In Maryland, there’s a kind slaveholder. He is the same slaveholder who owns Mr. Pennington, but his reputation is spotless – he is a kind, Christian man. Recently, a friend of Pennington’s master failed in business, due to, of course, his intemperance. He was a skilled lawyer, and he is not a violent man, but his business failed because of the drink. When this man’s business failed, Pennington’s...
In the first few decades of Mississippi statehood, the fast-track to fame and wealth for young East-coast educated men was law. By presenting themselves before judges, and passing a series of examinations, aspiring young lawyers declared their new vocations.
One such man, a young Mississippian known only as Harvey, parleyed this process to Virginian Robert Whitehead, his former schoolmate,...
Thomas Harrison was a generous father. When the Virginia planter died in January 1835, he left his entire Henrico County plantation and all its contents to his son, Randolph, to deal with however he saw fit. As the executor of his father's estate, Randolph decided to turn his father's gift into a fresh start by selling off everything from farm machinery and supplies to animals and utensils....
By 1835, the Industrial Revolution had swept up Richmond in its wave of innovation and change. At a time when massive advancements were being made in the areas of agriculture, factory production, transportation, and communication, Richmond's General Assembly was still reeling from the logistics of such a massive overhaul. In early January, an advertisement was taken out in the Richmond Whig...
Walk down the streets of any major city in America today and it is hard to miss the fliers. Leaflets advertising a lost dog or runaway cat grace lampposts and telephone poles on every street corner, many including descriptions, names, and last known whereabouts of beloved family pets. Like modern neighbors across America, slave owners in antebellum Richmond, Virginia advertised for the return of...
In 1835 somewhere between Athens, Georgia and Montgomery, Alabama an Indian shot Reverend Mr. Davis while he was traveling. The Presbyterian Clergyman was wounded but was expected to recover. In Athens, the Southern Banner reported this incident stating that though they did not know the details, they feel fully justified in saying that no provocation whatever, was given by [Mr. Davis], to cause...
Surveying Jacksonville society, Leigh Hunt saw humor in the consumption of tobacco. Men of all classes, of all shapes and sizes, employed distinctively bizarre methods of using tobacco. Inhaling dry tobacco powder seems simple enough, but the means to that end varied upon the artistic originality of the southern man. Some gentlemen were quite convulsive, propelling the powder upward into their nostril...
Most families in the South during the 1830s had very little knowledge of medicine and sickness. They lacked the professional help we are privileged to have today and therefore took illness and disease much more seriously. One such family was the Slaughter Family of Culpeper County, Virginia. The month of February, 1835, proved to be very difficult for Philip Slaughter, the man of the household,...
General Samuel Blackburn, a lawyer, general in the militia, prominent and popular resident of Augusta County, died on March 2, 1835. While this would be of note in itself, of special interest is that in his will, according to the Annals of Augusta County, General Blackburn liberated his forty slaves on the condition that they would immigrate to Liberia. Their trip was paid by his estate....
In 1835, an army physician traveled to the newly settled Choctaw territory in Arkansas and Oklahoma. In a letter to his father, Burton Randall discussed his journey and most significantly, displayed empathy for the precarious handling of American Indians by the United States government. Concerned with the forced removal of the state's indigenous population, Randall bewailed how the American...