Subject: I'll give the name Twelvetrees a pass.
Author:
Posted on: 2016-03-10 16:53:00 UTC
Primarily because of this guy:-
Current England inside centre Billy Twelvetrees.
Actually, given the appearance recently of the Scottish rugby team as a major part of wizarding culture, it makes sense that a rugby player's name would crop up sooner or later. =]
Do I even need to do the disclaimer anymore?
Rappaport's Law
By J.K. Rowling
In 1790, the fifteenth President of MACUSA, Emily Rappaport, instituted a law designed to create total segregation of the wizarding and No-Maj communities. This followed one of the most serious breaches of the International Statute of Secrecy, leading to a humiliating censure of MACUSA by the International Confederation of Wizards. The matter was that much more serious because the breach came from within MACUSA itself.
In brief, the catastrophe involved the daughter of President Rappaport’s trusted Keeper of Treasure and Dragots (the Dragot is the American wizarding currency and the Keeper of Dragots, as the title implies, is roughly equivalent to the Secretary of the Treasury). Aristotle Twelvetrees was a competent man, but his daughter, Dorcus, was as dim as she was pretty. She had been a poor student at Ilvermorny and at the time of her father’s ascension to high office was living at home, hardly ever performing magic, but concentrating mainly on her clothes, the arrangement of her hair and parties.
One day, at a local picnic, Dorcus Twelvetrees became greatly enamoured of a handsome No-Maj called Bartholomew Barebone. Unbeknownst to Dorcus, Bartholomew was a Scourer descendant. Nobody in his family was magic, but his belief in magic was profound and unshakeable, as was his conviction that all witches and wizards were evil.
Totally oblivious to the danger, Dorcus took Bartholomew’s polite interest in her ‘little tricks’ at face value. Led on by her beau’s artless questions, she confided the secret addresses of both MACUSA and Ilvermorny, along with information about the International Confederation of Wizards and all the ways in which these bodies sought to protect and conceal the wizarding community.
Having gathered as much information as he could from Dorcus, Bartholomew stole the wand she had obligingly demonstrated for him, showed it to as many pressmen as he could find, then gathered together armed friends and set out to persecute and, ideally, kill all the witches and wizards in the vicinity. Bartholomew further printed leaflets giving the addresses where witches and wizards congregated and sent letters to prominent No-Majs, some of whom felt it necessary to investigate whether there were indeed ‘evil occult parties’ happening at the places described.
Giddy with his mission to expose witchcraft in America, Bartholomew Barebone overstepped himself by shooting at what he believed were a group of MACUSA wizards, but which turned out to be No-Majs who had the bad fortune to leave a suspected building while he was watching it. Fortunately nobody was killed, and Bartholomew was arrested and imprisoned for the crime without any need for MACUSA involvement. This was an enormous relief to MACUSA who were struggling to cope with the massive fallout of Dorcus’s indiscretions.
Bartholomew had disseminated his leaflets widely, and a few newspapers had taken him seriously enough to print pictures of Dorcus’s wand and note that it ‘had a kick like a mule’ if waved. The attention focused on the MACUSA building was so intense that it was forced to move premises. As President Rappaport was forced to tell the International Confederation of Wizards at a public inquiry, she could not be sure that every last person privy to Dorcus’s information had been Obliviated. The leak had been so serious that the after-effects would be felt for many years.
Although many in the magical community campaigned to have her imprisoned for life or even executed, Dorcus spent only a year in jail. Thoroughly disgraced, utterly shellshocked, she emerged into a very different wizarding community and ended her days in seclusion, a mirror and her parrot her dearest companions.
Dorcus’s indiscretions led to the introduction of Rappaport’s Law. Rappaport’s Law enforced strict segregation between the No-Maj and wizarding communities. Wizards were no longer allowed to befriend or marry No-Majs. Penalties for fraternising with No-Majs were harsh. Communication with No-Majs was limited to that necessary to perform daily activities.
Rappaport’s Law further entrenched the major cultural difference between the American wizarding community and that of Europe. In the Old World, there had always been a degree of covert cooperation and communication between No-Maj governments and their magical counterparts. In America, MACUSA acted totally independently of the No-Maj government. In Europe, witches and wizards married and were friends with No-Majs; in America, No-Majs were increasingly regarded as the enemy. In short, Rappaport’s Law drove the American wizarding community, already dealing with an unusually suspicious No-Maj population, still deeper underground.
Tomorrow at the same time we'll be getting the last text. As we all can guess, it's gonna be about Ilvermorny.
Things We've Learned:
-Despite their purported anti-Pureblood tendencies, American wizarding families still have ludicrous names. I have difficulty believing Rappaport and (especially) Twelvetrees were common names in 1790s America.
