Hello readers! Today I am basing my history post off of a recent book I read called Courting Miss Amsel. Edythe Amsel was involved in woman's suffrage a bit and looked forward to attending a rally where Susan B. Anthony was speaking. So, I thought that it would make for the perfect post! :) Here is what I was able to learn about Susan B. Anthony.






Born in 1820, Susan B. Anthony grew up in a typical Quaker family with a long history of activist traditions, so we can be sure that Susan grew up with a great sense of justice. For 15 years, Susan was a teacher. and it wasn't until 1852 after having tried to be active in temperance, but was not allowed to speak because she was a woman, and meeting Elizabeth Stanton that Susan became involved in woman's suffrage.


In 1870, Susan founded and was elected president of the Workingwomen's Central Association. This association kept track of the working conditions and educated working women.
While president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in the 1890s, Anthony emphasized the importance of gaining the support of organized labor. She encouraged numerous women fighting for Woman's Suffrage to continue towards their goal in protection for working women through trade unions.



There is SO much more I could say about Susan B. Anthony, but for ease of reading, I will end with this - Susan continued her work heartily until her death in 1906. She never married but devoted her entire life to woman's suffrage. She now is one of America's most well known social reformers, and stands for us as a symbol of determination and perseverance.

Hello readers! A little more than a week ago I finished Spring For Susannah - Catherine Richmond's debut novel. A characteristic of this book is that Susannah was a mail-order bride. So, I thought that I would base my history post off of it and talk about mail-order brides! :)

Mail-order brides began to spread popularly as soon as America was settled. With an excessive amount of roudy men in the west and refined ladies in the east, it seemed to be logical to put an ad in the paper, asking for a wife.



When parents died, women had no where to go. It wasn't like today where women live on their own and have jobs, etc. If you were a woman alone in the world, you were in big trouble. Marrying promised protection, food, and a roof over your head. So the women from the east who knew how to cook, clean, take care of a family, etc were able to move west, marry, and start a family.  I'm sure all the women were eager to "manner-up" their husbands too. ;)



In return, the men received hot meals and a help meet. It was a win-win!



Could you imagine seeing an ad in Sunday's paper these days? "Wanted: Wife."
Haha I can't! That would be ridiculous! But in fact, mail-order brides are still popular today! Shocker?
Often they come from other countries. I don't know much about contemporary mail-order brides, but I was amazed to learn that it was still practiced in today's society. Not so much in America, but in other countries.



So there you have it! There's some info on Mail-Order Brides. I think it's kinda crazy and appalling to marry someone like that. So I am happy society has changed! Lol

Hello readers! I recently finished To Win Her Heart, which was amazing, and decided it would make a good choice for today's history post.
Levi had a past - he had once been a prizefighter. When I read this, I was like "What on earth is that???", but as I read I learned a bit about it. It's pretty crazy. Here's a bit of info on it.

Prizefighting goes back a long way, but it wasn't until 1743 when a man called Jack Broughton created a list of rules after one of his opponents died. There were then rules about hitting below the belt, hitting when a man was down, and a few other things. Surprisingly, and a bit horrifyingly, punching, scratching, kicking, throwing, stomping, and strangling were all acceptable in the ring, and it wasn't uncommon for a man to die. In fact, in 1787 Birmingham, two out of the days fights ended in death.




Ridiculous amounts of money were poured into bets during prizefighting. It was quite nuts. No gentlemen or middle class men ever fought, but it was not unheard of for women too - something I was appalled to find out!


Prizefighting is known by a different name today...
Boxing.
Yep that's right - prizefighting is what started the common, well known sport of boxing today. Luckily, we now have rules that keep people from killing each other! :o



Well there's a bit about Prizefighting...not much but it was only very popular in the 1700s-1800s and soon became known as boxing. But it was quite crazy to read about!
Hope you enjoyed!

Hello readers! I am SO sorry that this is so late! I had an orthodontist appointment and wasn't home until 2, then got caught up in school! But here is my post - going back into Biblical times to Saul's court where the daughter of Saul falls in love with his worst enemy.

She later tells Saul that David forced her to help him. Wait...is this the beginning of something? She just lied about David, the man she loved! Did she still love him? Sadly, we don't know. We can only speculate. Perhaps she felt it was the best way to protect him.
Saul later illegally gives Michal to another man as a wife. If Michal loved David still, this most have been heart wrenching!



So, after many years, Saul dies and David becomes king. He's no longer in hiding! Though he took other wives through his journey, he must have still loved Michal, for he ordered that she be brought back to him. It says that Palti, her second husband, wept as she left. Seems like he geninely loved her! Could she have loved him in return? After all, it had been many years since she'd known David. Was David destroying her life...again?



"Michal Saul's daughter looked through a window, and saw king David leaping and dancing before the LORD; and she despised him in her heart."
Apparently Michal was over David. When he came dancing through the streets with the Ark of the Covenant, she hated him. Despised him. Maybe in her mind, he'd ruined her life. She was mad about how he was acting, though, in public. Dancing? And without his kingly robes? This was never the way her father acted!
When he comes back, he rebukes her. And for her mistake, Michal was made barren.




