I presented this research at a conference in Colorado, 2014, on "The Image of the Hero in Literature, Media, and Society" sponsored by the Society for the Interdisciplinary Study of Social Imagery. (I did not read the whole text, below, word-for-word, but paraphrased its main points, including Power Point illustrations.) Here I recall writing prompts for my students of early U.S. history. I also discuss my process of understanding and organizing material and learning what is meaningful to my students and myself, while discovering national stories. Many thanks to my students, who suggested and tested many of these ideas so creatively. These days and looking to the future, the international context for this study suggests that ideas for classroom discussion might include stories of migration and refugees.
Where in the World is Parson Weems?
American History in a Multi-Cultural Classroom
Who has not heard the story of George Washington and the cherry tree? (Where were you when you first heard that story?) It is a tale known around the world. And who originally published, or maybe invented, that story?
Parson Weems was one of the first folklorists of the United States, living in Maryland and Virginia from the late 18th century to the early 19th century. Weems helped create the public’s view of George Washington. He told historical tales, and though some of his contemporaries criticized his writings, the general public and the children loved his stories, which became a staple of American schools.
I was delighted to discover Parson Weems, the jovial traveling teacher, the “vagabond book-hawker” (Brooks 1), even more because he is from my home State of Maryland. How could I convey my enthusiasm to my community college history students in Maryland? Many of my students identify with other countries, and have difficulty connecting with U.S. history; most of my students of U.S. history have parents or ancestry from Asia, West Africa, the Caribbean, or Latin America.
The concept of the “great man” in history may have fallen into some disfavor, but thinking of heroes as role models may be part of many young people's character development, for identify formation, and heroic tales can be useful for teachers because one of the best ways of teaching a concept is through narrative. Were there national story-tellers and heroes from other countries -- countries that intersected early U.S. history and are particularly relevant to my students? Who wrote about Haiti’s Toussaint L’Ouverture, a hero of Caribbean slave revolts, for example? In the course of my research, I also learned of events and heroic figures in Mexico and China largely unknown in the U.S.
It becomes evident that reading and writing not only created history, but moved nations. And I learned that the origins of the U.S. are truly different from other movements of independence in the Western Hemisphere, even as the various countries influenced one another. (See chronology, below.) This paper will first talk about Weems, then introduce national heroes from other lands.
A note from research: Weems is still with young people: I discovered there is a video game called “Assassin’s Creed” featuring a scheming Mason Weems (before he was known as Parson Weems?) helping rescue George Washington from captivity. Perhaps there is poetic justice that after Weems supposedly told made-up stories for young people about Washington, today a game helps youngsters tell made-up stories about Weems.
Chronology of Some Events in Our Narrative
· 1519 – Spaniard Cortez, with help from La Malinche, begins conquering Aztecs
· 1607 – Englishman John Smith possibly meets Pocahontas
· 1790s – 1840s – U.S. experiences Second Great Awakening, religious revival
· 1792 – Mason (“Parson”) Weems quits Episcopal clergy, begins peddling religious and other popular literature, George Washington begins second presidential term
· 1799 – Washington dies, Weems publishes his biography of Washington
· 1801-1802 – Toussaint comes to military power in Saint Domingue
· 1803 – U.S. president Jefferson acquires Louisiana Territory from France
· 1804 –Haiti (Saint Domingue) wins independence from France (sixty years later, U.S. recognizes Haiti); Lewis and Clark meet Sacagawea, and explore the West
· 1821 – Latin American nations begin winning independence from Spain
· 1825 – Weems dies
· 1829- 1830s – U.S. missionaries spread Christianity in China
· 1830s – McGuffey Readers spread Weems’s stories (read by young Abraham Lincoln)
· 1839- 1842 – Opium War waged, Britain vs. China
· 1840s – Hong Xiuquan adopts version of Christianity, creates break-away Kingdom of Taiping, leads rebellion
· 1850 – Emerson presents lectures, “Representative Men”
· 1848–1852 – tens of thousands of Chinese emigrate to the U.S.
· 1855-1865 – China suffers through civil war (with participation of U.S. and General Tso), starvation, famine
· 1863 – Battle of Gettysburg
· 1864 – Battle of Nanjing
· 1960s – Hong Xiuquan praised in writings by Chinese communists
Life of Weems:
Mason Locke Weems, as he was originally named, was born in Maryland in the mid-1700s, but spent much time schooling in England as a youth and young man: before the Revolutionary War studying medicine, after the War returning to England to study theology (Wroth).
