Chronology On The History Of Slavery And Racism 1830 To The End
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Holt House Table Of Contents
History Of Slavery, 1619 To 1789
History Of Slavery, 1789 To 1829
Chronology On The History Of Slavery And Racism
The Chronology is broken up into three parts; 1619– 1789, 1790 to 1829 and 1830- to the end.
Compiled by Eddie Becker
Chronology On The History Of Slavery And Racism 1830 – The End
Andrew Jackson's Indian Removal Act forcibly removes five Indian nations from the lower South to less desirable land
in the West, thus opening roughly 25 million acres to cotton cultivation. (Timeline from the PBS series Africans In America)
1830:
Andrew Jackson Census: 6 male and 8 female slaves, 5 "free Colored Persons" out of a household of 25. (Census
Washington DC First Ward, page 67)
Census Graph Citation: From the United States Historical
Census Data Browser.
. "In 1830, there were 6,152 free Negroes in the District of
Columbia compared with 6,152 slaves; in 1840, 8,361
compared with 4,694 slaves; and in 1860, 11,131 compared
with only 3,185. Thus is 30 years, the free colored population
was nearly doubled, while the slave population was halved. It
would be inaccurate to infer from this that there was any
wholesale manumission or that the District was haven for free
Negroes. The free Negroes were of several classes: Those
whose antecedents had never been slaves, such as descendents
of indentured servants; those born of free parent, or of free
mothers; those manumitted; those who had bought their own
freedom, or whose kinsmen had bought it for them; and those
who were successful runaways. These free Negroes were an
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Chronology On The History Of Slavery And Racism 1830 To The End
ever present 'Bad example' to the slaves of the District and of the surrounding slave States, and the more they
prospered, the 'worse example' they became. Especially stringent regulations affecting free Negroes were added by the
District Common Council to the slave codes. Every free Negro was required; (1) to give the mayor 'satisfactory
evidence of freedom', plus $50 for himself, and $50 for each member of his family; (2) to post a bond of $1,000 and to
secure five white guarantors of good behavior. It was necessary to show manumission papers in order to remain free;
even so, gangs bent on kidnapping could and frequently did seize and destroy them. No Negro, slave or free, could
testify against whites. The jails were crowded with captured free Negroes and suspected runaways; there were 290 of
these in the city jail at one time. Many were sold for prison fees, ostensibly for a fixed period, but really for life.
Meetings for any other than fraternal and religious purposes were forbidden. After Nat Turner's insurrection in
Virginia in 1831, colored preachers were banned." (Washington, City and Capital, Federal Writers' Project, Works Progress
Administration, American Guide Series. Washington, 1937, USGPO. P71-2)
Foreign travelers accounts from the 1830 and 1840 described the Robey and Williams slave pens which stood along
the Mall in the shadow of the Capitol; the two were often juxtaposed in artworks, and the presence of slave pens in the
center of the nation's capital captured the attention of abolitionists. (Ironically, today the Museum of African Art sits
less than a block away from the former location of the Robey and Williams slave pens.) (The Mall, On-line Reference from the
University of Virginia American Studies Department, Site developed by Mary Halnon )
"The District of Columbia, too small for slave rearing itself, served as depot for the purchase of interstate traders, who
combed Maryland and northern Virginia for slaves. Since the slave jails, colloquially known as 'Georgia pens", and
described by an ex-slave as worse than hog holes, were inadequate for the great demand, the public jails were made
use of, accommodations for the criminals having to wait upon the more pressing and lucrative traffic in slaves. There
were pens in what is now Potomac Park: and one in the Decatur House, fronting on what is now Lafayette Square.
More notorious were McCandless' Tavern in Georgetown; in Washington, Robey's Tavern at Seventh and Maryland
Avenue, and Williams' 'Yellow House' at Eighth and B street SW. In Alexandria, the pretentious establishment of
Armfield and Franklin, who by 1834 were sending more than a thousand slaves a year to the Southwest, was
succeeded and surpassed by the shambles of much-feared Kephart." (Washington, City and Capital, Federal Writers' Project,
Works Progress Administration, American Guide Series. Washington, 1937, USGPO. p69)
1830
Virginia Census shows the holdings of the Armfield and Franklin slave pen. Their inventory of consisted of
predominantly of children and teenagers who would be taken from Virginia and surrounding States and sold to work
the Cotton Plantations.
Sex and Age for 1830 census for the slave Pen of Armfield and Franklin.
1 male under 10
50 males 10-24
20 males 24—36
4 females under 10
50 females 10-24
20 females 24-36
(1830 DC Census Alexandria page 270)
Franklin and Armfield business dealings depended largely on the agents representing the enterprise, who were
scattered throughout slave-holding areas of Maryland and Virginia. In Richmond there was R.C. Ballard & Co.; in
Warrenton, Virginia, J.M. Saunders & Co.; in Baltimore, Rockville and Fredericktown, Maryland, George Kephart; in
Frederick, Maryland, James Franklin Purvis, nephew of Isaac Franklin; and in Easton, Maryland, Thomas M. Jones
(Sweig 1980;8) . There eventually were three ships traveling between New Orleans and Alexandria for Franklin and
Armfield—the Tribune, the Uncas, and the Isaac Franklin. (The Alexandria Slave Pen: The Archaeology of Urban Captivity, by
Janice G. Artemel, Elizabeth A. Crowell and Jeff Parker, October 1987. Engineering-Science, Inc. Washington, DC)
For graphs showing the Age and Sex Selectivity in Slave Export from Virginia see The graph was used "to make a
rough estimation of the impact commercial traders made in each subregion. While planters moving entire plantations
tended to carry most slaves with them, from infants to older men and women, traders sought out the most marketable-men and women of prime work and child-bearing age.
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Chronology On The History Of Slavery And Racism 1830 To The End
In a best-case scenario for slave families and communities, we assume that planters did not act selectively in moving
west--that is, they simply gathered everyone in the caravan. Since they would have drawn from every age and sex
group in same proportions, the percentage of older slaves exported provides an indicator of planters' slave migrations.
If planters took every migrating slave in the oldest group, and traders took none, then planters in the tidewater and
piedmont tended to draw away between 3 and 6 percent of each age-sex cohort in the 1820s. Traders, then, would have
been responsible for the remainder--the majority of slaves in their teens and twenties. (Geographies of Family and Market:
Virginia's Domestic Slave Trade in the Nineteenth Century, Phillip D. Troutman Research Fellow Carter G. Woodson Institute for Afro-American
and African Studies Ph.D. Candidate Corcoran Department of History University of Virginia, [email protected]
http://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/slavetrade/agesex.html see also http://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/slavetrade/)
1830
John Gadsby was said to live in the Decatur house. The Census for Washington City shows John Gadsby with 38
slaves (1830 Census page 123)
Solomon Nothup, a freed man was kidnapped in Washington DC, held in a slave pen and sold into slavery. "It
occurred to me then that I must be in an underground apartment, and the damp, moldy odors of the place confirmed the
supposition. The noise above continued for at least an hour, when, at last, I heard footsteps approaching from without.
A key rattled in the lock - a strong door swung back upon its hinges, admitting a flood of light, and two men entered
and stood before me. One of them was a large, powerful man, forty years of age, perhaps, with dark, chestnut-colored
hair, slightly interspersed with gray. His face was full, his complexion flush, his features grossly coarse, expressive of
nothing but cruelty and cunning. He was about five feet ten inches high, of full habit, and, without prejudice, I must be
allowed to say, was a man whose whole appearance was sinister and repugnant. His name was James H. Burch, as I
learned afterwards - a well-known slave-dealer in Washington; and then, or lately connected in business, as a partner,
with Theophilus Freeman, of New-Orleans. The person who accompanied him was a simple lackey, named Ebenezer
Radburn, who acted merely in the capacity of turnkey. Both of these men still live in Washington, or did, at the time
of my return through that city from slavery in January last. The light admitted through the open door enabled me to
observe the room in which I was confined. It was about twelve feet square - the walls of solid masonry. The floor was
of heavy plank. There was one small window, crossed with great iron bars, with an outside shutter, securely fastened.
An iron-bound door led into an adjoining cell, or vault, wholly destitute of windows, or any means of admitting light.
The furniture of the room in which I was, consisted of the wooden bench on which I sat, an old-fashioned, dirty box
stove, and besides these, in either cell, there was neither bed, nor blanket, nor any other thing whatever. The door,
through which Burch and Radburn entered, led through a small passage, up a flight of steps into a yard, surrounded by
a brick wall ten or twelve feet high, immediately in rear of a building of the same width as itself. The yard extended
rearward from the house about thirty feet. In one part of the wall there was a strongly ironed door, opening into a
narrow, covered passage, leading along one side of the house into the street. The doom of the colored man, upon whom
the door leading out of that narrow passage closed, was sealed. The top of the wall supported one end of a roof, which
ascended inwards, forming a kind of open shed. Underneath the roof there was a crazy loft all round, where slaves, if
so disposed, might sleep at night, or in inclement weather seek shelter from the storm. It was like a farmer's barnyard
in most respects, save it was so constructed that the outside world could never see the human cattle that were herded
there. The building to which the yard was attached, was two stories high, fronting on one of the public streets of
Washington. Its outside presented only the appearance of a quiet private residence. A stranger looking at it, would
never have dreamed of its execrable uses. Strange as it may seem, within plain sight of this same house, looking down
from its commanding height upon it, was the Capitol. The voices of patriotic representatives boasting of freedom and
equality, and the rattling of the poor slave's chains, almost commingled. A slave pen within the very shadow of the
Capitol! Such is a correct description as it was in 1841, of Williams' slave pen in Washington, in one of the cellars of
which I found myself so unaccountably confined." (Twelve Years a Slave. Narrative of Solomon Northup, a Citizen of New-York,
Kidnapped in Washington City in 1841, and Rescued in 1853.: First published in 1853. Electronic Edition. )
In Fairfax County Virginia, a major source of income for residents came from selling or hiring out their excess slaves.
Slave markets were run by Joseph Bruin at the West End and by Alexander Grigsby at Centreville. There were
frequent slave auctions at the front door of the Fairfax courthouse. Bruin regularly advertised in the Gazette that he
offered "cash for Negroes," and that he was "at all times in the market" for "likely young Negroes for the South" pay
liberal prices for all Negroes from 10-30 years of age." (Gazettette, 20 March 1944) (Fairfax County, Virginia a History. Fairfax
County Board of Supervisors, Fairfax, Virginia, 1978 p 262)
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Chronology On The History Of Slavery And Racism 1830 To The End
Price, Birch, & Company Slave Pen
Duke St., Alexandria, Virginia
(William Pywell, 1863; LOC) Before the war a child would sell for about $50.00, a man at
$1,000-$1,800 and a woman from $500 to $1,500.00
Franklin and Armfield Office
1315 Duke Street
Built in 1812 as a residence for General Andrew Young, this was the office building
of the former interstate slave trading complex which stood on the site from 1828 to
1861. By 1835 Franklin and Armfield controlled nearly half the coastal slave trade from Virginia and Maryland to
New Orleans. In 1846 the property was sold to a Franklin and Armfield agent, George Kephart, whose business
became "the chief slave-dealing firm in [Virginia] and perhaps anywhere along the border between the Free and Slave
States." After 1858, the slave pen was known as Price, Birch, and Co., and their sign can be seen in a Civil War era
photograph. The business was appalling to many, especially to active abolitionists in Alexandria, where the large
Quaker population contributed to a general distaste for slavery. Several abolitionists' accounts survive which describe
the slave pen and the conditions encountered therein. Behind the house was a yard containing several structures,
surrounded by a high, whitewashed brick wall. Male slaves were located in a yard to the west, while women and
children were kept in a yard to the east, separated by a passage and a strong grated door of iron. The complex served
as a Civil War prison from 1861 to 1865, and housed the Alexandria Hospital from 1878 to 1885. It was later
apartments, and was renovated as offices in 1984. (Office of Historic Alexandria, Alexandria Sites Listed on the National Register of
Historic Places )
1830
There were more than 2 million African-American slaves in the U.S. The 1865 Emancipation Proclamation (1863) and
Union victory (1865) freed almost 4 million slaves. (The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia, 1995 by Columbia University Press from
MS Bookshelf.)
Apparently this last entry offended pro confederate Civil War Web page, they try to argue that Slavery was not that
bad. Give up and wind selectively reproducing a good portion of the rest of this chronology. (See Slavery Myths and Facts,
Southern Comfort Civil War History http://www.civilwarhistory.com/slavetrade/blackslavery.htm)
1830 United States Census for a John Adams at the same location as John Q. Adams from the 1820 Census located in
the 1st Ward of Washington City show;
1 female slave 10-24; 1 free colored males under 10; 1 free colored male 10-24; 1 free colored male24-36; 1 free
colored female 10-24; 2 white males 15-20 ; 1 white male 20-30; 1 white female 20-30; 2 white males 20-30; 1 white
male 60-70, 2 white females under 5; 1 white female 20-30; 1 white female 30-40; (1830 DC Census, Second Entry page 58)
1830-1860
Abolitionists, in U.S. history, especially from 1830 to 1860, advocates of the compulsory emancipation of AfricanAmerican slaves. Abolitionists are to be distinguished from free-soilers, who opposed the extension of slavery. The
active campaign had its mainspring in the revival (1820s) in the North of evangelical religion, with its moral urgency
to end sinful practices. It reached crusading stage in the 1830s, led by Theodore D. Weld, the brothers Arthur and
Lewis Tappan, and William Lloyd Garrison. The American Anti-Slavery Society, established in 1833, flooded the
slave states with abolitionist literature and lobbied in Washington, D.C. Writers like J.G. Whittier and orators such as
Wendell Phillips lent strength to the cause. Despite unanimity on their goal, abolitionists were divided over the method
of achieving it, Garrison advocating moral suasion, others direct political action. Uncle Tom's Cabin, by Harriet B.
Stowe, became an effective piece of abolitionist propaganda, and the KANSAS question aroused both North and
South. The culminating act of abolitionism was John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry. Abolitionist demands for
immediate freeing of the slaves after the outbreak of the Civil War resulted in Pres. Lincoln's Emancipation
Proclamation. The abolitionist movement was one of high moral purpose and courage; its uncompromising temper
hastened the demise of slavery in the U.S. (The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia, 1995 by Columbia University Press from MS
Bookshelf.)
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Chronology On The History Of Slavery And Racism 1830 To The End
Theodore Weld's American Slavery As It Is (1839), which cataloged horror stories about slavery drawn entirely from
accounts in the Southern press, was an instant best seller and touched a raw moral nerve in the country. Harriet
Beecher Stowe, scion of America's most distinguished religious family, used Uncle Tom's Cabin, a sentimental novel
with explicit Christian lessons, to rivet the nation's attention to the institutional evils of slavery.
Theodore Weld. reared in a strict Calvinistic manse, was a protege of Charles Finney and studied at Lane Seminary (at
which Lyman Beecher was president), where he was part a group that styled itself the "Illuminati". Weld's early reform
passions were for education and abolitionism. He became a women's rights advocate after his marriage to Angelina
Grimke, a Quaker feminist. (The Welds helped promote reforms like "bloomers" - progressive women's attire in the
19th century). His book American Slavery sold 100,000 copies in its first year and, in becoming an anti-slavery
classic, made Weld the nation's leading abolitionist spokesman. His wife, however, pursued a different track, latching
onto the millennialism of William Miller, who predicted Christ's imminent return in 1843. The Welds eventually
drifted into spiritualism, Swedenborgianism, and Transcendentalism. After struggling with a son's insanity and suicide,
and trying his hand at organic vegetable farming and teaching at a Utopian commune, Weld finally became a
Unitarian. His life personifies Ephesians 4:14. (31. On Weld, see Robert Abzug, Passionate Liberator: Theodore
Dwight Weld and the Dilemma of Reform (N.Y. Oxford, 1980). Weld's heterodox tendencies evidently began early.
After asking his preacher-father a series of challenging questions, the senior Weld told the boy: "Shut your mouth, you
little infidel!" (cited by Roger Schultz by Contra Mundum, No. 4 Summer 1992 Politics of Righteousness: Christian Political Movements in the
Early 19th Century, )
Abolitionists were just as confused about the means they should use. Some endorsed immediate abolition, using
violence if necessary. Others were committed to peaceful means and gradual emancipation. Some, such as the
American Anti-Slavery Society, were simply committed to ending slavery. Still others, such as the American
Colonization Society, driven by fears of post-emancipation racial tensions, wanted liberated slaves resettled in Africa.
While some stressed abolition throughout the United States, others focused on preventing the spread of slavery into the
territories. (Summer 1992 Politics of Righteousness: Christian Political Movements in the Early 19th Century)
During the 1830s, William Lloyd Garrison's violent condemnations of colonization as a slaveholder's plot to perpetuate
slavery created deep hostility between abolitionists and colonizationists. (Library of Congress, African-American Mosaic,
Colonization, )
Plantation Mission Movement 1830-1) Methodist chapels were constructed on many plantations ,As many as 1000
slaves lived on some plantations with little contact with the outside or with whites, other than the overseers. Many
plantation slaves attended the chapels when a Methodist circuit -riding preacher came by. Baptists also made many
converts. (a) Many blacks were permitted to become preachers because Baptists had no educational requirement for the
ministry. (b) The role of minister was one of the only leadership roles available to blacks. (c) Besides the fact that the
Baptists were a major group in the South, many of the Baptist institutions, such as the Baptismal service by
immersion, or communion service (taken at the same time and not row by row), were attractive to blacks, even
reminding some of similar practices held among African tribes. Separate Southern black denominations did not emerge
until the post-Civil War (Growth of the Nation 1800 – 40 Jefferson's Administrations Stephen F. Austin State University, Nacogdoches, TX )
In Ward Three the Census recorded 75 people in the infirmary none were slave or "free colored. (1830 DC Census 3 rd Ward
page 95)
George W P Custis Listed in Georgetown with 57 Slaves and next to him is Alexander Hunter with 22 (1830 DC Census
page 217)
George Washington Parke Custis, Colonel, United States Army, Arlington House Builder, Born at Mount Airy,
Maryland, on April 30, 1781, his parents were John Parke and Eleanor (Calvert) Custis. He attended St. John's College
and Princeton University. He married Mary Lee Fitzhugh in 1804 and they had one daughter, Mary (later Mrs. Robert
E. Lee). He was commissioned Colonel, United States Army, and aide-de-camp to General Charles Cotesworth
Pinckney in 1799 and was a volunteer in the defense of Washington, D.C. during the War of 1812. He began as series
of "Recollections of Washington" in the U.S. Gazette in 1826, and continued in the National Intelligencer, and
published in book form in 1860. His first play, The Indian Prophecy, was performed in the Chestnut Street Theater,
Philadelphia, in 1830. He also wrote: The Railroad, 1830; North Point of Baltimore Defended, 1833; Eighth of
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Chronology On The History Of Slavery And Racism 1830 To The End
January, 1834. He was the adopted son of George Washington after the death of his parents. He built Arlington House
as a tribute to, and to hold the belongings of, General George Washington. He died on October 19, 1852 and was
buried in a private lot on the estate (long before it became a National Cemetery), which is now Section 13 of Arlington
National Cemetery. His wife, Mary Fitzhugh Custis, who died on April 23, 1853, is buried with him. (Arlington House
Web Page)
1830/05/24
The first division of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad is completed May 24 to link Baltimore with Ellicott Mills, 13
miles away. (The People's Chronology, 1994 by James Trager from MS Bookshelf.)
