History Mini-Lesson of the Moment Vol. 4

Robert Owen: Social Reformer

There is but one mode by which man can possess in perpetuity all the happiness which his nature is capable of enjoying - that is by the union and co-operation of all for the benefit of each.

And with this words, Robert Owen expressed his vision of utopia, an idea not unfamiliar even in the 18th and 19th centuries in which Owen lived, but made unique by Owen’s ability to personal finance his grand experiments of utopian socialism.

Born in Wales in 1771, Robert Owen worked his way into financial success at a young age. He used his riches as a philanthropist and social reformer - and soon, took to buying up entire communities in Britain with hopes of finding success in his ideas on a small scale, using his money to publicize and promote his ideas to British citizens and politicians. These ideas included ahead-of-their-time reforms of free healthcare, limited work days, prohibiting child labor, mandatory education for children, and continued education for adults - all at the expense of the community as a whole. 

Owen was discouraged by his lack of success in Britain, particularly New Lanark. In 1825, Owen decided to take his experiment across the Atlantic, and purchased a community in northwestern Indiana, USA. He named it New Harmony, a proposed “Heaven on Earth,” and sent much of his family there as he traveled back and forth between the two nations, deciding to put his son in charge of running the new experimental utopia. The same ideas used back in Britain were implemented in the new community, which also offered plenty of activities and events to keep up the community’s morale. Soon though, the community - which was filled with intellectuals (“thinkers, not doers”), vagabonds, and others from the edges of society, began to break into numerous sub-communities, effectively destroying Owen’s vision. By 1829, most deemed the community of New Harmony to be a failure.

Owen would live the rest of his life convinced that despite his failures, he had the solution to society’s woes - and on his deathbed, he left the world with these words: “My life was not useless; I gave important truths to the world, and it was only for want of understanding that they were disregarded. I have been ahead of my time.”

Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4

• Vol. 1: The Emerald Gem: Bare-Knuckle Boxing in 19th Century England
• Vol. 2: Roosevelt’s List: The Japanese-American Concentration Camps
• Vol. 3: Two if by Sealand

History Mini-Lesson of the Moment Vol. 3

Two if by Sealand

What makes a nation? This was the question raised by the Bates family.

Our lesson today follows the occupation of an old defensive WWII sea fort of the UK’s by the Bates family beginning in the 1960s and continuing to modern day. Led by former English major Paddy Roy Bates, the Bates family “settled” the abandoned fort in 1967. Soon after, the family declared their new home to be the independent sovereign state known as the Principality of Sealand. Roy subsequently pronounced himself the Prince of Sealand. 

The story of Sealand includes heated debates with neighboring countries, drafting a constitution, creating official currency, participation in official national athletic events, tourism and economic development, mercenaries and speedboats and helicopters in an attempted hostage takeover followed by negotiations, shady investors, governments in exile, and catastrophic fires - just to give you a little taste of Sealand’s rich history.

Today, this nation has an estimated population of 27 Sealanders with 0% poverty, 0% unemployment, and $0 in national debt - not to mention a GDP of US$600,000. Perhaps, one might allege, governments throughout the world should take note of Prince Roy’s economic leadership.

Sources: 1, 2, 3

• Vol. 1: The Emerald Gem: Bare-Knuckle Boxing in 19th Century England
• Vol. 2: Roosevelt’s List: The Japanese-American Concentration Camps

History Mini-Lesson of the Moment Vol. 2

Roosevelt’s List: The Japanese-American Concentration Camps

Take American history in the 20th century? You may only know the story because of your own curiosity. Take it in the 21st? The story to you was probably no more than a one-paragraph blip in the midst of your textbook’s World War II Unit.

Call them “internment camps,” call them “war relocation camps,” or call them “concentration camps” as many lawmakers of the time did - whatever the name, the result was the same: over 100,000 people of Japanese ancestry living in the United States - the majority of them American citizens - were forced from their homes and imprisoned in barbwire fenced and military guarded camps during World War II. 

The purpose of FDR’s so-called “wartime necessity” that was Executive Order 9066 was to rid the West Coast of any people who may have been sympathetic to the Japanese cause, with the Census Bureau illegally providing confidential information for their rounding up and imprisonment. Congressman John Rankin of Mississippi expressed a widespread sentiment when he said of the order: “I’m for catching every Japanese in America, Alaska, and Hawaii now and putting them in concentration camps. … Damn them! Let’s get rid of them now!”

While they certainly were not made for systematic slaughter like Nazi Germany’s concentration camps, many Japanese-American families who had been locked up lost their homes, personal possessions, pets, and vacant businesses during their up to four years spent in the camps. During this time, families were subject to military barrack style housing, described by the War Relocation Authority in 1943 as “tar paper-covered barracks of simple frame construction without plumbing or cooking facilities of any kind.” Dusty from being in the midst of the desert - which was always either too cold or too hot - internees had access to camp schools, hospitals, and post offices, but were forced to abide by camp-determined curfews and share not only living quarters, but a mess hall, bathroom facilities, and laundry areas. 

President Ford would make a proclamation in 1976 stating that “we have learned from the tragedy of that long-ago experience forever to treasure liberty and justice for each individual American, and resolve that this kind of action shall never again be repeated.” Yet, the U.S. government would not officially apologize until 1988, when President Reagen signed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988. This provided $20,000 in reparations to those still surviving who had been placed in the camps, due to the government’s “race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership” during World War II.

Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Vol. 1: The Emerald Gem: Bare-Knuckle Boxing in 19th Century England

History Mini-Lesson of the Moment Vol. 1 

Simon “The Emerald Gem” Byrne: Bare-Knuckle Boxing in 19th Century England

This is the story of the Irish bare-knuckle prize fighter Simon “The Emerald Gem” Bryne, who lived and fought in the 1820s-30s.

While illegal at the time in England, bareknuckle boxing was supported by many powerful and corrupt individuals who got off on watching people beat each other to bloody pulps with their bare hands. While not much is known about Simon Bryne’s life before England, he had been lured from Ireland to England by the lucrative prize-money - and probably a bit by the glory from the cheering crowds of thousands of spectators.

His career spanned only eight fights, but these fights were brutal, often lasting hundreds of rounds and numerous hours – in fact, his first fight at the age of nineteen lasted 138 rounds over the course of two and a half hours. Police raids, after-fight rioting, and drunken bouts of stupidity were rampant during these fights. Rules were vague and fights often fell to the ground, becoming ragtag wrestling matches, where biting, gouging, and shots to the testicles were frequent. Byrne himself killed a man in a fight - itself leading to a riot resulting in 3 deaths and 20 injuries. Byrne continued fighting and continued winning, before ultimately being defeated at the hand of an opponent at the age of 27 after a three-hour, out of control and bloody fight. The next two days he was in and out of consciousness, reported saying shortly before he died:

“If I should die, it will not be from the beating I received but from mortification. I would rather have died than been beaten in that fight.”

Then indeed, Byrne died, but the gambling sport of bare-knuckle boxing lived on.

Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4