title: B. S. Yediyurappa

text: However, the Karnataka Lokayukta investigating the illegal mining case submitted its report indicting Yediyurappa for illegally profiteering from land deals in Bangalore and Shimoga, and also in connection with the illegal iron ore export scam in Bellary, Tumkur and Chitradurga districts of Karnataka. Following much pressure from the BJP central leadership, he announced his decision to quit. Finally, he resigned on 31 July 2011. Ananth Kumar, Shobha Karandlaje, Jagadish Shettar, S Suresh Kumar were in the race to succeed him. But Sadananda Gowda replaced him as Chief minister.


title: B. S. Yediyurappa

text: He resigned from his position as Member of Legislative Assembly and primary membership of Bharatiya Janata Party on 30 November 2012, and formally launched the Karnataka Janata Paksha. It is told that his former colleague and senior BJP leader Anna Vinayachandra was the key person who led the movement at national level to demand expulsion from the party which led to his resignation. Although the party and its name were registered in April 2011, Yediyurappa actually launched it in 2012. He got elected as an MLA from Shikaripura Constituency (Shimoga district) in May 2013.


title: B. S. Yediyurappa

text: In November 2013, it was announced that he was considering an unconditional return to the BJP. On 2 January 2014 he announced merger with BJP ahead of 2014 Lok Sabha elections. He won from the Shimoga seat of Karnataka in the 2014 Indian general election by a margin of 363,305 votes.


title: B. S. Yediyurappa

text: In 2016, BJP re-appointed him as the President of Karnataka state BJP unit. He was BJP's CM candidate in 2018 Karnataka Legislative Assembly election. But the party managed to win only 104 seats, 9 short of simple majority.


title: B. S. Yediyurappa

text: During the aftermath of the 2018 Karnataka Legislative assembly elections, Yediyurappa was invited to form the government and become the Chief Minister by the Governor citing that his party was the single largest in the house with 104 seats (8 short of majority in the assembly). He was sworn in on 17 May 2018 by the Governor Vajubhai Vala, becoming the Chief minister of Karnataka for the third time. He was given 15 days to prove majority by the governor but the Supreme Court intervened and cut it short to just 24 hours and ordered a floor test (trust vote) soon after. The trust vote was to be held on 19 May 2018 at 4pm. Before the trust vote was to begin, however, Chief Minister B. S Yediyurappa gave an emotional speech, following which he resigned citing that he will be unable to prove majority. He thus became one of the shortest-serving chief minister in India with just days in office.


title: B. S. Yediyurappa

text: Due to turmoil in the coalition government of JDS and Congress, 16 MLAS had submitted their resignation to government turning it to minority 2019 Karnataka resignation crisis. But out of 16, MLA Ramalinga Reddy was convinced to join back the fold. After 18 days of up and downs with rebel MLAs not withdrawing their demands and resignations, coalition government had to step down due to defeat of trust vote on 23 July 2019 hereby paving way to BJP and its leader Yediyurappa to stake claim for government formation. He was invited by Karnataka governor Vajubhai Vala on 26 July to form the new government, and took oath as the Chief Minister of the state for the fourth time.


title: B. S. Yediyurappa

text: The by-polls for these 15 out of the 17 constituencies were conducted on 5 December 2019, where all the parties campaigned immensely. B. S. Yediyurappa promised the voters that each candidate would be awarded a ministry if the people vote them. The results were declared on 9 December. BJP and its leader Yediyurappa were victorious by winning 12 out of the 15 contested seats, thereby a gaining a full majority, and a total of 117/224 assembly seats in the 2019 Karnataka Legislative Assembly by-elections.


title: B. S. Yediyurappa

text: Soon after he took oath as the chief minister, due to heavy rainfall the state was severely hit by floods. During the 2019 Karnataka floods, Karnataka received nearly five times the rainfall it normally used to have, adding to the severity of the ongoing floods in 12 districts that had killed 20 people by 9 August 2019. Thousands of people were evacuated to safer places and relief camps even though hundreds were displaced. Karnataka State Disaster Management Authority, Karnataka police along with the Indian Air Force, civilians, volunteers, fishermen from coastal Karnataka were actively taking part in the rescue operations in flood-affected regions. With the cabinet ministries yet to be formed, Yediyurappa alone as the chief minister visited the affected areas around the state. The Chief Minister Yediyurappa had announced a compensation of ₹5 lakh for the family members of those who died and lost houses in the floods. On 4 October 2019, Central Government had released an amount of 1200 Crores as Karnataka flood relief funds on the request of Yediyurappa.


title: B. S. Yediyurappa

text: In the early days of 2020, Yediyurappa visited Davos accompanying the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and attended the annual meet of World Economic Forum 2020. He along with the Industries Minister of the state Jagadish Shettar attracted investments for the Global Investors' Meet to be held in November in the IT-hub of Bangalore. Yediyurappa also led a delegation from Karnataka in the hope of attracting more investors to set up shop or expand their facilities in the state. The Chief Minister said that the state had received positive response from corporations such as French 3D design company Dassault Systems, aircraft maker Lockheed Martin, steelmaker ArcelorMittal, LuLu Group International and pharmaceutical major Novo Nordisk among others.


title: B. S. Yediyurappa

text: In December 2020, the Government of Karnataka, under his leadership passed the Anti Cow-Slaughter bill 2020, in aim to protect and nurture the cattle in the state, that were alleged being slaughtered illegally. The legislation empowered the police to inspect and seize vehicles that transport cattle and the premises where they are slaughtered. The new law brought stern punishment of imprisonment of up to 3 years and a penalty of 50,000 rupees. Amid opposition from the Congress members who staged a walk-out protest, the bill was passed unanimously in the floor of the house, and the law further came into effect in the state.


title: B. S. Yediyurappa

text: During the covid pandemic Karnataka became the first state to open a 10,000 bed Covid hospital and care centre in Bangalore. Yediyurappa after a cabinet meet concerning the COVID-19 pandemic announced that the Karnataka government would be providing 1 Lakh aid to BPL families who lost a working person in the first or second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: B. S. Yediyurappa

text: In July 2021, Yediyurappa assured the start of the Mekedatu project across river Kaveri, after the clearance of the obligations in the judicial courts. Even though he wrote a letter to the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. K. Stalin mentioning the project and to further cooperate in its smooth movement, Stalin opposed the start of the project stating concerned issues of his state. Later Yediyurappa still reassured that no odds can put a halt to the project, stating "Got Every Right To Start Dam Project Across River Cauvery". This led to further disputes between the two neighbouring states based on this issue, and also led to mutual protests against each other. The chief minister primarily met the Jalshakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and also flew to New Delhi to meet Narendra Modi and clarify the process of the Mekedatu dam programme.


title: B. S. Yediyurappa

text: Under his tenure, Karnataka became the first state in India to provide reservations for transgender communities in all government services. In the final notification issued on 6 July, the government decided to provide 1 percent horizontal reservation to Transgender candidates in government jobs and this is to be filled through the direct recruitment under the (General Recruitment) Rule, 1977 to all sectors of social classes.


title: B. S. Yediyurappa

text: With speculations of leadership change in BJP Karnataka for over several months, rumours spread that Yediyurappa would be sacked and a new chief minister would be appointed for the state. Major leaders of the BJP reiterated that the change in leadership will be witnessed soon in the state. This also lead to various pro and con discussions among BJP. Various leaders, including leaders from opposition Congress party extended their support widely to Yediyurappa, encouraging him and his leadership for the party. Central leader Subramanyan Swamy also opposed any decisions of changing the post of BSY. With the news widespread, various influential seers and monks belonging to the majority Lingayat community and others swarmed in large numbers backing Yediyurappa, urging BJP to let BSY complete his term and warned about fierce protest if at all he was changed. Amid these doubts on 25 July the BJP national president J. P. Nadda slashed out these notions by stating "No crisis in Karnataka, Yediyurappa has done good work".


title: B. S. Yediyurappa

text: Later on 26 July 2021, he announced his resignation to the post of Chief Minister during his speech in the two years anniversary of his government. He cited the 75 years age-limit rule in BJP. During the speech he went through his memories of the 45 year political career, thanked his party leaders and high command, and submitted his resignation that afternoon, to the Governor of Karnataka.


title: B. S. Yediyurappa

text: A year later in July 2022, Yediyurappa announced retirement from electoral politics and stated that he will be vacating Shikaripura Assembly constituency in the 2023 Karnataka Legislative Assembly election. He further insisted that his son B. Y. Vijayendra would be contesting for the upcoming legislative elections from the same constituency in Shimoga.


title: B. S. Yediyurappa

text: In August 2022, Yediyurappa was elevated to the Central Parliamentary board, of the BJP. He was one of the member of the 11 board committee, which included Nadda, Narendra Modi, Amit Shah and other prominent members. Yediyurappa stated that he was humbled and would work hard in bringing the party to power in the southern states of India.


title: B. S. Yediyurappa

text: In five cases issued in 2011, Yediyurappa was alleged to be responsible for illegal de-notification of land. He was jailed during this term and was convicted of corruption. The Karnataka High-court in 2015 set aside this order, thereby quashing the cases against him. After the high court quashed former governor H. R. Bhardwaj's sanction to prosecute Yediyurappa, a special Lokayukta court struck down four other FIRs against him. In a major relief to Yediyurappa and BJP, Karnataka High Court had set aside the sanction given by then-Governor HR Bhardwaj for his prosecution in several cases of alleged illegal de-notification of land, and asked the incumbent Vajubhai Vala to have a fresh look at it.


title: B. S. Yediyurappa

text: The High Court said, "non-consideration of the relevant matters made the order of sanction illegal and resulted in the failure of justice. We are thus of the opinion that the exercise of the power by the Governor was not in accordance with well-settled principles for sanctioning prosecution. We accordingly set aside the order of sanction, dated 21 January 2011, and remit the matter back to the Governor for reconsideration in the light of our discussions above."


title: B. S. Yediyurappa

text: Yediyurappa was arrested on the evening of 15 October 2011, hours after the Lokayukta court issued an arrest warrant in two cases of corruption for illegally denotifying land in and around Bangalore. Later, he was granted bail on 8 November 2011 after spending 23 days in jail.


