Episodes Nearest to July 17, 1847: 1 through 25 of 25

  1. Whig Reaction to the Mexican War
    date July 17, 1847map ALBEMARLE, Virginiatags War

    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'...

  2. Louisiana's Involvement in the Mexican War
    date July 8, 1847map ORLEANS, Louisianatags Politics, Urban-Life/Boosterism, War

    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...

  3. Wanted, An Overseer
    date 1847map COLUMBIA, Floridatags Race-Relations, Slavery, Urban-Life/Boosterism, Women

    As George Gillet Keen would have told you himself, he was a man of few words. He wanted niggers. In particular, he wanted the ability to hire an overseer, to raise himself to a higher class distinction. Some of his hunting buddies had overseers, and their constant dialogue about plantation life left Keen on the outside. He wanted nothing more in life than a plantation of niggers so I could talk...

  4. Greene County Goes Yellow with Fever
    date January, 1847 to December, 1847map ORANGE, North Carolina, GREENE, Alabamatags Plague, Cameron family, alabama, Slavery, Yellow Fever

    In 1847 inhabitants of the Mississippi River basin  had to deal with an outbreak of Yellow Fever.  Transmitted by mosquitoes, Yellow Fever caused symptoms including fevers, chills, headaches and nausea.  In the later months of 1847 the letters that overseer Charles Lewellyn sent to Paul Cameron about the condition of his plantation were fraught with the names of slave that were ill, recovering...

  5. Female College Prepares Women for Society and the Domestic State
    date June 4, 1847map GUILFORD, North Carolinatags Church/Religious-Activity, Education, Women

    During the final examinations for girls at Greensboro Female College, a local newspaper commended the institution in its effort to develop and cultivate the intellect and give dignity to the mind while at the same time preparing women to bear with dignity the responsibilities and trials of the domestic state. According to the Greensboro Patriot, the sister women's college, Edgeworth, founded...

  6. Washington Learns that the Armistice Called Between America and Mexico Fails
    date September 6, 1847map Washington City, District of Columbiatags War

    On the evening of the 20th, a white flag came out from the city, and on the morning of August 21st, the two enemies called upon an armistice for peace negotiations. The Daily Union of DC reprinted the text of communications on the same page that told of the failure of said negotiations and the resulting Battle of Molino del Rey. Nicholas Trist, “an able, firm, and truly patriotic...

  7. Mayor of Macon advises of disease risks
    date May 24, 1847map MACON, Georgiatags African-Americans, Health/Death, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    The mayor of Macon, Georgia issued a health warning at the suggestion of the Board of Health about the dangers of stagnant water. The proclamation details the danger of leaving water to lay stagnant on one's property because of the risk of mosquito born diseases like yellow Fever and malaria. The mayor states that the city has gone to considerable expense to remove stagnant water from public...

  8. Yellow Fever Epidemic in Louisiana
    date August 3, 1847 to October 18, 1847map ORLEANS, Louisianatags Health/Death

    In the summer of 1847, New Orleans became victim to another regular widespread epidemic of yellow fever. On Tuesday, August 3rd, The Daily Picayune stated that the Board of Health apprised the public that New Orleans was on the eve of an epidemic. They called for “the unacclimated who remain with us to heed the counsel of the board and avoid such exposure and imprudence as may increase their...

  9. A Religious Master's Desperate Decision
    date May 20, 1847map PRINCE GEORGES, Marylandtags Church/Religious-Activity, Race-Relations, Slavery

    On May 20, 1847, The National Era in Washington, D.C. contained an article concerning a surprising act of a man fro Prince George County, Maryland. Enlightened by the Marlborough (Maryland) Gazette, the Era learned that the heirs of the late John Townsend brought forth a case against the testator's will. The late Townsend caused uproar in the county with his proposal...

  10. A Peek at Things to Come: Whig Disunion
    date September 15, 1847map EAST BATON ROUG, Louisianatags Government, Politics

    The Whig convention, nicknamed the rough and ready convention after prominent Whig Old Rough and Ready General Zachary Taylor, failed to nominate a candidate for the Third Congressional District. The convention consisted of a declaration of the opposition of the members to all caucuses, and a resolve not to make a nomination for any one for Congress. Five people were appointed to a committee who...

  11. Greene Springs School for Boys Opens
    date September, 1847map GREENE, Alabamatags Education

    Professor Henry Tutwiler, a professor from LaGrange College and the University of Alabama, opened the Greene Springs School for Boys for its first term in 1847. The school was situated in Greene County near Havana (now known as Hale County). It quickly became one of the most famous academies in Alabama, recognized for the high caliber education provided by Tutwiler, who remained the principal...

  12. Gradual Abolition of Slavery in Western Virginia
    date September, 1847map ROCKBRIDGE, Virginiatags Economy, Government, Slavery

    In 1831, the issue of slavery came to the forefront of political debate following Nat Turner's rebellion in Southampton County, Virginia. President of Washington College and slaveholder Dr. Henry Ruffner delivered an address in 1847 that outlined the evils of slavery and proposed the gradual eradication of slavery from western Virginia. In correspondence to Messrs. Moore, Letcher, &c, Ruffner...