1830
Smithsonian Report reads, "When (Adams) first takes seat in Congress he presents fifteen petitions signed numerously
by citizens of Pennsylvania, praying for the abolition of slavery and the slave trade in the District of Columbia... That
he had always cherished an abhorrence of slavery and a bitter antipathy to slave-holders as a class is sufficiently
indicated by many chance remarks scattered through his Dairy and early years. (John T. Morse, jr., Book of John Quincy Adams,
Mifflin, 1882) (Commentary in study "John Quincy Adams was against the principle and practice of slavery therefore making it unlikely that he
would have tolerated slaves at the Columbia Mills." Cynthia Field: 1998 Smithsonian Study)
John Quincy Adams was presented with fifteen petitions from citizens of Pennsylvania asking for the abolition of
slavery and especially slavery in the District, "he did not think its abolition there desirable," and said, "he hoped the
subject would not be discussed in the House." He thought that "the citizens of Pennsylvania ought not petition in
regard to the matter in the District of Columbia. It would lead to ill-will, heart-burning and mutual hatred." (Tremain,
Mary. Slavery in the District of Columbia. The Policy of Congress and the Struggle for Abolition. Nebraska State University, cited in Milburn,
Page. The Emancipation of Slaves in the District of Columbia. Records of the Columbia Society, Vol. 16 page98-99)
John Quincy Adams came to the House in 1830 and presented antislavery petition that first year. He acted here only
because his Massachusetts constituents asked him to do so. Initially, he thought no more of the abolitionists' work as
Congressmen than he had as president. I could only bring the country "to ill-will. To heartburning mutual hatred
without accomplishing anything else. (Nye, Fettered Freedom, 48 in Piano p 33) When petitions calling for abolition of
slavery in the District of Columbia deluged Congress in 1836, however, Adams had to pick a side, Southerners again
raised the stakes by pushing a gag rule through the House requiring the tabling of such petitions. (They were not
printed, referred to committee, or debated.) While Jackson stood with the South, Adams stood with the abolitionists
and eventually made even Negrophobes in the North see that slavery eroded everyone's civil liberties. He did so by
demonstrating the price that the gag-rule advocates were demanding: To protect slavery every American had to suffer
the right to petition their government, a right guaranteed in the Constitution's First Amendment. (Nixon's Piano: Presidents
and Racial Politics from Washington to Clinton, Kenneth O'Reilly, NY, Free Press 1995)
1830
Census lists 40 slaves to Charles C Lackland and William O'neal (manager) Seems like a labor pool with many free
whites and "coloreds" 200 total.. (1830 Census page 201 Washington County)
1831/01
William Lloyd Garrison began abolitionist newspaper The Liberator. (The World Almanac and Book of Facts 1995 from MS
Bookshelf)
1831
Benjamin Lundy, a Quaker begins Washington’s first antislavery newspaper, The Genius of Universal Emancipation.
(Melder, Keith, City of Magnificent Intentions. A History of the District of Columbia, 1983) . Lundy and the Quaker abolitionists inspired
more militant abolitionists like William Lloyd Garison, publisher of the of the Liberator. Garrison denounced both
colonization and gradualism and called for immediate abolition. In 1833 founded the American Anti-Slavery Society.
(From Events hat Changed American in the Nineteenth Century, edited by John E. Findling and Frank W. Thackeray.1997)
In the 1830s, those few Americans who actively sought to abolish slavery were treated as a lunatic fringe. As William
Lee Miller points out in this often riveting story of the nation's first great political battle over the servitude of African-
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Chronology On The History Of Slavery And Racism 1830 To The End
Americans, slavery was an interest, "concentrated, persistent, practical, and testily defensive," while antislavery was a
mere sentiment, "diffuse, sporadic, moralistic and tentative." Spurred by the Christian evangelical fervor of the era,
abolitionism was just beginning to coalesce from a set of privately held beliefs into a political movement that
generated a growing stream of books, pamphlets-and petitions. (Bordewich, Fergus M., Arguing About Slavery: The Great Battle in
the United States Congress; book review of book by William Lee Miller, Smithsonian December, 1996)
In 1829 Garrison entered into partnership with the American antislavery agitator Benjamin Lundy to publish a monthly
periodical, The Genius of Universal Emancipation, in Baltimore, Maryland. Lundy believed in gradual emancipation,
and Garrison at first shared his views; but he soon became convinced that immediate and complete emancipation was
necessary. Because Baltimore was then a center of the domestic slave trade in the U.S., Garrison's eloquent
denunciations of the trade aroused great animosity. A slave trader sued him for libel; he was fined, and, lacking funds
to pay the fine, was jailed. After his release from prison Garrison dissolved his partnership with Lundy and returned to
New England. In partnership with another American abolitionist, Isaac Knapp, Garrison launched The Liberator in
Boston in 1831; the newspaper became one of the most influential journals in the United States. (Garrison, William Lloyd,"
Microsoft Encarta 98 Encyclopedia.)
1831/01/01
The Liberator begins publication January 1 at Boston where local abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, 26, advocates
emancipation of the slaves who account for nearly one-third of the U.S. population. (The People's Chronology, 1994 by James
Trager from MS Bookshelf.)
1831
Virginia, Thomas Dew, a legislator, proudly refers to Virginia as a Negro-raising state" for other states. Between 1830
and 1860, Virginia exports some 300,000 slaves. The price of slaves increases sharply due to expanding territory in
which slaves are permitted and a booming economy in products harvested and processed by slave labor. (The Negro
Almanac a reference work on the Afro American, compiled and edited by harry A Ploski, and Warren Marr, II. Third Edition 1978 Bellwether
Publishing)
1831/08
Nat Turner slave rebellion in Southampton county Virginia.
Turner, Nat, 1800–1831, African-American slave and revolutionary; b. Southampton co., Va.
Believing himself divinely appointed to lead his fellow slaves to freedom, he commanded about 60
followers in a revolt (1831) that killed 55 whites. Although the so-called Southampton Insurrection
was quickly crushed and Turner was caught and hanged six weeks later, it was the most serious
uprising in the history of U.S. slavery and virtually ended the organized abolition movement in the
South. (The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia, 1995 by Columbia University Press from MS
Bookshelf.) For the extraordinary transcript of Nat Turners Testimony see excerpts from Nat Turner's
Trial <http://vi.uh.edu/pages/mintz/32.htm also see http://www.melanet.com/nat/nat.html and
http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/D/1826-1850/slavery/confesxx.htm)
Nat Turner revolt, Southampton County, Va., August 21-22. Some 60 whites were killed. Nat Turner was not captured
until October 30. Nat Turner was hanged, Jerusalem, Va., Nov. 11. (Major Revolts and Escapes, Lerone Bennett,
Before the Mayflower, http://www.afroam.org/history/slavery/revolts.html)
The bloodiest insurrection of all, in which some sixty whites were murdered, occurred in Southampton County,
Virginia, in August, 1831. Nat Turner, its leader, besides being a skilled carpenter, was a literate, mystical preacher.
He had discovered particular relevance in the prophets of the Old Testament. Besides identifying with the slave
experience of the Israelites, Turner and other slaves felt that the social righteousness which the prophets preached
related directly to their situation. The picture of the Lord exercising vengeance against the oppressors gave them hope
and inspiration. While the Bible did appear to tell the slave to be faithful and obedient to his master, it also condemned
the wicked and provided examples that could be interpreted to prove God's willingness to use human instruments in
order to bring justice against oppressors. Turner's growing hatred of slavery and his increasing concern for the plight of
his brothers, led him to believe he was one of God's chosen instruments. As his conviction deepened, the solar eclipse
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Chronology On The History Of Slavery And Racism 1830 To The End
early in 1831 appeared to him to be a sign that the day of vengeance was at hand. In the following months he collected
a small band of followers, and in August they went into action. Unlike Prosser and Vesey, he began with only a very
small band which lessened his chance of betrayal. As they moved from farm to farm, slaughtering the white
inhabitants, they were joined by many of the slaves who were freed in the process. However, word of the massacre
spread. At one farm, they were met by armed resistance. Slaves as well as masters fought fiercely to stop the attack.
Some of Turner's men were killed and wounded, and the planned drive towards Jerusalem was thrown off stride. This
enabled the militia to arrive and break up the attack. In due time Turner and several of his followers were captured and
executed. White men in both the South and the North saw little similarity between these insurrections and the
American Revolution. The Turner massacre was universally depicted as the work of savages and brutes, not of men.
Vigilance was tightened, and new laws controlling the slaves were passed throughout the South. Both the violence of
the slaves and the verbal abuse of the abolitionists only served to strengthen the South in its defense of the peculiar
institution. Slaves who revolted were depicted as beasts who could not be freed because they would endanger society.
Submissive slaves were pictured as children in need of paternal protection from the evils of a complex, modern world.
They were never seen as men whose rights and liberties had been proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence.
(Norman Coombs, The Immigrant Heritage of America, Twayne Press, 1972. , Chapter 4, Slave Insurrections)
The Washington City Council reacted by making the Black Codes harsher: A black man who struck a white person
was now subject to having his ears cut off. (P 82 Melder, Keith. Slaves and Freedmen Wilson Quarterly 1989 13(1) 77-83)
The corporation of Georgetown enact an ordinance for the regulation including the offense of the possession of
abolitionist information including the Liberator. (p142 Bryan, Wilhelmus Bogart. The History of the National Capital. Vol. II 18151878. Macmillan 1916 GW lib)
The slave insurrection in cased a bitter reaction in Maryland. The Maryland General Assembly took up the policy of
colonization free blacks in Liberia in legislation passed that autumn of 1831, providing an annual appropriation to the
Maryland State Colonization Society. At the same time, the Assembly prohibited any further importation of slaves into
the state. There was already a statute on the books prohibiting free blacks from other states settling in Maryland. This
act of 1807 was given more serious penalties in 1831, and made still more stringent in 1839. The District of Columbia
afforded a loophole in the law until 1845, when, on complaint of Montgomery and Prince George's residents, a special
act was passed to forbid blacks from crossing the District line to settle. (Jeffrey R. Brackett, The Negro in Maryland, A Study of
the Institution of Slavery) (New York, reprint by Negro University Press, 1969 and James M. Wright, The Free Negro in Maryland 1634-1860,
NY, Octagon Books 1971, reprint of 1921 ed. Cited in Richard K MacMaster and Ray Eldon Hiebert, A Grateful Remembrance, the story of
Montgomery County, Maryland, Montgomery County Historical Society, 1976 p 156-157)
The Maryland General Assembly forbid free black citizens to buy liquor, own guns, sell food without a license, or
even attend religious meetings if there wee no whites present. This last provision struck a crippling blow a the
independent black church, the only real institution that the black community had been able to develop during its
enslavement. (Lawrence H. McDonald, "Failure of the Great Reaction in Maryland" Ph.D. dissertation, University of Maryland, 1974),
Appendix VI, cited in Richard K McAlester and Ray Eldon Hiebert, A Grateful Remembrance, the story of Montgomery County, Maryland,
Montgomery County Historical Society, 1976 p 157)
Maryland further discouraged slave owners from manumitting their slaves by requiring them to send the free person
out of the state. (Richard K MacMaster and Ray Eldon Hiebert, A Grateful Remembrance, the story of Montgomery County, Maryland,
Montgomery County Historical Society, 1976 p 157)
The Maryland State Colonization Society established a settlement at Cape Palmas, some miles south of the major
Liberian colony at Monrovia. It made a determined effort to recruit free black settlers from Maryland. Black
Marylanders identified the colonization movement with a desire to remove the free blacks from the state lest they
encourage restiveness among the slaves. They saw it generally committed to the preservation of slavery and inequality
of free black citizens. Very few Marylanders were willing to leave their homes for n uncertain future in Africa. (Richard
K MacMaster and Ray Eldon Hiebert, A Grateful Remembrance, the story of Montgomery County, Maryland, Montgomery County Historical
Society, 1976. P 157)
With regard to the Nat Turner revolt, "It is difficult to decide with certainty whether it occurred as a reaction to the
harshness of slave rule or as a result of the weakness of control." (Michael Craton, Sinews of Empire, A Short History of British
Slavery, Anchor Books NY., 1974 p 227)
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Turner, Nat b. Oct. 2, 1800, Southampton county, Va., U.S.--d. Nov. 11, 1831, Jerusalem, Va.), black American
bondsman who led the only effective, sustained slave revolt (August 1831) in U.S. history. Spreading terror throughout
the white South, his action set off a new wave of oppressive legislation prohibiting the education, movement, and
assembly of slaves and stiffened proslavery, antiabolitionist convictions that persisted in that region until the American
Civil War (1861-65). (On-Line African American History Reference)
Nat Turner's rebellion in Southampton County, Virginia, in the summer of 1831, threw the slaveholding South into a
panic, and into a determined effort to bolster the security of the slave system. Turner, claiming religious visions,
gathered about seventy slaves who went on a rampage from plantation to plantation, murdering at least fifty-five men,
women, and children. They gathered supporters but were captured as their ammunition ran out. Turner and perhaps
eighteen others were hanged. (Major Revolts and Escapes, Lerone Bennett, Before the Mayflower,)
Soon after the Nat Turner Rebellion, the General Assembly of Virginia, convened in 1831 to hear Governor John
Floyd's annual message, which urged the Assembly to address the current crisis so as to quell the fears of the citizens
and to restore order and safety to the Commonwealth. His address called for funds for the removal of free blacks from
Virginia and for the houses to discuss what further action should be taken. As a result of Governor Floyd's address, a
special committee was formed by the speaker of the House of Delegates to discuss the revolt of the past summer and
present the house with possible solutions to the problem. The first week of the assembly saw numerous proposals for
the colonization of free blacks and on December 14, William Henry Roane of Hanover presented a petition from the
Society of Friends which proposed the abolition of slavery through the gradual colonization of slave in Africa. This
proposal sparked intense debate between the members of the house and divided Tidewater delegates and those from
the heavily agricultural "southside" of the James River. On January 11, 1832, Piedmont Delegate William O. Goode, a
southsider, argued that debate on emancipation placed all of Virginia in grave danger because of the threat posed by
blacks watching the actions of the Assembly. He proposed a resolution to table discussion for the safety of the
Commonwealth. A counter-resolution was proposed by western Piedmont delegate Thomas Jefferson Randolph
proposing a state-wide referendum on gradual emancipation so that the people of Virginia could decide the issue rather
than the members of the Assembly, who held a disproportionate stake in the institution of slavery. If the majority of
the citizens were for abolition, the process would begin with all slaves born on or after July 4, 1840, becoming the
property of the Commonwealth. They would be hired out by the state until enough money had been raised to provide
for their removal from the country. The session closed with the passage of a statement supporting the exploration of
possible colonizing of slaves. That mood would change by the next fall, a result in large part of the essay on slavery
published by William and Mary professor Thomas R. Dew at the close of the 1831-32 session. (Corey McLellan, The
Debate in the 1831-32 Virginia General Assembly on the Abolition of Slavery, The University of Virginia.)
Dew attacked the plan, which called for all slaves to become property of the Virginia Commonwealth after July 4,
1840-- males at twenty-one, females at eighteen. This proposal, according to Dew, was a violation of property rights
to slave owners and could never be accomplished because of the expense involved. Dew went on to the Biblical
argument for slavery. He emphasized that nowhere does Scripture tag slavery as a sin, and that there is no command to
abolish it. From the Biblical argument for slavery, Dew moved on to the historical one, pointing that slavery had
existed continuously since the beginnings of recorded human history. Dew's arguments were the key factor in closing
the door to emancipation in Virginia until the Civil War. (Thomas Dew's Review of the Debate in the Virginia Legislature of 18311832)
James Hamilton, the governor of South Carolina, requested that Virginia governor John Floyd discuss the factors that
led to the Nat Turner revolt in Southampton, Virginia in 1831, the most well known slave revolt in U.S. history. About
sixty white people were killed. Governor Floyd's lengthy reply is in this letter. Floyd blamed the "spirit of
insubordination" on the "Yankee population" in general and Yankee peddlers and traders in particular who shared
Christianity with the slaves and taught them that all are born free and equal, and "that white people rebelled against
England to obtain freedom, so have blacks a right to do." Floyd placed the blame for masterminding the plan on the
church leaders, but he believed that all the discussions about freedom and equality led to the uprising. (Library of
Congress, African American Odyssey, Slavery--The Peculiar Institution)
1831/09
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At a dinner in Boston, Alexis de Tocqueville, a young French magistrate who would go back home to write his classic
book "Democracy in America," was seated next to former President John Quincy Adams and asked the old man: "Do
you look on slavery as a great plague for the United States?" "Yes, certainly," Adams answered. "That is the root of
almost all the troubles of the present and the fears for the future." ("Black justice, white cynicism," Byline: Richard Reeves;
Universal Press Syndicate in The Baltimore Sun, October 5, 1995)
1831/12/05
John Quincy Adams became a member of the First session of the twenty second Congress of the House of
Representative from a district in Massachusetts.
Adams returns to Washington. "The issue of slavery was not, at this time, neatly defined and categorized in the minds
of Louisa and John Quincy Adams, they did not abhor it with all their souls, as the abolitionists did. Nor were they
ready to commit themselves without hesitation to its demise. "The Adams’s, as residents of Washington, saw slaves
around them all the time. There were few free blacks, and it was common practice for householders to employ slaves
as servants; a few lucky and hard-working slaves were even allowed to buy their own freedom in this manner. While
the Adams’s never owned a slave, they frequently hired one or two from slaveholders, usually residents of Maryland or
Virginia, as cooks or house servants. Such employment did not conflict, as we shall see with Louisa's or John Quincy’s
position on slavery (337) Louisa, as a resident of Washington with relatives in Maryland, feared retribution of the
slaves, and the surliness of the free blacks. Adams put the preservation of the union before slavery. (Shepherd, Jack;
Cannibals of the Heart, 1980)
1831
At the start of each session of Congress, on Petition Days, the number of "prayers" to ban slavery in the nation's
capital had been increasing since William Lloyd Garrison launched his abolitionist newspaper, The Liberator, in 1831.
