Martin Howard, left, and Stephen Hopkins came to opposing conclusions about their colonial British identities.
Howard: John Singleton Copley via Wikimedia Commons; Hopkins: New York Public Library
What might appear to be common values about shared political and cultural identities can at times serve not as a bridge joining people together but a wedge driving them apart.
Under cover of night, Colonists boarded the ships, dumped the tea chests and sparked a revolution.
Hulton Fine Art Collection/Art Images via Getty Images
An attack on private property angered Colonial leaders as much as the British public – but a strong reaction from Parliament hardened the positions of the opposing sides, making compromise impossible.
The first encounters between European settlers and Native Americans are captured on a wood engraving in this 1888 image.
DigitalVision Vectors
Popular culture often describes scalping − the forceful removing of a person’s scalp − as an indigenous practice. But white settlers accelerated this form of violence against Native Americans.
Donald Trump supporters take over the steps of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
The events of Jan. 6, 2021, have been called an insurrection. The same word has often been used to describe the mostly forgotten rebellions against plantation owners by enslaved people.
Stratford Hall in Westmoreland, Virginia, where enslaved cook and chocolatier Caesar lived and worked in the kitchen.
Wikipedia
There’s a bittersweet history to chocolate in America. At one plantation museum in Virginia, the story of enslaved chocolatier Caesar shows the oppression that lay behind the elite’s culinary treat.