Prior to 1879, the Greenback Party had burst onto the political scene and presented a truly unique and radical voice in American politics. Although the Greenback Party's roots were with the miners in the Rocky Mountain States and with the farmers of the Midwest, the depression in agricultural prices following the Panic of 1873 allowed the party had made significant inroads among the Southern...
A dispatch from Lake Providence, Louisiana has "left little doubt that Dr.Williams B. Jones, the editor of the Lake Providence (La.) Republican, who was foully assassinated at his home on the day after the election, was sent out of this world for the one reason that he was a...outspoken Republican". In Lake Providence's election Gen. FLoyd King, a White Leaguer, was chosen as the Democratic...
The last job of Margaret Jane Blake, a former slave, was as servant to the Walter B. B. family. Eleanor McC. (daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Walter B. B.) moved from Baltimore to Chicago when she married Mr. McC. and brought Margaret Blake with her. In the winter of 1879 Eleanor decided to visit her mother and family in Baltimore, Maryland for Christmas. She took with her, her daughter and Margaret Blake....
To usher in the start of classes on September 20th, 1877, Norwood High School and College issued their mission statement for the upcoming school year. The brochure spoke of the school as one of the finest training schools in the South (as well as the world) in producing fine, intelligent, young gentlemen ready to enter the world. The brochure reports that the school's emphasis on creating...
Lily Suner wrote a letter to her brother on August 12, 1879 regarding Jule, an African American in need of legal help. Jule appeared to be related to the siblings in some way, since the brother was in a position to tell Jule's children and wife that he sent his love and Suner was in communication with him. The letter began with Suner chiding her brother for not writing to her in Alexandria,...
Atlanta, Georgia set off a miniature gold rush. Newspapers in the region responded to the bonanza by publishing detailed articles about the development of gold mines in the region. One such article appearing in the Enterprise and Mountaineer of Greenville, South Carolina on December 24, 1879 declared that the Pigeon Roost mine would be the “largest and most productive mining camp this side...
Racial tensions rose to the boiling point after a black citizen named Floyd was lynched by a white mob. In response to the perceived threat of a black race riot in reprisal for this atrocity, “parties of well armed men' descended upon the city, while the neighboring city of Richmond sent six deputy sheriffs to “restore order.' In addition to this the city of Houston escalated...
After five years of construction, James Eads jetty system officially succeeded by lowering the depth of the Mississippi river to 30 feet at its mouth. This accomplishment allowed for the port of New Orleans to accommodate the larger ocean-going ships of the 19th century. In 1883 this improvement would be complemented by the beginning of regular freight routes through New Orleans by the Southern...
Pagan religion and practice has always been at odds with Christianity. In the mid 19th century the two sects of the Baptist Church sought to educate the many tribes of the Cherokee Indians. The records for the interactions between the two peoples are at best biased, bureaucratic, opinion, and afford little to no information on how the Cherokee really felt towards their missionaries. The first...
In the years immediately following the Civil War, the Baltimore Association for the Moral and Educational Improvement of the Colored People a localized precursor to the NAACP attempted to recruit African-American teachers and establish African-American schools. The organization “terminated its operation' five years following the end of the war believing that it had made great strides.<br...