That event coincided with the bloody Nat Turner slave rebellion in Virginia and the introduction of the steam printing
press in New York City, where abolitionists began to print thousands of antislavery tracts and mail them South for
distribution. Southern postmasters, prompted by pre-Ku Klux Klan vigilantes, began seizing and burning abolitionist
material, and death threats were made against abolitionist visitors to the South. (Willard Sterne Randall, Newsday, January 28,
1996, p 33)
1831
In the United States, the notion that slavery was God's will gained momentum after the Nat Turner slave rebellion of
1831. In hundreds of pamphlets, written from 1836 to 1866, Southern slaveholders were provided a host of religious
reasons to justify the social caste system they had created. In their quest to justify black slavery, Southerners looked to
the story of Noah's curse over his son Ham. According to Genesis 9, Noah planted a vineyard, drank too much wine
and lay naked in his tent. When he awoke, Noah learned that his son Ham had seen him naked - a shame in the ancient
world. He cursed Ham and his son, Canaan, saying, "lowest of slaves shall he be to his brothers," 9:25. Since Canaan
and his descendants were said to settle Africa, some believed African-Americans therefore were destined to be slaves.
According to Dale Martin, a professor of religion at Duke University. (Bible neither condemns nor condones slavery, News &
Observer on the Web, Raleigh NC: August 9 th 1996) )
1831
B & O Railroad between Georgetown and the Ellicott Mills running and generating modest income . (Walsh, Richard and
Fox, William Lloyd. Maryland, A History 1632-1974. Maryland Historical Society)
1832
In January of 1832, while President Andrew Jackson was dining with friends at the White House, someone whispered
to him that the Senate had rejected the nomination of Martin Van Buren as Minister to England. Jackson jumped to his
feet and exclaimed, "By the Eternal! I'll smash them!" So he did. His favorite, Van Buren, became Vice President, and
succeeded to the Presidency when "Old Hickory" retired to the Hermitage, where he died in June 1845. (Andrew Jackson
White House Bio)
1832
In the wake of the Nat Turner’s insurrection in Virginia, Georgetown strengthened its black code punishing with
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particular severity any person of color possessing abolitionist literature. (Slavery and the Slave Trade in the District of Columbia,
The Negro History Bulletin, Oct 1950, Springharm Library, Howard University Vertical File Washington, DC)
1832
Louisiana presents resolution requesting Federal Government to arrange with Mexico to permit runaway slaves from
Louisiana to be claimed when found on foreign soil. (Underground Railroad Chronology, National Park Service)
1832
An act to abolish slavery was introduced into the Virginia legislature by Thomas Jefferson’s grandson and was
defeated by only seven votes. ("Virginia," Microsoft Encarta 98 Encyclopedia. Microsoft Corporation.)
1832/12
Jackson reelected will serve till Mar 1833 and Martin Van Buren , 1833-37.In 1832 the Anti-Masonic Party nominated
a lawyer, William Wirt, as its candidate for the presidency, but he was defeated by Andrew Jackson, who supported
Masonry. Ironically, Wirt himself was a Mason. After that date the Freemasons encountered little political opposition
in the U.S. or elsewhere, until the rise to power of the National Socialists in Germany in 1933.
Opponents of Freemasonry, including sections of the press, churches, and antislavery elements, joined in the
condemnation of the order. Thurlow Weed, publisher of the Rochester (New York) Telegraph and later of the AntiMasonic Enquirer, led the press attack on Freemasonry and endorsed anti-Masonic candidates for New York State
offices in the election of 1827. When 15 of these candidates were elected to the state Assembly, an Anti-Masonic
Party was formed and in 1828 held its first state convention. National conventions were held in Philadelphia in 1830
and in Baltimore in 1831. At the latter, William Wirt, who had served as U.S. attorney general under Presidents James
Monroe and John Quincy Adams, was nominated for president in opposition to Andrew Jackson, who supported
Masonry. Wirt himself was a Freemason. The convention required a three-fourths majority to nominate, thereby setting
a precedent for the two-thirds rule used by the Democrats in subsequent national conventions for more than 100 years.
In the 1832 elections, however, the Anti-Masonic Party carried only the state of Vermont. It did win a considerable
number of seats in the 23rd Congress (1833-35). The party survived until about 1834, when several prominent leaders
founded the Whig Party or shifted to the Democratic Party. (Anti-Masonic Party," Microsoft Encarta 98 Encyclopedia. 1993-1997)
(For antimasonic literature see John Quincy Adams, Letters On The Masonic Institution Originally Published: 1847 T. R. Marvin Boston,
Massachusetts and in general http://www.crocker.com/~acacia/antim.html)
1833
The Anti-Slavery Convention of 1833 held. A list of officers of the new society was then chosen: Arthur Tappan, of
New York, president, and Elizur Wright, Jr., William Lloyd Garrison, and A. L. Cox, secretaries. Among the vicepresidents was Dr. Lord, of Dartmouth College, then professedly in favor of emancipation, but who afterwards turned a
moral somersault, a self-inversion which left him ever after on his head instead of his feet. He became a querulous
advocate of slavery as a divine institution, and denounced woe upon the abolitionists for interfering with the will and
purpose of the Creator. ( Published originally in John G. Whittier's "Prose Works," the following is an excerpt from Whittier's recollection of
the founding convention of the American Anti-Slavery Society.John G. Whittier, "The Anti-Slavery Convention of 1833," 1874.)
1833
Monocracy Aqueduct built in 1833 as part of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal (C & O Canal) system, it carried canal
boats above the Monocacy River. It is one of ten such structures that still stand along the 185-mile stretch of the canal
that extends from Cumberland, MD to Washington, DC. The 430-foot long aqueduct is composed of seven arches,
built with white stone from nearby Sugarloaf Mountain, and is considered one of the finest examples of early civil
engineering. (Press release of Senator Mikulski June 15, 1998 naming Monocracy Aqueduct, one of "America's Most Endangered Historic
Sites" by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Press release titled "Senator Mikulski Joins First Lady Hillary At Monocacy Aqueduct,
Named One Of America's Most Endangered Historic Places")
In the days before the railroads, the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal was designed to bypass the rapids of the Potomac
River and move goods cheaply and efficiently from the Chesapeake Bay to the Ohio River. According to one expert,
the construction of the C&O Canal was "a typical American heroic enterprise."
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Along the way, a series of challenges faced engineers, including how to carry barges across the 11 major intersecting
tributaries that drain into the Potomac River. The solution was a system of aqueducts.
At Mile 42, workers constructed the largest -- the Monocacy Aqueduct. Essentially a 516-foot bridge over the river,
the aqueduct carried the canal in a flume-like trough supported by seven graceful arches. Mules dragging the barges
walked along a towpath by the canal. The Monocacy Aqueduct is now considered to be one of the finest canal
structures in the United States.
Hundreds of manual laborers, many of them Irish and Welsh immigrants, hauled heavy stone blocks from nearby
Sugar Loaf Mountain to build the aqueduct, which took five years to complete. During the Civil War, Confederate
troops tried to dynamite it to stop the movement of Northern soldiers, but they were unable to penetrate the dense
stone. (Talking It Over by Hillary Rodham Clinton, June 17, 1998 )
1833
Slavery abolished in Canada. See also the Upper Canada for 1791 and 1818.
1834/0129
Workers along the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal (C & O Canal) stage a riot January 29. President Jackson orders
Secretary of War Lewis Cass to send in the Army, using federal troops for the first time in a U.S. labor conflict. (The
People's Chronology, 1994 by James Trager from MS Bookshelf.)
1834
Parliament orders abolition of slavery in the British colonies by August 1, 1834, in a bill passed August 23 after a long
campaign by the humanitarian William Wilberforce who has died July 29 at age 73. Children under 6 are to be freed
immediately, slaves over 6 given a period of apprenticeship that will be eliminated in 1837, slave-owners given a total
of £120 million in compensation. (The People's Chronology 1995, 1996 by James Trager from MS Bookshelf)
1834
U.S. Marshal for the District of Columbia petitioned the House Committee on the District of Columbia regarding a bill
of $1,500 for housing runaway "Negroes" in the public jail 23A-G4.4. (National Archives, Guide to the Records of the United
States House of Representatives Records Of The District Of Columbia Committee 10th-45th Congresses 1807-79)
The Senate also received petitions decrying the District's practice of arresting and then selling undocumented "persons
of color" for jail fees (28A-G3). (National Archives, Guide to the Records of the United Senate. Records Of The Committee On The District
Of Columbia 1816-1968 (512 ft.)
1835
"A Colonization minded parson investigating a slave depot in Washington in 1835 consciously recorded that the
premises were as clean and orderly as those of the District's penitentiary, which he had visited a few days before, but
"the situation of the convicts at the penitentiary was far less deplorable than that of these slaves. Confined for the
crime of being descended from ancestors who were forcibly reduced to bondage." (J.C. Furnas, Goodbye to Uncle Tom,
William Sloane Associates, NY, 1956 p69)
1835/08
Riots touched off by discovery of abolitionist literature among specimens of Dr. Reuben Crandall a botanist when an
angry crowd of Navy Yard workers descend on the Washington County Jail where he was held. The mob was coursed
out by a free Negro Beverly Snow who said some derogatory things about their wives. The crowd immediately surged
towards Snow's tavern and, although they failed to lay their hands on Snow himself, they proceeded to wreck his
establishment. Riots lasted for two days and three nights, smashing the windows of Negro churches and school, and
homes. Drastic legislation would follow restricting the rights of free Negroes. (Dorothy Sproles Provine, The Free
Negro In the District of Columbia 1800-1860, Thesis Louisiana State University Department of History, 1959, 1963)
In 1835 a slave reputedly attempted to murder Mrs. William Thornton, the widow of the architect of the Capitol, and
passions were inflamed because it was thought that this abortive action was inspired by abolitionist sentiments. The
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resulting mob behavior was intended to intimidate free Negroes in the city. A Negro school and some tenements were
destroyed, churches were attacked, and the furnishings were smashed in the fashionable Beverly Snow restaurant
owned by a free Negro of that name. The School was set up by John f. Cook, a shoemaker in 1834.
The upheaval became known as the "Snow Riot" and was followed by restrictive legislation in 1836 designed to limit
the right of the free Negroes to perform work other than "drive carts, drays, hackney carriages or wagons." There were
no longer to operate restaurants, for example, a major outlet of work for the more enterprising blacks. The intent of the
legislation was to reduce free Negroes to servile status. (G. Franklin Edwards and Michael R. Winston, Commentary: The Washington
of Paul Jennings—White House Slave, Free Man, and Conspirator for Freedom. White House Historical Association. )
Snow Riot leads to formation of National Guard and Washington Light Infantry Company. By 1838, citizen patrols
established. (Wilkelmus Bogart Bryan, A History of the National Capital from its Foundation through the Period of the Adoption of the Organic
Act, (NY: Macmillan Co. 1916, II 147-148. Cited by Dolores T. Williams, Preliminary Checklist of Non-Official Imprints for the District of
Columbia, 1836-37, with a Historical Introduction)
Between the 1820s and 1840s mob violence in the North and West came to be identified with lower class white
attacks, fueled by racism and economic competition, on the increasingly visible urban black community. As blacks
began organizing in earnest to claim their rights as Americans, white mob violence was used to restrict their ability to
make political statements in the public sphere. Old traditions like Election Day and Pinkster celebrations were banned,
black parades were frequent targets of mob attacks, and the representation of black culture in public was largely
controlled by whites in blackface perpetuating the degrading stereotypes of the minstrel show. (James Oliver Horton and
Lois E. Horton. _In Hope of Liberty: Culture, Community and Protest Among Northern Free Blacks, 1700-1860_. New York: Oxford University
Press, 1997. Reviewed for H-Shear by Mitch Kachun, in [email protected]., Thu, 21 May 1998)
This was a time when European immigrants were pouring into the North. Many of these people had faced
discrimination and hardship in their native countries. But in America they found their rights expanding rapidly. They
had entered a country in which they were part of a privileged category called "white." Classism and ethnic prejudices
did exist among white Americans and had a tremendous impact on people's lives. But the bottom line was that for
white people in America, no matter how poor or degraded they were, they knew there was a class of people below
them. Poor whites were considered superior to blacks, and to Indians as well, simply by virtue of being white. Because
of this, most identified with the rest of the white race and defended the institution of slavery. Working class whites did
this even though slavery did not benefit them directly and was in many ways against their best interests. (Public
Broadcasting Service Resource Bank. Race-based legislation in the North 1807 – 1850)
1835
-- represented a "crest of rioting in the United States." Anti-abolitionist riots in the North erupted. The abolitionist mail
campaign triggered riots in Charleston and other Southern towns. The work of vigilantes in Mississippi responding to
the Murrell slave-stealing conspiracy and the Vicksburg gamblers, this, "inaugurated" America's most mob-filled year.
The example for this mayhem, was set by the "slave-driving aristocrat" in the White House. Andrew Jackson's
treatment of African and Native Americans, his war against the Bank, his contempt for the traditional political
establishment, and his lack of respect for the law--all set a violent example for other Americans to follow, and they did
so by going to the streets. Jackson, "was in public life a general, a man trained to act in terms of friends and foes,
victories and defeats, rather than in terms of political and diplomatic courtesy and compromise." Jackson was a
"bravely determined man certainly, but one who paid little heed to process or legality if they stood in the way of what
he thought desirable" (p. 5). Thus Jackson and his movement was the wellspring of violence. (H-NET BOOK REVIEW
Published by [email protected] (February 1999) David Grimsted. _American Mobbing, 1828-1861: Toward the Civil War_. New York
and Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1998. xviii + 372 pp. Notes and index. $65.00 (cloth), ISBN 0-19-511707-7. Reviewed for HCivWar by James M. Denham <[email protected]>, Department of History, Florida Southern College)
Amos Kendall, Postmaster General under Andrew Jackson, bans abolitionist literature from use of the mail service. "It
is universally conceded, that our States are united only for certain purposes. There are interests, in relation to which
they are believed to be as independent of each other as they were before the constitution was formed. The interest
which the people of some of the States have in slaves, is one of them. No State obtained by the union any right
whatsoever over slavery in any other State, nor did any State lose any of its power over it, within its own borders. On
this subject, therefore, if this view be correct, the States are still independent, and may fence round and protect their
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interest in slaves, by such laws and regulations as in their sovereign will they may deem expedient." (Postmaster General
Amos Kendall's Report on the delivery of Abolition Materials in the Southern States Report of the Postmaster General, House Documents, 24th
Congress, First Session (1835), Appendix, 9. Located by Jenny Adamson and transcribed by Carolyn Sims, Department of History, Furman
University)
Between 1820 and 1850, Northern blacks also became the frequent targets of mob violence. Whites looted, tore down,
and burned black homes, churches, schools, and meeting halls. They stoned, beat, and sometimes murdered blacks.
Philadelphia was the site of the worst and most frequent mob violence. City officials there generally refused to protect
African Americans from white mobs and blamed blacks for inciting the violence with their "uppity" behavior. (Public
Broadcasting Service Resource Bank. Race-based legislation in the North 1807 – 1850)
1835/12/16
Congressman John Fairfield of York County, Maine, stood up on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives and
presented a petition signed by 172 women calling for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. (Willard Sterne
Randall, Newsday, January 28, 1996, p 33)
1835/12/28
Seminoles and their African Americans massacre a 103-man U.S. Army force under Major Francis L. Dade in Florida.
(The People's Chronology, 1994 by James Trager from MS Bookshelf.)
An examination of Alexis de Tocqueville's thesis on the march of Russia and the United States to manifest destiny in
the first half of the 19th century. Assesses first the impact of the age of democratic revolution, comparing the false
images of President Andrew Jackson and Czar Nicholas I. Goes on to discuss abolitionism (of Negro slavery and
serfdom) and expansionism (the Monroe Doctrine and Russophobia in Eastern Europe and Central Asia). Urbanization
and the industrial revolution in the United States, and the growth of cultural maturity in Russia, were significant
developments which limit the extent to which one can compare the experiences of these two emergent nations. Based
on the author's forthcoming book, The Emergence of the Super-Powers; illus. (Dukes, Paul. Two Great Nations, 1815-50.
Journal citation: History Today [Great Britain] 1970 20(2): 94-106.)
1836/10/29
[In Washington, DC], To prove they were free, blacks had to carry identity papers. Free blacks needed permission to
have a meeting or party in their house. They could not go on the streets after 10 p.m. without a pass. In 1836, the city,
by denying licenses to blacks, tried to run them out of most businesses. (Bob Arnebeck A Shameful Heritage, Washington Post
Magazine January 18, 1889, also see Washington Ordinances of October 29, 1836 and November 9, 1836)
1836
In Virginia, a slave manumitted after 1836 had to obtain the permission of county court to remain legally in the state
for more than a year after his manumission. Until the mid-1850's, the Fairfax court routinely permitted reputable,
newly emancipated slaves to remain in the county. But in 1855 when Lewis Casey, a "free man of color' who had been
recently manumitted by will and was known to be "honest, sober and industrious," petitioned the court for permission
to remain, the justices refused. It was, they declared, "impolitic to encourage any larger increase in this class of our
population." By the 1850s, the Virginia legislature, angered by Northern demands for the immediate abolition of
slavery, was prepared to make the black code even harsher. One or two Virginia governors advocated that all free
blacks be forcibly expelled from the state. Though the Assembly refused to accede to the governors' requests, it
provided for the voluntary enslavement of free blacks, made it illegal for free blacks to purchase slaves, authorized the
sale into slavery of free blacks convicted of certain crimes, and enacted legislation which made the escape of slaves
more difficult. (Fairfax County, Virginia a History. Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, Fairfax, Virginia, 1978 p 273)
1836/01
In an effort to suppress the still feeble antislavery forces, Southern Congressmen proposed what was, in effect, an
intellectual blockade. They urged federal authorities to allow states to censor literature that they deemed "incendiary,"
including not only abolitionist broadsides but also a wide range of general magazines, Northern newspapers and
religious journals that only occasionally mentioned slavery. Postmasters were encouraged to monitor citizens' mail and
remove anything that they deemed related to abolitionism. All petitions to Congress on the subject of slavery were to
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be automatically tabled, without being printed or referred to in any way. (Bordewich, Fergus M., Arguing About Slavery: The
Great Battle in the United States Congress; book review of book by William Lee Miller, Smithsonian December, 1996)
"When Adams idly presented his colleagues with another anti-slavery petition, a Georgian congressman rose to move
that the list of signatures not be accepted. Some months later the notorious "gag rule" was put into effect, forbidding
the further admission of such petitions to Congress. It would prove one of the more maladroit instances of Southern
intransigence.
"Where Adams had hitherto been a mild thorn in the side of the slave forces, he now became "old Man Eloquent,"
challenging the gag rule and slavery with a fanatical devotion that knew no pause. Moreover, the spectacle of a former
president standing alone, unswayable and unyielding was not without its political psychodrama. Men who had no fixed
opinion on slavery could not help but be moved by the struggle of wills between one old man and the whole Southern
delegation. (Tom Dowling, Washington Star, Great Drama in Saving the Nation, October 6, 1976)
More shocking still, a gag rule imposed by Southerners and their Northern Democrat allies forbade members to discuss
the subject of slavery upon the floor of Congress, under threat of censure. Not only was the enslaved black person
denied every freedom but now the white person was even to be denied the freedom to talk about it. The hero of
Miller's story is John Quincy Adams, the only former President in American history to later be elected to Congress,
where he served with distinction for 17 years. Steeped from childhood in the hardheaded New England idealism of the
Revolutionary era, Adams not only deplored slavery in principle, as many of his contemporaries did, but went far
beyond most of them in condemning racial prejudice, which, as he put it, "taints the very sources of moral principle"
by establishing "false estimates of virtue and vice." (Bordewich, Fergus M., Arguing About Slavery: The Great Battle in the United
States Congress; book review of book by William Lee Miller, Smithsonian, December, 1996)
Beginning in 1836, and for nearly a decade, Adams relentlessly fought the gag rule, struggling to make white citizens
see that the South's determination to protect slavery at all costs represented an assault upon their own treasured rights.
