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For students who are waiting for their professors to grade their papers

I am currently experiencing a higher than usual volume of student papers. I will grade your paper in the order in which it was received. Your paper grade is very important to me. You can’t always be experiencing a higher that usual volume…. Yes, I can.

frost

Robert Frost on Grading Student Essays

I believe it was the great Robert Frost, the college history professor who wrote: The pillows are lovely, dark and deep,But I have promises to keep, And essays to read before I sleep, And essays to read before I sleep

Brown

Book Review: Jim E. Brown, Brown on Brown: The Autobiography of Jim E. Brown; Vol 1: The Early Years (2021)

Jim E. Brown’s new autobiographical memoir, Brown on Brown: The Autobiography of Jim E. Brown; Vol 1: The Early Years (2021), is most definitely a book, in the sense that it contains the minimum number of pages required to be considered such, forty-eight. There is a lot of white space on these pages. One must […]

Presentation at the African American Archive, Kinderhook, NY on Oct. 5, 2025

When Daniel Boone “Cilled” a “Bar”

In a previous post, I presented an example of how a newspaper could provide an “illustration” without using engraved plates. In that case, it was a map of Spain made simply by typing the names of cities in such an order on the page to approximate their actual relative locations. In a 19th century history […]

cat

The Four Stages of Writer’s Block

by Blue, the cat. Make sure you have a writing utensil. Check if it is sharp. Look to the ceiling for inspiration. Look to the table. Now you may start your writer’s block.

An interview at the Author’s Corner

“Where did all the Slaves go?”

A Presentation for the Schenectady Historical Society, March 23, 2023.

Review Article on Slavery in Dutch New York

How old? Claims for Superannutated, Centenarian, and Super-Centenarian Ex-Slaves

If you search for articles on “ex-slave centenarians” you will discover many claims of formerly enslaved people who  lived not only to 100, but much longer.  In 1981,  William Pinckey of Prince George’s County, Maryland, claimed to be 118, and had been born a slave.   Not to be outdone, Philadelphia’s Mary McDonla claimed to be 135 […]