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Boston Globe
20 hours ago
- Politics
- Boston Globe
How New England built the Plains
Advertisement But something shifted quickly and irrevocably that night he wrote about in 1854. It began with a man named Anthony Burns. Get The Gavel A weekly SCOTUS explainer newsletter by columnist Kimberly Atkins Stohr. Enter Email Sign Up Burns had stowed away for weeks in the belly of a ship to escape enslavement in Virginia. By the time he stepped ashore in Boston, he had become both free and criminal — property that had, under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, escaped its rightful owner. When federal marshals arrested him on false pretenses, hoping to sneak him back into bondage before the public noticed, Boston erupted. The courtroom became a spectacle. The public was barred. Burns's own lawyer was rendered powerless — forbidden to object, speak, or protect his client in any meaningful way. And in a final insult, a government agent tricked Burns into dictating a letter affirming his status as an enslaved person. The judge empathized with Burns but nonetheless ruled against him. Advertisement Slavery, it turned out, didn't need Southern soil. It could be enforced right in the cradle of abolition, in close proximity to the Boston Common. Amos A. Lawrence in 1880. Wikimedia Commons The city's Black residents, who had always known the fragility of their freedom, mobilized first. The pastor of the Twelfth Baptist Church in Roxbury demanded Burns's release. Protests filled the streets. Fearing an uprising, the federal government fortified the courthouse even before the trial had concluded. President Franklin Pierce ordered troops to secure the building. Soldiers lined the entrances, and chains were fastened across the courthouse doors. What changed wasn't just policy. It was perception. The moral quarantine in which elite white New Englanders had sequestered themselves failed. Slavery had entered their bubble. Henry David Thoreau, speaking just weeks after Burns's trial, demanded that his fellow citizens choose moral clarity over legal comfort. 'Is it not possible that an individual may be right and a government wrong?' he asked. 'Are laws to be enforced simply because they were made?' Amos Lawrence and others like him — well-heeled, genteel, cloistered — took notice. Eventually they also took action, albeit moderated and carried out on their own terms. Calls for a more direct confrontation with slavery were not only imaginable at the time — they were already echoing through New England's streets, pulpits, and newspapers. In the wake of Burns's arrest, some abolitionists demanded open defiance of the Fugitive Slave Act. Many had supported similar efforts just three years earlier, when Shadrach Minkins, who had fled enslavement in Norfolk, Va., was forcibly rescued from a Boston courthouse by Black activists and white allies. With the help of the Boston Vigilance Committee, Minkins escaped via the Underground Railroad and reached safety in Canada. Figures like Wendell Phillips and William Lloyd Garrison urged moral suasion and civil disobedience; others, including activists in Boston's Black community, proposed disrupting the legal process altogether. In this atmosphere of mounting urgency, even violence in the name of freedom was discussed. Advertisement But rather than confronting slavery where it stood and calling for direct abolition or cutting off commercial interaction with the American South, Lawrence chose to abolish only the chances for slavery's expansion. He became treasurer of the New England Emigrant Aid Company, a joint-stock corporation chartered by the Massachusetts Legislature with one aim: to raise funds to send free-soil settlers west to Kansas, in order that they might outnumber pro-slavery forces and tip the future of the American West toward freedom. A war New England hoped to fund, not fight Boston didn't send revolutionaries out west. It sent Congregationalists. Missionaries. Schoolteachers. Families armed with shovels, hymnals, rifles, and righteous intent. The Emigrant Aid Company raised funds through an exhaustive network of some 3,000 churches, many of them Quaker or Congregationalist. 'For Religion,' their circulars promised. 