The Pledge of Allegiance: A History

Photo courtesy of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History

"I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

Most of us have stood in an elementary school classroom, right hand over our hearts, staring at a flag and uttering these words before our school day started.

If, for various reasons, you did not participate in the Pledge of Allegiance as a child, you likely still know the words.

What you might not know is where the Pledge of Allegiance came from.  Where did it start?  Who wrote it?  How long have we been saying it? Did our founding fathers stand up and pledge allegiance to a flag?

The short answer is no, our founding fathers did not pledge allegiance to a flag.  The Pledge of Allegiance was written by a Baptist minister named Francis Bellamy in 1892.  Bellamy wanted to do something special for the 400th anniversary of Columbus' arrival to America, and our nation's first ever celebration of Columbus Day, so he devised the Pledge of Allegiance for a popular children's magazine, Youth's Companion.

The original Pledge of Allegiance was wholly patriotic in nature and it read:

"I pledge allegiance to my flag and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

You'll notice the first ever Pledge of Allegiance is a little bit different from the one we say now. For Bellamy, the words to focus on were surely 'one nation, indivisible.'  Our nation had just come through a horrific Civil War and Bellamy wanted to emphasize the unity of our states.

It wasn't until 1924 that our Pledge of Allegiance was first altered.  A National Flag Conference held that year determined that the words 'my flag' should be replaced with the words 'to the flag of the United States of America."

It wasn't until 1954, after the Roman Catholic Knights of Columbus took up the fight to add the words 'under God' to the Pledge of Allegiance that the Pledge as we know it came to exist.  The senate also instituted changes to our currency at this time, including the words 'In God we Trust' on all American paper money.

Why did the senate of a famously secular nation decide to add seemingly religious subtext to our Pledge of Allegiance and even our money?  Well, the 1950s were during a period of U.S. History commonly referred to as The Red Scare. 

We were at odds with the USSR and many people feared a communist takeover of the United States.  The legislative act of 1954 that moved to add 'under God' to our Pledge of Allegiance explained that adding these words was to "acknowledge the dependence of our people and our Government...upon the Creator...[and to] deny the atheistic and materialistic concept of Communism." 

As you can see, the new diction of the Pledge of Allegiance was intrinsically tied to a fear of Communist leanings.  The words 'under God' were added to signify that the United States was not a Communist nation and we were setting our country apart from Communist nations by emphasizing a belief in a Creator (though our senate was careful not to emphasize any particular religion over another and it should be noted that atheism was not as readily accepted or tolerated in the 1950s as it is today--though the level of toleration today could certainly be debated).

So on this Fourth of July, our great nation's Independence Day, you can stand proud as you say the Pledge of Allegiance and know that you know the history of those words as you utter them.

2,700 Year Old Tablets Found

(Photo by J. Jackson)

A University of Toronto led excavation in Tall Tayinate, the capital city of a Neo-Hittite kingdom in ancient Palastine, located in modern Turkey, has turned up a cache of 2,700 year old cuneiform tablets. The tablets were located in a recently discovered temple, inside the temple's cella, or a room called the holy of holies. The writings appear to be part of some kind of archive and are remarkably intact. The tablets date to the Iron Age and may provide insight into Assryian religious and political life. The team also unearthed libation vessels, ornamented ritual objects, and implements made of gold, bronze, and iron.

Timothy Harrison, professor of Near Eastern Archeology and director of the University of Toronto's Tall Tayinate Archaeological Project, was quoted by Science Daily as saying, "The tablets, and the information they contain, may possibly highlight the imperial ambitions of one of the great powers of the ancient world, and its lasting influence on the political culture of the middle east."

Tayinate was once destroyed by the Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser III, and was thereafter converted into an Assyrian provincial capital. Dr. Harrison says that Tayinate was, "equipped with its own governor and imperial administration." It was a very important city in the ancient Near East. This discovery may even hint at Biblical proportions.

