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...
An Old Citizen of Athens, as he called himself, wrote an editorial for the Southern Banner in January 1852 complaining about the way Athenians were educating their daughters. He argued that instead of sending their daughters to large overgrown establishment outside of Athens, they should take advantage of the good teachers and schools available closer to home. There are two advantages that this...
In New England, the Puritans required every town to establish public schools supported by all families. After settling in the United States, the first buildings they constructed were a house of worship and a school. This exemplifies that education and religion were the two most important beliefs that the Puritans held. According to New England First Fruits, “After God… reared convenient places...
On March 4, 1850, the Virginia General Assembly passed an act providing for the election of delegates to a convention in order to create a new constitution, or amend the existing one. A controversy over the degree to which slave populations could determine seats in the General Assembly precipitated this call for change; under the current constitution, the western part of the state felt that the...
In 1851, Mr. McDougald introduced a bill to the Georgia legislature that would have banned further importation of slaves for sale into the state. The purpose of the bill was supposedly to ensure the survival of slavery in the state, but it was largely opposed. People disagreed on the real intentions of the bill, and on what the consequences of it would be. The Georgia Telegraph called the...
In November 1851, a 36-year-old slave by the name of Charles was reported missing. Charles' abrupt disappearance enraged his master, John C. Kerric. On November 22, 1851, Kerric wrote an impassioned letter to his friend, Robert T. Hubard, describing his unfortunate situation. Kerric explained that Charles ran away and was purchased by a plantation owner on the "other side of the mountain." He...
Jenny, an African American woman residing in Marietta, Georgia, desperately wanted to move. In 1852, the local government of Marietta passed an ordinance against negroes hiring out their own time or living on lots to themselves. This new law was greatly at odds with Jenny's current living situation. Jenny believed that under the law she would no longer prosper at her current residence. Faced...
By the late 1840s American feelings on slavery smoldered. According to historian James McPherson, the southern states were pushing for a pro-slavery constitution in California, and western slavery not just as an abstraction, but as a legitimate southern goal. As the debate raged in congress over the admittance of California as a free or slave state, the Californians in San Francisco had all...
The slave owner Edward Gorsuch traveled to Pennsylvania, along with several men, two of whom were federal marshals, to retrieve six of his slaves that had escaped from his plantation years earlier. Gorsuch planned to confront William Parker, the owner of a tenant house, about harboring his fugitive slaves. An altercation between the two groups of people developed and Gorsuch was killed during...
In November of 1851 the Athens Southern Banner announced that a famous French musician, Monsieur Andrieu, would be giving three concerts in Athens. The newspaper encouraged Athenians to attend saying that Andreiu was well received in Charleston and Augusta where he had been performing. The announcement also told Athenians that the accompanist would, give imitations of the great Prima Donnas...