On January 11, 1878 an interesting article appeared in The Washington Post about the issue of women's suffrage. The author stated that women have been credited with gentility, humility, and upstanding morals throughout the centuries and many believed they would clean up politics if they won the right to vote. However, in his own personal belief, the author takes the exact opposite view. He proclaimed...
A newspaper in Barnwell, South Carolina reported in their May 11 edition that the Southern Railroad had purchased the Carolina Midland, a main road that cut across the state. The Railroad had recently purchased the South Carolina and the Georgia road. The Railroad intended to use this road to construct a direct line from Columbia, SC to Savannah, GA. Cities like Barnwell paid close attention to the...
It was only one day after Valentine's Day, 1838, and twenty-one year old William Byrd was missing his future wife, Mariah Hawkins Massie. Away at Lagrange College in Franklin County, Alabama, it is possible that William had not seen Mariah in quite some time. Possibly being wrapped up in the spirit of the holiday, William sat down to write Mariah a letter. Already betrothed, William pleasured in the...
Dissent in the Democratic Party The big issue leading up to the election of 1896 was the question of the free coinage of silver. With the decline of the economy following Grover Cleveland's election and his repealing of the Sherman Silver Purchase act, his Democratic base began to falter, and the Populist Party support of the free coinage of silver began to invade much of the Democratic Party. An...
General Braxton Bragg led his Confederate troops into Kentucky with high hopes. A win in Kentucky could be a possible turning point for the Confederate army, as it would probably add Kentucky to their side. However, Bragg failed to execute his troops efficiently and could not gather political support from the Kentuckians. Bragg's troops were largely outnumbered by Major General Don Carlos Buell's...
The depression of the 1890s was only exacerbated by the weather conditions in the spring of 1896. The drought of 1896 brought a huge setback to the agricultural sectors of many southern states, particularly Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, and Mississippi. The lack of water caused crucial crops to wither, and brought the economy further into its depression. In Mississippi, the state also faced downpours...
In a letter to his father John C. Burruss on July 24, 1841, John W. Burruss asked, ...do we not dwell in constant danger, are we not standing, rather [lying] down - sleeping on a smothered - not extinguished - volcano? John W. Burruss was expressing his fear of slave revolt, a fear he shared with many southern plantation owners. In his letter Burruss described a discovered slave revolt in West Felicia...
Reverend Dexter Clapp of Savannah, Georgia got word of a question put forth in a newspaper, presumably by a Northerner, about the religious condition of slaves in the South. Clapp felt compelled to write a letter to the editor discussing his opinion on the matter. He stated that much of what he had to say was probably not known in the North, but was common knowledge in the South, or at least in his...
In the several years preceding 1890, brothers Ben and Buck Duke initiated several reforms of their tobacco manufacturing business. The brothers' company W. Duke and Sons experienced great success after the innovations. Then in response to concern about other manufacturers, in 1890, the Dukes joined four of their tobacco competitors to the form the American Tobacco Company. The American Tobacco Company,...
On Saturday, June 14, 1890, a serious accident between a passenger train and material train occurred on the Cripple Creek division of the Norfolk and Western railroad near Ivanhoe, Virginia. The material train ran under orders to meet the passenger train at a switch approximately fourteen miles outside of Ivanhoe. The passenger train apparently ran under no such order and continued toward Ivanhoe....