Episodes Nearest to January 1, 1874 to January 30, 1874: 1 through 25 of 25

  1. The Cheap Transportation Convention
    date January, 1874map Washington City, District of Columbiatags Migration/Transportation

    The Cheap Transportation Convention was organized early in 1874 to find and utilize the cheapest routes of transportation possible from the East to the West. The convention decided that waterways would be the fastest route, even though railways were prevalent at this time. The majority opinion of the convention was that a waterway should be built, but that Congress should decide the details of...

  2. Baltimore and Ohio Railroad compete against Pennsylvania Central
    date January 13, 1874map BALTIMORE, Marylandtags Economy, Migration/Transportation

    As reported in Baltimore's The Sun a fight between the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and the Pennsylvania Central Railroad produced reduced ticket rates between the cities of Chicago, Cincinnati, and St. Louis on one side and Pittsburg, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington D.C. on the other. The competition with Pennsylvania Central was a credit to the success of the Baltimore and Ohio. The...

  3. Pinchback Denied a Seat in the Senate
    date January 21, 1874 to January 28, 1874map Washington City, District of Columbiatags Race-Relations

    Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback (May 10, 1837- December 21, 1921) was a freeborn black political figure during the Reconstruction. He had previously served as an officer for the Union during the Civil War. Pinchback served on the state senate of Louisiana and later as lieutenant governor for that state. Republican Pinchback ran for and was elected to Congress in 1872 but his Democratic opponent...

  4. Civil Rights Bill
    date January 6, 1874map JEFFERSON, Mississippitags African-Americans, Government, Law, Politics, Race-Relations

    In January of 1874, the United States Congress introduced a bill concerning civil rights in the South. A congressman named Henry Harris opposed the bill, explaining that Congress did not have a right to interfere with the internal legislation of the states. He asked if anyone would agree that black people were equal to white men. A colored member of Congress named John Roy Lynch from Mississippi...

  5. Virginia Objects to a Civil Rights Bill
    date January 5, 1874map HENRICO, Virginiatags Race-Relations

    On January 5, 1874 both houses of Virginia's General Assembly met and decided to recognize the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution as law because they agreed with the interpretation of the amendment by the Supreme Court of the United States. However, the General Assembly in Virginia was in opposition to the civil rights bill that was currently being debated in Congress because they contended...

  6. Immigration Societies in South Carolina
    date January 30, 1874map CHARLESTON, South Carolinatags Migration/Transportation, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    On January 30, 1874, Charleston's News and Courier featured an article concerning the recent phenomenon in the state of so-called immigration societies. Before the Second Taxpayer's Convention attempted to bring in immigrants on a state-wide level in South Carolina, there were several counties that had immigration societies (See Second Taxpayer's Convention in Columbia, SC) including...

  7. North Carolinians Strive for Free Public Schools
    date December 26, 1873map WAKE, North Carolinatags Education, Government, Law

    The North Carolina legislature took a step in the right direction by proposing a bill to authorize cities and towns with more than 2,000 inhabitants to establish and maintain public schools. Authorities of these towns could at anytime decide whether or not free public schools shall be established. Raleigh citizens voiced their overwhelming approval for this bill during a town meeting. The public...

  8. Women's Temperance Act
    date February 14, 1874map BERKS, Pennsylvaniatags Women's Rights, Susan B. Anthony

    Women in America struggled to live lives equal to that of men in 1800s. Women, in no way, neglected issues that they felt strongly about. It seems that every instance that women were given the chance to stand out and make a change they did everything in their power to do so. The Women's Temperance society was created around this time period and existed for many years after. The society for the...

  9. The Second Taxpayer's Convention in South Carolina
    date February 19, 1874map RICHLAND, South Carolinatags Economy

    Taxpayer's met on February 19, 1874 at a convention in South Carolina a second time to protest the economic destruction of the state being wrought by the Republicans in power in South Carolina, especially by Governor Franklin J. Moses Jr. and his administration. The complaints of the convention included exorbitant taxes being waged by non-taxpayers, a “corrupt judiciary,' and an executive...

  10. The Gilded Age published
    date December, 1873map MONROE, Missouritags Arts/Leisure

    “In America nearly every man has his dream, his pet scheme whereby he is to advance himself socially or pecuniarily. It is this all-pervading speculativeness which we have tried to illustrate in The Gilded Age.' With these opening sentences to the London edition of his and Charles D. Warner's collaborative effort, Mark Twain summed up the theme of the “fictional' book that...

  11. Religious Revival in Knoxville
    date March 12, 1874map KNOX, Tennesseetags Church/Religious-Activity

    On March 12, 1874 The Atlanta Constitution printed a report from a correspondent from Knoxville, Tennessee concerning a religious revival there. Mr. John T. McGuire reported that the meetings began when the pastors of two Presbyterian Churches decided to hold prayer meetings in hopes of reconciling relations between the Churches that had become strained after the Civil War. First Presbyterian...

  12. Preaching on the Steps of the Courthouse
    date November 20, 1873map AUGUSTA, Virginiatags Church/Religious-Activity, Crime/Violence, Law

    A stranger preaching on the steps of their courthouse interrupted the daily chores of the citizens of Staunton on Thursday. Andrew Jackson Kearney, supposedly of Loudon County, had been drifting from city to city, traveling from Harrisonburg to Staunton to spread his religious fervor. A curious crowd gathered to hear the sermon that followed his public singing and praying, eloquently speaking...

  13. Currency and Banking Bill and Economic Recession
    date February 3, 1874 to April, 1874map Washington City, District of Columbiatags Economy

    On February 3, 1874 Republican Senator John Sherman from Ohio presented a Bill in Congress with a purpose to stabilize and reissue the currency and provide for free banking. Sherman's Currency and Banking Bill was turned into an “Inflation Bill' by the amendments made to it by several Western and Southern Congressmen from both the Republican and Democrat parties. The amended bill...

