You Can Have My Horse When You Pry It From My Cold, Dead Fingers

Well, maybe not.  This is an early mandatory horse registration law from Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut 2:27-28, also from 1665:

Early Thanksgiving Proclamation

From Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut, 2:26:

This is one of the earliest proclamations using the word Thanksgiving that I have seen.  This is from the year 1665.

The Oldest Fruit Tree In America

Planted by John Endicott in 1630, and still producing pears!  Oh yes, while the article is really neat, of course, a leftist had to add a comment ranting and raving about the evil white people.

Fascinating Story About Ancient Artifacts

PJMedia has a fascinating article about a collection of books, documents, and artifacts of the Iraqi Jewish community (back when there was still such a community) that were confiscated by Saddam Hussein's government in 1984 -- and which were saved from flooding by the WMD hunters after the invasion.  It's a great story of cultural heritage being saved through the intervention of Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and others who the left loves to hate.  (The article's author is one of those involved from the the start in saving these unique artifacts.)

It is also a troubling story of to whom these important historical documents will go, now that they have been stabilized and saved.  In a technical sense, yes, they are supposed to go back to the Iraqi government -- but they belonged to the Iraqi government because Hussein stole them from the rightful owners.  There are sound reasons why they should not go back to the Iraqi government, which the article articulates well.

I'm Going To Have To Get a Copy

My friend Nicholas Johnson has a new book out: Negroes and the Gun: The Black Tradition of Arms.

The Art Deco Bomber

Over at The Shekel there are some pictures of a World War II bomber trainer -- a trainer for teaching crews that were going to be flying bombers.  Because it was strictly a trainer, there was no need to make them inconspicuous, and this particular example is just gorgeous!

Amusing Discovery

Last night, I attended the start of the semester meeting of the new Department of Culture, History, and Political Science into which history faculty have been merged.  The college hired the new department chair out of Ohio -- and the Bellesiles matter came up when we were discussing the U.S. History texts that we use for the survey class.

It turns out that our new chair received his Ph.D. from Emory University, and was actually there at the time the scandal came up, so he knew who I was, and the part I played in the Bellesiles downfall.  He was also a student of Bellesiles at one point, and found it amusing that Bellesiles made a big point in that class of discussing the problems of fraud by historians -- cases where historians had falsified sources.  And this was about the time that Bellesiles was producing the Arming America fraud!

Working on a Law Review Article...

I am trying to find the earliest laws that create a firearms disability based on mental illness or retardation -- especially any laws in effect before 1968, when the Gun Control Act of 1968 passed.

I started with California, because I know the statutes pretty well. Cal. Welfare & Institutions Code 8100 and 8103 are the applicable statutes -- but I am having a hard time finding when these first appear. The current text is derived from Stats. 1967, Ch. 1667 (the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act that helped to make big cities in California into open wards). My search of the publicly visible Nexis database of California court decisions, as well as published books, finds no references to earlier statutes. Part of me finds this hard to believe -- and part of me doesn't. I can easily believe that until deinstitutionalization, California didn't worry much about mentally ill people with guns, because they hospitalized them.

Any statutes that you are aware, please let me know.

The Milk Revolution

In July 31, 2013 Nature: an astonishingly interesting article about the development of the lactase gene in European populations: when, how, and why.

Race & Criminal Justice

If you want to know why so many blacks have responded so bizarrely (at least in your eyes or mine) to the Zimmerman verdict, it's because of history like this: a collection from United States Digest: a Digest of Decisions of the Various Courts 14:492-3 (Boston: Little Brown & Co., 1879):

175. Indians. Negroes. Chinamen. A Chinaman who stated that he did not know the name of the book he was sworn on, but that he believed that if lie should state any thing untrue, the court would punish him, and that after his death he would "godown there," making an emphatic gesture downward with his hand, was htld to be a competent witness. The Merrimac, 1 Ben. 490.

176. In suits between a white man and a free person of color, or of mixed blood within the third degree, where the amount in controversy is under 920, and the former is sworn, the latter has also the right to use his own oath. Jety v. Hardy, 2 Port. (Ala.) 648.

177. The son of a mulatto is incapable, by statute, of being a witness against a white man. Smyth v. Oliver, 31 Ala. 89.

178. A person whose great-grandmother was the daughter of a mulatto by a negress, is not a competent witness for or against a white (Ala. Code, § 2276), although his father, maternal grandfather, and great-grandfather were whites. Dupree v. Slate, 33 Ala. 380.

179. A person whose maternal grandmother was the daughter of two mulattoes, each of whom had a full-blooded black for one parent, cannot testily against a w hite under Ala. Code, § 2276. Heath v. State, 34 Ala. 250.

