Episodes Nearest to January 1, 1877 to December 31, 1877: 1 through 25 of 25

  1. South Carolina Enacts New Election Law
    date 1877map CHARLESTON, South Carolinatags Race-Relations

    In 1877 at the meeting of the South Carolinian General Assembly, a new decree was passed which initiated a re-drawing of precinct boundaries. Most importantly, this new law greatly reduced the number of polling places available in counties consisting of a majority of black people. By doing this, blacks were forced to travel long distances to be able to speak their voice on political issues. The...

  2. What to do with a Seminary Education?
    date 1877map BRISTOL, Massachusettstags Education, Women

    In 1877 "From Her Point of View" was published in Wheaton Female Seminary's literary magazine The Rushlight. The story depicted a young woman, "just out of school, and life with all its sorrows and joys awaiting her" sitting by a fire contemplating her future. The young woman was surrounded by "tokens of wealth" but she wished for something different. While her mother's spirit looked...

  3. Tramps Attack Trains at West Chester Station on the Pennsylvanian Line.
    date 1877map CHESTER, Pennsylvaniatags Migration/Transportation, Work

    Desperate wageworkers after the Civil War had taken to riding the American train networks looking for work. Civil War slang referred to the tramp as a long, tiresome march, and the American public took to referring these unsupported peoples as 'tramps.' The reasoning behind this increasing roving army was the reliance on seasonal work for manual laborers, and as a result, jobs were not secure.

    Hungry...

  4. United States Order to General Ord. Of Mexico
    date July 6, 1877map BEXAR, Texastags Crime/Violence, War

    On July 6th, 1877 news leaked that the Mexican and American governments had been sending orders back and forth from one another declaring that the other side needed to play a role in reducing the violence and tension at the Mexican-American border next to the Rio Grande. The American government sought to clear up the situation by declaring in a note from Minister Foster that they had done nothing...

  5. Caucus to Determine West Virginia Senate
    date January 22, 1877 to 1877map OHIO, West Virginiatags Government, Politics

    Immediately after the Civil War, the Republicans stormed through Appalachia. With promises of restoration, Lincoln?s party was able to make Appalachia a Republican stronghold. Fifteen years later, however, Democrats held power in every Appalachian state. In the nineteenth century, politics mattered. People voted, knew the candidates, and a caucus held in West Virginia to determine two new senators...

  6. Fracas' between Officers and Colored People aboard Kentucky Train
    date July 16, 1877map MONTGOMERY, Tennesseetags Crime/Violence, Economy, Race-Relations

    On the morning of July 16th, 1877, an excursion train of black people left Clarksville, Tennessee en route to attend the funeral services of the black Reverend Wm. Neville. During the duration of the trip, news somehow reached the sheriff of Todd country, KY that there were some blacks on board the train who were engaging in illegal commerce: the selling and buying of cigars and liquors on board...

  7. A Wild Night: Pittsburgh "Great Strikers" Burn Rail Yard
    date July 19, 1877 to July 23, 1877map ALLEGHENY, Pennsylvaniatags Labor Strike, Labor Union, Militia

    In her memoirs, Mary Harris "Mother" Jones described the night in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania that strikers from the Pennsylvania Railroad turned the "Great Strike" of 1877 into a riot. "Hundreds of box cars standing on the tracks were soaked with oil and set on fire and sent down the tracks to the roundhouse. The roundhouse caught fire. Over one hundred locomotives belonging to the Pennsylvania...

  8. Railway Labor Strike
    date July 16, 1877 to July 29, 1877map BALTIMORE, Marylandtags Crime/Violence, Health/Death, Economy

    On July 16, 1877 tensions over pay cuts for railway workers finally came to a head as firemen and brakemen for railroads in Baltimore went on strike. The strikers assembled at Camden Junction, 30 miles from Baltimore, and refused to allow trains to move in any direction. Word of the strike quickly spread to West Virginia, and eventually into Pennsylvania, Missouri, and Kentucky as other railway...

