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...
Robert Elfe, Esq. delivered an oration to the Charleston Riflemen about where America has been and where it is going. In the printed version, he used terms such as liberty and fellow citizens in bold face all caps, suggesting that these are words he emphasized in his speech. He spoke on the importance of government, stating Man's elevation or depression in society is the effect of good or bad...
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...
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...
Although there are many tools that have contributed to Obstetric medicine, only one was kept a family secret within a family of barber surgeons and practitioners of midwifery for over 100 years. This secret tool is referred to as the Chamberlen forceps. Forceps have been around for some time with Sanskrit writing from approximately 1500 BC, and come in many different forms. Forceps have many uses...
Elizabeth Crockett, a member of one of the most famous families in Tennessee, died of blood poisoning in 1821. On June 1, 1821, a special court, held in Clarksville, Montgomery County, charged two slaves owned by Mr. William Sullivan with having killed Elizabeth Crockett. According to The Watchman, a Tennessean newspaper: the court and jury were occupied until about eleven o'clock, on Thursday...
M.H. Rice posted an advertisement in The Richmond Enquirer titled Wool Wanted. Rice claimed that cash will be paid for good, clean wool. In the expanding population of the early nineteenth century the demand for woolen cloth kept well ahead of its productive capacity. In response to the increased demand for wool, a boom in mill construction occurred across America. According to...
Philip Saint George Ambler copied the poem Ode to Spring from Anacreon in September 1821. Copying poetry was a common part of education in the early nineteenth century. This practice would have taught not only poetry, but also handwriting and Greek mythology. Philip was one of John Ambler's sons; his education was a private education in which a tutor came to their house to educate the Ambler...
As the sun sank toward the horizon, the empty, blue enormity of the Pacific washed over three small whale boats. The Essex had sailed from Nantucket a year ago, scouring two oceans for the whale oil that drove the island’s economy. On November 20, 1820, the ship was 2000 miles west of South America, over 1200 miles from the nearest island. That day, an eighty-ton sperm whale escaped...
The evangelical explosion weaved and cemented itself through the South during the 18th century. Hundreds of thousands of Southerners followed the flourishing Christian principals, and Iveson L. Brookes was no different. He encountered the tenants of the Baptist tradition and became a devout follower. Brookes completed his coursework from the University of North Carolina in 1819 and spread the Baptist...