Episodes Around: 18450209

  1. The Shawshank Plantation, or Nowhere to Run...but Home
    date November, 1844 to February 5, 1847map GREENE, Alabama, ORANGE, North Carolinatags slavery, runaway, Alabama, North Carolina, Cameron family

    In the film The Shawshank Redemption, a convict named Brooks was paroled after 50 years in prison. He was distraught at the thought of having to leave the dehumanizing Shawshank penitentiary that had been his home for so long. Brooks was released and, after a few months of trying to readjust, he gave up and hung himself. Letters written 150 years earlier from the Cameron Plantations reveal...

  2. The Richest Slave
    date 1845 to 1846map ST MARY, Louisianatags African-Americans, Agriculture, Race-Relations, Slavery

    In the fall of 1845, caterpillars destroyed the cotton crop in Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana, where Solomon Northup was enslaved. His master, along with other planters, sent their slaves, including Northup, south to St. Mary's Parish to hire themselves out on the sugar plantations where labor was needed and wages were high. Northup was hired out to a Judge Turner who lived on the Bayou Salle....

  3. Jacob Enders Buries a Slave Child
    date 1845map FLUVANNA, Virginiatags African-Americans, Health/Death, Race-Relations, Slavery

    In 1845 Jacob Enders, an undertaker employed by Dr. Marcus B. Buck of Fluvanna County, Virginia, constructed a coffin, dug a grave, and buried an African American child for the total fee of two dollars and seventy-five cents. This receipt of service is included in a collection of other receipts and letters; a doctor's bill from one John Thomson, dated December 29, 1840 and a letter from Buck's...

  4. Lunsford Lane Finds Freedom
    date 1845map WAKE, North Carolinatags African-Americans, Government, Race-Relations, Slavery

    Lunsford Lane, a former slave, confidently declared in his autobiography, "I strove to keep self-possessed and employed in my mind day and night planning how I might be FREE." Lunsford Lane was born a slave in Raleigh, North Carolina and self-published an autobiography in 1845 recounting his experiences in slavery and his determination to buy his and his family's freedom. Lane was born and...

  5. The Other Side of The Slave Trade
    date 1845map ALCHUA, Floridatags Slave Trade, Slavery

    A letter from Geo B. Matthew to Lord Stanley in 1845 gives us a unique insight into the way in which the slave trade was operated. Matthew gives reports of ships with "Colored" crews that have been wrecked and the crews were sold into slavery. The letter also shows us a comparison between slaves in the United States, as compared to other parts in the world.

    As opposed to obtaining slaves...

  6. Charles Hudson Speaks Against the Annexation of Texas
    date January 20, 1845 to December 29, 1845map Washington City, District of Columbiatags Crime/Violence, Economy, Law, Slavery, Urban Life/Boosterism, Politics

    In the fierce debate over the annexation of Texas, Charles Hudson, took the floor of the House of Representatives in hopes of preventing the admission of Texas to the Union.  A Whig member of the House of Representatives, representing Massachusetts, as well as a Universalist minister, Hudson emphasized the selfish motives of the Southern advocates for annexation.

    The admission of Texas to...

  7. Memphis & Charleston Railroad Chartered in Tennessee
    date February 2, 1845 to February 2, 1846map SHELBY, Tennesseetags Economy, Migration/Transportation

    The Memphis & Charleston Railroad was chartered on February 2, marking the first rail route from inland Memphis, Tennessee east toward Charleston, South Carolina and the Atlantic Ocean. Although the railroad made little progress until into the 1850s, it was important for the region not only because it linked much of what was still a “frontier' state with the rest of the coastal South but...

  8. E.W. Hubard Advises his Nephew on Gentlemanly Ways
    date February 9, 1845map BUCKINGHAM, Virginiatags Arts/Leisure, Education, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    On February 9, 1845, E.W. Hubard of Washington, D.C. wrote a letter to his nephew, James L. Hubard, of Buckingham County, Virginia. James was a young man at the time, still in the formative stages of his life, and it appears that he and his uncle corresponded regularly about education, family life, and women in central and northern Virginia. E.W. began the letter by acknowledging his receipt of...