Andrew Jackson: 7th President of the United States (1829-1837).

 

Battle of Hastings: a decisive battle in the Norman Conquests of England in 1066.

 

Cornwall: a country at the southwest tip of England.

 

disturbance between the North and the South: The Civil War (1861-1865).

 

Dracula: the 1931 film version of the famous vampire story.

 

flivver: another name for a Model-T Ford.

 

Jamaica: an island country in the West Indies, south of Cuba.

 

John Wesley: 1702-1791. Founder of the Methodist Church.

 

Meridian, Mississippi: Meridian is a city in east Mississippi.

 

Merlin: King Arthur's adviser, prophet and magician.

 

Mobile: a city in southwest Alabama.

 

no mother to buy it with: an allusion to the Great Depression.

 

nothing to fear but fear itself: an allusion to President Franklin D. Roosevelt's first Inaugural Address.

 

Pensacola: a city in northwest Florida.

 

Philadelphia: a city in southeast Pennsylvania.

 

stump hole whiskey: illegally made and sold whiskey that would be hidden in the holes of tree stumps.

 

Tuscaloosa: a city in central Alabama.

 

 

Bullfinch: an allusion to Bulfinch's Mythology, a famous collection of Greek myths. Jem is kidding, of course, but his reference to Bullfinch's Mythology is another indication of how much of a reader Scout has always been.

 

Dewey Decimal System: a system for organizing books in libraries. Contrary to what Jem tells Scout, this Dewey system has nothing to do with John Dewey, a theorist of progressive education.

 

diaries of Lorenzo Dow: Lorenzo Dow (1777 - 1834) was a Methodist preacher who traveled throughout the country, including the state of Alabama.

 

Here's a quarter: if a quarter doesn't seem like enough, remember that, during this portion of the Great Depression, a nickel bought a loaf of bread, a movie was a dime, and gasoline could be had for sixteen cents a gallon.

 

the crash: the Stock Market Crash of 1929 which led to the Great Depression.

 

union suit: a one-piece garment of underwear with a buttoned flap in the back.

 

Union: one side in the Civil War (the north).

 

 

 

 

 

man who sat on a flagpole: Flagpole sitting was one of the stranger fads of the 1930's.

 

Indian-heads: before the Lincoln penny, there were Indian-head pennies.

 

One Man's Family: a radio serial (like a soap opera) which began in 1932 and proved to be enormously popular for almost 30 years. By acting out their version of the Radley story, the children are playing in their own version of the drama.

 

Old Testament pestilence: Pestilence refers to a condition or disease that causes massive damage or death. One example of pestilence in the Old Testament of the Bible is a plague of locusts, such as the one described in Exodus 10.

 

Second Battle of the Marne: a battle in World War I.

 

 

Egyptians walked that way: Jem's assumptions as to how Egyptians would have walked is probably based on pictures of Egyptian art.

 

(I got sick of looking through half-naked people "walking like egyptians", so I came across this. They're sheep. They walk like Egyptian Sheep.)

 

Appomattox: a former village in central Virginia. On April 9, 1865, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at the Appomattox Court House, ending the Civil War.

 

Bellingraths: Miss Maudie is referring to Walter and Bessie Bellingrath who, in 1932, opened their large, beautiful gardens to the public. The Bellingrath Gardens are located in Mobile, Alabama.

 

Lane cake: a rich white cake.

 

Rosetta Stone: Discovered in Egypt in 1799, the Rosetta Stone is a large block of basalt inscribed with a report of a decree passed in 196 BC. Written in three languages, the stone gave historians many clues as to the meaning of Egyptian Hieroglyphs.

 

Confederate veteran: a veteran of the Civil War who fought for the South.

 

General Hood: Lieutenant-General John B. Hood, a Confederate officer.

 

House of Commons: the lower branch of the legislature in Great Britain.

 

Let the cup pass from you: on the night before his crucifixion, Jesus prayed to the Lord: "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will but your be done [Luke 22:42]." By asking the Lord to "take this cup from me" he was praying that he might avoid his hate (in Greek, one of the figurative meanings for "cup" is "fate"). Uncle Jack's comment to Atticus calls upon this reference because he understands that his brother was not looking forward to his fate: having to defend Tom Robinson.

 

Lord Melbourne: (1779 - 1848). Queen Victoria's first Prime Minister, Melbourne also had the reputation for being something of a ladies' man.

