Episodes Nearest to October 21, 1838: 1 through 25 of 25

  1. The Value of the Extended Family
    date October 21, 1838map JASPER, Georgiatags Church/Religious-Activity, Education, Migration/Transportation

    In 1838 Iveson Lewis Brookes received a letter from his cousin, P.B. (signed with only initials) informing him that his nephew, P.B.'s son, might be moving to Augusta, Georgia for a job. Augusta was near the plantation Iveson was managing for his son in Jasper and Jones counties. We can tell from the letter that Iveson and P.B. were not particularly involved in each others' lives because...

  2. Issued For the Forcible Removal of Missouri's Mormon Population.
    date October, 1838map JEFFERSON, Missouritags Church/Religious-Activity, Crime/Violence, Migration/Transportation

    As a result of increasing tensions and violence between Missouri Mormons and other populations, Governor Lilburn W. Boggs issued a decree calling for their removal, and , if necessary , extermination. People charged the Mormons to be blasphemous, and suspected a Mormon plot to take over the country. When the state of Missouri failed to protect their settlements, Mormon leaders such as Sidney Rigdon...

  3. Potential for Profits
    date November 5, 1838map JEFFERSON, Floridatags Economy, Migration/Transportation

    Finally, Daniel Wiggins decided to take a chance. After numerous invitations from an old Annapolis, acquaintance, Thomas Randal, the wheelwright and millwright from Maryland made the trip south to assess Jefferson, Leon, and Gadsden counties for himself. Wiggins needed a boat, a train, and a horse carriage to complete the 900 mile journey from Annapolis to Belmont, Randall's plantation just...

  4. Fredrick Douglass boards train for freedom
    date September 3, 1838map BALTIMORE, Marylandtags African-Americans, Migration/Transportation, Race-Relations, Slavery

    On September 3, future abolitionist Fredrick Douglass successfully impersonated a sailor and gained access to a train ride toward freedom. Unlike most slaves, Douglass was literate and could therefore taste the pleasures of freedom. This desire was also augmented by his location in the upper south. While such a position “eased some of the burdens of bondage,' it also increased one's...

  5. The Replacement Act
    date May 26, 1838 to December 4, 1838map LEON, Floridatags Replacement Act

    Native Americans were an ancestry that was brutally mistreated by our first settlers. They were considered to be barbarians but truly America's first settlers were the barbarians. The selfish acts of the "Indian removal act" are a disgrace to what our country now stands for. It was put into effect May 26, 1830 and was an agreement that all Native American tribes would be removed from their...

  6. North Carolina Quakers Fight Against Slavery
    date January 17, 1839map ROWAN, North Carolinatags African-Americans, Church/Religious-Activity, Migration/Transportation, Race-Relations, Slavery

    The Society of Friends, otherwise known as the Quakers, of North Carolina submitted a petition to the United States Senate concerning their position on slavery. The Quakers completed this petition during their annual meeting in November of 1838. The petition stated, "we entreat you to legislate for the termination of slavery in this state." Nathan Mendenhall signed the petition, and Senator J....

  7. Snuff Dipping and Mint Juleps
    date July 13, 1838map WAKE, North Carolinatags Health/Death, Women

    Women must be ladies first, opined The Raleigh Register. In the event of tea this afternoon, there was a young woman partaking in activities that had attained epidemic proportions in the Raleigh city area: which is the disgusting, and vulgar act of snuff dipping. An activity that had previously been specific to males in the community, appeared to have caught on with women once thought of as respectable...

  8. A Happy Band of Slaves
    date February 3, 1839map TERRITORY, Territorytags African-Americans, Migration/Transportation, Race-Relations, Slavery

    An incident at the Wharf of Mr. McKinnie and Mr. Williams gave Frances Sheridan something to write critically about in his journal. Here he saw a settler arriving in Texas with a group of slaves. The large band of black enslaved men and women moved about without cares; they laughed and joke as they ate their biscuits. A man only identified as the entertainer of the group created comic relief when...

