Cultural Information.

 

 

There is an important matriarch of my family tree who is Nettie Turner (1900-1986), who was my 1st cousin. She is the great-granddaughter of Millie Woodson Turner (1830-1910) and Morefield Hurst-Turner (1827-1918). She married Percy Sugars (b. 1899) on February 6, 1921. The couple had many children, including Romine Turner (1921-1944), Eunice Mae Sugars (1923-2001), and Annie Sugars (1925-2024). Annie Sugars was my 2nd cousin who lived from March 18, 1925, to October 11, 2024. She was born in Courtland, Southampton County, Virginia. She was a housewife for many years. She married Frank Junior Smith (b. 1926). Annie Sugars and Frank Junior Smith had the following children of: Evelyn Smith (1945-2011), Anthony Smith (b. 1947), James Smith (1948-2001), Melvin Smith (1950-2024), Rodger L. Smith (1952-2017), and Janice Smith (b. 1953). My 3rd cousin Evelyn Smith married William Samuel Beavers from August 25, 1967, to February 21, 1984, in Virginia. Their son was William Samuel Beavers Jr. (1968-2021). Evelyn Smith also had the children of Deangelo Smith (1964-1996) and Sophia Denise Smith (b. 1966). My 3rd cousin James Smith married Melvina Noel (b. 1951). My 3rd cousin Melvin Smith Sr. married Angela Alpha Hill, and their children are Tara Smith and Melvin Smith Jr. Melvin Smith Sr. lived to be 73 years old from July 19, 1950, to January 22, 2024. He was raised in Norfolk, Virginia, graduated from Booker T. Washington High School in Norfolk, and was a Merchant Seaman. He worked for the International Longshoreman Association (ILA), Local 1248. He loved to fish, bike riding, crabbing, and swimming. He was married to Angela Hill Smith for 44 years. His grandchildren are Brittani, Kierra, and Ahslee. He has five great-grandchildren. Rodger L. Smith married Carlette Laverne Brooks (b. 1952) and later Sharron Louise Murphy (1962-2013). My 3rd cousin Janice Smith married Percell Sherood from 1973 to 1979. She has 2 children who are Allen Alexander Sherood (b. 1977) and Negus Negesti (b. 1972). Negus Negesti is an engineer and my 4th cousin. 

My 2nd cousin Eunice Mae Sugars (1923-2001) married Willie F. Burke Sr. (1924-1990) on November 17, 1941, in Princess Anne, Virginia. Their children are James Allen Burke (1944-1944), Ashton Burke (1945-2006), Herbert Dangelo Burke (b. 1954), Willie Burke Jr., and James E. Burke. Herbert Burke is married to Lisa Lucas Burke. 

 

We will always fight for justice. One of the biggest deceptions in our time is about the MAGA movement. Trump on November 3, 2024, said that he wouldn't mind if somebody had to shoot through the "fake news" to get to him. For the longest time, Trump supporters promoted the lie that Trump doesn't promote violence, but his speeches and his recent statements prove that he regularly shows violent rhetoric. His recent comment is evil and derogatory. He made these comments at Lititiz, Pennsylvania. Trump said that he wants retribution against the news media if he is reelected, and he called reporters the "enemy of the people." Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Tim Walz talked with black students in Atlanta, Georgia. Kamala Harris on November 3, 2024, mentioned that the people have the power to decide the fate of this nation to churchgoers in Detroit at an African American church. Trump said that he shouldn't have left the White House after he lost the 2020 election. 

 

There can be no full understanding of World War II without understanding about The League of Nations. The League of Nations desired world peace and international cooperation among nations to stop conflict. Such a goal was promoted by Immanuel Kant in his 1795 work of Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch. Lord Bryce and Jan Smuts promoted The League of Nations system. It was created on January 10, 1920, by the Paris Peace Conference, which officially ended the First World War. It ended completely by April 18, 1946, when many of its components were sent to the United Nations. It has many Secretaries-General with French and English used as its official languages. Its headquarters were in Geneva, Switzerland. The first Secretary General was Sir Eric Drummond. The League of Nations wanted disarmament and collective security. It expanded its role by dealing with labor, human trafficking, drug trafficking, the arms trade, global health, and the prisoners of war. In 1919, President Woodrow Wilson won the Nobel Peace Prize for his role as the leading architect of The League of Nations. There were many weaknesses of The League of Nations. A growing isolationism in the world caused many nations to not adhere to the provisions found in The League of Nations. During the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, the dictator Benito Mussolini ignored The League as the League of Nations accused Italian soldiers of targeting the International Red Cross and the Red Crescent Movement medical tents. One major failure of the League of Nations was that it should stop the rise of the fascist Axis Powers found in Japan and Germany plus Italy. America also never joined The League of Nations officially. Japan and Germany left in 1933, Italy left in 1937, and Spain left in 1939. The Soviet Union was in it in 1937 and expelled in 1939 after invading Finland. The League of Nations lacked the action of use further sanctions for fear of decreasing its power. The League of Nations failed in many respects, but it set up a foundation for the creation of the United Nations. It caused more international discussion about solving foreign policy matters in a multinational way. It helped to increase the awareness of consciousness about epidemics, slavery, child labor, colonialism, refugee crises, and working conditions in its commissions and committees. It helped to promote statehood and the mandate system. 

