American Struggle Read online

That was all Daria could bear to hear. Forgetting her manners, she ran toward the stairs and flew up to the third floor. In no time, she was by Roy’s side. Their old friend was much thinner and looked years older. Though pale and weary, he managed a smile.

  “Welcome home, Sergeant Gartner,” Andrew said as he came up beside Daria. He reached out to shake Roy’s hand.

  “Good to be home. I musta been touched in the head to want to go to war, Andrew. It ain’t nothin’ like I thought it’d be. No glory. It’s just death and dying, that’s all.” His face puckered. “Killing a man is a terrible thing.”

  Mama joined them then, and she also welcomed Roy home. He winced as he smiled at them and thanked them for coming. Daria could tell he was in pain.

  “I read the story of how you two broke up a real Rebel spy ring right here in the city,” Roy said. “The paper said Andrew even got a commendation and a medal. Can I see it?”

  Daria and Andrew smiled. This boy who’d survived battle after battle wanted to see Andrew’s little medal? Andrew jabbed a thumb toward Daria. “I gave it to my sister. If it hadn’t been for her, the spies would have gotten away, and we might not be having this conversation. She was the one who earned the medal.”

  “In my way of thinking, you’re all heroes,” Mama put in. “Come now,” she said to the twins. “Let’s allow Roy to rest. We can come back again tomorrow.”

  “Yes,” Andrew agreed. “I want him to get well, so we can get a baseball team formed.” To Roy he said, “And I have a genuine rule book now.”

  “A baseball game sounds mighty inviting just now,” Roy said wearily. “Mighty inviting.”

  Three days after Daria and Andrew turned thirteen, President Abraham Lincoln issued a decree that freed all the slaves. As Daria read the words of the Emancipation Proclamation from the newspaper the next morning, she felt hope for the first time in months.

  Surely if the slaves were free, there would be nothing more to fight about. No more blood needed to be shed.

  “Will this end it, Mama?” she asked, looking across the table at her mother. “Will this finally end the war?”

  “I don’t know, Daria. No one knows.” Mama smiled sadly. “But whatever the future holds, we must trust God to be with us and with those we love.”

  Daria looked at the chair where Papa used to sit. She thought of Edward and Christian and what they might be facing that very morning. Mama was right. The war might end tomorrow. It might last for years. But for today, Daria knew what to do. She bowed her head and silently prayed for her family and for the families of everyone fighting in the war. And she said a special prayer for her country.

  AMERICAN STRUGGLE:

  BONUS EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS

  EMMA’S SECRET: THE CINCINNATI EPIDEMIC

  VOCABULARY WORDS

  accolade—a sign or expression of high praise and esteem for somebody or some thing

  The first speaker had the crowd’s attention, and roars of approval filled the air as he punctuated every accolade for the United States of America with his fist in the air.

  belligerently—done in a hostile or aggressive manner

  She stared belligerently at the preacher. She turned to voice her protest to her mother, but Mama patted her arm and whispered, “We’ll talk later.”

  brigade—a group organized with a common goal, such as putting out a fire

  Many carried buckets, and one man yelled above the roar of the crowd, “Form a line! Start a brigade!”

  cholera—a serious, often fatal intestinal disease

  “Dr. Drake says cholera is in England. “

  constitution—the ability of someone’s body to stay healthy

  “Any violent emotion could weaken a body’s constitution, “Dr. Drake said.

  contagious—able to be passed from person to person

  The articles in Dr. Drake’s magazines had said it was not contagious, so it couldn’t spread from one person to the next.

  defiantly—done in a challenging or rebellious manner

  Defiantly, Rob stepped off the sidewalk and sank knee-deep in mud and slime.

  encompassed—encircled something

  She made a gesture with her hands that encompassed the entire downtown.

  foreboding—the feeling that something bad is going to happen

  He continued giving a lecture about filth and the creeks and animal carcasses that filled Emma with an uneasy sense of foreboding.

  gnarled—twisted, misshapen

  He pointed a gnarled finger at Emma.

