• This Module
  • With the coming of the railroads, the settlement of the Great Plains began - a process believed by many to be the 'manifest destiny' of the American people, and facilitated by the promise of free land. But first, the homesteaders had to tame a forbidding landscape, and this was no easy task. The module follows the story of Uriah and Mattie Oblinger, whose letters, written in 1872/3, describe the creation of their 'sodhouse', a house made from the only building material available: the matted roots of the Prairie grass itself.
    
    Locations visited: Nine Mile Prairie, Nebraska; Toadstool Park, Ogallala National Grasslands, Nebraska; Custer and Filmore Counties, Nebraska
    
    Other Keywords: Plains Indians, Pawnee Nation, Solomon Butcher, Marvin Liewer.
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  • Credits
    • Written, Directed, Produced
      and Photographed by Andrew Chater
      
      Narrator: William Hootkins
      Uriah Oblinger: Matthew Hendrickson
      Mattie Oblinger: Elizabeth Marmur
      
      Costume Designer: Ros Little
      Make-up Designer: Alex Volpe
      Studio Photography: Tony Bragg
      Stills Researcher: Joanne King
      Original Music: Sandy Nuttgens
      Graphic Design: Adams Trainor
      Production Manager: Robin Eastwood
      Assistant Producer: Emily Cleaver
      Film Editor: Mike Burton
      Exec. Producer: Karen Johnson
      
