Episodes Nearest to April 13, 1853: 1 through 25 of 25

  1. A Family of Slaves Torn Apart?
    date April 13, 1853map AUGUSTA, Virginiatags African-Americans, Slavery

    One of the horrors associated with the institution of slavery was that it constantly tore families apart because slaveholders would sell off members of black families to different and often distant locations. While this was a common occurrence, the benevolence of a significant portion of slaveholders who tried to keep slave families together is often ignored. The sale of a family of slaves by a...

  2. William Rufus King Dies
    date April 18, 1853map BLOUNT, Alabamatags Health/Death

    Former Alabama Senator William Rufus King was inaugurated as the Vice President of Franklin Pierce on March 24, 1853 in Cuba, where he had gone supposedly to recover his failing health. However, his presence in Cuba gained additional meaning as a secret document that came to be known as the Ostend Manifesto was leaked in the later years of the Pierce administration. The President had sent diplomats...

  3. Temperance Convention in Mississippi
    date May 4, 1853 to May 5, 1853map JEFFERSON, Mississippitags Church/Religious-Activity, Crime/Violence, Health/Death

    The Temperance Convention in Jackson, Mississippi of 1853 denounced alcohol as “the root, the fountain, the parent of every other evil, vice, crime, or disease.' The Convention viewed the consumption of alcohol as a social evil that was even responsible for “the crimes committed by [the] slave population,' declaring that, “colored people are everywhere diseased, polluted and...

  4. Cotton Planters' Convention in Alabama
    date May 15, 1853 to May 17, 1853map JEFFERSON, Mississippitags Agriculture, Slavery

    The Cotton Planters' Convention of 1853 featured a three-day gathering of 160 planters from all over the South. Conventions similar to this one span 1850s. In many ways, the 1853 Convention was typical of its type, beginning with registration of arrivals and election of officers and including agricultural presentations and speeches appealing to Southern nationalism. <br /><br />George...

  5. Jefferson Davis Named As Pierce's Secretary of War
    date March 4, 1853 to March 7, 1853map Washington City, District of Columbiatags War

    Jefferson Davis accepted his post as Franklin Pierce's Secretary of War. Born in Kentucky and living in Mississippi for much of his life, Jefferson Davis developed a strong conviction that the Constitution protected the practice of slavery and was an advocate of states' rights. As part of Pierce's administration, he encouraged and induced Pierce to favor the interests and views of southerners...

  6. Forced Immigration
    date February 23, 1853map ORANGE, Floridatags Immigration, Native-Americans

    The increasing immigration of America by Europeans forced the nation to begin expanding the land it needed. The idea of Manifest Destiny was prevalent throughout the citizens of the US, and each wanted his/her piece of land so they could start living out their lives. Florida was one the most lush and fertile areas in the country, and was prime location for more settlers who wanted to acquire property...

  7. Memphis Convention of Southern States
    date June 6, 1853 to June 9, 1853map SHELBY, Tennesseetags Agriculture, Economy, Education

    The Convention meeting in Memphis elected William Causby Dawson, a senator from Georgia, to preside over its proceedings. It addressed issues relevant and common to the southern states, including the construction of a railway from the Mississippi river to the Pacific Ocean, opening up commerce with the valley of the Amazon, the importance of the cotton interest a subject of instructions in foreign...

  8. Rumors of Slave Insurrections in New Orleans
    date June 13, 1853map JEFFERSON, Floridatags African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Race-Relations

    Rumors of an intended slave insurrection alarmed whites living in New Orleans as well as throughout the South as the news of the supposed insurrection travel through newspapers published around the country. On the night of June 13, a free black man reported to the local police about a plot for insurrection in New Orleans. Soon after, James Dyson, white man who was a teacher of a school for free...

