The Way of the Great Wagon Road

  The Blue Ridge Mountains

            Help me add to this story. I remember Arthur Godfrey being on the radio. A song he often sang was The Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. There was music in those mountains from the earliest days of European settlement. That music was not just in Virginia. It spread around an area of is now several U.S. states. Quite a lot of that music spread into what is now North Carolina.

            I could well have called this piece The Lost Provinces, many others have. The settlers among those rolling hills beyond the ridges were largely separated from the colonies and then from the states. Many did not remember that they were there. Some of the people in that Blue Ridge country didn't keep up much on the rest of the country. They were "The Lost Provinces."

            But there is a lot more to the story, I still have some of it in mind. I remember being told that in a far western corner of what became the state of north Carolina is a rolling plateau separated from the rest of the state by the abrupt slopes of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Families settled there. Some say that they became the heart of those provinces.

            For years the Provinces were isolated from much of the country and even the rest of North Carolina. The isolation was so great that most of their trade and communication was with the neighboring states of Tennessee and Virginia. i suspect that they did not feel their isolation so very much. I some way it is part of the road they chose and much like the road many others were choosing in those days.

            There were those who came before them, but many to the area throughout the 1700s and after. They became isolated rapidly from a rapidly changing world. They shared little of that world. No Arthur Godfrey on the radio. Many came by way of the Great Wagon Road of the Shenandoah Valley. They had no industry and a barely subsistence agriculture with few of the implements of agriculture. Early arrivals had good hunting. Some arrived with little more than a rifle and an ax. They did feel their independence, I have heard. They may have called it freedom.

            The Cherokee, Shawnee, and Creek had hunted the territory for centuries, it is said. The first recorded visits by Europeans occurred in 1752. Augustus Spangenberg, a Moravian Bishop from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and a handful of men entered the territory. The Bishop was impressed by the mountains. H seems not to have been guided well.

            Those who came, somehow had a great deal of music. Perhaps feelings of freedom and independence helped. They brought their musical culture from Germany, England, and elsewhere. Violins were not the first of the musical instruments to be popular. But in time violins were brought to the land, made there there, and played there. They were popularly called fiddles. They danced to the music of the fiddle.

        In 1799 the North Carolina General Assembly designated the high country as Ashe County, named for Samuel Ash, Revolutionary War patriot and three time governor of the state.

        After the Civil War, more instruments and many kinds of music came and was welcomed in the "Lost Provinces.

        There is much more to this story. The Cherokee, Welsh, and others could tell us that. Help me out and tell us what you can find out about The Blue Ridge Mountains and Lost Provinces territory.

            Thank you for reading.        

                                                                                Richard Sheehan

From Peon, to Pawn, to Active citizen?

We can still learn from the Russian revolution:

                    The Russian revolt of 1905 included mass political unrest. That is there was wide consideration of  the nature of Russian governance. It also included terrorism, strikes, military mutinies, and urban demonstrations. Republicanism and democracy were designed to limit the worst of these happening. Republicanism and democracy both demand considerable practice by a wide spectrum of practice by the citizenry. The overwhelming majority of the Russian people had very little of such practice. The revolt did lead the tzarist government to establish, on paper, a limited constitutional monarchy including a duma. A duma is a parliament. Most Russians did not see these changes as being helpful to them. A great many Russians did not see them at all.

Republic, Democracy, and Governance

                        The use of democracy was designed to prevent the worst of the above. Many Europeans, Americans, and others saw republicanism as an important step toward democracy. Many saw democracy, probably correctly, as beyond the ability of most citizens and prospective citizens. It was hoped that more widespread education and the wide participation in managing a republic would lead to the development of a wide swath of populations with the ability to govern themselves. I have believed that the educated practice of democracy was able to maintain a stable, practical, and adaptable form of governance. In the last several decades I have seen populations less and less ready, willing, or able to maintain their republics.

Tsar Nicolas II and Sergei Witte

                    The October manifesto of 1905 was issued by Nicolas II. Sergei Witte was influential in its production. It pledged to grant civil liberties to the people including: freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and provide broad participation in the duma. No law could come into force without the consent of the Duma. The Tsar retained veto power. Good for Witte. This aimed for much improvement.

                      However, the Russian people had not participated in this development. The were not ready for this particular change. They not been party to a conversation, to a dialogue. The change was both to early and too late. To early for the people's state of readiness, and too late to stop their revolt. 

                    Nicolas II was, Nicolai Alexandrovich Romanov. He was the last Tsar of the nearly 400 years of the Romanov dynasty rule of russia. Sergei Witte was a Russian statesman who served as the first prime minister of the Russian empire, replacing the Tsar as head of government. Witte had a good understanding of the use of republicanism, but may have lacked enough understanding of all the powers extent in Russia at that time.

Imperialism, capitalism, republicanism, and democracy

                    As time went on imperialism and capitalism did not seem to work for them and they had not learned to work republicanism or democracy. They did call democracy social democracy in an effort to assure that it was meant for all. A nice step. Citizens of the USA have had many good historical reasons for abdicating republican and democratic responsibilities, duties, practices, and rights. People elsewhere such as those of the rest of the Americas and much of Europe have done some abdicating of their own for reasons of their own. May republican and democratic practices continue.

