Episodes Nearest to June 20, 1820: 1 through 25 of 25

  1. The Runaway Slave and His Broken Family
    date June 20, 1820map BALDWIN, Georgiatags African-Americans, Slavery

    John W. Bridges of Wilcox County, Alabama, desperately penned a letter to the Southern Recorder, the Columbian Telescope, the Carolina Observer, and the Georgia Advertiser on May 27, 1820, looking for a runaway slave by the name of Aaron. A few weeks prior to the publication of this letter, Aaron, a stout well-fed Negro man of 30 years standing around 5'10 had escaped from the John Bridges'...

  2. John England Named First Catholic Bishop of Charleston
    date June 17, 1820map CHARLESTON, South Carolinatags Church/Religious-Activity, Slavery

    John England served a priest in various capacities in his native country, Ireland, from 1808 to 1820. On June 17, 1820, England was appointed by Pope Pius VII as bishop of the new diocese centered in Charleston, SC. He did not receive word of this decision until July 10, when he read the news in a letter from Reverend Henry Hughes. England was asked to accept the position and travel to America...

  3. Alexandria Herald Commented on Illegal Slave Trafficking
    date June 9, 1820map ALEXANDRIA CITY, Virginiatags Crime/Violence, Economy, Migration/Transportation, Slavery

    In June of 1820, the Alexandria Herald ran an editorial condemning Northerners for their attacks on slaveholding. The writer used primary evidence to make the argument that those who criticized Southerners for upholding the institution of slavery were hypocritical because many of them made money from illegal importation of slaves overseas, the act that “produced this servitude (Alexandria).'...

  4. Missouri Convention
    date June 12, 1820 to July 19, 1820map ST LOUIS, Missouritags Slavery

    Southerners wasted no time after the completion of the Missouri Compromise to create a sound structure of government for the newest slave state. The 1820 Convention to establish guidelines for Missouri statehood consisted of 41 delegates, all but eight of whom were born in slave states or territories. The convention was organized with David Barton as president, William G. Pettus as secretary,...

  5. Van Buren and Reservation in the South
    date 1820map HANOVER, Virginiatags Politics

    Martin Van Buren, a Democrat from New York and Vice President to Southerner Andrew Jackson was a questionable figure in the nineteenth- century South. His motives and ideas were unclear and not exactly in-line with everything that the South stood for during this time. He voted for Free Negro Suffrage; the South could not place a finger on the reasons behind his vote, resulting in an unstable opinion...

  6. Grundy and McMinn and the New Bank of the State of Tennessee
    date 1820map DAVIDSON, Tennesseetags Economy

    In 1820, Joseph McMinn, a farmer, state legislator, Indian agent, and governor, and Felix Grundy, a Congressman, U.S. Senator and Nashville Democrat leader, suggested to create a New Bank of the State of Tennessee; it was the central feature of his program while he was candidate for a seat in the state senate. This bank was supposed to be better than the old one, based in Knoxville: the state should...

  7. 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...

  8. A Request from the American Colonization Society
    date July 7, 1820map NORFOLK CITY, Virginiatags African-Americans, Economy, Government, Politics, Migration/Transportation, Race-Relations, Slavery

    On July 7, 1820, the American Colonization Society took out an advertisement in the Norfolk and Portsmouth Herald. The ad, which was actually more of an announcement, concerned the need for equipment, tools, food, and other supplies by the colonists whom the Society sponsored. These colonists were free African Americans who had volunteered to set up a black colony on the west coast of the...

  9. 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...

  10. A Shocking Scene
    date August 12, 1820map NORFOLK CITY, Virginiatags African-Americans, Migration/Transportation, Race-Relations, Women

    The passengers of the steamship Virginia witnessed a shocking scene on the afternoon of August 12, 1820. In fact, the scene was so unnerving and immoral that one passenger decided to write a letter to the Norfolk and Portsmouth Herald to express his disgust. The episode began when the steamship happened upon a small boat while traveling up the river near Fort Norfolk. Hearing cries...

  11. 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...

  12. 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...

  13. Initial State Elections of Missouri
    date August 28, 1820map ST LOUIS, Missouritags Law

    Missouri's first state elections were scheduled to choose a governor, a lieutenant governor, Congressional representative, and membership of both houses of the General Assembly. Following the contemporary national pattern during the 1820s' “Era of Good Feelings,' Missouri did not have opposing political parties. Virtually all adult, white males were Republicans, but the most powerful...

  14. 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...

  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. 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...

  17. 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...

  18. Runaway Slaves
    date October 10, 1820map FAIRFAX, Virginiatags African-Americans, Migration/Transportation, Slavery

    One of the worse things that could happen to a slaveholder was to have one of their slaves run away. They ran away for many reasons. They suffered from the brutal treatment of their master. They sought to be reunited with relatives or friends that lived in the North. They could run away just to experience the taste of freedom that had been stripped away from them. Most slave holders posted news...

  19. 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...

  20. 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...

  21. 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....

  22. First Meeting of the Alabama State Legislature
    date November, 1820map CAHAWBA(BIBB), Alabamatags Economy

    After being admitted to the Union in 1819 as the 22nd state, the Alabama state legislature convened for the first time in the fall of 1820. The initial order of business was to arrange memorials for the deceased Governor Bibb and instate his younger brother, Thomas, to serve out the remaining eighteen months of the term. The focus of the first assembly was primarily financial, because with the...

  23. 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...

  24. Choctaw Treaty of 1820
    date October 18, 1820 to December 23, 1820map INDIAN LANDS, Mississippitags Migration/Transportation, Race-Relations

    The United States, represented by Generals Andrew Jackson and Thomas Hinds, negotiated at Doak's Stand with “Mingoes,' or head men and warriors of the Choctaw nation, over land. The United States hoped to expand white settlement specifically in Mississippi, the Choctaw homeland. In return for the Choctaw land, President Monroe agreed to a cession of about one-fifth of the state of...

  25. 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...