 

 

Missouri Everest: the highest known mountain in the world, (29,028 feet), Everest is part of the Himalayas, on the border of Nepal and Tibet.

 

Ol' Blue Light: a reference to Stonewall Jackson.

 

Prime Minister: the head of a parliamentary government, such as Great Britain's.

 

Stonewall Jackson: a Confederate lieutenant-general.

 

mockingbird: a North American bird known for its vocal imitations.

 

Confederate Army: the Southern army in the Civil War.

 

CSA: Confederate States of America - the southern side of the Civil War.

 

Dixie Howell: Millard "Dixie" Howell was a popular University of Alabama football player during the 1930's.

 

Ivanhoe: a novel written in 1819 by Sir Walter Scott set in the Middle Ages during the time of the Crusades.

 

Sir Walter Scott: author of Ivanhoe.

 

Blackstone's Commentaries: one of the most important books ever written on British law.

 

Bootleggers: people who make and/or sell illegal liquor.

 

bread lines: during the Great Depression, thousands of people relied on charitable organizations for meals and would line up for simple meals often of bread and soup.

 

Brown's Mule: a brand of chewing tobacco.

 

castile: a type of soap, originally made in Spain.

 

Garden of Gethsemane: the place where Jesus went to pray on the night before his crucifixion.

 

Hoyt's Cologne: a strong, lasting cologne, originally made in Germany and popular during the first part of the 20th century.

 

Hunt's The Light of the World: a well-known painting of Jesus Christ.

 

Octagon soap: a very harsh, strong soap.

 

Shadrach: one of the three men whom King Nebuchadnezzar threw into a blazing furnace, as told in Daniel 3 of the Bible. Because of their faith in God, all three men escaped unharmed.

 

 

sit-down strikes: during the Great Depression, sit-down strikes became a real force in labor relations in the United States. Unlike "regular" strikes, workers in a sit-down strike would literally "sit down on the job;" that is, they would refuse to leave the building until their demands were met. One of the most famous sit-down strikes of this era was the Flint sit-down strike at the General Motors plant in Flint, Michigan.

 

Lydia E. Pinkham: a maker and manufacturer of patent medicines in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Most of Pinkham's medical concotions were aimed at women, and the majority of them contained liberal amounts of alcohol.

 

Reconstruction: the period of time, roughly between 1867 - 1877, when the Southern states were reorganized and reestablished after the Civil War.

 

Rice Christians: Christian converts from third-world nations, especially those in parts of Asia.

 

War Between the States: the Civil War.

 

battlement: a low wall with open spaces built on top of a castle wall or fort.

 

flying buttresses: a buttress (support) connected to a building by an arch.

 

Gothic: a style of architecture developed in Western Europe between the 12th and 16th century. An excellent example of the Gothic style is Nortre Dame Cathedral in France.

 

(above is a Jitney Jungle advertisement)

Jitney Jungle: a supermarket chain. Supermarkets were still relatively new to America in the 1930's. Most shoppers did business at smaller grocery stores.

 

snipe hunt: a practical joke. The "victim" is taken on a hunt deep into a forest at night and told to look for and capture "snipes," small, flightless birds that, in actuality, don't exist. While the hunter searches, the rest of the party leaves.

 

 

Braxton Bragg: The commander of the Western Confederate Army during the Civil War, Bragg led a less-than-distinguished career in the military, and his army unit was eventually defeated.

 

Ethiopia: During the time of the Old Testament, Ethiopia was a kingdom of Northeast Africa. Today, Ethiopia is a country in Eastern Africa.

 

Greek revival columns: a form of architectural columns.

 

straight Prohibition ticket: Prohibition was a period in US history (1920 - 1933) when the manufacture, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages was against the law. By voting the straight Prohibition ticket, Mr. Jones always votes for those political candidates who support Prohibition and were likely members of the Prohibition Party.

 

William Jennings Bryan: (1860 - 1925) Bryan was a lawyer, a politician (he ran for the Presidency three times), and a famous orator. His speeches were major events, especially in the South and along the Bible belt, and would draw huge crowds.

 

fountain pen: a pen with a special nib at the end that allows the pen to be refilled with ink from a bottle.

 

icebox: Before refrigerators, people used iceboxes, large wood cabinets kept cold on the inside by blocks of ice that would be delivered to the home.

