The document provides definitions and context for various literary, historical, and cultural references that appear in the first chapter of Harper Lee's novel "To Kill a Mockingbird". It includes explanations of people, places, events, traditions and objects mentioned in the chapter ranging from the 19th century American Civil War to folk songs and instruments.

1. To Kill A Mockingbird
by Harper Lee
(aka TKAM)
Literary Allusions and other
reference to terms (Chpt. 1: 1 – 24)

2. • Military hero; 7th
Andrew Jackson president
and the Creek Nation • commanded a force of
combined state
militias, Lower Creek
and Cherokee to defeat
the Red Sticks at
Horseshoe Bend. After
the war, by the Treaty
of Fort Jackson (August
1814), the general
insisted on the Creek
ceding more than 20
million acres of land
from southern Georgia
and central Alabama,
taken from the Lower
Creek allies as well as
the Upper Creek.

3. Battle of Hastings
• Norman
(French)
conquer
England in
1066 AD

4. Fur Trapper and Apothecary

5. Cornwall, England
• Simon Finch
comes from
Cornwall

6. Methodists in England
• Religious
affiliation of
Simon Finch
• Protestant sect
begun by John
Wesley

7. John Wesley
• founder of
Methodism
• abolitionist

8. American Civil War
• 1861-1865
• This is what
Scout calls “the
disturbance
between North
and South.”

9. Spittoon
• a receptacle
for spit;
used for
tabacco

10. Code of Alabama
• Legal code for the state
of Alabama

11. “The only thing we have to fear
is fear itself”
• Quote from
FDR’s inaugural
speech
referencing the
climate of the
country
regarding The
Great
Depression

12. Collard Patch
• coarse curly-
leafed
cabbage

13. Dracula
• Film debuting in 1931
starring Bela Lugosi as
Dracula

14. The Rover Boys
• Written by
Edward
Stratemeyer
(nom de plume:
Arthur M.
Winfield)
• Popular
children’s book
series of the
early 20th
Century

15. Oliver Optic
• Written by
William Taylor
Adams (nom de
plume: Oliver
Optic)
• Fiction books
for boys from
the 19th
Century

16. Victor Appleton
• Author of Tom
Swift
(adventure
novels)

17. Edgar Rice Burroughs
• Creator of
Tarzan

18. Merlin
• Wizard from the
legends of King
Arthur
• Scout refers to Dill
as a “pocket
Merlin” because of
his magical story
telling ability and
his ability to make
characters come
alive

19. • Tradition from West Africa
Swept Yards • Adopted in the south
• These yards have no grass --
because they are swept clean
with a broom made of
dogwood branches gathered
in the woods.
• They don't look like much at
first glance. But hidden in
their unconscious design are
traces of West Africa and the
emergence of a hard-won
independence.
• The design of these yards -- a
church pew under the trees,
an old bedspring gate on the
hog pen, a clump of irises
blooming out of a chimney
foundation -- is the evolution
of generations of making do
and making art out of what
others call junk.

20. Flivver
• cheap
automobile

21. Ancient Beadle
• Minor civic official
(although position
originated in the
church)
• Keeps order

22. Tuscaloosa: Bryce Hospital
• major Alabama
medical site/asylum

23. Pensacola
• city in northern Florida
• Mr. Nathan Radley lives there
before he moves back home
after his father’s death

24. The Gray Ghost
• Adventure stories full of
mystery and humor
from cover to cover.
That also teach young
boy readers the
importance of thinking
for themselves and
playing fair and square
at all times.

25. Rose Alymer
• A love
poem by
Walter
Landor

26. Scuppernong
• Also known as a muscadine. A type of large grape
found in the southeastern U.S.

27. Chiffarobe
• tall chest of drawers
(dresser)

28. Cootie
• scalp insect
(aka lice)

29. The Crash
• Stock market crash
that led to Great
Depression

30. CSA
• Confederate States of
America

31. Dewey Decimal System
• classifying library books

32. Hain’t
• A ghost

33. Hermaphrodite
• having male and female
qualities
• Scout hears it as
“morphodite”

34. Ivanhoe
• A “knightly” novel by
Sir Walter Scott

35. Hoover Carts

36. Appomattox
• Site of
Lee’s
surrender
to Grant

37. Stonewall Jackson
• Confederate general

38. Jew’s Harp
• folk instrument used in
country songs

39. Lord Melbourne
• British statesman under
Queen Victoria

40. Mennonites
• religious sect that
favors a simple lifestyle

41. Missouri Compromise
• 1820 act of Congress

42. Rosetta Stone
• ancient Egyptian tablet

43. WPA
• Works Progress Administration -
created jobs in the 1930’s

44. Flag Pole Sitting
• A fad in the 1920’s
People would spend
hours (extending to
days) to break a record.