Sacagawea

Sacagawea was born sometime around 1790. She is best known for her role in assisting the Lewis and Clark expedition. She and her husband were guides from the Great Plains to the Pacific Ocean and back.

Sacagawea was kidnapped from her Shoshone village by Hidatsa Indians when she was twelve years old. She was promptly sold into slavery. She was then sold to a French fur trapper by the name of Toussaint Charbonneau. The pair became married and had a son named Jean-Baptiste.

Although there are conflicting opinions concerning how important Sacagawea was to the Lewis and Clark expedition, she did serve as the interpreter and negotiator to the Shoshone tribe – that was led by her brother Cameahwait. She helped them obtain essential supplies and horses while she carried her infant son on her back. Furthermore, Sacagawea helped identify edible plants and herbs and prevented hostile relations with other tribes simply by being with the expedition. She was even more important on the return trip because she was familiar with the areas in which the expedition was traveling. Lewis and Clark received credit for discovering hundreds of animals and plants that Sacagawea had probably seen for years. Although she received no payment for her help, her husband was rewarded with cash and land.

Six years after the journey, Sacagawea died after giving birth to her daughter Lisette. William Clark adopted both of her children, but there are no records of Lisette. To this day, there are no reliable pictures or drawings of Sacagawea. Recently, the United States government engraved her image on the new one dollar coin. Sacagawea died on December 20, 1812 and is buried in Lander, Wyoming.

Stephen F. Austin

Stephen F. Austin led the colonization of Texas. Born on November 3, 1793 in Virginia, his family moved to the lead mining region in present-day Missouri when he was five. Well educated, Austin’s family sent him to Yale University to study when he was ten years old. He graduated from Transylvania University in Kentucky in 1810. When he returned from Kentucky, he took over the family mining business.

From 1813–1819, Austin served on the legislature of the Missouri Territory. In 1820, after the mining business failed, he sought new opportunity in Arkansas Territory. Later that year, he moved to Louisiana to study law. In 1821, Austin’s father died near San Antonio, Texas. Austin traveled to San Antonio in the hopes of reauthorizing a land grant in Texas that had been given to his father. Austin then explored areas of the Gulf Coast of Texas in between San Antonio and the Brazos River in the hopes of finding a suitable place for starting a colony. Austin advertised the opportunity for settlement and land in Texas in New Orleans. In December of 1821, the first colonists came from Louisiana to Texas. By 1832, the area had 11,000 colonists. Despite the colony’s explosive growth, Austin was not making much money, and the Mexican authorities that gave him the land had become less cooperative as America continued in its efforts to buy Texas from them.

In 1834, Austin was arrested by Mexican authorities for insurrection. In the meantime, the Texans demanded tariff reform, removal of immigration restrictions, and a new state government. The Mexican government refused, and Texas proclaimed its independence. The war that followed resulted in Texas becoming an independent republic in 1836. Austin served as secretary of state and is known as “The Father of Texas.” Austin died December 27, 1863

Susan B. Anthony

Susan B. Anthony was an American civil rights leader who was instrumental in the quest to grant women the right to vote (suffrage). Susan Brownell Anthony was born the daughter of Quaker parents on February 15, 1820, in Adams, Massachusetts. The family soon moved to New York State, where Susan received her education at a school her father ran. At school, she developed political inclinations and took a strong stance against slavery.

In 1854, Anthony devoted herself to the rights of women and advocated complete equality between men and women. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton published the weekly paper The Revolution, which contained equality literature and other political messages. She became vice president at large of the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) from 1869 until 1892, when she became president. On November 5, 1872, Anthony asserted her 14th Amendment right (to vote) and voted for Ulysses S. Grant in the presidential election. At the time, it was illegal for women to vote and Anthony was arrested. In 1878, women’s suffrage was introduced to Congress, but the idea floundered for many years. In the meantime, Anthony and several other women published The History of Woman Suffrage in 1884. It wasn’t until 1920 that the 19th Amendment (allowing women to vote) was ratified in Congress—14 years after her death on March 13, 1906. Susan B. Anthony was honored on the US dollar coin minted in 1979.

Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson was born April 13, 1743 in Albemarle County, Virginia. When he was 14, he inherited his father’s estate and slaves. Soon after, Jefferson attended the College of William and Mary where he studied mathematics, metaphysics, and philosophy. In 1767, Jefferson was admitted to the Virginia Bar and practiced law. Jefferson remained influential at the College of William and Mary throughout his life and helped institute the nation’s first student honor code.

In 1769, when he was just 26, Jefferson was elected to the Virginia House of Representatives. In 1772, Jefferson began building his home, Monticello. That same year, he married Martha Wayles Skelton. The couple would eventually have six children.

As a member of the Second Continental Congress, Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence with help from Benjamin Franklin and others. In 1779, he was elected as governor of Virginia. Although he resigned in 1781, during his term as governor, Jefferson wrote the famous statute on religious freedom. Jefferson’s writings also formed the basis of the Ordinances of 1784, 1785, and 1787. From 1785–1789, Jefferson served as minister to France. In 1789, George Washington appointed him secretary of state.

Due to political differences concerning the role of the government with other cabinet members, Jefferson resigned as secretary of state in 1793. After serving in Washington’s cabinet, Jefferson and James Madison founded the Democratic-Republican Party. Jefferson soon ran for president but was defeated in 1796 by John Adams. Nevertheless, he was appointed vice president. Although Jefferson and Aaron Burr received equal electoral votes for presidency, Jefferson was elected president by the House of Representatives in 1800. During Jefferson’s term, both the Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis and Clark Expedition occurred. Jefferson served two presidential terms. He later established the University of Virginia. He died on July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Coincidentally, John Adams died the same day.

Thomas Jefferson is remembered as one of the most brilliant men to ever inhabit the White House, whose views on individual freedom, religion, and education still influence today. In fact, the establishment of the University of Virginia reflected Jefferson’s views about the role of religion in education—it was the first university in America to be centered around a library rather than a church. Jefferson believed in the strict separation of church and state (national affairs, including education, should not be influenced by a dominant religion). Jefferson was also an accomplished surveyor, author, architect, and agriculturalist.

Today, buildings, cities, counties, corporations, and monuments bear Jefferson’s name. He is honored on the United States two-dollar bill and nickel.

William Clark

William Clark was born on August 1, 1770, on his family’s Virginia plantation. At age 14, Clark

moved from Virginia to Louisville, Kentucky. Five years later, in 1789, Clark joined the militia

to help fight the Native Americans in the Ohio Valley. After becoming an officer in the US

Army, Clark retired from service and went back to Virginia to manage his family’s estate.

In 1803, Clark’s life would change. After Thomas Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase, in which

America acquired thousands of miles of land west of the Mississippi River, Meriwether Lewis,

one of Clark’s army comrades, invited him to collaborate on an expedition across the new land.

Their mission was not only to explore the new land, establish friendly relations with Indians, and

to discover new animals and plants, but to find the elusive Northwest Passage. Clark agreed and

was made responsible for the expedition’s records and mapmaking.

Along with Meriwether Lewis, William Clark spent over two years exploring the new frontier.

After successfully establishing Fort Clatsop, Oregon, and after discovering over 300 new species

of animals and plants, the pair returned. Clark was appointed principal Indian agent and brigadier

general of the Louisiana Militia by Thomas Jefferson. After the deaths of Meriwether Lewis and

Sacagawea, Clark adopted her children and became governor of the Missouri Territory in 1813.

After an unsuccessful bid for governor of Missouri, Clark was made superintendent of Indian

Affairs in 1822. He held that position until his death on September 1, 1838.

Clara Barton

Clarissa Harlowe Barton, called Clara, was born on December 25, 1821, in North Oxford, Massachusetts. Before she started school, her brothers taught her spelling, arithmetic, and geography. When she was four, she could already spell three-syllable words. She was very shy.

Clara became a teacher when she was seventeen. In 1850, Clara went to teach at a school in Bordentown, New Jersey. Many children could not go to the school because their families could not pay the tuition. Clara offered to teach without a salary if children could attend for free. In this way, she started the first free school in New Jersey. Even though she raised enrollment from six to six hundred, the school board hired a man to be the head of the school instead of offering the job to Clara. Clara resigned.