It was a lonely and humiliating battle, almost without allies. Although a vigorous septuagenarian, Adams was openly
scorned as a dotard by his enemies. He was at least twice threatened with assassination. At one point, the ex-President
was nearly censured for daring to attempt to submit what his colleagues believed was a petition from a group of
Maryland slaves. "Had anyone, before today, ever dreamed that the appellation of the people' embraced slaves?"
demanded Aaron Vanderpoel, an influential New York Democrat and frequent apologist for slavery. (Bordewich, Fergus
M., Arguing About Slavery: The Great Battle in the United States Congress; book review of book by William Lee Miller, Smithsonian December,
1996)
"All petitions, memorials, resolutions, propositions or papers relating in any way or to any extent whatsoever to the
subject of slavery shall, without either being printed or referred, be laid on the table and that no further action
whatever shall be had thereon."
1836/05/26
Congress passes a resolution, stating that it has no authority over state slavery laws. (The People's Chronology, 1994 by James
Trager from MS Bookshelf.)
1836
Anti-Masonic leaders joined the new Whig Party. (Vermont," Microsoft Encarta 98 Encyclopedia. 1993-1997)
1836
Death of the National Bank Jackson interpreted his election as a popular mandate to proceed against the Bank of the
US and started removing Federal funds, depositing them in select state banks beginning in October, using 23 state
banks, called "pet banks," by the end of 1833. Jackson justified his actions in his annual message to Congress, claimed
complete responsibility for removing the deposits on the grounds that the bank had tried to influence elections.
Henry Clay introduced two resolutions in the Senate which censured the actions of the Treasury and of Jackson over
this issue, both of which were adopted. Jackson supporters in the House passed 4 resolutions in support of his Bank
policy. Jackson's conciliatory actions toward the Senate were rejected, as well as Taney , his nomination for the
Treasury. Senator Benson successfully expunged the censure from the Senate record (January 1837)
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The Bank died and was rechartered as the Bank of the US of Philadelphia. g. Deposit Act required the Secretary of the
Treasury to designate at least one bank in each state and territory as the place of public deposit (1) The banks were
assigned the general services previously given to the national government by the Bank of the US. (2) It also required
that surplus revenue in excess of $5 million be distributed among the states as a loan subject to recall although it was
never recalled.
Specie Circular July 1836. The use of paper currency was expanded by Biddle's banking policies, causing inflation and
land speculation to increase. (1) In 1823 the average Bank notes issued was $4.5 million but by 1831 it increased to
$19 million (2) The bank also made credit and currency more abundant in the West and South, causing land sales to
skyrocket ($2,623,000 in 1832 to $24,877,000 in 1836). Jackson ordered the issuance of the Specie Circular which
provided that after 15 August 1836, only gold, silver or Virginia land scrip would be accepted by the government in
payment for public lands, although paper money was permitted until 15 December for parcels of land up to 320 acres
purchased by actual settlers or bona fide residents of the state in which the save was made.
The purpose -- to repress "alleged frauds" from "the monopoly of the public lands in the hands of speculators and
capitalists" and the "ruinous extension" of bank notes and credit d. Although public-land sales were reduced in the
West, the circular taxed the inadequate resources of the state "pet" banks, drained specie from the East, led to hoarding,
and weakened public confidence in the state banks. After Jackson defended the circular in his annual message in
December 1836, and recommended that land sales be limited to actual settlers, Congress passed a measure that
rescinded the Specie Circular, but it was pocket-vetoed by Jackson. The Specie Circular was not repealed until a joint
resolution in May 1838. (Growth Of The Nation 1800 – 40 Jefferson's Administrations Stephen F. Austin State University, Nacogdoches, TX )
1836
President Jackson issues his Specie Circular. The circular lays down that future purchases of government land must be
paid in gold or silver, or their strict equivalent, rather than in local notes or promises to pay. This has the effect of
swelling the US government's coffers with specie. p 479 (A Comparative Chronology of Money from Ancient Times to the Present
Day, 1830 – 1849, Based on the book: A History of Money from Ancient Times to the Present Day by Glyn Davies, rev. ed. Cardiff: University of
Wales Press, 1996. 716p. ISBN 0 7083 1351 5.)
1837
Congress enacts a gag law to suppress debate on the slavery issue. (The People's Chronology, 1994 by James Trager from MS
Bookshelf.)
1837
Country suffers severe depression. (Stefan Lorant, The Presidency, NY Macmillan, 1951, page 148-150. Cited by Cited by Dolores T.
Williams, Preliminary Checklist of Non-Official Imprints for the District of Columbia, 1836-37, with a Historical Introduction)
1837
Panic of 1837. The reckless land speculation and the specie circular resulted in a serious downturn in the US economy
which worsened as Van Buren took office. The price of cotton fell by one-half in New Orleans. New York's
unemployed demonstrated against high rents and inflated food and fuel prices and one mob broke into food
warehouses and sacked their supplies. Several banks, beginning in New York, suspended specie payments. Public land
sales fell from 20 million acres (1836) to 3 1/2 million acres (1838). The effects of the panic persisted until 1842-43
particularly in the South and West. (Growth Of The Nation 1800 – 40 Jefferson's Administrations Stephen F. Austin State University,
Nacogdoches, TX)
The uncontrolled, chaotic expansion of banking in the US is slowed, then partly reversed by a financial crisis in which
every bank is forced to suspend specie payment of notes. The crisis leads to a depression in the economy which lasts
until 1843.( p 480,483-484. A Comparative Chronology of Money from Ancient Times to the Present Day, 1830 – 1849, Based on the book: A
History of Money from Ancient Times to the Present Day by Glyn Davies, rev. ed. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1996. 716p. ISBN 0 7083
1351 5. )
1837-41
Martin Van Buren becomes President as Democrat. VP is Richard M. Johnson
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1837/03/04
Martin Van Buren presidential Inaugural Address deals with Slavery in the District of Columbia, "Fellow-Citizens: I
then declared that if the desire of those of my countrymen who were favorable to my election was gratified. I must go
into the Presidential chair the inflexible and uncompromising opponent of every attempt on the part of Congress to
abolish slavery in the District of Columbia against the wishes of the slaveholding States, and also with a determination
equally decided to resist the slightest interference with it in the States where it exists. I submitted also to my fellowcitizens, with fullness and frankness, the reasons which led me to this determination."
Two weeks after Van Buren`s inauguration a financial panic struck the New York commercial and financial
community. Years earlier, Jackson decentralized the national bank, which allowed many state and local banks to
engage in land and profit speculation. This speculation continued throughout Jackson`s final four years in office and
into Van Buren`s administration. However, in 1837, the wild speculation ended, and a panic concerning the stability of
the financial markets, the banks, and even in the government, spread across the nation. These fears caused a wide
spread recession, ultimately ending in a depression, to engulf the nation. (The Depression of 1837; Economic Issues ) )
1837
Victorian Style, trends in British architecture and furniture in the Victorian era (1837-1901). An especially widespread
tendency, called Eclectic Revivalism, was to adapt earlier styles to industrial-age needs... (Encarta 98 Desk Encyclopedia
Microsoft Corporation.)
1838
The "underground railway" organized by U.S. abolitionists transports southern slaves to freedom in Canada, but
slaving interests at Philadelphia work on the fears of Irish immigrants and other working people who worry that freed
slaves may take their jobs. A Philadelphia mob burns down Pennsylvania Hall May 17 in an effort to thwart
antislavery meetings. (The People's Chronology 1995, 1996 by James Trager from MS Bookshelf.)
A book, co-authored by a professor at Howard University, pieces together a story of how quilts made by slaves before
and during the Civil War were stitched with patterns that formed a secret code, part of a network of communication
that helped slaves escape to freedom.
Existence of such coded quilts had long been suspected among those familiar with African-American quilting
traditions, according to Raymond Dobard, professor of art history at Howard and co-author of "Hidden in Plain View:
A Secret Story of Quilts and the Underground Railroad" (Doubleday; 272 pages; $27.50) . But the new book by Dobard and
University of Denver professor Jacqueline Tobin adds a scholarly dimension to what had been largely a story
preserved in oral tradition, passed down from generation to generation. The research effort began when Tobin learned
of the story from Ozella McDaniel Williams, an African-American quilter from South Carolina. The code Williams
described had three main components: a series of 10 symbols that told slaves where and when escapes were planned,
what routes to take and instructions about how to survive in the wilderness; an enigmatic story passed down by oral
tradition that explained what the symbols meant; and spirituals whose titles and lyrics have long been recognized as
covert traveling instructions ("Wade in the Water," "Steal Away"). (Fern Robinson "Underground Railroad Signals" Washington Post.
Thursday, February 18, 1999; Page T04)
(Conducting Underground Railroad Research? See http://www.ugrr.org/research.htm & http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/exugrr/exuggr5.htm which
has an excellent bibliography on slavery. see also underground railroad bibliography at
http://education.ucdavis.edu/NEW/STC/lesson/socstud/railroad/Books.htm)
1838
Presbyterians divide over slavery. (Slavery and Religion in America: A timeline 1440-1866. By the Internet Public Library
1838
Frederick Douglas escaped from slavery in Baltimore, Sept. 3. (Major Revolts and Escapes, Lerone Bennett, Before the Mayflower)
1839
The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal started in 1828 reaches 134 miles west of Georgetown but runs into financial
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difficulties (see 1850). (The People's Chronology, 1994 by James Trager from MS Bookshelf.)
1839-42
William Grason Governor of Md. (MD info from Maryland A Chronology & Documentary Handbook, 1978 Oceana Publications, Inc.)
1840
Roughly a 30 per cent of the inhabitants of the District of Columbia were Negroes. (Letitia W Brown, Residence Patterns of
Negroes in the District of Columbia, 1800-1860, Records of the Columbia Historical Society of Washington DC, 1969-70, p68)
1840
The World’s Anti-Slavery Convention opens at London, but Boston abolitionist William Garrison
refuses to attend, protesting the exclusion of women (see 1831). The U.S. antislavery movement has
split into two factions in the past year largely because of Garrison’s advocacy of women’s rights,
including their right to participate in the antislavery movement (see first Women’s Rights Convention, 1848).
(The People's Chronology 1995, 1996 by James Trager from MS Bookshelf.)
.At the World's Anti-slavery Convention, African American Charles Remond refused to be seated when
he learned that women were being segregated in the gallery (Denise Pazur, The Plain Dealer, Jan 31, 1993, page
8)
1840
United States Census pages for President Van Buran and Congressperson John Q. Adams missing (DC Census 1840 Roll 35
page 5 microprint 0006)
1841
A court at Washington, D.C., rules March 9 that Cinque and his fellow mutineers aboard the Spanish slave ship
Amistad last year are not guilty and orders their release. Madrid protests. (The People's Chronology, 1994 by James Trager from
MS Bookshelf.)
The 1839 case involved about 50 Africans who, against international law, had been captured and shipped to Havana,
Cuba, where they seized the schooner Amistad, which was taking them to a plantation. Two crewmen were killed in
the fight, and the rest of the crew were put ashore. Then the Africans ordered the owners to sail the ship back to
Africa. However, the Amistad was seized by a U.S. brig off the Atlantic coast, and the Africans were imprisoned in
Connecticut. The Connecticut court referred the case to the Supreme Court of the United States.
The Supreme Court heard arguments in 1841. Adams argued that the United States should treat as free any persons
escaping from illegal bondage. He denounced the administration of President Martin Van Buren for favoring the return
of the captives to the Spanish planters who claimed ownership of them. The court decided for the Africans and, with
money raised by abolitionists, 32 of them were returned to their homeland of Sierra Leone. The others had died at sea
or while awaiting trial. ("Adams, John Quincy," Microsoft Encarta 98 Encyclopedia. Microsoft Corporation.)
1841
The Second Bank of the United States crashes. By this time it is simply a private bank and no longer a national
institution. When it ran into difficulties during the 1837 crisis it was still the largest bank in the world, but it finally
crashes in 1841. p 484 (A Comparative Chronology of Money from Ancient Times to the Present Day, 1830 – 1849, Based on the book: A
History of Money from Ancient Times to the Present Day by Glyn Davies, rev. ed. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1996. 716p. ISBN 0 7083
1351 5.)
William H. Harrison, Whig becomes President. VP John Tyler
Journal Article traces the controversy stemming from the reply of Julia Gardiner Tyler, wife of former President John
Tyler, to the 1852 address of an English duchess which called on American women to support gradual abolition,
immediate ending of the breakup of slave families, and improvement of slave education. Mrs. Tyler claimed that
British social conditions were worse than those of American slaves, and attacked the British "Affectionate and
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Christian Address . . . " mainly as unwarranted interference in US domestic affairs. She defended southern womanhood
and questioned the motivation of British appealers. 63 notes. (Pugh, Evelyn L., Women And Slavery: Julia Gardiner Tyler And The
Duchess Of Sutherland. Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 1980 88 (2): 186-202.)
1841
Slave revolt on slave trader 'Creole' which was en route from Hampton, Va., to New Orleans, La., Nov 7. Slaves
overpowered crew and sailed vessel to Bahamas where they were granted asylum and freedom. (Major Revolts and Escapes,
Lerone Bennett, Before the Mayflower,)
Maryland passed a law requiring a penalty of ten to twenty years imprisonment for any free black having any materials
relating to abolition in his possession. In 1858, Samuel Green, a minister from Dorchester County, was sentenced to a
ten year prison term for possessing a copy of Uncle Tom's Cabin. Green was also suspected of having actively
participated in the Underground Railroad. (Roland C. McConnell, Editor, Three Hundred and Fifty years: A Chronology of the AfroAmerican in Maryland, 1634-1984, 1985)
1842/03/01
Supreme Court rules in Prigg v. Pennsylvania that state officials are not required to assist in the return of fugitive
slaves. (Underground Railroad Chronology, National Park Service))
The owner of a fugitive slave may recover him under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793, the Supreme Court rules March 1
in Prigg v. Pennsylvania. The court overturns an 1826 Pennsylvania law that made kidnapping a slave a felony, saying
an owner cannot be stopped from recovering a slave, but it says also that state authorities are under no obligation to
help the slaveowner. (The People's Chronology, 1994 by James Trager from MS Bookshelf.)
In 1848, William Craft (d. 1900) and Ellen Craft (d. 1890), slaves on a Georgia plantation, escaped to Philadelphia and
later moved to Boston where they remained until Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Their owners then
demanded extradition of the Crafts to Georgia. Despite aid from antislavery groups, extradition appeared inevitable,
forcing the Crafts to flee to Great Britain where they remained until the American Civil War ended. In England, the
Crafts played prominent roles in helping British abolitionist groups oppose slavery. Based on archival, newspaper, and
secondary sources; 54 notes. (Blackett, R. J. M. Title: Fugitive Slaves In Britian: The Odyssey Of William And Ellen Craft . Journal of
American Studies [Great Britain] 1978 12(1): 41-62. Also see the National Park Service Biographies of the Crafts Taken from: The African
Meeting House in Boston: A Sourcebook, by William S. Parsons & Margaret A. Drew)
1842/09/21
The Council of the District of Columbia passed an Act to created an auxiliary night police to patrol the streets of the
city and in part to enforce the 10pm "colored curfew." At 10: PM, all "colored" people out without a pass were liable
to arrest, fine and flogging. The floggings were administered sometimes at the guard post and sometimes at the
whipping-post of the jail, on the northeast corner of Judiciary Square. "In place of the baton, each officer carried a
stick surmounted by an iron spear-head, intended originally to pry open doors in case of fire or when in pursuit of
thieves...some of the officers became so proficient as to make it a formidable weapon either when used as a club or
thrown as a javelin." (Richard Sylvester, District of Columbia Police, Policemen's Fund, Washington, DC 1894 page 29)
1843 Africa
-- November 29 to December 16. Four United States vessels demonstrated and landed various parties (one of 200
marines and sailors) to discourage piracy and the slave trade along the Ivory coast, and to punish attacks by the natives
on American seamen and shipping. (Instances of Use of United States Forces Abroad, 1798 – 1993 by Ellen C. Collier, Specialist in U.S.
Foreign Policy, Foreign Affairs and National Defense Division Washington DC: Congressional Research Service -- Library of Congress -October 7, 1993 )
1844/01/10
The law that now exists in the District of Columbia, relative to fugitive slaves, compels a Negro under arrest to prove
that he was born free. (The Sun (Baltimore) Jan 9-15, 1844, reprinted January 9th 1994)
1844
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Mexico-. President Tyler deployed U.S. forces to protect Texas against Mexico, pending Senate approval of a treaty of
annexation. (Later rejected.) He defended his action against a Senate resolution of inquiry. (Instances of Use of United States
Forces Abroad, 1798 -1993 by Ellen C. Collier, Specialist in U.S. Foreign Policy, Congressional Research Service -Oct 7, 1993,)
The questions of slavery in the territories and slavery in the Mexican province of Texas divided the nation. Before
1836, the Mexican border with the United States was Louisiana, Arkansas territory, and the Indian lands of Oklahoma.
As one of Spain's New World colonies, slavery was legally protected in Mexico. Still, there was little slavery in the
underpopulated province of Texas until, at almost the same time that Mexicans rose in revolt against Spanish
domination (1819), American slaveholders moved into Texas and began to carve out plantations with slave labor. The
newly-independent Mexicans wanted Texas to be settled, but they did not want American slavery to be a permanent
part of their new nation. The Mexican legislature agreed in 1827 that, after the adoption of its constitution, no one
would be born a slave on Mexican soil. American efforts to get around this by registering their slaves as indentured
servants ultimately failed. This tension over slavery was a primary cause for American Texans to seek independence
from Mexico and to establish the Republic of Texas (1836-1848). 50 (See Randolph Campbell, An Empire for Slavery: The
Peculiar Institution in Texas, 1821-1865 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1989 cited in The Underground Railroad In American
History, The National Park Service)
1844/12/03
The gag rule was revoked when Northern Democrats, breaking ranks with their Southern counterparts, voted against
the rule. The gag rule was overturned, after an alliance of Northern and Southern Democrats at last began to fissure.
