In explaining the treaty to the legislature, McMinn focused also on the relationship between Tennessee and North Carolina, as well as both of their relationships (and that of the United States) with the Cherokees. The Cherokees had occupied what McMinn estimated to be five to seven million acres of land between the Tennessee and Mississippi Rivers. He encouraged the Tennessee legislature to enact...
Drought and famine struck most of the Western world in 1816, and continued throughout 1817. In 1817, grain prices were 154% of the price in 1815 in the United States. In the month of January, the price of grain was nearly twice the original 1815 price. This was partially due to a low grain harvest in America, but also reflected the large amount of grain exported to Europe, where the famine was...
After getting their constitution approved in August, Mississippi held its first election for governor and Representatives to Congress. Rumors abounded in other states that some of the polling places were occupied by soldiers with bayonets trying to control the voters. The Washington Republican & Natchez Intelligencer of Mississippi fiercely denied these allegations. To admit such lawlessness...
Fowl Town, an Indian village in Spanish- controlled Florida, was the site of one of the major events in the First Seminole War. It was visited three times by United States troops, the first time marking the first official engagement of the war. These skirmishes resulted in the deaths of three Seminoles, the capture of one, and the abandonment of the town.
Lieutenant Colonel Arbuckle led the...
Epes Spain put an ad in the Richmond Enquirer advertising the sale of fifty negroes, to be sold at the Price Edward court house at the end of the month of January. He stated that African Americans were raised by him, and that among them was a blacksmith, a carriage driver, a seamstress, a weaver, excellent house-servants, and boys of good size for plough. He also made sure to mention that all of...
"I am ready to allow, Mr. President, that both Great Britain and France, have given us abundant cause for war." These were the words of General German in the United State Senate that was displayed by the press in Spooner's Vermont Journal. The war described here is the War of 1812, where both Great Britain and France attempted to bully the United States into trade allegiances with either nation....
William Triplett, a resident of Frederick County, offered a forty dollar reward for the capture and return of two runaway slaves, Nelson and Priscilla (nicknamed Betsy). The two slaves, a married couple, ran away January 9th from the Briscoes estate in Winchester. The man was described as 23 or 24 in age, a very dark Mulatto, and 5'10-5'11 in height. He was wearing a well-worn black,...
Hezekiah Mosby, married to Betsy Merryman, appealed to the Virginia General Assembly for a divorce on the grounds that his wife committed adultery. More specifically, his wife committed adultery with a black man, and gave birth to a mulatto child. The General Assembly set the grounds for the divorce, requiring that the courts determine whether or not Hezekiah had been a faithful husband, as well...
On January 22, the South Carolina Southern Patriot first reported the escape of a slave girl by the name of “Mary or Mary Ann' from Joseph Maybank on the 12th of the same month. The advertisement described her as standing 5'8' tall with a yellow complexion and a split front tooth. There was an offered award of 20 for her capture and return.<br />It was not uncommon for four...
An Englishman named Gregor McGregor, a veteran of the Napoleonic wars, wanted to take over East Florida in the name of Venezuela, New Granada, Mexico and Rio de la Plata. He had been unable to establish a government among the Venezuelans as he had wished, and had lost all hope of receiving supplies for his army there, so in February 1817, he moved on to Mexico. On the Island of St. Thomas, he...