  9. Suicide of Lafayette Maupin
    date August, 1877map CLARKE, Georgiatags Agriculture, Economy

    Lafayette Maupin invested his money in a local store in town.One night it burned down and he lost everything he had put into his investment.Later that night he went into the woods and killed himself.He had been married to a young girl who was only 16 years old when he shot himself.Since she no longer had him to care for her, she went back to live with her family for support.

    After the Civil...

  10. Seizure of Martin Joson's Property
    date May 17, 1877map NATCHITOCHES, Louisianatags African-Americans, Economy, Law

    In the years following the Civil War many Southerners faced economic hardships, and Martin Joson was no exception. He was an African American who had been able to amass some property in Natchitoches Parish, and had even been able to make some improvements to his property. Joson's prosperity, however, did not last. He must have developed a large debt to a man named Walo Johnson to warrant the...

  11. North Carolina Needs Capital-Not Labor
    date September 17, 1877map JOHNSTON, North Carolinatags Economy, Migration/Transportation

    By September, 1877, Governor Vance of North Carolina, elected in 1876, called upon the immigrant laborers of Northern cities, such as those currently on strike in Baltimore, to venture to North Carolina to fill what he perceived to be a labor shortage in North Carolina manufacturing and industry. Not all North Carolinian's agreed. A letter to the editor of the Raleigh Register dated September...

  12. The Racism of Reconstruction
    date April 1, 1877map WAKE, North Carolinatags African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Race-Relations

    The period of Reconstruction that followed the Civil War saw a fluctuation of freedoms for African Americans in the former Confederate South. The newspapers of the time, like the Raleigh Register, were critical of the roles of African Americans in society, and used offensive language when describing the people of that race. While slavery no longer existed, Reconstruction proved to be...

  13. 1877 Hurricane Flooding
    date October 3, 1877 to October 4, 1877map BEDFORD, Virginiatags Health/Death, Economy

    Stemming from a large sea storm in the Caribbean Sea (which devastated the island of Curacao) many parts of Virginia, and the rest of the South, were flooded with water. In Lynchburg, the rising waters destroyed many key bridges connecting sides of the James River. In addition, ships all across the Atlantic coast were destroyed. The canal system for commerce was greatly damaged by this and other...

  14. New Georgia Constitution Debated
    date July 11, 1877 to December, 1877map FULTON, Georgiatags African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Health/Death, Race-Relations

    In July of 1877, debates on the new Georgia constitution began under a Constitutional convention led by the Honorable Chas. J Jenkins. Jenkins was one of the most popular statesmen in Georgia at the time, and was elected to head up the convention committee near unanimously. Throughout his opening speech about the constitution, Jenkins affirmed that Negro rights had not been forgotten despite the...

  15. The Burning of the Andersons
    date October 9, 1877map SHELBY, Tennesseetags African-Americans, Crime/Violence

    Hal Anderson lost everything on October 9, 1877. Ander son's house in Braden's Station, Tennessee, just outside of Memphis, was burned, and three of his children perished in the flames and a fourth was so badly burned that is life is despaired of. The news bulletin about the story in the Jackson, Mississippi Weekly Clarion was cryptically brief. The parents had left the children alone in...

  16. President Hayes Visits Frederick County Fair
    date October 11, 1877map FREDERICK, Marylandtags Agriculture, Economy, Migration/Transportation, War

    President Rutherford B. Hayes, along with Secretary McCrary and Attorney-General Devens, visited and spoke at the Maryland Frederick County Fair on October 11, 1877.The President was welcomed with a speech remarking on his previous visit to the area as a Civil War solider and the turmoil of that time. The President then spoke about the importance of agriculture, saying that if agriculture was prosperous,...

  17. Wilmer Walton Educates Impoverished African Americans
    date October, 1877 to November, 1877map JACKSON, Alabamatags African-Americans, Church/Religious-Activity, Education, Migration/Transportation, Race-Relations

    In 1877, Quaker missionary Wilmer Walton moved to Jackson County, Alabama to provide African American children in the town of Stevenson with practical, moral, and intellectual instruction. Before his move to Alabama, Walton aided African Americans in Southern Missouri and hoped to soon retire from his missionary work. However, Walton attended the Quaker Illinois Yearly Meeting, which inspired...

