For more information, assistance, or to arrange a program, please e-mail margocaulfield@icloud.com or call 802-226-7807. As much lead time you can give us for hands on history kits and programs is best for coordinating our volunteers, all of whom are vaccinated. We adhere to Covid-19 current guidelines as issued by the state.
There will not be a CGYHU for June or July. However, we continue to work with students and happy to design programs where needed.
GREAT TRIPS A SHORT DISTANCE FROM CAVENDISH It’s been quite the school year. June and graduations seem especially meaningful this year. To help celebrate the summer and the opening of Vermont and surrounding states, use the resource guide to plan some trips this month and throughout the summer.
Since it is anticipated that Vermont will be completely open sometime next week, if any teachers are interested in an end of year trip, happy to help organize one.
CAVENDISH ESCAPE ROOM: We’re thrilled to have an on-line “Cavendish Escape Room” designed by Lorien Strange, a Cavendish home school student.
We gave her a variety of Cavendish history books and she managed to incorporate quite a bit of local history, including Phineas Gage, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, the Duttons, Fitton Mill and so much more. It’s fun for people of all ages and may be the right activity for an upcoming rainy (or too hot to play outside) day.
As far as suitable ages, Lorien noted the following, I had my younger brother, who is almost ten, playtest the game. He got through it in about an hour and ten minutes. Wonderful activity for a wet rainy day to do with kids or by yourself. Can you beat Lorien’s brother’s time?
Thank you Lorien for combining history and gaming in such an interesting and fun manner.
WHAT MEMORIAL DAY MEANS TO ME: Miles Glidden, who was a Young Historian while at CTES, just won the Memorial Essay contest at Green Mountain Union High School where he is in middle school. Read his essay by clicking here.
JUNETEETH June 19 (Saturday): Freedom Day, Jubilee Day, Liberation Day or Emancipation Day, Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. On June 19, 1865, a Union General rode into Galveston, Texas to announce that the Civil War had ended, and slaves had been freed.
This date brings up an opportunity to explore the following with students:
• How we pick our holidays. Would this date be chosen today to celebrate the end of slavery?
After June 19, 1865, slavery continued to exist in Delaware and Kentucky with the 13th amendment that abolished slavery not occurring for almost 18 months later in December 1866. In addition, the slaves of the five southern tribes Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek and Seminole, that were driven with them in the “trail of tears,” into Oklahoma (Indian Territory) were outside the boundaries and not subject to the 13th Amendment.
In the same vein, while we celebrate the 4th of July to mark the independence from England, should more be made of Constitution Day, which created the United States, ultimately abolishing slavery, giving women the right to vote etc.?
• The history of slavery in the Americas: A very complex topic, not only did it exist before the arrival of Columbus, but both free blacks and Indians owned slaves.
As the essayist, curator and Comanche Indian Paul Chatt Smith notes, “Obviously, the story should be, needs to be, that the enslaved black people and soon-to-be-exiled red people would join forces and defeat their oppressor.” But such was not the case—far from it. “The Five Civilized Tribes were deeply committed to slavery, established their own racialized black codes, immediately reestablished slavery when they arrived in Indian territory, rebuilt their nations with slave labor, crushed slave rebellions, and enthusiastically sided with the Confederacy in the Civil War.”. much of early American history is explained poorly by modern morality but effectively by simple economics and power dynamics. How Native American Slaveholders Complicate the Trail of Tears Narrative Smithsonian
• History is complex and changing. Regardless of gender, race, nationality or other identifiers, we operate very similarly because we are humans. Best put by Smith, History is harsh and it spares no one. Human beings throughout time and across the world demonstrate pretty much the same measure of brutality and grace.
Historical figures are often cast as villain or hero, and events as good or bad. It is rarely, if ever, that simple. In addition to new information being found, we tend to put a spin on what we do know through modern sensibilities, not necessarily the time period in which it occurred.
In the last year I have struggled with the inaccurate way American history is being presented to the public. How much do you point out before you become vilified? This is a question I’ve asked myself as have many people involved in teaching and researching history.
Fortunately, there is leadership coming from the Smithsonian Institutions.
Smith and Kevin Gover of the National Museum of the American Indian have been championing for years the need for Americans to look at our entire history and stop hyphenating it as Irish-American, Native American etc. As they continue to point out, Indians are humans, not “new age forest bunnies,” Smith’s phrase, not mine. Study it all, the good and the bad, recognizing both human capability and culpability. It’s a history of “us” not “us” vs “them.”
To stay on topic, it may be helpful for adults to take a few minutes to read The Misguided Focus on 1619 as the Beginning of Slavery in the U.S. Damages Our Understanding of American History Smithsonian Magazine
We know history can be a tough subject. CHS is here to help our teachers, parents, students and community better understand Cavendish's history and the role it's played in our state, country and even world. Don't hesitate to ask questions. We may not have the answer but we can certainly work with you to find it.
Have a wonderful summer.
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