Episodes Nearest to July 5, 1859 to July 23, 1859: 1 through 25 of 25

  1. Escaped Prisoner
    date July 5, 1859 to July 23, 1859map WILLIAMSON, Tennesseetags Crime/Violence, Law

    J. Bell Reddick fled from the Nashville Jail July 7, 1859. The bowlegged white man shot Charles H. Conger just two days previous. Tennessee officials convicted him of malicious shooting and put him in prison. Nobody knew how he escaped. Even as of July 23, almost three weeks after his getaway, no one could find Reddick. The warden of the jail posted in the Nashville Union a 50 Reward to anyone who...

  2. A Private Army in Virginia
    date 1859map RICHMOND, Virginiatags Government, War

    In the writings of his autobiography, TJ Macon recorded with great pride,that in 1859, he joined the First Company Richmond Howitzers,a militia artillery unit that drilled in the city and was composed of volunteers from the surrounding area. Macon was also quick to state that he later served in combat with this unit during the war between the states.Serving in such a unit was special to Macon because...

  3. Paternalism and American Slavery
    date 1859map MOBILE, Alabamatags African-Americans, Race-Relations, Slavery

    While on her honeymoon, Mary Norcott Bryan traveled throughout the South with her new husband. On vacation she went to Mobile, Alabama where she met up with her friend Edith Whitfield. Whitfield lived on the plantation of her father, General Nathan Whitfield. In writing about her experience, Bryan described the nearly 900 slaves on the plantation. In her observations, Bryan decided that the slaves...

  4. Toy Advocates Colonization of Liberia
    date 1859map BALTIMORE, Marylandtags African-Americans, Migration/Transportation, Race-Relations, Slavery

    Before the American Civil War a movement sprang up in abolitionist circles around the nation that to many represented an ideal solution that would end slavery without introducing millions of freed blacks into American Society. Colonization, as the name implies, had the goal of colonizing slaves in Africa in a country called Liberia. As such, there were numerous attempts to convince Africans to willingly...

  5. Little Giant Defends Giant Doctrine: Stephen Douglas on Popular Soverienty
    date 1859map UNORGANIZED TERRITORY, Territorytags Slavery, Politics

    Senator Stephen Douglas, the "Little Giant" from Illinois, wrote an article for Harpers Magazine in 1859 entitled "Popular Sovereignty in the Territories." Harpers and Brothers Publishers subsequently printed it in pamphlet form. In the article, Douglas defended his opinions on the much derided and disputed issue of popular sovereignty.

    He explained his interpretation of popular sovereignty...

  6. To Marry or Not to Marry in Mid-Nineteenth Century America
    date 1859map BRISTOL, Massachusettstags Marriage, Education, Women

    “Count Time by Heart-throbs” by E.M Grout, is an excerpt from Volume 5 of Wheaton College in Massachusetts’ publication, Rushlight. Written in 1859, the literary piece begins by expressing the unsettled feeling that women encounter during the process of growing older. The fear of growing old is attached to the stigma of being old and unmarried, or becoming an “old maid.” Grout explains...

  7. The 1859 Greenville Baptist Female College Commencement: Debunking the Myth of Male Intellectual Superiority
    date August 10, 1859map GREENVILLE, South Carolinatags Woman's College, Greenville, SC, Women's colleges, Greenville Female College

    On August 10, 1859, The Charleston Mercury printed a letter from a young man traveling in and around Greenville, South Carolina, who, during his travels, attended the commencement ceremony of the Greenville Baptist Female College. When he arrived, he found a hall overflowing with attendees and was forced to push his way into the room, along the way enduring several “such tight squeezes...

  8. Cape Lookout Lighthouse
    date September 19, 1859map CARTERET, North Carolinatags Economy, Science/Technology

    "Official information has been received at this office from Captain W. H. C. Whiting, corps of engineers United States army, that the new lighthouse at Cape Lookout has been completed." The new lighthouse had the shape of a cone made of brick, with an iron lantern as the light. The tower rose 156 feet above sea level. The light was a "fixed" light that could be seen up to 22 nautical miles during...