  hackles—the hairs on the back of the neck and along the spine as on an animal; temper

  She practically saw Rob’s hackles rise.

  immersed—completely covered with liquid

  Other two-story houses across the street looked like one-story houses, their first floors immersed in floodwater.

  intemperate—lacking self-control; drinking excessively

  “She was a … a derelict, an intemperate person.”

  mercantile—relating to merchants or trading; a store

  The shingle that jutted out over Barnett’s Mercantile was almost that high off the street, and only the tip of it was above the water.

  pesthouse—a hospital for people with infections

  “I have a pesthouse set up, and the red flag is ready. I’ll get a wagon. “

  qualm—misgiving; uneasiness

  But she knew Rob and Sue Ellen felt even stranger, so she marched down the road and into the small, dusty building as though she didn’t have a qualm.

  rancid—having a strong a disagreeable smell or taste of decomposing fats or oils

  A musty, rancid smell made her nose wrinkle.

  reprimanded—scolded

  She’d never been reprimanded for talking in class before.

  resuscitating—reviving; bringing back to a state of breathing and consciousness

  Dr. Drake knelt beside the unconscious man and took over the resuscitating procedure.

  squalor—shabbiness and dirtiness resulting from poverty or neglect

  She and Rob had passed near it when they went to the river to measure the depth, but both of their mothers had warned them to stay away from the squalor and degradation of that area.

  succumbed—gave into; died from

  Papa had explained how Miss Ruthann was old and frail and easily succumbed to the cholera.

  IMPORTANT PEOPLE AND THINGS AROUND 1832

  Dr. Daniel Drake

  Daniel Drake was born on October 20, 1785, in New Jersey. His family was extremely poor and moved to Kentucky in 1788 in an attempt to improve their situation. In 1798, Drake became a student of Dr. Wallace Goforth, one of the first physicians in Cincinnati. He thrived as a student and joined Dr. Goforth’s practice. In 1805, Goforth awarded Drake a formal diploma, which allowed him to practice on his own. This was the first medical diploma awarded west of the Appalachian Mountains.

  Drake spent the next two years studying in Philadelphia. He moved to Kentucky and then, in 1807, returned to Cincinnati. He spent the next several years teaching and establishing medical schools and university departments in Ohio and Kentucky and was the cofounder of a scholarly journal designed to improve medical standards in the West. He wrote many books on the plants, animals, and diseases of Ohio. Daniel Drake died in 1852.

  The Cholera Epidemic of 1832

  The year 1832 brought the first cholera epidemic to the United States. Immigrants coming from Europe probably brought cholera into this country. Cholera was spread by drinking water or eating food that had been contaminated by sewage. Extremely poor sanitation practices in cities made them the site of the most widespread cholera outbreaks. In New York City between July and August, three thousand people died of cholera; in New Orleans, 4,340 people died of the disease in October.

  The widely traveled Ohio and Mississippi rivers allowed cholera to spread throughout the United States. Canals, prevalent in many cities, held stagnant water that was fertile breeding grounds for the
disease. Cholera most often struck in the fall, spring, and summer months; the extreme cold of the winter seemed to have reduced incidence of the disease in the northern states.

  Cholera was a disease in which the cure could be as fatal as the disease itself. Prior to the Civil War, the most frequently used drug for treatment was calomel. Unfortunately, calomel contained mercury, and many people survived cholera only to die from mercury poisoning, caused by taking that drug.

  Pesthouses

  Pesthouses were not new with the cholera epidemic. These hospitals or shelters have a long history, extending back at least as far as ancient Egypt. Cities have always seen the need to have “someplace” to put citizens with contagious diseases. These have included cholera, bubonic plague, smallpox, and in some areas today, AIDS.

  Few people left pesthouses alive; they were mostly places where people could be sent to wait to die while not infecting others. The pesthouses were often the most dilapidated buildings that could be found. Abandoned warehouses and slaughterhouses were popular sites in many cities. Rather than being located in the center of town or near medical facilities, most were in isolated areas or on the outskirts of town. In many cases, nuns were those who tended to the sick.