      Copyright:
      Lodestar Productions / Andrew Chater

• All Timelines
  • American West
    • Intro |The Road to Pine Ridge
      • Black Elk, a holy man of the Lakota Sioux, was interviewed by the journalist John Neihardt in the early 1930s. In this module we hear Black Elk's account of his childhood, when the bison roamed the Plains - before the coming of the Wasichu, the 'pale faces'. And at the Pine Ridge reservation today, we witness a pow-wow - a glimpse of the old Lakota culture preserved in the heart of the modern USA.
    • 1846 |Travels with the Oglala
      • In 1846 a young journalist from Boston called Francis Parkman made a journey down the Oregon Trail, to experience the life of the Oglala Sioux. This module tells his story: how he made contact with the Oglala west of Fort Laramie, Wyoming; how he described the customs of the tribe; and how, feverish with excitement, he participated in an exhilarating Oglala ritual: the Great Buffalo Hunt.
    • 1849 |Wagon Trails to the West
      • In 1849, the Hester family from Indiana embarked on an epic journey west by covered wagon to California. Their 14-year-old daughter Sallie wrote a diary describing the experience, and this module tells her story. It follows the Hesters across the Plains and over the treacherous Sierra Nevadas - past the place where the Donner Party met their grisly end just three years earlier.
    • 1872 |By Railroad to Nebraska
      • With the coming of the railroads, the settlement of the Great Plains began - a process believed by many to be the 'manifest destiny' of the American people, and facilitated by the promise of free land. But first, the homesteaders had to tame a forbidding landscape, and this was no easy task. The module follows the story of Uriah and Mattie Oblinger, whose letters, written in 1872/3, describe the creation of their 'sodhouse', a house made from the only building material available: the matted roots of the Prairie grass itself.
    • 1874 |Gold in the Black Hills
      • This module tells the story of the prospectors, focusing on the story of the South Dakota Gold Rush of 1874. The Black Hills had been promised to the Lakota 'as long as grass grows and rivers flow' - but when Custer's expedition established the presence of gold in the hills, these promises to the Native Americans were soon broken. The module describes the experiences of Annie Tallent, one of the first prospectors to enter the hills, and the only woman amongst the Gordon Party of 1874.
    • 1879 |The Cattle Trail
      • This module tells the story of the great cattle drives in the years after the American Civil War, when cheap southern beef was driven north out of Texas to the railheads of Kansas, to feed the cities in the North and on the eastern seaboard. Teddy Blue Abbott, a cowboy from those days, recalls the drover's life; he recalls how the trail became impassable once the homesteaders fenced off the Plains; and he recalls his last great drive, north to Montana, where be bought some land and exchanged the life of a drover for the life of a rancher.
    • Outro |Little Bighorn and beyond
      • The clash between Native and White America is a story of betrayal and broken promises. In 1876, the conflict reached its climax at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Black Elk describes his part in the battle as a 13-year-old warrior - and he describes the tragic years that followed, when the Native Americans found themselves hemmed into the reservations, and "the nation's hoop was broken".
  • History of Britain - Social
    • 1066 |Medieval Manor
      • Life in the medieval manor: an exploration of the lives of serfs and peasants in medieval England in the centuries that followed the Norman Conquest of 1066.
    • c.1180 |Medieval Minds
      • Inside the minds of medieval peasants: an exploration of medieval faith and the role of the Church in medieval village life. Hopes and fears, seasons and rituals, holidays and holy days.
    • c.1250 |Medieval Towns
      • An exploration of life in early medieval towns. How towns emerged in Saxon times, and how they offered freedoms undreamt of in the countryside. The importance of 'rent' rather than 'service'. A life of variety and possibility: 'town air makes free'.
    • c.1320 |Monastic Life
      • Like the towns, medieval Monasteries offered another way to escape the confines of manor life. The story of Christina of Markyate, a 12th century nun. Early monasticism ('between the rocks and the trees') contrasted with late monasticism, and its increasing connection with the world outside. Monks and nuns 'become players in the grubby world of society'.
    • 1348 |Black Death
      • An exploration of the impact of the Black Death in medieval England, from its arrival in Weymouth in 1348 to its height in the years that followed. We study its impact on one medieval city, Norwich, and show how the medieval mind struggled to explain the disaster.
    • c.1420 |Yeoman England
      • Walsham-le-Willows in Suffolk provides the location for an exploration of medieval village life in the century that followed the Black Death. Manorial records reveal transformations in working practise and land ownership, as peasants consolidated holdings and became yeoman farmers, and sheep farming replaced arable.
    • c.1520 |The Reformation
      • This module explores faith, superstition and the excesses of the Church in late medieval England. It tells the story of the Reformation, the Dissolution of the Monasteries, and the emergence of a more individualistic form of church in the late 16th century.
    • 1588 |Shakespeare’s World
      • This module explores England at a time of transition from medieval to modern, by looking at the life and work of William Shakespeare. It explores Shakespeare's schooling, the growth of towns in Tudor England, yeoman prosperity, trade and commerce, and the impact of the Renaissance and the printing press. It concludes with a celebration of the cosmopolitan nature of Elizabethan London.
    • 1612 |Pendle Witches
      • What does the strange story of the Pendle Witches reveal about England in the early 17th century? This tale of people on the margins reveals a society under strain - a consequence of the erosion of the traditional village unit from the late medieval period onwards.
    • c.1775 |Iron and Industry
