William Wells Brown was owned by Dr. Young, but was hired out to work for different masters throughout his slavery. One of those masters was Mr. Lovejoy, who was a printer. While returning from an errand to the "Missouri Republican" to pick up type, William was attacked by several slave-holders sons. He could not make his escape, being heavily outnumbered and carrying the substantial type, so William...
The Keowee Courier published Senator Butler's contention that shocked the local town of South Carolina that the Southern Press was not to be found in the North. His statement read that not a Southern newspaper is to be seen in a large newspaper reading room in Washington D.C. Finally, the Courier insisted that Southerners must open their eyes to the truth and tyranny of the North. The...
As both a cotton and tobacco dealer, and a forwarding and commission merchant, A. Hamilton ran a regular advertisement for his services in The Nashville Daily Union. In the advertisement he ran on Saturday, July 6, 1850, Hamilton reassured his former patrons that he planned to remain in the business of buying and selling cotton. Hamilton thanked the public for the business they provided him in that...
During the week of June 16, 1850, the Knox County Colonization Society convened for a meeting. This was of great significance because it marked the second anniversary of the Society in the city of Knoxville. At this time, the Chairman of this society declared that 15 to 20 free blacks of the city were ready to begin the process of emigration to Liberia. During the meeting, officers for the following...
Current issues, events, and ideas were spread and divided among many American journals, newspapers, and periodicals, but in June of 1850 Harper & Brothers of New York sought to “remedy this evil” and provide all of this information in one place for anyone who wished to read it. The firm introduced Harper’s New Monthly Magazine as the first general interest magazine in America. They prefaced...
On the night of May 10, 1849 a riot erupted at the Astor Place Theater in New York City. Leading up to the riot, there had been a rivalry between the English actor Edward Macready and the American actor Edwin Forrest. Baker wrote that this rivalry began when Forrest believed that Macready sabotaged his recent tour of England. The nativist trend in the United States at the time did not help...
On August 3, 1850 a notice appeared in The Republican Banner for a runaway slave. A slave boy named Tom who “in appearance resembles an Indian' had run away from a Dr. Waters. (The Republican Banner, August 3, 1850) The note suggests that Tom would not be intellectually capable of escaping all the way to freedom without needing the assistance of Whites, and thus Dr. Waters published this...
On Thursday, August 22, approximately 300 Irish workers arrived in Chattanooga, Tennessee to work on the Chattanooga and Nashville Railroad. Plans for the construction of the Chattanooga and Nashville Railroad began in June of 1845. The railroad was conceived for the purpose of expanding commerce in Chattanooga by reducing the time it took to travel there from Nashville and other major cities, significantly...
Following the death of John C. Calhoun, Congress passed a bill concerning the admission of California as a state. The bill, classified as unfair to the Southern cause by the Keowee Courier, was protested by Southern senators in particular Senator Badger. The Courier reflected on the prudence of how to protect Southern rights within the senate proceedings. Concerns were expressed regarding what the...
Henry Box Brown is notorious for escaping from slavery in the southern United States by shipping himself to freedom in the North in a wooden box. In Narrative of the Life of Henry Box Brown, Written By Himself, Brown described his experiences as a slave, and the events that triggered his bold plan to free himself. Brown was born into slavery in Virginia in 1815, and he described...