Timed Research Article

Times Research Article
Max Miller
History.com Picture about the first Thanksgiving meal

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Thanksgiving is a holiday that is celebrated all across America. It is an American holiday, but what people think is the true origin of Thanksgiving is often skewed and has evolved from many years of misinformation and marketing ploys. When I think about the origin of Thanksgiving and where I learned about it the first thing that comes to mind is the Thanksgiving Charlie Brown special which I watch every year with my parents ever since I was a little kid, its tradition in my house. When I was doing research I was very surprised to find how the only knowledge I had about this holiday before I started my research was from a Charlie Brown special where the origin of Thanksgiving is told in dramatic fashion through cartoon characters. While doing my research I was very interested in the true historical origin of what we know now as Thanksgiving and how it was been shaped over the years by a number of factors

Using the Charlie Brown cartoon as my reference point for all of my newfound knowledge, I discovered that a lot of what the cartoon showed was relatively accurate. So thanks, Mom and Dad for showing me a decently accurate portrayal of how Thanksgiving came to be. But as all good things marketing teams from companies were quick to jump on it and to make any profit possible. The details of Thanksgiving are often skewed through inaccurate teaching the New York Times writes about, many people are unfamiliar with the true details of the holiday. Despite me learning a lot about how the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock and the hardships that they faced along with how Squanto helped them in this new land and brought his tribe together with the Pilgrims together for a grand feast from the Charlie Brown Special, (which I was surprised to see how many people were unfamiliar with this) I was surprised to learn how Thanksgiving was not an official holiday until 1863 where President Lincoln issued the papers written up by William Seward. I was also unfamiliar with how Sarah Josepha Hale, the writer of Mary Had a Little Lamb and other pieces of work and articles was a tremendous influence on Thanksgiving finally becoming a national Holiday. She lobbied to government officials and wrote about her feelings on how Thanksgiving should be a national holiday that would unify the country. This gained support and finally it was declared a holiday.

In the early years of Thanksgiving there were many different variations of the food, the food would depend on the family and their cultural background and would differ depending on family. Now, the food that is eaten on Thanksgiving is much of the same everybody has turkey, pumpkin pie, cranberries and often some sort of alcohol which was found out from a poll thanks the Smithsonian. So how did Thanksgiving dinner go from a different cultural experience depending on the family so such a widely regarded cookie cutter meal that only differs slightly from others? Well the short answer is marketing. Starting during the 1920s ads started focusing on turkey for Thanksgiving, before that there was a wide range of bird such as duck and goose consumed at the dinner table. But marketing teams started to market items such as roasters, thermometers and cooking bags that focused on the preparation and presentation of turkey, along with ads that claimed turkey was a sacred Thanksgiving tradition (although no evidence supports that). Other companies caught on to what was happening with the turkey and advertised things like cranberries and other foods which many know now as the “traditional” Thanksgiving food. Even though pilgrims lacked many of the necessary ingredients to make the majority of the food that is being marketed as “traditional” such as pumpkin pie.

Marketing teams for food companies have all tired to state their claim that their food deserves a spot on the highly competitive dinner table on Thanksgiving, some have had great success such as Butterball Turkeys and Ocean Spray Cranberries, other companies not so much. But over the years more and more companies started to do this with more and more aggressive ad campaigns and Americans have maintained these traditions to the point where it was evolved so that a Thanksgiving dinner table is a familiar sight to many and people expect the same food despite the differences in people's culture. This went on until it finally evolved into a holiday that was being shaped not by the rituals of the pilgrims who landed on Plymouth rock but the rituals of the marketing teams trying to make a profit.

New York Times Article about the relatively unknown origin of Thanksgiving

History. com about how Thanksgiving officially become a holiday

Smithsonian article about how marketing shaped Thanksgiving  

12 Years a Slave Paraphrase

Max Miller
12 Years a Slave paraphrase

12 Years a Slave, review by The Telegraph 


People were saying, 12 Years a slave was called the greatest movie to be created about slavery in America not long after the movie first showed in theaters. Despite being an extremely bold statement the author of this article believes that it is a true one. Then he goes on to ask, "Where,exactly, is the competition?". The movie is about the events in character Solomon Northups' life showing how he was once a free man but his life is altered forever once he is kidnapped into slavery and forced to experience first hand slavery in the American South, the movie should not feel too revolutionary as other movies have also touched the category of slavery in America. But the reason, 12 Years a Slave feels different to people is because it is very scarce that a film is completely about a american slavery and has the whole plot revolve around a story in slavery. The writer of this review also says how this type of movie could become a category all in its own. He then goes on to describe how you feel the emotions of Solomon from start to finish how he is confidant at the beginning, then him and the audience are baffled and sad when he first comes to the realization about his situation. During his time in slavery you also feel the deep rooted emotions that come from him and his environment, you see how much pain and hate is relevant just as much as he does, which makes the film so powerful as you follow Solomon in his journey from different masters and plantations how each one is different. The film is then compared to other films like Django Unchained , a popular film in the american slavery genre but then goes on to say how the reason 12 Years a Slave is so popular is because it shows the reality of slavery for how it was and not plagued with hyperbole to satisfy certain movie goers, 12 years a slave shows the real side of slavery and how it really was, which was something people were really interested in.

