Episodes Nearest to January 1, 1850 to December 31, 1851: 1 through 25 of 25

  1. Fugitive Law approved in Indiana
    date January 4, 1851map HENRICO, Virginiatags African-Americans, Race-Relations, Slavery

    Governor Wright's approval of this law showed the strong support which both he and state of Indiana had for the Union. In his message on Jan 4th, 1851 he eloquently summed up his feelings on the matter, “There is no safety for property or life except in the absolute supremacy of the law: no higher duty of the citizen than to maintain by word and deed, that supremacy, as we value the heritage,...

  2. Arrival of Fugitive Slave Henry Long
    date January 14, 1851map HENRICO, Virginiatags African-Americans, Race-Relations, Slavery

    Henry Long ran away from his Master in Richmond, Virginia and was eventually caught in New York City. Judge Judson of New York City ordered Long to be brought back to Virginia. Much commotion was caused on the trip back to Virginia because of the fear of an uprising of blacks. Long was guarded by as many as 200 police officers at one time when stepping on to a ferry leaving New York. Long would...

  3. Harriet Tubman makes her first trip to escort slaves to freedom
    date December, 1850map BALTIMORE, Marylandtags Migration/Transportation, Slavery

    In December of 1850, Harriet Tubman, escaped slave from Dorchester County, Maryland made her first attempt at freeing enslaved blacks in the South. Tubman had just recently escaped from the Slave state of Maryland to being a free person of Color in Philadelphia, in 1849. Tubman became involved very quickly with abolitionist movements and began to save her money in hopes of returning to purchase...

  4. James Cody Sues John Baily Over Slander Regarding Illegal Trade
    date December 11, 1850map BRYAN, Georgiatags African-Americans, Agriculture, Economy, Law, Slavery

    James Cody of Bryan County, Georgia prided himself in having a good reputation as a respectable Southern man. When his neighbor John Baily accused him of buying rice from a slave without written permission from the slave's owner, he was extremely offended. He considered these accusations to be false and demanded to meet John Baily in court to settle this slanderous dispute. Cody felt that Baily's...

  5. Bill against Fugitive Slave Act introduced in New York Legislature
    date January 25, 1851map HENRICO, Virginiatags Race-Relations, Slavery

    A small portion of the New York Legislature pushed for a bill which was against the Fugitive Slave Act. A similar Bill had been passed earlier in Vermont. The main conflict in this situation is difference between a state and federal law, which takes precedence etc. The South was using the power of the Federal government to keep the Fugitive Slave Act alive.<br />Shortly after these Bills...

  6. Miners' and Manufacturers' Convention Held in Richmond, Virginia
    date December 5, 1850 to December 6, 1850map HENRICO, Virginiatags Agriculture

    On December 5th and 6th, 1850, local agrarian worker and miners convened in Richmond, Virginia by the order of Virginia Delegates, to publish a memorandum to Congress. The purpose of the memorandum was to report to Congress on the state of the Virginia economy. There were many workers from the Atlantic regions of the United States present at the conference from a variety of industries, including...

  7. Gold Rush Merchants: Everything has a Price
    date October 25, 1850 to May 4, 1851map YUBA, Californiatags Merchants, Stephen Chapin David, gold rush

    There was gold in California and everyone wanted their share.  In that spirit, in early September, 1850, 17-year old Stephen Chapin David and his older brother Josiah arrived in Gold Rush California.  Entrepreneurial skills showed quickly as Stephen purchased newspapers before boarding the ship to sell to the other sailors.  While early searching for gold did not prove as lucrative as hoped,...

  8. Arson Terrorizes Leesburg
    date February 3, 1851map LOUDOUN, Virginiatags Crime/Violence

    In the winter of 1851, the town of Leesburg in Loudoun County, Va, was hit by an epidemic. This plague, however, did not bring illness. It instead brought fire. According to an article in the Leesburg newspaper The Washingtonian, a series of fires had spread throughout the town. First, it wasthe firingof a barn belonging to Mr. Hempstone and the stabbing of Mr. Vandevater's horse. Then,...

