Dr. Smead’s book, Blood Justice: The Lynching of Mack Charles Parker gives an investigative and in-depth account of one the last lynchings in America. The book tells the story of Mack Charles Parker, an African-American victim of lynching in Poplarville, Mississippi during 1959. Parker is accused of raping a pregnant white woman named June Walters. He is also accused of abducting Walters and her four-year-old daughter Debbie. Eventually, Parker is apprehended and later murdered by an angry mob of the town residents in order to prevent a trial.
“Greasy Lake” by T.C. Boyle follows a group of well read college students desperate to portray themselves as hardened badasses by drinking cheap alcohol and cruising around town till the break of dawn. On the third night of summer vacation, the boys fid themselves at Greasy Lake going toe to toe with a shady character they mistakenly identified as a friend. The ever-worsening situation results in the shady individual collapsing from a tire iron to the head, sending the group of boys into a destructive fervor. The boys narrowly escape persecution from a group of true greasers by plunging into the woods and waters of Greasy Lake where the narrator brushes shoulders with a water logged carcass and emerges changed by his experience. “Greasy Lake’s”
The Hatfields and McCoys were two families that are historically known for their feuds. The two families were very interesting as members of the family even married the other family and switched what side they were on in the feud. An event that happened in 1865 sparked the start of the feuds. This event was the murder of a McCoy by a group that many Hatfields were in. Then in 1878 the feud really began to pick up when a McCoy accused a Hatfield of stealing a hog from him.
A few years later the Putnam’s petitioned the town in an effort to obtain political independence for the village, and the Porters opposed them. The arrival of Reverend Parris intensified the Putnam-Porter conflict. I think the two families accurately symbolize and correlate with the division between Salem Village and Salem Town. Joseph Putman who arrived in Salem in the Early 1640’s was a large land owner. As his family continued to expand, the Putman land was broken up into smaller and smaller tracts.
Hatfield and McCoys The Hatfields and McCoys are famous for their family feud, they are the Montague and Capulets of America. The two families lived by the Tug Fork of Big Sandy River, which went around the boundary of Kentucky and West Virginia. The official start of the feud started when Randolph McCoy accused Floyd Hatfield of stealing one of his pigs. The charges were cleared because the witness Staton married a Hatfield, causing Staton to be murdered two years later by the nephews of the angry Randolph. The real turning point in the feud was when three McCoy boys got into a fight with two Hatfield boys, the bloody fight ended when one of the Hatfields was stabbed multiple times and then shot in the back.
Jackson vs. Clay Andrew Jackson vs. Henry Clay: Democracy and Development in Antebellum America is a book written by Harry L. Watson. Harry L. Watson writes the different stances of the presidential race in the Antebellum Era in America. He is very unbiased in his writing, clearly stating each presidential candidate. Andrew Jackson’s beliefs are clearly democratic, meaning he believed that a growing wealth and power in the business community may erode the equality of ordinary citizens. This party was also known as the ‘Jackson Party’.
Despite their differences and detestations against each other, Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay were both political leaders who possessed similar characteristics and philosophies. In the book Andrew Jackson vs. Henry Clay , the author Harry L. Watson described the two leaders’ loathing for each other, but he also wrote about the likenesses and related circumstances that Jackson and Clay underwent in Antebellum America. Both men’s beliefs and philosophies played a major role in the formations of the two-party system. With their dedication of preserving the federal Union, both Jackson and Clay devoted themselves to the government and also influenced politics in American public life. One concept that is most notorious about them, however, is the fact that they wholeheartedly despised each other.
Andrew Jackson, John Marshall, and The Trail of Tears There have been many dark times in our History as Americans. Among them is the Trail of Tears,brought upon by Andrew Jackson, which exiled the Indians from the American south and resulted in the death of thousands on the way to Oklahoma. Before this trying time there was speculation within the supreme court whether to treat the Native tribes as a sovereign foreign nation or as a dependent entity within the United States. I will discuss how these decisions came to be, the reactions to said decisions, and the aftermath of these rulings which inevitably leads to the Trail of Tears.
In Rot & Ruin, the author uses the theme of family being important. Here is a example of the theme from the book “He barely liked his family-and by family he meant his older brother. Tom.” The conflict is that Benny and Tom do not have a good relationship and have grudges against each other. If you hold grudges against your family or do not have a good relationship with your family, you will have no one to fall back on and you will be by yourself.
In The Crucible written by Arthur Miller, he writes about a story of witches in Salem, Massachusetts. The play is about a group of young girls who control the village with the fake pretense of having seen the devil and who he has worked with John Proctor and Reverend Parris are two characters within the play who both have similar experiences to each other. The story teaches us that different actions lead to different circumstances. Reverend Parris is the uncle of abigail, one of the girls in the wood who chanted.
The West Memphis Three vs. The Salem Witch Trials Society makes people feel pressured to make assumptions for their own benefits. There have been many examples of this throughout history. Society has been pressuring people to change and make assumptions, dating back to the stone ages all the way until the present. Why does society pressure people to make assumptions?
Throughout one’s life, one tends to adapt to the traditions of their family, and gain a significant bond with their loved ones, including their siblings. However, that connection a person gains can either be diminished or forgotten due to a sense of different mindsets between family members. The two stories “The Rich Brother” by Tobias Wolff and “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin indicate that sibling rivalry occurs when each member does not understand or acknowledge their sibling’s perspective, and this builds a wall barrier between the siblings.
Feuds can be very deadly, in the play ¨Romeo and Juliet¨ by William Shakespeare. The feud is to blame for the many deaths in the play and why Romeo and Juliet had to secretly get married. The feud is to blame for the many deaths because if there wasn´t a feud the lovers wouldn´t have to get married in secret. A second reason is if there wasn´t a feud Romeo´s best friend didn´t have to die, Tybalt didn´t have to die, Romeo and Juliet didn´t have to die.
Those that are aware of Kentucky and Appalachian history will know the family names of the feuds described by John Ed Pearce. The feudist he went into detail about are the Martins and Tollivers of Rowan County, the Turners and Howards of Harlan County and the Hatfields and McCoys in the Tug River Valley of Kentucky and West Virginia. Pearce even made sure to include some lesser known feuds like the Hargis and Cockrell families of Breathitt County. Each feud is described by its roots, constant actions, and ending resolutions. The most wide-ranging account is of the Howard/Baker feud of Clay County.
It is clear that these families had no love for one another. Rather, they saw each other simply as pawns, which would reduce the likelihood