12 Years a Slave reviews and ratings showing how monumental people thought the movie was. 

Slave Narratives

Slave Narratives

Max Miller


On the Master-Slave Relationship

While reading On a Master-Slave Relationship I read a lot of information that I already knew, such as the slaves were treated terribly and punished in unimaginable ways but what really surprised me is how much they were taken advantage of sexually. I knew that physically slaves were abused but I also learned that sexually they were also taken advantage of in many ways such as being forced to reproduce to create more slaves which I had already knew was something that happened but I did not know how common and prevalent it was on slave plantations. I something else that stood out to me a lot was the fact that slave masters often were considered good people but when given absolute power over a group of people such as slaves it turns the once good people corrupt from all the power that is bestowed upon them. The slave masters start to get more and more abusive the longer they are in power over the slaves even if that goes against their moral principals, when put into a situation of power they lose all sight of humanity. Something else that I read that struck out to me was that in locations where slavery was present it was widely supported and accepted but in places where slavery was not practiced there was strong resistance to it in that location, either a location was completely for slavery or completely against it. Native american slave holders were much more favorable and kind than white slave holders, they allowed their slaves enough food and water and much better working conditions compared to white slave holders.

Questions: Did the slave masters not see how other slave masters were corrupted by the power given to them? If so why how did they not critically look at themselves and change or say something?  To what extent did pressure of the acceptance or resistance to slavery environment affect slave holders?
Why did Native Americans treat their slaves so much better than normal slave holders?

Lincoln Paraphrase

Max Miller
Lincoln Paraphrase

'Lincoln' by Steven Spielberg, New York Times 

"This is, in other words, less a biopic than a political thriller, a civics lesson that is energetically staged and alive with moral energy. Lincoln, having just won re-election, faces a complex predicament. The war has turned in the Union’s favor, but the Capitol is in some turmoil. Lincoln must contend with a Democratic opposition that reviles him as a dictator (“Abraham Africanus,” they call him) and also with a deep, factional split within the Republican Party."

My paraphrase of this selected passage.

Lincoln, in its simplest form, is much more like a cliffhanger of political suspense, filled with the complexities of the government, than a biographical film portraying Lincoln and his life. The movie is set so that it is filled with the spirit and vitality of those who are participating in determining the rights of the country. Fresh after succeeding to secure his presidency for a second term, President Lincoln is now confronted with a complicated dilemma. Although, the Union has taken the upper hand in the civil war against the South, and this is a success on one front, on another front the Capitol of the Union is experiencing a high level of strife among its members. The Democrats who are constantly against Lincoln, try to portray him as a corrupt power-hungry ruler, this is a problem that Lincoln must deal with. The Democrats also refer to him as "Abraham Africanus", Lincoln must also deal with a strong split among his own party.     

Word of choice post

Max Miller 

Word of choice post

The word I chose to research was communism. Looking at the Ngram viewer the word communism is very rarely used until around 1850 where is increases in popularity until around 1962. Communism starts to gain popularity mainly due to the age of enlightenment where the ideas and beliefs were starting to spread around the world. 1850 is also around the time where Marx and Engels were developing the ideology, which is why it starts to gain popularity in documents around that time. The word communism also peaks at around 1962-1965 where the Cold War is at his highest tension point. 

Newspaper research

Max Miller 

Newspaper Research 

 Looking over the 19th century archive of newspapers there were many things that stood out to me. At first I knew that democrats would be against reconstruction, but I had thought that they disliked it simply because it was against their beliefs about how the south should be treated. As I continued my research I came across the Public Ledger a newspaper from Tennessee, this newspaper was claiming that the reconstruction in the south was unconstitutional, it alleged that the turmoil that reconstruction caused was a result of radical republicans in congress acting in an unconstitutional way. The New York Herald also has an article on reconstruction, however this article is celebrating the actions that resulted from reconstruction. This article is saying how the south is in desperate need of infrastructure after the war and it is the Norths duty to help them, it even goes as far as saying that it is the Norths "burden" to help the south. The article continues to go on acknowledging the shortcoming and failures of reconstruction, but unlike the Public Ledger which says that this is due to unconstitutional acts of radical republicans, the New York Herald claims that this is because of the lack of competency and presence of corruption among southern democrats in charge of reconstruction projects in the south. 

Unlike a textbook an archive can give many points of perspective from a range of areas and dates, while a textbook can give a broad overview of facts and the opinions and feelings going on in a certain period of time. 

Library of Congress

Reconstruction Questions 

Max Miller 

Why did reconstruction end? 

When radical reconstruction was introduced it was met with severe disdain from the south. The south was starting to get violent because white supremacist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan were targeting anybody who supported radical reconstruction with acts of violence. As support for reconstruction for the south was loosing momentum, the supremacist groups were able to gain power. These factors contributed to an economic recession in the south. After the recession the democrats were able to gain majority in the house and compromised with the Republican presidential candidate for support in exchange for control of the south this resulted in the end of the reconstruction. 

History.com- Good information for the events leading up to the end of reconstruction 

Britannica- specifics on how reconstruction ended (process,specifics, etc)