180. Where colored witnesses for the prosecution, in a criminal case, are put under the rule, and excluded from hearing the testimony of other witnesses, and one colored man remains in court during a part of the testimony, and is nevef.heless put on the stand by the government, the court may in its discretion allow him to be examined, notwithstanding the defendant's objection. Montgomery v. State, 40 Ala. 684.

181. A Chinaman is an " Indian," within Cal. Code, § S94, excluding "Indians" as witnesses. Speer v. Sre Yup Co., 13 Cal. 78.

182. The color of a witness is not, as matter of law, sufficient to show that he is incompetent under the statute ; thus, a dark-colored native of Turkey is competent in the absence of proof as to his descent. People v. Elyea, 14 Cal. 144.

183. Section 14 of the California act, concerning crimes and punishments, creates an exception to the general rule of section 13 of said act; and in a criminal suit against a white man, no black, mulatto, or Indian person, although the injured party, can give evidence. People v. Howard, 17 Cal. 63.

184. The words " white person," in the California act which provides that " no Indian, or person having one-half or more of Indian blood, or Mongolian, or Chinese, shall be permitted to give evidence in favor of or against a white person," refer to the defendant only in a criminal action; and a Chinaman, who is on trial for crime, may introduce Chinese witnesses in his behalf. People T. Awa, 27 Cal. 638.

185. The fact that a Chinaman cannot be a witness against a white man indicted for robbing him, does not change the rules of evidence either as to the admission of evidence or as to the proof necessary to convict. People v. Jones, 31 Cal. 665.

186. Negro testimony is admissible, in Delaware, in a case between negroes, or against a negro. Elliott v. Morgan, 3 Harr. (Del.) 816.

187. In an indictment against a white man for kidnapping, in Delaware, the negro kidnapped is allowed to testify, though there were white persons present participating in the crime. State v. Whitaker, 3 Harr. (Del.) 649; State v. Griffin, Id. 560.

188. As to when negro testimony is in general admissible, — see Slate v. Cooper, 3 Harr. (Del.) 571.

189. A colored person is competent to prove his book of original entries, to make it evidence in a suit, though against a white person. Webb v. Pituirrgrass, 4 Harr. (Del.) 439.

190. Although against a free white person, negro testimony is inadmissible, yet it is competent to state that certain acts were done, in consequence of information received from a negro. Grady v. State, 11 Ga. 253.

191. The color of a witness is no longer an objection to his competency in the courts of Georgia. Clarke v. State, 35 Ga. 76.

192. The declarations of a sick negro to her physician were held inadmissible in evidence, except as to the disease of which he was afflicted at the time of the conversation. Brown v. Lester, Ga. Dec. Part I. 77.

193. Although an Indian is not a competent witness in Indiana, yet the fact that a witness is principal chief of an Indian nation, is, at most, but presumptive evidence that he is an Indian, which, in the supreme court, is rebutted by the fact that he was admitted to testify in the circuit court. Harris v. Doe, 4 Blackf. (Ind.) 369.

194. A negro is a competent witness in behalf of another negro on trial under an indictment. Woodward v. State, 6 Ind. 492.

195. In a suit, wherein one party is white and the other colored, the white party cannot introduce a colored witness, who has one-eighth or more of negro blood, against the other. Graham v. Crockett, 18 Ind. 119.

196. It is the duty of the court to determine the competency of witnesses, and where the objection to the competency of the witness rests upon the allegation that he has such an amount of negro blood as disqualifies him to testify, the court may, upon inspection, determine prima facie his competency; but if his blood is not sufficiently apparent for such mode of determination, then the court may examine other witnesses, either to prove the blood of the witness from reputation amongst those who knew him, or to establish the character of his blood by the testimony of experts. Nave v. Williams, 22 Ind. 368.

197. In what cases negroes were rendered incompetent as witnesses under the Indiana acts of 1853 and 1865, — determined. Turner v. Parry, 27 Ind. 163.

198. The laws of Kentucky in reference to the competency of negroes as witnesses are not affected by the civil rights bill. Bowlin v. Commonwealth, 2 Bush, (Ky.) 5.

199. A free black person was held, in Maryland, to be an incompetent witness in a case where the parties were free white Christians. Rusk v. Sowerwine, 3 Har. & J. (Md.) 97. See Sprigg v. Negro Mary, Id. 491.

200. There are but two cases in which a negro suffers a disqualification because of the presumption arising from his color. One is when he is summoned as a witness in a suit in which a white person is interested, and the other is upon the question of his freedom. Hughes v. Jackson, 12 Md. 450.

201. In Mississippi, an Indian is a competent witness in a suit between white men, and is under no other restrictions than a white person. Coleman v. Doe, 12 Miss. (4 Smed. &M.) 40; Doe v. Newman, 11 Miss. (3 Smed. & M.) 665.

202. Though a negro cannot testify against a white person, in Missouri, a conversation between the prisoner and a negro, if otherwise unobjectionable, may be proved by a white person, but not by the negro. Hawkins v. State, 7 Mo. 190.