  9. Horrible experiences slaves endure in the 1800's
    date February 6, 1839map WASHINGTON, Virginiatags Slavery, Slave Living Conditions

    The experience of slavery for men, women, and children was equally horrible. The amount of labor on the plantation farms was the same for both genders. The differences between the genders were the jobs appointed to them. Men were usually appointed jobs that included certain skill like carpentry and blacksmith. Women were usually working in the fields or as house servants. Accordening to Hallam, “For...

  10. Henry Clay Makes Speech to Congress Concerning Abolition
    date February 7, 1839map Washington City, District of Columbiatags Race-Relations, Slavery

    A Whig senator from Kentucky, Henry Clay's speech was discussed throughout the nation during the year. He received much criticism and praise for his confrontation of abolition. Whig politics at the time were very two-sided, having to span the boundary between free states and slave states. His speech to congress in February of 1839 gave his views on abolitionists and their pursuit.<br />He...

  11. A narrative of the adventures and escape from American Slavery of Moses Roper
    date 1838map LANCASTER, South Carolinatags African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Health/Death, Law, Migration/Transportation, Race-Relations, Slavery

    Moses Roper was born in North Carolina, but after being sold several times, he ended up in South Carolina in Lancaster and also spent time in Cashaw County. Born a mulatto, he experienced both the advantages of being too white and also the disadvantages of being too black. For example, while slave traders attempted to sell him, he suffered because he was considered too white and spent time in horrible...

  12. Jonathan R. Davis Journey to Milledgeville, Georgia
    date 1838map PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvaniatags Arts/Leisure, Migration/Transportation

    Before leaving for Milledgeville, Georgia, Jonathan R. Davis of Gadsden, South Carolina had to do some calculations. While planning for his trip he took out his 1838 edition of Mitchell's Traveller's Guide through the United States. The brown three by five inch book contained the mileage for all common stagecoach routes in the country as well as information on the few established...

  13. Yellow Fever Responsible for Christian Miltenberger's Success in 19th Century New Orleans
    date 1838map ORLEANS, Louisianatags Health/Death, Migration/Transportation, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    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...

  14. Branding
    date June 16, 1838map NORFOLK CITY, Virginiatags African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Law, Migration/Transportation, Race-Relations, Slavery

    Under Virginia law, it was legal to brand slaves on the hand until 1838. Branding on the hand was particularly important as an effective way of ensuring the failure of any future attempt at escaping bondage. On June 16, 1838, The Colored American reported that the court of Norfolk Borough had removed those odious relics of the barbarous age, the shackles and staples by which the hand of the criminal...

  15. Federal Government Conducts Removal of Cherokee Indians
    date May 23, 1838map WAYNE, Tennesseetags Health/Death, Migration/Transportation, Race-Relations

    On December 29, 1835, chieftain Major Ridge and his faction , only a minority of Cherokees - signed The Treaty of Removal, ceding all of their territory east of the Mississippi river for 5 million and pledging to move within two years. However, by the May 23rd, 1838 deadline, few Cherokees had actually evacuated. As a result, the United States Army forcibly removed the remaining Cherokees in what...

  16. The Great Fire of Charleston and its Cultural Awakening
    date April 27, 1838map CHARLESTON, South Carolinatags Arts/Leisure, Church/Religious-Activity, Economy, Slavery, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    On April 27, 1838, an enormous fire broke out in Charleston, South Carolina, around 9:00 pm. It raged until noon the next day, damaging over 1,000 buildings. It ruined many businesses, a new hotel, several churches, a new theater, and the entire market except for the fish section. Many houses were burnt to the ground. In efforts to put the fire out, all the water in the city pumps was used. In addition,...

  17. Mortgaging Property
    date April 8, 1838map LAFOURCHE, Louisianatags Agriculture, Economy, Slavery

    In April of 1838, George Guion wrote to the Thibodeauxville Branch of Union Bank of Louisiana asking for a loan of 5,000 in addition to a 10,000 mortgage he already had from the bank on his plantation and slaves. Guion wrote that his plantation had increased in both size and productivity since his first application for a loan due to the fencing of his land, the erection of a cotton gin and a gristmill,...

