Historians use songs often, but not necessarily for the purposes of basing their information off of the songs. Most authors use lyrics in the songs to be the names of chapters or books. According to the book on page 27, “songs usually fail our litmus test for a good document”. The songs are sort of like the oral histories because they both are normally updated, misremembered, and transformed. Fortunately with the African American track liner’s songs, they had been passed down like documents but without paper.

One of the disadvantages to the songs is that even though the words stayed the same, the way the song was sung was misconstrued which lead to people misinterpreting the meaning of the songs. The modern singing of the songs has different speed, phrasing, and rhythmic accompaniment which has led for the songs to be interpreted to happy and upbeat and makes John Henry seem like a hero who accomplished something impossible. But the truth is that hammer songs are not normally upbeat and about heroes. Most of them are about cursing hard work, their bosses, and unfaithful women. Many of the songs today focus on John Henry’s victory over the steam roller and how his hard worked paid off. The hammer songs that were about John Henry actually focused on his hard work, his suffering, and his death. And instead of hard work paying off, the songs were actually about escape. The story of John Henry was a warning, not a praise. Singing these dark lyrics warned them that if they worked too fast that they would die an ugly death.

Some of the advantages that using songs is the affect that they have on history now and the information that you can get out of them. The rhythms of the track lining songs was used to help base most music today like blues, jazz, and country. Also, the work songs used by the track liners give us more information about their experiences that were otherwise silenced in written documents. The lyrics give us a closer look to what the track liners had to experience daily, their dreams, and how they felt about the network of rails. These songs also give us a closer look at the work ethic of the liners’. They used certain words to be code for certain actions that they needed to perform. This resulted in less backaches and muscle strains, and their pace of the lyrics determined the pace of their work. The songs also show the true history of what would really happen on the rail lines instead of the stories that make the work seem much happier than what it really was.

After receiving my feedback on my last blog post, I wanted to go and research some more into the movie The Left Handed Gun and why Billy was portrayed the way he was. Where I ended wasn’t exactly there but I found a website, http://www.aboutbillythekid.com. This website doesn’t exactly talk about the movie, but a lot of the facts on it show how much Billy’s history was changed for the movie. One of  the interesting facts that I found is that Billy the Kid holds the record for the most motion pictures made on an individual in film making history. Also, Billy the Kid’s original tintype photo is worth $100,000-300,000 making it one of, if not the most, valuable historical photographs of the Old West.

Last week I mentioned how the movie portrayed that Billy the Kid was illiterate. On the website, you are able to access some of the letters that Billy wrote, which proves that Billy wasn’t actually illiterate. Also in the movie, Charlie was portrayed as one of Billy’s close companions and followed Billy and helped him seek revenge after Tunstall’s death. According to an interview Billy did for The Las Vegas Gazette in 1880, Billy and Charlie were just owners of a ranch.

Also in the movie, while Billy is in jail, a reporter comes to visit him. The reporter in the movie supports Billy and brings him chocolates and articles that are saying good things about Billy. According to an interview that Billy did for Mesilla News in 1881, Billy says that the reporter was creating a prejudice against him and “trying to incite a mob to lynch me”. Billy felt like it was taking advantage of him because he was not able to defend himself.

Also in the movie, Billy’s first crime was said to be murder when he was 11 in El Paso. He supposedly stabbed somebody for mocking his mind. Billy’s first crime actually was not committed until he was about 14 or 15. His crime was stealing several pounds of butter from a rancher. Billy did not commit his first murder until he was around 16. It was an act of self defense, but he was still wanted for murder. Another big misconception in the movie was that Billy was left handed. Billy was ambidextrous, but he mainly used his right hand. People assumed  that Billy was left handed because he had his revolver positioned on the left side, but the image was reversed.

This week I watched a movie on Billy the Kid. I actually found The Left Handed Gun on Netflix.

The movie caught my attention in the very beginning with the song. I went on YouTube to try to find the name of the song, but to my surprise, there are many songs about Billy the Kid. The song was the opposite of what I think when I hear Billy. The song describes Billy as being a “gentle” boy that never meant wrong and that he should be treated gently. When I hear Billy the Kid, my first impression is outlaw that killed 21 men. In the beginning, Billy is also portrayed as being quite which is also the opposite of the way that he is portrayed  in many stories. In the sources that I have read, Billy has been made out to be outspoken.

