Archive | History

George Whitefield or George Whitfield

George Whitefield is also recognized as George Whitfield, he was an Anglican itinerant minister who aided spread the Great Awakening in Great Britain and particularly, in the British North American colonies. George also campaigned favorable for the institution of slavery in Georgia.
He is an influential character in the establishment of Methodism; George was popular for his preaching in British North America that was a meaningful factor in an 18th century demonstration of Christian revivals there often known as “The Great Awakening.”

Whitefield was a part of the ‘Holy Club’ at Oxford University with the Wesley brothers, Charles and John. After reading Henry Scougal’s The Life of God in the Soul of Man, he became very religious. After a religious conversion, he became very enthusiastic for preaching his newfound faith. The Bishop of Gloucester ordained him before the canonical age.
Whitefield accepted the Church of England doctrine of predestination yet opposed with the Wesley brothers opinions on slavery and of the doctrine of Arminianism. As an outcome, the Wesley brothers continued their own religious movement. Whitefield established and became the president of the first Methodist conference. At an early date, he decided to focus on evangelistic work and given up the post.

Three churches were built in England under his name, the Bristol, the “Moorfields Tabernacle” and the “Tottenham Court Road Chapel”, in London. Afterward the society meeting at the second Kingswood School at Kingswood, a town on the eastern edge of Bristol, was also recognized as Whitefield’s Tabernacle.
In the early 18th century, slavery was prohibited in Georgia. In 1749, George campaigned for its legalization, claiming that the territory could never be successful except that farms were able to utilize slave labor. Through his efforts, it was re-legalized in 1751. He became a slave owner, using them to work at his Bethesda Orphanage. To support raise money for the orphanage, George as well put slaves to work at a plantation known as the Providence. Whitefield was recognized to treat his slaves well; they were believed to be devoted to him, and he was serious of the abuse as well as neglect of their slaves by other owners. When George Whitefield died, he entrusted his slaves to Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon.

George Whitefield is honored along with Francis Asbury with a feast day on the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church in the US on November 15.

Posted in History0 Comments

Commemorating “Cinco de Mayo” (Fifth of May)

Cinco de Mayo (Fifth of May) is a holiday that honors the Mexican soldier’s unimaginable victory against French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862 under the Mexican General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguin’s leadership. While it is not a mandatory national holiday in Mexico, it is celebrated mainly in the community of Puebla as well as in the United States.

Cinco de Mayo isn’t a mandatory national holiday in Mexico, yet it is a celebration that can be observed voluntarily. While Cinco de Mayo has restrained importance nationwide in Mexico, this day is also celebrated voluntarily in the U.S. and in other places all over the world as recognition of the Mexican tradition and honor. Cinco de Mayo is not actually Mexico’s Independence Day that is September 16, which is the most significant national patriotic holiday here.

The Battle of Puebla was momentous mainly for at least two reasons. First, though significantly the outnumbered, the Mexicans soldiers defeated a more equipped French soldiers – this battle was momentous in which the 4,000 Mexican army were considerably less than half by the better-equipped French forces of 8,000 that had not been overpowered for almost fifty years. Second, it was meaningful because since the Battle of Puebla an army from another continent has invaded no country in the Americas.

According to a paper published by the UCLA Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture regarding the birth of the observance of Cinco de Mayo in the United States, the avant-garde American concentrates on the people of the world that day first began in California in the 1860s in response to the contention against French supremacy in Mexico. The 2007 paper characterizes that “The holiday, which has been celebrated in California continuously since 1863, is virtually ignored in Mexico.”

In addition, events connected to Cinco de Mayo also happen outside Mexico as well as the United States. For instance, a skydiving club near Vancouver, Canada holds a Cinco de Mayo skydiving contest. In the Cayman Islands, in Caribbean, there is a yearly Cinco de Mayo air guitar contest, and as far away as the Malta Island, in Mediterranean Sea, merrymakers are advised to drink Mexican beer on May 5.

Posted in History0 Comments

A Distinguished Man Named Samuel Adams

Samuel Adams was born in Boston, Massachusetts under the British colony on September 16, 1722. It was an old style date that is often modified to the new style date of September 27. He was a political philosopher, diplomat, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Being a politician in the colony of Massachusetts, he the head of the movement, which became the American Revolution, and was one of the founders of the laws of American Republicanism that molded the political society of the US. Adams was a second cousin to John Adams.

Being born in Boston, he grew up in a religious as well as politically intense family. Though he graduated in Harvard College, Adams became misfortune as a businessperson and a tax collector before he decided to focus on politics. He became one of the powerful officials of the Massachusetts House of Representative as well as the Boston Town Meeting in 1760. He was also a part of the movement opposing the British Parliament’s endeavors to tax the British American colonies without their approval.

Adams 1768 circular letter commanding for colonial cooperation incited the occupation of Boston by the British soldiers that afterward resulted in the Boston Massacre in 1770. To aid coordinate refusal to what Adams noticed as the British government tries to violate the British Constitution at the liability of the colonies, and in 1772, he and his companions created a committee of correspondence system that connected unanimous Patriots surrounding the Thirteen Colonies. The continuing refusal to the British policy concluded in the 1773 Boston Tea Party as well as the arrival of the American Revolution.

Since then, he became active joining different political movement. Adams is a questionable figure in the American history. Chronicles written in the 19th century admired him as a person who had been leading his fellow colonists towards the independence long before the beginning of the Revolutionary War. This outlook persuaded to negative judgments of Adams in the first half of the 20th centurial, wherein he was characterized as a leader of propaganda who prompted violence to accomplish his objective. Although these days, few modern scholars, who contend that, have questioned both of these perception these conventional portrayals of Adams are myths challenged by historical record.

Posted in History0 Comments