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  1. Antebellum Abortion
    date February 21, 1848map JEFFERSON, Mississippitags African-Americans, Health/Death, Race-Relations, Slavery, Women

    In modern society, it is commonly accepted as a rule of the profession that doctors remain cool and detached from their patients in order to provide them with the best medical care possible, unobstructed by emotional thoughts, feelings, or actions. The diary of Dr. Walter Wade proved that even in the mid-nineteenth century that this concept was not a foreign one. A large percentage of his journal was...

  2. Southern Women's Involvement in Charitable Organizations
    date February 10, 1862map SHENANDOAH, Virginiatags Arts/Leisure, Church/Religious-Activity, War, Women

    In 1862 Sigismunda S. Kimball, from Shenandoah County, Virginia was suddenly, like so many other women of the South, thrown into a completely different world as the Civil War raged through the South. Mrs. Kimball was put in charge of her family's plantation while her husband was away at war and she kept the plantation records in a journal which she wrote in everyday. In this journal she wrote about...

  3. A Relaxing Trip down the Bayou
    date March 22, 1845map JEFFERSON, Louisianatags Arts/Leisure, Migration/Transportation, Slavery

    Lisa Rhinelander and her brother George, of New Orleans, were traveling along with some friends to a house party at a plantation on the Barataria Canal. They first traveled by railroad, then steamboat, until arriving at a point twenty miles down the river from the home they were to visit. It looked as though they had a long row ahead f them. But it turned out that their host had sent slaves to pull...

  4. Southern Women's Involvement in Charitable Organizations
    date February 5, 1862 to February 20, 1862map SHENANDOAH, Virginiatags Arts/Leisure, Church/Religious-Activity, War, Women

    In 1862 Sigismunda S. Kimball, from Shenandoah County, Virginia was suddenly, like so many other women of the South, thrown into a completely different world as the Civil War raged through the South. Mrs. Kimball was put in charge of her family's plantation while her husband was away at war and she kept the plantation records in a journal which she wrote in everyday. In this journal she wrote about...

  5. Chastisement of Slaves
    date June 11, 1864map RICHMOND, Virginiatags African-Americans, Law, Race-Relations, Slavery, Women

    Emma Mordecai was enjoying the pleasantly cool weather when a very disagreeable affair concerning the servants disturbed her afternoon. The conflict began when the henwife, Georgiana, asked her mother, Sarah, to help her manage the chickens. Sarah then complained of being overworked and provoked the ire of her mistress and the master. In addition, Emma mentioned that Cyrus, Sarah's husband, behaved...

  6. Breastfeeding
    date 1830 to 1835map LIBERTY, Georgiatags African-Americans, Health/Death, Race-Relations, Slavery, Women

    In the days before baby formula, new mothers had far fewer options for food for their babies. Because of rampant childhood diseases and absence of many other options of sustenance for infants, breastmilk played a vitally important role in the development of society and families. Many slaveholding women designated enslaved women to be wet nurses for the newly born white children. As Robert Mallard describes...

  7. Impromptu Balls: They Could Have Danced All Night
    date January 7, 1842 to January 9, 1842map WEST FELICIANA, Louisianatags Arts/Leisure

    On January 7, 1842, Bennet Barrow went to town to get supplies in his Cab. When he left the cab, two friends, Amanda and Miss Crab of Tennessee, jumped in it and went off without Bonnets only to return one hour later from a nearby swamp. Amused, Barrow got in, turned the cab around, driving his friends to visit a Mrs. Wade. There he met up with six other friends. After piling his friends into two cabs,...

  8. A Polite Education
    date September 18, 1828map CHATHAM, Georgiatags Arts/Leisure, Economy, Education, Women

    Education for women in the Antebellum South played a key role in defining and regulating social status. Many Southerners did not see education as a way to enlighten women, but rather to refine and polish them, and make them more suitable for marriage. In the Argus newspaper, published in Savannah, Georgia, an advertisement appeared in September of 1828. It announced Mr. Phillips's new school for young...

  9. A Woman's Worth
    date 1851map AUGUSTA, Virginiatags African-Americans, Race-Relations, Slavery, Women

    When reading novels from nineteenth century, one often sees an overbearing mother whose only joy in life is finding suitable matches for her infinite number of daughters. In these stories, the daughter does not normally have much, if any, say as to whom she will wed. On Tuesday October 25, 1851, Mary Jane Boggs Holladay of Virginia was busy in preparation for her marriage. She was confronted with afflictions...

  10. A Plot is Uncovered
    date January 29, 1820map NORFOLK CITY, Virginiatags African-Americans, Migration/Transportation, Race-Relations, Slavery, Women

    On January 29, 1820, M. W. deBree wrote a letter to her father to tell him some distressing news. Her letter detailed a very melancholy circumstance that very nearly occurred on a ship bound from Norfolk, Virginia to New Orleans, Louisiana. Thirty slaves who were passengers on the ship had form'd a plot...to murder all the passengers and crew except two sailors who [were] to steer them to St. Domingo....