203. Evidence that a negro has been reputed free from his childhood is sufficient evidence of his freedom to admit him as a witness. Potts v. Harper, 3 N. J. L. (2 Pen.) 1030.

204. A free black man is a competent witness to prove facts which may have happened while he was a slave. Gurnee v. Denies, 1 Johns. (N. Y.) 608.

205. In North Carolina, on the trial of an issue deoisavit vel non, where a will is propounded by two legatees, one of whom is a colored woman, and the other a white woman, and the caveators are colored persons, the caveators may prove by other colored persons the declarations of the colored woman, one of the parties propounding, in relation to the subject-matter of the issue, liagland v. Huntingdon, 1 Ired. (N. C.) L. 661.

206. N. C. Rev. Code, ch. 107, § 71, which makes persons of color incapable of being witnesses, except against each other, was repealed by the constitution. State v. Underwood, 63 N. C. 98.

207. A negro is not admissible as a witness, in Ohio, against a quadroon, on trial for a criminal offence. Gray v. State, 4 Ohio, 363.

208. A black or mulatto person is not a competent witness, where a white person is a party. Jordan v. Smith, 14 Ohio, 199; Paqe v. Carter, 8 B. Mon. (Ky.) 192. See Motts v. Usher, 2 Iowa, 82.

209. A free person of color is an incompetent witness, in any case, in a court of record of South Carolina. Groning v. Devana, 2 Bailey, (S. C.) 192. See White v. Helmes, 1 McCord, (S. C.) 430; State v. McDowell, 2 Brev. (S. C.) 146.

210. In an action within the summary processjurisdiction brought by one free negro against another, if plaintiff serves interrogatories on defendant, it is the duty of the clerk of the court to swear defendant to his answers, which may then be read in court. Jones v. Jones, 12 Rich. (S. C.) 116.

211. In Tennessee, no person disqualified as a witness by reason of his being a free man of color, or slave, under the act of 1794, eh. 1, § 32, can be a witness, in a state prosecution, for a defendant who belongs to one of the disqualified classes. Jones v. State, 1 Meigs, (Tenn.) 120.

 Ancient history you say?  Yup, I agree.  But there is a reason for this mistrust.

The First Communion on the Moon

From July 21, 2013 U.K. Daily Mail:

Former astronaut Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin may have been the second man to walk on the moon, but he was the first - and only - person to celebrate Holy Communion on it.

Inside the lunar module just hours before following Neil Armstrong onto the heavenly body in 1969, Aldrin celebrated the Christian sacrament with wafers and a bottle of wine - a fact the U.S. government reportedly refused to make public at the time.

The Apollo 11 astronaut's plan to broadcast the religious act back to Earth was blocked by NASA after an atheist filed a lawsuit complaining about a previous holy broadcast on the Apollo 8.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2372481/Buzz-Aldrins-secret-communion-moon.html#ixzz2Zn68opSp Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

Quite interesting to consider how dramatic our society has been transformed since then.

Twelve Years a Slave (2013)

I have been waiting for this film with great anticipation. Avery Brooks made a movie version of Twelve Years a Slave back in the 1980s with an inadequate budget, shot in three weeks, and it showed. This has enormous potential.

The Victory of Emotion Over History

The June 27, 2013 Minneapolis Star-Tribune carried this AP news story about President Obama's visit to Goree in Senegal -- one of those places that everyone visits because it is such a powerful symbol of the horrors of the Atlantic slave trade -- but appears to be something of a fraud:

The problem though is that historians say the door faced the ocean so that the inhabitants of the house could chuck their garbage into the water, the preferred means of waste disposal in preindustrial Senegal. No slaves ever boarded a ship through it, they say, because no vessel could have sailed through the rocky shoal that surrounds that edge of the island.

And while the house may have housed slaves, they were likely those belonging to the family who lived there, rather than slaves intended for the trans-Atlantic passage, according to numerous publications as well as three historians of the slave trade interviewed by The Associated Press.

Even though historians have debunked the memorial, calling it a local invention, and despite reams of scholarly articles, treatises and books discussing its dubious historical role, the pink building has become the de facto emblem of slavery. It's the place where world leaders go to acknowledge this dark chapter and in addition to Obama, the museum has hosted former Presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush and Pope John Paul II. Its guestbook is bursting with the emotional messages from African-Americans who made their own pilgrimage here in an effort to make peace with their ancestors' roots.

This has been a subject of discussion the History of Slavery list that I am a member of for a long time.  Even Senegalese historians have pointed out the fraud involved with the House of Slaves, although making themselves unpopular in the process, because this is an important tourist attraction.

There might be a good case for a memorial to the Atlantic slave trade (along with one to the even larger Arab slave trade, or the Europeans enslaved by Arabs -- fat chance of those happening), but the House of Slaves purports to be something that it is not.

