At the heart of the story of Jesus of Nazareth is a man whose life has left an enduring impact on the world. According to the accounts found in the Gospels, Jesus is said to have led a remarkable life. His life and teachings are always described in letters written by Paul, and he is also mentioned by the Jewish historian Josephus.

The Gospels, attributed to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, serve as primary sources, each presenting a unique perspective on Jesus’ life. These accounts are akin to friends sharing their recollections of a significant event, creating a picture of the man and his teachings.

Paul, a prominent figure in the early Christian movement, wrote letters to various communities, discussing Jesus’ life and teachings. His letters provide additional insights into the beliefs and practices of the early followers of Jesus.

The historian Josephus, who lived during the same period, contributed to our understanding of the historical context in which Jesus lived. His writings touch upon various aspects of Jewish history, including references to Jesus.

The story begins with the miraculous birth of Jesus. According to the accounts, Mary, his mother, received a visit from an angel who foretold the birth of a special child. Mary, and the man she was to marry, Joseph, traveled from their home in Nazareth to Bethlehem where they were to be taxed by the Roman Empire. In Bethlehem, Mary gave birth to Jesus in a stable for animals because there was no room for them in the inns – or hotels – in the town. Shepherds were believed to have seen an angel and followed a star to the stable where they celebrated the birth of the child they believed would become their king. Later, Wise Men from the Orient visited the child Jesus and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and murr. To this day, Jesus’s birth is celebrated on Christmas and is reenacted in plays and reimagined in different ornaments and artwork to remember the birth of the child. 

As Jesus grew, he gained a reputation for performing miracles. These included healing the sick, turning water into wine, and, in one instance, even bringing a man back to life. These accounts portray Jesus as someone with extraordinary abilities, fostering a belief among many that he possessed unique powers.

Jesus’ teachings form an important part of his legacy. He emphasized principles such as kindness, compassion, and love. One of his well-known teachings is the Golden Rule: “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” This simple yet profound principle advocates treating others with the same kindness and respect one desires for oneself.

His teachings extended to helping those in need, urging his followers to help the hungry, the poor, and the less fortunate. The idea was to cultivate a sense of responsibility and create a world where everyone looks out for one another.

However, according to the accounts of his followers, not everyone embraced Jesus’ message. Powerful figures felt threatened by his teachings, leading to his arrest and subsequent death. Despite the tragic end, his followers believed that Jesus came back to life and his “resurrection” as it was called means that like Jesus others can have life after death.

Following the death of Jesus, his followers (also called disciples), who had been witnesses to Jesus’ teachings and believed in his resurrection, continued to spread his message. They traveled to different regions, carrying the message of love, redemption, and the promise of eternal life. This missionary activity led to the formation of communities of believers who followed the teachings of Jesus and saw him as the promised Messiah. These groups became known as Christians because they believed Jesus was a Savior or Christ who would save them.

The Apostle Paul, in particular, played an important role in the early growth of Christianity. Paul traveled throughout the Mediterranean region teaching about Jesus and bringing new people to the faith, including Greeks and people of all backgrounds and ethnicities.

Paul’s letters, which are now included in the New Testament, taught about Jesus and his missionary journeys. They form the early theology of the belief in Jesus as the Christ.

As the Christian communities grew, they faced both acceptance and opposition. The teachings of Jesus, emphasizing love, compassion, and equality, resonated with many, but they also challenged existing social norms and religious practices. Christians were sometimes persecuted for their beliefs, but this adversity only fueled their commitment to the message of Jesus.

Over the centuries, Christianity continued to evolve, adopting various cultural practices and incorporating diverse ideas. Eventually, it became the new religion of the Roman Empire, which led to its spread across the Empire, Europe, and beyond. Later, Christmas became a Christian holiday celebrating the birth of Jesus. Many of the symbols of Christmas today come from the stories of his birth: bright stars and gifts for example.

Today, it is estimated there are over 2 billion Christians worldwide, which are made up of many different types of believers, churches, and denominations – but most are united in the belief in Jesus as a divine being and teacher. But even for those who aren’t believers in Jesus’s divinity, many today accept Jesus as a gifted numbered among Buddha, Confucius, and Gandhi, who have led by their example of how to treat others with kindness and compassion. 

The teachings of Jesus continue to resonate today. You may wonder how what Jesus said and did can apply to your own life. Jesus taught, “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” It’s easy to become focused on ourselves, but there’s so much going on outside of us and others want to be treated with the same respect we expect.

We all goof up sometimes, right? Jesus was big on forgiving others (and yourself!). So, if someone messes up, or you make a mistake, don’t be too hard on yourself or others. Learn from it, forgive, and move on. 

Jesus taught about compassion. He said we should “love our neighbor” meaning those around us. He taught that he might even mean someone we don’t necessarily like, and even taught his followers to love their enemies. Little acts of kindness, helping out a friend, or volunteering in your community — that’s like living out Jesus’ message of helping those around you.

It’s cool to be awesome at stuff, but remember, nobody’s perfect. Jesus talked about being humble, which means being real about your strengths and weaknesses. It’s all about learning, growing, and staying down-to-earth. He also taught us not to judge others and to try and see our faults and how we can improve before we try and make judgments of others.

Everyone’s got their own story, right? Jesus was big on respecting everyone, no matter where they come from or who they are. He treated people who were normally shunned like the sick or those who made poor decisions the same as everyone else. He often criticized the leaders who were judgemental and didn’t treat others with kindness. Like Jesus, treating others with respect, no matter the differences is like spreading good vibes everywhere you go.

Life can get pretty hectic, huh? Jesus knew the importance of taking a breather. Often, he took the time to get away from the crowds, pray meditate and clear his head. He often did this in the mountains or quiet places or while he walked from town to town. So, set some boundaries for yourself. Take a break, reflect, and take care of your mental and emotional well-being.

In summary, the story of Jesus of Nazareth transcends religious boundaries, offering valuable lessons that can inspire people from all walks of life to strive for a world characterized by empathy, understanding, and goodwill.

We hope you enjoyed learning about the origins of the Christmas holiday and the story of Jesus of Nazareth and his teachings; however you celebrate the winter holiday whether it be Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza, Chinese New Year, or one of the other many holidays across the wide world, we wish you a happy holiday and New Year!

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Do you know what a judge is or a lawyer? Judges and lawyers are jobs people have where they work to make laws. Laws are used to keep us safe and keep order in the world, but sometimes laws are made that are unfair. And sometimes new laws need to be made to help people be treated equally. In this episode, we will talk about one of the most important people in the fight for women’s equality: Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Ruth was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1933.  When she was born, her name was actually “Joan Ruth Bader” but when she was in first grade, there were many “Joans” in class. Her mother told her teacher that everyone could call her “Ruth” instead.  So from then on “Joan Bader” was called “Ruth”. 

Her parents were hard-working, but they were not rich.  They were Jewish and brought her to the synagogue, or Jewish temple, regularly to study the Torah or Jewish holy book.  From a young age, Ruth was annoyed to learn that women were not allowed to read from the Torah, only men could. She was unhappy that she was treated differently.

Ruth’s mom was a very independent woman.  Independent means to do things on your own. She was very close with Ruth and taught her that it was important for Ruth to get a good education and be independent, too.  She took a close interest in her education. Although her mother had gotten excellent grades in high school, she finished when she was 15 and wasn’t able to go to university.  Instead, she had to go work in a clothing-making factory to help pay for her brother to go to college.  Ruth’s mother wanted to help Ruth get into university and study to become a high school history teacher. 

Ruth liked studying with her mother and it helped her to excel, or do really well.  She was also inspired by what her mother had done for her brother.  Working in a factory to help pay for his education was an act of selflessness that stuck with Ruth.  An act of selflessness is something that someone does to help another person without any thought of what it will do for themself. 

Ruth worked very hard in high school and got excellent grades. Sadly, Ruth’s mother got sick with cancer when Ruth was in high school and died the day before Ruth graduated. 

Ruth had studied so hard and gotten such good grades that she got into Cornell University.  This is one of the best universities in the United States so it was a huge accomplishment.  

While she was at Cornell, Ruth studied government.  Very early in her time there, she met a young man named Martin Ginsburg. They started dating and fell in love.  Martin was studying law and he told Ruth about what he was learning.  She started thinking that she might also want to study law.  First, however, she needed to finish her other degree.  She did so in 1954 and graduated at the top of the class, which means that she had the best grades of anyone in her entire university class that year.  

Martin and Ruth decided to get married and they had their wedding one month after Ruth graduated. Ruth added Martin’s last name to hers and her new name became “Ruth Bader Ginsburg”.  

Shortly after they got married, Ruth got pregnant and had a baby girl named Jane. Very soon after, Martin was drafted into the US military.  Drafted means when someone is told that they have to join the army.   Martin served for two years in the army before he was allowed to go back to regular life. 

After Martin was finished with the army, Ruth and Martin returned to Harvard so that he could complete his law studies.  Ruth continued to be interested in studying law as well, so she also started law school at Harvard. 

