Episodes Nearest to December 28, 1835: 1 through 25 of 25

  1. Sugar Plantations
    date December 28, 1835map ASCENSION, Louisianatags African-Americans, Economy, Slavery

    During the nineteenth century Louisiana was one of the country's largest producers of sugar. The sugar plantations contributed to the American economy and although they were not always the wealthiest of ventures, the proved to be objects of mystique to travelers passing through southern Louisiana.

    One such visitor to Louisiana was William Gray Fairfax of Virginia. Gray was on his way...

  2. Clay's Grief
    date December 25, 1835map Washington City, District of Columbiatags Health/Death, Government, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    Christmas day, 1835, was a most miserable day for Henry Clay. One moment he was laughing and joking with friends; then his life changed drastically. He received a letter from home. Upon opening it, he fell directly to the ground, as if he had been shot. The first words he managed to utter, Every tie to life is broken He had received new of his daughter's death. Although he became more composed...

  3. Frederick Douglass escapes
    date January 1, 1836map BALTIMORE, Marylandtags African-Americans, Slavery

    In Chapter XIX of Frederick Douglass's My Bondage My Freedom, he talked about how he was fed up with not being a free man and began to devise a plan to escape. At this point in Douglass's life he worked for Mr. Freeland, and even though he considered him a friend, the idea of being enslaved his entire life gave Frederick the drive to escape. It was the beginning of 1836, and Fredrick...

  4. John Dewery in Prison
    date January 7, 1836map CLARKE, Alabamatags African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Law, Migration/Transportation, Slavery

    John Dewery, a bright mulatto...nineteen or twenty years old, found himself in a precarious situation. As he was sitting in the Clark County Jail in Alabama on January 7, 1836, the Mobile Commercial Register published an announcement about his capture and arrest as an escaped slave. This was problematic because he swore in vain that he was a freed person. Nevertheless, the paper reported that if...

  5. Catholicism's Impact on Religion and Politics in St. Louis
    date December 17, 1835map ST LOUIS, Missouritags Church/Religious-Activity, Government, Politics

    While American historians often focus on the millions of immigrants that moved through Ellis Island, many of these same people traveled west and ended up in St. Louis. The city became a locus of immigrant activity, both religious and cultural. However, negative changes often accompanied positive ones with the large influx of immigrants. The greater influence of Catholicism, the dominant immigrant...

  6. Fire Destroys Wall Street
    date December 16, 1835 to December 17, 1835map NEW YORK, New Yorktags Urban Society, Urban-Life/Boosterism, Health/Death

    In the evening hours of Wednesday, December 16, 1835, smoke billowed above the downtown Manhattan skyline. At the time, no one knew exactly where the sparks had ignited and the fire begun, but by Thursday afternoon, the flames had engulfed approximately seventeen square blocks on and surrounding Wall Street. An article in the magazine The Albion indicated that by Thursday evening between 700 and...

  7. The Call for Prohibition by Missouri Temperance Society
    date January 21, 1836map ST LOUIS, Missouritags Health/Death, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    Though a large religious presence existed in Missouri, its inhabitants succumbed to a great number of vices, including alcohol abuse amongst men. The widespread alcohol abuse in St. Louis, the gateway to the West, caused many that passed through the city to comment on the wicked city containing an excessive number of deists and infidels. Some cited alcohol abuse as a result of the growing population...

  8. Raleigh State of the Art
    date November 16, 1835map WAKE, North Carolinatags Health/Death, Women

    The Raleigh Theatre was the grandest in the land. After attending the grand-opening, all the men and women of the city agreed that they had never seen their own theatre surpassed in beauty and style. The curtain drapery over the hollow wooden windows and stage doors was fitted with precision, and the walls were no longer glum and drab but instead featured variegated colors trimmed in gold. The...