'For Education. For Temperance.' They were advocating a version of abolition that didn't disturb Boston's own social order. It was freedom as export. Righteousness at a distance. The ask was modest — $20 per settler, roughly $700 today. Enough to transport and equip a family to settle Kansas on behalf of abolition. Donations flooded in. The Rev. Horace James from Worcester sent $23.37, boasting of his congregation, 'Never did fingers and thumbs move more nimbly in the performance of any good work.' To him that meant that 'verily there is hope for Kansas.' Others weren't so flush with cash. The Rev. W.C. Jackson from Lincoln, Mass., whose flock scraped together $15, reported, 'Your circular for the Emigrant Aid Society came rather inopportunely for us farmers.' Some ministers like Jonathan Lee from Salisbury, Conn., apologized for the frugality of their flock: 'From my scanty purse a single dollar must be accepted in testimony of my interest in the cause of truth and freedom,' because, Lee wrote, 'I am without pastoral charge or salary.' Others enclosed neat bundles of cash with effusive letters, grateful for a moral cause that could be joined without leaving home. Lawrence threw himself into the effort. He wrote President Pierce — his cousin by marriage — to chide him for failing to protect free-staters. He tracked weapons shipments. He personally funded churches, schools, and armories. He, along with many others, made Kansas a proxy battlefield, a place to perform conviction while sidestepping a harder reckoning with what could be done to stop slavery entirely. Advertisement And Kansas, as it turned out, bled. Missourians — armed and incensed — flooded across the border. Ballot boxes were stuffed. Pro-slavery militias burned pressrooms. In 1856, just as the violence crested, Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts delivered a searing speech comparing Kansas to a raped virgin and accusing Southern politicians of barbarism. In a more familiar scene, days later, a South Carolina congressman, Preston Brooks, stormed into the Senate chamber and beat Sumner unconscious with a metal-tipped cane. This was the war New England had hoped to fund rather than fight. But the borders were dissolving. Eventually, the South seceded. And when Kansas did enter the Union as a free state in 1861, its fate had been sealed not by New England idealism but by the absence of Southern senators in Congress. Advertisement When the Civil War gave way to a fractured Reconstruction, Kansas endured not as a solution crafted by New England elites but as a promise seized by Black Americans themselves. As Reconstruction's guarantees faltered, many formerly enslaved people fled the South for the Plains, becoming known as Exodusters. Others, like Edward McCabe, envisioned Kansas not just as a sanctuary but as a staging ground — a terrain on which to build something autonomous and Black. For McCabe, Kansas — and later, Oklahoma — offered a second chance. Edward P. McCabe, circa 1883-1887. Kansas State Historical Society via National Park Service And the names live on. The college town of Lawrence, Kan., bears Amos A. Lawrence's name, a monument to abolitionism at arm's length. In Langston, Okla., the Black town McCabe helped found, street names like 'Massachusetts' signaled to Black settlers that they were heirs to a longer freedom struggle — one rooted in, but no longer dependent on, New England's conscience. The limits of New England's good intentions The West that New England built was funded by abolitionists who had converted not to revolution but to strategy. They filtered their moral convictions through propriety. It's worth asking what their legacy means now. We live in a moment when the very institutions Amos Lawrence once stood for — elite philanthropy, intellectual inquiry, and cautious reform — have come under fire. Harvard, a beacon of New England liberalism, finds itself besieged by accusations from both right and left. Elsewhere, DEI offices are shuttered. History curricula are rewritten. Librarians contend with what books to put on their shelves. Even here, in the bluest of blue states, there's talk of 'indoctrination,' 'wokeness,' and 'elites out of touch.' And here too, migrants are detained often without the norms and sorts of protections we assumed would be durable. Advertisement In the 1850s, Lawrence and his cohort were shaken into action by a single courtroom scene on Court Street. But their response came with a caveat: They would confront injustice without addressing it at home. Today, Court Street is quieter, humming more predictably with foot and car traffic — but the moral decisions we must make haven't gotten easier. Who we detain, whose histories we erase, which freedoms we underfund — all still happen in that old Boston bubble. The difference now is that there's no Kansas to send our convictions to.
The Star
2 days ago
- General
- The Star
Museums across the globe that showcase Indigenous Peoples' culture and heritage