title: B. S. Yediyurappa

text: However, in March 2012, the High Court of Karnataka quashed the FIR registered against him regarding the Mining. A division bench of the high court of Karnataka passed the order stating that "Suspicion cannot be a ground to tarnish the image and reputation of a person who is holding a Constitutional post. Even during the course of argument, a specific question was put to Lokayukta counsel to produce any material to connect the petitioner for alleged offences, but he was mum and did not indicate any favours shown by Yediyurappa as the chief minister to any mining company". In May 2012, the Supreme Court, temporarily stayed the case on this matter and ordered an official CBI enquiry, to be completed within three months. On 25 July 2012, Karnataka High Court granted anticipatory bail to Yediyurappa in a case relating to alleged irregularities in denotification of government land in 2009.


title: B. S. Yediyurappa

text: "Operation Kamala" is a term coined in 2008, when former minister G. Janardhana Reddy used a method to secure support from legislators bypassing the Anti-Defection Law, so as to take BJP past the majority number. In 2018, H. D. Kumaraswamy alleged that the BJP used Operation Kamala to affect the defections of MLAs from his government, causing it to fall.


title: B. S. Yediyurappa

text: In an interview with Deccan Herald in March 2019, Yediyurappa said "Operation Kamala was not wrong and I don't regret it. It is part of democracy."


title: Go Tell It on the Mountain (novel)

text: Go Tell It on the Mountain is a 1953 semi-autobiographical novel by James Baldwin. It tells the story of John Grimes, an intelligent teenager in 1930s Harlem, and his relationship with his family and his church. The novel also reveals the back stories of John's mother, his biological father, and his violent, fanatically religious stepfather, Gabriel Grimes. The novel focuses on the role of the Pentecostal Church in the lives of African Americans, both as a negative source of repression and moral hypocrisy and a positive source of inspiration and community. In 1998, the Modern Library ranked "Go Tell It on the Mountain" 39th on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. "Time" magazine included the novel on its list of the 100 best English-language novels released from 1923 to 2005.


title: Go Tell It on the Mountain (novel)

text: James Baldwin was born in 1924 in Harlem to an unwed mother who had left Maryland for New York and never knew his biological father. Several years later, his mother married a much older laborer and Baptist preacher from Louisiana who had come north in 1919. James Baldwin took his step-father's surname and was raised as his son along with his many half-siblings. He later described his stepfather as "Brooding, silent, tyrannical ... and physically abusive, he was also a storefront preacher of morbid intensity." During his high school years, uncomfortable with the fact that, unlike many of his peers, he was becoming more sexually interested in males than in females, Baldwin sought refuge in religion. At fourteen, he began preaching himself and continued for several years.


title: Go Tell It on the Mountain (novel)

text: "Go Tell It on the Mountain" was Baldwin's first published novel and draws heavily on Baldwin's personal experience and the experiences of those around him during his childhood in Harlem, particularly those who came to Harlem as part of the Great Migration from the South. It was the result of work that began in at least 1938. Baldwin showed an early manuscript to novelist Richard Wright in 1944. Wright helped Baldwin secure and advance from Harper & Brothers but the deal did not result in publication. In February 1952, Baldwin sent a later manuscript from Paris, where he was living at the time, to New York publishing house Alfred A. Knopf. Knopf expressed interest and Baldwin returned to New York to meet with Knopf. He agreed to rewrite parts of "Go Tell It On The Mountain" in exchange for a $250 advance ($ today) and a further $750 ($ today) paid when the final manuscript was completed. After the final draft was accepted, Baldwin published excerpts of the novel in two publications: one excerpt was published as "Exodus" in "American Mercury" and the other as "Roy's Wound" in "New World Writing". Baldwin set sail back to Europe on August 28 and "Go Tell It On The Mountain" was published in May 1953.


title: Go Tell It on the Mountain (novel)

text: "Go Tell It on the Mountain" has a nonlinear structure. The story takes place during one twenty-four hour period, but contains extended flashbacks which cover a period of over 70 years. The novel is focused on John Grimes, but narrative voice shifts between characters' perspectives, allowing access to the thoughts and reminiscences of John's father, mother, and aunt. The novel is divided into three parts, with the second part further subdivided into three: "Part One: The Seventh Day", "Part Two: The Prayer of the Saints-Florence's Prayer", "Part Two: The Prayer of the Saints-Gabriel's Prayer", "Part Two: The Prayer of the Saints-Elizabeth's Prayer", and, finally, "Part Three: The Threshing-Floor". The first and final parts mainly follow John's thoughts with glimpses of the thoughts of others, while the sections in Part Two mainly follow the thoughts of the character for whom they are named.


title: Go Tell It on the Mountain (novel)

text: In Part One, John wakes up on his birthday. As he does his chores, he thinks about his relationship with his domineering father, who does not seem to love him, and with the storefront church at which his father is a sometimes preacher. His younger half-brother Roy also resents his father's strictness, but unlike John has begun to rebel by running with a rough crowd. Once John has finished his chores, his mother Elizabeth gives him some money for his birthday and he goes out. He walks through Central Park and down Fifth Avenue, before going into a movie theater to watch a film.


title: Go Tell It on the Mountain (novel)

text: John returns home to find that Roy has gone with some neighborhood boys to pick a fight and has been cut with a knife. John's stepfather Gabriel returns home. Gabriel is angry. He lashes out and looks for someone to blame besides Roy. Gabriel's sister Florence and Elizabeth object that no one is to blame but Roy since he went out to pick the fight. Gabriel strikes Elizabeth causing Roy to challenge and curse him. Gabriel whips Roy with a belt until Florence intervenes. John then goes to the church to do chores before evening services. Elisha, an older boy in the church arrives to help and the two exchange playful barbs and then playfully wrestle. The two then finish cleaning the church while talking about John's soul and salvation. Two women arrive followed shortly by John's father mother and aunt Florence.


title: Go Tell It on the Mountain (novel)

text: Florence recalls her childhood with Gabriel and their mother, a former slave. She recalls her devout mother leading them in prayer after the rape of a girl, Deborah, by a group of white men. She resented that just because Gabriel was a boy, her mother always put his future ahead of hers even though she was much better behaved. Florence eventually left home despite her mother's illness to go north to New York where she met Frank, whom she married. The marriage was not happy as Frank drank and was irresponsible with money, both buying her extravagant gifts and spending on binges. He eventually left her for another woman and died in France in World War I.


title: Go Tell It on the Mountain (novel)

text: Gabriel also recalls his wild youth, which ended after Florence left when he was saved at 22. He stopped drinking and debauching and became a preacher. Deborah, whom no one would marry because she had been raped, supports him and helps him after his mother dies and Gabriel asks her to marry him. Back in the church, Gabriel hears a cry of praise and worries that John is being visited by the Holy Spirit. He resents that his two natural sons have not been saved and worries that John, who is not his biological son, will be saved. These thoughts lead him to his affair with a woman named Esther, who subsequently became pregnant and died giving birth to his son, Royal. Royal was raised by Esther's mother and Gabriel never acknowledged him and worried that Deborah would learn the truth. Later, during a period of racial tensions after a black soldier has been lynched, Gabriel encountered Royal walking home and warned him to be careful. Later, Deborah tells Gabriel that Royal left for Chicago where he was killed in a knife fight. Deborah confronts Gabriel, who admits that Royal was his son and Deborah tells him he should pray for forgiveness. Seeing John, Gabriel recalls that he had believed that meeting and marrying Elizabeth was a sign that God had forgiven him.


title: Go Tell It on the Mountain (novel)

text: Elizabeth recalls how after the death of her distant mother, her aunt took her away from her father, whom she loved, because he ran a brothel. Elizabeth resented her and she was never loving. Later Elizabeth fell in love with a store clerk, Richard. The two ran away to New York together. Although they were not married, Elizabeth became pregnant but did not tell Richard right away. Before she told him, he was wrongfully arrested for theft. He refused to confess and was brutally beaten by the police. After he was eventually acquitted and returned home, she decided not to tell him she was pregnant that night, but by morning he had killed himself. After thinking of Richard, she looks at John and wonders if she did the right thing to keep him rather than give him for adoption, and to marry Gabriel who has never loved John. She recalls how she met Florence at her job as a cleaning woman and Florence introduced her to her brother Gabriel, now a widower who recently came north. Although Florence discourages the romance, Elizabeth respects Gabriel's religiosity and believes Gabriel will offer protection and stability for herself and John and agrees to marry him. Her thoughts return to the present and she sees John lying on the floor of the church overcome by a religious vision.


title: Go Tell It on the Mountain (novel)

text: John experiences a series of hallucinatory religious visions in which he confronts many of his sins, hopes, and doubts. He sees his father's face and recalls that he has seen his father naked and compares himself to the story of Ham who saw his father Noah naked and was forever cursed - a story which was long used to justify slavery and oppression of black people. After further visions, John sees a glimpse of God and feels himself saved. He returns to consciousness and realizes that it is morning and he has been there all night. All are happy for him except Gabriel who seems unconvinced. The group leaves the church to walk home and Florence, who is terminally ill, confronts Gabriel with a letter from Deborah which reveals her suspicions that Gabriel had fathered a son with Esther. Florence accuses Gabriel of making John and Elizabeth suffer to expiate his own guilt for his sin with Esther and Royal and promises to reveal the truth to Elizabeth. Meanwhile John speaks with Elisha who congratulates and encourages him until they reach John's home.


title: Go Tell It on the Mountain (novel)

text: The novel takes place in New York City, primarily in Harlem in 1935. The flashbacks provide extended sequences in the American South, primarily in an unnamed town in the Deep South where Gabriel and Florence were born, and in Maryland where Elizabeth was raised. The flashbacks also recall earlier periods in Harlem and to a lesser extent other locations in New York.


title: Go Tell It on the Mountain (novel)

text: In the novel, New York City at once represents freedom and opportunity - especially for Florence and Elizabeth who escape confining family lives, and for John who contemplates the opportunities of the world outside Harlem as he walks through Midtown Manhattan - but also the vulgarity and perdition, particularly for Gabriel and through Gabriel, for John. This duality is used to enhance the other conflicts in the novel, particularly between holiness and worldliness and between John and Gabriel. For Elizabeth especially, but also for Florence and Gabriel, the promise of the city, the promise that drove the Great Migration of African Americans from the rural South to Northern cities including New York, turned out to be false. Elizabeth reflects that unlike the South, which promises nothing, the North promises but does not give and what is given can be taken away in an instant. Although the Great Migration led to the Harlem Renaissance and a flourishing of art and culture, the novel's depiction of Harlem is focused on the poverty, violence, drunkenness, and sexual depravity which were also a result.


