Episodes Nearest to January 1, 1855: 1 through 25 of 25

  1. Washington Journalists
    date January 1, 1855map Washington City, District of Columbiatags Government, Law, Politics, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    With political and social temperatures running high in the winter of 1855, many journalists turned to debates concerning the acquisition of new lands, but this time outside of the modern day contiguous United States. Many rumors circulated about secret deals with foreign countries in exchange for economic and Republican support. One particular rumor published in an article from the Farmer's...

  2. A History of African Slaves in the American Revolution
    date January 1, 1855map SUFFOLK, Massachusettstags African-Americans, Emancipation, Abolitionism, Revolutionary War

    Freedom and the emancipation of slaves were not two separate ideals in separate times in American history.  One of the important milestones in the American Revolution was the Boston Massacre, in which one of the first people to die was a black slave. Some claimed he was one of the first martyrs of the American Revolution.  During the American Revolution, several regiments were formed by order...

  3. Missourians Invade a Kansas Territory Election
    date January 4, 1855map PLATTE, Missouritags Crime/Violence, Government, Politics, Migration/Transportation

    Reactions to the Kansas-Nebraska Act filled newspapers across the nation. National Era, an African-American newspaper based in Washington D.C. commented on the movement of pro-slavery people from Missouri into the Kansas territory. A letter from Governor Reeder of the Kansas territory, printed January 4, 1855, condemned the first election in the district for a delegate to Congress. Reeder...

  4. The Murder of Mrs. Harris
    date December 25, 1854map ASCENSION, Louisianatags African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Law, Race-Relations, Slavery

    n the day of the murder, Ben Small kept watch in the yard for Isidore. Isidore knew that Mrs. Henry would never let Small in the house, so he had to commit the crime. After the murder, one of the men set fire to the house. Ben worried about the children who were asleep in the house at the time.

    This won't do, the children will be burned; let us wake them or put the fire out, Small reportedly...

  5. Know-Nothingism Condemned in Arkansas Legislature
    date January 10, 1855 to March 17, 1855map PULASKI, Arkansastags Law

    Despite is popularity in many political spheres, Know Nothingism failed to excite the political imagination of the inhabitants of Arkansas. As in other locales, the Know Nothing party attempted to raid the Southern Whig party in the hopes of increasing its own membership for the elections of 1854 and 1855. However, that effort, at least in Arkansas, was met only with defeat and denunciation. ...

  6. Internal Improvements in Norfolk
    date November, 1854map NORFOLK CITY, Virginiatags Economy

    By November 1854, Virginia's economic output had slipped behind the other Southern states' production. Improvements were necessary in order to bring the Old Dominion back to its previous dominance. In an essay entitled Views on the Internal Improvement System of Virginia, an author under the name One of her sons described the dismal state of Virginia's economy, and stressed the need...

  7. The White Slave from Virginia
    date March 9, 1855map ALEXANDRIA CITY, Virginiatags Race-Relations

    It is hard to believe one little girl could cause such a sensation, but when people caught site of Mary Mildred, a young former slave who had been employed in Alexandria, they were astonished and labeled her the white slave from Virginia. According to a New York Times article, the girl, whose father bought her freedom after escaping to Boston, was a real, 'Ida May,'- a young female...

  8. The Joint-Worm Convention
    date July, 1854 to 1854map FAUQUIER, Virginiatags Agriculture, Economy

    To the residents of Fauquier County, and those living in many parts of Virginia, agriculture was a way of life. And if that livelihood was threatened, the residents knew that they would have to work together to protect it. As the New York Times reported on July 21, 1854, farmers held a convention in Warrenton, Va, entitled The Joint-Worm Convention, in an effort to stop the destruction...

  9. A Slanderous Newspaper
    date September 27, 1854map HINDS, Mississippitags Politics

    In the nineteenth century, politicians and political parties owned the newspapers, and

    utilized them for their own personal agendas. Newspapers played an important role in the

    advertisement and propaganda leading up to an election, no matter its size. Politicians were

    scared of the newspapers and what they could do to their chances of election, if the opposing

    party...