Her congressman helped her get a job as a copyist at the Patent Office in Washington, DC. She was working there when the Civil War (1861–1865) began. After the Baltimore Riots, a trainload of soldiers arrived in Washington with no baggage or supplies. Clara helped take care for them and gather some of the necessary supplies. After the First Battle of Bull Run, Clara advertised in the Worcester, Massachusetts Spy magazine for medical supplies to treat wounded soldiers. Her ads were successful, and she began an organization to distribute bandages, socks, and other supplies. The US Surgeon General, William A. Hammond, gave her permission to travel to places where fighting was taking place. Clara did not work primarily as a nurse during the war; she was important because she obtained and passed out supplies where they were needed. She became known as the “Angel of the Battlefield.”

In 1865, at Camp Parole, Maryland, she decided to organize a group to find soldiers listed as missing in action. Clara also went to Georgia to identify Union soldiers in unmarked graves at Andersonville, the Confederate prison camp. She helped set up a national cemetery there. She became the first woman bureau head in the United States government when she was appointed head of the Missing Person Office. In coordination with the Bureau of Records, the organizations identified nearly twenty thousand soldiers so that families could know what happened to their loved ones. This was about one-tenth of the total number of missing or unidentified in the Civil War.

In 1869, she went to Geneva, Switzerland, where she met officials of the recently organized International Red Cross. She worked to get the US Congress to agree to the Geneva Convention. This agreement resulted in the formation of the Red Cross, and it asked nations to agree to protect medical personnel on the battlefield. After she returned to the United States, she lived in Danville, New York. In 1877, she offered to lead the American branch of the International Red Cross. Besides helping during wartime, the American Red Cross provides relief for victims of epidemics and natural disasters like floods and earthquakes. Her work helping people in times of war and times of peace made her an eternal symbol of humanitarianism. She died on Good Friday, April 12, 1912, in Glen Echo, Maryland.

Crazy Horse

Crazy Horse was born somewhere near present-day Rapid City, South Dakota, on December 4, 1841. Because his mother died when he was young, Crazy Horse was raised by his father and his mother’s sister. From an early age, he showed signs of greatness and bravery. He was said to have conducted a horse-stealing raid on Crow lands before the age of 13 and led his first war party before turning 20. In the 1860s, Crazy Horse participated in Red Cloud’s War and helped to destroy a US military brigade at Fort Kearney in 1867.

Crazy Horse is probably best known for his determination in preserving the Lakota (Sioux) way of life. In 1876, after the tribes of the northern plains were ordered to reservations by the US government, the Lakota, Cheyenne, and other tribes resisted. After repelling a surprise attack under General George Crook at Rosebud Creek, Crazy Horse and his Lakota warriors converged upon the 7th Cavalry under General George Custer at Little Big Horn Creek, Montana. Here, he joined forces with Sitting Bull and Chief Gall. Together, the Indian forces massacred Custer and his men in what came to be known as “Custer’s Last Stand.” All 253 American soldiers died in the battle. The battle is probably the most famous battle in American history between Native Americans and the US military. Following Little Big Horn, Crazy Horse and his warriors battled the US Military in the Battle of Slim Buttes and the Battle of Wolf Mountain. Both battles resulted in significant casualties for the Lakota people. After the Battle of Wolf Mountain, Crazy Horse surrendered on May 5, 1877. He was subsequently detained at Camp Robinson in Nebraska. Although details of his experience at Camp Robinson are varied, Crazy Horse was apparently killed after attempting to escape his captors on September 5, 1877.

Crazy Horse remains one of the most important and mysterious figures in American history. There are no confirmed photographs of Crazy Horse in existence, though there are several photos that may or may not be of the legendary Lakota chief. Today, the Crazy Horse Memorial is under construction in the Black Hills of South Dakota. When completed, it will feature a sculpture of Crazy Horse that measures 641 feet wide and 563 feet high.

Eli Whitney

Eli Whitney, the inventor of the cotton gin, was born on December 8, 1765, in Westborough, Massachusetts. His mother died when he was only eleven years old. At age 14, Eli had started his own business making and selling nails in his father’s workshop during the Revolutionary War.

While working as a school teacher and farmer, Whitney was able to save enough money to attend college at Yale University. After graduating with honors from Yale, he studied law, but failed to finish his studies because he couldn’t pay tuition. Consequently, Eli decided to make his fortune by moving to the South. During his travels southward, he met the Revolutionary War hero Nathanael Greene’s widow. Taking a liking to Whitney, Mrs. Greene invited him to visit her family’s Georgia plantation. Mrs. Greene and her soon to be husband, Phineas Miller, welcomed Eli and the two men later became partners in business.

