Category Archives: Slavery

“Thoroughly Useless Nation”: Mommsen on the Irish

Posted on August 5, 2019 by

From Theodor Mommsen (trans. William P. Dickson) History of Rome, Vol. 4 (London 1867), Book 5, Chapter 7, pp. 286-87 (link here) Mind you, an edition of this work won a fucking Nobel Prize for Literature in 1902 In the … Continue reading →

Posted in Classics, Ireland, Language & Etymology, Race, Rome, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

“The American Cincinnatus”

Posted on February 10, 2019 by

Jean Leon Gerome Ferris, “The American Cincinnatus” (1919) When I was a kid, I picked up a copy of the 1932 Georgetown yearbook for a dime at a second-hand store my mother and I used to go to. Being a … Continue reading →

Posted in Classics, Education, Family, Military, Race, Slavery, Time | Leave a comment

The Drunken Pat Argument

Posted on October 13, 2018 by

A fine piece by Adam Gopnik in this week’s New Yorker on Frederick Douglass indicates that there was tension between the movements to enfranchise women and blacks, with a remark on how anti-Irish sentiment was used by either side: [Elizabeth … Continue reading →

Posted in Ireland, Race, Slavery, The South | Leave a comment

The legacy of lynching

Posted on April 9, 2018 by

From Oprah Winfrey’s 60 Minutes feature, “Inside the Memorial to Victims of Lynching,”  about Bryan Stevenson’s memorial and museum in Montgomery, Alabama. Here she is discussing the photos that show white people “in their Sunday best” surrounding the hanging bodies … Continue reading →

Posted in Race, Slavery, Statues & Monuments, The South, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Career of Kenneth Sylvan Guthrie

Posted on March 30, 2018 by

Another tidbit for my eventual online history of Classics at Sewanee–the very eccentric Kenneth Sylvan Guthrie, who attended the University in the 1890s and was a “Professor of Extension” in the 1910s. From the Introductory matter to his translations of Proclus … Continue reading →

Posted in Classics, Sewanee, Slavery, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Willingness with Happiness

Posted on March 26, 2018 by

This weekend, I went with my friend Thomas to Louisville and, while there were other things on our itinerary about which I’ll write later, we went to the city’ famous Cave Hill Cemetery. Among the many remarkable gravestones we saw … Continue reading →

Posted in Cemeteries & Funerals, Race, Sports & Games, Statues & Monuments, Time, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Sewanee Memoire: Projections for the Project on Slavery, Race, and Reconciliation

Posted on March 11, 2018 by

Below are remarks I gave for a forum organized by Prof. Woody Register and the Sewanee Project on Slavery, Race, and Reconciliation on about Art, Commemoration, and Sewanee’s Campus, held at Otey Parish on February 19, 2017. Also on the panel … Continue reading →

Posted in Bible, Boston, Classics, Education, Emblems, Florence, Music, Poetry, Pontius Pilate, Race, Saints, Sewanee, Slavery, Statues & Monuments, Uncategorized | 1 Comment