Episodes Nearest to November 1, 1899 to November 30, 1899: 1 through 25 of 25
- Meeting of the United Daughters of the Confederacy
November, 1899
HENRICO, Virginia
Church/Religious-ActivityThe United Daughters of the Confederacy was founded in 1895 in Atlanta, Georgia. Southern women integrated religion with the promotion of the Lost Cause. They often closed letters with, Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet. Lest we forget. Lest we forget'. Monuments constructed under their supervision were mostly of armed Confederate soldiers facing the north, and were placed in public...
- A Letter from Italy to Savannah, Georgia
November, 1899
CHATHAM, Georgia
Migration/Transportation, WomenPeople in the United States and around the world began to utilize the newly developed railroad system during the nineteenth century. People shipped numerous items by means of the railroad. Southern natives such as Phoebe Yates-Levy Pember, a native of Savannah, Georgia also utilized the new system. Pember spent the years 1895-1899 traveling around Europe. In 1899 she sent home to Savannah a package...
- Murder of Milton Seaton
November 25, 1899
PITTSYLVANIA, Virginia
African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Race-RelationsThe prevalence of homicide in the south increased greatly in the second half of the nineteenth century. Manslaughter, murder, and mutilation took the place of duels in the old south. Violence in Virginia became increasingly commonplace, especially in rural areas. Descriptions of black men on wanted posters reflected racial prejudice in the south.<br /><br />Harrison Thompson was a...
- Water Made into Nicety on Paris Mountain
November 1, 1899
GREENVILLE, South Carolina
African-Americans, Economy, Race-RelationsWater is a necessity; however, white southerners knew that indoor plumbing was only a nicety. As the white administrators of the Paris Mountain Water Company drafted new rules of their newly acquired waterworks, they established regulations to prevent or oppress most African Americans in their struggle for survival in the post-Reconstruction era southern United States. For example, as a newly reunited...
- Lost and Found
August 31, 1899 to 1899
HINDS, Mississippi
Migration/Transportation, WarOn August 31 of 1899, a brief letter from E.B. Hill, Telegraph Editor of the Detroit Journal, was published in the Jackson Weekly Clarion Ledger. Mr. Hill, it appeared, had inherited a Civil War era relic from his father, who had received it from a member of a troop of Michigan cavalry. The relic itself was an ornamental Bowieknife with a six-inch blade, horn handle, German silver mounted. The sheath...
- Longshoreman Strike
August 31, 1899 to 1899
NORFOLK CITY, Virginia
African-Americans, EconomyBlack members of the International Longshoremen's Association quit work until their demand that the United States Shipping Company at Newport News fired all non-union white men. On August 31, 1899, the unofficial strike of the black men disrupted the handling and loading of ships in the Warwick County port. However, within one day, the shipping company had obtained nearly one hundred white men...
- Southern Industrial Convention
October 19, 1899
MADISON, Alabama
Economy, Urban-Life/BoosterismThe Huntsville chamber of commerce called for the Southern Industrial Convention to discuss southern industrial conditions. The convention was attended by all southern states. The convention lasted for six days allotting time for the discussion of the industrial condition of each state individually. Booker T. Washington spoke on the impact of racial relations on southern industry, and Senator...
- 100th Anniversary of the Death of George Washington
December 14, 1899
Washington City, District of Columbia
Church/Religious-ActivityGeorge Washington was an important figure in the South in the 1900s, as he himself was a southerner from Virginia. After the Confederacy seceded from the Union and created the Constitution of the confederacy they turned to Washington as a symbol of their patriotism. An image of Washington was put on the seal of the Confederacy and on a postage stamp suggesting that the Confederacy, not the Union,...
- Regulator Mob Burns RIchard Coleman
October, 1899
MASON, Kentucky
African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Health/Death, Race-RelationsThe South was a region characterized by extreme violence following the civil war, much of which resulted from racial tensions. The flagrant racism found throughout the south explains why the majority of murders were committed by white men against black victims. However, many killings of blacks remained unreported as they often went unpunished. All murder cases in which the victim was white were...
- Institutional Inequality
July 31, 1899 to 1899
NORFOLK CITY, Virginia
African-Americans, EducationThe July 31, 1899 report by the superintendent of public schools in Norfolk Virginia illustrated the disparity between white and black students in regards to educational opportunity and proficiency. School Superintendent Richard A. Dobie filed the report, at the request of Norfolk Mayor C. Brooks Johnston. Though the Report was not intended to make any political or social gestures, analysis of the...
- Independent Negro League of Kentucky
October 10, 1899
JEFFERSON, Kentucky
African-AmericansSouthern Negroes were mostly aligned with the Republican Party through the 1870's. In the 1880s Republicans began to lose hold on their Negro supporters. In October of 1883 the Supreme Court declared the Civil Rights Act unconstitutional, and after the compromise of 1877 Godkin decreed the impossibility of incorporating a Negro into a system of government for which you and I would have...
- California Oranges in Alabama
January 1, 1900
JEFFERSON, Alabama
Agriculture, Economy, Migration/TransportationWas the California fruit market ripe for expansion? Horticulturist, W. G. Fraser spent four weeks in the South during the winter of 1900 testing a new market for Californian oranges. Upon returning to California he reported to the Los Angeles Daily Times, The result of my trip was most satisfactory. I found a very active demand for California fruit... Fraser attributed this demand to the...
- Kentucky Governor Election
December, 1899 to February 3, 1900
FAYETTE, Kentucky
Crime/ViolenceWilliam Goebel won the Democratic party's nomination in December, 1899 for Governor of Kentucky. In light of the fact that the Democratic party had previously been a Confederate dominated party, it was unusual for the Pennsylvanian to win the nomination. His following was mainly composed of young democrats. His campaign was extremely ambitious and well organized. He stood for controlling...
