cycling out last year's hurricane cache with replacement supplies. It is at times like this one discovers silly inconveniences in our larders. Mine was having a can of Pam, the cooking spray, on its last legs. If that's the worst of my problems, I'm happy to overcome by a change in my cooking habits to add a grease jar to the kitchen. I will travel to my mother's home every day.  I am preparing meals on occasion (some will find it interesting that my first delivery of food included a bread recipe from my Donner Party Cookbook). We have decided to create our own film society and will watch a classic movie every day. I will also bring the Yorkshire Terrier (Rhett Butler) to visit. He is just under eight pounds of hate and discontent, but she loves him anyway.  It's a good thing he's cute or someone would have knocked him in the head by now. When not at my mother's I have a large yard to keep the jungle from reclaiming, so I get a little sun. I walk the dogs around our cul-de-sac in the darkest hours of night and hence avoid encounters with people and other pets. We are creatures of the night. This gives my sleeping schedule a bifurcate cast. One may find me writing at any odd time now. I am currently working on an historical/horror novel.  My beautiful bride calls me every night and we spend long hours on the phone trying to dissolve the enforced distance of over 200 miles. She is a superintendent of a national park and it is her job to shepherd her team through these rough passages and provide companionship for our daughter. She has a lot on her plate as all this happened as she started the job and I miss her very much and look forward to more normal times when we can be together again.

I will add details as our story unfolds. This is something new for all of us. I never thought I'd be forced to act like a germaphobe and carry a container of hand sanitizer along with my car keys. I never conceived that I would routinely check my temperature twice a day (97.4 this morning). I never thought the darned allergy season would bring a memoria mortis moment with every sneeze.I never thought I'd look at my luxurious aloe vera plants and wonder if I could mash the meat into a pulp and add alcohol to make hand sanitizer. (Anyone know if that will work... oh hell I only have a couple of ounces of alcohol in the house.) So... dear friends and fellow passengers on this voyage, let us keep in touch. Share your stories. You are making history.

THAT GHOST MOANING AND RATTLING CHAINS IN
THE NIGHT COULD BE OUR OWN HISTORY

"No man can put a chain about the ankle of his fellow man without at last finding the other end fastened around his own neck."- Frederick Douglass

This year marks the 400th anniversary of the introduction of African Slavery in what would become the United States. This is important history and the readers of this blog are directed to the 1619 Project to read about how slavery played a role in the building of our nation. It is a terrible legacy to contemplate and those who wish to understand American history must never forget the lessons of what this nation was like when people could own other human beings and the failure of thisnation to heal the wounds this condition created.

When African slaves were introduced to the North American colonies the United States of America was almost two hundred years in the future.  Slavery is part of our heritage of being a former colony of European States. Ancient Rome is estimated to enslaved roughly one-quarter to one-third of all the people in the empire. All of the states which grew out of that empire maintained slavery well into the age of reason and some beyond. This reliance upon the forced labor of humans is found in China, India, Japan, Russia.. you get the picture.  Empires, city-states, kingdoms, states, churches, provinces, counties, prefectures, military districts, etc. all included slaves in the mix. Lest we get too complacent, there are slaves working in the dark underground shops of many modern cities, providing labor for the sex industry, serving as unwilling combatants in wars, and performing back-breaking labor in fields. It's tough to put an idea as pernicious as slavery into the grave it deserves.

Slavery in the colonies that would become the United States was a mixed bag. Indenturing of labor for decades provided as many as half of the immigrants to the colonies. Prisoners, exiles, debtor-peons, and even kidnapped persons were part of the mix. Indenturing was not ownership but had many of the horrors of slavery. Indenturing continued until the First World War. Ultimately the majority of indentured persons were still considered to be persons and in some locations had rights. This could not be claimed for the trans-Atlantic African slave-trade. The cheaper workers from Africa were property first and, as the trans-Atlantic trade became choked off, livestock. This is a huge difference. This factor had an enormous impact on the assimilation of former servants into society upon their releases from bondage.

