Don't Know Much About History.....

Really, I don't. Embarrassingly little, except for a smattering of music and art history, and a few key facts that were taught to me in rhyme or song (Columbus sailed the ocean blue...)

Most required U.S. history seems to end around World War II. I hated the 3 semesters of high school history I took, so I never endeavored to take the "advanced" history classes, of which at the time there were few anyways in our High School.

I bring this up because I now find myself reading a lot of history. Mostly in a Quaker context, but in order to know what happened to the Quakers, you have to know what was happening in general at the time, thus my inquiries. History's not all the boring, dusty facts that I once believed it was. In fact, I'm finding myself rather enjoying the stories of people who found themselves in unbelievably difficult circumstances, only to perservere and triumph. And it REALLY HAPPENED.

Well, sort of. I'm now most curious about the stories that are NOT told in our history books. The point of view of those people who did not have access to education, to literacy, to the luxury of the free time to write or tell their tales. My current explorations are all hovering around 1650-1850. I still know very little about that time period, but I am learning.

I have also found some fabulous Scituate connections. I've been researching Edward Wanton, who was a jailer who witnessed the taking to the gallows and hanging of Mary Dyer on Boston Common. He was so moved by her condition and fate, that he moved to Scituate and became a Quaker himself. His history is mentioned in Old Scituate and a few other books that I hope to see at the Scituate Public library. Two of his sons relocated to Rhode Island and became governors, and that is where Scituate, Rhode Island first got its name - from us in MA! Still working on finding his grave, and the remains of his shipyard on the North River which was a South Shore landmark for years.

I'm totally hooked on the Quaker history. I feel like in some small way it is now MY history, and the relevance is what I lacked in my meager high school studies.