Jimmie Allen
Professor, Dr. Pearson
History 311
M-W, 7:30-9:00
22 Nov. 2013
Word Count: 4216 History Surrounding Robert H. Goddard The preexistence of Robert Goddard was a period of time when his parents grew up in the northern colonies. Nahum Danford Goddard, a business man, and Fannie Hoyt Goddard were living in Worcester, Massachusetts during the mid to late 1800s. Around the 1850s slavery was at its highest in the south in which the north didn't care for, resulting in the Civil War. The Goddards lived through this war as children, for Robert wasn't born until the year of 1882 on October 5th ; as a matter of fact, his parents were born in Worcester, Massachusetts, he on 3rd day of January, 1859, she on the 17th day of September, 1864, (according to ancestry. Com). With the long and devastating Civil War over the years the southern colonies had to rebuild, resulting in the reconstruction period of what would become the United States in the years to come. Setting the Stage for Robert H. Goddard Around 1860 the end of the Civil War and the troops being removed from the south in 1867 leaving behind them, “carpetbaggers” and the “scalawags”, (Fargher 476), putting the southern people back in control of their states again. The industrialization and the movement westward were setting the path for Goddards move to Roswell, New Mexico where he would be working on his dream of flight because he would need the open land in the future to come, but there is a long hard road to be built, so he can get there, for he wasn't even born until 1882. With the armed forces being moved out of the south they were sent west to deal with the Indians that were getting in the way of the settlers and the building of the railroad; as a result, another war with the Indians, for example the Sand Creek Massacre where some drunken disorderly military men killed over 200 Indians, mostly the elderly and children were there, at Wounded Knee Creek where 200 Sioux were killed, and Custer's last stand in the Black Hills where the Indians action-ally won. All these deputes were settle based on Goddard theoretical theory of flight using gun powder to put an object in flight a theory that already existed. For example, the soldiers were use rifles that projected a cone shaped spear out of a cylinder type barrel by the use of gun powder explosions. Goddard was using a scientific theory that had already been proven just in a larger version a cone shaped rocket pushed into the sky by the explosion of gun powder. The Indians were get these rifles too and by gathering as one they could protect their territorial area and culture. This is when the government knew they had to separate the Indians because if the Indians would fight as one tribe they could win back their land. The government was doing this because the Indians were slowing down progress, resulting in the loss of time and money for the big business men. The Indians were put on reservation around the country side, mostly where the land was worthless to the government. One of the reservation was in Oklahoma, but in 1889 the government opened it up to new settlers resulting in the Oklahoma land rush dividing the land up into small farms. With the new inventions, production and consumption was on the rise in the United States. The people were excited about the expansion because of all the demand for labor because of the demand, unions went on strikes for better pay and working conditions. With all the new technology, like the telephone and electricity being installed throughout the country; as a matter of fact, these improvements helped the scientist and inventors with better lighting, so they could work at night and have better communications with one another to get funding and supplies. Also protection and negotiators were formed, called the Knights of Labor, to help all the new immigrates and old workers who didn't belong to the unions and were at their peak in 1886.