Digital Reenactment

 Guest Post by Henry Stull

        Reenacting a historical event, or a historical timespan as in our case, on Twitter is a very interesting and unique way of applying in-depth analysis of primary sources. In a more traditional assignment such as an essay or presentation, the research by its very nature has to be a lot more eclectic and diverse in order to present an informed project. For example, to write a paper about the economic development of the Egyptian old kingdom, the author of that paper would have to have at least a rudimentary knowledge of geology, metallurgy, permaculture, and animal husbandry, in addition to the usual set of skills which comes with doing history work. Whereas in a traditional paper might have me look for arsenic concentrations in malachite mined in the Sinai peninsula, the Twitter reenactment pushes the focus more onto the chronology of events. The multi-disciplinary element is still hugely present in the Twitter reenactment, especially with characters who played laborers such as the plankman/railman. However with John Mitchell, who was largely a political actor, research mostly fell under the purview of the social sciences. Local history makes it really easy to show how large, sweeping movements affect small, localized realities and vice versa.

            Seeing as chronology is very important to maintain, especially when working collaboratively and instantaneously with large numbers of people, I oriented my tweets around John L. Mitchell’s Wikipedia article. The benefit of organizing my tweets around the entry helped establish a character arc and portioned away the diversity dynamic eras of John Mitchell’s life. There were also some tremendous sources in the course bibliography about his time serving in the Union army. If Wikipedia was the skeleton for my tweets, then the meat and muscle came from both the class bibliography and the Library of Congress’s digital archives. John Mitchell was very popular amongst his peers in the Senate (until he wasn't) and there is a great trove of his speeches and correspondence, such as a famous one where he rails against the US annexation of the Hawaiian archipelago. I probably drew the least from the class bibliography because a lot of the information about John was physical and also in Madison for some reason, I had requested the box, but I do not think it ever arrived. Despite this, however, the class bibliography was probably the most valuable in terms of the Twitter assignment because the descriptions of his letters really gleaned off a lot of his personality. A banker who was against financial interests; a progressive who fought for business interests so long as they were local industry; scion heir of the wealthiest family in Wisconsin yet pursues a career in agriculture; John L. Mitchell seems like a tangle of contradictions! He lived in a state of educated confusion and self-righteous hypocrisy which ironically contributed positively to his strong moral character. He was a good guy and I enjoyed portraying him.