The true history of a legendary American folk hero In the 1820s, a fellow named Sam Patch grew up in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, working there (when he wasn't drinking) as a mill hand for one of America's new textile companies. Sam made a name for himself one day by jumping seventy feet into the tumultuous waters below Pawtucket Falls. When in 1827 he repeated the stunt in Paterson, New Jersey, another mill town, an even larger audience gathered to cheer on the daredevil they would call the "Jersey Jumper." Inevitably, he went to Niagara Falls, where in 1829 he jumped not once but twice in front of thousands who had paid for a good view. The distinguished social historian Paul E. Johnson gives this deceptively simple story all its deserved richness, revealing in its characters and social settings a virtual microcosm of Jacksonian America. He also relates the real jumper to the mythic Sam Patch who turned up as a daring moral hero in the works of Hawthorne and Melville, in London plays and pantomimes, and in the spotlight with Davy Crockett—a Sam Patch who became the namesake of Andrew Jackson's favorite horse. In his shrewd and powerful analysis, Johnson casts new light on aspects of American society that we may have overlooked or underestimated. This is innovative American history at its best.
This book brings to life the spiritual and sexual tensions of mid-19th-century America through the sensational and unforgettable story of the cult of Matthias.
Beginning at the bottom of village society, he knew how to function at the top: as Methodist trustee, as bank director, as Master Mason, as faction politician, and as the husband of a wealthy woman and the father of wealthy children.
Relates the extraordinary feats of Sam Patch, the early nineteenth-century daredevil jumper, whose greatest achievement was jumping off Niagara Falls.
Every Saturday , July 27 , 1878 ; Joel A. Tarr and Josef W. Konritz , “ Patterns in the Development of the Urban Infrastructure , ” in Howard Gillette , Jr. , and Zane L. Miller , eds . , American Urbanism : A Historiographical Review ...
A riveting account of a man and a city on the brink of greatness, Heir to the Empire City reveals that Roosevelt's true education took place not in the West but on the mean streets of nineteenth-century New York.
New York City, Prostitution, and the Commercialization of Sex, 1790-1920 Timothy J. Gilfoyle ... 1840 Susan Shannon , 74 Chapel St. ( 5 ) Francis Biddle , Church and Leonard Sts . ( 5 ) Henry Drayton Date of Case 10 April 1842 NOTES ...
Mr. Blainey explores the development of technology and skills, the rise of major religions, and the role of geography, considering both the larger patterns and the individual nature of history.
In Making Intangible Heritage, Valdimar Tr. Hafstein—folklorist and official delegate to UNESCO—tells the story of UNESCO's Intangible Heritage Convention.
The "new development" was the discovery that Deputy Sheriff Lewis Howard had placed Major Jones, the black trusty at ... At that time, he told agents he'd seen George, Dorothy, and Mae on his way to do an errand on the afternoon of the ...
In this subtly crafted biography, the historian Lori D. Ginzberg narrates the life of a woman of great charm, enormous appetite, and extraordinary intellectual gifts who turned the limitations placed on women like herself into a universal ...