"competitive men will do almost anything to win"

This widely-read book made King a celebrity.

1952 James Stewart movie.

Yesterday the students watched excerpts from Bend of the River, a 1952 James Stewart movie with iconic images of American settlers heading west. We just read the first two chapters of Martha Sandweiss' Passing Strange: A Gilded Ages Tale of Love and Deception Across the Color Line, which centers on the life of Clarence King, a geologist, and some of his adventurous pursuits, many of them on the western frontier. I asked them to bring the book and the movie together in order to better understand the complexities of King's life. As we continue to read, we will certainly see him in the 19th century urban space that is New York. But for now, we see him on the frontier. Just as I asked them a few weeks ago during our tour of Tuscaloosa's Jemison Mansion to see the mansion via the eyes of Eliza Potter, a mixed race hairdresser, yesterday I asked them to pretend that King himself was witnessing some of what we saw in the movie. In other words, put a real person in this work of fiction. Knowing his quirky personality and the degree to which he was a masterful storyteller, what would he say? Moreover, since looking at race, gender and class are helpful to understanding how complicated American life is, how could we weave such ideas in? All of students did a great job of completing a fill in the blank assignment, situating King in a particular scene of this movie. Regan, Ryan, Lauren, Aaron, Michael, Evelyn and Bryon participated in this assignment. In the interest of space, I will weave their answers together:

"Hi, my name is Clarence King. I was born in Newport, Rhode Island in 1842. Today, I find myself in Oregon observing the most interest things. I just saw a young lady doing chores get shot in the shoulder by a Native American.  After we reached Portland, I saw a maid helping the woman who had been shot. I ventured out to a dance and saw a young lady flirt with a very well to do gentleman during a dance. Oh, how it reminds me that the city is a place filled with young women looking for husbands. Later, I saw a man letting one of the women drive a wagon during another battle, this one with white men who were trying to take the settlers' supplies. Oh, how it reminds that competitive men will do almost anything to win . What I saw  is different from my days at Yale where me and my classmates merely read about Native Americans and battles or only admired the women. Oh, the stories I will have for those politicians and others back on the east coast. It all make s me feel very lucky, but sometimes confused. I record this knowing that I have been cleansed for some great work."

After they completed this short assignment, we discussed what the students wrote and the film, which certainly included stereotypical images of African Americans and Native Americans and moreover, images that sometimes situated white women in unfavorable light. One point I wanted to emphasize is King's own strange politics. While he was a supporter of Illinois Senator Stephen Douglas, who believed western territories should decide whether they wanted slavery within their borders, King went on to marry an African American woman and even sometimes "pass" as African American as  he maneuvered between the frontier and his life on the east coast. I personally wondered if the "mad" scientist in him made him believe that he could withstand the hurdles of his many contradictions. We will consider this issue as we turn to the the next three chapters of Sandweiss' book.