When Ruth started law school, it was a difficult time for her.  She had to find time to study and she also had to take care of her baby Jane.  It was hard to do both!  But Ruth was very hard working and found a way, together with Martin’s help.  

Ruth also had to deal with challenges at law school.  She was one of only 8 women students in a class of more than 500.  All the other students were men and many did not like that there were women joining the program. They tried to make it uncomfortable for the women students that were studying with them by teasing them and making it harder for them to do well in class. Back then, many people thought that only men should go to law school, so they directed their anger toward Ruth and her female classmates.

But Ruth pressed on and studied very hard.  And it all paid off in the end!  As always, Ruth did very well in her courses.  She also became the first female member of the Harvard Law Review, which is one of the most famous legal journals in the world.  This was a very difficult role to get.  

In 1956, Ruth’s husband was diagnosed with cancer.  He needed to go to the hospital for surgery and Ruth needed to take care of him.  She was at a crossroads, or the point of a big decision, in her life.  Should she stay in law school or take time off with her family? Should Martin take time off as well, even though he had already had to take time off before?  They talked it through and decided that they would both stay in school and finish their degrees together, even when Martin was sick.  Ruth continued to go to class and she took notes for Martin in class.  Martin started doing more around the house to help out, including doing the cooking.  This was not common at the time: for the man of the house to be at home full time caring for children and taking care of the housework.  But it helped to shape how Ruth thought about equality and what is expected of women in society. 

With medical treatment and Ruth’s help, Martin got better and he was able to return to school and finish his studies.  He graduated from law school and got a job as a lawyer in New York.  Because Martin’s job was in New York, Ruth moved to Columbia Law school in New York and finished her degree there.  Ruth graduated first in her class in 1959. 

Next, Ruth looked for a job, but she found many law firms didn’t want to hire her because she was a woman.  It is hard to believe now, but back then in America, it was not common for women to work outside of the home.  And there were really not many women in professional jobs like law.  So Ruth was really doing something new and when that happens, often people resist or fight against, it.  Big changes in society, like women’s equality, take years to change. 

Eventually, Ruth found a job as a law clerk, which is a researcher who works for a judge.  After two years in that job she became a university law professor.  Despite being very busy, as a professor and mom, Ruth also volunteered her time to the Women’s Rights Project.  To volunteer means to do something for free because you want to make a difference.  Ruth’s volunteer work for this project involved winning 6 very important trials in U.S. courts on cases about women’s equality. 

In 1980, Ruth was awarded a very important job: President Jimmy Carter appointed her to be a Judge with the Court of Appeals.  She continued to work very hard and to work for equality for women and others.  In 1993, she was appointed to be a judge on the U.S. Supreme Court by President Bill Clinton.  The Supreme Court is the highest level of court in America and makes decisions about the most important cases from around the country.

As a judge, Ruth’s decisions favored a moderate approach.  She was a big supporter of equality between men and women and of the rights of workers and the separation of church and state.  This means that she believed that the government should not be influenced by religion.  She wrote an important decision that said that the military could not refuse to allow women to join.  She won awards for her work and what she did to help defend peoples’ rights.  She worked hard in the coming years to be an excellent judge and to provide lots of reasoning that have been very influential on American laws. 

In 2016, Ruth released a book about her life memories called “My Own Words.”  She became famous for her thoughtful attitude and her style, as well as her famous expression, “I dissent.”  Later in her life, people made t-shirts with her image and this expression and she became an icon, or symbol, for her beliefs.  People began calling her RBG, her initials for Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Ruth’s health started to get worse in the later years of her life.  She had cancer a few times and had surgery for each.  However, she continued to fight each time and grow healthy so she could continue her important work.  

In July 2020, Ruth revealed that her cancer had returned. She died in September of that year. She was laid to rest in the state in the Capitol on September 25.  She was the first woman and the second Supreme Court Judge to have this honor. 

Ruth Bader Ginsburg is remembered for her hard work throughout her life, arguing for the fair treatment of women.  There are many things we can learn from Ruth, including hard work and resilience.  Resilience means the ability to carry on even when life is hard.  She was also determined, which means that she was focused on her goal and positive that she would make it happen.  Once she decided she wanted to become a lawyer, she worked very hard to make that happen, even though she had to take care of her husband and her young child.  She was also brave.  At law school, she was teased and sometimes bullied by her male classmates.  But she still worked hard to finish and become a lawyer.

What are some things in society that you think are unfair?  Who are people that you would like to see helped more by society or treated with more fairness and kindness?  Becoming a judge or a lawyer is one way to support others who need help.  What are some ways you can spend time helping others who need help?  

Spend some time thinking about the things that others have done that are good and help others. Think about some of the things Ruth accomplished in her life.  What can you learn from her life about your own future path? No matter what you decide to do, Ruth would encourage you to work hard, stick with what you believe and treat everyone with equal respect. 

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Rosa Parks was born on February 4, 1913, in Tuskegee, Alabama. When she was a child she was often sick and sadly had to spend a lot of time in bed. Then when she was two their family moved to live with their grandparents on a farm in a town called Pine Level. Rosa loved being on the farm with her family. It gave her and her siblings lots of room to play and spend time with each other. They explored the woods and streams nearby and she enjoyed the school there. 

Rosa was safe in Pine Level, but this wasn’t the case in other places in Alabama. Rosa and her family were African American and this was a time when black people were treated poorly in Alabama. They were forced to attend separate schools, used separate bathrooms, and to drink from different drinking fountains. This is called segregation. They were often called mean names or abused.

When Rosa was eleven, she moved to Montogomery, Alabama to go to a better school. It was called the Montgomery Industrial School for Girls. The head of the school was a white woman named Alice White. She didn’t go easy on the girls, but this wasn’t because she was mean, it was because she wanted them to learn and grow. Often people who love you, do this because they want to see you be your best you. This motivated Rosa to try her best in school and learn as much as she could. She wanted to become a teacher like Ms. Alice someday. 

Rosa stayed at the school until her grandmother became sick, so she moved back to Pine Level to help. There she found jobs to help earn money for her family. She worked very hard to support them. 

When Rosa was 28, she met a young man named Raymond. Raymond inspired her to take even more interest in the problems black people were facing in Alabama and other places in the South. He was part of the NAACP, the National Association of the Advancement of Colored People. Rosa was proud of Raymond’s interest in helping this cause. He often put himself in danger for it. Rosa and Raymond fell in love and were married in 1932.

In 1934 Rosa finished high school, then started working as a nurse’s assistant and later at an army air force base. On her way home from work she rode a bus, but like all African Americans at the time she had to ride in the back of the bus. It made her very upset to be treated differently. She didn’t say anything at the time, but she was very angry deep inside. 

Around this time Rosa joined the NAACP and helped as a secretary for several years. She also registered to vote. At the time the government in Alabama made it very hard for black people to vote. Rosa had to take a difficult test and pay a tax that was very expensive. When she was finally able to vote she was very happy but also upset that so many of her friends and family were prevented from voting.

Rosa worked very hard for her family through these years and continued to help the NAACP. She was never able to have her own children, but helped the youth through the NAACP. She wanted them to have good lives and took the time to care for them. 

To get to and from work, Rosa rode the bus every day. Like other buses in Alabama, this one was segregated which means anyone who was black had to enter the bus from the back and sit at the back of the bus. This day, Rosa took courage and got on the bus through the front. The driver told her to get off and get on through the back. Rosa refused! The driver told her to get off again. She said she would not. The driver grabbed her by the coat and pulled her toward the front of the bus. She sat down again. The driver continued to yell at her. Rosa finally got off the bus, but she had stood up for herself and made her point.

In 1954 Rosa made friends with a white woman named Virginia Durr, who wanted to help her and other African Americans. Virginia encouraged Rosa to attend a workshop in Tennessee that trained people to fight for equal rights for blacks and workers who were treated unfairly. People of all races and different states came together to learn how to make the world a better place. There she met Martin Luther King and Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. a black congressman from New York City. There she began thinking about ways to fight racism in her own city.

On December 1st 1955, Rosa left home to catch the Cleveland Avenue bus to go to work. When she got on the bus she realized the driver was the same one who had forced her off the bus a few years earlier. Rosa went to the back of the bus and sat down. As the bus went drover further and more people got on the bus, the bus driver told Rosa and the others in the back to stand up so the white passengers could sit down. Rosa refused to get up. The driver yelled at her to get up, but she did not. The driver threatened to have her arrested. “You may do that,” Rosa replied. Soon, the police officers arrived and took Rosa to jail! She was very afraid. Fortunately, her friends at the NAACP were able to pay to have her released until her trial. She was going to be put on trial for not giving up her seat. Can you believe that?

Rosa and lawyers at the NAACP decided they would sue the bus company for not letting her sit down. Suing is when lawyers use the law to try to punish a company like the bus company by getting money from them. If they won the lawsuit then hopefully the unfair laws would be done away with. 

Rosa and her friends also decided to boycott buses that treated them unfairly. A boycott is when you refuse to use something and pay for it, so it punishes the company. If no one paid for bus rides, the bus company would see how much it cost to treat African Americans unfairly. During the days leading up to the boycott, Rosa and others passed out notes urging others to not ride buses on December 5th. If enough people didn’t ride the buses it would send a message to the bus companies. Rosa was nervous about whether it would work.

