I'll Take It Chicago Style

For those who are history majors or history writers out there, learning to write in Chicago Style format is a feat to be conquered. So many rules and criteria! However, I found this site to be totally helpful for the Chicago Style novice:

http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html

Are You As Smart As a Sixth Grader?

I found this site that has endless history quizzes ranging in difficulty. I spent some time on it last night and I found it hard to look away. WARNING: the quizes labeled something to the effect of 'Sixth Grade Level History' may leave you feeling quite inadequate and slightly retarded.

http://www.funtrivia.com/quizzes/history/index.html

What put the "abor" in Labor Day?

So I thought that in honor of Labor Day today, there should be a post regarding the history of the holiday. But since the day has been full of burgers, beer, & hookah I am simply listing a link to the History Channel website that explains it all. Enjoy:

http://www.history.com/content/laborday/labor-history/labor-day-history

"A mind always employed is always happy.  This is the true secret, the grand recipe, for felicity."  ~Thomas Jefferson

L.A. Love Chinese Short Time

In one of my classes I had to research a topic for a term paper regarding Chinese in America. As I have stated before, I am currently obsessed with California history; so I decided to focus on the Chinese experience in California. In my research so far I stumbled across a racially charged incident that I have never heard of before & it is what I plan on writing about. 

 In the Fall of 1871, in the chinatown of Los Angeles, 2 battling Chinese factions were engaged in a gun fight over the abduction of a Chinese woman named Yut Ho. A local white rancher named Robert Thompson found himself caught in the cross-fire and was unfortunately killed. His death would lead to a racially charged riot that ended up leaving a confirmed 19 Chinese dead at the hands of an angry mob. 

On October 24, 1871, a group of 500 made up Anglos & Latinos entered Los Angeles' Chinatown on the street Calle de Los Negros with the aim of attacking & murdering any Chinese they came across as vengeance for the accidental death of Thompson. Buildings with Chinese writing on them were ransacked and numerous Chinese people were beaten and murdered. 

In the book Chinese Los Angeles in 1870—1871: The Makings of a Massacre, Scott Zesch writes,

"The dead Chinese in Los Angeles were hanging at three places near the heart of the downtown business section of the city; from the wooden awning over the sidewalk in front of a carriage shop; from the sides of two “prairie schooners” parked on the street around the corner from the carriage shop; and from the cross beam of a wide gate leading into a lumberyard a few blocks away from the other two locations. One of the victims hung without his trousers and minus a finger on his left hand."

In the end, only ten individuals were tried in court for the massacre; seven of those ten were convicted, although they were later acquitted on a technicality. It is believed that this violent riot was the culmination of a growing anti-Chinese movement in California following the passing of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 which attempted to suspend further Chinese immigration. Growing Chinese discrimination coupled with high unemployment rates in the state contributed to the violent response that occurred that day in 1871. While this incident is rarely mentioned today, there is a footnote of the massacre shown on the Great Wall of Los Angeles depicting the event. 

Link to the Great Wall of Los Angeles:http://www.sparcmurals.org/sparcone/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=21&Itemid=53&limit=1&limitstart=11

Link to the list of the 25 Worst Riots in American History:

http://brainz.org/riots/ 

Mad About You Helen Hunt... Jackson

I am currently reading Helen Hunt Jackson's classic novel Ramona. For those of you living in San Diego or Southern California, Ramona, a historical fiction novel published 1884, is such an interesting and fun read because the story takes place in so many familiar locals. The main hunky Native American character Alessandro is from a Temecula tribe and grew up in the Mission San Luis Rey. Ramona's Scottish father leaves central California to live in San Diego at the Mission De Alcala, where he meets the Squaw that will become Ramona's mother. 

I have recently been fascinated with early California history and Ramona is the perfect novel that takes place during the Mexican Era in California. There are so many details about the rancho for which Ramona grows up on, the morals and values of the Mexican people of the time, and their feelings regarding American expansion. Author Helen Hunt Jackson was herself a                                              

Native American  activist throughout the 19th century. She travelled throughout California during the early 1880's, stopping to act as an advocate for various Native Americans causes whenever she saw fit. Until her dying day she believed in righting the wrongs done by the United States towards Native Americans. 

A link to a full biography of Helen Hunt Jackson:

                           http://jes.tvusd.k12.ca.us/biography_jackson.htm 

"When love is at its best, one loves so much that he cannot forget."                                  - Helen Hunt Jackson