title: Go Tell It on the Mountain (novel)

text: The religious theme pervades all aspects of the novel. However, critics have not agreed on whether it is "an ironic indictment of Christianity" or a "stirring vindication". Barbara Olson summarized the dispute noting that "those favoring vindication number in their ranks such notable critics as Albert Gerard, Donald Gibson, and Shirley Allen" while "those favoring the indictment position include Robert Bone, Michael Fabre, Nathan Scott, Howard Harper, Stanley Macebuh, David Foster and Trudier Harris."


title: Go Tell It on the Mountain (novel)

text: Many scholars have reflected on the tension between holiness and worldliness in the novel. The strict Pentecostal religion of the Temple of the Fire Baptized, enforced by John's father demands that believers live separately from much of the world around them. "Much of Part One is taken up with John's thoughts on how he fits in or fails to fit in both with the "holy" people of his father's church and also with the "worldly" people he knows from the neighborhood and school. Charles Scruggs writes that the novel juxtaposes "the earthly and the heavenly, and together they help focus the novel's various themes."


title: Go Tell It on the Mountain (novel)

text: The novel is rich with biblical and religious allusions and references. The title of the novel is taken from a spiritual of the same name and "each of the three parts has a title and two epigraphs referring to the Bible or Christian hymns, and each of the prayers in Part Two begins with a quotation from a hymn." The title of Part One "The Seventh Day" is a clear reference to the biblical sabbath, the day on which the Lord rested after he created the heavens and the earth. Allen argues this is both the day John is done being "created", i.e. when he comes into his own, but God also made the Sabbath holy, and it is the day John will become holy. Similarly, Part Three "The Threshing-Floor" is an allusion to , in which John the Baptist states that on the threshing floor Jesus will separate the wheat (saved) from the chaff (unsaved).


title: Go Tell It on the Mountain (novel)

text: Baldwin includes excerpts from many spirituals throughout the novel but especially as John is undergoing his religious vision and the "saints" of the church sing around him, each of which highlights a particular aspect of the narrative. In addition many of the character's names refer directly to biblical characters. Critics have compared John both to John the Baptist and John of Patmos who experienced a religious vision in the Book of Revelation. John the Baptist's mother Elizabeth, the archangel Gabriel, the prophetess Deborah, and the Jewish Queen Esther also provide names of significant characters.


title: Go Tell It on the Mountain (novel)

text: Baldwin frequently makes use of direct references including the story of Ham, the story of Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt, and the story of Lot's wife who looked backward and was turned into a pillar of salt. Other passages, such John's wrestling with Elisha evoke biblical referents, like the story of Jacob wrestling with a mysterious supernatural being in Genesis.


title: Go Tell It on the Mountain (novel)

text: The rhythm and language of the story draw heavily on the language of the Bible, particularly of the King James Version. Many of the passages use the patterns of repetition identified by scholars such as Robert Alter and others as being characteristic of Biblical poetry. In addition, much of the characters' speech is laced with biblical quotations and references, which both provides a note of verisimilitude in the dialogue but also a layer of religious symbolism.


title: Go Tell It on the Mountain (novel)

text: Most critics and scholars have agreed that while race is not the core of the book, it remains an important theme. Shirley Allen wrote, "obviously Baldwin weaves the black-versus-white theme into the central conflict as inextricably as it is woven into the daily consciousness of the characters; but the major conflict of this novel ... is not black against white, but the more universal problem of youth achieving maturity." Reviewer Orville Prescott said in his contemporary review that though the novel is not primarily about race, "Mr. Baldwin is as bitter about race discrimination in a few passing references as many authors are in whole books."


title: Go Tell It on the Mountain (novel)

text: Race comes to the fore for each character in different ways. John questions his father's visceral animosity towards white people, while at the same time feeling acutely aware of his blackness as he leaves Harlem and walks through other parts of the city. Already feeling alienated from the secular culture of Harlem (which has sucked in Roy, who at the same time has gone to pick a fight with white boys in another neighborhood), and from the religious culture represented by his father ("His father said that all white people were wicked, and the God was going to bring them low"). Without ever being quite comfortable, he wonders about the promise of other opportunities in these white-dominated spaces, such as the New York Public Library, which he does not enter (but not, he tells himself, because he is black) and the movie theater, which he finds, despite his momentary trepidation, admits him without comment on his race.


title: Go Tell It on the Mountain (novel)

text: Deborah's rape as an adolescent at the hands of a group of white men, and later a brutal lynching and castration of a black soldier highlight the violence of racism in the South for both Florence and Gabriel. It is noteworthy that Florence's prayer features a rape, reinforcing the status of black women, already highlighted by their mother's favoritism toward Gabriel as the son. Gabriel's prayer features castration, just as he encounters his unacknowledged son and feels acutely his inability to protect him from danger and his biological son's estrangement from him. Elizabeth's prayer reinforces that African Americans have not escaped racism by coming north; the brutal treatment of Richard at the hands of the police and the justice system causes his suicide.


title: Go Tell It on the Mountain (novel)

text: Sex and sexuality are important throughout the novel, particularly for John and Gabriel. The novel engages heavily with traditional religious views of sexuality as something sinful that is to be avoided. The church's stigmas surrounding sexuality impressed on him by his father, have severely impacted John's perspective on sexuality. Several critics have viewed John's religious rebirth in terms of him coming to terms with his sexuality, both as a gay man and as a black man.


title: Go Tell It on the Mountain (novel)

text: Critics have noted the "constant repetition of such phrases as 'the natural man' and 'the old Adam in condemnation of man's sexual desire. This conflict is central for John, who at the start of the novel is reflecting on his own "sin" (masturbation) and his burgeoning sexuality. Many scholars read John's conversion as a rejection of his father's strict sexual mores. Angelo Robinson argues that because the novel "alters the traditional Pentecostal conversion experience in that John is not 'cured,' 'healed,' or 'delivered' from his sexual desire during his rebirth" but is restored' to confront the reality of his sexual desires while at the same time claiming the promise of salvation" and is ultimately "freed from Gabriel's faith with its severe sexual ethic". Furthermore, Baldwin often used sexual language and imagery in describing religious zeal. This is particularly noticeable when Elisha is called before the congregation to be chastised for his nascent relationship with a girl, Ella Mae, he is described with his "head thrown back, eyes closed, sweat standing on his brow", "stiffened and trembles", "cried out Jesus, Jesus, oh Lord Jesus!", "face congested", and "his body could not contain this passion".


title: Go Tell It on the Mountain (novel)

text: John's homosexuality is also at issue in the novel, though John himself spends less time concerned directly with the "kind" of his sexual desire than he does with its existence at all. Nevertheless, given the autobiographical details in the novel, scholars have interrogated how John's experience reflects Baldwin's search for an identity as a gay man and perhaps his reflections on his own homosexuality after many years of being out. Because the issue is not addressed directly, scholars have regarded evaluated John's homosexuality through the lens of other themes in the book. "John's struggles with his homosexuality provide the window through which to understand the complexity of his struggles with his spirituality." John's conversation with Elisha and Elisha's kiss led Stanley Macebuh argued that John's salvation is through homosexual love though others have argued that goes too far. Yet Mason Stokes perhaps goes even further, arguing that both John's struggle against his father and his religious conversion reflect his struggle against "a heterosexuality that terrorizes" him, which is reflected in the conflict between Gabriel's obsession with descendants and his strict religious sexual code. The novel's depictions of heterosexuality (rape, prostitution, adultery, loveless marriages) is contrasted with John's love for Elisha, which "somehow purer, more loving, than the novel's often perverse heterosexual expressions".


title: Go Tell It on the Mountain (novel)

text: Other critics have examined the ties between race and sexuality in the novel. Andrew Connolly draws a connection between Gabriel's guilt over his sexuality and the "persistent racial stereotypes surrounding black male sexuality and the thread of violence that accompanies those stereotypes" and argues that John's conversion represents "the unrealized potential that black men can resist systemic pressures and embrace their sexuality without confirming racist stereotypes." This connection is highlighted as Gabriel recalls the body of a black soldier who has been castrated and lynched.


title: Go Tell It on the Mountain (novel)

text: John's religious struggle is also parallel to his struggle with his father. At the end of the novel, in his moment of "salvation", John is knocked to the ground by the Holy Ghost. He then hears a voice that says " Get up, John, Get up boy. Don't let him keep you there. You got everything your Daddy got". In this way, his religious revelation, while representing an acceptance of his father's religion, also reflects his rejection of his father's authority and the burgeoning of his own individuality, rather than merely accepting the role his father has created for him within the family.


title: Go Tell It on the Mountain (novel)

text: Other relationships throughout the novel also cast light on the notion of family including Gabriel's emotionally and physically sterile marriage to Deborah, Elizabeth's adoption by her aunt and abandonment by her father, Florence's resentment toward her mother, Gabriel's lack of relationship with his biological son Royal, Elizabeth's relationship with John's biological father Richard, Florence's marriage to the unreliable Frank, and Florence and Gabriel's mother's reflections on her lovers and children while still a slave.


title: Go Tell It on the Mountain (novel)

text: An early reviewer noted that "Guilt, guilt, guilt chimes through the book. Gabriel is guilty. His first wife Deborah is guilty though she was the victim of rape. His second wive Elizabeth is guilty, though she loved much. Guilt is visited on his children." The novel opens with John feeling guilty about his masturbation and sexual desires. This is mirrored in the young Gabriel's guilt over his own sexual transgressions which ultimately lead to his conversion. However, Gabriel's guilt over his later inability to live up to his own conversion ideals haunts him and is ultimately the cause of his conflict with John: "John becomes a focal point for [Gabriel's] sense of guilt, encapsulating all the other people who make Gabriel feel guilty" such as Deborah, Esther, Royal, Roy, and Elizabeth; "Gabriel's hatred of John is rooted in his guilt over and his denial of his failures as a father." Meanwhile Elizabeth accepts Gabriel's abuse and tyranny partly as a form of divine punishment on both her and John for her guilt, guilt both for not repenting her love for Richard and for her failure to save him from his suicide.