  14. The Virginius Affair
    date October 31, 1873 to November 8, 1873map FULTON, Georgiatags Crime/Violence, Migration/Transportation, War

    The Virginius was a former Confederate blockade runner which had been captured by the Union during the American Civil War. A Northerner, John Patterson, purchased the Virginius from the government, and, unbeknownst to the New York Customs House, planned to use the ship to take supplies and men to Cuban insurgents fighting the Ten Years' War with Spain. The Ten Years' War was the Cuban...

  15. Crop lien system (sharecropping) entrenches itself in former plantation areas
    date October 29, 1873map DUVAL, Floridatags Agriculture, Economy, Race-Relations

    As a result of the costs of rebuilding after the Civil War and the depression during the 1870s, many farmers saw falling production and prices for their crops, with cotton dropping nearly fifty percent between 1872 and 1877. Other crops formerly produced by slave labor (tobacco, sugar, and rice) also saw steep declines in their prices. In the heavily agricultural South, especially Black Belt and...

  16. Petition of the U.S. Senate for compensation of land confiscation by United States Troops
    date April 10, 1874map ORLEANS, Louisianatags Economy, Law, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    On this day Mr. West petitioned the United States Senate to obtain compensation for lands which he claimed were taken from him by United States troops in Jackson, Mississippi. Though there is not much information given in this record, one can infer that this land was taken by the Union Army upon entering Mississippi. This case was referred to the Committee on Claims. Although the American Civil...

  17. Devastating Flooding in Louisiana
    date April, 1874map EAST BATON ROUG, Louisianatags Agriculture, Health/Death

    Heavy flooding in Louisiana overflowed several rivers including the Mississippi and Brashear Rivers destroying homes and crops in the state. A report from Charleston's The News and Courier exclaimed that half of Louisiana was under water. Three hundred families in Baton Rouge alone were left homeless. Nine of the most prominent cotton-growing parishes suffered damage on around 2,500,000 acres...

  18. Republican vs. Republican for Mississippi Governor
    date September 22, 1873 to November 4, 1873map HINDS, Mississippitags African-Americans, Race-Relations

    On September 25, the Louisville Courier Journal wrote, “The most interesting campaign now in progress in any state is on the boards in Mississippi.' Why? First, there was no Democratic candidate in a Deep South State, and second, there were two Republicans , one a scalawag, the other a carpetbagger , running for the position. In August of 1873, Adelbert Ames was nominated for governor...

  19. Railroad Matters
    date October 13, 1873map PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvaniatags Economy, Government, Migration/Transportation, Science/Technology

    1Thomas Scott was about to be one step closer to his ultimate dream. The President of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, Scott had an ambition to build a second transcontinental railroad, and even though he would never achieve this dream on Oct. 30 1873 talks began on a deal that would hand over the rights of the California and Texas Railway Company to the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. For 10...

  20. Dedication of the first colored high school in Kentucky
    date October 7, 1873map FAYETTE, Kentuckytags African-Americans, Education, Race-Relations

    The Louisville Central Colored School was the first “black' school built under the direction of the Louisville Board of Trustees of the Public Schools. The new three-story structure, which cost 23,000 and was funded by taxpayers and the new Kentucky public educational system, also responded to a genuine desire of the black community to provide what the local paper called a “sound common...

  21. Temperance Alliance of the State of Maryland
    date May 6, 1874map BALTIMORE, Marylandtags Church/Religious-Activity

    The inaugural convention for the Temperance Alliance of the State of Maryland was held on May 6, 1874. There were four hundred delegates present, including 260 from the city of Baltimore, approximately fifty women, and at least fifty blacks. There were also several Reverends who spoke at the convention. A resolution was proposed to aid the women's temperance crusade and request women from...

  22. The Long Depression Begins
    date September 24, 1873map SUFFOLK, Massachusettstags "Long Depression", "Panic of 1873"

     

           “Father has not yet returned. We are a little interested to know whether he had any money in the hands of Clews & Co. whom we hear failed yesterday, or I should say, suspended, but I suppose it amounts to the same thing.” As Blanche Butler Ames wrote his brother in September 1873, he had no idea of the economic downfall to come.  The failure of Jay Cooke & Co, one of...

  23. Grant Ends the Brooks-Baxter War in Arkansas
    date May 15, 1874map PULASKI, Arkansastags War

    In January of 1873, after Elisha Baxter, a Republican, was elected as governor of Arkansas in 1872, Joseph Brooks, who was supported by Liberals, Democrats, and Arkansas Unionists, claimed that the election had been “doctored' and that he was the rightful governor. After being informed that the Supreme Court of Arkansas had no jurisdiction in settling the decision and that it was up to...

  24. Segregated Schools Mandated
    date August 31, 1873map FULTON, Georgiatags African-Americans, Education, Race-Relations

    As the first Confederate state readmitted to the Union on July 23, 1866 Tennessee never experienced Federal military occupation. As a result, Tennessee was able to get through Reconstruction with relatively few changes to its state constitution. In 1873, a majority-white legislature passed a new public school law mandating separate but equal for black students and teachers, supported by property...

  25. African Americans on Republican Party Ticket for State Office
    date August 28, 1873map JACKSON, Mississippitags African-Americans, Government, Politics, Race-Relations

    In the heat of late August in Mississippi, the Republican Party's State Convention of 1873 was still in session trying to appoint candidates for upcoming elections. Finally two candidates had been selected-A.K. Davis was nominated for Lieutenant Governor, while James Hill was chosen to run for Secretary of State-and both men were African American. This was a crucial decision for the Republican...