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

  1. 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...

  2. 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...

  3. No Tolerance for Gambling
    date December 19, 1877 to January 18, 1878map Washington City, District of Columbiatags Arts/Leisure, Crime/Violence, Law, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    The police had been keeping a close watch on various buildings around the city of Washington, D.C. where they believed that certain ordinary, reputable citizens of the community by day were, in fact, holding illicit card games by night. 1345 E Street and 1400 Pennsylvania Avenue topped the watch list for the D.C. police and they scheduled and executed a raid on No. 1345 in the middle of the night...

  4. Editorial about women's suffrage
    date January 11, 1878map Washington City, District of Columbiatags Women

    On January 11, 1878 an interesting article appeared in The Washington Post about the issue of women's suffrage. The author stated that women have been credited with gentility, humility, and upstanding morals throughout the centuries and many believed they would clean up politics if they won the right to vote. However, in his own personal belief, the author takes the exact opposite view. He proclaimed...

  5. Arrival of more tobacco men in Congress
    date January 11, 1878map Washington City, District of Columbiatags Economy

    The arrival of men to Congress who wanted a reduction on the tax on whiskey and tobacco was heralded as a great victory for the Virginia and the South. Previously, according to the Daily Dispatch, “the South was then weak in representation and had the whole organization of the internal-revenue system against her interests.' The main goal of the new congressional arrivals was to get the...

  6. Male delegate spoke at Women's Suffrage Convention
    date January, 1878map HENRICO, Virginiatags Women

    A male Virginian delegate spoke at a Women's Suffrage Convention on January 9, 1878. According to the Daily Dispatch, he made the well applauded comment that “those engaged in the women's movement were the advanced guard of civilization.' Also according the newspaper he spoke about a broad range of subjects that was long and rather boring to the audience. However, this does not...

  7. Returning Board Case
    date January, 1878map ORLEANS, Louisianatags Crime/Violence

    In New Orleans, the beginning of 1878 saw a tumultuous case played out in the press about the returning board of elections scandal. The charges were that the board had committed some foul voting practices during the 1876 election of President Rutherford Hayes. Louisiana was in sad situation politically at that time due to the end of Reconstruction and a deplorable financial state, and charges of...

  8. The Exasperated Bourbon
    date January 19, 1878map Washington City, District of Columbiatags African-Americans, Politics, Race-Relations, Slavery, War

    The editor of The Washington Post could not believe what he was reading. A staff member had just handed him a vicious letter from a reader that, in no uncertain terms, castigated his paper for being so brazen as to refer to black people as Mr. and Mrs. in its articles and stories. The man claimed to be one of the Bourbon Democrats, those who would spill the last drop of their blood rather...

  9. The Exasperated Bourbon
    date January 19, 1878map Washington City, District of Columbiatags Arts/Leisure

    The editor of The Washington Post could not believe what he was reading. A staff member had just handed him a vicious letter from a reader that, in no uncertain terms, castigated his paper for being so brazen as to refer to black people as Mr. and Mrs. in its articles and stories. The man claimed to be one of the Bourbon Democrats, those who would spill the last drop of their blood rather than apply...

  10. A Black Girl Robs another Girl of Fifteen Cents
    date January 24, 1878map BALTIMORE, Marylandtags African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Law, Race-Relations

    Elizabeth Burley, a twelve year old black girl, was charged on the twenty-third of January with robbing Louisa Kerling. Kerling, who was on the way to a store was supposedly choked by Burley until she gave her, her fifteen cents. Someone heard Kerling's yells and Burley was handed over to police officer Trainor, who took her to the police station. She then awaited a hearing.

    Although...

  11. 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...

  12. Meeting and debate over future of the Petersburg Railroads
    date February 11, 1878map Prince Georges, Virginiatags Economy

    The evening of February 11, 1878, many concerned citizens of Petersburg, Virginia met to discuss the future of the Petersburg Railroad. The main issue at hand was whether the city would control it or not. Citizens were fiercely divided on this issue and the meeting of February 11 was to oppose city control of the railroad. Discussion was lively and detailed about the issues merits.<br />Concern...

  13. A Tax Outrage
    date February 12, 1878map WAKE, North Carolinatags taxes, Economy

    “We have paid an insane tax to the government says the North and East.  We of the West and the South have complained true, but not unreasonably, our burdens are heavier than we can bear, heavier than we ought to bear, or than we will bear.”  The northern and southern parts of the state debated tax policy during an 1878 session of the state legislature in Raleigh, North Carolina.  Both sides...

  14. Yellow Fever Convention held
    date February, 1878map DUVAL, Floridatags Health/Death

    In February 1878, delegates of leaders in the medical profession from all over the South met in Jacksonville, Florida for a convention about yellow fever. Yellow fever is a viral disease carried by mosquitoes and affected the South from time to time in the nineteenth century. The convention's purpose was to “consider the matter of a uniform system of quarantine, and to take steps to prevent...

  15. Report of possible Klu Klux Klan killing
    date February, 1878map SHELBY, Kentuckytags African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Health/Death, Race-Relations

    A murder of some black men was regarded by many as the work of the Klu Klux Klan in Shelbyville, Kentucky. According to the Daily Dispatch, “masked men set fire to the cabin of some negroes, compelling the inmates to come out and call aloud their names;.and as he uttered his name they literally riddled his body with buckshot.' Reaction to this event and other like it stirred varied reactions...

  16. 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...

  17. Lien law passed in South Carolina
    date March 1, 1878map CHARLESTON, South Carolinatags Agriculture

    The South Carolina legislature passed a new and improved lien law on March 1, 1878, to help farmers get credit in order to plant. This law and the benefits it brought helped the agricultural sector of South Carolina's economy to survive following the havoc of previous years. Also the lien law boosted Gov. Wade Hampton's popularity with voters even higher during a reelection year campaign...

  18. Remarks of Governor Holliday about the current situation of Virginia
    date March 7, 1878map HENRICO, Virginiatags Economy

    Communicating with the General Assembly, Governor Holliday of Virginia spoke about the dismal financial situation of the Old Dominion. According to The Washington Post he declared “he could find no excuse for the denial of the debt' and that the state was “bound morally and legally to pay this debt.' In response to calls for a constitutional convention to solve remedy the situation,...

  19. 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,...

  20. 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...

  21. 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...

  22. 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...

  23. 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...

  24. Revivals occurring in black churches throughout Richmond
    date April, 1878map HENRICO, Virginiatags African-Americans, Church/Religious-Activity

    In Richmond during April 1878, many black churches in Richmond, Virginia began having revivals. The revivals drew large crowds and lasted for several days. It was so startling and peculiar the Daily Dispatch ran a large article about the uprising in religious activity among blacks. It dramatically stated the revivals had “no parallel in our history and is remarkable alike for the suddenness...

  25. 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...