RUDIMENTS, pt. 53
Making Cars
There's an origination myth to everything,
and we mostly are taught that particular one
by which we end up living the rest of our
days. Indians in the common land, I guess
that was one of America's own origination
myths, and certainly the one we were 'taught'
in school. They gaggled it down our throats
like Listerine. The mouthwash of patriotism.
Problem was, none of it was true and it took
me getting to Philadelphia a few times to
learn about it. You hear a million times about
Plymouth Rock, and New York Harbor and
Henry Hudson and the Half Moon, and the
discovery of the North River (now the Hudson)
which took these sail-schooners right up
to Albany, and then later the Erie Canal
story, and all that. Everything had different
names, Fort Orange, Fort Nassau, Beverwijk,
etc. What you hear less of, unless you
listen really close, is the duplicity of theft
and coercion with which all these Dutch
and English guys literally peeled or tore
the very skin off the native inhabitants.
Philadelphia, on the Delaware's mouth, at
least makes a modicum of reference to it -
Penn's Neck, Penn's Landing, Penn's Treaty,
these are all place names within the city,
marked with their storylines and tales. The
one that caught me the most was the Walking
Purchase. It's the same old story but so
flagrant and basic as to make you wince,
or cry. William Penn's very sons - he
later detested what they'd done and what
had become of his Penn-Sylvania, that he
left back for England, and died there. The
mercantalist greedy sons broke just about
every treaty and good intention, and good
communication, their father had established.
(There's a big rock, somewhere out in the
meadows of eastern Pennsylvania, not in
Philadelphia at all, but out in the woods a
few miles, in a clearing, with a plaque
upon it stating that, in essence, 'on this
site, was held the 'Treaty Lunch' between the
local natives and the Penn Treaty Committee.'
It's just a large, flat outdoors location, and
nothing at all, but back then when things were
good, it meant something) [see comment 1].
In Philadelphia, I was able to learn a lot of
this just by the propagation of the story and
the history so prevalent - admittedly, most of
it is biased and twisted over to the science and
logic crowd of rationalist and logical types
who did this stuff in the early days. Every
little pipsqueak Science Committee or
Rationalist Society has its hall and chambers
open for the public. Those things there are
as prevalent as are the Quaker Meeting
Halls and stone paths which led to them.
Everything's preserved, and they even have
'ghost houses', which are the outlined plots
and faked framings of the homes that USED
to be in place there, and they tell, each, the
inhabitants and their occupations - 'ship's
spinner Horatio Englart,' 'rope-twiner and
rigger John Blaine,' and the size of the families
and where the privies were, and all that.
-
When I got to the part about the Walking
Purchase, and learned about it, I just got
incensed. It was just cheating. James Marshall,
(he later had his homestead burned and his
family murdered, while he was away, by
the incensed natives), is a name of note here.
Marshall's Creek, the village, is named after
him, and there's a bridge crossing in Portland,
PA, I think it is, with the plaque and the
once-site of his homestead. See, the white
guys laid out this entire scheme, how much
land could be walked in a day, in various
directions, with the Indians, who agreed,
naively thinking this was all in good faith.
That's how much land they were going to
cede to the interloper settlers, whose
representatives were supposed to walk,
leisurely paced, as they'd rehearsed in the
negotiations. Thus the 'Walking Purchase' -
there are markers for this stuff all over
that local area. Native Indians were placed
around to observe and watch, but they
left in disgust after they saw how these
whites were running, pacing furiously,
cutting angles and running river and
stream shortcuts to claim property. It
was like a complete hoax. Talk about the
purchase of Manhattan for the equivalent
of twenty-four dollars worth of shells and
beads. That was too complicated; this was
outright theft and finagling. The very
next morning was like instant warfare.
-
I had gotten so caught up in all this that I
too was ready to kill; and it all just came
from extra-curricular sleuthing in the happy
environs of Philadelphia. I had opened up
for myself an entire other world. And this
was all during work-time, the initial impetus
anyway, I was sailing, rip-roaring, and ready
to go. As for the rest of Philadelphia, it prides
itself in a very genteel way for presenting a
gentleman's stroll, as it were, through the
colonial history of America. Carpenter's Hall,
another guild hall where the Articles of
Confederation, and later the Independence
and Constitution stuff too, were hammered
out. The place of Gouvernor Morris (he
wasn't Governor, that was his actual first
name, with that spelling) - a really rich
guy who basically funded the revolution
and the early nation - all those raggedy
soldiers wanting to be paid and fed - and
who largely died bankrupt, broken and
inept. All the lanes and paths and historic
alleys of those days are still there - I hesitate
to say, watch out! because constantly the
National Parks Service and all their bullshit
guides and docents have been taking over
the 'Visitor Centers' and all the Independence
Hall items, and really wrecking it with their gift
shops, lies, and historical mis-representations.
Don't fall for any part of it - it's now in the
Government's interest to NOT let on about
the truth of any of this. If the Liberty Bell
had to ring today, it would choke.
No comments:
Post a Comment