But it would take a civil war before the questions raised by Adams were finally answered. Yet, in those debates of the
1830s, tectonic plates had shifted. Adams had shaken the "immense, rooted institution" of slavery as no one had
before. The effort to silence Adams and his handful of allies had only intensified popular concern over the moral and
political cost of protecting slavery. . (Bordewich, Fergus M., Arguing About Slavery: The Great Battle in the United States Congress;
book review of book by William Lee Miller, Smithsonian December, 1996)
1844
Morse invented the telegraph (Selected Review Of Important Media Related Historical Events And Facts. Oklahoma Baptist University)
Daniel Reaves Goodloe of Louisburg began his career as an anti-slavery journalist in Washington, D.C. (Some Notable
Events and Persons, in the First 200 Years of Franklin County's North Carolina History, Compiled by Dr. George-Anne Willard, )
1845-49
James Knox Polk, Democrat becomes President. VP George M. Dallas.
In a cost cutting measure Sarah Polk wife of the President replaced White House servants with slaves and rearranged
the White House Basement into slave quarters. (William Seale, "The President's House: a History," White House Historical Association
with the Cooperation of the National Geographic Society and Harry N Abrams, 1986, vol. 1, pages 256 see Commissioner's letters sent, May-Oct
184, passim: see also Polk's financial records in Polk papers LC not draft of July 20, 1846, to for January 9, 1847, Feb 2, 1847 and Jan 1, N.D.
for purchase of slaves.)
Her primary economic measure had been tried by previous southern Presidents, a substantial reduction of the numbers
in the salaried staff and their replacement with slaves. About ten hired servants were let go, and their positions were
taken by a combination of slaves from the Polk's home place in Tennessee and several more slaves purchased from
relatives and friends during the first three years of Polk's Presidency. (The President's House: a History by William
Seale, White House Historical Association with the Cooperation of the National Geographic Society and Harry N
Abrams, 1986, vol. 1, page 257)
1845
The Methodist Episcopal Church in America splits into northern and southern conferences after Georgia bishop James
O. Andrews resists an order that he give up his slaves or quit his bishopric. (The People's Chronology, 1994 by James Trager
from MS Bookshelf.)
"It is well known that the rift came over Georgia Bishop James O. Andrew's acquisition of slaves. Ironically, Andrew
was chosen bishop by the General Conference of 1832, because he owned no bondsmen (although servants belonging
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to others were provided for his use). In an age when a woman's property routinely passed at marriage to her husband,
Owen became a slaveholder when he remarried, following the death of his first wife. The bishop thought that he could
avoid controversy by deeding his human property back to his spouse, but northern delegates to the 1844 General
Conference demanded his resignation. A peacemaker, Andrew would have given up his post, except for the southern
delegation's strong urging that he stand firm. The southerners feared that they would lose influence at home, if they
gave into northern "ultraism."
In the end Methodists, North and South, agreed to an amicable divorce, with a prorated division of church assets. Both
sides displayed a measure of moderation, with the Georgia Methodists supporting the legalization of slave marriages
and keeping antislavery references in their _Discipline_ until 1857, and the northern Methodist Episcopal Church
waiting almost to the end of the Civil War before barring slaveholders from membership. (Christopher H. Owen. _The Sacred
Flame of Love: Methodism and Society in Nineteenth-Century Georgia. Athens and London: The University of Georgia Press, 1998. xx + 290 pp.
Notes, bibliography, and index. $50.00 (cloth), ISBN 0-8203-1963-5. Reviewed for H-AmRel by Thomas A. Scott
<[email protected]>, Department of History and Philosophy, Kennesaw State University, Georgia)
In the 1840's pastors and congregations of the Methodist church were expressing their views on slavery in no uncertain
terms. In Alexandria Virginia, the Methodists presented a house dived unto itself. Trading in slaves must have been
considerable as the slave pen, located at 1318 Duke Street, was known as "The Norman". The tense feeling of the day
was reflected in the views of two outstanding pastors: Norval Wilson, a man of strong Southern views who preached at
the Alexandria Station in 1850 and Alfred Griffith pastor in this city in 1843 and 1844, whose deep anti-slavery views
crystallized the break that came in the General Conference in 1844. The General Conference of 1844 agreed upon a
Plan of Separation. The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, became a distinct organization. The split in Alexandria
Virginia was finalized in 1849 when the Virginia Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, with The
Reverend J. H. Davis presiding met. The new congregation had made arrangements with Benjamin Hollowell, Quaker
schoolmaster and president of the Lyceum organization to use that building which then was comparatively new, being
only fourteen years old. (Washington Street United Methodist Church, Alexandria, Virginia, Reflections 1849-1989. Researcher and Editor
Kathryn Pierpoint Hedman, 1989)
In 1843, 1,200 Methodist ministers owned 1,500 slaves, and 25,000 members owned 208,000 slaves, the Methodist
Church as a whole remained silent and neutral on the issue of slavery. (Growth Of The Nation, 1800 – 40 Jefferson's
Administrations Stephen F. Austin State University, Nacogdoches, TX) )
1845
Samuel Morse hired Andrew Jackson's former postmaster general, Amos Kendall, as his agent in locating potential
buyers of the telegraph. Kendall realized the value of the device, and had little trouble convincing others of its
potential for profit. By the spring he had attracted a small group of investors. They subscribed $15,000 and formed the
Magnetic Telegraph Company. Many new telegraph companies were formed as Morse sold licenses wherever he
could. (Smithsonian Institution, Resources for the history of invention Collections on Invention and Innovation in the NMAH, Archives Center.
Register of the Western Union Telegraph Company Collection 1848-1963 by Robert S. Harding Archives Center, National Museum of American
History, Smithsonian Institution )
Amos Kendall’s Expositor, was published in Washington DC, One issue of June 16, 1841 was sold at auction,
described as "A lively political sheet produced by Amos Kendall, a self-appointed watchdog for the new Whig
administration of Harrison and Tyler. Interesting opinions on the functioning of the government and special interests
lobbyists show that very little has really changed! (Old World Auctions. Antique Newspapers )
Kendall would also edit along with other the Globe according to auction. [Harrison, William Henry}. Extra Globe, Containing
Official Discussions, Documentary Props, Etc., [Washington, D. C.]. Vol. 6 # 1-27. May 16, 1840 - Jan. 29, 1841. Contemporary half morocco.
First edition. A Jacksonian periodical which covers the entire election season ( May - Oct) 1840. Much on abolition, J. C. Calhoun, Henry Clay,
presidential election returns, Amos Kendall, Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, Daniel Webster, etc. Each number contains valuable material.
Very scarce. Edited by Blair, Rives, and Kendall. 450.00 (Michael Ginsberg Books, Sharon, MA.)
1846
The slow economic development of the city of Washington in the early years, coupled by the political disincentives of
having no vote for representation in the Congress or the presidential election, spurred discussion of retrocession among
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the residents almost immediately. In 1846, the residents of Alexandria City successfully won their fight for
retrocession into Virginia, thus leaving the District its current size. Residents in the Virginia portion also feared the
impending abolition of the slave trade in the federal city as Alexandria was a slave port (Harris, Congress and the
Governance of the Nation's Capital: The Conflict of Federal and Local Interests, p. 4). (District of Columbia Home Rule Charter Review in
collaboration with the Federal City Council )
Alexandria given back to Virginia. DC had been called "the very seat and center of the slave trade." (John Hope Franklin
and Alfred A. Moss, Jr. From Slavery to Freedom, 1947, 1997 pages 114-115 in LC reference.) See also William T. Laprade, "The Domestic
Slave-Trade in the District of Columbia," Journal of Negro History, XI (January, 1926 pp 17-34)
Smithsonian Institution research institution founded by the bequest of the English scientist James Smithson. Although
it was held by John C. Calhoun and other members of Congress that the federal government had no power to accept
such a gift, it was finally secured, largely through the efforts of John Quincy Adams, and in 1846 the institution was
established by congressional act at Washington, D.C. (Encyclopedia Britannica On-Line)
The Cornerstone of the Smithsonian Institution was laid in 1847 by the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of
Freemasons, Benjamin B. French in the presence of President James K Polk. (Ray Baker Harris, The Laying of cornerstones,
Supreme Council 33°, Ancient & Accepted Scottish Rite, Washington DC, 1961)
Scholars generally agree that the Industrial Revolution occurred in the United States beginning at about the middle of
the 19th century.
1845
Irish immigration increases due to the potato famine.
1846/04/24 – 1848/05/30
War against Mexico adds territory to the United States (Dates given by US Navy & Marine Casualty WEB page )
On May 13,1846, the United States recognized the existence of a state of war with Mexico. After the annexation of
Texas in 1845, the United States and Mexico failed to resolve a boundary dispute and President Polk said that it was
necessary to deploy forces in Mexico to meet a threatened invasion. (Instances of Use of United States Forces Abroad, 1798 1993 by Ellen C. Collier, Specialist in U.S. Foreign Policy, Congressional Research Service -Oct 7, 1993)
1847
Escaped slave Frederick Douglas, 30, begins publication at Rochester, N.Y., of an abolitionist
newspaper, the North Star. The Massachusetts Antislavery Society published Douglas's’ autobiography
2 years ago and he has earned enough from lecture fees in Britain, Ireland, and the United States to
buy his freedom. (The People's Chronology 1995, 1996 by James Trager from MS Bookshelf.)
About 1000 slaves per year escaped to the North during the pre-Civil War decades, most from the
upper South. This represented only a small percentage of those who attempted to escape, however,
since for every slave who made it to freedom, several more tried. Other fugitives remained within the
South, heading for cities or swamps, or hiding out near their plantations for days or weeks before either
returning voluntarily or being tracked down and captured. ("Slavery in the United States," Microsoft Encarta 98
Encyclopedia. Microsoft Corporation.)
1847
Steam powers a U.S. cotton mill for the first time at Salem, Mass., where the Maumkoag Steam Cotton Mill begins
production. (The People's Chronology 1995, 1996 by James Trager from MS Bookshelf.)
1847/07/26
Liberia declares independence from American Colonization Society. (D.T.'s Chronology of History 1840-1849! )
1847-48
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The Virginia Legislature has enacted (Sess. Acts 1847-8, ch. 10, § 24,) that "any free person who, by speaking or
writing, shall maintain that owners have not right of property in their slaves, shall be punishable by confinement in the
jail, not more than twelve months, and by fine not exceeding five hundred dollars." (Bacon v. The Commonwealth. Supreme
Court Of Virginia, 48 Va. 602; 1850 Va. Lexis 43; 7 Gratt. 602, June Term, 1850)
1848
Gold Rush in California. The discovery of gold in California leads in the following decade to a massive increase in the
production of gold coins by the mint with the result that in practice the US moves away from bimetallism towards a
gold standard. p 481 (A Comparative Chronology of Money from Ancient Times to the Present Day, 1830 – 1849, Based on the book: A
History of Money from Ancient Times to the Present Day by Glyn Davies, rev. ed. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1996. 716p. ISBN 0 7083
1351 5. ) )
1848
Work begun on the Washington Monument, DC Obelisk honoring the first U.S. president. (The World Almanac and
Book of Facts 1996 from MS Bookshelf)
1848/03/10
Mexican War ends, expanding U.S. slave territory into Texas.
1848/04/15
Daniel Drayton attempted to smuggle 76 slaves on the ship Pearl out of Washington to Freedom in the North. The
slaves belonged to "41 of the most prominent families in Washington and Georgetown and were valued at $100,000."
The Pearl got as far as Chesapeake but ran into headwinds. "A steamer was chartered by owners and friends armed to
the teeth with guns pistols and bowie knives for the pursuit. The steamer took Drayton's vessel into tow, and brought
them back to Washington. A mob had assembled on 4th street and rushed the group when they reached Pennsylvania
avenue shouting Lynch them, Lynch them. (George Rothwell Brown, Capital Silhouettes, Washington Post March 10, 1924)
According to Josephine Pacheco, professor emeritus of history at George Mason University, former first lady Dolley
Madison owned one slave heading for the Pearl. Abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison claimed that another worked in
President James K. Polks's White House. (Mary Kay Ricks, Escape on the Pearl,, Washington Post, Horizon August 12, 1998.)
"The public was infuriated and tended to blame Dr. Gamaliel Bailey, the editor of the antislavery newspaper, the
National Era, for conceiving and planning the whole affair. A crowd formed before the office of Bailey's newspaper
and pelted the building with stones until they were dispersed by the police (National Era, April 27, 1848; The
Liberator, April 28 1848 cited in Dorothy Sproles Provine, The Free Negro In the District of Columbia 1800-1860,
Thesis Louisiana State University Department of History, 1959, 1963)
Drayton, Daniel. Personal Memoir Of Daniel Drayton, (For Four Years And Four Months A Prisoner (For Charity's Sake In
Washington Jail, Negro Universities Press, 1969 122pp) including a narrative of the voyage and capture of the schooner Pearl.
First published in 1855 by Bela. Drayton, born in Cumberland County, NJ, plied a vessel between Delaware Bay and
Virginia's eastern shore, coming into frequent contact with the African-American slaves in the Chesapeake region.
Soon, he was helping slaves escape North aboard his schooner "Pearl," until he was seized on the Potomac and
imprisoned.
For the Role of Paul Jennings in the Pearl escape, see (G. Franklin Edwards and Michael R. Winston, Commentary: The Washington
of Paul Jennings—White House Slave, Free Man, and Conspirator for Freedom. White House Historical Association.)
In Washington DC, a description of conditions just beyond the city limit, Florida Avenue "The slaves are watched by
the patrols, who ride about to try to catch them off the quarters, especially at the house of a free person of color. I have
known the slaves to stretch clothes lines across the street, high enough to let the horse pass, but not the rider; then the
boys would run, and the patrols in full chase would be thrown off by running against the lines. The patrols are poor
white men, who live by plundering and stealing, getting rewards for runaways, and setting up little shops on the public
roads. They will take whatever the slaves steal, paying in money, whiskey, or whatever the slaves want. They take
pigs, sheep, wheat, corn- - any thing that's raised they encourage the slaves to steal: these they take to market next day.
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It's all speculation- - all a matter of self- interest, and when the slaves run away, these same traders catch them if they
can, to get the reward. If the slave threatens to expose his traffic, he does not care- - for the slave's word is good for
nothing- - it would not be taken." ("My Bedstead Consisted Of A Board Wide Enough To Sleep On". Francis Henderson was 19 when he
managed to escape from a slave plantation outside of Washington, D.C., in 1841. Here, he describes conditions on his plantation. Source:
Benjamin Drew, A North- Side View of Slavery (Boston, 1856). (For a description of the conditions of slave just outside Washington, DC see slave
narrative)
Another well-known example of abolitionist activity in the South was the case of the ship Pearl which attempted to
leave Washington City in April, 1848, with 77 slaves who were to leave the ship as free persons when it docked in
New York. Betrayed by an offended black man, the Pearl was seized and its captain, Daniel Drayton, and owner,
Sayres, were arrested and tried in Washington. The trial lasted six weeks in the summer of 1848 and Drayton was
sentenced to prison while Sayres paid a fine of $10,000. Drayton, whose release was gained in April 1853 by black
Boston lawyer Robert Morris after he served four years, committed suicide in New Bedford in 1857.
Leonard Grimes, born to free parents in Leesburg, Virginia, became a hackman in Washington, D.C., and part of a
large group of African Americans, both free and fugitive, who had grown up in the south and were intimately
acquainted with its geography and many of its people. These residents of Washington were well positioned to aid
runaways -- and they did so. Grimes was apprehended by the local authorities on one of his trips to Virginia while
attempting to transport a free black man and his slave family out of the state. He served two years in the Virginia
penitentiary. After his release, he moved north and became the minister of the Twelfth Baptist Church in Boston where
he and his congregation continued to aid fugitives.
1847-48
Free-Soil party, U.S. political party born in 1847–48 to oppose the extension of slavery into territories newly gained
from Mexico. In 1848 the Free-Soil party ran Martin Van Buren and Charles Francis Adams for president and vice
president; by polling 300,000 votes it gave New York State to the Whigs and thus made Zachary Taylor president.
After the Compromise of 1850 seemed to settle the slavery-extension issue, the group known as the Barnburners left
the Free-Soilers to return to the Democratic party, but radicals kept the Free-Soil party alive until 1854, when the new
Republican party absorbed it. (The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia, 1995 by Columbia University Press from MS Bookshelf.)
A third party took part in the election of 1848. Called the Free-Soil Party, it included Democrats and Whigs who
disagreed with their parties, and abolitionists, who wanted an immediate end to slavery. The Free-Soil Party
nominated former president Martin Van Buren of New York for president and Massachusetts legislator Charles Francis
Adams for vice president. (Fillmore, Millard, Microsoft Encarta 98 Encyclopedia.)
1848
Congress passed the Oregon Territory bill, which prohibited slavery in the area. President James K. Polk signed the
bill because the Oregon Territory lay north of the Missouri Compromise line. Later proposals tried to extend the line by
law across the continent to the Pacific Ocean. These efforts failed. The Missouri Compromise was repealed by the
Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. (Political Compromises: Missouri Compromise, The World Book, African American Journey.)
Zachary Taylor, Whig becomes President. VP Millard Fillmore.Taylor brought house slaves from Louisiana to work at
the White House. There were approximately 15, including children; one was the body servant who had accompanies
General Taylor to Mexico. (The President's House: a History by William Seale , White House Historical Association with the Cooperation of
the National Geographic Society and Harry N Abrams, 1986, vol. 1, page 282)
1849
Abraham Lincoln as Representative, unsuccessfully proposed a bill for the "compensated emancipation of slaves in the
District of Columbia. (Mary Kay Ricks, Escape on the Pearl, Washington Post, Horizon August 12, 1998.)
1849
Maryland slave Harriet Tubman, 29, escapes to the North and begins a career as "conductor" on the Underground
Railway that started in 1838. Tubman will make 19 trips back to the South to free upward of 300 slaves including her
aged parents whom she will bring North in 1857. (The People's Chronology 1995, 1996 by James Trager from MS Bookshelf.)
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1850
The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal begun in 1828 finally reaches Cumberland, Md., which the B&O Railroad reached in
1842. The $22 million 184.5-mile canal with its 74 lift locks is obsolete, plans to continue it 180 miles westward to
Pittsburgh are abandoned, but it will be used until 1924. (The People's Chronology, 1994 by James Trager from MS Bookshelf.)
1850/09/18
Compromise of 1850 attempts to settle slavery issue. As part of the Compromise, a new Fugitive Slave Act is added to
enforce the 1793 law and allows slaveholders to retrieve slaves in northern states and free territories. (Underground
Railroad Chronology, National Park Service, http://www.cr.nps.gov/htdocs1/boaf/urrtim~1.htm)
The Fugitive Slave Law passed in September 1850 allowed escaped slaves to be captured and brought back to their
masters. The law also prosecuted anyone who helped hide slaves or who aided fugitive slaves in any way. The law was
very expensive to the United States of America as it cost thousands of dollars to return all slaves to the places from
where they had escaped. A boom also began in the slave catching business. It was easy to take any black person, free
or not and say they escaped. Slave catchers roamed the whole continent looking for black people. Because of this law
many blacks escaped to Canada in the 1850's and 60's. The Fugitive Slave Law was responsible for the escalation of
blacks in Chatham and Buxton (Canadian towns), as they were final stations of the Underground Railroad. (The Buxton
Settlement -Cultural Landscape. North Buxton Ontario, Canada. This information is taken from a Black History project completed by students and
Staff from Chatham Collegiate Institute in Chatham, Ontario. Material was compiled from the collections of the Chatham - Kent sites of the
African Canadian Heritage Tour.)
