Episodes Around: 18571117

  1. Beginning of Third Seminole War
    date November 29, 1855 to May 8, 1858map HILLSBOROUGH, Floridatags Crime/Violence, Race-Relations, War

    Native-Americans still occupied territory desirable by white settlers hoping to expand into Florida. The Charleston Mercury reported debts of Governor Brown of Florida that included 73,000 for the “protection of the frontier from Indian depredations.' It also reported the desire of Samuel S. Hamilton, President of the Indian Emigration Society of the Creek Nations, to propose to the General...

  2. First Transatlantic Telegram
    date 1857 to August 16, 1858map WASHINGTON, Virginiatags Economy, Migration/Transportation

    Following the success of a New York-Newfoundland telegraph line, philanthropist Cyrus Field convinced the governments of American and Great Britain to fund a transatlantic line. It would take 2,500 miles of cable to complete the job, and construction was interrupted often by errors. Cables snapped, ships wrecked, and money was running out. Meanwhile, the American South was watching the progress...

  3. A Former Slave's Account on Abolition
    date 1857map MONTGOMERY, Marylandtags Crime/Violence, Race-Relations, Slavery

    Frederick Douglass perceived Maryland to be a state that possessed slavery in its mildest form. In one of his books, My bondage and my freedom, Douglass showed the truth to a doubting nation that believed that Maryland divested of the harsh and terrible occurrences that characterized the slave system. Douglass challenged the argument that Maryland was not a state harsh on its slaves by comparing...

  4. Harriet's Freedom
    date 1857map SHELBY, Alabamatags African-Americans, Law, Migration/Transportation, Slavery

    Harriet knew that when she turned twenty-seven years old, she was free. Harriet's mother, Phyllis, was the slave of Alexander Nelson. In his will, Nelson manumitted Phyllis at the age of thirty-five and all of her daughters at age twenty-seven. Phyllis died on the way to Liberia, but Harriet still wanted her chance at freedom. In 1857, however, Harriet was over twenty-seven years old and still...

  5. Harriet's Freedom
    date 1857map SHELBY, Alabamatags African-Americans, Law, Migration/Transportation, Slavery

    Harriet knew that when she turned twenty-seven years old, she was free. Harriet's mother, Phyllis, was the slave of Alexander Nelson. In his will, Nelson manumitted Phyllis at the age of thirty-five and all of her daughters at age twenty-seven. Phyllis died on the way to Liberia, but Harriet still wanted her chance at freedom. In 1857, however, Harriet was over twenty-seven years old and still...

  6. The Nineteenth-Century Web of Race and Divorce
    date 1857map LOWNDES, Mississippitags African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Law, Race-Relations, Women

    Having a petition granted for divorce was hard to come by in the nineteenth-century. However, each year many divorce petitions were filed in the South. In 1857, Mrs. Charlotte Smith of Lowndes County, Mississippi stated that she caught her husband committing adultery with a negro girl named Nancy in April of that year. Mrs. Smith, devastated by her husband's crime, filed for divorce, alimony,...

  7. Order On Plantations
    date 1857map FRANKLIN, Floridatags Slave, plantation

    Maintaining order on a plantation that was dependent on slavery was very important. To achieve this slaves required positive aspects in their life to look forward to. These privileges drove them to work. The creation of task systems and gang systems were frequent practices and established content lives among workers. Task systems were designed so that each slave had one engagement he or she was...

  8. Suspected Stolen
    date February 25, 1857 to 1857map ORLEANS, Louisianatags African-Americans, Race-Relations

    Behind bars, Aaron, a free black man, was trying to figure out the contacts he could reach that would help to confirm his freedom. Was there any way he could reach his wife, other relatives, or his previous owner? Aaron was turned in to the authorities on February 25, 1857 by a white man, G.W. Mormon, suspected of being stolen from Alabama.

    The dispute between black and white authority frequently...

  9. Debate over the Lecompton Constitution rages in Kansas.
    date September 7, 1857 to August 2, 1858map DAVIDSON, Tennesseetags Race-Relations, Slavery

    Kansas began the process of beginning to apply for statehood in late summer 1857. First, the citizens had to come up with and ratify a state constitution. Proslavery forces within the state drew up the so-called “Lecompton Constitution' at a convention which Free Soil parties boycotted. Indeed, at the Convention there was never any option to vote against slavery. The proslavery forces refused...

  10. Buchanan throws his support behind the Lecompton Constitution.
    date October, 1857 to March, 1858map Washington City, District of Columbiatags Slavery

    Beginning in October of 1857 President Buchanan and the Southern Democrats demanded acceptance of Kansas's Lecompton Constitution. In fact, they tried to make it part of the National Democratic Party's policy. A debate ensued in the Senate with Northern Democrat Stephen A. Douglas. Douglas claimed that the Lecompton Constitution makes a ridicule of Popular Sovereignty and refused to support...

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