Episodes Around: 18610322 to 18610405

  1. Masters and their Female SlavesMasters and their Female Slaves Masters and their Female Slaves Masters and their Female Slaves
    date 1861map MOBILE, Alabamatags Crime/Violence, Race-Relations, Women

    Louisa Picquet was a 14 year-old slave in Mobile, Alabama in 1861. Her master was a married gentleman named Mr. Cook who lived in a boarding house while his wife was away. At the boarding house, Mr. Cook demanded that Louisa take care of him privately. Louisa realized what her master's intentions were, and shared them with a female boarder, Mrs. Bachelor. Mrs. Bachelor was furious and devised...

  2. Blurring Lines of Race
    date 1861map MOBILE, Alabamatags African-Americans, Race-Relations, Slavery

    Race in the antebellum South was not as simple as black and white. In recounting her story, Louisa Picquet discussed the races of slaves on several occasions. As a slave, Louisa recognized differences between herself and other slaves. She described herself as relatively white, but that other slaves around her where more white than she. She also noticed a difference in the way masters treated their...

  3. Border States and the Civil War
    date 1861map JASPER, Missouritags Crime/Violence, Diplomacy/International, Government, War

    Salem H. Ford realized early that his company was in for a tough battle. As a captain in the cavalry of the Confederate States Army, he worried about the lack of leadership in his unit. After all, Colonel Price, the only man who seemed to know how to "form a line of battle," was fighting on the other side of the state. As Ford glanced across Spring River, which was the only thing separating...

  4. Morgan Honors Texas Rangers with a Poem
    date 1861map GALVESTON, Texastags Arts/Leisure, War

    M. Morgan showed how proud she is of her Texas warriors that are involved with the Civil War in her poem Texan Rangers. She proclaimed in the first stanza, that the Texans are making their way towards the enemy,

    "They come They come see their bayonets bright,

    They sparkle and flash across hollow and height;

    And the dusky files in the openings appear,

    ...

  5. The Virginia (Secession) Convention of 1861
    date January 12, 1861 to April, 1861map ALBEMARLE, Virginiatags Government, Politics, Slavery

    The large body of men from Albemarle County quickly came to a unanimous decision about who they would nominate to hold their county's seat at the Virginia Convention of 1861. They truly believed that the questions so long pending between the North and the South must be settled. They chose to nominate William C. Rives and V.W Southall to represent Albemarle County at the state convention. Rives...

  6. Texas Secedes
    date February 2, 1861 to 1861map AUSTIN, Texastags Government, Law, Politics

    War fever and the eagerness to fight ran rampant as soon as Texas officially seceded from the Union. William Williston Heartsill, a young 22 year old store clerk working in Marshall, Texas was one of the first to enlist. Before he had left for training, Heartsill began a diary to record all the moments and sentiments leading to the cause of his enlistment. He believed that it was imperative to fight...

  7. Furman University's Philosophian Society Discusses Divisive Issues
    date March 22, 1861 to April 5, 1861map GREENVILLE, South Carolinatags Arts/Leisure, Education, Government, Law, Migration/Transportation, Politics, Slavery

    On March 22, 1861 in Philosophian Hall at Furman University, a secretive meeting was called to order. A leather-bound book as tall as a man's forearm with robin's egg blue pages was then opened reverently, and a man's voice read aloud the last meeting's minutes. After he finished, his hand held a pen poised above the first line of a new page, ready to record in flowing script...