By the time he returned to stay in America as an ordained clergyman, in 1784, soon after U.S. Independence, the Episcopal Church could not provide the respectable position and income he had come to expect. “The Episcopal Church in Virginia fell into disfavor after the Revolutionary War. . .it was the Church of England. “(Wroth, 41, echoed by Kellock 30, Brooks 76, Foner 342). Also, it seems that Weems published an “odd” book a fellow priest called “Onania” that might have alienated other clergy– apparently a frank book on “public health and morals” (Wroth 59). His sense of humor in sermons also did not endear him to colleagues (Kellock 54). And he sometimes preached locally to African-Americans, which was unusual for his role and time (Furstenberg 113). Weems quit his full-time preaching, his parish and work in the “Diocese of Maryland,” around 1792 (Wroth 49, 59), the same year Washington began his second term as president. He began book-selling, and later, writing. (His choice might have been described as publish or parish.) Though Weems was from the South, he was definitely not associated with plantation life. His initial lack of wealth may have given him motivation to write, publish, and sell. His financial success at this enterprise may have made him appealing enough to his future wife, Franny (Kellock 63).
Weems achieved a connection with the great Washington. Five years before Weems married Frances Ewell, her sister married Dr. Craik, who introduced Weems to George Washington, according to Mary Thompson, historian at Mount Vernon (see also Kellock, 71-72). Weems met Philadelphia publisher Matthew Carey (Brooks 38, Kellock 61) in the 1790s, and became his “agent to the Southern states” (Brooks 40). It was as a traveling preacher and later book-seller that Mason Weems came to be called, affectionately, Parson Weems. Then Weems met Franny Ewell, the daughter of Colonel Ewell, who was also an old friend of George Washington. Weems married into this prominent Virginia family in 1795, soon after he began book peddling, and eventually became father to a large family; probably his children influenced him to write his own children’s books.
George Washington’s diaries show that Weems had dinner at Mt. Vernon, presumably with Washington, while John Adams was president. Weems wrote to Washington in 1795, and Washington corresponded, later (Mary Thompson, personal communication, also Kellock 78). Washington mentioned Weems directly or indirectly in letters. And George Washington wrote a favorable blurb for one of Weems’s publications, urging the public to read it (Kellock 73). So it seems Weems and Washington were on friendly terms. Weems’s biography of Washington may have been almost authorized – or so Weems may have thought. And I wonder if some of Weems’s stories might have been true, after all. Clearly Weems felt confident to write as he did about Washington. The Weems biographer of more than a century ago, Wroth, claims that Martha Washington told Weems some of the stories about her late husband. Weems claims he heard the cherry tree story from a traveler. Washington died at the end of 1799, and Weems published his Washington biography a few months later.
Eric Bentley, speaking of 19th century biographer Thomas Carlyle, says Carlyle advocated “hero-worship” and had “the exaggerated respect of an ambitious book-worm for the man of action.” (Bentley 39) Could this description of Carlyle fit Weems -- the “book worm” with his “hero-worship” -- and also describe other biographers of heroes?
There are varied definitions of the hero. Bentley paraphrases historian Thomas Carlyle defining a hero (and presumably a heroine) as someone who should “rule” and others should “revere” or imitate, someone “of courage and nobility” who “acts boldly,” yet out of a sense of “duty,” “becomes an instrument of history and progress” so that “history moves forward, not backward” (34-56). Ralph Waldo Emerson, a friend of Carlyle, lectured about heroes; Henry David Thoreau, a friend of Emerson, opined in essays and journals that a hero might appear as any ordinary person.
Weems’s Life of Washington went through scores of editions (Wroth 62). In 1790-1820 Weems was a “pioneer” in writing books for boys (ibid 59-62). In her biography of Louisa May Alcott, Susan Cheever reminds us of Philippe Aries's research that argues that the concept of childhood, a distinct time to be cherished and nurtured, generally wasn't recognized in U.S. and European societies until the mid-19th century. So, Weems's work may have been most appreciated after his death. Weems seemed to be addressing fathers and sons as his audience, maybe in part with a view toward potential employment as a tutor. He sought to say what fathers would like to read about moral development, and what a grand influence fathers can be for their sons. In the cherry tree story -- "I can't tell a lie, Pa; you know I can't tell a lie. I did cut it with my hatchet." -- the father of Washington is delighted that young Washington tells the truth. “Such an act of heroism in my son is more worth than a thousand trees, though blossomed with silver, and their fruits of purest gold" (Life of Washington).