Today marks the 30th edition of the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples, which is celebrated annually on Aug 9. According to the United Nations, 6.2% of the world's population is made up of Indigenous Peoples. That amounts to 476 million Indigenous Peoples found in 90 countries across the globe. Unfortunately, Indigenous Peoples continue to be marginalised even in modern times. Efforts have been made to raise awareness on Indigenous Peoples' plights, but there is a long way to go in rectifying the wrongs of the past still perpetuated today. To disseminate information and sow deeper understanding, various museums on Indigenous Peoples have been established all around the world. Just like how in Malaysia we have several such museums spread throughout the country, other countries have their own versions as well – and here, we list some of them. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but it is a good start to learning about the world's Indigenous Peoples. Thailand's Highland People Discovery Museum was previously called Tribal Museum. — Wikimedia Commons Thailand Chiang Mai's Highland People Discovery Museum and Chiang Rai's Hilltribe Museum are focused on the ethnic groups in Thailand. The Bangkok National Museum is also a good place to gain some knowledge about the country's various ethnic groups, even if it's not solely centred on Indigenous Peoples. You might notice the first two museums highlight specifically the Northern ethnic minorities, which include the Hmong, Karen and Akha tribes, among others. While the highland Indigenous Peoples are the most prominent in Thailand, the country is also home to other ethnic minorities. These minority groups are the coastal Indigenous Peoples – the Moken, the Moklen and the Urak Lawoi (collectively known as Chao Ley) – and hunter-gatherer groups like the Maniq and the Mlabri. A traditional house displayed at the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology. — Vietnam Museum of Ethnology/Facebook Vietnam The Hmong and Karen tribes may sound familiar to you if you've visited the highlands of Vietnam, that's because they are among the Indigenous Peoples who can be found in both Vietnam and Thailand. Learn more about the events in history that led to this multi-nation division at museums like The Vietnam Museum of Ethnology in Hanoi, the Museum of the Cultures of Vietnam's Ethnic Groups in Thai Nguyen, and Precious Heritage Museum by Rehahn in Hoi An. Vietnam has 54 recognised ethnic groups in total, with the Kihn or Viet being the majority. You may notice that Vietnam (like Thailand) does not officially use the term 'Indigenous Peoples'. Instead, 'ethnic minorities' is the term used to refer to the 53 ethnic groups that form the minorities in the country. The China Ethnic Museum is also known as the China Nationalities Museum. — Wikimedia Commons China Located near the Vietnam border is the Guangxi Museum of Nationalities in Nanning, China. Similar to its South-East Asian neighbour, China doesn't officially recognise the term Indigenous Peoples. It instead uses the term ethnic minorities to refer to the ones who are not part of the Han ethnic group, which makes up over 90% of China's population. The country has 56 recognised ethnic groups in total, including the Han majority. Some of the largest groups within its 55 ethnic minorities are the Zhuang, Uyghur, Manchu, Mongol and Tibetan groups. You can gain insights into the different groups at Beijing's China Ethnic Museum, alternatively called China Nationalities Museum or China Ethnic Culture Park. There's also the Yunnan Nationalities Museum in Kunming, which focuses on the province's 26 ethnic groups. Njalla, a traditional Sami storage structure, displayed at Sami National Museum in Norway. — Sami National Museum Norway The Sami (also spelled Saami) people are the only recognised Indigenous group within the European Union. According to Visit Norway, half of the Sami people's estimated population of 80,000 can be found in Norway. The remaining half of the Sami population can be found in the three other countries that are part of the Sapmi region, namely Sweden, Finland and Russia. The Sami National Museum in Karasjok, Varanger Sami Museum in Varangerbotn, Norwegian Museum of Cultural History in Oslo, and Kautokeino Municipal Museum are some of the best places to learn about the Sami people in Norway. You can also find Sami museums in other parts of Sapmi, such as the Sami Museum Siida in Finland, Museum of the History of Kola Sami in Russia, and Ajtte, Swedish Mountain and Sami Museum in Sweden. Living museums like the Whakarewarewa Living Maori Village let visitors experience New Zealand's Maori culture. —MELODY L. GOH/The Star New Zealand Making up more than 17% of New Zealand's population are people from the Maori ethnic group, according to the country's 2023 Census. You can learn more about the Indigenous Polynesian people, who have called the little island country in Oceania home for over 700 years, at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington. Other than the national museum, there are also the Canterbury Museum in Christchurch and the Auckland War Memorial Museum Tamaki Paenga Hira. For a more immersive learning experience, visit living museums like the Tamaki Maori Village and Whakarewarewa Living Maori Village, both located in Rotorua in the North Island.