title: Go Tell It on the Mountain (novel)

text: Though the novel is primarily focused on John and his conflict with Gabriel, female characters play an important role in the novel and explore women's role in society. Florence's prayer in particular articulates a nascent feminism. Although Florence is five years older than her brother Gabriel, he was given the education and respect that Florence desired. Although raised by a single mother, the patriarchal environment meant that Gabriel's future matters more than Florence's. Mason Stokes notes that Florence rejects "the regulatory regimes of the heteropatriarchal household"; not only does she reject the men who lusted after he beauty "not wishing to exchange her mother's cabin for theirs and to raise their children", her final act is to undermine Gabriel's authority by promising to reveal his prior infidelity and abandonment of his son Royal to Elizabeth and the church community.


title: Go Tell It on the Mountain (novel)

text: The Public Broadcasting Service produced a made-for-television movie based on "Go Tell It on the Mountain" in 1984. Stan Lathan directed the film, with Paul Winfield starring as Gabriel in his adulthood and Ving Rhames playing Gabriel in his youth. Baldwin was pleased with the adaptation, saying in an interview with "The New York Times", "I am very, very happy about it ... It did not betray the book."


title: Go Tell It on the Mountain (novel)

text: The novel has been translated into numerous languages, including Swedish, French, Japanese, Finnish, German, Italian, Polish, Norwegian, Spanish, Russian, Portuguese, Czech, Arabic, and Dutch.


title: Go Tell It on the Mountain (novel)

text: "Go Tell It On the Mountain" was widely praised at its publication and since. It received favorable reviews in "The New York Times", The Virginia Quarterly Review, "The Hudson Review", and "Phylon", among others.


title: Go Tell It on the Mountain (novel)

text: Writing a decade later, Wallace Graves noted in a highly critical essay, that "when the book was reviewed in the summer of 1953, critics were most generous in praise, and except for Anthony West in "The New Yorker" ... Baldwin was welcomed almost carte blanche as a brilliant young novelist of great promise."


title: Go Tell It on the Mountain (novel)

text: It is generally regarded as Baldwin's best novel and as one of the great African American novels of the 20th Century. In 1998, the Modern Library ranked "Go Tell It on the Mountain" 39th on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. "Time" included the novel on its list of the 100 best English-language novels released from 1923 to 2005. Publisher Franklin Library included it in its "100 Greatest Masterpieces of American Literature" collection published from 1976-1984 for the American Bicentennial.


title: Go Tell It on the Mountain (novel)

text: The novel is regularly assigned as part of curricula in high schools and colleges. However, its assignment has also aroused controversy. In 1988, a teacher in Prince William County, Virginia offered the book as a ninth-grade summer reading option. Parents challenged the book because it is "rife with profanity and explicit sex". In 1994, the book was challenged in Hudson Falls, New York after a teacher had assigned the book as required reading. Parents challenged the book because of "recurring themes of rape, masturbation, violence, and degrading treatment of women".


title: Akrotiri (prehistoric city)

text: Akrotiri (Greek: Ακρωτήρι, pronounced ) was a Cycladic Bronze Age settlement on the volcanic Greek island of Santorini (Thera).


title: Akrotiri (prehistoric city)

text: The settlement was destroyed in the Theran eruption sometime in the 16th century BC and buried in volcanic ash, which preserved the remains of fine frescoes and many objects and artworks. Akrotiri has been excavated since 1967 after earlier excavations on Santorini.


title: Akrotiri (prehistoric city)

text: The earliest evidence for human habitation of Akrotiri can be traced back as early as the fifth millennium BC, when it was a small fishing and farming village. By the end of the third millennium, this community developed and expanded significantly. One factor for Akrotiri's growth may be the trade relations it established with other cultures in the Aegean, as evidenced in fragments of foreign pottery at the site. Akrotiri's strategic position on the primary sailing route between Cyprus and Minoan Crete also made it an important point for the copper trade, thus allowing it to become an important centre for processing copper, as proven by the discovery of moulds and crucibles there. Akrotiri's prosperity continued for about another 500 years; paved streets, an extensive drainage system, the production of high quality pottery and further craft specialization all point to the level of sophistication achieved by the settlement.


title: Akrotiri (prehistoric city)

text: This all came to an end, however, in the 16th century BC with the volcanic eruption of Thera. There is a variety of dating evidence for the eruption, but its exact year is not known. Radiocarbon dating places it most probably between 1620 and 1530 BC, which is also in accord with the date range of 1570 to 1500 BC suggested by similarities of the material culture with other sites in the Aegean. Unusual growth patterns observed in tree rings in 1597, 1560, 1546 and 1544 BC are consistent with a major volcanic event in any of those years. The latter three dates might be the best candidates as they are also considered possible for Egyptian New Kingdom records that are thought to refer to the eruption.


title: Akrotiri (prehistoric city)

text: The Akrotiri excavation site is of a Cycladic cultural settlement on the Greek island of Santorini, associated with the Minoan civilization due to inscriptions in Linear A, and close similarities in artifact and fresco styles. The excavation is named for a modern village situated on a hill nearby. The name of the site in antiquity is unknown.


title: Akrotiri (prehistoric city)

text: Akrotiri was buried by the massive Theran eruption in the middle of the second millennium BC (during the Late Minoan IA period); as a result, like the Roman ruins of Pompeii after it, it is remarkably well-preserved. Frescoes, pottery, furniture, advanced drainage systems and three-story buildings have been discovered at the site.


title: Akrotiri (prehistoric city)

text: The earliest excavations on the island of Santorini were conducted by French geologist F. Fouque in 1867, after some local people found old artifacts at a quarry. Later, in 1895–1900, the digs by German archeologist Baron Friedrich Hiller von Gaertringen revealed the ruins of ancient Thera on Mesa Vouno, which date from the archaic period, much after the Minoan eruption. Also, a little later, R. Zahn excavated in the locality of Potamos, near Akrotiri, under the auspices of the German Archaeological Institute at Athens.


title: Akrotiri (prehistoric city)

text: Extensive modern excavation was started in 1967 by Spyridon Marinatos and revealed the full value of this site. Marinatos's choice of site proved to be correct and just a few hours into the excavation, the remains of the buried city began to be discovered. The next step was to determine the extent of the city, to which it took two whole seasons devoted to the site in 1967 and 1968. In the early years of the excavation, a great deal of attention was paid towards the organization of proper facilities for the dig, including substantial workshops, laboratories built for storage, repair and treatment and areas for examination of archaeological finds. Because of the site being preserved in thick, volcanic debris, Marinatos noted that many of the buildings were preserved to a height of more than a single story, creating unique challenges for excavation. He experimented with tunneling into the pumice, but this technique was later abandoned.


title: Akrotiri (prehistoric city)

text: Excavated artifacts have been installed in a museum distant from the site (Museum of Prehistoric Thera), with many objects and artworks presented. Only a single gold object has been found, hidden beneath flooring, and no uninterred human skeletal remains have been found. This indicates that an orderly evacuation was performed with little or no loss of life.


title: Akrotiri (prehistoric city)

text: An ambitious modern roof structure, meant to protect the site, collapsed just prior to its completion in 2005, killing one visitor. No damage was caused to the antiquities. As a result, the site was closed to visitors until April 2012. Excavations stopped since 2005 due to lack of funding. They were resumed in 2016 with sponsor support.


title: Akrotiri (prehistoric city)

text: In October 2018, a small shrine with a marble figurine of a woman was discovered in the "House of the Thrania" which is located near Xeste 3, where a golden goat was found in 1999.


title: Akrotiri (prehistoric city)

text: The frescoes in Akrotiri are especially important for the study of Minoan art because they are so much better preserved than those that were already known from Knossos and other sites on Crete, which have nearly all survived only in small fragments, usually fallen to the ground.


title: Akrotiri (prehistoric city)

text: All of the pigments used by the artists at Akrotiri for painting the frescoes look as though they are mineral based and thus have resulted in the great preservation of the pieces. The colors used in Theran painting include white, yellow, red, brown, blue and black. The technique used is not true fresco, except for a few isolated instances, and instead appears as though the painting was begun while the plaster was still wet, but as though the artist made no effort to keep it wet, and seemed content to complete the work on a dry surface. As a result, often on the same fresco, the paint has penetrated the plaster in some areas but flakes off easily in others.


title: Akrotiri (prehistoric city)

text: Specialized techniques were required when it was discovered early on in the excavation process that the site contained numerous well preserved fresco wall paintings. Tassos Margaritoff, one of the leading restorers of Byzantine frescoes, is currently the supervisor of the Akrotiri project. The first fragments of fresco were discovered in 1968 in Sector Alpha and depict the head of an African, the head of a blue monkey and some large flying blue birds.


title: Akrotiri (prehistoric city)

text: In 1969, the fresco of the Blue Monkeys in Room Beta 6 was discovered and created increased excitement at the site. The rocky landscape which the monkeys are depicted climbing upon mimics the similar volcanic rocks near the site presently.


title: Akrotiri (prehistoric city)

text: In 1970 the Spring Fresco was uncovered in Room Delta 2. It is the first fresco to have been found perfectly preserved and still standing in its original installed position. The supporting wall of the fresco was not in the best condition and thus the fresco had to be removed immediately in order to preserve it. Rescuing the fresco was a delicate procedure and allowed the archaeologists and restorers to develop invaluable experience.


title: Akrotiri (prehistoric city)

text: A few other frescoes including The Fisherman and the Lady from the House of Ladies have been found standing, though detached from the wall.


title: Akrotiri (prehistoric city)

text: The excavations at Akrotiri have produced a large variety of artifacts revealing numerous varieties of Late Cycladic (LC I) pottery from the area. Pottery is the most common and most enduring commodity in the culture of the majority of ancient societies and, thus, is of great importance to archaeologists in interpreting Ancient Greek societies. At Akrotiri, pottery is particularly abundant because of the circumstances surrounding the demise of the town, in that its sudden evacuation meant that inhabitants were only able to take their most valuable possessions with them.


title: Akrotiri (prehistoric city)

text: Serving a multitude of purposes, pottery can tell a great deal about the society in which it were produced. Large jars were used as containers for storage of goods, while others like stirrup jars were designed for the transportation of certain commodities. As well, there were also vessels for preparing and cooking food, for eating and drinking and many other diverse activities, including bathtubs, braziers, oil lamps, bee-hives, flower pots, etc. Most evidently, the shape, size and perhaps even the decoration of the vases were closely related to their use in the ancient world.


title: Akrotiri (prehistoric city)

text: In regards to furniture, the volcanic ash which engulfed the city often penetrated into the houses in large quantities and, in these layers of fine volcanic dust, produced negatives of the disintegrated wooden objects. Using these negatives as molds, liquid plaster-of-Paris can be poured in and produce casts of parts, or even entire pieces of furniture such as beds, tables, chairs or stools. Offering tables are one of the most common finds in Akrotiri and were either made of clay or coated with plaster, decorated in the same technique as the wall paintings, and only consisted of three highly decorated legs and a top.


