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Alabama

• 04.10.09
  Zavalinka
  Alabama (0)

  In the last post about the Front Porch Republic I mentioned how Nikita Khrushchev didn't care to have his mother sitting outside their apartment building, zavalinka-style, because in Stalin's Russia these heart-to-heart discussions could get you killed. Ken of Palm Beach Bike Tours commented on the front porches of his childhood, saying they were good places to tell lies and gossip. So it seems they can be bad places to tell the truth and good places to tell lies. But I'll bet it sometimes works the other way around, too. I said I didn't have a photo of a zavalinka. It's ...
  
  
• 04.09.09
  Front Porch Republic
  Alabama, Kalamazoo County MI (1)

  The article that inspired the name for the new blog, Front Porch Republic, tells of a 1975 essay titled "From Porch to Patio". It explains how homes used to be built with front porches where people could interact with their neighbors. Now we more often have patios in back. They are more secluded and private--places to avoid interactions with neighbors. I wasn't looking at front porches in particular when I stopped to take a photo of this house. It was on a bike ride I did in April 2006, between Auburn and Tuskegee, Alabama. It ...
  
  
• 01.27.09
  Ritualized
  2003 Sep 18, Alabama, Crawford County OH, Kenyon College - 2003 (0)

  On September 18, 2003, I happened upon this historical marker in Crawford County, Ohio, on my way from Nevada to Mount Vernon. It's where William Crawford's army fought on its retreat from Ohio in 1782. Crawford himself had been captured the previous day, and was later tortured to death near Upper Sandusky. It's a well-known story. The torture was largely a revenge for the Gnadenhutten massacre. Andrew Frank's excellent book about Creeks and Southerners reminded me of it. In tonight's reading I came to a section (still in the Introduction) where he tells ...
  
  
• 01.26.09
  Fushatchee
  2006-Apr-03, Alabama, Tuckabatchee tour - 2006 (0)

  The introduction to "Creeks and Southerners" by Andrew K. Frank (2005) tells of Andrew Brissert, who in 1783 got in trouble with the Spanish authorities in Pensacola. He and his wife had come to buy some food supplies and sell two African American slaves. He was arrested for being "dressed and painted as an Indian" and suspected of being a spy. The thing was, he was an Indian. He was born in England, spoke English, and except for his paint and dress acted like an Englishman, but he was also a Creek. His Creek family ...
  
  
• 01.11.09
  Biculturalism on the Early American Frontier
  Alabama (0)

  The latest issue of American Historical Review has a review of "Creeks and Southerners: Biculturalism on the Early American Frontier" by Andrew K. Frank (2005). I wish I had known about this book in April 2006 when I rode to the Horseshoe Bend National Military Park and other sites of Creek Indian history in Alabama. According to the reviewer, this book challenges the common supposition that the French differed from the British in their relationships with Native people. "Frank estimates that at least eight hundred European Americans found spouses in Creek villages over the eighteenth and early ...
  
  

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