Throughout 1830, the number of slave holders in Maryland was declining, and those who remained were fighting a losing battle to maintain control over the state government. In 1830, white slaveholders consisted of only 35% of the white population of Maryland, yet controlled 60% of the seats in the state legislature -- a fact which was all to prevalent to many anti-slavery whites and to free blacks....
On January 30, 1832 The Woodville Mississippian published an extensive letter from Lewis Cass, the Secretary of War, to Andrew Jackson, the President of the United States. Cass was concerned about the policy that the government would take regarding the Native Americans living in the United States. Cass admitted that whites had harmed the Indians for the past two centuries, and he saw the...
When Alexander Allen was asked to write an essay on the Advantages and Disadvantages of Slavery at Franklin College, Alabama, which he attended during the late 1830s and early 1840s, his answers were based upon the society in which he was immersed for all of his life. First, Alexander thought that slavery allowed a greater number of talented individuals to devote their time to studying and spreading...
As early as 1830, three years before the Nullification Compromise, South Carolinians in the coastal Georgetown area became agitated with raised tariffs. This financial strain, however, concerned Southerners less than its implications for domestic policy. They warned, If it is not, it ought to be understood that the Tariff is only one of the subjects of complaint in the South. The Internal Improvement,...
As early as 1816, Maryland and other Southern states pleaded with the federal government to procure a site for the colonization of free blacks. Within the next two decades the American Colonization Society formed chapters in Maryland and other Southern states. Many chapters of the American Colonization Society advocated the creation of Liberia, an area on the tip of Africa, as a homeland for freed...
It was clear that James Tinsley wanted nothing more than for his granddaughter to have someone to HAVE AND TO HOLD (since he capitalized the phrase). In 1830, he wrote a deed giving his young six-year-old slave, Martha Jane, to his granddaughter Cleopatra Albertine Tinsley. Not only did James Tinsley give Mary Jane but also all of her increase forever. It was not unusual for southern children...
In the days before baby formula, new mothers had far fewer options for food for their babies. Because of rampant childhood diseases and absence of many other options of sustenance for infants, breastmilk played a vitally important role in the development of society and families. Many slaveholding women designated enslaved women to be wet nurses for the newly born white children. As Robert Mallard...
The low water level made the landing of ships near the mouth of the Brazos difficult. And, fortunately for William hunter, the ship that was lost to the sand bar (he could not remember the name of the ship) was not carrying his goods. However, the incident was instructive to Hunter, as he reported to his business associate James Perry (who resided in Missouri at the time), in that after the ship's...
Moses Austin had been dead nine years when his final move came about. The owners of the land where Austin and his wife were buried were apparently quite anxious to have their bodies moved off of the property, for reasons unknown today. Their son, Stephen Austin requested to a certain Bishop Rosatti (through his brother-in-law) that they be placed in a Catholic burying ground. It was noted to the...
The river was dangerously low. Travelers from Virginia to Kentucky in 1830 needed the river, but fortune did not smile on Robert Whitehead. After a breathtakingly beautiful trip through the countryside to the New River, Whitehead faced water levels lower than any in recent memory. With his chances of catching the steamboat back home dashed, he turned to a precariously small skiff constructed of...