                    The still well organized powers in Russia brutally suppressed constitutional law, congressional power, freedom of religion, assembly, speech and participation in duma/congress and other such leftist movements.  

                    Tsar Nicolas II abdicated in 1917. The Russian people were unprepared to govern, governance was collapsing. Powerful people tried to use war to pull the country together. They failed. The people began, it is said, began to look to the far right and the far left for working governance. The happy medium, the golden mean was lost. The they knew too little of governance.

                    The Bolsheviks, a small well organized group of persons with some thoughts of governance, took over. They were mostly a small faction of the Marxist Russian Democratic Worker Party. They were well organized and founded the Soviet Union.

                    The Russians had a lot to learn about self-governance and still do. We to still do. Our will to practice being a republic a democracy or anything n between. We seem to lack the will to practice any sort of governance or to even speak of it.

                Still the Russians were a Russian enough people to withstand counter revolution, experimental economic policy, rapid expansion, war, Stalin, and more war. It was brutal. Not everything has been always brutal, but so far war has. Ignorance itself  very often seems brutal. 

                    The great mass of the Russian people seemed to move from being peons to being pawns. Oh, when will the ever learn. When will we ever learn to play our own game? When will we ever learn to take care of ourselves. When will we learn to govern ourselves?

                    There is a lot for all of us to learn and remember. We do not have to make ourselves learn and remember. Practice can do us very well. When we practice being a peon we can become a very good peon. When we practice being a pawn we can become a better pawn. When we practice being a republican we can become a good republican; that is if we remember what a republican is and have learned the nature of a republican. 

                    There is a lot for all of us to do. Thank goodness there are plenty of us to do that which needs doing. We still have memories of co-operation. We also have some knowledge of practice. With a bit more practice in citizenship we can be more effective citizens. We could even practice democracy together so as to learn how to better do democracy. 

                    I could use a good editor.  I could use some good help from you. I could also use a million dollars or even a hundred thousand. Maybe a good night's sleep would do me well. Bye for now.

                    Thank you for reading!

                                                                                        rcs

Silk Road Ramble

 History With RCS: Another piece of Silk Road history. Introducing the back-story of cities along the Silk Road.

 

                We may gain some interesting knowledge of our world by learning the stories of the trade routes we have come to call the Silk Road. I have just begun to find their names and a of information about them. I will mention three of them here. Their names are. Kashgar, Bukhara, and Kucha. In the process of this first look at these first three cities I have discovered some bits of information I hope to follow up on later. You may guess at what they may be as you read on.

                If you want you can record your guesses in the "comments" section of this post. You can also ask questions, make suggestions, and help me correct errors.

Kashgar: 

                The city of Kashgar is an oasis city in the Tarim Basin region of southern Xinjiang, China; a region which is now mostly desert. Kashgar is one of the western most cities in China. It is near the boarder of Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Pakistan. The Tarim Basin is a large geological feature of about 390,000 square miles. Water that flows into the Basin does not flow out, still it is mostly desert. Xinjiang is the part of China in which the Uygur live. The Uygur are a Muslim people of whom you may have heard on TV. The Silk Road divides into three branches to cross the Tarim Basin east to west or visa versa. As we continue you will find that the Road has many branches. 

                The Han Chinese have been a power in the Tarim Basin from about about 76 BC so have a strong claim on it. How many years are there before 76 BC? 

                The four countries I mention above each of whose names ends in -stan may remind you of Persia or Iran or both. You can find that these countries have historical connections with Iranians. I think that we can call kashgar a city with an Iranian history. The people of Kashgar were once of the Zoroastrian religion and some may still practice it. Most people in Iran practice Zoroastrianism to this day. Wikipedia people say that the city has been ruled by Chinese, Turkic, Mongol, and Tibetan Empires. I did not know that there had been a Tibetan Empire.

                I believe that ancient Iranians were important all along the the Silk Road from the eastern Mediterranean through to India and China. I see at this moment that Iranians were documented as important on the Road by 525 BC on inscriptions found at Persepolis. I suspect that we will find that they were important there long before.

                I remember reading that some not so early Iranians were called Saka by some and that some had red hair. Can it be so? We may have a lot to learn, but we are learning. Stick with me for a while.

 

Bukhara, our second Silk Road city:

                It probably existed 3,000 years ago, it is now the capital city of the Bukhara region of Uzbekistan. Bukhara has served as a center of trade, scholarship, and religion. Most people of the city still speak Tajik, a form of the Persian language. Remember that Persia is what we once called Iran. Uzbek is the language of the countryside and a second language of the city people. The Republic of Uzbekistan is now a Muslim country. It was anciently settled by Iranians. They were called Scythian and founded a kingdom there in about 900 BC.      

                As we continue learning we find that Tajik is a Persian language and that Uzbek is a Turkic language strongly effected by Persian.

