Mrs. Dread Scott:
Book Reading Extra Credit
“Mrs. Dread Scott” is a new biography written Leigh VanderVelde, an Iowa City citizen and teacher here at the University of Iowa. She is not a trained historian, but has her background teaching and writing law. This is interesting because she spent the last 10 years of her life thoroughly researching and writing this book. She stated she did most of her research in Saint Paul, Minnesota and Saint Louis, Missouri. Much like Pekka, VanderVelde was faced with the challenge of creating a historic story of a black slave who was illiterate and left no personal records of her life. The author pieced together many sources such as government records, travelers’ records, and journals to “blend stories and create personality.” She also responded that she used her ‘lawyer instincts’ to dig into material and find as many individual accounts where Harriet lived as possible
When she first became interested in the topic, her original goal was to make a movie of this untold story of a woman named Harriet Scott. Harriet is only known through her husband Elfedred ‘Dread’ Scott and his historic case against the US Supreme Court. However, VanderVelde argues that Harriet’s life and story also plays a crucial role on this history of this case in American history.
The author started out the book reading by saying that the two protagonists in her novel are “Mrs. Scott and the emerging frontier.” The later part of this quote relates to our class because we have learned how environment influences the people, trade, and culture of the grasslands. She read Chapter 2 from her book entitled “Arriving on the Frontier.” The chapter started with Harriet being 14 and traveling up the Mississippi River on the massive steamboat ‘The Warrior’ with her owner Master Tolliver, his mistress and her brother. The year was 1835 and VanderVelde stated “steamboats had replaced the muscle of men.” This was important for settlers and all travelers and traders. The trip from St. Louis to St. Paul took 6 weeks in all.
Tolliver was an Indian Agent assigned to The Dakota tribe to mediate and act as a middle man between the US and Native Americans. All those on the steamboat evoked memories of “traveling back in time” while riding up the river because while trees were already in bloom in St. Louis, they were just starting to bud in St. Paul. The trip must have also been a great outlook to see the vast expanse of grasslands to the west. One stop VanderVelde recalled in this chapter was a village along the Mississippi at Prairie Du Chien, Wisconsin. Harriet and her Master met the Streets family whom Mr. Street was the Indian Agent to the Blackhawk people. The story also talks about the historic events that go along with their relationship.
Harriet had no previous experience with Indians before this journey with her master, and she learned everything she knew first hand. Harriet witnessed the strict routines and systematic interactions with Native Americans such as the smoking of the pipe at the beginning of all meetings. The book also talks about the exchanging of gifts between chiefs and Indian agents to cement relations, which we have also learned about through our reading of The Comanche Empire. Tolliver was also known by the name “Muzaboxa” by the Indians because he brought them iron that was used to create spears and ground tools such as hoes. The chapter ended with Harriet starting her life on the agency compound surrounded by the Indians and frontier.
Overall, I thought the book reading was not as bad as I thought it was going to be and actually somewhat interesting. The whole event only lasted 45 minutes and some people asked interesting questions after the author’s reading. One question asked was why people went to St. Paul or why this location was important in westward expansion. VanderVelde replied that it was extremely important because the wood in northern Minnesota and Wisconsin was vital for construction on the plains. Before this time wood had to be shipped all the way over from the east coast, so this much closer resource was the power pushing westward expansion. The setting of this book was not set on the open prairies, but along the Mississippi River, however the historical and importance of this book was good to learn about.
Book Reading Extra Credit
“Mrs. Dread Scott” is a new biography written Leigh VanderVelde, an Iowa City citizen and teacher here at the University of Iowa. She is not a trained historian, but has her background teaching and writing law. This is interesting because she spent the last 10 years of her life thoroughly researching and writing this book. She stated she did most of her research in Saint Paul, Minnesota and Saint Louis, Missouri. Much like Pekka, VanderVelde was faced with the challenge of creating a historic story of a black slave who was illiterate and left no personal records of her life. The author pieced together many sources such as government records, travelers’ records, and journals to “blend stories and create personality.” She also responded that she used her ‘lawyer instincts’ to dig into material and find as many individual accounts where Harriet lived as possible
When she first became interested in the topic, her original goal was to make a movie of this untold story of a woman named Harriet Scott. Harriet is only known through her husband Elfedred ‘Dread’ Scott and his historic case against the US Supreme Court. However, VanderVelde argues that Harriet’s life and story also plays a crucial role on this history of this case in American history.
The author started out the book reading by saying that the two protagonists in her novel are “Mrs. Scott and the emerging frontier.” The later part of this quote relates to our class because we have learned how environment influences the people, trade, and culture of the grasslands. She read Chapter 2 from her book entitled “Arriving on the Frontier.” The chapter started with Harriet being 14 and traveling up the Mississippi River on the massive steamboat ‘The Warrior’ with her owner Master Tolliver, his mistress and her brother. The year was 1835 and VanderVelde stated “steamboats had replaced the muscle of men.” This was important for settlers and all travelers and traders. The trip from St. Louis to St. Paul took 6 weeks in all.
Tolliver was an Indian Agent assigned to The Dakota tribe to mediate and act as a middle man between the US and Native Americans. All those on the steamboat evoked memories of “traveling back in time” while riding up the river because while trees were already in bloom in St. Louis, they were just starting to bud in St. Paul. The trip must have also been a great outlook to see the vast expanse of grasslands to the west. One stop VanderVelde recalled in this chapter was a village along the Mississippi at Prairie Du Chien, Wisconsin. Harriet and her Master met the Streets family whom Mr. Street was the Indian Agent to the Blackhawk people. The story also talks about the historic events that go along with their relationship.
Harriet had no previous experience with Indians before this journey with her master, and she learned everything she knew first hand. Harriet witnessed the strict routines and systematic interactions with Native Americans such as the smoking of the pipe at the beginning of all meetings. The book also talks about the exchanging of gifts between chiefs and Indian agents to cement relations, which we have also learned about through our reading of The Comanche Empire. Tolliver was also known by the name “Muzaboxa” by the Indians because he brought them iron that was used to create spears and ground tools such as hoes. The chapter ended with Harriet starting her life on the agency compound surrounded by the Indians and frontier.
Overall, I thought the book reading was not as bad as I thought it was going to be and actually somewhat interesting. The whole event only lasted 45 minutes and some people asked interesting questions after the author’s reading. One question asked was why people went to St. Paul or why this location was important in westward expansion. VanderVelde replied that it was extremely important because the wood in northern Minnesota and Wisconsin was vital for construction on the plains. Before this time wood had to be shipped all the way over from the east coast, so this much closer resource was the power pushing westward expansion. The setting of this book was not set on the open prairies, but along the Mississippi River, however the historical and importance of this book was good to learn about.
Thanks for going to the reading Julia! I hope you enjoyed Prof. Vandervelde's talk. Dennis
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