-There was an International Confederation of Wizards in the 18th century, who were issuing Statutes. That's all extremely legalistic-sounding, and rather strange to boot. Hmm.
-MACUSA (I'm still betting on them having renamed themselves a couple of decades prior to this) has a single central location, which seems really bizarre when you have teleportation. Why not just meet in fields by moonlight (har, har)?
-But, on the plus side, they're not sexist! Their fifteenth President (in 100 years, indicating elections and terms of 4-8 years - how very US-ian, despite starting a hundred years before it...) was female.
-American wizards are paranoid. The whole incident describes predates photography, so the 'they printed pictures' thing refers to woodcuts and the like. So, yeah, a couple of papers published pictures of a stick and said it was super-magic - that definitely sounds like a good reason to entirely cut off communications with the No-Maj world! What a measured and reasonable response!
I think this comes from their history. American wizards come from three sources:
-Native wizards who were cast as devil-worshippers and cannibals by the colonials.
-Colonials who were fleeing persecution when they went to America, and who have only just (a century prior) gotten rid of their own internal KKK, after facing massive persecution from, like, everyone.
-Mentioned nowhere by Rowling but almost certainly there: black slaves.
That is a community rife with paranoia. Let's not forget that their own government is incredibly heavy-handed - it was formed on the principle of 'let's wipe out bloodlines we don't like' (the Scourers), and has no qualms utterly uprooting families under Rappaport's Law. Oh, and that these are US Americans just after the War of Independence, a culture which was extremely pro-individual, anti-international - yet their magical government is acting on international obligations to enact massively anti-individual laws... yeah, I can totally see a paranoid culture developing out of this.
hS
I happen to know an American named Rappaport. But yeah, the name wasn't around in the 1790s. At least not according to this site which might be totally wrong but which sounds right.
Primarily because of this guy:-
Current England inside centre Billy Twelvetrees.
Actually, given the appearance recently of the Scottish rugby team as a major part of wizarding culture, it makes sense that a rugby player's name would crop up sooner or later. =]
... it was a Native American name, or a translation of one.
~Neshomeh
"Having gathered as much information as he could from Dorcus, Bartholomew stole the wand she had obligingly demonstrated for him, showed it to as many pressmen as he could find, then gathered together armed friends and set out to persecute and, ideally, kill all the witches and wizards in the vicinity. Bartholomew further printed leaflets giving the addresses where witches and wizards congregated and sent letters to prominent No-Majs, some of whom felt it necessary to investigate whether there were indeed ‘evil occult parties’ happening at the places described."
...He demonstrated the wand. The nonmagical guy, with no magical talent, demonstrated a wand. He must've been a FANTASTIC orator to gather a bunch of suspicious people together, wave a stick around, and go 'Look! Magic!'
Also, what pressmen. Seriously, I'm taking a class on the history of newspapers and the New York Times in America, and guess what there really wasn't in 1790? An organized press! At that point in American history, due to the importance of pamphlets and other such writings during the revolution, laws were made protecting the public sphere - the right to a free press. This meant that basically anyone who could write (or dictate, I suppose) and pay for printing could make leaflets and talk about what they wanted.
There were newspapers at the time, but they would not have printed anything to do with magic - firstly, they normally carried very dry business news, and were aimed at merchants (what boats came in, what your goods are selling for) or political. Other than mailed-out broadsheets that were more or less gossip, there wasn't what we'd recognize as a newspaper. The idea of newspapers writing to a wide audience, and about current events, really only start in the early-mid 1830s with the founding of the New York Sun and the New York Herald.
In short, by this point in time? There really was no organization of 'pressmen' to be called together, Barebone had no credibility and no proof, and it's pretty likely that anyone who got one of his leaflets would just use it as kindling.
few newspapers had taken him seriously enough to print pictures of Dorcus’s wand and note that it ‘had a kick like a mule’ if waved.
pictures
Photojournalism. Did not start until the invention of the camera. Before then, some drawings WERE used, but they were incredibly rare, and the first illustrated paper started in London in 1842.
"Wizards were no longer allowed to befriend or marry No-Majs. Penalties for fraternising with No-Majs were harsh. Communication with No-Majs was limited to that necessary to perform daily activities."
...Really now. Let's look at a quote from yesterday.
". This meant a far higher percentage of No-Maj-born witches and wizards in the New World than elsewhere. While these witches and wizards often went on to marry and found their own all-magical families, the pure-blood ideology that has dogged much of Europe’s magical history has gained far less traction in America."
