In order to conclude our final project, we must answer two questions: Why did we do it? and Why is it important? To begin with the first question, our group decided to work with the life of Jesse James for our final project because Jesse James is an integral part of Northfield history and identity. His life story and the historical context of it all interested us. Because of our location in Northfield and our positions as students at Carleton, we had access to many resources that would help us complete this project. We felt it was smart to consolidate the history of Jesse James’ life. As we got to work, we discovered the existence of multiple Jesse James’ dime novels written in the early 20th century. These dime novels were clearly fictitious in nature, but that fact brought up interesting points. What is the effect of glamorizing the history of a very real individual? This led us to our final idea for our project: the fact and fiction of the life of Jesse James.
So we’ve established why we did what we did, but why is it important? We believe this project to be important because it is important to be able to separate the fact and the fiction when it comes to history. It is important to acknowledge all aspects of Jesse James’ history. Though the dime novels are largely fiction, they are still a part of the overall history. What we did is also important because we are consolidating a lot of information on Jesse James and making it more accessible. The resources we used to complete this project were extremely helpful, yet many of them were only available to us because we are students at Carleton. In addition to that, the information we used was spread over many different sources including the dime novels, websites, and books found in the Carleton library. Our project worked to put this information all together onto a highly visual map that can be accessible to anyone with internet access. Jesse James is such a large part of this town, and it is important to create a better way to learn about him.
It is also worth nothing the character of Jesse James. While conducting our research, we learned about how much Jesse James was a product of his time. His actions during his life were not good, and this is not always apparent when he his discussed in the modern day. Jesse James and his history is almost glamorized in a way, especially with the annual “Defeat of Jesse James Day.” While this day is a celebration of his defeat, it is still an eternal memorialization of him as this ‘Western’ character. It is important to think about who we are honoring. In addition to his actually life, many of the dime novels had extremely racist content. These novels were clearly written in a different time; however, the content within them being problematic in a modern sense is still worth noting. The culture around Jesse James has not always been inclusive of everyone involved, and his problematic past and the media around him must be recognized.
