Anne Morgan's War In France

                                           
Anne Morgan was born on July 25, 1873, into the lap of luxury as the youngest of four of rich and savvy banker John Pierpoint Morgan's children in Highland Falls, New York.  In 1902 she became acquainted with Jane Adams of Hull House in Chicago and she was a woman concerned with the issues affecting women. She also combined her humanitarian works with a business discipline that she got from her father who passed away in 1913 leaving her very wealthy.  She left for France to set up house near Versailles with two other women.  When war broke out she tried to raise money to help France out.

In July of 1917, she formed CARD or the American Committee for Devastated France (known by its French acronym).  Dr. Anne Murray Dike was president of the organization and she was Vice President and Treasurer.  Over the course of seven years, they had 350 American women who came over to help with the reconstruction of the Red Zone of France.  They believed in helping France because France helped us out during the Revolutionary War.

In the Red Zone, six out of twenty towns escaped any damage.  110 houses were destroyed, 3,000 factories were totaled, and only 196,000 people were left out of 530,000.  In 1917 the Germans liberated an area of it, Picardy, where they worked.  They were given authority by French General Phillipe Petain and set up headquarters at the Chateau de Blerancourt.  The soldiers built on seven barracks for the women.

Their first duty was to see to the immediate needs of the people with food and medical attention.  While the women were called nurses and they were trained as nurses, a first for the times, some of the women were actual doctors, dentists, and surgeons.  They had offered up their services to the military but the French who don't have many female doctors were against women working in the military hospitals so the women went to work with private organizations with the civilian population.  These women had to pay their own way over so many of them came from a certain social standing in society and they had to be able to drive a vehicle because they would be driving trucks around the countryside and repairing them as well in order to get to the people in need of their services.   People were living in shacks next to their bombed out homes, in trenches, and in caves so their needs were great.

Most of the reconstruction would have to wait until the end of the war to begin and once that happened they began in earnest.  They didn't stop at food or sanitary conditions but they also gave people back their will to live.  They handed out hoes and seed and later agriculture equipment to get people farming again.  With the children, they got them back in school as soon as possible.  Back then for boys that meant learning a trade and for girls that meant the domestic arts. For the girls, they also taught them canning and sterilization.  But most importantly they showed them that there was an education to be had beyond what they were being taught.

Milk stations were set up as soon as possible in Soisson so mothers could bring their children there to get fresh sterilized milk for their babies.   They also handed out free baby carriages to the mothers.  Libraries opened up for people to check out books and bookmobiles began cruise along the back roads to lend out books to people and to those who couldn't read the women went out to read to them.  270,000 loans were made in two years.

On December 24, 1919, Santa Claus came to visit the area and hand out presents and candy to the children though he didn't have his sled--he came in one of the CARD trucks.  475 children were seen by Santa that day.  She also introduced basketball to the children and had the girls participating in sports along with the boys.

While Anne Morgan certainly donated money to the cause, she was not the main donater.  She would fly to the United States and have fundraisers. She had organizations in 25 cities that were devoted to raising money to the cause.  One night a boxing match at Madison Square Garden between Benny Leonard and Ritchie Mitchell raised $80,000 for the cause.

But she had a motto and it was "I will provide emergency aid but then God helps those who help themselves".  CARD was not meant to be permanent.   They trained French nurses to take over for when they left and they left a sizable treasury in place.  Anne Morgan and Dr. Anne Dike both became the first American women to receive the Legion of Honor by the French government. For Anne, the work would not be finished as when World War II came around and she would help out as much as her health would let her.  She would die in 1952.  Her work lives on in A.M.S.A.M. (Association Medico Sociale Anne Morgan) in Soisson, France.
  

Nzingha: The Female King of Angola

Born around 1580 in Portuguese West Africa, or modern-day Angola, Nzingha was one of five children of King Ndongo of the Mbundu and Ndongo people who put up with decades of invasions by Portuguese slavers.  Her father had her trained in war and diplomacy and she was well educated in that she could read and speak Portuguese.  In 1624, her brother took the throne then killed her son. She didn't stand for that so she poisoned him to get him back and killed her nephew and ate his heart.  This left her as ruler of the land at the age of forty-two. She forbade her people to call her queen but to call her king and immediately went to war for her country's independence.

She could be a diplomat or a total barbarian creating chaos to the invading armies.  She was smart in that she found unique ways to add to her army by freeing any slave that made it to Angola and asking that they become a soldier.  She had her soldiers get captured by the Portuguese and then steal arms from them and escape.  She formed alliances with other area tribes and the Dutch. This increased her strength and earned her respect from these other countries who looked down on Africans as less than human. The Dutch proved to be just as treacherous as the Portuguese in that they wanted to use the Mbundu for slavery too. 

