Episodes Nearest to November 17, 1819: 1 through 25 of 25

  1. Improvements to the Dismal Swamp Canal
    date November 17, 1819map NORFOLK CITY, Virginiatags Agriculture, Economy, Migration/Transportation, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    On November 17, 1819, the Norfolk and Portsmouth Herald rejoiced in reporting the news that the new and improved Dismal Swamp Canal was nearing completion and was soon to be ready for traffic. The Canal was undergoing a process of deepening and widening so that it could accommodate the traffic of larger vessels. To the Herald, the traffic on the Dismal Swamp Canal was the lifeblood of the cities...

  2. The First Experiment Along the Waters of the Great Canal
    date October 28, 1819map ONEIDA, New Yorktags Economy, Erie Canal, Migration/Transportation

    On the crisp autumn morning of October 28, 1819, in western New York a boat called the Chief Engineer left Rome, New York to take the first journey on the Great Canal to Utica. A group of about thirty men were passengers on the boat, many of whom were distinguished guests, including Governor Dewitt Clinton, the canal’s chief advocate. Spectators lined the banks of the canal, as if lining...

  3. Pirates
    date January 8, 1820map ST LANDRY, Louisianatags Crime/Violence

    Jean Lafitte's mean have attacked again Pirates in Louisiana Again? Hide the valuables

    These were a few thoughts that went through the minds of the citizens that read the newspaper of St. Francisville on January 8, 1820. An articles reported the robbery of a station in Attackapas by three men associated with the legendary pirate, Jean Lafitte. To the readers' relief, the article related...

  4. Disastrous Fire Ravages Savannah, Georgia
    date January 11, 1820map CHATHAM, Georgiatags Health/Death, Economy

    The beginning of the nineteenth century brought significant misfortune to Savannah, Georgia. While the city struggled to achieve public improvements and increase urban development, a disproportionate number of natural disasters struck, such as the hurricane of 1804. Incidents of yellow fever and cholera outbreak resulted in large-scale mortality and interference with business. A vast fire, “on...

  5. Family Values in the Old South
    date January 13, 1820map HANOVER, Virginiatags Women

    In a letter to her father, Louisiana Cocke wrote that she missed him and was looking forward to his return. Louisiana wrote, I begin to be quite impatient for your return, as I am anxious to return to my studies... This demonstrates the close relationship of General Cocke and his daughter. He also apparently, served as her tutor while he was home. Families in the antebellum South were close- knit...

  6. Letter Written from Secretary of War to Congress Concerning Civilization of the Indian Tribes
    date January 15, 1820map Washington City, District of Columbiatags Migration/Transportation, Race-Relations, War

    As the United States' population exploded, the government continued to look westward to expand the country's wealth, power, and size. In some cases, US explorers tried to live alongside Native-Americans who called the West their home, but hostility from both peoples often caused conflict. Americans embraced the mindset that not only was it acceptable, but it was even their duty to organize...

  7. Agricultural Crisis in the South
    date September 16, 1819map KERSHAW, South Carolinatags Agriculture, Economy

    A local farmer published a letter in the Camden Gazette in the hopes of bringing the region's epidemic of cotton rot to the public forum for discussion. The farmer wrote that there were two theories about the source of the epidemic that was rotting cotton crops across both South Carolina and Georgia: that the disease arose from degradation of the cotton plants due to over cultivation, or that...

  8. Man Trod to Death by Horse
    date January 22, 1820map ARKANSAS, Arkansastags Crime/Violence, Health/Death, Law

    On January 9, 1820, the people of Arkansas County had reason to be afraid; one of their neighbors had been found violently murdered. On that day, the coroner of Arkansas County held a formal inquest into the death of William Mabbet who had been found near Hickory Point. Curiously, Mabbet's body appeared heavily bruised and beaten, but showed no signs of resistance. If he had been attacked, should...

  9. 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....

  10. The Mystique of Shamanism
    date February 19, 1820map SUFFOLK, Massachusettstags Health/Death, Native-Americans, Science/Technology

    On 19 February 1820, the Boston Recorder published an article on an incident that occurred overseas in Australia. A pilot at Port Dalrymple was bitten by a venomous snake and thought to be a goner by onlookers. However, a native stepped in and turned what appeared to be a man awaiting death into a healthy human being once again. He allegedly rubbed the wound with an unknown bark, palpated...

  11. Charles Pinckney and George Tucker Speak Against the Missouri Compromise
    date February 14, 1820 to February 25, 1820map Washington City, District of Columbiatags Slavery

    South Carolina Governor and member of the House of Representatives, Charles Pinckney had been one of the youngest delegates of the Constitutional Convention in 1789. Pinckney remained a controversial political figure, due in part to his support of slavery. In 1820, he reacted to the attempts of some Northern congressmen to ban slavery from the Missouri Compromise. An example of the Northern position...

  12. Dr. Henry Jackson Orders Laboratory Supplies
    date August 11, 1819map CLARKE, Georgiatags Education

    Dr. Henry Jackson graduated from the Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1802. However, after he tried his hand at medicine and was unhappy as a physician, he became professor of sciences and mathematics at Franklin College in Athens within Clarke County. He set up a science laboratory at the blossoming academy. In the late 1810's and early 1820's, he continued his strong relationships that...

  13. Bishop's Mill
    date March 11, 1820map ALBEMARLE, Virginiatags Agriculture, Economy, Slavery

    Joseph Bishop owned a mill on the Rivanna River from 1805 to the late 1820?s. He worked in the mill along with the family's two male slaves, and possibly with occasional help from his five sons. Bishop's mill supported his main economic activity, which was tanning leather. But Bishop sometimes allowed the use of his facilities to grind nearby farmers' grain, typically for free. Over...

