Episodes Nearest to July 21, 1879: 1 through 25 of 25

  1. Threat of Houston, Texas race riot leads to armed suppression of African-Americans.
    date July 21, 1879map HARRIS, Texastags African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Race-Relations

    Racial tensions rose to the boiling point after a black citizen named Floyd was lynched by a white mob. In response to the perceived threat of a black race riot in reprisal for this atrocity, “parties of well armed men' descended upon the city, while the neighboring city of Richmond sent six deputy sheriffs to “restore order.' In addition to this the city of Houston escalated...

  2. Rich goldmine discovered north of Atlanta, Georgia
    date July 22, 1879map DAWSON, Georgiatags Economy

    Atlanta, Georgia set off a miniature gold rush. Newspapers in the region responded to the bonanza by publishing detailed articles about the development of gold mines in the region. One such article appearing in the Enterprise and Mountaineer of Greenville, South Carolina on December 24, 1879 declared that the Pigeon Roost mine would be the “largest and most productive mining camp this side...

  3. James Eads's Mississippi river jetty system completed
    date July 8, 1879map PLAQUEMINES, Louisianatags Economy, Migration/Transportation, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    After five years of construction, James Eads jetty system officially succeeded by lowering the depth of the Mississippi river to 30 feet at its mouth. This accomplishment allowed for the port of New Orleans to accommodate the larger ocean-going ships of the 19th century. In 1883 this improvement would be complemented by the beginning of regular freight routes through New Orleans by the Southern...

  4. Segregation Has Not Died
    date 1879map TARRANT, Texastags Cemetery, Segregation

    Segregation Has Not Died

                Segregation is a nasty, uneducated word in today’s era.  Though most African-Americans died as free men, they had been laid segregated in old, befouled cemeteries usually off to the side or back of the clean, well-kept white person’s cemetery.

                The Constitution of the United States of America, written in 1776,...

  5. Jule's Need for Legal Help
    date August 12, 1879map RAPIDES, Louisianatags African-Americans, Crime/Violence

    Lily Suner wrote a letter to her brother on August 12, 1879 regarding Jule, an African American in need of legal help. Jule appeared to be related to the siblings in some way, since the brother was in a position to tell Jule's children and wife that he sent his love and Suner was in communication with him. The letter began with Suner chiding her brother for not writing to her in Alexandria,...

  6. The Greenback party goes down to defeat in November elections led by the losses in Mississippi
    date September 10, 1879map HINDS, Mississippitags African-Americans

    Prior to 1879, the Greenback Party had burst onto the political scene and presented a truly unique and radical voice in American politics. Although the Greenback Party's roots were with the miners in the Rocky Mountain States and with the farmers of the Midwest, the depression in agricultural prices following the Panic of 1873 allowed the party had made significant inroads among the Southern...

  7. Coal Miners of Allegany and Garrett Refuse to Work for Less Than Fifty Cents
    date September, 1879map ALLEGANY, Marylandtags Politics

    The coal miners of the Allegany and Garrett Counties in Maryland met on Wednesday, September 10, 1879 and decided to continue their strike. Two representatives from twenty-eight mines met in Lonaconing. Almost unanimously, the miners decided they would not work for less than fifty cents per ton of coal; the companies said they could not pay more than forty cents and that this was even too high to...

  8. Bank Failure precipitates “commercial crisis' in Charleston, South Carolina
    date September 19, 1879map CHARLESTON, South Carolinatags Economy, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    On September 19th a dispatch to The Enterpirse and Mountaineer of Greenville, South Carolina reported that “The commercial circles were much agitated to-day by the announcement of the suspension of the banking and exchange house of James Adger &Co.' The failure of this bank was not only a significant financial blow to Charleston, but was also part of a larger story about the weakness of...

  9. The Consequences of Non-Conformity
    date May 20, 1879map Washington City, District of Columbiatags Native-Americans, Carl Schurz

    Little Chief of the Cheyenne Indian tribe once said, "I'd rather die than conform to the white man's way." On the morning of May 19, 1879, Secretary of Interior Carl Schurz spoke to the Cheyenne Indians and their leader, Little Chief. Little Chief was old and spoke for the Cheyenne Indians, while the five other tribe members, being very young, listened. Schurz had told Little Chief, "the...