On December 5, 1955, to Rosa’s excitement, she saw that the buses were empty and thousands of people were walking to work and school instead of riding the buses! They were inspired by Rosa’s actions! Rosa set the example by refusing to give in to the unfair treatment of the city and bus companies. And the boycott didn’t only happen for a day — it went on for an entire year! Never before had so many people in the community come together to fight for civil rights. And the bus companies lost money because very few people rode the buses. 

Rosa’s trial also started on December 5, 1955. She lost the trial, but didn’t mind because they wanted it to go to a higher court. People around the country were watching the boycott and knew about Rosa’s trial. They started to send money to her and to the NAACP to support their fight for equality. She began spending all of her time writing and speaking about civil rights. She met other famous leaders and Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was also believed in her cause. 

On November 13, 1956 Rosa’s trial went all the way to the United States Supreme Court, the most important court in the country. The Supreme Court is located in Washington, D.C. The Supreme Court judges ruled that not allowing people sit where they want on a bus because of their race was against the Constitution — and not legal. Rosa Parks and her friends had scored a huge victory!

Soon after the trial, Rosa rode in the front of the bus and a famous photograph was taken of her to memorialize the event and her bravery in standing up to an unfair system. 

While there was still much work to do, Rosa’s act of courage and the result of the trial is often considered one of the first big events in the Civil Rights Movement. In August 1963 over 200,000 people marched in Washington, D.C. to show their support for Civil Rights. There Dr. Martin Luther King gave his famous “I Have a Dream Speech.” Rosa was excited to see so many others speaking out about Civil Rights. Then in 1964, the President signed the Civil Rights Act that made it illegal to treat people differently because of their race.

Eventually, Rosa and her husband moved to Detroit and lived a quiet life there. In 1966 Rosa was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bill Clinton. She received many other awards over the years for her bravery. She wrote books and spoke about her life and passed away at the age of 92. 

Spend some time thinking about Rosa and her decision to stand up for herself and for her rights. She was afraid and knew that she might get in trouble for it, but doing what was right was more important than her feelings. She refused to move when the driver told her to move. She knew it was wrong and didn’t back down. There will be times in your life when you will have the chance to stand up for yourself and others. Take courage even when you are afraid. Speak up when something wrong is happening! If not you, then who? You can make a difference in the world by speaking up and taking action. 

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Have you ever been given a chore to do, but found yourself doing something very different to get through it? Sometimes, jobs you have to do can be a bit boring. But you can make them fun by playing little games while you do them. Maybe you arrange your shirts into the colors of the rainbow when you put them away, or pretend to play hockey while you sweep. Maybe you’ve even found better ways to do some of these things because you were “playing around” while you did them. 

Benjamin Banneker was one of those kids who could turn any chore into a game, and those games often helped him learn something or make the task easier. Benjamin was born in 1731 in Maryland, before the United States was even a country. Back then, Maryland was still a colony of Great Britain. Benjamin was black, and most black people in the colonies at the time were enslaved. But luckily, Benjamin was born free. His grandmother, Molly, was a former indentured servant from England, who had married an enslaved man from Africa. An indentured servant was someone who works for someone in order to pay back money they borrowed. It was a lot like slavery, but after a set amount of time, you get to be free again. Molly’s daughter, Mary, was Benjamin’s mother and his father, Robert, was a freed slave. 

Benjamin’s Begins Counting

There was one book in Benjamin’s house growing up: the Bible. Molly put that book to good use, and taught Benjamin and his sisters to read with it. Benjamin learned quickly. He became fascinated with numbers, noticing how the Psalms in the bible were numbered and learning to count without even trying. Soon, he was counting everything: fingers, toes, his siblings’ teeth. 

He even used counting to make his chores more interesting. The Bannekers owned a tobacco farm. There are always jobs to do on a farm, and everyone had to help. Benjamin would count things while he went about his duties: clouds, pigs, slugs he picked off tobacco plants. Numbers and math just seemed to click with him. Benjamin not only taught himself basic arithmetic, but more advanced types of math, like geometry and statistics. 

The curiosity of Benjamin Bannekers

Benjamin didn’t just amuse himself with numbers though. He was curious about everything around him. He wondered about the stars, moon, and sun, how they moved and changed throughout the year. As he grew older, he became a tinkerer as well. When something was broken, he could always figure out how to fix it. Usually, he’d find a way to make it work better too!

When he was a young man, Benjamin inherited his parents’ farm. Although running a farm is a lot of work, Benjamin still found ways to improve things and make his job a little easier. At this time, most farmers relied on the rhythms of the natural world to tell them when to do things. Day and night, the position of the sun in the sky told them when to get up, do chores, eat meals, and go to bed. The weather, stars, and plants told them when to plow, plant crops, and harvest. But Benjamin thought it would be easier if he had a clock. 

Clocks weren’t common back then. Almost no one had one in their house. Benjamin thought his tinkering skills might help though. He borrowed a friend’s pocket watch. This friend must have had a lot of confidence in Benjamin’s tinkering skills too, because Benjamin took the watch apart, carefully taking notes, measuring, and sketching gears as he did. When he was sure he knew how it worked, he began to cut and carve his own gears, axels, and pins. He made his version bigger–something that would sit on a table, rather than in your pocket. And, he added a bell on top that would strike on the hour. Clocks were so unusual that neighbors came by to marvel at it. In fact, Benjamin’s clock may have been the first one in the colonies!

Friends with Quakers

When Benjamin was a young man, the Ellicott family moved in down the road from his farm. The Ellicotts were building a mill, and one day they came to ask Benjamin’s mother about buying supplies. At first, she was suspicious, because most well-off white people in the area owned slaves, but soon the Bannekers learned that the Ellicotts were Quakers, Christians who believed slavery was wrong. Benjamin soon befriended a member of the family, George Ellicott. 

George and Benjamin had a lot in common. Both loved math and were curious about the world around them. They studied astronomy together, observing the stars through George’s telescope and learned the positions of the planets and constellations at different times of the year. George lent Benjamin books and tools to use in his studies. Soon, Benjamin was hard at work calculating when a solar eclipse would occur. He showed George his work. His calculations were very good, and George helped him refine them.

Benjamin enjoyed this hobby so much, he decided to do something big with it. He decided to write an almanac. Other than the bible, an almanac was the book you’d be most likely to find in a farmer’s home in the 18th century. Almanacs gathered a wealth of information that was important to a farmer: tables showing cycles of the moon, sun, and tides; calendars of when to plant different crops; weather predictions, and more. Benjamin got to work calculating the data he would need to include in his almanac for 1791: when the moon would wax and wane, sunrise and sunset times, high and low tides for every day of the year.  

But sometimes, opportunities come up, and we have to take advantage right away, or lose the chance. Another member of the Ellicott family, Andrew, offered Benjamin a job helping to survey the land for the new United States capitol, Washington DC. A surveyor tries to figure out how things can be built on the land. They measure distances and slopes, make maps and find the best spot to build a new road or building.  It’s a very math-heavy job, and Benjamin couldn’t refuse. 

Benjamin worked on his almanac whenever he could. As 1790 came to an end, he still hadn’t found a publisher though, so he wouldn’t be able to put out the 1791 almanac in time. He had to start over and write a version for 1792. With the survey work over, Benjamin worked day and night on his almanac. A man from Pennsylvania named James Pemberton helped him find a publisher. This would not be easy, since many publishers didn’t think a book written by a black person would sell. But Pemberton was an anti-slavery activist, and commited to helping Benjamin overcome these challenges. 

Benjamin and Thomas Jefferson

When he’d finished most of the almanac, Benjamin wrote to Thomas Jefferson, sending a copy of the book along too. Jefferson had written the United States Declaration of Independence, which contains the words “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” 

Benjamin wanted to know how Jefferson could write those words, yet still hold captive “so numerous a part of my brethren under groaning captivity and cruel oppression.” Brethren means “brothers.” Benjamin was asking Jefferson how he could justify enslaving other people, people with skin like his. According to Jefferson’s words, these people had rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  At this time, Jefferson was Secretary of State, a high office in the US government.

Benjamin would not have been surprised if Jefferson had ignored his letter. But Jefferson actually wrote back! He complimented him on his almanac and said he wished that someday slavery would end. While Benjamin was surprised that Jefferson wrote back at all, he may have wondered how he could hope for slavery to end, but not do anything to stop it.

In the meantime, Pemberton had found a publisher for the almanac, a man named William Goddard. Goddard promised to pay Benjamin generously, and advertised the work as “BENJAMIN BANNEKER’S highly Approved ALMANAC.” Benjamin had been studious in his calculations, and the book was deserving of approval. It contained calendars for planting crops, tables showing phases of the moon and other astronomical events, home remedies and herbal medicines. 

Benjamin did not forget his brethren either, people like him who were forced to work and live as property of others. He included excerpts from powerful antislavery essays and speeches. He also included an essay by his friend Dr. Benjamin Rush that suggested a Peace Office in the United States government. Scattered throughout were meditations on how to live a good and just life. The almanac sold out quickly, and Benjamin published a new version each year until 1797.

