Episodes Nearest to May 1, 1884: 1 through 25 of 25

  1. Connection of a Railways Through Augusta
    date May 1, 1884map RICHMOND, Georgiatags Economy, Government, Migration/Transportation

    The Port Royal railroad company came into conflict with the city of Augusta when it intended to build a railway through the city which would be in competition with local transportation providers. The company claimed to have legal rights to connect the tracks through the city. The city claimed that they had no more legal rights to continue building tracks in Augusta. The business owners in the city...

  2. Remembering the Lost Cause
    date June 18, 1884map NORFOLK CITY, Virginiatags Health/Death, Race-Relations, War

    Capt. Carter Williams, a Norfolk resident, visible at the front of the Confederate line at Chancellorsville, led a most daring charge, the battle's first day, into the teeth of federal infantry and their cannons. The 6 Virginia captured the Union color bearer and seized the guns, resulting in Robert E. Lee, himself, personally thanking the brave Capt Williams the next morning. Soon after receiving...

  3. Opposition to Westward Migration
    date March 13, 1884map WYTHE, Virginiatags Migration/Transportation

    Manifest destiny was supposed to be just that, a destiny. The West would offer opportunities for wealth that no longer existed on the eastern seaboard. In March 1884 word quickly spread throughout Wytheville, Virginia that several country boys were leaving their small town for the vast frontiers of the West; their imaginations filled with fertile lands and crop surpluses. The townspeople had other...

  4. English Travelers Visit a Black University in Atlanta, Georgia
    date 1884map FULTON, Georgiatags African-Americans, Education, Race-Relations

    In the year 1884, two travelers from London, England set out to tour the Southern United States. Upon reaching Georgia, the men stopped to visit Atlanta University, an African American university of the state. Their tour of the university led them to observe that the rooms at the school were light, clean,... and cheerful, and that the work of the students at the school was done exceedingly well....

  5. African American Woman Contracts Skin Disease
    date 1884map COBB, Georgiatags African-Americans, Race-Relations, Women

    In 1884, an African American woman living in Marietta, Georgia developed a rare skin disease that gradually lightened her skin. The woman worked for an upstanding white family in Georgia and experienced continuing skin lightening for many months. White spots covered her face and body, slowly enlarging and spreading across her skin. The spots gradually bleached her skin, making her appear white....

  6. Symbolizing So Much More than Literary Achievement
    date 1884map GREENVILLE, South Carolinatags Art/Leisure, Education, Women

    A decoration that celebrates achievement in the literary and historical realms, “Polished after the Similitude of a Palace” is the inscription in the perimeter of the gold triangle encompassing a large capital ‘J’ that is Bessie Stradley’s Judson Literary Society pin.  The small, unique metal pin has grown tarnished with age and wear.  It is simple, yet elegant and informative, with...

  7. KING COTTON: The Importance of Cotton Production Alabama
    date February 20, 1884map JEFFERSON, Alabamatags Agriculture, Economy, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    On July 20, 1884, an early morning rain storm brought large drops of water to Montgomery, Alabama. The storm started slowly, with the rainfall increasing as morning approached. Rain fell steadily and consistently for days, so much so that flooding began to occur throughout central Alabama. Waters roared with such wrath that houses along situated along streams were swept away. The flooding caused...

  8. Frederick Douglass Addresses the New American Party
    date February 20, 1884map Washington City, District of Columbiatags African-Americans, Government, Law, Politics, Race-Relations, Women

    The American Prohibition Convention of 1884 was held in Lincoln Hall and kicked off on the evening of February 20th. Several prominent politicians, bureaucrats, religious leaders and thought leaders of the time were present to help usher the American Party into the upcoming election season. Mr. E.D. Bailey, who had just been appointed to the committee responsible for nominating a President and...