  9. Alexander Campbell and John Thomas Debate Reimmersion
    date February, 1836map BROOKE, Virginiatags Church/Religious-Activity

    As Alexander Campbell promoted his restoration movement, one of his colleagues questioned him on the issue of baptism. In 1836, he entered into a debate with Dr. John Thomas in the Millennial Harbinger, Campbell's own religious journal. At first, their ideas corresponded well with one another, as they both required immersion to attain salvation. Their concurrence did not last long,...

  10. The Republic of Texas declares independence from Mexico
    date March 2, 1836tags Slavery

    Delegates from 57 Texas communities met at Washington-on-the-Brazos in March of 1836 to draft a declaration of independence from Mexico. This formal separation from the Mexican government came about five months after war broke out in October of 1835. The language of the document written by Tennessean George C. Childress reflected a growing concern over Santa Anna's centralistic, militaristic...

  11. Easter Hudson Becomes a Member of the Brushy Creek Baptist Church
    date October, 1835map GREENVILLE, South Carolinatags African-Americans, Church/Religious-Activity, Race-Relations, Slavery

    Easter Hudson appeared in the Brushy Creek Baptist Church records as early as 1831, but she became a member of the church on October of 1835. Easter, along with six other black members were listed with the surname of Hudson and were present in the new members list of 1835.There were two white members named Millie and Albert J. Hudson that also became members of this Baptist church at the same time....

  12. Dilue Harris's Experience in the Runaway Scrape
    date March, 1836map TERRITORY, Territorytags Health/Death, Migration/Transportation, War

    The Alamo had fallen and Sam Houston decided that it was time. On March 11, 1836, Houston ordered Texas families to retreat across the Colorado River in order to escape the Mexican army. Dilue Harris, a young white girl, packed up her belongings and left her home with her family. They began to encounter trouble when they attempted to cross the Trinity River. The water level of the river and the...

  13. Christianity as a Justification for Slavery
    date September 29, 1835map CHARLESTON, South Carolinatags African-Americans, Church/Religious-Activity, Race-Relations, Slavery, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    Slave owners had many justifications for why holding people in bondage was acceptable. From the idea that African Americans were a lesser race who needed taking care of by white patriarchs to the economic justification, slave owners were always trying to find new ways to dispute those who disagreed with their choice to hold others in captivity. Charleston slave holders were no exception in attempting...

  14. The Observer's Slave Clothing Debate
    date September 17, 1835map ST LOUIS, Missouritags African-Americans, Slavery, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    Elijah Lovejoy, a staunch abolitionist living in Missouri, published and owned the St. Louis Observer. As part of his weekly papers, Lovejoy printed national and international news on a variety of subjects, most frequently the debate on slavery. Lovejoy printed one of these hotly debated articles on September 17, 1835, when Asa A. Stone's editorial article on the clothing condition of slaves...

  15. Foreign Goods are Southern Delights
    date September 11, 1835map HENRICO, Virginiatags Arts/Leisure

    Elite southerners adorned themselves in European imports as a means of showing ones status. Using the term, planter aristocracy James and Dorothy Volo explored elite antebellum planters and their perceptions of heritage and prestige. According to the Volos', Americans prized every connection to European nobility and believed that old American families should receive the same prestige as those...

  16. Alexander Campbell's Movement Grows
    date April, 1836map BROOKE, Virginiatags Church/Religious-Activity

    By the time the Millennial Harbinger hit the presses for its April 1836 issue, the movement begun by its editor, Alexander Campbell, had grown so substantially that it began to challenge other Christian denominations. D.S. Burnet, a writer for the Millennial Harbinger, exclaimed the growth of the restoration movement of primitive Christianity. He explained that ever since its founding,...

  17. Anti-Abolitionists are Antagonized in The Herald
    date August 31, 1835map ONTARIO, New Yorktags Economy, Politics, Slavery, Abolition

    When residents of Geneva, New York acquired their daily copy of the Herald on August 31, 1835 they had no idea they were about to read a prophetic vision of the United States’ future. After acknowledging an anti-abolition meeting that had taken place in the town just a few days prior, the anonymous author of the front-page article went on to denounce the meeting as foolish and to predict...