  HISTORY IN PERSPECTIVE TIMELINE

  January 1, 1808—Importation of slaves to America is banned.

  1820—In Salem, Massachusetts, General Robert Johnson eats a tomato in public to prove it is not poisonous.

  November 17, 1820—Captain Nathaniel Palmer becomes the first American to see Antarctica.

  March 19, 1831—The first bank robbery in United States history occurs at City Bank of New York with $245,000 taken.

  June 1, 1831—James Clark Ross discovers the North Pole on the Boothia Peninsula in the Arctic Ocean.

  August 31, 1831—Edwin Beard Budding is granted a patent for the invention of the lawn mower.

  February 12, 1832—A serious cholera epidemic begins in London, England. Deaths continue to occur through May 1832. There are at least 3,000 victims of the epidemic.

  July 24, 1832—The first wagon train is led across the Rocky Mountains.

  November 1832—Andrew Jackson defeats Henry Clay for the presidency of the United States.

  November 29, 1832—American author Louisa May Alcott (author of Little Women) is born.

  December 28, 1832—John C. Calhoun becomes the first U.S. vice president to resign.

  June 6, 1833—Andrew Jackson becomes the first U.S. president to ride a train.

  1845—Irish potato famine begins, leading to mass migration to the United States.

  July 19, 1848—Two-day Women’s Rights Convention is held in Seneca Falls, New York.

  January 23, 1849—Elizabeth Blackwell is awarded an M.D. (doctor of medicine) from the Medical Institute of Geneva, New York, making her the first woman doctor in the United States.

  NELLIE THE BRAVE: THE CHEROKEE TRAIL OF TEARS VOCABULARY WORDS

  aerie—the nest of a bird on a cliff or mountaintop

  “We will find some along the way,” Nellie said. “I’ll help you climb to their aerie.”

  assassinated—killed

  Those who had signed the false treaty that forced the 1838 removal of the Cherokee were assassinated.

  acreage—area of land in acres

  Later legislation took tribal ownership from the Cherokee and gave acreage to individual Indians.

  bilious fever—a general term for fevers of the intestines

  Surely Morning Sun didn’t have the bilious fever or whooping cough.

  blowgun—a tube through which a projectile such as a dart may be forced through by breath

  And he liked hunting with his blowgun.

  council—an assembly or meeting for discussion and/or advice

  The council, lead by Chief John Ross, decided it was time to prepare.

  edoda—Cherokee word for father

  “We don’t carry,” one of the soldiers said. “Orders.” As if that explained not helping a girl and her edoda pack a wagon.

  enslavement—to be forced to be a slave

  But enslavement was enslavement. And she agreed with Reverend Bushyhead. It was wrong.

  established—settled or founded

  In 1907, the state of Oklahoma was established from Indian Territory.

  etsi—Cherokee word for mother

  “Etsi, we’ll pick some berries,” Nellie called to her etsi, who had headed a different direction into the woods.

  lawlessness—having no control by law

  A time of lawlessness reigned for several years.

  lean-to—a wing or extension of a shelter, which has a slanted roof

  The temperature was frigid, but the men made a short lean-to from the canvas flap on the wagon and built afire to keep blankets warmed.

  massive—large, solid, or heavy in structure

  John looked up as they passed under the heavy branches of a massive oak tree.

  oral language—language that is spoken

  Many students study their oral language and Sequoyah’s syllabary.

  peddling—selling

  At the stockade, they had tried to keep white alcohol merchants from peddling their whiskey to Cherokee men.

  ritual—something done over and over again as a tradition or ceremony

  Eating a meal had been a ritual, a time of thanking God for the food, and a time of fellowship with her family.

  salt pork—meat from a pig that is treated with salt to keep it from going bad

  Nellie feared she was not eating enough, and sometimes she said she was not hungry and give her meager share of salt pork and corn bread to her etsi.

  scavenger—one that takes things that have been left behind

  “It won’t matter,” Lieutenant Seward said. “Scavengers will take it. “

  silhouette—a shadow image of a figure

  Many had already lost their leaves, and when she looked up, she saw their winter silhouettes pressed against the blue sky.