  13. The American Highlanders Storm Chapultepec Castle
    date September 15, 1847 to September 16, 1847map CAMBRIA, Pennsylvaniatags Seige, Militia

    The American Highlanders stormed Chapultepec Castle on September 15, 1847, a strategic and crucial battle that helped to begin the US Campaign in Mexico. In General Geary's Report of September 15, at which time he commanded the 2nd Pennsylvania, he detailed his own experience of the battle and that of each of his companies. Geary was struck with grape shot early in the battle and could not...

  14. Washington Receives News of General Scott's Victories
    date September 17, 1847map Washington City, District of Columbiatags War

    In the late summer of 1847, General Winfield Scott began his march towards Mexico City and the decisive series of battles that destroyed the Mexican army and ultimately the abdication of the presidency by Santa Anna. Beginning with the Battle of Contreras on August 19 and the Battle of Churubusco on August 20, the Americans suffered losses of less than a hundred men while the Mexicans had a five...

  15. Alabama Citizen Addresses Need for Diversity of Labor in Southern States
    date October 1, 1847map AUTAUGA, Alabamatags Agriculture, Economy

    Daniel Pratt, Alabama's first industrialist, published an address to the people of Alabama establishing the advantages to be had from a diversion of labor. Tennessee reviewers agreed with Pratt, stating that “cotton is the article on which the South ought to commence manufacturing.' Logically, “the larger the crops, the more negroes, the more negroes the more land is cultivated,...

  16. Fall Illness on the Greene County Plantation - Flu or Yellow Fever?
    date September 28, 1847 to October 26, 1847map GREENE, Alabamatags Illness, Yellow Fever, plantation, Slavery

         In the “Cameron Plantation Letters” there are numerous references to the health of the slaves living on the Greene County Alabama plantation.  There are one hundred or so letters in the University of North Carolina collection that are catalogued on the website ‘The Plantation Letters, Interpreting Antebellum Plantation Life’. I found thirty-five that directly referenced the health...

  17. An Honorable Boy
    date April 15, 1847map Washington City, District of Columbiatags Agriculture, Health/Death, Migration/Transportation, Race-Relations

    On April 15, 1847, The National Era printed an article publicizing one person's genuine act of kindness towards mankind. This person was no established politician providing aid for victims of the Irish Potato Famine; instead, he was a small five-year-old boy named Joseph Klemm. When Joseph's mother read him one disturbing account from Ireland, his first instinct was to run and get his moneybox....

  18. The Runaway Slave
    date April 14, 1847map ORLEANS, Louisianatags African-Americans, Law, Race-Relations, Slavery, Women

    For many enslaved people in the Deep South, slavery was the only way of life they had ever known. Regardless, stories of the North and specifically, a place referred to as Philadelphia, were incentive enough to prompt some to brave the terrifying unknown and escape the even more terrifying world in which they were already bound. At some point during the day - or perhaps it was the night - of April...

  19. Shipwreck of the Steam-Packet Home
    date October 10, 1847 to 1847map CURRITUCK, North Carolinatags Church/Religious-Activity, Health/Death, Migration/Transportation

    On Saturday afternoon, John D. Roland left New York on the steam-packet Home bound for Charleston. His trip quickly took a turn for the worst. By Monday morning, the ship encountered a violent hurricane in the waters around Cape Hatteras and was taking on water. All hands were at the pumps, women included, bailing out water, but the leak continued to increase. After water reached the engine,...

  20. W.B. Shapard's Very Desirable and Beautiful Farm
    date March 4, 1847map DAVIDSON, Tennesseetags Agriculture, Slavery

    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...

  21. Wilmot Proviso defeated by the Senate for the final time
    date March 3, 1847map Washington City, District of Columbiatags Slavery

    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...

  22. New Orleans Courts report thousands of whites recently jailed for vagrancy
    date 1847 to May 2, 1847map ORLEANS, Louisianatags Crime/Violence, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    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...

  23. John C. Calhoun aids in defeating the Ten Regiment Bill
    date February, 1847map Washington City, District of Columbiatags War

    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...

  24. Casual Affection: An Explanation of Duality between Affection and Dominant Ownership.
    date December 28, 1847map ORANGE, North Carolinatags Plantation Life, Cameron family, Slavery

    How can one person treat another as both indispensable and an object to be purchased? Frances Cameron writes to Duncan Cameron, “A man servant who formerly belonged to my mother is about to be sold, and has applied me to buy him [...] I am particularly desirous of purchasing him [...] But a good male servant in my establishment, is indispensable ...” (series: 1.3.3, box: 43, folder: 1023, date:...

  25. African-American Traveler Jailed Despite Documents
    date January 5, 1848map WAKE, North Carolinatags African-Americans, Law, Slavery

    Sherriff Willie Pope incarcerated the black man calling himself Sam Fary just three days after Christmas. Though Sam claimed himself a free man, Pope placed a front page advertisement in the local paper requesting Fary's owner to come forward, prove property, pay charges and take him away, or he will be dealt with as the law directs. The newspaper notice included a small cartoon of a running...