  9. Jilted Italian Workers Take Stand and Fight with Police
    date February 15, 1884 to February 16, 1884map HARFORD, Marylandtags Crime/Violence, Law

    On February 15, 1884, when A. J. Parliament tried to pay fifty Italians hired to work on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad at Aberdeen with 750 instead of the 1,500 they were owed, he was seized by the workers and locked up. They told him they would not release him and threatened to kill him unless paid the full amount. When Sheriff Walker and his Deputy came to investigate at around midnight, they...

  10. The National Game
    date July 26, 1884map NORFOLK CITY, Virginiatags African-Americans, Arts/Leisure, Race-Relations, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    Play Ball the Norfolk crowd shouted on a mid-July afternoon, despite the rain that would eventually force the Norfolks and the Baltimore Monumentals from the baseball field. Although the fans left disappointed, they would return the following day to see the two teams square off, and this time they got their money's worth. The Norfolk Landmark would call the July 26 game one of the finest ever...

  11. New Baptist Church Brings Prosperity to Wytheville
    date March 6, 1884 to 1884map WYTHE, Virginiatags Church/Religious-Activity

    Nineteenth century southerners took tremendous pride in their small towns and communities. Built nearly from scratch, these small towns were the ?heartbeat? of the South. Small news was big news in a town like Wytheville. When the plans to build a new Baptist church were announced, the local paper saw it as yet ?another indication of the prosperity in Wytheville.? At the cost of 1,000, the local...

  12. An Appeal for Woman Suffrage
    date January, 1884map FRANKLIN, Kentuckytags Politics, Women

    Women began to demand suffrage in the late nineteenth century. In January 1884, Mrs. James Bennett argued in Kentucky's legislature that women should receive the vote in presidential elections. She provided several arguments, including the fact that men of poor morals and low status in society were able to vote whilst a "noble Christian women" was not. In addition, she cited the Thirteenth Amendment...

  13. Livestock and Appalachia
    date April 3, 1884 to 1884map WYTHE, Virginiatags Agriculture, Health/Death, Economy

    Healthy livestock were imperative to running a successful farm in Appalachia. Unfortunately, keeping these animals healthy after the Civil War became a constant struggle for many Appalachian farmers. Disease ravaged the livestock population after the war. In 1884, the Wytheville Dispatch ran an article about ?our friend? Bob Crockett. Crockett was famous in Wytheville for his work in improving the...

  14. A Jealous Murder
    date August 18, 1884 to August 20, 1884map AUGUSTA, Virginiatags African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Health/Death, Law, Race-Relations, Women

    The possessive feelings that accompany jealousy occasionally lead to violent actions, as in the case of Elzy Middlebrook. On a Saturday evening Elzy Middlebrook was arguing with Thomas Brown outside the house of Wilson Goings, the father of Middlebrook's wife. Middlebrook accused Brown of being overly familiar with his wife, showing jealousy to be the source of the conflict that emerged....

  15. Another Negro Boy Caught Stealing
    date April 17, 1884 to 1884map WYTHE, Virginiatags African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Law

    Will Crockett, a thirteen year old boy became the ninth negro boy in a month to be caught stealing and sent to jail in April of 1884, in Wytheville. Crockett stole twenty dollars from Wolfenden Brothers and was sentenced to two months in jail by Judge Obenchain. Interjecting their own opinion, the Wytheville Dispatch hoped that his would be a lesson to local merchants to keep ?these little rascals?...

  16. The Reality of Racism
    date September 1, 1884map FAUQUIER, Virginiatags African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Education, Race-Relations

    Mason O. Matthews wrote letters home to his mother for the duration of his stay at Bethel Classical and Military Academy in Virginia. He described his daily life in detail and also wrote of his attitudes towards minorities and Yankees. As a young man from a Virginia family, Mason demonstrated negative feelings towards these groups during the post-Reconstruction era. Racial discrimination...

  17. Capital Punishment in Lee County
    date May 15, 1884 to 1884map LEE, Virginiatags Crime/Violence, Health/Death, Law

    The eyes of justice were not colorblind in the South before or after Civil War. White criminals faced one set of rules while blacks faced another. Southern justice did not favor the death penalty unless the accused was black, in which case there was hardly a hesitation in its authorization. On March 15, 1884 in Jonesville, Virginia, Absalom Russell, a white man, was hanged for the murder of Ira...

