When Governor Carroll passed this new “Penitentiary Law,' many considered it to be truly revolutionary. This law completely transformed punishment in the state of Tennessee. For example, whipping posts, stocks, and cropping were abolished. Instead of being put to death for many crimes, hard labor in a penitentiary was now the punishment. Another key component of the law was the formation of a...
In the time leading up to both the Democratic and Republican nominating conventions for state governor, each party attempted to sort out its ideal choice for candidate. Each party faced the recent legislative actions regarding enfranchisement and elections. As a whole, the Democrats backed the poll-tax law recently enacted by the state legislature and favored the pending registration law. On the...
In January, the Cherokee Phoenix and Indians' Advocate reported the outcome of the Kentucky State Senate's Joint Resolution. There were only three dissenting votes against these two measures. The first measure urged Kentucky's statesmen in Washington to endeavor Congress to appropriate money and aid, “so far is consistent with the Constitution of the United States, in colonizing the free people...
Many prominent Nashvillians, including Phillip Lindsley, William Hume, and Robert Whyte, formed The Nashville and Davidson County Temperance Society. This society was formed as an auxiliary to the American Temperance Society. The American Temperance Society grew rapidly during this time period and many new auxiliaries appeared. The spread of a national temperance society reveals the growing importance...
In explaining the treaty to the legislature, McMinn focused also on the relationship between Tennessee and North Carolina, as well as both of their relationships (and that of the United States) with the Cherokees. The Cherokees had occupied what McMinn estimated to be five to seven million acres of land between the Tennessee and Mississippi Rivers. He encouraged the Tennessee legislature to enact...
On November 8, 1861, a group of East Tennessee Unionists led by William Blount Carter burned five bridges to hamper Confederate troop movements. Carter, a Presbyterian minister, had spoken with Lincoln about a plan to burn eleven key bridges between Alabama and Virginia. Many iron furnaces were located in Alabama, producing confederate cannon. Carter's hope was for Union troops to attack Knoxville...
After its establishment in July 1889, membership of the Farmers' Alliance grew rapidly and reached over 100,000 people in 1890. The Alliance widely proclaimed their goal to influence the Democratic Party. Throughout the year the Alliance engaged in a publicity campaign to sway Party actions and nominations. Newspapers played an important part in this publicity campaign. The Nashville Banner included...
On January 2, 1830, the state of Tennessee passed “an Act to establish a board of Internal Improvement, and set apart one hundred and fifty thousand dollars to be appropriated to the improvement of the navigable rivers and other objects of Internal Improvement in (the) state,' as reported by the Knoxville Register on January 27, to be divided on various works across the state. Designed mostly...
Despite their geographical locations in the South, many southerners found themselves strongly opposed to the Rebel cause, as indicated by this and several other editorials written in W.G. Brownlow's Knoxville Whig. This particular article is a call to arms, so to speak, against Rebel sympathizers who “have been for months, heading guerilla bands, robbing Union families, and burning down Union...
The Memphis & Charleston Railroad was chartered on February 2, marking the first rail route from inland Memphis, Tennessee east toward Charleston, South Carolina and the Atlantic Ocean. Although the railroad made little progress until into the 1850s, it was important for the region not only because it linked much of what was still a “frontier' state with the rest of the coastal South but also...