  14. Military Importance in the Pre-Civil War South
    date March 21, 1820map GOOCHLAND, Virginiatags Government, War

    The Governor of Richmond appointed William Bolling of Goochland County as Lieutenant Colonel in the Second Regiment of Cavalry on March 21, 1820. Bolling's appointment shows that the military was prominent in state forms as well as national forms in the period leading up to the Civil War. Qualities of the military include fidelity, courage, activity and good conduct - qualities that are still...

  15. The Expansion of Slavery and its Effect on the South
    date March 25, 1820map BUCKINGHAM, Virginiatags Politics, Slavery

    As a Congressman from Buckingham County and member of the Virginia House of Delegates, Archibald Austin was always in the know about local events. In a letter from Waller Taylor in Washington to Mr. Austin, Mr. Taylor explained the happenings in Washington and all of the current political events that were taking place, such as admitting new states and territories. In his March 25 letter, the Florida...

  16. Slave Resistance in Alexandria
    date July 9, 1819 to July 10, 1819map RAPIDES, Louisianatags African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Health/Death, Law, Race-Relations, Slavery

    On July 9, 1819, a Negro man violently attacked and brutally wounded the wife of his master, a Mr. John M. Smith of Alexandria, Louisiana, with the intention to kill her. On the same day as the attack, the slave, whose name was not given, was convicted and sentenced to be hanged. By the next day he was dead.

    The relationship between slave and owner teetered on a precarious balance. On one...

  17. Mail Robbery
    date March 27, 1820map GEORGETOWN, South Carolinatags Crime/Violence

    Mr. Hipps had lived in the Georgetown area two years before he was brutally murdered. The regions mail carrier, Mr. Hipps was making his route towards Georgetown on a Saturday afternoon when his mail carriage was robbed and he was murdered. When members of the community noticed that the mail carriage hadnt arrived, a number of men went out on their horses to check on the delay. These men encountered...

  18. An Unauthorized Expedition Against Texas
    date June 21, 1819 to July 27, 1819map RAPIDES, Louisianatags Government, Politics, War

    On June 21, 1819, newspapers on the East coast began to report on the men of Rapides Parish, in the town of Alexandria, who had begun to mobilize for war against the Spanish controlling the province of Texas on Louisiana's western border. The only trouble was that the United States government had not declared war against Spain. In fact, the governments of the United States and Spain were currently...

  19. The American Coloinzation Society: An American Cause
    date 1819map HANOVER, Virginiatags African-Americans, Migration/Transportation, Race-Relations

    In the early nineteenth century, the country was concerned with slavery in America and getting rid of it in a timely manner with as little consequences as possible. In order to help this concern, The American Colonization Society was founded in 1817. Border States such as Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia had the most chapters because of their locations and ideas about slavery. In Virginia, many...

  20. Scientific Expeditions in Kentucky
    date 1819map NICHOLAS, Kentuckytags Education

    It was a discovery for the ages. John Clifford's exploratory work in the hills of rural Kentucky had uncovered an extinct specimen key to the development of the field of naturalism: the univalve flinty shell. In 1819, the good scientist unabashedly declared it highly valuable and [it] will be deemed as such by all the enlightened naturalists of America and Europe. In Garrard and Estill counties,...

  21. Arkansas Becomes a Second-Grade Territory
    date April 11, 1820 to April 21, 1820map Washington City, District of Columbiatags Urban-Life/Boosterism

    In the National House of Representatives, Congressman Johnson of Kentucky introduced a bill to establish Arkansas under the second grade of territorial development. The bill provided for treatment of the Arkansas Territory similarly to the Territory of Missouri and pushed it closer to becoming a state. Johnson's bill looked to past acts of Congress regarding Southern territory as guidelines...

  22. Man or Machine? Commodification in the Antebellum South
    date April, 1820 to 1820map KENT, Delawaretags Slavery, Slave trade, African-Americans

    As the price of Bayley's son steadily rose and the auctioneer continued to call for the highest bidder, Solomon Bayley leaned agains the wall of the church to support himself in the heat of the summer sun. They boy who had been taken from him years earlier was up for sale, and it looked as though Bayley would lose his once in a lifetime opportunity to buy his son back. This is the story of Solomon...

  23. A Falling Deck of Cards: The Panic of 1819
    date June 15, 1819map AUGUSTA, Virginiatags Economy, Government, Politics

    Citizens of Staunton, Virginia came together June 15, 1819 to navigate the pitfalls of the antebellum economy. Their official business was to take into consideration the depreciation of the notes of certain banks, for the economy was at the bottom of a large dip - the Panic of 1819. The citizens decided that the notes of the State Bank of North Carolina should no longer be received at normal value,...

  24. The Old Woman Who Sold Ale
    date April 29, 1820map ARKANSAS, Arkansastags Church/Religious-Activity, Women

    On August 29, 1820, the Arkansas Gazette told of an old woman who had dozed off one Sunday in church, probably due to the heat and an oppressively long and boring sermon. The incident might have gone unnoticed but for her Bible, which slipped out of her lap and fell to the floor, creating a massive racket. Jolted half awake by the noise, the elderly lady, known to her fellow churchgoers...

  25. William A. Betton Reported Slave Runaway and Posted Reward
    date June 6, 1820map BALDWIN, Georgiatags African-Americans, Slavery

    As was common during the early nineteenth century, a Milledgeville slaveholder ran a public notice when one of his slaves escaped from his plantation by the Wateree River on May 18, 1820. The slave, Davy, was described in the Southern Recorder as a 25-30 year old man, about 5'10' tall, with a “well made, round face, with tolerable large whiskers.' Betton, the owner, surmised that...