                Bukhara became part of the Abbasid Caliphate in 819 AD and  was the capital of the Samanid Empire. At its greatest, about 900 AD, the empire included all of Afghanistan, huge parts of Iran, Turkmenistan,, Kyrgyzstan, and parts of Kazakhstan and Pakistan. The Abbasid Caliphate was the 3rd from the Prophet(Muhammad). They were significantly dependent  upon the Persian Buddhist family the Barmakids!

                The Barmakids could begin a new story that we won't follow just know. We have now passed well into the historic period which I intend to review at a later stage of this examination of the Silk Road. The Samanid Empire was a Sunni Iranian empire which included what are now the countries mentioned in the paragraph above. The Samanids brought Persian culture to a receptive Islamic world. Thanks to that fact the Islamic world has brought brought much of that culture to the West. It seems to me that I have it said that the Spanish Caliphates  so like the concept of pants that the fad spread to to the rest of the western world. I am pretty sure that there is truth in that.

                I will ramble on to the third city of this essay. Please help me to correct my errors or to add information in "comments" immediately below the end of this essay.

                Ancient Iranians called themselves Arya of ethnicity airya. I don't know how one would translate "ethnicity" to ancient Iranian. Speaking of ancient Iranians, at a very early date, on their way from the northeast to a place much nearer to what we have called "the western world," a significant number of them may have stopped off at India for a time.

                In a later essay of this Silk Road trip I might turn in at India. I think that some Europeans may have received fine fabrics from Indian before ever hearing of Chinese silk. People of the Near East more certainly did. As we look more into India, we may learn more of an ancient language called Kuhj. Some students of ancient languages consider Kuhj to be a fore-barer of the Indo-European languages. In sanscrit it seems to mean something like "rob" or "steal." Were our ancestors known thieves?

                I'm not concerned. Most genealogists can find kings and saints in one's family as well as a horse thief or Two.

                Another city on the Silk Road was Kucha. Kucha was an old Buddhist kingdom on the branch of the SR which ran along the north side ob what is now the Taklamakan desert in the Tarim basin and south of the Muzat river in China.

                "Kucha" comes from the Kuchan scripts of late antiquity. Kuchan is an India script. It may have connections with a writing used in Tibet. The Chines might like it be something from Han Chinese, but they are stretching a lot to do so.

                The city of Kucha in the Silk Road was a Central Asian metropolis. Its population was said to have been Indo-European. I believe that I am not wrong to call it an early Iranian people. It is also said that they were notably red-haired and blue eyed.

                I feel I have rambled far enough for now so I will bid you good bye.

                Thank you for reading.

                                                                                                        rcs

  

Notes on the Colusa: Native American Indians That you Don't Know About

History With RCS, prehistory, archaeology: The Colusa (Indians) in what is now Florida of North America               

 

                I intend to write about the earlier people of North America from time to time. I'll begin now with Notes on the Colusa. We do not often hear about the Colusa people, but these brief notes may sharpen your interest in those whom we have called Indians.

                As recent as the 1500s the Colusa controlled much of the southwest of what is now the state of Florida. The Colusa defended their land from the aggression of others, including Europeans. The Spaniards knew them as fierce.

                The Caloosahatchee river, with its mouth on the southwest of the Florida peninsula, was central to their lands.

                They lived mostly along inland waterways and developed those waterways for transportation and food production. The sea was also a source of food for them. They left middens of seashells large enough to compete in size with their great mounds and earthworks. They fished with nets and traps, and also fashioned good looking and effective hooks.

                The Colusa may have been directly to the Paleoindians of 10,000 BC. They had seagoing vessels and traded with the people of the Caribbean islands. In later years they were famed for their wide use of seashells as ornaments and implements.

                They were physically well developed and in colonial times were known for being 3 to 4 inches taller than the usual European man.

                The Colusa had a strong influences on the "tribes" around them. That influence, in some part, may have been due to their wide trading network. That trade was carried on dugouts especially on their inland waterways. They also built and used larger seagoing vessels. They visited the island we now call Cuba and navigated to farther islands. They also traveled the Gulf of Mexico to the mouth of the Mississippi. 

                Their homes were built on platforms on pilings over the water of their waterways. They could get into their dugout and take the "water road" to the "water highway"  on to Mississippi or Cuba. Their buildings were well made and ha particularly handsome roofs of palmetto fronds. It is said that some of their buildings were large enough to accommodate a great number of people. The Caloosa/Colusa were excellent wood workers and they did some fine wood carving. 

                They were also excellent farmers, sailors, fishermen, and traders. Their large gardens were often surrounded by canals and were built up and fertilized by dredging those canals. They are probably responsible for the construction of what we have called bayous.

                Their high level culture has been dated to well before 100 BC. Several of their middens and earthworks have been dated to at least that time.

                We have a lot to learn from and about these people. Investigations into their agricultural techniques may be of important use to us soon. 

                You may publish comments below. I may publish what you have to contribute about the Colusa. More to come.

                                                                                RCS