So, Michal was foolish. She obviously didn't love David for David, she loved him for his appearance or for how famous he was. It proved the point that a marriage on unequal grounds will only result in chaos. 


Well, I hope you enjoyed this look into Michal's life! Again, sorry it's late!

Good morning! Today we are going to dive into Roseanna White's newest release, Jewel of Persia. To focus on things more specifically, we're going to look into the life in a harem--since that is where we find the heroine, Kasia. :-)

What exactly is a Harem? Well, wiki came in handy and told me a harem "...refers to the sphere of women...(whose) enclosed quarters are forbidden to men."

So in short--I place where the girls of the house lived away from the other guys. :-)

If you were like me--knew nothing about harems--then you will be very interested in getting Roseanna's book. It's like a great history lesson! Because Kasia was taken to the palace to become a concubine for King Xerxes, I learned a lot about life in a Harem. (And I admit not envying Kasia at all!)

There were two sections to a Harem--one housed the wives and concubines and the other housed the virgins who were preparing to go before the king. Normally, it takes about a year to be prepared (A LONG time, I know!). You can find this information in the book of Esther. For that year a virgin learned how to behave themselves before the king as well as served the finest food, and had beauty treatments excessively administered to them.

Once finished there, you went to the king and then moved into the house of wives and concubines. This is where you would live for the remainder of your days. If you pleased the king, he would call for you. With such a large harem that these kings had, I wonder how many times some girls were never called for again.

In a harem, I can just imagine what the atmosphere would be like. Dozens and dozens of women all vying for one man's attention. All trying to gain the favor of the king for their children. I live in a family of 9 females--and all but three are under 12 years old. That is interesting enough--I cannot imagine living with dozens or hundreds other women who are all out to secure their own ambitions.

Well, I'm starting to ramble here! There is always more to learn, but I think that is enough for now. :-) I can say that I am thankful the Lord didn't put me in a kingdom with harems! lol But it is really neat to learn about. If you are curious to find out more, I highly encourage you to read Roseanna's book, Jewel of Persia. The content is for mature readers, but the historical details in this book are awesome!

Hello readers! Sorry this post is so late! I, Kait, just got back from Disney World with our neighbors. I had a blast but didn't get back till about an hour ago, hence this post being late. But here I am! I've a lot to do, so here is a brief post about the Alaskan gold rush! :)


The Klondike Gold Rush, also known as the Yukon gold rush, took place in the late 1800s after Indian Skookum Jim Mason discovered gold deposits in Rabbit Creek. George Carmack was officially accredited for the discovery as Indians were frowned upon and people didn't think miners would like the discovery being accredited to an Indian.

Many made their millions. The gold rush lasted three years or so before people started to stop flowing into Alaska. Many people died because of their desire for riches, but many found a vein and made a fortune off of their hard work.

Sorry this post is so short - if you would like to learn more you can check out this info on it - but it's late, I'm tired, and there's lots to be done! Until next time! :)

For today's history post, I thought to take Ginger Garrett's recently released book, Wolves Among Us. The overwhelming subject that the reader learns about is the witch accusations and trials. I know we've posted about the Salem Witch Trial before, so I won't mention that time. This is more of the overall outbreak of witchcraft around the time of Wolves Among Us.


The subject of witchcraft erupted in Europe around the mid 1400s. With the start of the reformation years(which is around when Wolves Among Us takes place) the outbreak of witchcraft hysteria with mass executions began to appear and the killing rate for witches increased considerably. Authorities in Geneva, Switzerland burned 500 accused witches at the stake in 1515. In Italy nine years later, a vast number of witchcraft charges led to as many as 1,000 executions.

The story of Scotland's witch-hunting was rather interesting, I thought. It began after the marriage of King James to Princess Anne of Denmark. Her ship that was carrying her to Scotland for the wedding got caught in a bad storm and she ended up having to take refuge in Norway. James traveled to her and the wedding ended up taking place in Denmark. After the royal newlyweds ended their honeymoon, they encountered another terrible storm and rough seas on their return home. The ship's captain blamed the storms on witches. When six Danish women confessed to "bedeviling" King James, he began to take witchcraft seriously. Back in Scotland the paranoid king authorized torture of suspected witches. Dozens of condemned witches in the North Berwick area were burned at the stake in what would be the largest witch-hunt in British history.

Over the 160 years from 1500 to 1660, Europe saw between 50,000 and 80,000 suspected witches executed. About 80% of those killed were women. execution rates varied greatly by country, from a high of about 26,000 in Germany to about 10,000 in France, 1,000 in England, and only 4 in Ireland. The lower death tolls in England and Ireland owed in part to better procedural safeguards in those countries for defendants.

I knew that the witch-hunts in the 1500s were vast and many people lost their lives innocently, but looking at the statistics is staggering. Wow. And if you pick up Wolves Among Us, you'll get a detailed story of one town in Germany that had to deal with witch-hunts and unjust executions. I encourage you to get a copy soon!