As of May 2, 1847 the New Orleans Court Recorder reported that thousands of whites had been sentenced to the workhouse for acts of vagrancy. Often times the courts handed down these sentences without proof, trial, or opportunity to appeal. The fate of these vagrants represents a common occurrence throughout the South. Around this time period in South Carolina the leadership sold vagrants into...
By the summer of 1847, the Mexican War had been going on for just over a year. Newspapers kept citizens up to date with daily progress by their American troops south of the border, including lists of the casualties as well as those enlisting. New Orleans residents opened up their Times Picayunes the morning of July 8 to read a familiar notice, entitled Departure of Troops. It announced...
After reading through the Plantations letters and the excerpts provided by classmates I think that the overall theme is that monetary importance and gaining income is all that truly mattered. A few of the interpretations that I have read from classmates mention that they were surprised about the “care and compassion” that both supervisor Lewellyn and Mr. Cameron had toward the slaves. However,...
As the Mexican War continued through 1847, Americans expressed a growing amount of opposition to a war that originally promised as an easy victory was growing into a drawn-out costly endeavor. In July 1847, former Whig Senator William Cabell Rives spoke at the University of Virginia against the war. He emphasized that the US had no right to “interfere with the institutions of other countries'...
On January 29, 1847 James Skelly and the Cambria Guards embarked on the General Veazie in New Orleans during the Mexican War. Rainy weather had played a continuous role in delaying the men from reaching port. According to Skelly “owing to the Rain and we were Prohibited” resulted in another delay from sailing. Several days later the ship finally made her way into the Gulf of Mexico. ...
The winter of 1846 was physically, emotionally and mentally draining for twenty year-old Mary Ann Graves, a member of the group of emigrants now infamously known as the Donner Party. As one of the survivors of this horrible episode in history, she wrote a letter to Levi Fosdick on May 22 of the following spring recounting her experiences. Her concluding remark was "I have told the bad news, and...
In his run for the presidency John C. Calhoun opposed the Ten Regiment Bill proposed by the Polk administration to bolster the army to continue the fight against the Mexicans. The ten regiment bill called for increased funding to raise and outfit an additional ten regiments to fight Santa Anna's troops in the Mexican American War. Congress intended this funding to last until the end of the...
The heading above W.B. Shapard's Richland Creek estate advertisement boldly read: That very desirable and Beautiful Farm. Shapard first ran the advertisement in Nashville on March 4, 1847, and by Saturday, March 27, 1847 it ran again in the classifieds of The Daily Union. Shapard wanted to sell his estate, and vividly described every aspect of it in his advertisement. The estate was not merely...
Passed for a second time by the House on March 3, 1847, but eventually rejected by the senate again. Despite its failure to pass, the Proviso raised serious constitutional and political questions as to the acceptability of slavery. The Wilmot Proviso, attached as an amendment to an appropriations bill, essentially aimed to prevent slavery from occurring in any territory ceded from Mexico after...
From his estate in Warren County, Mississippi, Jefferson Davis was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1844, and took office for the 29th Congress on March 4, 1845. Davis resigned from his term in June of 1846 to serve in the Mexican-American War during which he was well known for his military achievements. Jefferson Davis served later posts as Secretary of War, United States...