On this day in 1831 African American slave Nat Turner was hanged after being convicted of leading a slave rebellion in Virginia. Born 2 October 1800 in Southampton County, Virginia. The rebellion resulted in 60 white deaths. Local residents responded with at least 200 black deaths. In the aftermath, the state executed 56 blacks accused of being part of Turner’s slave rebellion. Across Virginia and other southern states, state legislators passed new laws prohibiting education of slaves and free blacks, restricting rights of assembly and other civil rights for free blacks, and requiring white ministers to be present at black worship services.
The Final Footprint – Turner’s body was flayed, beheaded and quartered. The Confessions of Nat Turner (1967), a novel by William Styron, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1968. This book spurred cultural discussions about how different peoples can interpret the past and whether any one group has sole ownership of any portion of a historical event.
On this day in 1855, Danish philosopher, theologian, poet, social critic, and religious author, the “Father of Existentialism”, Søren Kierkegaard died in Frederik’s Hospital in Copenhagen at the age of 42. Born Søren Aabye Kierkegaard on 5 May 1813 in Copenhagen. Kierkegaard wrote critical texts on organized religion, Christendom, morality, ethics, psychology and philosophy of religion, displaying a fondness for metaphor, irony and parables. Much of his philosophical work deals with the issues of how one lives as a “single individual”, giving priority to concrete human reality over abstract thinking, and highlighting the importance of personal choice and commitment. He was a fierce critic of idealist intellectuals and philosophers of his time, such as Swedenborg, Hegel, Goethe, Fichte, Schelling, Schlegel, and Hans Christian Andersen.
His theological work focuses on Christian ethics, the institution of the Church, the differences between purely objective proofs of Christianity, the infinite qualitative distinction between man and God, and the individual’s subjective relationship to the God-Man Jesus Christ, which came through faith. Much of his work deals with the art of Christian love. He was extremely critical of the practice of Christianity as a state religion, primarily that of the Church of Denmark. His psychological work explored the emotions and feelings of individuals when faced with life choices.
Kierkegaard’s early work was written under various pseudonyms which he used to present distinctive viewpoints and interact with each other in complex dialogue. He assigned pseudonyms to explore particular viewpoints in-depth, which required several books in some instances, while Kierkegaard, openly or under another pseudonym, critiqued that position. He wrote many Upbuilding Discourses under his own name and dedicated them to the “single individual” who might want to discover the meaning of his works. Notably, he wrote: “Science and scholarship want to teach that becoming objective is the way. Christianity teaches that the way is to become subjective, to become a subject.” While scientists can learn about the world by observation, Kierkegaard emphatically denied that observation could reveal the inner workings of the spiritual world.
Some of Kierkegaard’s key ideas include the concept of “Truth as Subjectivity”, the knight of faith, the recollection and repetition dichotomy, angst, the infinite qualitative distinction, faith as a passion, and the three stages on life’s way. Kierkegaard’s writings were written in Danish and were initially limited to Scandinavia, but by the turn of the 20th century, his writings were translated into major European languages, such as French and German. In my opinion, by the mid-20th century, his writings exerted a substantial influence on philosophy, theology, and Western culture.
The Final Footprint – Kierkegaard is interred in the Assistens Kirkegård in the Nørrebro section of Copenhagen. At Kierkegaard’s funeral, his nephew Henrik Lund caused a disturbance by protesting Kierkegaard’s burial by the official church. Lund maintained that Kierkegaard would never have approved, had he been alive, as he had broken from and denounced the institution. Hans Christian Andersen is also interred at Assistens Kirkegård.
O
n this day in 1880 American Quaker, abolitionist, women’s rights activist, social reformer, Lucretia Mott died of pneumonia at her home, Roadside, in the district now known as La Mott, Cheltenham, Pennsylvania, aged 87. Born Lucretia Coffin on January 3, 1793 in Nantucket, Massachusetts.
She had formed the idea of reforming the position of women in society when she was amongst the women excluded from the World Anti-Slavery Convention held in London in 1840. In 1848, she was invited by Jane Hunt to a meeting that led to the first public gathering about women’s rights, the Seneca Falls Convention, during which the Declaration of Sentiments was written.