Benjamin Banneker’s Latter Years

By that time, Benjamin Banneker was an old man. He could look back on his long life and accomplishments with pride. But he never forgot that such accomplishments were out of reach for most black people in the United States. As a surveyor, almanac writer, and astronomer Benjamin used a lot of numbers and math in his work, but he also spoke out for what he believed in whenever he could. Benjamin valued freedom and fairness, and he knew that everyone had a responsibility to stand up for those values.

Benjamin passed away in 1806, at home in his log cabin. The clock he had built over fifty years before still chimed each hour, marking out his days–his rising, his work, his rest. A fire destroyed the cabin just days later, along with many of his papers, tools, and the clock. It would never ring out again. But nothing could silence the brave words and knowledge that Benjamin had sent out into the world. And even though slavery wouldn’t end for another 60 years, nothing could silence the voices of those speaking out for freedom and fairness. 

Sources

https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript

https://web.archive.org/web/20170130044246/http://www.xyht.com/professional-surveyor-archives/feature-benjamin-banneker/

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/2h71.html

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/2h68.html

https://transcription.si.edu/project/8045

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Banneker

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson

Pinkney, Andrea Davis. (2012) Hand in Hand: Ten Black Men Who Changed America. Disney, New York.

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In the middle of the eighteenth century, change was in the air. New ideas about independence, how people should work and govern themselves, were spreading. Colonists in North America were fighting a revolution against British rule. In England, factories were popping up along river banks, where huge mill-wheels used the energy of the rushing water to power machines. France had factories too, but it also had philosophy, art and fashions that people around the world imitated. But there was one thing that this fast-changing world was not ready for: Sophie Germain. 

Sophie was born in Paris, France, in the same year that the Americans signed their Declaration of Independence from Britain: 1776. Before Sophie grew up, revolution would come to France too, and it would change her life, shaping her into the person she would become. A person that didn’t fit the mold. A woman who thought and worked tirelessly on a subject women weren’t supposed to be interested in. 

Sophie’s family included father, Ambroise-François; her mother, Marie-Madeline, and two sisters: an older one also named Marie-Madeline, and younger one named Angélique-Ambroise. Sophie’s father was a wealthy silk merchant and politician, so the family always had what they needed. But sometimes things happen that we just can’t avoid. When Sophie was 13, One of these unavoidable things happened. The French revolution started, spurred on by an economic crisis that caused many people to suffer. The common people wanted more rights, and angry people were marching through the streets. 

It was too dangerous for Sophie to leave the house, so she looked for things to do inside. She spent much of her time in father’s library. She was especially drawn to books about mathematics. In one book, she found the story of a famous Greek mathematician and engineer, Archimedes. Archimedes  invented many ingenious contraptions. They moved things up and down with pulleys, counted the miles carts had traveled, and even plucked enemy ships out of the water. But the story that captivated Sophie had to do with a simple drawing in the sand. Roman forces had invaded Archimedes’ home island of Syracuse. As the soldiers stormed the island, Archimedes was lost in thought over a geometric diagram he’d drawn in the sand, and didn’t run to safety, so he was killed by the invading Roman forces. Wanting to honor her mathematical hero, Sophie taught herself all the math she could.

At first her parents discouraged her. They refused to light fire in her room or let her have warm clothes at night, thinking this would keep her from late-night study sessions. But Sophie found a way. When she was sure her parents were in bed, she lit candles, bundled herself in blankets, and took out the math books she’d hidden. She teased out patterns in the numbers and worked through equations. Maybe she even traced diagrams with her finger in the ash of that cold fireplace in her room, imagining Archimedes with his sand. She taught herself Latin so she could read famous mathematical works by Isaac Newton and Leonard Euler. At one point, a famous mathematician named Jaques Antoine-Joseph Cousin visited Sophie’s father at their house. Meeting him inspired Sophie to study even harder. Eventually, Sophie’s mother saw that her daughter was not going to give up, and secretly supported her studies.

As she grew into a young woman, Sophie wished she could study and work with other mathematicians. But women could not attend universities in France at the time. Still, Sophie found a way. A new university opened in Paris, which promised to send lecture notes to anyone who wanted them. Sophie took advantage, requesting, then carefully studying, the notes of another famous mathematician, Joseph Louis Lagrange. But just keeping up with advances in math wasn’t enough for Sophie. She wanted to be a part of those advances. She wanted to contribute. 

But again, Sophie had to find a way. She began writing to Lagrange about his work, using a false name M. LeBlanc to hide the fact that she was a woman. After a few letters, Lagrange was impressed. In fact, he wanted to meet this M. LeBlanc in person. Of course, this would blow her cover! But there was no way around it. Sophie reluctantly agreed. Fortunately, Lagrange wasn’t upset. He saw that Sophie was a talented, hard-working mathematician, He encouraged her to keep up her studies.

The type of math that Sophie was most interested in is called number theory. She had read a book about it by Adrien Marie Legendre, and was hooked. Number theory is all about finding patterns in numbers and seeing how they relate to each other. If you know that all even numbers can be divided by two, and odd numbers can’t, then you know something about number theory. Number theorists also study things like prime numbers, which can only be divided by themself and 1, and square numbers, which you get by multiplying any number by itself. 

Lagrange wasn’t Sophie’s only pen-pal. Later, she began writing to another famous mathematician, Carl Friedrich Gauss, Gauss had also worked on number theory. Again, Sophie used the pen name M. LeBlanc to disguise her gender. Gauss was also impressed with the work of “Monsieur LeBlanc,” and even raved to his friends about it. 

But Sophie became worried when she learned that Gauss was living in an area of Germany that was occupied by French soldiers. She wanted to make sure he was safe. She used her father’s connections to contact someone in the French army there, and a soldier was sent to check on Gauss. He was fine, but confused. He didn’t know why this mysterious young woman called Mademoiselle Germain would be concerned. He told the officer that he didn’t know anyone by that name!

Sophie later wrote to clear up his confusion, revealing that he knew the mysterious Mademoiselle Germain as “Monsieur Leblanc.”  Gauss, like Lagrange, was not angered by the revelation that the person he’d been writing turned out to be a femme-savant or “knowledgable woman.” He continued writing to Sophie, and gave her credit for inspiring some of his ideas in number theory.

Though Sophie had found some supporters in the math world, she still had few chances to prove to the wider world that she was just as capable as any male mathematician.  Finally, an opportunity arose when the Paris Academy of Sciences decided to put on a competition. A visiting professor named Ernst Chladni had recently put on an intriguing demonstration in Paris. He had sprinkled a layer of sand onto metal plates of many different shapes, then rubbed a violin bow across the edge of each plate. A different tone sounded from each plate, and the sand on the plates would jump and shift, making beautiful waves, whorls, and starbursts that were unique to each shape. 

The Academy asked mathematicians to explain what was happening using mathematical formulas. This was a hard problem, but like Archimedes, Sophie got to work, studying the patterns in the sand. She submitted her entry anonymously in 1811. She was the only entrant, so you might think she’d automatically get the prize. But some contests don’t have a winner. The judges decided her entry didn’t quite explain the problem well enough. 

The Academy re-opened the contest in 1813, giving Sophie a chance to show the progress she’d made. Again, she was the only entrant, and again no prize was awarded. But Sophie kept going, working on the problem, correcting the errors in her formulas, and experimenting with the metal plates. Luckily for her, the Academy had kept the contest going, and still no one else had entered! By this time, Sophie had been working on this problem for more than three years. She entered (again, the only person to do so) and finally won!

Even  though she’d won a prize for her work, and many male mathematicians praised her abilities, Sophie would never get a job as a mathematician. They simply weren’t available for women at the time. Some male mathematicians even used her work without giving her credit. But she continued to toil away at math for the rest of her life. She was able to publish a few papers, including one about her work on the metal plates. She worked on Fermat’s last theorem–a famous and very difficult math problem, finding new ways to solve parts of it. Adrien Legendre, whose book had drawn her to number theory, would give her credit for this work when he finally solved it.

Sophie even continued working on math after she discovered she had cancer in 1829. She continued working when revolution again broke out in France in 1830. She found a way until she finally passed away at home in 1831. 

Many people have paid tribute to Sophie in other ways though. Gauss asked the University of Gottingen to give her an honorary degree, though they didn’t grant it until 1837, after her death. Some of her work would turn out to be important in the design of the Eiffel Tower. There’s a street named after her in Paris, and, fittingly, later mathematicians named a new type of prime number after her. The Paris Academy of Sciences named an annual math prize after her, honoring the time and care she took in working on the contest she entered three times before she finally won. 

Sophie did not have the opportunities she deserved during her life. Though she was clearly talented, she might have been a much greater mathematician if others had taken her more seriously.  Still, Sophie helped change people’s minds about what women could do. She worked hard and refused to be ignored. Because of Sophie and other female scientists of her time, future generations of women could enter math and science as themselves. They no longer had to sign their letters with fake names, or hide under layers of blankets late at night to study. They were free to claim their own work and study near an open window, the sun shining on their faces.

