Richard Champion Rawlins arrived in Washington D.C. from Baltimore on Friday June 26, 1840. He made the 40 mile journey by railway; this was Mr. Rawlins first time in Washington. Traveling was not as accessible when Richard Rawlins was a child. Therefore, this trip to Washington was a thrill for him. After registering at the Gadsby's Hotel in Washington, Rawlins journeyed down to the capital....
On Tuesday June 30, 1840, Mr. Richard Rawlins continued his stay in the nation's capital. However, this day in Washington was not your typical day. He started his diary entry by stating, Today is an era in my life. In this one day, Mr. Rawlins was able to see the Declaration of Independence, call on and present letters of introduction and converse with Henry Clay as well as John Quincy Adams....
William Gilmore Simms, “though no match for Poe as a literary artist, stood as the preeminent man of letters in the antebellum South.' He was known all over the nation, and his best works were compared to James Fenimore Cooper and Sir Walter Scott. Seeing a need for greater appreciation of history, especially among his fellow southerners, Simms worked hard to build up the southern literary...
When Natalie Delage fell ill in 1841, she found support in the community around her. The wife of Thomas Sumter Jr. kept a diary detailing the last year of her life on the plantation in Sumter District, South Carolina. She visited doctors in town, and doctors came to visit her. They prescribed all sorts of medicines: Castor oil salts, elixirs, chocolates, chicken broth, snake root, and creamor...
Twenty-year-old Saul had been a slave his entire life and was tired of being treated in inhumane ways and separated from his family. He ran away not only to escape the oppression of slavery, but also because he has a mother and brother in Baltimore, and it is probable he is about there. To Saul and many other slaves in the South, familial ties were strong. The deeper reasons for Saul's flight...
During the Presidential Election of 1840 the Whig Party became more cohesive. On August 4, 1840, six members of the Whig Central Committee of Vigilance of Fauquier, R.E Scott, Samuel Chilton, Tho's T. Withers, Richards Payne, John P. Philips, and John Walden, invited the voters of Fauquier and surrounding counties to attend a Whig party meeting in Warrenton. The men made it clear that the invitation...
Massacre at Indian Key
Doctor Perrine and his family lived on a small island known as Indian Key, which was part of Florida. The Perrine lived on Indian Key during the period of the Seminole war. The Spanish Indians were beginning to become angry with some many people stealing their territory. Unfortunately, Dr. Perrine was attacked by a group of Spanish Indians and was killed....
In September of 1840 a slave named Davy managed to escape from the Petersburg plantation of his master, Henry Davis. Apparently, Davy had escaped with another slave from a nearby plantation. The man with whom Davy escaped was captured outside of Sussex County, upon his capture he revealed a possible location for Davy's whereabouts and gave up their plans for escape. Davy's companions told...
A free man must go. After three years of recommendations, petitions, and court proceedings, the Senate of the state of North Carolina denied Lunsford Lane extension on his residency in the state to allow more time to purchase his wife and seven children. Lunsford had been commended and allowed by his employer, the Governor of the State, to remain employed in the Governor's office keeping order,...
As the year of 1840 drew to an end, the residents of Albemarle County prayed that the new year would finally bring relief and economic stability to the nation still recovering from the Panic of 1837. President Martin Van Buren echoed these sentiments in his speech to the second session of the Twenty-sixth Congress concerning the general state of the nation. As almost half of the speech discussed...