Interesting Quote From Theodore Roosevelt

More than occasionally, quotes appear in email that are pro-gun, but false.  As I observed a couple of years ago:

“The problem with Internet quotations is that many are not genuine.”  -- Abraham Lincoln

When this quote from Theodore Roosevelt showed up in my email, I was immediately suspicious:

A vote is like a rifle; it's usefulness depends on the character of the user.

But sure enough, it is in Theodore Roosevelt: An Autobiography (New York: Charles Scribner & Sons, 1922):

Suffrage for women should be looked on from this standpoint. Personally I feel that it is exactly as much a''right'' of women as of men to vote. But the important point with both men and women is to treat the exercise of the suffrage as a duty, which, in the long run, must be well performed to be of the slightest value. I always favored woman's suffrage, but only tepidly, until my association with women like Jane Addams and Frances Kellor, who desired it as one means of enabling them to render better and more efficient service, changed me into a zealous instead of a lukewarm adherent of the cause — in spite of the fact that a few of the best women of the same type, women like Mary Antin, did not favor the movement. A vote is like a rifle: its usefulness depends upon the character of the user. The mere possession of the vote will no more benefit men and women not sufficiently developed to use it than the possession of rifles will turn untrained Egyptian fellaheen into soldiers. This is as true of woman as of man — and no more true. Universal suffrage in Hayti has not made the Haytians able to govern themselves in any true sense; and woman suffrage in Utah in no shape or way affected the problem of polygamy. I believe in suffrage for women in America, because I think they are fit for it. I believe for women, as for men, more in the duty of fitting one's self to do well and wisely with the ballot than in the naked right to cast the ballot.

The B-36 Filght Engineer Panel

One of the strangest planes to modern eyes is the B-36, an absolutely huge bomber originally designed to carry out Canada to Berlin bombing raids (in case Britain fell to the Nazis) and Hawaii to Japan bombing raids.  By the time it was ready, its mission had changed: to carry the really big hydrogen bombs of the 1950s.  Wikipedia describes it as the largest piston engine plane ever built.  More than size, it used pusher propellers:

As you might expect, with six engines, the flight engineer's console was pretty impressive.  Go here for a scrollable and zoomable image of it.

UPDATE: Castle Air Force Museum in California's Central Valley has one of these that I saw many years ago.  One of my readers took these pictures of one at the  Pima Air Museum in Tucson last month.  (For some reason, I can't link to them directly.)

So Busy Being Sick...

I didn't notice this new PJMedia article by me:

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT): Credentialed, Not Educated

Timelapse Borders of Europe

This is more in the cool category than something that really meaningfully contributes to understanding history, but it is still pretty neat:

New Book Out By A Friend

Robert J. Cottrol, The Long, Lingering Shadow: Slavery, Race, and Law in the American Hemisphere (University of Georgia Press, Studies in the Legal History of the South, 2013)

From the press release:

 Students of American history know of the law’s critical role in systematizing a racial hierarchy in the United States. Showing that this  history is best appreciated in a comparative perspective, The Long, Lingering Shadow (University of Georgia Press, February, 2013) looks at the parallel legal histories of race relations in the United States, Brazil, and Spanish America. Robert J. Cottrol takes the reader on a journey from the origins of New World slavery in colonial Latin America to current debates and litigation over affirmative action in Brazil and the United States, as well as contemporary struggles against racial discrimination and Afro-Latin invisibility in the Spanish-speaking nations of the hemisphere.

Ranging across such topics as slavery, emancipation, scientific racism,  immigration policies, racial classifications, and legal processes, Cottrol  unravels a complex odyssey. By the eve of the Civil War, the U.S. slave system was rooted in a legal and cultural foundation of racial exclusion unmatched in the Western Hemisphere. That system’s legacy was later echoed in Jim Crow, the practice of legally mandated segregation. Jim Crow in turn caused leading Latin Americans to regard their nations as models of racial equality because their laws did not mandate racial discrimination—a belief that masked very real patterns of racism throughout the Americas. And yet, Cottrol says, if the United States has had a history of more-rigid racial exclusion, since the Second World War it has also had a more thorough civil rights revolution, with significant legal victories over racial discrimination. Cottrol explores this remarkable transformation and shows how it is now inspiring civil rights activists throughout the Americas.

Bob teaches at George Washington University School of Law, and sat on my master's thesis committee (which was a stretch, since that was at Sonoma State University).  Bob has also been heavily involved in scholarly work about the gun control issue, unsurprisingly, having authored several very important papers about gun control and its racist origins.

You can order a copy from Amazon by clicking here.

Blast From a Further Past

After California repealed the statewide ban on concealed carry, counties and cities were still free to ban concealed carry, and some did.  Here's an 1879 San Francisco City and County permit.