Sources

https://byjus.com/maths/number-theory/

https://interestingengineering.com/7-amazing-inventions-from-archimedes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophie_Germain

Campbell, Paul J; Grinstein, Louise S (1987) Women of Mathematics: A Bibliographic Source Book. Greenwood Press, New York.

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Close your eyes and imagine you are in a beautiful, Japanese garden. You see a small stream leading to a calm pond covered in bright pink flowers and water lilies. The green grass around you is cut short and all of the plants and shrubbery are neatly trimmed. Flowering trees are above you. You see a wooden footbridge and cross the pond to an open area with a grand temple in the middle. It’s designed in Japanese fashion with a peaked roof. Surrounding the temple are men and women holding wooden swords. A teacher is showing them how to use the sword, swinging it upward and then down. They all follow his instructions at the same time in a coordinated dance. Then they kick and swing the swords again. Past them, in the temple, you see a group cross-legged and meditating. You suddenly realize you are observing a group of Japanese samurais in training.

Have you ever heard of a “samurai”? A samurai was an ancient warrior in the country of Japan. You could compare them to the knights of Medieval Times, because they were warriors who wore armor, fought in battles, and lived a code of honor. But they were also different from knights in other ways which we’ll talk about today.

If you saw a samurai today they’d be wearing armor, a helmet, and carrying a long sword called a “katana.” They were known for their great strength and skill and speed and their incredible use of the katana sword. The first Samurai fought on horseback. For a long time, the soldiers in Japan were peasants – simple people who farmed the land and weren’t trained to fight. So when they fought in a battle, they weren’t very effective because their job was normally farming not fighting. At the time in Japan, some of the wealthier citizens had horses and decided they might be better warriors than the peasants. Horses gave them an advantage and using a bow and arrow from the back of the horse, these wealthy Japanese became very dangerous fighters. Soon, instead of peasants fighting, more and more of the soldiers became Samurai, fighting with swords and bow and arrows from horseback.

As the samurai trained harder and from a young age, they became known for their excellent skills with the katana sword. They disciplined themselves. Discipline means to have self-control. Daily they practiced riding horses, using the katana, and doing things that were very hard but made them stronger because they pushed their body and mind to their limits. They were similar to Spartan warriors in this way, too.

Some of the legendary samurai were women, too. Tomoe Gozen fought bravely during the clan wars. She was a skilled archer and swordsman, “a warrior worth a thousand” the legends say. She was a strong horseman and could ride down steep hills. In battle, she was sent out as a captain in the best armor and the best weapons to lead the other samurai – and “performed more deeds of valor than any of the other warriors.” 

Another well known general at this time was female samurai Hangaku Gozen. Female foot soldiers were also known to fight alongside the men during clan wars.

In the Pacific Ocean, Japan is an island located off the coast of China. At the time, a powerful people called the Mongols ruled China and wanted to rule Japan, too. In 1270 A.D. Kublai Khan, the leader of the Mongol army,  decided to attack Japan. He sent 40,000 soldiers and 90 ships to invade the island. But for many years, the Japanese Samurai had been preparing and training to defend their country. When the Mongols invaded, they were met by the fast and powerful Samurai who used their skills to defend Japan and stopped the invasion. 

For a time, Japan was also divided into power clans, or groups of people sort of like small cities or towns. The clans were ruled by a leader called a “daimyo” (dime-yo). The daimyo hired samurai to protect their clan. Often clans fought against each other for more land so many of the samurai battles over the years were between competing clans. Samurai became distinguished for their honor in battle. Honor meant their commitment to the samurai code or set of rules known as the “bushido.” They strictly followed the rules of a samurai or “bushido” which included courage, respect, self-control and righteousness, which means doing the right thing. In battle, the Samurai were taught to never surrender or back down, to continue fighting even when they were losing and to have courage even in the most fearful moments.

In 1582, a man named Oda Nobunaga was born to a powerful daim-yo in the Owari region. Growing up, Nobunaga was trained as other samurai to fight with the bow and arrow, sword, and learned to discipline himself after the “bushido,” the way of the samurai. After his father passed away, Nobunaga and his brothers fought to rule the clan and Nobunaga became the new leader. But he wasn’t content leading one clan, he wanted to grow the clan’s power and began conquering other clans nearby. He was a skilled military leader and organized his soldiers and samurai in a way that continued to win until he ruled many other clans. Nobunaga also made alliances with other powerful clans. An alliance is an agreement that they will work together. And eventually Nobunaga’s clans and alliances brought all of the clans together. Nobunaga eventually became the leader of half the clans in Japan, also called a “shogun.” He built a beautiful castle on a lake and lived there during his rule. From there he continued to organize and strengthen his armies and make laws that he believed were in Japan’s best interest. The rule of a powerful Japanese leader was called a “shogunate” and his rule was followed by powerful leaders such as Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa. Under Hideyoshi, all of Japan was united under a single leader or “shogunate.” This led the way for a unified Japan up until the single country it is today. 

Back to the samurai – with Japan united, the different clans and their dime-yo leaders no longer fought for control. Because there was peace between clans, the samurai weren’t needed for fighting. Also, gunpowder and guns were introduced to Japan, so the army became made up of regular soldiers and swords were replaced with guns. The samurai became workers for the new Japanese government. They still followed the code of the Samurai but weren’t needed for battle and taught others about the “bushido” code and how to have self-control and respect for others. 

Some of the samurai who didn’t want to become peaceful government workers and who no longer were needed by the clans became leaderless. These wandering samurai became known as “Ronin” (row-nin) who often became bandits or soldiers for hire. In one of the most famous Japanese stories, 47 of these Ronin lost their master after he was murdered. They band together and seek after his murderer until they get revenge. This legendary story was made into plays and later movies and comic books called “47 Ronin.” 

As we’ve mentioned before, the way of the samurai, the special code they followed that made them samurai was called “bushido.” Without bushido, they wouldn’t have had the discipline to train and act with courage during the toughest moments of battle. Even though you aren’t a samurai, you can take the best things from the bushido code and apply them to your own life. As we talk about the principles of bushido, think about how you might use them each day.

The first principle of bushido was rectitude or justice. This meant to act in a way that made sense, was rational, even when it was very hard to do so. Also, to treat others with fairness and honor.

The second principle was courage, which means acting on what is right even when it is hard. A samurai was determined to act even under difficult circumstances. If you’ve ever done something hard, when it wasn’t easy, you’ve demonstrated courage. And courage doesn’t always come easy, it takes practice! Next time something challenging comes your way say to yourself, “I can have courage, I can do it!” With each courageous step you take, it can become easier.

The third principle of bushido was mercy. This means showing love to others and being able to forgive.

Fourth, politeness. To treat others with respect, have good manners, and say kind things. 

Fifth, honesty. We all know what that means. Telling the truth even when it’s not easy.

Sixth, honor. This meant showing personal respect. Respecting yourself and having patience. This means taking a deep breath when you might get upset and finding ways to work through problems by keeping a cool head, rather than getting angry and losing ones temper. 

Seventh, loyalty. To the samurai this loyalty to their leaders, usually the daim-yo. For you, this might mean listening to your parents or sticking up for your family, siblings, and friends, and being there for them when they need your help.

Finally, eighth, self control. One of the most important because it helps with all of the other principles. This means being able to manage your wants. There might be something you really want, but you can ask yourself if you really need it. It’s important to be able to tell the difference between wants and needs. Needs are things you do need, like good food and sleeping each day. Wants might be a toy or watching a movie, which can be fun at times but aren’t really necessary all the time. Next time you want something, but don’t really need it, try saying “no.” And you’ll find each time you strengthen that part of your brain that has self-control. Also, eating healthy and getting good sleep help with self-control. 

Those are the principles of bushido, the way of the samurai. Like I said, think of ways you can incorporate these good teachings and others into your own life to have the strength of a samurai!

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But did you also know that letters are also important to people who study history? They are! We have the letters of many famous people from the past. In some cases, that’s the only writing we have that was written by an important person. Today, we’re going to talk about someone who is famous for the many letters she wrote to important people of her day: Abigail Adams. 

Abigail was the wife of one US president, and the mother of another, but her story starts in Weymouth, Massachusetts, in 1744, when the North American colonies were still part of England. Abigail was sick and weak at birth, but to everyone’s surprise, she survived. Whether her parents realized it at the time or not, this strong will was a characteristic that Abigail would show throughout her life. She was a spirited and curious child, who didn’t have much use for the types of chores girls were expected to do in colonial America. Instead of sewing, churning butter, or spinning wool into yarn, Abigail preferred to read the books in her father’s library, ask questions of his guests, and boss around her younger siblings! Even though she didn’t get to go to school, Abigail was interested in philosophy, history, government, law, and many other subjects. Over time, Abigail did learn to behave in the way people expected, but she never stopped reading, learning, or expressing her opinion. 

When she was 18, Abigail met a young struggling lawyer named John Adams. The two fell in love and were married in 1764. Abigail’s father, a minister, performed the ceremony. At first, the couple lived on a farm not far from Abigail’s childhood home, with John practicing law from the house. After a few years, the family moved to the city of Boston, where John’s law practice could grow. 

