Olympia Brown

Of all the women who joined together to form the Woman's Suffrage Association in 1867, only Olympia Brown was still alive when women got the vote in the United States in 1920.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAWbrownO.htm

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAwomen.htm

Bobby Moore and the World Cup

At the end of the 1965-66 season Don Revie, the manager of Leeds United, attempted to buy Moore, who wanted to leave the club. Moore, whose contract with West Ham came to an end on 30th June, 1966. Moore, who refused to sign a new contract, went to see Greenwood about the move: "There was no way we could negotiate. West Ham said they would not let me go in any circumstances. Ron and I had it out for hours. Finally we agreed to let it ride until after the World Cup."

The 1966 FIFA World Cup was held in Britain. Moore joined the England team for pre-tournament training at the beginning of July. However, under Football Association rules, a non-contracted player could not play for England. When Alf Ramsey heard about this, he ordered Moore back to Upton Park to sign a new contract with West Ham.

England, captained by Bobby Moore, drew the first game with Uruguay but qualified for the quarter-finals after 2-0 victories against Mexico and France. England played Argentina. According to Martin Peters: "In the quarter-final, Argentina were just hooligans. They didn't want to play, just kick and bite and fight." A headed goal by Geoff Hurst in the 78 minute won the game for England. In the semi-final, England defeated Portugal 2-1 with both goals being scored by Bobby Charlton.

It was feared that Moore would miss the World Cup Final. The England coach, Harold Shepherdson, later revealled: "On the 27th July 1966 he went down with tonsillitis, the day after the semi-final win over Portugal. we were worried it might develop into something worse, but the emergency proved the wisdom of having our own physician on the spot, Dr Alan Bass... It is imperative to get an instant diagnosis, especially in this case, when we had only two full days to get Bobby fit. Dr Bass got cracking right away but if we had left matters for a day, the tonsillitis would have got such a hold on Bobby it would have taken five days to clear up. That is how close Bobby was to missing the final."

Tom Finney, who had recently retired from playing football, was in the crowd for the final against West Germany that was played at Wembley Stadium on 30th July, 1966. "The atmosphere at Wembley that July afternoon was like no other. In the hours leading up to kick-off, long before the dramatic events infolded, the crowd seemed to sense that something special was about to take place."

For the third year in a row, Bobby Moore had the chance of winning a major trophy at the home of British football. Gordon Banks claimed that Moore was a very important figure in the dressing-room before the game going round to everyone, offering words of encouragement. Alf Ramsey told the team: "Gentlemen, you've worked hard for this, we've got this far, now let's get out there and get it won."

In an interview with Jeff Powell, Bobby Moore recalled that England got off to a very bad start: "Helmut Haller gets a goal for the Germans from a bad headed clearance by Ray Wilson. Pride stung because its the first time we've conceded a goal in open play." Nobby Stiles has argued: "We didn't start well and went 1-0 down... but it was Bobby Moore who got us back in the game... He was so far ahead of everyone else in his thinking." Geoff Hurst agreed: "Bobby, fouled by Overath out on the left, quickly took a long, accurate free kick. I knew where he'd put the ball and he knew that I'd be running into that space. It was the sort of thing we'd worked on dozens of times for West Ham. Sure enough, the pass from Bobby was perfection. I ran in from the right, met the ball with my head and steered it past Hans Tilkowski, the German goalkeeper."

It was Bobby Moore's West Ham team-mate, Martin Peters, who put England in the lead: "Geoff Hurst tries a shot from the edge of the box which is blocked and spins into the area. It falls perfect for us in oceans of space in the goalmouth. Martin Peters and Jack Charlton are tanking on to it and Martin wins the race to blast it past two full backs and a goalkeeper, all marooned on the line." Peters later recalled: "I got on the end of a deflection and volleyed it in. It was a tremendous feeling. When I was celebrating I was going back to the half-way line and my fingers were tingling. It was as though a bolt of lightning had gone through me."

