#do you know who nicola sacco and bartolomeo vanzetti are | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

segretecose · 3 months

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Bartolomeo Vanzetti's letter to Nicola Sacco's son, Dante. Written from the Death House of Massachusetts State Prison; August 21, 1927 – two days prior to Sacco and Vanzetti's execution by electric chair, on August 23, 1927.

(I.D. under the cut)

[MY DEAR DANTE:

I still hope, and we will fight until the last moment, to [reclaim] our right to live and to be free, but all the forces of the State and of the money are deadly against us because we are libertarians or anarchists.

I write little of this because you are yet too young to understand these things and other things of which I would like to reason with you. But, if you do well, you will grow and understand your father's and my case and your father's and my principles, for which we will soon be put to death.

I tell you now that all that I know of your father, he is not a criminal, but one of the bravest men I ever knew. Some day you will understand what I am about to tell you. That your father has sacrificed everything dear and sacred to the human heart and soul for his [faith] in liberty and justice for all. That day you will be proud of your father, and if you [be]come brave enough, you will take his place in the struggle between tyranny and liberty and you will vindicate [our] names and our blood.

Even from now you shall be good, brave with your mother, with Ines, and with Susie–brave, good Susie–and do all you can to console and help them. I would like you to also remember me as a comrade and friend to your father, your mother and Ines, Susie and you, and I assure you that neither have I been a criminal, that I have committed no robbery and no murder, but only fought modestly to abolish crimes from among mankind and for the liberty of all.

Remember Dante, each one who will say otherwise of your father and I, is a liar, insulting innocent dead men who have been brave in their life. Remember and know also, Dante, that if your father and I would have been cowards and hypocrites and [renegades], we would not have been put to death. They would not even have convicted a [leper] dog; not even executed a deadly scorpion on such evidence as that they framed against us. They would have given a new trial to a matricide and [h]abitual felon on the evidence we presented for a new trial.

Remember, Dante, remember always these things; we are not criminals; they convicted us on a frame-up; they denied us a new trial; and if we will be executed after seven years, four months and seventeen days of unspeakable tortures and wrong, it is for what I have already told you; because we were for the poor and against the exploitation and oppression of the man by the man.

The day will come when you will understand the atrocious cause of the above written words, in all its fullness.

Now Dante, be brave and good always. I embrace you.

BARTOLOMEO]

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scatteredprayerbeads · 2 years

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From Maria Popova’s article “Edna St. Vincent Millay on the Death Penalty and What It Really Means to Be an Anarchist”:

In 1921, Italian immigrants Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, both in their thirties, were convicted of murdering two payroll guards during a bank robbery in Massachusetts. ...The case dragged on for years, until Sacco and Vanzetti were sentenced to death in April of 1927. Many, including a number of public intellectuals, believed the murder conviction was wrong, deliberately served to punish the two men for their history as social activists and anarchists. ...Among the outraged was Edna St. Vincent Millay — beloved poet and lover of music...

Millay was arrested and thrown in jail for joining the public protests [on the day of execution] and the “death watch.” Minutes after midnight on August 23, Sacco and Vanzetti were executed.

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[id: a black-and-white photograph from the 1927 protest of Millay, a woman in a dress and black hat holding a sign that reads “Free them and save Massachusetts! American honor dies with Sacco and Vanzetti!” / end id]

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On November 9, 1927, the weekly New York magazine The Outlook published her article on the ruling, titled “Fear” — a kind of open letter to the general public, a spirited case against the execution of the two men and, more broadly, of execution in general. She writes:

...If you should rouse yourself for a moment and look about you at the world, you would be troubled, I think, and feel less peaceful and secure, seeing how it is possible for a man as innocent as yourself of any crime to be cast into prison and be killed. For whether or not these men whom I do not name were guilty of the crime of murder, it was not for murder that they died. The crime for which they died was the crime of breathing upon the frosty window and looking out.

...

It was that word Anarchist which brought them to the chair; that word, and your ignorance of its meaning. An Anarchist, you insist, is a man who makes bombs and puts them under the State House, and that is that. On the contrary, that is by no means that. The person you have in mind is not an Anarchist, he is a bomber. You will find him everywhere — among Anarchists, among Fascists, among dry-law enforcers, among Modernists, among Fundamentalists, and freely distributed throughout the Ku Klux Klan. He is that person who, when he does not like a thing, lynches it, tars and feathers it, lays a curse upon it, or puts a bomb under it. His name is legion, and you will find him in every party.