When Admiral Columbus first came to his "New World" there already existed tribes which enslaved people. Columbus was quick to ship Native American captives back to Spain for inclusion in the slave economy of the Spanish Kingdom which continued until 1811 (except in places like Cuba  where it lingered until 1862). The initial trickle of captives grew in size and for a time the trans-Atlantic slave trade was a two-way street. Spain ended the slavery of Native Americans in 1530 but allowed forced labor to continue under the Encomienda system. The trans-Atlantic trading of Native American slaves ended in 1528. This pattern of abolishing the trade in slaves well before abolishing slavery itself was repeated in most slave-holding nations. Economics 

South America predated that in North America by more than a century. African slaves were shipped to Spain and thence to South America by 1510. King Charles V established a monopoly in the trading of African slaves Spanish colonies in 1518. African slavery in Portugese had been major importers of African slaves to Europe by 1444 and built a permanent slave trading post on the African coast in 1482. The African slaves imported to Virginia in 1619 were part of an extended chain of events where economic gain was prized over human suffering.

Great Britain did not abolish slavery until 1833 with the passage of the Abolition of Slavery Act. Britain had abolished the Atlantic Slave trade in 1807 (an act that was followed by its former colonies in the United States in 1808). France abolished slavery in 1848 (trading slaves in 1817). The Kingdom of Sweden abolished slavery in 1813 and the Netherlands in 1814.  There were hundreds of abolition declarations, treaties, laws and amendments all aimed at correcting this flawed choice by the many peoples who chose to employ slave labor. Once it officially was ended it rarely came back, as when Napoleon I reestablished slavery on French sugar plantations in the early 19th century. However, when made illegal, slavery continued to thrive in the shadows. Profits from cheap labor are difficult for many to resist.

Mexico abolished slavery when their first president of African descent, Vincente Guerreo, took office in 1829. In one of the great WTF moments of North American history Ute warriors serving with Kit Carson's expedition against the Navajo sent many captured Navajo south to the Mexico as slaves. Accordingly an army of a nation which just issued an emancipation proclamation for slaves held in rebellious states sent prisoners of war as slaves into a country where slavery was abolished."

The United States won their independence in 1783. The break-away British colonies had economies that included chattel slavery and other forms of servitude. The new republic helped fuel the peak years of importation of African slaves to North America. It is entirely hypocritical that a nation that announced it's cutting the ties with the mother country by declaring all men created equal, would embrace slavery. Jefferson originally included a rebuke to King George about fostering slavery in the colonies but this was removed by delegates with financial interests in the slave industry.  Instead there is an oblique reference to "domestic insurrections" (a.k.a. slave rebellions). It is of note that Vermont in 1777 banished slavery while the issue of their own independence was in substantial doubt, as Burgoyne's British army was sweeping south out of Canada. Freed from England's control, America was unable to ween itself of the cheap labor provided by slavery until 1865. The sudden and violent destruction of the slave economy did not end the struggle for the former slaves. A new struggle sprang out of the ashes of the Confederacy and continues to this day.

The 1619 project of the New York Times does an admirable job in detailing the numerous lost opportunities to incorporate the former slaves into society as fully functioning members.  The African slaves were treated as non-persons during their bondage and freedom in the 1860s did little to change that. It has been a constant struggle to obtain basic civil rights, economic access, educational access, health care, and equal protection under the law. There is still a lot of work to do. We all need to roll up our sleeves.
 

The January 1, 1893 edition of the Chicago Tribune​ in doing a very mundane review of the previous year provides us with a chilling view of what life, or more correctly death, was like in America.  The Tribune went to great lengths to compile basic statistics on murders, suicides, executions, disasters, and even lynchings.   They gathered information by montoring telegraph traffic throughout the year and therefore these figures must be understood to be more of a news sample than a comprehensive list.  Even so  it's difficult to go through these figures, realizing the ultimate toll the statistics meant to real people.

Crime and Punishment

Capital punishment was in favor in 1892.  There were 107 legal executions in 1892.  Surprisingly the number was down from 123 in 1891.  Georgia executed the most (14) people.  The executions were heavily skewed towards the South with 78 executions in that region.  Just over half (57) the executions were of Caucasians.  Forty four percent of the legal executions (47) were of African Americans and other people of color.  Additionally  two Indians and one Chinese person were executed.  These figures show that non-Whites were executed at a substantially higher rate than Caucasians.  Women represented four percent of the executions.

