In this day and age, newspapers rarely print fiction. Of course, there is the occasional magical story written by a third grade class that appears every once a week in the Arts and Entertainment section of the paper, but for the most part, fictional stories of real substance are not published in newspapers anymore. This was not the case in the 1800's. Appearing in The Valley Star each week was...
William Triplett, a resident of Frederick County, offered a forty dollar reward for the capture and return of two runaway slaves, Nelson and Priscilla (nicknamed Betsy). The two slaves, a married couple, ran away January 9th from the Briscoes estate in Winchester. The man was described as 23 or 24 in age, a very dark Mulatto, and 5'10-5'11 in height. He was wearing a well-worn black,...
Epes Spain put an ad in the Richmond Enquirer advertising the sale of fifty negroes, to be sold at the Price Edward court house at the end of the month of January. He stated that African Americans were raised by him, and that among them was a blacksmith, a carriage driver, a seamstress, a weaver, excellent house-servants, and boys of good size for plough. He also made sure to mention that all of...
Hezekiah Mosby, married to Betsy Merryman, appealed to the Virginia General Assembly for a divorce on the grounds that his wife committed adultery. More specifically, his wife committed adultery with a black man, and gave birth to a mulatto child. The General Assembly set the grounds for the divorce, requiring that the courts determine whether or not Hezekiah had been a faithful husband, as well...
On April 20, 1816, the Daily National Intelligencer, located in Washington D.C., published an article advertising fugitive slaves. The article began by stating, “Fifty persons of color were brought into this city, in the ship Lord Somers, from London.” The Intelligencer continued, “On examination, satisfactory evidence was produced, that forty-three were free,...
On January 13, 1815, the Superior Court of the state of Georgia convened in Augusta and ruled numerous acts passed by the Georgia legislature unconstitutional and void. The legislature furiously answered on November 19, 1815, with a condemning resolution absolutely denying the right of the courts to rule the acts of the state legislature invalid. The resolution did not specifically mention which...
On a Monday morning at 3 a.m., a breach in the levee allowed rushing waters to flood New Orleans. Within two days, the breach had expanded to be at least an acre in width. The areas initially most affected by the waters were the Cyprus swamp and St. John's Bayou. However, the waters were continuing to flow into the city, and it was predicted that by the time the flood waters stopped rising,...
In May of 1816, Henry Banks put up his estate for sale. Banks had incurred debt to a man named Neil McCaul, and he needed the profit from this sale to settle up with him. The land for sale was property on both sides of the canal, just a mile or so south of Richmond, Virginia. Banks put an ad in a local Richmond paper, the Virginia Argus, to inform his neighbors of the sale. He did not, however,...
In August of 1815, George Hay put an add in the Richmond Enquirer newspaper offering a fifty dollar reward (plus expenses) for the apprehension and delivery of Manuel, a runaway slave. Hay gave only the name Manuel; either Manuel had no last name, or Hay felt that labeling him as a negro and a slave was sufficient. Hay described Manuel as broad shouldered and well formed, along with giving...
A black enslaved man named Henry ran away from the Staunton, Virginia plantation of John G. Wright on the 14th of June, 1815. By August 7th , Mr. Wright had placed an advertisement of a twenty dollar reward for his capture and return in the Washington D.C. Daily National Intelligencer. This was Henry's second attempt at escape; he had made the first while owned by a Doctor Trent in...