An Anarchist, according to the dictionary, is a person who believes that human beings are naturally good, and that if left to themselves they would, by mutual agreement, govern themselves much better and much more peaceably than they are being governed now by a government based on violence.

Millay also argues that the men’s status as immigrants made them all the more vulnerable to injustice:

... These men were put to death because they made you nervous; and your children know it. ...

I am free to say these things because I am not an Anarchist, although you will say that I am. It is unreasonable to you that a person should go to any trouble in behalf of another person unless the two are members of the same family, or of the same fraternity, or, at the remotest, of the same political party. ...

#edna st. vincent millay #anarchy #history #death penalty #article #poet history

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piratesandwaffles · 7 years

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1, 10, 20, 24, 29! (sorry there are so many, i want to know them all) ((ALSO THE PARTY IS ON SARURDAY AT OUR PLACE, I HAVE NO INFORMATION BEYOND THAT, JUST REALIZED I FORGOT TO TEXT YOU))

a) good to know ^_^ (L. had just texted me that too)

b) Phew here we go… (also these are so tough, the caveat here is that my answers will change a day from now and a year from now BUT FOR NOW)

1. Who is your favourite historical person? William James, at this moment. The guy wrote this sentence: “Objective evidence and certitude are doubtless very fine ideals to play with, but where on this moonlit and dream-visited planet are they found?” (pp 97 of Essays in Pragmatism) What is there not to love?

10. What pieces of art (i.e. paintings, sculpures, lithographies, etc.) related to history do you like the most? Umberto Boccioni’s Forme uniche della continuità nello spazio (Unique forms of continuity in space) It’s so emblematic of that time and style and innovation and the whole rush of “who knows what’s coming?” (and most of what was coming was NOT GOOD so the headlong rush into newness is so watching-a-car-crash.) Basically everything in the Museo del Novecento, ALSO duh, Velazquez’s paintings. I am just choosing obvious stuff right now, this is such a good question I should be doing it more justice. Maybe I’ll come back to it…

20. Who, if anyone, is your historical crush? Christopher Caudwell (whose life story is just so completely tragic, it’s like OF COURSE he was a poet and his love poetry is GORGEOUS). The story they don’t tell you on Wikipedia is that his brother was petitioning the guys in the Party that Christopher should be brought home (from first ambulance driving and then machine gun training in Spain) to write for the cause instead. When his brother finally got the proofs of his work to the guys in charge, and they issued the “bring him home!” paperwork, Christopher had died at the Battle of Jarama River.

“His wide fund of fact and theory, his courteous listening, and an extreme independence of character combined with strong personal reserve, make up outstanding memories of his personality, together with the Cheshire Cat grin which accompanied his shafts of humour, and contrasted so oddly with his extremely intellectual brow. In appearance he was on the short side, dark, with brown eyes which bore an extremely sincere look.” (Intro to Poems, by Christopher Caudwell - Lawrence and Wishart, 1965) Obviously the writer of the intro is also in love with him.

24. Who do you consider to be one of the most underrated historical figures? Why did I only in the past year learn about Margaret Cavendish?? Like she should be a bigger deal. The woman is fascinating!! (Also *cough* John Bartram *cough*) Read Danielle Dutton’s novel Margaret the First, though, seriously. It is so wonderful!

Oh and wait! Ume Tsuda (she founded Tsuda College): Daughters of the Samurai by Janice Nimura is about her and two other girls who came with her to America!

29. Are there any great historical mysteries that you are interested in? There actually… aren’t?? That I can think of right now? Wait, no, I guess there is one, but my interest in it isn’t about ever learning an Answer to the Mystery, but just the whole messy confusion and what it shows us? Nicola Sacco & Bartolomeo Vanzetti were sentenced to death in the 1920s for a crime there is very little (??! this is the messy part, historically speaking) evidence they committed, because of American anti-immigrant and anti-Communist fervor.

#history #rambles #thanks for this dude!! it was fun!#(and so so difficult omg)#(I pulled two different books off my shelf to reference that is Too Much for 11pm)#^_^#william james #danielle dutton #margaret cavendish #christopher caudwell #ume tsuda #umberto boccioni #velasquez

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