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...
In the year 1865, Samuel Wilson signed a Freedman's Bureau document that concerned two of his younger slaves. The document proclaimed Edmund and Farrel free boys of color. The document went on to say that the boys were age 13 and 11 and became Samuel's apprentices till the age of 21. The two boys had to faithfully serve and obey their master until their apprenticeship with Samuel came to...
In Tullahoma, Tennessee dissatisfied southerners took torches to an African-American schoolhouse, as a means to stop the education of freedmen. The Central Press from Bellefonte, Pennsylvania stated that the southerners “could find no vent for their pressing passions except by indulgence in arson.” General Thomas ordered the arsonists to rebuild the schoolhouse, an order that was...
In December 1865, The Sun in Baltimore reported on a story from the Norfolk Virginian concerning the formation of a militia in Matthews County, Virginia. The war had ended months before, but the men of Matthews County still felt the need to protect themselves. The possibility of an insurrection of the newly autonomous group of freedmen in their area terrified the white men of Matthews...
Throughout the years of our countries existence, the United States Constitution has had many Amendments added to it. One of the most important and influential of these amendments has to be the 13th amendment. This amendment states “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United...
At the close of the Civil War, wealthy northerners were interested in acquiring new farmland to develop. To do so, they needed to relocate to areas that were less populated than the North. Despite their admiration for South Carolina’s “lands and climate,” northerners feared living in the state, because of the potential violence. During this time, South Carolina began enacting black codes to...
A small article on the front page of The Natchez Democrat on December 11, 1865, described a conflict between state militia and black freedmen almost two weeks earlier. The incident occurred as the militia attempted to search for arms in the black community Grenada, Mississippi. The militia seized "a large number of muskets, ammunition…from the negroes."
This event was the...
Built in Glasgow, Scotland, with the name Sea King, the C.S.S. Shenandoah would continue the Confederate fight long after the Army of Northern Virginia had surrendered. Named after the valley and county in Virginia, the C.S.S. Shenandoah had a C.S.A letter of Marque to sail towards the Indian Ocean to seek out, capture, or destroy Union military and commercial vessels....
The people of Norfolk were worried. According to the Norfolk Virginian, the Board of Health expected Asiatic cholera to spread to North America soon. The United States had seen cholera before. In 1832, it spread through New York and parts of Canada. It killed over ten thousand in New York, New Orleans, and St. Louis in 1849. Several thousands more were lost in Chicago in the 1850s....
The C.S.S. Shenandoah could be called the most dedicated Confederate Naval vessel of the Civil War or the tardiest. A lack of communication and the desire to see the South win the war led this ship to firing the war’s last shots. The C.S.S. Shenandoah was the only Confederate ship to circumnavigate the globe, on a mission to sink or capture any Union vessel it met. The...