title: Akrotiri (prehistoric city)

text: There is a path descending from the first houses of the modern settlement to the parking lot of the excavations of Akrotiri, connecting the old excavation site to the town of Akrotiri. The path was signposted and reopened in September 2012 and now regularly undergoes maintenance, thanks to international volunteers. The local population has been the first supporter of this initiative and in charge of the upkeep of the path, working alongside the volunteers. The path is suitable for mountain biking, hiking and many other activities.


title: Tyrol

text: Tyrol (; historically the Tyrole; ; ) is a historical region in the Alps - in Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was historically the core of the County of Tyrol, part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary, from its formation in the 12th century until 1919. In 1919, following World War I and the dissolution of Austria-Hungary, it was divided into two modern administrative parts through the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye:


title: Tyrol

text: With the founding of the European region Tyrol-South Tyrol-Trentino the area has its own legal entity since 2011 in the form of a European Grouping for Territorial Cooperation.


title: Tyrol

text: According to , the name "Tyrol" derives from a root word meaning "terrain" (i.e. area, ground or soil; compare and Old Irish: "tir"); first from the village of Tirol, and its castle; from which the County of Tyrol grew. Some sources suggest it derives from the Slavic language "ta rola" meaning "this land, farming terrain/farming ground." According to Karl Finsterwalder, the name "Tyrol" derives from , a late-Roman fort and travellers' hostel in Zirl, Tyrol. There seems to be no scholarly consensus.


title: Tyrol

text: Tyrol has an area of 26,673 km. The region consists of the State of Tyrol, the Province of South Tyrol and the Province of Trento. In addition to the region belong the municipalities Cortina d'Ampezzo, Livinallongo del Col di Lana, Colle Santa Lucia and Pedemonte from the Region of Veneto and Valvestino and Magasa from the Region of Lombardy. The largest cities in Tyrol are Innsbruck, Trento and Bolzano.


title: Tyrol

text: The whole region of Tyrol is located in the Alps. Tyrol is bordered to the north by the state of Bavaria and to the east by the states of Carinthia and Salzburg. West of Tyrol lies the state of Vorarlberg and the canton of Grisons. On the southern side of Tyrol, the land is bordered by the regions of Veneto and Lombardy.


title: Tyrol

text: Important rivers in Tyrol are the Adige, Inn and Drau. The region is characterized by many valleys. Some of these valleys are still difficult to reach today. The most important valleys are the Inn Valley and Adige Valley. A large part of the population lives in these two valleys and also the five largest cities of Tyrol (Innsbruck, Bolzano, Trento, Merano, and Rovereto) lie in these valleys. For centuries, the region has been known for transit trade. The most important trade route across the Alps, namely the Brenner Route, traverses the whole of Tyrol and is regarded as a connecting link between the Italian and German-speaking areas.


title: Tyrol

text: As the Tyrolean region is located in the Alps, the landscape is heavily influenced by the mountains. The highest mountains in Tyrol include:


title: Tyrol

text: Across Tyrol, on the border between North and South Tyrol, runs the main chain of the Alps. The main chain of the Alps geographically divides the Alps into a southern and northern half.


title: Tyrol

text: Tyrol can be subdivided into 5 different language groups. In addition to the majority languages such as German and Italian, languages such as Ladin, Cimbrian and Mócheno are also spoken. The last three languages are recognized as minority languages. These language groups are mostly located in the Trentino-Alto Adige region and are thus promoted and protected by the region.


title: Tyrol

text: The Ladin language is also spoken outside the region in Souramont (Province of Belluno). Ladin is considered a Rhaeto-Romance language.


title: Tyrol

text: The Cimbrian language is also used in various linguistic islands (Sette Comuni) outside the region of Trentino-South Tyrol. The Cimbrian and the Mòcheno languages are considered as upper-Bavarian dialects.


title: Tyrol

text: The majority in Trentino two romance languages are spoken: Lombard in western valleys, and is Venetian eastern ones, in central Trentino a transitional dialect between the lombard language and the venetian language is spoken.


title: Tyrol

text: In the Austrian state of Tyrol, the German language is used by a large majority. As in many other regions in German-speaking countries, Tyrol also has its own German-language dialect. The Tyrolean dialect comes from the Bavarian language.


title: Tyrol

text: In South Tyrol, the Tyrolean dialect was mixed with a few individual Italian words. Due to the difficult accessibility of the valleys in earlier years, many other valleys developed a slightly differentiated dialect compared to the Tyrolean.


title: Tyrol

text: The Ladin language also has no uniform language, so every valley also has a slight difference in Ladinia.


title: Tyrol

text: Although the details of the arms of Tyrol have changed over the centuries, one feature has remained more-or-less constant: "argent", an eagle displayed "gules", armed (and sometimes crowned) "or". Since 1983, the Province of South Tyrol has its own coat of arms. It is very similar to the coat of arms of the State of Tyrol. The Province wanted to emphasize the historical commonality of the countries. The Province of Trento received its coat of arms in 1340 and refers to the prince-bishopric of Trento. The former County of Tyrol had a uniform coat of arms, which was slightly changed over the centuries.


title: Tyrol

text: The earliest archaeological records of human settlement in Tyrol have been found in the Tischofer Cave. They date from the Palaeolithic, about 28,000–27,000 BP. The same cave has also yielded evidence of human occupation during the Bronze Age (very roughly, 4000–3000 BP (2000–1000 BC)).


title: Tyrol

text: In 1991, the mummified remains of a man who had died around 3300–3100 BC were discovered in a glacier in the Ötztal Alps, in Tyrol. Researchers have called him Ötzi (and also other names, including "The Iceman"). He lived during the Chalcolithic or Copper Age, after man had learned how to exploit copper but before man had learned how to make bronze. His body and belongings were very well-preserved, and have been subjected to detailed scientific study. They are preserved in the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology, Bolzano, South Tyrol, Italy.


title: Tyrol

text: There is evidence that Tyrol was a center for copper mining in the 4th millennium BC; for example, at Brixlegg. There is also evidence of the Urnfield culture (roughly 1300–750 BC).


title: Tyrol

text: Evidence of the La Tène culture (roughly 450–100 BC, during the Iron Age) has also been found; as has evidence of the Fritzens-Sanzeno culture from about the same period. Toward the end of that time, Tyrol began to be noted in Roman written records. The inhabitants may have been Illyrians, in the process of being displaced by Celts (perhaps themselves displaced from Noricum by Slavs). There are also indications that Adriatic Veneti may have been present in the south of the region. The Romans called them Rhaetians; although it is not clear whether that then meant a specific tribe or confederation of tribes, or was a broader term for the inhabitants of the area. They made wine barrels (an idea which the Romans took from them), and had their own alphabet.


title: Tyrol

text: In 15 BC, Tyrol was conquered by Roman forces commanded by Drusus and Tiberius. The Romans established Raetia and Noricum as provinces of the Roman Empire. Raetia included Vinschgau, Burggrafenamt, Eisacktal, Wipptal, Oberinntal and parts of the Unterinntal. Noricum included Pustertal, Defereggen and parts of the Unterinntal to the right of the Ziller and the Inn. Bolzano and the extreme south of Tyrol belonged to the province of Venetia et Histria.


title: Tyrol

text: The inhabitants adopted the Latin Language called vulgar Latin or the everyday spoken version vs. the standardized written formal form, and combined it with their own languages. The result was Romansh, which is still spoken today and is one of the official languages of Switzerland.


title: Tyrol

text: The Romans constructed metaled roads guarded by forts through Tyrol to connect the Italian peninsula and the lands beyond; notably the Via Claudia Augusta and the . The Romans did not seem to find Tyrol an attractive area in which to build new towns, because there are few of them. One town they did build was Aguntum, near modern Lienz.


title: Tyrol

text: In late antiquity (from AD 476), Tyrol belonged to the Ostrogoths, and it was included in the Ostrogothic Kingdom. In 534, the Ostrogoths lost Merrano, Val Venosta and Passer to the Franks. The Ostrogothic Kingdom collapsed in 553, after being overrun by Bajuvarians from the north and Lombards from the south. The Lombards established the Duchy of Tridentum (or, Trent; roughly corresponding to modern Trentino) in south Tyrol. Slavic peoples, who had recently taken Carinthia from the Bajuvarians, settled in east Tyrol.


title: Tyrol

text: Most of Tyrol came under the control of the Duchy of Bavaria (created ). The southern parts, including Bolzano, Salorno, and the right bank of the Adige (including Eppan and Kaltern) remained under the Lombards. Tyrol was Christianized through the bishoprics of Brixen and Triento. The frontier remained the same though Carolingian and Ottonian times. The area was subject to "Stammensgerechte" (Ancient Germanic laws), such as "Lex Romana Curiensis", "Lex Alamannorum", "Lex Baiuvariorum" and "Leges Langobardorum".


title: Tyrol

text: In 1027, Emperor Conrad II, in order to secure the important route through the Brenner Pass, allotted the left bank of the Adige (from Lana to Mezzocorona) to the Duchy of Bavaria. During the 12th century, the local nobility went further: they built Tyrol Castle in the modern "comune" of Tirol in South Tyrol, near modern Merano; and around 1140, established the County of Tyrol as a state within the Holy Roman Empire.


title: Tyrol

text: The Counts of Tyrol were at first "Vogt" (underlords) subject to the Bishoprics of Brixen and Triento; but they had other ideas. They expanded their holdings at those bishoprics' expense. They displaced competing nobles like the , and declared their independence from the Duchy of Bavaria; though not without dispute. In 1228, they conceded the to the House of Wittelsbach, rulers of Bavaria; as a result, that area remains part of Bavaria to this day.


title: Tyrol

text: In 1253, rulership of the County passed by inheritance to the Meinhardiner family. In 1335, the last male heir to the Meinhardiner lands, Henry of Bohemia, died. His daughter, Margaret, thereupon became Countess of Tyrol; but her title was in doubt because of different laws in different lands as to what a woman could or could not inherit. She navigated her way between the competing claims of the Houses of Wittelsbach, Luxembourg and Habsburg by, in 1342, marrying Louis of Wittelsbach. Louis died in 1361. Margaret died in 1369, and bequeathed Tyrol to Rudolf of Habsburg. The various dynastic squabbles were resolved that same year by the , under which (for suitable compensation) the Wittelsbachs agreed to relinquish their claims to Tyrol in favour of the Habsburgs.


