It was the Fourth of July, 1831. Francis Scott Key, author of the Star Spangled banner, delivered the oration in the Rotunda of the Capitol of the United States. He spoke to unite the country and reflect the significance of freedom. Independence Day was newly designated since the county had only recently gained independence from Great Britain. Francis Scott Key was aware of the magnitude of...
As of May 1815, the port of Wilmington, North Carolina, albeit small, was a bustling commercial center and exported a wide range of produce. Joshua Potts wrote about the state of the port for posterity and reported the following: Wilmington traded primarily with the West India Islands and the Northern United States, particularly New York. The market opened in November, gained momentum from December...
In 1803, Zephaniah Kingsley began bringing slaves from Africa to his plantation in Fort George Island.[1] Fort George Island is located slightly north of modern day Jacksonville. “The United States did not allow anyone to bring in slaves after 1808. But Florida still belonged to Spain, and so smugglers brought in slaves to the southern United States through northern Florida.”[2] Slaves...
Throughout 1830, the number of slave holders in Maryland was declining, and those who remained were fighting a losing battle to maintain control over the state government. In 1830, white slaveholders consisted of only 35% of the white population of Maryland, yet controlled 60% of the seats in the state legislature -- a fact which was all to prevalent to many anti-slavery whites and to free blacks....
It was clear that James Tinsley wanted nothing more than for his granddaughter to have someone to HAVE AND TO HOLD (since he capitalized the phrase). In 1830, he wrote a deed giving his young six-year-old slave, Martha Jane, to his granddaughter Cleopatra Albertine Tinsley. Not only did James Tinsley give Mary Jane but also all of her increase forever. It was not unusual for southern children...
The low water level made the landing of ships near the mouth of the Brazos difficult. And, fortunately for William hunter, the ship that was lost to the sand bar (he could not remember the name of the ship) was not carrying his goods. However, the incident was instructive to Hunter, as he reported to his business associate James Perry (who resided in Missouri at the time), in that after the ship's...
Moses Austin had been dead nine years when his final move came about. The owners of the land where Austin and his wife were buried were apparently quite anxious to have their bodies moved off of the property, for reasons unknown today. Their son, Stephen Austin requested to a certain Bishop Rosatti (through his brother-in-law) that they be placed in a Catholic burying ground. It was noted to the...
The river was dangerously low. Travelers from Virginia to Kentucky in 1830 needed the river, but fortune did not smile on Robert Whitehead. After a breathtakingly beautiful trip through the countryside to the New River, Whitehead faced water levels lower than any in recent memory. With his chances of catching the steamboat back home dashed, he turned to a precariously small skiff constructed of...
Joshua 24:15 spoke strongly to Robert Whitehead. If it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord. Choose ye this day whom you will serve. Mr. Spriggs, the young Methodist minister who delivered this message in Lewisburg in 1830, awed Whitehead with his forceful words to the point that he attended church twice that day. Whitehead knew that one day the young gentleman would be a religious personality...
January 1830. An impassioned plea has been made by writer William Penn in the January 2nd 1830 edition of The Religious Intelligencer, for the case of the Cherokee Nation against the state of Georgia. He has expressed a growing outrage and disgust against the way Indians in general have been mistreated by the United States and her citizens. The government is called upon to...