  18. Creek Indians burn the town of Roanoke, Georgia
    date May 15, 1836map INDIAN LANDS, Georgiatags Crime/Violence, Race-Relations, War

    In May of 1836, a long simmering conflict between whites and Creek Indians in Alabama and Georgia finally erupted. President Jackson's destruction of the Bank of the United States had resulted in uncontrolled speculation, and frontier people were clamoring for more land. This was in spite of the 1832 Treaty of Cusseta, which stipulated that individual Creeks be given a parcel of 320 acres...

  19. Slave Sale Comes in Many Forms
    date May 20, 1836map CHARLESTON, South Carolinatags African-Americans, Economy, Race-Relations, Slavery

    ohn Stapleton, an English attorney, handled the affairs of several Charleston properties included in the estate of Mrs. Hannah Bull. He managed the sale of her slaves, cattle, hogs, sheep and other effects of Mrs. Bull's properties after her death. In a letter to Higham, Fife & Co. dated May 20, 1836, Stapleton detailed the sale of several slaves and included the titles. As the attorney, the...

  20. House of Representatives passes the first gag rule on slavery
    date May 26, 1836map Washington City, District of Columbiatags Slavery

    First introduced to the House floor by South Carolina's James Henry Hammond, the gag rule was a radical measure designed to completely eliminate debate dealing with abolition. Traditionally, representatives received and tabled antislavery prayers, or buried them in committee; the gag rule, however, prevented even this formality from taking place. This was not a spontaneous development, but...

  21. The Gentlemen Here Are Very Polite. What about the women?
    date July 21, 1835map FAUQUIER, Virginiatags Arts/Leisure, Migration/Transportation, Urban-Life/Boosterism, Women

    Ms. Mary Peace of Philadelphia made a point to express her views on the society of Warrenton, Virginia, in a letter she wrote during her visit there to her brother, Master Washington Peace. She noted that the the gentlemen here are very polite and offer their horses and attendance to the women. However, Mary did not develop as fond of an opinion for Warrenton's women. She expressed a specific...

  22. Proposed bill on incendiary publications fails to pass in the Senate
    date June 8, 1836map Washington City, District of Columbiatags Slavery

    In December of 1835, Andrew Jackson proposed to Congress that some form of legislation be drafted to restrict the circulation of “incendiary publications' in slave states. He was quoted by the Mobile Commercial Record as saying: “The General Government, to which the great trust is confided, of preserving inviolate the relations created among the States by the constitution, is especially...

  23. Violence in Mississippi
    date July 15, 1835map MADISON, Mississippitags African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Race-Relations

    In the summer of 1835, violence swept through the Mississippi landscape. A Mississippi man's letters include harrowing murders, vigilante activity and a purported slave insurrection. Rattled by the violence, the Mississippian, James Carlson, in a letter to his former schoolmate, Virginian Robert Whitehead, detailed the events with fear and warning. Lawless men brutally murdered a mutual friend...

  24. An Unpredictable Mail System
    date July 14, 1835map RICHMOND, Georgiatags Government, Politics, Migration/Transportation

    James L. Stratton was traveling through the South on business in 1835. While stopped in Augusta, Georgia, he wrote to his wife Eliza at their home in Philadelphia. In his letter he complained of the many difficulties he faced during his trip. In particular, he was frustrated that he had not been receiving letters from her. He reported that he had expected to receive a letter from her while in Monroe,...

  25. Arkansas enters the Union as a slave state
    date June 15, 1836map PULASKI, Arkansastags Slavery

    The territory of Arkansas began its push for admittance to the Union in 1833, but some Congressmen, as well as many Arkansas citizens, thought statehood could wait until the population had grown considerably. After all, they benefited financially from their status as a territory. However, the need to draft a Constitution and petition Congress for admission became more urgent when Michigan made...