Did Weems feel far away in status from Washington, yet close enough in class and region to write about him for the masses? Washington’s reputation was beginning to be tarnished in the political disputes of the time, so Weems may have been defending Washington (though not necessarily Washington’s political party) (Brooks 117). Weems tells stories to demonstrate virtues – in all caps (“LOVE,” “VALOR,” “CHARITY,” “HOPE,” “INDUSTRY”) -- and applies Washington to each virtue, to make it attractive to young readers. He also analogizes between Bible teachings and Washington’s conduct (Life of Washington). His works were included in McGuffy Readers in the 1830s, and, according to John Marshall, a guide at Mt. Vernon, one youthful reader of Weems was Abraham Lincoln. This is especially relevant because Weems wrote strongly against secession in Life of Washington 50 years before the Civil War, and the youthful Lincoln apparently read those sentiments.
Weems later wrote other biographies, including Life of Franklin (see Wood 237-240), and Life of Marion – General Francis Marion of the Revolutionary War, the “Swamp Fox,” portrayed in a 1959 television series by Walt Disney. The narrator of the Marion biography, as with Life of Washington, admonishes parents and children about the importance of reading and education. It seems like patriotic, character-building material I read as a youngster in a Boy Scout Handbook. Weems died while on a book-selling trip in South Carolina in 1825.
Childhood, Heroes Then and Now, and Historiographical Issues:
Wroth, in his biography of Weems, 1911, cautions that “the eighteenth century ideal for boys was not ours” (65). How do we study childhood and its culture? Is it worthwhile to compare 18th or 19th century childhood in the U.S., enslaved Haiti, multi-racial Colombia and Venezuela, and Buddhist China? Is childhood universal, or are various environments too different for comparison? And are examples of the “hero” to some extent universal, or do they also differ with culture? Does any other culture have a children’s story about honesty that is so connected with the founder of a country? There can be truth in a fictional narrative. But what might it do to our country if our most famous story about truth-telling is, itself, invented? Could we delve more deeply into why Weems told this story? These topics are among many that piqued my curiosity, and might interest students, but that I have left with questions rather than answers in my research.
I am also aware of the possible flaw in extrapolating from individual examples to broader conclusions. There is a term – synecdoche: using a part to represent a whole (Cypess 7, 44). This is technique of historical narrative makes one person or event a symbol or representation of a time or group; it is a hazard of describing heroes from long ago.
With these caveats, here are some tales of heroes and their biographers, in an international context. For this project, I attempted to choose personages one could compare or contrast with Washington and Weems, heroes or biographers who came from nations growing up with the United States, nations that are also relevant to my students. I focus on national heroes relevant to my students and curriculum.
Mexico:
From a Tlaxcalan artist, of a tribe opposed to the Aztecs, 16th century
Bernal Diaz del Castillo was Spanish biographer of La Malinche
How could Hernan Cortez, among fewer than 600 Spaniards in 1519, conquer an Aztec empire of millions? The answer is, in part, the young American Indian woman, La Malinche. La Malinche -- one of many names she possessed in her short, controversial life, including, as a Christian, the name Marina -- has been variously described, with the needs of Mexican myth-making in different centuries, as a virtuous, progressive, peace-maker or as a sinful, collaborating traitor.
It is interesting to compare La Malinche with Pocahontas, another young American Indian woman who married an invading foreigner, converted to Christianity, bore a bi-racial son, and seemingly could not stop her husband’s people from destroying her own. I encourage my community college students to study these two historical figures together, La Malinche and Pocahontas (along with their respective first biographers, Bernal Diaz and John Smith). Thus far, it is my students’ favorite essay topic. Some of them bring a fascination with Hispanic history into a study of relatively traditional U.S. history.
Another young American Indian woman to compare would be Sacagawea (described by explorers Lewis and Clark), who marries a European (this time French-Canadian), bears him a son, reunites at one moment with her family or origin, and is remembered in history as aiding European conquest or exploration.
In these cases, it is only the men, the opposite sex, who are the biographers. This makes heroines fundamentally different from male heroes, because the heroines – especially American Indians who may not have written language -- do not speak for themselves.