  10. New Orleans Slave Market
    date April 27, 1855map ORLEANS, Louisianatags African-Americans, Slavery

    Human beings sold as cattle was a most atrocious sight for many of the on looking slaves held in the slave markets. For Anne Lynch Botta, a slave woman, a scene where people were priced based on their age, physical traits, and behaviors was a most painful sight. In an instant a child could be ripped from its mother's arms, but on that day, April 27, 1855, a mother and child were fortunate enough...

  11. The Loss of a Culture
    date May 3, 1855map CHOCTAW, Mississippitags Migration/Transportation, Native-Americans, Race-Relations

    Many Native American tribes, including the Choctaws of Mississippi, struggled with their identity as a people during the nineteenth century. As white America expanded west, the lives of these peoples began to be transformed forever. Many Native Americans abandoned their heritage in the pressing tide. They replaced the traditions of their ancestors with many economic, social and political practices...

  12. The “Know-Nothing' Party pushes through Delaware Prohibition Act
    date May 6, 1855map KENT, Delawaretags Race-Relations

    In the elections of 1854, the “American Party', a large portion of which was represented by the “Know Nothing' party, reached their peak point of popularity, winning elections across the country. The party's central platform was an Anti-Roman Catholic and anti-immigrant message. In Delaware, Know Nothingism became especially popular, winning an easy majority of the state...

  13. Baptists Educating Women for the Sake of Men
    date August 11, 1854map WASHINGTON, Virginiatags Church/Religious-Activity, Education, Women

    When the Holston Baptist Association convened in 1854, the reverends of the association discussed the education of women. While 38 churches in attendance wanted to sustain denominational schools already in place, Reverend N. Baldwin, representing Abingdon, Virginia had a different suggestion. Baldwin's address began by accusing Europeans of being destroyers of Christian values. He argued that...

  14. The Creation of the South Carolina Historical Society
    date June 2, 1855map CHARLESTON, South Carolinatags Arts/Leisure, Education, Race-Relations, Slavery

    In the 1850s, Charleston, South Carolina, was home to a vibrant intellectual life, Renaissance men, and a host of debating and literary societies. The diversity of these intellectual societies is astounding, often catering to a single ethnic group. In Charleston during the mid-1800s, one could find the St. Andrew's Society for Scotch-Irish, the Hibernian Society or the St. Patrick Society for...

  15. Abolition Crew
    date June 6, 1855map LEON, Floridatags Crime/Violence, Government, Politics, Slavery

    Nine year-old Susan Bradford Eppes was worried about her father. On the eve of the family's journey to visit relatives in Tennessee an abolition crew had invaded the Eppes's plantation. According to Fannie, Susan's older sister, some white men, who had no business about the place, had come in the night and hidden away. Susan wanted to know more but Fannie refused to say anything else...

  16. Interracial couple arrested and jailed in New Orleans.
    date June 29, 1855map ORLEANS, Louisianatags Crime/Violence, Race-Relations, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    On June 29th, 1855, two residents of New Orleans were arrested for being “in too close intimacy'. The woman, Antoinette Sondo, was a German that lived with a “A good looking Mulatto' named Green Evans. <br />Thus, one can see that though slaves were not allowed to fight back against rape, African-Americans also were not allowed to engage in interracial relations consensually....

  17. Inside the Slave Trade: John Brown's Experience Within a New Orlean's Slave Pen
    date 1855map SOUTHAMPTON, Virginia, BALDWIN, Georgia, ORLEANS, Louisianatags Slavery, Slave Trade

    John Brown, also known as Fed, was born into slavery in Virginia. As a child, he was separated from his family, and was sold and purchased by three different masters. Brown suffered from many acts of cruelty from his masters: he lost partial use of one eye after being kicked in the face repeatedly by an overseer. He was also used in a number of gruesome experiments performed by a doctor who was...

