Episodes Around: 18480622 to 18480809

  1. Child Mortality on an Alabama Plantation
    date June 25, 1846 to December 31, 1849map GREENE, Alabamatags plantation, Slavery, Death, Children, alabama

    Disease was rampant among the slave population in the Antebellum South. Poor diet, less than adequate clothing, and exposure to the elements, caused the immune systems of the over-worked laborers to break down, making them susceptible to contracting a variety of illnesses. A demographic that was particularly at risk were children age nine and under. Fully 45 out of every 10,000 slave children aged...

  2. Duel in Dismal Swamp
    date October 1, 1847 to 1848map CAMDEN, North Carolinatags Crime/Violence, Health/Death, Law

    Violence was a fact of life. J.E. Wilkins was only a small boy when he heard pistol shots near the Dismal Swamp Canal. Wilkins was with a crowd of boys on a visit to his uncle, William Wallace, who lived just north of the Virginia-North Carolina state line. Ahead, they saw two carriages and several men. Another round of shots rang out, and the boys were excited even more. As they approached the...

  3. The Theatre of Everyday Life
    date January 1, 1848 to January 1, 1850map ORLEANS, Louisianatags Women, Urban Society

    As the daughter of Don Andres Almonaster y Rojas, the Cabildo's original benefactor, the Baroness Pontalba was no stranger to the notion of civic duty expressing itself through architecture. After a tumultuous marriage and divorce to a Parisian nobleman, sensationalized in various newspapers, she returned permanently to her hometown and sought to transplant the culture and sophistication she...

  4. Zachary Taylor Grapples With the Wilmot Proviso
    date 1848map SUFFOLK, Massachusettstags Politics, Slavery, Law

    As soon as the Mexican War ended and the Mexican Cession granted the United States even more land for the nation, a common contemporary issue posed the question: would these new territories be free soil or allow slavery? David Wilmot, a Democratic representative from Pennsylvania at the time, added a proposal of how to settle the slavery question once and for all, known as the Wilmot Proviso. The...

  5. Plantation Owner Seeks Compensation From Incompetent Overseer
    date June 22, 1848 to August 9, 1848map HOUSTON, Georgiatags Agriculture, Law

    On June 22, 1848, plantation owner John Powers filed a petition against his overseer, William Ingram, in the Inferior Court of Houston, Georgia. Powers sought reimbursement for financial losses resulting from the overseer's poor and irresponsible work, asserting that half of his cotton and corn crop was lost due to bad management, want of industry and misconduct of the defendant. His plantation...