Congress enacted the famous Compromise of 1850. A provision of the Compromise relating to slavery included the
outlawing of the slave trade in Washington, D.C. but the retention of slavery itself. (Alton Hornsby, JR,. Chronology of African
American History, Gale Research 1991, in LC reference)
The Compromise of 1850 stiffened existing fugitive slave laws and allowed claimants to recover fugitives by applying
to federal judges and commissioners to establish ownership. The testimony of fugitives was not admitted as evidence.
Anyone who interfered with the enforcement of these laws was subject to punishment. Many of the cases in this
publication contain only the warrants for arrest, and others contain papers relating to proof of ownership. (Description of
Federal Court Records: A Select Catalog Of National Archives Microfilm Publications (Part 6) National Archives)
The Compromise of 1850 strengthened the fugitive slave law. "All good citizens" were required to obey it on pain of
heavy penalty; jury trial and the right to testify were prohibited to fugitives. The Abolitionists and new personal-liberty
laws defied these provisions. Notable fugitive slave trials stirred up public opinion in both the North and South.
Northern Nullification of the fugitive slave laws was cited in 1860 by South Carolina as a cause of secession. Congress
repealed both laws in 1864, during the Civil War. (The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia, 1995 by Columbia University Press from MS
Bookshelf.)
"Relatively few [slaves] escaped permanently. . . The federal census of 1850 recorded the escapes to free territory of
only 1,010 slaves. In 1860, the number was 803. They came principally from the border states. An organization of
Quakers and antislavery people in the border states and in the North aided some slaves to escape to Canada; however,
their assistance has been vastly exaggerated in the legend of the Underground Railroad. The more valuable aid given
to escaping slaves was by free Negroes and fellow slaves ... They hid the fugitives in the daytime and gave directions
to them" (From Clement Eaton, Growth of Southern Civilization New York: Harper, 1961 page 73, cited in The Underground Railroad In
American History, The National Park Service )
1850
Sen. Henry Clay’s Compromise of 1850 admitted California as 31st state Sept. 9, slavery forbidden; made Utah and
New Mexico territories without decision on slavery; made Fugitive Slave Law more harsh; ended District of Columbia slave trade. (The World
Almanac and Book of Facts 1996 from MS Bookshelf)
The Compromise of 1850 was worked out by Henry Clay to settle the dispute between North and South. On January
29, 1850, it was introduced to the Senate as follows:
1. California should be admitted immediately as a free state;
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2. Utah should be separated from New Mexico, and the two territories should be allowed to decide for them selves
whether they wanted slavery or not;
3. The land disputed between Texas and New Mexico should be assigned to New Mexico;
4. In return, the United States should pay the debts which Texas had contracted before annexation;
5. Slavery should not be abolished in the District of Columbia without the consent of its residents and the
surrounding state of Maryland, and then only if the owners were paid for their slaves.
6. Slave-trading (but not slavery) should be banned in the District of Columbia;
7. A stricter fugitive slave law should be adopted.
The Compromise resulted in heavy debates in the Senate. Especially the
leader of the Conscience Whigs, William H. Seward, criticized it. He argued that there was "a higher law than the
Constitution" (Jordan, W. et al. (1985): The Americans. p. 311.), and alluded to the law of God, which forbade
slavery. Still the people seemed to accept the Compromise with some hesitation. President Zachory Taylor was truly
against the plan and created a deadlock, but as he died, and was succeeded by Vice- President Millard Fillmore, the
whole thing got a new turn. He successfully convinced the Whig party. However, the Compromise was turned down in
Congress. Henry Clay withdrew from politics due to poor health and Stephen A. Douglas took over the task of dealing
with the Compromise. (Andreas Sandgren, "Causes Of The Civil War In America, 1861-1865" Lund, Spyken, 1993)
(Jordan, W. et al. (1985): The Americans. p. 310)
1850
Zachary Taylor died in office on July 9. Millard Fillmore, as a Whig Took the presidential oath the following day.
There was no Vice president
1851
Myrtilla Miner founded a "school for colored girls," which the University of the District of Columbia looks back to as
it's roots. (History and Mission of the University of the District of Columbia. Updated: April 29, 1998)
Mytilla Miner, alarmed the city's white citizens by opening the Normal School for Colored Girls, a college preparatory
school in a city where slavery remained legal. In 1854, Minor wrote" "Emily (Edmonson) and I lived here alone,
unprotected, except by God. The rowdies occasionally stone our house in the evening. Emily and I have been seen
practicing shooting with a pistol. The family (Paul and Amelia Edmonson) have come with a dog." (Mary Kay Ricks, Escape on the
Pearl,, Washington Post, Horizon August 12, 1998.)
She selected the District "because it was the common property of the nation and because the laws of the District gave
her the right to educate free colored children, and she attempted to teach none others." (Special Report of the Commissioner of
Education on the Condition and Improvement of Public Schools in the District of Columbia. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office,
1871.)
Within two months the enrollment grew from 6 to 40, and, despite hostility from a portion of the community, the
school prospered. Contributions from Quakers continued to arrive, and Harriet Beecher Stowe gave $1,000 of her
Uncle Tom's Cabin royalties. The school was forced to move three times in its first two years, but in 1854 it settled on
a three-acre lot with house and barn on the edge of the city. In 1856 the school came under the care of a board of
trustees, among whom were Henry Ward Beecher and Johns Hopkins. While the school offered primary schooling and
classes in domestic skills, its emphasis from the outset was on training teachers. Miner stressed hygiene and nature
study in addition to rigorous academic training. By 1858 six former students were teaching in schools of their own. By
that time Miner's connection with the school had been lessened by her failing health, and from 1857 Emily Howland
was in charge. In 1860 the school had to be closed, and the next year Miner went to California in an attempt to regain
her health. A carriage accident in 1864 ended that hope, and Miner died on December 17, 1864, shortly after her return
to Washington, D.C. (Women in American History by Encyclopedia Britannica)
Why are little girls familiar with Louisa May Alcott rather than Margaret Fuller, with Scarlett O'Hara and not Myrtilla
Miner, with Florence Nightingale and not Fanny Wright. Why have they never heard of the Grimke Sisters, Sojourner
Truth, Inez Milholland, Prudence Crandall, Ernestine Rose, Abigail Scott Duniway, Harriet Tubman, Clara Lemlich,
Alice Paul, and many others in a long list of brilliant courageous people? Something smells fishy when scarcely fifty
years after the vote was won, the whole WRM is largely forgotten, remembered only by a few eccentric old ladies.
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May I suggest the reason for this, why women's history has been hushed up just as Negro history has been hushed up,
so that the black child learns, not about Nat Turner but about the triumph of Ralph Bunche, or George Washington
Carver and the peanut.http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/wlm/notes/)
Her students were insulted and attacked by white men along the streets. The building was stoned and set afire. But
Miss miner stood her ground. Using some of their leisure time, she and Emily Edmondson (of the famous case of the
Pearl) warned hoodlums of their mettle by firing pistols at a target in the yard. (Washington, City and Capital, Federal Writers'
Project, Works Progress Administration, American Guide Series. Washington, 1937, USGPO. P73)
Myrtilla Miner's Papers are available at the (Manuscript Reading Room at the Library of Congress.)
1852
Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin is published as a response to the pro-slavery argument. (Underground
Railroad Chronology, National Park Service)
Anthony Bowen, a freed slave, founded the (first African-American YMCA in Washington, D.C)
1852
Jossiah Priest publishes Bible defence of slavery. (Slavery and Religion in America: A timeline 1440-1866. By the Internet Public
Library)
1853-57
Franklin Pierce Democrat becomes President. VP William R. King, 1853 and Apr 1853-Mar 1857
1857/03/05
Dred Scott decision by U.S. Supreme Court Mar. 6 held, 6-3, that a slave did not become free when taken into a free
state, Congress could not bar slavery from a territory, and blacks could not be citizens. (The World Almanac and Book of
Facts 1996, from MS Bookshelf.)
Supreme Court declares in Scott v. Sandford that blacks are not U.S. citizens, and slaveholders have the right to take
slaves in free areas of the county. (Underground Railroad Chronology, National Park Service)
1857/03/06
The Dred Scott decision announced by Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney, 79, March 6
enrages abolitionists and encourages slaveowners. The fugitive slave Dred Scott, now 62, brought suit
in 1848 to claim freedom on the ground that he resided in free territory, but the court rules that his
residence in Minnesota Territory does not make him free, that a black may not bring suit in a federal
court, and in an obiter dicta by Taney, that Congress never had the authority to ban slavery in the
territories, a ruling that in effect calls the Missouri Compromise of 1820 unconstitutional. (The People's
Chronology 1995, 1996 by James Trager from MS Bookshelf.)
The notoriety surrounding Dred Scott v. Sandford (US, 1857) has frequently hindered historians' efforts
to understand the policy-making role of the antebellum Supreme Court. The Dred Scott case was neither exceptional
nor anomalous. It was, however, the natural result of judicial doctrines and tendencies that had been developing for
several years. John Marshall, though opposed to slavery in the abstract, believed that a judge's moral instincts should
not influence his rulings in light of the law. Roger Taney, as Chief Justice, was determined to destroy antislavery
constitutional ideas argued in cases before him. Even before the famous Dred Scott case, Supreme Court decisions
involving Groves (1841), Prigg (1842), and Van Zandt (1847) consistently undermined antislavery constitutional ideas
argued before the Court. The Dred Scott decision was no aberration. 89 notes. (Wiecek, William M. Slavery And Abolition Before
The United States Supreme Court, 1820-1860. Journal of American History 1978 65(1): 34-59.)
Excerpts from Dred Scott Decision, "But there are two clauses in the Constitution which point directly and specifically
to the Negro race as a separate class of persons, and show clearly that they were not regarded as a portion of the
people or citizens of the Government then formed.
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One of these clauses reserves to each of the thirteen States the right to import slaves until the year 1808, if it thinks
proper. And the importation which it thus sanctions was unquestionably of persons of the race of which we are
speaking, as the traffic in slaves in the United States had always been confined to them. And by the other provision the
States pledge themselves to each other to maintain the right of property of the master, by delivering up to him any
slave who may have escaped from his service, and be found within their respective territories. By the first above
mentioned clause, therefore, the right to purchase and hold this property is directly sanctioned and authorized for
twenty years by the people who framed the Constitution. And by the second, they pledge themselves to maintain and
uphold the right of the master in the manner specified, as long as the Government they then formed should endure.
And these two provisions show, conclusively, that neither the description of persons therein referred to, nor their
descendants, were embraced in any of the other provisions of the Constitution; for certainly these two clauses were not
intended to confer on them or their posterity the blessings of liberty, or any of the personal rights so carefully provided
for the citizen.
No one of that race had ever migrated to the United States voluntarily; all of them had been brought here as articles of
merchandise. The number that had been emancipated at that time were but few in comparison with those held in
slavery; and they were identified in the public mind with the race to which they belonged, and regarded as a part of the
slave population rather than the free. It is obvious that they were not even in the minds of the framers of the
Constitution when they were conferring special rights and privileges upon the citizens of a State in every other part of
the Union." (See Dred Scott, Plaintiff In Error v John F. A. Sandford. December Term, 1856 Justice Catrpm, Justice Wayne, Justice Nelson,
Justice Grier, Justice Daniel, and Justice Campbell concurring in separate opinions. Justice McLean and Justice Curtis dissenting in separate
opinions)
1857/06/01
"Confrontation with mob during election violence outside City Hall, Washington DC," leaves two US Marines
wounded. (US Navy and Marine Casualties)
1857-61
James Buchanan Democrat becomes President. VP John C. Breckinridge On slavery he favored popular sovereignty
and choice by state constitutions. He denied the right of states to secede. (The World Almanac and Book of Facts
1996, from MS Bookshelf.)
1859
The last slave ship arrives. During this year, the last ship to bring slaves to the United States, the Clothilde, arrived in
Mobile Bay, Alabama. (Timeline of African American History, 1852-1925 by the Staff of the Library of Congress)
1859/10/16
Abolitionist John Brown with 21 men seized U.S. Armory at Harpers Ferry (then Virginia) Oct. 16. U.S. Marines
captured raiders, killing several. Brown was hanged for treason by Virginia Dec. 2. (The World Almanac and Book of Facts
1996, from MS Bookshelf.)
Marine assault on building occupied by abolitionist John Brown and followers, Harper's Ferry, Virginia, 18 Oct. 1859.
One Marine killed and one Wounded. (US Navy & Marine Casualties )
Census data
Total number of slaves in the Lower South : 2,312,352 (47%
of total population).
Total number of slaves in the Upper South: 1,208758 (29% of
total population).
Total number of slaves in the Border States: 432,586 (13% of
total population).
Almost one-third of all Southern families owned slaves. In
Mississippi and South Carolina it approached one half. The
total number of slave owners was 385,000 (including, in
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Louisiana, some free Negroes). As for the number of slaves
owned by each master, 88% held fewer than twenty, and
nearly 50% held fewer than five. (A complete table on slaveowning percentages is given at the bottom of this page.)
For comparison's sake, let it be noted that in the 1950's, only 2% of American families owned corporation stocks equal
in value to the 1860 value of a single slave. Thus, slave ownership was much more widespread in the South than
corporate investment was in 1950's America.
On a typical plantation (more than 20 slaves) the capital value of the slaves was greater than the capital value of the
land and implements. (Selected Statistics on Slavery in the United States. part of This Civil War Circuit site by Jim Epperson see Causes of
the Civil War for pointers on the Civil War )
From the United States Historical Census Data Browser.
1861
Methodist southern bishops kept their regional denomination from officially backing secession. After the Confederacy
became a reality, white Georgia Methodists supported it, since their church _Discipline_ required obedience to
whatever government was in power. After southern defeat, they had no difficulty submitting again to the authority of
the U.S.A. in secular matters, while yielding to no one but God in matters sacred. Owen believes that the southern
church actually came out of the war stronger than ever. An institution not under government control, the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South (MECS), gave white Wesleyans a refuge from northern cultural and political domination.
Meanwhile, black Methodists flocked out of the Caucasian-controlled denomination into the African Methodist
Episcopal (AME) and the Colored Methodist Episcopal (CME) Church, where former bondsmen found bastions
against the destructive influence of white supremacy. (Christopher H. Owen. _The Sacred Flame of Love: Methodism and Society in
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Nineteenth-Century Georgia. Athens and London: The University of Georgia Press, 1998. xx + 290 pp. Notes, bibliography, and index. $50.00
(cloth), ISBN 0-8203-1963-5. Reviewed for H-AmRel by Thomas A. Scott <[email protected]>, Department of History and
Philosophy, Kennesaw State University, Georgia)
The US Civil War. The Confederacy finances its war effort mainly by printing money. In addition to the Confederate
notes, the States, railway, insurance and other companies also issue notes. The resulting hyperinflation renders
Confederate paper worthless. By comparison inflation in the North is relatively moderate as the Union government
raises very substantial sums of money by taxation and borrowing. p 485-488 (A Comparative Chronology of Money from Ancient
Times to the Present Day, 1860 – 1879, Based on the book: A History of Money from Ancient Times to the Present Day by Glyn Davies, rev. ed.
Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1996. 716p. ISBN 0 7083 1351 5)
For a Chronology of Emancipation during the Civil War with Links, see Free at Last: A Documentary History of
Slavery, Freedom, and the Civil War published by The New Press, c/o W. W. Norton & Co
(The Macon Telegraph)
1861/08/06
First Confiscation Act nullifies owners' claims to fugitive slaves who had been employed in the
Confederate war effort.. (Chronology of Emancipation during the Civil War for the brief chronology, adapted
from the version published in Free at Last: A Documentary History of Slavery, Freedom, and the Civil War, lists
important events in the history of emancipation during the Civil War.)
Did Blacks fight for the Confederacy? …what many historians find outrageous are the claims
being made by men like Charlie Condon (South Carolina's attorney general) . Though he later
revised his estimate to 50,000 blacks who "served in the Confederate Army," Edward Smith at American University
puts the number of black rebels "actually shooting people" at 30,000. Most historians regard this figure as inflated- by
almost 30,000. "It's pure fantasy," contends James McPherson, a Princeton historian and one of the nation's leading
Civil War scholars. Adds Edwin Bearss, historian emeritus at the National Park Service: "It's b.s., wishful thinking."
Robert Krick, author of 10 books on the Confederacy, has studied the records of 150,000 Southern soldiers and found
fewer than a dozen were black. "Of course, if I documented 12, someone would start adding zeros," he says. Tainted
History? These and other scholars say claims about black rebels derive from unreliable anecdotes, a blurring of
soldiers and laborers, and the rapid spread on the Internet of what McPherson calls "pseudohistory." Thousands of
blacks did accompany rebel troops- as servants, cooks, teamsters and musicians. Most were slaves who served
involuntarily; until the final days of the war, the Confederacy staunchly refused to enlist black soldiers. Some blacks
carried guns for their masters and wore spare or castoff uniforms, which may explain eyewitness accounts of black
units. But any blacks who actually fought did so unofficially, either out of personal loyalty or self-defense, many
historians say. (Shades of Gray: Did Blacks Fight Freely For the Confederacy?)
It Is Possible Mr. Nelson Did; Some Historians See a Rebel Whitewash By Tony Horowitz Staff Reporter of The Wall
Street Journal )
1862/04/16
Slavery was abolished in the District of Columbia by Congress on this day. One million dollars was appropriated to
compensate owners of freed slaves, and $100,000 was set aside to pay district slaves who wished to emigrate to Haiti,
Liberia or any other country outside the United States. (Jet Magazine, This Week in Black History, Johnson Publishing Company, Inc.
April 21, 1997)
President Abraham Lincoln signed a bill ending slavery in the District of Columbia. Passage of this act came 9 months
before President Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation. The act brought to conclusion decades of agitation
aimed at ending what antislavery advocates called "the national shame" of slavery in the nation's capital.
The law provided for immediate emancipation, compensation of up to $300 for each slave to loyal Unionist masters,
voluntary colonization of former slaves to colonies outside the United States, and payments of up to $100 to each
person choosing emigration. Over the next 9 months, the federal government paid almost $1 million for the freedom of
approximately 3,100 former slaves.
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Chronology On The History Of Slavery And Racism 1830 To The End
The District of Columbia Emancipation Act is the only example of compensated emancipation in the United States.
Though its three-way approach of immediate emancipation, compensation, and colonization did not serve as a model
for the future, it was an early signal of slavery's death. Emancipation was greeted with great jubilation by the District's
African-American community. For many years afterward, black Washingtonians celebrated Emancipation Day on
April 16 with parades and festivals. (National Archives and Records Administration Featured Document)
The District of Columbia Emancipation Act
Lincoln was certainly not an abolitionist. He found slavery personally abhorrent, but ending it was not his first priority.