England remained in the lead until the 89th minute. Bobby Moore described what happened next: "Out of the blue they get a free kick. Out of nothing, danger. You know the decision should have gone in favour of Jack (Charlton) because the other fellow's backed into him. But there's no percentage in arguing. Only a minute left. Get lined up right. Only a minute left. Deal with this and we're home. Crowded back here. Keep our heads. Here comes the free kick. Make it ours. Someone's trying to clear. Too frantic. The ball hits a body. Schnellinger handles. Come on, ref, bloody handball. No whistle. It spins across the goal. Like running too slow in a nightmare. Everyone heaving and scrambling to get there. Weber scores."

The game now went into extra-time. George Cohen recalled: "The ball comes off the Wembley turf two or three yards faster than a normal pitch because of its spongy nature. It's very wearing and the longer the game went on the more tired the Germans became." Ten minutes into extra-time Nobby Stiles played a long ball to Alan Ball: "I thought I'll never get that, but I managed to outpace Schnellinger and reach it. I knew Geoff liked it delivered early so I whipped it into the near-post space."

Geoff Hurst raced forward to meet Ball's centre: "I made my run a little too soon. This meant that instead of moving on to the ball it was falling slightly behind me. I needed to adjust my body and take a couple of touches to get the ball into a shooting position. To get the power required to strike it properly, I had to fall back. as it turned out I connected beautifully with the ball but, in doing so, toppled over. I therefore had probably the worst view in the ground when the ball struck the underside of the bar and bounced down on the line. My next clear memory is of Roger Hunt, to my left, suddenly halting his forward run and raising an arm in the air. Had there been any doubt about the validity of the goal in Roger's mind, he would have continued his run and supplied the finishing touch."

It has been argued by Chris Lightbown that Tofik Bakramhov, the Russian linesman, was always going to give the goal: "It was known round parts of Europe, but not in England, that Tofik Bakramhov, the linesman had fought the Germans in the war. Did anybody believe that a man who had seen the sort of things he would have seen on the Eastern Front was going to get the Germans off the hook? Once the referee started walking over to consult Bakramhov, the Germans might as well have packed up and gone home."

With England 3-2 up England was expected to play out time, but that was not the way that Moore played the game. As Jack Charlton pointed out: "I was brought up in the north, where defenders took no chances. Bobby Moore was different. In the last seconds of the final, he was in possession on the edge of the box and there were shouts the game was virtually over. Instead of punting it, Bobby had a look upfield... The Germans went to close him down, but Bobby played a casual one-two with little Ballie in the box. Two German players anticipated the move and Bobby ran between them. If he'd lost the ball, we were finished. He moved into the midfield with the ball and I'm still screaming at him to whack it out. It was agonising for me, but he checked, looked up, took all day about it, then delivered a curler of a ball to Geoff."

Alan Ball takes up the story: "When Bobby played that great ball to Geoff... I was running through the middle, square with Geoff, shouting at him to knock it to me. We were two against one and, if he'd passed to me. I could've walked it in." Geoff Hurst recalled in his autobiography, Geoff Hurst: 1966 and All That (2001): "It was the perfect ball. My first thought was not to give it away. We had to keep possession. I sensed that Overath was chasing me as I headed towards the German goal... By this time I was about ten yards outside their box. I can't imagine where I got the strength from to make that run. I was exhausted... I heard Ball calling me. He was chasing hard to support me. It was at this point that I decided to hit the ball with every last ounce of strength." Ball added: "I was about to curse him for being greedy when he hit it but the words stuck in my throat - then I was cartwheeling and yelling with everyone else."

Bobby Charlton believed that Moore's captaincy was a vital ingredient to England's victory: "He was an excellent skipper. He was genuine, a good leader and he linked everyone together. We won the World Cup in 1966 because we were a group, we got on well together and Bobby was our captain." Alf Ramsay went further: "We would not have won the World Cup if Bobby Moore had not been our captain."

