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On October 8, 1871 the Chicago fire began. The Chicago fire is said to have cost about 192 million dollars in destroyed property. This fire was an American Disaster. So who started this fire? It has been passed down that O’Leary and her cow were to blame. However, the fire department was unable to determine the actual cause. Smith gives us an insight at why O’Leary was targeted. Smith believes it may have been due to prejudices and stereotypes. The upper middle class had a common belief that immigrants were the “dangerous class.” This mindset can explain why this one accusation stuck throughout history. Smith, like most historiographers, “tries to take a new angle at another scholar’s work” and tries to “disprove what their statement is with their own facts and interpretations.” Smith takes a deeper look into all of the testimonies during the Chicago fire court case. Smith also compares to Musham, and gives ample evidence and thought to disprove his theory. When recounting the testimonies Daniel Sullivan stated that he saw the fire. Sullivan also testified that he tried to free the animals from the fire. Smith claims that this seems somewhat implausible, given all of the circumstances. Sullivan’s testimony about his whereabouts is a major loophole. He could not have seen the fire from the fence he claimed to be sitting on. Smith then concludes that it is in fact Sullivan that started the fire. The goal of this historiography was to take the blame off O’Leary and the cow, and to take the evidence and interpret that Sullivan was the culprit.