At this time, the American colonies were becoming unhappy with British rule. Britain had fought a war, the French and Indian War, to keep control of the American colonies. Britain won the war, but they had borrowed a lot of money to pay for it. They needed to pay that money back, so the British Parliament passed taxes on tea, paper, sugar, glass and other goods in the colonies. The American colonists were upset because they did not have a say in the taxes. Boston was full of people angry with the British king. They staged protests and boycotted, or refused to buy, British goods. John and Abigail watched all this and thought about how government should work and what rights people should have. John wrote pieces criticizing the taxes for the Boston newspaper. 

By 1774, Abigail and John felt that the colonies should try to win their freedom from Britain. John went to Philadelphia to be part of the First Continental Congress, where the delegates debated how to respond to British taxes and the harsh laws they’d enacted.  Abigail lived on their farm during this time, and she and John wrote to each other often. Though Abigail certainly had a lot to do running the farm and raising their four children, she used her letters to keep John informed of important events happening in their family and in Massachusetts.  

In 1775, John again took part in the Continental Congress. This time, he helped Thomas Jefferson write the Declaration of Independence, which said that the American colonies would no longer be part of Britain. If there was going to be a new country, Abigail thought it should do certain things a little better than in the past. She believed women should be allowed to own property, get a good education, and have a say in the laws of their own country. She wrote to John during the Congress:  “In this new code of laws…I desire you would remember the ladies, and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors.” Unfortunately, her ideas didn’t make it into the Declaration of Independence or the new laws of the country. 

Abigail also questioned how other groups would be treated in the new country. Even though the Declaration of Independence stated that “all men are created equal” and had rights to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” most black people in the colonies were enslaved, and many of the members of the Continental Congress owned slaves. Abigail felt very strongly that this was wrong, and would lead to conflict between the states later on. She wrote to John: “I wish most sincerely there was not a slave in the province. It always appeared a most iniquitous scheme to me–fight ourselves for what we are daily robbing and plundering from those who have as good a right to it as we have.” Unfortunately, this was another issue where Abigail’s views didn’t carry the day, though John was also against slavery. Sadly, when the United States constituion was written in 1787, it allowed slavery to continue. 

As the Continental Congress was debating and writing new laws, the Revolution was gaining speed. Abigail saw first hand the effects of the war. She wrote letters to John detailing British troop movements and battles that happened near their home, and . She even took her son, the future president John Quincy Adams, to a hilltop to watch the Battle of Bunker Hill. She housed and fed soldiers from the Revolutionary War in their home as well as people who had to leave their homes because of the fighting. All the while, she made all the decisions about how the farm should be run, and made sure the family had enough money to live. 

After the war, John Adams travelled to France to help negotiate the peace treaty between the new United States of America and England. At first, Abigail stayed behind and took care of running the family’s farm, but she, along with her oldest daughter and son, soon joined him in Europe. There, she had the chance to explore both Paris and London while John worked as a diplomat. 

When they returned to the United States, John became the vice-president to George Washington. When Washington decided to step down as president after eight years, John was elected as the second president of the United States. Abigail spent much of her time hosting dinners and meeting with visitors at the Presidential House in Philadelphia, which is where the capitol was at the time. She also advised John on who should be given certain jobs and helped him edit his speeches. 

In the last few months of John’s presidency, the couple moved to a brand-new presidential house in the brand-new capital city of Washington, DC. And I do mean brand-new: the house, which, of course, we now call the White House, wasn’t quite finished, and it was surrounded by woods and fields instead of the bustling city that’s there now! Abigail wrote to her daughter telling her how hard it was to heat the rooms, or even find people to help cut firewood.  Abigail warned her daughter though: “You must keep all of this to yourself. When asked how I like it, say that I write you the situation is beautiful, which is true. The house is livable, but there is not a single apartment finished.”

A few months later, John lost his attempt to be re-elected as president. Though Abigail was disappointed, she wrote to her son, future president John Qunicy Adams, saying: “could I be assured that the remainder of my days might be passed in Peace and quietness, I should have reason to rejoice in a liberation from public Life.” She and John returned to Massachuesetts, to enjoy their retirement on a farm they called Peacefield. John Quincy went on to be elected president in 1825, although Abigail had passed away by that time. 

Even for people who are well-known, being able to read their letters gives us a better idea of how they felt and reacted to events at the time. Letters help historians piece together what things were really like in the past – how people felt privately, and when conditions weren’t as rosy as they would have liked. Letters show us how people felt about each other, and how they supported each other. Abigail’s letters to John Adams, to her children, and to other people, famous or not, show us that she was an intelligent, caring, and opinionated woman. She was devoted to the cause of creating a successful and independent United States, and she made sacrifices to see it happen.  But more than telling us about the history of that time, these letters give us a glimpse of the real people who wrote them–not only their accomplishments, but their true feelings, fears, and hopes for the future.

Sources

Abigail Adams

https://millercenter.org/president/adams/adams-1797-abigail-firstlady

Abigail Adams (1744 – 1818)

https://www.nps.gov/adam/learn/historyculture/abigail-adams-1744-1818.htm

Black and slave population of the United States from 1790 to 1880

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1010169/black-and-slave-population-us-1790-1880/

First Lady Biography: Abigail Adams

http://www.firstladies.org/biographies/firstladies.aspx?biography=2 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Adams

https://www.nps.gov/articles/archeology-at-adams-birthplaces.htm

Belton, Blair. Abigail Adams in her own words. New York, NY: Gareth Stevens Publishing, 2014.

The post History of Abigail Adams for Kids appeared first on Bedtime History: Podcast and Videos For Kids.

Have you ever gone camping? When you camp, you’re usually in a place where there isn’t wifi or cell reception, or even electricity. You have to figure out ways to entertain yourself that don’t involve movies, TV, or the internet. If you haven’t been in that situation, take a moment to imagine what you would do. You could take a walk and explore nature, read a book, or play a board or card game. 

But what about when it gets dark? If you’ve been camping, you know that once it’s dark, you can’t really do any of those things easily. Instead, you might build a fire and take turns telling stories– stories about your past, characters you’ve made up, or even ghost stories. 

If you’ve had this experience, then you know something about the topic of today’s episode. Today, we’re going to talk about how people entertained themselves, and learned, before there was electricity for things like lights, cellphones, and TVs. Before there were many books. And, in some cases, before there was even writing. Although humans have had writing for thousands of years, until the last few hundreds of year, most people in the world couldn’t even read. Books were also expensive and hard to find for a very long time, so even if you could read, you probably wouldn’t own a lot of books. 

Instead, people told each other stories. People have probably been telling stories to each other for as long as they’ve been talking. Since humans have always lived in groups, the really good stories would be told over and over again. They would be passed down from parents or grandparents to children, generation after generation. And over time they would change. Each person who told the story might add their own details, while keeping the basic plot and characters in place. Every culture in the world has stories that are passed down orally, which means they are telling them by speaking and by memory. Some stories are written down later, but many never are.  

Today we call this “oral tradition.” The “oral” part means it’s spoken–not written down– and the “tradition” part means it’s something that people pass down from generation to generation over a long time.  But this is just a modern way of talking about something that people have been doing for tens of thousands of years. 

We also just call it “storytelling.”

As you probably know, people still do this, any time someone tells a story from memory, without reading it from a book. Maybe it’s one that they’ve made up. Maybe they heard someone else tell it. Maybe their great-great-great- grandmother was the first to tell it, and it was so good, the family has been telling it to their children ever since.  

Many religious stories were passed down as oral traditions for hundreds of years before being written down. Many people today still memorize and re-tell them, even though they’re written down. The Christian Bible, the Jewish Torah, the Hindu Vedas – all of these religious teachings were passed down by people who memorized them and re-told them to the young in their families or communities. They wanted to keep the stories about their beliefs and morals alive.   

Families have their own stories as well. Some families have stories about a great-grandparent or aunt or other ancestor who did something exciting or remarkable, and these stories might be passed down orally too. 

Often, traditional stories would start out as real history. Imagine listening to a live Bedtime History podcast while sitting around a campfire!  A war would be fought, or a king would rule wisely and make sacrifices for his people. People who lived through the actual events would tell their families about them. As time went on, the children would grow and tell the stories to their children and grandchildren. 

Different storytellers would add things. They might change things in order to teach a lesson. A god might come into the story to help the wise king, or punish a bad ruler. A war might last ten years instead of two and start because of a quarrel between the gods. Magic and miracles would make their way in.

These stories would grow more exciting and fantastic over the years. There would be arguments between gods and people. Heroes would go on daring voyages and fight evil monsters. They would become stronger or larger than real-life people. They were a lot like the superheroes you find in comics or movies now. In fact, gods and heroes that started out in traditional stories do come up in modern superhero movies – Thor and Loki from the Marvel universe were originally Norse gods! Just like in the Marvel-universe, the same characters would come up again and again. They’d have their own habits and personalities. They would repeat the same mistakes. People would get to know them as if they were real.

