LOCAL WASHINGTON COUNTY HISTORY IS FASCINATING

 

As we face the vicissitudes of daily living, it is easy to lose sight of the rich history that surrounds us in Washington County. It is true that our community has gained some well-deserved notoriety from the Whiskey Rebellion and from the archeological rock shelter at Meadowcroft with its colonial village. There is much more to consider. 

Recalling local history and local traditions based on the past help to strengthen our community connections. Numerous local individuals who helped to facilitate the modern transformation of southwestern Pennsylvania reflect the grand scheme of historical change.

Southwestern Pennsylvania was critical to the founding of Colonial America. The area played an important role in the French and Indian War, American Revolution and Civil War. It was an indispensable gateway to the opening of the western frontier. Decades later, the glass works, steel mills, railroads and coal mines were ushered in during the industrial revolution.  These new industries offered employment to thousands of immigrants seeking to live the American dream.

Several fascinating examples of local history have struck me as having national, historical importance in the development of America. This commentary will discuss these events.

The National Road.  I never grow tired of driving Route 40, the original National Road, with its abundance of old homes, taverns, tollbooths and historical battlegrounds. The National Road was built between 1811 and 1834 to reach the western settlements. It was the first federally funded road in U.S. history, built to connect the Potomac and Ohio Rivers. Thomas Jefferson believed that a trans-Appalachian road was necessary for unifying the young country. In 1806, Congress authorized construction, and by 1818 the road was completed from Cumberland to Wheeling. Wagons hauled produce from frontier farms to the East Coast, returning with staples such as coffee and sugar.

To avoid difficulties in construction, the original route proposed by surveyors bypassed established towns such as Uniontown and Washington. Local residents were angered by the choice of route. Secretary of the Treasury, Albert Gallatin, as a former representative in the Pennsylvania Legislature, exchanged letters with local politicians and President Madison. Eventually, Madison decided on a route that included both Washington and Uniontown.  

Forts & Blockhouses.  One of my favorite pastimes as a child in rural New Jersey was going into the woods to build forts with my friends. Local county residents may not be aware that the locations of dozens of frontier forts and blockhouses surround them.  The forts provided protection for settlers from attacks by hostile Native Americans when Washington County was the western frontier.  

Known locations include the following: Dillow’s Blockhouse (Hanover Twp.), Beeler’s Fort (Robinson Twp), McDonald’s Stations/Fort (Robinson Twp.), Burgett’s Blockhouse (Burgettstown), Vance’s Fort (near Cross Creek Village), Hoagland’s Blockhouse (southern Smith Twp.), Cherry’s Fort (Mt. Pleasant), Reynold’s Blockhouse (north of Cross Creek Village), William’s Blockhouse (Mt. Pleasant Twp.), Rice’s Fort (13 miles from Ohio River), Miller’s Blockhouse (Donegal Twp.), Wolf’s Blockhouse (5 miles west of Washington,  Rt 40), Roney’s Fort (Findley Twp.), Ryerson’s Fort (near Green County), Campbell’s Blockhouse (east of Ryerson), Lindley’s Fort (north branch of Ten Mile Creek).

The large number of facilities tells us that before the Revolutionary War, community defense on our frontier was serious business. Pitched battles were documented at several of the locations.

The Underground Railroad.  The efforts of my Quaker abolitionist ancestors have always drawn me to the history of the Underground Railroad. Luckily, Thomas Mainwaring, a local professor and historian, has written an excellent study of the Underground Railroad in Washington County. (Abandoned Tracks, 2018, University of Notre Dame)

Professor Mainwaring establishes that the Scots-Irish Presbyterians of Washington County were among the first in western Pennsylvania to establish an antislavery society. Washington County views on slavery were in sharp contrast with those of Fayette and Greene Counties where sympathies were with the South. Because of Washington’s location, the local flow of escaping slaves was minimal compared with central Pennsylvania where Maryland provided a steady stream of slaves seeking freedom.

Washington County’s most famous abolitionist was Dr. Julius LeMoyne. By 1840 he had become a nationally known figure in the movement to aid escaping slaves. When the first national anti-slavery party formed in 1839 (the Liberty Party), Lemoyne was recruited to run as Vice President in the 1840 election. He refused with the reasoning that the movement was a religious enterprise and should abstain from politics.

Mainwaring identifies sixty Underground Railroad sites in Washington County ranging from the extremely well documented to the highly unlikely. Separating the myths and legends from the historically accurate proved to be a colossal task. The book’s appendix examines each of the possible local Underground Railroad sites in scholarly detail. Fourteen sites earned five stars for convincing proof from several independent sources.  Eleven sites were graded with four stars for only one primary source.