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/WHmooreB2.htm

History of California

It is believed that humans arrived in California from north-east Asia about 12,000 years ago. They divided and separated into groups that chose different areas to settle. This included the Chahuilla, Chumash, Gabrielino, Karok, Maidu, Miwok, Wintu and Yokut tribes. The anthropologist, Alfred L. Kroeber, has argued that large tribes were rare in California. He claimed that most lived in "tribelets" that contained up to 500 people.

Kevin Starr, the author of California (2005) has argued that by the 15th century "something approaching one third of all Native Americans living within the present day boundaries of the continental United States - which is to say, more than three hundred thousand people - are estimated to have been living within the present-day boundaries of California."

History of California

James Irving, Slave-Trade Captain

In 1789 at the age of only twenty-nine, James Irving was appointed as captain of the recently built, Anna. His improved financial situation enabled him to move to Pownall Square. Under the terms of the Dolben Act the ship was allowed to carry eighty slaves. He therefore only had a crew of eight men. This included John Clegg, Matthew Dawson, and three black men, Silvin Buckle, James Drachen and Jack Peters.

On 3rd May, 1789, Irving left Liverpool for Africa. On 27th May, the ship got into trouble off the Atlantic coast of Morocco. Irving later recalled that his attempts to alter the ship's course and "bring her to the wind" failed and the Anna was over-whelmed by the waves which "fell on board so heavily, and followed one another so quickly, that she soon lost head way, and struck in the hollow of the sea so very hard, that the rudder went away in a few seconds". Within ten minutes the ship filled with water and was pushed into the rocks. Irving and his crew were forced to abandon ship, and luckily they managed to safely get to the shore.

Irving and his crew were captured the following day by local Arabs and sold into slavery. Irving wrote to his wife, "all our hopes and prospects are vanished". Irving sent a letter to John Hutchinson, the British vice-counsul at Mogador (modern-day Essaouira), on the 24th June, 1789: "I hope you can feel for us, first suffering shipwreck, then seized on by a party of Arabs with outstretched arms and knives ready to stab us, next stripped to the skin, suffering a thousands deaths daily, insulted, spit upon, exposed to the sun and forced to travel through parched deserts." He pleaded with Hutchinson to "rescue us speedily from the most intolerable slavery".

Hutchinson successfully negotiated his release and after arriving in Marrakesh in January 1790 Irving informed his wife: "I have now the pleasure to tell you that after many difficulties and inconceivable hardships every one of us are got safe here in perfect health, and are under the care of our humane vice-consul, Mr. Hutchinson, who supplies us with clothes and the necessaries of life."

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/REirvingJ.htm

Hugh Crow, Slave-Ship Captain

Hugh Crow approved of the regulation of the slave-trade. However, he rejected the criticism of William Wilberforce: "His proposition... that badges should be worn by African captains, who toiled at the risk of their lives for the accommodation of our colonies, and that he and others might enjoy their ease at home, was impertinent as well as ungracious; and his regulation that captains should land their cargoes without losing a certain number of black slaves, was absolutely ridiculous. Not a word was said about the white slaves, the poor sailors; these might die without regret.... And with respect to the insinuation thrown out, in this country, that African captains sometimes threw their slaves overboard, it is unworthy of notice, for it goes to impute an absolute disregard of self interest, as well as of all humanity. In the African trade, as in all others, there were individuals bad as well as good, and it is but justice to discriminate, and not condemn the whole for the delinquencies of a few."

According to his biographer, Elizabeth Baigent: "On 25 August 1793, during a twelve-month period of leave between June 1793 and June 1794, he married Mary Hall, with whom he had a son, born in May 1794. On his fourth slaving voyage, later in 1794, as chief mate of the Gregson, he was captured by the French and spent a year as a prisoner in France, eventually escaping disguised as a Breton by speaking Manx."

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/REcrow.htm

Samuel Romilly and Parliamentary Reform

In 1806 Samuel Romilly entered the House of Commons as MP for Queenborough. When Lord Grenville was invited by the king to form a new Whig administration he invited Romilly to became his solicitor-general.

