The Journals of Martha E. McMillan

Martha McMillan: Rewriting the Spanish-American War (1898 – April-July) Bethany Miller (2015) The Spanish-American War (April 24, 1898 – Aug. 12, 1898), occurred because of a confluence of various influences, including American religion and sense of mission, political tensions between the US and Spain, Spanish violence against the people of Cuba, and the Cuban desire for freedom from colonization. Martha McMillan’s 1898 journal has an entirely different focus despite being written during the time of this war. While McMillan shows the same sense of strong, patriotic religion and mission that led the US to intervene in Cuba, she also critiques male narratives about the war by telling a vastly different historical tale about American life in 1898. McMillan effectively rewrites the history of the summer of 1898 from a rural Ohio mother’s perspective, providing an alternative narrative to traditional US history. Cuba, a Spanish colony, revolted in 1895 to try to gain independence from Spain (Gould). Spain viewed Cuba as an integral part of their nation, and “no Spanish government could long remain in power if it accepted the loss of Cuba without putting up a fight” (Gould). The conflict was intense and resulted in roughly 100,000 civilian deaths in Cuba (McCartney 267). The Spanish herded many rural Cubans into compounds, and the Cubans “were not provided with sufficient food or sanitation . . . as a result large numbers of Cuban civilians died of starvation and disease” (McCartney 267). These injustices (and some underlying political motivations) caused the United States to intervene in 1898, overthrow Spanish rule, and gain Cuba and the Philippines as US colonies. It is impossible to deny America’s colonialist presuppositions in approaching this war. Rudyard Kipling wrote his famous poem “White Man’s Burden” after the US won Cuba, and 131