Episodes Nearest to July 26, 1884: 1 through 25 of 25

  1. 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...

  2. 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...

  3. 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...

  4. 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....

  5. 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....

  6. 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....

  7. 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...

  8. 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?...

  9. 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...

  10. 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...

  11. 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...

  12. 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...

  13. 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...

  14. 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...

  15. 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...

  16. Victorious Democratic Letter to Blacks in Newspaper
    date November 12, 1884map WILKINSON, Georgiatags African-Americans, Government, Law, Politics, Race-Relations

    On November 4, 1884 Democrat Grover Cleveland was elected President of the United States, and the beginning of the end of Reconstruction throughout the South commenced. While the Democrats had already taken over the Georgia state legislature as early as 1870, the party wished to appease any fears that black citizens may have about the end of Republican rule. On November 12, 1884, the Savannah...

  17. 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...

  18. 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...

  19. 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...

  20. 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...

  21. The Twain-Cable Readings
    date January 10, 1885 to January 11, 1885map ST LOUIS CITY, Missouritags Arts/Leisure

    On the evening of January 10, 1885, Mark Twain, also known as Samuel Langhorne Clemens, traveling on a reading tour with another author, George W. Cable, read selected passages from his various literary works at the Mercantile Library Hall in St. Louis, Missouri. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, one of the newspapers covering the event, noted that a brilliant audience (about 700 people) turned...

  22. Charity for a Minister
    date January 27, 1885map HAMPSHIRE, West Virginiatags Arts/Leisure, Church/Religious-Activity

    On a crisp evening in January of 1885, Mrs. John H. Barney, a minister's wife, expected to have a quiet night socializing with a few close friends. However, she was pleasantly surprised to find that what was expected to be a few friends turned into a large number of congregants from the Timber Ridge Christian Church of Hampshire County. However, the one person missing from this engagement was...

  23. 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...

  24. Circumstantial Evidence
    date February 14, 1885map SHELBY, Tennesseetags african americans, circumstantial evidence, courts

    In early 1885 an African American named McKeever went hunting in Memphis, Tennessee, in the same location as a white hunter who was later found dead.  Based on extremely circumstantial evidence, McKeever was put on trial for first degree murder in February 1885.  The jury deliberated for two days before they decided to convict McKeever.

    The circumstantial evidence that the jury considered...

  25. Midwifery in Mississippi
    date February 15, 1885 to February 17, 1885map MADISON, Mississippitags Health/Death, Women

    On February 17, 1885, Mrs. Octavia Wyche wrote from Meridianville in Madison County, Mississippi to her daughter Imogene in Virginia about a number of things. Perhaps the most important news of the letter was the complication during child birth that her other daughter Mollie had gone through two days before. Mrs. Wyche noticed her daughter was acting strangely and sent Walter, one of her sons, for...