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...
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,...
Growing up as a slave child, George was fond of hearing people read, but as poor slave, he had little or no thought or aspiration of ever being able to read or spell one word or sentence in any book. His mother discovered this anxiety for books, and tried to encourage it. At length he took resolution to learn the alphabet at all events, and encountering to be among school children, he learned the...
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...
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,...
RESOLVED that this meeting will now proceed to elect two fit persons to meet delegates from other counties in this commonwealth at Staunton on the 19th of August next, for the purpose of concerting... judicious means of reforming the representation of the state legislatures, stated the resolution of an Augusta County, Virginia citizens meeting. For the county seat, Staunton, state politics became...
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...