Road Trip Through History: Daniel Boone Home and Boonesfield Village

Over the 4th of July weekend, My Own True Love and I headed toward southwest Missouri and the Toler family reunion. A family reunion is a worthy goal in itself.  Especially when it includes homemade ice cream and Grandma Toler’s Chocolate Cake.    But as far as we’re concerned, a road trip isn’t a road trip…

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A Word With a Past: Kidnap

In the mid-seventeenth century, the British colonies in North America and the Caribbean were suffering from a labor shortage. The colonies had originally attracted Britain’s surplus population: dreamers, fortune-hunters, religious nuts, younger sons, prisoners of war, political failures, vagrants, criminals, the homeless, and the desperate.  Some came with a small financial stake.  Many came as…

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Thinking About the (American) Civil War

Even though it’s “not my field”, I’ve been thinking about the American Civil War a lot recently. (Actually, I’ve been thinking about England’s Civil War, too, but that’s a different story.) Those of you who don’t hang out in Popular History Land may not have gotten the word, but 2011 is the 150th anniversary of…

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