But these stories didn’t just talk about history made by humans. Many traditional stories tell about the land and our planet as well. They tell people how to find food or water and survive where they live. Sometimes, stories talk about meteors, floods, and volcanic eruptions. Many of you have probably heard the story of Noah’s ark and the flood in the bible. This isn’t the only story about a flood though. The ancient Mesopotamians, who lived in what is now Iraq, had a story about a giant flood too. It’s part of the story of the hero-king Gilgamesh. The ancient Chinese, Native Americans, Australian Aborigines, and many other cultures also have flood stories.  

Some traditional stories talk about specific natural events in Earth’s past. The Klamath people, a Native American tribe from the northwestern United States, have a story about how a specific mountain lake formed. The story tells about a god who lived under a mountain, who wanted to marry a woman from a nearby village. When she refused him, he began raging, throwing rocks and fire out of the mountain. Finally, another god helped the village people by pushing the mountain god and his fire back down under the ground, leaving a deep crater that became a lake. 

Stories like this give us an idea about how long oral traditions can be passed down. The lake, which is in Oregon, is now called Crater Lake. Scientists have discovered that the eruption that created the lake happened over 7 thousand years ago. It hasn’t erupted again since, which means this story may have been passed down from generation to generation for a very long time!

Often, a person in a community had a job to memorize and tell stories. These storytellers, sometimes called bards or rhapsodes, did their best to make the stories interesting and exciting. Sometimes, they would dance, wear masks, act out the action, or clown around while telling the stories. 

You may be wondering how on earth a storyteller could remember so many stories without writing them down. Today, we are very used to having things written down. Reading and writing are part of school, and we’re told they are very important skills. And they are. But in the past, before writing was invented, and then before most people could read, memory was just as important. People had to be able to remember a lot of information just to be able to survive – to find food and water, and make shelters. Stories helped them do this, and they also helped people learn about their culture’s history and beliefs. 

Still, some stories that were passed down orally were very long! Many of these stories were told as poems. They are often called epic poems. For the most part, the stories that went into these poems weren’t told all at once, and one bard probably wouldn’t memorize all of them. But still, many did memorize poems as long as books. 

Telling the stories as poems made them easier to memorize, because poems have a regular rhythm. Sometimes they were even set to music. They would also repeat certain lines over and over. For example, an epic poem might always describe the sunrise on a new day with a particular line, such as:

  Dawn stretched her rosy fingers over the sea.

A line like this might be in several different stories, and be repeated many times in one story. All this would help others remember as well, so they could go on to tell the stories later. 

Many stories have been collected and written down as epics. A Finnish epic poem called the Kalevala was told for hundreds of years before being written down in the 19th century. It tells the traditional Finnish myth of the creation of the earth and the life of the first man.

The most famous epics are probably the poems the Iliad and the Odyssey, from ancient Greece. The Iliad tells the story of a war the Greeks fought over a woman named Helen, who was said to be the most beautiful in the world. It focuses on the hero Achilles, who must put aside his argument with a friend in order to help win the war. The Odyssey tells the story of the journey another king, Odysseus, took to get home after the war. Both of these poems are hundreds of pages long.

But that’s nothing compared to the longest epic poem! That title goes to the Mahabharata, from India. It tells the story of a war between two royal families that took place in the 8th or 9th century BCE, and was written down in the 4th century BCE. Can you guess how long it was? The length of a poem is usually talked about in terms of number of lines. The Mahabharata is over one hundred thousand lines! As a book, that’s close to one thousand pages.

Every culture on Earth has its own set of stories that has been passed down over hundreds, if not thousands of years. The Australian Indigineous people have traditional stories about their coasts being flooded as the last ice age ended about 10 thousand years ago. Stories of a Swahili hero-king named Liyongo have survived since the middle ages. Many fairy tales that you likely know, like Little Red Riding Hood or Hansel and Gretel come from German stories that were passed down orally for a long time before being written down. These are just a few examples – there are hundreds more!

Take a few minutes to think about someone important to you who’s lived a lot longer than you. Maybe a parent or grandparent, a neighbor or a teacher. Take some time soon to sit down with them and ask them to tell you a story about what things were like when they were young. You might ask about an important event that they lived through, or how they played when they were children, what their house was like or if they had any pets. You never know what you’ll learn! Maybe when you get older, you can tell your children or grandchildren these stories. Or, you might like them so much, you decide to write them down. You will be continuing the oral tradition, but more importantly, you will hear some wonderful stories and be entertained and learn from them, too!

Sources

https://scroll.in/article/806662/the-mahabharata-how-an-oral-narrative-of-the-bards-became-the-didactic-text-of-the-brahmins

https://africanpoems.net/epic/introduction-to-epics/

https://www.britannica.com/topic/oral-tradition

Nunn, Patrick, 2018. The Edge of Memory: Ancient Stories, Oral Tradition and the Post-Glacial World. Bloomsbury Sigma, London. 

https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2015/marchapril/feature/how-the-grimm-brothers-saved-the-fairy-tale

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Who was Siddhartha Gautama?

Imagine you’re a prince or a princess, living in a giant, luxurious palace. There your parents make sure that you have everything you could ever want or need: lots of toys, fine clothes, and the best education. You’re surrounded by beautiful gardens and expensive things. You have servants to clean up after you, bring your food, and help with everything. When you’re not learning from private tutors, you spend your days swimming, practicing archery and swordsmanship, and riding horses. The palace is so massive, it’s your entire world and you never even need to leave. 

Now imagine you decide to give that all up. You’re not happy with that life. You wonder if life has a greater meaning. You wonder if possessions can ever make people truly happy and content. This was the life Siddhartha Gautama found himself in. You might have heard of him: now, we call him Buddha. 

What was the Buddha’s real name?

The story of how Siddhartha became Buddha begins even before his birth. Siddhartha’s father was king of a small kingdom in northern India in the sixth century BCE over 2,500 years ago!  Several years before Siddhartha was born, the king was visited by sages, or wise men, who told him his son would be either a great king or a great holy man. Of course, Siddhartha’s father wanted his son to follow in his footsteps and be a great king.  So when Siddhartha was born in 567 BCE, his father decided to shelter his son from the world, so he wouldn’t know about suffering and death. He thought that if Siddhartha never saw bad things in the world, he wouldn’t want to fix them, and so he wouldn’t want to become a holy man. 

Buddha’s Early Life

So Siddhartha grew up surrounded by all the comforts and privileges money could buy. When he became a young man, he married a woman named Gopa. He seemed to have it all, but the plan Siddhartha’s father made for him to become a great king was about to fall apart. Instead of accepting the life of luxury that he was given, Siddhartha grew restless living in the palace. One day, he asked his father to let him go on a chariot ride to see the city around the palace. His father agreed but told the chariot driver to stay in the richer parts of the city, close to the palace, to avoid letting Siddhartha see people who were poor or suffering. 

Siddhartha set out in the chariot with his driver. Before long, they saw an old man, slowly hobbling along the road, looking as if he might fall over at any moment. Siddhartha had never seen such an old man, and he asked his driver what was wrong with him. 

His driver replied, “He is very old. His body has grown weak with age. You too will grow old someday. All people do.”

Siddhartha was disturbed but asked him to drive on. Later in the ride, they saw a sick man lying by the side of the road. He was groaning and looked very unhappy. Again, Siddhartha asked what was wrong with the man. 

His driver replied, “He is sick with a terrible disease. Everyone gets sick sometimes. Someday, you will get sick.”

Siddhartha felt terrible, seeing this man suffering, but they continued their ride through the city. 

On their way back to the palace, they came across a funeral procession. People were crying and moaning. For a third time, Siddhartha asked his chariot driver what was happening.

Again, his driver replied. “Someone has died, and these people are his friends and family. They are mourning for him.”  

When Siddhartha returned home, he could not stop thinking about the old man, the sick man, and the funeral. He thought about these things happening to his father and mother, to his wife, and to himself. He realized that all the treasure in the palace, all the servants waiting on him, and all the beautiful things surrounding him, could not prevent him or anyone else from the sad things he said. He realized that he wanted to find a way to help people overcome suffering. 

Siddartha’s Personal Journey

Once he realized these things, Siddhartha knew he could no longer live an easy life in the palace. So one day, he said goodbye to his family and set out to find the cause of suffering. He cut his hair and lived as an ascetic – someone who chooses to live in poverty and simplicity. He studied meditation with great holy men and discussed the problem of suffering with them, but after many years of living this way, he still didn’t know why it happened, or how he could prevent it.

Finally, he decided to sit and meditate under a bodhi tree. He vowed not to leave until he had the answer to the problem of human suffering.  Siddhartha sat meditating day and night, still and calm as a statue, for six days. On the sixth day, he opened his eyes and realized he understood the nature of suffering. He became enlightened and from then on was known as Buddha, which means awakened one. 

Buddha’s Four Noble Truths

For the rest of his life, Buddha traveled throughout India, teaching others about what he had discovered. He taught people the four noble truths he had realized about suffering.

The first truth is that everyone suffers and has hard things happen to them. It’s just part of life. 