Romilly was one of the most progressive MPs in the House of Commons and usually associated with other radicals such as Charles Fox, Samuel Whitbread and Henry Grey Bennet. The author of The Making of the English Working Class (1963), Edward Thompson, has argued: "While the democratic persuasions of most of the group were largely speculative, individual members - Sir Samuel Romilly, Samuel Whitbread, H. G. Bennet - stood up again and again in the House to defend political liberties or social rights."

Romilly was close to other supporters of parliamentary reform such as Francis Burdett and William Cobbett. In 1809 Burdett was charged with a breach of privilege by the House of Commons. This resulted from an article that appeared in Cobbett's Political Register. Burdett was defended by Romilly. Burdett's biographer, Marc Baer, has commented: "The confrontation between the ‘Man of the People' and the Perceval government had been building for some time, owing to Burdett's speeches about the unrepresentative character of the Commons, criticism of the war and the sale of army commissions, and tiresome lectures on the ancient constitution. On 6 April the Commons voted to commit Burdett to the Tower of London, whereupon he challenged the speaker's warrant and barricaded himself in his London house." Burdett was arrested on the morning of 9th April 1810 and was ordered to was confined to the Tower of London until the end of the parliamentary session on 21st June. The government was too afraid to expel him from Parliament. When Burdett was released he cancelled a march through London, fearing further riots and loss of life.

Romilly supported the principle of parliamentary reform but he admitted that he was "no friend to universal suffrage … or even to annual parliaments." He also criticised the aggressive oratory of men such as Francis Burdett and Henry Hunt. In his memoirs he argued: "No conduct can, in my eyes, be more criminal than that of availing one's self of the prejudiced clamours of the ignorant or misinformed to accomplish any political purpose, however good or desirable in itself." He also disagreed with Thomas Paine and was surprised by the success of The Rights of Man: "I do not understand how men can be convinced without arguments."


http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/REromilly.htm

The Sierra Leone Company and Slavery

Granville Sharp was able to persuade a small group of London's poor to travel to Sierra Leone. As Hugh Thomas, the author of The Slave Trade (1997), has pointed out: "A ship was charted, the sloop-of-war Nautilus was commissioned as a convoy, and on 8th April the first 290 free black men and 41 black women, with 70 white women, including 60 prostitutes from London, left for Sierra Leone under the command of Captain Thomas Boulden Thompson of the Royal Navy". When they arrived they purchased a stretch of land between the rivers Sherbo and Sierra Leone.

The settlers sheltered under old sails, donated by the navy. They named the collection of tents Granville Town after the man who had made it all possible. Granville Sharp wrote to his brother that "they have purchased twenty miles square of the finest and most beautiful country... that was ever seen... fine streams of fresh water run down the hill on each side of the new township; and in the front is a noble bay."

The reality was very different. Adam Hochschild, the author of Bury the Chains: The British Struggle to Abolish Slavery (2005) has argued: "The expedition's delayed departure from England meant that it had arrived on the African coast in the midst of the malarial rainy season.... The ground was another major problem: steep, forested slopes with thin topsoil... When they managed to coax a few English vegetables out of the ground, ants promptly devoured the leaves."

Soon after arriving the colony suffered from an outbreak of malaria. In the first four months alone, 122 died. One of the white settlers wrote to Sharp: "I am very sorry indeed, to inform you, dear Sir, that... I do not think there will be one of us left at the end of a twelfth month... There is not a thing, which is put into the ground, will grow more than a foot out of it... What is more surprising, the natives die very fast; it is quite a plague seems to reign here among us."

Adam Hochschild has pointed out: "As supplies at Granville Town dwindled and crops failed, the increasingly frustrated settlers turned to the long-time mainstay of the local economy, the slave trade.... Three white doctors from Granville Town ended up at the thriving slave depot... at Bance Island." Granville Sharp was furious when he discovered what was happening and wrote to the settlers: "I could not have conceived that men who were well aware of the wickedness of slave dealing, and had themselves been suffers (or at least many of them) under the galling yoke of bondage to slave-holders... should become so basely depraved as to yield themselves instruments to promote, and extend, the same detestable oppression over their brethren."

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/REsierra.htm