The Hamidian massacres occurred from1894–1896 Up to 300,000 Armenians were murdered and at least 50,000 children made orphans. The massacres are named after Sultan Abdul Hamid II who viewed the Armenians to be an extension of foreign hostility. This occurred at a time when the telegraph could spread news around the world. As a results, the massacres were extensively covered in the media in Western Europe and the United States.

Clara Barton was a pioneer American teacher, patent clerk, nurse, and humanitarian. She was born on December 25, 1821 and died on April 12, 1912 at 91 years of age. At a time when relatively few women worked outside the home, Barton built a career helping others.

In 1838, Clara Barton became a school teacher In 1855 she moved to Washington D.C. and began work as a clerk in the US Patent Office. This was the first time a woman had received a substantial clerkship in the government and at a salary equal to a man's salary. In 1864, during the Civil War, she was appointed by Union General Benjamin Butler as the "lady in charge" of the hospitals at the front of the Army of the James. She became known as the "Angel of the Battlefield."

In May of 1881, Clara Barton forms the first branch of the American Red Cross and served as its president. Learning about the massacres of Armenians, she worked to secure support for the Red Cross’s efforts to provide humanitarian relief to the Armenians She arrived in Constantinople in 1896 at the age of 75 and coordinated the relief aid distribution to the survivors of the massacres for about a year. Though she faced great challenges and resistance from the Ottoman government, she with her companions, succeeded in helping the villages of Marash, Zeitun, and elsewhere.

Though she departed with a great feeling of accomplishment, her satisfaction quickly turned to despair. As they were preparing for the last leg of their journey home news of Bank Ottoman reach them. Barton was shocked and distressed beyond words and was ready to turn around and go back to Constantinople to begin her work again. But she was told that things were “in control” and returned home.

Though there was worldwide coverage, outrage, and an outpouring of humanitarian relief for the surviving victims… Sultan Hamid continued to pursue his path of killing and persecuting Armenians in order to keep his government in control. “Bloody Sultan”

Unfortunately talk and humanitarian action does not cause an evil government to change its actions. By the end of the 1890s the lack of political action or punishment left the Sultan off the hook It allowed Turkish society to engage in a culture of massacre that permanently dehumanized Armenians in a process that would result in genocide in 1915 The Christian infidel Armenians had already been marginalized now they became fair game.