Author Archives: SUMPTER

cotton-picking wages

Almost two years after the Civil War ended Alfred R. Waud was still providing illustrations from the front for Harper’s Weekly. Back in January his drawings of a rice plantation in Georgia were published. The February 2, 1867 issue of … Continue reading

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no, no

150 years ago this week President Andrew Johnson kept chalked up a couple more vetoes by opposing statehood bills for Colorado and Nebraska. You can read both veto messages at the Miller Center of the University of Virginia (Colorado andNebraska). … Continue reading

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corrections

From The New-York Times January 24, 1867: No More Negroes to be Sold in Maryland … ANNAPOLIS, Wednesday, Jan. 23. The Maryland Legislature have passed an act abolishing an article in the code permitting the sale of negroes into slavery … Continue reading

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maintaining supremacy

150 years ago this week Henry Browne Blackwell wrote an open letter to Southern state legislatures in which he put forward “the only ground of settlement between North and South which in [his] judgment can be successfully adopted.” More and … Continue reading

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murder of a Tennessee Unionist

150 years ago this week Dr. Almon Case, a Unionist State Senator in Tennessee, was shot dead by Frank Farris, a former Confederate guerrilla. From The New-York Times January 21, 1867: Cold-Blooded Assassination of a Tennessee State Senator. From the … Continue reading

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Kingstree jail fire

On January 7, 1867 the jail in Kingstree, South Carolina caught on fire. Twenty-two black prisoners were burned or smothered to death. From The New-York Times January 16, 1867: The Burning of the Kingstree, S.C., Jail – Heartrending Scenes Attending … Continue reading

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unfazed

As 1867 began, newspaper headlines indicated that the United States Congress was definitely planning on impeaching President Andrew Johnson. The president wasn’t cowed. On January 7th Congress received his veto of An act to regulate the elective franchise in the … Continue reading

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Letter to the Loyal Alabamans

A document at the Library of Congress indicates that 150 years ago today the Grand Council of the Union League of Alabama wrote an epistle to its local branches. The letter began by thanking God that thanks to federal soldiers … Continue reading

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hilltop experience

In its New Year’s piece 150 year ago today The New-York Times changed up the Janus imagery a little bit: … New Year’s Day is like a hill upon which a traveler pauses to rest, to look back over the … Continue reading

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dress code

From a Seneca County, New York newspaper presumably sometime in 1866: [pointing finger] A FEMALE CANAL DRIVER. – On Thursday last a canal driver was arrested in Lockport, on suspicion of being a woman in male attire. On being taken … Continue reading

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