Steadfast Pat's History Blog RSS

As the subject of a recent movie and with talk of placing her image on the twenty-dollar bill, Harriet Tubman is perhaps more in the news today than at any point since her death. With so much attention focused on Tubman, let’s look at the life of this remarkable woman. Most people know her as the “conductor” of the Underground Railroad, but there is much more to Tubman’s life than her experiences helping escaped slaves. Born in about 1820 as Araminta “Minty” Ross, she would later take the name Harriet in honor of her mother. As an enslaved person, Harriet...

Wars are complicated, and understanding their causes can be tricky, even for those who live through them. Conflicts can seldom be attributed to one reason and are often the result of years of tensions. The American Revolution is no exception. In this article, we briefly explore some of the top reasons the American Colonies decided to sever ties with Great Britain and form their own free and independent nation.    The Enlightenment An intellectual and philosophical movement that began in Europe in the 1600s. It encouraged the use of reason, and its adherents believed that questioning authority, whether it be...

It is relatively common for Americans to view the Constitution as sacrosanct and immutable. Few Americans seem to realize that the document they revere is a network of compromises made between men who often had vastly different opinions on how the new government should function. Some of those men even came to regret some of the trade-offs that made the Constitution possible. Let’s look at a few of the more significant compromises made during the Constitutional Convention. One of the most divisive issues at the Convention was also one of the most fundamental: representation. Delegates from the larger states believed...