After visiting cotton plantations in the south, Eli saw a need for an invention that would allow cotton farmers to harvest their cotton more efficiently for market. In 1793, Whitney was able to create such an invention that would change the harvesting of cotton forever. The invention of the “Cotton Gin” (short for Cotton Engine) helped to revolutionize the processing of cotton crops throughout the southern United States. The cotton gin is a device that mechanically removes the sharp seeds from cotton plants, thereby enabling plantation owners to produce 55 pounds of cotton per day. Whitney’s cotton gin was said to be one of the most important contributions to America’s Industrial Revolution. It was also said to have reinvigorated the practice of slavery, a practice that may have been in decline in the south before the invention. Cotton soon became America’s most important export and represented over 50% of the value of all goods shipped abroad from its shores between 1820 and 1860.

While Eli Whitney is best known for inventing the cotton gin, he is also credited with the invention of the cotton milling machine. However, historians are not quite sure if he was the sole inventor of the cotton milling machine or if others were also working on the invention of these milling machines during the same time period. Being a true inventor at heart, Eli Whitney never stopped working on his inventions until his death on January 8, 1825.

Francis Scott Key

Francis Scott Key was born August 1, 1779, near Keymar, Maryland, at the family plantation known as Terra Rubra. He was a lawyer and amateur poet but only gained fame after authoring America’s national anthem – The Star-Spangled Banner.

During the War of 1812, Key and Col. John Skinner traveled to Baltimore and negotiated the release of a prominent Maryland physician (who was arrested by the British). After the negotiation was complete, Key and Skinner were forbidden to return to Baltimore by British officials. Key and Skinner had been exposed to the British plans to bombard Baltimore (Fort McHenry). Instead, they were made to wait in the ship they came in until after the bombardment. On the morning of September 14, 1813, the British bombardment of Fort McHenry began. The combined sea and land assault lasted 25 hours! Wave after wave of British cannon fire and Congreve rockets were shot toward Fort McHenry. Through it all, however, the massive 30 x 42 foot flag, which flew over Fort McHenry, remained waving. The bombardment ceased on September 15 at 1:00 A.M. When daylight came, the flag was still there, and the British forces had abandoned their plan to take Baltimore.

Inspired by the strength of the American flag, Key immediately took an envelope from his pocket and began writing a poem. He wrote more as he sailed back to Baltimore. His brother-in-law was so impressed by the poem that he began circulating copies of it around Baltimore. It was originally called “Defence of Fort M’Henry.” It soon appeared in local newspapers. Key died on January 11, 1848 and 83 years later on March 3, 1931, it officially became America’s national anthem. Below is the text from The Star-Spangled Banner. (There are actually more verses, but the verses below are the most commonly sung.)

O say! can you see, by the dawn’s early light, What so proudly we hail’d at the twilight’s last gleaming? Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro’ the perilous fight, O’er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming? And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof thro’ the night, that our flag was still there. O say! does that Star-Spangled Banner yet wave O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

John Louis O’Sullivan

John O'Sullivan was born in November, 1813. He became a journalist and was the founder and editor of the United States Magazine and Democratic Review (1837-1846). He was also the editor of the New York Morning News (1844-46).

In an editorial the in United States Magazine and Democratic Review in July 1845, O'Sullivan became the first person to use the term "manifest destiny" to encourage the spirit of expansionism. Over the following years the Manifest Destiny doctrine claimed that it should be the objective of the United States to absorb all of North America. This expansionism eventually ended in the acquisition of Texas, Oregon and California.

O'Sullivan believed that God ("Providence") had given the United States a mission to spread republican democracy ("the great experiment of liberty") throughout North America. He believed that manifest destiny was a moral ideal (a "higher law") that superseded other considerations, including international laws and agreements. He made clear he did not include eastern Canada as part of the destiny, and worked to defuse tensions between the two countries in the 1840s.

In 1854 O'Sullivan became minister to Portugal. A post he held until 1858. John O'Sullivan died on 24th February, 1895.