 

Model-T Ford (on blocks): The Model-T (also known as a "tin Lizzie" or a "flivver") was Henry Ford's first popular success. Originally produced in 1909, it was affordable and relatively reliable. A car is put up on blocks for two main reasons: either it no longer has any tires, or the owner can't afford to drive it and putting it on blocks saves the tires from the damage caused by having to carry the weight of the car.

 

shotgun hall: a hallway that leads directly from the front door to the back door.

 

cotton gin: a machine used to separate seed and other debris from cotton.

 

 

Mr. Jingle: a character in Charles Dicken's novel The Pickwick Papers, Mr. Jingle usually expresses himself in sentence fragments.

 

all men are created equal: a phrase from The Declaration of Independence.

 

distaff side of the Executive branch: a reference to Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of President Franklin D. Roosevelt (the Executive branch is the President, and distaff, in this case, means wife). Eleanor Roosevelt often came in for much criticism, especially in the South, for her views on civil rights.

 

Einstein: Albert Einstein (1979 - 1955), German-born physicist.

 

 

Rockefeller: John D. Rockefeller (1839 - 1937), one of the richest men in America at the time.

 

Thomas Jefferson: 3rd President of the United States (1801 - 1809) and the author of The Declaration of Independence.

 

Birmingham: a city in Central Alabama.

 

 

Mrs. Roosevelt: First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962), wife of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

 

People up there set 'em free: in other words: the Northerners are responsible for the fact that the slaves were freed.

 

tryin' to sit with 'em: in 1939, Eleanor Roosevelt attended a meeting for the Southern Conference for Human Welfare in Birmingham, Alabama where she defied state authorities by sitting in the center aisle, between whites and blacks, after police told her she was violating segregation laws by sitting with black people.

 

English Channel: the English Channel is the waterway that separates Great Britain from France. It is also the avenue by which much trade is carried on between Great Britain and the European continent. According to Scout, Miss Stephanie is the avenue of gossip for much of Maycomb.

 

Adolf Hitler has been after all the Jews: a reference to the Nazi anti-Jewish policy.

 

 

Adolf Hitler: (1889 - 1945) Nazi dictator of Germany from 1933 to 1945.

 

Elmer Davis: a journalist and CBS radio commentator who went on to head the Office of War Information.

 

holy-roller: a member of a small religious sect that expresses devotion by shouting and moving around during worship services.

 

Uncle Natchell Story: Uncle Natchell (along with his sidekick, Sonny Boy) was the cartoon mascot for a fertilizer product called Natural Chilean Nitrate of Soda. Many of the advertisements for this product were in comic strip or story form. Little Chuck Little has mistaken one of these advertising "stories" for an actual current event.

 

Bob Taylor: Robert Love Taylor, late 19th Century orator and politician.

 

Ad Astra Per Aspera: Latin for "to the stars through difficulties".

 

Cotton Tom Heflin: J. Thomas "Cotton Tom" Heflin was an orator and Republican politician. Heflin was Secretary of State in Alabama at the beginning of the century and served in the U.S. Congress (1905-1920) and the Senate (1921-1931). Heflin's political support was drawn chiefly from rural voters and members of the Ku Klux Klan.

 

 

 

dog Victrolas: a reference to the advertising symbol of RCA/Victor; a dog, known as "Nipper," looking into the horn of a gramophone or Victrola.

 

Ladies' Law: From the Criminal Code of Alabama, Vol. III, 1907: "Any person who enters into, or goes sufficiently near to the dwelling house of another, and, in the presence or hearing of the family of the occupant thereof, or any member of his family, or any person who, in the presence or hearing of any girl or woman, uses abusive, insulting or obscene language must, on conviction, be fined not more than two hundred dollars, and may also be imprisoned in the country jail, or sentenced to hard labor for the country for not more than six months."

 

National Recovery Act: better known as the National Recovery Administration or the NRA. The NRA was a series of programs set up to help the nation, especially the nation's business, recover from the effects of the Great Depression. If was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1935.

 

nine old men: the members of the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court declared the NRA unconstitutional in 1935.

 

 

NRA - WE DO OUR PART: the motto of the National Recovery Administration (NRA)

 

Syrians: people from Syria, a country at the northwest part of the Mediterranean region, south of Turkey.

 

WPA: During the Great Depression, when millions of Americans were out of work, the government instituted the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and employed over eight million people.

 

three-corner hats, confederate caps, Spanish-American War hats, and World War helmets: all references to the headgear of various soldiers from different wars.