      • This module explores the beginnings of Britain's Industrial Revolution. It visits the Ironbridge Gorge, where over three generations the Darby family developed coke-fired iron. Their breakthrough kick-started a revolution that blew away the cobwebs of the complacent 18th century.
    • c.1785 |Factories & Machines
      • This module explains how mechanization necessitated the creation of factories, and how factories changed the way we worked. It explores the creation, in the Industrial Revolution, of a whole new culture of work, governed by the factory bell. It explores divisions between the workers and the new capitalist class, the entrepreneurs, and it explores working conditions on the factory floor and the issue of child labour.
    • c.1810 |Urban Slums
      • The story of urbanisation in the early industrial period, with a focus on Manchester. The module explains how people came to the cities for the promise of work - but found squalor and disease. The module concludes with an investigation of the cholera outbreak in Manchester in 1832.
    • 1834 |Tolpuddle Martyrs
      • This module explores hard times on the land in the early industrial period. It explains the history of enclosures, and tells the story of the Tolpuddle Martyrs, six Dorset labourers transported to Australia for their attempts to resist cuts in labourers' wages.
    • c.1851 |The Vision of Titus Salt
      • Titus Salt was a mid-19th century factory owner who created, at Saltaire, a model industrial society. The module explains how Salt's attempts to create a cooperative model of capitalism matched a new mood in Britain, as people sought solutions to the divisions of the early industrial period.
    • c.1875 |Cities Transformed
      • The second half of the 19th century witnessed an extraordinary flowering of civic pride in cities across Britain. This module tells the extraordinary story of the transformation of Manchester, focusing in particular on the problem of pollution and the water supply.
    • c.1910 |A “Golden Age”?
      • This module explores how far we'd come by the turn of the 20th century. It tells the story of Edwardian Blackpool, the annual mecca of seaside fun for hundreds of thousands of mill families across the North West. "Wakes Week" depended on improvements in transport and on rising standards of living. The module shows how by the outbreak of the First World War - despite continued divisions in society - things really were 'getting better'.
    • 1984 |Death of Industry
      • The 20th century in Britain was an era of industrial decline. This module explores the death throes of the old way of life, focusing on the Miners' Strike of 1984, and it shows how the strike provoked questions as to the very nature of society.
  • History of Britain - Political
    • 1066 |Norman Conquest
      • The module explores the Norman Conquest of 1066, the Battle of Hastings, and the imposition of Norman power on Saxon England, focusing on castle building and the 'Harrying of the North'. It shows how the Norman kings consolidated their powerbase through control of the land, and how the Domesday Book was an instrument of this oppression.
    • 1170 |Church & Crown
      • How great was the spiritual and political power of the Church in medieval England? A sixth of the population were in holy orders, answerable to the Pope - and this put a strain on relations between the King and the Church, as the story of Thomas Becket reveals.
    • 1215 |Magna Carta
      • In medieval England, power was shared between King and barons; kings used the power of patronage to keep the barons in check. The module explains how King John's abuse of the power of patronage was his undoing. It tells the story of the barons' war, and of the Great Charter (Magna Carta) that John was forced to sign. Magna Carta did little to defend the liberties of ordinary people, but it did put limits on the power of Kings.
    • c.1280 |First Parliaments
      • The module explains the origins of the House of Commons in the 13th century, when Kings invited "commoners" to play their part in the political process in exchange for tax revenues. The module tells the story of one such commoner, Laurence of Ludlow, a wool merchant, who attended Edward I's Parliament of 1290.
    • 1381 |Peasants Revolt
      • The peasants were the powerless majority of medieval England. This module tells the story of the revolt of 1381, showing how what began as a tax rebellion turned into something more significant. The module explores the origins of the revolt, its dramatic climax in London, and the aftermath.
    • c.1470 |The Pastons
      • The Wars of the Roses of the 15th century were an old-style dynastic clash; but behind the scenes, English society was changing. The story of the Paston family shows how, over three generations, a family could rise through the ranks of society; it shows the power of education; and it shows the power of law.
    • c.1528 |Henry VIII & Church
      • 400 years after the Becket story, another King Henry took on the power of the Church - and won. This module explores the background to Henry VIII's split with Rome. It explores the social consequences of the Dissolution of the Monasteries and the Reformation - and it shows how, politically, Henry had opened a can of worms.
    • c.1649 |Civil War
      • The public execution of Charles 1 and the abolition of the monarchy were unprecedented events in British history. This module explores how and why they happened. It explains the political and religious factors behind the Civil War, and describes how the stalemate of the First Civil War was broken with Charles I's deal with the Scots.
    • 1658 |The Wheel of History
      • This module describes how, in the decade that followed the death of Charles I, the wheel of history came full circle. It explains the importance of the army in 1649, and describes the tensions between the army radicals and the conservatives in the Putney Debates. It describes Cromwell's purge of Parliament, his rise to absolute power, his death - and the Restoration of the monarchy that followed.
    • 1688 |‘Glorious’ Revolution
      • Who really held the power in the Restoration settlement? The story of the so-called 'Glorious' Revolution - the deposition of James II by a cabal of landowners - reveals the answer. The events of 1688 secured the power of the British aristocracy for the next 150 years.
    • 1789 |Rights of Man