Civil War Generals. A friend who comes to Washington County by way of Belmont County, Ohio (St. Clairsville) recently provided my last item of local history with national significance. He shared with me a self-published book on the Civil War generals of Belmont County that I found fascinating.  No less than eleven generals, ten Union and one Confederate, were born in Belmont County. Perhaps this should not be surprising in that more than 300,000 Ohioans served in the Union Army, more per capita than any other state. In addition, Generals Ulysses Grant, William T. Sherman and Philip Sheridan were from Ohio.

 

 

REPUBLICANS ARE MISREPESENTING CRITICAL RACE THEORY

 

The latest flashpoint in the ongoing cultural wars over how and what public school students should learn is the concept of critical race theory (CRT). Critical race theory is a way of looking at our history of racism with the goal of restructuring imbedded discrimination. It is an academic construct based on the well-documented understanding that systemic racism is a social, economic and cultural historical fact. CRT is directed against racism in institutions and long-standing practices, not individuals or white America as a class.   

Right wing elected officials and their supporters will back any action, which denies that racism is common and systemic. Many Republicans seem to believe that racism will end when the nation stops discussing it. Attacking CRT has become their latest method to accomplish this goal. They claim that CRT is an ideological manifesto that seeks to demonize white people in the past and present for developing or supporting systemic racism. In fact, CRT is simply a factual recognition of historical events that have led to numerous long-standing institutional examples of systemic racism. Adherents of CRT believe that by acknowledging and discussing systemic racism we can move forward as a nation in a positive way.  

The concept of CRT has existed since the early 1960s when Derrick Bell, an African American Harvard law professor (born and raised in Pittsburgh) developed the idea as a reaction to the civil rights movement. His aim was to move the country toward a culture based on racial equity by examining the root causes of white supremacy.

For decades, the theory remained a little known discussion point, debated only in academic circles. CRT broke into the mainstream with the murder of George Floyd in May 2020 and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement. Right wing commentators exploited the post Floyd nation-wide demonstrations as a way of introducing critical race theory to a white audience suspicious of the Black call for justice. It became the right wing symbol of an aggressive new ideology to malign all white people. In fact, the theory was neither new, nor aggressive. Nor was it designed to paint all whites as racist.

Since 2020, CRT has become a major talking point in Republican political campaigns around the country. The hope is that this “dangerous concept”, misrepresented on Fox News and other conservative media, will sweep them into office. Remarkably, no public school in America had critical race theory as part of its curriculum. Nonetheless, states governed by Republican legislatures have now passed laws to prohibit discussing CRT. Predictively, these misplaced legislative efforts have been expanded to limit how teachers can present racism in any context and to curtail racial and diversity initiatives in education. 

Republican efforts to ban CRT and related anti-racist programs offer no better example of how systemic racism continues its long saga in American education. A recent history on the teaching of race in America (Teaching White Supremacy by Donald Yacovone) illustrates the enduring tradition of racism presented in public school textbooks.

The author examined hundreds of school texts distributed by the nation’s leading publishing houses from the early nineteenth century to the 1980s. He found that public education promoted white supremacy by saying little about slavery or portraying it as a positive institution that helped lift “savage” blacks into the realm of civilization.

The most popular history and civic texts taught three prevalent themes to young students well into the 1960s. First, that white superiority and Black inferiority were an acceptable part of American culture, including accounts of the nation’s past. Second, that the Civil War emancipation was a cleansing event that marked the end of further wide-scale racism in America. Third, that reconstruction provided white students with an easy explanation for ongoing white privlege. The argument was that during reconstruction African Americans failed to take advantage of an opportunity to progress and therefore could not complain about their unequal status.

Systemic racism is not limited to the United States.  Democratic forms of government do not eradicate it. In addition, CRT is relevant in nations where Blacks are in the overwhelming majority. Consider South Africa where in one election, a nation long divided into racial castes controlled by a white minority was turned upside down. After 1994, long disenfranchised people of color now wielded political dominance over the white minority.

Unfortunately, South Africa underwent immense political change while remaining on the same dismal, white dominated, economic track. Today, the unemployment rate remains at thirty percent. Thirty million Blacks live below the national poverty line. Twenty companies control eighty percent of the nation’s capital assets. Almost all are white owned.

White privlege remains as strong in South Africa as it was during apartheid. Whites control all the best schools, employment opportunities and agricultural land holdings. The Black middle class has found it difficult to penetrate into the white-managed mainstream of economic activity.