He was in many ways what we would consider in modern terms a typical cautious liberal -- a compromiser on serious
moral issues, only moving on them when pushed by social movements. As a Congressman, he was opposed to the
Mexican War (which was designed to add slave territory) but still voted to finance it. He would not speak publicly
against the Fugitive Slave Act, wrote to a friend "I confess I hate to see the poor creatures hunted down...but I bite my
lips and keep quiet." He was a lawyer, with a legalistic approach to slavery: the Constitution did not give the federal
government the power to interfere with slavery in the states. The District of Columbia was not a state, and he did offer
a resolution, while in Congress, to abolish slavery there, but accompanied this with a fugitive slave provision that
escaped slaves coming into D.C. must be returned. Wendell Phillips, the militant Boston abolitionist, called Lincoln
"that slavehound from Illinois". During the Civil War he would not do anything about slavery for fear of alienating the
states fighting on the side of the North which still had slavery, said plainly that his main aim in the war was not to end
slavery but to get the South back into the Union, and would do this even if it meant retaining slavery. The Whig Party
which became the Republican Party which elected Lincoln represented economic interests which wanted a large
country with a huge market for goods, with high tariffs to protect manufactures (which Southern states opposed). The
South stood in the way of capitalist expansion. If you look at the legislation passed by Congress during the War, with
the South no longer an obstacle, you see the economic interests: Railroad subsidies, high tariffs, contract labor law to
bring in immigrant workers for cheap labor and to use as strikebreakers, a national bank putting the government in a
partnership with banking interests. The Emancipation Proclamation was a weak document for freeing slaves, but did
have great moral force. I deal with all this in my book A Peoples History Of The United States. There's an excellent
chapter on Lincoln in Richard Hofstadter's book The American Political Tradition. (Howard Zinn, A Selection of Zinn's Posts
from the ZinnZine Forum)
1864/11/01
Maryland slaves emancipated by State Constitution of 1864. (Maryland Historical Chronology )
1865
Robert E. Lee surrendered 27,800 Confederate troops to Grant at Appomattox Court House, VA, Apr. 9. J. E. Johnston
surrendered 31,200 to Sherman at Durham Station, NC, Apr. 18. Last rebel troops surrendered May 26.
President Lincoln was shot Apr. 14 by John Wilkes Booth in Ford’s Theater, Washington; died the following morning.
Booth was reported dead Apr. 26. Four co-conspirators were hanged July 7. Thirteenth Amendment, abolishing
slavery, was ratified Dec. 6. (The World Almanac and Book of Facts 1996, from MS Bookshelf.)
1865 Amendment XIII. Slavery abolished.
Proposed by Congress Jan. 31, 1865; ratified Dec. 6, 1865. The amendment, when first proposed by a resolution in
Congress, was passed by the Senate, 38 to 6, on Apr. 8, 1864, but was defeated in the House, 95 to 66 on June 15,
1864. On reconsideration by the House, on Jan. 31, 1865, the resolution passed, 119 to 56. It was approved by President
Lincoln on Feb. 1, 1865, although the Supreme Court had decided in 1798 that the President has nothing to do with the
proposing of amendments to the Constitution, or their adoption.)
1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly
convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. (The World Almanac and Book of Facts 1996,
from MS Bookshelf.)
Andrew Johnson, Democratic/National Union Party becomes President
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Chronology On The History Of Slavery And Racism 1830 To The End
1865/06/19
Juneteenth or June 19, 1865, is considered the date when the last slaves in America were freed. Although the rumors
of freedom were widespread prior to this, actual emancipation did not come until General Gordon Granger rode into
Galveston, Texas and issued General Order No. 3, on June 19, almost two and a half years after President Abraham
Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. (For the History of Juneteenth see; NJCLC National Juneteenth Christian Leadership
Council’s web page)
1866/02/27
An act of the Virginia General legalized common law marriages among free or enslaved Americans of African descent.
The Act was "rendered necessary to meet the abnormal condition that existed among the colored race in consequence
of the abolition of Negro slavery in the South as a result of the Civil War. Without this enabling act, slave-marriages
which largely obtained among that class of the population were invalid, because, being slaves, the parties were
incapable to make any contract, including that of marriage. When, therefore, these former slaves were emancipated and
clothed with the rights and privileges of citizenship, the good order of society demanded that these inchoate marriages
should be recognized as lawful and the children legitimated. And the right of children of slave-marriages to inherit
property from the father was regarded of sufficient consequence to be expressly secured both by the Constitutions of
1869 and of 1902 (Constitution of Virginia, 1869, sec. 9, Art. &I; and sec. 195, Art. XIV, of the present Constitution).
The act in question (now section 2227 of the Code) declares that, "Where colored persons prior to February 27, 1866,
agreed to occupy the relation * * * of husband and wife, and were cohabiting together * * * at that date, whether the
rites of marriage had been celebrated between them or not, they shall be deemed husband and wife, and be entitled to
the rights and privileges, and subject to the duties and obligations of that relation in like manner, as if they had
lawfully married; and all their children shall be deemed legitimate, whether born before or after said date. And where
the parties ceased to cohabit before February 27, 1866, in consequence of the death of the woman, or from any other
cause, all the children of the woman, recognized by the man to be his, shall be deemed legitimate." (Francis and Others v.
Tazewell and Others, Supreme Court Of Virginia, 120 Va. 319; 91 S.E. 202; 1917 Va. Lexis 110, January 11, 1917)
"Professor John B. Minor, in his … discussion of slavery in Virginia, observes: "Previous to February 27, 1866, the
marriage laws of Virginia did not contemplate nor include Negroes, not even free Negroes, at least in respect to any
penalties for disregard of the laws touching license or prohibition of bigamy, of incestuous marriages, or lewd
cohabitation; and hence marriages of free Negroes (those of slaves being void) were governed altogether by the
common law." 1 Minor's Inst. (4th ed.), p. 268. The author, at page 188, says: "It is agreed that [*812] slaves have no
power to make contracts. Hence the marriages of slaves are void." (Lemons v. Harris and Others, Supreme Court Of Virginia, 115
Va. 809; 80 S.E. 740; 1914 Va. Lexis 134, January 15, 1914)
Benjamin B. Minor (1818-1905), was a University of Virginia Law Professor and a member of the Virginia Branch of
the American Colonization Society. (Introductory Material Mss3Am353a1, American Colonization Society, Virginia
Branch Minute Book, 1823-1859, Richmond, Virginia; also Liberia see http://www.lexisnexis.com/cispubs/guides/southern_hist/plantations/plantm4.htm)
1866/04/19 The African-American citizens
of Washington, D.C., celebrated the
abolition of slavery. A procession of 4,000
to 5,000 people assembled at the White
House, where they were addressed by
President Andrew Johnson (1808-1875).
Marching past 10,000 cheering spectators,
the procession, led by two black regiments,
proceeded up Pennsylvania Avenue to
Franklin Square for religious services and
speeches by prominent politicians. A sign on
top of the speaker's platform read: "We have
received our civil rights. Give us the right of
suffrage and the work is done."
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Chronology On The History Of Slavery And Racism 1830 To The End
"Celebration of the abolition of slavery in
the District of Columbia by the colored people in Washington, April 19, 1866," From Harper's Weekly, May 12, 1866,
p. 300 Photomural from woodcut Prints and Photographs Division (62)
1866
Presidential meeting for black suffrage. On February 2, a black delegation led by Frederick Douglass met with
President Andrew Johnson at the White House to advocate black suffrage. The president expressed his opposition, and
the meeting ended in controversy. (Timeline of African American History, 1852-1925 by the Staff of the Library of Congress)
1866 Civil Rights Act. Congress overrode President Johnson's veto on April 9 and passed the Civil Rights Act,
conferring citizenship upon black Americans and guaranteeing equal rights with whites.(Timeline of African American
History, 1852-1925 by the Staff of the Library of Congress)
1866
The Fourteenth Amendment. On June 13, Congress approved the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution,
guaranteeing due process and equal protection under the law to all citizens. The amendment would also grant
citizenship to blacks. (Timeline of African American History, 1852-1925 by the Staff of the Library of Congress) )
1867
Black suffrage. On January 8, overriding President Johnson's veto, Congress granted the black citizens of the District
of Columbia the right to vote. (Timeline of African American History, 1852-1925 by the Staff of the Library of Congress)
1867
That year dealt the ruling white elite of the South a grave blow. In the South, the substantial numbers of AfricanAmericans who had been able to vote steadfastly refused to return their former masters to power. (Original Footnote:
Wade, Wyn Craig, The Fiery Cross. (Simon and Schuster, 1987)) At the national level, Congress had grown impatient with the socalled "Presidential" Reconstruction. Presidential Reconstruction included the return of former Confederates to power,
the Southern states’ unanimous rejection of the fourteenth amendment, and the establishment of the notorious "Black
Codes," which gravely limited the freedoms and citizenship’s of African-Americans in the South, and made it plain
that the white aristocrats who controlled the Southern state governments "intended to yield none of their pre-war power
over poor whites and especially over Blacks." (Text footnote Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), The Ku Klux Klan, a History of
Racism and Violence. (Klanwatch. 1988), 9) As a result, the Radical Reconstructionists passed the Congressional
Reconstruction Act, which overturned the lenient reconstruction of Lincoln and Johnson and invalidated the
governments of every Southern state but Tennessee, divided them into military districts, and attempted to ensure the
Civil rights of African-Americans. (Text Footnote: Chalmers, David M., Hooded Americanism. (Duke University Press, 1987), 11) The
members of the Klan correctly perceived these actions as a threat to continued white supremacy, and quickly
organized to combat them. In April of 1867, the Klan had held a secret meeting in Nashville to prepare for the August
elections, and decided to offer the leadership of the Klan to a former Confederate Cavalry commander named Nathan
Bedford Forrest. (Wade, Wyn Craig, The Fiery Cross. (Simon and Schuster, 1987), p 37) Nathan Bedford Forrest was described by
the Cincinnati Commercial as six feet one inch and a half in height, with broad shoulders, a full chest... one hundred
and eighty-five pounds; dark-gray eyes, dark hair, mustache and beard worn upon his chin." Text Footnote: Wade,
Wyn Craig, The Fiery Cross. (Simon and Schuster, 1987) , A dashing example of the Southern Caviler, he had been a
millionaire slave-trader and plantation owner prior to the war, and made a brilliant reputation as a commander of
cavalry during the war. He also, however, commanded the troops which massacred captured African-American
soldiers at Fort Pillow in April of 1864. (Text Footnote: Dictionary of American Biography, Volume III, (American Council of Learned
Societies: 1930), p532.) (Robert Arjet History of the Ku Klux Klan: The First Era, found in HateWatch which was originally called "A Guide to
Hate Groups on the Internet")
For a Chronology of lynchings see Timeline of African American History, 1852-1925 by the Staff of the Library of
Congress.
1868
Fourteenth Amendment ratified. On July 21, the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution was ratified, granting
citizenship to any person born or naturalized in the United States. (Timeline of African American History, 1852-1925 by the Staff of
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Chronology On The History Of Slavery And Racism 1830 To The End
the Library of Congress)
1869
Fifteenth Amendment approved. On February 26, Congress sent the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution to the
states for approval. The amendment would guarantee black Americans the right to vote. (Timeline of African American
History, 1852-1925 by the Staff of the Library of Congress)
1870
The 1870 census is usually the end of the line when tracing African American genealogy. "African American slaves
didn't appear by name on federal censuses before 1870 because they were property. But they were identified by name
on other records. They were named in deeds, wills and other court records. Court records are the next step in the
research process after the 1870 Census, particularly wills and intestate records. Intestate records list the property the
deceased person left behind if that person did not leave a will.. In Chambers County, Alabama, for instance, in many
cases, slave families were sold or otherwise passed on as units. Often, husbands, wives and small children were sold as
units. The exceptions were the young people that were over 12 years old. They were able to work and didn't require a
mother's care, and were often sold away from the family. The researcher tries to find former slaves by name. Problem!
Court records usually give only the first names of slaves. However, you must identify your ancestors by surname. How
do you do this?
After emancipation former slaves were able to choose any name they desired. In many cases they chose the name of
their last owner. In many cases they chose the name of a previous owner. And in many cases they did not choose a
name of any former owner. They wanted to distance themselves from slavery. So how do you find slave ancestors?
Look through court records for first names that you recognize as belonging to your 1870 families. (After the 1870 Federal
Census, What Next? Where to look and what to look for. By Cliff Murray in African American Lifelines visit this site for many hints on
genealogical research. also see the genealogical links at AfriGeneas)
1871-1912
Height of global European Imperialism and the "scramble for Africa" proceed, rationalized as a "civilizing mission"
based on white supremacy. Europeans assert their "spheres of interest" in African colonies arbitrarily, cutting across
traditionally established boundaries, homelands, and ethnic groupings of African peoples and cultures. Following a
"divide and rule" theory, Europeans promote traditional inter-ethnic hostilities. "The European onslaught of Africa that
began in the mid 1400s progressed to various conquests over the continent, and culminated over 400 years later with
the partitioning of Africa. Armed with guns, fortified by ships, driven by the industry of capitalist economies in search
of cheap raw materials, and unified by a Christian and racist ideology against the African 'heathen,' aggressive
European colonial interests followed their earlier merchant and missionary inroads into Africa"(Mutere). [See gold
"Soul Washer's Badge" taken from the Asante king's bedroom by Lieutenant R.C. Annesley of the 79th Queens Own
Cameron Highlanders, when a British military expedition captured the Asante capital of Kumasi ["Gold Coast," now
Ghana] on February 4, 1874.] (African Timelines Table of Contents History, Orature, Literature, & Film Part IV: Anti-Colonialism &
Reconstruction, compiled by Cora Agatucci, Central Oregon Community College)
The conquest of Africa by Europe and the American acquisition of lands in the Caribbean and Pacific which were
inhabited by darker peoples, were taken as clear evidence of racial inequality even in the land which had been founded
on the belief in the equality of all men. Second-class citizenship for blacks had become a fact which was accepted by
Presidents, Congress, the Supreme Court, the business community, and by labor unions. Segregation was universal. In
the North it was rooted in social custom, but in the South it had been made a matter of law. Separate facilities were
inferior facilities. The basic political and civil rights of the Afro-American were severely limited in almost every state.
(Norman Coombs, The Immigrant Heritage of America, Twayne Press, 1972. , Chapter 4, All Men Are Created Equal, Slavery and the American
Revolution)
1868-75
Smallpox outbreaks hit New York, Philadelphia and other cities, and it was discovered that many children had not
been vaccinated. The New York City Board of Health recommended that all residents be vaccinated in 1870, but there
was widespread public resistance, since the vaccine itself was not without risk, and people perceived the campaign as
creating a panic situation and allowing doctors to profit from it. (Some Historically Significant Epidemics This list was compiled
largely from Encyclopedia of Plague and Pestilence, edited by George C. Kohn, and published by Facts On File, Inc., 1995)
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Chronology On The History Of Slavery And Racism 1830 To The End
1875
Civil Rights Act of 1875. Congress approved the Civil Rights Act on March 1, guaranteeing equal rights to black
Americans in public accommodations and jury duty. The legislation was invalidated by the Supreme Court in 1883.
(Timeline of African American History, 1852-1925 by the Staff of the Library of Congress.
1877
The end of Reconstruction. A deal with Southern Democratic leaders made Rutherford B. Hayes (Republican)
president, in exchange for the withdrawal of federal troops from the South and the end of federal efforts to protect the
civil rights of African-Americans. (Timeline of African American History, 1852-1925 by the Staff of the Library of Congress.)
1878
Home rule ended in the District of Columbia. (1890 DC Census Index)
1881
Segregation of public transportation. Tennessee segregated railroad cars, followed by Florida (1887), Mississippi
(1888), Texas (1889), Louisiana (1890), Alabama, Kentucky, Arkansas, and Georgia (1891), South Carolina (1898),
North Carolina (1899), Virginia (1900), Maryland (1904), and Oklahoma (1907). (Timeline of African American History, 18521925 by the Staff of the Library of Congress. )
1883
Civil Rights Act overturned. On October 15, the Supreme Court declared the Civil Rights Act of 1875
unconstitutional. The Court declared that the Fourteenth Amendment forbids states, but not citizens, from
discriminating. (Timeline of African American History, 1852-1925 by the Staff of the Library of Congress)
1887
Plessy V. Ferguson. As Americans we have been struggling since the beginning of time to fight for what is right in our
society. After the Civil War many Southern states were determined to try and limit the rights of former slaves. One of
the biggest fears in society was the mixing of the races, this was something the white people vowed to stop. The
government succeeded by using the segregation laws, such as the one passed by Florida in 1887, which required
railroads operating in the state or passing through the state to house black passengers in separate cars from the whites.
It was soon after this that separate car laws were in forced in most of the South.
A group of New Orleans black businessmen decided to fight these laws along with railroads who were also against the
law. The group decided to test the case, and a black man by the name of Homer Plessy volunteered to break the law.
Plessy boarded a East Louisiana railroad train in New Orleans and took a seat in a white-only car. He was asked to
move and refused. He was then arrested and brought before New Orleans Parish Judge John Ferguson. Plessy and his
attorney argued that the separate car laws violated his civil rights. Ferguson found Plessy guilty and he was charged
with a twenty-five dollar fine.
However, this case was far from over, it went to the Supreme Court and the law of separate cars was quickly found
constitutional. The Court ruled that "separate but equal facilities" was proper under the 14th Amendment. After the
case was argued twice and almost two years later the court ruled 8-1 that Louisiana was correct.
On May 16, 1896, Brown wrote the majority opinion; Harlan dissented. A state law requiring trains to provide separate
but equal facilities for black and white passengers does not infringe upon federal authority to regulate interstate
commerce nor is it in violation of the 13th or 14th Amendments. The train was local; a legal distinction between the
two races did not destroy the legal equality of the two races guaranteed by the 13th Amendment and the 14th
Amendment protected only political, not social, equality, the majority said.
John Marshall declared that the "Constitution is color blind and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens."
"Separate but Equal" remained the law of the land for fifty-eight years, until 1954 when the Court held in Brown v.
Board of Education that separate is "inherently unequal." References: Wagman, Robert J. The Supreme Court. Pharos
Books 1993. Witt, Elder. Guide to the U.S. Supreme Court. Congressional quarterly Inc. 1979. (Prepared by Tamara L. Ort.
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Chronology On The History Of Slavery And Racism 1830 To The End
History Of American Education Web Project maintained by Robert N. Barger, University of Notre Dame)
1889/03/02
President signs National Zoological Park into law. (Marion P. McCrane, Zoologist to Eda B. Frost July, 28, 1967, SIA, RU 365, NZP
Design by Frederick Law Olmstead
OPA 1805-1988 Box 35 Folder 9)
Olmsted or Olmstead, Frederick Law, 1822–1903, American landscape architect and writer; b.
