Episodes Located: WAKE, North Carolina in the 1850's

  1. Announcement of North Carolina's First State Fair
    date June 29, 1853map WAKE, North Carolinatags Agriculture, Arts/Leisure

    On June 29, 1853, the Raleigh Register published an announcement stating, “We are pleased to learn that the first annual State Fair will be held in the city of Raleigh on the 18th of October next. We would particularly call this matter to the attention of our Farmers, Miners, Manufacturers and Mechanics.' The event was organized following the recommendations made at the Cotton Planters' Convention...

  2. Calvin H. Wiley Serves as North Carolina's First State Superintendent of Common Schools
    date January 1, 1853map WAKE, North Carolinatags Education

    While serving as North Carolina's first State Superintendent of Common Schools, Calvin H. Wiley revolutionized the educational system. The Common School System, as North Carolina's first statewide publicly supported education system, sought to educate all white boys living within the state. In his first address to the residents of North Carolina, he appealed to them and tried to convince them that,...

  3. Temperance in North Carolina
    date 1853map WAKE, North Carolinatags Arts/Leisure, Church/Religious-Activity, Slavery

    In 1853, The Sons of Temperance of North Carolina in the Presbyterian Church published a pamphlet reiterating the evils of an "essential poison:" alcohol. The pamphlet described the threatening and mocking effects of all types of alcohol upon society. The Sons of Temperance was a "fraternal lodge" with subdivisions in most states and it was based on the principles of temperance expressed by the...

  4. The Hypocritical Admirers of Harriet Beecher Stowe
    date June 18, 1853map WAKE, North Carolinatags African-Americans, Migration/Transportation, Race-Relations, Slavery

    Editors of the Raleigh Register reprinted stanzas of a poem published in New York that criticized what Raleigh's editors considered the hypocritical nature of aristocratic British support for Uncle Tom's Cabin in 1853. They applauded the satiric criticism as the severest and most truthful against Stowe and her British supporters. The poem was written as if by a British aristocrat...

  5. First North Carolina State Fair
    date October 18, 1853map WAKE, North Carolinatags Agriculture, Arts/Leisure, Economy, Migration/Transportation

    Visitors filled every hotel and boarding house in Raleigh. Replete with music fanfares, banners, and daily crowds of over 4,000 people, North Carolina inaugurated its first-ever State Fair in Raleigh on Tuesday, October 18, 1853. Local newspapers hailed the watershed event as a triumph. For North Carolinians, it was as much a matter of state pride as agricultural interest. For years neighboring...

  6. The Assault of Charles Sumner
    date May 1, 1856 to June 6, 1856map WAKE, North Carolinatags Crime/Violence, Politics, Slavery

    The "chastisement of Senator Sumner" by Senator Brooks in the United States Senate came under heavy criticism in both the Northern and Southern United States. While the Northern reaction was a more conciliatory tone towards Sumner and one that called for the punishment of Brooks, the Southern reaction was that it was a ploy by Northern abolitionists to further the fight to end their way of life,...