  9. Philip Claiborne Gooch drafts a letter to obtain subscribers for his medical journal
    date November 12, 1850map HENRICO, Virginiatags Health/Death

    On November 12, 1850, Dr. Philip Claiborne Gooch (1825 , 1855), celebrated Virginian physician, wrote a letter to mail out to potential subscribers of new medical journal he was founding “The Stethoscope'. His letter proposes that “the subscriber to embark in the responsible undertaking, and will issue the first “The Stethoscope' or “VIRGINIA MEDICAL GAZETTE' on the...

  10. Paternalism, Slaveholders, and the Guilty Conscience
    date February 27, 1851map ADAMS, Mississippitags African-Americans, Race-Relations, Slavery

    On February 27, 1851, John M. Folkes wrote a letter in response to a request he had received from a man named Benjamin Drake. In his reply, he addressed Drake's plea for Folkes to surrender a number of his slaves. Throughout the letter, there was a tacit understanding of Drake's financial difficulties; one can assume from Folkes' reply that the end aspiration of Drake's request is...

  11. Boston Abolitionists Rally Against Slave-Catchers in Defiance of Fugitive Slave Act
    date October 25, 1850 to October 31, 1850map SUFFOLK, Massachusettstags African-Americans, Law, Transportation/Migration, Race-Relations, Crime/Violence

    On October 25, 1850, only one month after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, John Knight and Willis Hughes traveled to Boston from Macon, Georgia to retrieve the escaped slaves, William and Ellen Craft. Upon arrival in the city, referred to by Civil War historian James McPherson as the “communications center for abolition,” Knight and Hughes were met with hostility and resistance,...

  12. Virginia Constitutional Convention
    date October 14, 1850 to August 1, 1851map HENRICO, Virginiatags Slavery

    On March 4, 1850, the Virginia General Assembly passed an act providing for the election of delegates to a convention in order to create a new constitution, or amend the existing one. A controversy over the degree to which slave populations could determine seats in the General Assembly precipitated this call for change; under the current constitution, the western part of the state felt that the...

  13. Colonel Lloyd of Virginia Operates a Plantation in Mississippi
    date October 24, 1850map MADISON, Mississippitags Agriculture, Economy, Migration/Transportation

    In the middle of the nineteenth century, it was very lucrative for rich southerners to invest in the establishment of another slave plantation in a different area, which they would oversee from their current address. Colonel Edward Lloyd of Virginia had one such vision that he would operate a plantation in Mississippi from Virginia, and its sole purpose would be for monetary gain. After deciding...

  14. National Women's Rights Convention: Maria Varney's letter emphasizing natural rights
    date October 20, 1850map FAIRFIELD, Connecticuttags women's rights, Politics

    On October 23, 1850 the first annual National Women’s Rights Convention commenced in Worcester Massachusetts. For two days more then a thousand women and men from eleven different states listened to speakers. The speakers emphasized the right to vote, to own property, to be admitted to higher education and to choose their occupation or profession. Newspaper reporters from all over attended, but...

  15. Opposition to the Temperance Movement in Buncombe County
    date March, 1851map BUNCOMBE, North Carolinatags Church/Religious-Activity

    In March of 1851, a vicious battle raged in Buncombe County, North Carolina between the Sons of Temperance and their local opposition. The members of the Buncombe Sons of Temperance consisted of men who were in favor of the moderation of alcohol consumption. The opponents of this order acted out against the Sons in spurts of violence. A Knoxville, Tennessee newspaper picked up this story and claimed...

  16. To free, or not to free. James Hamlet returns a free man to his New York home.
    date October 4, 1850map NEW YORK, New Yorktags African-Americans, Law, Slavery

    Maryland resident Mary Brown exercised the law that historian James McPherson described as having given the federal government more power than any law yet sanctioned by congress – the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Brown authorized a federal official to claim one James Hamlet, of Williamsburgh, New York, and return him to her Baltimore home. Despite the differences in her testimony, and Hamlet's...

