Tag: american history

thefingerfuckingfemalefury:

thedevilspanties:

spart117mc:

viridieanfey:

romanimp:

beatnikdaddio:

admiring the stockings. 1940’s.

#[40S COMMERCIAL ANNOUNCER VOICE] WHAT’S BETTER THAN THIS? GALS BEING PALS

Fun fact: Though being gay in the 40s sucked, being gay in the military was easier, and pretty common. There were apparently, at one point in time time so many lesbians in the military that when they tried to crack down on it, the girls wrote back and said “Look I can give you the names, but you’ll lose some of your best officers, and half your nurses and secretaries.” And they pretty much shut up about it unless you were especially bad at subtlety. (Source: Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers. A good source for gay history from 1900s onwards.)

Sergeant Phelps worked for General Eisenhower. Four decades after Eisenhower had defeated the Axis powers, Phelps recalled an extraordinary event. One day the general told her, “I’m giving you an order to ferret those lesbians out.’ We’re going to get rid of them.”

“I looked at him and then I looked at his secretary. who was standing next to me, and I said, ‘Well, sir, if the general pleases, sir, I’ll be happy to do this investigation for you. But you have to know that the first name on the list will be mine.’

“And he kind of was taken aback a bit. And then this woman standing next to me said, ‘Sir, if the general pleases, you must be aware that Sergeant Phelps’s name may be second, but mine will be first.’

“Then I looked at him, and I said, ‘Sir, you’re right. They’re lesbians in the WAC battalion. And if the general is prepared to replace all the file clerks, all the section commanders, all of the drivers—every woman in the WAC detachment—and there were about nine hundred and eighty something of us—then I’ll be happy to make the list. But I think the general should be aware that among those women are the most highly decorated women in the war. There have been no cases of illegal pregnancies. There have been no cases of AWOL. There have been no cases of misconduct. And as a matter of fact, every six months since we’ve been here, sir, the general has awarded us a commendation for meritorious service.’

“And he said, ‘Forget the order.’

– The Gay Metropolis: The Landmark History of Gay Life in America

I’ve reblogged this before but it didn’t have these comments and HOLY HOT DAMN DID IT NEED THEM.

This is my most favourite of stories about this time period okay ❤

Haiti and the United States

publius-esquire:

haitianhistory:

Hello, while we have kept you updated with posts about the U.S. Occupation of Haiti, I simply wanted to take a small break from that to share a few titles with you on another topic of great interest, that is, the ‘diplomatic’ relations between Haiti and United States during and after the Haitian Revolution. I put diplomatic in quotation marks since, from the time of Jefferson to the Civil War, Haiti and the United States did not enjoy formal diplomatic relations (given that Haiti’s independence as a state was not recognised). 

Although there seems to be this view that Haiti automatically existed in antagonism with the United States (which is not so completely false),  if we accept this too wholesomely, I think we risk missing out on the complexity posed by Saint-Domingue/Haiti to a country like the United States. Literature on American-Haitian relations suggests that different American administrations dealt with Saint-Domingue/Haiti well, differently. Indeed, it is very interesting to see how the U.S. had to reconcile the principles of its own revolution with the advent of a free black state like Haiti. 

At any rate, I hope these will be useful and feel free to add any suggestions. Happy reading!

B O O K S 

A Proslavery Foreign Policy: Haitian-American Relations during the Early Republic by Tim Matthewson

African Americans and the Haitian Revolution: Selected Essays and Historical Documents edited by Maurice Jackson and Jacqueline Bacon 

Caribbean Crossing: African Americans and the Haitian Emigration Movement by Sara Fanning

Diplomacy in Black and White: John Adams, Toussaint Louverture, and Their Atlantic World Alliance by Ronald Angelo Johnson

Encountering Revolution: Haiti and the Making of the Early Republic by Ashli White

Haiti’s Influence on Antebellum America: Slumbering Volcano in the Caribbean by Alfred N. Hunt 

From Saint-Domingue to New Orleans: Migration and Influences by Nathalie Dessens

The Impact of the Haitian Revolution in the Atlantic World by David P. Geggus 

The Diplomatic Relations of the United States with Haiti, 1776-1891 by Rayford W. Logan

The Road to Louisiana: The Saint-domingue Refugees, 1792-1809 edited by Carl A. Brasseaux and Glenn R. Conrad 

The World of the Haitian Revolution ed. by David Patrick Geggus and Norman Fiering 

Toussaint’s Clause: The Founding Fathers and the Haitian Revolution by Gordon S. Brown 

A R T I C L E S 

‘America’s Response to the Slave Revolt in Haiti, 1791-1806′ by Donald R. Hickey

‘Black Talleyrand: Toussaint Louverture’s Diplomacy, 1798-1802′ by Philippe R. Girard

‘Class Conflict and Diplomacy: Haitian Isolation in the 19th-Century World System’ by Arthur L. Stinchcombe 

’Jefferson and Haiti’ by Tim Matthewson

‘Jefferson and the Nonrecognition of Haiti’ by Tim Matthewson

‘Revolutionary Saint Domingue and the Emerging Atlantic: Paradigms of Sovereignty’ by Carolyn Fick 

‘The Haitian Revolution, Black Petitioners and Refugee Widows in Maryland, 1796-1820′ by Patricia A. Reid

‘The Haitian Revolution and the Forging of America’ by Jim Thomson

To this excellent list I’d also add the articles:

“Hamilton and Haiti” by Daniel Lang, located in The Many Faces of Alexander Hamilton

“The Power of Blackness: Thomas Jefferson and the Revolution in St. Domingue” by Michael Zuckerman in Almost Chosen People: Oblique Biographies in the American Grain

ratherbookish:

sushinfood:

reeferkitten:

king-faded:

angelclark:

Historic Black and White Pictures Restored in Color

  1. Women Delivering Ice, 1918
  2. Times Square, 1947
  3. Portrait Used to Design the Penny. President Lincoln Meets General McClellan – Antietam, Maryland ca September 1862
  4. Marilyn Monroe, 1957
  5. Newspaper boy Ned Parfett sells copies of the evening paper bearing news of Titanic’s sinking the night before. (April 16, 1912)
  6. Easter Eggs for Hitler, c 1944-1945 
  7. Sergeant George Camblair practicing with a gas mask in a smokescreen – Fort Belvoir, Virginia, 1942
  8. Helen Keller meeting Charlie Chaplin in 1919
  9. Painting WWII Propaganda Posters, Port Washington, New York – 8 July 1942
  10. Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge ca 1935

This is awesome.

Not something I’d typically reblog but I like.

This is bloody fantastic.

Honestly seeing old photos in color makes the past so much more tangible.