  9. Honoring the Revolutionary Soldiers
    date October 4, 1859 to October 7, 1859map PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island, SUFFOLK, Massachusetts, HARTFORD, Connecticuttags Historical Reenactment, Putnam Phalanx, Militia, Revolutionary War

    In the years right before the Civil War, a group of men formed a military organization to honor an idol and hero of the American people.  These men formed the organization not only to honor current heroes, but the heroes of the past. In particular, the regiment was named after the great General Israel Putnam.  These men displayed a respect for their forefathers that brought about national pride. ...

  10. Hickman Outraged at the Conduct of President Buchanan
    date April 13, 1859map DAUPHIN, Pennsylvaniatags Law, Politics, Slavery

    The place of President James Buchanan in the history of this country has always been a topic of hot debate. The Franklin Repository of April 27, 1859 contains a summary of the April 13th anti-Buchanan speech made by the Honorable John Hickman at the Independent Democratic Convention at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Hickman was outraged at the conduct of President Buchanan which he believed...

  11. John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry
    date October 16, 1859 to October 18, 1859map JEFFERSON, Virginiatags Crime/Violence, Race-Relations, Slavery

    John Brown, a notorious trouble-maker and abolitionist from Kansas, launched an offensive against Harper's Ferry, Virginia (currently West Virginia). Brown, who was known as “Old Brown,' “Fighting Brown,' and “Ossawatomie Brown,' first came to public attention in 1855 in Lykins County, Kansas. In Harper's Ferry in 1859, he initiated his final public appearance,...

  12. John Brown and his fellow insurgents are captured
    date October 17, 1859 to October 18, 1859map JEFFERSON, Virginiatags Crime/Violence, Race-Relations, Slavery

    John Brown had started a raid against Harper's Ferry, Virginia (currently West Virginia) on October 16, 1859. The next evening, “the Monday night train, with Baltimore military and marines, arrived at Sandy Hook, where they waited for the arrival of Colonel Lee, deputized by the War Department to take the command' (Life, Trial, and Execution, p. 34). When the troops, with Colonel...

  13. The Southern Response to Harper's Ferry
    date October 18, 1859map RICHMOND, Virginiatags Crime/Violence, Slavery, War

    In October of 1859, with tensions already running high, Americans were stunned to read of the violent raid being conducted by abolitionist John Brown, in the sleepy Virginia rail junction of Harpers Ferry.News traveled slowly, and there was a great deal of speculation about the details and severity of the raid.On the morning of October 18, Richmonders were relying on an editorial in The Richmond...

  14. The episode is about John brown and the raid at Harper's Ferry, virginia
    date October 26, 1859map JEFFERSON, Virginiatags Harper's Ferry Raid, Insurrection of Old Brown

    On October 26,1859, The Valley Spirit, the local newspaper of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, reported a story on John Brown and the raid on Harper’s Ferry, Virginia.  John Brown was a quiet man.  He was known to appear and disappear so no one knew quite how to locate him. He worked as a farmer, wool merchant, tanner, and land speculator; he never was a financially successful man. His...

  15. John Brown found guilty and sentenced
    date October 30, 1859map KANAWHA, Virginiatags Crime/Violence, Race-Relations, Slavery

    Less than two weeks after he attempted to initiate a slave uprising in Harper's Ferry, Virginia (currently West Virginia), John Brown was found “guilty of treason, and conspiring and advising with slaves and others to rebel, and murder in the first degree' (Life, Trial, and Execution, p. 93). This verdict was delivered on the fifth day of his trial, during which Brown had been confined...

  16. The Female Dunker Preacher
    date October 30, 1859map FAIRFAX, Virginiatags Church/Religious-Activity, Women

    In a letter to her friend Sally Ann, M.L. Moore described many elements of her day-to-day life. She includes information on her family, including the recent death of her mother, and other incidents in her community. Additionally, she wrote of trips into Washington and the sites that greeted her eyes on her excursions. Basically, she discussed affairs that you would expect a young woman to relate...

