Author: jack zobrist

Recently in class we covered the topic of the history of The University of Mary Washington. This topic is important to me for the same reason local history should be important to anyone else, it’s personal. Obviously, I am a student at the University of Mary Washington and learning the history of the school and the evolution of the buildings and student body is fascinating. Mary Washington has brought with it multiple reasons of why it’s significant. The things that come with a college town such as job opportunities, younger generations, bustling downtowns and so on. Mary Washington once taught generations of teachers and now teaches generations of brilliant young mind that will go out and change the world. The town in which it resides in offers unique opportunities to those that work for it, allowing the town to grow and flourish in unique ways as well.

When discussing the history of Fredericksburg, Va you typically if not exclusively only hear the side of the people settling the land. We only learn of how the white man rowed up the Rappahannock River and explored “unclaimed land.” How the white man defended against brutal savages and fought against beast shooting arrows at them from the riverbanks. Why don’t we hear the stories from the Native Americans? The people who owned this land well before we did, the people who fought against intruders coming up their river. The people who lost everything to this new group with loud guns and heavy armor. We don’t hear the stories of these people because history is told by the winning side. Their story of the beginnings of Fredericksburg surely is different than ours. A story of being concurred and slaughtered, of being forced out of their homes and divided families. It is so important for scholars to read and understand both sides of history. Without that understanding you only have the winning side, no details of the effects of something just how it happened. This leaves an incomplete story, a lost history. To this day it also leaves out large groups of people whose history will never get taught. The Rappahannock Tribe that once covered Virginia just recently, finally got land back. A total of 460 acres after over 350 years of abuse and theft. Both sides of history must be told or else we live in a dangerous position of forgetting it.

In this blog post I will be talking about some terms that might help with a deeper understanding of my upcoming research paper. It can be helpful to have a broad understanding of historic and more modern terms when reading a historical essay, article, etc.

The first few words are important to understand just how history is written in the modern world and how you can access it. A database is an online history resource full of important documents, photos, letters, etc. Another modern word is blogs! Ironically blogs are the platform you are currently reading this information on, another online resource. Now some more historical terms that will help with a deeper understanding of historical resources. Decree, decree is an official order issued by a legal authority. A deed is a legal document that shows ownership. Eminent domain, the right of the government to seize property for the good of the majority of the citizenship. These words should help in understanding modern websites, blogs, and databases as well as some more complex terms in a historical context.

There were a few very decisive battles in World War Two that permanently changed the outcome of the war and changed the future. Such battles as the Battle of Dunkirk and D-day otherwise known as the Normandy landings, completely changed the future of France and Europe, and the lives of everyone in the world. Some of these battles had a factor of propaganda used in them to destroy morale in the troops.

A common military weapon was the use of propaganda. Propaganda can be described as the communication of false or possibly true information in dramatic ways to further a cause and raise questions in the average citizen. A large amount of propaganda was used in World War Two in key places and battles such as Dunkirk. As the English and French ran for their lives across France to the beaches to be taken to safety across the english channel the Germans flew overhead dropping fliers. The flier was a map of Dunkirk with arrows pointing to the beach, indicating that the fleeing allies were surrounded and that if they were to give up now, they had the chance of survival. These words were written in French and English, so as to make sure everyone could read the fliers. The veterans that made it off of the beaches during those days say that the fliers made very good toilet paper. 

Another use of propaganda was operation cornflakes, so called because the mail trains in Germany always ran in the morning. On February fifth, 1945, P-38 fighters flew over a German mail train, destroying the engine and a few carts. Minutes later, another wave of fighters dropped large bags of mail into the wreckage. The plan was the Germans would collect the mail from these trains to make sure they made it to their destination, and unknowingly picked up the Americans forged mail. To make all of this happen, America took anyone POW that had worked in the mail systems in Austria and Germany, and gathered all the information they could. America and Britain then spent a great deal of energy forging German stamps in different denominations to go on these fake letters full of propaganda. While Britain spent their efforts making very accurate stamps, since they had the proper ink and paper, America spent their efforts making another version of the German stamp. Every year for Hitler’s birthday, he would have a couple versions of a stamp come out with his face depicted on it. On the bottom of all these stamps, read out “DEUTSCHES REICH”, meaning German empire in English. Americans took this stamp and changed the words to “FUTSCHES REICH”, translating to lost or failed empires. The Americans had also changed Hitler’s face to have him depicted as death itself, his jaw falling apart, his skin being eaten alive, his eyes shallow in his skull. It is not known how well this operation worked, seeing as the letters were meant to go to the households of the common German, but Americans had bombed many of the German cities, and they had fled from their homes, though it is known this was at least partially successful. 

In 1945 before the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, America dropped leaflets all across japan multiple times. The first set of leaflets are called the LeMay leaflets. In a short summary the leaflets said that the Americans would be bombing if not all then at least some of the cities listed on the back side of the leaflet and that the public should leave the cities instantly. These leaflets said that the bombs did not have eyes and could not see who they would kill, they said that they were attacking the military installations in japan and fighting to free the japanese people so that they could pick their own leader and end the war. The japanese people were also urged to push their leader into surrendering so that the Americans would not blow up the cities. 

The second leaflets known as the Hiroshima leaflets said that the Americans had massive explosives equal to the amount that 2,000 of their huge b-29s. This message also asked the public to petition to have their leader surrender to the American forces.

These were some of the incredible ways that the people on both sides of the war tried to trick, brainwash, manipulate or scare their enemies into submission. The war was a brutal place where anything was fair. 

Recently I chose to receive a tour at the house of Mary Washington. Though I learned a lot I also questioned things I was told by the tour guide that challenged some of my previous knowledge. Mary Washington’s house is divided into four parts though only three are visible from the street. Only two of the parts are original and it was extremely interesting to see Mary’s actual items and dressers. I enjoyed the hands on aspect of going to the Mary Washington house and seeing where the origins of the stories are from. I did not enjoy as much the tour guide who seemed as though it was a job to tell us information about the house and Mary. History should be told with a happy heart and complete interest and willingness to explain. I was told that Mary Washington grew up wealthy; though as I understood it she came to Maryland as an indentured servant. After a bit of thought I imagine that she came to Maryland as an indentured servant very young, and then through multiple deaths in the family she did become fairly wealthy. These publicly accessible historic buildings are so important for not only small town history but history that branches across the country. If you just lived in a town without the stories of the buildings to go with it then your town is no different than any other. Back in my home town for example we have a old hardware store with pictures from the 80’s showing the family that owned the store. There is such a story to be told and a personal connection to see these kinds of photos and hear these stories. The story of Mary Washington webs into hundreds of stories and dozens of people throughout history. Going in person to these sites can help spark an interest and an understanding of how things would have happened during that time. I urge all to spend a weekend looking at historic sites in your home town to deepen your connection with your town.