title: Tyrol

text: When the Habsburgs took control of Tyrol, it had roughly its modern size. However, the Unterinntal downstream from Schwaz still belonged to Bavaria; the Zillertal and Brixental to Salzburg; Brixen and the Pustertal were episcopal territories, or part of the County of Gorizia. On the other hand, the Montafon and the Unterengadin were Tyrolean.


title: Tyrol

text: Tyrol was of great strategic importance to the Habsburgs. It controlled several important Alpine passes. It connected their landholdings in Further Austria. In 1406, as the Habsburg lands were split up by inheritance, Tyrol once again became a separate entity (a "Landstand"), in which the greater landowners had the right to be consulted ("Mitspracherecht"). During a confusing succession of events, in 1420 Frederick IV, Duke of Austria moved the capital of Tyrol from Meran to Innsbruck, and Meran lost its earlier importance.


title: Tyrol

text: The Tyrol–South Tyrol–Trentino Euroregion was founded in 1998. The aim is to strengthen cooperation between the separated countries. In several areas, such as mobility, agriculture, education and culture will be tried to promote exchange and to raise the awareness of the cultural and historical heritage of the region of Tyrol in the minds of the population. Cross-border projects will be initiated to improve the relationship between the different language groups. To represent common ideas and values in Europe, the Euroregion has a joint office in Brussels since 1995. The headquarters of the office is in Bolzano. Joint decisions are taken by organized three diet (in German: "Dreier-Landtag"), which have been held since 1991 mostly every two to three years with the state Diets of Trento (provincial council of Trentino), Bolzano (provincial council of South Tyrol) and Innsbruck (state council of Tyrol (State)). In 2011, the region was institutionalized and since then has its own legal entity.


title: Tyrol

text: The multiplicity of parties is due to the fact that Tyrol lies in two different nation states and thus are politically independent of each other. Another reason for the large number of parties is the great independence of the two Provinces of Bolzano and Trento. By the second statute of autonomy in 1972, the province of Bolzano acquired much of the region's competences and since then has been mostly independent of the province of Trento. The second autonomy statute enabled the linguistic minorities to be better protected. The regional council of Trentino-South Tyrol, which consists of the two provincial councils of Bolzano and Trento, has less influence and competences. Thus, many parties determine their focus within the provinces. Other parties in Trentino-South Tyrol, especially in South Tyrol, were founded on the example of Austrian parties and have many similarities with the parties in Austria.


title: Tyrol

text: In the economic sector statistics are shown, which are based largely on numbers and data of the Euroregion Tyrol-South Tyrol-Trentino. It lacks individual communities that are outside the Euroregion. As there are no 10,000 inhabitants living in these communities, the statistics hardly distort the territory of Tyrol and the remaining 1.8 million inhabitants.


title: Tyrol

text: Tyrol had a total GDP of 67.6 billion euros in 2014. Divided into individual countries, the State of Tyrol generated 28.8 billion euros, the Province of South Tyrol 20.6 billion euros and the Province of Trentino 18.2 billion euros. In GDP per capita (2015), that means 39,300 euros/capita in the State of Tyrol, 42,400 euros/capita in South Tyrol and 35,500 euros/capita in Trentino. The unemployment rate in the State of Tyrol is 3.2% (2014), in South Tyrol 3.4% (2017) and in Trentino 4.6% (2017).


title: Tyrol

text: The Tyrol region is one of the wealthiest regions in Europe and, in terms of GDP/capita, is above the EU average, which amounted to 28,900 euros/capita in 2015.


title: Tyrol

text: The Region of Trentino-South Tyrol is, in terms of GDP/capita, the wealthiest region in Italy with 37,813 euros/capita in 2015.


title: Tyrol

text: Agriculture and forestry occupy a special position in Tyrol. The many small and medium-sized farms have shaped the landscape and culture in Tyrol for many centuries. In order to be competitive with larger farms outside Tyrol, there is a strong cooperative system in Tyrol.


title: Tyrol

text: South of Tyrol, in the Region of Trentino-South Tyrol, the cultivation of apples and wine plays an important role. So every tenth apple in Europe comes from South Tyrol. Known wines in Trentino-South Tyrol are the Vernatsch, the Lagrein, the Gewürztraminer and the Weißburgunder.


title: Tyrol

text: Livestock, grazing and forestry are important at higher elevations and in more northerly areas. Mainly cattle, sheep, goats and pigs are kept. Accordingly, the production of milk and Tyrolean Speck in the farms is very important. Horses also play an increasingly important role in livestock, for equestrian sports and farm holidays. The Haflinger horses are known in the Tyrolean region and originate from Hafling, near Merano.


title: Tyrol

text: The first industrialization reached Tyrol late in the 19th century. Most of these were small businesses that were important only in the local area. A second wave of industrialization took place at the beginning of the 20th century. Particularly affected at that time was the city of Bolzano with the Italianization policy under Fascism in the 1920s.


title: Tyrol

text: In 2011, approximately 10% of the workplaces in all parts of the country were active in the manufacturing sector. Thus lies Tyrol in the EU average at 10.3% (2011). Important branches of industry in Tyrol are the food industry, wood processing and mechanical engineering.


title: Tyrol

text: The industry in Tyrol consists mostly of small and medium-sized companies. The craft still plays a special role throughout the region. A large part of these craft businesses are still partially small-structured and family businesses. From an economic point of view, the energy sector is important in the secondary sector. Much of the electricity produced is generated by hydropower.


title: Tyrol

text: The most important sector in Tyrol is the tertiary sector. Especially tourism has a special position in this region. Due to the connection of the areas by the railway in the 19th century, many villages in Tyrol developed into popular tourism locations. The construction of the Brenner motorway in the 1960s gave the region in the 20th century a renewed upswing in the tourism branch. Today, Merano, Kitzbühel, Cortina or Riva del Garda are among the most important tourism destinations in the Alpine region. In 2013, the Euroregion counted over 80 million overnight stays in the Tyrolean region (to compare - Province of Rome in 2011: 25.8 million overnight stays).


title: Tyrol

text: Also important for Tyrol is the trade. Among other things, the Exhibition of Bolzano has been a meeting point for Italian and German economy already for centuries. As a transit route country, more than 2.25 million trucks (2017) drove over the Brenner Pass. This means that two times more trucks travel on the Brenner Route than in all four Alpine crossing roads in Switzerland together.


title: Tyrol

text: Tyrol is known as a transit route. The most important route between northern and southern Europe, the Brenner route, traverses the entire region. At 1370 m above the Adriatic, the Brenner Pass is the lowest pass crossing of the main chain of the Alps.


title: Tyrol

text: Due to the linguistic diversity and the climatic transition from temperate climate (alpine climate) to mediterranean climate, the area is regarded as a bridge between the Italian and German speaking countries.


title: Tyrol

text: The most important airport in Tyrol is Innsbruck Airport. With over one million passengers, it is the third largest airport in Austria. Other airports in the region are in Bolzano and Trento. These do not offer regular scheduled flights and the Bolzano Airport currently offers charter flights. There are other small airfields in Toblach, Kufstein, St. Johann in Tirol, Reutte and Cortina. The airfield in Cortina was closed in 1976 due to a crash.


title: Tyrol

text: Highways in Tyrol are the Brenner motorway and the Inntal motorway. The Brenner motorway runs from Innsbruck (in Austria A13) to Modena (in Italy A22). Together with the Inntal motorway from Innsbruck to Kufstein is the part of the European route E45. The dual carriageway from Merano to Bolzano (MeBo) ends in Bolzano South in the Brenner motorway. Important road section in Trentino, next to the Brenner motorway, is the SS 47 (Strada Statale 47), which connects via Sugana Valley Trento with Padova. A large part of this route is dual-lane and flows into the Brenner state road (SS 12).


title: Tyrol

text: Due to the Alps, there are many mountain passes that connect valleys. The most important pass roads for transit trade are the Reschen Pass and Brenner Pass. Popular pass roads include the Stelvio Pass, Arlberg Pass, Karer Pass, Mendel Pass and the Gardena Pass. The Provinces of Trento and Bolzano have been responsible for the preservation and management of the state roads in their provinces since 1998.


title: Tyrol

text: The most important railway line in Tyrol is the Brenner Line via the Brenner Pass. The Brenner Railway was opened in 1867 and runs from Innsbruck to Verona via the cities of Bolzano and Trento. Together with the Lower Inn Valley Railway in North Tyrol, this section of the route is part of the important European railway axis Berlin-Palermo, which connects northern Europe with southern Europe across the Alps. With the construction of the Brenner Base Tunnel and its completion in 2027, transit traffic on the rail will be promoted and relocated. After completion, the Brenner Base Tunnel, together with the Innsbruck bypass, will be the longest railway tunnel in the world at 64 km and will reduce the travel time between Bolzano and Innsbruck from 2 hours to 45 minutes.


title: Tyrol

text: Further important railway lines in Tyrol are the Arlberg railway, Zillertal railway, Salzburg-Tyrol railway, Pustertal railway with continuation of the Drautal railway, the railway line Bolzano-Merano and the continuation of the Vinschgau railway, the Trento–Malè–Mezzana railway and the Valsugana railway, which leads from Trento to Venice over the Sugana Valley. Cross-border connections are offered only a few. The ÖBB travels over the Brenner Pass on the Eurocity trains and several regional trains connect South Tyrol with North Tyrol an East Tyrol. The Euroregion Tyrol-South Tyrol-Trentino has set itself the goal of promoting and expanding cross-border connections. The aim is to shift traffic through the Alps to sustainable means of transport, thus protecting the Alpine environment.


title: Tyrol

text: Many villages and communities are difficult to reach because of the large differences in altitude, so the region sets much on ropeway concepts. Although most of the cable cars are located in ski resorts, they are also used for the local public transport. Known cable cars in Tyrol are the Ritten cable car in Bolzano, the Sardagna cable car in Trento and the Nordkette cable car in Innsbruck. Also funicular railways are being built to cope with the differences in altitude more quickly. Famous funiculars are among others the Hungerburgbahn in Innsbruck and the Mendel funicular in Kaltern.


