About That Captain Thomas E. Craig-- Part 4: 'A Wanton Act of Cruelty'

When the French villagers returned, Craig had forty of them arrested, claiming that someone had fired on them.  The French denied this.  Craig had his prisoners taken downriver to Alton where they were held for four days before being released.

In the meantime, Craig and his men killed all the village's cattle and burned part of the town.

Historians tend to look at Craig's actions as being misguided.  To John Reynolds, the destruction of French Peoria was "useless" and "a wanton act of  cruelty."  Historian Frank  Stevens denounced Craig's conduct  as "asinine and criminal."

He must Have Had a Really Big Hatred of the French (and Probably Indians as Well).  --Brock-Perry

Historic Black Canadian Settlement Honored-- Part 3: The Land Was Pretty Bad

And, the little amount of land that Blacks did get was not very good for growing anything.

Sail Ralph Thomas, historian and descendant of the original Willow Grove settlers, said:  "When they (Blacks) got here it (the land) was not as good as they had been told."

"You know, the places weren't ready for them.  The grounds that were given to them were grounds that we know, even today,  to do anything as far as growing anything...."

Willow Grove is one of two historically black villages which will be featured on Canadian stamps in February.  The other is Amber Valley in Alberta.

Thomas said these stamps are a good way to start remembering and recognizing more black history in New Brunswick and Canadian history.

Now, this is something that the Black Lives Matter folks need to concentrate more on.

You Can Never Get Too Much History in My Book.  --Brock-Perry

Seven Things You Didn't Know About New York's Central Park-- Part 5: Seneca Village

7.  One of the first African American communities in the city was razed in order  to create Central Park.

About three decades before the creation of the park, the area  was home to Seneca Village, a small community founded by free black property owners, one of the first ones in New York City.

It had three churches and a school and stretched between West 83rd and 89th streets.  By the 1840s, German and Irish immigrants moved to the area, making it one of the few integrated areas of the time.

In 1853, the city took possession of the area through eminent domain and destroyed Seneca Village to make way for Central Park.  The history of the village was largely ignored until 2011, when historians and archaeologists from the Institute for the Exploration of Seneca Village excavated six areas within the former village.

They found thousands of artifacts, including household items that revealed signs of middle-class life.  Last year, the central Park Conservancy  launched an outdoor exhibit to teach visitors about Seneca Village.

--Brock-Perry

This Blog Now Closed Due to Confederadication

I have eight blogs (which are eight blogs too many, believe me, but I enjoy doing the research and writing them).  However, there is a new chapter being written in U.S. history, for better or worse.  I believe it is for the worse, but anyway, it needs to be covered, especially from the other, much-maligned side.  And, I sure hope this does not turn into a race war.

Sadly, the media is mostly against us.  And, at times it seems that everybody is against us.

Keeping up with the continual and massive numbers of attacks is very time consuming and I have decided to temporarily close many of my other blogs while I do that.

I'm calling these attacks on the former Confederacy the Confederadication.  I put the words Confederate, the victim of these attacks, together with the word eradication, the objective of the other side.  Dropping the 'te" from Confederate I noticed we already had the first three letters of eradication.

And there we were.

I am covering this in my Civil War II: The Continuing War of the Confederacy blog.

So Until the Last Confederate Statue Comes Down and Last Vestige of the Confederacy Removed, This Blog will be Closed.  --Brock-Perry