  17. Crime and Instant Punishment in Gold Rush California
    date March 8, 1851 to April 27, 1851map YUBA, Californiatags Stephen Chapin David, gold rush, Crime/Violence, Vigilantes

    In California there was lots of gold to be had, but not everyone would strike it rich.  While early gold rush merchants Stephen Chapin David and his older brother Josiah ran their store near the mining camps in 1851, they were surrounded by all sorts of people.  In close quarters you could not always trust the people around you.  Stephen recounted upon his return from the city in March 1851,...

  18. Enactment of the 1850 Swamp Land Act
    date September 28, 1850map Washington City, District of Columbiatags Agriculture

    On September 28, 1850, Congress passed the Swamp Land Act of 1850. The Swamp Land Act of 1850 was the second piece of legislation passed in regards to the overflowing of Swamp Lands in the South. The first bill was passed on year earlier, in Mississippi. These Act ceded all unusable land due to swamps and flooding to be ceded to the State Governments. The states were then given the rights to sell...

  19. Dueling in Southwestern Virginia
    date September 26, 1850map WYTHE, Virginiatags Crime/Violence

    When James E. Brown of Wytheville County wrote a letter to his daughter Jane, he discussed the latest duel as the topic of choice.< Writing from Cobbler's Spring, Virginia, he said that Mr. Hickman and Mr. Long had entered into a duel. Mr. Hickman was the principle fighter and Mr. Long was his second. Dueling with them was Mr. Naylor, the principle fighter, and Mr. Stephen Taylor, his second....

  20. A Fugitive Slave Case in Knox County
    date April, 1851map KNOX, Tennesseetags African-Americans, Law, Slavery

    In April of 1851, a fugitive slave case involving a black man by the name of Sydney was decided in the Knox County Circuit Court. Sydney's counsel argued that he was a free black man born in Tennessee, whom at an unspecified date was kidnapped and smuggled across the state line to Alabama. There, he was subsequently sold into bondage. The case arose when Sydney escaped from his master and returned...

  21. Bartle Family murdered
    date May 3, 1851map HENRICO, Virginiatags Agriculture, Crime/Violence

    On May 3rd three members of the Bartle family were brutally murdered by an Italian man who had worked the Bartle's fields. Accounts stated that there was an altercation the week prior to the murder between Bartle and the Italian worker over wages he felt he deserved. The family members killed were all struck in the head with a blunt object and were all found in a gruesome manner<br />Events...

  22. The California Bill
    date August 30, 1850map PICKENS, South Carolinatags African-Americans, Economy, Government, Law, Politics, Migration/Transportation, Slavery

    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...

  23. Approximately 300 Irish workers arrive in Chattanooga to work on the Chattanooga and Nashville Railroad
    date August 25, 1850map DAVIDSON, Tennesseetags Migration/Transportation

    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...

  24. Furman Promises Appropriate Education for Women
    date August, 1850map ANDERSON, South Carolinatags Arts/Leisure, Church/Religious-Activity, Education, Women

    Reverend James C. Furman delivered a speech for opening convocation on the anniversary of Johnson Female Seminary in August of 1850. He addressed the crowd of students with the words, "women's sphere lies within the limits of private life. Home is the true scene of her influence." He stressed the meaning of women as mothers, mistresses, advisors, physicians, judges, and educators. ...

  25. Sale of Medicines
    date May 29, 1851map ORLEANS, Louisianatags Education

    The front page of many Southern newspapers contained ads for aliments ranging from ulcers to gonorrhea. The remedies were listed as “infallible,' “secret' and “invaluable'. Often the ads were reprinted for months or years at a time and placed in the same spot everyday.<br />Most often the ads were structured towards women and those being afflicted by venereal disease....