title: Tyrol

text: Local public transport is usually offered with intercity buses or city buses. The city of Innsbruck has its own tram network. Another tram is located in Ritten. The cities of Bolzano, Merano and Trento formerly had their own tram network, but these were displaced and replaced by the city buses and private transport in the 50s and 60s.


title: Tyrol

text: The Tyrolean culture has been cultivated for several centuries and passed on to future generations. The state border between South and North Tyrol is more a political border and is considered less as a cultural border. Many traditions are cultivated throughout the Tyrolean region and show little differences. In all cultural areas such as food, dress or customs there are many similarities. Nevertheless, the individual language groups, especially the minority languages, try to maintain and promote their own linguistic identity.


title: Tyrol

text: The Tyrolean cuisine has similarities with the Austrian cuisine and is characterized by its alpine influence. Also the historical influence of the former K.U.K. Monarchy can be found in the Tyrolean dishes. These include dishes such as goulash, Kaiserschmarrn and apple strudel which are consumed in large parts of the Danube monarchy and today still in Tyrol. Since the region is still relatively strong agricultural and peasant today, also many peasant dishes are offered on the farms. Schlutzkrapfen, boiled dumplings or cold cuts with bacon (in German: "Speck") or grey cheese is eaten on the farms.


title: Tyrol

text: The Tyrolean dishes show only slight differences throughout Tyrol. Due to the Mediterranean conditions in the southern part of Tyrol, a lot of wine is grown and is therefore also an important part of the Tyrolean dish, especially in South Tyrol and Trentino. Famous wines from this area are the Gewürztraminer, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Grigio and Chardonnay. Furthermore, a lot of apples are grown in the Region of Trentino-South Tyrol. In this region also a food culture is cultivated with a mixture of Italian and Tyrolean specialties.


title: Tyrol

text: The Tyrolean Rifles were a militia organized in case of an attack on crown land, which required Tyrol to defend its territory. The militia consisted mostly of citizens and peasants who were responsible only for the defence of their own land and were not obliged to go to war on behalf of the Habsburg monarchy. They were authorized by an order signed by Emperor Maximilian I in 1511 that remained valid until 1918. The Tyrolean Rifles became known in 1809 when Tyrolese peasants rose up and fought against the French-Bavarian occupation under Napoleon. The ensuing four Battles of Bergisel were led by Andreas Hofer. The Rifles were also used in World War I in 1915 on the Dolomite front. After the separation of Tyrol and the downfall of the monarchy, the companies also lost their task of defending their country. Nevertheless, they remained as a non-governmental organization. Today, the Rifles are responsible as an organization for the preservation of the Tyrolean culture and are always present at important political events in Tyrol.


title: Tyrol

text: Many Tyrolean customs were created centuries ago and are passed on by the population for the next generations. Typical in the Alpine region are the many individual customs in the valleys. Due to the seclusion of the valleys, the locals developed their own customs. Many customs have been created by legends and narratives, others by the close connection to the church. There are also traditions that are cultivated everywhere in the Tyrolean region and do not differ from other valleys and villages. These customs give local people an identity and thus feel the community more connected.


title: Tyrol

text: Tyrol is traditionally a winter sports country. Many athletes, such as Gustav Thoeni, Benjamin Raich, Carolina Kostner, Gregor Schlierenzauer, Toni Sailer and Armin Zoeggeler have already won overall World Cups and medals at World Championships and Olympic Games.


title: Tyrol

text: Even in summer sports, several athletes from Tyrol were and still are among the best in the world. In water jumping Tania Cagnotto and Klaus Dibiasi won several medals. In cycling, Francesco Moser won the Giro d'Italia. Andreas Seppi played against the best tennis players in the world for many years. In bouldering Anna Stöhr was one of the best in the world.


title: Tyrol

text: The FC Wacker Innsbruck is one of the most traditional and successful clubs in Austria. Since the club was founded in 1915 and several name changes, the football club has won ten times the Austrian Championship and seven times the Austrian Cup. In 1987, it reached the semi-finals of the UEFA CUP. In 1970, the team defeated Real Madrid in Madrid. Currently (2018) Wacker Innsbruck plays in the "Erste Liga" (second highest category of Austria).


title: Tyrol

text: In the Region of Trentino-South Tyrol, the FC Südtirol and AC Trento are the two most important clubs. Both teams participated in the Italian Serie C (third highest league in Italy) for several seasons. The AC Trento has a long history until 1921. FC Südtirol was founded in 1995. AC Trento are currently (2018) playing in the Italian Serie D (fourth highest league in Italy) and FC Südtirol in Serie C. Thus, the FC Südtirol is the only professional football club in the region.


title: Tyrol

text: Ice hockey is a very popular sport in Tyrol. Important clubs are the HC Bolzano and the HC Innsbruck. Both teams play in the EBEL. The HC Innsbruck, formerly EV Innsbruck, won the Austrian championship seven times. With 19 won Italian championships, the HC Bolzano is the record champion in Italy. The club celebrated the biggest international successes by winning the Alpenliga, the EBEL and the Six Nations Tournament with Jaromír Jágr. The Italian ice hockey league consists mostly of South Tyrolean teams. 5 of the 8 Italian teams in the Alps Hockey League come from South Tyrol (HC Neumarkt-Egna, HC Pustertal, Ritten Sport, HC Gardena and WSV Sterzing Broncos). In this league three more Tyrolean teams play (SG Cortina, HC Fassa and EC Kitzbühel).


title: Tyrol

text: In 2005, the Ice Hockey World Championship was held in Innsbruck and Vienna. The 1994 Ice Hockey World Championship took place in Bolzano, Canazei and Milan.


title: Tyrol

text: In volleyball, Trentino Volley is one of the best teams in the world. Three times the Champions league title, four times the club world championship title and four times the Italian championship title could win the club from Trento. Founded in 2000, the club quickly established itself at the top of the league. In 2011, Trentino Volley won the CEV Champions League ahead of its own fans at the PalaOnda in Bolzano.


title: Tyrol

text: Hypo Tirol Innsbruck conquered the Austrian title 10 times. Of the last 13 seasons, the team won 10 times the Austrian championship. Since the season 2017/18 the club plays in the German volleyball league under the name "Hypo Tirol Alpenvolleys Haching". The club went into cooperation with the German team TSV Unterhaching.


title: Tyrol

text: In Tyrol, the Olympic Winter Games have been organized three times so far. In 1964 and 1976 they were held in Innsbruck and 1956 in Cortina.


title: Tyrol

text: Most of the big annual sporting events in Tyrol take place in winter. The Alpine Skiing World Cup is held in Kitzbühel, Val Gardena, Cortina and Madonna di Campiglio. These races are classics in the Ski World Cup and have a long tradition.


title: Tyrol

text: A famous biathlon location is in Antholz. There were often held the Biathlon World Championships. Several Nordic Combined World Championships were organized in Val di Fiemme. Part of the Four Hills Tournament is the Bergisel Ski Jump in Innsbruck. A stage of the Tour de Ski is also located in Toblach.


title: Tyrol

text: Some summer sports events are also held in Tyrol. The Tour of the Alps take place every year in Tyrol. The tour was launched by the Euroregion Tyrol-South Tyrol-Trentino. It is the successor of the Giro del Trentino, which has been around for over 40 years. In 2017, the UCI Downhill World Championships took place in Val di Sole, near Trento. The BOclassic in Bolzano takes place on New Year's Eve and is one of the best occupied New Year's Eve races in the world. Every year, an ATP World Series tennis tournament is organized in Kitzbühel.


title: Boston marriage

text: A "Boston marriage" was, historically, the cohabitation of two wealthy women, independent of financial support from a man. The term is said to have been in use in New England in the late 19th/early 20th century. Some of these relationships were romantic in nature and might now be considered a lesbian relationship; others were not.


title: Boston marriage

text: The fact of relatively formalized romantic friendships or life partnerships between women predates the term "Boston marriage" and there is a long record of it in England and other European countries. The term "Boston marriage" became associated with Henry James's "The Bostonians" (1886), a novel involving a long-term co-habiting relationship between two unmarried women, "new women", although James himself never used the term. James' sister Alice lived in such a relationship with Katherine Loring and was among his sources for the novel.


title: Boston marriage

text: Some examples of women in "Boston marriages" were well known. In the late 1700s, for example, Anglo-Irish upper-class women Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby were identified as a couple and nicknamed the Ladies of Llangollen. Elizabeth Mavor suggests that the institution of romantic friendships between women reached a zenith in eighteenth-century England. In the U.S., a prominent example is that of novelist Sarah Orne Jewett and her companion Annie Adams Fields, widow of the editor of "The Atlantic Monthly," during the late 1800s.


title: Boston marriage

text: Lillian Faderman provided one of the most comprehensive studies of Boston marriages in "Surpassing the Love of Men" (1981). Twentieth-century film reviewers used the term to describe the Jewett-Fields relationship depicted in the 1998 documentary film "Out of the Past". David Mamet's play "Boston Marriage" premiered in 2000 and helped popularize the term.


title: Boston marriage

text: Some women in Boston marriages did so because they felt they had a better connection to women than to men. Some of these women lived together out of necessity; such women were generally financially independent due to family inheritance or career earnings. Women who chose to have a career (doctor, scientist, professor) created a new group of women, known as new women, who were not financially dependent upon men. Educated women with careers who wanted to live with other women were allowed a measure of social acceptance and freedom to arrange their own lives. They were usually feminists with shared values, involved in social and cultural causes. Such women were generally self-sufficient in their own lives, but gravitated to each other for support in an often disapproving, sexist, and sometimes hostile society.


title: Boston marriage

text: Until the 1920s, these arrangements were widely regarded as natural and respectable. After the 1920s, women in such relationships were increasingly suspected of being in lesbian sexual relationships, so fewer single women chose to live together.


title: Boston marriage

text: Boston marriages were so common at Wellesley College in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that the term Wellesley marriage became a popular description. Typically, the relationship involved two academic women. This was common from about 1870 until 1920. Until the later part of the 20th century, women were expected to resign from their academic posts upon marriage, so any woman who wanted to keep her academic career had to make housing arrangements other than a home with a husband and children, such as sharing a home with another like-minded single female professor. Additionally, as Lillian Faderman points out, college educated women commonly found more independence, support, and like-mindedness by partnering with other women. Further, these alternative relationships freed women from the burdens of child-rearing, tending to husbands, and other domestic duties, thus allowing professional women like college faculty to focus on their research.