In 05:06 of the movie, Billy’s first crime is introduced. The man said that Billy stabbed a drunk because he said “a word against his mind” and it killed the drunk. The crime was committed while Billy was 11 in El Paso. There is also a part at 00:8:41 where Billy is talking to a man about Spanish and the man asked Billy if he learned Spanish while he was in Kansas City and Billy tells him that he lives in the South. I don’t know if this is suggesting that Billy was from Kansas City or if that was one of the places that he lived, but none of the sources that I have read have mentioned anything about Billy being in Kansas City.

At 9:40, Billy is portrayed as being illeterate. This also goes against many of the sources that I have read about Billy. All of the sources that mentioned Billy’s education said that Billy could read and that he would read often. The movie still showed Billy as having an interest in books, but he was never able to read throughout the movie. Billy’s loyalty is also portrayed very well in this movie. Billy had not been with Tunstall for a while, but he races to his side after he gets shot. He volunteers for the men to put the body on his horse and he promises to seek revenge for his death.

When the movie moves along and we start seeing the more open side of Billy, his character seems very childish. There is a scene at 00:18:50, after Tunstall’s funeral, where Billy starts dancing around and it’s almost like watching a kid dance. When he starts talking to Tom and Charlie about his plan to seek revenge, he turns serious again. His childishness is shown again at 00:41:47 when him and his friends start getting excited over ther party, girls, and getting drunk. While at the party, he encounters Grant and comes close to a draw. After that incident, he leaves the party and he seems to become almost delusional.

I feel like this movie does shows Garrett’s and Billy’s relationship more in depth than any other sources I have seen. They are good friends until Billy shoots Hill at Garrett’s wedding and that is when Billy decides to accept the offer to become the sherriff. At 1:11:10, Billy shows a side that you really don’t see during  the movie, which is a mature side. He lets Tom leave and he offers him more catridges for his gun, advice about when to travel, and helps him unto his horse. However, at 1:13:05, he starts showing his delusional side again when he is talking to himself about Tom leaving him and Charlie.

This movie also shows that Garrett starts doubting his decision about bringing Billy in after the hanging sentence was passed. It aslo shows how Billy is friendly with his guards like many sources mentions. There is a lot of controversy about how Billy actually died, but in this version, Garrett shoots Billy while he is unarmed.

I think Tubman’s Christianity was much different than her admirers and her biographers. According to the book, “Most nineteenth-century Christians believed in the power of prayer. It was a form of talking to God” (pg.137). In the African American Christian culture, God would talk back. Many of the ways that God would talk back was through dreams and visions, and this fact was what many of Tubman’s early white supporters couldn’t wrap their mind around.

Some of Tubman’s biographers downplayed her “mystic” religious abilities that helped her get through her life. Bradford’s religion saw God as being more two sided. One side was “the kind savior who welcomed the good into heaven, and the stern, intimidating judge who who would ultimately punish evildoers” (138). Tubman’s view of God was an approachable unfailing supportable God for those who were righting wrongs. Bradford participated in silencing some of Tubman’s religious abilities when it came to Franklin B. Sanborn’s letter. Bradford thought that Sanborn gave wonderful instances of Harriet’s dreams and visions but she did not include them into her book because she “thought best not to insert anything which, with any, might bring discredit upon the story” (136). Bradford, however, still capitalized on Tubman being a saint and seer for the sake of women suffrage.

Sanborn, in his article for Commonwealth in July 1863, tried to explain Harriet’s seer like abilities. He said that her ability to always escape while operating the Undergroung Railroad was because of her “quick wit” and her “warnings’ from Heaven”. According to Sanborn’s account, Tubman inherited her psychic powers from her dad. He said that her knowledge of the future came to her in dreams and the only thing strange about this is that she remembers the places that she’s gone to and the people she’s met, in reality, from her dreams.

Rosa Bell Holt also wrote about Harriet Tubman’s religious side in an article in the Chautauquan in1896. Holt compared Tubman to Joan of Arc because of the women believed in their visions from God and lead people because of these visions.

Earl Conrad, another major biographer for Tubman, tried to credit Tubman’s visions to her narcolepsy. He felt that the deep sleeps that Tubman fell into were the reason for her visionary dreams. He sought several consults from prominent hospitals and research centers, but did not get back the results that he wanted. He could accept the fact that Tubman suffered from narcolepsy, but he could not accept the suggestions that Tubman had mental disorders. In the end, Conrad did not include the references he got for Tubman’s dreams. He did still include her religion because he knew that black Americans found the religion of Southern folk culture important. He still felt that the religious factor of Tubman “was by no means the important thing” in relation to her achievements.  He felt like if he attributed her deeds to God than she wouldn’t receive the credit that she deserved.

