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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) is a machine that quickly and easily separates the cotton fibers from the seeds, a job previously done by hand. Invented in 1793, in changed the cotton industry into a worldwide business. |
| 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 |
| "Remove yourself, Sir!" | John Adams, one of the founding fathers of the USA, to his sons who was disturbing him. |
| to be a Benedict Arnold | ein Verräter sein |
| Boston Brahims | Old stock New England elites, in opposition to the new immigrants |
| A Nat | A brutal, angry black man, named after Nat Turner, a slave who killed 56 white persons in an uprising 183. |
| A Jim Crow / Sambo | A black slave who acts like stupid fool to amuse white people |
| Jim Crow laws | The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws in the United States enacted between 1876 and 1965. They mandated de jure racial segregation in all public facilities, with a supposedly "separate but equal" status for black Americans. (Wikipedia) |
| A Jezebel | A young and good looking white woman with a lot of sex appeal |
| 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 |
| 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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