Clearly, systemic racism is a widespread, global reality. Solutions are only possible by admitting the problem exists and developing programs to break it down. In 2021, the America Civil Liberties Union released the following statement: “Our country needs to acknowledge its history of systemic racism and reckon with present day impacts of racial discrimination – this includes being able to teach and talk about these concepts in our schools.” Without this open approach, our nation is destined to perpetuate systemic racism for generations to come.

 

 

 

A WEEKEND OF REFLECTION

The weekend of September 9-11, 2022 offered some much-needed relief from a summer of rising inflation, revelations regarding former President Trump and the never-ending Pennsylvania campaign ads.  Four weekend events, each with very different circumstances, helped to place us in a more reflective state of mind.

The Death of Queen Elizabeth.  The United Kingdom is suffering through a period of economic and political turmoil far worse than the United States. There have been four conservative party Prime Ministers over the past ten years.  Each successor’s time in office has been more tumultuous than the former. Inflation is at double digits and economists predict a devastating 20% rate in 2023. Household energy bills are soaring due to dependence on Russian gas. The National Health Service is under pressure with 6.7 million patients waiting to receive scheduled care.

After observing the national outpouring of grief and solidarity following the death of Queen Elizabeth, two factors stand out. First, a nation with far greater problems than the United States was able to overcome political differences in a period of national mourning. Second, there has been an English monarchy for over 1200 years. This proves once again that institutions matter in bringing a diverse population together at a time of national sorrow.

Why are we Americans so fascinated by the British royal family? There is certainly a breath of fresh apolitical air associated with the crown. Though the King or Queen is officially the sovereign head of state, there has been no royal exercise of political power in over three hundred years. The Queen never revealed her political views.

Perhaps the major factor explaining America’s royal obsession is the love of status and celebrity. A weekend of ancient traditions and pageantry captured the airways, replacing repetitive, political talking heads. We were all happy that Princes William and Harry reconciled for the funeral. We can only hope that members of Congress could do the same.

The 9/11 Anniversary. When the media was not focused on the United Kingdom, it was covering solemn ceremonies related to the 9/11 anniversary. There is an enduring, but slowly changing impact of the 9/11 attacks on the national mood. Many Americans who are old enough to remember the day, name the attacks as their top historical event. Conversely, an ever-growing number of citizens have no personal memory of 9/11 and its aftermath.

I recently viewed a photograph of both Hillary and Bill Clinton, Republican Governor George Pataki, Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Senator Chuck Schumer standing together waving flags, shortly after 9/11.  I reflected on whether our nation could ever again come together at a time of sadness and patriotism. Following 9/11, no one sought political advantage against the Bush presidency for the intelligence shortcomings that may have prevented the attack.  I fear that today the allure of short-term political advantage would outweigh such a national response of public unity.

Military Gains by Ukraine. Many Americans lost focus on the war in Ukraine as the summer months produced a stalemate and the news cycle moved onto other topics. That changed over this important weekend when Ukrainian forces launched a counteroffensive that recaptured 6,000 sq. km. from the Russians. The Ukrainian push to retake ground all but wiped out the hard-fought gains made by Kremlin forces this spring.

How this conflict will end is unknown. Last February, no one predicted that the Ukrainians could hold out for this long against the overwhelming force of a larger, authoritarian nuclear power. The fact that Russia controlled the energy supply of much of Europe seemed to make the Ukrainian cause a losing proposition. However, a new face of freedom, through struggle and sacrifice in defense of democracy, has come from this very unlikely place.

Bipartisan support for Ukraine remains strong in Congress. It continues to pass massive aid packages for the country. According to a poll taken in late August, a majority of Americans believe that the United States should continue to support Ukraine until there is a complete withdrawal of Russian troops. Ironically, the country is more united on this issue than whether Donald Trump lost the election or whether the attack on the Capitol sought to disrupt the orderly transfer of government.

The Return of Football. The weekend under discussion also saw the return of the National Football League.  The NFL has been the unquestioned sports entertainment king of attendance, TV ratings, merchandise and revenue for years. There is no sign of slowing. The NFL now markets extensively to nontraditional sports fans, weaving itself into the fabric of popular culture. Athletes have become entertainment icons, more recognizable than our elected leaders.

Whether admiration for this capitalistic juggernaut is warranted is beside the point. Where almost everything in our world today is divided along political lines, the NFL is a welcome exception. It is a sport that cuts across political, social and racial differences to unite communities. When Donald Trump criticized the NFL in 2017 for players kneeling during the national anthem, it had little effect on its popularity.

Weekends like September 9-11, 2022 are important reminders that there are themes and events that continue to unite the citizens of our country. We must take time to reflect on history. We must reflect on our place in the world and remember that sometimes democracy must be preserved with blood and treasure.  We must continue rooting for our football team alongside our hometown political adversaries.