She once let peace treaty negotiations go on for eight years because she wanted them to.  Religion was something to be used to help in her cause.  She was baptized as a Christian under the name Anna to please the Portuguese but then tried cannibalism to gain the respect of the fiercest tribe around.  She was brutal in war and was utterly fearless.  She was as agile as someone much younger than her years and would rally her troops by striking two iron bells.  She would dress as a man in the skins of wild animals strapping herself with a sword, ax, and bow and arrows.  She would lead the enemy inland into a trap where she had the favored ground.  She would be cornered and always find a way out.  She was merciful to the prisoners she took and made sure none were hurt by anyone who was under her. 

Enemies hated her for her race, sex, and old age.  One story tells of a peace conference she attended with the Portuguese who believed they had the upper hand.  They also had all the chairs. When she arrived in the room to find no chair to sit in she called over a servant and had him bend over on the ground and provide her a place to sit upon.  They could try to insult her but she proved to them that she was the ruler in the room.  Shocked, the Portuguese signed the peace treaty without a thought. 

She never married but had fifty or sixty young men as bodyguards that she had to wear women's clothes.  If one of them displeased her he was never seen from again.  She placed women in the highest government spots and exalted her sisters Mukumbu and Kifunji to top spots.  When the Portuguese kidnapped one sister she gave 130 slaves for her release.  When another sister was kidnapped and kept, she used her to get information about the Portuguese for years until they drowned her. 

Ruling the politics of the region for forty years, Nzingha fought till her death at the ripe old age of eighty-two. Her body was put on display with royal robes that had jewels in them and a bow and arrow in her hand.

No strong ruler followed her and the Portuguese took over West Africa causing the area to suffer more damage from the slave trade than any other area.  It would be 1975 before Angola would get its independence from Portugal.  Today Nzingha is celebrated as a hero in the People's Republic of Angola.     

Grace O'Malley: Irish Pirate Queen of the Seas

Grace O'Malley amassed more than nine tons of treasure, had deep scars on her face from where an eagle had attacked her and gave birth to one of her children while being attacked by Barbary pirates.  She was a legend in her own time.  Born around 1530 she didn't know the meaning of the word "no".  She began her pirate career as a teenager, likely begging her father "Black Oak" O'Malley to go on a trading trip to Spain.  When he told her that her hair would get caught in the ropes, she cut it off and everyone began calling her "Grace the Bald".  She was soon an expert sailor.

The O'Malley's motto was "Powerful by land and by sea." They ate a lot of fish and had better furniture and beer than their neighbors because they stole it from ships that cruised by.  Their three-story castle on the out of the way island of Clare was cold and damp but provided a site from which to hit ships that were on their way to Galway.  They would hide out in secret inlets and raid ships then let it go.  The family would also gamble with dice, have fun with traveling musicians, and gobble down on meats and vegetables and mead while fighting with their neighbors.

There were at least sixty independent Irish tribes ruled by chieftains like Black Oak who were constantly fighting with each other and England who tried to impose its rule. Black Oak was one of the few who never gave into English rule and he taught his spirited daughter the same.

At sixteen she got married to "Donal of the Battles". While he was out battling the neighbors she raised their three children.  While she was supposed to be taking care of the home and kids instead she was out raiding ships.  Donal died when she was in her thirties, his enemies attacking Cock's Castle. Grace sent the enemy running so fast that the castle soon became known as "Hen's Castle".  When the English came to take the castle she would run out of ammunition and she would melt down the roof and pour it on top of the Englishmen's heads. 

When Black Oak died, Grace took control of her father's fleet of ships.  Three and twenty ships at a time raided all the way from Scotland to Spain and she had around two hundred loyal men under her command bringing in salt, wine, silk, and steel.  It's pretty amazing that all those men would follow a woman but perhaps its because she was so successful or because she was the daughter of Big Oak and the wife of Donal.

Grace would marry again for property to a man who wore a coat of mail and was called Iron Richard.  He had a castle called Rockfleet Castle that offered her even more wealth and a haven for her work.  This marriage was what is known as handfasting.  After the year and a day she called it off but kept his castle calling out from it "I dismiss you!"  She may have dismissed him that day, but she wouldn't from her life as the two would keep in touch and have a child, Toby of the Ships together.

