I was watching the South Carolina House debate over the Confederate flag flying at the State House, and one representative referred to the recent arguments by some that the Confederate flag also honors the black confederate soldiers. He pointed out that there were actually zero black confederate soldiers as South Carolina did not permit African Americans to enlist until shortly before or after Appomattox.

I was wondering if someone could point me to the date when South Carolina voted to allow African Americans to enlist. Also, was this similarly true for other Southern states?

I am currently reading Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky, which is set in Petersburg. I noticed something that i find strange - there seems to be a lot of germans living there. So i was wondering if anyone know why this was/is? Did Tsarist Russia have a noticeable amount of germans?

I don't want scholarly articles, I guess you could call it pop history but I'm thinking a magazine like Nat Geo where there is a large breadth and variety of articles but all related to history. One issue might have an article on King John's law reforms, the Aztec buildings, Babylonian/Assyrian relations etc. You get the idea.

I love reading about history and have a stack of books I am working through but I also loving reading my National Geographics because it exposes me to things I would never personally seek out

My research revolves around fairy tales and I had this question arise in my head after reading a tale from Giambattista Basile's 1634 Il Pentamerone. The tale that made me wonder about this is called 'Cagliuso' or 'Pippo', but more commonly known from Charles Perrault's variant, 'Puss in Boots'. If you don't know the tale, basically a cat is left to an impoverished boy as his only inheritance, the cat does a series of clever maneuvers that make the boy seem like a Lord, and he ends up marrying well and rising exponentially in status.

Obviously I'm not taking the fairy tale as an account of a true story (talking cats and all), but I wondered about how achievable a determined social climber's journey would have been. Surely, the manner of speech and modes of behaviour/civility (such as how to behave at the table) would have given them away, even if they were able to obtain clothes that reflected a higher status. That said, I'd be really interested to know if there were any recorded accounts of people moving from the bottom up. I'm sure there's some really obvious famous example I'm not remembering, but please enlighten me!

Did they fit into his view of the Aryan master race seeing as almost all of them would have pale skin and blue eyes? Were they seen as undesirable because of the small percentage of the population ginger people occupy? Or were they treated the same as other people who didn't have Aryan features?

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh is husband to the Queen of the UK but does not has the title of king. How did that happened? He was just given the title of Duke and was named Prince?

I have read that due to usury, the banking or money lending sector is left entirely to jews. How valid is this statement? And what were some events or movements that led to christians taking part in the sector?

Thank you!

I recently read The Island at the Center of the World, about the history of New Amsterdam, but there's a gap in the chronology.

When the first ship with settlers arrives, Manhattan is still empty apart from some trading posts. The West-India Company assigns people places along the river, and then 'in the next two years, houses and huts were build'. What happened in those two years?

As the book describes it, these settlers were mostly refugees, city-dwellers or religious proselytizers. Not craftsmen. Did they sleep outside? Did they start with Walden-like houses: just a hole in the ground? But Thoreau still went home at night after working on his house by day, plus he used tools.

It seems crazy that half of them didn't die right there and then.

What was the genesis of this culturally ubiquitous character design?

I'm trying to make a lesson on the Renaissance and I wanted to expand on the Medici Bank. I can't seem to locate a solid answer on How the Medici Bank got around Usury. Can anyone help explain this?

My uncle was evacuated from Manchester, Britain sometime in 1941 to escape the war. He traveled on a medium-sized passenger ship along with many other children to I believe Boston, MA. He was 10 years old at the time. We don't have much information about the journey since he and his wife and have passed. However we do know there was one mounted gun on the ship, and they had an encounter with a German submarine along the way. Any information about this would be great. Thanks!

As the title says I am looking for some good books or other sources that are trustworthy about any part of Roman history. It can be during the Republic, during the Empire or Late Empire or even Byzantine.

For example, I'm Hispanic-American. If I was such a badass at Gurkha training and beat all the best Gurkhas ever, will I be allowed to fight as one of them even though in not ethnically Gurkha?

I haven't heard of similar division in any of their other colonies/places they controlled.

Were there serious differences between laws or culture in the colonies pre-revolution? How did the local governments interact with the government in England?

Was there a 'standard' trench construction, or a guidebook on how to construct trenches? Is there a noticeable difference between the trenches of Verdun and the trenches of Gallipoli?

I remember reading about him in school. He was black himself and had very interesting opinions. (not MLK)