Dr. Harrison informed reporters, "Scholars have long speculated that the reference to Calneh in Isaiah's oracle against Assyria alludes to Tiglath-pileser's devastation of Kunulua--i.e. Tayinate. The destruction of the Luwian monuments and conversion of the sacred precinct into an Assyrian religious complex may represent the physical manifestation of this historical event."

In any case, the artifacts were well preserved and tablets should reveal interesting data soon.

The Lovely Lavinia: America's Prettiest Serial Killer

Lavinia Fisher is perhaps the most notable female serial killer in Carolina history. Lavina was indeed lovely. According to all accounts she was a startlingly beautiful woman with milky white skin, big blue eyes, and curly raven hair. We don't know what her husband looked like, he is largely forgotten, but the Lovely Lavinia lives on in fantastical tales and local legend. Lavinia, however, was never convicted of murder. Neither was her husband. Perhaps the legend is more interesting than the truth, but I don't think so.

According to local legend John and Lavinia Fisher owned and operated an inn on the outskirts of Charleston, SC in the 1800s. There is, however, no evidence that the Fishers actually owned or operated an inn. They did, nonetheless, frequent an inn known as the Six Mile House just outside of town. This inn was a favorite stop for wagon traders carrying their goods to Charleston, SC to sale. It was also a favorite haunt of a local anonymous gang of highway robbers. This gang was responsible for the brutal robbery of multiple wagon traders, and their enterprise threatened the prosperous Charleston wagon trade. As a result "lynch's law" was put into affect, and a mob of angry citizens set out to put an end to highway robbery.

Five Mile House, you guessed it--a neighbor of Six Mile House, happened to be the inn the gang had hunkered down in that night in the early months 1819. The angry mob forced the gang and other occupants out of doors and gave them 15 minutes to depart the premises before burning the Five Mile House to the ground. The gang of highwaymen were outnumbered and they knew it. They left without much fuss.

The next day the angry highwaymen set out to get their vengeance. They had heard that some of the mob members were staying at Six Mile House and sure enough when they showed up at Six Mile House, David Ross, one of the men from the mob, was outside guarding the premises. The highwaymen rode on up to Six Mile House accompanied by a beautiful woman. The unsuspecting Ross greeting this woman and was stunned by her reaction. She smiled and leaning down from her horse she wrapped her lovely white fingers around Ross' neck and began choking him. She also apparently ran his head through a window. This woman was none other than our Lovely Lavinia.

Shortly after Ross was accosted another man, John Peoples, rode up to Six Mile House to water his horse. One of the highwaymen asked to borrow Peoples' bucket and when Peoples refused the man flew into a rage. Nine or ten men and a woman then flew out of Six Mile House and beat Peoples pretty severely. According to Peoples the "beautiful woman" took a "large stick" and beat him over the head with it. She also stole about $40 from him.

Peoples barely managed to escape, and when he did he went straight into town and alerted the local police force. Lavinia, her husband, and 2 other men were arrested for highway robbery. Upon the searching the grounds of Six Mile House 2 bodies were found. The body of a white man and the body of a black woman, both suspected to have been in the ground for at least 2 years. There wasn't enough to proof to convict either Lavinia or her companions of these murders. The authorities knew that Lavinia and John frequented both Five and Six Mile House and they were both suspected of the murders. However, after 2 years of decomp, the bodies offered little evidence with which to prove it.

John and Lavinia Fisher were convicted of highway robbery, a hanging offense in 1819. John was convicted to hang. So was Lavinia. That is, until she said, "You can't hang me. I'm a woman." Well that caused quite a stir. A woman had never been hanged in South Carolina and there were quite a few people opposed to the idea. So Lavinia set smugly in her jail cell fully expecting to be pardoned for her crimes. On February 4th gallows were erected just past Meeting Street and the Fishers were marched to their deaths. Lavinia realized she would hang, regardless of her gender, and she was angry about it too. While John spent his last moments pleading for his life, Lavinia watched her husband hang with nary a tear in her eye. She cursed and screamed amazing profanities at the crowd and the governor. She pitched a royal fit and shocked the crowd into silence. Her last words, the most shocking of all, are perhaps the fuel behind the legend and are undoubtedly the reason that everyone remembers the Lovely Lavinia Fisher. She stared angrily down at the crowd and said, "If you have a message you want to send to hell, give it to me--I'll carry it!" And then she hanged. The crowd, a crowd that usually jeered and cheered while someone hanged, was silent and horrified. Lavinia died in seconds. Her legend, however, lives on.