      • The outbreak of the French Revolution sharpened battle lines in Britain between those for and against reform. The module contrasts the opinions of the radical Tom Paine, and his one-time friend, the MP Edmund Burke, whose attack on the 'swinish multitude' typified the establishment's response to the Jacobin threat.
    • 1819 |Peterloo Massacre
      • This module tells the story of the Peterloo Massacre, when a pro-Reform crowd was violently dispersed at the point of the sword on the orders of the Manchester magistrates. It explains the social and political background, placing Peterloo in the context of the industrial revolution, the mass urbanization of the early industrial period, and the undemocratic nature of the franchise.
    • c.1842 |The Chartists
      • The pressure for reform grew in the decades that followed Peterloo. This module focuses on the Chartist movement of the 1830s and '40s. It describes how the Great Reform Act disappointed many, and how the failure of peaceable Chartism brought Britain to the point of revolution.
    • c.1867 |Dawn of Democracy
      • This module describes the extraordinary story of how working men won the vote. It discusses the rise of the self-help movement, and shows how the 'swinish multitude' were recast in the minds of the political elite as the 'industrious working class' – resulting, in 1867, in the enfranchisement of working men in the towns and cities.
    • 1893 |Rise of Labour
      • The next step in the reform process was the election of working class MPs. The module tells the story of Keir Hardie, whose election to Parliament in 1893 was such a milestone. It describes his early days as a union leader in the coal fields of Lanarkshire. It describes the strikes that swept Britain in the late 1880s, and the importance of the unions in the emergence of the Labour Party.
    • 1903 |Votes for Women
      • This module tells the story of the Suffragettes. It looks back to the role of women in the reform movement; it describes how the Suffragettes split from the Suffragists; it describes the growing violence of the Suffragette campaigns in the pre-First World War period, and how the vote was eventually won.
    • 1919 |Century of Change
      • An overview of change from Peterloo (1819) to the end of the First World War. These hundred years saw Britain transformed from a patriarchal, exclusive society, to an inclusive society, representative of all - exactly what the marchers at Peterloo, the Chartists and the Suffragettes were striving for.
  • History of Britain - Imperial
    • 1282 |Conquest of Wales
      • Edward I's Conquest of Wales of 1282 provides a starting point for this timeline, which explores the history of British colonialism through the centuries. We explore Edward's motives for invasion, and the castles he build to consolidate his power. We explore how English men and women were brought into the Welsh 'boroughs', to encourage trade, and how English ideas of 'civilization' were imposed on a conquered people.
    • 1572 |Plantations in Ireland
      • England's earliest colonial experiments are explored by unpacking the idea of 'plantations', the idea of planting Englishness in foreign soil. We look at the Elizabethan plantations in County Down, Ireland (the root of the 'troubles' that were to plague Ireland for centuries). And we contrast the Irish story with the story of plantations in the New World, America.
    • c.1707 |United Kingdoms
      • This module explores the relationship between England, Scotland and Ireland in the years 1603 to 1800. It describes Scottish migration into Ulster after the Union of the Crowns of Scotland and England in 1603; it describes the eventual Union of England and Scotland in 1707, and the Union of Britain and Ireland in 1800. It describes how, after 1707, Britain stood ready for further adventures abroad.
    • 1761 |Atlantic Trade
      • An exploration of Atlantic Trade in the 18th century. The module describes the British love affair with trade goods - coffee, tea, sugar and tobacco - and it tells the story of the Glasgow merchants who grew rich on the tobacco trade. But the module also reveals this flip side of this prosperity, showing how merchants maximised profits by shipping African slaves to the Americas.
    • 1784 |East India Company
      • This module looks at Britain's historic links with India and Pakistan, by exploring the early history of the East India Company. The module describes how, through commerce and conquest, a private British company took control of the greater part of India.
    • c.1830 |Emigrants
      • The story of British emigration abroad, to the Americas and the 'Dominions', in the 18th and 19th centuries. It focuses on the story of Scottish crofters moved off the land in the so-called 'Highland Clearances'. It describes the trauma of forced emigration; it describes how many emigrants made a success of life abroad; and it describes how indigenous people (the Aborigines and Maori) were transplanted in their turn.
    • 1857 |Rule Britannia
      • This module describes British self-confidence and naval supremacy in the mid 19th century - and how British pride was punctured by news if the Indian Mutiny of 1857. The module explores the origins of the mutiny, and explains how the East India Company was replaced with direct British Rule - the Raj.
    • c.1873 |Scramble for Africa
      • The module gives an overview of British imperialism in Africa by focusing on the extraordinary story of Cecil Rhodes. It describes his conquest of Matabeleland, and the carve up of Africa between the major European powers.
    • 1916 |Easter Rising
      • The module describes nationalism in Ireland in the early 20th century, looking back to the origin of the 'troubles' and telling the story of Parnell and the failure of Home Rule. The story reaches a climax with the Easter Rising of 1916, and the partition of Ireland that followed.
    • 1931 |Gandhi in London
      • Mahatma Gandhi came to London in 1931 as a delegate to the Round Table Conference. This module explores his story. It explains the concepts of non-violence and 'satyagraha', and it shows how Gandhi pricked the conscience of the British Empire.
    • 1948 |End of Empire
      • With the arrival of the SS Empire Windrush in 1948 and the start of mass immigration into the UK, the British Empire story comes full circle. The module describes how Britain worked with many of the colonies to prepare them for Independence, and how, in the British Commonwealth, bonds of friendship remain.

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