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History related sayings and citations heard in class and elsewhere |
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| Explanations or Author | |
| "Compromise is the art of the possible" | Benjamin Franklin |
| to keep up with the Jones | to try to do as well as the Jones family |
| She was old money | rich woman who inherited her money from her parents (second generation) |
| an Uncle Tom | a submissive black |
| Underground Railroad | The Underground Railroad was an informal network of secret routes and safe houses used by 19th century black slaves in the United States to escape to free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists who were sympathetic to their cause. (wikipedia) |
| cotton gin | A cotton gin (short for cotton engine[1]) is a machine that quickly and easily separates the cotton fibers from the seeds, a job previously done by hand. (wikipedia) |
| The Gilded Age | Name given by Mark Twain to the American time period between 1870-1900. The mansions of Newport are very symbolic for that period. (gilded=vergoldet) |
| Robber barons | (see wikipedia) |
| to jump on the band wagon | |
| to vote with his feet | durch einen Streik eine Wende herbeiführen |
| Liberty sausage | Temporary name for a hamburger in the 1920' |
| Bridgets | Irish maiden in the 1900s |
| a dry town | a town where selling and serving alcohol was prohibited |
| a wet town | (the opposite) |
| the flappers | Women in short skirts in the 1920s |
| Whaling | |
| to shanghai somebody | Kind of a kidnapping. If the crew of a whaling ship was not complete on the day before the start, some crew members went to a bar, paid drinks to a young man there until he was completely drunk, then made him sign a contract and carried him to the ship. When he woke up next mornig, the ship was already sailing on the ocean. Very unpleasant surprise when you know that on expedition lasted up to two years.... |
| The Nantucket Sleighride | When a whaling ship hunted a whale, a rowboat was watered with a harpooner standing at the ship's bow. At the end of the harpoon was a long rope that was fixed at the boat. As soon as the harpooner had hit the whale with his harpoon, the injured whale tried to feel, thereby unrolling the rope fixed to the harpoon. When the rope has completely unrolled the boat was pulled by the whale at sometimes considerable speed. This wild and dangerous ride became famous as the "Nantucket Sleighride", Nantucket being a well known New England whaling island and the ride of the boat over the water comparable to a sleigh ride on snow. |
"Whaling was a bloody, brutal, messy, stinking, dangerous sometimes lucrative, always high risk business." |
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| Chimney is affire | Stabb the whale with a steel knife near his blowhole |
| scrimshaw | Scrimshaw is the name given to handiwork created by whalers made from the byproducts of harvesting marine mammals. It is most commonly made out of the bones and teeth of sperm whales, the baleen of other whales, and the tusks of walruses. It takes the form of elaborate carvings in the form of pictures and lettering on the surface of the bone or tooth, with the engravings highlighted using a pigment, or small sculptures made from the same material. The making of scrimshaw began on whaling ships between 1745 to 1759 on the Pacific Ocean, and survived until the ban on commercial whaling. The practice survives as a hobby and as a trade for commercial artisans. A maker of scrimshaw is known as a scrimshander. Scrimshaw is also a surname. |
| Kansas Nebraska
Act
1854 big,big mess |
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| Baseball | |
What's the story about baseball?
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You want the ball get over the fence - that's all about the game! (In reality it's a tiny little bit more complicated;-) |
| A tie is like kissing your sister. | (tie = Unentschieden) |
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Workers fighting for
thier rights around 1900 "8 hours for what we will!"
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Slogan for an 8 hours working day (8 hours of work, 8 hours of sleep, 8 hours of free time) |
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