In this day and age, newspapers rarely print fiction. Of course, there is the occasional magical story written by a third grade class that appears every once a week in the Arts and Entertainment section of the paper, but for the most part, fictional stories of real substance are not published in newspapers anymore. This was not the case in the 1800's. Appearing in The Valley Star each week was...
On December 26, 1879, Zack A. Cozzens gave testimony about a conversation he witnessed, the night before the November election, in the office of John Warwick Daniels, a Democratic Virginia State Senator from Lynchburg. In this conversation William Merchant remarked that he had "a number of Republican tickets, and that if they could be marked with certain names, that a good many colored people...
On December 27, 1879 the first statewide organization of the Farmer's Alliance was established in Parker County Texas. Although the movement would confine itself to giving advice regarding “scientific farming' in the 1870's and did not have a significant impact on Southern culture of the day, it would play a crucial role in the agrarian revolt of the 1890's. In the mean time...
For much of the first half of the nineteenth century, most of the churches in Washington with black members were overseen by white pastors and leaders. As a result, many of the black members felt alienated, while many of the white members were eager to disassociate themselves. Thus, it was a major breakthrough for the black citizens of Washington, D.C., at the Civil War's end, when the white...
A Poet Turned Nurse
Born in New York on May 31st, 1819, Walt Whitman was the second of nine children. His family was poor and he had no real schooling. He loved to read and write and studied many classics on his own. At age 12, he began a trade in printing and started writing poems. He held many jobs over the years and one was editor for...
Tunis G. Campbell-a black religious leader, justice of the peace, delegate to the Georgia state constitutional convention, and Georgia state senator-embodied the realization of what heights freed blacks could achieve in the post-war South. A representative of McIntosh, Liberty, and Tatnall counties, Campbell ardently advocated for laws promoting equal education, integrated jury boxes, and abolishment...
In December of 1879 Alabama congressman C.M. Shelley introduced a resolution in the US House of Representative to appoint a committee of five members to study the causes of the exoduster movement. By this point the growth of the exoduster movement threatened the social and economic dominance of the white, Bourbon ruling class in the south, and represented one of the most significant movements of...
On December 12, 1879 temperance supporter held a meeting outside of the Georgia state capitol attended by 3720 demonstrators. At the demonstration three prominent, secular leaders, including a colonel and a judge spoke to the crowd about prohibition of the sale of alcohol, while a pledge was circulated in support of temperance. Governor Colquitt provided implicit support for the demonstration,...
On December 11, 1879 the assembled representatives of the National Board of Trade adopted a resolution urging Congress to become more involved with regulation of commercial activity through a variety of measures. These suggested measures included the creation of a federal rail road commission that would force freight companies to charge equal rates to all customers, the adoption of a federal standard...
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,'...