Possible Extra-Credit over the Thanksgiving Break

Below are some extra-credit opportunities you can consider reviewing for extra-credit in Early American Literature.  Remember, to qualify for extra-credit.  You should review the opportunity in your blog, explaining what you learned, connecting what you learned to the time period and literature we are studying, and include pictures of you participating in the opportunity (where appropriate).

1.  Over the remaining weeks of the semester, we will be studying the early colonial period and concentrating much of our reading on British Colonialism in Virginia.  Now is a good time to plan a visit to Henrico, Jamestown, Colonial Williamsburg, one of the James River plantations, etc.

2. The Smithsonian's American History Museum has an exhibit open on the move west.  In the lobby, there's one of the few surviving Conestoga Wagons--the preferred method of transportation moving west and moving cargo in the Early Republic during westward expansion.

http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/aroundthemall/2012/11/going-west-the-american-history-museums-conestoga-wagon-is-a-must-see/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+smithsonianmag%2FAroundTheMall+%28Around+The+Mall+%7C+Smithsonian.com%29

While at the American History Museum, you might go to the presidential exhibit and view the lap desk on which Jefferson composed the draft of the Declaration or go next door to the US Archives to view several of the founding documents in person.  If you go up the hill, to the Jefferson building of the Library of Congress, then you can see what remains of Jefferson's library, that is, the library Jefferson sold to Congress after their library was burned in the War of 1812 and which was the seed of today's Library of Congress. While on the floor for this exhibit, you might walk across to see the first map (1507) which calls the New World "America."

3.  If you would like to stay closer to Richmond, consider taking in the movie, Lincoln, which opens this weekend and taking a tour of Shocoe Bottom.  While there, see where Madison argued the General Assembly to ratify Jefferson's Statue for Religious Freedom, see an early draft of the Declaration (in the Statehouse Jefferson designed), sit in a replica of Henry "Box" Brown's box (on the Canal Walk/Slave Trail under I-95), walk the Slave Trail, and visit the Poe Museum.  All this is within a few blocks of one another, and each can earn you two points extra-credit, that is, with pictures and a review posted to your blog.

4. For those who want to stay in Richmond and don't mind a short drive, consider visit to a slave cemetery and Lumpkin's Jail, St. John's church on Church Hill, Tocahoe Plantation (where Jefferson went to school), the Confederate Whitehorse, etc.

The point is to connect what you are learning via the literature to your daily life and the landscape surrounding you.  In the process, you'll pick up some good Thanksgiving conversation and stories about Richmond and Virginia to share.  You might even be able to turn one of these visits into a family outing 

Regardless, have a safe and enjoyable Thanksgiving Break.

Steve 

PS Legal Stuff:  As always, participating in an extra-credit opportunity is your choice and is not a requirement for successful completion of the course.  The college, VCCS, me, etc. cannot and will not take responsibility for anything which happens to you as a result of taking an extra-credit trip.  These trips are designed to help you supplement your learning in the Early American class and to provide connections which might help the learning stick. I hope they might also make early American literature more fun and demonstrate how the subject remains a part of our daily lives--especially in Richmond and Virginia.

How Saving $2.75 a Day Can Led to Wealth, or a Modern Version of Franklin's "A Way to Wealth"

In writing and publishing Poor Richard's Almanac and "The Way to Wealth," Franking introduced the American "common man" to refining the virtues of industry, frugality  and saving.  Yesterday, a modern example of the same rhetoric crossed my inbox.  Follow the link to find a discussion of just how much you pay to borrow $1000, and how rich you can become by saving only $2.75 a day over time.

http://lifehacker.com/5960927/how-saving-275-a-day-can-change-your-life

It's good advice, but--as Farther Abraham says in "The Way to Wealth," I wonder how many will follow the advice.  In any event, it is advice that will greatly profit you and a path to wealth which is within the capability of many college students.

Finally, the article is a point of proof that self-help and the notion of the individual using reason and self-discipline to improve their life did not end with the Enlightenment and the Romantics.  The tradition remains a daily aspect of American culture, and it had its roots in the Founder's generation and--especially--Franklin.

Steve

It's the Great Turkey, Charlie Brown, or the Myth and Truth of the 1621 "Thanksgiving" Feast

Many of the traditions which have built up around the Pilgrams and Thanksgiving are a myth, but there is some truth burried in there.  Follow the conversation and link below to read what are taken to be the only reports of a harvest feast in 1621.

What we are pretty sure of was that the harvest of 1621 produced hope and food for the coming winter.  We have one surviving report of Massasoit--the Wampanoag shaman showing up with a group of Indians and killing some venison to share with the Pilgrams. We are very sure this three day get-together and feasting did not happen on 25 November 1621.  Still, 1621 would be the first time the Pilgrams took in a harvest and felt prepared for winter, and their having enough food (largely Indian Corn and seafood) was largely a result of the help of Indians, like Squanto and Massasoit, who introduced NDN corn, lessons on how to grow NDN crops, and how to harvest the local plenty.

Follow the link below for some of the facts about the history of Thanksgiving: 

http://www.mayflowerhistory.com/History/thanksgiving.php

Steve

Seeing Stephen Spielberg's _Lincoln_ and Earning Extra-Credit for Early Ame. Lit.

