Episodes Located: NORFOLK CITY, Virginia in the 1880's

  1. The National Game
    date July 26, 1884map NORFOLK CITY, Virginiatags African-Americans, Arts/Leisure, Race-Relations, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    Play Ball the Norfolk crowd shouted on a mid-July afternoon, despite the rain that would eventually force the Norfolks and the Baltimore Monumentals from the baseball field. Although the fans left disappointed, they would return the following day to see the two teams square off, and this time they got their money's worth. The Norfolk Landmark would call the July 26 game one of the finest ever played...

  2. Death of Capt. K G Gittio
    date February 25, 1885map NORFOLK CITY, Virginiatags Health/Death, Economy, Migration/Transportation, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    Few citizens of Portsmouth could escape the mourning of K G Gittio's death. On February 25, 1885 it covered the front page news, flags flew at half-mast, locomotives were shrouded, and traffic stopped, while people flooded to his funeral. The city had lost a respected citizen and a leading businessman, regarded as one of the South's best railroad men. Gittio, thinking he had a cold, had called upon...

  3. Remembering the Lost Cause
    date June 18, 1884map NORFOLK CITY, Virginiatags Health/Death, Race-Relations, War

    Capt. Carter Williams, a Norfolk resident, visible at the front of the Confederate line at Chancellorsville, led a most daring charge, the battle's first day, into the teeth of federal infantry and their cannons. The 6 Virginia captured the Union color bearer and seized the guns, resulting in Robert E. Lee, himself, personally thanking the brave Capt Williams the next morning. Soon after receiving...

  4. Democrat Disappointments
    date March 25, 1885map NORFOLK CITY, Virginiatags Economy, Government, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    Civil Service be (blanked), said he, do you suppose the (blanked) (blanked) old fool thought we were in earnest about such (blanked) (blanked) nonsense and not as that? A Democratic workingman had no trouble speaking his mind to a Norfolk gentleman, out on the streets, when asked of his opinion of President Cleveland. The workingman, having so ardently supported the first Democratic president-elect...

  5. Male Competition and a Female Audience
    date January 26, 1887map NORFOLK CITY, Virginiatags Government, Politics, Women

    On January 26, 1887, the Virginian Weekly & Carolinian reported with little excitement that the Senate had rejected a constitutional amendment for women's suffrage. Paying more attention to the Army Appropriation bill, funding for public building, and the Railroad Attorney's Bill, the article hardly focused on women's perpetual disenfranchisement. While one senator presented the petition...