Episodes Around: 18910101

  1. Texas Homestead Law and the Economic Depression of the 1890s
    date 1890 to 1891map BEXAR, Texastags Government, Race-Relations, Women

    From her ranch in Texas, Jane Maverick wrote that the early 1890s were sad years for families throughout the nation as the country was undergoing an economic depression. The depression started in the North, Maverick reflected, and worked its way down the coast, finally hitting Texas. Prior to this time, the country was undergoing a post-war boom and Maverick explained ...there had been a perfect...

  2. Brothers embark on mill buying adventure
    date November 20, 1890 to September 11, 1891map LOUISA, Virginiatags Agriculture, Economy

    Brothers James Bibb and W.E. Bibb decided to invest in building a cotton mill.

    James was a real estate developer and W.E. Bibb was a lawyer. They corresponded by

    mail over several months trying to get other investors involved and talked about financial

    matters. James was the person who was mostly in charge of this deal although he always

    was asking his brother for...

  3. Emancipation Celebration
    date January 1, 1891map Alexandria City, Virginiatags African-Americans, Law, Race-Relations

    African Americans gathered in large numbers in Alexandria on New Year's night, January 1, 1891, to celebrate the twenty-eighth anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. Magnus L. Robinson, editor of the Weekly Leader noted with chivalry that in Lannon's Opera House every orchestra chair was filled with the fair sex--never have there been before such an array of Afro-American ladies at...

  4. Tennessee Miner Uprising
    date 1891map ANDERSON, Tennesseetags tennessee, Convict Labor

     

    In Tennessee, the abuse of the convict labor system was putting many coal miners out of work in the late 1800’s.  If an employer was unsatisfied with wages or conduct of his workers, he could hire convicts as employees of the state.  Thousands of Tennessee miners rose up against the use of convict labor by the state’s coal companies in 1891.  This involved significant mountain communities...