Mark Twain

Mark Twain was born on November 30, 1835 in Hannibal, Missouri as Samuel Langhorne Clemens. Mark Twain would become his “pen name” later on in his life. When he was four, he moved with his family to Hannibal, Missouri. Hannibal, located on the Mississippi River, would serve as a fictional town in his most famous books, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. When Samuel turned 18, he left Hannibal and worked as a printer in New York, Philadelphia, St. Louis and Cincinnati. Four years later, he returned to Hannibal and worked as a riverboat pilot. For some tine after the Civil War, Samuel worked as a miner in the town of Virginia City, Nevada. Although he hoped to find gold in Nevada, his efforts ultimately failed. Nevertheless, he did earn his first writing job at the Daily Territorial Enterprise, a newspaper in Virginia City. It was here, in 1863, that Samuel adopted the pen name Mark Twain.

Mark Twain would soon become one of the greatest authors in American history. In 1876, he published The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, a story about the adventures of a young boy and his friend, Huckleberry Finn in St. Petersburg, Missouri. The most well-known scene in the story depicts how Tom tricked his neighborhood playmates into whitewashing (painting) a fence that he was assigned to by his Aunt Polly. Tom convinces the boys that the whitewashing is so enjoyable that they actually trade him apples and other items just to participate in the whitewashing. In 1889 Twain published the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which is considered by many to be a sequel of the Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Many consider The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as Twain’s greatest literary accomplishment, as it magically depicts life along the Mississippi River in the 1800’s and illustrates the racist attitudes of the time. The story is centered around Huckleberry Finn and his friend, Jim, a runaway slave who escape together on a raft heading north, and then south on the Mississippi River. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was one of the first published novels that featured colloquial speech, or, words, expressions, and statements used only by residents of a particular geographic location. Twain also authored several other famous works including The Prince and the Pauper (1882), and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1889). Mark Twain remained a colorful character well for his entire life. He was involved in several societies, leagues, and clubs including the American Anti-Imperialist League, an organization that was opposed to America’s annexation of The Philippines after the Spanish-American War. He was also a member of the Bohemian Club, a secret club for powerful world leaders. In addition, he was the author of many famous epigrams (sayings) such as “A man is never more truthful than when he acknowledges himself a liar.” and “A habit cannot be thrown out the window, it must be coaxed down the stairs one step at a time.” Before his death, Twain was one of the most famous celebrities in the country. Mark Twain died on April 21, 1910.

Today, the Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum, located in Hannibal, is one of Missouri’s most popular museums. Visitors can explore the Mark Twain Cave and take a riverboat ride down the Mississippi River. The legendary whitewashed fence painted by the fictional character Tom Sawyer borders the property.

Meriwether Lewis

Meriwether Lewis was born on August 18, 1774, near Charlottesville, Virginia. Lewis grew up among the forests and wilderness of the Shenandoah Valley and developed a love of hunting and exploring. Lewis became a soldier at an early age and fought in the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794. He soon became an officer in the Army and battled the Native Americans in the Northwest Territory of the new nation. Lewis became very educated about the Native Americans and even learned some of their languages.

As a neighbor and friend of the Lewis family, Thomas Jefferson appointed Meriwether Lewis as his personal secretary. He prepared Lewis for two years to explore the lands acquired in the Louisiana Purchase. Lewis studied plants, animals, and navigation at the University of Pennsylvania in preparation. Lewis invited William Clark to co-lead the expedition. Although Congress authorized Lewis as the captain of the expedition, he insisted that he and Clark be considered co-captains during the journey.

Lewis and Clark spent over two years exploring the new frontier, mapping the terrain, and learning about and trading with various Indian tribes. Lewis was considered an outstanding leader and was highly respected by the members of the Corps of Discovery. His journal, which recorded many (not all) of the events of the expedition, is one of the most important documents in American history. As Lewis and Clark made their way west, they were the first to confirm that there was no direct water passage across the continent (Northwest Passage).

After successfully establishing Fort Clatsop, Oregon, and after discovering over 300 new species of animals and plants throughout the Great Plains and western mountains, the pair returned. Meriwether Lewis was named the new governor of the Louisiana Territory. On October 11, 1809, Lewis was on his way to Washington, D.C., on the famed Natchez Trace when he mysteriously died at a hotel.