To understand the Revolutionary War, you must understand about the history of the Americas. The first human beings in the Americas were Paleo-Native Americans. They came from Siberia about 15,000 - 40,000 years ago during the end of the Ice Age. When the sea level dropped, a land bridge allowed Native Americans to go from Siberia to the Americas hunting massive mammals like Mammoths, mastodons, and giant bison. Native Americans saw a more diverse environment and fauna. They created diverse cultures with tons of languages, civilizations, and spiritual beliefs. There were distinct languages from Algonquian to Siouan. Corn, squash, and beans were grown by many Native Americans. Complex civilizations grew like the Mayans, the Olmecs, the Aztecs, the Incas, etc. There were the Mississippi River Valley cultures too with their own temples and agriculture. Many Native American chiefs had decentralized power, many Native Americans held sacred animals, trees, rocks, and other items, and they owned little private property. As time went on Europeans came into the Americas as early as the time of the Vikings in 1000's A.D. More Europeans came by the 1400s. Europe in the 1400s had chaos and new movements like the Black Plague disease, the Crusades, the Renaissance, warring kingdoms, and their goal of expansion. Many European Empires would promote colonialism, imperialism, and slavery to make their profit grow, advance racism, and seek control over the world's resources. They wanted new trade routes. The Portuguese created the modern day international Maafa among many continents. Slavery existed for millennia among the human race, but many Europeans expanded it to the point of making it completely global, stripping Africans of their language, religion, culture, and family structure. The Maafa lasted from the 1400s to the 19th century. Christopher Columbus came into the Caribbean, and the Spanish Empire expanded into the Americas to conquer the Aztecs too. 

Both Africans and Native Americans were slaves, and as time would go on, the majority of the victims of the Maafa would be black Africans. By the 1500's, Spanish explorers expanded North into the Midwest and the Southwest. Also, France and England competed for more resources in America too. Many in the French Empire would have cordial relations with some Native Americans in dealing with trade, and some didn't. Many French explorers and colonies would settle in Quebec, New Orleans, Louisiana in general, and in other places of the Midwest. By the 1600s and 1700s, the New France has expanded. The British Empire tried to make a colony in the 1580s in Roanoke in North Carolina, but they created a sustaining one in 1607 at Jamestown, Virginia. These colonies grew at the expense of the human suffering and exploitation of black slaves. Wars happened as Native Americans resisted the goals of the English colonists to gain their lands and resources. There was Powhatan and her daughter Pocahontas (who was captured by the British, converted to Christianity, and married a colonist John Rolfe). The English colonies grown from Georgia to Virginia and all the way to New England. Bacon's Rebellion existed in the 1670s. Both sides were wrong for different reasons. Bacon was wrong to want to exterminate Native Americans in his rebellion. Royal Governor of Virginia William Berkeley was wrong to harm a free press and public education for the common people (as he represented wealthy interests). The Middle Colonies, the Southern Colonies, and the New England colonies grown rapidly in the 1600s and 1700s. 

Nations from Sweden to the Netherlands have slavery and colonies in America plus in the Caribbean too. William Penn was rare being a Quaker who promoted religious freedom and tolerance in setting the groundwork for forming Pennsylvania as we know it. At this time, black Americans and Native Americans were in revolts to stand up for their human rights. The American colonies formed a new culture, distinct from Europe. Black people, white people, Hispanic people, and other groups of people in America back then had banjos, literature, and inventions. The movements of the Great Awakening, the Enlightenment, increased trade, and the English Bill of Rights of 1689 inspired many colonists to promote independence from the British Empire. England relief on the American colonists financially via mercantilism. The French and Indian War changed everything. The American colonists, even George Washington, were heavily used in that War. The French and Indian War was about the British fighting the French with France's Native American allies for lands outside of the Appalachian Mountains. There was the Pontiac's Rebellions, but the British won that war. The colonists after the war wanted more freedom and representation in the British Empire. The British Empire refused to do so in causing more burdens on the colonists to pay down the war debt. Future harsh tax measures by the British Empire contributed to the existence of the Revolutionary War too. 

By Timothy