  18. Economic Sociology of Enslavement
    date 1854map ORLEANS, Louisianatags Economy, Race-Relations, Slavery

    Henry Hughes published Treatise on Sociology: Theoretical and Practical at the age of 25 while living in New Orleans. His book argued that slavery was such a positive influence on dealings between masters and slaves that it should govern social relations throughout the United States, not just the South. African-Americans were not slaves, but rather warrantees. Hughes wrote: Property in men, is...

  19. Capitalist Enslavement
    date 1854map DAVIDSON, Tennesseetags Economy, Race-Relations, Slavery

    George Fitzhugh, a native of Brentsville, Virginia, published Sociology for the South, or the Failure of Free Society. He looked upon Africans and African-Americans as children, uniquely suited to slavery. Just as children cannot be governed by mere law ? because they are so much under the influence of impulse, passion and appetite, the negro individual had to be treated as a grown up child ? The...

  20. The Need for Railroads in Norfolk
    date 1854map NORFOLK CITY, Virginiatags Agriculture, Economy, Migration/Transportation, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    Railroads were an essential component to economic growth and stability during the mid-nineteenth century. One letter, written by An Eastern Virginian to The Lynchburg Virginian in 1854, stressed the vital need to fix the railways running between Norfolk and the Valley of Ohio. Though transporting goods to the Valley of Ohio was possible, the route was extremely difficult due to the railway's...

  21. The Last Frontier:  The Adirondack Mountains in the Nineteenth Century
    date 1854map NEW YORK, New Yorktags Urban Society, Arts/Leisure

    The loss of untouched and pristine nature began in nineteenth century America in the age growing urbanization and industrialization, yet a few places remained, allowing Americans to discover themselves in nature.  An 1854 illustration in Richards’ American Scenery:  Illustrated called “Lake in the Adirondacks, New York” revealed that these places did still exist in the nineteenth...

  22. Refuge in Religion: The Story of the Baptist Minister Noah Davis
    date 1854map BALTIMORE, Maryland, FREDERICK, Virginia, PROVIDENCE, Rhode Islandtags Slavery, Religion, African-Americans

    Noah Davis sat puzzled, he contemplated his next move. He had already purchased six of his children back from various slave owners, through hard work and many favors gained from people he discovered on his travels. His life defined turmoil. Noah Davis worked against the clock to purchase his seventh and final child, his daughter who was born into bondage. Noah Davis was already well versed in the...

  23. Early Support for a War in Missouri
    date July 13, 1855map LAFAYETTE, Missouritags African-Americans, Government, Politics, Slavery, War

    On July 13, 1855 in Lexington, Missouri, there was a convention held to rally support for the continuance of slavery in the United States. At that convention James Shannon gave an address entitled "Domestic Slavery," in which he attempted to justify the practice of slavery and disprove the validity of the reasons given by abolitionists to outlaw the practice. The reasons he gave in support of slavery...

  24. Mississippi Railroad Development
    date June 15, 1854map MARSHALL, Mississippitags Agriculture, Economy, Migration/Transportation

    In 1854, the central portion of Mississippi was still rural, and the road systems were

    definitely sparse. The Mississippi Central Rail-Road Company convened at their annual meeting

    to discuss the undertaking of a plan to connect central Mississippi with its neighbor to the north,

    Tennessee.

    These entrepreneurs and capitalists had a vision for the city of Holly Springs,

    Mississippi,...

  25. The Great Excursion of 1854
    date June 5, 1854map ROCK ISLAND, Illinoistags Migration/Transportation, Business

    On June 5, 1854, the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad held what would become known as "The Great Excursion of 1854." The two owners, Henry Furnam and Joseph Sheffield, invited many well known and successful politicians, artists, writers, clergy members, and academics, including former President Millard Fillmore, who met in Chicago for the June 5th departure. A New York Times correspondent...