Situated at the intersection of Royal and Dumaine Street in the heart of the New Orleans, the Miltenberger House still stands as a testimony to one immigrant's accumulation of wealth and to medical advancements in the South during the 19th century.
Little was known about yellow fever, especially ways to prevent or treat this disease. Almost annually, it seemed, the Gulf Coast and in...
Writer of the Greenville Century Book S.S. Crittenden has personal ties to that fateful day in November 1838, when newspaper editor William Lowndes Yancey shot his wife’s uncle, Dr. Robinson Earle in the heart of the downtown area. The murder was conducted because Earle had called Yancey ‘a damned liar,’ and Yancey felt that he needed to defend his honor against Earle’s accusations....
Unmarried and living on the La Grange plantation in northeast Florida, Ellen Brown could no longer tolerate her brother's inconsistencies on matrimony. Mannevillete Brown believed marriage to be an ultimatum-the great aim of women and last public act before retreating into domestic life. But Mannevillete also spoke of marrying for money, station, and power. How did he then reconcile his speech...
Sometime prior to the first of January 1836, slaveholder Thomas Fuller must have checked his books or given some thought to his economic needs. Perhaps he wanted to make some money, maybe he was in debt and needed to get cash to pay back a lender, or he may have been foreclosing on a loan. All of these were common reasons for selling slaves in the South. Or, maybe Fuller was just trying to get certain...
Robert Anderson was just a young boy when he became a house servant in a Liberty County plantation home. He cleaned the knives, swept the floors, and later tended to the sheep, cows, and hogs. Robert's mistress thought a great deal of him and kept him around the house as much as possible. In Robert's words his mistress felt that nothing went right if I [Anderson] did not have something to...
In an 1836 lifestyle manual for women, entitled The Young Lady’s Friend, John Farrar outlined the expectations for an American Christian women’s behavior in a particular chapter entitled Dress a Test of Character. In this chapter he discussed the appropriateness and significance of a nineteenth century women’s dress in relation to how she was viewed by society. According...
A large party of Seminole Indians formed an ambush on the Appalachicola river, attacked one of our boats ascending near the shore, and killed, wounded, and took the greater part of the detachment, consisting of forty men stated a military correspondence in a Tennessee newspaper. Reports of Indian attacks were common around this time of early settlement and posed as a threat not only to the military...
Religion permeated every aspect of nineteenth century life for many Southerners. The congregations of St. Stephan's Episcopal and Trinity Churches of Bedford County, Virginia were no different. In the minutes of St. Stephan's Episcopal and Trinity Churches' vestry meeting, the close bond between pastor and congregation was more than apparent. Although their pastor, Reverend Nicholas...
The trek by wagon train to Texas was one fraught with danger. Trail roads were rough, there were high rivers to cross, diseases to contend with, and of course the possibility of meeting up with Indians. Mary Maverick was making such a journey in the summer of 1837. She was traveling by wagon train from her home in Alabama to the new land of Texas. One day when her party was moving camp, 17 Tonkawa...
Gambling has played a significant role in southern culture since the colonial period and still is an important part of our society today. During the 1830s and 1840s in central Virginia, betting and gambling were indicators of social status within the community. Those who bet on card games and dice were seen a part of the wealthy class. They had much more money and therefore were able to toss it...