9/1/2009 Update: I did all of the research on this article myself, simply because I am a history buff and I like spending time in dusty archives. One of my readers just emailed me. Apparently there is a book out that chronicles Lavinia's story, as well as a few others. The book is Wicked Charleston by Mark R. Jones. It can be purchased online or at the Preservation Society of Charleston.

History of Christmas Traditions

Christmas Trees: Decorating trees for Christmas is a custom that dates all the way back to the mid 16th Century! A popular passion play performed annually on December 24 in medieval Germany retold the story of Adam and Eve. This production called for a tree decorated with apples. Locals found the tree so pretty that they began putting trees in their own homes every December.

Lights: Martin Luther is actually credited with the idea of Christmas tree lights. According to legend the Sainted Luther was taking a walk one night and looking at all the stars in the sky. The stars in the sky made him think of the Christmas Star and the night the three wise men saw that star and it led them to the Holy Child. He brought a small tree home from the forest and decorated it with candles, to symbolize the stars in the night sky, and told his family the story of the Christmas Star. Candles in the window at Christmas is also a medieval custom, not credited to Luther by the way. In the Middle Ages candles came to symbolize Christ as the "light of the world". Candles were left in the window at Christmas to guide the Christ Child to the home so that he could leave his blessings for those inside. The Christ Child also left gifts in some medieval towns, possibly leading to custom of gift giving

Gift Giving: The tradition of gift giving is traditionally attributed to the three wise men who offered the baby Jesus gifts of frankincense, gold, and myrrh. However, gift giving was not really very popular until after the American Civil War. Queen Victoria, who expected gifts on all occasions, may have had something to do with the growth of the gift-giving tradition.

Stockings Hung By the Chimney With Care: According to Christian legend the tradition of hanging stockings by the chimney dates all the way back to 300 C.E. According to the legend a poor miller had three daughters, none of whom could afford to get married because their father was so poor he could not offer a dowry for the girls. The sisters were quite upset about this. St. Nicholas somehow heard of their situation and was touched by their plight. He traveled to their house in the middle of the night and tossed three bags filled with gold coins through their open window. The coins landed in the stockings the girls had hung by the fire to dry.

St. Nick to some, Santa Claus to others!: For those of you who are unaware, there actually was a real life St. Nicholas. He was born in 280 C.E. in a small town called Patara located in Asia Minor. Several miracles were attributed to St. Nicholas. According to legend his prayers often healed the sick, helped an old man conceive a child, brought a ship safely to harbor through a severe storm, and saved three separate individuals from execution. It is also said that St. Nicholas often gave gifts to needy children.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: Robert May, a copywriter at Montgomery Ward Department Store in Chicago, was assigned the task of writing a Christmas story that could be given to children visiting Santa Clause in the store. It was a genius advertising ploy, but Ward struggled to complete his task. He was told the tale must be about an animal and he decided that there was no better animal for a Christmas story than a reindeer, and thus Rudolph was born. Over 2 million copies were given away at the Montgomery Ward department stores in 1939. 10 years later Johnny Marks, May's brother-in-law wrote the song "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" which was later recorded by Gene Autry.

I hope you have enjoyed learning where popular American Christmas traditions come from. Pass the information on to someone else and keep these valued traditions alive.

Stone Age Burial Site Yields Social Clues

Researchers discovered a 4,600 year old burial site in Germany earlier this month, a find that is especially significant as it yields the earliest known evidence of people living together in family units.