As disturbing as the figures from the legal executions were, the statistics for lynching tell a true horror story.  There were 236 acknowledge executions which were extra-legal.  Lynchings were most prevalent in the South and Western Territories.  The states of Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Tennessee each lynched more than twenty people.  Roughly 200 of the lynchings occurred in the South.  Judge Lynch was far more sparing of Caucasians, killing only 80.  An astounding 156 (66%) African Americans were included in the butcher's bill. Additionally one Indian was a victim.  If one delves into the statistics there are even more disturbing revelations.  Four Italians are identified, the only national group with this dubious distinction.  The reasons for the lynchings give us a look as to how lawless the nation was at this time.  Caucasians were the only group which had members lynched for livestock theft (total 21).  As one might expect murder loomed large as a cause give for lynching.  What might surprise the reader is that 53 lynchings were involved rape.  Of these only 10 percent were Caucasians and the remainder were African Americans.  Eight  lynchings were of African Americans for "race prejudice", in other words being Black around the wrong people.  The racism of the time is further evidenced by African Americans being lynched for robbery (13), insulting someone (5), arson (6), rioting (3), being a desperado (4), and even for defending themselves (1).  The Indian victim of lynching was for a rape.  One Caucasian was lynched by Indians for reasons unknown. 

As might be expected the categories of murders in the 19th Century are somewhat different than today.  The Tribune lists 6,791 murders (not including all those lynchings already noted).  The paper does not track the methods of murder, but does go into the perceived causes of homicide.  Our ancestors were a quarrelsome lot as 2,932 murders were quarrels with jealousy (513) and outrages (28) adding to that general category.   There were over 700 murders due to alcohol and 111 due to insanity.  Policing in this violent era was tough, as reflected in  240 deaths  for resisting arrest.  Social unrest created six deaths in riots and 32 in strikes.  Infanticide resulted in 314 murders.  A  most unusual pair of statistics is 376 murders by highwaymen and 148 highwaymen killed in turn.

Goodbye Cruel World

According to the Tribune roughly 3,890 suicides occurred in 1892, increasing 1891's total by roughly 500 souls.  It is of interest that the paper tallied not only the means of suicide, but the assumed reasons behind the act.  The top reason was despondency, accounting for roughly a third of the suicides.  Other reasons tracked were disappointed love, domestic infelicity, insanity, drinking, ill health, and business losses.  About a third (1,300) of the suicides were accomplished with firearms.  Poison was the second-most frequent form of suicide (1,010).  The list (in order of preference) goes on to include hanging, cutting their own throats, drowning, throwing oneself in front of a train, jumping from windows, self-immolation, starvation, and dynamite.  Single case suicide techniques included freezing, placing the head under a triphammer, and banging the head against a wall.

Disasters

What list of horrid events would be complete without a compendium of natural and man-made disasters?  Drowning was the most frequent (3,174) form of accidental death.  Wind (tornadoes etc.) killed 448 while lightning wiped out another 368 souls.  Fires killed 1,775 people.  Explosions killed another 700 while mining accidents killed 515.  Railroads were a major cause of death, killing an astounding 4,428 people.  Maritime and riverine accidents accounted for 3,346 deaths, not including the deaths of fishermen and whalers at sea.

That was the year that was.  For those who have forgotten the historical background for 1892; the United States had roughly 63 million residents and had grown roughly 26% since 1880.  It was an election year with Grover Cleveland being elected as President.  The Fall River Murders thrust Lizzie Borden into the national limelight as she was accused of the axe murders of her parents.  The Johnson County War in Wyoming pitted large ranchers against small operators.  The diesel engine was patented.  A new microbe, the virus was discovered.  The pledge of allegiance was first recited  in public schools as part of the 400th anniversary of Columbus Day.  The Dalton Gang had a bad day in Coffeyville, Kansas as an attempted bank robbery was thwarted by armed citizens.  The Stanley cup was created while a new sport called basketball made its debut.  Ellis Island became a port of entry for immigration.  The University of Chicago opened and women were admitted to Yale's graduate school.  Abercrombie & Fitch, as well as Vogue Magazine were new arrivals to the world of fashion.  Andrew Carnegie won a monopoly of the steel industry.  The world was captivated by a new hero, Detective Sherlock Holmes.