The second truth is that we suffer because we are always wanting more, and trying to hold onto what we have. This might sound surprising. Didn’t he start his quest because he saw people who were suffering because they were old, sick, and dying? Buddha thought that the real reason we suffer is not that bad things happen to us, but because we allow negative feelings and desires to take over our thinking. If we’re sick, we lie around feeling sorry for ourselves and wishing we were well. But then when we’re healthy, we think of other things we want but don’t have, and we still suffer. 

Think about a time when you really wanted a new toy or game. It probably felt very unfair that you didn’t have it, and then, if you did get it, you might have been happy for a short time, but then you were just back to normal and wanted something new. We become attached to things, or even ideas of things, and those things are not permanent. This keeps us spending all our time wanting things we don’t have, and worrying we’ll lose what we do have. He taught that things like toys and games and other things we might buy don’t really make us happy deep down and any happiness we do feel doesn’t last.

The third truth is that we can overcome suffering. Once we overcome suffering, Buddha thought, we could reach a state of nirvana, or perfect peace and happiness, just as he did when he meditated under the bodhi tree. 

Finally, the fourth truth tells us how to overcome suffering. The way Buddha thought we overcome suffering is by following what he called the “eightfold path.” I won’t go over all eight parts of the path, but basically, to follow the eightfold path, we must always try to improve ourselves: this means being kind and honest; try not to harm anyone or anything; and acting with compassion. We must also learn to pay attention to our own thoughts. As we pay attention to our thoughts we can better understand the thoughts that make us feel sad. This helps us think in a new way. This paying attention to our thoughts is called meditation.

Karma

Buddha taught that following the eight-fold path creates good karma.  Karma is the idea that everything you do has a consequence, whether good or bad. Kind actions tend to have positive consequences, and unkind actions, have negative consequences. This isn’t a consequence like a reward or a punishment – it’s just a thing that happens as a result of an action. He taught that by building up a lot of good karma, you can reach nirvana, a state of true enlightenment. 

Buddha spent the rest of his life traveling around India, teaching what he had discovered to anyone who wanted to learn. He encouraged his followers to try out the practices he taught for themselves, to see how well they worked, and to gather in communities to learn and help each other. The community was important because Buddha knew that to be truly happy, people need to feel compassion and kindness for both themselves and others. This is called metta in Buddhism.

Buddhism

After its beginnings in India, Buddhism spread throughout South and East Asia and was practiced widely in Tibet, Bhutan, Thailand, China, and Japan, among others. Today, people around the world practice Buddhism in different forms. For some, it’s a religion, but for others, it’s simply a way of looking at life.

Meditation

As Buddha taught, you can take the time to meditate each day. Meditating is a good chance to breathe deeply and slow your thoughts. It can also help you look closely at your thoughts. Your thoughts often lead to how you’re feeling. So if you have lots of negative thoughts those may be causing negative feelings. Breathing deeply and clearing your mind can give you the positive energy you need to help yourself and help others. There are a lot of great ways to start meditating. You can find videos, podcasts, and apps, that can get you started. But the simplest way is to just set a timer and try and sit and relax during that time while breathing deeply. 

What can I learn from Buddha?

Also, like Buddha taught, remember that things that we buy won’t always make us happy. Toys eventually break, or they go out of fashion, and we’ll always want something new. Think about how you might turn your attention to more important things like spending time with your family and friends, learning something new, or doing good for others. These are things that last longer and will give you greater, deeper joy.   

I hope you enjoyed this episode about Buddha. Be sure to check in next Monday for a new episode!

Sources

Fields, Rick. “Who Is the Buddha?” in: Tricycle, Spring 1997. https://tricycle.org/magazine/who-was-buddha-2/

Meyers, Rachel. Curiosity Chronicles: Snapshots of Ancient History. Little Monster Schooling, 2017.

Nagaraja, Dharmachari. Buddha at Bedtime.Watkins, 2016.

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Have you heard ever heard of a country called India? India is between China and the Middle East and much of it is surrounded by the Indian Ocean. India is home to one of the world’s oldest civilizations and for many years was one of the richest countries in the world. Over one billion people live in India. It has more people than any other country in the world, second only to China. 

In the 1800s the British Empire ruled many countries of the world including America. During the American Revolution the Patriots fought off the British King and his soldiers and became their own free country. At the time of our story the British Empire was still in control of India. This is the story of how India came to be free and the man who helped make it happen.

In 1869 in the city of Porbander, India a boy named Mahandas Ghandi was born in a small home to a simple family. The Ghandis were good people. The father was a leader in the city and his mother was a very religious woman. She taught her children to pray and read scriptures such as the Bhagavad Gita, the Vegas, and some texts from the Bible and Quaran. The Ghandis were Hindu, so they didn’t drinking wine or eat meat. Ghandi’s mother also taught the family to fast — which means going without food for a certain period of time. She believed it gave them strength and self control. 

When Mahandas was little he was very playful and sometimes liked to cause trouble. Often he would chase down dogs and twist their ears. He also loved to listen to classic Indian stories, such as the stories of Shravan and Harischandra, which were epic tales about virtue and adventure. These stories taught good principles and helped Mahandas want to be a good person.

At age nine Mahandas started school and there learned math, history, language and geography. He was just an okay student and pretty shy and had trouble speaking. This made him very nervous when he had to speak in front of his class, but he did like books and learning.

At this time in India people got married very young. Mahandas was 13 when he married a girl named Kasturba. When Kasturba was 17 they had their first baby, but sadly she didn’t live very long. This same year Mahandas also lost his father, so it was a very hard time for him. But later Mahandas and Kasturba had four more children, so it made them happy to be parents.

Next Ghandi decided to travel to London, the capital of the British Empire, to go to college to become a lawyer. A lawyer is someone who helps others work with the law, the rules that keep a country in order. Ghandi’s parents were worried while he was there he wouldn’t live his religion, that he would eat meat and drink alcohol and do other things they didn’t approve of. But when he left he promised them he would stay faithful no matter what. And Ghandi did live up to his word, he stayed strong in his Hindu religion while he was away from home. This is called commitment and dedication to something you believe in.

Ghandi learned a lot about the English people while he was in London. He had always been shy and at first school was difficult, but instead of giving up he joined a group that taught him how to speak louder and more clearly and with lots of practice he became a very good speaker.

After finishing college, Ghandi got a job working for a shipping company in South Africa. At this time the British Empire also ruled South Africa. In South Africa Ghandi was treated badly by the English because he was from India. Once when he was on a train they didn’t let him sit with other people. They picked him up and threw him off the train. Ghandi was so upset by this he refused to leave the train station until they let him on the next train. This is called a protest. Finally, they let Ghandi back on the train. Many times Ghandi was treated badly because he was from India. He started to think England shouldn’t be in control of India anymore. 

When Ghandi moved back to India and he was determined to do everything he could to make India a free country. He began speaking and writing about what the India people needed to do to become free. But Ghandi was a peaceful person and didn’t believe in hurting others to become free. Instead they would peacefully protest and use civil disobedience — which means finding other ways to make your point other than violence. 

One thing England did to control India was tax the things they bought, this meant charging extra for food and clothes and keeping the money. So instead of buying clothes and salt from England, Ghandi decided to make his own clothes and salt. He learned how to make his own clothes and started wearing them. Thousands of other India people started doing the same. This made the British upset, because they were losing money. To make his own salt, Ghandi began a journey to the ocean. He walked over 200 miles to make salt in the ocean. People all over India followed him and did the same. All across the world people saw what Ghandi and the India people were doing and sympathized with them. Ghandi was put in jail many times for his actions. He would go without eating until they would set him free. What Ghandi was doing was very difficult, but he was sacrificing his owns desires for the country and people he loved.

Sometimes the Indian people wanted to use guns and weapons to fight the British leaders, but Ghandi continually taught that this was the wrong way. He used scriptures of many different religions to show that peace was a better way. When his people did start to fight Ghandi would go without eating for many days until they stopped. The people often stopped because they loved Ghandi and didn’t want him to be hungry.

Eventually, England let India become free. The amazing part of this story is that it came about without a big war and lots of people dying. This was truly a miracle and Ghandi showed the world that freedom can come about through peaceful ways. The Indian people and Ghandi celebrated. They were so happy to be in control of their own country. The time after this was very challenging as they figured out how to be on their own, but it gave them a chance to make their own choices and be a free people.

Not long after India became free Ghandi passed away, but his mission was complete and the Indian people and people all across the world will remember him as someone who loved his people and gave his life for them.

In life it’s easy to focus on yourself and what makes you happy. Its natural for us to want to take care of ourselves, which is important to some degree. But giving of ourselves to help others is also very important. It’s important to share and to think about what makes others happy. Spend some time thinking about what makes others happy and then do something about it. Next time you have a treat think about how happy it will make others to taste it, too. If you are playing with a toy, think about how your brother or sister or friend might enjoy playing with it. 

Ghandi believed in being peaceful. Next time someone wants to fight with you or argue, think about a more peaceful way you can deal with the problem. You never know, in the end someone who you think is an enemy might become a friend.

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