- Open Door Notes
September 6, 1899
WASHINGTON, Virginia
EconomyOn September 6, 1899 Secretary of State John Hay wrote the Open Door Notes policy based on the open door principles and the preservation of Chinese integrity. The aim of this policy was to create equal opportunity within spheres of influence and among major world powers. Chinese customs tariffs were to be administered equally, there was to be no interference with treaty ports, and lastly railroad...
- Prohibition Throughout Time
January 30, 1900
Albany, New York
Prohibition, Temperance MovementIn 1861, the Boston Temperance Alliance exclaimed that "alcohol in the living body [was] not a servant or a friend, but a disturber, a foe; in a single word,...a narcotic poison." The idea of prohibition has been around since colonial times, spear-headed by a man named Dr. Benjamin Rush who argued in 1784 that excessive alcohol consumption was harmful to both the human body and mind. These ideas...
- Bradley Tyler Johnson's Woodlands
August 21, 1899
AMELIA, Virginia
African-Americans, Agriculture, Migration/Transportation, WomenIn 1899 Bradley Tyler Johnson posted a flyer titled For lease on Ninety-Nine Year Terms that advertised a 99-year lease on his property, the Woodlands, located in Amelia County. Johnson had a very specific vision for the property; I want a colony of ten families from the Northwest to settle here, he wrote. Traditionally Southside Virginia, including Amelia County, had a rural background with very...
- Murderers
April, 1899 to 1899
SUSSEX, Virginia
African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Race-RelationsThe death of Patrick McDonald, a Suffolk resident, in April of 1899, was carried out in a brutal and premeditated manner. Accused of the crime were two white men, Sam Beale and James Brittle, and a colored man named Edward White. The September 7, 1899 issue of the Virginian-Pilot describes how the men are accused of the brutal bludgeoning of McDonald and then placing his body on train tracks. However...
- Benjamin Thomas Lynched
August 8, 1899
Alexandria City, Virginia
African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Law, Race-RelationsOn Tuesday, August 8, 1899 in Alexandria Virginia, news about the alleged assault on eight-year-old Lilly Clark by Benjamin Thomas, a black male, spread rapidly. On Sunday August 6, Clark claimed she went over to Thomas's home to retrieve an axe, which had been loaned to him. When she reached his house and explained why she had come, Thomas allegedly grabbed Clark and drew her to him. Clark,...
- Benjamin Thomas Lynched
August 8, 1899
Alexandria City, Virginia
African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Law, Race-RelationsOn Tuesday, August 8, 1899 in Alexandria Virginia, news about the alleged assault on eight-year-old Lilly Clark by Benjamin Thomas, a black male, spread rapidly. On Sunday August 6, Clark claimed she went over to Thomas's home to retrieve an axe, which had been loaned to him. When she reached his house and explained why she had come, Thomas allegedly grabbed Clark and drew her to him. Clark,...
- Golf in Florida
February 26, 1900
BREVARD, Florida
Arts/LeisureFlorida was booming at the turn of the century. In 1907 the Florida governor pointed out the population increased 16.4 percent from 1900 to 1905. Even more impressive, property value increased 45.5 percent in this same period. The economy was thriving and Florida used the surplus to fund new legislation that involved creating an arsenal of state troops, restricting child labor, building good railroads,...
- Pensioning Confederate Soldiers
February 3, 1899 to 1899
NORFOLK CITY, Virginia
Health/Death, Politics, WarOn February 3, 1899, an aging Confederate soldier from Portsmouth, identifying himself only as C.M.B. wrote to the Virginian-Pilot in response to Senator Marion Butler's proposed bill that would open up federal pension plans to all veterans of the Civil War. Despite a divide among many Southerners about the honor of accepting federal pension, C.M.B. argues, Why then should ex Confederates prefer...
- Confederate Soldier Reunion and the Return of a Regiment from Manila
July, 1899
DAVIDSON, Tennessee
African-Americans, Migration/Transportation, Race-Relations, WarA conflict ensued in Nashville, Tennessee in 1899 when the confederate reunion and the return of a regiment from Manila occurred simultaneously. The president of the local United Daughters of the Confederation firmly opposed the use of the United States flag at the reunion. Her protest proved unsuccessful. Although the United States flag was displayed, the Confederate veterans marched under...
- 9th B.Y.P.U.A. International Convention
July 13, 1899 to July 16, 1899
HENRICO, Virginia
Church/Religious-Activity, Urban-Life/BoosterismThe Baptist Young People's Union of America held its 9th international convention in Richmond, VA. From July13-16, 1899. Baptists were twice as prominent in the south than in the North, especially in rural areas where over eighty percent of Baptist churches were located. Richmond's appeal as a cultural and historical center of the south attracted a larger crowd. The event was promoted...
- Stole a Pocketbook
January 5, 1899 to 1899
NORFOLK CITY, Virginia
African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Race-RelationsOn January 5, 1899 the Virginian-Pilot reported that a young black male in the town of Portsmouth, Virginia had stolen the pocketbook of a lady whose services he was filling. While this petty incident of crime was relatively unnoticed, buried in the middle of the paper, the style in which the brief story was written illustrates the social opinions in this southern city. The story goes on to describe...
- The Conjure Woman, and The Wife of his Youth and Other Stories of the Color LIne by Charles W. Chesnutt
1899
CUMBERLAND, North Carolina
Arts/Leisure, Race-RelationsCharles W. Chesnutt was born to free blacks in Cleveland, OH in 1858. When he was eight years old his family returned to Fayetteville, NC. He began a teaching career and by 1880, he became the President of the Fayetteville State Normal School for Negroes. While in North Caroline, Chesnutt studied the culture, dialect, and superstitions of southern blacks. In 1883 he returned to Cleveland where...