Grace considered herself doing the job of "maintenance by land and sea" rather than that of a pirate.  She was caught once and arrested as "director of thieves and murders at sea."  Those arreseted with her were killed but she spent a horrid year and a half in prison before being set free.  Her biggest enemy was provincial governor Rochard Bingham who hated her and felt that she was a "woman who overstepped the part of womanhood."  He killed her son Owen, took lots of her cattle and horses, put her son Toby in prison for a year, and just generally made her life hell, even creating a gallows for her.

After one of her sons sided with Bingham and she killed four of his men she was now sixty-four and had had enough.  She set out for London to meet with the most powerful woman in the world, Queen Elizabeth I.  Queen Elizabeth I sent her a list of eighteen questions about her family and Ireland proved to be interesting enough for the Queen to agree to meet with her.  So the Queen of England and the Queen of the Pirates met and whatever was said must have been interesting enough for the Queen because she decreed that Bingham was to "have pity on the poor aged woman" and allow her "maintenance" to continue.  She also said that Grace "hath at times lived out of order."  Grace returned to a life at sea and outlived many of her enemies.  She died at age seventy-three.

*Those at Howth Castle, north of Dublin still set out an extra chair and place setting at meals, because one day Grace was traveling by needing respite.  The lord of Howth turned her away.  She, in turn, kidnapped his grandson and held him until the Lord promised to always hold a place at his table for travelers.

**Thanks to Kathleen Krull who wrote Lives of the Pirates: Swashbucklers, Scoundrels (Neighbors Beware!)

The Chinese Warrior Nun

In 17th Century China for 250 years the unrivaled Ming Dynasty had ruled over 200 million people. They had built the Forbidden City in the Palace which was the home of the Emperor and the seat of government and built the Great Wall of China.  From one of the powerful families and a general was born a baby girl, Ng Mui.  She learned the things girls of her station learned such as the tea ceremony, horse riding, sword fighting, archery, and self-defense fighting.

In 1644 when she was eighteen it will save her life.  There was a Little Ice Age where the crops froze and there was a famine within China.  As the people were starving, the Manchu people of the north of China, their enemy, takes advantage and comes to attack.  They exploit a commander into letting them through the wall and begin sacking and slaughtering villages killing soldiers and villagers alike.  Ng Mai escapes but her whole family dies.  The Emperor dies and the Manchu takes over.  The Manchu were viewed by China to be barbarians and they would put a yoke over the superior Chinese.

She heads south where the rebellion is.  She realizes that she must learn to fight someone bigger, stronger, and faster than herself.  She has an ah-ha moment when she watches nature.  She studies the lethal fight between a crane and a snake, a tiger and a deer, and watches a praying mantis pounce. She mimics these movements.  She travels covertly beating up bullies along the way.

She seeks sanctuary at a monastery stronghold for Shoulin warrior monks. They allow her to secretly train with them. She is taught that the best line of defense is an immediate and forceful counterattack.  Sustained rapid counter-attacks rather than big powerful movements can beat any opponent.  "It's not about fighting. It's about winning," says Si Fu Julian Hith a modern-day practitioner of the martial art.  By beating her mentor Lee Pasun she advanced to become one of the Masters.

Now the Manchu had come to take out the monks who had been training the Manchu army.  The monks are ready to fight to the death to protect the monastery.  That night the monastery is set on fire and while they are dealing with the fire, the Manchu enter the building and begin their attack.  The survival of the five Masters is all that matters now.  So the monks form a line and allow the Masters and a few monks to escape with them.  Ng Mui notices that her former mentor Lee Pasun was one of the traitors receiving money for his treachery.  Ma Ning Yee, however, was the main man behind everything.  She vows to get revenge on Lee Pasun.

Ng Mui goes to the Masters and hones her skills at her new marshall arts form and hones her ability to precision attacks to highly valuable targets. Eyes, nose, ears, throat, temple, and spine are the main targets.  That is when Wing Chun is born.  She trains one young woman Yim Wing Chun who it is named after to do this and leaves to fight a duel with Lee Pasun.  They fight on top of poles and sharpened sticks.  Ng Mui beats Lee Pasun and kills him.  Then she goes back to Yim Wing Chun and continues her training.  Yim will teach her husband who will teach someone in the family who will teach someone in the family, etc...  It will remain a secret until the 1940s when it is brought to Hong Kong.  The Manchu will remain in power for centuries but eventually will be driven out of China.  Famous people who practice Wing Chun are Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan.  Actor Stephen Amell on The Arrow uses Wing Chun in his fighting style and when he works out on his Muk Yan Jong (workout dummy).  All of this brought about by a young woman wanting to fight against the enemy that had taken over her country in the only way she knew how.  Ng Mui, the warrior nun who fought the Manchu.