America's wizarding population was heavily muggle-born. At this point, there's no reason to think that it still isn't. So this person decides to outlaw ANY fraternization. THis might work ok for purebloods, but they are clearly the minority in America. This essentially requires American wizards to cut off all contact with their families. You want to send your brother a heartfelt letter on his birthday? That's fraternizing (literally!) with the muggles, off to jail with you. And of course, those Native American wizards who were actually parts of their tribes, apparently have to exile themselves now.
Something tells me that the MACUSA was not really a representative government. I'm still having a hard time seeing it as anything other than the most isolationist and blueblooded wizards grabbing power and going 'yeah we're in charge now' with no justification.
I beg to differ. ^^ It's difficult to prove (and I've forgotten most of the specifics), but there's a bunch of anecdata suggesting that <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JosephSmith">Mormon founder Joseph Smith was repeatedly featured in papers for his purported/claimed/accused 'magical' acts. This is in the 1820s. It wasn't centralised newspapers, but local rags? Absolutely.
The piece also says that the wand 'kicked like a mule' when waved. Have we ever seen a wand wielded by a Muggle before? Do we actually know whether they have some inbuilt magical effect? Even if it's something as simple as 'tries to make a Muggle wielder drop it', it'd be obvious magic. (Or maybe the pressmen were Muggle-born and never spotted...?)
But yes, MACUSA was clearly in the grip of a paranoid overreaction. I'm guessing (based on previous pieces) that they'd only just reintegrated into the international community. They were the 'new kids', viewed as fairly useless anyway due to their inability to work with the newly-formed national government. They weren't about to do anything that might get them penalised by the International Confederation.
+1 vote for MACUSA being a wizarding power-grab. What d'you want to bet Emily Rassilon Rappaport was also the 13th President, and the 11th, and the 9th...?
hS
Ok but. When I say 'they wouldn't have printed anything about newspapers' I meant that the mercantile and poltiical papers wouldn't have, except for possibly accusing Alexander Hamilton of being a witch. Sure, there could be gossip rags claiming that a stick the author had seen looked magic, but again. People could write pamphlets about ANYTHING. There was no obligation to the truth. Also, 'a few papers had taken him seriously enough to print pictures' is... Well. Newspapers with regular circulation did not really work like that, at least the ones with enough cash behind them to print pictures. And again! Pictures were a RARE thing for the deaths of leaders of states and such.
I mean, I only skimmed over my book on the history of newspapers in America, but I still do not think that they existed in any way that would make this make sense. Not in the 1790s.
Instead of thinking 'national papers', imagine Bart walking between rural communities, demonstrating the wand to whichever press-owners he thought most credulous (and remember, it's established that Americans are fairly likely to believe magic is real). It doesn't have to be more than a hand-press: if you've got Bart's pre-written anti-magic screed, and quite possibly his pre-carved woodcut as well (why not? He's on a crusade, he can afford to get someone to cut a few of those!), you can print the danged things off and sell them for a... what's the currency back then? Looks like it was still the Continental Currency, which was pretty worthless.
I get the feeling JKR thinks he was publishing in the national papers, but I don't see anything that explicitly says it. For that matter, I don't see anything that indicates Bart had any kind of success - he riled up a few local big names to poke around in other people's houses (including the MACUSA building, which I'm definitely seeing more as 'Rappaport's house' than 'Congress'), then shot a few people.
Rappaport overreacted. This is exactly the sort of local fuss the Old World dealt with all the time. "We're not sure we Oblivated everyone so let's secede" is not a reasonable response - it's either panic, or a canny politician seizing on the first opportunity to secure her own power against that of the new US government.
hS, quite clearly an anti-Rappaportist agitator
Hm, OK, if he was walking from town to town I can see it. And yeah, I have been definitely seeing the MACUSA as an oligarchy grabbing power and using words associated with representative government. I just can't see the secession laws without also thinking that whoever wrote them didn't care at all about people who didn't want to drop off the face of the Earth. A politician securing her own power makes quite a bit of sense.
Would it be weird of linking American Civil War with a Wizards Civil War because the wizards following Rappaport's line of conduct refused to change this, turning de facto in raging purebloods?
I was wondering whether there was a connection myself, though.
hS
By the time America was becoming a democracy, American wizards were on their way to become staunch pro-wizards, enraged and insular purebloods? That's the recipe for a major disaster.
Especially since the large amount of immigration into America would result in a lot of muggleborn wizards who would probably be quite put out if they were told they could no longer see their muggle friends and family, while the purebloods would be totally convinced that wizard contact with non-wizards was Evil and the Sign of the Apocalypse.
And meanwhile, half the country was growing to believe that making someone the property of another person was wrong, while the other half believed that not only was it right, their economy would collapse without it.
Yeah, I'm joining the American-Civil-War-Was-Also-A-Wizarding-War camp.