  18. Battle for the Chesapeake Oysters
    date December 6, 1883 to December 31, 1883map SOMERSET, Marylandtags Crime/Violence, Government, Law

    Lieutenant Dryden was furious. The Award of 1877, which defined the boundary between Virginia and Maryland through the Chesapeake Bay, was bad enough. It ceded many of the most bountiful beds in the Pocomoke Sound to the dredgers of Virginia, but the Virginians refused to respect even those boundaries. Dryden and his fellow watermen decided to respond with force. For three weeks, his men riddled...

  19. Woman's Christian Temperance Union Letter in Newspaper
    date December 12, 1883map WILKINSON, Georgiatags Health/Death, Education, Government, Law, Women

    A casual reader of the Southerner & Appeal might have noticed a column titled To the Women of Georgia. Mrs. Richard Webb, of Savannah, Georgia, was an ardent member of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. In her letter to the newspaper, she insisted that women take up the cause of prohibition and promote alcohol education for young children in order to prevent drunkenness in adulthood....

  20. Miss Lu Lucas, the Manager of a Large Estate in Madison Parish, Louisiana
    date September 20, 1884map MADISON, Louisianatags Arts/Leisure, Women

    In Madison Parish, Louisiana, Miss Lu Lucas manages a large estate, and spends the greater part of her time in the saddle, wrote Harper's Bazaar in the Personal section on September 20, 1884. This excerpt, though very brief, is packed with information about women who lived in the Reconstruction era South. Most striking at first is that Luc Lucas was a Miss, that she was an unmarried woman...

  21. Public Education for African Americans in Alabama
    date November 13, 1883map MOBILE, Alabamatags African-Americans, Education, Government, Race-Relations

    On the morning of November 13, in Birmingham, Alabama, the United States Senate Sub-Committee on Education and Labor resumed session. Witnesses were gathered from all over the state to testify to the committee, many of them hailing from the Gulf Coast of Mobile, Alabama. Two prominent white residents of the county testified about the cotton and coal production in the state, suggesting economic improvements...

  22. Edmunds Bill Threatens White Supremacy
    date October 22, 1884map WAKE, North Carolinatags African-Americans, Government, Politics, Race-Relations

    The upcoming gubernatorial and legislative elections of 1884 made North Carolina Democrats unsure of the future of the white man's dominion over Negroes. Whether through education, disability, or property rights-white Democrats of North Carolina believed they had provided for their African American citizens. However, their work seemed to go unnoticed by its benefactors, with the African American...

  23. Women of Hocking Valley Become a Force for Miners Strike
    date October 25, 1884map HOCKING, Ohiotags Economy, Government, Law, Women

    A wood engraved image of the Hocking Valley Miners' Strike was published on October 25, 1884 in Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper. It depicted four officers leading a miner through a large crowd of women. In the picture some women held clubs that were raised in threatening positions, while the rest had faces that were contorted with rage. Joseph Becker sketched this scene in...

  24. Governor Mahone's Views on the Riot
    date November 3, 1883 to November 6, 1883map PITTSYLVANIA, Virginiatags African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Economy, Government, Politics, Race-Relations, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    On November 3, 1883, a black man refused to move off the sidewalk for a white man, and the ensuing violence caused a riot throughout the city of Danville as whites and blacks were attacked each other. One white man and five black men were killed. Each side blamed the other for starting the riot. Its repercussions sent shockwaves through the state of Virginia, especially with the November elections...

  25. Danville Riot
    date November 3, 1883 to November 5, 1883map PITTSYLVANIA, Virginiatags Crime/Violence, Race-Relations

    Racial tension in the late 19th century peaked in the Southeastern United States. Blacks fought what seemed to be an impossible objective as they sought out equality in a predominately white world. Nevertheless slow and steady progress was being made as African American advanced in social, political, and economic arenas. These establishments brought with them the wrath of Southern white fear...