Four nearly identical Stone Age burial sites were located in Eulau, Saxony-Anhalt. Through DNA analysis researchers were able to prove that the graves were actually family burials. The remains of a mother, father, and two children were found carefully buried together. Another grave contained two siblings and an unrelated female. Researchers believe this female was likely a paternal aunt. The individuals were buried facing each other and all remains dated to the same time period.

Wolfgang Haak of the University of Adelaide commented, "By establishing the genetic links between the two adults and two children buried together in one grave, we have established the presence of the classic nuclear family in a prehistoric context in Central Europe--to our knowledge the oldest authentic molecular genetic evidence so far."

While tools and artifacts dating to the Stone Age have been studied in depth, not much is currently known about the societal norms of Stone Age life. This find is particularly significant because it proves that early peoples recognized nuclear families, and perhaps even resided in nuclear family units.

Furthermore, the evidence suggests that the individuals located were victims of a raid. Researchers believe that the survivors of this raid returned once their attackers had left in order to bury their dead. Burial is significant because it often suggests a belief in the afterlife, or in the very least a reverence for the dead. Burying family units together suggests that such units were recognized and important to early peoples. The uniformity of the burials suggests that the ritual of burying the dead had already been established, something previously unknown.

This find is incredible. If you would like to read more please click here.

The Sea Queen

Grainne Ni Mhaille was born in Connaught, Ireland sometime between 1520 and 1530. Over time Grainne Ni Mhaille's actions grew to legend and her name became the anglicized Grace O'Malley.

Grace was the daughter of a clan chief and her family controlled much of modern Murrisk near Clew Bay. Her father taxed anyone who wanted to fish off their coast. Grace's father taught her about international trade and often took her aboard his many vessels. At an early age Grace became an adept seafarer and it is likely this familiarity with sailing had much to do with her later career as one of the most notorious pirates England ever saw.

As custom dictated, Grace was married to Donal O'Flaherty, heir to the O'Flaherty Chieftain title. She was 16. She bore him three children: Owen, Murrough, and Maeve. When Donal was killed in battle Grace was expected to give up the O'Flaherty castles and return home. Grace rarely did what anyone expected. When the Joyce clan (part of the O'Flaherty line) came to reclaim "Cock's Castle", Grace's favorite, Grace successfully defended it against them. The Joyce's were so impressed with Grace that they renamed the castle "Hen's Castle", which it is called to this day. When she finally left she returned to her family lands and having earned the loyalty of many O'Flaherty's many of her husband's kin went with her.

Shortly after her father's death Grace set up headquarters at Clare Island in Clew Bay.
She continued to tax ships that wanted to sail in O'Malley waters, but there was a catch: Grace expanded O'Malley nautical territory. For the most part the crown turned a blind eye to Grace's activity. Well they did until she started attacking English vessels. She was known for boarding ships in and around Clew Bay, sometimes as far away as Waterford, and "taxing" the ship's captain by taking most of his cargo. Sometimes she even acquired his ship in return for his life, a fair bargain she thought.

Grace O'Malley's exploits were so legendary that she caught the notice of Queen Elizabeth. When Grace's son was taken captive by Richard Bingham, English governor of Connaught, O'Malley sailed to England to petition good Queen Elizabeth herself. During the meeting the two women spoke Latin, as Grace did not speak English and the Queen did not speak Gaelic. Grace did not recognize Elizabeth as the Queen of Ireland and as a result she refused to bow to the Queen as custom dictated. Elizabeth took it all in stride. The meeting was successful, her son was released and Bingham was temporarily removed from his post in Connaught.

Grace's courage, her lack of regard for convention, her odd choice of career have all made Grace O'Malley an Irish legend.

If you are interested in learning more about Grace O'Malley try reading The Pirate Queen: In Search of Grace O'Malley and Other Legendary Women of the Sea by Barbara Sjoholm printed by Seal Press.