  10. Commencement at Howard Draws an Illustrious Crowd
    date May, 1879map Washington City, District of Columbiatags African-Americans, Education, Government, Politics, Race-Relations, Slavery, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    It wasn't every day after the Civil War that former slaves and former slave-owners would admit to having something in common, much less celebrate it openly. But in the early summer of 1879 at the commencement exercises for Howard University, they did just that. The crowd began to arrive and soon it became clear that there was not nearly enough room to seat everyone who wanted to witness the...

  11. The Insane Hospital
    date October 1, 1879map JEFFERSON, Alabamatags Church/Religious-Activity, Health/Death, Government, Women

    Every October, without fail, the Superintendent of the Alabama Insane Hospital released his report about the year that was. In October of 1879, Dr. Bryce, the superintendent, expanded his report, by including particular conditions and patient numbers, among other details. Averaging 400 patients, the hospital treated anything from pneumonia to cerebral softening to utter, indefinable insanity. The...

  12. Performance by the Stonewall Brigade Band in honor of the Mayor of Winchester
    date October 9, 1879map AUGUSTA, Virginiatags Arts/Leisure, Politics, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    Music is a form of communication that does not require its attendants to share a common language, thus allowing it to serve as a unifying medium. The performance of the Stonewall Brigade Band of Staunton confirmed the friendship that existed between the two sister cities of the Valley of Virginia, Staunton and Winchester. The Brigade Band performed to the general delight of all present outside...

  13. After frost falls on the ground on October 24th and 25th the Memphis yellow fever epidemic is officially declared to be at an end.
    date October 24, 1879 to October 25, 1879map SHELBY, Tennesseetags Health/Death, Race-Relations, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    After months of one of the worst yellow fever outbreaks of the 19th century, the Memphis outbreak of 1879 is officially declared to be over after frost kills the germ. While the event had immense national significance, the gravity of the yellow fever outbreak to the city of Memphis cannot be overstated. Although the causes of the outbreak were uncertain at the time, many people pointed out that...

  14. South Carolina Supreme Court adjourns after decisions to repeal the homestead exemption, and pay back most of the state debt
    date October 28, 1879map RICHLAND, South Carolinatags Economy

    On October 28th, the South Carolina Supreme Court adjourned after making a series of significant rulings that signified the restored control by the white planter class after reconstruction. One such ruling regarded the Homestead Law, in which the South Carolina Supreme Court effectively ruled that land owners would have their land holdings exempt from repossession in the event of a debt default...

  15. Methodist Preacher Attacked
    date March 26, 1879 to April 23, 1879map PULASKI, Arkansastags African-Americans, Church/Religious-Activity, Crime/Violence

    When Reverend W. M. Todd came to his new district, he heard threats that the white men in the area had a way of getting rid of men who came from the North to preach to the colored people. Todd may or may not have taken the threat seriously. Regardless, he worked with his superior Reverend I. G. Pollard to organize services that were open to mixed congregations. It was after such a service on March...

  16. Virginia Readjuster Party sweeps to victory in 1879 elections
    date November 4, 1879map HENRICO, Virginiatags Education, Race-Relations

    In the Virginia state legislature elections on November 4, 1879 the Readjuster party rose to victory over their Conservative Debt-Payer opponents by gaining 41 of 100 delegate seats, and 20 of 40 Senate seats. The Readjuster Party won the election on a platform of repudiating state debt, expanding education, and promoting the interests of African-Americans. They framed their message around rhetoric...

  17. Mississippi election of 1879
    date November 4, 1879map HINDS, Mississippitags Race-Relations

    The Mississippi election of 1879 served as a reaffirmation of Bourbon power in the wake of the Greenback challenge to Democratic hegemony. The results of the November 4, 1879 were that the Democrats were once again able to assert political dominance over the state through voter fraud and intimidation. Moreover, the 12,000 vote total registered for the Greenback Party in the 1878 elections declined...