La Malinche first comes to us from Bernal Diaz del Castillo, one of Hernan Cortez’s followers, who wrote from eye-witness account. Bernal Diaz describes La Malinche’s linguistic talent as an interpreter, her valor, and her loyalty to Cortez.
He explicitly includes Old Testament analogies: Like Joseph, she is given to slavery by treacherous family members, makes a home and comes to power in an alien culture, reunites kindly with members of her family of origin when they are at her mercy (Bernal Diaz quoted in Cypess 30). This biographer is a bit like Weems immortalizing Washington. But it was unprecedented to give such a large role to a woman figure (Cypess 27-28).
La Malinche was so constant a consort with Cortez, explaining his every request or demand, that the Aztecs, understanding only her, called Cortez “El Malinche” (Cypess 27). She secretly notified Cortez of Indian plots against him, and explained which peoples could be allies. For centuries, as long as Mexico was a Spanish colony, La Malinche was considered a heroine.
But the word “malinche” eventually became synonymous in Mexican Spanish with “traitor”. By 1826, when Mexico was gaining its independence from Spain, a new national consciousness was necessary, emphasizing the Aztec and Mayan roots of the people. (There’s a saying, originally from Italian or maybe from Latin, that “every translation is a betrayal”.) Biographers began to cast the interpreter, La Malinche, as a collaborator with foreigners (Cypess 44).
Haiti:
Touissaint (from Haitian banknote)
English poet William Wordsworth wrote a sonnet dedicated to Toussaint
How was the island of Haiti largely responsible for the inclusion of Western territory in the United States? Perhaps no part of the outside world, besides Britain and France, played a larger role in early U.S. history. It was the victory of Haiti in the early 1800s, the only successful national slave revolt in the Western hemisphere, along with Napoleon’s renewal of war with Britain, that compelled France to abandon its richest holding in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti, and then sell much of North America to the U.S., in the Louisiana Purchase (Foner 300-303).
The young U.S. was worried about a revolt of slaves in the U.S., and also concerned about the power of France, which was trying to repress the slave revolt in the island; the U.S. wished to maintain trade with Saint Domingue – the French name for Haiti or the island of Hispaniola. Trying to judge which way the conflict would go, and displaying varying affiliations toward France and Britain, U.S. policies “toward the black rebels and their former masters fluctuated considerably” (Hickey 361). This is like the U.S. attitude toward the rebelling South American colonies a generation later. The main beloved leader of the Haitian rebellion was Toussaint.
Wilentz describes two fundamental influences on the culture of Haiti: the voodoo religion, with its zombies, from Africa, and the fight against Europeans for independence. Sometimes the two influences are mixed. In some voodoo rituals, Ogoun, the god of war, is depicted like a slave master, a politician, or like Dessalines, the victorious Haitian who finally expelled the French (Wilentz 80).
Laguerre explains, “From time to time voodoo leaders emerged who presented themselves as immortal beings in a divine mission to save the race.” (41) The voodoo religion, influenced by Christianity, was messianic, so fit well the cause of liberation. An early, obscure leader, Boukman Dutty, who may have taught other slaves to read and write, incorporated religious ritual in his rebellion in 1791, before he was slain. Touissant was a military rather than a religious leader. Colleague, English teacher, and longtime student of Haitian history, James Murray, says that, unlike with George Washington, there is little mythology on Haitian leader Toussaint L’ Ouverture, but many books, by authors of various nationalities, describing him favorably. There are biographies in French and English. Wordsworth wrote a sonnet dedicated to Toussaint: “ . . . .There's not a breathing of the common wind / That will forget thee. . . .”
Remarkably, both Northerners and Southerners in this country admired Toussaint. In the U.S., Southern whites praised Touissant for welcoming back the exiled white plantation owners who had fled to the U.S. and by insisting that blacks return to plantations. Touissant also influenced the U.S. Civil War, because many Northerners and black soldiers admired him as a skilled general fighting against slavery.
Toussaint L’ Ouverture, leader of the rebellion around 1795, was betrayed by the French and died in French prison. He was not intending to take Haiti away from France: in fact, for most of his career, he was a general in the French army – he expelled the British from Haiti to save it for France, before Napoleon came to power. Haitians know that it was the ruthless Dessalines who finally brought victory and Haitian independence (Wilentz 89). One online account has a woman in Dessalines’ family as a kind of Haitian Betsy Ross, sewing the national flag (“Hatian Flag”). Later, a newly independent Haiti gave refuge to Simón Bolívar, during his struggle to defeat Spain and create Gran Colombia (Tharoor ).
