Playthings of God (May 2022)

Playthings of God (May 2022)

This issue of my pandemic journal is a continuation of my exploration of 19th-century American expansion westward. In March 2022 I covered my great-grandmother Christina Miller’s adventure in frontier Nebraska. This month I turn to my great-uncle Louis Crowell and his experiences as a soldier in the Dakota territories of the 1870s (there is a question mark about the authenticity of this story). The terrible exploitation and cruelty toward Native Americans was not all that different from the treatment of countless Europeans who fled deplorable conditions of poverty and subjugation to come to America, forsaking their homelands and cultures. Someone was profiting from all this misery? Even the industrial revolution of the 19th century proved to be a disaster for many people as they were forced to work in extraordinarily inhumane conditions with little concessions to the safety and wellbeing of workers.

Geoffrey Gibbs

May 2022

English

Kingston, RI