  skitter—to run quickly with tiny steps

  She opened her eyes and saw a mouse skitter across the dead leaves on the trail ahead of her.

  stockade—a military structure used for protection against attackers and sometimes to enclose prisoners

  Wagons were lined up along the log walls of a stockade.

  syllabary—a set of written symbols that represent syllables, which make up words

  And she’d write in Cherokee language, using Sequoyah’s syllabary, not English, so the soldiers wouldn’t know what she was writing.

  whooping cough—a contagious bacterial infection that causes severe coughing spells

  The cough didn’t sound like the deep whoop and wheeze of whooping cough, and Nellie had heard that enough to know the sound, so she was reassured by Morning Sun’s words.

  IMPORTANT PEOPLE AND THINGS AROUND 1838

  Indian Removal Act of 1830

  The Indian Removal Act of 1830 was a law passed by the United States Congress to help make American Indian tribes who lived east of the Mississippi River move to lands farther west. The Removal Act was part of a U.S. government policy known as Indian Removal. It was signed into law by President Andrew Jackson on May 28, 1830.

  The Removal Act did not actually order any Native Americans to leave their land, but it did allow the president to negotiate land-exchange treaties with tribes who lived within the boundaries of existing U.S. states.

  The treaties that resulted from the Indian Removal Act of 1830 were not always supported by all the Native Americans who were affected by them. One example of this was the 1835 Treaty of New Echota that was signed by a minority group of Cherokee who agreed to give up their land in Georgia in exchange for money and land in present-day Oklahoma. The majority did not agree to this and called it a false treaty, but they were forced to leave their homes, anyway, and traveled reluctantly to their new land on what became known as the Cherokee Trail of Tears.

  John Ross

  John Ross, or Koowesko
owe as he was known in Cherokee, was born in Tennessee in 1790 to Scottish and Cherokee parents. In 1828, he was elected the principal chief of the eastern Cherokee and struggled to help his people keep their land in Georgia. But because of the Indian Removal Act of 1830 and the 1835 Treaty of New Echota, he was not able to do so. From 1838–1839, he led his people on the long, hard journey known as the Trail of Tears to their new land in present-day Oklahoma. And from 1839 until he died in 1866, John Ross was chief of the United Cherokee Nation.

  The Bushyhead Family

  Reverend Jesse Bushyhead was a devout Cherokee preacher and a trail leader on the Trail of Tears. On January 3, 1839, Reverend Bushyhead’s wife, Eliza Wilkinson Bushyhead, gave birth to a daughter and named her Eliza Missouri after the state she was born in—on the Missouri side of the Mississippi River, in what is now the Trail of Tears State Park. Reverend Bushyhead continued his work as a preacher after his family reached Oklahoma and raised Eliza Missouri in a Christian home.

  Sequoyah

  Sequoyah was a Native American leader who invented the Cherokee syllabary. His exact birthdate and place are not known, but he was probably born around 1766. Most Americans knew him as George Guess, but the Cherokee knew him as Sogwali. The name Sequoyah was given to him by missionaries.

  Sequoyah was a trader and a silversmith in Cherokee country in Georgia, and he wanted to create a system of writing for the Cherokee oral language. So, he compiled a table of eighty-five characters to symbolize the sounds of their spoken language. In 1822, Sequoyah visited the Cherokee in Arkansas and taught thousands of the Native Americans there to read and write. He moved with them to present-day Oklahoma. Parts of the Bible were soon printed in Cherokee, and in 1828, a weekly newspaper, The Cherokee Pheonix, was begun. Sequoyah’s great achievement helped to unite the Cherokee and make them leaders among other Native Americans.

  Sequoyah died around 1843 while on a trip to visit Cherokees who had moved to Mexico. The giant redwood tree sequoia is named for him.

  HISTORY IN PERSPECTIVE TIMELINE

  March 19, 1831—The first recorded U.S. bank robbery occurs in New York.