To celebrate Haitian independence day, on January 1, it is traditional to make all night and eat the next day a pumpkin soup with many ingredients, soup joumou (Liberty in a Soup).
Some of my students have seemed more interested in the history of Haiti than in anything I taught solely about the U.S.
China:
Hong Xiuquan (contemporary drawing circa 1860)
Edwin Stevens of the U.S. was a missionary to Hong Xiuquan
and a century later, Chinese communist leaders wrote praise of Hong Xiuguan
How was a latter-day Parson Weems, another traveling American preacher and book-seller, along with missionaries and converts who came before him, partly connected by historical chain with the wartime deaths of 20-100 million Chinese (Spence 14-15)?
Between 1848 and 1852, 25,000 to more than a quarter million Chinese immigrated temporarily or permanently to California, in part because of “war, pillage, and famine” in the Taiping Rebellion of China, around Canton or Southeastern China (Renner).
A few years after the death of Parson Weems, another American preacher, Reverend Edwin Stevens, traveled as a missionary to China. There, Stevens inadvertently sparked a religious movement.
In Canton, a southeastern Chinese port city, there were in the 1830s perhaps dozens of Parson Weemses: traveling booksellers with adventure stories, religious tracts, or both, soliciting foreigners or Chinese. In the foreign compound of Canton, “A traveling librarian, banging his rattle, his current stock of popular novels packed into boxes dangling from a bamboo pole across his shoulder, evades the rules that apply to bookshops by walking door to door in search of customers among the Chinese clerks and coolies” (Spence 12).
Stevens had been “caught up in the great religious ‘awakening’ that swirled through New England” (ibid 14) – apparently the second Great Awakening – which he brought to China, contributing to the religious ferment there. Confucianism vied with Buddhism, Taoism, and the growing number of unlawfully distributed Christian publications.
So the social environment in China yields analogies to Weems among both book-sellers and missionaries, but the spread of ideas had a more menacing, multi-cultural aspect. Stevens and other European missionaries of different Christian faiths traveled along the Chinese coast in ships finding places to unload tens of thousands of tracts conveying Old and New Testament stories and teachings, translated from the Bible into Chinese and depicted in pictures. Generally, the “hero” was Jesus or Jehovah. But eventually, a Chinese hero arose – Hong Xiuquan -- from one of the recipients of these tracts.
The story of this young Chinese student struggling to pass an exam might appeal to college students. Though many Chinese were illiterate, the honor given to reading in general and scholarship in particular was highly elevated in China. Nothing quite like it existed in South America, Haiti, or even the young United States. In the 1830s, Hong Xiuquan, the future hero (or villain) was his rural family’s scholar as he repeatedly tried (and failed) to pass the competitive exam in Canton. The emperor promulgated “Sixteen Instructions,” which are traditional virtues of conduct, such as respect for authority, thrift, social harmony, scholarship (ibid 28). These might be like the virtues conveyed by Parson Weems for youthful readers and their parents. “Confucian virtues” were part of what Hong Xiuquan was studying for his Canton examination (ibid 58).
Beginning in 1839 the Opium War escalated between Britain and China, with Britain wanting to continue the lucrative trade of the addictive opium, and China wanting to stop its effects on Chinese society, enslaving it to the British. Civil war erupted as one group of Chinese hunted another amid accusations of collaboration with the British.
At around the same time, Hong Xiuquan experienced a religious vision after a nervous breakdown following his third failure at the Canton exam. His interpretation of that vision was based on a Christian tract he had received years earlier from the now dead missionary, Stevens. Hong Xiuquan read the ancient words of Isaiah, referring to the fall of Jerusalem, interpreting it to apply to the capture of Canton, Hong Kong, and other Chinese cities by the British (ibid 55).
The combination of his earlier fever-dream or vision and the Christian tract he read now convinced him that he was Jesus’s younger brother. The rest, as they say, is history. Rarely has the power of reading (or the power of religion) wreaked such devastation.
Hong Xiuquan baptized followers, vowed to fight “demons,” which could mean Westerners or Confucians or Buddhists, and also the ruling Manchus, who were viewed by most Chinese as a foreign race. He called his kingdom Taiping, Great Peace, a term from Taoism that may also be a translation from bible language. He raised armies with tens of thousands, had victories, then defeats. Western mercenaries and advisors participated, from Britain, France, and the U.S., among other outsiders, mainly on the side of the Qing dynasty, or imperial forces.
