Episodes Located: WASHINGTON, Virginia in the 1850's

  1. First Transatlantic Telegram
    date 1857 to August 16, 1858map WASHINGTON, Virginiatags Economy, Migration/Transportation

    Following the success of a New York-Newfoundland telegraph line, philanthropist Cyrus Field convinced the governments of American and Great Britain to fund a transatlantic line. It would take 2,500 miles of cable to complete the job, and construction was interrupted often by errors. Cables snapped, ships wrecked, and money was running out. Meanwhile, the American South was watching the progress...

  2. Dred Scott v. Sanford
    date March 6, 1857map WASHINGTON, Virginiatags African-Americans, Race-Relations, Slavery

    Dred Scott was a slave living in Missouri. Between the years of 1833 and 1843 Scott lived in Illinois (a free state) and a part of the Louisiana Territory that barred slavery under the Missouri Compromise of 1820. When he returned home to Missouri, Scott claimed that after living in a free state he had become a free man and was no longer a slave. Scott's master, Mr. John F. A. Sanford, claimed...

  3. Millard Filmore, American Party Candidate for President
    date May, 1856map WASHINGTON, Virginiatags Politics

    Throughout the month of May 1856, the Abingdon Virginian newspaper printed the name of the town's choice for president in the upcoming presidential election. Their choice for president was Millard Fillmore of New York, and for vice president Andrew U. Donelson of Tennessee, nominated by the American Party. There was no further explanation for this information, but rather an announcement the...

  4. A New Bride's Suicide
    date June 5, 1856 to 1856map WASHINGTON, Virginiatags Health/Death, Women

    The servants thought the new bride, Mrs. Nancy Gray, had simply laid down to rest. Though shutting up the house on a Thursday morning was an unusual step, she had felt indisposed recently and so they thought nothing of it. It was not until the middle of the day, when a serving woman came to ask about dinner, that they realized something was amiss. Nancy Gray was not asleep; she was found in a closet,...

  5. Baptists Educating Women for the Sake of Men
    date August 11, 1854map WASHINGTON, Virginiatags Church/Religious-Activity, Education, Women

    When the Holston Baptist Association convened in 1854, the reverends of the association discussed the education of women. While 38 churches in attendance wanted to sustain denominational schools already in place, Reverend N. Baldwin, representing Abingdon, Virginia had a different suggestion. Baldwin's address began by accusing Europeans of being destroyers of Christian values. He argued that the...