Harriet has been perceived as a Christian, but her early supporters could not begin to fathom her beliefs in Christianity. They believed in the same God, but Tubman’s God performed in very different ways than what they were used to.

I think Tubman I had a small influence over the making of her own legend.Harriet was known to be a story teller and did enjoy telling people about the trips that she made.  The first biography of Harriet Tubman, Scenes, was based off of what stories she told Sarah Bradford. I think at this point, however, is where Harriet’s influence stops and others influences start.

 Tubman was illiterate so she was not able to write an autobiography or to read the things that other people wrote about her. Also when people want to get a point across, they tend to fudge the details a bit. One example is with the differences between Sarah Bradford’s 1869 and 1886 biography of Harriet Tubman. The 1886 version is more about the facts of Harriet Tubman because that book was written with haste since Bradford was leaving the country soon. By Bradford’s 1886 biography, the facts seemed to be a lot bigger than what they were in the beginning biography. For example, the number of trips and people saved increased tremendously. In the 1869 version, it was said that Tubman had made eight trips and saved about 50 people. By the time 1886 came, Tubman was said to have made 19 trips and saved over 300 people. This dramtic increase clearly shows how much the legend of Harriet Tubman grew. Also there were many people who used Harriet Tubman as an example when they gave their speeches. Most of the time in these speeches, the speakers would target the legends of Harriet to be able to get their point across. For example, in the speech that Frances Ellen  Watkins Harper gave, she refers to Harriet as ” a woman who has gone down into the Egypt of slavery and brought out hundreds our people into liberty”.

Also, many  of the abolitonists and helpers of the Underground Railroad would talk about the great things that Harriet did and the stories that she told them. After telling the story so many times, it is sure to be misconstrued.

The way that many of the things about Tubman spread reminds me a lot of telephone. For cheerleading, we would host a cheerleading camp during the summer for younger kids. Of course their attention spans were not long enough to be able to do cheerleading all day so we would have to play games with them. One of the popular games happened to be telephone. You never knew what the end result would be because some of the girls would try to actually remember what was said in the beginning and some of the girls would purposely change what was said.

Because of all these facts, I believe that Tubman only had a small role in her legend. She provided the stories and others took the stories and turned them into legends.

I have finally gotten one of the books that I was interested in, Lucky Billy. It is very interestingly written and it’s not like other historical books that I have read before. I have only read the first chapter, but you can immediately tell the difference after reading the first sentence. I feel like Lucky Billy reads more as a narrative. It reads very simple like a children’s book, but it obviously not meant for kids because it does contain profanity and some graphic content during the death scenes. It is also very hard to tell the difference between fact and fiction in Lucky Billy mainly because it reads as a story. I do think, however, that it would be beneficial to keep reading it because it shows a good example of how Billy the Kid has grown into a legend over the years. I also plan on reading other books so I can get a better idea of what is fact and what is fiction.

There is also another book that I have found in the library that I haven’t checked out yet, but I plan on doing it soon. It is titled Billy the Kid:The Endless Ride. According to one book review, http://route66news.com/2007/03/25/book-review-billy-the-kid-the-endless-ride/, this book should do a better  job of seperating the fact from the fiction.

There is also another interesting book that I have found in the library by the name Billy the Kid: The Best Writings on the Infamous Outlaw. This book is a collage of all things Billy. It has everything from the biographies of Billy, plays, newspaper articles, songs, movies, poems, and short stories. I think this will also give a good idea of what is actually fact about Billy and what has been made up about him throughout the years. I’m also hoping that I will be able to get more information about Billy off of the internet.

Back to the book Lucky Billy, so far it has been talking about the escape of Billy from prison on April 28, 1881. Althouth this part is mainly dialogue and narrative, I have noticed some of the facts that I have been able to find on other pages. Some of these facts are about how secure Billy was kept, playing poker with the guards, and Billy’s escape. There is a lot of dialogue between Billy and the guards that I haven’t heard of before. The description of the death scene is very gruesome and I don’t think I have came across any other source that has described the scene. Billy also seems a little bit off balanced because his train of thought quickly switches and he’s not really sure if he is talking to himself or talking to the crowd of people who had gathered around the prison.