The Chinese casualties far exceed anything our country experienced in our U.S. Civil War. At about the same year as our battle of Gettysburg, a battle in the Chinese civil war of this time produced three to ten times as many fatalities. Western powers carved up the weakened China into European spheres of influence.
General Tso was another example of a national hero, but he fought various rebels in the period of the Chinese civil war, possibly fighting Hong Xiuquan. The general and the chicken of “General Tso’s chicken” seem unrelated. Perhaps this dish was a promotional trick by a Chinese chef who emigrated from General Tso’s region to the U.S. in the twentieth century. So in this case, the teller of nationalistic tales was not a traveling preacher, but a chef. And he incorporated not a cherry tree but a chicken. This name of a Chinese-American meal seems the only remnant in the U.S. of catastrophe in China (Dunlop).
Since Hong Xiuquan and his followers were defeated at great cost, hardly anyone in China wants to write in praise of him – at first. (At the time, Karl Marx wrote of the Taiping Rebellion as a war against colonialism. [Little]) But a century later, we see some analogy to the activity of 19th century American Weems, in the new, 20th century Chinese communist party. Mao or his followers wrote and promulgated volumes mythologizing Hong Xiuquan: as leader of a peasant movement battling both established religions and foreign influence (Introvigne, Little).
History Lessons Learned and Pedagogy:
What have I learned?
· In seeking Weemses from other countries, I assumed a comparable literacy that may have been absent during founding eras. American Indian witnesses often lacked written language. Haiti was a slave revolt and slaves were often forbidden to read and write. The Spanish colonies were long forbidden to have printing presses, and educational institutions were suppressed (Arana, 22, 26-27 and Ybarra 28-29). This was very different from the English colonies, with their high rate of literacy and publication, with Poor Richard’s Almanac, “Common Sense,” and broadsides.
· Heroes or biographers I studied often showed an ambivalence toward religion, even while using religion to appeal to followers or readers.
· Women, notably American Indians, often played crucial roles as intermediaries between cultures, and helped make possible the conquests and exploration that we associate with much of American history.
And here are answers to some of my original research questions:
· Which heroes from other cultures intersected early U.S. history, and how? Touissaint and Revolution in Haiti gave the U.S. the Louisiana Purchase doubling U.S. territory, and French-speaking immigrants to U.S. cities (Brooks and Popkin) and voodoo culture. Hong Xiuquan and Devastating war in China, with U.S. participation from missionaries and military, brought large-scale Chinese immigration to the U.S. (Renner), enriching U.S. vocabulary and culture, but fostering an adversarial relation with China that persists today (Kahn).
· Were there biographers, or other figures in these histories, similar to Weems? I have not yet discovered anyone quite like Parson Weems. Certainly there were teachers, book-sellers, preachers, and hagiographers. In 500 and 400 BCE, ancient Athenians traveled beyond the Greek realm as bybliopolai, "sellers of books," offering comic poetry and philosophy, including Plato's works (Vallejo). As students today do research about heroes and writers of other cultures, they can make meaningful discoveries about U.S. history.
Ralph Waldo Emerson reportedly said, all biography is autobiography (Evans). I am aware that my own interest in Parson Weems may reveal my values and sense of self. As teachers, we can include heroes in our curriculum, relevant to ourselves and our students. We can also understand U.S. history better by learning of international events and personages. Understanding our approach to our subject, struggling to understand our audience, produces self-understanding on the part of the teacher, as well. Emerson also said, in his “Representative Men,” lectures of 1850: “We must not contend against love, or deny the substantial existence of other people. . . . I can say to you, what I cannot first say to myself. Other men are lenses through which we read our own minds.”
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29. Wroth, Lawrence C. Parson Weems: a Biographical and Critical Study, Baltimore: Eichelberger Book Co., 1911.
30. Ybarra, T. R. Bolivar: Passionate Warrior. New York: Ives Washburn, 1929.
This research was supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities affiliate grant of the Institute for Global Humanities, Montgomery College, Maryland. Thanks to Mark Miller, reference librarian at Montgomery College, who was indispensable in suggesting sources, and who introduced me to Hong Xiuquan and General Tso; also thanks to Sabrina Kramer, Assistant Director of the University of Maryland’s Center for Teaching Excellence, who helped focus the topic; and to staff of the Society for the Interdisciplinary Study of Social Imagery.
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