Hartford, Conn. In the 1850s he attained fame for his travel books, which describe slaveholding society
in the South. When Central Park, N.Y.C., was projected (1856), he and Calvert Vaux prepared the plan
that was accepted, and he supervised its execution. This was the first of many parks he designed; others
are in Brooklyn (Prospect Park), Chicago, Montreal, Buffalo, and Boston. He laid out the grounds for
the 1893 Columbian Exposition, Chicago (now Jackson Park). (The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia, 1995 by
Columbia University Press from MS Bookshelf.)
1890's
Throughout its history, America had been predominantly an Anglo-Saxon and Protestant country. The Afro-American
stood out in sharp distinction to this picture both because of his color and his African heritage. By the end of the
nineteenth century America was being flooded with immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe. They too were
much darker than the dominant strains of Northern Europe, and many were Catholics. There was a growing feeling
that these new immigrants, like the Negroes, were inherently alien and intrinsically inassimilable. Liberals in the
progressive movement, who were concerned about protecting the integrity and morality of American society, were in
the fore-front of those who feared the new hordes of "swarthy" immigrants.
One of those who feared that the large influx of South and East Europeans would undermine the quality of American
life was Madison Grant. In his book The Passing of the Great Race, he warned that Nordic excellence would be
swamped by the faster-spawning Catholic immigrants. Originally these racial stereotypes had some cultural and
historical basis, but they were gaining a new strength and authority from the sociological and biological sciences
centering in the concepts of Social Darwinisn. Darwinism and related theories in anthropology and sociology helped to
give an aura of respectability to racism in both Europe and America. The same kind of pseudo-scientific thinking
which was developed in Europe to justify anti-Semitism was used in America to reinforce prejudices against Negroes
as well as against Jews and South Europeans.
In the first half of the nineteenth century the American anthropologist Samuel George Morton argued that each race
had its own unique characteristics. Racial character, he believed, was the result of inheritance rather than of
environment. Because these characteristics found specific environments congenial, each race had gravitated to its
preordained geographic habitat. Darwin's theory of evolution offered another explanation for the existence of differing
species in the animal kingdom, and anthropologists concluded that it would also provide an explanation for racial
differences in mankind. Early anthropologists and sociologists were preoccupied with dividing humanity into differing
races and trying to catalog and explain these differences. Phrenology was another pseudo-science which attempted to
construct a system according to which intellectual and moral characteristics would be correlated with the size and
shape of the human head. On this basis many tried to divide mankind into physical types and to assign to each its own
intellectual and moral qualities. (Norman Coombs, The Immigrant Heritage of America, Twayne Press, 1972, Chapter 4, All Men Are
Created Equal, Slavery and the American Revolution.)
1890
African-Americans are disenfranchised. The Mississippi Plan, approved on November 1, used literacy and
"understanding" tests to disenfranchise black American citizens. Similar statutes were adopted by South Carolina
(1895), Louisiana (1898), North Carolina (1900), Alabama (1901), Virginia (1901), Georgia (1908), and Oklahoma
(1910). (Timeline of African American History, 1852-1925 by the Staff of the Library of Congress)
1893-1897
Massive depression convinced many that equal opportunity was out of reach for many Americans. (The Progressive Era,
Polytechnic School Pasadena, California, 1999 )
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Chronology On The History Of Slavery And Racism 1830 To The End
1895
Georgetown becomes part of the City of Washington. (1890 DC Census Index)
1896
Plessy v. Ferguson. The Supreme Court decided on May 18 in Plessy v. Ferguson that "separate but equal" facilities
satisfy Fourteenth Amendment guarantees, thus giving legal sanction to Jim Crow segregation laws. (Timeline of African
American History, 1852-1925 by the Staff of the Library of Congress)
1900
Rayford W. Logan, in his book The Betrayal of the Negro described the turn of the century as the low point in AfroAmerican history. After Emancipation, he contended, the hopes of the Negroes were betrayed. Again they were
pushed down into second-class status. It appeared that democracy was for whites only. Actually, the increasing growth
of racism and of segregation as well, led inevitably to the development of opposition groups bent on destroying this
discrimination. Segregation promoted the creation of Negro institutions which then became the center for this
counterattack. (Norman Coombs, The Immigrant Heritage of America, Twayne Press, 1972. , Chapter 4, All Men Are Created Equal, Slavery
and the American Revolution)
1901
The last African-American congressman for 28 years. George H. White gave up his seat on March 4. No AfricanAmerican would serve in Congress for the next 28 years.(Timeline of African American History, 1852-1925 by the Staff of the Library
of Congress)
1908
Race Riot in Springfield Illinois leads to the creation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People (NAACP) (The Springfield Race Riot of 1908, Deepak Madala, Jennifer Jordan, and August Appleton)
1909
The NAACP is formed. On February 12 -- the centennial of the birth of Lincoln -- a national appeal led to the
establishment of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, an organization formed to promote
use of the courts to restore the legal rights of black Americans. (Timeline of African American History, 1852-1925 by the Staff of
the Library of Congress)
1910
Segregated neighborhoods. On December 19, the City Council of Baltimore approved the first city ordinance
designating the boundaries of black and white neighborhoods. This ordinance was followed by similar ones in Dallas,
Texas, Greensboro, North Carolina, Louisville, Kentucky, Norfolk, Virginia, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Richmond,
Virginia, Roanoke, Virginia, and St. Louis, Missouri. The Supreme Court declared the Louisville ordinance to be
unconstitutional in 1917 (Timeline of African American History, 1852-1925 by the Staff of the Library of Congress)
1913
Federal segregation. On April 11, the Wilson administration began government-wide segregation of work places, rest
rooms and lunch rooms. (Timeline of African American History, 1852-1925 by the Staff of the Library of Congress)
1915
"D.W. Griffith's "Birth of A Nation" represented the essence of racism in film. The movie set the stage for future
portrayals of blacks in film. Griffith showed blacks as, "endearing inferiors duped into rising above their accustomed
station by misinformed abolitionists and vindictive reconstruction congressmen who had betrayed Lincoln's benign
plans for the defeated South." 'Birth of a Nation' created a set of black comic figures studios used as prototypes in film
for years to come. (Television and Film)
One final factor made the United States in 1915 perhaps more ready than it had ever been for Simmons’s vision of a
new Klan. That year, a media phenomenon began that was to profoundly alter the course of American race relations:
D.W. Griffith’s racist epic film The Birth of a Nation debuted that fall, and race-hatred would never be the same.
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The Birth of a Nation occupies a seminal position in American film. It introduced the very concept of the film epic to
the American people, and transformed the way Americans thought about the motion picture. Unfortunately, its impact
was at least as influential on the Ku Klux Klan. The Birth of a Nation is perhaps the greatest single piece of
propaganda in the history of mass media, both in its efficacy and in its reach, and its prime beneficiaries have been the
Klan. (Text Footnote: Discussion of The Birth of a Nation literally fills volumes. See, for example, The Birth of a Nation, a 1994 collection edited
by Robert Lang)
The Birth of a Nation depicts events in a Southern town before, during and after the Civil War, giving special attention
to the "heroic" actions of the Klan, and depicting them as a noble order of valiant white men who restored order and
justice in a chaotic time. While Birth propagated the false history of the first-era Klan as discussed earlier, what the
film added to Klan lore was vitally important. First, Birth gave the Klan a visual iconography that they had never
before enjoyed. Contrary to widespread belief, the first-era Klan did not burn crosses—that practice was purely an
invention of Thomas Dixon Jr., the author of the books upon which Birth of a Nation was based. (Text note: While the
literature on Birth of a Nation is extensive, much less attention is paid to the books on which the movie was based. The Leopard's Spots and The
Clansman, by Thomas Dixon, Jr. These books were wildly popular in their day (early 1900s) and laid the groundwork for 20th century racism in
the United States. See Joel Williamson's The Crucible of Race for a rare investigation of Dixon's novels)
Likewise, the first-era Klan did not always wear the impressive white robes depicted in the film. First-era uniforms
were a motley assortment, and often consisted of nothing more than a flour bag thrown over the head for disguise.
The second effect that the film had for the Klan was that it exposed millions of Americans to a rousing adventure story
in which the Klan were the saviors of all that was good, holy, and pure about America. The sensation that The Birth of
a Nation created is hard to overestimate. Grossing an unheard-of $18 million dollars (the equivalent of 360 million
today), Birth of a Nation took the nation by storm. In Historian Wyn Craig Wade’s words, "In an astonishing few
months, Griffith’s masterpiece had united white Americans in a vast national drama, convincing them of a past that
had never been." (Text Footnote: Wade, Wyn Craig, The Fiery Cross. (Simon and Schuster, 1987) p 139)
Although the film’s gross inaccuracies were strongly attacked, especially by the NAACP, it should be noted that the
film was accurate according to the history books of its time. A generation of (mostly Northern) scholars including
future president Woodrow Wilson and historian William A. Dunning had, from 1873 to 1907, "systematically distorted
the motives of radical Republicans, falsified the behavior of Southern Blacks, and glorified the Ku-Klux Klansmen as
heroes." (Text Footnote: Wade, Wyn Craig, The Fiery Cross. (Simon and Schuster, 1987) p 115)
As malicious as The Birth of a nation was, it was also a "faithful composite of the "proven facts" and " authentic
evidence" contained in the most reputable history books of 1915." (Text Footnote: Wade, Wyn Craig, The Fiery Cross.
(Simon and Schuster, 1987) p 132)
The impact of The Birth of a Nation was not lost on Joseph Simmons. He could tell that the public was receptive to the
idea of a heroic Klan, and made every effort to turn the sensation the film caused into free advertising for his new
Klan. In addition, he was not above capitalizing on a gruesome murder and subsequent lynching to advertise his
"fraternal order." (Robert Arjet, History of the Ku Klux Klan: The Second Era of the Ku Klux Klan, 1915-1944, found in HateWatch was
originally called "A Guide to Hate Groups on the Internet")
The film "The Birth of a Nation" by David W. Griffith is released. An adaptation of Rev. Thomas Dixon JR's.
novel/play The Klansmen or The Clansmen.
In its presentation of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) as heroes and Southern blacks as villains, it appealed to white
Americans due to its mythic view of the Old South, and its thematic exploration of two great American issues: interracial sex and the empowerment of blacks. Ironically, the film's major black roles (stereotypically played) were filled
with white actors - in blackface. [The real blacks in the film only played in minor roles.] Its climactic finale helped to
assuage America's sexual fears about the rise of defiant, strong (and sexual) black men.
"The propagandistic film was one of the biggest box-office money-makers in the history of film - it made $18 million
by the start of the talkies. It caused immediate criticism by the NAACP for its racist portrayal of blacks. They
denounced the film as "the meanest vilification of the Negro race." Riots broke out in major cities, and subsequent
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Chronology On The History Of Slavery And Racism 1830 To The End
lawsuits and picketing tailed the film for years. Even President Woodrow Wilson during a private screening at the
White House is reported to have naively exclaimed: "It's like writing history with lightning. And my only regret is that
it is all terribly true." (The Birth Of A Nation (1915) reviewed by Tim Dirks, 1996, [email protected], full version on line))
Lynchings, Searching through America's past for the last 25 years, collector James Allen uncovered an extraordinary
visual legacy: photographs and postcards taken as souvenirs at lynchings throughout America. With essays by Hilton
Als, Leon Litwack, Congressman John Lewis and James Allen, these photographs have been published as a book
"Without Sanctuary" by Twin Palms Publishers and are on display at the New York Historical Society through July 9.
Experience the images as a flash movie with narrative comments by James Allen, or as a gallery of photos which will
grow to over 100 photos in coming weeks. Participate in a forum about the images, and contact us if you know of
other similar postcards and photographs.
1918
Writing (on the history of slavery) in the first half of the twentieth century was that blacks were inferior to whites, that
races should be separated, and that therefore slavery was not so bad after all. This perspective is best typified by Ulrich
B. Phillips's American Negro Slavery (1918), a classic work which dominated the interpretation of southern history for
the next thirty years. Phillips depicted a plantation system in which slaves were generally contented with their lot and
unlikely to resist. Those rare occasions in which resistance did occur were more likely the result of slaves having lazy
or criminal characters rather than any legitimate complaint about their conditions. Indeed, Phillips saw slavery as a
system which was economically unprofitable but socially desirable--a civilizing institution necessitated by the racial
inferiority of African Americans. (Theresa Anne Murphy, Scholarship On Southern Farms And Plantations 1996 American Studies
Department of George Washington University, for the National Park Service Web Page on Slavery)
Journal article analyzes writings that provided important American perceptions of Africa from colonial times through
the early 20th century when American impressions of Africa derived substantially from commentators such as
Theodore Roosevelt, Samuel Langhorne Clemens, and Charles Francis Adams, Jr. Generally American portrayals of
Africa have been characterized by distortions and frequently have served uniquely American purposes such as
justifying slavery and sanctioning racial segregation. Since 1900, many American writers on Africa equated the events
of European colonization in Eastern and Southeastern Africa with the processes that Americans popularly presumed
were inherent in the taming of American frontiers. Based on American writings about Africa and on secondary
sources; 43 notes. (McCarthy, Michael. Africa And The American West. Journal of American Studies [Great Britain] 1977 11(2): 187-201.)
1918
Flew epidemic then called the Spanish Influenza hits Washington, DC. 35,000 become ill while 3,500 die. (WAMU Radio
the 20th Century Real Audio file. Broadcast May 8, 1999.)
1919/07/19
Whites riot against blacks in Washington, DC. The rampage by about 400 whites initially drew only scattered
resistance in the black community, and the police were nowhere to be seen. When the Metropolitan Police Department
finally arrived in force, its white officers arrested more blacks than whites, sending a clear signal about their
sympathies.
It was only the beginning. The white mob – whose actions were triggered in large part by weeks of sensational
newspaper accounts of alleged sex crimes by a "Negro fiend" – unleashed a wave of violence that swept over the city
for four days. Nine people were killed in brutal street fighting, and an estimated 30 more would die eventually from
their wounds. More than 150 men, women and children were clubbed, beaten and shot by mobs of both races. Several
Marine guards and six D.C. policemen were shot, two fatally.
The Washington riot was one of more than 20 that took place that summer. With rioting in Chicago, Omaha,
Knoxville, Tenn., Charleston, S.C., and other cities, the bloody interval came to be known as "the Red Summer."
Unlike virtually all the disturbances that preceded it – in which white-on-black violence dominated – the Washington
riot of 1919 was distinguished by strong, organized and armed black resistance, foreshadowing the civil rights
struggles later in the century.
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Chronology On The History Of Slavery And Racism 1830 To The End
Racial resentment was particularly intense among Washington's several thousand returning black war veterans. They
had proudly served their country in such units as the District's 1st Separate Battalion, part of the segregated Army
force that fought in France. These men had been forced to fight for the right to serve in combat because the Army at
first refused to draft blacks for any role other than laborer. They returned home hopeful that their military service
would earn them fair treatment.
Instead, they saw race relations worsening in an administration dominated by conservative Southern whites brought
here by Woodrow Wilson, a Virginian. Wilson's promise of a "New Freedom" had won him more black voters than
any Democrat before him, but they were cruelly disappointed: Previously integrated departments such as the Post
Office and the Treasury had now set up "Jim Crow corners" with separate washrooms and lunchrooms for "colored
only." Meanwhile, the Ku Klux Klan was being revived in Maryland and Virginia, as racial hatred burst forth with the
resurgence of lynching of black men and women around the country – 28 public lynchings in the first six months of
1919 alone, including seven black veterans killed while still wearing their Army uniforms.
Washington's newspapers made a tense situation worse, with an unrelenting series of sensational stories of alleged
sexual assaults by an unknown black perpetrator upon white women. The headlines dominated the city's four daily
papers – the Evening Star, the Times, the Herald and The Post – for more than a month. A sampling of these July
headlines illustrates the growing lynch-mob mentality: 13 SUSPECTS ARRESTED IN NEGRO HUNT; POSSES
KEEP UP HUNT FOR NEGRO; HUNT COLORED ASSAILANT; NEGRO FIEND SOUGHT ANEW. Washington's
newly formed chapter of the NAACP was so concerned that on July 9 – 10 days before the bloodshed – it sent a letter
to the four daily papers saying they were "sowing the seeds of a race riot by their inflammatory headlines." (Excerpted
from "Race Riot of 1919, Gave Glimpse of Future Struggles" By Peter Perl Washington Post Staff Writer. Monday, March 1, 1999; Page A1)
1921/06/01
Perhaps the nations deadliest racial confrontation begin in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The exact number of people killed in the
riot, which destroyed a 30-square-block area of north Tulsa known as Greenwood, a primarily black neighborhood,
was never determined. Newspaper accounts at the time varied, with some reporting as many as 76 dead. But some
historians, citing survivors' accounts, have put the figure as high as 300. Blacks here have long maintained that whites
used airplanes to bomb homes, churches and businesses in north Tulsa. By 1999, a special commission to investigate
the incident and determine compensation was financed through a $50,000 grant from the Oklahoma Historical Society.
Scott Ellsworth, a former historian at the Smithsonian Institution and author of "Death in a Promised Land: The Tulsa
Race Riot of 1921," is one of the advisers to the commission. The historian John Hope Franklin, whose father lost his
home in the riot, is also an adviser to the commission. Franklin last year headed the advisory board to the President's
Initiative on Race. (New York Times 2/21/99 Panel Tries to Get Clearer Picture of 1921 Race Riot)
An anti-lynching effort. On January 26, a federal anti-lynching bill was killed by a filibuster in the United States
Senate. (Timeline of African American History, 1852-1925 by the Staff of the Library of Congress)
1939
"Sit down" at segregated Barrett Library by five young African American men: Otto L. Tucker, Edward Gaddis, Morris
L. Murray, William Evans, and Clarence Strange. The protest led the City to open Alexandria’s first library for African
Americans, Robert Robinson Library, in 1940. Today, the building houses the Black History Resource Center (City of
Alexandria Timeline)
1990's
A proliferating number of popular and scholarly books about slavery are stripping away whatever is left of the velvety
romance of benign slaveholders presiding over docile slaves. And they are emphasizing efforts of the enslaved to
escape or rebel and the punishments they faced that ranged from branding to amputation. Much of the bleaker
information emerges from the faded pages of court records and antebellum divorce petitions. But among the newly
published books are some milder views expressed in the memoirs of planters' wives, old handwritten diaries and slave
narratives. Much of the burst in publishing about slavery has come in the 1990s, with 53 titles published last year and
16 published so far this year, according to R.R. Bowker's Books in Print. In previous decades, the yearly output of
titles was less than 12 a year. (Doreen Carvajal, Slavery's Truths (and Tales) Come Flocking Home New York Times 3/28/99)
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End of Slavery Chronology
The Chronology is broken up into three parts:
1. 1619 – 1789 .
2. 1790 - 1829
3. 1830 - the end
Citation information and credit: (Chronology on the History of Slavery, Compiled by Eddie Becker 1999, see on line at
http://innercity.org/holt/slavechron.html)
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