  18. President Hayes's speech to the Senate Republican Caucus
    date November 11, 1877map Washington City, District of Columbiatags Economy

    On his November 11, 1877 speech to the Republican caucus committee, Hayes announced that his new conciliatory course towards Southerners would encourage the former Whigs to join the Republican Party. Hayes tried to ingratiate many of these old Whigs, and other Southern business powers by passing acts such as the Texas and Pacific Railroad Bill, as well as organizing the house under the pro-subsidy...

  19. Attitudes towards American Indians in Central Virginia
    date February 5, 1877map ORANGE, Virginiatags Education, Native-Americans, Race-Relations

    On February 5, 1877 Joseph Halsey of Orange County, Virginia received a letter from a man who had uncovered the preserved remains of an American Indian. The letter began with a sense of excitement and awe. The author recounted, I plowed up an Indian chief, with all of his ornaments, blanket, girdle of beads, turban, and shells. His hair was in a state of preservation having the appearance of fine...

  20. Attitudes towards American Indians in Central Virginia
    date February 5, 1877map ORANGE, Virginiatags Education, Native-Americans, Race-Relations

    On February 5, 1877 Joseph Halsey of Orange County, Virginia received a letter from a man who had uncovered the preserved remains of an American Indian. The letter began with a sense of excitement and awe. The author recounted, I plowed up an Indian chief, with all of his ornaments, blanket, girdle of beads, turban, and shells. His hair was in a state of preservation having the appearance of...

  21. South Carolina Gubernatorial Election of 1876
    date November 7, 1876 to April 11, 1877map RICHLAND, South Carolinatags Crime/Violence, Race-Relations

    For the 1876 gubernatorial race in South Carolina, the Democrats nominated General Wade Hampton, one of the state's most popular figures among the white population, and Republicans renominated Governor Chamberlain who was appointed during reconstruction. Hampton embarked on a tour of the state, accompanied by hundreds of armed supporters, while rifle clubs disrupted Republican rallies with violent...

  22. Louisiana Gubernatorial Election of 1876
    date November 6, 1876 to March, 1877map ORLEANS, Louisianatags Race-Relations

    The Republicans nominated former U.S. Marshall Stephen Packard for governor during the 1876 gubernatorial race in Louisiana. The Louisiana Democrats chose Francis T. Nicholls, a confederate war hero, as their candidate and began immediate efforts for a victorious election. In counties they were certain to win, Democrats did all they could to hold down the Black vote through intimidation and in...

  23. Two Young Negroes Marry in the Courtroom
    date December 24, 1877map Washington City, District of Columbiatags African-Americans, Church/Religious-Activity, Law, Migration/Transportation, Race-Relations, Women

    Henson Batson and Margaret Shorter were going to get married. That much was certain as they traveled to Washington D.C. from their rural home with Margaret's sister on Christmas Eve, 1877. What wasn't quite so certain was where in the city they could go to hold the ceremony. When they came upon a group of reporters waiting outside City Hall they anxiously asked how, where, and how fast they...

  24. Carrier's Address to the Patrons of the Whytheville Disptach
    date December 25, 1877map WYTHE, Virginiatags Education

    This unique note composed for Christmas Day 1877 by the carrier of the small Whytheville dispatch gives us a revealing look at small-town life in the last quarter of the 19th century. The sense of unity in the town, as well as the Dispatch's monopoly over news, is quite evident from the sing-songy lyrics as the poem reads “To it all readers turn, and they can look; pleased on a paper who...

  25. The Second Corrupt Bargain: Hayes , Tilden Presidential Election, 1876
    date November 7, 1876 to March 5, 1877map Washington City, District of Columbiatags Race-Relations

    The United States presidential election of 1876 was likely the most disputed in the country's history. Democrat Samuel Tilden clearly defeated Republican challenger Rutherford B. Hayes in the popular vote and Tilden was declared the winner by many prognosticators. <br />The Charleston News and Courier claimed “of Governor Tilden's election, we are still assured,' on Thursday,...