On April 10, 1811, Lucretia Coffin married James Mott at Pine Street Meeting in Philadelphia. James was a Quaker businessman who shared her anti-slavery interests, supported women’s rights, and helped found Swarthmore College. They raised six children, five of whom made it to adulthood.
The Final Footprint
She was interred near to the highest point of Fair Hill Burial Ground, a Quaker cemetery in North Philadelphia.
On this day in 1945, Academy Award-winning composer, Jerome Kern, died from a cerebral hemorrhage while walking at the corner of Park Avenue and 57th Street in New York City at the age of 60, with fellow composer Oscar Hammerstein II at his side. Born Jerome David Kern on 27 January 1885 in New York City. In my opinion, one of the most important American theatre composers. He wrote over 700 songs including; “Ol’ Man River”, “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man”, “A Fine Romance”, “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes”, “All the Things You Are”, “The Way You Look Tonight”, “Long Ago (and Far Away), “The Last Time I Saw Paris” and “Lovely to Look At”. Kern wrote the musical stage version of Edna Ferber’s Show Boat. Arguably his greatest score, it was a huge success. American musical theatre would never be the same. Kern named his yacht Show Boat.
The Final Footprint
Kern is entombed in a Private Memorial Niche in Ferncliff Mausoleum, Ferncliff Cemetery and Mausoleum, Hartsdale, New York. Other notable Final Footprints at Ferncliff include: Aaliyah, James Baldwin, Cab Calloway, Joan Crawford, Thelonious Monk, Oscar Hammerstein II, and Ed Sullivan.
On this day in 1979 film composer and conductor Dimitri Tiomkin died in London two weeks after fracturing his pelvis in a fall, aged 85. Born Dimitri Zinovievich Tiomkin on May 10, 1894 in Kremenchug, Poltava Governorate, Russian Empire.
Classically trained in Saint Petersburg before the Bolshevik Revolution, he moved to Berlin and then New York City after the Russian Revolution. In 1929, after the stock market crash, he moved to Hollywood, where he perhaps became best known for his film scores, including; dramas: Shadow of a Doubt, Strangers on a Train, The Alamo, Dial M for Murder, The High and the Mighty, The Old Man and the Sea, Duel in the Sun, Red River, High Noon, The Big Sky, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, Rio Bravo, and Last Train from Gun Hill. Tiomkin received 22 Academy Award nominations and won four Oscars, three for Best Original Score for High Noon, The High and the Mighty, and The Old Man and the Sea, and one for Best Original Song for “The Ballad of High Noon” from the film High Noon.
Tiomkin married twice; Carolina Perfetto and Albertina Rasch in 1927. They remained married until her death on October 2, 1967, at age 76 in Woodland Hills, California, following a prolonged illness.
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Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California
And on this day in 2016 stage, film and television actor, author, political activist and advertising spokesperson whose career spanned nearly six decades, Robert Vaughn died in a hospice in Danbury, Connecticut from leukemia, aged 83. Born Robert Francis Vaughn on November 22, 1932 at Charity Hospital in Manhattan.
Appearing as a lead or character actor in scores of films, Vaughn portrayed the disabled, drunken war veteran Chester A. Gwynn in The Young Philadelphians, earning him a 1959 nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Vaughn then portrayed the gunman Lee in The Magnificent Seven (1960).
Vaughn was the lead or guest star in over 200 television shows, including playing the spy Napoleon Solo in the 1960s international hit series The Man from U.N.C.L.E.. Vaughn won an Emmy in 1978 for his portrayal of the White House Chief of Staff in the miniseries Washington: Behind Closed Doors.
In his 2008 autobiography, A Fortunate Life, Vaughn summed up his life, saying “With a modest amount of looks and talent and more than a modicum of serendipity, I’ve managed to stretch my 15 minutes of fame into more than half a century of good fortune. The breaks all fell my way”.
Vaughn married actress Linda Staab in 1974. They appeared together in a 1973 episode of The Protectors, called “It Could Be Practically Anywhere on the Island”. They resided in Ridgefield, Connecticut.
During the late 1960s Joyce Jameson was a girlfriend of Vaughn’s. She acted opposite Vaughn as a guest star on a 1966 U.N.C.L.E. episode “The Dippy Blond Affair”.
The Final Footprint – Cremation
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