AllAfrica
2 days ago
- Politics
- AllAfrica
Why Israel's self-image changed from self-reliance to militarism
When the Zionist movement began to gather pace a century ago, many Jewish supporters wanted not just to create a political state for themselves, but to initiate a cultural revolution that would forge a new kind of Jewishness. Proud, self-reliant and resilient, the 'new Jew' was a reaction to centuries of bullying, culminating in the virulent antisemitism of the modern era. But, as I argue in my book, New Hebrews: Making National Culture in Zion, as Zionists set out to invent themselves anew, they also sowed the seeds of self-sabotage. Early pride and defiance, paired with disregard for the native Arabs of Palestine, bred both a survival instinct and a dangerous militarism. A look back at some of the principles of the Zionist revolution in the 20th century uncovers the cultural backstory to Israel's current situation. It shows how the same vision that built a strong nation also hardwired the divisions and antagonisms now threatening its democracy, security and place in the world. In this way, I argue that the logic behind Israel's alarming actions in Gaza, the rage with which it continues to come down on the Gazans following the October 7 attack almost two years ago, may be found in the country's history. The cultural revolution Zionists staged was an intensive project. It was a revolution so fervent that it altered the course of Jewish history and set in motion one of the most enduring transformations in a century crowded with radical changes. Many of the Zionist innovations were truly impressive. The ancient Hebrew of the Bible was used to create a completely modern literature and was later turned into a spoken language. The socialist leanings of early Zionists led them to experiment with new communal forms, such as the kibbutz. The old Jewish festival calendar was creatively updated in the spirit of modern nationalism. Zionists also created new artistic sensibilities in visual art and in music. They tapped into rich and diverse Jewish cultural traditions that spanned geographic regions. One innovation in particular, the physical transformation of the Jewish image, had profound consequences that continue to reverberate today as we see in the tragic war on Gaza. At the heart of the Zionist cultural revolution lay a determination to overturn centuries-old stereotypes of Jews as outcasts: weak, passive, cowardly. Drawing on European nationalist ideals, Zionists wanted to disprove these slanders by forging new Jewish men (men in particular): strong, productive and self-reliant. Israeli kibbutzim celebrate 'Bikurim', also known as the Festival of First Fruits, 1951. Israel Preker via the PikiWiki via Wikimedia Commons This remaking of the Jewish body was not merely symbolic. It was a deliberate strategy to reclaim visibility, dignity and respect. It was a quest that would have far-reaching consequences for Jews and non-Jews alike. The obsession with manual labor was both a necessity and an ideological cornerstone of Zionist ideology. It was the engine behind the remarkable growth of the Yishuv – (literally: settlement) – the Jewish community that developed in Palestine in the first half of the 20th century. Commonly referred to in quasi-military terms as the 'conquest of labor,' it romanticized agriculture and construction work as a moral and spiritual renewal. It was a rebuttal to the negative stereotype of Jews. But I believe it had a more problematic side. As Arab resistance to Zionist settlement grew, the new Jewish farmers evolved a military side as well. The inspiration for it came from two sources, from the fighting culture of local Bedouins, and from the Ukrainian Cossacks. This was an ironic twist given the violence Cossacks often directed at Jews. By 1948, both farmers and soldiers became two of Zionism's most distinct symbols, national ideals of productivity and physical force. Jewish defense forces (Haganah) training in March 1948, two months before the creation of the state of Israel. Kluger Zoltan/GPO, CC BY-SA But something unexpected happened to that evolution somewhere along the way. In their effort to create a new kind of Jew, Zionists in Israel distanced themselves from life in the Jewish diaspora – sometimes by internalising antisemitic notions of that life. One sad example was the chilly reception Holocaust survivors received in 1950s Israel. Some Jews born in what is now Israel, who were referred to as sabras (prickly pears), were arrogant enough to believe they would have fared better under the same circumstances than those caught up by the Holocaust, who they called sabonim (soap). By the 1980s, attempts to leave behind the so-called 'lachrymose history' of Jews – which viewed Jewish history primarily as a narrative of suffering and persecution – began to be supplanted. During and after the trial of Nazi war criminal Adolph Eichmann in 1961, Nazi persecution of Jews was linked first by Israeli Prime Minister Ben-Gurion and then journalists and academics with Arab resistance to the state of Israel. Both were eventually presented as examples of congenital hatred and used as a powerful argument for the establishment of the state and its right to exist. It was a dramatic combination, hard to resist, that connected the creation of the Jewish state with the near destruction of the Jews in the Holocaust – even if Zionism emerged long before that catastrophe. The baggage that was put aside in the rush to statehood, was now being opened. A reminder for Zionists that utopias are more easily written about than created – and that the pull of Jewish history is stronger than they thought. The resulting new mix was alarming: a combination of the Jewish power Zionism obtained with the old sense of Jewish victimhood that early Zionists had fought hard to eradicate. Consider this: in the aftermath of the October 7, 2023, attack, many people in Israel referred to it as a pogrom, a word that describes the sporadic massacres of Jews in Eastern Europe. Think about it. Israel, a rich and powerful country, well-connected and – until recently at least, generally well-liked – compared itself to a small, vulnerable and isolated Jewish shtetl (small settlement in eastern Europe) in a bygone world where Jews were utterly powerless. That one word, pogrom, explains it all. It wipes away 100 years of Zionist history and resurrects old Jewish grievances. This may be one explanation for the country's overreaction in Gaza. This is not an excuse, but an explanation that calls for the next evolutionary step in the history of Zionism – one in which Israel understands that it has achieved the goal for which it was established. Israel must realize it has power – that it is a power – and that with power comes responsibility. Yaron Peleg is Kennedy-Leigh professor of modern Hebrew studies, University of Cambridge This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Meet the murder hornet's Canadian cousin