title: Boston marriage

text: There are many examples of Wellesley marriages in the historical record. Faderman documented that in the late 19th century, of the 53 women faculty at Wellesley, only one woman was conventionally married to a man; most of the others lived with a female companion. One of the most famous pairs were Katharine Lee Bates and Katharine Ellis Coman. Bates was a professor of poetry and the author of the words to "America the Beautiful", while Coman was an economic historian who is credited with writing the first industrial history of the US.


title: Battle of Cowpens

text: The Battle of Cowpens was an engagement during the American Revolutionary War fought on January 17, 1781 near the town of Cowpens, South Carolina, between U.S. forces under Brigadier General Daniel Morgan and British forces under Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton, as part of the campaign in the Carolinas (North and South). The battle was a turning point in the American reconquest of South Carolina from the British.


title: Battle of Cowpens

text: Morgan's forces conducted a double envelopment of Tarleton's forces, the only double envelopment of the war. Tarleton's force of 1000 British troops were set against 2000 troops under Morgan. Morgan's forces suffered casualties of only 25 killed and 124 wounded. Tarleton's force was almost completely eliminated with almost 30% casualties and 55% of his force captured or missing, with Tarleton himself and only about 200 British troops escaping.


title: Battle of Cowpens

text: A small force of the Continental Army under the command of Morgan had marched to the west of the Catawba River, in order to forage for supplies and raise the morale of local colonial sympathizers. The British had received incorrect reports that Morgan's army was planning to attack the important strategic fort of Ninety Six, held by American Loyalists to the British Crown and located in the west of the Carolinas. The British considered Morgan's army a threat to their left flank. General Charles Cornwallis dispatched cavalry (dragoons) commander Tarleton to defeat Morgan's command. Upon learning Morgan's army was not at Ninety Six, Tarleton, bolstered by British reinforcements, set off in hot pursuit of the American detachment.


title: Battle of Cowpens

text: Morgan resolved to make a stand near the Broad River. He selected a position on two low hills in open woodland, with the expectation that the aggressive Tarleton would make a headlong assault without pausing to devise a more intricate plan. He deployed his army in three main lines. Tarleton's army, after an exhausting march, reached the field malnourished and heavily fatigued. Tarleton attacked immediately; however, the American defense-in-depth absorbed the impact of the British attack. The British lines lost their cohesion as they hurried after the retreating Americans. When Morgan's army went on the offensive, it wholly overwhelmed Tarleton's force.


title: Battle of Cowpens

text: Tarleton's brigade was wiped out as an effective fighting force, and, coupled with the British defeat at the Battle of Kings Mountain in the northwest corner of South Carolina, this action compelled Cornwallis to pursue the main southern American army into North Carolina, leading to the Battle of Guilford Court House, and Cornwallis's eventual defeat at the siege of Yorktown in Virginia in October 1781.


title: Battle of Cowpens

text: On October 14, 1780, Continental Army commander General George Washington chose Nathanael Greene, a Rhode Island Quaker officer, to be commander of the Southern Department of the Continental forces. Greene's task was not an easy one. In 1780 the Carolinas had been the scene of a long string of disasters for the Continental Army, the worst being the capture of one American army under Gen. Benjamin Lincoln in May 1780, at the siege of Charleston. The British then occupied the city, the largest in the South and the capital of South Carolina. Later that year, another Colonial army, commanded by General Horatio Gates, was defeated at the Battle of Camden. A victory of colonial militia over their Loyalist counterparts at the Battle of Kings Mountain on the northwest frontier in October had bought time, but most of South Carolina was still occupied by the British. When Greene took command, the southern army numbered 2307 men on paper (1482 present), of whom only 949 were Continental regulars, mostly of the famous and highly trained "Maryland Line" regiment.


title: Battle of Cowpens

text: On December 3, Brigadier General Daniel Morgan reported for duty to Greene's headquarters at Charlotte, North Carolina. At the start of the Revolution, Morgan, whose military experience dated to the French and Indian War (1754–1763), had served at the siege of Boston in 1775. Later he participated in the 1775 invasion of Canada and its climactic battle, the Battle of Quebec. That battle, on December 31, 1775, ended in defeat and Morgan's capture by the British.


title: Battle of Cowpens

text: Morgan was exchanged in January 1777 and placed by George Washington in command of a picked force of 500 trained riflemen, known as Morgan's Riflemen. Morgan and his men played a key role in the 1777 victory at Saratoga along the Hudson River in upstate New York, which proved to be a turning point of the entire war. Bitter after being passed over for promotion and plagued by severe attacks of sciatica, Morgan left the army in 1779. A year later, he was promoted to brigadier general and returned to service in the Southern Department.


title: Battle of Cowpens

text: Greene decided that his weak army could not meet the British in a stand-up fight. He made the unconventional decision to divide his army, sending a detachment west of the Catawba River to raise the morale of the locals and find supplies beyond the limited amounts available around Charlotte. Greene gave Morgan command of this wing and instructed him to join with the militia west of the Catawba and take command of them. Morgan headed west on December 21, charged with taking position between the Broad and Pacolet rivers and protecting the civilians in that area. He had 600 men, some 400 of whom were Continentals, mostly the Marylanders. The rest were Virginia militia who had experience as Continentals. By Christmas Day, Morgan had reached the Pacolet River. He was joined by 60 more South Carolina militiamen led by the experienced guerrilla partisan Andrew Pickens. Other militia from Georgia and the Carolinas joined Morgan's camp.


title: Battle of Cowpens

text: Meanwhile, Lord Cornwallis was planning to return to North Carolina and conduct the invasion that he had postponed after the defeat at Kings Mountain. Morgan's force represented a threat to his left. Additionally, Cornwallis received incorrect intelligence claiming that Morgan was going to attack the important British fort of American Loyalists at Ninety Six, in western South Carolina. Seeking to save the fort and defeat Morgan's command, Cornwallis on January 2 ordered cavalry (dragoons) Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton to the west.


title: Battle of Cowpens

text: Tarleton was 26 years old and had enjoyed a spectacular career in his service with the British in the colonies. In December 1776, he and a small party surprised and captured Colonial General Charles Lee in New Jersey. He served with distinction at the siege of Charleston and the Battle of Camden. Commanding the British Legion, a mixed infantry/cavalry force composed of American Loyalists who constituted some of the best British troops in the Carolinas, Tarleton won victories at Monck's Corner and Fishing Creek. He became infamous among colonists after his victory at the Battle of Waxhaws, where his men had killed American soldiers after they had surrendered. In Tarleton's account published in the British Isles in 1781, he said that his horse had been shot from under him during the initial charge and his men, thinking him dead, engaged in "a vindictive asperity not easily restrained".


title: Battle of Cowpens

text: Tarleton and the Legion marched to Ninety Six. After learning Morgan was not there, Tarleton asked for reinforcements of British regulars, which Cornwallis sent. Tarleton set out with his enlarged command to drive Morgan across the Broad River. On January 12 he received accurate news of Morgan's location and continued with hard marching, building boats to cross rivers that were flooding with winter rains. Receiving word that Tarleton was in hot pursuit, Morgan retreated north to avoid being trapped between Tarleton and Cornwallis.


title: Battle of Cowpens

text: By the afternoon of the 16th, Morgan was approaching the Broad River, which was high with flood waters and reported difficult to cross. He knew Tarleton was close behind. By nightfall, he had reached a place called locally "Hannah's Cowpens", a well-known grazing area for local cattle. Pickens, who had been patrolling, arrived that night to join Morgan with his large body of irregular militia. Morgan decided to stand and fight rather than continue to retreat and risk being caught by Tarleton while fording the Broad River. Learning of Morgan's location, Tarleton pushed his troops, marching at 3 a.m. instead of camping for the night.


title: Battle of Cowpens

text: The size of the American force at Cowpens remains in dispute. Morgan claimed in his official report to have had about 800 men at Cowpens, which is substantially supported by historian John Buchanan, whose estimate is between 800 and 1000 men. In contrast, historian Lawrence E. Babits, in his detailed study of the battle, estimates that the strength of Morgan's command on the day of the battle was closer to 1,900, composed of:


title: Battle of Cowpens

text: Babits's figures can be summarized as follows: 82 Continental light dragoons, 55 state dragoons, 45 militia dragoons, 300 Continental infantry, about 150 state infantry, and 1,255–1,280 militia infantry, for a total of 1,887–1,912 officers and men. Broken down by state, there were about 855 South Carolinians, 442 Virginians, 290–315 North Carolinians, 180 Marylanders, 60 Georgians, and 60 Delawareans.


title: Battle of Cowpens

text: Morgan's forces were strengthened by these core elements of relatively seasoned troops and his own brilliance in leadership. His Continentals were veterans (Marylanders from the 1776 Battle of Brooklyn), as were many of his militia, which included some Overmountain Men, who had fought at the Battle of Musgrove Mill and the Battle of Kings Mountain. The experienced British forces (and particularly their relatively young commander) were accustomed, especially in the Southern Theater, to easily routing often "green" militia, and could have underestimated the opposition.


title: Battle of Cowpens

text: Broken down by troop classification, there were 300 cavalry, 553 regulars, 24 artillerymen, and 281 militia. From these numbers, nearly half of Tarleton's force were Loyalist troops recruited in the colonies (531 out of 1,158). Tarleton's regular troops from the Royal Artillery, 17th Light Dragoons, and the 7th, 16th, and 71st Regiments of Foot were reliable and seasoned soldiers. Tarleton's own Loyalist unit, the British Legion, had established a fierce reputation as formidable pursuers, being used to great effect at Waxhaws and Camden, but had an uncertain reputation when facing determined opposition.


title: Battle of Cowpens

text: Morgan turned to his advantage the terrain of Cowpens, the varying reliability of his troops, his expectations of his opponent, and the time available before Tarleton's arrival. He knew that untrained militiamen, which comprised a large portion of his force, were generally unreliable in a pitched battle, and in the past had routed at the first hint of defeat and abandoned the regulars. For instance, the Battle of Camden had ended in disaster when the militia, which comprised half of the American force, broke and ran as soon as the fighting started, leaving the American flank exposed. To eliminate that possibility, he defied convention by placing his army between the Broad and Pacolet rivers, thus making escape impossible if the army was routed. Selecting a low hill as the center of his position, he placed his Continental infantry on it, deliberately leaving his flanks exposed to his opponent. With a ravine on their right flank and a creek on their left flank, Morgan reasoned his forces were sufficiently protected against possible British flanking maneuvers at the beginning of the battle.