The Blue Coat History Magazine
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THE BLUE COAT HISTORY MAGAZINE OCTOBER 2020 Welcome to this month’s edition of the Blue Coat History Magazine! This month, we interviewed Dr Wainwright on his history heroes, The White Rose, a resistance group against the Nazi regime, and history villain, Andrew Jackson, the 7th President of the USA. Our historical person of the month, written by Emily Maloney, is haircare entrepreneur and philanthropist Madam C.J Walker. Inside, Holly Hunter explores the life of the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a Supreme Court Justice who fought for gender equality, and Gabriel Heywood covers the Liverpool Blitz of 1940-1942. Also included is a film review of The Captain by Tim Auth and a piece on Agrippina, ‘the mother with a son to die for’, written by Ambrose Pailing. This year, our annual Blue Coat Heritage Open Days was an online event; inside, Peter Elson kindly provides an insight into the activities that took place over the week. Many thanks to all involved, and hope you enjoy reading this edition! Kimberley Cota (Editor) HISTORY HEROES: THE WHITE ROSE What makes them heroic to you? after recognising his writing style in a White Rose leaflet. Christoph Probst was married he White Rose were a group of with three children. Alexander Schmorrell Germans who risked, and gave, their was bilingual and considered himself both T lives in order to oppose Hitler and Russian and German. Willi Graf was a the Nazi regime. They weren’t experienced committed Catholic whose Christian faith in politics, and most of them were very led him to question Nazi ideology. Kurt young, but they confounded the Nazis and Huber was an expert in folk music who was shone a light of hope from the very city that twenty years older than the others. What was the birthplace of the Nazi movement. they had in common was the University of Their first act of bravery was simply to Munich, where Huber was a professor and come together. They lived in a society where people lived in fear that anyone around them might denounce them to the Gestapo (secret police force). To speak publicly in criticism of the Nazi government meant to risk being interrogated, tortured, imprisoned or killed. Yet these brave individuals found each other, spoke out, and took action. It was an unlikely group. Hans Scholl had once been a troop leader in the Hitler Youth. His younger sister Sophie joined the group most of the others were medical students. the University of Munich in February 1943 Somehow they each found the courage to and executed for their actions. They did not criticise the Nazi regime, and to place their manage to liberate Germany from Nazi rule, trust in the others not to betray them. and the war dragged on for another two years after their deaths. Nevertheless, Repelled by their experiences in Munich, there is something truly admirable about and on the Eastern Front where the medical standing up for what is right, and making students had to serve in between their sure that a totalitarian state could not fully university terms, the White Rose began to stamp out dissenting voices. 15,000 copies work in secret to produce leaflets criticising of their leaflets circulated within Germany, the Nazi government, and calling upon the and some copies were smuggled to German people to use non- Britain, from where allied planes violent resistance to “overthrow In a place and dropped many more copies over the National Socialist terror”. time of almost German cities later in the war. In a Using a second-hand duplicating total state control place and time of almost total state machine, they produced and relentless control and relentless propaganda, thousands of copies. They left a propaganda, the the White Rose offered an few around the University of White Rose alternative perspective, and kept Munich, but to begin with most offered an alive the flame of German liberty. were mailed out across the city alternative to names drawn from telephone What was one moment that defined perspective, and directories. After a while, they their lives? kept alive the expanded their actions, bravely flame of German taking suitcases full of leaflets on I think their behaviour at their so- liberty. train journeys to other cities in called trial exemplifies their attitude. The event was led by the southern Germany (knowing they could be stopped and searched by the notorious Nazi judge Roland authorities at any moment). Their actions Freisler. Freisler had a record of seeking to baffled the Gestapo. It was impossible for intimidate and humiliate those who them to find where the leaflets were mailed opposed the regime, overwhelming the from. The leaflets were spreading so far courtroom with shouting and dramatic that they believed that there must be a large gestures in his billowing red gown. scale organisation behind them, not a However, the White Rose stood strong in handful of students and a music teacher. their defiance. Freisler found his performance repeatedly interrupted by the The story of the White Rose isn’t a young voice of Sophie Scholl, who called out conventional heroic story. They didn’t boldly to denounce his claims. Likewise, overcome their adversaries. They were Kurt Huber, rather than being dominated by caught in the act of distributing leaflets at Freisler, used his trial to make a public call for “a return to our basic values, to a state I think I’d probably just want to talk to them based upon law”. about how they found the courage to do what they did. If you could meet the White Rose, what would you ask them? HISTORY VILLAIN: ANDREW JACKSON What makes Andrew Jackson a villain to who had lived there for centuries. In the you? south east, in an area stretching from modern Mississippi to Florida, lived several lthough there are aspects of tribes including the Cherokee, Choctaw, Jackson’s life that are viewed as Muscogee-Creek, Chickasaw and Seminole A heroic by many Americans, they are peoples. Ever since George Washington’s outweighed by his actions towards Native time, the white government’s policy had Americans and African Americans. been to recognise these particular Native Jackson lived at the time when the United Americans as sovereign nations, with rights States had just overthrown British rule and to their own homelands, but to encourage was fighting to expand. Jackson was a them to adopt traditions such as learning to tough general in the American army and read and speak English, adopt Christianity built a reputation during those years which and develop farming. These tribes had eventually enabled him to become done so, undergoing religious conversion, building homes similar to their European president in 1829. neighbours and even reading their own newspapers in English. However, President Jackson did not believe this was the right policy. Jackson sided with those who wanted to use the tribes’ land for growing cotton (and to search for gold which had been found in the area in 1829). In 1830, Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act into law. This law gave Jackson the power to negotiate with the Native Americans in order to remove them from their homelands and give them alternative land in the far west where the Europeans did not want to settle themselves. Over the next eight years, the tribes in the south east were removed from their lands. The negotiations were not always done fairly. Sometimes a treaty was agreed with individuals who were not recognised as the By the time Jackson became president, the true leaders of their tribe. In the winter of USA had already grown from 13 former 1831, under threat of invasion by the U.S. colonies to 24 states. However, North Army, the Choctaw became the first nation America was still predominantly populated to be expelled from its land altogether. They by the diverse groups of Native Americans made the journey to Indian Territory on foot, with some bound in chains, and There are other reasons for disliking without any food, supplies or other help Jackson. Before he was president, he was from the government. involved in military actions against other By 1838 Jackson had been successful and groups of Native Americans in Florida, the lands in the south east were made seizing land from those who fought the USA, available for settlers from the United States. and also from those who did not, and The last to be moved were the Cherokee. destroying communities of runaway slaves. Their plight had actually been supported by In 1806 he was in a duel where he tactically the US Supreme Court in 1832, but allowed the other man to shoot first Jackson decided not to recognise the (calculating that a rushed shot would be significance of the court’s decision and less accurate) then made his opponent pushed for the Cherokee to be forcibly stand still and wait while Jackson shot and removed. This finally happened under killed him. After military action against the the leadership of Jackson’s vice British in New Orleans, he had six of the president and successor Martin Van soldiers in his own volunteer militia army Buren. 7,000 soldiers forced the executed without trial for trying to go home Cherokee from their homes, before he had formally disbanded the looted their belongings, and army. marched them more than When 1,200 miles through the winter abolitionists months to live in “Indian tried to send What was one moment that defined Territory”. Disease and cold anti-slavery his life? led to the deaths of more than leaflets into 5,000 Cherokee (about 1 in 4 Jackson’s two brothers and mother the southern of those who were forced to both died after clashes with British slave-owning take part).