This week, on 16 November, a new production of the life of Lincoln will open nationwide. It's put together by executive producer, Stephen Spielberg, and the movie was shot this past year in Virginia.  Since you've read Lincoln for our Early American class ("The Gettysburg Address," etc.), and--in particular--you read some of the Enlightenment and Romantic literature surrounding the Abolition of slavery in the United States, I thought I would offer two points extra-credit to those who go to see the film and used it as an opportunity to learn more about the literature and about Antebellum America and Civil War America.

As always, to earn the extra-credit, there should be a photo of you helping to "prove" you went to see the movie, maybe standing in line or getting popcorn.  Also, to earn extra credit, write a short review of the film and how it helped you learn about the Early American time period, the literature we have read, or Lincoln as an author.  Post the image and your review to your blog.

Steve

Remember: Extra-Credit to Vote

Remember, you can vote and receive extra-credit.  Take a picture of yourself in line to vote or at your polling place.

A student from another class, in her section's New York Committee of Correspondence, wrote last night.  She noticed a LivingSocial deal on tickets to the Poe Museum (link below).  The Poe Museum is of the possibilities for an extra-credit field trip. Among other things, it has a model of the city of Richmond during Poe's day. It's also a good choice for a crisp, fall day just after Halloween.  Below find the details Tiffany shared.  (BTW, her efforts to help all our learning gained her some extra-credit.) This weekend, you might also find me down on the Bottom, taking a canal cruise, walking the slave trail, or going up the hill from the Poe Museum to visit St. John's Church (where Patrick Henry gave the "Give Me Liberty, or Give Me Death" speech).  Each of these activities can earn you extra-credit.  Just take pictures of you there, and write a review post to the blog, where you connect what you did to what you've read and learned in class and through the reading.

From Tiffany:  "The Poe Museum is offering two Kids' tickets at $5 and two Adult tickets $6. I think it's a great deal if someone was thinking about doing extra credit and wanting to take their children with them. Here is the link to the deal:

http://www.livingsocial.com/cities/77-richmond/deals/476644-two-kids-5-or-two-adult-6-museum-tickets.

1914 East Main Street

Richmond, VA 23223

(804) 648-5523

poemuseum.org‎

Ben Franklin, Satire, Wit, and Daylight Savings

This weekend, we fall back an hour as Daylight Savings ends.  Ben Franklin often gets blamed for Daylight Savings, here's the real story.

Poor Ben gets credited with many inventions, and Daylight Savings is only one of them.  He did discuss the savings in candles which could be had by getting up early, but it was in a satire of himself published in his last year as America's Minister to France.  Being Ben, the Satire was both personal aggrandizement -he was a shameless self promoter--and a savvy political move.

Franklin was better known in Europe than any other inventor or America of the age, and he played his fame to the hilt.  Franklin presented Europe with a host of contradictions  ones which became associated with "the American character."  One aspect of the persona he adopted was the Franklin of Paris salon society, who played chess until the wee hours of the morning while discussing philosophy. This Franklin was said to have invented bi-focals so as to keep an eye on the girls across the room and the one next to him without having to change glasses.  Another aspect of the persona Franklin adopted was the character of "Poor Richard," the publisher of almanacs and espouser of the virtues of frugality and industry.  This was the Franklin who dressed in a coon skin cap and dark, plain clothing. (This dress had the effect of making him stand out from the brightly colored, baroque clothing of the Paris Court and salon society.)

In 1784, in a letter published in a Paris newspaper, Franklin wrote a satire in which he suggested the public project of regulating when the population of Paris went to bed and arose.  In the letter,  Franklin satirized himself in both aspects of his European persona, and it's a good example of how Franklin used his fame and humor to gain the public eye and to promote good.  Here's an excerpt from the letter:

"An accidental sudden noise waked me about six in the morning, when I was surprised to find my room filled with light; and I imagined at first, that a number of those lamps had been brought into it; but, rubbing my eyes, I perceived the light came in at the windows. I got up and looked out to see what might be the occasion of it, when I saw the sun just rising above the horizon, from whence he poured his rays plentifully into my chamber, my domestic having negligently omitted, the preceding evening, to close the shutters."

"I looked at my watch, which goes very well, and found that it was but six o'clock; and still thinking it something extraordinary that the sun should rise so early, I looked into the almanac, where I found it to be the hour given for his rising on that day. I looked forward, too, and found he was to rise still earlier every day till towards the end of June; and that at no time in the year he retarded his rising so long as till eight o'clock. Your readers, who with me have never seen any signs of sunshine before noon, and seldom regard the astronomical part of the almanac, will be as much astonished as I was, when they hear of his rising so early; and especially when I assure them, that he gives light as soon as he rises. I am convinced of this. I am certain of my fact. One cannot be more certain of any fact. I saw it with my own eyes. And, having repeated this observation the three following mornings, I found always precisely the same result."

In the letter, Franklin goes on to calculate the savings in candle wax to be had if all of Paris were to get up with the sun and go to bed earlier.  Reading the letter, I can't help but think of George Burns as Franklin delivering it.  

Most don't understand Franklin's humor and just how fine a writer he was, and I have to tell you, humor if fun to teach.

The moral: you can't blame Franklin for Daylight Savings.  Blame bad readers of satire, who took his modest proposal more seriously than he intended.

Here's a link to Franklin's piece, which was published in a newspaper in Paris:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1S42UD3eCKjrQfTwaJQQmaZOamYPY7q-KtI030Z-tyKA/edit 

Steve