In this day and age, newspapers rarely print fiction. Of course, there is the occasional magical story written by a third grade class that appears every once a week in the Arts and Entertainment section of the paper, but for the most part, fictional stories of real substance are not published in newspapers anymore. This was not the case in the 1800's. Appearing in The Valley Star each week was...
After the resignation of James M. Wayne from the United States House of Representatives, the Jacksonian Party of Georgia desired a strong unionist to represent the Milledgeville Congressional District in Congress. On July 6, 1835, a convention of Union Party delegates nominated Jabez Jackson to fill this void. Jabez Jackson himself wrote to the Central Committee of the Union Party of Milledgeville...
On July 6, 1835, the Georgia Telegraph published an editorial from the June edition of the Knickerbocker in regards to the brooding controversy about whether or not women should be educated. After heartily endorsing the editorial, the Telegraph ran the entirety of the article.
The Knickerbocker began by reviewing the failure of male education and, thus, the necessity...
Several members of South Carolina's Chester County delivered a petition to the state assembly in response to an 1834 act outlawing teaching reading to slaves. The citizens expressed outrage at the legislation, saying themselves and other citizens were prepared to disobey the law because slaves across Southern plantations already had the ability to read. They further expressed their opinion that...
We all know the stereotype: the screaming, bloodthirsty savage with scalp in hand, terrorizing the civilized world and using the land without virtue. Yet there are some people who differ, like Benjamin B. Thatcher.
In his Indian Biography, Thatcher argued that the Native American was not resigned to such a savage state, but that there existed among them great "patriots, orators,...
The Greek Revival sprung into the American architectural landscape just as quickly as it disappeared lasting only from the 1820s to 1850s. A typical result from the movement was a James Gallier product that was part of the "Three Sisters" and constructed on Rampart Street in New Orleans in conjunction with two other Greek Revival town homes. Originally built in 1834 as a residential structure,...
Tension over slavery and race was high in the United States when Harriett Martineau, a famous English writer, came to visit in 1834. Martineau later wrote about her two year trip to America in a book called “Retrospect of Western Travels”, Volumes 1 and 2, which was published in 1938. In a chapter titled “First Sight of Slavery", Martineau wrote about an incident with an American woman...
When Moses Roper’s owner he got along with became bankrupt, his fate transitioned into another master’s hands. His new owner Mr. Register was known to be a savage slave owner. Before even purchasing Roper, Register frequently taunted him, “You have been a gentleman long enough, and, whatever may be the consequences, I intend to buy you.” With this fear ingrained into Roper’s mind, he did...
James L. Stratton was traveling through the South on business in 1835. While stopped in Augusta, Georgia, he wrote to his wife Eliza at their home in Philadelphia. In his letter he complained of the many difficulties he faced during his trip. In particular, he was frustrated that he had not been receiving letters from her. He reported that he had expected to receive a letter from her while in Monroe,...
In the summer of 1835, violence swept through the Mississippi landscape. A Mississippi man's letters include harrowing murders, vigilante activity and a purported slave insurrection. Rattled by the violence, the Mississippian, James Carlson, in a letter to his former schoolmate, Virginian Robert Whitehead, detailed the events with fear and warning. Lawless men brutally murdered a mutual friend...