  18. Letter to Thomas Butler Concerning Selling His Land in Woodruff County
    date April 2, 1879map WOODRUFF, Arkansastags Agriculture, Economy

    The letter to Thomas Butler concerning his property holdings in Woodruff County,

    Arkansas was sent to him by his lawyer, J. Cole Davis. In the letter, Davis was writing to inform

    Butler that he believed that it was possible to receive at least 2,500 cash for his land in

    Woodruff County. Butler's land has been leased to tenants through Davis's business for some

    period...

  19. The Church and the Irreconcilable Differences between Protestants and Catholics
    date October 5, 1879 to 1879map PITTSYLVANIA, Virginiatags Church/Religious-Activity

    October 5, 1879 was a Sunday, and the weather was beautiful and bright as the many religious people of Danville, VA, walked to church to attend the hour-long service that morning. Later that night, at the Main Street Methodist Church in downtown Danville, Rev. P.A. Peterson delivered a speech called The Primacy of St. Peter, according to the Catholic Church. To a packed audience which was deeply...

  20. South Carolina state Baptist convention convenes in Aiken
    date November 20, 1879 to November 23, 1879map EDGEFIELD, South Carolinatags Church/Religious-Activity, Race-Relations

    On November 20, 1879 the South Carolina Baptist convention met in Aiken South Carolina to deal with a variety of issues. This convention illustrated the degree to which Southern Baptists had become intertwined with Southern culture by 1879. Included in these issues were management of the 37,000 allocated the state's 95 missionaries and 2000 foreign converts, as well as plans to increase financing...

  21. The "Exodusters"
    date December 5, 1879map LENOIR, North Carolinatags african americans, Emancipation, Migration

    Goldsboro inhabitants were shocked at the condition of the African American “Exodusters” coming through town in December 1879. There were some 139 blacks traveling in this group, all shabbily dressed, according to the Raleigh Observer. The paper reported their departure with a hint of contempt and disgust, as if the fact that blacks were unhappy with their living conditions was something...

  22. Ratification of Louisiana constitution creates land grant funding for Louisiana State University and creates state supported black university in New Orleans.
    date December 8, 1879map ORLEANS, Louisianatags Education

    With the ratification of the Louisiana Constitution of 1879, Article 230 mandated that the Louisiana State Agricultural and Mechanical College would receive 182,000 is state funding from the sales of lands. At the same time Article 231 of the constitution mandated that the state would “make an annual appropriation of not less than five thousand dollars, nor more than ten thousand dollars,'...

  23. Louisiana establishes Bureau of Agriculture
    date December 8, 1879map ORLEANS, Louisianatags Agriculture

    With the ratification of the constitution on December 8, 1879 Louisiana officially established the Bureau of Agriculture under the provisions stated in Article 179, and appropriated an annual budget for the new Bureau of up to 10,000. Soon after Louisiana established its Bureau of Agriculture a bill was proposed in the South Carolina state legislature to establish its own Department of Agriculture...

  24. Louisiana Gubernatorial election of 1879
    date December 8, 1879map ORLEANS, Louisianatags Race-Relations

    In the Louisiana gubernatorial election of 1879 Bourbon Democrat, Louis Wiltz beat conservative Republican Taylor Beattie by a margin of 72,000 to 42,500. In the second election since reconstruction the Bourbon Democratic elite strengthened its hold over Louisiana politics by manipulating the votes of African-Americans through a mixture of intimidation and voter fraud. The Sun of Baltimore, Maryland...

  25. Louisiana's constitution of 1879 ratified.
    date December 8, 1879map ORLEANS, Louisianatags Education, Race-Relations

    Although the ratification of the constitution of 1879 appeared to affect major changes for the state of Louisiana, in reality, it became a tool to preserve the status quo economic, social, and political relations of the state. Notable measures passed under the constitution include Article 150 which transferred the state capital from New Orleans to Baton Rouge, Article 224 which mandated the creation...