Home on the Sassafras Range, North America,

 Sassafras

Its Whereabouts

Do we appreciate the bounty.  The place of sassafras in households.
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Read in Uncle Remus: "When the little boy next visited Uncle Remus, the old man was engaged in the somewhat tedious operation of making shoe pegs.  Daddy Jack was assorting a bundle of sassafras roots...."

See  Chapter XXXI, "Nights With Uncle Remus," at ://www.archive.org/stream/nightswithuncler00harr/nightswithuncler00harr_djvu.txt/

I. MARYLAND AND DELAWARE. You can find sassafras in Maryland and Delaware - Kent County, Sassafras River, Chesapeake Bay area. Go to this site for the Chesapeake Bay area, Sassafras River: kentcounty.com/paddling/sassafras. There is a lovely photo there.

The Sassafras River begins in Delaware (we used to live in Middletown, DE, not far) and is the boundary between Delaware and Maryland on the Eastern Shore. See sassafrasriver.org for details on the Sassafras River as boundary. Stand up, Delaware. Why do they say the Sassafras is in Maryland when it is the boundary with Delaware? Or is it not the boundary?

Here is the recreation:

• Sea-kayaking on the Sassafras. See seakayak.ws/kayak/kayak.nsf/NavigationList/NT00001D72. For any of these sites, use the home page first, then the rest only as needed to be sure you are at the intended place.

• Fine fishing. See bigfishtackle.com/articles/fishing/freshwater/steve_vonbrandt_007.

• Yachting. See sasryc.org/home/index. Marinas, marinas. The yacht club flag at that site shows the outline-silhouette of the river.

VIP's peopled the sassafras area. The Cecil County, Maryland, website says that John Smith was there. See Cecil County and John Smith at cecil.org/about/history. The Toghwagh Indians lived beside the Sassafras and were there first. Parts of it were sites for the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Civil War, railroading, steamboating and other transportation history. William Paca was from there, and he signed the Declaration of Independence.

George Washington ordered army-related requisitions and troop movements around the Sassafras as well. See memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/hlaw [continue with these if you need to :@field%28DOCID+@lit%28dg007451%29%29]. There was a Sassafras Town according to the 1790 census. See mdarchives.state.md.us/msa/refserv/bulldog/ [go on with these if needed bull03/bull17-03/html/bull17-03] Scroll down to the designation of "S" on a map, and see its full name as provided.

George? Last seen spinning in his grave at the denigration of the sassafras by the Fool and Dither Administration banning safrole in the 1960's (see Sassafras Tree, while owning stock in what they permit, and going just as fast as their little feet will take them to jobs there after the FDA. Oh, George. Oh, George.
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MISSOURI
There is a children's book set at Sassafras Springs, Missouri, tha tlays out a great project for anyone, anywhere. In seven days, find Seven Wonders in your own home town. This was the task set for Eben, and if he did it, he could go visit relatives in Colorado. Look up "The Seven Wonders of Sassafras Springs."

We may start on that right here in Avon, Connecticut. The wonders would be the stories of all the varied people in my own neighborhood, and how they got here. We may be one of the most culturally integrated sections of town.
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GEORGIA AND THE MORAVIANS

Immigrants found valuable uses for sassafras. See worldwideschool.org/library/books/hst/northamerican/TheMoraviansinGeorgia/chap3. for the story of people from this area of Poland who immigrated to Georgia. There are other references to a strong beer and the uses of it, but the term "sassafras" is not stated at those. Just click on "edit;" and "find on this page;" and type in "beer" at the bottom and see what comes up.

Gads - the Moravians are spinning also. Look out, FDA, who banned sassafras' safrole in the 1960's (the point emerging is that regulation on dose is appropriate, not ban). Here is a picture of sassafras leaves, with their own thumbs up, in case the FDA misses the point. See forums.arborday.org/forum/viewtopic. Then, if that does not do it, go on to php?t=2011&sid=5fd5d10fb825eba343dbf2116539d499 if you need to, to find sassafras and the thumbs up.

The Moravians are a protestant faith and here is their website: www.moravian.org/. I like their home page - it summarizes their beliefs as follows, a fair use quote:

"In essentials, unity.
In non-essentials, liberty.
In all things, love."

What each of us thinks is "essential," however. -- "aye, there's the rub." See davidpbrown.co.uk/poetry/william-shakespeare-3. on Hamlet for that one.

Side frolic on moral decisions: by what authority does anyone come within the the span of another's outspread arms and fingertips, and big feet, to make moral decisions for that other person? a la da Vinci circle Vitruvian man . Morality by location, location, location. If there are consequences, each of us bears our own. 
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SOUTH CAROLINA

There is also Sassafras Mountain in South Carolina

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FN 1 Why is it "considered" unsafe." So many sites say that, without going into the flawed testing  - using rats, and huge overdoses; when rats themselves are averse to it - allelopathic.  The site goes on to say that there is little "scientific" evidence for its benefits - but fails to say that Pharma customarily only pays for testing on substances from its labs that it can patent, profit from. No patents on mother nature. And the "dangers" are only "potential" as based on the rat testing.  Noone knows much about it, or is looking, see ://www.lifescript.com/Health/Alternative-Therapies/Herbs/The_Dangers_Of_Sassafras.aspx/  Is "Blue Shield" and its "claims" neutral? However, the site also says it is a good diuretic.

See also Sassafras Tree, Natural Pragmatism, Allelopathy: Vetting the Concept Gap in the Lab.  There seems to be no factoring in of that element. that rats and rodents are averse to sassafras in the first place - use mice and rats anyway. 


Rodent repellent:  Go ahead. Use safrole oil to repel rodents. It works. See http://www.ag.uidaho.edu/mg/handbook/MGH11.pdf/ So why use rodents to test sassafras and human health?  More on the testing issue at ://www.planetherbs.com/theory/notes-on-herb-drug-and-herb-herb-contraindications.html

Habeas Herbus. How to persuade the unpersuadable: Try Non-Eloquence.

CLOSING ARGUMENTS

Your Honor, evidence here clearly shows
That Appellant-Petitioner, seated
In the Garden to my left, with deep roots
In History, Culture, Healing and Tea,
Root beer and other sundry useful use,

Was wrongly found guilty of cancerous
Predilections in humans; only rats.
And those rodents (filing their own action,
The Habeas Mousus * before this Court)
Have systems that by nature see safrole
As pesticide. Of course, it's whiskers up.
We also learned that safrole will dissolve
In alcohol, not water. Runs right through!

With this the only stated ban basis
For safrole, its carcinogenic side,
There is no demonstration of cancer
In humans; with usual warnings and
Inform on doses, handling, regulate
For purity, but let our safrole go.
If someone uses it wrong and throws up,
Commonplace! See unregulated hootch.
If someone dies from overuse, that's like
Our fostered ciggyboos. Industry rich.

There may indeed be reason for control
If we, as claimed, can make from it a part
Of ecstasy; and if its qualities
In birth control may mean bad overdose
For those unlearned in safety in its use.
But airplane glue can also be misused,
And education is the answer here.
Who has the right to judge morals out there?
We watch our own - let others do the same.

Habeas herbus. Ancient writ. Backbone
Of justice and due process for root beer
And reinstatement of true frothy head,
Respectfully request that the judgment
Against safrole be reversed; a free herb.

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* Habeas corpus definition at answers.com/topic/habeas-corpus; history at habeascorpus.net/asp.

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