  17. John Brown Gives his Last Speech to the Court
    date November 2, 1859map JEFFERSON, Virginiatags Crime/Violence, Law, Anti-slavery

    John Brown, noted abolitionist, was arrested after his raid on Harper’s Ferry in early October 1859. He was taken to Charles Town, in present day West Virginia to be tried. Early in the trial, a surprise telegraph arrived that placed Brown’s sanity in question, but the court eventually disregarded the insanity plea largely aided by Brown himself who pronounced that he of all people, should know...

  18. A University of Virginia Student Responds to John Brown's Raid
    date November 3, 1859map ALBEMARLE, Virginiatags African-Americans, Crime/Violence

    E.M. Healy, a student at the University of Virginia in the years surrounding 1859, wrote a letter to his brother in Urbanna, Virginia on November 3. He was eager to explain to his family an event that had occurred a short distance from where he was in Albemarle County, Virginia. On the morning of October 16, 1959, John Brown, a radical abolitionist, and 17 white men and five African Americans...

  19. Erastus Brown Encounters Indians on His Way to Texas
    date November 15, 1859map MONTGOMERY, Missouritags Agriculture, Arts/Leisure, Migration/Transportation, Native-Americans, Race-Relations

    Like many young, adventurous men in the nineteenth century, Erastus Brown decided to explore the new frontier of the United States. Upon returning home from a trip to Texas, he wrote a letter to his sister, Millie, asking her to accompany him on his next trip. In discussing his trip to Texas, Erastus described his encounter with the Cherokee, Creek, and Choctaw Indian Nations. He described the Cherokee...

  20. Gold deposits within Washington
    date March 5, 1859map Washington City, District of Columbiatags Economy, Government, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    Gold What could be more illustrious to read about during the mid nineteenth century than gold? On March 9, 1859, the Farmer's Cabinet published an article briefly summarizing one man's visit to the sub-treasury gold reserve in Washington, D.C. In a seemingly obvious attempt to bolster national comfort and ease economic pessimist, the lure of gold and more importantly a surplus of gold available...

  21. Seventh day festivities
    date March 3, 1859map STEWART, Georgiatags African-Americans, Agriculture, Economy, Education, Migration/Transportation, Slavery

    On March 3 1859, Francis Kemble noted in her diary the death of one of her neighbors and subsequent partition of his estate. One of the largest human chattel holding in North America-- 436 men, women, and infants according to Mrs. Kembles journal-were divided among the heirs. The slaves were brought to Savannah in small convenient groups. "Half a Negro stock on major butlers plantation, fell to...

  22. John Brown executed
    date December 2, 1859map KANAWHA, Virginiatags Crime/Violence, Race-Relations, Slavery

    A month and a half after his arrest for leading an abolitionist raid in Harper's Ferry, Virginia, John Brown was hanged in Charles Towne. The governor, Henry Wise, received at least seventeen affidavits from Brown's friends, family, and fellow abolitionists. They all claimed that Brown was insane, and that insanity ran throughout his family history. Despite these letters, Wise allowed...

  23. Southern Medicine
    date January 9, 1860map ADAMS, Mississippitags Health/Death, Education, War

    On January 6, 1860, Benjamin Leonard Covington Wailes, a white planter in Washington, Adams County, Mississippi, wrote a diary entry describing his son's experiences at a northern medical school. According to Wailes, his son, who attended an unspecified medical school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, resisted all efforts and persuasions used to get him to go off from the medical college with the...

  24. Cuban Independence
    date January 8, 1859map Washington City, District of Columbiatags Diplomacy/International, Government, Politics

    Cuba struggled for its independence from Spain for many years. According to an article in the New York Times, "we regard the acquisition of Cuba by the United States as a measure of very highest importance to the well-being of its inhabitants, -to the safety and strength of our own country, -and to the best interests of all mankind." Lawrence O'Bryan Branch was a member of the House of Representatives...

  25. Congregation of African Americans
    date January 19, 1860map RICHMOND, Virginiatags Church/Religious-Activity, Race-Relations, Slavery

    Bishop Clark basked in the serene melodies and felt his heart rise with the crescendo of the chorus. Absorbing the scene around him, he noticed how the music held the audience members in rapt attention until everyone began swaying in perfect rhythm. It was as if everyone became gradually magnetized by the harmony, he later recalled.

    Clark soon delivered his sermon, and at its conclusion asked...