Category Archives: American History

Essays on American history

God’s Shadow over American History

Jean-Pierre Caussade in Abandonment to Divine Providence writes truthfully that God is behind all historical events. If so, then it is God’s will that the United States is in 2025 exactly where He wills it to be. And further, that … Continue reading

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The Southern Hill Country Mentality

Reflections on the people of the American South after the Civil War into the 20th and 21st centuries as they confronted the perils of modernization. The Southern hill country personality type is a reticence towards others, even a reticence toward … Continue reading

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Christianity and Independence Day

Independence Day in America is a secular holiday celebrating freedom with picnics, fireworks, parades, and the proud display of the American flag. For Christians, Independence Day means even more, for by the signing of the Declaration of Independence a series … Continue reading

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Jean Baptiste Lamy (1814-1888), Missionary Bishop on Horseback

Visitors to downtown Santa Fe are drawn to two majestic buildings, the Cathedral of St. Francis of Assisi and the Chapel of the Loretto Sisters. Little would one suspect today that the founder of these two buildings, indeed the father … Continue reading

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Missionary John Thayer

John Thayer (1755-1815) was a New England convert, educated at Yale where he was taught that all things Roman Catholic were despicable. Then he went to Europe and underwent a conversion—a most unexpected religious change. He wrote a book about … Continue reading

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Louis Hennepin (1626-1704), Missionary of Hope

When a person thinks back to the colonial American past imagining what the first Catholic missionaries who braved the elements, journeyed into the forests, and canoed down American rivers, must have been like, they are thinking of such a person … Continue reading

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Martyr for Christ: Jean de Brébeuf (1593-1649)

The images of the great martyrs of the past, those disciples and followers of Christ who committed their all—body and soul—to the Great Commission, to spread the word to all creatures worldwide, inspired Jean de Brébeuf as a young man … Continue reading

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The Sorrels Family Orchestra

Ephraim Deals (Deal) Sorrels, Arkansas farmer and woodcutter, was a singer and perhaps a fiddler–at least it is clear he had a musical bent. And Van, his son, took after his father. Whether or not Van was a singer is … Continue reading

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Van Sorrels, the Woodcutting Musician

As the woodcutter sawed and chopped and hewed oak, hickory, maple, and pine, he sang songs to the past, to the land, and to the Lord. His name was Van. He was a simple man. He could read and write … Continue reading

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Diary for 1933, 1934, 1935, and 1936 by Lida J. Newcomb of Haverhill, Massachusetts

Lida (Elizabeth) Jane Newcomb was born in San Rafael, California, in 1871; she died at Country Pond, Kingston, New Hampshire, in 1941. She lived most of her life in Maine and Massachusetts, wife to Robert Eugene (Gene) Newcomb, a tinsmith … Continue reading

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