  18. The Torture of Prisoners at Auburn
    date May 8, 1839map INDIAN LANDS, Alabamatags Crime/Violence, Government, Law

    Imprisonment at Auburn in Lee County, Alabama was literally torturous in 1839. On May 8, 1839, the Mobile Commercial Register published that a committee was investigating reports of certain cruelties towards prisoners. Upon surveying the prison, the committee confirmed that the prison keepers did in fact torture and whip the prisoners, so much that the doctors frequently had to visit to treat their...

  19. Family Influence on Religious Choices
    date May, 1839map GREENE, Georgiatags Church/Religious-Activity, Education

    Walker I. Brookes wrote a letter to his father, Iveson Brookes, from his school in Penfield, Georgia in 1839. Walker was most likely a student of the relatively new Baptist institution, Mercer University. In his letter, he told his father of the large number of baptisms that had taken place recently. He reported that 13 boys at Mercer and 24 girls at the Penfield Female Academy, which was organized...

  20. Dissent Among Southern Evangelicals: To Secede or Not?
    date March 10, 1838map WAKE, North Carolinatags Civil War, Government, Religion

    T. Meredith did not know that in less than three decades he would be in minority opposition to secession. Editor of The Biblical Recorder and Southern Watchman, a weekly newspaper “devoted to religion, morality, literature, and general intelligence,” and circulated throughout North and South Carolina, he urged readers to follow Martin Luther’s example of seeking “strength elsewhere...

  21. Controversy Surrounding the Panic of 1837
    date February 14, 1838 to March 31, 1838map WARREN, Mississippitags Economy, Government, Law, Politics, Migration/Transportation

    John F. H. Claiborne, a Democrat from Natchez, Mississippi, was aghast to hear the news that rumors were circulating that he supported Henry Clay. He immediately wrote the Vicksburg Register a letter on February 14, 1838 to refute these claims. In his letter Claiborne enumerated the many ways that Clay had threatened the interests of his great state. He is the father of the tariff, Claiborne...

  22. Women In The Education Arena
    date November 9, 1837 to July 4, 1838map HAMPSHIRE, Massachusettstags Emma Willard, Mary Lyon, Northeast, Women's colleges, Female Seminaries, Education, Women

    On November 9th, 1837, Mrs. Pamela Burr wrote a letter to Mary Lyon, a leader of the women’s rights leader and educator, urging her to consider her two daughters for admission to Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts. The letter describes the qualifications of two young girls, Caroline and Mary Burr, in detail. Mrs. Burr says that she is not extremely wealthy but could pay tuition...

  23. The Duel
    date February 24, 1838 to March 16, 1838map WARREN, Mississippitags Crime/Violence, Law, Politics

    William Graves and Jonathan Cilley were men of honor. Both were members of the twenty-fifth congress of the U.S. House of Representatives. Graves represented Kentucky, while Cilley was from Maine. The two men certainly were not enemies, so the nation was shocked when Graves killed his fellow congressman. The conflict arose when Graves delivered a letter to Cilley from Col. James Watson Webb, a newspaper...

  24. A Typical Monday for Mary Austin Holley
    date February 26, 1838map TERRITORY, Territorytags Arts/Leisure, Education, Slavery, Women

    In her diary Mary Austin Holley jotted down the events of her afternoon with friends. She enjoyed pleasant conversation as well as the beautiful surroundings. She made note of the impressive collection of books, and in particular the various curiosities displayed throughout the parlor. Holley's friends, Mr. and Mrs. Wharton, boasted all sorts of fascinating relics, once owned by famous figures...

  25. Growing Abolitionist Sentiment
    date June 15, 1839map FREDERICK, Marylandtags African-Americans, Race-Relations, Slavery

    One subscriber of the African American newspaper The Colored American, from Frederick County, Maryland, confessed in a letter to the editor that he was probably making sacrifices in subscribing for your paper. Though he was taking a risk as a reader he also writes to inform the editors that the anti-slavery cause is rapidly gaining ground in this section of the country. The African American papers...