“Fifty years ago my father used to take me on his knee and tell me about America — the United States of America. He described it as a far-off land, “flowing with milk and honey, where every man sat under his vine and under his fig tree, and none to make him afraid.” He praised the Government as the only one then free, and based upon the sovereignty of whole people administered for the good and protection of all. He filled my boyish fancy with such glowing ideas of free America, that I determined to go to that highly privileged and prosperous country when I became a man and my own master.”
Thomas Jackson
August 12th, 1862
A thousand words? Yes but here this website brings together both informative pictures AND many hundreds of words based on the interpretations and the commentaries of all the original letters it contains. However, it certainly remains true that one good picture brings into the viewers’ awareness a far more complete and meaningful impression of the the life styles of those past days than many words can do. With this in mind we have tried to include memorable illustrations that enrich the written content of the Thomas Jackson collection.
Most of the pictures we have selected are old photographs from Thomas Jackson’s era, but some of them are line drawings from news magazines and a few of the most vivid are paintings. The challenge is to remember that the power of pictures can easily be coopted or created as propaganda to reinforce the strength of one particular view of the truth. That is where the written witness of observers such as Thomas Jackson help distinguish and define the truth of past events.