  9. The Hypocritical Admirers of Harriet Beecher Stowe
    date June 18, 1853map WAKE, North Carolinatags African-Americans, Migration/Transportation, Race-Relations, Slavery

    Editors of the Raleigh Register reprinted stanzas of a poem published in New York that criticized what Raleigh's editors considered the hypocritical nature of aristocratic British support for Uncle Tom's Cabin in 1853. They applauded the satiric criticism as the severest and most truthful against Stowe and her British supporters. The poem was written as if by a British...

  10. Announcement of North Carolina's First State Fair
    date June 29, 1853map WAKE, North Carolinatags Agriculture, Arts/Leisure

    On June 29, 1853, the Raleigh Register published an announcement stating, “We are pleased to learn that the first annual State Fair will be held in the city of Raleigh on the 18th of October next. We would particularly call this matter to the attention of our Farmers, Miners, Manufacturers and Mechanics.' The event was organized following the recommendations made at the Cotton Planters'...

  11. Southern disdain for Stowe's A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin
    date July 1, 1853map CHARLESTON, South Carolinatags African-Americans, Arts/Leisure, Church/Religious-Activity, Education, Race-Relations, Slavery

    In 1853 Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote the companion to her famous novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, and she titled it A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin. Her purpose in writing the book was to explain why she thought that whites were still unwilling to take pity on slaves. While Stowe claimed that she understood that slaves were more than property, she postulated that other whites still saw slaves as sub-human....

  12. Temperance Movement Debated in Tennessee
    date July 1, 1853map DAVIDSON, Tennesseetags Arts/Leisure, Church/Religious-Activity, Crime/Violence

    The fate of alcohol was uncertain during mid-nineteenth Century. Alcohol had many opponents. Protestants thought it was a great evil. Many Southern whites were afraid of keeping alcohol legal for fear that it could cause great damage if slaves gained access to it. Tennessee was very involved in the temperance movement although it had not completely banned alcohol like Maine. However, in 1853,...

  13. Seminole Chief Billy Bowlegs and His Tribe Refuses to Leave Florida
    date January, 1853 to 1853map ALACHUA, Floridatags Migration/Transportation, Race-Relations

    In 1832, the Seminole tribe in Florida entered into a treaty with the state agreeing to emigrate west of the Mississippi within three years or extend the period by which they were permitted to remain within the state. However, the Chief, “Billy Bowlegs,' and his tribe had refused to vacate the land on which they lived. In response, the Florida Legislature had authorized the raising of two...

  14. Sorghum Arrives in America
    date July 2, 1853map DAVIDSON, Tennesseetags Agriculture, Economy, Migration/Transportation

    Sorghum, a grass that grows in the tropical regions of the world, made its grand entrance to the South via Georgia and South Carolina in 1853. Sorghum competed with sugar in the market for sweet-tasting plants. Sugar could come from a variety of plants from several different countries such as Italy, China, and Brazil whereas sorghum mainly came from Africa. The South might have needed sugar for...

  15. Northern Traveler Endures Southern Transportation
    date 1853map CUMBERLAND, North Carolinatags African-Americans, Migration/Transportation, Race-Relations, Women

    Frustrated by the stagecoach's delayed start, Northerner Frederick Olmsted waited no longer to commence the next leg of his southern exploration. He began the 26 mile journey from Gaston to Fayetteville on foot and let the coach catch up with him along the way. By one o'clock, though he had covered almost ten miles, he doubted he had passed even half a dozen farms. Olmsted took lunch...

  16. Science in the 1850s
    date 1853map ORLEANS, Louisianatags Education, Women

    The New Orleans Academy of Sciences published their constitution and by-laws in 1853. They declared their overarching objective to be the advancement of science, and, despite a great deal of bureaucracy, at least improved their own knowledge during each meeting. The Academy consisted of a certain group of 27 gentlemen, each one an original member and founder. They had strict rules about admitting...