'Murder hornets' have been making a buzz in the media for years for their immense size and deadly behaviour. Also called the northern giant hornet (formerly the Asian giant hornet), these terrifying insects were first detected in Canada in 2019, near Nanaimo, B.C. This invasive species poses a huge threat to Canada's ecosystems, as they are known to quickly destroy entire bee colonies, which are essential in maintaining healthy ecosystems. RELATED: Each summer, people across Canada will report murder hornet sightings. However, experts are quick to clarify that the sightings people commonly report are actually European hornets—a species that was introduced to North America over 160 years ago and has become part of Canada's natural ecosystem. While they were introduced, this does not make them invasive as they have naturally integrated with the environment and are not harmful. Both insect species belong to the family Vespa, but there are some big differences between the two. Murder hornets, formally called northern giant hornets, are invasive to Canada and pose a major risk to native bee colonies and our ecosystems. (Yasunori Koide/Wikimedia Commons) CC-BY-SA 4.0 European hornets versus murder hornets European hornets are found in Eastern Canada and can look scarily similar to the murder hornet. They are much larger than the yellowjackets that we are used to seeing each summer but are actually a lot smaller than murder hornets. They have a similar striped pattern on their abdomens to murder hornets, but the key difference is that their abdomens are yellow, whereas the murder hornets are more yellow-orange. SEE ALSO: Unlike murder hornets, European hornets don't pose a threat to other native insect species and ecosystems. While they do sometimes eat bees, they don't destroy entire colonies and can actually provide bees protection from other predatory insects, such as wax moths. European hornets can be found in Canada and are often mistaken for the murder hornet (northern giant hornet). (Dr. Guido Bohne/iNaturalist) CC-BY-SA 4.0 European hornets also create paper nests similar to those made by paper wasps and yellowjackets. Conversely, murder hornets build their nests underground around tree roots. Like any other stinging insect, the European hornet can get aggressive when you invade its territory or grab at it, but they otherwise try to avoid interacting with people. They do have a soft spot for sweet fruits, though, and you may see more of them buzz around you in the late summer and early fall as their natural food sources begin to dwindle. Despite their scary appearance, European hornets are important for our ecosystems, providing natural pest control and pollination services. If you believe you have spotted a murder hornet in Canada and are able to take a photo as proof, you can report it to the Invasive Species Centre. Thumbnail image credit to Judy Gallagher/iNaturalist CC-BY-SA 4.0
Hindustan Times
2 days ago
- General
- Hindustan Times
Kolkata metro corridor to get new cooling system, save 180 million litres water every year
KOLKATA: India's oldest metro corridor in Kolkata has decided to shift from traditional water-cooled chillers to air-cooled chillers, a move that would help it annually save around 180 million litres of water, enough to fill over 70 Olympic-sized swimming pools. Out of the 15 underground stations in the Blue Line, the cooling system of 11 stations will be changed from water-cooled chillers to air-cooled chillers. (Wikimedia Commons/Chinakpradhan) 'In a bid to preserve groundwater, we are going to introduce a new type of cooling system in Kolkata Metro Railway's Blue Line, the oldest metro corridor in India. We are shifting from the traditional water-cooled chillers to air-cooled chillers,' said a senior official of the Metro Railway in Kolkata. The Blue Line of the Metro Railways is a 3.4 km stretch between Esplanade and Bhowanipore (Now Netaji Bhavan station) and was commissioned on October 24, 1984. It now runs between Kavi Subhash and Dakshineshwar, covering a stretch of 31.3 km. 'Out of the 15 underground stations in the Blue Line, the cooling system of 11 stations will be changed from water-cooled chillers to air-cooled chillers. This will save 180 million litres of ground water every year,' said the official. Officials stated that tenders have already been opened and are being evaluated. The work is scheduled to commence in 2026 and is expected to be completed by 2029. The Union government has already sanctioned ₹150 crore for this. A study published in the international journal Springer Nature in 2022 reported that a significant trough had formed in Kolkata due to the over-withdrawal of groundwater. The study also revealed that water level was declining by 33 cm every year at the centre of the trough and by around 11 cm per year towards the periphery. The report also said the gradual lowering of groundwater levels was triggering subsidence in the city. 'The depletion of Kolkata's groundwater has been arrested over the past decade since the city has reduced its dependency on groundwater and relies primarily on surface water. 180 million litres is not a huge amount, especially for a large city like Kolkata. But whatever little we can give back is always welcome,' said Abhijit Mukherjee, professor at Environmental Science and Engineering at IIT Kharagpur.
