Harriet knew that when she turned twenty-seven years old, she was free. Harriet's mother, Phyllis, was the slave of Alexander Nelson. In his will, Nelson manumitted Phyllis at the age of thirty-five and all of her daughters at age twenty-seven. Phyllis died on the way to Liberia, but Harriet still wanted her chance at freedom. In 1857, however, Harriet was over twenty-seven years old and still...
Harriet knew that when she turned twenty-seven years old, she was free. Harriet's mother, Phyllis, was the slave of Alexander Nelson. In his will, Nelson manumitted Phyllis at the age of thirty-five and all of her daughters at age twenty-seven. Phyllis died on the way to Liberia, but Harriet still wanted her chance at freedom. In 1857, however, Harriet was over twenty-seven years old and still...
Having a petition granted for divorce was hard to come by in the nineteenth-century. However, each year many divorce petitions were filed in the South. In 1857, Mrs. Charlotte Smith of Lowndes County, Mississippi stated that she caught her husband committing adultery with a negro girl named Nancy in April of that year. Mrs. Smith, devastated by her husband's crime, filed for divorce, alimony,...
Maintaining order on a plantation that was dependent on slavery was very important. To achieve this slaves required positive aspects in their life to look forward to. These privileges drove them to work. The creation of task systems and gang systems were frequent practices and established content lives among workers. Task systems were designed so that each slave had one engagement he or she was...
The first women’s college in the “Golden Corner” of South Carolina was established in 1856 under the name Greenville Baptist Female College. It was affiliated with the Baptist Church, but students were from various denominations. The first course catalogue was printed in 1857. It gives a list of the trustees, faculty and students. The college was established in order to help educate the...
Ironically detrimental to the health of Americans during the 1800s was the medicinal trade itself; “the medical profession in America [bore] the evils of haste and irregularity incident to so many of its institutions. It [was] a country of many and violent diseases” (Nichols, 363). Firstly, becoming a doctor was simple enough to be achieved by virtually anyone. Attaining a certificate...
“Africa is calling,” exclaimed George Thompson in his pamphlet “Pleas for Slavery Answered,” “‘come over and help us, come and help us ere we die; O, Christians, to us fly, in Africa.’” For the American missionary, advocating for anti-slavery through speeches and print was not enough. Thompson urged white Christians to go to Africa to “repent of [their] Wickedness” and to repay...
The completion of the Blue Ridge Tunnel was the pinnacle of American railroad engineering in the late 1850s. At 4,273 feet long, the tunnel was the longest ever constructed in the United States in 1858. Using funds from the Commonwealth of Virginia, the Central Virginia Railroad hired famous engineer Claudius Crozet for the project. He then found several contractors to do the work. The laborers...
Kansas began the process of beginning to apply for statehood in late summer 1857. First, the citizens had to come up with and ratify a state constitution. Proslavery forces within the state drew up the so-called “Lecompton Constitution' at a convention which Free Soil parties boycotted. Indeed, at the Convention there was never any option to vote against slavery. The proslavery forces refused...
Franklin Pierce had important family connections and a respectable military record from the Mexican War that helped him win the election. Pierce was supported by both southern “fire-eaters' and northern Free-Soilers, having a reputation of being a “doughface' a Northerner with Southern sympathies. Following his ascendancy to the Presidency, he promptly made one concession after...