  17. Technological Progress in Louisiana
    date 1853map ORLEANS, Louisianatags Economy, Government, Migration/Transportation, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    New Orleans' geographical location made it a prime final destination for all sorts of shipable goods. The city had become one of the premier metropolises of not only the state but also the entire South, thanks to the convergence of the Mississippi with the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Despite the abundance of water routes, the need for other methods of transportation grew along with the city....

  18. A Northern View on Southern People
    date 1853map NOXUBEE, Mississippitags Government, Law

    In the years of 1851 and 1852, Joseph Baldwin traveled through the south documenting everything he saw, in a very detailed manner. He was from New York, and needless to say, felt out of place and different among the southerners. Baldwin was a lawyer, and in his book about his travels, Flush Times of Alabama and Mississippi, he takes most of his time explaining the legal matters of the places he...

  19. Temperance in North Carolina
    date 1853map WAKE, North Carolinatags Arts/Leisure, Church/Religious-Activity, Slavery

    In 1853, The Sons of Temperance of North Carolina in the Presbyterian Church published a pamphlet reiterating the evils of an "essential poison:" alcohol. The pamphlet described the threatening and mocking effects of all types of alcohol upon society. The Sons of Temperance was a "fraternal lodge" with subdivisions in most states and it was based on the principles of temperance expressed by the...

  20. A New York Doctor’s Supports Slavery
    date 1853map NEW YORK, New Yorktags Slavery, Abolition, Segregation

    As many northerners opposed slavery, some certainly did not. The idea of the abolition of slavery became the central political issue in the North as well as the South during the 1850s. In 1853, Doctor John H. Van Evrie of New York explained, “Gigantic efforts are now being made to convince the people of the North that the overthrow of the present relations of black and white races in the South,...

  21. Meeting of the American Colonization Society
    date January 18, 1853map Washington City, District of Columbiatags African-Americans, Race-Relations

    During its thirty-sixth annual meeting on January 18, 1853, the American Colonization Society delivered its annual report at the “Four and a-half street (Presbyterian) church.' The gathering was opened with prayers and it was announced that, “a general review of our operations the past year is calculated to produce the conviction that the Society is growing in usefulness with every...

  22. Edward Everett Extolls Civilizing Liberia
    date January 18, 1853map Washington City, District of Columbiatags African-Americans, Migration/Transportation, Slavery, Race-Relations

    At the thirty-sixth annual meeting of the American Colonization Society (ACS), the main concern for US Secretary of State Edward Everett was whether it was possible to maintain a civilization in Africa and whether or not the ACS was successful in attempting it. In his speech, Everett discussed the reasons for the ACS, such as stopping the slave trade, and discusses their inspirations which include...

  23. The Launch of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
    date January 10, 1853map BALTIMORE, Marylandtags Migration/Transportation

    On July 4, 1828, Baltimore first began its construction of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. On January 10, 1853, the city finally celebrated the opening of the line. The occasion called for two special train cars carrying the Legislatures of Maryland and Virginia, the city council of Baltimore, the press, and other influential citizens of the area approximately 500 people altogether on an inaugural...

  24. Twelve Years a Slave
    date January 2, 1853 to January 4, 1853map Washington City, District of Columbiatags African-Americans, Agriculture, Crime/Violence, Law, Migration/Transportation, Race-Relations, Slavery

    The memoirs of Solomon Northup vividly portrayed the descent of a former New York freedman into the harsh system of slavery faced by many African Americans living in the antebellum South. Few people probably recalled January 4, 1853, as a significant day in the history of the United States. However, on this day a very important meeting was being held in the small town of Marksville, Louisiana, and...

  25. Calvin H. Wiley Serves as North Carolina's First State Superintendent of Common Schools
    date January 1, 1853map WAKE, North Carolinatags Education

    While serving as North Carolina's first State Superintendent of Common Schools, Calvin H. Wiley revolutionized the educational system. The Common School System, as North Carolina's first statewide publicly supported education system, sought to educate all white boys living within the state. In his first address to the residents of North Carolina, he appealed to them and tried to convince...